Can't say I disagree. I left in 2000, and each time I came back to visit I missed it less and less. When Joe Rogan and Elon Musk think a place is cool, it's not.
Big effing Amen there. Who knew Ketamine would be the new raging drug? Billionaires snorting horse tranquilizer? That is something even the most buzz desperate club-hopper back in the 70s would not do, ever.
“A movie about the Austin mindset was called Slacker because Lazy and Full of Shit was too hard to market” is one of my absolute favorite Michael Corcoran lines.
Kudos to you, Mr. Corcoran, for contributing to the lore that is the thread of my own cloth of the story of the place in my memory past. Please don't take this the wrong way, but many of the words and phrases burnt into my memory were urgent scribbles that existed, for years, in the men's rooms of places that no longer exist and their walls were whitewashed even before that inevitable fate. No sir. If Studs Terkel got to hammer on about working, then you have done a pretty good job traipsing along in the path in a world that did, but will not ever again exist, when the landlords did not control everything. Great job! Tora, tora, taxi!
Austin? It all came to me too, too early. By accident, in happenstance. Around 1982. It took me years before I was able to decipher the puzzle fully, but all has been revealed in the fullness of time. I was at the Hole in the Wall that year, just minding my own business, another night of my Austin life. I was having a chat with a black gentleman, new(ish) in town from Philly, who had already scoped it. We were discussing the merits of Austin, etc. and he made a comment that would etch in my brain then and I would come to understand, fully, only many, many years later. At one point in our conversation he casually observed that Austin, as far as he could tell, was "White Man's Paradise". I would only later come to realize, much later, about how Austin was a place that had all the pleasure, but none of the guilt---like Houston...or Dallas....or San Antonio. And this was carefully orchestrated and crafted with city fathers long before I was born in 1960. And it very well could be that Austin's last hero was indeed Emma Long-- a name long since forgotten by anyone in this thread, I suspect.
Side Note: The Fabulous Thunderbirds self-titled first album (by some known as "Girls Go Wild") and Doug Sahm's "The Last Real Texas Blues Band"' are #1 and #2 on earth, I reckon. So there's that, ese.
Now that the city council has voted to put tenements up five feet apart in every lot in town and take out all the trees, Austin and 20 years will be just like the south side of Chicago. Margaret Hoffman is crying in her grave.
You da man, Michael. I just fill in the valuable gaps the best I can. We still have Robert Rubirth and Stonewall Jackson to cover, from the old days, if you’re interested in the old stuff. Cheers!
It was like, a badge of pride to tell people that I'd left Austin—to see the confused look on their faces, as if I'd left the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. This sums up all my reasons, yet...I've also come to miss that mediocrity, and the easy embrace of the velvet coffin. Probably just my nostalgia acting up again.
E 6th was the velvet ditch in its early days. Knew sone guys who set up a nice sandwich shop down there, but then almost overdosed in the basement one afternoon. The landlord discovered them passed out then terminated their lease immediately with prejudice.
This reminds me of the Whataburger debate. Everyone (me included) loves Whataburger, and it’s the first thing that gets mentioned every time someone realizes I’m from Texas (although I’ve been gone for more than 30 years.
I’ve started doing an (admittedly) unscientific poll every time Whataburger comes up, and every time I get the same answer:
1. What makes it so good? “It’s Whataburger.”
2. Is it the meat? “It’s Whataburger.”
3. Is it how it’s made? “It’s Whataburger.”
4. Is it the service? The fries? The vanilla malts? (all admittedly good) “It’s Whataburger.”
Can't say I disagree. I left in 2000, and each time I came back to visit I missed it less and less. When Joe Rogan and Elon Musk think a place is cool, it's not.
Big effing Amen there. Who knew Ketamine would be the new raging drug? Billionaires snorting horse tranquilizer? That is something even the most buzz desperate club-hopper back in the 70s would not do, ever.
“Half-drunk”? What was the other half?
“A movie about the Austin mindset was called Slacker because Lazy and Full of Shit was too hard to market” is one of my absolute favorite Michael Corcoran lines.
The other half was gettin' there.
HAHAHAHAHA! Still hilarious, and frighteningly accurate, my friend!
Garage band capital of the world. And eff Texas Monthly. BBQ editor from Ohio? Double eff off. And today’s just another shitty day in paradise.
Ever more mediocre as it grows and gets more populated!
Anywhere is better than St. Louis…
Or Cleveland.
👌✌️
We was already on our way to NOLA when you dropped this . . . Never looked back.
But miss it every day.
Thanks, it's funnier the second time and saves you the trouble of writing it again.
Kudos to you, Mr. Corcoran, for contributing to the lore that is the thread of my own cloth of the story of the place in my memory past. Please don't take this the wrong way, but many of the words and phrases burnt into my memory were urgent scribbles that existed, for years, in the men's rooms of places that no longer exist and their walls were whitewashed even before that inevitable fate. No sir. If Studs Terkel got to hammer on about working, then you have done a pretty good job traipsing along in the path in a world that did, but will not ever again exist, when the landlords did not control everything. Great job! Tora, tora, taxi!
Austin? It all came to me too, too early. By accident, in happenstance. Around 1982. It took me years before I was able to decipher the puzzle fully, but all has been revealed in the fullness of time. I was at the Hole in the Wall that year, just minding my own business, another night of my Austin life. I was having a chat with a black gentleman, new(ish) in town from Philly, who had already scoped it. We were discussing the merits of Austin, etc. and he made a comment that would etch in my brain then and I would come to understand, fully, only many, many years later. At one point in our conversation he casually observed that Austin, as far as he could tell, was "White Man's Paradise". I would only later come to realize, much later, about how Austin was a place that had all the pleasure, but none of the guilt---like Houston...or Dallas....or San Antonio. And this was carefully orchestrated and crafted with city fathers long before I was born in 1960. And it very well could be that Austin's last hero was indeed Emma Long-- a name long since forgotten by anyone in this thread, I suspect.
Side Note: The Fabulous Thunderbirds self-titled first album (by some known as "Girls Go Wild") and Doug Sahm's "The Last Real Texas Blues Band"' are #1 and #2 on earth, I reckon. So there's that, ese.
Now that the city council has voted to put tenements up five feet apart in every lot in town and take out all the trees, Austin and 20 years will be just like the south side of Chicago. Margaret Hoffman is crying in her grave.
You da man, Michael. I just fill in the valuable gaps the best I can. We still have Robert Rubirth and Stonewall Jackson to cover, from the old days, if you’re interested in the old stuff. Cheers!
It was like, a badge of pride to tell people that I'd left Austin—to see the confused look on their faces, as if I'd left the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. This sums up all my reasons, yet...I've also come to miss that mediocrity, and the easy embrace of the velvet coffin. Probably just my nostalgia acting up again.
E 6th was the velvet ditch in its early days. Knew sone guys who set up a nice sandwich shop down there, but then almost overdosed in the basement one afternoon. The landlord discovered them passed out then terminated their lease immediately with prejudice.
This reminds me of the Whataburger debate. Everyone (me included) loves Whataburger, and it’s the first thing that gets mentioned every time someone realizes I’m from Texas (although I’ve been gone for more than 30 years.
I’ve started doing an (admittedly) unscientific poll every time Whataburger comes up, and every time I get the same answer:
1. What makes it so good? “It’s Whataburger.”
2. Is it the meat? “It’s Whataburger.”
3. Is it how it’s made? “It’s Whataburger.”
4. Is it the service? The fries? The vanilla malts? (all admittedly good) “It’s Whataburger.”
I like it when you're sassy.
Two questions:
1. "Vengeance was their’s!" -- What is the apostrophe doing in that sentence.
2. "...more worse..." -- You probably meant "worst."
Think about hiring a starving editor.
Thanks. I get my readers to edit for free.
Perhaps he just meant more worse or the oddly sounding worser.
I like very it! All these years after the original and it’s still true.
I meant to say I like it. I don’t know where very came from. My mediocre typing?