Friend of IT Amanda Jack lived in Austin, Texas, for several years, and she recalls her favorite saloon's Sunday afternoon chicken show. (Shouldn't all saloons have a Sunday afternoon chicken show? We think so.)
A true measure of any sustainable establishment is how well it uses its recycled waste. Every Sunday afternoon at Ginny's Little Longhorn Saloon (North Burnet Rd.) in Austin, Texas, the savvy visitor will find the bar in the throes of a sustainable celebration. Of course, it's not quite in the way one might expect.
At Ginny's, a long time Austin establishment (its motto: No Fussin', No Cussin', No Hasslin', No Wrasslin') far from the frat packs of the popular 6th Street, small monuments of fowl feces (pun intended) are found plopping their way onto a large grid covering a wooden board set on the pool table. Cheering the chicken on as it lays a less celebrated specimen are hoards of regulars and instantly hooked first-timers clutching a number that just may be the lucky square chosen for defecation target practice.
Ginny's Sunday standard, Chicken Shit Bingo, has branded itself into the hearts of a faithful following and is not to be missed if you are in town. Participants hope to turn their $2 into $100 via this popular crap shoot, and the crowd spills out into the parking lot as a surprisingly calm chicken does her dooty for the mid-afternoon onlookers. Most Sundays, local country legend Dale Watson serenades the winners and consoles the losers with his true country voice that makes you sway even if you've never seen the two-step.
While Sunday afternoons are a special treat, this tiny stalwart of an establishment will please any day of the week. Cowboys of all ages swing their partners in tight circles, expertly navigating tables and bar stools as more sedentary patrons stomp a foot in time while chugging down longnecks of $2 Lone Star beer. Once the Poultry Queen has expelled the last of her marker-pellets, continue the adventure by walking down Burnet Road to a smattering of thrift stores. And if the fecund fecal display hasn't turned you off it, grab some grub at the nearby Austin Diner, where the only chicken around is served as dinner.
Amanda Jack likes traveling and cheese, but not necessarily the cheese she finds while traveling.
Photo: Bingo at Ginny's, by Casey Moore via Flickr
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just thought I'd mention that the woman standing behind the chicken is Ginny herself :)
I think maybe things aren't going so well in your life when someone asks you how your weekend went, and you can truthfully answer, "Oh, pretty good. Had a few beers, shot some darts, and then sat around watching chickens crap inside". Texas is so weird.
With that said, "fecund fecal display" is a spectacular phrase.
This is much more intimate and easy to arrange than the standard Cow Patty Bingo we see all over the South.
Videos/Photos.?
Wow. California has nothing on that- in the desert everything is deadly and moves slowly. Perhaps Beach Blanket Bingo is the closest we ever got. Still, however, this is MUCH funnier- I'm sure it is a heightened level of amusement when drunken.
Here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xghebqshq1o