keeping Austin weird

It occurred to me as I was casually browsing cnn.com and came across their current poll question that I hadn't known who would be playing in the Super Bowl today. It's not that I didn't know about the event; I'm well aware that it's Super Bowl Sunday. It's that I had no idea who was good this season, who made the playoffs, and so forth; and realistically, it didn't bother me much that I didn't know. (It's the New England Patriots vs. the Carolina Panthers, for those similarly oblivious.) My level of apathy was such that I didn't even realize that I didn't know until this morning, and ultimately, that's alright with me.

I intend to spend part of my Super Bowl Sunday at the Austin journaller meeting this afternoon. The place we're meeting ought to be pretty quiet, since the rest of Austin will be off flushing their toilets simultaneously during halftime.

Interestingly, I ran into a few of the Austin journallers and webloggers at the grand re-opening of the Museum of Ephemerata last night. They were all doing their part to keep Austin weird, I suppose. The museum was far more crowded than I remembered it; perhaps this is because it was a chilly evening, but indoors, the combination of the heater and body heat made the tiny place stiflingly warm. The group I was with added our own bit of chaos to the mix before retreating outdoors to sit in the side yard, recently vacated by the aforementioned journallers and webloggers.

It's hard to characterize what we were doing over there, other than to say that we were having the same random conversations we always have when C, the cool neighbors, and I get together. We were a bit startled when a woman and her boyfriend came over to talk to us. I thought she was going to ask us to hold it down, but instead, she asked if she could perform an improvisational piece for us. (Actually, I'm not sure we asked. I don't remember having the opportunity to say 'no.') And then she started talking, and I watched her with rapt attention, fascinated. I don't remember a word she said, and I certainly couldn't tell you if her performance was good, but that one moment, taken out of context of everything that came before or after it, was sublime. Keeping Austin weird, indeed.