halloweekend

SATURDAY NIGHT HAD ALL THE MAKINGS OF AN EXCRUCIATING evening. From the worst downtown gridlock I've yet to see in Austin thanks to Halloween AND the conclusion of the first UT night game of the football season, to the sweet smell of vomit hanging in the air.

But the optimist in me was thinking — "Hot damn, it's Halloween!"

I'm a big fan of Halloween. Not for all the ghosts and goblin business. I'm a fan of the costumes and the candy. I'm a chronic people watcher as it is. But you put an entire city in costume and I can't help but be mesmerized.

And when that city is Austin? Please. The city that embraces the "Keep Austin Weird" mantra was bound to have a top-notch Halloween scene.

That's what Carl and his lady friends had heard, anyway.

Carl is the smiling serial killer in the above photo, surrounded by the zombie family he whacked. This is their first Halloween in America. Carl and his mates are all from Sweden, a country that doesn't celebrate Halloween like us crazy Americans. Carl and his 3 friends are all here on student visas. (Carl is taking classes for his MBA at UT's acclaimed business school.) These 4 friendly foreigners have been regular Bobcab customers since the summertime, when they eagerly explored the 6th Street scene on a semi-regular basis.

By the end of the year they'll all be back home in Sweden. Sucks for me.

Our many trips to assorted bars, restaurants, house parties and dinners with Swedish dignitaries have given me the opportunity to discuss Abba and Swedish politics with Swedes in the know. You haven't lived until you've debated the failure of capitalism and the merits of socialism with a Swedish serial killer — which is how I kicked off my Halloween weekend Saturday night.

"You guys think you'll ever come back here?" I asked the two girls scheduled to leave by the end of the month.

"Oh, yeah."

"We love Austin."

"Of course you do," I add, not the first time I'd heard that one. "Everybody loves Austin."

The voices were coming from the back. In the rearview mirror I only saw zombie eyes illuminated by passing headlights.

"We're gonna go home and get jobs..."

"...and work to save enough money to come back to Austin."

Y'all hurry back.

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I told Carl and his clan of my plan soon after they got into my cab.

"You guys are under no obligation to agree to this, but I'm asking everyone who gets in my taxi this weekend wearing a costume if they'd mind posing for a picture."

Luckily, most people were more than happy to participate. I didn't ask everybody. A few times I either forgot or wasn't feeling the vibe. But here are some of the good people who happily climbed in and out of my cab this weekend and agreed to a quick photo op:


Sure, that's clearly Cruella DeVille and 4 of her 101 dalmations. But the quartet of spotted creatures were traveling sans Cruella when they jumped in my cab at the corner of 6th and Guadalupe.

So of course I thought they were a pack of mad cows.

"Yeah, we've been getting that all night," the UT law student told me. "People think we're the Chic-fil-A cows."

No word on where the hell cross-dressing Cruella was. Oil Can Harry's?


Not sure what the girl on the left is supposed to be. Any guesses? But the girl on the left is clearly — or so she told me — a Q-tip. She was also one of the few ladies in town to avoid the urge to add the sexy/slutty twist to her costume by showing lots of skin.

Kudos to you Q-tip Girl!


I love the glares Alex and his friends are getting from the girls — or is that a guy/girl couple? — on the right. (Click on the photo to see what I'm talking about.) Are they trying to figure out what Alex's costume was?

Yeah, me, too.

"We tried to shave my head into a mullet," explained Alex, another one of my west campus regulars from way back. "But it didn't work out so well."

"Dude, your hair's not long enough for a mullet," I pointed out. "Now I could grow a mullet. And don't think at some point in my life I didn't."

"Yeah, well I can't. So..."

"So now what's your costume?"

"Now I'm just going as an idiot."


I picked these fine ladies up on Red River. They'd been unsuccessfully trying to get a cab for a good long time and were resigned to walking back to their hotel when I pulled a u-turn in front of Mohawk to get them.

So they were mighty grateful when I showed up. That's one of the fringe benefits of driving a taxi — making people instantly happy. And the longer they've been waiting for a cab, the happier they are.

That's Rainbow Bright on the left. She and her friend drove out for Halloween, I think from Houston. Or was it San Antonio? Or Dallas? All I know is, Austin is a place where folks from all over Texas show up for Halloween.

And Rainbow Bright's friend?

"You ever watch that game show 'Change of Heart?'" she asked when I inquired about her "costume."

"Yeah, I think so."

"It was only on for a couple seasons," she explained. "But I loved it. So I decided to go as a contestant from 'Change of Heart.' What do you think?"

What do I think? I think an orange top, matching orange pumps and a color xerox do not a costume make.

But who am I to judge? I was wearing a bowling shirt with an embroidered "Bob" on the pocket in a half-hearted attempt at transforming into The Dude from The Big Lebowski.

The Dude abides.



Yes, that's a heaven and hell sandwich — with a Karate Kid filling. I might need to call on the panty-less angel and her posse to be my eyewitnesses in court if a little incident which occurred that night gets twisted into a lie.

Minutes before this photo was snapped I was involved in an "accident." At least, that's what my superiors at the cab company are calling it. Seems ridiculous to call it that when I was parked and the car that hit me traveled about 5 feet before it barreled into my 2 driver's side doors.

Things were crazy busy at the time. It was around 9:30 and I had multiple customers waiting on me. Plus the guy who ran into me was in a BIG hurry. So I wrote down all his info — driver's license, insurance details, etc. — and continued on with my night.

What I didn't do was call the police. Nor did I get on the radio and let the cab company know what happened. I figured I'd take care of everything come Monday.

But Monday the guy who deals with this sort of thing at the cab company was shaking his head.

"How many jobs you had?" he said, looking at me like I was the biggest idiot in Texas. "That's the kinda thing you get fired for around here."

I let him know I'd already spoken with the guy's insurance company. It's an open-and-shut case. The evidence is indisputable. And I've got witnesses — a buxom angel, an almond-eyed devil and the Karate Kid...who, upon closer inspection, might not be much help.

As of today, I still have a job. We'll keep you posted.

More Halloween pics and recollections tomorrow...

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