First Thursday in October

Every month this South Congress event is a little different. We hadn't actually walked the street on First Thursday in some time, so it seemed radically different. Stuff has been torn down and replaced with shiny new high-end shoppes, and more of that plus a lot more pricey condos are going in fast. We like to spend time at Jo's Coffee, where Gary Primich used to play, and now that he has passed away there was a band there called Chili Cold Blood. One other new development was that they had orange cones and the police helping people to cross the street. Something like that has been needed badly for a long time, but the downside of it seems to be that the police were also bearing down hard on the bands playing around there with their decibel-meters. They actually shut down the band playing across the street near Amy's Ice Cream, and were ready to pounce on Jo's. CCB was rightfully disgruntled but kept going tamed down and turned way down.

There were the usual roving zombies, always promoting some zombie event or another. It's funny to see a zombie talking on a cell phone. Further south it was more what you'd expect at First Thursday, with parking lot drummers and dancers. Like the little Airstream trailer with Texas Cupcakes that featured a couple of tap-dancers (see pic) (more on Hey, Cupcake).

Just like last time I went to First Thursday, I showed up in one tee-shirt and left wearing another one. Here's my new tee (see below) purchased for $5 on the sidewalk at Parts & Labour, a new place next to New Bohemia that has some nice home-grown stuff. (it had a little blue ink stain on it, hence the discount)

All in all, a little less weird. Bad moves, Austin Powers-That-Be. The turning gears in place here are destroying the very things you pride yourselves on. Find the balance, and find it fast.