Olympic Diaries

The use of a grenade on the cover of the Chronicle this week is ironic. Ironic because it should not be an image that ties in so well with the Olympics Diaries presented herein. Certainly, when we asked the five Austin acts represented here -- Don Walser, Tish Hinojosa, Asleep at the Wheel, the Derailers, and W.C. Clark -- to keep a journal of their experiences at the Olympics, there was no way of knowing that an act of terrorism would virtually define the event. Yet two weeks after the closing ceremonies, odds are that explosion in Centennial Park, where more than 150 musical acts from around the world performed, is what people remember most about Atlanta games. Obviously, it's a thread that runs throughout these diaries, whether it's Don Walser or Asleep at the Wheel's Ray Benson hearing about the bomb blast a week after performing in Centennial Park or Tish Hinojosa hearing the same news a week before going there. Even when it's not an explicit part of their diaries, as in the case of the Derailers' Tony Villanueva or W.C. Clark, descriptions of tight security at the games coat their words in a thin film of irony. In any case, the Centennial Park bombing is not the only facet of the Olympics that gets light shone on it in these diaries, and while these five acts weren't the only musical ambassadors from Austin to perform in Atlanta, they were perhaps the most visible, and herein lie their thoughts and experiences.-- Raoul Hernandez