“Pins Out”
Penelope and I made the drive down to Austin on Monday morning. I was pleased to finish the trip with no back pain or other issues. P was happy to get up some decent speed for once – she typically maxes out at 45 mph on my short commute to the office.
The pins were extracted from my finger on Tuesday afternoon. The doctor says everything looks good, but my finger looks pretty ugly still – new nail required. I did find this ornament in the doctor’s office quite entertaining. That finger looks much better than mine.
The University of Texas was hosting an event to celebrate ground breaking on the new Moody Center – a basketball and concert venue to replace the 40 year old Frank Erwin center. This event started right after my finger appointment and was a short walk away – why not?
The event turned out to be quite something. Intro speeches by all the University brass and the “Minister of Culture” for the new Center – Oscar winning actor Matthew McConaughey. Free food trucks from several Austin classic spots – I enjoyed an empanada from Four Brothers and a delicious green chile pork taco from Torchy’s.
Moon Taxi (an indie rock band) performed after the speeches and I thought they had a very pleasant sound.
The whole event is what would be called a langiappe in New Orleans.
I almost forgot to share a picture from the event. I had my picture taken with the UT mascot – Bevo. Turns out this is Bevo XV – who knew there had been so many?
Those cheerleaders seem quite excited to be getting their picture taken with me. McD’s comment – I leave him unattended for a couple of hours and look what happens.
I enjoyed a nice long walk back home from the event. Here’s a nice view of the Capital on the way. Can you believe the tree in front of the Capital is fake? It’s true – I watch them assembling it level by level.
Diana’s bus wasn’t due for another 45 minutes and so I made a minor detour to Antone’s to listen to some free Blues music – what a deal.
The band included Denny Freeman and Sarah Brown – a couple of our favourites.
I was able to drag myself away from the music just in time to meet Diana arriving on the bus.
We had a delicious dinner with Damon on Wednesday at the Odd Duck. This is the last time we’ll see him before the holidays. He was very effusive in describing the Frozen play that his daughters are performing in this coming weekend. We just heard a recording and he had every right to be proud – beautiful voices.
I watched an inept Dallas Cowboys performance on Thursday night (at least until I fell asleep). Such a disappointing game from a team with so much talent!
We enjoyed a good Austin evening on Friday – starting with the Rosie Flores Review at C-Boy’s Heart and Soul. Rosie is 69 and belting it out and playing the guitar beautifully. I love their cover of the Blind Faith song “Can’t Find My Way Home”:
Diana chatted up Wayde who has a new food truck on the C-Boys patio. I laughed as he walked the waffle fries we ordered around every table asking – “Did you order these?” – a great advertising trick. He was quite a talker and turns out a fire fighter when not operating the truck.
Here’s a cover of Springsteen’s “Luckytown” from Rosie:
I really like the feel of C-Boys Heart and Soul. From there we made our usual stop just up South Congress at June’s, enjoying escargot and steak tartare. From there it was a pleasant one mile walk back home.
On Saturday we did some minor grocery shopping and some Christmas shopping on South Congress. There was a nice artist market set up by Guero’s and interesting gifts in some of the weird little stores. It was a beautiful day to be out and about, with temperatures in the mid 70s. We enjoyed an episode of “The Crown” in the evening. This one was set in 1967 and featured Prince Philip’s mother being rescued from Greece and visiting Buckingham Palace – a piece of history with which I was not at all familiar.
Sunday included the usual standards – workout, coffee and crossword, and football. No Cowboys but an excellent game between the New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers in the Superdome. San Francisco ultimately winning 48-46 in a thrilling back and forth game. One of the best that I’ve seen in several years. Now we’re both working on things we need to have ready for work tomorrow – very boring!
I’ve very much enjoyed “Nine Lives: Mystery, Magic, Death, and Life in New Orleans” this week. Dan Baum tells the tales of nine New Orleans residents from Hurricane Betsy in 1960 through Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Baum was reporting on Katrina and fell in love with the city that Hurricane almost destroyed. His writing on the nine characters from different races, sections of the city, and backgrounds, captures New Orleans very well. It really is heartbreaking to read the stories of Hurricane Katrina – particularly that the city survived the actual storm but was then let down by the levees and water management system. Such a wonderful city that still suffers through so many problems.
All this talk of New Orleans has reminded me of the wonderful nights I’ve spent at Vaughan’s listening to Kermit Ruffins (features in the Nine Lives book as a kid at a backyard barbecue).
But let’s start out with a very catchy new song from the Lumineers that I’ve been hearing on the radio:
My Spotify Discover weekly took me to New Orleans also. This song from Snooks Eaglin – a superb blues artist that I saw at the original Rock N’ Bowl weeks before his death and not too long after Hurricane Katrina.
The same Discover list had me back at the Kessler listening to the unique James Hunter from England.
And let’s have Kermit finish things out this week with a song I heard the same night as I heard Snooks. Denny and Anne took me over to the broken down shack that is Vaughan’s to revel in Kermit’s genius. The late, great Henry Butler was sitting in on keyboards. What a memory.