Any lurkers out there going to Netroots Nation? Anything you’re excited about doing or seeing? What’s fun to do in Austin, Texas?
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Not going this year though when the past 2.
Not feeling very enthused about the dem. party right now. Don’t want to be pandered to by Nancy. Most of the netroots friends I have made at the last 2 won’t be there either.
Oh well.
I’m not going this year, maybe the next one. Have a great time, BooMan.
I watched High Fidelity tonight. I love that movie.
In its honor:
I believe that’s American Idol’s Randy Jackson on bass in that video. Though I know he’s not on the record version, I think Tony Hall played bass on most of Oh Mercy.
Swimming at Barton Springs, if its not closed. Tacos at Loca Maria’s. Punk rock.
and from 9-10 PM, it’s free.
Alamo Draft House (various locations around town) is a sweet little home grown movie theater that serves decent food & beer with your movie. Some indy/old movies & theme nights (Buffy The Vampire Slayer sing along comes around once in awhile) .. but mostly modern movies. Get there early, the trailer timeslot is where the owner shows off his insane collection of random movie clips that might be tangentially related, like old clips of other movies with the feature film star, or cartoon versions of a movie, or what not.
Hyde Park Bar & Grill has excellent food, is built in an old house that has been nicely updated & expanded, and has a high end booze & gellato place next door, Dulce Vita. Perfect for loitering, enjoying dessert, and chatting with Austinites.
http://austin.citysearch.com/profile/10232530/austin_tx/hyde_park_bar_grill.html
CitySearch is ok for finding specific venues, but Austin Chronicle, the local weekly indy paper that comes out on Thursdays, is worth getting ahold of in paper form (to real the personals & other fun stuff) and can be good to look over online for some background information:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/
Half Priced books has a huge rare book room at the North Lamar & Keonig Lane location, so unless you have luggage room to take back more books than you really ought to buy, you might want to avoid the tempting bookstore route 🙂
Any particular hobbies or interests? We’ve got tons of one-off stuff available…
at 6th Street & North Lamar is a spectacle, but the parking & navigation are horrendous. The city officials who allowed them to build that clusterbomb of a congestion issue RIGHT THERE where everyone going south gets on Lamar to cross the river is just.. ugh! Walk, or carpool, but the spectacle is definitely worth the effort. Catty corner to the Whole Foods, just to the northwest, if you haven’t stuffed yourself on their 10-15 different specialty food bars (raw foods bar, dessert bar, seafood bar, etc etc), you can get a nice burger at Waterloo Ice House, shop for new & used CDs at Waterloo Records, and grab some tasty folded-in-toppings ice cream at Amy’s Ice Cream.
And I goofed the spelling, Dolce Vita, not Dulce 🙂 http://austin.citysearch.com/profile/10232440/austin_tx/dolce_vita_gelato_espresso_bar.html
Would be delighted to show you & any castaways some of the goodies around town, although I won’t be at Netroots, proper. I think you should have my email address, via the login creation process? And if you’ll be pressed for time but want to connect a less busy friend, I could help them find fun trouble, too, just connect us via email!
Waterloo Ice House, as made famous in some song on a cd I have by the Austin Lounge Lizards? I may have to go there. 🙂
http://www.drafthouse.com/
And Austin Chronicle is very useful for live music listings in particular, http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Calendar/MusicListings and tons more information on other fun stuff to do around town.
I think a must-see is the LBJ museum, on the UT campus. Its no Nixon Library, but there is a “life-size, moving and talking figure of LBJ” leaning on a fence telling tales.
A beautiful shrine it is.
(The docents whose lives were touched by the man are a national treasure, as well.)
I recommend seeing the bats at the Congress St. bridge at sundown. It’s unreal.
The only other real recommendation I can make is night life. Two place I would definitely check out are Casino El Camino’s on Guadalupe (or is it Sixth St.? I forget,) it’s just a cool joint with a cool staff. The other would be The Continental Club on Congress St. – it’s only one of many amazing places to catch really good live entertainment on almost any given night. But unlike a lot of great clubs, it’s a really unique piece of American culture. If Wayne “the Train” Hancock or Jon Dee Graham are in town and doing their regular gig there, they are (or were the last time I was in Austin) Do Not Miss<sup>TM</sup> shows, IMO.
6th Street & near I35, the north/south Red River Street district are both great, especially for live music and even some dancing. More dressed up people in this area.
Congress south of the river is great for food, music, shopping in weird little stores, and people watching, including families and a wider range of visitors to the area (6th Street, especially at night, is primarily young adults, rather than families).
The bats are neat, and if you’re into running, bring shoes/gear, the Town Lake Hike & Bike trail is wonderful, especially if you’re nuts enough to get up really early in the morning. Possibly easy to access from the hotel you’re staying at? You might ask the Hotel how they’d recommend getting there, from your location. Lady Bird Johnson pushed to get the trail built, and did great work fighting off developers who wanted to build right up on the water. Since her passing, the land developer vultures have begun circling closer & closer. Map links to that and the Barton Creek greenbelt are halfway down:
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/parks/trails.htm
If you have the time, the LBJ Library is also a worthy adventure, especially for the 7/8th scalehttp://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/museum.hom/museum_exhibit_pages/museum_exhibits/first_lady/Lady
Gate.shtm Oval Office and for Lady Bird Johnson, her office w/ furniture & decorations, and other memorabilia.
http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/museum.hom/whitehouse.shtm
You might also keep an eye out for the Moon Towers. No need to make a special trip to find them, but they are kind neat if you pass one…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonlight_tower
http://media.www.dailytexanonline.com/media/storage/paper410/news/2005/09/23/Focus/Moonlight.Towers.
Guide.Austin.Through.110.Years.Of.History-996538.shtml
Up by that Half Priced on North Lamar, Monkey Wrench Books sells radical/hard to find books, lots of politics & independence: http://www.monkeywrenchbooks.org/
Across the street from them, and a half block west on North Loop Blvd, Epoch Coffee is 24/7, and run by expert baristas who spun off another coffee shop in town. Wonderful porch, if the evening is pleasant enough for outdoor seating, and I’m pretty sure they’re wifi enabled. Lots of geek pals set up camp there, so they’d give up if they weren’t getting their net fix 🙂 http://www.epochcoffee.com/
Nation? Nation?
nope..not going maybe someone who is going can find out what ever happen to Ductapefatwa..
Good question… I’ve wondered about him myself.
l believe the consensus among those who were closest to him, and were collaborating with him on things, such as dove at IN Flight, is that he passed away.
obviously, no one knows for certain.
I’ll be there.
Some workshops I’m looking forward to liveblogging
Native American women are subject to much higher levels of sexual and domestic violence than any other women in the United States. Due to a confusing maze of tribal, state, local and federal laws, rapists and batters rarely face prosecution, regardless of the evidence against them. Perpetrators are aware that they can rape and brutalize, then often walk away with no consequences. This panel will explore what can be done to ensure equal protection under the law for Native American women and the role the Netroots can play in combating these injustices.
Since 2006, the Latino blogosphere in the United States has grown by leaps and bounds–often spurred on by hateful anti-immigrant ordinances and laws considered by states and communities across the nation. Several of Texas’ most prominent Latino bloggers will discuss strategies for communicating both with their Latino and non-Latino audiences and developing a blog that is a resource for progressive Latino activists.
Immigrants built this country and remain a vital part of our communities. Yet immigration has become a political hot potato in recent years. With Congress held hostage to a vocal minority of hard-line immigration restrictionists stirred up by right-wing websites and talk-radio, the Bush administration has launched a series of showy “crack-downs” that have divided working families and transferred billions into the hands of well-connected DHS contractors, but done nothing to reform a deeply dysfunctional immigration system. We can do better.
Come by for a lively discussion of this vitally important issue with activists speaking from a variety of perspectives.
Looking forward to it.
Go to barton springs to cool off.
Run, don’t walk, to see Hey Bale.
Ditto Shotgun Party. And Dale Watson is a must-see. Especially at Ginny’s for Chicken Shit Bingo. Make sure you get teo the continental.
However, do NOT dine at Sandra Bullock’s restaurant Bess: my g/f’s mom has a thing for celebrity restaurants, and so we had to go. Horrible (and such small portions).
Not going but hope you’ll report on it for us.
Gosh – any other year, I’d be in Austin. Not this one, darn it.
I haven’t been there yet – but it’s high on the few places in America I’d like to, but haven’t yet visited. I hope to hear all about it here…
Meanwhile – who read Obama’s op-ed re Iraq?
I wonder if Obama realizes the main reason we’re in Iraq is to open a front against Iran….
I’ll be there.
My running joke right now, since the AC is busted at my workplace and they don’t expect to get it fixed for at least two more days, is that I’m going to Austin Texas tomorrow to escape the heat.
I’ll be looking for familiar faces (and screen names) when I get there. And I hope to get some sight-seeing in, will have to see how easy it is to get around once I get there.
I feel so unprepared for this trip, I haven’t done much research or planning at all, short of making necessary reservations. Ugh… Usually I’m more organized than this, it’s just been that kind of summer.
I’d be up for seeking out a really good steak place some night, though — any other carnivores out there?