Getting to Know You, Austin #5 - Bullock Texas State History Museum

You can read about the introduction and reasoning behind this here...

*******

Let's just say, this was about as exciting as it sounds:

I went to the Texas State History Museum yesterday and it was an idiotic move on my part for several reasons: holiday, weekend, first Sunday of the month = free admission, tons of idiotic people who don't know how to use stairs, etc. but hey! it was free!

It's 3 levels of Texas. All Texas. All the time. Which I don't mind because I really do love me some Texas. I just don't love so many of the people in Texas. I would have had a much better time if I were in there all alone looking at the displays. But even if I were all alone, taking my time, dawdling, it would still be a place that you only need to visit once. So that's where this stick goes - in the "done it, don't need to do it again" jar.
It was the right amount of kitsch that Texas needs (bigger because...), they had "period folks" a couple per floor at various exhibits, was air conditioned and an entire half floor was dedicated to oil. Its where every grade school kid within 100 miles goes at least once a year on a field trip.

Side note: there are lots of "Bullock" named things here in Texas and every time I see or hear of one (Sandra included) I think of Jm J Bullock. What's that guy doing now? What's the deal with the lack of I in the first name? How do you pronounce that? Like Hmmmmm but with a J at the beginning? Jmmmmm? He played one hell of a sassy neighbor.

Getting to Know You, Austin #4 - Umlauf Sculpture Garden & a Disqualification

You can read about the introduction and reasoning behind this here...

*******

This week's popsicle stick was slightly dramatic in the picking: there was an initial pick that got moved to next weekend (hey, the activity is FREE next weekend), the next pick marked the first official disqualification (more at the end) and then we finally got to the pick that happened:

You can find out about the gardens here.

If you look at the map page of the site, you'll see that it is quite literally in the middle of town. On a fairly busy road to get to another major city park. And it's probably one of the quietest places in town. It's beautiful, cooler than other places because it's so shaded and full of water and there are several places to sit and just think and contemplate and be around nature, arty things and beauty.
About 60% of the sculptures are religious - HEAVILY religious - with the longer, more minimalists faces of early 20th century and even medieval icon art.

One of my favorite things about this place is how carefully they thought out the placement of the sculptures in the natural setting. My favorite examples:

And another:

And when talking about the non-religious sculptures, there is an awareness of movement and detail that is awesome and beautiful:

And another:

This one reminds me of my friend Carlos - St. Francis & his little birds:

And all the rest:

Oh, and did I mention that it's free admission throughout the summer (donations are encouraged)? Even better!

However, even though it is quiet and peaceful and beautiful, it is something much more enjoyed with others. It's be a fabulous romantic date night or even proposal place. As well, the sculptures are never changed out - there is a rotating art exhibit (last photo) but those are fairly few and far between so this goes into the "don't need to do it again" jar. For myself solely. I'll gladly take guests there when they visit if they'd like and such, but I don't really NEED to go back.

*******

Finally, the disqualification. The 2nd stick chose was for batting cages. BATTING CAGES. You know the ones: at a "family fun park" of some sort with a putt putt course and maybe some go carts that you can pop tokens in and hit big yellow balls at varying speeds depending on the cage you choose.
APPARENTLY those don't exist in abundance in Austin. As a matter of fact, there's only ONE. It's about 30-45 minutes (depending on traffic) north in Pflugerville. And you have to pay $8 for the privilege to pay for the batting cages! Usury! Out of the question! I just want to hit balls yo!
The only other options are these ultra competitive baseball camps for the high schoolers and university players to train at. The cages are inside only (no fun!) and they're expensive too! $20 for 30 minutes! And a high pressure environment?!? No thank you!
So, this stick has been disqualified. I'm slightly disappointed in this town today.

Getting to Know You, Austin #3 - City Wide Garage Sale

You can read about the introduction and reasoning behind this here...

*******

I know it's been a couple of weeks, but work has been crazy. This week came popsicle stick #3:

This has been going on here in Austin for YEARS but I never went. I got curious because the signs are everywhere and I wanted to check out the format and such: is it really a bunch of people from a neighborhood getting together to sell their unused stuff? Or was it more of an antique mall set up? Or was it a whole bunch of sales people selling garages? Who knows?

As you can see here, the website is fairly unclear.

So, I convinced a friend of mine who hadn't been before either to come with me so we could see what this was all about. We go to the Palmer Events Center and pay $7 for parking and walk over to find that it costs $6 to get in. So... I have to pay to shop and rifle through other people's junk? Strike 1 right there.
We pay, we go in and we find that it's much more antique mall than it is garage sale. Yes, there's haggling and no price is fixed, but it's the same with an antique mall - nothing is really fixed at those as long as you can get a hold of the booth owner.
We gave it a chance and meandered through the aisles making sure to hit each booth/table/etc but it wasn't anything special. If you need a set of glass nubbled stemware from the late 70's that's missing a glass or entire boxes of sports cards or tables and tables of questionable linens, this is the place for you. Otherwise, disappointing. This stick goes in the "don't need to do this again" jar.

We left and were going to find something else to do but realized that we were virtually in the middle of town and why waste $7 on parking for an hour of disappointment? We decided to walk down to the park and find the new boardwalk on Town Lake (I'll never call it Lady Bird Lake) and see what the haps was. We weren't TOO far, but we were further than we thought away from the start of it so we had already walked about 2 miles to find it. It was hot, we were hungry and thirsty so we diverted to the Joe's Crab Shack (also very disappointing but it was the nearest food) for lunch and beverages before heading back. We took the main road back and stopped for some Sandy's Hamburgers and called it a day.

In reality, 3 popsicle sticks were completed on this day as Sandy's and Town Lake are in my jar but since they weren't the one chosen this week and because I want to do them again and right, this only counts as one.

Final tally: great day but paying to shop and paying to shop at a disappointing place/event = a big fat NO jar.

Getting to Know You, Austin #2 - Radha Madhav Dham Hindu Temple

You can read about the introduction and reasoning behind this here...

*******

Today I picked popsicle stick #2:

You can find out more information about the temple here.

This gorgeous and quiet place is about 15 minutes outside of Austin proper, west of the "Y" (which is a place I've now decided I could totally live) in an area that's starting to blow up with houses on larger tracts of land. All along the road to get there, there are new developments or communities where you can buy the land and build your own home which is a neat idea, but a little sad because that means it won't stay as quiet and peaceful as it is for too long.

I arrived at the end of the Sunday Service, in time to watch the Satsang, which is the lighted devotional for Krishna and Lakshmi and all the other idols, including their Jagadguru, Shree Maharajji, which is the equivalent of a saint in the Hindu tradition. It's kind of silly and hokey in an awesome way the way they've pasted this guru's likeness in all of the scenes with the gods around the temple. They even have a cardboard cutout of him sitting in the throne-type chair that's in the temple. They have him photo-bombing everything and it's kind of rad. I didn't take any photos inside the temple or of the temple directly because it didn't feel right to, but you've got to believe it is sumptuous in only the way a temple in the Hill Country of Texas can be. If you let yourself be not cynical and choose to see the lightness of it all, it really is beautiful.

The temple sits on 200 acres that they have used to try to replicate holy places of the Hindu faith that are in India on. There is lily pond with dragonflies of all shapes and sizes as well as lotus blooms that is a recreation of the Prem Sarovar.

There is a "hill" (which I use very loosely) of flowers and plants surrounded be grazing land which is a replica of the Govardhan Hill and there are little cow statues chillin in the middle of the plants on the "hill".

There are several other little shrine areas around the grounds as well as more modern, western buildings because the temple also serves as a school, vacation area and retreat:

There are a couple of lady and dude peacocks squawking away too. Man, are they beautiful.

All in all, it was a very peaceful, very quiet place to just hang out. There are several picnic tables and benches around the property so you can bring a lunch or snack and sit and enjoy the area. And let me just say:

Damn, Texas. Damn.

Getting to Know You, Austin #1 - Hamilton Pool Preserve

You can read about the introduction and reasoning behind this here...

*******

Today marked my first official popsicle stick:

You can find out the specifics about the pool here but, needless to say, it was an early morning. I don't have a lot of photos (none really) because the weather was ominous and there wasn't a point at which I could take out my phone at the pool.

The pool opens at 9am and, per everything I read and all the direction I got from others, best practice was to be there at or just before 9am. The park only has parking for 75 cars and there is always a line to get in - after the first 75, it's one out, one in. Even on this very gloomy looking morning:

I got there at 8:45, waited in line for about 20 minutes and got in. There were a surprising number of people considering it wasn't warm or sunny. Once you park it's a beautiful quarter mile hike down to the pool and, by this point, it was raining fairly steadily. About 100 yards away you start hearing the laughs and sounds of the people that are already there and it opens up into a gorgeous natural grotto. I get there, put my stuff down, take off my shoes and immediately jump in the water. Then it starts to rain hard. Then the thunder comes but I stay in... until we see lightning. So everyone was told to get out of the water and we chilled a little until the rain did the same and went back in. Until it all happened again. And again. All told, I was there for 2 hours before I left and, as I was leaving, I saw that they weren't letting anyone else in due to the weather.

In the middle of all this, I met a very nice girl names Ashley who was in from Houston to visit Austin and had originally come to the pool with her very pregnant niece, but the hike down to the pool was too much for her, so she went back to their hotel and Ashley stayed. I got her to come into the water a bit and swim out into it and we chatted during the times they advised us to be out of the water. She is an awesome gal and we exchanged numbers as she a a few of her friends are coming back to the area at the end of June for a more vacationy vacation.

All in all, this stick goes into the "lets do it again" jar because it needs a chance when it's hot and sunny and because I need to hike the trail up to the Pedernales River. For now, I apologize for the lackluster writing showing but I'm exhausted from not having slept last night and distracted by the cat that just traumatized herself. I need to put the screen door back up and then I need a nap.

Getting to Know You, Austin - Introduction & #0.5

Introduction:

We all know that the one thing I can't stop talking about is how bad a year last year was for me. Well, most of the stuff surrounding the badness has come to a conclusion and I'm in a position, my usual position, of digging myself out of a hole that the last year put me in. Besides all that, my fiddlefooted nature is trying to get the best of me again and I'm feeling the urge to leave again.

Lately, I've felt like I can't find quiet or silence since I've been back - both in sound and in feeling. I've felt displaced and, most recently, defeated. Majorly defeated. So my first instinct, as always, is to leave again. To a place that is a couple of years from it's cusp of awesome. Research shows that would be Boise (nope nope nope), Louisville (maybe... I'd be close enough to go see my Redlegs play in Cincinnati), Dallas (meh), Oklahoma City (probably not), and the like. But then a friend of mine just asked, "why don't you just stay?" and I don't have a good answer to that.

I don't like not having a good answer.
So I'm going to give it a shot.

I'm going to see if I can find the Austin I left (stupidly), the Austin I could wander through in the middle of the night, the Austin I left because I was happy and scared of that and what it meant. To facilitate my search, I've enlisted popsicle sticks:

Popsicle sticks with activities, most of which are Austin-specific, some aren't. One of which I will do, see, visit, complete each week. I also have 3 jars: the main one, the "did it, don't need to do it again" jar and the "did it and I totally need to do it again" jar in which to put the stick when I'm done. There aren't 100 of them, but there aren't only 10 either so I think it'll be a fair shot. If I can't find a way to be happy, to be still here after I've completed all of them, I'll leave knowing that I gave it a real shot but that it's just not for me anymore.

Finally, I'm going to use this place as a kind of accountability test for this. Whether I like the activity or not, I'll put a little something up here explaining what I did, what jar it will go into and why I did or didn't like it. So, without futher ado...

#0.5:

Today, I kind of did one by default. I have a stick in the jar for the French Legation Museum and I just happened to attend a shindig there today so I consider it a half since I didn't actually go into the museum. It was nice to get out into the awesome weather and see... interesting ...music and enjoy the Circus Chicken Dog (adorable) and watch hip parents and their hip kids enjoy the hip hipness of the event and day. There were hot dogs and a tree for me to sit under, so I was cool but I felt a little lonely. I probably did that to myself though because that's what I do.

running list

for the month-long good-bye i've got to say to austin:

- a wednesday night at flips with mte and southpaw
- a sunday night at the saxon with what's left of "the resentments" - completed 11/22
- a wednesday night at the continental with jon dee and james mcmurtry
- a thursday night at lucky lounge with ian maclagan
- a wednesday night at the broken spoke with dale watson
- a movie or 40 at the alamo
- sangria margaritas at el chile
- deluxe chicken enchiladas with deluxe tomatillo sauce at chuy's
- rudy's bbq
- a trip to lockhart for bbq - completed 11/28
- lots of amy's ice cream
- homeslice - i might fit that in with the wednesday night at the continental
- a burger and a game at the tavern
- take a bath in sweet leaf pomegranate green tea
- a michael jackson cupcake
- an "art fair" weekend in gruene
- a show at gruene hall - maybe reckless kelly
- more...

**more - so much music going on in the next month and a half!:
- continental club:
- 11/19 - ian moore
- 12/1 - david garza
- 12/3 - chili cold blood
- 12/7 - beginning of "crybear" residency at the gallery (free) and crybear is david garza
- all of december - alejandro escovedo tuesday night residency
- other:
- 11/18 - kevin devine @ emos
- 11/24 - neko case @ antones
- 12/4 & 5 - the mother hips @ emos

WHAT?!

i'm sure i'll be adding to this list as time goes on...

i can't believe i almost forgot - a hey cupcake! cupcake. probably a michael jackson. how do you write a drool sound?

it's official

i am not staying in austin. the decision has just been made. looking at houses here makes me sad and yearn for space. that's my tell-tale sign.

i want to be somewhere with SPACE. space on a vast level. somewhere where i can make a lot of noise and not worry about a neighbor hearing me or complaining.

maybe carlos is right. maybe i'm ready for the desert. or maybe i just want to go to the moon.