The Aforementioned Brief Photo Essay

James already posted pictures of The Grackles, so I'll spare you those, though certainly the pictures we were able to capture really don't give you any perspective on the volume of birds that fill the sky and cover the telephone wires, rooftops, trees, etc., but whatever. Come see them. On to one of my other Austin loves, Topo Chico.
My co-teacher introduced me to this delicious sparkling Mexican mineral water, so I gave him a Topo Chico birthday. I asked everyone I could think of to bring him one bottle of Topo Chico ("each one, teach one", "for the cost of a cup of coffee, you could bring birthday joy to a poor, unassuming teacher," etc., etc.,). He ended up with about 40 bottles. Some people decorated theirs, thus, the mask. There is a depiction of a mysterious figure on the Topo Chico bottles. This princess/squaw/warrior of ambiguous nationality is kneeling by a flowing stream, sipping the sweet, sweet elixir of Topo Chico from a cool mountain stream. Now I hear that this person is the daughter/bride/son (this varies, depending on who is telling the story) of Montezuma and that he/she was afflicted with dysentery/typhoid/old age. Until he/she stumbled upon this naturally carbonated stream, sipped from it, and well, you know how the rest of the story goes. The deal is, that this stream is rumored to exist, and that it is naturally carbonated. How does this happen? I don't know, but I need to investigate.

Now, here's a question for you. I pass this every day on my way to work. A building, with a car sticking out of it, metal peeled back around the car as though it were a flower. How does this happen? Did a car actually fly off the road and crash into the house, becoming lodged there? At this point, did the owner of the house say, "Well, it's already here, might as well incorporate it into the overall theme of our property," or is it some sort of art installation? I don't know, but I intend to investigate.

Last weekend, to celebrate my co-teacher's birthday (we'll call him "Jason"), we went out to this place:

Afterwards, we went to watch his band The Lennings at The Troubador. We had plans the next night to go see another one of my co-worker's three bands play, but we didn't. (Everyone is a musician in Austin; I think I'd better pick up a guitar). At any rate, the set at The Troubador was great.

They played my favorite song. Well, my favorite Lennings song.