while trying to compose a mnemonic acronym to remember the order of Austin's north-south streets (yes, I was born here and no, I still don't know) I discovered something interesting: the street plan of downtown Austin from West to East St (now known as the southbound I-35 access road) can be interpreted as two octaves of the major scale, with Congress Ave as "middle C".  So now i am singing major scales to myself up and down..."West, RioGrand, Nueces, SanAntone, Guad, Lavaca, Colorodo, Congress!" etc.  of course, they also mirror the placement of their respective namesake rivers in Texas. one wonders if there isn't some occult psychogeographical mystery at the heart of Austin's layout...

http://www.sustainablelivingroadshow.org/

gonna check this out tomorrow when it hits Austin.

The Sustainable Living Roadshow (SLR) is a caravan of educators and entertainers who tour the country in a fleet of renewable fuel vehicles setting up off-the-grid eco-carnivals with experiential learning villages, empowering communities to utilize sustainable living strategies for a healthier planet.

The goal of the Sustainable Living Roadshow is to empower individuals and communities with the bioregional solutions for sustainability, including: local power generation, community based food production, natural building strategies, conscious consumer choices, progressive public health policies, and alternative transportation. SLR presents information around sustainable products and living strategies to support a shift in individual and communal choices. Our work represents a new paradigm in entertainment, education and business.

The primary value of SLR is our unique integration of entertainment, education, media and business: a design intended to celebrate practical solutions to environmental and social issues. Our success is based on our experience in touring, event production, grassroots education, conscious entertainment, and the collective depth of our networks.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/123107dnmetmarijuana.28cfa42.html

score! this just goes to show how much more enlightened Austin is than the rest of the state.

Texas lawmakers thought they could help ease jail overcrowding when they passed legislation allowing police to write tickets for misdemeanor marijuana possession and a few other nonviolent crimes, instead of hauling suspects to the clink.

But the new law, which went into effect Sept. 1, is being used only in Travis County. Prosecutors in Dallas, Tarrant and Collin counties never set up a system to process the misdemeanor citations and, they say, they have no plans to do so.

"I think the Legislature was very sensitive to the fact that there are so many jails that are overcrowded," said Terri Moore, Dallas County's first assistant district attorney. "This was a great idea, but it raises a lot more questions that we are not ready to answer."

The new law gives officers the option to arrest, as they have been doing, or write tickets for possession of less than 4 ounces of marijuana.