Now that is really fusion

Nowhere else but Austin could a Nepalese/Fusion Vegetarian food purveyor like Kala's Kuisine win the Hot Sauce Contest. Here you see their booth at the Farmers Market.

Daisy Truffle Pizza

A great way to start a Saturday! The Farmers' Market a block from our high rise had a pizza outfit baking fresh pies while you wait yesterday. I ordered a Daisy Truffle, which had tomato sauce, mozzarella and some herbs and was augmented with truffle oil. (That should explain why they had written "Daisy Forrest" on the box.) The lovely lady at the cash stand opened the box so I could take this shot. On the way home, I almost stopped at the deli to buy some Italian salami to go with it, but decided not to. Linda and I agreed that it was delicious. Living downtown is so much fun.

There's Always Some New Bar

We mostly drink to accompany food, but there always seems to be a new bar somewhere. On Fifth this joint is going up with a fancy rooftop bar and an unusual name and logo.

Arthouse Becomes Astoria

This is a shot in the interior of the Arthouse at Jones Center. No they aren't renovating so soon after finishing their adaptive reuse of their building. Rather artist Graham Hudson is doing an an art piece that recreates part of the structure of the Astoria Theater, London when it was used for a nightclub music venue. He is using scaffolding to do this. The museum will invite bands to practice here, creating a sort of ghost venue. Conceptual art? Yep.

My Closeup, Please

This is the Austonian from the Colorado Street Side. It may not be the most beautiful building in Austin, but it is the tallest.

More Art Glass

This reflection is at Austin Art Glass on South Congress. They have some delightfully whimsical stuff.

Texas Glass

A glass art shop has arrived on Colorado Street and it has a collection of glass Longhorns. That's not going to be part of my decor but should be popular with those mad for The University of Texas.

Splitting the Skyline

City Hall's spike seems to pierce the completed Austonian in this iPhone picture I shot the other day. See a different angle here, pointing to the W.

A Win

The University of Texas Women's Basketball team won last night at Erwin Center while we looked on. The men won, too, in Kansas.

Mature Skyline

There have been many pictures of the skyline in this space but it is time to explore different views of it now that there are no cranes in view. In fact, I know of only one crane these days and that's at the Federal Courthouse. Its crane is hidden by our building, on the left, in this picture which was taken from across Lady Bird Lake on the fringes of Butler Park. The W and Austonian are open. Here's betting that the economy tamps things down for a while and we have a 'mature' skyline.

Where Are These Doors?

These doors aren't in some stately old home in West Austin or shot from a trip to Europe. They lead to the Whit Hanks home furnishing center on West Sixth Street. We were going shopping for some very modern pieces at Nest Modern inside the center which is a cluster of mostly antique stores but includes Nest which has lovely sleek pieces.

Dobie Theater is Gone

In this building (a UT high rise dorm) there is a multi-level retail area that used to contain a theater with several small venues. Neither the most comfortable or convenient it rode the wave of film fests, weird events and art movies for a long time. Closed now, this message was on the marquee yesterday.

Doug Sahm Hill

As I mentioned yesterday the hill in Butler Park is called Doug Sahm Hill and it has a plaque honoring the late artist. I think FFP and I went on a date to the Split Rail Inn before we were married and saw Doug play. But that was long ago.

How Far?

Sometimes people wonder how close we are to the bigger cities in Texas. In Butler Park at the top of what is now called Doug Sahm Hill there is a map in stone of areas of Texas with major cities and their distance to the State Capital. We showed it to you a few years back here but I'm showing the detail today from a shot I did yesterday. This is the important info we always need to give visitors: Houston is 165 miles away and Dallas is 200 miles away. Close in Texas terms but it will take you the better part of a day to go back and forth. This wonderful stone map was recently marred with graffiti but the city folks had cleaned it up when I visited.

Accidental Art

Apply a few posters and remove them, have a few people stick on band stickers or add graffiti and you have...abstract art. From SoCo. From November. It's still dreary and cold here and we've stayed inside a lot but I promise to freshen the blog with current pictures sometime soon.

Tax Time

It's that time of year in the U.S. when the 1099's and W-2s start to arrive and your thoughts turn to 1040, when, if you have business affairs, you have to worry about 1098, W-3, 940, 941 and preparations for 1120. This isn't graffiti but rather the logo of our CPA who stylishly resides on South Congress taking care of myriad forms for us.

When you send off your forms, it is sort of like this, isn't it? Faith that you have filled them out correctly and that they will arrive at the correct address (our Internal Revenue Service has service centers all over and everything needs to be properly directed).

Still Selling

The W Hotel is open and their old condo sales office that sat on the corner of their lot is long gone. But they have moved their little model building to a store front space vacated by a high concept design store that didn't make it. It is across Guadalupe Street from the back of the building. So if you are in the market for a condo in downtown Austin, stop by.

At My House

Okay, it's actually downstairs at the Garrido's Restaurant in our building. We sat at the bar last night and I shot this with my iPhone after I tucked into some delicious mushroom/corn quesadillas and a Cucumber Kiwi Martini.

What Was the Question?

A couple of weeks ago Forrest and I were in the Little City coffee shop on Congress. They were having an art exhibit of metal sculpture that I immediately recognized as Barry George's work. This piece was far from typical as it was barely three-dimensional and involved color and words. Barry sculpted a life-size piece depicting a trumpet player from scrap metal that was at our old house until we moved.

Peace.

What Happened Here?

Last night it was chilly in Austin, Texas but with no frozen wet stuff like much of the country. We thought a walk in the cool up to old West Austin and one of our favorite haunts (Jeffrey's) was in order. On West Lynn we saw this on the sidewalk. Hopefully it was just some graffiti artists or kids with a sense of humor and not a tribute to the fallen (pedestrian) like the ghost bikes for bikers. We didn't take any chances once it got dark, though, since the sidewalks and lighting aren't the best in this part of town. We took a cab home from our adventure. But the mile and a half walk to the restaurant hopefully offset some of the food and drink.

A walk in the hood

Not long ago, Linda and I had dinner with a friend and we were walking home to our high rise. As we set out to the west from an intersection, I whipped out my iPhone and took this photo. When I looked at it later, I felt like it captured the energy of a typical night in downtown Austin and what's more, it showed three different ways of getting around - on foot, by car and by pedicab. That's Linda's head in the foreground to the right and our pal on the left.

Hot Red Room, Cool Feel

Linda and I had our second run at a new restaurants in the neighborhood last night and decided to have a nightcap at one of the bars in the W Hotel. (Also new and two blocks from our home.) Of the warren of bars they offer, we decided to perch in this one which features red decor to the max, plush lounging and what I call techno-pop music. I'm sure I'm wrong in this characterization of the music, but I'm way too old to know this stuff nor do I care to learn the correct terminology. Here is a photo I took with my iPhone of two young people at the bar. Tres trendy. Very much a New York feel.

Life is Change

As much as we like to try to 'get somewhere' and stay steady...things constantly change. We are dealing with this quite a bit right now and so I thought I'd show one more graffiti display on the railroad bridge over Lady Bird Lake. That's the office building at San Jacinto by the Four Seasons and the Four Seasons Residences (behind it) on the left.

The Sunsets Are Still Fine

My friend Jackie took this last night of the sunset from downtown. Lady Bird Lake looks like it's on fire. There must be lots of pollution in the air to cause this beauty.

Bottle Cap Pear

Yours truly is dwarfed by a bottle cap pear at the venerable folk art emporium Yard Dog on South Congress. Interesting looking stuff in there just now for the folk art shopper.

Sunset on the Road

We made a round trip to Houston yesterday and as we headed back into Austin on Hwy 71 I snapped this out of the moving car. Wonder what exotic dusts and pollutions were about to cause such a beautiful display?

Stadium? Race Track? Holding Pond?

The site of the former Green Water Treatment plant is almost decommissioned as you can see from our balcony. We can't decide what the purpose of this earth sculpture is serving. I'm thinking they are just trying to control drainage. Ultimately the site will have a couple of high rises, according to the plan. This picture shows in the foreground the plant before decommissioning.

Walking towards their future

This is an Austin Daily Photo-- but it was shot a few years ago--72 to be exact. These folks are my parents, walking down Congress Avenue, Austin's main street. My dad was 28 and mother was 19. They had been married for just a few weeks. Back then, there were sidewalk photographers who would snap candid shots and then persuade people to buy a print. I'm glad that happened or I never would have seen them like this, all dressed up, young, and smiling.

Daddy died in Seton Hospital this morning at 12:42. He lived to be 100 years old. He'll be missed.

Ghost Bike on Pfluger Bridge

Ghost bikes are usually chained to something near the spot of a fatal biking accident. This one is chained to the Pfluger Bridge, however, where only bikes or pedestrians are allowed. We've seen other ghost bikes here, here and here.

Fireworks

Leaving 2010 behind we give you the fireworks from the display at Auditorium Shores which was done pre-midnight on the 31st to send little revelers off to bed before the more alcohol-infused celebration.

Picture of the Year

This is the day when City Daily Photo celebrates the theme 'picture of the year.' We chose this one from our blog, shot by FFP edited by me. We didn't pose these shoes in the leaves on South Congress, we swear. It seemed to stand in well for our year. It was hard to choose a picture, though, and we had lots of possibilities offered by four contributors.
Lots of City Daily Photo blogs will give you a shot for 'picture of the year' from their own blog or elsewhere. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.