The city of Austin has been so talked up by natives and visitors alike, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. It is home to what is now my favorite independent favorite bookstore (thanks, BookPeople!). The staff were so helpful —even gave me a checklist of things to do during my “extended stay” (read: 2 days!) here. Amy’s ice cream, circle lake tour, Waterloo music, South Congress and all it has to offer (I could just set up camp in that store Uncommon Objects)… They didn’t even make (too much) fun of me when they saw me taking pictures of the sign outside that had my name on it—it’s one of those movie house display signs. So I felt like I was a movie star (until I remembered that I wasn’t).
We had a fun Tee Party—a very creative bunch—and I got to meet a second cousin of mine who happens to live here! He showed me around the UT campus where he’s a professor, ate some local grub, and helped me check Amy’s ice cream (stop 1) off my to-do list. Yum.
And, as if it couldn’t get any better… Today, my favorite poet/spoken word artist in the whole world, Saul Williams, happened to be doing an event at BookPeople for his new book, The Dead Emcee Scrolls. I told the folks at BookPeople I’d be back, and I there I was! The place was packed. Frame of reference: I had 30-plus in attendance for my event. Saul had 300-plus. But that’s Saul.
Got to meet him afterwards—he signed my book, I signed a copy of Generation T for him, then I convinced him to take a picture with me under the BookPeople sign that displayed both our names.
THEN, he invited me to the show that night where he was opening for Nine Inch Nails. I know, a poet who opens for a mosh-pit, crowd-surfing scene show….it was insane! And I moshed it up with the best of them.
Met up with everybody backstage, talked poetry (you see, I had another crush before my obsession with T-shirts, and it was poetry), and ate chocolate and dried mango.
[ Posted on March 24th, 2006 ]
