Yes, I'm totally hooked on the fair city of Austin, TX. I returned to Atlanta yesterday after a five day journey, and all I can seem to do is talk about how much I love Austin! So this blog will continue in that vein...
My flight was set to leave at 7am Friday morning, but of course the security line was worse than during the holidays, so I missed it completely. Delta got me out to Houston relatively quickly though, though I missed my connection in Houston, so that led to waiting around for 4+ hours at the Houston airport trying time and time again to get on flights via standby and failing. This led to making a slew of 'standby friends' at the airport-I learned that this tends to happen when you try to get on 4 different flights together and have to run back and forth as the gates keep changing. When we finally all got a flight, I literally cheered.
I arrived in Austin. It was 85 degrees-sunny and gorgeous. Cactii were growing beside the highway and I was instantly in love.
PREFACE: Since there were many things seen & done, I won't be able to recount the whole trip, but I will summarize as best as I humanly can.
FRIDAY: Taxi to my friend Ashton's house. It was lovely and it was great to see her! She has two adorable cats who I spent a lot of time with while sleeping on the couch. Their names are Stella and Maxine and they LOVE laser pointers and cuddling.
We ate at Torchy's-a taco stand in an airstream trailer. I had the most amazing Ahi Tuna taco-no lie. Then we met up with people and ate pizza at HomeSlice and toasted to my arrival. Saw a few bands that night, basically just walked around and soaked in SXSW:
And then had wine & a cheese plate on the beautiful patio of Hotel San Jose.
SATURDAY: Ate at a yummy cafe and headed over to the poster show at the convention center. I figured this was the least I could do to support my visual art tendencies in the middle of a huge music festival! All in all it was pretty sweet...definitely not the spectrum of art I was hoping for, but still great for a printmaking show based solely around music posters and selling merchandise. Ashton and I bought the same poster because well, we have good taste in art, I guess! (I'll post a photo later.) I also bought a nice proof from a guy out of Chicago because it reminded me of Travis's work (will post photo of that later too). Here are a few photos from the show.
This guy (Jason Munn) had absolutely fabulous designs. Check him out at http://www.thesmallstakes.com/.
After the poster show, we trekked over to Mohawk to catch a few bands for free at the 'HotFreaks' show. The first was an insane Japanese act who can not be accurately described in mere words. Ashton took the photos during that show, so I'll remember to post some when I can wrangle those away from her... My favorite 'song' was the one called "Y.Y.Y.". As the title states, it was a tune that involved the chanting of "Y.Y.Y." over and over again, as instructed by the guy in the green power ranger-esque suit holding the "Y.Y.Y." sign. Classic!
The next band was called The Islands. I haven't done my homework yet, so I have no idea where they're from or what they're all about, but they vaguely reminded me of Margot & The Nuclear So & So's simply because a) they had 7 or so people on stage, b) they had strings, and c) the lead singer's voice was comparable. One of the best parts of the set involved a guy who materialized on stage to rap while stealing the mic from the lead singer-I think he should've stuck around for awhile, but alas, he disappeared as quickly as he arrived:
Then we asked a guy to take our picture:
And then drank more beer:
Then the SXSW people kicked us all out of Mohawk so they could prep for the night's festivities, so we got sushi, were followed to the sushi joint by a crazy guy, and eventually ended up at the park to see the stages there. Saw part of the Breeders set:
And then went to a gathering of Austin friends before getting some rest-ola.
SUNDAY: The sun went away. :( But that didn't stop us from having a wonderful brunch at Mother's...I ate kiwi pancakes for the first time in my life, and have to say they were pretty delicious! Then we drove around and stopped at Barton Creek, which was surprisingly all dried up! Still beautiful though:
After a bit we gave in to the grey mood of the weather, and watched girly shows on TV and drank tea. It was marvelous to have the opportunity to just sit and do nothing for once! Then we made our first attempt (3 in total over my stay) to see 'In Bruge' at the theatre you can eat food in. I forget the name, but we didn't get to go that day anyways. So instead, we ate some of the best Indian food I've ever had at a restaurant called Clay Pit. Seriously, go here if you go to Austin. And get the mussels.
MONDAY: Ashton had to work, so I spent most of the day playing tourist and shopped on South Congress. My favorite store by far was Parts & Labour, a little shop devoted to showcasing handmade works by Texas crafters. I spent a good bit of my paycheck there, so that alone will tell you how much I love them! I also had fun poking around all the thrift stores and dog watching as I sat at the coffee shop down the street. (I'm still experiencing a bad bout of dog withdrawal. 2 years and counting!) Then we had mexican martinis in celebration of Texas and St. Patty's day-not really on purpose though. Tried to see In Bruge AGAIN, and it wasn't playing (luckily) so we ended up having some of the best Italian food I've ever eaten at Enoteca Vespaio. Once again, if you go to Austin I definitely rate this place a must-do. The cheese plate was amazing and the Raviolini was scrumptious. Seriously, I could've died a happy girl after that meal.
TUESDAY: Decided to bum around the house more than usual-the weather was crappy so I wasn't overly inspired to go out, but eventually I took Ashton's car for a spin and visited the Blanton Museum to pass the time before heading over to Flatbed Press. I thought the modern art collection was pretty interesting and took a few photos. This installation was my favorite. It incorporated pennies, wafers, cow bones and black fabric, and was a comment on wealth, the consumption of natural resources and faith within our society. It was entitled 'How to Build a Cathedral'.
Absolutely beautiful.
The Museum had a cool bathroom too, and I figured I looked sort of 'Texas' that day so a photo was in order.
After the downpour, I sped over to Flatbed Press to have a look see and meet some of the folks working there. I stayed for a few hours and had a blast chatting with the women who were there that afternoon. Not sure if I'll end up in Austin any time soon, but I like to create connections wherever I go, and wanted to see how they've got their printshop running. It was refreshing to see ink and ferric acid on every surface...made me feel better about how great the SCAD shop looks...only to realize (once again) how insane some of the goings-on are over there. I guess that's why I've always got my eyes set on the future...maybe due in part to my family's history of psychic abilities, but a part of me has always known there are greater things awaiting me in the future! Here is a photo of one of the prints in their gallery. I love the rough quality of this lithograph...the color is absolutely delicious!
But I digress...Austin...amazing-ness...ah yes. We finally got to see 'In Bruge' at the 'eat and drink while you watch movies' theatre, and it turned out to be a satisfying flick. The humor was off kilter (which was a good thing), though it did seem inappropriate during a handful of scenes...but eating while watching a film is great, so I really can't complain!
So Wednesday was the last day of my stint in Austin. Ashton and I had breakfast tacos (!) and stopped by to check out her work and then I was off to the airport. Thankfully I didn't miss any of my connections this time, so that part of my journey was smooth sailing. It was funny though, while I was riding in the cab to the airport I actually turned around to watch the Austin skyline disappear and felt a bit sad. I usually don't have this sort of immediate connection with a place, but honestly, it started to feel a bit familiar over those short 5 days. I didn't really want to leave! But there is much to do and finish in Atlanta, so here I am. I'm opening for The Eyes tomorrow night at Kavarna, and have much work to do in preparation for spring quarter at work and our trip to Richmond next week.
Signing off for now.
