Arthur Bradford Visits Austin’s Cult, er, Community, Zendik Farm
In this essay, excellent author Arthur Bradford recalls the night he spent at Zendik Farm. Anybody who has spent time in Austin during the ’90s should be familiar with the Zendik mythos: Was it really a sex cult? Do you know anybody who has actually been out there? Are they always out on the street corners trying to peddle their crappy music?
The problem for Xed was that he was kind of young for this place, and the older guys got all the women. If you wanted to have a date with someone, and by that he meant have sex, you had to bring it up with the group first and they would discuss it. He liked this one girl, Sierra, but he didn’t think the group would approve of the union. Later on, at dinner, I met Sierra. She was very pretty and probably the woman closest to Xed’s age. She was nice to Xed, but in the way an older sister would be. I sensed, also, that she had other options available.
I had wanted to sit next to Heather during dinner, but again we were separated. I wished that I hadn’t shaved that morning, or even better, that I had managed to grow a beard before coming, because that was clearly the favored look. I felt like I was being regarded warily, and when I told people I was living in Austin they gave me looks of sympathy.
Read the whole essay here.