It's about the Austin Weekly which bears a suspicious resemblance to the Austin Chronicle. KLBJ's Bob and Dudley guest star and many other familiar local faces will be showing up in the series. They're trying to give the real world feel of Austin. They're doing a lot of filming in a Riverside Drive building that was once HQ Fitness. The set includes the offices of the Austin Weekly, a large 60s UT style house, a cafe, and an apartment. They'll probably know around December if MTV will pick it up beyond the initial 13 programs. Hope it makes it!

A net search turned this up: barton:~ whois austinstories.com austinstories (LikeTV Ltd) (AUSTINSTORIES-DOM) 2 Kendall Place London, - W1H 3AH UK Domain Name: AUSTINSTORIES.COM Administrative Contact: Bowbrick, Steve (SB491) steve@WEBMEDIA.COM +44 171 317 1301 (FAX) +44 171 224 7049 Technical Contact, Zone Contact: Henderson-Thynne, Mark (MH1048) netnames@NETNAMES.COM +44 171 224 2017 Billing Contact: NetNames Accountant (NUSM-ORG) accountant@NETNAMES.COM +44 171 224 2017 Fax- +44 171 224 4313 Record last updated on 28-May-96. Record created on 28-May-96. Database last updated on 9-Aug-97 04:38:04 EDT. Domain servers in listed order: NS1.WEBSERVICES.NET 194.106.36.1 NS2.WEBSERVICES.NET 194.72.236.3

Robert Campanell (robcamp@well.com) is the producer of the InterneTV version and I got most of the following information from him. It's called "Austin" and it is about four young people living in an Austin group house. It is the first video-based soap produced exclusively for the net. They use all the major video streaming formats (VDO, Vivo, RealVideo). It's at http://www.internetv.com/austin/ Six episodes are online right now. It is scheduled for 16 weekly episodes. Each episode consists of five scenes. Each scene runs 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Most are around one minute. There's an episode with a salsarobics class (hey, I took that class!) The "Austin" characters are: Karen - the nosey one Dustin - the playboy Steve - the uptight one Monica - the mysterious one (played by Marie Newmeyer) Jennifer - the artsy one /Dustin's old girlfriend Aimee - Dustin's new girl friend Megan - Dustin's teenage girlfriend Dead(Ed) - Karen's ex-boyfriend Laura - Steve's new girlfriend/Dead(Ed)'s old girlfriend

What's the latest on this?

In a public restroom, an accountant, a lawyer and a cowboy were standing side-by-side using the urinal. The accountant finished, zipped up and started washing and literally scrubbing his hands...clear up to his elbows. He used about 20 paper towels before he finished. He turned to the other two men and commented, "I graduated from the University of Michigan and they taught us to be clean." The lawyer finished, zipped up and quickly wet the tips of his fingers, grabbed one paper towel and commented, "I graduated from the University of California and they taught us to be environmentally conscious." The cowboy zipped up and as he was walking out the door said, "I graduated from the University of Texas--and they taught us not to piss on our hands."

Since then there has been Austin City Limits (or was that before, too?)...surely the capital of the most august state in the Union boasting the finest gentlemen I know has yet some stories to tell, other than the obvious ones?!

Oh, Austin Stories is a TV show???? Sorry. I thought the UT joke would fit here. Didn't know where else to put it except in my own "Screwed" site where only Marcia and I will read it!

A few years ago...if you noticed this was dormant for 2 years. Use it for your purposes...it makes more sense now this way, anyway!

Tis better to revitalize an old topic than to create new ones. We shall just revamp this one and new will notice the difference.

Pump it up, like Hans and Franz say. I did a quick web search for the words Austin Stories and found a site with the journals of people in Austin. It's kind of interesting and a serendipitous find. http://www.brokennews.net/79242/austin.shtml Here's an example of one: http://www.angelfire.com/ut/mattsmind/home.html In the Front of my Mind: 09/12/99 -- Emmys, Emmys, and more Emmys 09/11/99 -- Drunken Final Fantasies -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Updates: 09/09/99 -- Alright, another new splash page featuring (who else) Tori Amos. I plan on keeping the page much more current. I promise to fulfill two conditions, 1) I won't go more than 3 days without an update and 2) I will have at least 3 updates a week. Seems simple, doesn't it. I just hope I stick to it. 09/07/99 -- Alright, finally another update. I'm really planning on doing better. REALLY! 08/12/99 -- Okay, I added a new splash page, and I'm caught up, sorta. I'll catch up the rest of the way soon, and then I may officially change the frequency that I do updates. We'll see. 08/07/99 -- Finally home from Joplin, running a few days behind, hope to catch up soon. Please vote on my hair.

Ok, an Austin story from the last century.... Me and a certain particular member of the Austin community who will remain un-named were sneaking around the back alleys behind Guadolupe in search of junction boxes for a wee bit o' hack-n. Never did find one but many stories were traded regarding the arcane art of phreakdom which someday may be recounted. And thats all I can say about that.... Also fond rememberences of wandering up and down the drag to view the latest in anarcho-drag-wurm fashion before retreating to Mad Dogs for burgers and possibly to Inner Sanctum records to buy post-modern art damage music for recreational purposes only. _cosmo_

uh huh...you think you're gonna get away with just posting that much and no more? Not gonna happen! Waiting...

ahhh, so you did see that posting.... Well, there is such a thing as the statute of limitations.... Some of the things I can talk about involve racing around town at breakneck speeds on amateur radio fox hunts - where myself and Paul N1AAC would outfit the vehicle with antenna and sensitive radio, maps, flashlights, etc and race through neighborhoods - stop - get a directional 'fix' and race off again. Freaked out the locals. Most of my free time was spent goofing off and taking in the college life as a non-college under-employeed engineering geek. Hence all that time at the used book and record stores and wandering around the drag with no particular place to go (except to the burger place, said bookstore/record store, or, sometimes to catch some artsy fartsy Euro flick at the campus theatre.) In retrospect - should have hung out with the Robot Group - which really got going after I skipped town. Now, alot of that cool alterna-culture kinda vanished so I have to make do. Have not snuck through any alley ways in along time tho.... _cosmo_

Thanks, Mike! What memories you bring to mind of college days... The local hams here have fox hunts and it is great fun to ride along. I was always the one with the radio, map and flashlight hanging on for dear life as my companion two-wheeled the corners. No alleys in Hawaii that I know of - at least not on this island. Alas!

Um....Mike....Statute of Limitations...I'll wait till it is too late to slam you in the local lock-up....*sigh* I could not bear the though of you languishing in there without boat anchor or other masculine entertainment...

Mel Riser, with autoeloan.com is really in to the Robot Group, they have their own place now next to the totally naked strip joint on South Congress. They're still going strong. Mickey, who just changed his call from YAC to something else, is big in to the transmitter hunts. The hamburger joint, would it be Dirty's?

no clink for me hee - hee.... So the 'bot group moved next to a strip joint? Yow! Would the girls come to the next Robo-Fest? Glad to hear the group got back together - wished I could have made one of their meetings but as I said - moved before the group really got started although I did hang a couple of times at the old 'Discovery Hall' ages ago. So Mickey changed his call? Everything is changing..... Anyway, the burger joint was Mad Dogs (RIP) - one of my fave places to hang out at along with the rest of the nihilist or pseudo-nihilist punkers - whatever.... But, alas, like Les Amis and the other cool ambient places in that area - all gone. Went to Dirty's once tho or was it Nasty's (Dirty-Nasty's?) Cant remember - was a comfy old bar place where some epic card games were waged and beer consumed. de Mike

Geez, now I know why they called it The Wild West...

I at least salvaged the furniture from Les Amis and dragged it out to Cedar Creek (some neat booths with lots of graffita carved in them). Maybe it is Dirty Nasty's, it's a counter culture place (ie. place with a counter).

Eclectic furnishing. How interesting! Betcha they're sturdy! Any deathless prose carved on the booths?

Sure, lots of love notes, some profanity, initials, etc.

Gee, just like school desks or graffiti anywhere. Even the stuff they found on Hadrian's Wall in Britain built by the Roman occupation (43AD to the mid 400's AD) had the same stuff carved into the bricks! Guess it is as old as writing itself!

I kinda figured the tables at Les Amis would have a bit of a more artsy fartsy/intellectual form of graffiti - seemed like that kind of hangout. I guess that would be a good sociology research topic - graffiti in the engineering building vs the chem building vs fine arts vs theaters, etc. Then compare the graffiti of MIT vs Harvard, UT vs A&M, Stanford vs UCLA, etc... The bar in question was behind the old Austin Outhouse (down the street...) Were working on 10 year old archive memory here and my brain cells aint what they used to be..... Pulled out an old Austin Chronicle from 1990 (saved a few from over the years) - saw old news items (Manor airport vs Bergstrom, Barton Creek PUD and SOS, city growth, etc). I do ponder how I will view the place upon my triumphant return to live. Lots of the old hang outs are gone, new hangouts exist - changed a bit over the years myself as well. Guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.... de Mike

Wow, a reflective Mike. Thanks for sharing. Thomas Wolfe and others have said you can't go home again... You can, but you are right. Both you and Austin will have changed in the interim. I like your idea about the Graffiti. However, if it is like at Penn State, lecture halls don't count. Idiot 101 takes place there as well as Scholarly 404. Checking between Ivy League and State Universities and regional variations should be the most telling.

Yea, I was thinking about a song by Don Henley with a line about Deadhead stickers, Cadillacs, and not turning back. Life back then was kind of like a rare planetary alignment which will never happen again in this lifetime or any of the other ones lined up on the great wheel. Too many synchronistic things would have to fall back into place and frankly, once was enuf.... BTW, a good movie to watch about the era of Austin when I was wreaking havoc around the place was 'Slacker'. Lots of places in that movie are not around any more... I guess the same could be said of those who lived in the city in the late 60's and 70's who looked back from the 80's and alot of stuff they did/saw vanished - oh well, progress.... Anyway, as far as graffiti goes, there would be a big dif in Ivy League vs state scribbling. Speaking of planetary alignments, I remember the goofy road trip I did from Houston to San Diego back during the Harmonic Convergence - just remember driving across the vast desert with bursts of green where the orchards were and finally sighting the mountain range from miles away - hours later finally reaching and crossing those mountains. Tangerine Dream playing on the car stereo. Little houses and lakes from the snow runoff. Deep blue sky and glare not so much from the angle of the sun but from the light of the whole place. de Mike