Day 24: The Turtles Visit the Alamo Drafthouse

Tonight the wife and I went to one of our favorite places in Austin, The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. If you've never been you're missing out. On the surface it's just a movie theater with tables that serves food and alcohol, but beneath that there are a whole lot of levels of awesome.

Alamo Drafthouse is constantly hosting special events including, but definitely not limited to, movie themed feasts, quote-alongs, sing-alongs, hecklevision (terrible movies where you're texted jokes appear on screen), plus a bunch of rare and indie releases. A few of the notable events we've been to are the Lord of the Rings extended trilogy feast, an Amelie feast, a Titanic Valentine's Day feast (where we ate the actual last meal served on the Titanic), a Moulin Rouge sing-along, a Kill Bill (pts. 1 & 2 feast), a Good Burger feast (with all you can eat burgers) and a whole bunch of midnight screenings (first run and older movies).

At one of the Harry Potter midnight screenings all the theater numbers had been changed to Harry Potter classroom names. We were in Defense Against the Dark Arts and were treated to wizard wrock band The Remus Lupins before the movie started.

I've seen Ghostbusters on the big screen there several times, as well as Three Amigos on Cinco de Mayo and Life of Brian on Easter. We even drove out to Marfa, TX recently to watch free Rolling Roadshow screenings of Giant and No Country For Old Men.

With all of these awesome things happening constantly you can see why we love Alamo so much, but it's also the little things that make a difference. For one thing there are no commercials before any of the movies. Everyone is instead encouraged to show up early so they can enjoy the always hilarious and often nonsensical pre-shows. Usually these are a collection of found videos that have some minor connection to the movie about to be shown.

Another thing I love is that kids are not allowed in the theater. I don't have anything against kids seeing movies in general, but I've have too many bad experiences with movies being ruined because of a group of 13 year-olds who don't care about what's going on in the theater. At Alamo, anyone under 16 needs a parent with them and no one under 6 is allowed except to special Baby Day screenings. Which brings me to another of the things I love about Alamo: their zero tolerance no-talking policy. You may have seen this video on the internet before, but it's really just the most publicly known of their many no talking videos they play before every movie and they are dead serious about it.

Did I smash in all of the things I love about Alamo Drafthouse? Doubtful, but it's time to discuss today's drawing which I actually did in our seats before the movie started. After we ordered our food I realized I hadn't done a drawing so I sketched this one out on an order card. It's all four of the turtles enjoying pizza, popcorn and drinks at the Alamo Drafthouse. The box at the top is obviously the projector booth. If I had to guess I'd say they're probably at the Ninja Turtles Pizza Party, which is a totally real thing that I have never been able to attend.

Thanks to this blog now you know at least two things to do in Austin if you ever visit, and I feel happy for being able to educate you.

Day 16: Michelangelo Wearing a Coonskin Cap

I'm updating early because the wife and I are driving to San Antonio for a friend's birthday party in about an hour. So what does this mean for you? Well for one thing it means you get this ridiculous picture of Michelangelo in a coonskin cap.

"But why a coonskin cap?" you ask. Or maybe you didn't, but let's assume you did. I chose to draw this because we're going to San Antonio, the location of the Alamo. "That still doesn't make sense," I can hear you saying out loud to no one in particular. Well let me ask you this: who is the most famous person you know that fought and died at the Alamo? If you said anyone but Davy Crockett you are lying! Davy Crockett wore coonskin caps and he fought and died at the Alamo which is located in the city we are driving to today. I rest my case.

I considered drawing the Ninja Turtles at the Alamo, but that would have taken too long and I wouldn't have been able to take you on that mental roller coaster ride through my thought process. Besides the fact that we're not actually going to the Alamo, but there are no guarantees I won't wear a coonskin cap today.

P.S. Check out the blog. It's all updated and looks like a little kid designed it. IT'S PERFECT! I still intend to update some of the features, but for now I like the overall layout and design.