Austin and Texas Murals

When our dear friends from the Northwest were visiting we walked up Guadalupe ("The Drag") one day. The Artist's Market was devoid of booths this day and I shot a picture of FFP and our friend Tina surrounded by the murals.

Love This

Caught FFP walking by the this mural on the Drag (aka Guadalupe).

Sign of the times at Dirty Martin's

One of Austin's great old burger joints has some serious competition on the Drag, so they have upped their game with mixed drinks.

Great icons of Austin

This one is a nonsensical but cute figure that is a part of Austin lore. It is on a building just off of the Drag or as the formal title goes, Guadalupe Street.

Drinking Music

We were walking up Guadalupe next to the UT campus the other day talking about how that stretch (called "The Drag") wasn't what it used to be with all the retail space in the condos and apartments in the West Campus area. Well, at least Hole in the Wall, a venerable beer and music joint, ts hanging on.

Body Art on the Drag

We were on Guadalupe the other night, going to an event at the University and spied this place. Piercings and tattoos are popular in Austin. I don't have any myself but found this neon interesting.

Cafe Medici

In spite of the name that evokes ancient Florence, Café Medici on The Drag has weirdly Jetson-looking furniture offsetting the old wood and the brick walls. I don't know how many shots of espresso they put in my Americano, but it was strong and good.

Daniel Johnston Original

Daniel Johnston is a singer/songwriter/artist and sufferer of bipolar disease. He painted this mural on the side of a store facing The Drag* fifteen years ago. (It was a secondhand music store called Sound Exchange at the time.) The mural has been preserved through store changes and is considered iconic by his fans. There was a documentary, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, released in 2006 about him. There is a fan site I found for him.

I like the picture because besides showing the stark black and white and simple lines of the preserved mural, the newspaper boxes (one conveniently toppled when I walked by) look like crayons ready to color it.

*The Drag is Guadalupe as it runs along the west side of the UT campus. You pronounce Guadalupe in Austin not in Spanish (Huadalupa) but GWAD-Loop or some such. Not that we don't know a lot of Spanish around here (we pronounce guacamole correctly about half the time) but for some reason street names have a pronunciation key all their own.

Pho Shop Pigeons

We walked to the university yesterday and on Guadalupe (students call that commercial stretch of that street 'The Drag') we were wondering why there were pigeons all over the roof and on the sidewalk of this Pho shop. Then this guy came out to feed them and all was clear.