The Capitol Of What?

Blogging for the next few days will come to you from the Berkeley of Texas, better known as Austin. Apparently not satisfied with being just the capitol of the largest state in the U.S.A., the city likes to bill itself as the, "live music capitol of the world."

Austin, one of the few places to give John Kerry a majority of their vote, is something of an aberration. Driving through the rolling plains of Texas, the city seems geographically out of place, straddling I-35 among the quaint, small towns of the Texas hill country. It seems philosophically out of place as well. As a college town, and a liberal college town at that, Austinites pride themselves more than anything on being, "open-minded." Okay, I consider myself a pretty open-minded guy as well. But Austinites have adopted that smug, "I'm more open minded than you" attitude common among psuedo-intellectuals. It may look like Texas, but it feels like Boston.