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:

So then, sadly, we had to go back home. Here's a picture from the ride back to leave you with.
Mahalo.

I Miss Austin! (Part 1)

Well everyone, I am back from Austin. I brought back loads of pictures, so I thought maybe you'd like to see them. If you don't...Well, just see them anyway. I wish I knew how to do one of those "more after the break" thingys, but I don't.

Kyle and I drove in some sort of hatchback car. From where we live to Austin, there is a lot of this...

You pass through Waco on the way there, but it's mostly just farm areas. Other notable landmarks are the "Turkey Shop" (which I guess sells turkey) and a chain of chicken restaurants called "Bush's Chicken". Get it?? Get it?? Bush is chicken!! LOLZ!
Coming into town is just incredible. It's a real city!! Huzzah!! We got there right around sunset, and at that time you can see the bats fly out from under the Congress Bridge. That's one of the things we did that first evening. Basically, the bats that live under that bridge fly out from under it after the sun goes down. It's an amazing thing to see. Many of them just flutter around in the general area of the bridge for a time. It is very difficult to take a picture of the actual bats, but here's one that I took of their ascent:

After that we went to Sixth Street for some drinking and such. We also checked out this place on South Congress called "The Continental Club". It's a 50's themed rock club with live bands.
The bands are not quite 50's themed, but still great. The night we went was "Paint By Numbers" night, and we caught a Pixies cover band.

The next day we woke up to the most blatantly Texan breakfast I have ever seen in my life at the hotel:
Oh my GOD how tacky. They were delicious, though.
We went back to South Congress to check out some of the shops we had seen there the night before. One of the places we discovered is possibly the best place ever. It's called Toy Joy.

Here's me at Toy Joy. Don't I look joyful? It's because Toy Joy is a toy store for children AND adults. I believe that we read that they don't close until midnight on most nights. Here are some more pictures of Toy Joy:
Woo hoo! The colors!!
After some shopping and whatnot on SoCo, we went to Sixth Street for lunch. Here's a picture of my friend Kyle:
He's very happy because we're about to have margaritas and Mexican food. While we were in the restaurant, we witnessed...

OH GOD! Segway gang!!!! Run!! What's so sad is that they all have helmets on. You would have to be retarded to fall off of one of those things.
Also on Sixth Street, there was this place called something like the Museum of the Weird (I don't remember) which was right up my alley. Here I am next to a dead bat:
Look how happy I am. Finally in my element.

Well then. Seeing as it's almost midnight and I am old and tired, I will post pictures of the other part of the trip tomorrow.

Helping to Keep Austin Weird!

Well, everyone, I am officially headed for Austin, TX tomorrow. While I can't say that I am particularly smitten with the great state of Texas, I will say that Austin is the best part of it in my personal experience. Every time I visit, I feel like there are "my kind of folks" there. Hopefully I'll have more to say when I get back.