Best Public Access Show From Another Dimension

Austin City Lights

Even amongst the vast armada of eccentrics in the safe harbor of Austin access TV, "Flash" Jordan Thomas stands out as one of the more meteoric talents ever to grace the medium. Her weekly song-and-dance show, Austin City Lights, is a brutally edited mishmash of unevenly heartfelt, synthesizer-laden music performances that recall "outsider" artists like the Shaggs and B.J. Snowden. The whole thing is set against a blue-screen background of highly dissonant found video imagery that's bound to inspire the pure at heart even as it boggles the sound of mind. Look, there's Thomas dancing at the Broken Spoke! Wait, now it's the Golden Gate Bridge! Now it's Thomas riding the Hill Country Flyer! No, it's a full house at Wembley Stadium! And many a synapse among regular access viewers was permanently fried when Austin City Lights recently aired footage of Thomas climbing aboard Air Force Freakin' One! The well-sequined Thomas hosts the show along with a supporting cast of friends and family members, including her mother, Lady B. Austin City Lights soldiers on in a joyously self-made plane of reality unlike anything you've ever seen before. Look beyond the scattershot production and unconventional, if there even is any, narrative, and you'll see that Jordan Thomas carries herself like a true star. And in the sense of being a one-of-a-kind original, she most certainly is one.