Austin at Night

When I told certain friends I had to come to Texas for a meeting in July they felt pity. When I told them I was staying an extra day, they felt bewildered. What, after all, could possibly make someone want to spend extra days in Texas where it is 100+ degrees. Well, let me begin by dismissing the weather concern. Yes, it is hot and yes it is unpleasant. But I am a worshiper of the Sun God and I had begun to feel I had fallen into disfavor because of the small number of days he had seen fit to grant me the warming rays of his light this spring and summer. Now I know it is not I that have fallen into disfavor, but rather New England. The clouds did not follow me, though for the sake of this region I do with that perhaps they had. It is parched. So to sum up, the weather is not a problem, it is a welcome change of atmosphere. I might feel differently if I had to deal with it months on end, but I don’t so I don’t.

Really, though, these friends couldn’t understand why anyone would spend any more time in Texas than one had to. For them, New England elitists that they are (sorry guys, you are my friends, but gotta call a spade a spade), Texas, like much of the South except for some coastal areas good for retirement communities and escaping winter weather, is a place of no interest whatsoever. Texas is not only the South, it is the worst of the South. Ain’t no way it’s got any culture.

Well, my friends, you don’t know what you are missing. Here, in no particular order, are 6 things I love about Austin. They are random and it is not a top 10. Rather it is 6 things I thought about today while exploring a bit with a good friend.

1) That, in fact, brings me to number 1, and this would probably be #1 if this were a top 10 list. I like the people here. They are polite, friendly, helpful, courteous and just great. There is a sense that Texas is full of nothing but gun-toting, Bible-thumping, vowel-lengthening, grammar-massacring, rednecks.  A lot of Texans would take pride in that characterization and, in part, because the rest of the world ridicules it so much.  Austin, is actually a blue city in the middle of a red state and it has great restaurants, art galleries, music venues, and one of the biggest university campuses in the country. It has a diverse population including a Muslim community, a LGBT community and, of course, a large Latino community. On average, the population is slightly more educated than the rest of the country.

Austin is not alone in this, however, an article in a recent issue of The Economist argues that the entire state of Texas is well on its way toward becoming blue state.

The elected sheriff of Dallas County is a lesbian Latina. The leading candidates to become mayor of Houston in November include a black man and a gay white woman. The speaker of the House of Representatives is the first Jew to hold the job in 164 years of statehood and only the second speaker to be elected from an urban district in modern times. In this year’s legislative session, bills to compel women to undergo an ultrasound examination before having an abortion (to bring home to them what they are about to do) and to allow the carrying of guns on campus both fell by the wayside; a bill to increase compensation for people wrongly convicted sailed through. Lakewood, in Houston, the biggest church not just in Texas but in America, claims to welcome gays. As Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” might have said, we’re not in Texas any more.

Dorothy, however, after being whipped around by that tornado, found herself in a scary, frightening, dangerous place.  Austin isn’t so much so.  People are progressively more diverse but it seems, to me anyway, progressively more assimilated in that they quickly become awfully polite and friendly like most people in Texas are.  Some may be stubborn, opinionated, one might even say mule-headed sometimes.  But they are nice about it.

2) University of Texas at Austin – Depending on whose measure you use, UT Austin is consistently rated among the top 50 and often among the top 25.  Check the US News and World Report ratings, for example.  More than a few of its programs are consistently top 10.  Its programs are renown internationally, as well.  The Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranks UT Austin among the top 50 universities world wide

3) Galleries and Shops – Keep Austin Weird is a slogan adopted by the Austin Independent Business Alliance to encourage people to shop in locally owned businesses rather than big national and multinational chains. Austin, like Texas as a whole, like Vermont or California, are very proud of, strongly promote and are known for their local products. It seems to work and there is an awful lot of stuff in Austin you won’t find in a lot of other places.

Love Conquers All by Brad & Sundie Ruppert

On my most recent visit I explored, for the first time, the SoCo shopping district for the first time, discovering yet more riches. Austin Art Glass had some amazing glass art. I wanted a glass gavel to slam down when I wanted attention. Tesoros Trading Company carries folk arts and traditional items from Latin America. There are some amazing thrift stores. Parts and Labour carries clothes designed by over 100 Texas designers. Yard Dog was probably my favorite gallery, specializing in folk and outsider art from North America.

4) The Arts – That brings me to my next point. Austin has a very lively arts scene. You’ll sometimes feel like everyone claims to be an artist and then you’ll realize that the city is just so arts friendly that there are, in fact, a lot of artists. Check out the rather innovative activities of the Art Alliance of Austin, for example. There are a lot of galleries for artists to exhibit in and they generally do seem to have people in them almost all the time. Perhaps they are only tourists, but someone is interested.

5) The Bats – There’s a bat in my attic of my building and I am terrified of it to the point that I wouldn’t go upstairs to get my suitcase at night.  But the bats under the bridge in downtown Ausin are cool.  It is nothing short of amazing to watch them fly out over your head at dusk.
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CD, La Musica de Tejas

6) Music – If this were an ordered list, this would be near the top, probably number two.  But it is last on the list here because there is a lot to say.  Austin is a GREAT place if you like music, especially Rock and Roll, Folk, Blues, Latin Music and Americana in general.  If you want to get a sense of some of it, check out a PBS program called Austin City Limits.  Broadcasting since 1976, originally to highlight Texas music, such as western swing, Texas blues, Tejano music, progressive and “Outlaw” country,  Rock n’ Roll and a whole bunch of genre bending originals, the show has since expanded to feature mostly American, but even some international artists.  There is a nice CD/DVD series as well.

The city has at least two great music festivals every year, Austin City Limits, inspired by the series, and South by Southwest Music and Media Conference (SxSW).  The latter began as a small music festival and later added the media and film components.  It is not a week long must attend event.

Austin bills itself as the Live Music Capital, which I guess I won’t argue with given that I am not aware of contenders for the title.  A Google search on “live music capital” didn’t bring any up.  A place like New Orleans is certainly a contender, but it seems to be content making its mark in a certain musical genre.  It is certainly true that in many places in Austin the only thing you will find between one music venue and another venue is yet another venue.  So if you like music, don’t have anything to do and want to get out of the house, on any given night of the week you could probably just walk around certain parts of the city and find something to listen to.  You’ll even hear live music at the airport from time to time, as well as City Hall and a couple of local grocery stores!

That’s because the city supports its musicians.  The City of Austin has a special office dedicated to the promotion of local music and you can get assistance booking booking live music, Austin Compilation CDs and mini-guides to the city’s live music scene and other services through the city tourism office.

Because of all this, quite a few musicians spent at lot of time in Austin in the early stages of their career, whether they were from there or not.  A very short list includes Janis Joplin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Nanci Griffith, Spoon, Charlie Sexton, Alejandro Escovedo, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Willie Nelson, Ryan Bingham, Butthole Surfers, Guy Forsyth, Asleep at the Wheel…

Below are a few videos. Also check out Austin’s Jazz scene at www.austinjazz.net

I could go on. Austin has a great airport, a beautiful lake, some great restaurants, etc. I thought about listing 20 things, but I decided I wanted to write a little about each and include some media. So then I was going to do 10. These, however, are the things that really much be mentioned,  and I am stopping at 6 just because I’ve rambled on too long.  I believe blog postings should be short, MUCH SHORTER than this!  Guess I have a lot to say about Austin.

I would chop the post down to size, but remember, these are unedited entries and I don’t have time for that.  So if you have had the patience to read this far, enjoy the videos!