I haven’t done any work this week, which has given me plenty of time to enjoy Austin, and there really is quite a bit to enjoy down here.
On Wednesday night I went out with a group of people to see Superbad, a movie I’d been looking forward to for a few months. As it turns out: totally worth the wait. Hee-larity aplenty - the funniest movie I’ve seen since Hot Fuzz. Definitely one to see, and one I’ll need to see again. It is a teen sex comedy, though, so if you don’t enjoy a bit of raunch and swear words galore, you might not enjoy it as much.
On Thursday I decided to see some live theater (I had yet to see any stage shows in Austin), and saw that that night was the World Premier of a new, local, fantasy faery tale opera called “The Dragonfly Princess”. The description sounded interesting (a story about faeries and magic, based on “heart of darkness” and “journey to the center of the earth”), and it was only $10, so I scootered/bussed it over to the theater to see it. Visually the show was very interesting - I really liked the lighting design, and everything was very colorful and fun to look at. The music was also good for the most part, although either due to the sound set up or the actresses lack of annunciation, I had no idea what they were saying for most of it, and as a result I couldn’t follow the story at all. During intermission I read the detailed plot synopsis, and even having read that I had trouble figuring out how what they were doing on stage translated to what I had read in the synopsis. So as far as story telling went, they get low marks, but at least it was nice to look at.
One note that must be mentioned about the costumes: on the poster it had said that the show contained partial nudity, which, based on shows I’ve seen with such warnings in the past, I had guessed meant that there might be one or two scenes with someone topless or whatnot. But that was not the case - in fact, throughout the entire show, every character (with two exceptions, not counting the one male role) was bare breasted. This does not mean that they were topless - rather, they were often in full costumes (fantasy-looking robes or gowns or what-have-you), except that there were two holes in the chest area through which the breasts hung out. This made me wonder two things: why all the boobage? I’m not complaining, mind you, it’s just that I couldn’t figure any reason for it, unless in this faery world that was the style of dress. But if that were the case, it would lead to my second wondering: what was the reasoning for the two characters who stayed covered up? Was this symbolic of something? Was it just that the actresses playing the parts didn’t feel comfortable with being on stage toplesss for an hour and a half (with a 15 minute intermission - twas a short show)? The world may never know.
So, my verdict on “The Dragonfly Princess” is: if you want to see some great storytelling, skip it. If you want to watch something visually exciting and don’t care about knowing what’s going on, or you want to see some boobs, go for it.
Tonight’s entertainment was the Flight of the Bats. The Congress Ave. Bridge going into downtown Austin is home to up to 1.5 million bats, and at sundown each night in the summer, they all fly out into the night sky to hunt for bugs and The Joker. We’re nearing the end of the peak season, so it wasn’t as impressive as it probably would have been if I had seen them two or three weeks ago, but it was still rather interesting to see this constant stream of bats flying out from under the bridge. I brought my camera, but didn’t get any good pictures, as the battery died shortly after I got there. Here is a video I found on Youtube, though, that shows what it looks like (I’m guessing this would have been earlier in the season - tonight they didn’t come out until after it was well dark): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njDeZoShqBA
Tomorrow should also be entertaining: Austin is host to the Red Bull Flugtag - an event in which people take homemade contraptions, roll them along a large ramp, and see how far they can fly before crashing into the water.
A fun week, full of reasons why Austin is pretty much awesome.