If you’ve driven down South Congress in the past 6-12 months you may have noticed the slogans that have been appearing on the marquee at the old Cinema West/Austin Theater. They’ve featured everything from l33t speak to references to the latest Star Wars film to homages to the recently deceased Hunter S. Thompson.
The space is currently occupied by Gizmondo Austin, formerly Warthog Austin. If I’m not mistaken, Future Protocol, an Internet services firm, renovated the theater during the dot-com boom and then promptly went bankrupt in 2001 (surprise, surprise). According to the Austin Chronicle, the Avatar Technology deal fell through shortly after it was publicized.
Wil Wheaton, a member of Metroblogging Los Angeles captured a shot of the sign on a visit back in October of last year, which brought the marquee to the attention of people outside of Austin. You can get the inside scoop on the sign from the blog of one of Gizmondo’s employees.