Wednesday, October 28, 2009

I've Found the Chupacabra

I have a new Monday night spot. Not that I had a Monday night spot before...but now I do. There's this new bar on 6th and Trinity. Last Monday my partner in crime and I decided that margaritas were needed to get us through the week. We headed downtown with no destination in mind and came upon this new bar: Chupacabra.*** I'd been in once before, but just briefly. Because the chupacabra is an extremely awesome name (see explanation below), we decided it was the place for us. In we went, where we somehow managed to have an amazing time. The bartender was friendly and we all watched a really horrible zombie movie (Quarantine) while drinking delicous margaritas. Blackberry margarita = the best invention ever. Needless to say, we returned this Monday for more. Swamp Thing was on, which we watched with glee. Eddie, the bartender, chatted with us about life while we drank our margaritas (as bartenders tend to do). He forced us to try his homemade margaritas this time, as opposed to the pre-made frozen ones. They were very excellent, mainly because they were free. So go see Eddie, he's a very good man.


In other news: last night I was extremely hip and cool and Austiny. One of the former film graduate students that I know from when I worked in the film department on my campus made a documentary about Jack Rebney. If you will recall, Jack Rebney is this man:




Well, last night the movie, Winnebago Man, was being shown so that Ben, the director of the film, could raise some money for a movie release. It was a really brilliant movie following Ben as he searches for Jack (20 years after the famous Winnebago commercial was found) and then follows them as they basically just interact. It was brilliantly shot, Jack Rebney is still a curmudgeon, and there were even a few touching parts. I won't tell you more though, because you have to go and see it when it comes out in theaters all around the world...it's just that good. In fact, Ben and his fellow filmmakers are taking it on a tour around Europe in November. The most exciting part of the evening: during the Q&A after the film, Jack Rebney called and answered questions for us. THE Winnebago Man....speaking just for us! It was amazing. Anyways, I'm off to bed. Be prepared for some Halloween adventures this weekend!







***For those who don't know, the Chupacabra is a creature that is similar to the Loch Ness monster or Big Foot in that it is never actually seen, just spoken about. Chupacabra means "goat sucker" and apparently it's this little demon lookin' thing that lives in Mexico/South Texas. I often picture it being mildly comical, like a Disney character. See here for more indepth info.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

A Bit Of Everything

This is going to be more of a photo collage of my past few weekends then stories...mainly because I can't remember all the details. Here we go....


ACL weekend we headed to Club DeVille to see TBird and the Breaks. Buuuuut they played inside and we didn't see them because we were too busy listening to Super Soul Shakedown. A few DJs who play only....soul music. Amazing.

Cool TBird shirts were available.



Then I went to the Gruene Wine and Food or Wine and Music or Wine and Art festival. It was packed full of people, but only enough to make it an adventure. Gruene is always a good time, full of history good food (at the Gristmill) and of course it's close to the best places for tubing.


Gruene (pronounced 'green') has all sort of cutsie-pie places with names like the 'Gruene Apple' and 'Gruene with Jealousy.' So witty.



Anyways, I'm enjoying Houston and that involves a lot of sitting on the couch. Since that is such an involved and complex past-time, I need to go and concentrate. Goodday to you

Friday, October 16, 2009

Leslie ain't gonna die!

Apparently Leslie is not going to die....although the article doesn't make it seem like he'll be the same ol' Leslie either....

Before I flit off to Houston....

I have weeks of adventures that I have been hording and I'm not going to talk about them now. I just have two quick points before I make the 3-hour drive to Houston.



1. Yesterday I was out running errands and was mildly freaked out by the number of butterflies that were out and about. Seriously, there were 1000s flying everywhere. I'm sure I took out a few hundred just by driving around. So this morning I went on an investigative mission on the internet. I found this article. I think my favorite quote in the article is the very last: "Just one of those natural phenomenons."


2. No updates on Austin's resident tranny, Leslie Cochran. But on the same news website I stumbled upon a slideshow tribute to him. Check it out here. Isn't he adorable?

Monday, October 12, 2009

A Sad Day

Leslie Cochran is in the hospital after sustaining a head injury. Is this the end of Austin as we know it??

Friday, October 9, 2009

A Walgreen's Nap?

I can't do anything in my life simply, even take a trip to Walgreen's.

So I'm in line at the drive-thru pharmacy. This particular Walgreen's happens to have two lines. There are four of us waiting, two in each line. The first guy in the other line finishes and drives off...but the second guy doesn't move up. I can see him with his head leaning back on the head rest. So I'm looking at him and looking back out my other window and then looking back at him and thinking "holy shit this man has died because he didn't get his medicine. WHAT am I gonna do? If I pretend I don't see him I'm a bad person. But if I go find his dead body then.....ew." So I sit there for a few more minutes before throwing my car in park, getting out and knocking on his window. At first nothing happens and I obviously assume that he is, in fact, dead. I knock again and this time he sits up. He rolls down his window and thanks me, laughing all the while. I'm cracking up, of course. He's a dude my age and apparently just dosed off. As he scoots up to the window I here him say to himself "wow, that just happened."



Also, I listened in while he talked to the pharmacist (illegal, I think) and he was just buying acne meds....awkward.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

ZOMBIELAND!

Tonight was one of the first nights I've had off from work in a really long time so I had to do something to celebrate. That something: see Zombieland at the Alamo Drafthouse. Turns out we weren't the only ones to have that idea because there were almost no seats left when we arrived 15 minutes before the show started. Luckily, Miss Sarah doesn't mind asking people to scoot over, so we found our 2 seats and settled in. I ordered the super delicious Porky's Pepperoni pizza; normally that's a good idea, but I regretted it when I was reminded that I was watching a zombie movie. I don't think anyone can have much of an appetite while watching people spew blood from orifices.

The movie was amazing though. I'm a total wuss about scary/surprising movies but this was just too good. Woody Harrelson plays the gun-toting Texan with a soft spot for Twinkies, Jesse Eisenberg basically plans Michael Cera with a gun, Abigail Breslin (aka Little Miss Sunshine) is there too as the mildly unimportant sister of Emma Stone (that one hot girl from Superbad). Emma is there to be the sassy hot girl. But everyone is lovable, the humor is good and sarcastic, and there's a pretty amazing cameo that I can't spoil! Allllright, I will. Bill Murray appears. His brief, short cameo is full of Caddyshack references, which makes it extra special. I highly recommend it if you don't mind the usual zombie movie gore.

Here are some trailers if you need some more convincing. Check the 2nd trailer for my favorite Woody moment in the movie. It involves a banjo.......






Thursday, October 1, 2009

Midweek Adventures Part Deux

OK! More adventures!
Last night was the opening bash for the Alamo Drafthouse's latest addition, The High Ball. Word has been out about this for awhile so I dragged by lazy butt out of robe and into the shower to go to this. Plus, more than one person was requesting that I make an appearance, I couldn't let down my adoring fans now could I? So The High Ball (which doesn't even have it's own website, wtf?) is literally right next to the Drafthouse on South Lamar. Apparently it used to be an old Salvation Army? Well, now it is a hipster bar/bowling alley/karaoke bar/dance party space. It is really massive. The bar itself was larger than most bars plus there were around 5 (maybe?) bowling alleys and tons of red booths for resting your feet. The bar is going for the whole Mad Men theme, hence the name High Ball. The one thing that was historically inaccurate: the drink prices. I drank water....because drinks were going for a whopping $10 a pop. If I wanted to pay that sort of price, I'd move to NYC. But, the dance floor was just badass. That's the only word for it. Everyone was given a pair of 3D glasses upon entering. Behind the stage was a movie screen showing 3D clips and the rest of the dance floor was surrounded by smaller tvs showing other 3D footage. I'd say the first hour of music people spent standing on the dance floor in awe of the 3 foot alien spaceship that was flying around them (this is what it looked like without the glasses. The alien is waving at you!)



The DJs were pretty good; they went with the "3D" theme and had three DJs. Each played one decade of music. We stayed through the 80s set and half of the 90s before breaking down and going home. It was just tooooo hot in there. I was sad to say goodbye to all the hilariously bad dancers, but it had to be done. Oh, and below is a photo of one of my work buddies enjoying his 3D glasses.....



On to the weekend!

Midweek Adventures



Well well well, some very exciting adventures have been had this week. But first: here's a photo of a rainbow that I took on the way to my internship one morning; we've been getting tons of rain and gloomy weather. It was extra special because when I arrived, the elderly security guard was standing outside taking a photo of the same rainbow with his iPhone. That makes us rainbow buddies.




And on to more exciting things: A friend from the restaurant has two bands, one of which plays every Monday night at the Continental Gallery. I was finally convinced to go this week, which turned out to be a good idea. We stopped at Home Slice Pizza on the way, another extremely well known Austin spot that I had never made it to. It was surprisingly swanky in there. We sat at the bar and grabbed a quick slice before walking down to the show. I recommend it highly. Delightfully New York-ish AND we were entertained by the pizza guys attempting the ol' throw-the-pizza-in-the-air trick. They were failing horribly but it surely made for good "table" side entertainment.

So Continental Gallery is an offshoot of the famous Continental Club. We actually bypassed the huge, welcoming door to the Continental Club and entered through a tiny glass door which led us immediately up some old stairs to the gallery. It was super intimate, like someone's living room with a bar on one side and a 5-piece band somehow squished at one end. The music was really impressive and I hate to admit this....but surprisingly so. I should say, I was more surprised at the type of music. It was very something from 2009 meets The Kinks meets T.Rex meets White Album Beatles (it helps that the lead singer has a violently British accent). They even did a cover of Savoy Truffle, if that puts an imagine into your head. The crowd started out sucking, but a remarkably tall couple eventually started dancing and soon half the audience had joined in (yours truly included, of course). Czech them out. The Ripe.

More adventures in a bit...but in the meantime: Austin City Limits Festival is this weekend. One of the biggest weekends in Austin every year. Be ready for mad celebrity sitings and super adventures. I already know that tonight Them Crooked Vultures is playing at Stubbs. Tomorrow there's a huuuuuge RSVP only party at the old Austin City Power Plant (see below. People loooove to turn old crappy warehouses into hipster locations, don't they?) AND there's another party at Beauty Bar which is most likely where I will end up. Get excited for the weekend!