Things I do or feel like talking about around town.
By now the whole world has heard about the UFO sighted above the Austin skyline last Sunday during the Austin Marathon (first zombies, and now this??). The experts can’t or won’t, however, confirm what it was. The public too is torn. Read more for video footage and a scientific explanation.
I stopped by the 4th Annual Kosher Chili Cook-off held yesterday for a bit. There were 25 participants. I managed to try about 20 of the entries and not get sick. Not too bad.
I’m going to be a little harsh with my criticism. The average chili I tried was very salty but not spicy at all. What’s the point? There were too many vegetarian entries. What’s the point? All the kosher meat and utensils were provided by organizers Agudas Achim which actually makes things fair (and cheap – which you’d know if you’ve ever purchased kosher meat).
I have decided that I’m going to have to enter the contest next year and really make all those mostly Ashkenazi softies cry. They won’t know what hit them. Not on the way nor on the way out.
I don’t even know which team won but I voted for Team Ninja, their chili was pretty good. And they bribed me.
Read more to see a few photos.
I was planning on participating in this event (watch out, Facebook link) organized by the fine folks of Flash Mob Austin, just so I’d have something to blog about. Then I decided to do something more valuable with my time: sleep in and thus skip the required 11:00 AM briefing session. Nonetheless, I’m a rebel and I’m blogging about it.
Just last October, the mayor of Austin turned into a zombie. The zombie invasion continues, as a few road signs near the University of Texas howed. Please advise on zombie fighting techniques. You can read more about it in the Austin-American Statesman.
Courtesy of Jaramillo. More photos after the break.
Embarrassingly, for the first time since I moved to Austin, I attended the East Austin Studio Tour (I didn’t even know about it!).
Last weekend, artists who live or have a studio, in the huge area between I-35, Town Lake (a few just south of it), Highway 183, and E. Martin Luther King; opened up their studios for people to visit, check out their work, and purchase whatever they like. This is a lot of terrain to cover in just two days! Check out the map if you don’t beleive me. I had no idea there were over 150 art studios in town, much less just in the East Austin area. Amazing.
Read more for more, including some photos.
Halloween is second only to Christmas when it comes to commercialism. To join the frenzy, I headed out to Round Rock in order to visit the Mansion of Terror over in Round Rock. Very very cool. I think the scariest part was the room that looks like a nasty public restroom and a monster with a chainsaw comes out of nowhere and chases you. The scary part was that the toilets were so dirty that they reminded me of former roomate’s (Alejandro’s) bathroom over at the apartment in Riata. Even more scary is the costume I’m going to wear tonight. Long time readers please take a guess.
I was meaning to be part of this important worldwide event(1) but unfortunately I had to be out of town last weekend:
Thrill The World is an annual worldwide simultaneous dance of Michael Jackson‘s “Thriller”. I thought they could have used my dancing skills but it turns out I couldn’t make it. I sent(2) Austin’s mayor Will Wynn as a replacement. He did well, as you can see in the video below:
Congratulations to all 4177 dancers for breaking a record!
Looks like I’m not the only celebrity in my family: In a news report for this year’s Hot Sauce Festival, local news station KXAN digged through their stock footage looking for beautiful people at previous editions. Check out the watermarked video embedded below:
Thanks to Antonio Lie for actually watching the local news and alerting me of the cameo.
P.S. Oh no! Blogger faux-pas! In a terrible turn of events, I’m shown in that old video wearing the same t-shirt as in the previous post.
Today, on my way back home from work, I took a different route as usual through houses instead of the bigger roads. I saw a guy walking his pet, a small pig, on a leash. I didn’t get his picture so I’ll have to take the same route everyday until I see him again.
PS. It was no Curtis (R.I.P.)
I was complaining about being in Round Rock at the time… turns out it could be worse. The storm hit downtown Austin and the UT Campus area very hard. Some say it’s the worst storm in 20 years with some seriously large hail as can be seen in the picture below (courtesy on News 8 Austin).
What’s next? Locust?
Torn trees, huge hail, strong winds… you name it. Here’s a news report on the storm and here’s a photo gallery.