Baby Penguin (BP) was my company in Austin Monday through Thursday while McD toiled away in Dallas. I found a new coffee shop reasonably close to the office, Trianon Coffee, and guess what? They serve TacoDeli breakfast tacos – perfect! I’ll have a Jess Special please. What’s that you ask? A delicious mix of eggs, cheese, avocado and some peppers.
On Monday night I noticed a bit of a rumpus on the roof of the Hyatt Regency parking garage. There are often photo shoots up there, capturing the Austin skyline as a backdrop. This one had some bright lights behind it and what did they spell out? Tacos! They’re everywhere. Some closer investigation seemed appropriate and so I took the lift up to the parking rooftop and found the shoot was for the 512 (Austin area code) Taco Man. Haven’t come across that truck anywhere but will need to keep an eye out.
I suppose I lied when I said that BP was my only company. My friend Ron (we worked together for years at AIG) from Los Angeles came to Austin to 
have dinner with my boss and me. Our new colleague Damon joined as well. We started with a drink at the apartment Sky Bar and then walked across the 1st Street bridge to III Forks for a delicious steak dinner. Thanks Ron! What a great time we had reminiscing on work experiences, folks we worked with, and just generally catching up. We finished up at the apartment with some music and banter.
The river was the calmest I’ve seen it so far on the walk back home and I snapped this picture of the Hyatt Regency reflection:
Ron was in Dallas on Wednesday and was able to meet up with Diana for dinner at The Keeper. So he was able to understand our relationship from both individual perspectives – probably could do some excellent marriage counseling now. I know, I know: everything’s perfect and that would be such a waste of money.
My favourite sunrise this week was Wednesday morning and yes, I was awake in time to see it after all the fun with the boys the night before. Pretty impressive I think.
I caught the bus back to Dallas on Thursday afternoon and then had a busy day on Friday catching up on things left undone for a few weeks: dental cleaning; Penelope oil change; selecting a new softer mattress for the apartment; Penelope bath; processing the stack of mail… Seems a lot of my day was spent catering to Penelope’s needs – I suppose that’s fair given that she’s been tolerating Diana driving her a lot recently – poor girl just isn’t used to going that fast.
Saturday commenced with the usual workout followed by coffee and a crossword. I could feel McD nipping at my heels during crossword time – she finished 10 seconds after me – whew, that was a close call. Penelope got new tires installed on Saturday afternoon – they were supposed to be done on Friday but there was a mix up on the tire delivery. She really is a very high maintenance girl, requiring new tires every 20 thousand miles or less.
We met Jens and Glenda for dinner on Saturday night at a restaurant that was new to us – Mexican Bar Co. at Willowbend mall. The food and company were excellent. We spent over 3 hours catching up on all that had happened in our lives in the 4 or 5 months since Jens’ 60th birthday party. I enjoyed a perfect chile relleno and elote (Mexican style corn on the cob with aioli). I had the leftovers just before finishing up this post.
Sunday started like Saturday – workout followed by coffee and crossword in downtown McKinney. I lost on the crossword today by 2 seconds – great job McD! (I could feel it coming yesterday). Then I did some light weeding and dead bush removal in the garden. By now it was eighty degrees outside and so we uncovered the pool loungers and spent a happy few hours reading and 
listening to music. A couple of light rain showers, while the sun was out and the sky clear blue, interrupted us for a few minutes at a time. I went inside to take a shower before dinner and heard the tornado sirens going off – time to get out, put on some clothes and check the TV weather update. We believe the siren was warning us of heavy hail approaching. Heavy indeed:
Will and his crew were in Tahoe this weekend for snow boarding and skiing. Christine took ski lessons for the first time and apparently had a great time. Will’s friend Bryce made it too – that’s him in the picture with Christine.
I thoroughly enjoyed “The Weight of a Piano” by Chris Cander this week. Cander lives in Houston and has been a writer in residence for Writers in the Schools there. She also stewards several Little Free Libraries in her community.
The story revolves around an old German Bluthner piano whose music connects two seemingly unconnected characters: a man on an inexplicable quest to photograph it, and a woman who, although unable to play it, can’t let it go. The strands of the plot twist together with alternating chapters following the family history of both characters. I think the novel is exploring how music can change and enrich lives in amazing and quite different ways.
Cander makes the piano a credible third character, intimately involved in the plot. The book begins with Bluthner picking Spruce for piano soundboards in the Romanian mountains: “He knocked them with his walking stick and pressed his ear against them as his intuition dictated, listening for the music hidden inside. He heard it more clearly than any other piano maker, better even than Ignaz Bosendorfer and Carl Bechstein and Henry Steinway. When he found what he was listening for, he marked the tree with a scrap of red wool, which stood out bright against the snow.”
The Russian composer, Scriabin, features often in the book, particularly his Prelude no. 14 in E flat Minor. I’ve listened to this several times and can’t get as excited about it as the folks in the story. It’s over almost before it starts (1:00 minute long exactly) and is very dramatic and bombastic. Notice the interesting Jim Morrison looking character playing the version below.
“From her first lesson, Clara had planned to devote herself to learning her father’s favourite piece of music – Prelude no. 14 in E Flat Minor by the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, which he’d looped repeatedly on his CD player at home. It was wildly energetic from the start through its abrupt and dramatic ending, and very difficult even for an accomplished pianist to play well, her teacher had told her.”
Katya’s father is a piano tuner, and the Bluthner is gifted to him and his daughter:
“But without the German and his music, Katya could fall asleep only if she lay down with her head beneath his piano. With her hair tangled in the pedals, she dreamed of snow fairies dancing, and gentle rain, and clouds blithely passing by overhead. In the mornings she tried to copy the sounds, picking the notes out one by one, learning their order.”
“She sighed and sat down at the piano. Playing always helped calm her nerves, especially now that she had her old Bluthner back.”
The thought behind the title isn’t revealed until very close to the end of the book:
“What if every single thing ever played on her Bluthner left an afterimage, a shadow of emotion deposited somewhere inside the case, on the soundboard or the hammers or the strings? What if – just as a photo album grew thick with memories of holidays, vacations, family, and friends – the piano gained the weight of each owner and his or her music?”
The final two pages of the book are a piece of piano music named “Die Riese” (The Trip). I just tried out the first few bars and it’s a pleasant piece that builds in speed and intensity. The piece is in B major with 5 sharps – not my favourite as I typically play pieces with 3 or less flats and sharps.
I just finished up “Infinite Tuesday” by Michael Nesmith. There’s a special prize for the first of you to tell me what he’s most famous for. No takers? Ok, I’ll tell you – he was one of the Monkees, and was dubbed the brainy Monkee. The title is based on this cartoon (I love it):
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the variety of stories and topics included. Nesmith was born and raised in Dallas by a single mother who worked very hard to make ends meet. After he runs off to California to try his hand at being a singer songwriter, she makes a fortune by inventing liquid paper (the white stuff you used to brush on to paper when you made a typo on a typewriter). She was a secretary and an artist and found the perfect intersection of both to meet an office product need.
Nesmith lives in Carmel, where he loves the dog friendly beach, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Los Angeles. I kept flashing to a scene on Carmel beach where Finn insisted on running into the sea (or was it Campbell) and had no change of clothes – Granny and Grandpa had to improvise.
He tells tales of foreseeing the home video industry and buying up the rights to all kinds of documentaries (including the Jacques Cousteau series), only to be challenged in court by a nefarious PBS action. Then he invents MTV just before it gets popularized. And lastly, earns a patent for inventing the technology for embedding live video into virtual reality internet environments. Clearly a visionary well beyond the expectations of any Monkee.
A decent portion of the middle of the book delves into Nesmith’s Christian Science upbringing and various cosmic spirituality pursuits – I kind of tuned out through much of this section.
His stories about hanging out with John Lennon and Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) are excellent.
This book makes a great pool or beach read with the wide variety of entertainment industry and intellectual stories.
Youtube suggested this beautiful instrumental version of “Summertime” by Marcus King and Billy Strings, reminding me of King’s excellent solo set at the Hula Hut last week:
Greg Brown pops up from time to time on my Discover Weekly list on Spotify (songs recommended based on listening preference). I really enjoyed “Dream Cafe”:
Listening to “The Randy Newman Songbook” while reading, I enjoyed this song that I don’t think I’ve heard before:
And finally, The Band of Heathens Live from Momos with “Anywhere I Lay My Head”, reminding me of their delightful set at Shady Grove last week, and of the first time we saw them as they played the closing night of Momo’s many years ago:
The next band was local to Austin, Tomar and the FCs, with a retro funky soul sound that we both enjoyed very much. These guys popped up all over town this week – even playing the Yeti showcase next to our apartment on Wednesday afternoon.
We checked out the outside pool area before leaving to walk home and snapped this picture of our apartment behind the fireplace. We have a great view of the Van Zandt hotel from our living room.
One of our very favourite bands, the Band of Heathens, followed Hood and Warner around 9am. They sounded better than ever with the full band crammed into a corner of the restaurant – a great sound job by Sun Radio. Here they are doing their version of “Heaven Help Us All” from the recent release, “A Message from the People” (originally released by Ray Charles):
What an amazing way to start the day!
I escaped work a bit early and we continued our SXSW sampling by walking down to Guero’s on South Congress. JM Stevens, the musician we chatted with last Saturday, was playing with his full band. We enjoyed the show and another taco. It’s very nice to be able to walk to so many lively destinations. This event was actually called “SXSF – South by Soup Fest” as it raised money for various Austin charities. This is Stevens’ song “Fire in the Wind” – it’s the one with the video filmed in Iceland.
Saturday began with a workout and then crossword and coffee – nice to get back into that routine. We’ve been sampling all the independent local coffee shops and this time chose Irie Bean Coffee on South Lamar which had a nice rear patio.
We had a Saturday dinner reservation at Juliet Italian and walked down (almost a mile) to House Wine next door before eating. Guess what? Yes, another music showcase underway. We enjoyed a band called “Sedona Skies” and were educated about an organization named “Women Crushing Music”. WCM helps aspiring female singer songwriters get ahead in the music business.
Sunday also started with a workout followed by coffee and a crossword. This time we chose Merit coffee on South Lamar which also has a nice patio – albeit a bit noisier on the street. To continue the reprise of Saturday, we made another trip to Target to get the second chair. This time it was in and out of the car without too much trouble – all about knowing the right technique.
Will sent me this picture (a classic Will stance) with some street art in Oakland, where he was trying bikram yoga for the first time – this is where you do a subset of yoga moves in a very hot room – no thanks!
Lamb Vindaloo was the perfect dinner on a freezing cold evening. I also got some art together for the apartment – a picture of the Continental Club and a canvas of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s classic guitar that he played to fame in Austin. I tease McD that the guitar picture is the same size as her.
I was able to enjoy a late lunch at El Alma, my new favourite Mexican restaurant. The fresh ingredients, flavorful sauces and unique ambiance make this a superior place – and it’s close to both the apartment and work.
Diana hosted my boss at “Wine down Wednesday” at the Catherine sky bar and then we walked across to Peche for another delicious dinner.
On Saturday evening, Diana wandered across the parking lot to get some of the excellent ceviche that the Hyatt offers. She texted me that there was a good musician playing and so I walked over and joined her at the bar. The musician, JM Stevens, was very good indeed. He joined us at the bar after his set and we had a great chat for about an hour. Here’s his latest video for a new song. The video was recorded by a cinematographer based in Iceland at an abandoned air strip and JM’s part was added via Skype.
instruments in his studio and particularly a vintage Hammond B3 and a 1930s era double high Leslie speaker. I liked his description of the B3 sounding like some “fog rolling into a recording’s landscape”. I’ll include a link to this album in the music section at the end of this post. JM recommended Cosmic coffee as a new venue that treated local musicians well and so we put it on our list for Sunday.
Sunday began with workouts, followed by a delicious brunch at El Alma. Diana’s crab Benedict with chipotle hollandaise sauce and corn cake base was amazing.
Diana spent most of the week in Boston for a client visit. It was very cold there and we know that McD really, really doesn’t like the cold wintry weather. Fortunately she had some colleagues with her to scrape off the rental car and get it all warmed up before she joined.
Back in Austin, the guest bedroom mattress, desk chair, and bar stools were all delivered on Monday. I wrestled the boxes up to the apartment and assembled the chair and stools – they look good in position. The good news is that the trash room for recycled boxes is right outside our door.
My boss had a dinner recommendation from his Uber driver and so my friend Issac and I joined him at Lin Dim Sum. The food was very creative and tasty. They are known for soup dumplings but I didn’t think I’d be able to consume those without making a mess – particularly with chopsticks. We sat at the bar and I watched a couple of girls very skillfully manage an order. We shared a number of dishes and they were all very good. I’m looking forward to seeing what Diana thinks of this West 6th Street restaurant.
afternoon. We timed the drive to arrive just as Diana was returning from Boston and we were able to drive Penelope home from the airport together. I laughed as Vinod and I passed the Vonlane bus half way into our drive – I had been considering the big comfortable bus chair as compared to the sporty seat in Vinod’s BMW. We took the Fort Worth branch of Interstate 35 and I was able to check out the building at Gearhart where I first worked in Texas (back in 1987). It was fun to see what has become of all the lunch places that we used to frequent there. The Rig, a burger and steak restaurant, seemed to be a Mexican place. Nothing else had changed too much and the Gearhart building was occupied by another oil related business.
Sugar Bacon in downtown McKinney. We thought it was just going to be the four of us to listen to one of Steve’s friends providing the music, but there two other couples (Brian, Evelyn, Jeremy, and Diane) who also joined. Brian provided some unexpected entertainment when he asked to take over as the musician so that he could serenade Evelyn. I had ribs and have several left over for dinner tonight. They were very well cooked and tasty.
inconsequential details. After that, I became very invested in Tara’s journey to gain an education. When the Holocaust was mentioned in a BYU college history class, she raised her hand because she didn’t know what it was. She hadn’t been in a classroom until the age of seventeen. Her religious fanactic father was dubious of public education, believing it was the way the government brainwashes its citizens. Her mother was not at all diligent with homeschooling and Tara had to ultimately teach herself to gain the necessary score on the ACT to attend BYU. She eventually earns a PhD from Cambridge. The strength of Westover and the sacrifices she makes are phenomenal. This book really underscores the value and power of an education, something so many of us take for granted. I highly recommend this book and ask you to be patient in the first section as the middle and conclusion are worth it.