Gotta Eat & Drank! Austin

I've been to Austin, the live music capital of the world, the weirdest spot in Texas, on and on, four times. Twice for work and twice for Tough Guy Cinema events at the Alamo Drafthouse. The lady went to school at the University of Texas so we took a few days to see the ever changing city, an entire day of Kurt Russell movies and walk the campus. Summed up, Austin is a weird spot, you've got a mish mash of big city high rises, outdoor food joints made up of trailers and picnic tables, new construction, historic neighborhoods and the like. While Culver City in Los Angeles faces restaurant-pocalypse due to an abundance of establishments and only so many customers, Austin is literally full of bars. Most of them serve queso, booze is cheap (two Jamesons for $14?!) and there's beards, bums and bachelorette parties galore.

We walked over to Easy Tiger and the Dirty Sixth area, home of lots of youngins and a grungy, college feel. Over on West Sixth you've got the new Kung-Fu Saloon, a spot for arcade games (mainstream fare like Street Fighter and The Simpsons) and Steampunk Saloon among others along with those beer cruisers you pedal and drink on. Lastly it was over to Rainey Street, a formerly not great neighborhood now transformed into new apartments and houses turned bars. Kinda like the Venice of Austin. Uber and Lyft had left the city a year ago over background checks and percentages but the former had just began services again. I still use local apps like Wingz and Fasten though, they treat the drivers better apparently.

It's been a while since I've been on a college campus, haven't been to the one I graduated from since I left in 2004, but UT was pretty nice. Lots of nice architecture, a turtle pond and a Wendy's in the student union. Several restaurants across from campus were closed which is a shock considering the high amount of foot traffic. The Ransom Center has free exhibits open the public with materials for James Joyce's Ulysses, one of the only public copies of The Gutenberg Bible (one of the first mass produced books using movable metal type) and several pieces from Taxi Driver. Apparently there's a Robert De Niro collection housed there, who knew?

Malibu Weekend!

We spent Easter weekend with some out of town friends in beautiful Malibu. Only 20 some miles north of Santa Monica, the winding trip of the PCH into calm and dusty beach living feels like a different world. The house we stayed at was a working sustainable farm with fruit, turkeys and chickens! We were far enough away that you couldn't hear them much at 5:00 AM though. The house came with a beautiful pool and hot tub that overlooked the Pacific Ocean across the highway. Not waiting for the heater to do it's job, I took a frigid swim at 6:00 AM and did some aqua-karate, Kickboxer style, to start the day. The house sat on multiple acres and a short hike to the top of a hill lead us to a beautiful gazebo/patio area overlooking the ocean and green covered hills. A horse farm was visible next door and I wondered who lived in the palatial estates higher up the sides.

My friends didn't realize downtown was not close to Malibu and bought tickets to see Sigur Ros with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Disney Concert Hall. We'd never been there for a show and while beautiful, it went on for nearly 3 hours! It was extremely dark up there and I drove past the driveway multiple times. A nearby complex had a cafe, bank, grocery and shops where you saw an eclectic mix of surfers and posh types. All in, Malibu is kinda weird, man. With people living in beautiful remote isolation, I kind of wondered if they just stocked up on food and booze and laid around all weekend.

We headed up to a few beaches for a walk and ended up discovering Neptune's Net by chance. A well known biker bar and seafood joint, the spot is a popular filming location as well. Unlike Malibu Seafood down the road, if you wanted steamed seafood you had to go to the other side. I ended up with a giant platter of fried goodness with shrimp, calamari, fish, scallops and fries but after a while it's all just the same crunchy texture without much flavor. It's kind of like BBQ, I seem to crave seafood but when I get it, I'm kind of disappointed. No Sam Elliot sighting this time either as he lives in the north end of Malibu somewheres.

Gotta Go! Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure Orlando

After spending a mad dash time at Disney World, we ventured to Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure the next day. There's two separate parks so again we opted for a Hopper that would get us into both. Like Los Angeles, there's a vibrant scene of restaurants and shops before the park. Unlike Disney World, these two parks were more or less connected so you didn't need to hop on a 15 minute shuttle bus ride. Right away you walk into a section of Beverly Hills streets and there's the Terminator 2 3D show Battle Across Time. This has closed in LA but was still packing them in at Orlando. It's been a couple years since I saw the show and I was impressed by how much pageantry and set up there is between the Cyberdyne waiting room with host, warm up video and pre-show in the theater with actors, pyrotechnics, giant props and the like. The finale fills the theater with fog and then your seats drop, it was truly shocking. Masters of the Universe director and theme park attraction specialist Gary Goddard worked closely with James Cameron to produce the immersive show that transports you to the Future War to take on a T-1 Million. Arnold, Edward Furlong and Linda Hamilton all reprise their roles from the 1991 summer blockbuster for a 12 minute short film that cost an alleged $24 million!

Walking around there were plenty of other movie and TV tie-ins like The Simpsons Land, a Men In Black ride along with the flying train and Delorean from Back to the Future III! The big noise however was for the recently opened Harry Potter land. There's a London looking facade but walk through the doors and you're transported to Diagon Alley, an intricate reproduction of one of the films' major settings. You had sweet shops, gift shops, wand shops and stands selling Butter Beer which was surprisingly tasty and not too sweet. There's a couple rides, a fire breathing dragon perched atop a building and you can take the Hogwart's Express to the other park but it was a long wait.

Between the parks was a Hard Rock Cafe which offered double Jameson's for just $3 bucks more next to a giant steampunk chocolate factory and restaurant. Straight out of Willy Wonka, it was a truly unique establishment even if I couldn't figure out the theme of the food. I'd long heard about Island of Adventure from Wizard Magazine as in the 90's they had a Marvel restaurant with props and suits way before any studio backed film had come out. Right away we hit Marvel land which had a Hulk roller coaster, a Spider-Man 3D ride, gift shops and a Captain America diner! Cyclops, Cap and Wolverine were strolling the streets and buildings had giant images of Captain America fighting MODAK! These were truly my people. Walking further and further in there were more lands with old school comics and cartoons like Flash Gordon, the Phantom and Blondie then there was Jurassic Park and a new attraction based on Kong: Skull Island. In the back was another Harry Potter land with snow capped buildings, more gifts and several more rides. The one we went on was kind of crazy, it's a car on a track but you're in a seat hoisted by hydraulics with giant video screens taking you through various locales in the HP canon. While we didn't spring for it, Universal offers a Front of the Line pass, it's not cheap but you can also basically walk onto any ride so it would be worth it if you wanted to save half a day.

Gotta Go! Walt Disney World Orlando

This past November we made a quick trip to Orlando, Florida, home to Disney World, Universal Studios and Sea World. I was immediately impressed with the sheer size of the city and the amount of construction going on. Walt was on to something when he started picking up acres upon acres of swamp land back in the 1960's. Apparently Disney owns, designs and built the entire resort which houses something like 30 hotels and owns 24 of them. Unlike Disneyland where you can stay on property or in the resort and simply walk over, at Disney World we took an Uber to a parking lot then a ferry to the gate, no half day, in and out trips for this place. Driving around you see grass and bodies of water everywhere, apparently a swamp is a piece of land with lots of vegetation while ponds are just bodies of water? There's some general signage but you really can't see much of the parks at all from the road. There's four parks total, Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. We opted for a Hopper pass and hit up three of the four parks in a single day, phew!

Magic Kingdom is basically like Disneyland with the castle and the main street and your different lands. In a nice touch you can set up your first three Fast Passes online once you buy tickets and there's cool spots like Gaston's Tavern and a Snow White mine car ride. Hollywood Studios houses shows and roller coasters along with one of the last Planet Hollywood's in the world, it's not even a restaurant though, just a gift shop with some 90's era photos of Stallone and life sized Arnold Terminator 2 prop. The Turner Classic Movie ride was a nice throwback to Hollywood but lines were insane for the Aerosmith coaster and Tower of Terror. Epcot has that giant golf ball looking thing and several science attractions along with beautifully designed sections of the world complete with people from those countries to work there. It was Food & Wine Fest time so it was PACKED. Tooling around Orlando was fun, most of our Uber drivers were from New York or Jersey and had just had enough of the cold weather. Target didn't sell hard booze but there was a liquor store next door so it worked out. Nearly every restaurant we went to asked if you wanted to make it a double for $2-3 bucks more, we couldn't afford not to!

All in it would be pretty easy to spend a few days or even a week in town as there was plenty to Disney and Orlando in general we didn't get to see. With so many hotel options prices were considerably less than in Anaheim, California. There's also an interesting trend of seafood offering buffets we didn't get to nosh at so next time it will be lobster-pocalypse.

Gotta Go! Houston

 
Earlier this summer I spent a week in Houston, Texas for work. I'd never been to the 4th most populated city in the country but prepared in true Dammaged Goods fashion by viewing locally shot films Sidekicks and I Come In Peace! The Jonathan Brandis-Chuck Norris flick Sidekicks was funded by a local furniture magnate and really shows off the city's skyline and parks while Dolph Lundgren fighting an alien drug dealer I Come In Peace gives you grittier look at strip clubs and abandoned factories. Being later in the summer it wasn't too hot but it was still pretty steamy. As in I walked outside after a morning workout and my glasses fogged over steamy.

 
I was impressed with the sheer size of the city and the big skies were absolutely beautiful. Being so large you had different sections like Uptown, Downtown and popular suburbs Oak Forest, Pearland and Katy. Everything is named twice with Goode Company BBQ across from a Goode Company Seafood, or two Westin's by the Galleria mall on the same street. Food wise nearly every place we went to served something chicken fried like steak or bacon and with country gravy on top! Which was awesome. There was the fantastic Whataburger chain along with a new spot for me, Cane's Chicken Fingers which was also delicious. We found several dive bars nearby like The Railyard, Revolver Bourbon Social who had mules and chicken fried bacon and Ron's Pub, which offered free chili dogs randomly, they were tasty though and I had a nice conversation with a local patron who had served in Vietnam.

We got out early one day and headed a quick 30 minutes out to NASA! The original mission control still stands, complete with viewing room with ash trays on the viewing room seats containing decades old ashes. Staff said that Ron Howard's production crew took a massive amount of photos and measured EVERYTHING. The tour includes stops at old computer command centers and a look at one of the Saturn rockets! Then back at home base you can check out dozens of suits, photos, exhibits and hands on experiments. All in I was quite the good time in Houston and if it wasn't so hot, maybe I'd consider living there!

Gotta Go! Austin

Earlier this summer I headed to Austin for work, it's no secret that the Weird capital of Texas has become a bit of a scene in the last years. With 100 + folks moving there a day in addition to a giant college nearby, being the live music capital of the world and huge festivals celebrating movies and tunes like South By SouthWest and Fantastic Fest, it's the premiere middle stop between Los Angeles and New York. I'd been there once before, literally for a day, last year for screenings of Lionheart and Only the Strong with Sheldon Lettich. The Alamo Drafthouse on Sixth seemed a little college grody to me but I learned that's what the area, dubbed Dirty Sixth, is all about. Bachelor-ette parties, bums and university kids line the closed off streets on weekend nights while there's a little bit older and calmer demographic on Rainey Street and a mix of both over on West Sixth.

Staying downtown at the half hotel, half office complex the Omni, I had a nice view of the city from their rooftop pool, construction and homeless shelter alike. I got to see a bit of the city with my co-workers and sample some tasty grub ranging from burgers to seafood to pizza. On my own I ventured over to Pinballz, a local establishment with arcade games and pinball machines that was BYOB! Walking around the selection was pretty varied with old school 80's games like Donkey Kong and Mario as well as a nice selection of driving ones like Batman or shooting with personal favorite Time Crisis. Lots of pinball with new to me Twister and Demolition Man being highlights. There was a small row of fighting games and after going on a tear in Time Crisis, my joystick jiu-jitsu continued as I won six matches straight on X-Men VS Street Fighter on one credit. In the end I took on Magneto and beat the game as Ken with a cute ending of him hanging out with his kid.

It was a fun trip and I'm glad I got to see more of Austin's eclectic mix of new modern sleekness, vintage architecture and random, slapped together looking houses and business surrounded by grass and gravel. I can't say I'd like to move there but it's a great place to visit with some nice folks. Plus I saw an old co-worker who had moved to Austin from LA, taking my copy of Hard Target with him and finally returning it.