friday night lights

THE UNOFFICIAL TOWN SLOGAN HERE IS "KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD." If you've never been here you may be wondering — What does this mean exactly? How can an entire town, the state capital of cowboy Texas no less, be WEIRD? And why are they so damn proud of it?

Hopefully this blog will shed some light on these and other Austin-related questions. Today's example of Weird Austin is the funky trailer in today's photo. This groovy little explosion of the entrepreneurial spirit is one of the many food trailers here in Austin. (For more on the trailer food vibe in town, check out this video I made a couple weeks ago.)


I haven't tasted the goodies at this particular trailer yet, but according to the menu they serve coffee drinks and pastries. But so far it's got my favorite name of all the food trailers. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to...

Fat Cock.

Keepin' it weird.

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In the two months since I've been on this job I've had at least 13 people invite me in for some post-work refreshments. Oh, and there was that blowjob offer. (No thanks, ma'am. I appreciate the offer though.) Most of the time I politely decline these friendly gestures. But last night I decided to roll with the Austin spirit — these are about the friendliest people in America — and say yes to a friendly young dude who had moved to Austin even more recently than me.

Lee is an Italian kid in his early 20s from New Jersey. Lived there his whole life until 2 months ago. When I found out I was an Austin vet compared to Lee I had to take him up on his offer and find out what brought him here.

"I did a lot of research, dude," Lee said, surrounded by one of the more epic bachelor apartments I'd ever seen. There was single guy shit all over the floor — clothes everywhere, pizza boxes, receipts, magazines, ticket stubs, water bottles. The only pieces of furniture were the new flat screen TV and the table it sat on. And, of course, the Playstation, with various gamer DVDs scattered near the TV. A few feet away was the bed Lee sleeps on — the biggest, baddest inflatable mattress I'd ever seen.

"What do you mean, you did research?" I ask while I peruse his old ticket stubs. Poor guy had to sit through a Knicks game.

"I'd lived my whole life in New Jersey," he tells me while simultaneously checking his text messages. "Not that I don't love New Jersey. My family's there, my friends, it's all good. But I'm young. I'm 23 years old. Life's too short. You never know what can happen, so you gotta get it while you can."

"Indeed."

"Actually, dude, the truth is, last year my mom died."

"Aw, man, that sucks. Sorry to hear that."

"Yeah, man, cancer. Totally sucks. AND my grandmother died not long after that. Plus my girlfriend at the time, her grandmother died too. So that was 3 big deaths, right in a row like that. And it just made me think...I gotta get out and live, man. I gotta do some cool shit while I'm young. I wanna experience life. I wanted to live somewhere new, somewhere I've never been before."

"And your research told you Austin was gonna be the best place for you?"

"Yeah. Well...I was looking at Miami. San Diego. But this place...I just kept hearing good things about it. So I moved out here 2 months ago, I got a transfer with my job and it's been great. I don't know of any other place in America that has so many things to do — and the people are cool. Everyone's chill here, y'know? It's got those hardcore hippie types. But even the people who aren't hippies, they're havin' the hippie vibe rub off on 'em."

Lee has short dark hair and is a HUGE Knicks fan. The only thing hippie about him is his fondness for the hippie lettuce. He showed up in Austin not knowing a soul. The day he moved here was the first time he'd ever set foot in Austin.

"So you like it here I take it?" I ask him, pretty certain of his answer. "You feel like you made the right decision?"

He looks around his apartment, the pigsty prince surveying his kingdom — quite possibly the happiest man in town.

"Dude," Lee gushes. "Austin is cool as fuck."

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