Barton SpringsProbably one of the most annoying and troublemaking writers for the famed magazine, Big Brother, is scheduled to throw a slideshow at the Lowbrow Emporium this Friday. Chris Nieratko will promote and sign his book, “Skinema” beginning @ 7:00 PM, and then demo some beer drinking skills.

I won’t be drinking a lot of beer the night of Friday the 13th… I’ve got to wake up early to hit Barton Springs at 8:00 AM for the Freestyle Diving Competition. It’s sponsored by Austin’s own Independence Brewery. As soon as we heard about it, Kevin and I pledged to sponsor Otis in the tourney. When Kevin called him to discuss it, the conversation went something like this:

Kevin: “Hey, are you going to enter the diving contest at Barton Springs on Saturday morning?”

Otis: “No. I won the first one they ever had and then I was banned for the next three years.”

Kevin: “The winner gets his own label on Independence Brewery.”

Otis: “I’ll be there.” 

Kevin also persuaded Otis to invite Arms to participate. Word has it that the police have been dispatched to Barton Springs on several occasions in response to Arms’ diving maneuvers. 

 The trailer for The Last Rambo movie is online. Pretty gruesome. Kind of an Apocalypse Now meets Evil Dead. There’s also the earlier trailer that featured Banana Farm footage.

Bart SimpsonWhen I was 12 a woman told my mom about a store that sold Pac Man shoes. I was nuts for Pac Man, so my mom got directions to the store and we checked it out. Turned out it was a VANS store back when you could custom-order your VANS with every panel being a different color, etc. Unfortunately, Pac Man VANS only had Pac Man on the strip around the sole. I wanted the entire shoe to be covered with Pac Man.

Well, now it’s like a million years later and people have moved beyond Pac Man. If you have filled a significant portion of your life with the Simpsons, then perhaps you’ll be more excited to know that VANS did it right this time. They’ve got a whole bunch of Simpsons shoes due for release this Saturday and they’re way more than just a repetitive line of Barts on the strip around the sole. Check out these shoe designs.