“Austin’s Been a Friend of Mine”
I’m getting worse – three weeks since I provided an update – just a plain old slacker. A couple of projects have been keeping us (mostly McD) quite busy over the last few weeks.
The bathroom remodel has begun. The designer twins (Marci and Mindy) – identical so it’s helpful that they have different hairdos – visited us to finalize the tile and other design elements. The tiles are actually white, grey and blue, although they look a bit beige in the picture. Believe me, there will be no more beige in that bathroom.
We’ve moved to the upstairs guest bedroom and I’m now showering in the small bathtub area. Should only be another few weeks or so – OK, maybe a month at the most, he said optimistically.
At this point, the demo has been completed, the new shower floor poured, and the steam shower mostly installed. We have steam, coloured lights, and WiFi connectivity. We just don’t have music coming out of the speakers. Hopefully that will be resolved tomorrow and the tiling can begin. Oh yeah, the aromatherapy hasn’t proven to be working yet either.
Diana has been doing an amazing job of overseeing the work. Without her management, several more redos would have been necessary, and we would not have had helpful access to the area where the steam shower is installed.
The other project was getting packed up and out of the Austin apartment by the end of July. Diana did another excellent job of getting everything ready for the movers. What a great crew we had – showed up early, took incredible care with everything, and followed directions to a tee, all with kindness and a smile. The movers taking the couch to Alicia were late, and so the McKinney crew was fully unloaded when we arrived.
We laughed at the debris under my spot on the couch – including a martini olive stick and a variety of crackers. It really wasn’t as bad as I had expected but Diana was quick to point that there wasn’t a single crumb under her spot. Perhaps she was sweeping things in my direction?
Bats Domino and Baby Penguin enjoyed one final pretty sunrise from the kitchen window.
It was pretty sad to see the empty apartment as we waited for our final walk through with the building management.
We did manage to squeeze in visits to another two of our favourite restaurants before leaving Austin. June’s is always good and we loved the curried escargot with puff pastry and the bone marrow bolognese. This is the restaurant where I had my lunch “interview” before taking the job in Austin.
After dinner we walked up to C-Boy’s Heart and Soul and snapped a picture – it’s not going to be open again for a while and we’ve had so many lovely evenings there.
And then on the walk home, we found the elusive Mr. Rogers mural on the side of Home Slice pizza – can’t believe we never noticed it before.
We also got to experience the new layout in the garden at Justine’s in East Austin. What a great job they have done with individual awnings over tables with chandeliers and ferns to enhance the separation. They also are employing the scan-able “Le Menu” that you pull up on your phone.
Farewell for now Austin – we’ve had such a good time with you this last year or so. You’re not the same as you were now, but hopefully we can visit again when you’re feeling better and back to normal.
“But I never wanted to leave this town
Austin’s been a friend of mine
Texas we’ve had a time”
We listened to “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” by Gail Honeyman on the drives to and from Austin. Apparently this is soon to be a movie starring Reese Witherspoon. I can’t quite picture that given the Glasgow setting. I highly recommend this book – very unique, entertaining and heart-breaking at the same time. The narrator of the audio book really adds quite a bit with her wide variety of male and female Scottish accents.
Alicia shared one of her jazz appreciation class assignments with us. We had to write 1,000 words about this performance by the Yellow-jackets. I gave some input that was incorporated into the final paper – particularly about an electric wind instrument that had Alicia fascinated – “It looks like it’s from the year 3000.” Her paper was very enjoyable to read and must have covered everything the teacher was looking for – 250 out of a possible 250 points!
Tuesday night continues to be live music night with Hayes Carll followed by the Band of Heathens Supper Club show. I particularly enjoy this Little Feat cover they put together from one of the Supper Club shows:
This CBS Sunday Morning piece about a conductor who has assembled the largest ever virtual choir is excellent. Thousands of folks from around the world record their parts in time with the conductor’s video, and then a technical team splices together all the video and audio – what must be a painstakingly tedious process.
We’ve enjoyed a few of the episodes of Zac Efron’s “Down to Earth” show on Netflix. The one about free sparkling water fountains in Paris is quite good.
I watched the movie “American Folk” while Diana was sunbathing yesterday afternoon. The film is written, directed and edited by David Heinz. Typically an editor on major films, this is his only feature film and I loved it. A beautifully created, quiet film that just happens and doesn’t push anything. It was originally titled September 12th, as it covers two strangers who meet on a plane that is forced to land as September 11th unfolds. Amber Rubarth’s character meets Joe Purdy’s when she pulls out a splitter and plugs in her headphones to share his music on the plane. The major themes are the kindness of strangers and the bond of music. Joe Purdy and Amber Rubarth are great musicians and sing well together. Highly recommended.
I mentioned the Hayes Carll Tuesday night livestreams earlier. He is often joined on those by his wife, Allison Moorer. I didn’t realize she was the younger sister of the equally great singer, Shelby Lynne. They both had tragic upbringings, culminating in a murder/suicide of their parents when Moorer was fourteen. She writes about her upbringing in rural Alabama in the book “Blood”. I’m about half way through this (taking a break from the Susan Sontag tome) now and while the subject is very sad, the way Moorer writes about her memories and how she feels about them in her forties is quite beautiful and moving. Here’s one of Moorer’s songs that sounds like it was inspired by childhood:
I stumbled into a large collection of Youtube videos by Rick Beato accidentally while doing some research for Alicia’s paper. Beato is a musical genius, playing almost all instruments and with an infectious love of the music he discusses in his postings. I love the way he breaks down the elements of classic recordings and explains the harmonic and melodic make up. Here’s one about “Rocketman” by Elton John that is a great example:
I enjoy these postings so much that I have to limit myself to just one or two at a time.
Peter Green, founding member of Fleetwood Mac (way before Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham), died recently. He has the sweetest tone of any guitar player and wrote so many amazing songs. Here’s my favourite:
And finally, here’s a tune from Paul Desmond that popped up on a Spotify list. I think he has the best saxophone tone, perfectly pure and full, like Chet Baker’s trumpet sound.
Stay safe and kind among the madness.