Still honest

I have a series of posts to make about Austin's East Side, but first a brief addendum to the walking posts:

I am scratched up, baby, bruised and scratched up.

The grid-like formation of scratches on the inside of my lower right arm and the scab on my left knee are due to pure silliness, but the cut on the inside of my lower left pinkie is for the cinema.

The Cine Las Americas, a great Latin American film festival in Austin, started yesterday. Was behind the ball in my preparations, but I went to town to make a list of picks today. The Headless Woman, an Argentinean flick that I missed at the Harvard Film Archive, was playing tonight at 6 and Saturday at noon, but at 5 today, I decided I didn't want to take the chance I'd miss it again. Last minute decisions have served me well, so over to S. Congress right as the bus pulls up. First song that comes on my Ipod is Lloyd Charmer's crooning and faithful reggae version of "Let's Get it On," which I took as a good sign. Never been down this far on Congress, but I like that the taqueria population seems to increase the further we go. Off the bus somewhere past my vague idea of the right bus stop - 6300 S. Congress.

Google Maps is great and rewarding as an artistic device, but can steer one wrong in the realm of functionality if one is careless. I walk, but do not see the street I'm looking for (Little Texas Lane). Also, there are no sidewalks here. I often get the feeling that I'm walking where I'm not supposed to. Some times it's more than a feeling, like the way the sideview mirror of that truck brushes up against your T-shirt sleeve. The people I ask for directions clearly don't speak English, but I'm giving it a shot anyway. Gonna take a right on N. Bluff Dr. and see what happens - an elementary school and kids playing on a trampoline. Gonna - I guess - take this left on Crow Lane, where they're clearing down trees and the sign reads, "No outlet." I'm sure I'm heading in the wrong direction, so now it's just an exploratory walk. Down the road, away from civilization, I see the most surreal part of my journey: a wooden staircase that leads to nowhere. Walk up the 20 or so steps and there actually is a small landing. Survey the landscape, like a dessert, with trees beyond, a hotel in the distance, and... oh shit, that looks like a movie theatre! Back down the steps, further down the road, and there it is. With a tall, chain-link fence separating us. And there are no openings in this fence, even remotely squeezable ones. That's okay. One foot up, then the other, pause like a vaulter with hands on the top of the fence - there's my pinkie scratch - and the long drop down. Success. Just gotta make a quick trip to washroom to wash my cut with soap and water, so as to avoid infection. I think they even waited for me for ten minutes to start the movie. Pretty damn interesting movie too.

On the bus ride back, the driver pulled over at a stop, swaggerred to the back of the bus, sat down next to some dude, and told him to stop cursing and being vulgar. I love Texas, y'all.