|
|
| |
One in the Crown
Journeys series
Author: Kinky Friedman |
Maybe you want to know which restaurant
President Bush rates as his favorite
Austin burger joint. Or maybe you want
a glimpse of Willie Nelson’s home
life (hint: Willie plays a lot of golf).
Perhaps you want to get the best view
of the Mexican free-tail bats as they
make their nightly flights to and from
the Congress Avenue Bridge. Or maybe
you’re itching to learn the history
of a city that birthed Janis Joplin,
Stevie Ray Vaughan, and countless other
music legends. It’s all here in
The Great Psychedelic Armadillo Picnic,
the slightly insane, amazingly practical,
and totally kick-ass guide to the coolest
city in Texas by none other than Kinky
Friedman.
This ain’t no ordinary travel
guide, neither. “Like most other
busy cities these days, Austin is not
very effectively traversed by foot,” Friedman
explains. “You must understand
that ‘a walk in Austin’ is
primarily a spiritual sort of thing.” As
might be expected from this politically
incorrect country-singer-turned-bestselling-mystery-author,
the Kinkster’s tour includes a
bunch of stuff you won’t find
in a Frommer’s guide, from descriptions
of Austin’s notable trees and
directions to skinny-dipping sites to
lists of haunted places and quizzes
and puzzles. So put on your cowboy hat
and your brontosaurus-foreskin boots
and head down south with the book you
need to get to the big heart of this
great city.
|
|
From Publishers Weekly
A good travelogue conveys a sense
of place while pointing the reader
towards interesting activities, destinations,
places to eat and the like. A great
travelogue does all this, but it also
stands alone as an enjoyable read,
regardless of the reader’s travel
plans. This quirky tour of Austin,
Tex., delivers the whole enchilada.
Friedman (Armadillos & Old Lace,
etc.), novelist and founder of the
band Kinky Friedman and the Texas
Jewboys, is not what most people would
think of as a typical Texan. When
he suggests what car to buy to fit
in (either a pickup or a Cadillac
will do), he proclaims, "I myself
drive a Yom Kippur Clipper. That’s
a Jewish Cadillac—stops on a
dime and picks it up." But this
attitude gives Friedman the perfect
perspective from which to narrate
a journey through his city. His suggestions
of things to do all come from personal
experience and are usually accompanied
by a colorful anecdote or observation.
In a chapter on places to eat, Friedman
gives this tip on dining at the Magnolia
Café: "Feel free to light
up a cigarette if you smoke, because
Magnolia is one of the few restaurants
you can smoke in without some asshole
trying to make a citizen’s arrest." Friedman’s
plain-speaking is part of the book’s
charm. What other travel guide would
proudly list a mass murderer—Charles
Whitman, who shot 45 people from the
Texas Tower in 1966—in a section
on famous citizens? As Friedman points
out, "We like to think that everything’s
bigger in Texas. This, of course,
includes mass murder sprees." Whether
or not a trip to Austin is in your
future, this slim book paints a vivid
picture of a city that’s as
appealingly offbeat as Friedman himself.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier
Inc. All rights reserved.
|
|
$16.95 (hardcover)
 |
|
|
|
|
|
E-mail: