March 28, 2007

We Interrupt the Fun for a Short Environmental Message

The Save Our Springs Alliance has documented pollution caused by rain water run-off from the AMD and Hill Country Galleria construction projects in the Barton Springs watershed:

A less-than-two-inch rain storm was enough to wash untold amounts of construction pollution off AMD and the Galleria's construction sites. AMD's site is on Southwest Parkway and Rialto Blvd. and the Galleria is in the Village of Bee Cave. We are going to file complaints against these polluters with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. These mall developers were caught polluting Little Barton Creek during construction of their "Shops at the Galleria" strip mall in 2005 and fined by TCEQ (a nominal few thousand dollars).

In related news, the coalition will be meeting this Saturday, March 31, from 9-11 a.m. to pick up trash in the recharge zone (as part of Keep Austin Beautiful's Clean Sweep).

Update: Clean up has been postponed due to rain.

Posted by timothompson at 10:23 PM

August 04, 2006

Thank You, Patrick Higginbotham & Co., For Reuniting Austin

Court-Ordered Lines for Texas Redistricting: August 2006

It's great to see three years after the Republicans in Texas redrew the lines in our state that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, led by Judge Patrick Higginbotham, decided to use common sense rather than partisanship to redraw the boundaries. It was initially looking quite bleak for District 25 congressman Lloyd Doggett after Rick Perry and his attorney general Greg Abbott submitted a map that would excise Austin entirely from his district, leaving the city proper without its own elected representative (unless Doggett had been wily enough to move again and win an election against another Rep. Lamar Smith of San Antonio). Quite bleak indeed.

When asked by Higginbotham about the state's intentions, attorney Ted Cruz played dumb: "Cruz denied that the state Republican leadership was trying to target Doggett when it drew its map. He said the state did not know Doggett had moved from East Austin and would be paired with Smith under its proposal."

Under the judges redrawn lines, District 25 will now be less of a skinny fajita strip–in fact, it's gained a little weight from eating up Southern Travis and five nearby counties rather than seven counties stretching to the Rio Grande. Southern Texas will comprise two districts, 15 and 28. And the new point "where districts meet" will be about a block west of 29th and Lamar.

To top it off, Tom DeLay, the man who instigated the re-redistricting chaos, hasn't been doing too well in the courts lately, either. Karma can be a bitch.

Now if we could only auf his henchman Rick Perry in this fall's election.

Update: Paul Burka of Texas Monthly has a great in-depth post on the court's decision:

A final word on the two cases I observed this week--this one and the Tom DeLay ballot case before the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans three days earlier. I'm not too enamored of the executive branch of the federal government these days, and who could find anything to like about this Congress, but the much maligned federal judiciary looked great to me. Both cases had significant political implications, but both courts, and especially their presiding judges, displayed intelligence, fairness, restraint, nonpartisanship, and a desire to follow the law. No citizen could ask for more.

Posted by timothompson at 06:22 PM

April 05, 2006

Update on ACL Festival Pre-sale Ticket Snafus

I was contacted by Jesse Richardson, a site coordinator for the Austin City Limits Festival, today to talk about what went wrong with the pre-sale on Monday. Originally I thought this might be due to my blog rant yesterday, but Jesse told me that people who had made email complaints about what had happened (as I also did yesterday) had been distributed amongst the team in an effort to make amends.

From what he told me, the ACL Festival list contains over 150,000 email addresses, and the email vendor they used had a server crash that delayed the announcement email for some list members. The email vendor had said they had handled large lists like this in the past, so perhaps it was a freak occurrence. That doesn't mean that they shouldn't think about pursuing another vendor in the future.

He asked for my address so that they could send out some swag in order to ease my pain. This wasn't exactly what I was hoping for–I was thinking that maybe another batch of 3,000 tickets might be sold in another unannounced pre-sale or that perhaps there might be some kind of discount. However, I do appreciate the gesture by the ACL organization to smooth things over among those of us who got our feathers ruffled about this incident.

That's the last I have to say about it. Thanks to LHB for linking to my last post.

Posted by timothompson at 05:56 PM

February 10, 2006

Sister Jack and the Love Boat

Thanks to Austinist's Elizabeth for picking me as the random local blog of the week. What a birthday gift. Since she asked me to post more, I'll share this item I posted to the Spoon list.

I was watching Spoon's Sister Jack video this morning, and later I started writing this great song on my geetar. Unfortunately, I discovered I was writing Sister Jack.

But still later I discovered something even weirder. You can sing the Love Boat theme (a tv show way before many of you kiddies' time) over the chords to Sister Jack.

love...................exciting and new
always on the outside, always looking in

come aboard................we're expecting you
i was in a drop d metal band we called requiem

Posted by timothompson at 01:09 PM

September 05, 2005

Links to Some Austin RSS Feeds

I posted this on LiveJournal, but will post it here as well for non-LJers:

If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out Bloglines for more info on RSS.

Posted by timothompson at 02:22 PM

July 13, 2005

APD Report: Two Ways of Looking at the Situation

Exhibit One: Austin American-Statesman: Use of force by police dropped 10.5% in '04

Exhibit Two: Daily Texan: APD's Taser use up 27.7 percent in 2004

Elsewhere in the news:

Update: A Tucson paper reports on the second death following police taser use in a week.

Update: Nova Scotia man dies after police use batons, pepper spray and tasers to detain him.

Posted by timothompson at 10:37 PM

June 23, 2005

Austin Craigslist: online lecherous pig seeking hot chick

"I posted the above previously, but forgot to add that my favorite time to get together is usually Sunday afternoon when I can watch car racing and golf on the TV and you will be there to get me cold brewskis (that's the correct word) out of the fridge when I need them, and are eager to warm up the nacho-cheese or to grab a new can of spray cheese out of the cupboard when mine goes cold or runs out." [via] [this is good]

Posted by timothompson at 06:56 PM

May 09, 2005

"Real World Austin" Cast Bids Adieu

Just when we were starting to forget about them anyway, the Real World Austin cast is packing up and leaving town. The Statesman's Diane Holloway talks to the cast in today's Statesman . And what do we learn? Austin's own Joel Mozersky (who has designed Austin businesses such as Olso, By George and Uchi) was responsible for the interior design (we're not sure if he also was responsible for the distinctive Austin logo on top of the building derived from the Seaholm power plant's art deco lettering). We also find out that drunken Austinites on Sixth Street got into a few scuffles with the cast, with one resulting in injuries.

Here's a cast summary from the article:

RACHEL, 22, California
An Iraq veteran who joined the Army as a combat nurse and served four years. She has a boyfriend she met in Iraq, but will she stray?

JOHANNA, 21, California
Gorgeous Peruvian American who wants to be a clinical therapist. She's spunky and sweet but a mean-tempered drunk. Deferred acceptance to Columbia University for grad school.

WES, 20, Kansas
A junior at Arizona State University, he's a frat-house guy who parties hearty and likes to flirt. He had a reputation on Sixth Street early on.

DANNY, 21, Massachusetts
Outgoing Bostonian who left home to 'stretch his wings.' He's working for his father's construction company but wants to be a lawyer. Loves Austin and hates to leave.

LACEY, 23, Florida
Unique, and not just for her short hair and virgin status. Born to ex-hippie parents who turned religious, the hairdresser was sheltered from pop culture but adapted to life with her much wilder housemates.

NEHEMIAH, 19, Arizona
Born to a drug-addicted mom and forced to grow up quickly. Quiet but determined. Studied film production in college and wants to direct music videos. The least in love with Austin.

MELINDA, 21, Wisconsin
Waitress and aspiring dentist. A model-gorgeous flirt who is willing to try anything once. Also smart and funny, she could be a star.

The show will appear on MTV starting June 21st.

Posted by timothompson at 03:13 PM

March 30, 2005

Austin City Limits Festival Partners Take On Lollapalooza

According to the story in Billboard of Lollapalooza relaunching in Chicago today, Austin City Limits Festival handler Capital Sports & Entertainment has been brought in to manage that festival (July 23-24th in Chicago) as well. In other recent news, ACL Festival partner and booker Charles Attal, who owns Stubb's, was brought in by House of Blues to co-own and book the Madison Theater in Cincinnati. The success of the ACL Festival has seen both operations expand as other cities try to suck in some of that mojo.

Update: The Lollapalooza site has been launched, despite Greg Kot's story questioning whether they'll get the permits. Still no artist list, but with 2-day passes going for $35, I think a few people will take a chance. The site also confirms that CSE's ACL Festival partner Charles Attal is booking Lollapalooza as well. In addition, Austin design firm Springbox designed the Lollapalooza site.

Update: Kot still is quite skeptical about whether the concert will be approved by city authorities.

Update: Kot reports that the deal seems to be falling in place.

Posted by timothompson at 08:50 PM

February 24, 2005

Donnie Darko's No. 1 Fan

The Austin Chronicle reports on former Austinites who made a mockumentary (“#1 Fan: A Darkomentary”) about a pathological Donnie Darko fan that appears on the movie's DVD.

Posted by timothompson at 09:47 AM

February 17, 2005

Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo Report Claims More Economic Impact for Austin Than ACL Festival and SXSW Combined

Despite the media buzz that Austin City Limits Festival and SXSW attract, the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo, which takes place for two weeks at the end of March (March 12-26th this year), commissioned a report (PDF format) that affirms the rodeo generates more economic impact for Austin than both of those festivals combined. Despite drawing from a more regional state audience, the report (commissioned from locally based Texas Perspectives) estimates that it generates $45.6 million in economic impact for the city as opposed to the combined $30.6 million generated by its two more famous cousins. And “the Rodeo,” as it dubs itself, has grown from 160,000 attendees in 2000 to over 325,000 in 2004.

On the other hand, the $30.6 million figure cited in the report may be open to question, as the SXSW site reports it generated $29.3 million alone at last year's conference and festival. And according to this Austin Music Commission report, last year's ACL Festival had an economic impact of $20 million on the local economy. According to the report, the average Rodeo participant is estimated to spend $150 per day, while the average ACL participant spends $216 per day, and the average SXSW participant $264 per day. In addition, the Rodeo lasts a week longer than the combined durations of both the other festivals.

Posted by timothompson at 02:31 PM

February 03, 2005

Donations Accepted Following Fire at Guadalupe Arts Center

Following a fire that struck the Guadalupe Arts Center on Monday, January 31 (photos here), the Austin Business Journal reports that two local filmmakers (who were working on “Slam Planet: war of the words,” a documentary about slam poetry) are requesting assistance to salvage the film (donations can be made at Bank One through the Slam Planet Support fund or mail checks to Henry and Fuller's office at 1113 S. Third Street, Austin, Texas, 78704).

The Arts Center, which was due to re-open February 1 as the vin gallery, suffered around $500,000 in losses (News Austin estimates $260,000, not including art supplies). Starting tonight (Thursday, February 3, 6-8 p.m.), donations will be accepted at West End Galleries for the artists who lost their art supplies. Austin Film Works has temporarily relocated classes as well.

Posted by timothompson at 02:04 PM

January 30, 2005

South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse To Open in March

A new Alamo Drafthouse will be opening in March at the location of the old Fiesta market at 1120 S. Lamar. With six screens and stadium seating, this may be one of the biggest Drafthouse ventures yet. And with 200 new openings planned nationwide in the next five years, we may be looking at the first Drafthouse-cum-Starbucks pilot project with this new theater. They are even going to feature slightly different food from the usual burgers/pizza fare and have hired one of the chefs from Mars restaurant. The new location also “will feature 3-D capability in one theater (and) show drive-in movies in the parking lot.”

The grand opening will take place starting March 7th and continue into SXSW Film, and it looks like they're planning some of the usual Alamo-type programming, including a double feature of “Waking Life” and “Dazed and Confused” with Wiley Wiggins hosting [via], and the Foleyvision Turkish Wizard of Oz, which will probably be almost as good as that fan remake of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” they showed a couple of years ago.

Posted by timothompson at 05:00 PM

January 28, 2005

Real World Austin

The highly anticipated Real World Austin cast moves in today. And they've already been spotted. OMG!

Posted by timothompson at 01:13 PM

January 06, 2005

Austin-Bergstrom Lobby Cam

ABDFTCOW used a Boing Boing technique to find a webcam of the lobby at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. It's fascinating just to watch it refreshing over and over.

Posted by timothompson at 11:22 AM