I have talked briefly about how amazing the Alamo Drafthouse is but I have not delivered a true example of how cool this place can really be. For me simply going to a regular movie at the Drafthouse is enough. Like I said, a movie + great beer + awesome food = pure bliss for me, but the Alamo delivers much more than a simple movie experience.
Tonight the Drafthouse is putting on an amazing event that totally shows what a great place it really is. At 8:00 you can head over to The Dart Bowl for an amazing Big Lebowski themed event. For just $20 you get a game of bowling, a white russian and you get to watch one of my favorite movies, The Big Lebowski.
This event is part of the Rolling Roadshow, the mobile branch of the Drafthouse that allows them to show movies in really cool places. For the movie, The Descent, they screened the movie from inside of Longhorn Caverns and attendees got to crawl through the caverns after the show.
The Alamo Drafthouse has something equally amazing almost every week so I would suggest keeping an eye on their web site or checking back here for updates! And in case you have not heard of The Big Lebowski, here is the trailer to get you excited.
Why just travel to one country when you can visit nine crazy theme parks and visit eight different countries? That’s right, cracked.com has compiled a list of The 9 Most Baffling Theme Parks From Around the World. It is now my goal to visit them all.
Let’s start in England, where you can travel to the county of Kent and visit both Diggerland and Dickens World! At Diggerland, you get to play on construction equipment! You can also watch professionals play on construction equipment and do some sort of a synchronized swimming routine on a huge grass field.
After you fulfill your fantasy of becoming a construction worker, head over to Dickens World to pretend you live in poverty stricken London! Choose your next destination wisely, you don’t want to hit ALL the fun ones first.
If you need to tune down the excitement a notch, I’d suggest heading over to Lithuania and stopping by Grutas Park (aka “Stalin’s World). This theme park is heavy on the education about the Soviet occupation of Lithuania so get your thinking caps ready.
After all that thinking, you’re probably going to want to experience some sort of psychedelicesque experience to clear your mind. Bon Bon Land in Denmark is your absolute best choice. Basically, the park aims to totally gross you out with its’ potty humor (which I despise). The main attraction is the Dog-Fart-Coaster. This is the only park on the list that I really don’t think I would want to visit, but I would sacrifice my dignity just so say I’d visited them all. Check out this video for a preview of the rides at the park.
At this point in your journey, you may be feeling a little homesick, which is why now is the perfect time to visit Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park — China’s own Disneyworld. This park is in no way affiliated with Disney, but the characters are pretty similar. Take the characters “Duck” and “Girl Cat” for example. They look pretty much excactly like Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck to me.
After getting comfortable being back to your root in China, you can head over to the most titillating park on the list for your daily dose of uncomfortable feelings. Love Land, located on Cheju Island right off the coast of South Korea offers the biggest collection of inappropriate statues and attractions I know of. Don’t forget to check out the giant stone penis while you’re there. Bonus: this hot spot can double as your Honeymoon locale.
End the foreign part of your journey with a little bit of enlightenment at Suoi Tien Cultural Amusement Park. This little gem of a park combines water rides, roller coasters, and Buddhism. The coolest part of the park that I can find is Crocodile Kingdom, with over 1,500 crocodiles in one location! You can feed them with meat dangling from fishing poles. On the downside, this is also kind of sad because I can only imagine the living conditions these crocodiles are living in…. but that topic is for another day.
Finally we come to our last destination, located in the more familiar New York City. The Nintendo Amusement Park is essentially a dream come true for Mario lovers around the world. At this park you get the opportunity to get harnessed up and pretend you are Mario, stepping on giant mushrooms and collecting coins. The park is still in it’s developmental stages, but it looks like it has some potential.
I’m not sure how long this trip would actually take, and the money it would cost would probably be pretty insane, but everyone can dream can’t they? All I’m saying is, if I ever win the lottery, this is what I’m spending it on.
So if you read my blog you know that I love the idea of mixtapes. But I realize that tape players are pretty obsolete these days so I am all for bringing back the nostalgia in a new form. Enter muxtape.com, probably the coolest web site I have come across in a while.
The site is so simple it is hard to believe it actually works. Basically, all you need is a username, a password, and an e-mail address for an account and you can create a personalized mixtape that you can share with whoever you want! There are a few drawbacks though. For one, you can only upload twelve mp3s to your “muxtape” so you have to be pretty picky about what you choose. Personally, I think that is kind of cool because you really have to take each song into consideration but I can see others having a problem with it.
Other than that, it is really that easy. If you visit the site you can click on any users name and listen to their mixtape so it’s also a great way to find new music. When you create an account, a personal url for your muxtape is created so you can share it really easily.
You can switch between tracks in a muxtape with the left and right arrow keys, and use ‘return’ to pause and play. Muxtapes advance from track to track in a loop by default so you can start with song one and let it play all the way through. The site is pretty new so I’m sure it will encounter some glitches when it becomes more popular but as of now it is pretty perfect.
I woke up this morning and turned on my trusty news network, News 8 Austin, to see what the weather would be like today. What I got was more alarming than the lack of sunshine today.
Austin Independent School District extended the policy that allows Austin high school students to carry cell phones to class to the middle and elementary schools. So now, kids in grades as young as Kindergarten can bring their cell phones to school! Wait, it doesn’t end there, they can bring their MP3 players and digital cameras too.
The policy comes with rules of course, kids have to turn off the devices during school, but how realistic is that? When I was in high school, my phone was on the entire day and I was a lot more mature than a seven year old kid. Furthermore, I didn’t even have a cell phone until middle school.
And about the MP3 players, I have a little brother in the fifth grade. I have to remove earphones from his ears several times a day because he listens to his MP3 player so much. I can only imagine the lengths he and his friends will go to to secretly listen to theirs during school now that they are allowed to bring them.
I understand that parents want to be able to get a hold of their kids but there are others ways. Try a land line at the school, there is no reason that won’t work. But since it’s happened, I guess the next step is for parents to find a kid-friendly phone. Seven year olds shouldn’t have Blackberrys.
This kid’s dad is definitely regretting getting his son a cell phone….
Today’s post is a combination of promoting a family friend, promoting myself, AND giving you a great place to get some incredible food. The Counter Café has been open since last spring and has since grown into an amazing restaurant. Unfortunately, they do not currently have a web site I can direct you to, but I recently designed one for them and I am crossing my fingers that it will be up for the public soon!
Now on to the good stuff. The café stays true to it’s slogan (Local Food, Global Love) and uses locally grown ingredients when they are available. If the ingredients are not local, they are always natural and organic. The Counter Café is located at 626 N. Lamar across from Book People. The Counter is open from Tuesday - Friday from 8 AM to 9 PM and Saturday & Sunday from 8 AM - 3 PM.
The best part about Saturday and Sunday is that breakfast is served all day and if anyone knows how to do breakfast it’s the Counter Café. The breakfast tacos are a best seller and definitely will fill you up for a mere $5. If you’re willing to spend a little more, the Counter Benedict is absolutely to die for. The biscuits are amazing and the hollandaise sauce has been perfect every time in my experience. The breakfast chef, Eric, is very accomodating and will make your order how you want it. He has an extensive background in vegetarian and vegan cooking so he will cater to your dietary needs as well. Other items on the breakfast menu are hotcakes, crab cakes and eggs, & steak and eggs.
Breakfast is not all that the Counter Café does well. The lunch and dinner menus are equally impressive. Basically dinner is the lunch menu plus two or three specials each night called “blackboard specials.” Dinner is typically more expensive but the great thing is you can still order off the lunch menu. The most popular item is the Grilled Pimiento Cheese and it really is incredible. Not only is the house made pimiento amazing, but grilling it only adds to its deliciousness. Most everything on the lunch menu offers the option of the triple dipped Counter Fries as a side item. I definitely recommend the fries, they are hands down the best I have had in town. The Counter Burger is wonderful as well and topping it with grilled onions is an excellent choice. Pair anything with a bottled Mexican Coke and your meal will be complete.
For even more food fun, check out The Daily Texan food review and video (on the main site).
So I’m a huge fan of listening to really good music while I drive. My boyfriend lives kind of far away so I happen to drive quite a bit. I made a friend this mix for a drive home a while ago and I think it is pretty good so here it is for your listening pleasure.
The Killers - All These Things That I’ve Done
Dashboard Confessional - So long, So long
OAR - Heard the World
The Rocket Summer - Cross My Heart
Rilo Kiley - With Arms Outstretched
The New Amsterdams - Turn Out the Light
Jimmy Eat World - 23
Imogen Heap - Goodnight and Go
Gomez - See the World
The Format - Oceans
The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize??
The Cure - A Letter to Elise
Band of Horses - The Great Salt Lake
Cocteau Twins - This Love
It is definitely best if these are listened to on a sunny day with your windows rolled down but if that’s not possible, just enjoy them anyway.
So I have been blogging on and off for the past month or so but I feel like I lack structure. Therefore, I have decided to make a kind of plan for myself so that I will be encouraged to write daily and so my readers will know what to expect. I like catchy and cheesy things so I decided to do themed days each week.
Mixtape Monday - I love mixtapes and wish I lived in the 90s when people made meaningful tapes for eachother. So each Monday I am going to make one (sort of) for you guys. All you’ll have to do is download the music and actual make a physical copy.
Tasty Tuesday - I like good food so I’ll either put a review of a restaurant review or a good recipe. I also like good drinks so if I may make it Thirsty Tuesday and give the low-down on good Austin Happy Hours.
Web site Wednesday - I’m definitely into sharing good things when I find them so on Wednesdays I’ll share my favorite web sites. I have already done this once with my favorite place to get T-shirts.
Travel Thursday - I have big dreams of traveling the world and a big book about the 1,000 places you should go before you die. So I’m combining you the two and taking you to an exciting travel location each Thursday.
Film Friday - I am a complete movie freak so I’ll share my favorites each Friday. I’ll also do a run-down of cool events at the Alamo Drafthouse because it is my favorite place to watch movies (beer, food, and movies = amazing).
Snapshot Saturday - I will try and put some pictures I have taken up on Saturday’s. Don’t get too excited. I’m not that great.
Sexy Sunday - Who knows what will happen here but everyone needs something sexy on the least sexy day of the week.
Alright so that’s the plan. Get excited because I’m starting soon. After Spring Break, because I can’t promise you I’ll be on my computer.
So the Daily Texan has a multimedia department and they make videos for the web. Until today they were in a quicktime format that was slow and if you owned a PC you didn’t get to watch them.
NOW the web site has a FLASH player that makes it much easier to view the videos and it is accessible by a much larger audience! The videos are also archived now, which rules.
So go check out today’s videos. Or yesterday’s. Or last semester’s. Because they are all there. In the new flash player!!
So I’m going to try this new thing where I make my posts themed for the day. I realize that when I post this, it will technically be Thursday but I haven’t slept yet so for me it is still Wednesday. And Wednesday is the day (get excited) where I will be sharing various web sites that I think are cool and I hope that you think are cool too.
Coincidentally, today’s web site happens to start with a ‘w’ and makes the fun little alliteration even more fun. Enough english nerdiness, check out www.woot.com.
Basically, there is a really cool item for pretty cheap each day. It updates around midnight each night so now you have an excuse to stay up late. And if tehno-gadgets aren’t your thing, you can check out woot’s sister site that offers a t-shirt for $10 and free shipping. The t-shirts change daily also and are usually pretty amazing.
I don’t know enough about iPhone’s to really understand how this works. But I do know that it is probably the coolest thing I have seen an iPhone do and now I want one. Rock Band on a phone can only lead to fun.
Rumor has it this trio of ‘rockers’ may release another hit in the next few weeks.
