Last images of Austin (non-cheese)

[gordonzola]

I will leave you with some non-cheese images that summed up Austin.

Flower wilting in the heat:


My agent may not like this, but I think my next book may be about hotel carpets. They fascinate me


People... how come no one told me the largest colony of bats in North America? In Austin? Under a downtown bridge? And they come out at the same time every day like the Disneyland Electrical Parade or something?

AWESOME

Comments

[pastels-badge.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed Austin, and particularly the bats. It's gotten to the point where I kind of take them for granted, which is sad now that I think about it.

Where was that exciting carpet? The Driskill maybe? I guess I ought to look down more when I am in hotels. I do have a hotel obsession. If you like hotels, I recommend reading Hotel Theory by Wayne Koestenbaum. It's a bit self-consciously clever in some ways (alongside the nonfiction part, in the margins, is a novel about Lana Turner and Liberace that doesn't use the words a, an or the) but some of Koestenbaum's musings really get to the heart of all those weird feelings hotels bring out in people.

[pastels-badge.livejournal.com]

p.s. I wish you had visited Austin at some time other than the most ridiculous summer in a hundred years.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

That was in the Hilton during the awards ceremony.

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

yay cow milk cheese!

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

heh.

[asthecrowflies.livejournal.com]

the Congress Street bats!!!! possibly my favorite thing ever about Austin. ♥

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I think it's mine for sure!

[artnoose.livejournal.com]

I've heard about the bats and really want to see them someday.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

It lasts a loooooong time -- there are so many!

[ilipodscrill.livejournal.com]

my favorite Austin post, especially the bats. am i a jaded cheese bitch?

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

nah, my posts were dull.

[erinmack.livejournal.com]

holy shit look at all those bats!!!

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I know!

[nahmo.livejournal.com]

When Steven, Matt, and I were on the other end of the bridge from you watching them we got into the inevitable ridiculous discourse of "I wonder if you can make bats milk cheese..." With much laughter mixed with serious curiosity, I'm sure you can imagine how it went ;)

[nihilistech.livejournal.com]

The Austin bats rule! I kind of love how they've gone from once being thought of as a nuisance, to being a tourist attraction. Like hotels have batwatching packages!

[effluvia.livejournal.com]

I too have always loved hotel carpets. I knew I couldn't be the only one!

Bats are cool as well.

[gwenzilla.livejournal.com]

whoa, bats, man!

that's pretty cool. htey look like those birds that we see by the delta. say hi to wisconsin for chad.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

If you have a thing for hotel carpets, go to Las Vegas. They're amazing. Also, movie theater carpets.

[thisisthenow.livejournal.com]

That drooping flower reminds me of a Smiths' song. It makes my soul weep. *snicker*

[hotelsamurai.livejournal.com]

I've long been fascinated by airport carpets. They seem custom-designed to be busy enough to be somewhat soothing, and yet inoffensive. I wonder who designs them, and what they are trying to accomplish with the design. I imagine hotel carpets represent a similar design problem.

I had a link around here to a book which argued that the hotel, which did not exist in its present form until the late 19th century, freed women from the domestic sphere in important ways and thus was an important agent of social change. Couldn't find the link, though.