Texas

Austin, TX

March 2003

We came in from east coast and west and descended on Austin, Texas for the annual music and film festival known as South by Southwest (SXSW). For most of us it was our second attendance, but we managed to introduce a couple of new folk to the mix. Here we all are in random groupings:



Enjoying an Idle Moment	Calm Before the Storm	A Shot of the Ladies

From the east coast, Andy; and the local Texan, Gary; and from California, Mark and Andréa and your humble hosts.

We all arrived on Friday afternoon and steadily collected at a local watering hole on the notorious Sixth Street. Naturally it took a couple of rounds of suds to get into the groove of things. I remember that the first few bands we saw were quite LOUD and of mixed talent. But with Andréa's capable guidance we took in some eclectic and worthy performances.

Admittedly some of my listening experience was baffled by bits of auricularly placed napkin bits.

Listening to Icelandic Tunes

The town puts on a pretty good show. The venues are endless, and the party spills out into the streets. Our first night's journey is laid out comic book style:



Blurry Guys	Up to No Good	Andréa!	It's Laughing Boy	Everybody Smile	Late Night Pizza

The next morning we set out to score some mighty tasty barbeque. Following spirited recommendations of a local enthusiast, we headed off to the Iron Works restaurant. The atmosphere there was genuine, and crowded. We managed to snag a pretty sweet table overlooking a trickling tributary.

Megan won the prize for having most of a cow served up on her plate. With trepidation and giddiness, she dove into the repast and, with a little help, managed to finish the beast off.

Pretty Cool Spot

Big Ribs Baby


			After lunch we enjoyed a lengthy walkabout around the Texas capitol city. Austin is a mix of oldish and new, classy and tacky Western and modern. At the height of the day, we reached the very capitol building.
Urban Transportation	Part of the Film Festival	A Stony Chapel

The impressive capitol building is presented in a very bold classical revival style and is clad in Texas red granite. When we first visited this fine structure, it was inhabited by none other than "Dubya." Ironically, this visit to the capitol building coincided with an anti-Bush rally on the eve (as I am writing in fact) of U.S. military action in Iraq.

I had never been to a rally of any sort before. So I was fascinated and repelled by the antics. We inserted ourselves into the crowd and managed to snap a few photos of the event. Megan even posed with one of the pacifists (without his knowledge!) Anyway, the local paper estimated the turnout to be a mighty 7,000.

Pretty Fine Dome

Rich Detail

A funny thing we saw in the midst of the hoopla. The omnipresent professionally printed anti-war, anti-Bush signs were actually on sale at the event. So some thrifty capitalists managed to pocket some tidy coin at the expense of many placard-challenged wannabe rabble-rousers.

It got hot. I felt a beer coming on. So we headed off in search of...

An Arch and Anarchists

Chick Magnet

Megan Rallies

Well, we found a decent spot for drinks - the Driskill Hotel bar. This historical building boasts a grand marble lobby level and a plushly decked out cocktail lounge. I'm told the restaurant is quite top drawer as well, but I didn't bring any ironed clothes on this trip. Maybe next time.

So we wound up eating at the Iron Cactus. This passable establishment has a high-ceilinged and staged bar on the first floor and deck dining upstairs. Reasonable food, reasonable views. I got a gut full of fajitas to prepare me for the inevitable music crawl.

Driskill Bar

A Bit of a Bite Before the Music


			We saw a whole bunch of crazy bands. One band featured two odd sisters (twins?) and a puppet show. Another included decent dueling sax and trumpet talent. Both beat Friday's mad screaming Japanese punks.
At the First Crazy Bar	This Band Had Brass	A Late Night Shot

We had a grand old time wandering around listening to the music (oh yeah, we saw Joe Jackson at an outdoor concert - fun!) sampling the brews, and chuckling at our fellow revelers. Austin wouldn't be complete without some serious people watching.



Streety	Nice Ink	Here Was a Very	Odd Ritual We	Noted in a Bar	OK - These Guys