Austin from a Phoenicians point of view.

(originally written Sept. 26, 2011)

Austin, Texas- a town known for it's college pride and music scene; a place where being "weird" is valued and even expected. Compared to this place, Phoenix, Arizona (including its ASU campuses) looks like a coddled teenager next to a wild free-spirit. And yet, with it's showcase capitol building, friendly neighbors and courteous drivers, this city felt like a home away from home for a tourist on vacation.

From my brief encounter with the Lone Star State's well-rounded capitol, I learned that the old saying definitely applies: "Everything's bigger in Texas." From church buildings to the local college party-street, 6th street. From the length of history behind each building to the diversity among its residents'. There is so much for a tourist like myself to take in and absorb.

Focusing a little bit more on my particular observations, I'll start from the beginning. Being from Arizona, I got off that plane in Austin, Texas packed with my flip flops, 3 pairs of pants, a few tops, and a gel deodorant (more on that item later). Immediately upon exiting the terminal, I was shocked that the alternative to business/dress shoes for business travelers or tennis shoes for the common weekend traveler wasn't flats or flip flops, but instead, a stereotype I'd only seen in Hollywood films: a thousand designs of cowboy boots.

I was so excited to participate in this look, I immediately borrowed a pair of boots from my traveling companion and prepared for an evening out on the town, Texas style. For our first night in Austin, my friends and I were visiting Austin's version of Mill, or as I'd heard of it, "Mill on steroids." This description was accurate, if one expects the most random of combinations of behaviors when on steroids. From clothing to scenery, bar etiquette to attractions, 6th Street has it all.

From a stylistic point of view, the local pool hall, Buffalo Billiards, wins the award for most surprising attire. The building itself donned a ranch-style decor: hunted game mounted on the rustic walls, hand carved tables and chairs that lacked the perfectionists touch of an even, smooth base. Even the patrons themselves were a clash of fashion do's and don't's. With the demographic mainly consisting of Long Horn students, it was surprising to see the fashion mix shine on plaid shirts with sassy heels and college polo's with cowboy boots.

Our second stop, Maggie Mae's, was a skip, hop and a jump away from the pool hall, but was a world of difference in venue style. This two story, half inside/half patio designed building is the Martini Ranch of 6th Street. With a live band playing downstairs, and a Hip hop/R&B music room battling against the tempo of techno/dance music on the adjacent patio upstairs, this place is the most ADD club on route.

Speaking of the route up and down 6th street, the scenery alone is enough to stay entertained. Talk about variety. Shortly down the road is Bikini's where, you guessed it, all the women servers wear only bikinis as they serve you drinks. The open window at Bikini's gives way to men and women, or both, riding a mechanical bull. Further down the path is a pirate bar and a biker bar in case you want to walk on the side of "danger." The "weirdest" of them all, was The Jackalope, with its biker entrance, dark lighting and Jimmy Buffet/Beyonce sound track.

Now for my last observation of the Texas night scene. I have to say that the most shocking thing I witnessed in its entirety on 6th Street...are you ready for this? Its subtle but big. The courtesy of all bar staff. At every location, the bar tenders and waiting staff individually did something to astonish my friend and myself. One waitress at Jackalope stopped with a full tray of drinks to offer to take a picture of me and my friend as we struggled with our myspace-style picture taking abilities. A bar tender at Maggie Mae's didn't know how to make a drink we wanted, so he asked what was in it and made three different versions to find the mixture we liked.
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Now onto the rest of my trip while returning to how my years of knowledge on how to pack for vacation had failed me (when you've only traveled to Mexico, Chicago, and California). By the early hours of my first full day in Austin, Texas, I deeply regretted those second two items I'd thought I needed for "obvious" reasons: pants and gel deodorant. I was coming face to face with the mythical element I'd heard so much about but had never experienced myself until this moment:...humidity. Walking around the city, up sidewalk hills and posing in front of old buildings for pictures, I became spastic almost in my search for shade under the green trees or that of another building. Thankfully, despite its spectacular preservation of old artifacts and buildings, Austin still managed to work in a modern store like Target. I'd never wanted a powder-based dry stick deodorant so badly ever in my life. I found it amusing to find that in Texas Targets, a staple of design in their women's clothing section is a wide variety of plaid button up shirts, something I'd never find in an Arizona target before October. This came in handy now that I'd adopted my new Texas look for our walk around the town. I was sporting shorts I'd found in the bottom of my suitcase, with a blue, green and yellow plaid button-up shirt with green cowgirl boots. And I fit right in.

First, we visited the State Capitol. May I just note that this was easily the least inconspicuous building in town with it's large white columns and highly raised Texas flag. Inside, the architecture was even more impressive. Once you get past the metal detectors in the entrance, you're immersed in room-after-room of history and culture that as an Arizonan since birth, I vaguely remembered from my history text books. And yet here it all was now, popping off the walls with vibrancy and life. Each painting on the wall, each inch of the building's internal architecture, screamed of a world beyond our imagination. The spiraling ceiling in the center of the building stretched with the portraits of presidents after presidents to governors after governors, all previous leaders of the state that was once it's own recognized country.

That kind of infamous history continues outside the Capitol building itself and onto Austin's other historic landmarks, as Austin is also known for its ghost stories. A prime example is the --hotel-- , just a few blocks away from the Capitol building, where history becomes a ghost story for all to be entertained with. The one particularly in the Driskill Hotel tells of a little girl who was in attendance of a political shindig with her Senator father. She was playing with a ball, chasing it as it bounced around, when she fell down the hotel's grand staircare near the main entrance and was killed due to the impact.The stories say that guests at the Driskill hear a child's laughter and the bouncing of a ball in the hallway at night.

Growing up in Phoenix, I've attended many public events and outings: art walks, museums, fairs, etc. And I'd never thought of my fellow residents as particularly rude or inamicable in such settings. However, Austin's Peacon Festival on 6th Street not only brought to life the reality of how little our Phoenix events are for such a big city, but how comparably unfriendly we are in Arizona. The people of Austin were nice and friendly in the smallest of ways. Everyone greeted our group at booths, welcomed us into their bars, made friendly conversation with strangers gathered at booths.There is just a larger sense of community in Austin it seems.

The next morning, when I arrived at the airport, I held a new appreciation for the little gift shop full of tie dye and cowboy replicas that I'd passed just a few days prior with a raised eyebrow and confused look in my eyes.

Keep It Weird, Austin.

Awkward Journalism at it's Finest

In the field of journalism, when it comes to attire, a reporter only has one concern: to dress appropriately. In a sense, adapt to ones surroundings. That does not mean you should wear the team jersey of a sports player you're about to interview as that would demonstrate a bias. But rather, if you're traveling to a foreign conservative country or onto a religious site, perform tasks in which respect and don't offend your interview subject. That being said, if a news show specifically targets a particular audience, (for example, alternative music/fashion) it can be free to display a certain level of style or personality to fit that designated scene.

However, somehow the online news show The Thread seemed to have gotten all this backwards.

 In the link below, one of the show's reporters, Jessica Stam, is interviewing musician-turned-fashionista, Avril Lavigne, about her new clothing line, labeled Abbey Dawn. However, while the quality of the content in the interview can be left up for discussion, the overall presentation can only be described with one word: awkward.

http://shine.yahoo.com/the-thread-style-crush/avril-lavigne-talks-to-the-thread-about-her-clothing-line-abbey-dawn.html


This is an alternative, edgy style show welcoming a musician of its own kind. And yet, instead of producing a scene of equally edgy visuals, it chose to go with a more country club look. This created what could be dubbed the newest online segment: Making Musicians Uncomfortable, Alternative Edgy vs Classy Chic.
The interview begins with a conflicting visual parallel between the pop-punk princess and the interviewer, all the way from clothing to atmosphere. Avril is in casual comfy clothes and big rimmed glasses, reflecting her consistant image of punk rock meets girly girl. However, despite the edgy intro to The Thread's segment, the show failed to prepare for a celebrity of that same style. The room in which the segment is taking place looks more suitable for an interview with a more prim and proper actress than an alternative celebrity.

Sharing a white plush and button puckered couch, the Complicated star looks incredibly uncomfortable as she fiddles with her hands and can't seem to decide whether to look Jessica or the camera. Jessica, who is dressed like she works in a business office and is conducting a job interview (but with a slightly shorter skirt), is sitting up straight as she begins to conduct her interview while Avril is slouched over her knees, looking out of place from this formal setting. As the conversation continues, the girls fluctuate sitting positions: sometimes they're both leaning against the back of the couch pillows, then briefly Avril sits up straight while Jessica is slouched, and then the roles reverse once again.

Furthermore, the contrast continues as the facial expressions of these two ladies is quite the altercation. Jessica displays hardly any enthusiasm to be speaking with Avril about her clothing line, her newest tattoo in honor of the line, or even in congratulating her on her engagement to Brody Jenner.

Either The Thread needs to fire their producer or Avril needs to find a new agent pronto.

New Orleans: 3 1/2 years since Katrina

This is what the majority of the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans still looks like, empty plots of land or slabs of concrete. However, thanks to Brad Pitt's Make It Right foundation, slowly but surely, homes are being rebuilt in the Lower 9th Ward and citizens are moving back home. Unfortunately, homes outside of that area are mostly being constructed by non-profit organizations and the thousands of volunteers, usually college students, that have traveled from all over the country to help. Their busiest season, in which they have the most progress in a single span of time, is during the month of March, during college Spring Breaks, leaving the summer months slow and difficult to keep pace.


This is one of the houses of the Make It Right project in the L9th, next to an empty stoop that is still marked by its address with a wooden pallet.

In any given neighborhood, lower, middle and even some upper class areas, 2/3 homes are still empty or not even close to being finished. This is the inside of a house in a middle class neighborhood on Paris & Fillmore. Many houses in this neighborhood haven't even gotten this far. However now, thanks to volunteers, after five days of work, this house now looks like this:


This house now has its ceilings in tact and a large start on its walls.

"For the longest time, I would walk into this house and think I invested my money in a pile of wood. But for the first time, now I am actually starting to see my house again," said Cynthia Foot, the owner of the house.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091001/ap_on_re_us/us_empire_state_building_china

Whoever made this decision was seriously deprived of sleep if they thought this could occur without controversy, especially without the proper PR to at least attempt to give Americans a reason to support it.

Should people have to earn a license for parenting just as they do to drive a car?

So for my online class, Introduction to Parenting, we have to write on discussion boards and then respond to other people's posts. I found this prompt every interesting to think about and wanted to share my response to those who might find it interesting as well.

The prompt was based on a reading based on this man, David Lykken's, theory that people should have to earn a license in parenting just like we earn a license to drive. One of the most interesting quotes of his I read was this: "For evoluntionary reasons, human beings are reluctant to interfere with the procreational rights of any person, no matter how immature, incompetent, or unsocialized he or she might be. In consequence human beings tend not to think about the rights of a child to a reasonable opportunity for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Anyways, here was my post on the discussion board.

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My first thought when I heard this discussion prompt, was to compare the reasons for having a license to raise a child to the reasons of licensing someone to drive a car. People must earn their driver’s license to prove they know how to drive correctly, right? To keep everyone safe on the roads: the driver, their passengers, neighboring vehicles and pedestrians. The license proves that they are knowledgeable of the different rules for the varying types of roads and environments in which they will travel on. It says they have studied the more effective tactics of how to react when the unexpected happens while driving, like if your breaks stop working or if your car begins sliding over a frozen patch of road.

Well why would someone suggest that one would need to be licensed in parenting? For the same reasons: protecting all parties involved, mainly the children. Requiring people to receive educational training to earn a license in parenting would prove that each person is knowledgeable of all a baby’s various needs, because obviously a baby can’t tell you itself in a direct way. It would give more confidence that a person could be depended on to make careful and reasonable choices when instinctively, their logic and reason should go out the window, such as 2am bottle feedings or nonstop crying fits keep them from getting enough sleep.

I think the suggestion to require a license logically makes sense, even if it stirs a large emotional reaction and controversy among the public. The emphasis we could place on a society if we had parental education available would be that children are more complex than you think, but that there is a formula to their complex nature that can help make raising them less stressful and impossible feeling at times. However, without requiring a license, it would be very hard to convince the majority of the population to take parenting classes. Even if people wanted to, for some, the priority would probably get pushed aside out of time conflicts or other inconveniences. Therefore, you would have to find another definitive reason for people to find these classes important. If not for the legal purpose, than perhaps a spiritual one. Spiritual communities often promote communal meetings and get-togethers for parents to share and observe the experiences of other couples with their children, usually to learn more about parenting as well as how to keep their own marriage strong in light of all the parental struggles. Whether it was through a faith-based community or not, the best way to reach the large masses is through their shared interests in order for them to discover a common purpose behind something. So I would begin programs or classes through different institutions such as places of worship, the public library, colleges/universities, or even a place of political gatherings, in order to instantaneously provide an understanding and more likely supportive community around them to participate with.

Maneater "Kake" Scene shot in Scottsdale, Arizona

This was taken today, Friday, February 13th, 2009 on the set of the television mini series, "Maneater," starring Sarah Chalk from the television series "Scrubs." The scene was shot inside of a Scottsdale dessert shop called Cup Cakes but was redesigned internally to be referred to as Kake (pronounced "cake"). The show is set in Beverly Hills.



Working on set of this mini-series took about 7 hours for my part as an extra. There were about 50 extras for this scene ranging from customers sitting inside or standing outside with their cupcakes to customers standing in a line that went out the door of the shop.

The Mexican-American Border

This photograph was taken in Nogales, Arizona in July, 2008 in front of a McDonalds just walking distance from the Mexican-American border. This image reminds me of all the man-made walls and borders we as humans build between us and those who are different than us to keep from looking into the eyes of one another and seeing ourselves.

I'll never forget about an interesting parallel my mother told me about the US and Mexico. In the US, it's most common that if you own a house on the top of a mountain, you are very wealthy. However, in poorer parts of Mexico, it is the exact opposite. As many cities in such areas don't have functioning water/sewer systems in place, the wealthy live at the bottom of the mountain where water is more easily accessible. The higher up a mountain a house sits, the less its value, as you will have to carry any water you need up to your residence.