The City of Austin is shut down today. Part because of MLK, Jr. Day, part because once the temperature drops below 40 everything pretty much falls apart. This, after last Monday when downtown was shut down as 63 dead birds were found around the Capitol. Next Monday? Mark calls for BBQ chicken to seep up through cracks in the sidewalk all around the UT campus, prompting DHS to raise the threat level to red pepper. Book it.
Devil Poultry aside, it’s a perfect day to be rockin’ the sweatpants and laying out on the couch. And what do I find as I’m flipping through the channels? One of my childhood favorites, Rocky IV. And what better way to spend this day of reflection than with this beautifully brutal movie about peace and building bridges? Okay, that might be a bit of a stretch, but man is it a quality movie. The exaggerated Cold War stereotypes, the poor man’s Gorbachev lookalike, a Flavor Flav ex- sighting, and possibly the highest musical montage count to movie length ratio ever. But there’s just something eerily similar about watching your favorite team play and watching Rocky movies—that lingering feeling that if you don’t stop whatever you’re doing to watch, Sly just might lose this time.