Monday, January 31, 2011
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.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
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.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
There's Always Some New Bar
Friday, January 28, 2011
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.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
My Closeup, Please
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
More Art Glass
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Texas Glass
Monday, January 24, 2011
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.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
A Win
Saturday, January 22, 2011
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.
Friday, January 21, 2011
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.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
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.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Doug Sahm Hill
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
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.
Monday, January 17, 2011
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.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
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).
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).
Saturday, January 15, 2011
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.
Friday, January 14, 2011
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.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
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.
Peace.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
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.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
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.
Monday, January 10, 2011
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.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
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.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
The Sunsets Are Still Fine
Friday, January 7, 2011
Bottle Cap Pear
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Sunset on the Road
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
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.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
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.
Daddy died in Seton Hospital this morning at 12:42. He lived to be 100 years old. He'll be missed.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Ghost Bike on Pfluger Bridge
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Fireworks
Saturday, January 1, 2011
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.
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.
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