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TH HE DAILY TEXAN LIFE&ARTS PAGE 12
Tea-lightful hangout spots Thursday, October 1, 2009
65,000 to crowd ACL despite economy
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UT hosts Mates of State concert
Annual music festival sells out months in advance, will bring a profit to city By Rachel Platis Daily Texan Staff This year’s 8th annual Austin City Limits music festival is estimated to bring in about $35 million to businesses and industries throughout the city, about $2 million more than last year’s festival. Last year, ACL brought in about $33 million dollars to the Austin area, impacting taxis and transportation, restaurants, hotels, retailers and bars, said Lisa Hickey, festival marketing director of C3 Presents, the company that puts on ACL. Tickets are sold out at 65,000 people per day, and 30,000 festival-goers are expected to come from out of town. “The fact that we still have 65,000 people coming to the festival despite the state of the economy is a good thing and says a lot about Austin and the
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Peyton McGee | Daily Texan Staff
UT Students Valerie Do, Victor Ozuna and Jacob Weiss cheer at the end of a Mates of State song at the Texas Student Union on Wednesday. The Music & Entertainment Committee of the Student Events Center gave out about 800 free tickets to students, faculty and staff.
Student-organized event draws hundreds to the Texas Union Ballroom By Priscilla Totiyapungprasert Daily Texan Staff A crowd of UT students made their way into the Texas Union Ballroom to enjoy the keyboard melodies and pop vocals of Kansas indie band Mates of State on Wednesday evening. About 480 students filled the Union Ballroom half an hour before Mates of State came on, mingling and listening to the opening act, Austin folk-rock artist Danny Malone. The Music & Entertainment Committee, or MEC, hosted the event after handing out free tickets during the week leading up to the
concert. Committee chairman Taylor Steinberg said almost 800 tickets were given away. The ballroom can hold a maximum of 1,000 people and those without tickets could still attend the show. Steinberg said the committee began brainstorming for a fall show at the end of the spring semester. “We went through the list and settled on Mates of State because they have artistic integrity and wide appeal,” Steinberg said. “This is the type of show MEC likes to put its name on.” Events are normally free, but tickets sometimes cost money if the committee works with the Per-
forming Arts Center to co-sponsor an event, including the Broken Social Scene concert last spring. The entertainment committee has 50 active members, which Steinberg said is ideal for “pushing as many ideas on the table as possible” and to uphold its responsibility to bring in a diverse set of acts. “It’s a committee’s job to put ideas that represent interests of the student body, not just the committee members themselves,” he said. The University houses the Student Events Center and its committees, including the entertainment committee. The committees
receive funds appropriated by the Union Board of Directors. Unlike other campus organizations, committees within the Student Events Center are held accountable by the student body because funding comes from tuition, said Andrew Nash, president of the Student Events Center. Although there are benefits and privileges to being housed by the University, such as a full-time staff and a yearly budget, committees have limits on how they can spend their money and what kind of events they can put on because
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Food challenge tests the value of the dollar Caleb Miller | Daily Texan Staff file photo
Dallas-born musician Erykah Badu performs at Austin City Limits Festival in 2008.
Course feedback results question teaching styles By Vidushi Shrimali Daily Texan Staff Representatives from the Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment addressed a smallerthan-expected crowd of instructors Wednesday about the benefits of receiving student feedback throughout the semester. Two faculty members attended the Wednesday workshop, which was the first in a semester-long series. “I was hoping to have a full room,” said Meghan McGlohen, a research associate in the Division. “I’m satisfied with [the turnout]. Attendance was low, but that’s just marketing.”
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Shelley Neuman | Daily Texan Staff
Meghan McGlohen and Karen Lewis from the UT Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment led a course instructor surveys workshop for UT faculty on Wednesday afternoon.
By Viviana Aldous Daily Texan Staff When advertising senior David Lee went to Central Market in late August, he was disappointed to find his dinner would only consist of coffee and pineapple samples. Lee’s food budget was about $75 dollars per week until he decided to see if $20.09 would last him 20 days, which not only reduced his food allowance but prompted him to seek free meals from grocery store samples. “I had not eaten much, thinking I was going to be finally eating some good and tasty foods,” Lee said. “I was expecting to eat some fancy appetizers or even some red meat.” Lee decided to challenge the value of the dollar from Aug. 17 until Sept. 6 and promote the University Federal Credit Union’s “What Can You Do With $20.09” video contest, which he promoted for FG Squared, a marketing and advertising agency that publicized the event. The contest, the first of its kind for the credit union, challenged participants to creatively and efficiently use $20.09, said Lyndee Bennett, the credit union’s marketing specialist. The contest ended Wednesday, and winners will be announced on or around Oct. 9. “The message we were trying to get across is people should be more careful with how they spend their money, especially because of what the economy is going through,” Bennett said. “They can get back out there and enjoy life and not be too intimidated to make smart choices financially.” Lee said to achieve his goal of spending $1 per day, he had to sacrifice meat, fruit and snacks, and he could not eat out. The groceries under his budget included one dozen eggs, a sack of potatoes, pinto beans, sausage, two jars of peanut butter and bread. “I wasn’t sure if he could do it,” said Lee’s roommate Nathan Tuck-
Derek Stout | Daily Texan Staff
Advertising senior David Lee holds a 20-dollar bill, which was almost his entire budget for food over the course of 20 days. er, 32. “We both kind of agreed if he were in another country, it’d be no problem, but in America, it’s really tough to do that.” When his family visited him during the challenge, they decided to go to a popular restaurant in town. While they insisted Lee break his challenge, he declined and ate peanut butter sandwiches instead, he said. “I ate [the sandwiches] while they were enjoying the fiesta,” Lee said. To prepare for the challenge, Lee ate “very well” in the days leading up to it. He shared one of his last pre-challenge meals with his girlfriend at his
favorite restaurant, where the bill was more than $85. “It seems kind [of] ridiculous how the tip alone costs [almost as much as my] budget for the next 20 days,” he said on a blog he kept to track the 20 days. Lee’s first meal of the challenge consisted of a potato, a sausage, an egg, two tortillas and half a cup of orange juice. He concluded his first day’s blog entry, “I don’t know how I’m going to make it, but we’ll see.” After successfully completing the challenge, Lee said his grocery budget has been cut in half and he now con-
serves more food. “I learned how to take advantage of coupons and discount deals, how to find events that offer free food, how to store food properly to [preserve] the maximum freshness and how to be creative with potatoes,” he said. Bennett said she enjoyed following Lee’s blog and seeing how he creatively used his money. “It was interesting to see his development throughout the campaign,” Bennett said. “He started off basically saying, ‘What am I going to do?’ but he proved that there are ways to spend money wisely and still be prosperous.”