Hey yall, I just heard on KUT that Congress Ave is closed due to some sort of Hazmat/public safety incident. This stretches from Cesar Chavez through 11th, and a block on either side of Congress. Roadway access as well as building access is being blocked by police, so if you work downtown they are asking people not to come to work until at least noon today.
The article mentions that a bunch of dead birds have been found and the radio was saying that a bunch of police officers working along Congress had gotten really sick earlier this morning. Erika and I went to see a documentary at the Alamo last night and saw a bird who seemed quite stunned, but not physically injured at all, just standing in the middle of the 5th and Congress intersection last night around 6:45pm. Erika couldn't get him to move at all -- he just stood there looking around but wouldn't walk or fly off. I don't know if it's related, but after hearing about the birds thing it made me wonder.
no idea - but I park my car in the Frost Bank tower and couldn't go to work today. I'm walking all around like 'where is everybody?' and after spending about 15 minutes in 'The Hot Zone' a police man on a motorcycle tells me 10,000 birds were found dead and two people went to the hospital sick. I think he was a bit prone to hyperbole as news reports indicate the figure is closer to 12.
No word yet on if it's a real concern or not.
Anybody read Don Dellilo's White Noise? That's what I'm reading right now. Eery related overtone to it.
Last edited by Miggy on January 8th, 2007, 3:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Statesman said 60 birds. The first thing that came to my mind was a gas leak, then a psychopathic avian serial killer.
"Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honor and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet." Tom Robbins
Well I've given it some thought, and while I think the avian serial killer is certainly one possiblity, I prefer to think of these dead birds as an apocolyptic warning from above. Perhaps they'll never actually find the cause of their deaths because it was a divine warning that we are in for a true test of our faith as we experience hell on earth in the coming years. We will be tempted by the mark of the beast...or maybe we already have. We will wish for a swift end to our suffering only to find warmer temperatures and more dead birds...
How's this for too soon? A sketch inspired by the incident...
A Wing and A Prayer
RAOUL--A gruff Tom waits-sounding grackle and LOU--a squeaky air-headed Jersey type address the audience.
VOICE: And now a public service announcement from our avian friends.
GEORGE: Hi. My name is George. I'm here to represent all the grackles in the neighborhood. And this here's Lou.
LOU: I'm a pidgeon.
GEORGE: Lou and me and thousands of our friends are known to roost around in the trees that line Congress and Sixth Street.
LOU: It never snows here.
GEORGE: We like this neighboorhood because there's plenty of food and shelter. Grackles and pidgeons, as you know, rely on the kindness of people to feed us. Whether it's a discarded pizza crust from a drunken frat boy or the left-over noodles in the dumpster behind Thai noodles, we subsist on your unwanted food.
LOU: (dreamily) Bratwurst....
GEORGE: Recently, some yahoo thought it would be smart put out some poison for us to eat. Lou and I lost several good friends
LOU: I miss Gabriel.
GEORGE: We don't know for sure why someone wanted us dead. Maybe they were tired of us begging. Maybe it's the incessant chatter we make at dusk when we're roosting. Or...maybe it's because some yahoo decided to park his Volvo under a tree.
LOU: So shiny...
GEORGE: We don't mess on your cars on purpose. You try sleeping in a tree sometime. Regardless, I want the yahoo who did this to consider something. Your flying friends are repsonsible for cleaning up after you. Grackles and pidgeons reduce the amount of landfill trash by .2% every year. Our Buzzard friends in the country help take care of roadkill. And the Mexican freetail bats that live under the Congress Street Bridge...
RAOUL, a Mexican freetail bat skitters acoss the stage blindly, consuming insects. Then stops.
GEORGE: They consume thirty thousand pounds of pesky insects a night. (Beat) Hey, Raoul, any luck?
Raoul looks around blindly toward the voice of George.
RAOUL: (Spanish accent) It's like a giant mosquito buffet.
Raoul skitters away.
GEORGE: We are both nature's trashmen and its exterminators. We get rid of what you don't want. The car thing? We can't help that the city decides to put all its free parking spaces under trees. In our opinion, a little mess on your windshield is a small price to pay for the larger mess we reduce.
LOU: I miss Anita.
GEORGE: So,in the future, please consider our feelings. And remember how we help you. And besides...
LOU: You don't want us to go Hitchcock on your ass.
LIGHTS OUT.
VOICE: This public service message brought to you by the carwash association of Austin.
Last edited by HerrHerr on January 8th, 2007, 8:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Sometimes it's a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence.
--David Byrne
Heard about this. Like your sketch, Ceej. Hope there was not a goverment funded crazy "seismic" test that killed the birds -- like in THE CORE (a stupid movie, but maybe the Hollywood producers were trying to warn us. Like with that other film, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW. Hm).
sara_anm8r wrote:Heard about this. Like your sketch, Ceej. Hope there was not a goverment funded crazy "seismic" test that killed the birds -- like in THE CORE (a stupid movie, but maybe the Hollywood producers were trying to warn us. Like with that other film, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW. Hm).
I've seen the Core four times, Deep Impact thrice, Armageddon at least seven times. They kept playing on HBO one year and I couldn't help myself, I just couldn't help myself. I eat that shit up!
"I don't use the accident. I deny the accident." - Jackson Pollock
