For this episode, we’re casting new light on the stops to seek out on your next touring trip.
Come see fantastic writers read their five-minute tourist trap inspired stories: Bill Cotter (Fever Chart), Annie La Ganga (Stoners and Self-Appointed Saints), Les McGehee (Les McGehee Plays Well With Others: A “Grown-Up” Handbook of Improvisation and Play), Erin Pringle (The Floating Order), and Philly visitor Christian TeBordo (The Awful Possibilities, We Go Liquid, The Conviction & Subsequent Life of Savior Neck and Better Ways of Being Dead). Don’t bring any bananas, they make the car smell like bananas.
Doors open at 7pm. Come early for the sweet lefty sounds of Southpaw Jones, stay late for bass groves by Brady Muckelroy and toe-tapping tunes by Jennifer Ellen Cook. $2 for a night of road trip fun, and you don’t even have to chip in for gas.
Hosted by Amelia Gray, Stacy Muszynski, and special guest Rudy Ramirez.
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The Writers and their weirdest stops:
BILL COTTER was born in Dallas in 1964. He lives with the poet Annie La Ganga here in Austin. His first novel, _Fever Chart_, was published last summer. It is available for $15 in the trunk of his car.
**Weirdest roadside attraction visited: the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. (Find out why on May 14.)
ANNIE LA GANGA lives in Austin with her boyfriend Billy and their awful little cat Vinny. Annie loves candy and hates housework. She is the author of _Stoners and Self-Appointed Saints_, the first book she’s written that she didn’t have to print and staple together herself.
**Favorite strange roadside attraction: the Prada store on Highway 95 just outside of Marfa. (Find out why on May 14.)
CHRISTIAN TeBORDO has published three novels. His first collection of short fiction, _The Awful Possibilities_, is just out from featherproof books. He lives in Philadelphia.
**Roadside attraction? He wants to say the Sedlec Ossuary (“the bone church”) in Kutna Hora, Czech Republic, but. . . (Find out ‘but what’ on, you guessed it, May 14.)
Rudy Ramirez is a director, performer and writer working in, on or about Austin, TX. He is the performance director for The Austin Bike Zoo and has directed Wheels of Wonderland, “Cardigan” and “Spit” for Frontera Fest 2010, and Luna Tart Died (co-written with Laura Freeman). He was a performer for Spike Gillespie’s The Dick Monologues and has performed at Camp Camp, 5 Things, and The Museum of Ephemerata. He has hosted Burlesque for Peace, Texas Burlesque Fest and Carousel Cabaret. His first full-length one-man show, Promised Land: A Radical Queer Revival will travel to New York and Philadelphia this fall.
Near-native Austinite Jennifer ellen Cook has been called a “sensational vocalist” with “shining” stage presence and excellent songs. The Austin Chronicle recently described her new CD, A Storytelling of Crows, as stories with “elusive charm”: “’60s-influenced indie pop” with “wisdom and lyrical accuity.” I suppose it’s to be expected–she has a degree in literature. Fortunately, she also has a groovy rhythm section in Nathan Lynch and Julio Figueroa.
AUSTIN, TX
The Encyclopedia Show Austin is a live variety extravaganza that commissions local and touring artists to share their unique talents in order to create a new performed encyclopedia entry each month. Helping us out, we’ve got actors, videographers, Def Poetry Jam vets, writing professors, stand-up comedians, fiction writers and lots of FEELINGS!
