End of Silence

I’ve alluded to this before, but now it’s official. Our neighborhood park, Mabel Davis, is getting a skatepark. The city council approved it yesterday. It should be finished this fall along with all of the “soil remediation” aka “cleanup of pesticides and lead from battery casings that were dumped there when the park was a landfill”. They’ve tentatively scheduled a visit to allow folks in the neighborhood to see how that cleanup is progressing on June 21st. If you’d like to keep up with the progress, check out the Yahoo Group that’s been set up. Note that despite what the City of Austin Summer 2005 Aquatic Brochure says, the pool will be closed this summer because of the cleanup.

Growing up in the late 70’s/early 80’s I would’ve given my right arm to have a skatepark within walking distance of my house. I still maintain that I would’ve beaten out that damn Tony Hawk if only suburban Dallas had anything remotely skate friendly. Hey, allow me my middle-aged delusions. I still remember walking around Valley View Mall and drooling at the skate shop that was at the center near the food court.

I’m hoping my 6-year-old son will appreciate what he’s about to get. I think I’m smart enough not to dig up my old Zorlac and relive old glories once the park opens, but if you see me walking around with a cast this winter, you’ll know what happened.

Well, the now infamous cheerleading bill appears to have died in the Texas Senate. I suppose Al Edwards (D-Houston) got whatever political mileage he wanted out of it, although I’m at a loss to see what positive effect it could have on his current or future political career. At the very least, he now has the honor of being the subject of one of the infamous Daily Show “interviews” with the always creepy Bob Wiltfong. Those of you in his district can use the state house link to let him know if you think this was a good use of legislative time or if he should be doing something else. He’s certainly proof that stupidity (or at least shameless grandstanding) comes from either side of the aisle.

Lending further proof to the notion that you take for granted what’s in your own backyard, it took a post from Fleshbot to remind me that Austin’s very own Satan’s Cheerleaders might have something to say about Rep. Edwards and his crusade. It does my heart good to see the Cheerleaders are still in full form. If you’ve never checked out a Flametrick Subs show with Satan’s Cheerleaders, you’re clearly not a true Austinite. They’ve been throwing it down for at least 6 or 7 years, starting out at the now burned-and-gutted, but still legendary, Black Cat Lounge.

The Austinist kids beat me to it, but I just noticed this afternoon on one of my periodic checks of David Rees’s site that a staged adaptation of his Get Your War On strip is being performed locally by Rude Mechanicals theater collective. It started this past Thursday, but runs another two weeks. I’m not sure how well Rees’s hilarious strip will translate to a live stage setting, but the results should be interesting at the very least.

I saw Rees speak at Alamo Village at the Texas Book Fair just before last fall’s national elections. He was damn funny, if a bit overconfident that the election would turn out differently than it did. I’m all for anything that promotes that strip, so go check it out. You’ll be supporting him and local theater in one event. How can you argue with that?