ONE OAT, ONE VOTE This week marks the end of Oat Willie’s, an institution threaded through Austin’s counterculture. The head shop, which opened in 1968, will shutter its final location November 2nd. read article here . Oat Willie’s grew out of the constellation of artists around The Rag, Armadillo World Headquarters and Vulcan Gas Company. The group included Gilbert Shelton, creator of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, who came up with a character called Oat, adopted as a spokesman of sorts by the Armadillo Art Collective. Oat Willie as Drawn by Jim Franklin, The Rag, 1976. From their little hippie hive, Underground City Hall on Lavaca, the collective ran Oat for Governor in 1968. This after opining on incumbent John Connally in The Rag. “Oat stood in his bucket at the fifty-yard line of UT's Memorial Stadium and announced that the administration of John Connally, the governor of Texas, was so low that it would perform a certain sexual act with a warthog.” Wally Stopher, aka Wali of Austin. The tribe talked musician Wally Stopher into posing for pictures. He picks up the story: More on the bluff where Fifteenth Street dead-ended into West Avenue. . Wally Stopher, Oat Willie Excerpts from the writings of Henry Wallace III , also known as Wally Stopher and Wali of Austin. Henry Wallace III, Austin Memories MADNESS AS THE DRIVING ENERGY OF THE WORLD That description is how Variety explains its choice of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as the best horror movie of all time.  There’s a reason “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” has cast such a shadow over the last half-century of horror films. As much as “Psycho” or “The Exorcist,” it created a mythology of horror, one that feels even more resonant today than it did 50 years ago. The film channeled the descent of the American spirit that we can now feel all around us. In the end, what “Chain Saw” revels in with such disturbing majesty, and what makes it more indelible and haunting than any other horror film, is its image of madness as the driving energy of the world : Leatherface, swinging his chain saw around in front of the rising sun, his crazed dance of death not just a ritual but a warning — that the center will not hold. That something wicked this way comes. The 100 Best Horror Movies of All Time, Variety, Oct 9, 2024 Left to right, cinematographer Daniel Pearl, Tobe Hooper, and a crew member on the Chainsaw set in 1973.Ed Neal Collection, published in Texas Monthly, Nov. 2004. The idea came to director Tobe Hooper while he was shopping at the Montgomery Wards in Capitol Plaza. He tells the story in John Bloom’s (aka Joe Bob Brigg’s) definitive history for Texas Monthly, a wonderful read.  “There were these big Christmas crowds, I was frustrated, and I found myself near a display rack of chain saws. I just kind of zoned in on it. I did a rack focus to the saws, and I thought, ‘I know a way I could get through this crowd really quickly.’ I went home, sat down, all the channels just tuned in, the zeitgeist blew through, and the whole damn story came to me in what seemed like about thirty seconds.” Tobe Hooper in Texas Monthly, Nov. 2004.   Montgomery Wards, courtesy Austin Memories Hooper called the ratings board and naively asked how he could get a movie with a woman impaled on a meat hook a PG. Their reply was quick: “You can’t.” It was eventually released with an R. When I asked Hooper why he chose to leave out the film’s nasty bits and take the more unexpected and primal route of insinuation, he replied, “Blood won’t scare people — that’s not what fear is about. That’s why in Chain Saw, the gore was left to the imagination. ” At that point, Hooper paused and took a long drag from his cigar. Then he added, “Of course, it’s far worse there .”   Chris Nashawaty, Hollywood Reporter , Oct 24, 2024. The real horror has now become that some night your next door neighbor might knock on your door and, when you answer it it, blow your head off. The real horror is that, when walking to class or driving to work or watching a football game or picnicking in the countryside, someone may murder you.  Chainsaw is not that gory.  It is its complete lack of humanity that is terrifying. A cold and sterile film about a nihilistic world, with no values, no caring and no compassion. Even the love relationships within the film seem unreal. It is a film that has grown out of our very real fears about the nature of American life. Louis Black, Ed Lowry, CinemaTexas Notes , collection published in 2018. Comedian Patton Oswalt explains the title’s genius. “Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  You see a free movie in your head when they say those words.” Patton Oswalt Texas Chainsaw Massacre screens tonight at Blue Starlite Drive-In downtown, 9:15. THE ARMADILLO PUMPKIN STOMP Illuminated by candlelight, he’d call for a pumpkin and lead the crowd in chant: “Peter, Peter pumpkin eater, Had a wife but couldn’t keep her; He put her in a pumpkin shell And there he kept her very well.” With a mighty heave, each gourd would hurl to its splattered doom on the tarp below, and the crowd would descend, stomping and hollering with glee. Maddie McVey, Auspop, Armadillo World. That sounds fun, right? Check out the rest of the story in Armadillo World , and drop by the pop up at the South Congress Hotel, 11-7 every day but Tuesday. DIA DE LOS MUERTOS FIREWORKS TONIGHT AT KRIEG FIELD. Planet K and The Phogg Foundation’s annual show goes off at 9:30 tonight in Austin, and Saturday from 12-9 in San Antonio. Bring lawn chairs, a blanket or just drop the tailgate and enjoy . HYPERREAL HALLOWEEN TONIGHT The film club’s transforming its new space into a haunted mansion . On we go. Alan Berg, Publisher. *quotes and interviews occasionally edited for clarity. How are we doing? We want to hear from you. Take this quick survey and help us make Happy Heat better. Go see something, tell us about it, we’ll share more stories next week. Let’s build something together. We’d be forever grateful for your help, and an easy way to do so is by subscribing to the Happy Heat Substack. What comes in goes right back out in artist commissions and live shows. To which you’ll get to come! For the first 100 subscribers, we are offering 20% off forever. Get 20% off forever