Chicken Poop Bingo at Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon

Deep Eddy Sweet Tea Vodka

While vodka may be the last thing you thought you’d come across in the heart of Austin, Texas, it’s just what you’ll find with Deep Eddy. For everything from cocktails to on the rocks, Deep Eddy Sweet Tea Vodka is the perfect antidote to a scorching Texas summer day. It’s not your grandma’s sweet tea, but it has the same slow, sweet, Southern taste — and it’s actually infused with real tealeaves and local clover honey. Read more

The Kimber Modern Hotel, Austin, Texas

Whilst in Austin the other weekend, I spent a couple of nights at a beautifully designed hotel called the Kimber Modern, which is located in the happening SOCO area, just a short hop, skip and sideways roll to the bustling hive of restaurants and cafes along South Congress. The Kimber Modern is a hotel with a twist. First up, the architecture is stunning, this elegant and contemporary building with subtle splashes of color to break up the overall white-walled minimalism. And then there are the clever design touches, such as communal hammocks made from car belts, and a giant tank churning liters of water in a calming, almost Zen-like manner. [photos by Alison Zavos] Read more

Austin Motel’s phallic signange?

I was in Austin last week and spent a night at the Austin Motel, where the rooms are all themed and the signage is a little … err … suggestive. As far as I can tell, it’s either telling me to bugger off or to come prepared. I mentioned it to the receptionist as I was checking out, asking her about the story behind its rather provocative nature, but she clearly didn’t find any humor in it and dryly responded that it was erected in 1938. Erected? Hmmm.

Maths explains the origin of superhero characters

I love the colours and simple reasoning in this clever series by Scottish illustrator Matt Cowen, which uses basic maths equations to explain how certain pop culture icons came to be. Read more

Star Wars Uncut: a fully crowdsourced version of Episode IV

The project of creative technologist, Casey Pugh, this full length version of the George Lucas masterpiece was created from multiple 15 second segments recreated from the original movie and submitted by thousands of Star Wars fans, which were then spliced together by editor Aaron Valdez to form the final product. Genius, as both a commentary on contemporary pop culture trends (there are references to LEGO, stop motion, memes and the like) and on the power of tapping your audience for quality material.

Filmmaker creates LEGO stop motion to propose to girlfriend

Now, this is one for the ages: back in 2010, Atlanta film-maker Walter Thompson created a jaw-dropping LEGO stop motion to propose to Nealey Dozier, his girlfriend of four years. The video took 22 hours of shooting and some 2,600 pictures to splice together, a small sacrifice to pay for years of happiness together. Right? Right! Oh, and she said yes. Bonus.