“Change of Plans”
What a difference a week makes in our situation and our outlook. We knew that SXSW was cancelled but didn’t expect Austin to become a ghost town over the course of a few days. This time last year the city was absolutely hopping with scooters zipping around everywhere and amazing pop up music shows on every corner. Today there’s nobody on the streets and the restaurants and clubs are very empty. Gatherings of more than 250 people are banned and I think the city will be in full lock down except for groceries and pharmacies in a week or so.
For the last year we’ve been looking forward to the Sun radio sessions that happen during SXSW. Those looked like the one thing that might proceed amidst the cancellations. They were canceled yesterday. Look at this amazing lineup on Thursday and Saturday in particular. We had both cleared our calendars to spend Thursday afternoon with the music.
Before things changed, we spent a quiet few days in McKinney. Penelope passed her annual inspection (MOT in the UK) with flying colours on Wednesday and is legal for another year. Such a good girl.
We made the long drive to Austin on Thursday in order to attend the Curtis Stigers concert at the Parker Jazz Club in the evening. We first saw him by chance at Birdland in New York a few years ago and loved the shows. The show at the Parker was equally great. What an amazing set of musicians Stigers has playing with him, particularly “Scrapper” on trumpet and the piano player. Stigers covered Nick Lowe’s “What’s so funny about peace, love and understanding” on the Bodyguard movie soundtrack. That album sold 40 million copies and made him a lot of money and fame.
We really enjoy Stiger’s variety of repertoire and that was on full display – from Tom Waits and Randy Newman to Hayes Carll.
My favourite song in New York was “I’ll be home” by Randy Newman and I really wanted to hear it again. When it didn’t look like it would happen, my wonderful wife asked “Any chance of something by Randy Newman?” And the band went straight into it. Check out the skill of the pianist:
Can you tolerate one more song from the amazing show? Well here it is anyway, “Love is an anchor”:
Things started to change pretty dramatically on Friday, with a lot of cancellations and closures. We walked to Antone’s blues club for a music charity showcase and concert, including a performance by Western Youth, only to find a notice on the door that the event had been canceled at the last minute. Apparently Antone’s isn’t familiar with the concept of emailing its patrons when events cancel. I got this cool picture of two Wonder Women on the walk over. The Linc hotel has a very large mural to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote.
We walked around the corner to the Elephant Room and listened to some 
pleasant jazz with less than 10 other folks – starting to get weird. Swift’s Attic, one of our favourite restaurants, is right upstairs and so I checked to see if we could get a reservation. Weirder – wide open for any time I wanted – and you usually can’t get in on Friday unless booking at least a week in advance. We enjoyed an excellent meal with a less than half full restaurant and an empty bar – very weird. Swift’s had taken the smart proactive step of moving their tables further apart. Squid fries, brussel sprouts, pork belly baos and those perfectly cooked scallops (I took D here on her first night in Austin and she fell in love with them).
On Saturday I finally got to try the Discada food truck in the Rosewood neighborhood of East Austin. Discada is a style of cooking, also known as cowboy-wok cooking, that has been used in Mexico for generations. The food truck serves only two things – their signature tacos and elote (Mexican style street corn). The first bite of our tacos was underwhelming, but then all the amazing flavors caught up with us – delicious all around, and such a fun experience sitting at the picnic tables enjoying the day.
We passed Saturday evening with Chuck Prophet and his band at the Continental Club. A few years ago, at Dan’s Silverleaf in Denton, there were only a handful of folks in attendance for Prophet’s show. There was a good crowd on Saturday although far from sold out. This was a very good, high energy, and interactive show indeed. I think Prophet is a very underrated songwriter and under appreciated performer. Charlie Sexton, Austin guitar royalty, waltzed in around 9pm and joined in with the band. Here are a couple of videos:
We are so fortunate to be able to walk to such an excellent music venue.
We finally braved the grocery store chaos early on Sunday morning. I suspected that the Randall’s on Bee Caves by my office would not be too busy. It was actually very quiet and had a good inventory of just about everything – no toilet paper or other paper goods. So we’re now stocked up with supplies to last a while.
After shopping we enjoyed a coffee and Taco Deli breakfast taco at Triannon coffee, had a workout, and then a quiet afternoon in the apartment. I rented the movie “Knives Out” but fell asleep very early and will have to start it again.
I started “Christmas in Austin” by Benjamin Markovits but haven’t progressed very far yet. The novel is set around a Christmas holiday and three generations of a family gathering in Austin. The four Essinger children bring with them their own stories and situations. I’m enjoying the writing and characters so far and think this book should be a good companion this week as we spend more time at home.
I can remember buying this Green on Red album when living in Basingstoke, England. I heard a song on the radio and liked the sound a lot – quite different than anything else on the radio at the time. Any guesses on who was a founding member of Green on Red? Well done – it was Chuck Prophet. Here’s a song from that album:
Now some more recent Chuck Prophet – quite a change in style as he’s aged.
John Sneider played trumpet with Curtis Stigers on Thursday night and has the nickname “The Scrapper”. Here’s something from his album by that same name. Scrapper’s son joined him on stage at the Parker for a song and did very well. We chuckled on seeing him getting into a minivan as we were standing in line to enter the Continental Club – the Parker Jazz Club t shirt confirmed D’s suspicion that it was him.
Curtis Stigers inspired me to listen to some Tom Waits – such a weird and varied catalog of work. The only guarantee is that scratchy voice and something far from the mainstream.
Tuesday was a good day for dining. Diana invited me to lunch, a rare occasion indeed as she’s usually busy with meetings most of the day. We enjoyed some fine, fresh seafood on the South Congress patio of Perla’s and completed some annoying online financial paperwork with our cappuccinos. It’s nice to find some time to relax amid the busy work schedules.
One of the challenges of waiting too long to write the blog is that I don’t always remember what happened when, if I remember what happened last week at all. All you youngsters laughing will get to this age someday too! I think I had this excellent D created pizza with mushrooms dish on Wednesday night. Either way, the mushroom medley with the special champagne cooking trick was amazing.
at the Christmas party. They’re the couple with the two Irish Wolf Hounds and a Bullmastiff. I’m so jealous of the Wolf Hounds, but they most certainly wouldn’t fit in our apartment.
We walked across the CMW parking lot to Justine’s for dinner. This is an excellent French brasserie and I particularly enjoy the casual atmosphere and vinyl records. Diana and I split steak tartare and a phenomenal duck cassoulet. Finishing our drinks in the restaurant garden, I made a note that it was way too long since we had visited this establishment. The evening finished at a respectable hour with a visit to Whisler’s for their excellent Old Fashioneds – best in Austin in my humble opinion.
My book this week was “Einstein’s Beach House” by Jacob Appel. This is a short story collection and I only got through the first two stories. I had seen a documentary on Appel recently and was interested to try some of his work. He has 14 degrees from prestigious universities and is a qualified doctor, lawyer, and psychologist – makes me feel very lazy. In addition to all of that, he has written over 200 books – and he’s not that old.
McD arrived back in Austin on Tuesday night, worn out from all those days sorting documents and pictures, and generally organizing her Mum’s house. It was a pretty day in San Francisco when she left, as shown in this shot out the plane window. I zoomed in on the second one to show how stunning the city is from the air. Much prettier than this shot as she came in to land in Dallas:
to wait a while for a gate. I always wonder why they can’t tell that flights are arriving to the minute and plan ahead on gates – I’m sure it’s much more complex than it seems. Anyway, Diana was one of the last to make the plane, and a passenger in the first bulkhead row was putting his bag up for takeoff. “Oh, excuse me”, he said to Diana, and as she got a look at him, realized it was Bill Murray. I wonder what he’s doing in Austin this week. I’m sure I would enjoy being a part of whatever it is.
We received this picture of the storage unit leaving ‘the hill” from Adamo. That unit has been there for more than 10 years, and it was a huge accomplishment for the kids to get it emptied out and off the hill.
On Wednesday I asked Diana if she would like to go out to see Kevin Galloway performing at the Continental Gallery (the living room sized venue above the famous Continental Club). We were both tired and non-committal and settled in to catch up on episodes of the Bachelor that we had missed while being separated for 10 days. Just before 8pm, I decided that we should get out and enjoy some live music. You might remember that the last (and only) time we saw Galloway was at Geraldine’s in the Van Zandt hotel with noisy, disrespectful people in front of us. I was hoping this show would be different.
Diana couldn’t help but tell them how much she enjoyed seeing them get up to dance. The venue, company, storytelling and excellent musicianship combined to make this one of our favourite shows in a very long time. Another classic and unexpected Austin evening.
Saturday was one of those fun days that just unfolds as it goes – I love those days. A work colleague, Roy, who is in transition from Australia to Miami, was spending the weekend in Austin and so we invited him to join us for Saturday afternoon at the Continental Club. John X Reed, from Amarillo, TX, was playing the 3pm show, with an excellent mix of old school country music. The dancers were very good, and provided very good entertainment.
My book this week was “The Cracked Spine” by Paige Shelton. Advertised as “a Sottish bookshop mystery”, this book had set my expectations set high. The story starts with an advert for help in a bookshop, that is answered by a museum curator from Kansas:
We started at a rooftop deck above the Antigua Brewing Company and enjoyed the amazing views. Can you see the active volcano in the distance? The spiral staircase used to access the rooftop would never be allowed in the US. Then we walked through town to the El Convento boutique hotel for dinner. What a gorgeous setting with a small restaurant that only seats 24 people.
I found myself without any new books backed up, and so reread an old favourite, “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway. I love the descriptions of 1920s Paris and the journey the group takes through Spain. And the classic ending:
A break in my schedule on Thursday allowed me to enjoy a decadent lunch at Bayou Jack’s in downtown McKinney. I do love their red pepper crawfish bisque, and it’s been too long since I enjoyed a cup.
“The Truants” by Kate Weinberg was my book this week. Here’s what a review said:
A work happy hour had me stopping by the Gibson Street bar on the way home. It’s right next to the Odd Duck and we had been wondering how it was – the verdict: a very nice bar with good service, comfy booths and a good patio.
Red Young and his Hot Horns were playing, and I loved that they started out with a number of songs by Allan Toussaint, the legendary New Orleans piano player, composer, and producer. Here are a couple of those. Red’s piano skills are top notch, with a mixed quality in the horns.
If you know my musical taste, you can hear that this is very appealing to me. Disappointingly, the live sound did not match up, with overdriven, blurry vocals and none of the nuanced guitar playing and drumming in the set above. I lasted a couple of songs before suggesting that we head across the street to III Forks for a drink before Big Head Todd started. The smoke infused negronis were delicious.
We went straight home after the show to avoid any more injuries. The last time we visited the Moody theater was when I broke my finger. Interestingly, as a complete aside, my fingerprint has changed after the surgery. The gym uses a combination of phone number and index fingerprint to sign in, and my right one doesn’t work – have to use the left hand index. Who would have thought that? I’m sitting here wondering if Global Entry at the airport uses finger prints – I don’t think so and hope not.
Elton John’s “Me” was my literary companion this week. The book is well written and is a fast, page-turning read. I enjoyed the earlier chapters, more focused on Elton’s musical experiences, than the later sections covering all his addictions and excesses. Ultimately I found this book pretty sad overall – such a troubled relationship with his parents that was never overcome, and so much wasted time and money. Not to take away from the $450 million raised for his AIDS foundation and the music that I’ll always treasure.
The somewhat frustrating optical visit was followed by a delicious dinner at June’s All Day. I opted for the taste bud delight that they call “Bone Marrow Bolognese”. It was an easy downhill stroll back to our apartment from this South Congress dining institution, and a rare McD planned evening drew to a close. Thanks for the date D!
The guys were surprisingly hungry (I thought Loro would sate them longer) and so we stopped in next door to Guero’s for a Mexican dinner. That was followed by a leisurely stroll down to C-Boy’s Heart and Soul for the Jimmy Vaughan 10pm show. It’s always a huge treat to see him in such a small venue and we were lucky to get a booth right in front of the stage. What a great show, besides the Dutch sounding guy that didn’t understand the rules about getting in other folks personal space, even after a demonstration of where he should be standing. Even the cocktail waitress was getting frustrated with him.
walking, with a quick stop into Carpenter Hall, followed by a walk along the river trail and past the Stevie Ray Vaughan memorial. It’s sad to imagine what great music the Vaughan brothers would be making today, had Stevie not died in that tragic helicopter crash so many years ago.
After a short regroup at the apartment, we walked on the other side of the river to Rainey street, and stopped into the patio at the Half Step. We followed that with a quick stop into Geraldine’s at the Van Zandt hotel, unfortunately with no music going. Then the group splintered, with Diana and I heading back to the apartment to rest, and the boys heading off to meet various sets of friends. The two of us were so tired that we slept through several phone calls from poor Mr. Denny, attempting to get up to the apartment. We had neglected to tell him that he was on the list to be let into our apartment whenever he wanted, and so he ended up crashing with the other two at the Hyatt across the parking lot.
Denny and Diana met up with us on the fancy El Comedor patio for brunch. I loved the TX mushroom quesadilla, the corn tortilla had an amazing flavour – right up there with Suerte. Poor Diana did have to try three times before getting a poached egg that didn’t have a yoke that was too hard – part of the problem is that with her dish they serve the poached egg cold, and it’s hard to get a runny yoke with that approach.
A short Uber ride took us to the totally different neighborhood feel of East Austin and the patio at Whislers. From there, some excellent research from Denny took us to Central Machine Works, a new massive brewery and outdoor patio space in an old industrial machine shop building. This will be a good place to visit on warm Spring evenings. I like that they “rescued” one of the old machines to be mounted above the bar.
With all that activity, I was still able to get some quiet reading time in, finishing up “Such a Fun Age” by Kiley Reid. This book is on all the “Best of the Year So Far” lists, and so I thought I’d try it out. Here’s a typically effusive review:
Damon joined us for a “Bachelor Watch Party” on Monday evening. Really, he and I did watch and provided lots of helpful input on the show for Diana’s entertainment. We did have a slight dinner snafu – Damon is a bit meat eater, and we had decided to have burgers since we don’t have a pan suitable for cooking steaks. The issue came when McD started to mix the “ground beef” with some pork to make the patties, discovering that Whole Foods had delivered some plant based ground beef substitute. We actually couldn’t tell the difference at all – the burgers were delicious.
A work event had me fighting traffic up MOPAC (a highway named after the Missouri Pacific railway line that follows its path) to the Top Golf complex. I had been dreading playing golf on a very dreich (you don’t know that word? – damp and wet) day, but the heaters and shelter of the multi-tiered golf bays worked very well, and I ended up having an enjoyable evening. In my welcome speech I had mentioned that I hadn’t played much golf, which everybody finds strange, anticipating that everyone in Scotland is an avid golfer, and surprised myself and others by winning the competition in my bay. My competition was trying to blast the ball as far as possible on every shot, with mixed results, while I just took it easy and was able to be more consistent. Something about a tortoise and a hare I think.
Diana graced me with her presence again on Thursday evening, and I dragged her out to see the late music show at the Saxon Pub – Eric Lindell performing a rare solo show. We’ve seen him with his band and Anson Funderberg a number of times, but never solo, and I really enjoyed the acoustic renditions of his catalog, and a few covers, including this version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”:
You might notice a better quality level in my video clips going forward – thanks to the 3 cameras on my new phone. Lindell shared that he had found the acoustic guitar at a Pawn shop for very little and had a luthier put a new neck on it – sounds good, don’t you think? He also welcomed his friend, “Rudy from San Antonio” – we met Rudy after a Delbert McClinton show in Dallas, and it was nice to catch up again. Here’s our favourite Lindell song, “Lay Back Down”:
school nights. There was some entertainment at the office, with a Tim Tam Jam in the accounting department. Our Australian treasurer had a whole display and demonstrated how to eat a Tim Tam properly – bite each end off, sip coffee through the middle bit, and then “Jam” it in your mouth before everything gets too messy. Who knew?
Diana joined me for a work happy hour at Baker St Pub on Friday evening. I’m fortunate to work with such a fun and nice bunch of folks. We tried a new place, Winebelly, afterwards – a place we’d seen a few months ago when enjoying brunch at Phoebe’s Diner, and thought it looked intriguing. The ambience, service and food were excellent. We started with shishito peppers and a superb chicken liver mousse. There was a wee incident with the peppers – typically 
every 10th pepper is hotter than the rest – in this case Diana got the “hottest shishito ever” and “it feels like hot knives are being stabbed into my tongue.” About 20 minutes later things had calmed down and we were ready to explore the rest of the menu. Chicken empanadas were “the best I’ve had” and the mushroom salad was also very good. We left 
perfectly sated. Oh, I forgot to mention this funny sign that was on the wall by the restrooms. Partially funny because McD used to use the mnemonic of “W.C. Fields” to remember the names of my 3 sons, Will, Campbell and Finn.
I finished the memoir “Uncanny Valley” by Anna Wiener this week. As I was searching for an online picture of the book jacket, I came across some interesting material on the “Uncanny Valley Hypothesis”, and why not share this likely useless information with all of you? The hypothesis states that as the appearance of a robot is made more human, some observers’ emotional response to the robot becomes increasingly positive and empathetic, until it reaches a point beyond which the response quickly becomes strong revulsion. However, as the robot’s appearance continues to become less distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once again and approaches human-to-human empathy levels. The valley is clearly seen in this chart:
Wednesday was a long work day for Diana, and I was determined to get her out of the apartment on Thursday night. We both have new eyeglass prescriptions, and so we headed to Warby Parker on South Congress to see what we could find in the way of frames. We put Vincente, the store manager, to work finding us the perfect frames and he did a great job. Within a few minutes we had five pairs picked out – regular and sunglasses. I have grey and blue frames and some nice sunglasses, while Diana has gold and very cool sunnies. We snapped these pictures int the photo booth before leaving:
We sat in this covered patio area and enjoyed an amazing scallop and beet appetizer, with very fresh and perfectly cooked scallops. I hadn’t had enough beets, and so went for the beet salad while McD chose the meatballs and tagliatelle.
It was still raining after dinner, and so we were “forced” into the Continental Gallery for some music. Monte Warden and his incredible band were performing as we relaxed on a comfy couch in the living room style setting. It turns out Monte is a famous songwriter, having written songs that have sold over 100 million copies, for folks like George Jones. I loved the trumpet playing of Erik Telford, and the entire band were great musicians. Here’s a #1 song that Monte wrote for George Strait, “Desperately”:
I had just arrived home on Friday when a text came in from my Minnesota friend, Greg: “where can a guy find some good jazz in Austin tonight?” Greg and Kristan were in San Antonio for a conference next week and decided to drive up and experience Austin. We made quick reservations for Peche and the Parker jazz club. Kris Kimura, Parker owner, did not disappoint with an excellent set of classic jazz.
I love the sound of the bass flute on “Wonderful World”. After the Parker, we had a quick stop at the Elephant Room, for some more modern jazz and then called it a late night.
Sunday began with the usual workout followed by coffee (or mimosa) and crossword at Opa, and then got more interesting with a walk up to the Continental Club and Jimmie Dreams. New Orleans music is all that Jimmie plays, starting with six excellent Allen Toussaint songs. Midway through the set, McD was heard to say, “We could live in this town”. Such great musicianship with no cover on a pleasant Sunday afternoon. Here’s a Toussaint song recorded by Ernie K’Doe:
In related news, this large looking mountain lion was caught patrolling around Grammie’s house again. Apparently (according to McD) they make a 150 mile circuit around the Bay Area. I’m not sure I want to come face to face with this guy – the bobcats are one thing, but this seems a lot more challenging. Speaking of bobcats – here’s a picture of a mother and baby on Gypsy Hill this week – lot of nature going on up there on the “hill”:
The setting is sophisticated but casual, with a very comfortable feel. The bar area was very cool and has a great all night happy hour menu. I laughed when our strategy guy, a 6 foot 6 inch Swede, left his menu on a candle until it almost caught fire – reminded me of a trip to the City Winery in Nashville when our group had a similar experience.
I finished “The Quaker” by Liam McIlvanney this week. Liam is the son of William McIlvanney, one of my favourite authors and writer of my number one book – “Walking Wounded”. This book was a Christmas gift from my parents, under the heading “getting you back in touch with your Scottish roots”. It was the Scottish Crime Book of the Year in 2018.