Diatribes by Joah

Education, Hollywood-Style

In case you didn't know, Eastwood and Spielberg co-produced the Eastwood-directed films Flags of our Fathers (in theatres now) and Letters from Iwo Jima, set to hit theatres next year.  Both stories chronicle the battle for the all-too-important Pacific island of Iwo Jima in the peak of the WWII battle between the home of Mount Rushmore vs. the home of Mt. Fuji.

Their interest in WWII history (Eastwood with Iwo Jima and Spielberg with the Holocaust) is obvious.  What's more obvious is their acknowledgement that some films are more important than a big opening weekend.  (Read: some topics are more important than standardized tests!)  Some films educate more than they entertain, thus they fill our brains more than they fill theatre seats. 

Clint Eastwood made Westerns blockbusters with his Dirty Harry character.  Steven Spielberg made the definition of a blockbuster with the Jaws series.  Both are Hollywood legends.  Both have multiple Oscar's.  Both have directed classic films: Eastwood with Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, Spielberg with the Indiana Jones series (which will soon to be resurrected for a fourth installment), E.T. and Jurassic Park (among many, many others).

Eastwood and Spielberg no longer have anything to prove in Hollywood so I think it's time they focus their attention and interests in other directions.  In America's classrooms.  Both have helped shape Hollywood, but if I have anything to do with it over the next several years and decades, both will help shape the way the American public education system works and subsequently how America's youth will learn.

Think about it: Spielberg and Eastwood (and their top-notch writers, including Flags writer Paul Haggis of Crash and Million Dollar Baby fame) could get with the Houghton-Mifflins and Addison-Wesleys and McGraw-Hills of the textbook publishing world (along with the academics) and re-write history books and even make DVDs for each classroom.  Dreamworks, 20th Century Fox, Universal and all the other big studios could distribute the DVDs at a flat-reduced rate (with tax incentives) and the directors, writers and actors could further boost their profiles and impact on society since they seem to take themselves for politicians and leaders anyway.

We could have people like Bono, Angelina Jolie and Bill Bryson teaming up to teach foreign policy  and international relationship through in-class videos, along with teaming up with textbook writers to find more interesting ways to pique students' interest.  This is a limitless idea once you get going...

This is my lineup for who helps to teach/write the textbooks for each subject:

Political science - Warren Beatty (Reds, Bullworth), Arnold Schwarzenegger (who is being one hell of a Governor for California these days, truth be told) and Bill Clinton

Economics - Warren Buffett (world's second-wealthiest man) and Richard Branson (a smarter, less annoying version of Donald Trump)

Journalism - Jon Stewart and Katie Couric

Music - Pharrell, Alicia Keys and John Mayer, all sing, play instruments and win Grammys

Sports - Steve Nash, Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning, Tiger Woods, Andre Agassi, and the list goes on and on...

Driving Instruction - Jeff Gordon and Danica Patrick

Creative Writing - Paul Haggis, Aaron Sorkin (West Wing, Studio 60 creator) and Malcolm Gladwell (Tipping Points, Blink author)

Public Speaking - Oprah and Barack Obama (unless Clinton passes on poli sci for something easier)

Foreign Languages - Lucy Liu, Zhang Ziyi, Eva Mendes, Eva Longoria and any other "beautiful women that know other languages" could teach to the boys; Gael Garcia Bernal could teach Spanish to the girls and Kobe Bryant could teach Italian to the women.  Shit, we cuold even get some ESL action going with the San Antonio Spurs (Ginobili, Parker,etc.)

Life Skills - Dr. Phil and Jay-Z

I even think we could get people like Ellen DeGeneres, Justin Timberlake, Kanye West, and the casts of Entourage (including Emmanuelle Chriqui and Samaire Armstrong) to teach things like comedy, dance, music production and acting.

Obviously, I don't cover the maths and sciences, but those are areas where there aren't any readily-available and well-informed celebrities to connect with the kids.

******

Now I know you think I'm joking around, but I'm dead-serious the way Tiger Woods is dead-serious about breaking Jack Nicklaus' records.  I think this system could work.

The main factors are: cost, relevance, support, evaluation.

Well, the studios and publishers could handle the cost for production if the federal government gives some nice tax breaks and the actors/writers/directors would end up looking like fools for not contributing for free.

Half of the kids in America don't know much about history, literature and the arts anyway so why not have people like Spielberg and Kanye and Oprah take a stab at connecting with today's youth ... we can always change the textbooks and videos every so often to keep up with the times.

Once the textbooks and videos are created, we could create all kinds of reward systems to support the program including the opportunity meet the celebrities through essay contests (for grades, no doubt) and team projects and all sorts of things like that.  This will greatly encourage "C students who don't have incentive to make As" to step it up, thus, decreasing the gap between over-achievers and under-achievers.

As for evaluation, I don't think you can put standardized tests behind this kind of system.  In today's age, kids learn more about WWII from a two-hour movie than two years of classes.  Non-English-speaking kids learn English faster watching movies (with subtitles) and music videos than they do from some classes.  And it's no surprise kids remember what happened on last week's episode of O.C. or Laguna Beach more than they remember what they were quizzed on last week in chemistry class.  I was a straight-A student and I can still say, with full confidence, that I learned more about the Civil Rights Movement, WWII, American literature, and a number of things from movies and documentaries more than academic textbooks.  Long story short, I don't doubt we'll have positive results.

And what about the violence in movies or the cursing and negative messages in music?  Look no further than any inner-city school in America, or Columbine or an Amish school to find those same, yet very real, occurences.

So...Clint, Steven...you in?

'Click' My Way Through Life? No thanks.

Past behavior is the best indicator of future behavior. We don't need Sigmund Freud to tell us that. But I'd like to think that my friends could tell you my future character.

It was never my plan to write a blog inspired by an Adam Sandler movie, but I can't help it if Click was a little more poignant than I expected. If you're not familiar with the story, basically it starts with Adam Sandler being a do-everything-to-get-ahead architect (David Hasselhoff is his boss) who puts work before family. Somehow, he gets his hands on a universal remote (thanks to Christopher Walken) that soon finds him fast-forwarding (among other things) through parts of his life, from arguments and sex to whole weekends and years before realizing the importance of family.

I'm not here to rehash the movie or reiterate its message, but whenever Sandler would fast-forward through anything from an argument or sex or illness, the remote would learn his behavior to the point that it eventually began fast-forwarding through his entire life in bunches. Before long, he was an old man.

Think about it...do we all wish we could do what Sandler's character did? Do we all wish we could fast-forward through the daily struggles and challenges of life? Women fast-forwarding to their next great love. Men fast-forwarding to that next great lay. Women fast-forwarding to the next week to watch Grey's Anatomy or Desperate Housewives or men fast-forwarding to the Super Bowl (then rewinding to place bets) or March Madness (to find out if their alma mater makes the Final Four. There are all kinds of applications and usages of a universal remote.

If it was right in front of me, I'd definitely use it. But it's not in front of me, so you won't find me asking for it. I'm not saying I'm any different than Sandler's character or any of you who experience the same amounts of trials and tribulations. Of note, I bet some of you would fast-forward through entire conversations with me. Don't lie, it's okay ... you can stay anonymous.

Regardless, I find it rather intriguing that past behavior is the best indicator of future behavior because we're all always talking about what we want to do and who we want to be. We want to be skinny or fun or more knowledgeable about politics or a better friend or a better lover or a professor or a CEO or rich or honest or patient. But does our past behavior to become skinny or rich or patient indicate our future self?

I'll be the first one to tell you I'm not the person I want to be 100%. But I'm 100% the person I am right now. I relate to Little Brother's (Phonte) lyric :

"Everyday is a chance to do the things I could've done the day before but didn't and knew that I should've."

But just because I relate doesn't mean I hold true. I lie to myself (and likely others) every single day. I haven't done some of the things I should've done yesterday for 8,580-someodd days.

I hate being a liar or ego-maniac or impatient or over-ambitious or bad childhood memories-holdin' or over-analytically thinking or quick-to-judge or C.R.E.A.M-seekin' individual. And I'm not talking about the Wu-Tang definition of C(ash).R(ules).E(verything).A(round).M(e)...I'm talking about my need for competition. More specifically, my need to win.

Each and every single indivdual day of the year I'm Joah-in-training. It's a race between being the Joah I shouldn't be versus the Joah I should be; the Joah I could be versus the Joah I can be. I just do what I can to win each day.

Each and every single day I realize I'm not quite the person I want to be.

Each and every day I tell myself I'm trying to improve.

Each day I have to judge myself and my life and my mistakes and my faults and my characteristics and my pitfalls and my accomplishments and my ambitions and my friendships.

Each one of my character, and my friendships by extension, give me reason not to fast-forward. Past behavior can be made unimportant, future behavior is by nature undetermined.

That leaves me with my present day behavior and the 'play' button.

One-Upping a Billionaire Philanthropist

(It is imperative that one reads these "diatribes" as equal parts entertainment and introspection and not full representations of who I am, although I do stand by everything I say/write.)

The other day I talked about the 'it' factor, of which I have yet to discover any personal relation.  Ego, however, is one of my glaring characteristics so please (for)give me my faults.

I'd have to write a book to give you the long story of why my ego is so inflated, but I'll give you the short instead.  I've boiled it down to two facets: a) growing up fatherless, poor and black (not mutually exclusive in this case) and b) my belief that humility seems to be un-black American.

For me, growing up fatherless meant my mom (along with her time and budget) were overworked so instead of having a two-parent support system to instill and mold my value system, I was more likely to be influenced by outside factors (though drugs and crime were never outlets, thank God and my mom) like television, literature, music and the like.

For me, growing up poor meant not realizing that a certain day just happened to be Christmas Eve and no birthday parties and school shopping between Goodwill and K-Mart.

For me, growing up black (or African-American depending on your preference) meant I learned to associate Christmas with being white, the Cosby's were the happiest black people in America and I was more likely to steal from or work at K-Mart than to be a good, loving father for my kids or graduate from college.

Combine those three factors and you have an increasingly envious/introspective/jealous/independent/motivated young man.  I made friends, but black kids said I wasn't 'black' enough because I was too smart or too well-spoken/properly clothed or too interested in "white people music" or not "street" enough to keep my ghetto pass, so I was left to befriend kids with both parents and money and ... white skin.

Not that I was unhappy with my friends because I had (and continue to have) the best friends a guy could ever ask for.  But it's not exactly easy being a black kid when the reason the other black kids wouldn't befriend me is the same reason the white kids did like me.  But I survived (and thrived) either way and my ego can take much of the credit.

As my ego enhanced, I further developed my belief that humility is un-black American.  I'm talking about what black people in America are doing today.

Oprah Winfrey is on every single cover of her magazine; that's unprecedented.  Sean 'Diddy' Combs says "I run this city" when referring to New York even though far wealthier and powerful individuals live in that same city (Michael Bloomberg to name one in particular).  It's common to see professional athletes referring to themselves in the third person ... and I'm not talking about the Joe Montanas and Roger Clemens' of the world.

So why does Oprah have her picture on every cover?  Why does Diddy think he runs New York?  Why do Terrell Owens or Vince Carter have to refer to themselves in the third person?  Maybe it's because having grown up poor and black and, quite possibly, fatherless ... they too adapted and achieved - as I have - with equal parts envy and introspection and jealousy and independence and motivation.

Through it all, those qualities lead to ambition.  Ambition to succeed, but perhaps moreso it's ambition to supercede.  We figure if we overdo it with excess and the "fruits of our labor" in our adult years, we can further distance ourselves from the struggles and envy and self-distaste of our early years.

That's why we buy big cars before big homes because though we didn't get to "go to the nice side of town" as children, we sure did see the cars "they" drove.  We contact the jeweler before the realtor; we buy designer clothes before hiring interior designers; we invest in NBA teams instead of more profitable NYSE and NASDAQ companies; we throw million-dollar parties before donating millions to charities.

Now I may be ruffling a few people's feathers with my honesty here, but the truth is simple: where white people have privilege, black people have ego.  Where a white teenager can run through the motions and still land on Pennsylvania Avenue in life's game of Monopoly, a black kid is dreaming about landing on Park Place and Boardwalk.  I'm not saying these are universal principles, I'm just saying they're common ones.

For example, rapper Eminem grew up poor and fatherless so he's a perfect example of how being black (added with those other two factors) really changes one's ego.  He's arguably the best/most successful rapper for the last ten years, but you wouldn't hear him say that...why?  Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that he understands the fact that being white (privilege) helped his career in a way that even Jay-Z couldn't dream of.  But Eminem isn't an egotistical rapper simply because he doesn't need to be.  It's his perorgative.  And privilege.

When Slim Shady could've taken the throne of rap music what did he do? He helped re-launch Dr. Dre's career, pushed 50 Cent's career to stratospheric levels and guest produced and rapped on Jay-Z's Blueprint album. That's the mark of a guy not pushing for limelight (though he was definitely getting paid).

Now, if Eminem were a black rapper, he'd have likely went on a 50 Cent-like attack of every credible MC (Nas, Fat Joe, etc.) to further boost his already flourishing career and stature.  Instead you'd more likely find Em spending time with his daughter, working in the studio on his friends' albums (Obie Trice anyone?) or laying low for a few years.

Back to yours truly, though.  Much to the chagrin of my middle and high school classmates, I am in fact black.  So, as can be expected of anyone with my upbringing, I want a Ferrari F55 and dream of owning an NFL team someday.

But another aim crossed my mind a few months back when I read about Warren Buffett's (the world's second-wealthiest man) plan to give his $44 billion to charity.  Half of Americans don't even know who he is or what he looks like, now that's the anti-ego billionaire.

Me on the other hand, if I ever amass that much money - when goodwill doesn't have anything to do with old t-shirts that read "American Heart Association 5k Race 1994" - my press conference will go a little something like this:

Me: "Joah is here today to announce he will be donating $44 billion plus $1 dollar to charity.  Before I go into details, I want to thank the people who have played a great role in where I am today ... starting with the man up above, my mom and family, and all the people who helped me growing up and in my career.  I especially want to thank the people that said I wasn't 'black' enough - which I find strange seeing that they call me the world's richest 'black' man.  This donation is a symbol of my success, of which I've had plenty, but more importantly it's a symbol that dreams do come true, not just for Joah, but for other fatherless, poor, black kids out there. I'll take the first question now..."

Reporter: Why are you donating $44 billion + $1 dollar?

Me: "Oh, that's simple, I did that because Joah does not intend to be as cheap as Warren Buffett."

Capturing 'It'; not what it used to be?

Is it the “it” factor or is it the ‘it’ factor?

Whichever way you write it, it’s not the kind of attribute individuals choose for themselves.  It’s more God-given than a way of livin’.

While writing my first book, Notes from the Class You Missed, over the past two years, I’ve read hundreds of magazines, books, articles and heard hundreds of other stories about people with ‘it’.

Historians say General George Washington had ‘it’.  No wonder he was a unanimous choice to be this country’s first President back in '89.

Obviously, Charlie Chaplin had ‘it’.  So did Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, though for slightly different reasons.  Woody Allen thought Diane Keaton had ‘it’ and now his new muse, Scarlett Johansson, is following the same route.

In many regards, JFK realized his own ‘it’-ness during his 1960 Presidential campaign against Richard Nixon.  He won.  I’ve actually spoken with a few people that even knew his brother Bobby (make sure to see the upcoming film) and he had ‘it’ too.

In music, the Beatles – more specifically John Lennon – had ‘it’.  Madonna and Michael Jackson (pre-boys) dominated the 80s because they had ‘it’.  Michael lost it a few years back.

In sports, it seems Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzsky and Michael Jordan ushered in a new generation of athletes with ‘it’.  Or maybe everyone is so desperate to repeat his greatness.  Nonetheless, Michael Vick, Derek Jeter and Lebron James have picked up the slack in many ways.  Don’t forget a certain Texas Longhorns-turned-Tennessee Titans quarterback either.

From Vince Young to Vince Vaughn to Van Morrison to Van Gogh … the ‘it’ factor is associated with equal parts talent and mystique.

As medical technology improves with each year and DNA studies are enabling doctors to pinpoint specific traits and characteristics pre-birth, I fear there may come a time when parents – the kind that force their children to acting auditions or beauty pageants or football camps or piano lessons – will start urging doctors and scientists to find the root to the very mystique we love to watch on the big screen or in the big game.

Unfortunately, those parents will be envisioning their sons and daughters as the next Tiger Woods or Beyonce.  Perhaps we’d be better served envisioning our children (and ourselves) as doctors, scholars and professionals at things other than sports and entertainment.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this, but I got thinking about this ‘it’ factor stuff when I was reading about Illinois Junior Senator Barack Obama in GQ and Time this month.  I’m completely engaged in what’s shaping up to be a wide-open Presidential race in 2008 and Obama’s name is starting to resonate louder and longer.  I won’t go off on a tangent, but the short of it is simple: he shouldn’t run yet (look at what happened to John Edwards when he was too impatient to wait another round).

As for Obama, I believe he has the ‘it’ factor.  It’s actually quite obvious.

The problem, though, is that he’s being encouraged to run for President (after just two years as a Senator) simply because America is so desperate for someone with the ‘it’ factor in the Oval Office.

That type of thinking may have been okay in the NBA or in Hollywood , but America isn’t what it was in 1789.

Teen Years and Television

While on my post-resignation vacation I've been watching a lot of TV.  And on my own admission, Laguna Beach hasn't been missed.  I've come to realize something: I have learned more from TV than from all my high school teachers and principals combined.

I repeat, I learned more from watching television than I have from all of my high schooling – grades nine through 12 combined.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved my high school years from start to finish.  The social environment, the girls, the games, the clubs, my track team, the way everything changes every four months, the simplicity of it all.  Not that it seemed so simple when it was happening. 

We all had our share of Laguna Beach moments where every little disagreement or argument or breakup or hook-up or “he said, she said” seemed like the end of the world or the beginning of a new one.  Each of us had our Lauren “LC” or Stephen or Kristin.  Or, even worse, there Tessa or Kami or Cameron.  Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.

If only I’d have had Laguna Beach when I was 13.  I would’ve known better.  I would have realized how unimportant some of those minute occurrences were. 

Better yet, if I’d have had O.C. back then, I would have known I could screw up and make as many bad decisions as Seth Cohen or Ryan Atwood and still somehow made it into UC-Berkeley or R.I.S.D. (that’s the Rhode Island School of Design).  Or maybe that’s just me wishing I had the kind of money the Cohens have.

Either way, it’s pretty interesting how high school teachers know less about being a high school student than Hollywood writers.   

Even though Saved by the Bell was full of drama (think: “I’m so excited … I’m so excited … I’m so scared...” from Elizabeth Berkeley’s Jesse), it was inarguably the best high school-based TV show ever.  Ron Howard or ‘The Fonz’ can’t dispute that.

So what is it about the high school years that are so easy for Hollywood to get right?  What types of “best practices” could be packaged and sold by Houghton-Mifflin or McGraw-Hill? 

Was it just me or did Mr. Belding represent everything you ever wanted in a high school principal?  Why aren’t the real high school principals watching that show for pointers?

Why isn’t Aaron Spelling touring America ’s high schools and colleges giving lectures? 

Seriously, we could do a line-by-line and compare what TV has taught us versus what school taught us and it wouldn’t even be close.

Drugs & Alcohol: High school teachers pretend students don’t use them.  High school principals ignore their infiltration into schools.  TV, on the other hand, deals with the issues head on, i.e. the aforementioned classic Saved by the Bell episode when Jesse got hooked on pills or the O.C. where Marissa (played soap operifically by Mischa Barton) starts dabbling or when Mrs. Cohen starts boozin’ it up. 

Advantage: TV

Sex & Relationships: High school teachers pretend middle school teachers said it all.  High school principals pretend students aren’t doing it.  Meanwhile, TV takes on yet another important issue, ex: any season of Dawson’s Creek.  And I’ll give a mention to Wonder Years and Boy Meets World because they both had “wholesome” relationships to balance out the drama on their more sensational counterparts. 

Advantage: TV

Parenting & Family Concerns: High school teachers and principals say “talk to the counselor.”  High school counselors refer you to a “professional” or back to your parents.  TV handles these issues and some with shows like Sopranos (it’s hard growing up in a Mafia family) and O.C. (because it can be hard having to drive a Range Rover to school everyday). 

Advantage: TV

Last but not least… 

Life Lessons:  Surprisingly, many high school teachers and principals do play an active role in our formative years.  I still talk to one of my high school track coaches and my band instructor was one of my favorites.  Unfortunately, The Cosby Show, Family Matters and Full House make it impossible to beat TV.

Advantage: TV 

I know it’s a bit unfair to compare teachers and principals to fictional characters because there’s a certain level of fantasy that makes Mr. Belding more likeable than any of our high school teachers or
principals.

But the simple truth is that you can add up all the seasons of Saved by the Bell or any other show and they’d still not equal the amount of hours we spent at high school between the ages of 14 and 18.   

Eight hours-a-day in classrooms could often times be less educational than one hour in front of the idiot box.  No lie.

Some would say parents are supposed to teach these lessons, but those people are just plain simple-minded to think that from 8 to 4 everyday from September to June (or Aug. to May) we're supposed to only learn about Chemistry or Calculus. But that's idioti, in itself, to believe.

If you don’t believe me, try this simple test. 

Think about any TV/high school character and then think about your favorite high school teacher or principal.  Which one showed you more about how to handle the non-academic facets of life in high school?

Before long, I think you’ll agree with my opening statement.

Why I love Austin, Texas

Some cities are easy to figure out.

New York is a city of hard-knocks and hustle-and-bustle, built from the mixture of Wall Street elitism (a la Gordon Gekko) to 5th Avenue's fashion savvy to Brooklyn's swagger (think Jay-Z).

L.A. is a city of dreamers and the land of opportunists.  Every aspiring actress or singer or director is actually a "waiter" or "bartender" or "bouncer."

Miami is a city of contrast ... just listen to the lyrics of Rick Ross' "(Everyday I'm) Hustin'" - "I know Pablo ... Noriega, the real Noriega, he owe me a hundred favors" - to Will Smith's "Miami" - "welcome to the city where the heat is on, all night in the city 'til the break is on."

Austin, Texas, isn't one of those easily-observable/describable cities.

Sure they have that whole "Keep Austin Weird" thing goin' on, but that slogan only exist for those people living South of Anderson Lane, North of Riverside Drivem, East of 360 and West of 1-35.

Then they have that "Live Music Capitol of the World" moniker, but I could probably name a few cities in Europe that have earned that distinction.  Oh, and there's New York.  Austin can't quite match places like CBGB or Madison Square Garden for a concert.  And I've seen weirder people and things on one subway ride in Manhattan than four years in Austin.

Frankly, Austin isn't that weird and the world is much bigger than the Texas or the U.S.

What interests me about Austin, though, is the youth.  It doesn't have the history of San Antonio (Alamo), or the money bags of Houston (big oil) or the stagnation of Dallas (it looked the same in 1996).

Perhaps it's because the best college in the land, The University of Texas.  Perhaps it's because of the music scene, thanks to places like Stubb's and Emo's and Antone's and La Zona Rosa.  Still, perhaps it's because Sixth Street is the best college bar scene in Texas (take that Lower Greenville).

Either way, Austin is a young city.  Only in Austin can college dropouts become billionaires a la Michael Dell.  Only in Austin can the next Stevie Ray Vaughn be black (www.GaryClarkJr.com).  Only in Austin can you catch some of the best lake water (and wakeboarding) south of the Ozarks.

Austin just feels like a city that isn't done growing or improving yet.  I'm not sure someone can say the same about any other city in Texas over the last 5-10 years, no matter how much development is underway (Houston) or how many malls are being revamped (Dallas) or how many people visit the Riverwalk (San Antonio).

The city has grown immensely since 1990 and Round Rock and San Marcos keep getting closer and closer.  As more money comes into Austin, from the music and restaurant scenes to the high-tech and development industries, more people will flock to Central Texas.

Various publications have named Austin one of the best cities for young families, education, environment, dating, eating, weekend getaways, intellects, small business and, last but not least, concerts.

From the soon-to-be-completed/state-of-the-art Dell Children's Medical Center to the annual Austin City Limits and South by Southwest Festivals, Austin is making a name for itself beyond the Texas borders.  And if you're into politics, Austin ranks closely with both Manhattan and Los Angeles for political power thanks to a big Texas-voice in Washington (whether you like him or not).

True, Austin doesn't have any major pro sports teams, but you hardly notice it thanks to the Texas Longhorns and their first-rate athletic program, which has produced All-American and first-round draft picks out of T.J. Ford in basketball, Huston Street in baseball and Vince Young in football.  And Cat Osterman (softball) and Sanya Richards (track) each have Olympic gold medals.

And the restaurants in Austin - Magnolia, Driskill, Hudson's on the Bend among others - are to die for.  And that's before I get to the drinks - Trudy's, Z Tejas, etc.

If you're the water/outdoor type, like myself, then Lake Austin for water sports, Lake Travis for Memorial Day/Fourth of July/Labor Day partying, Barton Springs for relaxing, Town Lake for biking, running or walking and Mount Bonnell (the view) each have something to offer.

Generally speaking, Austin is a great city for 18-29 year-olds.  It has a mix of nightlife and outdoorsy-ness and aesthetic beauty and Southern-comfort that no city west of Atlanta can offer (no disrespect to New Orleans).

Of course, Austin has it's downfalls.  Starting with the lack of diversity.  Only in Austin is there a weekend - Texas Relays - that black people "officially" come out and white people prefer to "stay away from 6th."  Only in Austin can people living on one side of the Interstate be completely blocked off from the opportunities and offerings to those on the West side of 35.  Only in Austin can the police be so blatantly prejudiced (seriously, it's worse than Houston and Dallas combined).

Still, even with all those detriminental factors, Austin is my city of preference.  I've lived in D.C. for a year now, I've spent dozens of weekends in New York and I've visited every major city between L.A. and Boston.  Austin is still my pick.

The campus, the concerts, the culture, the cops and all ... I've "figured" Austin out.  On that note, I'll be headed back very soon.

Is it too early to start drumming up support for my City Council '10 campaign?