Last Saturday Lindsey and I began an adventure as docubloggers. Inspired by watching some an episode on the local public television station, KLRU, I immediately sent Lindsey an urgent myspace comment (the most urgent kind of message has to be transmitted this way) informing her that we were going to be docubloggers (she just didn’t know it yet.) The next day Lindsey wandered into my office ready for a helping of some of my crazy rambling. But this time I had a rational plan. Well, kind of. I didn’t know what I wanted to do exactly, but I was determined to do something. That’s the first step right? Throwing a few disconnected ideas around, Lindsey expressed that she had always been interested in the situation of homeless people in the city. This idea we decided to overlap with my interest in how all of the recent growth in Austin is affecting the local personality. Basically, I just wanted us to hit the streets and see what we could dig up.
Let me explain a bit about this docublogging stuff. According to KLRU “a docublogger is a video about a person, place, event, or anything else in your community.” And a docublogger is someone who not only enjoys watching stories about their community, but also wants to share them. KRLU is sponsoring a contest to inspire people to document a facet of life in central Texas. There have been entries on everything from sledding at Murchinson middle school during one of those rare Texas “winter” moments, to coverage of the writers guild strike’s affect on Austin’s stage and screen writers, to librarians from UT sharing their blog on celebrity recipes and make-up tips. Really anything is fair game, done with creativity and passion. One of my favorites that I saw was of two UT students conducting random social experiments. For example, for one they got a large group of students to all begin coughing at once in an area of campus utilized for public speaking events. They also did one where they gave a big group of volunteers cardboard paper towel rolls, split them into two groups, and then had them rush at one another and begin hitting each other with them while confused onlookers took in the scene. What I like about this is there is definite objective but to stimulate uncommon, or uncomfortable social situations and see how people react. An experiment in mass social psychology. You can use digital cameras, video cameras, or even cell phone pictures to document your project. This enables everyday people to enter the contest without any prior, or professional documentary/journalistic experience.
Although I had conducted interviews before, I knew this would be different. Equipped with my mini-disc recorder, a great camera and video camera and not much of an agenda, we embarked on a sunny Saturday afternoon to find our piece of central Texas to share. As we traveled down to 6th street, enjoying the simple pleasure of the sun shining on our faces, we began to take note of various city scenes. Billboards and business signs that say more than they mean to when interpreted, beggars holding their cardboard signs on the side of the freeway, people wandering with the freedom a Saturday brings, tempting smells wafting from the doorways of local restaurants and then the almost haunting emptiness of E. 6th street during the day, left trampled by the drunken crowds of the night before. Without the crowds and loud music coming from the open doorways of bars, the downtown streets become raw and truthful, left bare after the chaos of partiers. We are directed into a parking spot by “James Bond” as he is eating his pasta. James immediately offered me some of his pasta. I had to decline his offer, but I asked him if he would mind talking to me. “[I will tell you anything you want to know, as long as you don’t mind the truth because I tell it like it is. I don’t want to offend you],” he said. I told him truth was exactly what I wanted. As Lindsey photographed I continued to talk with James about APD being after him, his view on the skyscrapers going up around downtown and how he would be sad if one fell over and someone got hurt. He didn’t want to talk about his children or he would cry, and he believed growth was good, especially growth in the heart and the mind. We left James to his pasta and headed down 6th street.
It was almost eerie walking along the grimy sidewalks, the darkness of layers of filth almost making a mockery of the bright sun, passing ranting street people, while naïve tourists rode the duck tours mobile blowing their duck horns at passersby. We spoke with a woman from the Black Cat Tattoo Shop, and then Dave. He had a sad, lonely countenance and spoke with open honesty that insinuated his lack of pride. He did hesitate to admit that alcohol was to blame for his life on the streets. He said, “I would enjoy living in Austin a lot more if I wasn’t on the streets.” When he smiled it was shy and childish, as if he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to express pleasure in anything. He was completely lucid, and I believe he is trying to get clean as he said. Maybe that is naïve of me, but I want to have hope in Dave. I have to have hope in Dave, and the idea that people do get more than one chance at life. We all need that reassurance-it’s ok to fuck up.
A valet at the Driskill was our most intriguing, and unexpected discovery. Approaching him with questions about working at one of the most well known historical and sophisticated sites in Austin, we soon found that he had much more to offer as perspective. He had been a street kid for a significant part of his life until he decided to turn his life around. When asked why he chose to leave the streets he told us, [“street kids do not want to be part of the repetitive life of a job and structure, but living on the streets is repetitive. You get up in the morning, look for drugs and drink, and beg for money.”] Observing him work, his pride was evident and he was extremely attentive to every person passing through the door. He took Lindsey and me on a little tour, sharing some of his knowledge about the history of the hotel. Be fore we left Lindsey photographed him confidently standing with his peers of the Driskill valet team.
After wandering Congress and then running out of batteries for the camera, we decided we would have to call it quits for the day. It was interesting to both us how many transplants we had came upon, all coming to Austin for the unique environment that this city has to offer; freedom of expression, the abundance of artistic offerings, the beautiful green spaces and the friendly demeanor of its locals. But I think both of us were secretly wondering how long Austin will be able to maintain its incomparable personality, characteristic of its ability to offer local artistic flavor that has developed in the city over decades of being able to live by its own rules. Will these outside forces and influence of the influx of “transplants” alter what is innately Austin? How will this affect people like James Bond and Dave who may get further lost in the streets as they become overpopulated and buried by condos and high rise buildings. Is this to be the fate of every small city that draws people because it has something exceptional to offer, then ends being lost because of this allure?
But at the end of this Saturday in Austin, this unbelievable city to which I transplanted, the sun was still shining on our faces and people were smiling. Ben Harper was singing “Don’t let em’ take the fight outta you,” we drove over the Congress bridge and our hearts were full of the possibilities and voices of the people that this city holds in its streets.
