End of Silence

I just read a story on News8Austin about the Black Star Pub. It’s to be Austin’s first community-owned beer bar. They began meeting earlier this month and are currently scoping out locations in East Austin. I’d be interested to hear more about how this might work. It’s still in the early stages if you want to get involved, although I’m guessing their membership just shot up in the wake of all this publicity. They’ve got a Google Group if you’re interested in participating. I’m sure the TABC will figure out some way to object to this. They always seem to make running a business that involves booze much more difficult than you’d think.

Last spring, I mentioned that the Rude Mechanicals theatre company was doing David Rees’s Get Your War On. I missed it last time, but it did well enough that they’ve brought it back for a second run which starts tomorrow and runs until February 4th. The shows are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8pm at The Off Center 2211-A Hidalgo St., Austin, TX 78702. You can call 512-476-RUDE (7833) or make reservations online.

SXSW 2006 is less than two months away and Metroblogging Austin has scored a free registration for the Interactive portion (SXSWi) of the festival for one lucky Metroblogging reader (a $275 value). The registration gets you admission to the Interactive festival which runs from Friday, March 10th to Tuesday, March 14th, 2006. This registration does not get you admission to the film or music portions of SXSW. If you’re travelling from outside of Austin, you’ll need to have your own way of getting here and a place to stay, something that’s becoming quite scarce.

Here’s how the contest will work. Tomorrow morning at 10am CST, I’ll do a follow-up post with two questions related to SXSWi. The first person to answer the questions correctly in the comments will win the free registration. This contest is open to all Metroblogging readers, not just the ones in Austin, but the assumption is that you’re able to get yourself here for that week and that you’ll actually attend the festival. Metroblogging staff members are not eligible for this giveaway.

And stay tuned for SXSW coverage as the festival draws nearer…

I found the first mention of this on Bruce Sterling’s blog, but there’s a press release on the Austin Energy site and you can find stories on it from News8, Austin Chronicle and the Statesman.

Apparently, with the high prices of traditional energy sources, Austin Energy’s Green Choice program is now actually cheaper than the conventional service. The Wife signed us up for this a while back and we’ve been paying a little more for our electricity in order to be more environmentally friendly. Well, now it’s paying off in another kind of green. Those on the Green Choice program will save roughly $16 a year on their electricity at the current rate for electricity from traditional sources (coal, gas, etc.). Since the Green Choice program is a fixed cost and the other costs flucuate, it’s possible that those on the Green Choice program will be paying more again sometime in the future, but it appears to be the cheaper bet for now. Demand is so high that they’re holding a lottery for those who’d like to switch. The somewhat confusing details can be found in the articles that I linked. The Chronicle seems to be claiming that you don’t even need to enter the lottery to switch. Or am I reading that wrong?

The pun isn’t my fault. I’m just the messenger.

While wading through the UT football mania that was Sunday’s Statesman, I saw a small ad for something called Breakfast Serials. The idea is to publish part of a story each week with an illustration and to have people read along with it and perhaps discuss the story. As a parent of a child who’s just started reading, the idea is intriguing. They’re burying it in the Classifieds starting Wednesday, January 18th. The first story to be included in the Statesman is called Secret School. Here’s the synopsis:

It is the 1920s in rural Colorado. When the regular teacher of the valley’s one-room schoolhouse must leave, bringing an early school closing, the children decide to take over, secretly. But there are many problems to surmount: trouble-making Herbert Bixler, a suspicious school board and the fact that the new teacher, Ida Bidson is not only one of the students, but only 14 years old!

I’m not sure how well a nineteenth-century-style story will go over, but I’m willing to give it a shot.