Crush-Out Austin: Bumpy at Casino el Camino

It's the Saturday Hatha instructor at YogaYoga South, or Orange Hat Bike Messenger guy. It's one of the Lone Star Rollergirls, or your favorite coffee house employee.

It's your local secret crush.

After spending many fruitless mornings skulking around Whole Foods, trying to meet the elusive "cute red-haired guy who works the (Whole Foods) counter up North," we move on to an entirely different Crush-Out request in the interest of keeping them coming.

He's a NYT reader, a cat dude and fiction writer. It's this edition's featured crush: Bumpy, a Thelonious Monk-loving, and all-around grounded, awesome dude.

What do you do when you aren't working at Casino el Camino?

That question is so open-ended, which makes it hard to answer. I read a lot. I like to go to the movies. I try to play golf (both stick and disc) when I get the chance. I write--mostly short fiction so far. And mostly, I hang out with (and do most of those other things I mentioned with) my special lady. We've been together two and a half years.

What was the last book or periodical you read?

I read the New York Times this morning. I'm in the middle of The Midnight Disease by Alice Flaherty and Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut. The last book I finished was Once upon a Time: A Floating Opera by John Barth.

Ok. Here we have the required annoying record question. Tell us your three all time favorites and one recent find. Feel free to elaborate on why these make the tops.

This is an annoying question because music is important to me, and my tastes are broad. I know most people say that. I don't care. My tastes are broad. So I can't really show what I appreciate most out of four records.

Our bad. Electrify us, sir!

The newest find I've been excited about is The Kashmere Stage Band Texas Thunder Soul, thanks to Casino. New to us anyway. As for a top three, I can't do it. But I can't remember a time I haven't been in love with Paul Simon's There Goes Rhymin' Simon; I named my cats after characters from Puccini's La Boheme; and there's never a wrong time to hear Thelonious Monk's Straight, No Chaser.

*Bumpy tells us about some of his favorite eateries and reveals his Midwestern roots after le jump*