Austin reminds me of Portland, Oregon, only sunny. It has lots of hills, funky neighborhoods with localvore-oriented indie restaurants, the Whole Foods parking lot is packed to overflowing, and the poster there tells us of the upcoming Paranormal conference. I've only been here a day, so I haven't found the crystal-and-tarot district, but I'm sure it's here somewhere.
And yet ...
It's
Texas. There's no income tax. The Governor shoots coyotes while he jogs. You don't need a hunting license to go shoot you some wild hog. Or other "invasive species", which thanks to all the exotic game ranches here, include some pretty cool feral critters.
And there's no season for invasive species -
every day is open season on feral Kudu, here in the Lone Star
Republic State. And then you can go have a celebratory beer at the Paranormal conference.
Wow.
11 comments:
Welcome to Texas.
Austin is our lib-tard town. It's full of college students and worse yet, professors.
It's a beautiful city, but the most liberal in the Lone Star State.
We don't have an income tax, but we pay sales tax, property tax and a buttload of other hidden taxes called 'fees'. Oh and toll roads are the all the rage here in the Lone Star State.
Despite its imperfections, I can't imagine living anywhere else.
I think it's too early, but find out when the bats come out in the evenings in Austin. There is a place where you can go, a bridge there downtown, and hundreds of thousands of bats live there and in the evenings come out to feed. It's supposedly a spectacular sight, though I've never seen it myself.
Are hippies an invasive species with open season?
Well, an invasive species, yes but unfortunately, in Texas just shooting one will land you at the bad end of a deadly needle.
What else is there to say about a city who's slogan is "Keep Austin Weird!"
It think the town would be more interesting if it was "Keep Austin Weerd!"
"It's full of college students and worse yet, professors."
And worse yet, politicians.
"...the town would be more interesting if it was 'Keep Austin Weerd!'"
Hey, if Weer'd ever wanted to move here, I'd welcome him and Mrs. Weer'd with open arms and a case of (quality) beer.
One of the Austin suburbs has an unofficial slogan: "Keep Round Rock Mildly Unusual."
And you can also get "Keep Austin Normal." stuff. I keep meaning to order one of the "78704: Actually, it's just a zip code." stickers.
Sixth Street will probably be your best bet for entertainment of all varieties. If you run into a tal, bearded man wearing a UT cheerleader outfit (the women's version, not the men's) on South Congress, that's Leslie Cochran, Austin's most famous cross dresser/street person. I can't say I know where the Crystal/Tarot district is, but the area just south of Downtown would be where I'd start looking.
Shoothouse Barbie lives in Austin, but I think she's drowning in dissertation defense prep :-(
You should make a side trip to San Antonio. It's just a hop, skip and a jump down 35. ;-)
I responded again at my place.
Of all the places I've lived other than back home, I liked Texas the most. It's on my top 5 list of places I want to go back to.
What DaddyBear said. If I can ever swing the finances, I'm going to Texas.
I think of Austin as Cambridge Light. It's a weird college town, but as you point out, it's in Texas. And the people are friendlier. Even the liberals are less condescending.
Oh, you do need a license to hunt wild hogs, only you don't need to tag them. No license for Coyote though.
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