Yet another embarassing incident in Austin has made national news. Coming on the heels of the Ozomatli arrests and the Jason Patric arrest (whose charges, I might add, were quietly dropped recently), we have a boat capsized by a group of people who were apparently a little too enthusiastic about viewing naked sunbathers at Austin’s infamous Hippie Hollow.
I heard about the barge capsizing on News8 last night and they mentioned that it occurred near Hippie Hollow, but I didn’t put two and two together until CNN spelled it out for me. When I first moved here in 1989 for college, I was dragged to Hippie Hollow by a misguided friend. He was certain that we were going to be treated to a bevy of naked bathing beauties. Reality set in before we even got halfway down the path to the shore when we passed a middle-aged man who hadn’t yet covered himself.
Let me go ahead and spell it out for any new Austinites or tourists: Hippie Hollow is mainly populated by fortyish or older white men, probably over-the-hill hippies who feel the need to maintain their ideals, but haven’t maintained their bodies. If you’re looking for a cheap thrill, I suggest the Internet (at least until Ashcroft and his cronies take that away from us).
P.S. How slow of a news day must it be for CNN.com to list this as one of their top stories?