Austin Dispatches | No. 168 | Oct. 23, 2013 |
For money this month, I’m charging admission to my
apartment, where visitors can watch me conduct a job search. It should rival
commercial haunted houses for frights.[1]
I maintain that regime uncertainty, from the federal
government’s economic meddling, particularly Obamacare, have kept me jobless for
a record 19 months.[2]
This is professionally, financially, commercially and
socially inconvenient. On the other hand, you can’t beat the hours.
Most gallingly, many people I encounter who learn of my
plight and my explanation for it convey an attitude that my lengthy unemployment
really stems from some personal failing they can’t quite identify. Even Austin’s
slackers are irked at me.[3]
Maybe because I’m relying on my own resources, instead of
mommy and daddy. My past work
history includes two remunerative contracts where the client hired me sight
unseen, and one contract where the interviewers, both wearing slicked-back hair,
hired me within five minutes.[4]
That last miffed Miss KT, thinking of her years of
struggle. “Why don’t you tell me how much I don’t deserve this job over
dinner at Chez Nous tonight,” I replied.
In fact, I’ve been able to avoid collecting unemployment.
The paltry sums aren’t worth the conditions, which once cost me a potential job.
In 2001, I had to attend a mandatory class on how to search for work online, the
same and only day Dell would see me about a contract. I sat in the Rundberg Lane
unemployment office, fuming as the bureaucrat taught things I already knew. Or
maybe the slackers’re irked because they can’t match my panache or savoir-vivre.
I think I’ve done pretty well at making lemonade. Apparently, these other people
– these strangers – would rather see me mean and evil, because I’m feeling
squeezed, than wise up, get off their asses and make some deposits in the favor
bank.[7] Fuck ‘em
where they breathe.[8]
Must Be the
Absence of Banjos
The Long Center for the Performing Arts, plagued by money
problems from the start, is asking City Hall for “hundreds of thousands” of
dollars.[9] It’s the
same approach the Rockefellers took in the ‘50s to fob money-draining arts
institutions from their tab onto the citizens’ under the guise of “public
support of the arts.”[10]
The center and its patrons should quit straining over an upper-class lifestyle
they haven’t the wealth, taste or breeding for – as demonstrated by the
mediocre, middle-brow fare performed there. Instead, they should put up some
flashing neon signs, cover the floors in sawdust, stock up on cold longnecks,
and above all, permit smoking. Then they’ll keep the
place in the black.
For that matter, much of Austin’s proclaimed “weirdness”
doesn’t match the reality. For example, this year’s ACL Festival’s closing
headliner was … Lionel Richie? We at
Austin Dispatches have no strong feelings about Richie, but given the past
impression Austinites, particularly the festival promoters, have tried to convey
about the event, doesn’t it seem somewhat self-sabotaging for its biggest name
to be a quintessential AOR, easy listening-format pop singer who’s the
antithesis of Austin alternativity?[10]
Although not as sabotaging as the heavy rains that canceled the last day,[11]
to The Daily Texan’s relief.[12]
Wrangling between city management, the firefighters’ union,
and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has prevented hiring new
firefighters.[13] If you
think that squawking’s bad, just wait until someone burns to death because the
responsible parties deemed “diversity” more important than competence. Also, the
Chronicle story fails to consider whether the fire department should be a
private operation.[14]
In a related vein, the Chronicle frets that too much diversity among the
identity groups who’ve fielded Democratic candidates for House District 50 could
yield a Republican victory in the special election.[15]
Austin’s planning staff came close to admitting the 1984 comprehensive land development plan is a failure, in recent neighborhood meetings – so instead they want everyone to agree to a new plan. Southwest Austin residents, particularly from Oak Hill, were openly skeptical.[16] Rating agency Moody’s Investors Service thinks the consortium running Texas 130 could default on its debt because the toll road isn’t getting enough traffic.[17] Austin Energy electricity fees will increase $5 to $6 per month starting in November.[18]
Statesman columnist John
Kelso writes that the city’s repaving of Lavaca Street will take away the
parking spaces for the great Texas Chili Parlor between 14th and 15th
streets.[19]
More broadly, the Oct. 4 Business Journal reports both the city’s current and
proposed special events regulations pick companies’ pockets and cripple small
company gatherings.[20]
Club de Ville, a quintessential “Austin experience” type place where I’ve
actually had a good time, has shut down from unpaid
rent.[21]
The Austin Independent School District is fretting that
middle-class parents are fleeing its schools, “taking with them a crucial chunk
of revenue, higher-performing children and strong political support for bond
proposals.” Nice to see the Statesman spell out the real issue for AISD so early
in the article – note how self-serving the district’s concerns are.[22]
That’s because government schools are – and always were – intended to
propagandize on behalf of the State, not teach children.[23]
Bevo and
Butt-heads
For Banned Books Week, The Daily Texan ran a front-page
feature where University of Texas minions recommended utterly predictable
selections of dull works.[24]
What’s more, none of those books are actually banned. Some of them I had to
study in school.[25] Once in a
while, someone in a hinterland school district expresses concern that the
education establishment uses these books to push a pinko social agenda under the
guise of learning, i.e., brainwashing children against intermediate institutions
between the individual and the central government.[26]
The “rube” expressing concern plays his role by allowing members of said
establishment to congratulate themselves for their open-mindedness, even though
they’re demonstrably intolerant toward dissenting views.[27]
For example, the university held a symposium whose
participants still insist on global warming, though their colleagues elsewhere
have been caught lying about the topic.[28]
Similarly, the university’s academics are fuming about a UT scholar whose
research on homosexual parents reaches conclusions incompatible with the
prevailing fashionable views among his peers.[29]
Would the educrats interviewed in the Sep. 25 Daily Texan
speak on behalf of books that critiqued global warming or homosexuality? To ask
the question is to answer it. Or, to put it in terms even they can understand,
they don’t have the guts to shit in their own rice bowls.
Speaking of which, a Chinese visitor stabbed an
ex-girlfriend in the nose with a fork at the Engineering Science Building on
Sep. 25.[30] Now I
know you’re expecting a sociobiological tirade about this being an example of
the foreign hordes overrunning our country, but in this chink’s defense I want
to point out he was assimilated enough to use a fork instead of chopsticks. For
its part, the campus police offered a strained thanks to the student who
overpowered the assailant.[31]
In good news for a change, the Oct. 1 federal shutdown
closed the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum.[32]
Now if we could only get rid of it.[33]
The Eagle Has Two Valises
You wouldn’t know
it to look at him, but Alex Jones is younger than me. The October issue of his
Infowars magazine unwittingly moves into the realm of art criticism: An article
finds fault with the occult symbolism of a December 1972 “Surrealist Ball” at
a Rothschild Dynasty estate near Paris, with Salvador Dalí in attendance.[34]
Unfortunately, for reasons of length or editorial reticence, the article misses
the chance to address the paradox of an art style rooted in Catholicism being
enthusiastically embraced by old-money establishment Jews.[35]
The article also could’ve remarked on the open spectacle of artists using
anti-bourgeois art as a means of social climbing – Dalí was too blatant about
this trick for the art world’s comfort.[36]
Café revolutionaries love to blow hard about fighting the power until the power
covers the check with what amounts to spare change. It’s not that avant-garde
artists are incapable of good work, just that we ought to call them on their
conceits more often.[37]
As for occultism
accusations, they have implications Jones and company might not want to pursue.
For example, Gary North has speculated the Framers staged the 1787
constitutional convention as a Masonic coup d’état against the Articles of
Confederation – an angle even anti-Constitution anarchists won’t touch.[38]
Further back, the American Revolution’s principles share an Enlightenment basis
with the globalists Jones denounces, and the Enlightenment itself has some
tangled influences traceable to Gnostic heresies, a source of much misery in the
world.[39]
Alamo Drafthouse
banned Madonna, a Motown guidette whose true talents have been in marketing and
promotion, from its theaters after a report she texted on her cellphone during a
film festival screening. This goes against Alamo’s emphatic prohibition, as
anyone who’s watched one of its theater announcements can attest.[40]
Media Indigest
The September issue of Texas MD magazine profiles the
Second Street practice of “Austin’s own rock ‘n’ roll dentist.”[41]
As further proof nothing can stay a joke, the article reminded me of the “DJ
Dentist” sketch from the Seattle comedy show “Almost Live!” two decades ago.[42]
Neighborhood News
On Oct. 8, commentator Lisa Fritsch announced her candidacy
for the GOP gubernatorial nomination at Mighty Fine Burgers in the Shops at
Arbor Walk plaza.[43]
If anything, the Gracywood neighborhood halfway through National Night Out was
even more devoid of activity Oct. 1 than the neighborhood I visited for the
same event last year. UT picked a Houston developer
to redevelop the western parcels of the J.J. Pickle Research Center at West
Braker Lane and MoPac Expressway.[43]
Home | Archives |
[1] Skal,
David J. Death Makes a
[2] Copelin,
Laylan. “As Oct. 1 Nears, New Law Baffles.” AAS 15 Sep. 2013: A1+; Higgs,
Robert. Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American
Government. New York City: Pacific Research Institute for Public
Policy/Oxford UP, 1987: Ch. 8.
[3] Long,
Joshua.
[4] AD No. 104
(Dec. 22, 2007); AD No. 118 (Oct. 27, 2008); Eisler, Dan. “Re: Fwd: Job
Hunter.” E-mail to Mike Eisler, 24 May 2013.
[7] Wolfe,
Tom. The Bonfire of the Vanities. New York City: Farrar Straus
Giroux, 1987: Ch. 17.
[8] Mean Streets. Warner Bros./Taplin-Perry-Scorsese Productions, 1973.
[9]
Coppola, Sarah. “Long Center Seeks City Aid.” AAS
25 Sep. 2013: A1+; Faires, Robert. “A Place to Gather Again.” AC 21 Mar.
2008: 34-37.
[10]
Kostelanetz, Richard. “The New Benefactors.” Liberty Jan. 1990:
58-60.
[12] AD No. 83
(Sep. 7, 2005).
[10] Ramirez,
Ramon. “ACL Fest 2013: Our Picks.” AAS 29 Sep. 2013: D5-6.
[11] Dinges,
Gary. “Weather Forces First ACL Fest Cancelation.” AAS 14 Oct. 2013: A1+;
Voeller, Amanda. “Heavy Rains Prompts ACL Cancelation.” DT 14 Oct. 2013:
1-2.
[12] Williams,
Elizabeth. “Festival Finally Leaves Limits: Farewell to Hell.” DT 14 Oct.
2013: 8.
[13] King,
Michael. “Burning Down the House.” AC 27 Sep. 2013: 10.
[14] Poole,
Robert W. Cutting Back City Hall. New York City: Universe Books,
1980: 67-71.
[15] Hooks,
Christopher. “HD 50: Will Dem Split Enable GOP?” AC 4 Oct. 2013: 18.
[16] Smith,
Amy. “Tuning In to Austin.” AC 27 Sep. 2013: 12.
[17] Wear,
Ben. “Tollway Bond Rating Drops.” AAS 22 Oct. 2013: A1+.
[18] “Council
Approves Electricity Bill Fee Changes.” Austin Energy Customer News
Oct. 2013: 2.
[19] Kelso,
John. “Chili Parlor Feeling Pinched.” AAS 29 Sep. 2013: B1+.
[20] Grattan,
Robert. “Cracking the Code: City Permit Plan Frustrates Business Owners.”
ABJ 4 Oct. 2013: 18.
[21] “The Big
News.” ABJ 18 Oct. 2013: A3.
[22] Wermund,
Benjamin. “Austin Schools Battle Middle-Class Flight.” AAS 29 Sep. 2013:
A1+.
[23] Gatto,
John Taylor. The Underground History of American Education: A
Schoolteacher's Intimate Investigation Into the Prison of Modern Schooling,
3rd rev. ed. New York City: Oxford Village Press, 2006; Gatto. Weapons of
Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher’s Journey Through the Dark World of
Compulsory Schooling. Gabriola Island, B.C.: New Society Publishers,
2009; Iserbyt, Charlotte Thomson. The Deliberate Dumbing Down of
[24] Dearman,
Eleanor. “Readers Bound by Banned Books.” DT 25 Sep. 2013: 1+.
[25] EAD No. 9n62
(Oct. 23, 1999).
[26] Sommer,
Carl. Schools in Crisis: Training for Success or Failure?, rev. ed.
Houston: Advance Publishing, 2009: Ch. 10-11.
[27] Sowell,
Thomas. Inside American Education: The Decline, the Deception, the Dogmas.
New York City: The Free Press, 1993: Ch. 7-8.Stephen Cox
[28]
Delingpole, James. Watermelons: How Environmentalists Are Killing the
Planet, Destroying the Economy and Stealing Your Children’s Future.
London: Biteback, 2012: Ch. 2; Watson, Brandon. “Adapt or Fry: UT Climate
Adaptation Symposium.” AC 27 Sep. 2013: 16.
[29] Knoll,
Travis. “Regnerus Talks, but Not in U.S.” DT 3 Oct. 2013: 4.
[30] Rudner,
Jordan. “Attacker Followed Victim From China.” DT 27 Sep. 2013: 1-2; Rudner.
“Student Stabbed in Nose With Fork.” DT 26 Sep. 2013: 1.
[31] Long,
Alberto. “UTPD Praises Student Response to Fork Attack.” DT 3 Oct. 2013:
1-2.
[32] Green,
Anthony. “Government Shutdown to Close LBJ.” DT 1 Oct. 2013: 1-2.
[33] AD No. 76
(Jan. 17, 2005); AD No. 142n24
(June 16, 2011).
[34] Salazar,
Adan. “Rothschild Ball Exposes Elite’s Fascination With Occult.” Infowars
Oct. 2013: 50-52.
[35] Hughes,
Robert. The Shock of the New, rev. ed.
[36]
Descharnes, Robert. Salvador Dalí: The Work, the Man. Trans. Eleanor
R. Morse. New York City: Harry N. Abrams Publishers, 1984; Schaffner,
Ingrid. Salvador Dalí’s Dream of Venus: The Surrealist Funhouse From the
1939 World’s Fair. New York City: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002.
[37] Limaye,
Kanchan. "Adieu to the Avant-Garde." Reason July 1997: 36.
[38] North,
Gary. Conspiracy in
[39]
Shafarevich, Igor Rostislavovich. Sotsializm Kak Iavlenie Mirovoi Istorii.
[40]
Swiatecki, Chad. “Alamo CEO Causes Commotion.” ABJ 18 Oct. 2013: A2.
[41] Marmel,
Jody Joseph. “On Top of the World.” Texas MD Sep./Oct. 2013: 16-17.
[42] “DJ
Dentist.” Almost Live! KING-TV, 22 Feb. 1992.
[43] Tilove,
Jonathan. “Radio Commentator Joins GOP Battle for Governor.” AAS 9 Oct.
2013: B1+.
[43] Buchhold,
Jan. “Hines’ Selection Leaves Local Firms in a Pickle.” ABJ 27 Sep. 2013: 2.