End of Silence

A friend is helping organize As Naked As You Wanna Be, a benefit and art show for Tamara Hoover, the teacher who caused a stir back in June when she was put on administrative leave for nude photos posted on Flickr. The show is this Friday, August 11th at 6pm at the Pedernales Lofts, Apt. 2028 on East Sixth Street (that’s Sixth and Pedernales, east of I-35, nearly to Pleasant Valley). There’s an after-party at Peacock across the street from the lofts according to CuddleFish.

I’ve been meaning to post a transcript from Tamara’s appearance on Rita Crosby Live & Direct and also this set of photos from behind the scenes of some of her media appearances since the story broke.

It’s a sure sign that we’re all missing the rain when I find no less than three shots of rainbows over the past weekend. It looks like Wiley caught the same one that I did on Friday and WAE posted one Saturday morning. The quality of mine is pretty poor, having been shot on a Razr through a dirty windshield. One of the very cool things about sites like Flickr is posting something and then finding you’re not the only one who felt a particular moment photo worthy and worth sharing.

Speaking of a Rainbow Connection, I *think* this is the last week for the Alamo Summer Movie Camp (it’s hard to tell in their difficult to navigate/understand website). Alamo South Lamar’s been having a free movie every weekday for the past couple of months. This week, it’s Spongebob Squarepants Movie every day at 1pm. We managed to check out the Muppet Movie last month and it was a lot of fun.

Both Donewaiting and SXSWBaby point out that the SXSW 2007 site is live. I’m still recovering from this year.

Traffic was light on the way into downtown this morning until I got to the light at Cesar Chavez and I-35. The line of cars at the left turn lane was unusually long. It wasn’t any better as turned and headed west. The parking lot across the street from Iron Works BBQ was packed. “Must be something going on at the Convention Center,” I thought. It was then that I noticed packs of larger than average guys, some with matching sport shirts, baseball caps, and a few wearing those Bike-brand polyester shorts.

“Coaches.”

No, the Friday Night Lights filming hadn’t taken over the city. It’s the Texas High School Coaches Association 2006 Convention & Coaching School. The lots between 2nd and 3rd, Congress and Brazos were filling up fast as well. Good luck parking downtown today. Now, give me 5 laps!

A week from today marks the 40th anniversary of the infamous UT Tower shootings. On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the UT tower and began firing at the people below. He ultimately killed 15 (including his wife and mother, whom he killed that morning before the shooting spree) and wounded 31.

Texas Monthly is running a feature which tells the story in the words of those who were there that day. It includes the stories of many of the victims and one of the men responsible for ending the ordeal, Ray Martinez. Until reading some of these accounts, I hadn’t realized that two men, Martinez and Houston McCoy, shot Whitman and that there was contention between the two about who actually killed him. McCoy brought a lawsuit filed a claim against the City of Austin in 2000 for PTSD from the incident and they counter-sued saying that he’d waited too long to file the claim. You can read more at this site run by John Moore who acted under power of attorney for McCoy.

The shootings were the catalyst for the formation of modern-day SWAT teams. At that time, Austin Police Department officers were only equipped with revolvers or shotguns, weapons that were useless at the distance needed to take down Whitman without storming the tower and getting to him at close range. EMT was also virtually non-existent.
Continue reading »