Weekend Roundup
Your weekend guide to Austin: Aug 12 - 14, 2011
If you're looking for what to do this weekend, you're in luck, friends. Austin's literally hopping this weekend, with plenty of ways to avoid the heat, or at least make the most of it.
Friday night is the Continental Club's 20th Annual Buck Owens Birthday Bash featuring over twenty local artists covering some of Owens' and the Buckeroos' best loved hits. The Bakersfield sound will be kicking with new life with the help of new voices and a crowd that knows and respects his work. If you know country and early rock and roll, you don't want to miss out on this once-a-year event.
If you're feeling more sexy than bluesy, the lovely ladies of The Jigglewatts Burlesque Revue are putting their best... foot forward in their latest show, "Paris je t'aime!" The ladies of the troupe are turning the Spider House Ballroom into an opulent Parisian dance hall for one night only of decadent drinking, dancing and desire that you have to see to believe. Joining the Jigglewatts for this special show is Sassy Delure, who just came home from Europe with new moves to show off.
On Saturday afternoon, brightly colored trailers and tents will be set up throughout Waterloo Park to celebrate the Austin Ice Cream Festival. Free samples of delicious dairy treats will abound throughout the park, and hosted contests throughout the day include the Ice Cream Making Contest, the Popsicle Stick Sculpture Contest, and the Screaming (for Ice Cream) Contest. There's clearly no better way to satisfy your sweet tooth and beat the heat than this good-hearted, family-friendly event.
For the more active individual, The Expedition School is hosting an all-day event Saturday that combines two of the things people in Austin love most: water and film. The 6th Annual Reel Paddling Film Festival is a water sport celebration on and around Fiesta Gardens' laguna that's perfect for the entire family. Races and freestyle competitions take place throughout the day for surfboards, kayaks, canoes and boats. Then, ten of the best paddling films of the year are projected on a large scale screen for folks to sit back and enjoy in the nighttime air.
Saturday night, we'll be at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum for the special evening honoring Texas football legend Dave Campbell. In conjunction with their badass More Than The Game exhibit, other football legends like Ty Detmer, Spike Dykes, RC Slocum and Ron Franklin will be in attendance to pay tribute to the great veteran sports writer who started the iconic Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine. Fans, coaches, journalists and guests from across the state will be in attendance for this exclusive VIP evening at the Museum.
It's also a big weekend for theater in Austin, with continued runs of Hillcountry Underbelly, Hairspray, Red Hot Patriot, and You Wouldn't Know Her (She Lives in Edinburgh). Also opening this weekend is award-winning playwright A. John Boulanger's latest offering, Down the Drain. This brand new "bleak comedy" about a man trapped in his bathroom by his own anxiety stars Austin favorites Meredith McCall and Martin Burke paired together again, this time on the intimate stage at Hyde Park Theatre.
Finally, it's time for another Master Pancake: Choose Your Own Pancake at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar. These are some of the best nights of Master Pancake glory, if you've never experienced them. Basically, everyone who shows up can bring their own DVD of their choosing for the Masters to mock, deride and eviscerate. They're the experts in all things movie mockery, so it's a treat watching them at their finest. There's literally no time for them to edit their jokes, so it's an anything-goes kind of night. If you can help it, don't miss out on this.
It's as good a weekend as any to get out and enjoy the unusual offerings our proud city has to offer. Music, sports, theater, film, food and boobs. Seriously, why would you want to live anywhere else?