| Subject: Experienced Austin Travel Writer |
| From: "Barrett Brown" <barriticus@gmail.com> |
| Date: 8/12/07, 18:39 |
| To: jrassmussen2012@yahoo.com |
BARRETT BROWN________________________________________
512-560-2302 barriticus@gmail.com
COPYWRITER/ FEATURE COLUMNIST/ CONTRIBUTING EDITOR/ BOOK AUTHOR
Published Work/ Freelance Media Experience
The Onion A/V Club
Current, ongoing copywriting for The Onion's features department.
Anglesey Interactive, Inc.
Undertook copywriting of online marketing collateral (web text, press releases, etc.) in support of firm's "Riight.com" integrated search engine in June 2007.
Organic Motion, Inc.
Undertook copywriting of both print and online marketing collateral, general marketing consultation for noted New York tech start-up.
Sterling and Ross Publishers
Nonfiction book "Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Easter Bunny", political humor, authored in 2006, released in March 2007. Received praise from Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, Rolling Stone, Skeptic, Air America Radio, Huffington Post, other sources.
Avacata
Occasional freelance work starting in 2007 for Dallas ad agency, researching and creating entertainment/dining/venue blurbs for clients' marketing collateral, including that of luxury resort real estate firm.
National Lampoon
Occasional contributor; past features included "Pick-Up Lines That Don't Seem to Work," "Craig's Conspiracy Corner," "A Guide to Dealing with Housecats," more.
Weekly columnist for political analysis site from October 2004 to November 2005
Features included - - "JohnKerry.com is Web-Tastic!" "Politicos Should Heed the Perry Incident," "Hot Senate Races," "Hot House Races," "109th Congress - What They Really Wanted for Christmas," "Political New Year's Resolutions," "State of the Union 2005: Dreams and Ironies" "The Long Kiss Goodnight," "The Strange Case of Jeff Gannon," "Libby Indicted, Dems Excited," "The Best Little Decoy in Texas," "Faith of Our Fathers: A Mildly Mean-Spirited Review," "McClellan is No Fleischer," "A Response to Our Catholic Readers," "The Known Unknown," "Dr. Frist Prescribes Himself a Dose of Moderation," "Meet John Roberts," "2008 Preview," Roberts Confirmation Hearings Largely Bloodless," more.
AOL CityGuide
Web content writer from Summer 2000 to December 2003 Researched/ created content coverage of event and entertainment venues. Served as regional correspondent for Dallas, Austin, New Orleans, Houston and Little Rock markets.
Additional magazine work
Ongoing, have contributed feature articles from serious political commentary to humor pieces to children's recreational activity coverage to fine dining overviews for outlets including business-to-business publications Pizza Today, Club Systems International, Dallas Market Center, D.C.-based public policy journal Toward Freedom, London-based public policy journal Free Life, humor magazine Jest, regional publications The Met, Austin Monthly, Dallas Child, men's magazines Oui and Hustler, literary journal Swans, dozens more.
Additional writing projects
Have created marketing copy for Verizon via Dallas ad agency Sullivan Perkins, produced website copy for design firm NPCreate.com, provided public relations pieces for Texas energy company EBS and Dallas real estate firm Dunhill Partners, more.
Education
1999 - 2003 University of Texas at Austin, College of Communications
Back To School Special: Dining
Learning to dine out like a true Austinite can be a long, time-intensive process, much like pursuing a liberal arts degree, although it is also very much unlike pursuing a liberal arts degree insomuch as that it is of real and demonstrable benefit and does not cost tens of thousands of dollars. Thus it is that we provide this comprehensive cheat sheet to the city's most iconic culinary mainstays.
Starting out each day with a big, nutritious breakfast is allegedly very important. Austin has two local favorites on that front Kerbey Lane Cafe (multiple locations, check KerbeyLaneCafe.com) and Magnolia Cafe (2304 Lake Austin, 478-8645; 1920 S. Congress, 445-0000), both of which are open around the clock and serve pretty much everything that anyone could possibly want to eat, from gingerbread pancakes to sour cream omelets to hummus, though Kerbey also offers a separate vegan menu and makes a point of getting much of its produce from a nearby organic farm, whereas Magnolia manages to cultivate a more pleasingly living room-ish atmosphere.
We've also got plenty of Mexican food, natch. Matt's El Rancho (2613 S. Lamar, 462-9333), for instance, has been around for some very long period of time, perhaps even forever. Like all truly great Mexican restaurants, Matt's operates from a ridiculously long menu filled with everything that rural Mexicans like to eat, plus plenty of things that they don't, like Atlantic salmon. On the more unorthodox side, you've got Trudy's Tex-Mex (multiple locations, check Trudys.com), known for its crab enchiladas, Mexican martinis, and attractive people who have been drinking lots of Mexican martinis. The first location is within stumbling distance of campus.
No, no, there's more. Chango's (3023 Guadalupe, 480-8226; 3005 S. Lamar, 416-1500) is the place to go for fish taos, particularly when you're in a hurry to get back to class or another restaurant that doesn't serve fish tacos. Polvo's (2004 S. 1st, 441-5446) is the place to go when you want some interior Mexican and have plenty of time to sit around and smoke. Chuy's (multiple locations, check Chuys.com) is the place to go for fajitas. It's also one of several places where the Bush twins were busted for trying to use a fake ID. This is a very important thing to know.
We've also got pizza. In fact, Austin has about the same number of places with "pizza" in the title as Dallas does and a fourth of the population. It's a saturated market, but Conan's Pizza (603 W. 29th, 478-5712; 2438 W. Anderson, 459-3222; 2018 W. Stassney, 441-6754) has thrived for well over thirty years thanks to its eternally-nifty, Chicago-style deep dish.
Likewise, our things-served-between-two-pieces-of-bread infrastructure is second to none. Thundercloud (multiple locations, check Thundercloud.com), Austin's resident sub sandwich chain, caters to local tastes in a way that others don't by way of such ingredients as avocado and hummus. Meanwhile, Opal Divine's Freehouse (700 W. 6th, 477-3308) ranks among Austin's finest pub-eateries, stocked as it is with Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, award-winning fries, and several dozen sorts of whiskey. Hut's Hamburgers (807 W. 6th, 472-0693) rudely monopolizes all of the local burger-based awards by way of the sheer quality of its patties, the maddening quantity of its potential ingredients, and the charmingly archaic monikers of its individual items the Richie Valens Burger comes with guacamole, chulo. And Stubb's BBQ (801 Red River, 480-8341) stands out in a crowded field by virtue of a sauce that's sold nationwide as well as for being one of the most storied and perpetually relevant music venues in a city brimming with such things.
If one gets homesick, we're here to help. But so is Threadgills (6416 N. Lamar, 451-5440), which has long been Austin's foremost spot for southern comfort food specialties of the chicken fried streak persuasion, and which is second only to the state capitol in the extent to which local history seeps from its walls back in 1933, it was the first venue in the city to obtain a post-Prohibition liquor license, and in the subsequent decades it played host to the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis before eventually reinventing itself as one-part restaurant and two-parts civic museum. And if one gets homesick for ice cream, whatever that means, an Amy's Ice Cream (multiple locations, AmysIceCream.com) is never more than a short drive away.
No need to thank us.
Fran's Hamburgers
With the faux-classic hamburger stand being a moderately popular motif among several large fast food chains that shall remain nameless, it's refreshing to hit up a genuine article in which the waitresses are caustic in a cute, endearing way and in which the interior is done up all wacky not out of purposeful irony, but because the Eisenhower-era designers really thought that this was how a restaurant should look. Fran's is a burger-lover's burger joint, offering their wonderfully greasy item of specialty in three sizes, and further supplementing one's caloric intake with sides representing the fries-and-onion-rings school of understated accompaniment. Things tend to get understandably hectic around midday; resign yourself to lunchtime delays. Great For: Cheap burgers, people who enjoy being called "darlin'." Entrees: $2-6 (1822 S. Congress, 444-5738; 6214 Cameron, 458-6007)
Freda's Seafood Grille
Although the restaurant's billing of itself as "American-Cajun" may be technically redundant, the description does get the point across - in matters of decor, Freda's opts for Upscale Antiseptic chic over the Anarchic Crawfish Shack Out In The Swamp sensibility which has served so many informal Cajun joints so well for so long; in matters of cuisine, Freda borrows liberally from all comers, with the result being such things as bacon-wrapped sea scallops, pine nut-crusted trout, and a selection of steaks and pastas benefiting from the sort of ingenious Cajun culinary preparation in exchange for which the rest of the nation has duly forgiven Louisiana its rampant, eternal corruption. Great For: When only the fanciest gumbo will do. Entrees: $14-29 (10903 Pecan Park, 506-8700)
Green Mesquite Barbeque & More
Green Mesquite is pretty serious about the "more" mentioned in its extended moniker; beyond brisket and such, the Barton Springs mainstay (and its West Oak counterpart) deals in catfish, po' boys, burgers, tacos, chicken fried steak doused in enough gravy to drown a baby elephant, and even jambalaya; all of this is made more accessible by way of the restaurant's all-you-can-eat option, which goes for even cheaper on Mondays and Tuesdays, when it becomes one of the city's truly great culinary bargains. In a nod to Texas BBQ orthodoxy, Green Mesquite offers bottles of Sunkist and Big Red; in rebellion against same, it also offers salads and even veggie burgers. Great For: Getting stuffed after a dip at Barton Springs. Entrees: $3-14 (1400 Barton Spring, 479-0485; 710 Highway 71, 288-8300)