Gadjo Disco

Linda and I were walking home from a party Saturday night and saw this line of youngsters dressed up in a variety of costumes at La Zona Rosa, the club across from the north side of our building. They were waiting to get into a concert which required dressing up. Here is a comment from a young friend who went: "It was for the last Gadjo Disco (eastern European themed dance party). All were encouraged to dress to transgress! I was tasteful in a leopard print lace number topped off with a teased monstrosity on my head."

I shot this with my iPhone.

360 Framed

The porch-like part of the southwest side of the W Hotel frames our building as we walk on Second Street.

Olympic bling

Last night we went to a charity event/party we enjoy every year called "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner." You go to a cool dinner at a private home or a restaurant and then gather at Nest, a fine furniture store downtown for dessert. We were able to walk to both places and then walk home. Here are two gentlemen who went to a Winter Olympics dinner where everyone was supposed to dress up like a competition skater. They did a fine job of it! What a fun time!

Art on Great Streets

Austin's Great Streets project expands sidewalks, includes seating, trees with lights, room for outdoor cafe tables, etc. And in the last couple of weeks this interesting fountain (and a bench in a similar style) has been installed on Second Street. It will probably grow on us. When I went over to take a picture, a fellow was lounging on the bench and he said "It's here to stay now." We wondered if he was the artist.

The Top?

We've been watching the construction of the W Hotel for a year and a half. It was a hole in the ground. Our friend Jackie caught the crane poking ominously toward her AMLI apartment. She also took a very amusing picture of construction workers beating the heat there, too, and also one revealing the work of pouring columns. At one time it took fog to block our view of the top of the Austonian, but now the shorter but closer W does the job. We think all the extra steel you see now means the building is at or near the top floor. Hopefully this building will open at some point in 2010 or early 2011 and create new sparks on Second Street.

Bright Colors

Did we mention it's been gray for a couple of days? And raining and making being outside an unpleasant, dash for cover affair? Well the owners of this house did their paint and trim to brighten up just such a situation.

Natural light

It's been cold and rainy here and we haven't been able to get many new shots. But here is a photo I took for the Arthouse blog on Tuesday. (My part is called "The Renovation According To Forrest Preece.") The holes in the wall you see here have been carefully cut and will soon hold lighted green glass blocks which will form the signature visual statement of the building on the outside wall. Shot from inside with the construction going on, they yield a ghostly effect.