The Armadillo Podcast

Wildly Austin: Show Some Love for Our First Local Sponsor

Please show our first local Austin sponsor some love.

If you love The Armadillo Podcast and you'd like to see more quirky posts about your favorite city, more great podcast interviews with interesting Austinites, then click the link on the right, the one that says "WILDLY AUSTIN."

Go click the "WILDLY AUSTIN" ad if you'd like us to have more interesting guests.  Our continued coverage of all the things that make our town a great place to live come to you every day due to the generous support of people like Vikki Loving.  Vikki has published a book called Wildly Austin: Austin's Landmark Art  and it's a beautiful tribute to Austin that lovingly captures this town in all its endearing and enduring weirdness.

Go on, do it.  Click now, click often.  Click over to the Wildly Austin site, then show some love and buy the book!

Vikki was one of the first guests on The Armadillo Podcast and we talked to her about the funky mix of Eiffel Towers, two-headed longhorns and other roadside icons that pop up all over town.

Hear our chat about resurrecting the Mangiazilla and the origins of the Terminix bug and that field of pink flamingos out on Loop 360 and Bee Caves Road.

So go on, click that link and show the love.

Whammy Award Winners: Congrats to the Texas Rollergirls

Sadly we missed the Texas Rollergirls' 2005 Whammy Awards on January 15th, but all the winners and tons of photos can be found on the Texas Rollergirls site.

Congratulations to all the girls who took home custom-made trophies from Texas Custom Choppers. Our favorite Rollergirl, Melicious of the Hotrod Honeys, won the award for Fan Favorite. 

We interviewed Melicious for Episode 14 and we took this shot of her at Rollergirl practice while we were doing the intrepid reporter thing.

If you'd like to hear our chat with a Texas Rollergirl and genuine roller derby queen on your iPod, click here.

Melicious is currently writing a book for Simon and Schuster on the history of roller derby.  We're looking forward to reading it because we've finished reading Roller Babes: The Story Of The Roller Derby Queen.

Wayne Alan Brenner: "Still Life of a Tarantula Orgy"

 

"His disheveled brown hair looks like the still-life of a tarantula orgy."

That's author Wayne Alan Brenner describing David Paradise, the main character from his book, Suicide's Paradise.

Here's the book's first paragraph:

"His name is David Paradise. He’s a cook at the So-Fine Diner, a 24-hour eatery attached to the lobby of the old Imperial Hotel, and he’s just gotten off duty on a hard Tuesday night. He’s standing in the lobby, watching the elevator lights count backward to one. A plain black T-shirt and a pair of faded jeans hang comfortably on David’s sturdy body. His blue Keds are dusted with flour and there’s a splotch of instant Hollandaise sauce
encrusting the laces of his left sneaker."

Brenner is one of those people who just bubbles with creativity and talent.  I asked this editor/author/playwright/actor/visionary pamphleteer when he had time to do everything during our interview and he says he just never sleeps. I think it's all those voices in his head that keep him awake. 8-)

If you're interested in reading more, you can download the first chapter of Suicide's Paradise by clicking here.  And if you want to hear our interview with Brenner via your iPod, please come back tomorrow Friday...

A Gift for Homesick Austinites

ikki
zilker tree, originally uploaded by CommonVee.

A Gift for Homesick Austinites

Do you know someone from Austin who won't be able to make it home for the holidays?

Few things are more forlorn than a homesick Texan who wants to, but can't, go home with the armadillo.

Send The Armadillo Podcast to your friends abroad as a digital care package.

Our weekly interviews with Austinites are gifts that keep on giving (or at least downloading onto an iPod.)

Here's our complete episode guide to date:

13.0 Caroline A. Shearer - fun chat with freelance writer

12.0 James Brush - novel conversation with novelist

11.0 Ben Brown - all-consumming call with Consumating.com founder

10.0 Yossi Ghinsberg - author of Jungle, big fan of Austin

9.0 Kinky Friedman - Governor in Waiting

8.0 Meet the Press - Four political journalists give the 411 on Kinky

7.1 Lisa Farwell - The Haunting of the B-Side

7.0 Lisa Farwell - Haunted Texas Vacation spots

6.0 David Brown - Texas Music Matters (more than Los Angeles)

5.2 Vikki Loving - Wildly Austin/Origins of the Terminix bug and a field of flamingos

5.1 Vikki Loving - Wildly Austin/resurrecting Mangiazilla

4.0 Colleen Dieter - Personal gardener battles fires ants, scorpions, still loves Austin

3.0 Jeff Nightbyrd - What a long, strange trip it's been: SDS to SAG

2.0 George Phenix - father of me, probably our funniest episode ever

1.0 Steven Phenix on My Friend Galia - A friendship that dare not speak its name, because we'd just make fun of each other's accents

Episode 12: James Brush

Our show this week comes to from the side of the road in New Orleans, Louisiana.  We're here for a wedding and finding an Internet connection, even three months after hurricane Katrina is a bit problematic.   I'm actually in my car at the moment, using the new wireless network that the city of New Orleans launched this week.  It's not fast enough to capture any new recordings using my VoIP phone connection, so we're not going to be able find out what Galia thinks of our latest guest in this week's epsode of The Armadillo Podcast. 

This week we interview novelist James Brush.  He's published a book called A Place without a Postcard and he's hard at work on his second novel now.  Like many Austinites, James  has moved away several times only to be drawn back again and again.

To hear what James had to say about Austin being "a place of possibility," click here to Download ArmadilloPodcast12.mp3

And you can read more of James' writing here in this essay entitled "The Bridge."

James Brush, author of A Place without a Postcard

Our next guest is Austinite James Brush, the author of the novel A Place Without a Postcard. James is hard at work on his second novel and he tells me that it captures a lot of what makes Austin special.

If you're a supporter of the local arts scene, I'd encourage you to buy James' first novel, just so we can then ensure that his second novel will be added to our pantheon of local literature.  (Novel writing can be a lonely thing, so send James some Paypal encouragement!)

According to his website, James' first novel, A Place without a Postcard, is:

"...an unusual story about a man who gets lost. That's about as simple as it can be put. It's about more than that, though. It's about friendship, redemption, belief, and self-discovery. It is part science fiction and part murder mystery and part myth. It takes place in west Texas. Not so much the western part of Texas, but the mythical West Texas where one might run into a coyote named Mercury or a man who dreams of invisibility."

Here's the first paragraph of the book:

"On a dry and empty expanse of desert highway, two cars sat close to one another beneath a weather-beaten billboard. One of the large vertical panels had fallen in a freak windstorm that howled out of Mexico several years earlier, and no one ever cared enough, or found the billboard profitable enough, to replace the panel, just another forgotten scheme in the dilapidated west. Though a phone number stretched across the remaining panels and whispered in faded red letters, '55-3872',  a passing motorist in search of lonely ad space would have to stop his car, get out and walk under the sign in order to read the '5' that the wind had blown down."

If you'd like to read more, James has posted several sample chapters here.  Or directly purchase your own copy of the book from his publisher, iUniverse.

And please come back later to hear our podcast interview with James.

Next Guest: James Brush, novelist

Our next guest, in typical Austin fashion, is a hyphenated man. James Brush is a film-maker--turned high school English teacher--turned novelist.  His first book, A Place Without a Postcard, is about man who gets lost. Unlike our previous guest, Yossi Ghinsberg, who got lost in the Amazon, James' character gets lost in the wilds of West Texas.  Must be something going around.

About A Place Without a Postcard: (See review)

Paul Reynolds, a photographer who creates fake photos for tabloid
magazines, wakes up with no idea where he is or how he got there. He can't
even recall his name. A strange man lurks nearby, breathing heavily and slowly
flipping through a book. Paul hears the man's breath, but he cannot see him.
He realizes with mounting panic that his eyes no longer function.

He remembers racing down a desolate West Texas highway. He remembers
a cop who pulled him over for speeding. He remembers a shotgun-
brandishing cook chasing him out of a diner. And he remembers a life
abandoned, but he cannot put together the jigsaw puzzle that brought him
where he is: blind, wanted by the law, and in the company of this invisible
stranger.

In the backcountry town of Armbister, Texas, where temperatures hover
around a hellish 110 degrees, Paul's memory, intangible as a heat mirage,
lies just beyond his reach, and God may be a coyote.

James Brush's blog and Coyote Mercury, his web site

Translate Phrase, Win a Copy of Yossi Ghinsberg's Jungle

Here's everything you need to know to win a free copy of Yossi Ghinsberg's Jungle: A Harrowing Tale of True Survival.

Click here to Download Contest.Info.mp3

I'll warn you, this is a tough contest.  But if you want to read this harrowing tale of true survival, you'll have to really want it.

Also, if you caught the Discovery Channel's documentary on Yossi and you want to hear more from him be sure to listen to our podcast interview.

For more information about Yossi and his work as a motivational speaker, go to ghinsberg.com.

Episode 10: Yossi Ghinsberg

"Austin is surreal...an almost mythical place that doesn't belong anywhere else."

That's Yossi Ghinsberg, author of Jungle, a worldwide bestseller that chronicles his amazing story of surviving 21 days in the Amazon jungle.

Click here to Download ArmadilloPodcast10.mp3

If you're seeking a little perspective in your life, I'd highly recommend this book.  There's nothing like hearing how someone survived being chased by a jaguar, while starving and bleeding, to make little things like computer crashes and traffic jams seem pretty insignificant.  Now when I feel my blood pressure rise and I curse Bill Gates through clenched teeth, I remind myself that I've never had to beg a monkey to throw me his fruit scraps.

Tonight (Friday, November 11, 2005) Yossi's story will be featured on The Discovery Channel new series "I Shouldn't Be Alive," 9 Eastern and Pacific time.  Check it out and if you'd like to read Jungle, come back here soon for our contest to win a free copy of Yossi's book.

I caught Yossi in while he was New York yesterday in between speaking engagements and he was gracious enough to grant The Armadillo Podcast a really wonderful interview.

Throughout our conversation, he spoke directly to my friend Galia and went in to poetic detail about the things he loves in our town, including his favorite Austin bar (Donn's Depot) and his favorite band (you'll have to listen to find out.)

If you have friends that you wished lived in here in Austin, this is episode to send to them.  In fact, this whole podcast is a "wish-you-were-here" postcard to all our friends abroad.

Note to you Lord of the Rings geeks:  When Yossi compares Austin to the Shire, he's referring to his home in Western Australia, not the hometown of Bilbo and Frodo.

Why I Love South Austin, Reason No. 487

A Texas state law bars dogs from restaurants.  So a South Austin restaurant owner has taken to deputizing his patrons since a loophole in the law allows for patrol dogs.

Patiently Waiting, originally uploaded by Lynn Morag.

According to this story the Austin American-Statesman, "Fred Nelson, the owner of Freddie's Place on South First Street, pays dog-owner customers a penny apiece and issues them 'badges'--stickers that read 'Freddie's Official Security Officer.' In Nelson's view, that satisfies a section of the state restaurant code that allows 'patrol dogs accompanying police or security officers in offices and dining, sales, and storage areas.'"

Writes the daily, "'Apparently it is OK to have a grackle [a crow-like bird] crap in your food but not OK to have your pooch alongside your picnic table,' reads a defiant flier at Freddie's Place that employs some surefire South Austin bubba logic.'"

The Art of Raising a Puppy