The News

Yes, this is blog entry number three for today. I’m finally getting caught up because I finally have time to dedicate to this endeavor. Now, for those of you who hate it when I write about music, you can go ahead and skip this post because that is what is on my mind right now.

I mentioned in an earlier entry that my favorite radio station in Austin is 107.1 KGSR. A little browsing on that link should make the reasons I love it so become evident. You can browse their playlist on any given day and see artists like Big Head Todd & the Monsters, Pete Yorn, REM, Willie Nelson, Booker T & the MGs, Ryan Adams, Wilco, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and the Talking Heads.

(Speaking of the Heads, in one week I heard six songs of theirs… without a duplicate. Now that is cool. Even better was that ‘Burning Down the House’ was not one of the six.)

I encourage those of you who live in the FM radio toilet bowl known as Dallas/Ft. Worth to go to the KGSR site and stream their audio while at work or while at home just goofing around on the computer. No other station compares.

Now, with all that said, I really wanted to mention the coolest thing I have heard on 107.1 – in fact, probably the coolest song I have heard since The Killers “All These Things That I Have Done”.

Last week, Dawn and I took The Boy out for a drive around Austin at night. Specifically, we took him by the capitol building, the Frost Bank building (which looks awesome at night), and down 6th street to do some freak watching. On the way back home, a song came on the radio that gave me pause. Was I really hearing a new song from Big Audio Dynamite? I was sure that I would know Mick Jones’ voice, so I was convinced we were listening to B.A.D. And, since 107.1 is very good about naming artists, we fought through a really bad Bob Dylan tune (“You Gotta Serve Somebody” or somesuch) just so my guess could be confirmed.

When the seemingly endless Dylan handcuff torture was over, we learned that the band we heard before was Carbon/Silicon. Once in the apartment, a quick search landed me on their website where I learned that that was, indeed, Mick Jones (also of The Clash) on vocals. He has teamed up with Tony James from Generation X and Sigue Sigue Sputnik to form this band which has, apparently, been around for a while.

Thanks to D/FW toilet radio, I never knew the band existed.

But, thanks to Austin and the internet, now I can imbed the video of that catchy, catchy song. (And I can also note that Mick Jones looks eerily like Marty. Those who know him will surely agree.)

Good morning, here’s the news and all of it is good.

Good evening, here’s the news and all of it is good.

And the weather’s good.

Cheers.

Things To Do In Austin While Broke

Within a one mile radius of our apartment are all manner of conveniences… an HEB grocery store, Wal-Mart Supercenter, Home Depot, a full-fledged mall, SuperTarget, restaurants (fast food and sit down), and gas stations. And all of that is well and good, but the main reason we chose this area of Austin was for the following:

This morning, Dawn and I drove the meager 4.9 miles to nearby St. Edward’s Park to enjoy some hiking and beautiful scenery. The great thing about that park is that the trailhead offers parking for about 10 vehicles and, after about 50 feet, an abundance of trails to choose from. We could go there once a week for 6 months and take a different route each time.

Pics of our morning can be viewed here.

Then, after a brief lunch back at the apartment, we took a short 8.5 mile spin to Lake Travis to drive by the world famous Oasis (mentioned in many songs), aptly described as the sunset capitol of Texas, and even a brief jaunt to the just as famous Hippie Hollow.

We had hoped that the Hollow, located in McGregor Park, would offer some nature trails to hike along the lake. Sadly, though, we found that it cost $10 just to get in the park. Dawn asked the woman at the gate if we could just drive through the park, but we were told that there is no place to drive – just a parking area and everywhere else has to be traversed by foot. To clarify, she added, “Besides, there’s a lot of naked people down there.”

We acted shocked. Obviously, we knew that Hippie Hollow was a nudist paradise but we had no interest in that. As I have told Dawn many times, the only people who go there and “get nekkid” are the ones you most definitely do not want to see nude. We just wanted to kind of scout out the area for nature walks (not “au naturale” walks), but apparently we couldn’t even do that.

So we just drove around the lake instead. Pics of that drive can be seen here.

We’re just doing our part at keeping Austin weird, as the city implores.

Snakes In A Tub (Bring It)

When I was in my early twenties, I lived in Stephenville (about an hour and a half southwest of Fort Worth) and managed both of the McDonald’s in town. I met a lot of great people when I lived there, but one that has always stood out was a kid named Scott.

He was seventeen at the time and he was also one of the best employees I ever managed in my 9 1/2 year fast food career. He got to work fifteen minutes early every day for his 6am shift. He did everything that was asked of him, and did it well, and he also constantly went above and beyond what was expected. Plus, he did it all with a stellar attitude.

So, I was very surprised on the morning that his dad showed up at 5:45am instead of Scott. I was immediately filled with dread, figuring that this could mean nothing but bad news.

I learned that Scott had been arrested the night before while out with friends for carrying what was a relatively small amount of pot. During the early nineties, a small amount of weed was considered a pretty big deal, especially in the rural communities. Hell, it probably made headlines in the local paper, though I can’t recall for sure.

Naturally, I was upset. Not at Scott in particular, though, because I myself had younger days in which my judgements were not very sound. I was just lucky, I guess. I figured that this little road bump was something that Scott and his dad would get past and he could continue to come to work and all would be well.

As the trial date neared, Scott and his dad approached me about being a “character witness” at his trial. I jumped at the opportunity. Too often, kids get pigeon-holed into a certain stereotype and can never find a way around it before they eventually start to believe what everyone says about them, beginning the downward spiral.

When the trial day arrived, I showed up an hour early, looking as spiffy as ever. I also got to meet another of the people there to testify of Scott’s behalf. His name was Jackie and he was a super nice guy. An older gentleman, he had met Scott in some chemical dependency meetings. In talking with him, I found out that he had a penchant for doing crazy-ass stuff with rattlesnakes and he had also appeared in a few episodes of Chuck Norris’ ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’.

Shortly before we were to enter the courtroom, we were told that we would not be needed. Scott had pled out the case, agreeing to deferred adjudication instead. Jackie and I shook hands, had a few kind words with Scott, and went our separate ways. I never saw Jackie again… until lately, as he has been all over the news for breaking two world records, one of which was his own.

Yes, that man was the Texas Snakeman, Jackie Bibby – a friend of the Leemer.

Bring it.