Leave it to a Texan to whip out some slabs of leather at a sweat-drenched outdoor fest. Mychal Mitchell and Edward Bailey of Iona Books are set up selling heirloom leather journals and photo books at Jazz Fest.

The bulk of the population making the music rounds at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest are no different than folks at fests around the globe: Most are dressed for comfort in your typical cargos, slides, and (shudder) floppy hats. Thank heaven for those not-so-elusive creatures who go all out and peacocky. Nothing particularly big or easy about some of these combos, just a bunch of folks expressing their inherent right to whack couture. While cruising the grounds, I'm finding it irresistible to document some of these fabulous fashion forwards. That first dude in the picture over there? That's a skirt. Made out of neckties. A tie skirt. Click above the pic to check the gallery and watch this space for more posts about fest fashion, including a series on "We Are Human Garanimals" and "Gentlemen's WTF?" this weekend and next.

Sad, loyal Evansville, Ind., Obama supporters weren't clinging to guns or religion at his Southern-accent-tinged concession speech regarding the Pennsylvania primary.

They – or at least the three main guys in camera range behind the inspiring Illinois senator – were clinging to … Abercrombie & Fitch?????

Simply The Best.

Naked Musicians, eat your heart out.

(Note the Tim Robbins crack a few comments in and see if you don't agree.)

Here are two perky ways to help Austin's Breast Cancer Resource Center. First, head out to Graphic II, an "Art and Art Bra Event," live auction, and runway show at the Design Center at Penn Field, 3601 S. Congress, Bldg. C this Sat., Apr. 26, 6-9pm, where Natalie Zoe and CandiLand will keep you in your cups. Then mark your calendars for the Fri., May 2, 10am-9pm Grand Opening of the new Sephora store in the Wolf Ranch Town Center, 1015 W. University, in Georgetown. The beauty behemoth will be promoting their new, free client-loyalty program, Beauty Insider, as well as donating a percentage of the proceeds of the day's sales to our very own BCRC!

Pulling together an 11th hour trip to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, makes scoring the elusive (yet still available) last-minute deal so much sweeter. Like Mint Julep sweeter. I'll be blogging throughout, hot on the trail of some Austin artist and/or artists, and would be thrilled if you'd join me here and read along. What? You wanna actually go? Well, once you figure out how to get there (roadtrip…), you'll need a place to rest your head: Read on for recommendations and discounts. The Degas House Courtyard & Inn, the closest B&B to the New Orleans Fairgrounds, the site of Jazz Fest, has availabilities for First Weekend (which is this weekend, Thursday, April 24 - Sunday, April 27). The convenience to the grounds is unparalleled, being the only B&B in walking distance. In addition, the breakfast is home-cooked with Southern TLC, the parking free and easy, and you get the bonus of a free tour through some lovely historic digs. Historic? Oh, yes. Tuck yourself into this history: Degas House is the only remaining studio site on the planet – which one may visit – where the Impressionist painter (oh, that Degas) created his marvels. The inn on Esplanade – which Frommer's calls the "grand avenue of New Orleans' Creole society" – was the home of the painter's maternal relatives, the Musson family, where Degas lived and worked in 1872-73.

Well, tweak my tarsals! Festishes for aqua shoes and toe socks and anything Hang Ten can now be quenched in one fell toe jam. If you know me, you probably know my feet. (And you know I am a shoe whore.) Well, these new double-take eliciting Five Fingers foot coverings make my calcaneus quake. When it comes to newfangled footwear – unlike most things innovative – I am an early adopter. Plus, I am a dyke, and as such, am required by genetic predisposition to wear a lot of sportswear. (Except fleece.) So you know the minute I saw these prefabbed paws, I had to slap a pair on my dawgs and try them.

Let's deal with a little myth straight off. America is not in love with its cars. Between the DVD players, the endless cup holders, and the yammering GPS systems, saying you love your car today is like saying you love your closet. (One purist associate of mine believes that the tarmac was being laid on the road to hell the day some bright spark installed the first in-dash cigarette lighter, but also he believes the only suitable color for a vehicle is racing green.) You can't love an SUV the way you can love a 1951 bullet-nose Studebaker Starlight Coupe, which is why the Lonestar Roundup kustom car extravaganza is such a harkening back to prettier, more gas-guzzling times. Classic and vintage cars gathered in customized variations on production models that were infinitely more iconic than the overwhelming majority of modern generic transport boxes. For those of you that can't get out to the Travis County Expo Center Saturday, you can see them doing what they do best in the (free) rolling parade up and down South Congress that night (or just click on the image above for some shots from Friday's cruise).

Sen. Kirk Watson had a surprising moment at last weekend's Travis County Democratic Party convention. "I looked up and there was this big red sign that said McCain," he said. "It nearly threw me off my speech."

Before anyone starts thinking that Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos, or Project Mayhem, or whatever he calls it has taken hold, calm down, it's not that McCain. The banner was for Watson's fellow Democrat Richard McCain, the Precinct 3 Constable who fought off a primary challenge from Richard Eller and now faces GOP candidate Mike Varela in November.

But big red sign saying McCain in this campaign season? Now, not to get too semiotics, "sign/signifier/signed" about this, especially since in the rest of the world red equals left wing, blue equals conservative, but it does seem an (ahem) unusual design choice for a Dem. Not to give the (Richard) McCain campaign any clues, but putting the candidate's first name in a bigger font may save a few shocked double-takes in this Democratic stronghold.