Bikes and Beef

Last week was a blur. Our sweet girl had her first trip to the ER. Thankfully she is going to be just fine! That is my excuse for not knowing that the ROT Biker Rally had taken over Austin for the weekend. We'd never have ventured to 6th street on a Friday night had we known. But ignorance in this case was bliss. From the front booth at Parkside restaurant, directly in front of the 'Best Wurst' bratwurst vendor, we slurped oysters and martini's, dipped toast in beef marrow bones and watched the stellar parade of bikes, brawn and broads. The chef/owner David Kinch is known for his eclectic menu which caters to his chef friends. I can't wait to go back for a fried egg sandwich and donut holes.

Resident Tourist

The article in the NY Times, Sisters in Idiosyncracy touches on two ideas I identify with -- the draw to the D.I.Y aesthetic credo and living like a "Resident Tourist." Highlights on these two themes:

"IF there is an aesthetic credo to Brooklyn and the Bay Area, it is Do It Yourself, which connotes more than using an Allen wrench from Ikea. D.I.Y. can mean everything from wearing locally designed T-shirts to attending concerts staged in someone’s warehouse apartment, to riding a bike to work," explains NOAM COHEN, NY Times.

He goes on to say....

Danny Hoch, a Brooklynite, recently performed “Taking Over,” a one-man show about gentrification, at the Berkeley Rep Theater in California. “What I see as the reason for so many NYers having come to the Bay, and so many Bay folk moving to Bklyn (tens of thousands literally),” he wrote in an e-mail message, “is that each group has become accustomed to the alienation or perceived impossibility of staying where they are.”

Someone leaving Brooklyn for the Bay Area, he said, gets “a nicer climate, laid-back vibe, better produce, California’s nature close by, and a job scene where you feel more in demand as a NYer.”

The reverse, he said, is also true.

But Mr. Hoch predicted that the transience that allows people to hop between both places so fluidly would eventually lead them away.

“Although I think each side sees the other as an amazing place to live and spend time, neither sees it as a place to actually stay forever,” he wrote. “Both are nostalgic for home.” “Each becomes the new ‘resident tourist,’ as I say in my play.”

Perhaps Austin will begin to feel like 'home' in time and we will come to embrace the D.I.Y. aesthetic credo Tejas style.

Two Years 11 Days

....since our family of four moved to Austin, Tejas. This is my short list of the good, the bad and the undiscovered.

Good:
Breakfaste Tacos
Hot weather, cold water (Deep Eddy and Barton Springs)
Our front porch
Mathews Elementary
Feeling like you live in the Country in a City

Bad:
Bugs
Heat
Traffic
Feeling like you live in the Country in a City
Bugs

Undiscovered:
Hill Country (Texas Wine Country)
Music
Border Towns (starting with Laredo)
The Stitch Fashion Show and Guerrilla Craft Bazaar (every fall)
Canoeing on Town Lake (recently renamed Lady Bird Lake)