Nod Your Head like a Yes Man!

Performing in Mortified was the highlight of my life! Or at least my weekend. The crowd had amazing energy and they made reading my embarrassing childhood memories much less nerve-wracking. They have chapters all over the US, so tell your friends! The next chance to catch a show is coming up soon, on November 4th at Fun Fun Fun Fest on the Yellow stage. After that, get ready for an angst-filled after-valentine's day extravaganza on February 15th and 16th, once again at the 29th St. Ballroom. I'll give you more info as it becomes available!

ACL Live is going to be slammin' for Halloween this year with Soundsystem Fest, bringing you Dirty Vegas, Classixx, and other world class electronic artists and DJs along with amazing sensory....sensations! Doors will be at 7pm and tickets are still on sale. Straight from the website: "It's a gamechanger, so come prepared for the biggest, baddest, sickest mind-blowing party in all of Texas....probably in the entire country!" Tickets start at $49 but I have two free tickets with your name on it if you leave a comment with 1) How you heard about Say Yes Austin or 2) Like or share Say Yes Austin on Facebook and leave me a link in a comment, showing me you did so, and I will pick a winner at random. See you on the dance floor! 

Don't forget you can still check out the coolest haunted house downtown, Ecopocalypse before hitting 6th street for all your shenanigans. Open at 6pm until the line ends! 

One of my favorite local bands, Armadillo Road will be playing Halloween night at the infamous Broken Spoke. Check them out from 6-8pm, stay for the dance lesson, and stick around for the next band at 9pm! 

Well, now that Halloween is almost over, it's time to think about Christmas. And Sufjan Stevens is one step ahead of us with The Surfjohn Stevens Christmas Sing-A-Long Seasonal Affective Disorder Yuletide Disaster Pageant On Ice on December 1st. It's already sold out, which is incredible, but I'm keeping my eye on tickets on Craigslist! What do you have planned for this holiday season? I can't wait for my annual Christmas movie marathon. 

We saw BILL COSBY Sunday night at Bass Concert Hall and it was amazing, of course. And he was all decked out in UT gear. I will be checking out another sold-out show this weekend, Taking Back Sunday at Emo's. Holla at your girl if you'll be out and about! 

My friends are running their second annual Bloody Balloon Battle, that I unfortunately have to miss this year, but that you should definitely donate to and check out. Check out the pictures from last year here! This battle will happen on Sunday, November 4th, 11am! 

You probably remember me gushing about This American Live, an improv show based on none other than This American Life, that I participated in earlier this year. The show is so well-put together it's incredible. In addition to improvised scenes, there are interviews, video and audio clips, monologues, and more that are all based on the topic of the evening. It was so amazing and so popular, it's back! It starts again this Friday, November 2nd. Check it out at it's new location, the Institution Theater, Fridays at 8pm. You'll thank me later. 

Enjoy your Halloween holiday, stay safe, call a cab, and say yes! 

Yes > No

I spent the past few months in hibernation, and saying "yes" just once last month has led me on a roller coast of positive emotion that I am still riding! It sounds so silly sometimes, but simply saying yes has changed my life in so many ways. I have met incredible people, performed on stages in a variety of shows, tried food I used to gag at, discovered new music, moshed in dumpsters, and won the life lottery. I am so thankful to the people in my life that have taught me every day is a gift. (Hi Mom & Dad!)

Now, enough with this ooey-gooey show of emotion. Here are some things I have said yes to lately:

My first trip to the Austin Farmer's Market! I sampled cheap delicious coffee, fresh cheese, chocolate, and lemonade. The downtown market is open year round, rain or shine, from 9am to 1pm. My favorite part was this wonderful surprise: The Austin Mandolin Orchestra.

Oh Austin, who knew?

Then I rode shotgun in a convertible named the Hottiemobile!

I listened to some Garbage! (A show I wasn't sure I would enjoy wholeheartedly that of course blew my mind! Saying Yes at it's finest!)

Tried a new place, G'Raj Mahal Cafe, to quench my new found love for Indian food!

Tried Hoover's for the first time. Veggies galore! 

Spent almost all of Saturday in a movie theater watching 2.5 hours of monster cartoons, and then The Master!

Sorry for the crappy camera phone photos, my D90 should be back in working order soon!

G'Raj Mahal Cafe is one of the cutest, most romantic places I have seen in Austin. I really want to go back and try them again, because the food was almost tasty, but needed something extra. So, next time I'll try a different dish. The service also started out well but we eventually had to get up and find our waiter to get the check after waiting for him to come by for about fifteen minutes or so. I'll let you know how it is next time we step in. If you try it in the meantime, BYOB, bring your own dog, and let me know what you think! 

I don't think I got the full Hoover's experience, as I just got the 3 Veggie plate, but the veggies came in huge helpings and filled me up!

I'll be back with some info on events to get you in the comedy and holiday spirit!

Say Yes to gettin' spooked!

It's apparently about to be Halloween! Getting dressed up and drunk on 6th street is where it's usually at, but, we've got a better idea with this new haunted house idea!

Talented creeps from all over the U.S. have joined together to create a one-of-a-kind spooky experience for us Austin weirdos. Ecopocalypse takes on you an interactive choose your own adventure style journey through 15,000 square feet of a city that is facing the end of the world. I met some of the crew yesterday, and walking alone into a dark warehouse with boarded up windows, dead trees, and rattling cages was creepy enough on it's own. I can tell this place is going to be intense. David Karave of Ubu Roy is working special effects, and actors and set designers from all over have come to help scare the psychological skinny jeans right off ya.

To kick it all off, there will be an opening night gala, Dia de los Muertos, to benefit the Sustainable Food Center. The gala starts at 6pm on Thursday, October 18th, and will be held next door to the haunt at Pecan St. Cafe. Tickets get you in to witness a cutthroat Austin chef competition, food samples from ten different Austin restaurants, a silent auction, and of course, free swag!

The far from average haunted house, Ecopocalypse, will open on the 19th and runs until the 30th. Doors open at 5pm and they won't close until the line ends! Find it at the Coppertank Event Center which is at 5th and Trinity downtown.

If you make it out alive you get a sweet, tasty, bonus. Food and drink! Foodtopia will be taking over the lot next door with tons of yummy, sustainable trailer food, and a full bar to help you with those shaking hands and quickened heartbeats.

I can't really think of a better way to start out the Halloween season. Get your tickets here. Keep a crazy eye on the deal sites, like this one, where you can get discounted tickets to the Ecopocalypse Haunted House in Austin!

Say Yes to Slam, man.

Oh blog world, how easy you are.....to abandon! Damn all these real life responsibilities! So, I went to Hawaii, yada yada yada, the snorkeling was great! I haven’t been going out as much because that trip was suuuper expensive, but totally worth it. You should go to there. But I am back to tell you about my new obsession: Slam Poetry.

I’ve always been a poet (wouldn’t ya know it), but for some reason never thought to do anything with my work besides fill up endless journals and stick them in a crate, though I did win the Books Arts Bash poetry contest in 2008. So, it’s been a while!

A couple months ago I volunteered my photography services for VaRiEtY Showcase Showdown, and walked in to Kevin W. Burke performing his poems. I was immediately blown away and completely inspired. Jacob Dodson also rocked the house with his clever and comical mind. I talked to them after the show and they told me about Austin Poetry Slam, happening every Tuesday night at 8pm at 29th St. Ballroom (Spiderhouse).

Slam is a little different than your typical open mic night as judges are selected from the audience to score the poems. Poets have three minutes to perform and those with the highest scores receive cash awards and high fives. The place gets packed, so if you want a good seat or want to perform, get there early to sign up or save a spot. 29th St. has a full bar, and the Love Balls Bus serves....balls. And other things. But mostly balls. Plus they’ve got a super sweet 8-track collection that you can choose from and play around with while you wait.

So, I went to see a slam and I was sucked up into the scene within seconds. How have I gone without it for so long? I laughed, I cried, I snapped my fingers,  I scribbled ideas down. I felt like it was the perfect outlet for my writing and my desire to perform without much of a commitment to rehearse and deal with scheduling conflicts. Soon after, I awoke in the middle of the night and wrote a poem that had been begging to be written for a long, long time.

A few weeks ago I did my first open mic at House of Commons, which happens Wednesday nights at 8pm. You have to see this place. It’s a co-op on campus and totally Austin. The living room is full of couches and kitchen chairs, dogs are roaming free, shirtless students are running up and down the stairs doing laundry, people are drinking straight from the wine bottle, and the DJ is spinning ambient music through his laptop. Anyone can sign up and poets are picked to perform in a random order for each round.

Last week I did my first slam, which actually took place at Sky Candy because the Ballroom was booked for a private party. Sky Candy came up with this cool idea to combine aerial and circus arts with spoken word. Poets and artists were paired together at random and then given 30 minutes to rehearse together. The outcome was outstanding. I didn’t see a lot of the show because I was pacing around in the back room trying not to throw up from nervousness, haha! I performed, and nobody died. I even scored three 9.0s! PS: That totally rhymes. The show received great feedback, so I’m pretty sure we’ll be seeing this type of thing again. Come out and see me sometime! Or just check out my Youtube channel.

If you dig it, you can also catch me at Mortified next weekend on the 19th and 20th. The show is at 8pm at Spiderhouse (so, I pretty much live there...). The show will feature lots of lovely ladies reading real excerpts from angsty teenage journals. Check out the FB page for more info.