“True Companion”
Warning – whiny paragraph ahead. We closed out September in Austin with 16 days over 100 degrees. Ridiculous. Ludicrous even. Why such an effusive reaction, you ask? Well, an average September has 3 days over 100. Why is it necessary to have 5 times as many as normal on the year that I spend most of my time here? Just to torture a guy that was designed to excel in 50 degree, rainy weather. Just to finish off my whine, I’ll share that we’ve had 54 days over 100 so far this year – which interestingly is quite a bit below the record.
I’ve enjoyed watching the preparations for the ACL music festival this week on my commutes down Barton Springs. Oh sorry, some of you haven’t heard of ACL I’m guessing. Fast forward if you know all about it already.
Austin City Limits (ACL) is a long running and totally excellent Public Television music series filmed live in Austin. I’ve been enjoying the show for at least 20 years now. The ACL music festival was born in 2002 and has grown into a mammoth production, staged over two weekends in October. The event has 8 stages across Zilker Park and this year is October 4-6 and 11-13. 450,000 people attended last year and so you can imagine that central Austin is very busy right now.
I was by myself again on Monday night, but Diana did leave me some of her leftover sea bass. What to pair with that delight, I wondered. A tour of the freezer yielded the perfect accompaniment – veggie tater tots. A delicious bachelor meal. McD commented that she particularly appreciated the squiggle of mayonnaise.
We successfully concluded a massive, global, highly complex (I know I’m really overdoing it now) project at work on Tuesday. Seriously, they have been at it for over 3 years, with all kinds of challenges and starts and stops, and we finished successfully with our last sites in Mexico this week. Lots of back slapping congratulations, flowery thank you emails, and the like ensued. That lasted about 10 minutes, and then it was time to get back to work again. Worn out from all the celebratory high jinx, I enjoyed quiet nights at the apartment on Tuesday and Wednesday, reading and listening to music. More about the music discovered later, as usual in these posts.
Thursday took me from the “Live Music Capital of the World” (Austin) to “Music City USA” (Nashville) for a long weekend.
Diana made a similar trip from Dallas – greatest musical claim being the birth place of Stevie Ray Vaughan – and we rendezvoused in Nashville around the same time. A quick Uber to the Westin downtown and we were ready for a quiet dinner and an early night. The Decker & Dyer restaurant in the hotel fit the bill perfectly.
What do you think of this as a replacement for Penelope? I’ll be tallying votes and will report out next week. They do say that orange is the new black. Take my back condition and size into consideration when casting your ballots please.
Why did we choose Nashville for a few days away? Well…after the Marc Cohn and Blind Boys of Alabama concert that we saw in California a few months ago, McD said that she hadn’t had enough of just Marc Cohn at the show and wanted to see him again when it was just him playing his regular catalog. The best location we could find for that was the City Winery in Nashville on Sunday.
A workout was called for after a lazy start to Friday. Then, as it was a 
beautiful sunny day outside, I suggested lunch on the rooftop of the Thompson hotel in the Gulch area. My wife quickly approved that plan. One of our party should have applied sunscreen prior to the walk over to the Gulch and time in the direct sun on the rooftop. I’m sure it’s difficult for you to imagine who could have been so silly.
A quick regroup at the hotel, and then it was time to head over to East Nashville to reprise a few of our favourite haunts. There really are a lot of similarities between Austin and Nashville – a rapidly gentrifying East area of town with great restaurants and bars, a compact and walkable downtown, and a vibrant music scene.
We started with a cocktail on the back patio of the Rosemary speakeasy. This place has become a bit more commercial since our initial discovery, and not in a great way. Still a good spot, just not as charming. It was on the patio, once I had a drink in hand, that Diana informed me that she would like to go to Blake Shelton’s restaurant the next day. Yee haw!
Unlike Rosemary, our dining destination, the excellent Butcher & Bee, seemed even better than we remembered. The whipped feta and grilled mushrooms were fabulous. A huge thanks to Diana for asking the hostess to seat us away from the loud party of girls – they were very high pitched and loud and I wouldn’t have lasted through the meal beside them. Nashville has become a huge bachelorette party (hen party for my Scottish readers) 
destination – we saw so many groups riding around town in open topped buses and trailers, even a party fire truck, dancing and having a good time. At least it keeps them out of the way of folks trying to enjoy the restaurants. The book that our bill was delivered in sent us on a trip down memory lane – Beatrix Potter. I read some in my best upper crust English accent.
We were proud to get a workout in again on Saturday morning, before 
setting off for the madness of Broadway. This is a street similar to 6th street in Austin – one honky tonk with live music after another for 3 or 4 blocks. It was particularly packed at lunchtime on Saturday.
We satisfied D’s request and had a pleasant lunch at Ole Red, Blake Shelton’s place. The downstairs was communal seating and we sat with nice folks from North Carolina, who ordered the largest plate of nachos I’ve seen. Our fried pickles and quesadilla were equally massive. Lance and Lea provided a pleasant mix of musical accompaniment. I texted Alicia: “You’re Mom is torturing me!”. The rapid reply: “Welcome to the club. We’ve been waiting for you!”. Phunny girl.
My navigational skills failed me again after lunch. I was trying to follow the walking directions on my phone to get to the Ryman auditorium. Diana was quite convinced we were headed in the completely wrong direction – even more annoying because I was headed uphill. Of course she was correct, and we got some unnecessary exercise in after the large lunch.
We did a self-guided tour and really enjoyed exploring the Ryman. The movie that starts the tour was exceptionally well done and did a great job of covering the history. Originally opened in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle, its construction was spearheaded by Thomas Ryman (1843–1904), a Nashville businessman who owned several saloons and a fleet of riverboats. Ryman conceived the idea of the auditorium as a tabernacle for the influential revivalist Samuel Porter Jones.
Lula Naff leased the building in the early 1900s and promoted all kinds of shows and events. Some of the names to perform in the early years include Marian Anderson in 1932, Bill Monroe (from KY) and the Bluegrass Boys in ’45, Hank Williams in ’49, The Carter Sisters with Mother Maybelle Carter in 1950, Elvis in ’54, Johnny Cash in ’56, trumpeter Louis Armstrong in ’57, Patsy Cline in ’60, and Minnie Pearl in ’64. The Ryman also served as the regular Sunday venue for the Grand Ole’ Opry and Johnny Cash TV shows.
After falling into disrepair, and a renovation spear-headed by musicians, who loved the acoustics (said to be better than Carnegie Hall) and atmosphere of the venue, the Ryman hosts performances by big name musicians most nights of the week. Here’s a picture of some of the folks that have played there:
The tour finishes with a photo opportunity. Here are the next big stars to be discovered at the Ryman. Poor Diana is just trying to avoid being bonked on the head with my guitar.
I’m not sure you’d be very comfortable in the ancient pews while listening to us perform:
After another short rest at the hotel, it was time for a real highlight of the trip. I had read about a restaurant named Bastion that sounded right up my alley: only 24 seats large, advertising an “adventure menu”, and spinning vinyl records. On arrival through a sliding metal door, you are welcomed into the little bar for a pre-dinner drink. Jeremiah took very good care of us. Then we were seated at the kitchen counter and presented with our “adventure menus” to make selections. Only a couple of ingredients are revealed to aid in the decision making process.
D’s choices
The courses were excellent with lovely presentations and descriptions.
All of this deliciousness was set off beautifully by the “Fly Blind” wine pairings – some really unusual selections. And of course there was the treat of vinyl albums for background music – some early Elvis Costello for the 2nd course.
A very impressive fire was burning outside the restaurant with coals transferred inside regularly for the inside grills.
Bastion is so good that I would recommend people make a trip to Nashville just for the experience of dining here.
Sunday made three workouts in a row – a rare feat with our work schedules. Then we reprised another old favourite – brunch at Husk. The shrimp and grits were different and tasty, but still not up to the gold standard – Ricks in downtown McKinney. The rain stopped long enough for us to walk back to the hotel, passing the City Winery on the way. They were having their 5th anniversary harvest festival outside, with really good bands playing – including Ivan Neville and Dumpstaphunk. We chose not to spoil our musical appetite for the big evening show.
The Cowboys played the Green Bay Packers at 3:25pm and I found a sports 
bar just off Broadway to watch the game. The Corner Pub had a massive screen showing all the games and we found a good spot in time for kickoff. What a horrible first half – nothing working for the Cowboys and everything clicking for the Packers. Ugh! The Boys pulled it together in the second half with some good play, but it was all too little and too late. What a disappointment.
Can you guess what wasn’t a disappointment on Sunday? That’s right – Marc Cohn. Mark Erelli opened the show – a very talented singer songwriter, who had recently played at the Ryman. The sound in the City Winery is really fabulous. I appreciated his song “By Degrees”, which I believe is about the need for improved gun control. Erelli showed up later to play guitar on several Marc Cohn songs – and did an excellent job on slide guitar.
I have another of Erelli’s songs that I’ve been enjoying in the new music section at the bottom of this post.
Marc Cohn played all of our favourites and sounded as good as ever. Diana commented that she could hear the Blind Boys in her head on “Work to Do”:
Then came my favourite, “Listening to Levon”, a tribute to the late great Levon Helm of the Band:
The song that put Cohn on the musical map, “Walking in Memphis”, with the classic “Ma’am I am tonight” line:
“Silver Thunderbird” always tugs at the heart strings:
And now it was time for the closer, also the opener to our wedding reception and my marriage proposal, “True Companion”.
We were fortunate enough to have Marc Cohn sign a new poster he was selling, featuring the lyrics to the last verse of True Companion. Diana took the time to tell Cohn about the first time we heard him play the song, and his very kind gift of flowers to a military wife in the Kessler audience, whose husband couldn’t make it to the show – not a dry eye in the house.
Diana was very happy with the show and the experience – and isn’t that what life’s all about – sharing happy times with your True Companion.
She wasn’t so happy the next morning with her 4am start to get back to Dallas for a client meeting. I had a more leisurely start, time for breakfast, and even the best shoe shine I think I’ve had, before flying back to Austin.
Such a fun trip – I’m glad you were able to join me Diana.
As promised, here’s “The Hitter” by Mark Erelli. Did you already forget about him? Remember, he opened for Marc Cohn.
There’s a new album, “Ode to Joy”, by Wilco out this week. I’ve only listened to it once through. I was surprised in the first few songs that there was none of Nels Cline’s angular guitar playing. It did finally show up, but this is certainly mellower than their recent output.
I watched an interview of Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top this week, and he was talking about this Lightnin’ Hopkins song. I’m sure you can here a number of ZZ Top songs in this.
And finally, a new discovery for me, ZZ Top’s superbowl halftime performance from the late 90s:
On the drive to the restaurant, I noticed a sign on the El Mercado Mexican restaurant alerting us that John Inmon was hosting Marcia Ball as his guest. After dinner, we paid our $5 cover and enjoyed the last 40 minutes of that excellent show. John Inmon is known as one of the finest guitarists in Austin (pretty rarefied company) and hosts a different guest every Tuesday night. What a treat to see Marcia Ball with a different band and playing songs that you don’t hear in her regular sets recently. Here’s the excellent “World Full of Love”. Marcia and her friend told the story of writing this song after the last election – they were not happy with the result but turned around that sentiment into this beautiful song:
Then we had a real moment. Frampton introduced a gentleman that he’d known for a long time, but had never played with, Eric Clapton. A real one of a kind experience as they played the Beatles, “My Guitar Gently Weeps”:
I started “The Most Fun We Ever Had” by Claire Lombardo this week. The first 100 of 500 pages have been enjoyable. I suspect it’ll take me a few weeks to finish this one. The multi-generational story of a Chicago based family seems like it will provide many hours of interesting reading.
I spent the first week in Austin, while McD headed to Wisconsin for a few days. Sunrise on Tuesday was described as “crepuscular” by the TV weather guy. It was quite impressive and I looked up what that meant:
I do enjoy waking up with sunrise over downtown Austin. Meanwhile Diana was enjoying what Wisconsin had to offer – much cooler weather, and some good steakhouses (no relation to the New Orleans institution of the same name).
On Saturday morning, we caught a flight to San Francisco for a few days with family. Crosswords are a good way to pass the time, and I always enjoy the view of the Sierras with a small snow cap remaining.
surf boarding behind a ski boat in Lake Tahoe when you can’t float with a life jacket, living in a one bedroom apartment in North Beach with a baby grand and not being able to concentrate on music if the kitchen wasn’t fully organized, and making a 21 layer rice crispie cake for Adamo. For desert we chose a butterscotch pot de creme (yummy). We both enjoyed our 2 hour plus lunch experience.
I loved the book “Henry, Himself” by Stewart O’Nan. 
Cat was in Austin for an Apple Systems Engineering annual meeting, and we were able to meet up on Thursday evening. We made a quick visit to the Sky bar for the requisite picture, and then Ubered over to Peche – I know, it’s less than a mile, but it was still too hot to walk at 7:30 pm.
We visited the Roosevelt Room, a kind of fancy speakeasy style cocktail bar, after Peche and I enjoyed a Paper Plane. We sat at the bar and thoroughly enjoyed watching all the craft cocktails being prepared – some works of art. My drink came with a small origami plane flying alongside
four hours and was really struggling to figure out what was going on. Had to read a synopsis when I got home. Not sure whether I’ll make it through the remaining 3 hours or not. #2, I decided to venture away from the standard places along the highway and try a real Waco restaurant for my lunch stop. Harvest was a very good farm to table casual place, not too far off Interstate 35. The migas were excellent. I look forward to stopping there again.
new restaurant for us, Knife, located by Willow Bend Mall. This is a John Tesar place. You may remember I came home with a whole pan of his duck confit risotto after attending a demonstration he did at the Granada theater a few years back. He is starting to expand his empire with a few different places now, after getting his real start as the executive chef at the Mansion on Turtle Creek.
I finally finished “Lost Children Archive” by Valeria Luiselli. On the surface this is a family road trip story. Parents and two young children embark on a trip from New York to Arizona and the Apache homelands. Several stories interweave, including narratives on the plight of native Americans, and on children traveling alone across the border in attempts to reunite with family members living in the United States. All very poignant with the backdrop of our governments challenge to figure out a workable immigration solution on our southern border. I enjoyed the book quite a bit, but got bogged down in some of the historical details and discussion on documentary field recordings.
We covered a lot of ground this week. I drove down to Austin on Monday to prepare for a presentation to the Board of Directors on Tuesday, driving back to McKinney when the session finished up. We worked from home on Wednesday, and then caught a flight to Palm Springs for an adventure with the Ogans and two other couples who I’ll introduce you to in due course.
Breakfast was included, and served on a gorgeous patio in front of the hotel, by some very happy and kind ladies. I really enjoyed the avocado toast with a sunny-side egg and tomatoes. The group managed to rustle up some champagne so that everyone could enjoy mimosas and get the day off to a good start. I should clarify – the rest of the group had already been on a strenuous hike, climbing around 1500 feet in the roasting temperatures, before D and I joined them for breakfast.
For dinner we chose tacos and margaritas at El Jefe in the funky, retro Saguaro hotel. The shishito peppers, queso fundido, tacos (particularly the shrimp), and margaritas were all very good. Unfortunately “Karaoke Kenny” wasn’t able to perform as that’s only available at El Jefe during high season.
Diana and Anne made a visit to Trina Turk’s clothes shop, while the rest of us picked up coffees and a blue balloon dog for Anne. Denny and I were both looking for casual lunch spots en route to our next hotel, and both decided on Dillon’s Burgers and Beers at the same time. This dive bar has been operating for over 70 years and delivered exactly what it advertised – delicious burgers and beer. A highlight of the visit was playing pool, with Anne receiving detailed instructions from Karaoke Kenny – “Slow your roll, and see through the ball”.
On the outside were stables, saloons, and jails, and on the inside, were ice cream parlors, bowling alleys, and motels. Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Russell Hayden, and the Sons of the Pioneers (for whom the town was named) were some of the original investors and personalities who helped build and invent Pioneertown. More than 50 films and several television shows were filmed in Pioneertown throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s.
In 1982, Harriet and her husband, Claude “Pappy” Allen, opened “Pappy&Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace”. While the bikers still hung around, Pappy&Harriet’s presence created more of a family atmosphere. With family style Tex-Mex cuisine and live music featuring Pappy, Harriet and their granddaughter Kristina, P&H quickly became a local favorite with all walks of life getting along under one roof!
And what’s Campout 15? Two bands formed by David Lowery, Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, have hosted the Campout music festival at this location for the last 15 years. This was to be the final event. Lowery formed Camper Van Beethoven, an experimental indie band, in 1983 in Santa Cruz, CA, and then the more straight ahead, Cracker in the early 90s. I’m a very big Cracker fan – the “Kerosene Hat” album has been one of my favourites for many years.
That was followed by a Cracker set. The theme for the evening was “black”, to recognize the end of the Campout’s 15 year run. Here’s their best known song:
After a dip in the pool at the El Morocco, we headed up for night two of the Campout. The order was reversed with Camper Van Beethoven starting, and Cracker headlining. In between was an interesting experience, The Minus Five performed. Who are they? Well, they were formed by Scott McCaughey in 1993 with Peter Buck of REM. Prior to this band, McCaughey formed The Young Fresh Fellows with Chuck Caroll. What? That Chuck Carroll?
Yes – my neighbour in Los Gatos, Joe Carroll’s brother Chuck. I met him a few times and he can play Anything on the guitar. The Minus Five were much more animated than expected – kind of a cross between Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello in the late 80s. Here they are with a Beatles cover. Can you see Mike Mills and Peter Buck from REM on the right (they are used to much larger stadium audiences):
My friend Norma, from Guatemala, was trying to get to New Orleans on Saturday to see the Rolling Stones at the Superdome. This is the rescheduled concert from the Jazzfest 50th anniversary show that was canceled due to Mick Jagger’s illness. Wouldn’t you know she had to fly on Friday afternoon to get in ahead of the storm, only to find out that the concert was pushed back to Monday. We’re hoping she finally gets to see the band after so much effort. She was in Lima, Peru this week, planning for our new system to be implemented, and was complaining that it was mid winter and very cold. It will not feel like winter in New Orleans for sure.
Diana arrived on the afternoon bus on Friday and it reminded me to share this picture I snapped earlier in the week. One of the luxury Vonlane buses had broken down and the Corvette the mechanic drove over to repair it was hilarious. Zoom in and check out all that crazy air intake equipment.
The Boogie Kings, a band formed in Eunice, Louisiana in 1955, were billed as the headliners, but the crowd had cleared out a good bit for their set – most folks came to hear Marcia Ball.
Congress Hotel. There really are so many interesting stores and restaurants on this street – very unique. We enjoyed a drink at Craft and Commerce – commenting on the beautiful decor, and then walked across the street for dinner at June’s. We sat on the patio and enjoyed the people watching.
I enjoyed the book, “Machines LIke Me” by Ian McEwan, very much. What an excellent writer and a creative premise. The novel is set in 1982, the miners are on strike, unemployment is soaring, and Margaret Thatcher has dispatched the Navy to protect the Falkland Islands from take over by an Argentinian junta. These are all historically accurate, and then McEwan puts a twist on things – the war in the Falklands is lost with 3,000 casualties, Lennon and JFK are both alive, and Tony Benn is challenging Thatcher for leadership of the country.
workouts and then lunch at Toulouse in Legacy West. Diana was excited when her choice for restaurant stuck – the other two options we discussed were closed for the holiday. We enjoyed a delicious white wine and steak tartare with frites. I know, you’re thinking our diet is almost exclusively raw meat these days – only when we go to French places that do it well.
And did you know that I’m highly allergic to wasp and bee stings – swell up like the Elephant Man. Turns out hornets nests are not always in trees. We found five piles of sand in the beds next to the grill, looking just like ant hills without the ants. Further investigation showed some kind of bug burrowing into the ground and kicking out sand. We decided to leave well alone and wait for the pest control experts.
early dinner at the Grape. She says she had been thinking about going all week – must have some special ESP going. We started by sharing the chicken liver mousse, which now has the pistachio topping added back – last time we visited, over a year ago we guess, they had changed it, and not for the better. Then we split a delicious salad, followed by steak frites for Diana and scallops for me. A lovely evening and way too long since we’ve visited the Grape.
“The Parade” by Dave Eggers, a very favourite author, is a spare and powerful story of two men, Western contractors sent to work far from home, and tasked with paving a road to the capital in a dangerous and largely lawless country.
“Biloxi” by Mary Miller is quite different than any book that I’ve read in a while. Miller skillfully transports us to her unapologetic corner of the South—this time, Biloxi, Mississippi, home to sixty-three-year-old Louis McDonald Jr. His wife of thirty-seven years has left him, his father has passed—and he has impulsively retired from his job in anticipation of an inheritance check that may not come. In the meantime, he watches reality television, drinks beer, and avoids his ex-wife and daughter. One day, he stops at a house advertising free dogs and meets overweight mixed-breed Layla. Unexpectedly, Louis takes her, and begins investigating local dog parks and buying extra bologna. Mining the absurdities of life with her signature “droll minimalist’s-eye view of America” (Joyce Carol Oates), Mary Miller’s “Biloxi” captures every day life in the South perfectly.
The week started well with a relaxing and delicious lunch at June’s All Day brasserie on far South Congress. This is the place that Mark took me to for lunch when I interviewed for my job in Austin, and I hadn’t been back since. Diana and I both loved our lunch – delicious wines, smoked salmon nicoise salad for D and steak tartare for K. The heavens opened as we were finishing up and so we had to stay for coffee and wait for a brief respite in the rain. Temperatures dropped 15 degrees in a few minutes and the humidity was thankfully gone from the air for a while.
Then they met up with Sean at the Continental Club to see the amazing Peterson Brothers. These two young men have so much positive energy and interact with each other beautifully. May they never lose those positive smiles they have playing music together. I was able to join around 7:30pm for the second half of the show. We particularly enjoyed the rendition of “Amazing Grace” on violin by Alex – it was his first instrument in school before graduating to bass guitar virtuoso.
Changing over from music to the literary front, I finally finished “The Parisian” by Isabella Hammad. This was a very long slog of a book with lots of Arabic dialog and names. I did learn a lot about the history of Palestine in the early 2oth Century, and the influx of Jewish immigration that ultimately caused the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that still exists.
Our second wedding anniversary on Monday was welcomed with a pretty sunrise. After a long work day, we celebrated at Uchi, a sushi restaurant close to the apartment and rated one of the best in the United States. The food was excellent, as you can tell by the smile on D’s face. The service was equally outstanding, from the initial greeter, to Sam our waitress, and everyone else that interacted with us.
The rest of the week was busy with work and quite hot outside. On Wednesday evening we braved the heat for a walk along the river, passing by the movie on the lawn event on the way home. “The Goonies” was showing on a giant inflatable screen. Temperatures continued to heat up, with Thursday being the first 100 degree day of the year.
Friday afternoon took me to one of our stores on far South Congress to observe system performance during the peak time and close process. As luck would have it, C-Boys Heart and Soul was close by. Diana joined me and a couple of work colleagues for happy hour. The Rosie Flores Revue was playing (as they apparently do every Friday) – what a pleasant surprise. We’ll have to return again soon.
Sunday kicked off with a nice long swim and very relaxing sauna, followed by coffee at Opa! The puzzle was by creators and an editor we didn’t know – where did Fred Piscop go? It took us both over 30 minutes to finish the “Doing the Splits” crossword.
After dinner we finished off the evening at the Roosevelt Room. The bar is lovely and the cocktails good, but we decided it was just a bit too much work to get a drink in that place. I did like the interior and particularly the musician paintings – here’s one of Austin native Gary Clark Jr.
