Art City Austin "Green Team"..... Plus Some Info on Crawfish

WDFloyd Driving a Recyling Cart

Photos and Video: by WDFloyd's iPhone.  



For the second year in a row, the gf and I enjoyed the opportunity to volunteer at the annual Art City Austin festival.   And, we volunteered in my favorite way offered by said festival: we drove a recycling cart as part of the "Green Team."  If you know me, then you know that I'm quite interested in city infrastructure and the logistics which go into managing and operating a livable urban environment (my dad can be blamed for this), thus I'm actually quite interested in solid waste disposal issues.  Helping to transport waste headed for recycling or composting seemed like logical extension of this interest as it intersected with helping to facilitate an arts event in downtown Austin (something else I'm quite interested in).  Also, I like to drive golf carts.  The one we were assigned functioned like a tiny pick-up.

"Butcher Bear" in his bear suit.

Art City Austin was a lot of fun.  I ran into many friends (many of whom, from the former Catalyst 8 group, were working as event volunteers).   I also picked up some cool prints which I'll display once framed.   Moreover, I saw a lot of great photography on display (which made me want to get back into action with my camera).  If you didn't make it to Art City Austin this year, I recommend putting it on the calender for 2012.

The only part of the festival which was truly bizarre was the performance by Butcher Bear & Charlie.  I like techno as much as the next guy, and I'm down with strange costumes like those sported by Deadmau5; however, Butcher Bear & Charlie came off as a little freaky considering that we thought they were supposed to be a children's act.  I'm as in favor of scaring kids into good behavior as the next guy, but there was something about the pulsing beats and the dude in the fanged bear suit which screamed: "not good for kids."  I began to think they weren't on stage for the kids, but then the female singer shouted "where my 4 year olds at?" and made some comment about some upcoming children's songs.   I'm a lot older than 4, and I was a little weirded out. 

Maybe Butcher Bear & Charlie are supposed to be for adults only, and maybe the kids' comments were supposed to be ironic.  I don't know.  Furthermore, nobody with me knew either.  Thus the confusion about the intended audience for said act leads me to believe somebody wasn't communicating something very effectively.

But, I'm not too concerned about men in bear suits who want to dance around in front of crowds of freaked out kids.  Why not?  Because it's April and that means it's time for crawfish.  The gf, some friends, and I met up at Shoal Creek Saloon after today's run through Art City Austin.  If you haven't had their crawfish before, I'm offer the experience my endorsement.  Last year, we followed Art City Austin with a trip to Mulberry.  That was good; however, Shoal Creek Saloon boils up some of the best crawfish I've had in town.  Here's the boil schedule I found on the Shoal Creek Saloon website:

Monday-Friday: 5-9p
Weekends: noon-9:30p

The crawfish were not only delicious, but the prices were reasonable.   The cost was about $20 for 3lbs.

If you're not into cracking open the carapaces of boiled crustaceans, Shoal Creek has many other delicious items on the menu.   Today I also enjoyed their shrimp gumbo, jalapeno sausage, and fried catfish.  All were exceptionally tasty and worth ordering with or without a mound of steaming crawfish as a complement.