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The Great Psychedelic Armadillo Picnic: A "Walk" in Austin (Crown Journeys) Editorial Review:
Kinky Friedman, the original Texas Jewboy, takes us on a rollicking, rock-and-rolling tour of his favorite city: Austin.
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,” Kinky 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 ?nd 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 only book you need to get to the big heart of this great city.
Customer Reviews:
Make sure you get the version that Kinky reads
there are a few versions of this book. Don't get one that isn't read by the author. Otherwise, it isn't remotely funny!
An original
At least this guy's an original. This is my first trip in Kinkyland and I was repaid by getting a few laughs. I especially liked his frank no- nonsense tone in telling us for instance, that he goes around giving advice to people happier than himself.
He is deeply at home in the world of Austin and gives the reader a lot of local color, and a lot of advice as to where and what to visit and see.
On the Jewish side it seems to me that that part of his identity is a lot like the Jewish star on Max Baer's trunks, more for crowd power effect than anything else.
But who knows? This guy may be a genuine Longhorn Yid.
However the Kink should be aware that his love of the four- letter word will not give him an A in the big cheder upstairs which I suspect he is more likely to get to than to what he says he wishes to in this book, the Governor's Chair in Austin.
Delightful tour of a fantastic city
The Kinkster (Texas' next governor?) takes readers on a whirlwind tour of Austin. Anyone who has lived in Austin for a significant period of time will not find much new here. Those who have only visited might get some inkling of what makes this city unique and why millions of people all over the country consider Austin home even though the population is 600,000. This is an extremely funny journey. I can't think of a better tour guide than a man who refers to Garth Brooks as the anti-Hank
The road to better living passes through this town.
Any traveller worth their salt knows what a big mistake just showing up at a foriegn city empty minded can be; we also know an even bigger mistake exists: showing up with a mass-produced, banal "city guide." Of course, if you have never awoken on an airplane with a throbbing hangover and without any idea what you are doing there, or where 'there' is, maybe this book isn't for you. I once woke up in Toronto, the city hosting the International Conference for Progressive Psychology (ICPP) in 1968 -- before Dr. Shoozenschaurts' breakthrough work on depression was publicized. Sure his work was edgy, and progressive, but I knew it was dangerous. I tried to warn my colleagues of the inherint dangers in thinking such thoughts, after all, what we don't know can't hurt us. My fellow scientists ignored my warnings and embraced Dr. Shoozenschaurts' revolutionary concepts. After the conference of '68 I found myself and my ignorance is bliss theories discredited. Now I live on a couch. You live in a nation of depressed sociopaths. You could say I'm having the last laugh, but I'm not; because I live on a couch, and I am too depressed for laughter.
"With her countless clubs, bars, and dance halls, Austin is a whore with a heart of gold flaunting her gaudy necklace in the Texas night."
Naturally I am unemployed. This is important because this book along with the other Crown Journey books are, I believe, written for the unemployed. These books are written for the traveler with True Grit, whose idea of vacation is drinking coffee in a foriegn city and reading about one human's experience of a city that stands out from the pack; The kind of person that no longer finds excitement in visiting New York, London, Paris, or Los Angeles. The Crown Journey series captures real, unique culture in the most pleasantly unexpected places (Like Austin, Nantucket, Portland) and then combines it with real, unique personality in equally pleasant form (Kinkster, Pahlaniuk).
This book will make you laugh. This book will give you good ideas on where to go, and what to do in Austin. Perhaps most importantly, this book will give you the background perspective you need to enjoy your Austin vacation to the MAX~!
Riding with the Kinkster
Kinky for Governor!
Ok, so this review will be online forever and 50 years from now lots of people will probably be saying "Who the hell is Kinky Friedman?" (People in Buffalo probably already are saying it, but that's another story.)
If you want to get a quick look at who Kinky is, you can't go wrong with this slim volume. Its essentially a travelogue for the city of Austin, Texas, but the Kinkster's wit shines through. Kinky covers a lot of ground in short order to tell you where the best sites in Austin are: for music and nightlife (like The Broken Spoke), for food (like Threadgill's), for sightseeing (like Willie Nelson's house, where else?).
Along the way, we get bits and pieces of Texas and specifically Austin history. Whether you are new to Texas or have been, as I have, a lifelong resident, you're sure to find something you didn't already know. If you get through this and are dying to read more, the next step of course, is to get cracking at his mysteries (i.e. Greenwich Killing Time). In the mean time, sit back and enjoy. The Kinkster is at the wheel, and the cigar smoke is filling up the car. I can't see where we are going, but the trip is sure to be fun.
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