New Art From Old

The underpass for the railroad and Third Street on North Lamar has had a public artwork for quite some time. (It can be seen in the background of this picture.) The structures resembled traffic signs with signature blue and white tones, set at various angles. Recently, an artist friend of ours collaborated with another artist to temporarily intervene on that artwork. Read all about it here.

Spring is Announced

Jackie caught one of the first redbuds downtown and the Lamar overpass. They are one of the early bloomers and have been going for a couple of weeks.

Lone Shoe

As I said to Jackie when she submitted this picture: "The abandoned shoe meme never gets old." She captured this one near the Lamar overpass. We never pose nor move the shoes without owners, letting them speak their volumes as intended.

Sunset Over Lady Bird Lake

Our friend Jackie captured this sunset on December 23. That's Lady Bird Lake, the Lamar Bridge and Cesar Chavez Street. Beautiful.

Graffiti Wall

We've posted many pictures of the offering of graffiti on this wall coming up to the overpass on North Lamar. Our friend Jackie caught the wall in this state with the mixed up paint that comes out gray and white and taupe which was then covered by drips from various bright colored paint buckets. Is it art? Was what it covered art? For some examples of what has appeared on this wall: click here or here or here or here.

Truth

The constantly changing (and overpainted) Lamar overpass. That's my shadow. I don't really approve of graffiti but this site gets some good ones.

Gift of Graffiti

Saw this on the Lamar Bridge wall the other day. This section gets painted over and retagged frequently. I often like the offerings. I'm not really in favor of graffiti in general but in some spots it does liven things up.

Life is Short

As we get older we can really sympathize with this graffiti and with the ephemeral nature of graffiti and everything man makes around us.

Move me

This spider appeared on the south side of the North Lamar underpass the other day.

Goodbye, T-Bone

T-Bone Walker died in 1975, but this tribute inside the Cheapo Discs on Lamar may now disappear, too. We popped in on Christmas Eve, the last, or one of the last, days they were going to be open to buy some DVDs to watch over the holidays. Partially obscured by some gear and boxes I noticed this and thought we'd feature the blues man's mural here in case it didn't survive whatever will happen to the building now. The building, at 9th and North Lamar, originally housed the first Whole Foods which survived two floods here from Shoal Creek flooding. I think Cheapos is no more. It will be interesting to see what happens to the property.

Our Waterloo

Before there was an Austin there was a tiny community at the confluence of the Little Colorado and Shoal Creek called Waterloo. Hence some home-grown businesses use Waterloo in their names. At Sixth and Lamar are Waterloo Records (which kind of ripped off the logo of the London Underground which has, of course, a Waterloo Station) and one of the Waterloo Ice House locations. (These joints are places for fast food. The ice house nomenclature comes from south Texas where places that sold ice started selling beer, cold drinks, burgers. This restaurant has that sort of food. And since it's Austin, music.) I hope these two spots keep going because they are independent stores. I don't buy many CDs these days and I haven't been to Waterloo Ice House lately either. (FFP had breakfast there last week.)

Castle Imitator

The castle-like building that gave Castle Hill its name is emulated in the crenelations on the shops on North Lamar. Besides the chain bagels, there is a health food shop and a fitness center (Castle Hill Fitness).

The Color of Music

On the side of Cheapo Discs are interesting murals including this one of a fellow who reminds one of Louis Armstrong blowing a color trumpet with valves of primary colors. Take time to look at the murals when you shop for secondhand CDs and DVDs at the North Lamar store.

Cheapo Discs

If you are in Austin and decide to buy a CD or DVD and want to hunt down a used bargain...this is the place. Cheapo is on North Lamar (914 to be exact). It's not too far from Waterloo Records, an indie store selling the new stuff and having in house shows and such.

This building is famous (well, maybe not famous but in my history it looms large) for housing the first Whole Foods Market store. FFP and I shopped here back in the day. Shoal Creek flooded into this part of North Lamar a couple of times and the building used to have the high water marks painted on the north side but that is gone now. The building does have some interesting mural-style decoration, though, that I will show another day.

The Wild, Wild Downtown

This picture shows a good growth of cacti with some downtown construction in the near distance. The thing is: this is growing on the roof of Whole Foods Market. I hadn't been on that roof until the other day when I went up there to get a picture of the ice skaters.

Dollar Books

Outside 12th Street Books here in Austin is a nice array of dollar books (under the word Scholarly). I've framed the display in this collage with some detail photos so when you blow it up you can see some titles. This used and rare bookstore, one of the few left that operates in a real store as well as online, is, of course on 12th Street. It's near an Austin Community College campus and North Lamar. I consider this area downtown since it's a pretty easy walk from our place.

Today is theme day. Books, you might have guessed! Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Hats Off to You

These folks were waiting on a bus at Lamar and Twelfth Streets on Tuesday. And they were doing it with style!

New Mural

When you blog for a time you become a chronicler of change. I showed you the side of Shoal Creek Saloon before but it had a different (and puzzling) mural. It's more in line with the offerings at the restaurant and bar now but somehow less fun.

Wet Land

The little park behind Central Market on Lamar, extending to Guadalupe, has a wet land with a pond promoting these aquatic plants, ducks and fish apparently. When my visiting little ones threw pizza crusts into the pond for the ducks, hundreds of little minnows would attack them, propelling them across the water like little boats.

Open 365 Days a Year

This montage shows a mural along the side of the Threadgill's World Headquarters, some of the plaster armadillos adorning the eaves and the reader sign outside on Christmas Day indicating that they were open. Inside hundreds dined including us and our three elderly parents. My dad, FFP and I couldn't finish our plates but his parents cleaned theirs...by splitting a turkey dinner! We are glad Threadgill's is open 365 days a year so we can dine out on Christmas. Unfortunately I didn't find out the north (original) store was closed for remodeling so we did a lot of driving around. Which the parents enjoyed but it made us arrive at the one open store at a little after 11 and while we got a table almost immediately it was very crowded already. I did look on the WEB and now I can see the remodeling notice there. Before Christmas I didn't see it or it wasn't up. Anyway, all's well that ends well. The World Headquarters is near the site of the departed Armadillo World Headquarters, the scene of many an amazing concert before it's demise. The north store (currently being remodeled) was actually the original Threadgill's, started by the departed Kenneth Threadgill after prohibition as a roadhouse in an old gas station.

When I moved to Austin, the Armadillo was still going and Threadgill's old gas station was abandoned from its second life and was adorned with graffiti reading "Janis Sang Here." FFP and I actually had our first date at the Armadillo in 1975. I'm glad Eddie Wilson keeps the memories and some good food and music alive for us.

For those who live here: Threadgill's is always open unless they are remodeling. For those who may visit Austin: a visit to Threadgill's is in order to see the memorabilia and eat some excellent home cooking.