UT Tower

This is a view of the UT tower from an odd place: the terrace of the President's office. We got a Heritage Society Tour in 2006 and I shot this picture.

I'm racking my brain for tomorrow's theme day: "What do people think of when they think of your city." It's TOO many things, really. And, I'm sort of afraid most people don't think of what I'd like them to think! But mostly it's just that there are too many things: the University, the Capitol, music, the hills and lakes. Ah, well, tomorrow I will pick something that screams Austin to me. Or FFP will. And that will be that. Maybe the UT Tower is what people think of. Some may think of Whitman up there over forty years ago taking potshots at citizens and students like FFP. But I don't think I'll show the tower tomorrow.

Pharmacy and Lunch Counter...Still Operating

FFP and I were at Jeffrey's Monday and I stepped outside to take a picture of Nau's weathered sign. They haven't done much to the sign or building but inside is a neighborhood pharmacy and a lunch counter. I haven't been there in a while. FFP made an important (to his career) business contact at the lunch counter years ago. This is on West Lynn and 12th in the Clarksville/Old West Austin neighborhood.

Katz's Never Kloses

When we live downtown (which might happen this year), it will be a short walk over to Rio Grande and West Sixth to Katz's Deli and Bar. The taxi cab yellow cars mark the place. There is a club upstairs. (I don't think I've been there since they changed the name to Momo's.) The important thing about Katz's is that you can satisfy your desire for sandwiches piled high with meat or blintzes at any hour. Not that I have the desire for such at a late hour often. Nice to know it's always open. Or, as they say, Never Kloses.

Welcome Visitors

One other thing that is not a bar on East Sixth between Congress and IH35 is the Austin Visitor Center. They took a neat old building and its Grove Pharmacy sign. I don't know what the hours are but there would seem to be a better location for a place where families go to get brochures about museums and IMAX shows and local treasures and such. Who knows, though, maybe the vibe of this stretch of street will change over the years. Stranger things have happened.

Art Gallery and Home For Sale

Andrew Long, with one of his paintings.

When we were at the party last Wednesday, I was anchored against the wall (just staying out of traffic not being a wallflower) and a guy walked up and asked if he could perch his plate on the table by me. I introduced myself and told him I recognized him as the painter who had done a portrait of Miguel, the chef/co-owner/founder of Fonda San Miguel. He was Roi James and we talked about his art and then I heard him telling another person about a show that had its opening last night. FFP came up, we talked some more, exchanged cards. Roi invited us to the opening which was really neat. This home builder, Metrohouse, had a beautiful modern duplex for sale so they filled the two (over 2000 sq. foot) homes with paintings and sculpture and turned them into a giant gallery. Obviously it's a chance to get people to look at the homes. Besides Roi there was another painter, Andrew Long, who is a longtime friend. (I took his picture because I caught him with his work. When we caught up with Roi he was looking at Andrew's paintings!) The third artist was Stephen Dubov and he was showing sculpture made from recycled and broken windshield glass and metal tubing, cables and clamps. It was amazingly beautiful. I didn't know Stephen and didn't catch up with him.

This event was amazing. I love the modern aesthetic of these homes and, empty, they made a great backdrop for the art. A DJ ran some custom music and there was art gallery food and drink.

Brilliant People

Our friend Lance Morgan runs a magazine called Brilliant which is a bible of society, style and luxury for Texans. The magazine celebrated its fifth anniversary at Pangaea, a bottle club that took over the old Alamo Drafthouse (near fourth and Colorado) site with a velvet-roped, safari-themed bar. Because we figured this might be our one and only visit to this bar and because we love Lance and knew he'd invited all the usual suspects, we went. [Disclaimer: Nothing against safari themes, bottle bars (although how many people do you need to spend hundreds or thousands on a bottle of booze?) or any of that. It's just that we tend to do our drinking where the we know the bartender's name and they know what whiskey we prefer and there are good snacks and no percussion.]

It's not a great picture, photo-quality-wise, but Lance and the cake and the lady helping look dashing.

As to the venue: the DJ'ed African music with a live congo player was loud but we did manage conversation. The old Alamo stairs are still there and I couldn't shake the image that it was going to be revealed as a promo for some Alamo silliness. The place is supposed to look like one of those high-quality safari 'tents' where people dine on good food and drink and peek out or drive to see the big five. Not that I've done that. I leaned over and asked my good friend sitting next to me if he had and he said "Yes, in Kenya." Then we moved on to talk about gas wells near Ft. Worth. There were lots of people we knew there and, when we slipped out about 7:30, there were more people we knew standing behind the velvet rope trying to get the guys to find their name on a list. (Another reason we don't normally go to these places. The ropes!)

We are very proud of Lance and his magazine and when the photographer came around we got in the picture with some important friends so maybe we'll get a picture in the magazine. And now we've seen inside the place and looked at the bottle menu so that's checked off my list!

Food, fun and friends

Here's another photo from the party we attended Wednesday night. I decided to try a few shots with the flash off to get a warmer feel on the result. I like this one. Fonda San Miguel has been our neighborhood hangout place for so many years and I did their advertising for a long time. Being able to just walk up there is one thing I will miss when we move downtown.