Easily Distracted: I Miss Austin! (Part 2, Electric Boogaloo)

Sorry to have skipped a day. I'm also lazy.

Anyhow, after 6th Street we had to go back to the hotel and get ready. I took this wicked picture of the state capitol on the way back:

So after that, we went to see Video Games Live in Austin. There were a lot of cool people in costume. Here are some of my favorites:

Mini Mario, Peach, and Luigi! Mini Daisy must've had the day off.

This young lady, a shadow creature from Kingdom Hearts, WON the costume contest. She made that herself. WOW. I wish I had that kind of skill.

This was fairly simple, but still one of my favorites. I'd be happier, but I know that the cake is a lie.

So this is the way the stage for Video Games Live looked:

For those of you who don't know, Video Games Live is a show in which an orchestra plays video game music. It is hosted by...

Tommy Tallarico. You may remember him from his now gone G4 show called "The Electric Playground", but he also composed music for the Earthworm Jim series, Prince of Persia, and Advent Rising.

We were also able to see this kid:

You may remember him as the guy who can play Mario themes on the piano blindfolded.

One of the best parts of the concert for me, was when a girl who won a local Guitar Hero contest was asked to come on stage and play a song from GT: Aerosmith with the orchestra (and Tallarico who is a great guitar player). She won a computer.

Don't get too excited, it was a Dell.

Here's a picture of me outside the venue:

We went back to Sixth Street after that, because we hadn't done enough damage to our livers the night before. That reminds me, they have a pretty good selection of restaurants on Sixth Street. It's not just for college parties.

The next day we went to chase down the last of the thrift shops. Here I am in front of a quaint little one:

In this area, you can find a number of interesting outfits, like true vintage pieces to die for. There was also the Twister dress:

I couldn't bring myself to buy it. Where the hell would I wear it?

Vintage shops seem to represent many of the things I like about Austin. There's all sorts of random stuff to be found. Like this:

Here's a picture from a vintage store where we found a friend:

Kyle found this great store he wanted to go to called Atomic City. It was a rock n' roll/toy store that had a lot of Godzilla stuff that Kyle seemed interested in. The front had Astro Boy on it. Here Kyle is in front of it: