USA | Texas | Austin | Austin Trails
This is an excerpt from an email that my friend got from a guy in Austin from a dating website. (used without his permission!) I think that it does a good job of being an introductory paragraph, and it's interesting to see how it fares as the context changes from impressing someone to describing the city.
"My favorite thing about Austin is that I know it so well, and I feel like I am a part of it. The energy of 6th Street and the Warehouse District, the bohemian liberalism of Hyde Park, the snobbery of Westlake Hills, the angry SUV bustle of the sprawling northwest tech-boom edge cities, and the human drama of struggling East Austin. There are, of course, the usual tourist attractions, like the University of Texas, Downtown, the Capitol, the Texas State History Museum, and the world's largest urban bat colony that lives under the Congress Avenue bridge and swarms out every evening at sunset. There are so many parks in Austin and the surrounding hill country: Zilker Park, Barton Springs, the Town Lake Hike & Bike Trail, the Barton Creek Greenbelt, Mt. Bonnell, Hamilton Pool Preserve, Longhorn Caverns, Wild Basin, Pace Bend, etc. Austin leads the nation in cinema screens per capita and bars per capita. (Austin's 6th Street has more bars than Bourbon Street in New Orleans.) Austin has the nickname "Live Music Capital of the World" which is a typical Texan exaggeration, but you really can go out on any night of the week and there will be dozens of bands playing the clubs. Most of my friends are musicians or sound recording engineers."
I've heard about the Alamo Cinema Drafthouse long before i'd ever been there. They have an original location downtown at 409 Colorado St. and several locations farther out from the center. They have a great, underground thing going, and come up with some really creative ideas. Every city needs something like this, and, other than maybe Portland, no one else does.
Most of the independent rock clubs were on Red River street, anchored by Emo's at 6th and Red River, and heading north from there. I can only assume that Emo's fame has created this strip over time.
Waterloo records is the independent record store in Austin, Lovejoy's seemed to be the little alternative bar of choice.
Based on this post, i'll be checking out Mojo's Coffee Shop next time i'm in Austin. The graffiti is great, and the people's enthusiasm in the posts is what got me excited about the place.