Also pays cash for houses and will mow your lawn.

Seen on roadside. Call this number at your own risk.

Those boots

Remember the pairs of mysterious gold boots that were draped, tennis shoe style over the wires around town? (Things can ALWAYS get more fabulous, and you truly never know what you will see during SXSW!) I didn’t think they were an official SXSW decoration (not corporate enough) but a rogue act.

I just went to the CD release for (awesome local band) The Wheeler Brothers, which is called “Gold Boots Glitter.” I have a very strong suspicion that the boots were a tribute. Anyway, I am kind of new to The Wheeler Brothers even though they've been causing a stir in the local music scene for awhile. They are a really good band, and know we know they have a lot of style too. Here's a video from their earlier record - worth watching on its own merits just for being fun.

A pic from the in-store at Waterloo Records:

When I opened up the CD, my jaw dropped in amazement at the design of it! Flaps unfold, and unfold again, and eventually it turns into a popup! The insert slides underneath the burning guy. They don't give out prizes anymore in this town for album art, but if they did, this one should win.

I hope that there is always a need and a purpose for physical album art. Maybe the resurgence of vinyl will ensure that, for awhile anyway. I really like Gold Boots Glitter, and thin maybe I should buy some more Wheeler Brothers.


Image from Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966)

Running to help

That's our Mayor, Lee Leffingwell, as Batman. It's a fitting choice of superhero for him because this is a bat-oriented city. The reason these folks are addressing the press dressed up like this is to promote the CASA Superhero Run on Sep. 30. CASA is "Court Appointed Special Advocates" and their purpose is to help abused kids to get into a safer situation. The motto of the run is "Every child needs a hero, but abused children need superheroes." This video is just too darned cute.

2011 CASA Superhero Run from CASA of Travis County on Vimeo.

On Oct 20 there will be a differently-themed run called the Austin Thong Jog, held in honor of the memory of Leslie and benefiting the homeless. This is the first one, so there's no archived footage, only this little promo.

A bit less dressed than the first event, but probably more dressed than this annual World Naked Bike Rise that Austin participates in every June.


The Thong Jog happens at the same time that MrB likes to ride his bike (in costume) in the Tour de Fat Parade so we might miss the underwear spectacle. I can't run or jog (with this misbehaving foot of mine) and never could ride a cycle with fewer than 3 wheels - so I'm pretty much a freak and a permanent spectator, but I'm glad for the folks who do get to play along.

How do I look?

[Seen in parking lot last Friday.]

Death, warmed-over

Seen today on South Congress Avenue, always a good place for people-watching, day or night... it's a real person in that getup, which isn't that strange except for the fact that it got up to 102°F today (38.8°C) with a heat index of 107° - and he/she did it voluntarily and not as part of one of those "dress up as a mascot and wave to people driving by" jobs.

This music could melt your face

Ramen Noodle Rag

The South Austin Jug Band became one of our favorite bands after we moved down here in 2000 (which is right about the time the band formed). They were amazing, and we felt lucky to be able to see them fairly often. The peak of this version of the band was when they won "Best New Band" at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2003. It was a pretty big deal. Over time they had some personnel changes, and each person who left took a few songs with him along with a playing style. The ones who joined the band in their absence were equally awesome, the overall sound was a bit different... more of this... less of that. They finally called it quits at the end of 2008, all of these guys and the later band members went on to be part of other bands, both new and old, and are all still hitting the stage on a near-daily basis. This reunion show of the original line-up (which may be just a one-off) that just happened on August 5th will be a night to remember for all of us.

Enjoy!

This lineup, left to right: Matt Slusher, Will DuPuy, James Hyland, Warren Hood, Willie Pipkin. Later band members include Dennis Ludiker, Brian Beken, and Matt Mefford. All musical monsters down to the last man.

All Good and Fine

We had a great day of music on Saturday. This was a free all-day concert held on a downtown street, a benefit for Comfort the Children International. Lots of "green" foodie vendors with samples/coupons, and the permanent shops and sidewalk joints. Ponderosa (Atlanta GA) and Cowboy & Indian (Austin TX) are excellent bands that we've seen before and liked a lot. We saw only partial sets of theirs because the stages were located at the other end of the street from where I was hanging out. I wanted to make sure and see Seryn (Denton TX).

Over a year ago we caught a few songs of theirs during SXSW, we were watching from the sidewalk outside an Irish pub, and were very impressed and asked the woman in the band who they were. She said "Seryn. S-E-R-Y-N." (pronounced sir-WREN, or sair-REN). We missed some opportunities to see them again since that, but got lucky on Saturday. I have been in love with their sound ever since. Gorgeous! High-energy, rich beauty.

The traffic light looked weird as a backdrop for the stage.

Believe me, it sounds good.

They are one of Paste Magazine's favorite bands - period. When the set was over, someone asked a band member who they were, and he replied "Seryn. S-E-R-Y-N." It must be spelled each time. Ha Ha!

Alpha Rev (Austin TX) is another favorite of ours, and they have added quite a bit of new material lately. Casey McPherson's voice is amazing to me. Good singer and songwriter too. Like Seryn, lots of lush sounds here. Check out this western-flavored "Lonely Man." I swore it was something that I'd heard from Mark Knopfler before, but it is an original tune co-written with the Texas Ukulele King (TUK), and his version that he calls "That's How You Die a Lonely Man." I'm not seeing a ukulele in his picture though. ;-)

We finished off the day with a night show at the great listening room, the Cactus Cafe, where 2 of the mainstays from The Band of Heathens were doing an unplugged show - Ed Jurdi and Gordy Quist. They are doing something special both at these unplugged and full-band gig - they are recording the show and making it available for sale on a thumb drive afterward.

This is Gordy Quist, the singer and songwriter of this tune. I didn't get any focused shots of Ed Jurdi, so apologies for that. Need to improve the camera situation soon for better low-light shots.

I love every one of their songs. Every one.

Spring's Last Hurrah

Well, it's been busy around here, always too much to do. Been getting behind in the postings here, and even forgot to mention my 7 year blog anniversary on the 6th! Will start out with Eeyore's Birthday Party, the annual costumed gathering that I like to call "Flowers, Drums, Songs." It's an all-ages all-species event featuring old and new hippie culture, May-Pole, live music, microbrews, topless women, and freeform dancing centered (for us, anyway) around the drum circle. Here's a short video of this year's circle.

OK, you are thinking, "where are the topless women?" (I could tell.) There are a number of really nice photo collections of the festivities and fabulous costumes posted on the Eeyore's site, ranging from casual to pro. A couple of my favorite ones are by Craig Bush and Nathan Caperton.

Old Timers

I've been caught up in the work busies, spending a lot of hours at work and still trying to keep up with the day-to-days, including getting some rest.

We lost Levon Helm, so sad... loved his music (and a fine actor too), he was in his 70s and I used think that was pretty old - now that I've gotten my first Senior Discount it seems to young to go. Dick Clark also just died - a personality that we boomers grew up with. If these things come in threes (and that's all individual perception, of course), then my third one was Jonathan Frid, TV's Barnabas Collins on Dark Shadows, a show my mother and I watched every day. So wonderfully cheesy and addictive. I got to see him reciting some essays in a tiny, old theater, and got to meet him and get his autograph at a reception following that. It was pretty special.

Because of having to be at work, I didn't get to attend the unveiling of Willie Nelson's statue downtown. I love the fact that this beloved entertainer has gotten to unveil his own statue.

Here is a short spectator video of Willie performing a song that is rather on-topic when it comes to the passing of old favorites and celebrating their memory.

Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die

A good excuse for a parade!

Running a little behind here (and the same might be said for the topics of this post) but wanted to share some pics of the recent Pets in Drag (Easter) Parade. This event was dedicated to Leslie (Cochran), who died on March 8 [more here], and who was for many years considered to be Austin's mascot, an icon, almost the spirit of the town. A sighting, or encounter with Leslie represented the cherry on the top of a day spent in Austin. In fact, I would say a visit here could not be considered complete without a sighting, because you were obviously not in the right places.

The short description of Leslie is "cross-dressing, street person who ran for Mayor a few times and got thousands of votes." He was not even the only person who fit that description (!) but Leslie had a great measure of charm, was an activist and advocate for the rights and issues of the homeless, and was known for wearing thongs. Leslie was everywhere, at most all local culture events or just jazzing up the constant people parades that are 6th Street or South Congress. See more photos from the newspaper's Leslie gallery, reader-submitted photos, and the memorial service (we attended) held in the park.

To get back to the spirit of parading around in a thong, here are some more pics of animal cuteness and hopefully not too much distress over hair coloring or the wearing of wigs.

It's worth wondering why, if a person (or extend that to include animals and everything on the planet for that matter) was so beloved, then why were they not better sheltered and cared-for? That is always a mighty big topic that is worthy of discussion. Leslie was homeless, yet had family and friends. Sometimes habitation situations simply do not work out for the involved parties. It could be the very short version of a very long and complicated story.

Rock Star vs. Zombie

Free music weekend

Lots of live music this weekend! We won tickets for radio KGSR's annual anniversary party, third time we've attended it. You can't buy tickets, you have to win them through radio promos - hoops of various sizes to jump through. We went to the Kung Fu Saloon last Sunday at 3pm, I put my name in the box and it was the first one drawn! I was excited for this one because the headliner was Dawes (from CA), which is one of our favorite bands right now. This is my video from the event below.

Dawes, web|wiki, Fire Away

On their latest record, Jackson Browne sings on this track (and a few others), the band has toured with him and they just recently played at OWS, Zuccotti Park together. These are some pretty awesome videos. There are a lot of camera-shutter sounds, but those cameras are important (and sound better than some of the drunk racket on the other videos).

Here they are at OWS with a Dawes song, "When My Time Comes":
More at the links:
Mic check and "Casino Nation" | A new JB song, "Which Side Are You On?" | "Lives in the Balance"

Another band we enjoyed at the radio party was GIVERS (and I believe it's proper to not add "the" at the beginning and capitalize it) from Lafayette LA. We saw them a couple of years ago at the SXSW Paste party (always a sure thing for great music), and even ended up in their Paste video. Typical us, always bopping up and down right by the stage. This is a really fun video, especially when the kids finally quit being *cool* and came down to dance.

GIVERS, web|wiki, I Saw You First


On Saturday we drove down to Gruene Hall, where another of our favorite bands was playing a 4-hour free gig. It was a good time, and the room had really good sound. Here's a video (and the shakiness goes away after a few seconds). Enjoy this mighty fine instrumental.

MilkDrive, web, Horseshoe Bend


Here it is Sunday and I need to try and make myself useful. That room upstairs isn't going to paint itself. Not sure I will be painting it either... we shall see.

Silly Hats, Trashcan Music and Giddy Thrall

Saturday was an epic day for us, at least by our current standards. Usually it's me who wimps out, too hot, too late, too this, too that, {whiiiine} but sometimes things click.

Saturday morning at 10, MrB participated in the annual costumed bike parade which is part of New Belgium's traveling beer/bicycle/acrobatic festival called "Tour de Fat" (a reference to Fat Tire beer). Most people wear some kind of a costume or at least something fun. MrB rides in a Santa coat & and hat with red shorts. This year I wore a hat and shirt that looked like a zebra. It was a very, very silly hat. I will wear it again. New Belgium produces a lot of good beer, and 16 oz. of it could be had for $5. One of the acts was a couple who were yo-yo professionals (yes... that's correct). They were great. In the days of Ed Sullivan they would have been world-famous.

We allowed ourselves a pit stop at home to medicate the kitty (literally) and soon headed out to the Gypsy Picnic to see one of our new favorite bands, Delta Spirit, at 6:30pm. I'm pretty sure we were the oldest people in the crowd. I don't even care. I love this band's energy. The trashcan in the title refers to one of their songs where they use a trashcan lid as an instrument. This video did a great job of capturing their finale, which was a song I can't identify yet, morphing into that old standard "SHOUT" (Isley Bros.). It still works and still gets the crowd involved, same as always. Hell yeah! (if you don't have a chance to see it all, slide over to the 2:20 mark.) Not typical of the rest of their music, but they are worth checking out (their website has pro video, also try Spotify, iTunes...)


Now for the whipped cream AND the cherry on top. First of all, this town doesn't usually get star-struck. It's a film town, and reports of big movie stars making candid or *secret* public appearances are commonplace. But the recent 2-day visit by Johnny Depp to promote his new film, Rum Diary, and to receive a special award at the Austin Film Festival left the town in what the Austin Chronicle appropriately called a "giddy thrall." For me it was the (rather poorly-kept secret) appearance at the Continental Club, playing guitar onstage for an hour and a half with his old friend Bill Carter (whose songs are more famous than he is, such as "Crossfire" that was covered by SRV). Oh yeah, and Billy Gibbons was there for awhile too. And we were in the front row, pressed up against the stage just a few feet from Depp. If you want to see some much better shots than mine there, click here.

Here's a little local video and news coverage of his awards, etc.

This is my video, a Bill Carter song called "Willy the Wimp" that was also covered by SRV. We waited in line for 3 hours (for a 12:30 AM show). No wimps here. Not this time.

UPDATE Oct 26: Yahoo is featuring one of my videos in a story.
UPDATE 2 Oct 26: NOLA.com also linked to one.
UPDATE 3 Oct 26: Another Youtuber named AbbyandJohnny stole my videos and uploaded them to her channel. Now some of the media outlets are linking to those. Now that's just low-down and dirty on her part.
UPDATE 4 Oct 27: NME has a few of mine posted.

Big dirtball

How dry it is...
This big planter sits on a patio of a local restaurant. With half the pot broken off, the dirt remains solid.

(That post title probably made you think this was another Rick Perry post, huh?)

Festival weekend

Through the generosity of some dear friends, we are headed to the ACL Festival this weekend (starting Friday). Excited, and I'm frantically trying to prepare tonight. The video below is just I thought of today, it's totally unrelated to the ACL Festival, it's about a completely different kind of festival, but it cracks me up to watch this and listen to that great storyteller, Ray Wylie Hubbard. Funny stuff.


Reposting this gem from 4 years ago.

The "cold front" has finally brought temperatures down into the mid 90s, and they are teasing us with a 20% chance of rain by Sunday. I'll believe that when I see it. Fire hazard is extreme. Have a great weekend, everybody. Wishing you rain, or sun, whatever you are wishing for.

You'll wear these again!

Seen on Sixth Street Early Saturday night. I counted the legs and came up with what looks like 14 women in black leotards/tights with magenta tutus. MrB amused me by suggesting that they were bridesmaids. Okaaaay, maybe not, but I guess anything is possible when it comes to bridesmaid and wedding fashion.

Indoor Holiday

We had a pretty quiet weekend, given that the 4th of July is usually filled with explosions of all sizes. The drought brought about cancellation of Austin fireworks (although they did have them in some surrounding towns), and also banned the home-use ones people from the fireworks stands (for which the neighborhood cats and dogs were grateful, as well as the fire departments that are just a tad overworked these days - KUT radio reported that they only had 3 fires as opposed to the last fireworks event, New Year's Eve, when they had 50 fires.).

Aside from the riveting (but air-conditioned) job of sorting and scanning a lot of antique photos, we kept a fairly low profile. One quirky thing was we went to see Van Wilks (great show, btw!) at a music cafe, and Christopher Cross turned up to see him and was sitting at the next table over. Then, the next day, I hear him (CC) on the piped-in music at the grocery store... and the day after that at the record store, his new CD was right there in the front rack. Freaky.

On the 4th, we went to the new Violet Crown Cinema downtown (on Willie Nelson near the Austin City Limits venue). It's one of the new upstarts that wants to offer alternatives to the Alamo Drafthouse so we checked it out. First a review of that.

They have reserved seating. I've only had reserved seating at a movie once before and (amazingly) they didn't allow you to pick the seats you wanted reserved. That's BAD. The Violet Crown does let you pick your seats on a chart. That's (at least) GOOD... but, I read a negative comment on Yelp saying that they ended up having their group split up in the theater because of not purchasing all the tickets at the same time, and this was on Mother's Day!! So brace yourself for that possibility and don't let it ruin your night.

They have drinks, food snacks, the works, but no waitstaff so you are responsible for carting that stuff around yourself. The seats have a lap tray that you pull up and over from the right arm, but since the tray is not is place when you enter the theater, you have to juggle your movie gear (which could include an entree, drinks, 3D glasses, jackets, the works) until someone's hand is available to deploy your tray table. You shouldn't need to place your stuff on the floor to manage it, especially food. If you want a second beverage, you'd need to leave the theater for it. Also, when we left, we (and everyone else) bussed our own tables of glassware, etc. I suspect that the cinema would probably really like it if you just came early or stayed late and enjoyed your food and drinks in the lounge/lobby.

The chairs themselves are pretty comfy, but I didn't like the leather smell (not a favorite of vegetarians & vegans). Also, the front row is entirely extremely-comfy recliners with ottomans.

Overall, I say that this cinema is head and shoulders better than a regular chain movie house (which I can barely put up with anymore... spoiled rotten, we are), but it's no Drafthouse competitor for us. Different strokes. Try it out for yourself.

As for the movie, this is another one of Werner Herzog's wonderful documentaries. Here's the trailer:

For some intelligent descriptions of what it's about, check out the reviews of Roger Ebert and MaryAnn Johanson.

The material is well-covered and beautifully shown. In certain situations, inside the cave for example, the 3D is particularly effective and helpful. I believe that was his point in doing it. The cave is obviously a cramped area and he wants to display as much depth as possible. I agreed with its usage there. But, I have to say, that there were times that the 3D effects either had glitches or traded effect for visual quality. Ideally, I think it could have had a 3D chunk in the middle (for cave depth visualization) and then the glasses come off. I would like to see this one again (on our Hugh Jass TV) in glorious 2D.

I am also considering visiting a REAL cave, one where it's nice and cool inside.

Trees, Space and the Meaning of Life

We went to see the film "The Tree of Life" last weekend, but before saying anything about it, I want to share this wonderful stop motion animation that was part of the Alamo Drafthouse's pre-show. This is great stuff, and you can find more info and more great stuff at blu.

BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Big Bang, Big Boom. The rest of the pre-show was themed this way too, and appropriately. This movie is critically-acclaimed. It won the Palme d'Or for Best Picture at Cannes, and is sitting on an 86% Tomatometer right now, nice and fresh. It's very thought-provoking and dwells on the spiritual... an individual's place in all of creation, life, the afterlife... I recommend seeing it even though I wasn't a big fan of it myself, judge for yourself. You might just think it's the greatest thing ever - really. The religious aspects of pondering on God - not really my cup of tea anymore, I don't even claim to be 'spiritual' - but the Space-Odyssey-esque trips through time and space were pretty cool.

The main reason I wanted to see this (other than the buzz) was because it was filmed in this area, several scenes in Austin but primarily in Smithville and parts between. I like to look up trivia and try and locate the filming locations on Google maps. Google just so happened to be doing street views of Smithville while the filming was going on (coincidence?) and all the blocks where it was underway it shows the closures, such as this view, which (if you could go 2 more blocks) would be facing the house. Also, it looks like Google was denied the privilege of doing street views in the closed areas at that time.



Reportedly, the Jolie-Pitts (kids and all, including the ones on the way) wanted to stay at an Austin resort during the filming but they wouldn't settle for Pitt's offer of $3000 for a month, so they either bought or rented a ranch instead. Mr. and Mrs. Smithville? That was irresistable. Sorry.

Very surprising trivia: they actually dug up and relocated a 65,000 lb. tree to the movie house's yard. This was documented in some short videos on this channel. Of all the...!#@!

While I was looking for more filming locations in Matagorda, Texas, I stumbled on this labyrinth! Debra, thought of you, of course. It's on the corner of Lewis and Fisher at the Christ Episcopal Church. Totally unrelated to the movie, as far as I know. And while we are distractedly Googlemap-surfing, I also want to mention that Smithville is really close to this (and recycling a 6-year-old screen capture here):

It's made from trees, and spells out the name of the landowner. It can be seen from space, and in fact, is so large and linear that it's used by NASA as a measurement device. Well, maybe that isn't so far off topic after all.

All kinds of shut up

Oh - this is good (and the sound is NSFW or for little kids)! The Alamo Drafthouse uses an actual customer complaint for a new "don't talk, and tweeting and texting totally counts as talking" PSAs that will play before the movie. If the girl had gotten there on time, maybe she would have gotten the message. Instead she got kicked out for texting.


They have created dozens of these, themed on a movie or person or whatever:
No Country For Old Men
Hobo With a Shotgun
Pineapple Express
Danny Trejo
Jackalope Preservation Society
Gov. Ann Richards
A whole bunch of celebrities

Anyway, thanks for caring, Alamo Drafthouse...

Sarah Jarosz - new album and tour

Running a little behind on reporting of current events around the TX-Oasis here, and at this rate will never catch up.


Local phenom, young Sarah Jarosz* has just released her new album "Follow Me Down," (her 2nd on Sugar Hill Records) and played a couple of sold-out shows at a stylish venue on Sunday, did the radio circuit, and played at Waterloo Records (on her 20th birthday) on Monday. That's where the video is from. Her bandmates are Alex Hargreaves on violin and Nathaniel Smith on cello (who are even younger than she is) and they are amazing players. In fact, (and check your local listings) Austin City Limits (the TV show) is rerunning her episode, the one with Steve Martin, this weekend -- or don't even wait for the rerun -- stream it here now!

This album is absolutely gorgeous and deserves high praise. She really swept us off our feet with this one.

*pronounced "juh-ROSE."