austinsoreal

so, our cheapo hotel ain't got wireless, but halcyon, a chill coffeeshop downtown, does. it's also got some damn good coffee, and don't get me started on the banana-bread.

but for real texas cuisine, you can't beat BBQ. last night we mowed at the county line, which serves up some incredible beef ribs. if that makes you jealous, don't fret: apparently, they do airmail.

gotta say that, overall, i'm not blown away by this city, though as far as texas goes, it's quite the island. the famed 6th street is more bourbon street than i was hoping, and the hip-hop scene here seems invisible/inaudible, especially compared to other texas cities. though i have to say, the "urban contemporary" radio here beats the hell out of boston's. they actually mix here, for one thing, and i've heard some juggling on the coolie dance that could have been out of one of my own sets, complete with the kelis "milkshake" remix. yesterday morning i heard ele's "city lock" acapella over the beat to 50's jus a little bit. not bad. and all that 808 shit runnin' the airwaves just sounds kinda natural on a texas highway with the windows down.

did a little boutique shopping in soco yesterday. the highlight was finding a t-shirt by local designer will heron. it depicts a stick-figure dude "talking" to a stick-figure robot. he's speaking in binary code, though: "11001101011001010011010110101!!" and the caption below says, *learn a foreign language*--too perfect, considering what becca's been up to with machine translation and computational linguistics. we're hoping to find a similar one for her. check out will's site, though, as he's got lots of tasty designs, including some one-ee's for the lil ones. (that's his pig pic above.)

more soon. tomorrow we're off to a friend's family's ranch about an hour from here, and then it's up to chicago and madison for another wedding and some long overdue catching up with friends. lovin' a little holiday right now.