The Portland of Texas September 23, 2008
Posted by dredgereport in Uncategorized.trackback
This is an incredibly pissy thing to write about, but I’ve had this exact conversation at least, oh, a trillion times in my life:
THEM: So where are you from?
ME: I’m from Texas.
THEM: Oh, where in Texas? I hear Austin is really cool.
ME: Yup, Austin’s pretty cool. I’m from Dallas.
THEM: Oh. Yeah, I’ve got a bunch of friends in Austin, they love it.
And you know what? GOOD! GREAT! GRAND! WONDERFUL! Austin is a really great town, and a wonderful place to live. I tried my darndest to go to school there and/or live there, though neither plan worked out. I get it, I do. But please hear me and don’t laugh when I say that Texas is a great state! If you just ignore its politicians, laws, uninsured and poverty rates, and all that other macro-stuff, Texas does not deserve its shiteous reputation. It really doesn’t. Secretly, I really like Dallas and going back to visit, and not just for the friends and family. I would put Dallas’ music-restaurant-and-nightlife scene up against any one of those ostensibly hip Midwestern cities like Minneapolis or Chicago. Yeah, that’s right, I said it. What? And, like, Hill Country—do you understand what this is? It is so beautiful. And all the space. And the people, and, most importantly, the Shiner Bock.
But back to Austin: it is great, and all my friends are going to ACL this weekend, and I’m fiercely jealous, even though I’ve already seen all the bands on the line-up that I’d want to see. When SXSW finally collapses upon itself in a few years, ACL will be there to take its place, and because of its high density of alt-country and Texas rock bands in the line-up, I will be so pleased.
That’s amazing. When I told people in the PNW that I was from Texas the conversation went immediately to “aren’t you embarrassed about W?” We never talked about the state at all.
Personally I enjoy living in a state that has such a stable economy.
We aren’t taxed out the wahoo. Our residential market has stayed fairly stable. We have places like Austin that continues to grow into one of the great entertainment capitals of the country. Dallas is a unique and exciting big city, especially when coupled with Ft. Worth. We have such a diverse state. We have palo-duro canyon..the countries second largest canyon system. We have the plains, historic route 66, beaches, forests, Shiner Bock. We have a space program, the Czech Stop, and yes..SHINER. We have state pride. The more I stay in Texas after wanting to leave it for so long, the less I want to leave.
Oh and ACL was awesome.