End of Silence

A YouTube posting of a May K-EYE investigative report on Texas lawmakers voting multiple times for each other has caught fire after BoingBoing posted about it this morning. The comments range from outrage to people who know it goes on and shrug their shoulders.

The point of the report is that it’s a little hypocritical of Rep. Debbie Riddle to introduce voter integrity legislation when she can’t be trusted to adhere to the voting rules in the Texas House. Of course, she’s a Republican, a party with a long tradition of howling for voter integrity which ultimately means voter suppression.

I doubt we’ll hear from any legislators themselves, though I’d bet that if you asked any of them, they’d admit to the practice. Anybody work at the legislature and want to elaborate on this? No big deal? Is this just a result of a broken system? I’ll ask my Rep., Eddie Rodriguez, the next time I see him. It seems like half of the stuff that’s passed through the US House and Senate is never even read by the people voting for it.

My daily commute takes me across town two times a day. It means that I see a lot of things. Here’s a small sample from this week:

• If you were wondering why South Lamar was a nightmare this morning, here’s your reason.
• It took them a week to get Zilker Park back to normal after this year’s ACL festival. Everything looked back to normal yesterday morning, except for the old guy combing the deserted fields with a metal detector. I wonder if he found anything?
• Oltorf’s a total nightmare right now between South Congress and South Lamar. Avoid it at all costs. As if that damn train crossing, which gets me every time, wasn’t enough incentive.
• Not sure if it’s over yet, but I-35 in central Austin has also been blocked down to one lane for several nights out of the past week or two.
• Eastbound Cesar Chavez between Mopac and Congress was particularly backed up yesterday evening for no good reason that I could see.
• Everybody and their brother seems to have figured out the exit ramp shortcut between 45th and 35th on southbound Mopac. I think it’s actually faster now if you don’t use it.
• If you’re picking something up in the Brodie Oaks shopping center at the NorthWest corner of Lamar and Ben White in the morning and you’re going to head west on Ben White, don’t forget to cut through the parking lot past Toys R Us and down that steep road to the light at the office park. It’s much faster taking a right from there than dealing with all of the traffic that’s backed up at the light at Mopac, especially if you’re then heading north on Mopac.
• Looks like the new Specs location at Arbor Walk near 360 and Mopac is close to opening.

Since soccer season started on Saturday, we arrived at Zilker Park in the late afternoon to the sounds of Blue October and Stephen Marley. After grabbing food, we parked ourselves between the AMD and AT&T Blue Room stages. Andrew Bird was a decent discovery while we waited for Arctic Monkeys. I can’t say the same about Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah, who followed Andrew Bird. As others have noted, the singer’s voice took on an annoying quality in the sound mix. Arctic Monkeys gave a good performance, but nothing that blew me away. I wasn’t close enough to see, but I suspect the large white lights behind them were borrowed from Arcade Fire’s stage decorations. The family and I parted ways for Arcade Fire since they didn’t want to miss any of Muse. I stayed to watch what I consider the best performance of the festival of the acts that I saw. Arcade Fire mixed great visuals with an amazing performance. I’d heard a few of their songs, two of which they played (“Black Mirror” and “No Cars Go”). The red lighting and kinescope-like images added well to the mood of the performance. It was often difficult to count the number of band members on stage, but the average seemed to be around 10. One guy pointlessly pounded the crap out of a cymbal for an entire song that none of us could hear, but poor sound at the AMD stage was a problem throughout the festival. I was impressed by multi-instrumentalist, Régine Chassagne, who played drums, accordian, and pipe organ among other things. I left Arcade Fire in time to catch Muse’s last few songs. They stepped into the headliner slot after The White Stripes canceled and they did an admirable job. I’m not a big fan of theirs from what I heard on the radio, but they impressed me Saturday night.

Sunday was our only full day at the festival. We arrived at noon to catch Fionn Regan at the Austin Ventures stage. His song, “Put a Penny in the Slot”, was an iTunes free download several weeks ago and I liked it enough to check him out. He put on a good show, but I found myself being distracted by the cacophony that Yo La Tengo was putting out from the AMD stage. This was the first of two times that I wished I could be two places at once on Sunday. After Fionn Regan, we relaxed at the “beach”, had lunch and let the kids run amok at Austin Kiddie Limits.
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Thought I’d pass this along since I’d be pissed if I got detoured.

Less than a week after it was closed for Bat Fest, the Congress Avenue bridge will be closed tomorrow morning from 8:30am to 1pm for a dedication ceremony to rename the bridge after Ann Richards.

You’re stuck with I-35,South First, Lamar or Mopac.

You’re all probably subscribed to it already, but ACL has sent out an e-mail update today and it’s chock full of good stuff.

First, the $50 pre-sale for next year will happen the week after this year’s ACL, so watch your inboxes. Did they even have one this year? My memory’s terrible. I remember 2 years ago that their meager infrastructure couldn’t handle the demand.

Second, you can pick up your wristbands for this year starting on Monday, September 9th.

Third, there’s a set of ten free downloads on iTunes featuring these ACL artists: Art Brut, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Ryan Shaw, Old Crow Medicine Show, Heartless Bastards, Indigo Girls, Andrew Bird, Bloc Party, Tokyo Police Club and The Cribs. You’ll need the code from the e-mail to get them.

Last, they’re down to 5 bands for the battle to see who wins a slot ACL this year. The five finalists are Blue Flashing Light, Golden Bear, Homer Hiccolm & The Rocketboys, Nelo Music and Quiet Company. The winner will be determined at a live show at Antone’s next Wednesday, Sept. 12th. My vote is for Golden Bear.