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ROT Rally Rocks and Roars - Biker Babes and More!

They were everywhere. If you were in town, you saw them, there was no way not to. They were everywhere. On the highways, in the parking lots, in the city streets, in your neighborhood! There they were, a few over here, and some more over there. Were they lost? Where did they all come from, and where are they going? Look, there’s another pack of bikes, riding together. Where are they going? You know the answer: everywhere!

They were everywhere!

The annual Republic of Texas Biker Rally descended upon Austin again this year on the first weekend in June. The numbers are huge: an estimated 40,000 bikers came to Austin, and spent over $36M (collectively, not each). Let’s do some math: this means each biker spent, on average, $900 during the 4 day event. Some of them stayed at cheap hotels, others with friends in town (no money spent on lodging), yet others booked rooms at the better hotels downtown. Some bikers camped at the rally grounds and cooked their meals, but most of them probably ate at local restaurants (that’s what, 9-10 meals Thurs-Sun?). Many probably did some shopping, both of the touristy kind, and of the biker kind, buying chrome and leather for themselves and their steeds (and their bikes). Every last one of them bought some gas while they were here, and virtually all of them drank some beer, that much can be assumed. So, $900 each? Sure, sounds about right, with $3-4/beer and $2.75/gal gas. Keeping man and machine fed and happy probably accounted for half of that total. It’s no wonder the city of Austin suggested to the rally organizers that they expand the Friday night party downtown, that they broadcast biker-friendly messages on the traffic alert signs along the highways, and that they provided security and road closures for the Parade. It’s no wonder the hotels go out of their way to cater to this unique clientele - I mean, do they block off entire floors of their parking garages for the musicians during SXSW, or provide them with buckets of water and wash rags to clean up with when they return from the festivities? (although, maybe that’s not a bad idea).

You know the numbers are huge when you drive around town and see hotel and restaurant parking lots virtually filled with chrome and paint and rubber, row after row after row of handle bars and front tires all in a line, all attached to a unique machine, the pride and joy of someone inside.

Carlos and Charlies hosted a few riders

There are those who ride, and those who wish. Some may wish more than others, all the way from “next year, yeah, that’ll be me, too” to “damn bikers making all that noise and tying up traffic and riding here and there and going who knows where and doing who knows what - damn bikers - look at them, doing what they want, having fun and enjoying life - damn bikers” Whatever, dude.

Enough bikes to go around

Let’s do some more math: if we assume 75% of the 40,000 bikers are riding two-up, with only 25% riding solo, that’s about 25,000 bikes. If they all got together at the same time (good luck arranging that!) and rode in standard 2-line formation, with each bike 8 ft long, and with a 10 ft gap between bikes (kinda close, but ok for slow speed, around town riding), you would see a continuous stream of bikes 42 miles long, which is about the distance from Georgetown to Buda! (of course, if they were riding on I-35, the gap between them would be closer to 20 ft, or 66 miles total). Hey, get this: a loop around Austin, that starts in Round Rock, goes down Mopac all the way to 290, cuts over to I-35, and back up to Round Rock is about 43 miles. So, theoretically, we could have all gotten together and formed one continuous unbroken ring of bikes around Austin, riding round and round. That would be pretty wild, huh?

I’ve been on some rides with friends where we might get 20 bikes together, and we generally move as one long, continuous vehicle as we navigate around town and out into the hill country. Riding like that is great fun, as I enjoy the juxtaposition of engaging in an inherently individual activity (there’s not much conversation going on at 60+ mph) in a group setting. Of course, we interact non-verbally along the ride, moving as one entity up and around the hills outside Austin, and then we’re back to being just people at the numerous stops along the way. It may be an odd dynamic, but it’s very satisfying when you’re enjoying life outdoors with people you like.

The finish-line crowd

This year I once again joined the Friday night bike parade from the Expo center to the downtown party. Talk about a continuous vehicle! This is no theory, it is a fact that there was an unbroken line of bikes from East Austin to Congress Ave. This is the ride of rides. The police blocked off all the intersections, so we got a smooth, uninterrupted flow into the heart of Austin. The route took us through neighborhoods where residents line the streets to watch the riders and hear the bikes (unspoken rule: when a kid waves, rev the engine!), down MLK to 11th street, and over I-35 down to Congress. We got a great view of the Capitol as we rode in, and if it was fun riding past the people in the neighborhoods, it was unbelievable downtown! It was like we were finishing the Tour de France, with jam-packed people on both sides and us riding between them, everyone waving and cheering. Wow - and we weren’t even tired from our ride, like Lance must have been! This is unofficially the longest bike parade in the world, and since the Guinness World Record people are reviewing the count as we speak, it may soon be official. Who would have thought that I’d have something in common with the Tour record holder? Woo-hoo!

So Friday night was a blast, seeing 6th Street, Congress Ave, and several more blocks in the area packed with people and bikes and music. Saturday was all about the riding, yet we kept it local and elected to be by the lake.

Yes, damn bikers are taking over…!

This year I didn’t attend the actual rally on the Expo grounds, I’ve done that a few years in a row already. Maybe I’ll go back next year just to be amazed how much bigger it is. It’s cool to peruse the vendor booths, they come up with the wildest stuff for your bike or for your body.

By Sunday everyone is pooped out and packing up, so it’s a slow day of recovery, both for the rally-goers and for the town. As the weekend draws to a close, normalcy makes an attempt to retake Austin. The blitti-ta-blatta of the stragglers and locals keeps it at bay, however - that is to say, keeps Austin weird, for a little while longer at least…

Annual Eeyore’s Birthday Bash Keep s Austin Weird - and how

Um, yeah - OK

Weirdness, weirdoes, everywhere – and not a dudley in sight! YES! Feast your eyes on color and movement, on sights strange that stimulate, on sounds and smells and feelings that move and penetrate – look around, walk around, and immerse yourself in the wondrous creativity of your fellow hipster – YES! This is what I’m talking about! This is Austin, exposed in broad daylight, its inner flower child arms up to the sun, spinning, laughing, and stopping to pierce you in the eyes and flash you the wickedest, sexiest smile imaginable – YES!

Who wouldn’t be seduced into returning time and again to celebrate another year of life? Thus it was such again this year, only this was the first time I experienced Eeyore’s Birthday as a civilian. Actually, I missed it last year and the one before that, but until then, I was a volunteer at the event for, oh, maybe 10-12 years?

Is it love, you think?

When I was first asked to participate, I had never heard of it before – What? You mean you are having a birthday party out in a park - for a fictional character - out of a kid’s book - and not even for the title guy? What’s up with that? How weird… (duh!) But it was Scott Sexton himself who turned me on to it over a game of pool at the Crown and Anchor, by putting it this way: “Dude, you volunteer for two hours, and you get free beer the rest of the day!” Well, who can pass that up? It was only later that I learned the annual bash was a fund raising event for Austin non-profit groups – all of a sudden I realized I was signed up to do charity work – but what the hell, it might be fun anyway. Little did I imagine…

Hula hipsters

So, for much of my formative years (my 30’s), once a year I got to sell beer tickets for a couple of hours, got free beer the rest of the day, and hung out and grooved and learned first-hand why Austin is one happenin’ town. Selling beer tickets was wicked fun, as you got to mess with people on a continuous basis, and they still kept coming and lining up to get messed with – whoohoo! It’s different, walking around and seeing the madness, and then dealing directly with individual weirdness, one on one, up close and personal, while money changed hands and IDs were checked. Yep, the situation was ripe with opportunity for merriment. Oh, you want 20 tickets? I’m waaayyyy too drunk to count that high – but hey, I can count to 4 five times – how’s that? What? No way this is you in this picture – and how do I know this is what Hawaiian drivers licenses look like? The best was when they asked for a large number of tickets, and I’d do some obscure folded-ticket math and hand them their change in one big flurry, and they’d start to leave with a little should-I-trust-this-guy puzzled look on their faces (until they realized I got it right). NEXT! Those were the days..

And these are these days, and they aren’t too shabby either. Going as a civilian had the obvious drawback of no free beer, but it did allow me to more fully enjoy everything going on. I hung out at the drum circles longer, I listened to the band for a while, I visited more parts of the park – or hmmmm, maybe I just remember visiting more parts of the park?

Anyway, the drum circles were different this year, in that they had actual drums – there was even a full drum kit in one of the circles. Before, everyone used plastic buckets and lids and pieces of metal and anything else that made noise when hit with a stick, plus maybe just a few bongos, and it was incredible how well they worked together. It was pretty good now with the drums, too, maybe just louder and more melodic.

Itchin’ to march to a different drummer?

If you’ve never experienced a free-form drum circle, it’ll be hard to imagine its impact on you. You can watch the short video I made, but what’s missing from that is how, after hours of continuous, persistent, ever-changing rhythmical variations-on-a-theme, with passages that ebb and flow and break down and rebuild and merge and synergize and escalate into a frantic crescendo, the pervasive percussion gets inside you, becomes part of your metabolism, and carries you the rest of the day. You fall asleep still tapping your toe and nodding your head to the beat that was – especially if you’ve had free beer all day!

A fair fight, a cool lady, tie-dye tikes

There were at least three established drum circles throughout the park that day. I really enjoyed the one up on the hill, in the woods behind the port-a-potties. These guys were rockin! Watch the video. Other events included a face painting booth (in case you showed up too “normal”), kiddie sword fighting, a maypole weaving attempt, egg toss and other organized games, hula circles, Eeyore petting, and splashing puddles (courtesy of the storm the night before).

It’s been said Eeyore’s Birthday is one of the last remaining events that are still true to its origins, and has not been corrupted or “toned down” to appease the up-tights. One reason it has endured, no doubt, has to be the attitude of the organizers. They’re a great bunch of people, who just want to put on a great party and have fun doing it. As a many-time volunteer, I can attest to the laid-back and open nature of the organization, that still manages to get the key work done.

Then of course, there are the party-goers themselves. Eeyore’s Birthday is a different event for different people. Those that sit in the woods by the drum circle get a different event than those whose small children play with Eeyore, which is also different from the experience of all the teens and 20-somethings running around – full of energy and creativity and expressionism. Yet these events all occupy the same space and time, their experiences interwoven, each adding richness and harmonious diversity to the others. Everyone has a good time, regardless of their perspective. Does it get any better than that?

A sip from the hydrant: Gary Hoover at the BiGBreakfast

Overheard: “Listening to Gary speak is like taking a sip from a water hydrant. I’ve heard him give this talk several times, and each time I pick up something new”. There was quite a bit of discussion after Gary’s speech, all of it overwhelmingly positive. There is something very compelling about getting a direct peak inside the mind of an actionary visionary, the kind of person who not only sees what will be, but also acts on his vision to great success. Gary Hoover revealed his “8 Keys to a Successful Business” at the BiGBreakfast event put on by BiGAUSTIN yesterday. His talk was a very pleasant surprise for me, I had no idea I was in for such a treat.

Another look at Gary’s name reveals the level of success he’s had, since he founded and sold a company bearing his name, one that you’ve heard of. If your first thought was that his products sucked, then don’t think Hoover the vacuums, think Hoovers the business information company. You know, the one he sold to Dun and Bradstreet. Curiously, his talk didn’t mention that business except in passing. Instead, he focused on his earlier success, Bookstop, Inc, which was the first book superstore, and which he sold to Barnes & Noble in 1998.

Certainly, the story of the start of that business ties in well with his first two keys: Curiosity and History. The successful entrepreneur is curious to a fault, always seeking new knowledge, always wanting to know more, about anything and everything. This last is really the important part – he cited examples such as Michael Dell and Bill Gates, people who constantly broaden their knowledge of the world outside of their “business”. Oh, and by the way, Gary knew the person who purchased books for Gates to read, so he is familiar with his quest for knowledge – just another example of the torrent of information that spews forth from Gary’s talk that can whoosh past you if you don’t pay attention.

Something else I picked up on as I listened: Just as vision remains vapor if not implemented, the satisfaction of curiosity remains cerebral without the context of history to give shape to the information. Ok, that’s nice, but what does it mean in real terms to the person in the trenches? To quote Gary “the difference between winners and losers is that the loser spends 100% of his time on tactical issues, the winners spend 99%” with the rest spent on big-picture, step-back-and-look-around-you type activities.

As Gary gave examples to back up these two keys, to me, the bigger point seemed to be that the successful entrepreneur will actually believe the facts in front of him. When your car is slowly sinking to the bottom of the lake, it’s too late to be thinking – gee, I wonder of those big orange signs and flashing lights were something I should have paid more attention to? Or, as Gary himself put it, don’t let the train of change smack you in the back as you peer down the tracks in the wrong direction, searching for a glimpse of the future.

Closely behind curiosity and history is the third key, Geography, which also ties in with history to help shape the information you get as a result of your curiosity. “Keep in mind the spacial relationships of things” said Gary, and “keep track of space and time”. It’s all part of the theme of seeing the larger picture.

Gary spent so much time on the first three keys, that I feared the BiGBreakfast event was going to morph into the BiGBrunchAndLateAfternoonSnack seminar. Don’t get me wrong, I could have listened all day (in fact, after the talk, I just listened to him as he informally answered various people’s questions one-on-one. His approachability was refreshing, and even just watching how he handled no-particular-question, just-want-to-ramble-on-and-on type people was an education in itself). As it happens, the next four keys are closely tied together. They are Clarity, Vision, Consistency, and Purpose. Each one is important, and the successful entrepreneur will pay attention to each one individually, but in reality it is the implementation of the four as a group that propels the business, or so it seemed to me. Oh, and there is only one right answer to the purpose question: your purpose as a business is to provide a product or service. <-- note the period at the end of that sentence.

The test for the successful implementation of the next key involves closing your eyes, or better yet, using a blindfold. Ok, I guess this test is safer if done as a “thought experiment” ala Einstein, but the idea is that you place yourself in a business sightless, and when you remove the blindfold, you should be able to tell where you are. If you can’t, the business fails the uniqueness test. If you are not Unique, there’s little reason for your customers to come back.

There was one more key, Passion, and for those of you keeping track, that makes nine keys. What can I say? Maybe my note-taking needs work, maybe I heard more than was said, maybe – who knows? Whatever, the last key was simple: love your work. ‘Nough said.

Gary’s talk was very engaging, and even better, he continued to spill valuable nuggets during the all-too-short formal Q&A afterwards. For example, responding to a question about business metrics, he mentioned the ideal way to create a business plan is to oscillate between Word and Excel. Use Word to describe your ideal business scenario several years in the future. Use Excel to crunch the numerical realities of such a dream. It is guaranteed the two will not jive, so modify both to bridge the gap. The resulting documents become part of your business plan.

After the breakfast, I attended the BiGMarketplace, a vendor exhibition of BiGAustin client companies. From solar-powered backpacks, to beef jerkey and scrapbooking, the selection was varied and interesting. The “memorable name” award should certainly go to Dancing Dingo Organic Bath & Body, makers of fragrances for both man’s best friend and his boss (or wannabe). I bought a bottle of Dog De-funkifier™ to keep both happy in my household, only to discover a $2-off coupon in my goodie bag when I got home. Oh well.

AustinMania! is now a blog, too, and you can post, too

The previous post describes my investigation into Ruby on Rails, as a framework I could use to rapidly build out the AustinMania! community portal. Alas, I was once again stymied by my web host, and for now, I cannot run RoR applications on this web site. This may change with further study, but luckily, I do not need to wait for that to significantly enhance the interactiveness of the site.

As I was pondering my next move, which included considering if I should switch web hosts, a sudden realization struck me – I already had all I needed to implement the beginnings of a user-generated community – a WordPress blog! All I had to do was to make a new, separate database, re-install WordPress with a new blog name, and presto, a new blog was created on the site! The main difference in functionality vs my regular blog is that when a new user registers, they are by default granted “contributor” level access, which means they can create new posts themselves (subject to approval by me before they are published). I also opened up commenting privileges so anyone can comment, and they appear right away without moderation. I can always go back and remove inappropriate comments if I need to, and since the initial goal is to encourage use, this should be ok for now.

I made a few changes to the sidebar from the one this blog is running to better fit the community aspect of AustinMania!, such as listing all the authors and removing the blogroll. Also, I tweaked the entire user registration and login process to “hide” the fact AustinMania! is really a blog, it’s supposed to look like just a community website. I added helpful instructions to the e-mail that sends the initial password, and to some of the registration pages, and removed certain pages or sections from the admin console to simplify it for people who have never blogged before. For example, the dashboard seemed fairly superfluous, so it’s gone. I will probably continue to tweak the admin pages over time so they better fit the theme of AustinMania!

The best part of this is that it is up and running, anyone can contribute, and I can continue to tweak it and add features. I still intend to bring to life my “grand vision” of what AustinMania! can be, but at this point I am not sure if it will evolve from this WordPress platform, or if I will build an entirely new RoR application. Perhaps in the end it will be a hybrid. Whatever the case, I am glad I was able to implement something that works today, and I didn’t let the bigger ideas get in the way of progress. I hate it when that happens, don’t you?

Lining up for Spam

My last post had everything to do with avoiding spam, and now I am here to tell you, this weekend I witnessed people actually line up and wait just to get their own portion of SPAM - the luncheon meat! Talk about keeping it weird, there was an entire festival in central Austin just to pay homage to that denigrated meal. Well, tongue-in-cheek homage, as SPAMARAMA! is really all about playing with the food, in every way imaginable!

Lining up for SPAM!

Appropriately enough, this “pandemonious potted pork festival” is held every year on April Fools day - I mean, who would believe you if you said you were headed to a SPAM cook-off? Well, I went, I witnessed, and I wondered - why here, why Austin? Oh sure, it’s cool and fun and wacky - SPAMALYMPICS, anyone? - but how did this start?

According to the web site, the initial impetus was to have an alternative to the all-too-common chili cook-offs. Only in Texas do you get tired of chili cook-offs, I suppose - and only in Austin does someone come up with an alternative crazy enough that their neighbors will voluntarily be a part of it - for 28 years and counting. Jeez, what’s the shelf life of SPAM anyway?

Now, the official SPAMARAMA site says nothing of this, but I discovered there is another linkage between Austin and SPAM – and no, I don’t mean we have an overabundance of lazy-assed porno pushers and medical miracle misfits. Did you know that SPAM is produced in Austin? Yep, there’s even a SPAM Museum, right there on SPAM Boulevard. No - I’m not kidding you! Of course, I’m not talking about Austin, Texas, but Austin, Minnesota, the corporate home of Hormel Foods . Talk about weird! Is this some kind of comedic karma? Or, more sinister-like, some machiavellian marketing?

Anyway, if you want to go ask someone at Hormel, just get on I-35, go north for oh, about 1100 miles, hang a right at Bancroft, MN, and wait another 20 miles. You’ll find yourself smack dab in SPAM heaven. Whoopee!

Keepin’ it Weird

The weather was pretty awesome this past Saturday afternoon, and in between dodging ham-hatted SPAMaholics and hog-nosed porky people, I had a pretty good time. I missed Nathan’s Stupid Drama , but I did get the CD, and yes - the rumors are true - this guy can play the acoustic! I’ll have to catch his act live sometime.

In a classic “if-someone-had-told-me” moment, I did enjoy the irony of watching contestants do all they could to hold on to the stuff as they ran the SPAM Can Relay – “Can’t spill the SPAM - Can’t spill the SPAM - Can’t spill the - DAMN, I spilled the SPAM!”

Spam SPam SPAm SPAM!

Mmmmmm…..

And then there was the obligatory SPAM eating contest, which was probably the most obvious Hormel-driven event that day. In one masterful stroke, conclusive proof was presented that not only is the stuff in the can edible, it really is filling - the contest lasted for several minutes! If SPAM meat was as insubstantial as we have come to believe, the contestants would have chowed down in no time. Instead, the assembled masses got to witness long, agonizing moments of chomping, chewing, and strained swallowing. “Better you than I”, they must have thought, “better you than I, to find SPAM’s not naught!”

Yes, spring has sprung in Austin. The weirdness blooms and the fun beckons, and it’s time to get out and enjoy all the town has to offer. What a cool place to be!