Mere hours before Metallica made South by Southwest history by crushing Stubb’s on Friday, OTR got to spend a few minutes with bassist Robert Trujillo at the Four Seasons, sharing an elevator with Perez Hilton and Perry Farrell. Here are a few of the more interesting excerpts from exchange. Fear not if you missed the show. Metallica has added another leg to its world tour that includes a stop at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, September 28. On the creation of Guitar Hero: Metallica: “It was almost like a sci-fi experience. You’re in this hot wet suit and you’ve got these little tassels that trigger your motion and your movements. Playing in that suit for a couple of hours, you really start feeling it. The next day our necks and bodies were actually sore. It was an intense workout. You sweat off the excess and get in gig shape. It was very interesting and physical. It’s great to see something like this become what it is and flourish from the ground up.” On his character in the game: “It’s a lot of fun building your character and fine tuning it. The body type that they had given us, especially the first round, was like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I was like, ‘You guys got to tone it down a bit.’ Lars will be like, ‘Can you give me a bit more pecs. Everyone looks buff but me.’ Stylistically, we wanted to convey our personalities. In terms of my movements, it’s all pretty random and spontaneous, but in watching myself it’s almost like I’ve got this slouchy Neanderthalic personality that I never really quite noticed. I really wanted them to capture more of that. I told them to make me look even more primate then I already am.” On getting in shape for tour: "In a band like Metallica, the work ethic is strong so physically you have to be in pretty good shape to go up there and do what we do, not just in terms of your core and your legs, but even just your chops and being out there and to run around the stage and execute your parts and act like you’re not in a lot of pain. We have a chiropractor that actually travels with us. It’s not like we’re 25 anymore. Everybody’s got their thing. Lars likes to go running for about a half-hour a day. Kirk does a lot of yoga. James and I have a cardio kick class in San Francisco. His wife and him go and I sometimes go with my wife. That gives us an opportunity to interact in a cardio kick manner, which is really good. It’s an hour of intense, almost martial arts oriented regime along with an aerobic style of a workout." On the leftovers from Death Magnetic: "We had to decide out of 14 tracks to narrow it down to 10. One of the tracks we didn’t get a chance to finish was quite possibly the heaviest track on the album. You don’t have all of the time in the world. There’s a scheduling process. We’re writing a lot actually. We have a jam room before every show. Someone like Hetfield is a riff machine. He plugs in a guitar cable or turns a knob and five seconds into it he comes up with this massive riff. We have no shortage of ideas. In the world of rock bands that have been around for awhile, it can be difficult sometimes to become inspired. You’ve found situations where bands have hired outside writers to keep the machine going. If anything we have too many ideas and we try to force them all into one song. I think that’s a great thing for Metallica."

As I write this, the main vote to re-insert a requirement to teach "strengths and weaknesses" of evolution has failed at the State Board of Education on a 7-7 vote, although some other nutty anti-science amendments to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills requirement have passed. The meeting is ongoing; more on this after we've had time to evaluate it. If you want to listen in, you can hear audio of the meeting at http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/. You can follow a live blog of the meeting by the pro-science Texas Freedom Network at http://tfnblog.wordpress.com/

What was the number one question (in four different categories) from today's "online town hall" meeting with President Barack Obama? The answer: Whether the White House supports the legalization of marijuana. The president's answer: No. He does not support legalization and he doesn't not see it as a good way to get the economy back on track. The answer was perhaps politically correct, but nonetheless disappointing -- coming from a former toker, and especially when accompanied by the dismissive laugh he used to punctuate his answer. Nonetheless, during a press briefing this afternoon with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, several reporters tried for more complete answers to the burning pot questions: Was Obama's answer a political one or a economic one? Did he have any economic numbers to suggest that legalizing marijuana wouldn't help the economy? Gibbs danced around, saying only that we'd "heard" Obama's answer and that he doesn't "think [Obama] believes that is part" of an economic recovery plan. Another reporter asked, "not as a joke, but as a serious policy issue," would Obama consider legalizing pot? "The President opposes the legalization of marijuana," Gibbs said. "He does not think that is...uh...he opposes it...he doesn't think that is the right direction for America." But keeping pot on the unregulated black market and jailing non-violent pot smokers is?

Here is my low down on the grand opening of Kiss & Fly (Keep in mind it was extremely crowded; I don't think I got a totally accurate picture.): Pros: It is large. Very large. The capacity is just under 800, and if there weren't more people than that in there last night, I would be surprised. The bathrooms appear to be gender neutral. Woo Hoo! No more scary dudes telling me I don't belong in the men's room. RuPaul RuPaul RuPaul. I love a living legend.

On Saturday, my roommate told everybody about his second interaction with the Love Language’s Stuart McLamb. As the story goes, Keith saw the lanky singer/guitarist wearing the same once-white V-neck t-shirt for the second day in a row, walked up to him, and asked, “Did you only bring one shirt on tour?” In the same spirit as the lazy strum the North Carolina youngster brings to his acoustic, McLamb turned and replied, “Hey, man. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” An hour after their afternoon set at Peckerheads, I watched McLamb and his band shaking tambourines and banging snare drums in the crowd while King Khan & the Shrines set fire to the stage. Unlike Austin City Limits, which turns the city into one unified front celebrating a specific culture of recreation and entertainment, South by Southwest is a week largely undefined. Ask any hip-hopper who they saw in Zilker Park last September and they’ll list a similar lineup: Del the Funky Homosapien, NERD, Erykah Badu, Bavu Blakes, Gnarls Barkley. Probably tried to get into the Cool Kids show at Mohawk late Friday night. That’s a cakewalk after this weekend. Thursday alone, Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek slung Rawkus magic at the Scoot Inn with his Blacksmith Entertainment squad; Big Boi and K’Naan lit up Austin Music Hall; some of the best new alternative Left Coast material was on display at Back Alley Social and Karma Lounge in Pacific Division and U-N-I; and the always on-point Rhymesayers crew was chilling at Habana Bar Backyard. Getting a good look at all the deserving acts wasn’t just wishful thinking; it was downright impossible.

While the big debate on the Top 10% university admissions rule took place on Tuesday, the final vote out of the Senate took place Wednesday. The plan to cap admissions to 60% of any incoming class actually shored up its majority over night, rising from 23-8 to 24-7 (Sen. Mike Jackson, R-League City, flipped over night.) As one seasoned lege watcher noted, Top 10% is a major issue that deserves a serious debate. But as Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst kept reminding the floor on Tuesday, "This is not the time for debate." It was instead all a Q&A, which basically means senators asking questions to which they already knew the answers, and floating floor amendments. Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, stalked the floor during proceedings, visibly frustrated that a massive and systemic change was being crowbarred through with little meaningful or thoughtful discussion. West proposed a four-year Sunset amendment to the bill (instead, a quasi-compromise of eight was approved) because "I want to remind you of your votes on tuition deregulation," he thundered. "I want to remind you over and over and over again about your vote on tuition deregulation. How many of you wish you hadn't voted that way?"

State high school playoffs started this week, with a heavy suburban flavor locally. In 5A, the local reps are Bowie, Westlake, and Akins from the Southwest, plus northerners Pflugerville, P'ville Connally, Georgetown, Cedar Park, and four different Round Rock schools. 4A looks like Lake Travis and Dripping Springs again – especially the girls, who've already notched 10-0 and 9-0 wins. Too bad they meet in a regional quarterfinal; either one could go a long way in this tournament. Sectional finals and regional quarters are going on this week; regional finals April 3-4. The state tournament is April 9-11 at the Georgetown ISD Athletic Complex. The Austin Aztex lost to Real Salt Lake, 3-1, on their first-ever road trip. There's lots of roster decisions being made now, with a week to go before the final preseason game, hosting the Puerto Rico Islanders, Friday, April 3, 7:30pm, Nelson Field. The Islanders, remarkably, beat Mexican giants Cruz Azul, 2-0, in a CONCACAF Champions League semifinal last week; the return leg in Mexico City is Tuesday, April 7, 9pm (live on FSC), just four days after the game here. The CONCACAF final is April 21-23 (first leg) and 28-30 (second leg). Aztex affiliate Stoke City beat Middlesbrough on Saturday, to pull three points clear of the EPL drop zone, with eight games to play. No league games this week – it's World Cup qualifying, around the world, Saturday, then again Wednesday. The U.S. is at El Salvador, 8pm Saturday, March 28, then hosts Trinidad & Tobago in Nashville, 6:30pm Wednesday, April 1 (both live on ESPN2). Other big games on every continent.

AISD schools went 4-8 in the first days of the UIL state tournament; here's a breakdown of some local results, by division.

In Boys 4A, three of the four AISD teams are out in the first round: Travis walloped Marble Falls, 7-0, but it was Pflugerville Hendrickson over McCallum, Dripping Springs over Lanier, and Lake Travis over LBJ.

Girls 4A has just one AISD team left as well: McCallum beat Lampasas, 4-0; Pflugerville Hendrickson knocked out Crockett; Lake Travis beat Travis, 10-0 (!); and LBJ beat Killeen, but then lost 9-0 to Dripping Springs in the sectional final. Too bad those two Southwest powerhouses meet in the regional quarterfinal; either one could go a long way in this tournament.

In 5A Boys, Pflugerville Connally, and Round Rock Stony Point and McNeil advanced to the second round; Bowie, Akins, Cedar Park, Georgetown, and Pflugerville all exited in the first round.

Among 5A Girls, Bowie, Westlake, and Round Rock Westwood and McNeil advanced; Pflugerville, Cedar Park, and Round Rock High dropped in the first round.

The playoff results are available from the UIL only as PDF downloads of the brackets, with scores filled in. Weird, but sort of charming.

Politics certainly makes for strange bedfellows. While Brewster McCracken and Carole Keeton Strayhorn aren't in agreement on much – if anything – they're both up in arms about a proposal before City Council tomorrow potentially outsourcing redesign of the City of Austin website to a California tech firm, which has set off quite the fire in the Twitterverse. McCracken, who's made local tech growth a tentpole of his campaign, says "Investing taxpayer funds for web operations only makes sense if the investment dramatically improves government efficiency and stimulates the local economy. I am not satisfied that the website redesign proposal before Council meets either objective. Therefore, I cannot support the current proposal to spend over $700,000 on a website redesign." And just now, Strayhorn has come out against the item, albeit more cryptically: "It is outrageous to even be considering sending hundreds of thousands of our hard-earned tax dollars and jobs to an outside, California consultant when Austin families and businesses are hurting. I am adamantly opposed to this." Does this agreement mark the end of the world as we know it? Or has Strayhorn found another fleeting issue to tack her budget-scrubbing high dudgeon on to? Full statement from Brewster below the fold.