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No Lights No Lycra's motto is 'We dance in the dark.' (No Lights No Lycra)
At the Austin chapter of No Lights No Lycra, you can truly dance like nobody's watching—even if you have two left feet.
Started in Australia, No Lights No Lycra is a pitch black, sober dance party that has attracted at least 500,000 dancers across worldwide chapters since 2009. There’s one chapter in Austin, held every other Tuesday by couple Leila Sales and Brian Pennington at West China Tea House.
Sales and Pennington, a dancing lover who could go out “five nights a week” and a 20-year DJ, respectively, found out about the event through a recently sober friend and became regulars at their local chapter back when the pair lived in Brooklyn, New York City.
When they grew tired of the Big Apple, Sales and Pennington did extensive research to find a city that would accommodate their love for entertainment and landed in Austin in 2018.
“The thing about Austin that sealed the deal was how much was going on here nightlife-wise,” Pennington said. “It's something that we thought was really important about moving to a new city after living in New York—which just has a lot of activity—we wanted to move somewhere that had a lot going on.”
Shortly after their arrival, the pair started their own chapter to showcase Pennington's DJ skills and felt that the Austin community would be uniquely excited to try it out.
So what should you expect?
It's so dark in the room, an infrared camera is needed to capture the dancers. (Art Island)
For starters, you won’t be able to see anyone around you save for some glow sticks, so feel free to move and groove as you see fit. Sales said many NLNL-goers, including herself, view the event as a workout and an exercise in self-expression.
Leila added that with Pennington’s eclectic music taste as DJ Brian Blackout, creating choreography on the fly is an exciting challenge.
“Sometimes it's trying different movements that I'm not very good at or not terribly flattering, like ‘this is what my body is feeling like right now,’” Sales said. “You can do that for as long as you want without getting self-conscious. And there's nothing performative about it.”
DJ Brian Blackout will have all kinds of different tunes to dance to. (Art Island)
Jason Callahan, a professor at St. Edwards University who frequents the event, originally heard about it from someone who had been in Australia. Callahan arrives wearing gym clothes and advises not to knock it until you try it.
“I may be a little more silly and playful and would do things that would probably make me look crazy, if people could see me. It allows me to be a little more experimental or playful or silly,” Callahan said. “It's kind of one of those things that you have to try to fully appreciate because I mean, it sounds simple enough, but since it's not an experience we typically do.”
Inside, everyone is required to go barefoot so no one gets hurt. (Art Island)
As for the sober aspect, an original NLNL rule, Sales and Pennington said they’re not “teetotallers” and still enjoy going dancing at bars. However, the pair invites attendees to try dancing just for the fun of it.
“People often balk at the concept—they're like, ‘Oh, I don't dance sober.’ But I think when you get into the dark, if you give it a shot, you probably will feel a lot more comfortable than you imagined,” Sales said. “Personally, I really like going out dancing for the sake of going out dancing.”
Admission is a suggested $10 donation, half of which goes to the venue and the other half to fund their “main expense,” glowsticks. The event runs from 8-9:30 p.m. every other Tuesday at 4706 N Interstate Hwy 35.
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(Jordan Vonderhaar/The Texas Tribune)
The Texas Senate Democratic Caucus is urging Gov. Greg Abbott to call an emergency special legislative session to consider a variety of gun restrictions and safety measures in the wake of a mass school shooting in Uvalde that left 19 children and two adults dead this week.
In a letter released Saturday morning, all 13 Senate Democrats demanded lawmakers pass legislation that raises the minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21 years old. The Uvalde gunman was 18 and had purchased two AR-style rifles which he used in the attack.
The caucus is also calling for universal background checks for all firearm sales, “red flag” laws that allow a judge to temporarily remove firearms from people who are considered an imminent threat to themselves or others, a “cooling off period” for the purchase of a firearm and regulations on high capacity magazines for citizens.
“Texas has suffered more mass shootings over the past decade than any other state. In Sutherland Springs, 26 people died. At Santa Fe High School outside Houston, 10 people died. In El Paso, 23 people died at a Walmart. Seven people died in Midland-Odessa,” the letter reads. “After each of these mass killings, you have held press conferences and roundtables promising things would change. After the slaughter of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, those broken promises have never rung more hollow. The time to take real action is now.”
Such laws are unlikely to gain traction in the Republican-controlled Legislature, which has a track record of favoring legislation that loosens gun restrictions. Only the governor has the power to call lawmakers back into a special session for emergency work.
Asked about a special session at a Friday press conference in Uvalde, Abbott said “all options are on the table” adding that he believed laws would ultimately be passed to address this week’s horrors. However, he suggested laws would be more tailored toward addressing mental health, rather than gun control.
“You can expect robust discussion and my hope is laws are passed, that I will sign, addressing health care in this state,” he said, “That status quo is unacceptable. This crime is unacceptable. We’re not going to be here and do nothing about it.”
He resisted the idea of increasing the age to purchase a firearm, saying that since Texas became a state, 18-year-olds have been able to buy a gun.
He also dismissed universal background checks saying existing background check policies did not prevent the Santa Fe and Sutherland Springs shootings, which both happened while he has been in office.
“If everyone wants to seize upon a particular strategy and say that’s the golden strategy right there, look at what happened in the Santa Fe shooting,” he said. “A background check had no relevance because the shooter took the gun from his parents…Anyone who suggests we should focus on background checks as opposed to mental health, I suggest is mistaken.”
Since the massacre at Robb Elementary School, the governor’s comments about potential solutions have centered around increasing mental health services, rather than restricting access to firearms.
This story has been edited for length.
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(Project Connect)
Designs for stations along Project Connect’s Blue Line were presented this week, giving a detailed look at what part of the rail system extending from downtown to the airport could look like.
The planned stations that have gotten the latest focus include Waterfront, Travis Heights and Lakeshore stations past Lady Bird Lake.
At the Waterfront station, the preliminary design aims to prevent visual obstructions and save on costs. This is accomplished by a transit guideway that will lower from the bridge to a level station.
Heading onto East Riverside Drive, the light rail faces a curve requiring a slow down to about 10 miles per hour.
The Travis Heights station could involve relocating a pedestrian crosswalk zone at Alameda Drive to Blunn Creek. Since light rails can't effectively operate on a steep grade, this allows the transit guideway to avoid that.
From there, the rail will extend to the Norwood Park area, and though it will reach along the right-of-way zone, the park will be able to remain open.
A view of the Blue Line by Lady Bird Lake. (Project Connect)
The line involves some coordination with the Texas Department of Transportation. That's because the department is working on an intersection that will have to be built before the phasing of the section of the Blue Line involving an I-35 crossing.
When it comes to the safety of cyclists and walkers, design ideas include a pedestrian hybrid beacon by East Bouldin Creek that would provide a protected signal to cross. And for the intersection TxDOT is carrying out, Project Connect is working with them on pedestrian access across the intersection. It could involve shared use paths along the street and crossings beneath it.
This summer, the public can expect 30% of design and cost estimates to be released. Though the project was $7.1 billion when voters approved it in November 2020, the latest estimates factoring in inflation and supply chain constraints show it could ultimately be upwards of $10 billion.
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