The Armadillo Podcast

Come Home with the Armadillo Podcast

Who are all these folks?   (Complete episode guide after the jump.)

Listen to The Armadillo Podcast and meet  some of  Austin's most interesting  people. The Armadillo Podcast exists solely to convince Galia, my best friend living out in California to move to Austin, TX.

That may sound like a small niche but the people who love Austin and its quirky ways are a large and passionate audience. 

And I intend to ask every person in Austin to share their affection for the city through his podcast interviews until my friend moves to town. 

Previous guests who joined me so far on this quest so far have included Kinky Friedman, Melicious, one of the Texas Rollergirls and David Brown, the host of KUT's Texas Music Matters program.

In trying to convince my friend to "come home with the armadillo," like the song says, I’ve so far interviewed 18 people in Austin, the country's 16th largest city.  That's 18 down and 656,544 to go till I either interview them all, or my friend gives in and moves here.  But this show is really about the things that make Austin special. It's an online radio postcard that says "Wish you were here," to all our friends abroad.

My friend Galia, an Israeli woman who lives in Northern California, has been my friend for nearly twenty years.  Since The Armadillo Podcast launched last year, I've interviewed Austin authors, musicians, politicians, every day Austinites and I end every show by asking Galia if she’s ready to move.   However, every week, my friend says, "No, I won't.”

Last week The Armadillo Podcast interviewed Richard Garriott, arguably one of the world's most famous computer game makers.  Galia found this adventurer, explorer and aspiring astronaut “interesting,” but his fondness for Austin still wasn’t enough to convince her to make the move.

Will Galia ever move to Austin?  Don't miss a single episode of The Armadillo Podcast and find out.

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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

New Guest: David Brown, host of KUT's Texas Music Matters

Galia's latest excuse not to move to Austin was that she couldn't conceive why "anyone would ever move from California to Austin."

So, good friend that I am, I went and found a Californian who moved to Austin (not that they're hard to find). In fact, I found a rather prominent former Californian who is now very vocal about his love for his new hometown.

I use to listen to my next guest kick off his radio program every evening with "From Los Angeles, I'm David Brown and you're listening to Marketplace."

When I told Galia that David was going to be our next guest, she actually dropped the phone and yelled, "Oh my god!"

David's voice holds some sort of magic power over people, and not just for Galia.  I was in a meeting this week with some potential clients, when I mentioned that David was going to be a guest on The Armadillo Podcast.

"Oh my god, David Brown!" said the woman sitting across the table from me.  "I was listening the night he signed off from Marketplace and I got all--" and then she makes the universal hand sign for "I'm all fah-klempt and I might cry."

Before signing off, David's voice was drawing in over seven million listeners who tuned in to Marketplace every evening and that is the largest U.S. audience for a business program. (I think about seven people listen to our podcast.) 

David's currently building a new audience right here in Austin, TX as the host of KUT's Texas Music Matters.  And it's real hoot to hear David's big league, national voice speaking about our hometown musicians.  It's a bit like eating lunch at Texacalli and looking over to see Terry Gross sharing sweet potato fries with James Hand.

David truly understands the local music scene because before settling here in Austin, he was racking up frequent flyer miles on Southwest Airlines while flying from LA to Austin nearly every weekend.  For four years.  David's held a torch for our fair city for quite awhile.

Why?  Tune in to our next podcast and find out why...

 

The Mystery of the Terminix Bug and the Pink Flamingos Solved in Episode 5.2

For all you Vikki Loving fans, the long wait is over.  Here is Episode 5.ver2.0, where Vikki and I continue our discussion about her book, Wildly Austin: Austin's Landmark Art.

Click here to Download ArmadilloPodcast5.2.mp3

In the first part or our interview with Vikki Loving, I went off on a bit of a tirade about keeping Austin Weird. So for the second part of our conversation with Vikki, I thought I'd let her do most of the talking.  Her book captures Austin in all its weirdness, with wonderful photographs and stories about the funny and unique icons that grace our roadways.  In this episode we talk about the origins of the Terminix bug and the field of flamingoes out in front of Pots and Plants.

If you'd like to purchase a copy of Vikki's book, Wildly Austin, it can be found at the following locations:

Book People
Borders
Austin Museum of Art
Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau
Breed and Company

Next Guest: Colleen Dieter

Last week, Galia's latest excuse not to move to Austin was that she's "seen the cowboy movies and there's nothing but desert there in Texas."  A lot of our new fans wrote emails to say that we should find someone who owns a nursery or a landscape artist to set my friend straight. 

So I found a  genuine horticulturalist who sports a genuine green thumb and periodically writes articles for the beginning gardener with the Austin American-Statesman.

So please give a hearty Armadillo Podcast welcome to Colleen Dieter, owner of Red Wheelbarrow Plant Care and she also runs an online gardening club at GrowingPleasures.com.

Later when we post the full interview with Colleen we'll learn how to keep your lawn green in the Texas heat and the mysteries behind the bluebonnet, our state wildflower. 

And--dang-it--we'll talk about the various creatures in our yards that sting and bite. (If you want your friends to move to Austin, don't tell them about these critters.)

Please click here to hear Colleen's funny solution to fire ants:

Download Episode4PROMO.mp3

...And she's right, I'd run after trying this suggestion.

Also thanks for all the encouraging emails you've been sending us.  We're always open to suggestions regarding guests, so keep sending those emails to DilloCast@gmail.com.

The Jeff Nightbyrd Interview

Back in the sixties, your basic Austin radical was pound-per-pound tougher than the Man, the police, the rednecks, the ROTC recruiters, the Viet Cong and any number of East Coast liberals.

With Jeff Nightbyrd and all these old radicals, it's the strength that they had then and now that ensures Austin's survival as a weirdness magnet. 

In fact, Austin has drawn free-thinkers and the intelligentsia since the town was founded back in 1839.  According to Jeff...

...Listen to our complete interview with Jeff Nightbyrd: Download ArmadilloPodcast3b.mp3

In the first installment, Jeff shared with us an amazing story regarding an odd encounter he had with William S. Burroughs while a riot raged around them during the 1968 Democratic convention.

So far we've heard Jeff Nightbyrd tell us a lot about his experiences back in the sixties.  But what is Jeff doing now?  Considering his past, you might be surprised. 

On my other blog, I kidded Jeff and joked that old radicals don't die, they just become entrepreneurs.  But actually, radicals and entrepreneurs are made from the same cloth. There are substantial risks involved in trying to change the world or in launching a business.  Whether you're tossing Molotov cocktails or introducing disruptive technologies, both actions require a strong pitch and an unwavering desire to win.

So Jeff's move into the business world is not quite the long, strange trip it seems.  Starting first as a newspaper publisher, Jeff later helmed LPTI, Inc., a public traded company on the Denver stock exchange.  Currently, Jeff owns Acclaim Talent, the largest talent agency in Texas, with a stable of nearly 500 actors.

Hear the complete interview with Jeff in our new Episode Three of the Armadillo Podast...

Jeff Nightbyrd, now (see pic below) and then.

 

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Download this episode onto your iPod now!  It's simple to do.  While in the iTunes Music Store, simply locate the "Podcasts" section in the left-side tool bar.  Click "Podcasts," then in the search field type in the words "Armadillo Podcast." Hit return and you'll see a button that allows you to subscribe to this and all our future podcasts.  Subscribe and you'll gain great wealth and be very popular.

Show Links:

• On the SunriseDancer website, there’s a comprehensive history of SDS.
• Recently, there was a 30 year reunion for staff members of The Rag, which the Austin Chronicle did a great job of chronicling.
• Click here to see a great slide show of old Rag covers from the sixties.
• "Remember the Alamo," Nightbyrd's review of The Austin Music Scene: Through the Lens of Burton Wilson, 1965-1994, in the Texas Observer.
• "After 30 years ...The Rag comes clean: How an underground '60s paper wound up with a circulation of 14,000 and the attention of the board of regents," The Daily Texan
  

deep in the heart of texas, originally uploaded by Nuevo Anden.

 

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ACL Fest: Weezer is a band, not a sound resembling laborious breathing

How does that song go? "If you come to San Francisco/Be sure to wear a flower in your hair."  If you come to ACL Fest, put a bandana over your nose and mouth or you'll be coughing up mud for a week.

acl fest 2005: day 3, originally uploaded by catalinamarr.

This post will do nothing to help my cause to get my friend Galia to move to Austin.  Regarding the recent ACL Fest, AKA "the Dustbowl of 2005", here's the round up from the blogosphere:

SimplyGreg, like most people, I suspect, spent most of the festival:

"concentrating on who I could pimp myself out to in order to score some shade...

"...Thank god for sweat glands? But, there was a little wind, not much but a little bit. That, coupled with the feet stomping of a hundred thousand people or so, and what you've got is a dust bowl or dust party."

looters, originally uploaded by Tigole Bitties.

Nikki at Random and Uneventful was, "shocked that it was so dusty because I thought that surely the tablespoon-sized drops of sweat pouring off me and my friends would help wet down the field, just a little." 

She also has words for Oasis' front man Liam: "you're not nearly as cool as you think you are. Take off the f****** hoodie, it's 90 degrees in the dark." Complete post here.

 

Sanity Island posted a survival guide and apparently a bandana to keep the dust out your lungs is essential ACL Fest gear.

mummy boy, originally uploaded by sheeshoo.

Bryce from Minneapolis discovered Alejandro Escovedo, but not at ACL Fest. "Nearly brought to tears," he says, by Al's performance.  Bryce, check out the albums Gravity or Thirteen Years the next time you need an elegant soundtrack for a month-long binge or a last shot at absolution.

"Let me also say now how great the city of Austin is. It was strange and wonderful to be in a town that was a total hippie, leftist, college enclave in the middle of Dubya country. We met so many friendly Austin people and the whole town really gets behind the festival. Even 50 year old Widespread Panic fans were talking to us about Coldplay and The Arcade Fire and all the other ACL festivals they were at in the past. Just super friendly."  --says "Fake Century" from Brooklyn

And note to our friend from Brooklyn:  Las Manitas is not the ONLY place to have breakfast in Austin.  The breakfast taco is practically a national dish served everywhere from truckstops to fine hotels.  Ask one of those friendly locals for the best place to go the next time you're in town.  Oh, and the locals would also recommend less walking when it's 108 degrees.  And more sunscreen, particularly for your English friends.

But fret not, Galia, there's an unkept secret to surving the heat in Austin. Please see "The Secret to Surviving Summer in Austin."

Austin: 108 in the shade

, originally uploaded by christopherd6.

Ugh, it's hot.  My synapses are sizzling and my fritos are fried.

Still, if offered the choice between a hurricane and this heat, the heat would win out.  If this is global warming, I'm afraid that I only have one simple solution.

Today's hotness comes courtesy of an Austin photographer named Christopher.  I found his work on Flickr-check out his slide show here. 

Momma, don't take his Kodachrome away.

His blog here is worthy of a click, as well.

And while you're clicking, check out Episode 3 of The Armadillo Podcast.

Episode 3: Jeff Nightbyrd

During last week's episode, when I asked Galia if she was ready to move to Austin, she said, "I've lived in great cities like Tel Aviv, New Your City, Rio de Janero and San Francisco.   Your little town can't compare.  Austin is too sterile of an environment.  There is no personality there."

So in our next episode I'd like to introduce her to one of Austin's truly unique personalities.

My next guest, Jeff Nightbyrd, had quite a large file compiled on him by the FBI back in the sixties when he served as the national vice president of the Students for a Democratic Society.  Jeff also founded the New York Rat, a radical weekly that published the first interview with William S. Burroughs.

Click here to download the Nightbyrd interview: Download ArmadilloPodcast3a.mp3

UPDATED: Click here for the complete episode!

Considering his past, you won't believe what Jeff is doing now.

Armadillo Podcast 1: My Friend Galia

Click the link at the bottom to hear episode one of the Armadillo Podcast, whereby I tell how Galia and I became friends.

You can hear a brief interview with Galia at the end of show but I forgot to ask her how a nice Israeli girl ends up in a Japanese drumming ceremony.  (In the photo, Galia is the one in the middle.)

If you have a friend  whom you wish would move Austin, or if you'd like to send Galia a note with your own story about why our town is great, click here and send us an email--perhaps we'll invite you to be our next guest on the show.

-Steven

Episode One: (click link below)

Download ArmadilloPodcast1.1.mp3

 

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