Destination Unknown

Austin - Monday Night

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:24:44 -0600

Okay, I've been back since Sunday, but I've been playing catch-up at work. I'll get back into it now.

When I left off, we were taking a very long walk from the hotel to a coffee shop called Ruta Maya, where the opening party was being held.

Bad Fences

I just liked this fence. It wouldn't keep much in or out, but it still stands, like a testament to poor maintenance.

Five Dollars Too

I guess if you're a local you know what is $5, but still not what else is $5. As an outsider, I don't know either.

Chetes Y Arthur

No idea.

Guitar 6

Yet... another... guitar.

Steroid-Free Roses

This pic is blurry, as the Olympus doesn't seem to take very good dusk shots. The marquis on this florist shop advertises "steroid-free roses." Tell me, are roses taking steroids a problem? If you buy a dozen roses for your sweety, is she going to reject them if the petals are a little too buff? Will she put in her diary that you gave her roses today, but put an asterisk next to the entry? Our modern times.

After a ridiculously long walk, we finally made it to Ruta Maya, and had a great time listening to an odd mix of music served up by a DJ and I had a tasty BBQ meal provided for the NPS poets. I took a number of pictures, but none of them came out very good. I'm still getting the hang of this new camera.

Needless to say, we took a taxi home rather than take that walk again. Strix hadn't eaten anything, yet, and I needed a little something else in my stomach, so we went out to a 24-hour diner called Katz's Deli. I had the reuben sandwich, and it was okay.

We slept in the next morning, then went in search of lunch. I can't remember where we ate, but we did see some interesting things along the way.

I Said No Parking

This is a rather dramatic statue of a woman in flowing gown lighting the fuse of a cannon, taken from an odd angle. I took it from this angle, because it looks like she's getting ready to blast a car out of its parking space. I found it interesting that they positioned the statue so that it was firing into the street.

I Said Exact Change

Wait a couple minutes, and then she's aiming it directly at the door of this bus. Who will be the unlucky sod to be the next to step off the bus?

Mrs Weasley Fights Back

Taken from a slightly different angle and cropped, the torch she's using to light the cannon becomes a wand, and I retitle this piece, "Mrs. Weasley Fights Back." Man, am I a nerd.

Guitar 7

Another guitar. What a shocker.

Paramount Storefront

Sorry for the reflection. This is the storefront of the Paramount Theater, where the finals were to be held. There, the best of the best from the preliminaries and semifinals would face off for the final battle.

Guitar 8

Oh, for God's sake.

Cool Building

Just another neat old building in downtown Austin.

Guitar 9

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. This one was outside Antone's, and yes that's Antone himself on the front of it.

We were at Antone's for the opening ceremony of the National Poetry Slam. Antone's is a dank, dark little bar that draws some really big name bands, and it seemed an odd place to me for the opening ceremony. My misgivings were answered, however, when I found that the "opening ceremony," was about five minutes long and more or less consisted of the Poetry Slam, Inc. president welcoming everyone to the venue.

Immediately following the introduction, they went directly into the "Rookie Open Mic." This was for anyone who had never performed at National Poetry Slam before to get up and perform their best piece without having to worry about scoring or competing. I signed up, and as soon as it got started I started to wonder what the hell I was doing there. It seemed that every poet who got up there was extremely good, both in their writing and their delivery and performance. I leaned over to Strix a couple of times and whispered, "I am so screwed." But, I was committed, so I waited it out and when my name was called I got on stage.

Reciting a poem of your own creation in front of an audience of strangers on a stage with bright lights shining in your eyes in a strange city is very different than what I had done before. At Andrea Kristina's, I knew a good number of the people there, I read my poetry from paper rather than out of my own head, there is no stage, and it's a very comfortable atmosphere. The atmosphere on the stage at Antone's was anything but comfortable, and halfway through "The Tyranny of Grammar" I froze up, forgetting my next line. The audience started snapping their fingers, the poet's way of offering encouragement, and after repeating the same line a couple of times I unstuck myself and finished the piece.

Despite my flub, I was proud of myself. There was a time in my life when I wouldn't have been able to recover when I got stuck, but I did recover, and I finished. Hell, yeah.

More tomorrow.

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Austin - NPS Monday

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 19:13:56 -0600

Monday, Strix and I had lunch at La Traviata. It was very tasty.

USPSR2D2

We saw this mailbox after lunch. I just like it. Feed your mail to R2D2; he's hungry.

After lunch, we made our way to the Hyatt on the other side of the Colorado River to register for the Slam.

The hotel was having a convention for Texas propane companies at the same time. There were a bunch of Texas businessmen there to sell "Propane and Propane Accessories," while the tatooed, freaky, hippy poets wandered the hotel looking for the registration room. I found it quite amusing.

After registering as a poet and getting Strix her audience wristband, we went looking for a couple more geocaches that were on that side of the river.

Go Batty

Check Bat Wit Me Later

This is a giant weather-vane piece of art, paying homage to the fact that there is a huge colony of bats living under the Ann Richards bridge. I can't help wonder if the fact that they chose this bridge to name after her was made by her detractors, thinking she was "batty." At any rate, there is supposed to be a geocache somewhere near this sculpture, but it's a bit public, being right on a very, very busy street. Note to those who plant geocaches: put them somewhere people can get to them without looking like terrorists.

More of the guitars from Austin's public art project.

Don't Move Here

Here's a closer look at the guitar on the right. It's decorated with bumper stickers, including one that says, "Austin Sucks! Don't Move Here." I suppose this could be interpreted two ways. Either the sticker means that Austin really does suck and they're trying to warn the tourists, or it means that they really like Austin and don't want it to be ruined by people moving in and overpopulating the place. Your guess is as good as mine.

View from the 1st Street Bridge, near another geocache.

Melon

Some odd grafitti from the walkway along the bridge.

So we found one out of two geocaches, and headed back to the hotel for the poet orientation. Strix enjoyed wine down at the hotel bar, while I went upstairs.

View from the 17th floor of the Hyatt.

Poets

Poets at orientation, several minutes into the "meeting." Worse than Mensans.

The meeting was mercifully short, and consisted of the organizers telling us not to make a bad name for the Slam by acting out of order. We were also told that there were seventy-five teams there, and seventy-four of them were going to lose, and the sooner we "wrapped our brains" around that fact, the better time we would have.

After the orientation, I joined Strix for some cheese and wine down in the bar, then we headed toward Ruta Maya coffeeshop, where the kick-off party was held. We wouldn't have walked if we had realized how far it was, but we had a nice, if hot, walk. There was also another geocache on the way we wanted to hit.

Guitar 3

Yet another guitar.

Items in the window of a little shop that sold Dia de los Muertos and other Latin art. I couldn't get shots of it without reflections on the window.

El Cosmico

Some stenciled outdoor art.

Yet... more... guitars.

Send in the Clowns

A costume shop with a very fanciful sign. I think this was actually the movie poster from Star Wars Episode Two, Attack of the Clowns. Yeah, I know, but I'm not sorry.

No Smokin

An old-fashioned barber shop. No smokin', no cussin', and no horsin' around. That doesn't go for the people using the ashtray right inside the door or reading the Playboy that was in the magazine rack.

Another bout is about to come about, so I must head out. More later.

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Geocaching in Austin

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 18:00:34 -0600

Strix has gone back home, being out of vacation time as of today, so now I have the computer to myself to catch up my blog.

Sunday, we went geocaching. The first one was supposed to be a microcache near Joe's Bar and Grill. We didn't find it, but we were hungry, so we went ahead and had lunch there. I don't remember what Strix had, but I had some of the best fish and chips I've ever had.

The second cache was supposed to be in a park, and we searched long enough for me to get a number of mosquito bites, but didn't find it. I was feeling down, being zero for two, but we decided to press on, despite it being hotter than hell and more humid than the ocean.

Love Bites

This little guy was on a lamp post on the way to our third cache.

Megafood

Some giant food and a rooster on top of a building. Why? Because.

Mirror Guitar

Part of Austin's public art project. This one is covered in fitted pieces of mirror.

Self Portrait

Damn, I'm handsome!

Alcotizing

This billboard seems particulary apt for Austin.

Castle

A boarded up "castle" on a hill here in Austin. It's visible for a quite a distance, earning the neighborhood the name "Castle Hill." I couldn't get a shot of it without the dumpster in front of it. The cache was close by, and we did find it, so the hike seemed somewhat worth it.

Uber alles

Across the street from the castle, someone taped a map of Germany to a dumpster and wrote "Deutchland Über Alles" on it.

Zebra Girl

On the top right corner of the map, they attached a black and white photo of a girl wearing a zebra costume. Über alles? How about über weird and über creepy? Anyone know what this is about?

Big Snitch

This enormous golden snitch was in someone's yard on the way back to the hotel.

For Lease

A very, very nice house for lease that we saw on the way back.

Cat Magnet

I just liked this ad. Very funny. I like the look on the cat's face.

Another gorgeous old building. This one is now in the use of the Texas Teachers' Association.

After returning to the hotel and cooling down for a while, we went back out and made our way to a park where a public concert was being held.

Music Lover

The fauna here in Austin is particularly tame. I don't mean the bar-goers, but rather the birds and squirrels. This guy didn't move until I got close enough to grab him.

Concert Gazebo

The band warms up. They played a nice mix of big band and swing for us.

It would have been a lot more comfortable if my mosquito bites weren't starting to each, and if we had somewhere to sit other than on a hard park bench, but it was a good concert and enjoyable, anyway.

After the concert, we made our way back to 6th Street and ate dinner at a sushi restaurant called Maiko's. They have a terrific happy hour with sushi specials and cheap sake.

More later!

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In Austin, Texas

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 10:35:43 -0600

Saturday morning, we flew out from Albuquerque on ExpressJet, direct flight to Austin for the National Poetry Slam competitions. I hate flying, with the the lugging of the luggage and the stripping down at the security checkpoint. (It always takes longer when I get female security personnel, I don't know why.)

As we expected, stepping off the plane was like walking into a sauna. It doesn't take long at all to acclimatize to the dry air in New Mexico, and going back to 95% humidity is quite the treat. On top of that, of course, is that it's August and really damn hot, humidity aside.

We're staying at the Extended Stay America, which is expensive for what it is but it's downtown and close to the slam venues, and since we're staying here for a week it will be nice to have a fridge and microwave. The other poets from Farmington are staying at an Econo Lodge way out on the edge of town, but I didn't want to commute in for our competitions, and we don't have a car.

After enjoying the air conditioning of our room for a little while, we went out and took in some of the sights of downtown Austin.

Neat Building

Anyone know what this building is? It's cool.

Guitar Art 1

A lot of cities have public art programs like this one. Someone, usually a business, sponsors the piece, and the artist gets an undecorated form, and they get to decorate it how they want. In Austin, they have guitars. In Kansas City, it's cows, and in Milwaukee, its "beasties." This guitar is decorated with old computer boards, with printer connectors for the struts.

Clydesdale

There were a number of these horse-drawn carriages downtown. I also saw a few bicycle rickshaws, believe it or not, but didn't get a picture of any of them. I have only seen them on TV images of foreign countries up until now.

Classy Dog

Downtown Austin is a justaposition. High class restaurants and night clubs are a block away from places like this, the Dirty Dog Bar, with a picture of a dog... um... being affectionate with a woman's leg for its sign. No, we didn't go in. There are also a number of massage parlors and tattoo joints that looked like each ink came with a free case of hepatitis. One massage parlor's sign said, "Modeling and Oriental Massage." Modeling. I'd never heard that take on it before.

It also became clear while walking around downtown Austin, that it has a serious, serious homeless problem. There were places where the homeless outnumbered the tourists, restaurant patrons, and bar-goers combined. Most of them were just hanging out, and a few were panhandling. Some of them were too busy talking to themselves to be bothered talking to other people. I'm going to take a stand and say that Austin has a problem with the homless, but the homeless apparently do not have a problem with Austin.

I'm also going to go out on a limb and say that Austin has a drinking problem. I have never seen so many bars and clubs in such a small vicinity. Many of the homeless carry coolers that they keep their cheap beer in, and I saw one man just tossing his empties in the grass. Drinking seems to be the local hobby, which is fine with me since I'm on vacation and not driving. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. But I worry for Austin as you would worry for a friend that's hitting the bottle too much. If there were an AA meeting for cities, Austin should go.

Guitar Art 2

More guitar art. I couldn't get a full shot of it due to an unusually high concentration of homeless people congregating here.

Carriage

Another pic of one of the horse-drawn carriages.

Driskill

Another thing Austin has a lot of is really neat old buildings. They were built with style, and they have been well preserved.

By this time, I was getting pretty hungry, so we at a Vietnamese-Thai restaurant called Mekong River. Whenever we're out of town, Strix and I try to find cuisine that we couldn't get back home, and Vietnamese fits that category. After perusing the menu, however, we both got dishes that could be better described as Thai food. Strix had the pineapple curry with tofu. I had a dish called the "Rated R Shrimp." I think the "Rated R" part of the name refers to the spiciness of it. It's shrimp and vegetables, served in a sort of hot and sour sauce. It was very tasty. Strix enjoyed her curry, too, but had them box it up so she would have room for an order of sweet sticky rice, which we shared. If you've never had sticky rice desserts, you should. It's rice cooked down in a coconut milk mixture, and in this case it was topped with custard and a coconut cream sauce. Very good.

If you don't think you would like Vietnamese or Thai food, Mekong also has a New York style deli, right inside the restaurant.

We went back to the hotel for a while, mainly just to get out of the humidity and to nap off our dinner, then went back out at nine to a place called Antone's. Antone's is a dirty-looking blues bar, but it boasts a history of some pretty impressive performers and draws an eclectic and generally clean crowd. Ten bucks a head got us in to see Gary Clark Jr. He was truly amazing, and his bass player Nick Current also sang on a couple of songs, too.

Nick, by the way, looked like he wasn't sure if he wanted to be Brian Setzer or David Bowie, but he did know how to play and belt out the songs.

If you go to Antone's, don't bother with the mixed drinks. They're overpriced and taste a little watery. Stick to the bottled stuff.

Another good reason to come to Antone's: this is where some of slams are going to be. My bout is slated for a different venue, but I hope they have a bar. My poetry will probably sound better if the audience if half-sloshed.

More later. Ciao!

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