Sunday, October 31, 2010

Austin Film Festival


If you know me well you know that I would never be considered a film expert or even someone who watches movies often. I grew up in a home where watching anything besides the news was almost illegal. My brother and I would sneak in some quality Jerry Springer before our parents came home and then we were only allowed 1 hour of television which generally consisted of The Simpsons and Home Improvement. When our Dad was out of town I remember going to the video store with my Mom and "sneaking" movie time. Clearly Movies are related more as a guilty pleasure rather than a lifestyle. 

Not surprisingly, I have a dearth of knowledge on anything to do with the film industry. I know when I like a movie, but I probably couldn't tell you all the actors much less who the producer or the writers were. I do however, have y friend, Trever, who knows a lot more that I could ever care to know about films. I only enjoy about 10% of the movies Trever presents me, but that's not surprising since we have two totally different lifestyles. 

The only photo I took... I was watching movies!
When my brother Harlan was offered two producer badges to the Austin Film Festival for Parkside's involvment in the Film and Food Gala he naturally asked his wonderful sister and her movie fanantic friend Trever if they wanted the badges. Little did Harlan know these badges were worth about $700 a piece, because surely he would have tried to sell them. The Producer badge granted priority access to the week of movies, the conference, and of course parties. 


While I didn't partake in the conference nor did I take the week off of from work to spend to go to movies, I did see quite a few unique films and rub shoulders with famous writers and producers at various free parties around Austin. To be honest, I didn't quite know who I was rubbing shoulders seeing that I don't know who famous screenwriters and producers are, much less what they look like. I'm not complaining, because I still go my free drinks and shwag. :-)


The word on the street is the Austin Film Festival is unique because it focuses on the writers. It is also unique because it is in Austin. Luckily, Austin has the wonderful Alamo Drafthouses, an IMAX, the historic Paramount, and numerous other movie watching venues to host dozens of movies throughout the city. While the Austin Film Festival is less glitzy and well known as other film festivals such as Sundance or Cannes it is close to home and suitable to the Austin culture. And for me, it was an affordable fun new experience. I love the fact that I was able to    take part in some of the arts and culture Austin has to offer for free! 


The films I saw: I Love You Philip Morris (feature film), Dog Sweat (documentary), Treme (HBO series premier), Burned: Life in and Out of Texas Youth Prisons (documentary), Paradise Recovered (feature film), Weakness (feature film), and Black Swan (feature film, and my fave!).  

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Austin City Limits Music Festival

Austin City Limits. ACL. 3 days of awesomeness. It's all the same. Just don't get it confused with the ligament in your knee or the PBS show Austin City Limits. While the TV show is what inspired the music festival, and many of the featured artists have performed at the festival it is, in fact, not the same. Many people are often confused as the TV show has been around for 35 years while the Austin City Limits Festival only began in 2001. With the awesomeness of ACL one would think that it has been around for years, however, past weekend was just the 9th year of the festival's existence. 

While I am by no means a music, concert, or music festival expert I am certainly lucky to enjoy Austin City Limits in my city every year. I have been to Austin City Limits 3 of the 4 years that I have lived in Austin and this year was another exceptional experience. With over 65,000 people in attendance EACH of the three days I don't think I am alone in loving this festival.


One of the best stages... natural acoustics with the rock wall!
Essentially there are +130 bands, 8 stages, and 3 full days of music. The music ranges from country to rap with a lot of rock and alternative in between. My favorite shows were Mayer Hawthorne, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Matt and Kim (the literally climbed on top of the stage and danced ON TOP of the crowd). I put a few samples of music that I saw on the side bar so you can pretend like you were there with me! 


Besides the excellent selection of music my favorite things about ACL this year were the things that made this music festival unique to Austin. Taking place at Zilker Park; a park inside the city along the banks of Town Lake with beautiful  weather and the Austin skyline as the backdrop for the stages. Sunny skies, light breeze and low humidity kept everyone mostly comfortable throughout the weekend. Being within the city allowed people to transport themselves easily to Zilker park via foot, bus, bike, or convenient drop off and parking locations with shuttles around town. I was able to exercise all but the bus portion of forms of transportation used to arrive and depart from the festival all weekend. Lucky for me my friend Emily lives downtown and we were able to bike from her place with ease!


With the sun shining drinking water for festival goers was a priority; and since I personally drink my recommended 8-10 glasses of water daily, I especially appreciated the FREE water refill stations inside the park. Friendly volunteers filled water constantly throughout the weekend. Not only does this limit dehydration and emergencies, but also saves ACL guests money and thousands of plastic water bottles. Yeah Austin for being so ECO Friendly! Beyond the free water*, the food available for purchase is 100% Austin. From Aquarelle's French fare to Freebird's burritos all of the food is brought in from local restaurants for a price point of $5-$8  an item. This is a pretty good deal as many of the vendors don't normally have a meal under $20 on their regular menu. This weekend I got to eat at the Salt Lick, Aquarelle, and Hudson's on the Bend for about 20 bucks in one weekend! 
ACL at night


Beyond my basic needs of food, water, music, and great weather, Austin City Limits also provided numerous other amenities that make ACL easy to attend. Tons of beer and freebie tents, fashionable concert t-shirts from American Apparel (yeah hipster), artisans selling their local goods, and of course... police that are really there just for show who enforce next to nothing. What else could I ask for? Oh wait... yeah... almost all of my Austin friends attend ACL! That is the very best part! I know I can buy a ticket and not worry about finding someone to rock out with because everyone is there and having a great time. I highly recommend Austin City Limits and entire package it comes with because I LOVE it. :-) 


*yes I realize nothing, including water isn't really free when you pay $185 for a 3 day pass... but I paid for that months ago so it feels like it is free. 
Courtesy of Hill Country Conservancy FB page... View of Zilker from above



http://www.aclfestival.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_City_Limits_Music_Festival
http://austincitylimits.org/ 

Monday, October 4, 2010

The TEXAS State Fair

Is it fair to say that I love Austin because it is in Texas and therefore I can enjoy things in ALL of Texas? That might be a stretch, but my friends tell me that I Love Austin because it is in Central Texas and close to places I might need to visit. Most of the places in Texas (besides Austin) are kinda like family. You want them close enough to be able to visit with ease, but far enough away that it doesn't happen every weekend. No offense to any family in particular but most people need a little space to grow up and become an individual, just like Austin :-). That's just my personal opinion.

Big Tex
This past weekend my friends Jessica, Emily, Casi and I made the trip up to the Dallas Fort Worth area to experience the Texas State Fair. While there is a natural Austin vs. Dallas vs. Houston rivalry and writing about Dallas is essentially heresy I am justifying it because it is the TEXAS State Fair and it is only 3 hours away. Close enough to Austin to visit but by no means do I want to be there every weekend.

It is no surprise that the Texas State fair is the largest state fair in the United States (every thing is bigger and better in Texas). With over 3 million visitors over a three week period and permanent fair grounds it is difficult to compare. I checked, and there is lots of history on the Texas State Fair but I am more interested in all the fried delicacies offered at the fair than the history. In short, the Texas State Fair has been running since 1886, Big Tex is a large statue that has welcomed fair goers since 1952, and activities include: a livestock show, an auto show, museums, live music stages, carnival rides and games, a giant ferris wheel, a garden show, pig and dog races, creative arts, and other attractions. The most important of attractions include food. In 2005 the Fair began the Big Tex Choice Awards and competitions arose for the most creative and best tasting fried foods.

This being my maiden adventure I am glad I had an expert on hand to lead the way. Casi, being from the DFW area was the only one of the four that has ever been to the fair. The whole ordeal was overwhelming. However, she and her family (who we also joined there with my brother Harlan) directed us to convenient parking, short lines and the must do's of the Fair.
Where is his body?

I learned several things.  There will be lines, but they move fast. Fletcher's is the only place to get Corn Dogs. If there is a long line there is a shorter line for the same thing just a few minutes away. You must have an appetite for fried food. And ride the ferris wheel.

My winner... fried snickers
Inevitably, the large group split up but thankfully, we were well prepared with the tips from the locals. In accordance with our new found knowledge Jessica, Emily and I each had our own Fletcher's corn dog. It was delicious. The rest of the day we shared several different fried foods while touring the fair grounds. In order of my personal favorite to least favorite of the foods we tried: Fried Snickers, Fried Oreo, Fried Guacamole, Fried Frito Pie, Fried Ice Cream, Fried Peanut Butter Macaroon, Fried Beer. I know, I'm surprised Fried Beer was gross too, but it was basically beer in a dough pouch with no real flavor. Other delicacies we did not have a chance to try but would have if our stomachs were up for it... Fried Margarita, Fried Butter, Chicken Fried Bacon, Fried Lemonade, Fried Peanut Butter and Jelly, Fried Cheesecake, a Green Goblin (fried chili stuffed with chicken, guacamole, and cheese), pizza on a stick, and of course other typical fair food such as Caramel Apples, Funnel Cakes, sausage-on-a-stick, and much much more. I'm shocked there wasn't a booth to purchase fried Tums. Maybe next year I'll bring it.

Jessica was adamant about wanting to ride the carnival rides, so Emily and I both agreed to join her for one a piece. I chose my ride early on the food journey purposefully, I have a nickname from my brother and it didn't come from having a strong stomach. Looking back,  it might have served me well to get rid of all that fried goodness at the end of the day, but bulimia is pretty uncool.

After a day of beautiful weather and an overall fantastic experience at the Texas State Fair we took the journey back to Austin. While this adventure took place outside of Austin I love that I can go and indulge on fried food on a quick trip but I don't have to be tempted but once a year.

http://www.bigtex.com/sft/AboutUs/StateFair.asp