Weekend Activities in Austin

So, every Friday I send out "Friday Thoughts from Julie", which are a compilation of activities going on around Austin and the surrounding areas to everyone at work. They seem to be pretty popular so I thought I'd post them up here as well.

• Do Friday afternoons bring the realization that you need activities to keep your child/children occupied for the weekend? If so, check out the Fall Nature Nights at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Once a month, for only $1, your kids can be occupied for 3 whole hours and learn cool stuff. Tonight’s session is on Plants & People and will give you a chance to make your own recycled paper.

• That magical time of year is upon us. The time of year when you can do more damage to your heart, arteries and any diet plan than all the winter holidays combined. That’s right, the State Fair of Texas starts today. In addition to enjoying anything fried you could think of, I’ve heard there are also lifestock shows, midway rides and music. Whatever. All I know is this year’s Most Creative food (?) prize went to fried beer.

• It’s also time for the fall edition of The Pecan Street Festival. Saturday and Sunday head down to 6^th Street for the largest art festival in Central Texas. Tons of artisans from all over the U.S. will be on hand as well as five stages of music and plenty of food. But, Julie, you’re not addressing my most important question: will there be fried beer? Sadly, I don’t think so. You should still go, though.

• Once you’ve eaten all that yummy fried food, you really should do something active. Or, better yet, go watch someone else be active. Ballet Austin’s season starts this weekend at the Long Center. That sounds like a good place to go watch other people burn calories. If these current pieces, Carmina Burana & Kai aren’t quite your cup of ballet tea, note that they also already have tickets on sale for The Nutcracker.

• The new Visual Arts Center at U.T. is having its grand opening celebration this weekend. From noon to 9:00pm on Sunday there will be plenty of tours, conversations and performances to introduce everyone to this new space. The Center is free and open to the public except Saturdays when U.T. is playing at home. Yes, that’s right, football trumps the arts once again.

• If you or someone you know loves horror, fantasy, sci-fi, or action movies, then you have to check out “the geek Telluride” (Variety’s words, not mine) AKA Fantastic Fest, which started yesterday and runs through the 30^th. In addition to classics like Spaceballs (which includes a quote-a-long), there will be exciting premieres like Sharktopus. Don’t even try and tell me you haven’t been waiting to see Sharktopus for months now. I know you all better than that.

• If your movie tastes are more traditional, you could always go see The Town (unless you don’t like Boston accents). That’s what I did last night and it’s a darn good movie with a really impressive cast.

• Some former lawyers get jobs at cool foundations (that’d be me) while others start their own delicious sounding food trucks featuring a fusion of Tex-Mex and Vietnamese (that’d be Eric Silverstein). His truck, The Peached Tortilla, rolls into Austin this weekend. Saturday, the first night of business, Eric will be in front of Star Bar starting at 9:00pm and he’ll have complimentary tastings. After that, he’ll be roving the city so check out the website for location updates.