Better get ready for major downtown disruptions this weekend. First up the 4th Annual BatFest shuts South 1st Bridge all day Saturday, overnight and all day Sunday. Of course Saturday p.m., is the UT Football Game. This is something I have yet to experience, but given it’s the first game of the season, and with the newly expanded stadium(some 92,000 seats), roads will be closed and very busy in and around the Stadium, both east and west of I35.

Sometime Sunday probably well before 6.30p.m., Congress and a number of surrounding roads will close for the Human Race Nike 10k. You can see a route map here. It’s worth noting though that it’s not just a race. There will be a large number of entrants, and after the race their is a concert up by the Capital building at 8.30pm with Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals. All the run participants get free entry, you can also pay separately. So some roads will remain closed until late. The Nike 10k organizers have gone the whole hog. Not only are they providing a bag drop for a change of clothing after the race, but they are also providing a bike valet and compound service, I’ll be cycling down.

Meanwhile, just a few blocks East at Waterloo Park will be the KVET Party in the Park(*). at the same time. Starting at 12pm, roads around the park will be closed or have restricted access.
So that takes care of Saturday and Sunday.

Monday, starting very early (I know I’m volunteering and have been asked to show up at 4.30a.m.), more roads will be closed for the Austin Triathlon. Amongst the roads closed Monday morning will be Congress from the Capital, across the bridge to South Congress and Mary; Caesar Chavez from Congress to Austin High under Mopac, I assume both directions; South 1st Bridge, Riverside Dr from Barton Springs down to S Lamar, also Lee Barton Drive along the pitch and putt Golf Course.

I’m sure they’ll be more events than that, but those are the ones I know about. You could look at this as a major inconvenience, or you could take it as a great opportunity to walk or bike downtown. The 2nd St District shops will be open, you’ll have to wait to cross a few roads, but otherwise it should be car free.

Which brings me around to the Austin City Council Task Force on Street and Event Road Closures. Monday saw the latest meeting of the task force. Unlike the prior meeting which was packed to the gills with athletes, this time there were only about eight members of the public. After hearing from four of us the task force got on with it’s business. By the end of the session, a sense of urgency and organization had taken over from the fact-finding and discovery phase. If the task force is to produce anything meaningful, they’ll have to get going. They’ve agreed to meet weekly starting September 8th, organized around an agreed set of agenda items. As always, they’ll take the first 10-speakers from the public to register on the day.

If you didn’t get to speak previously and have any constructive suggestions, as opposed to testimonial on how this event, or that event changed your life, why not come along and speak. Make some notes, even feel free to read your speech, you get just 3-minutes though. What’s clear from this weekends event and road closures is that some coordination is needed, along with a much better, more coordinated road closure and alternative route scheme.

(*) Party in the Park organizers are going to have their hands full if their what to bring/what not to bring list is to be take seriously and enforced. Cell Phones and iPods that don’t have voice recorders won’t be allowed, nor will digital still cameras that also take videos. Also, what’s a laptop these days compared to some of the latest PDA’s and iPhones? Why differentiate? What’s the point of making rules that you can’t or won’t keep??

In my continuing quest to discover the Austin music scene I was over at my local corner store the other day picking up and ice and Chocolate milk for my post training recovery bath and I saw poster outside for Rubber Soul Live.

As a Brit. growing up in the 60’s in the UK, the Beatles had a huge influence on my peers and I, my parents played their early music a lot. Since the UK is a lot smaller than Texas, their influence was much bigger and crept into most facets of day to day life. As I started to go to parties and the like in my early teens the new, more orchestrated Beatles Albums we getting played, especially the b-side of Abbey Road. To this day, I still have a penchant for rock, and soul music that contains a good string section, real or electronic. And so it was I found myself Saturday evening at Threadgills for Will Taylor and Strings Attached.

Like most long time music venues in Austin, I know Threadgills World HQ is held in somewhat rarefied company. It was my first time. I have to say it wasn’t what I expected. I got there just before the scheduled start as I’d walked to dinner, and then walked to Threadgills. By the time I got there, the lawn in front of the stage was covered by people sitting in lawn chairs, many had bought their own. I don’t know why I didn’t expect this, after all if you bought a ticket to a mixed rock/orchestrated performance of a Beatles album, you’d be on the lawn at a stately house, like Blenheim Palace, on lawn chairs. And then it struck me, this was sort of an Austin equivalent.

Turns out that the lead singer and sometime guitarist of Strings Attached was the boyfriend of an ex-girlfriend’s friend, Kim. I discovered this when Kim came and sat next to me on the grass at the side of the stage. Just before the show started, Kim spotted the staff putting out some more chairs and we rushed up the back and grabbed two. Smooth move it turns out.

Strings Attached played the full UK Rubber Soul album, in vinyl format. That is, the took a break in the set where you’d normally have to turn the album over. They rounded out the set with I’ve just seen a face, which lead out the US album.

Their sound was rich and clear, not too loud. Not once did I curse that I hadn’t bought my ear plugs. They did their own arrangements of some of the songs, but followed the Beatles originals faithfully on others. Overall they were excellent and as we’d spent the show seated up the back, center stage, we got to see the whole show, which was supported by a brilliant set of projected graphics and film clips. Will Taylor carefully guided the performance, interjecting both musically during the songs, and between songs.

Going in, my favorite track from the original album was Girl, String Attached did good version, with good harmonies and subtle orchestration. However, their version of Michelle had me humming it for the rest of the weekend.

Will Taylor and Strings Attached will be back in September with a series of concerts performing Stevie Wonders Songs in the Key of Life.

Kerbey Lane Northwest was a place one of our regular haunts for great food, staff and atmosphere. They recently moved from their quirky, homey, very “Kerbey Lane” location to a strip mall at Anderson Mill and 183. We had asked the staff why they were moving and they said it was such a better layout. Much more room for operation and the staff wouldn’t be bumping into each other all the time trying to get the food out.

So four of us set out with anticipation yesterday morning to check out the new digs. Well actually, we forgot they had moved and so first we went to the old digs and found an empty parking lot and a sad lonely building. So we set out to find the new place. When we got there, there were a lot of people waiting (as is usual for Kerbey at lunchtime on Saturday) and we were told there would be an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes wait. Determined to have my pancakes, we decided to stick it out.

We all agreed that while this place is certainly nice, it did NOT feel like Kerbey Lane. It had lost its vibe. While they still had the same staff, many of whom have tattoos, piercings, fun hair styles and such, they all seemed a little more dressed up than they used to be. It seemed to us like they had turned up the staffs dress code a bit.

Even more frustrating was that while we were waiting over an hour for our table, there seemed to be many empty tables. The patio outside had maybe 2 of 10 tables occupied. I thought I heard a manager telling another couple that they were limiting their occupancy while the kitchen and staff “found their groove” but that didn’t make it any less frustrating to be standing and waiting while staring at empty tables.

The place just had a much less fun, homey, quirky, Austin, Kerbey Lane feel and more generic air. Everything felt strange. Even the staff seemed more lowkey or down. I mean they were still friendly and provided great service but I sensed some tension or stress, I speculate due to probably having to deal with pissy people with overdeveloped senses of entitlement who probably thought that waiting an hour was ridiculous but decided to go ahead and do it anyway but be grumpy and bitch about it.

All in all we were very sad to see what had become of our beloved Kerby Lane NW. I think we may be making one of the other Kerbey Lane locations our new home base. It seemed to us like they probably could have kept both NW locations open considering how busy it always seemed to be. I’m sure that’s probably not realistically practical but they sure never seem to be hurting for business and it seems like there is always a wait at any time of day.

Kerbey Lane was one of those places where we would always take visiting friends to eat. We might still, but it won’t be the NW location. I kind of feel like I’ve lost a friend.

There are just four shows remaining: two today and two tomorrow.

I can never decide whether the opera or the circus is the fullest theatrical experience, and I never will. But the circus does have singing, dancing, stage magic, lighting effects, artful yet practical costumes, live music, and everything else that the opera does.

Today’s 11:30 am show seemed to be sold out. I loved the choreography with two-sided fans as props, and I think that the audience went along with me in giving the strongest applause to the little troop of acrobats composed entirely of very young women.

I’ve always liked the starring clowns of the Barnum & Bailey Ringling Bros. Circus, including Bello, of course, who is the focus of this performance. This year the supporting staff of clowns is very good, and the “dancing with the clowns” number brought down the house. As always, there’s an open house for children beginning about an hour before each show.

Owners Olivia and Steve have two new arrivals, one took much longer in planning than the other, but was just as much a labor of love. This evening saw the opening party for SugarMamas bakeshop at 1905 South 1st, next door to SecretOktober, their 2nd new arrival.

Their first new arrival was young Jackson, I never asked, but I guess 6-9 months old, their first child. After careful planning and a change of direction a few times, SugarMamas, not just another cake shop. They have an innovative, interesting menu of specialty cakes and pies. While there, I tried a Bettie Page cup cake, described as “Buttery vanilla cupcake topped with a decadent chocolate buttercream ‘do. It’ll knock your bangs off!” and a French Toast cup cake, described as “Maple cupcake topped with a swirl of cinnamon sugar and finished off with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. What a great way to start your day!” - They were the business and lived up to their descriptions.

Both had sweet icing, but not overly so; both had light fluffy base and were delicious in that sort of, I could only eat two way, rather than that sort of hollow, “I’ll have a dozen to go” style.

SugarMamas will be open from 11-7, so its not a quick stop by on the way to the office in the morning, but somewhere to visit when you’ve got something to celebrate, or when you need a boost mid-afternoon. Olivia tells me they’ll do drip coffee, both hot and iced but are not looking to encroach on the business of the specialty coffee shops.

Still, stop by and see them.

[In the interests on transparency I should declare I wrote them and asked when they were opening, they invited me to the party, and before anyone thinks otherwise, it takes a lot more than two cup cakes to buy me, and I'll be paying for any future delights!]

So this is what it takes to bring me out of my blogging doldrums?

For those that aren’t familiar, Michael Gonzales had a choking poodle and decided to drive 100 mph to get the poodle help. He could’ve picked a closer vet? He could’ve learned the poodle Heimlich? In the video, he’s clearly panicking and emotional. He shouldn’t have been speeding. He shouldn’t even have been driving. I saw the interview with him after the fact. He’s annoying and self-righteous. I’m a dog owner. I’m sorry for his loss, but let’s get some fscking perspective here, please.

Newsflash, there are cops who don’t have the best people skills. Unfortunately, the job attracts a few like that. It also turns some people into that. The chief admitted it wasn’t handled well. The guy’s been reprimanded. Let it go. Please.

I’m tired of the news media rehashing it. I’m tired of hearing about it. Aren’t there more important things to worry about? Like, oh, I don’t know a war? The economy? Health care and education in the shitter? A worthless governor? I feel bad even giving it more attention. And now the dipshit cop is getting death threats? Death threats? That sort of thing makes me want to feed the animal activists to a pack of cranky pit bulls.

I love the exhibitions at Mexic-Arte. They’re always just large enough to offer a range of objects to consider and enjoy thoroughly and just small enough to be encompassable during a noon-hour. There’s usually a very small entry fee that’s charged in order to help defray the costs of mounting the show.

The current display of items related to the Mayan and Aztec cultures, including commemorations related to a world’s fair, the centennial of Mexican independence, and just the wild electicism of the first half of the twentieth century, will be there only through September 16.

It was a special pleasure to see the photographic post cards of Hugo Brehme in such quantity and where they could be viewed up close. The movie lobby cards from the Agrasanchez hoard are also a close-up treat, rewarding in every detail. We spent a long time watching the second of the Aztec mummy movies. Those theater chairs are very comfortable!

The information cards next to the displays are informative and repay reading in their entirety. They are pretty much all the information available, but they are quite thorough. The only souvenirs of the exhibit in particular that I saw were post cards related to movie promotion from the era of the movies being exhibited. They are lurid and funny. As always, whoever selects the beautiful handmade jewelry to sell in the little museum shop does a superlative job. Any of it would make a welcome present.

Danny Roy Young, a man whose work and play helped define South Austin, died yesterday from a heart attack. With his passing, we lost a some-time activist, a long-time businessman and musician, and a full-time ambassador for the spirit of Austin.

Danny moved his family in ‘75 and “figured out that Austin was exactly where I was meant to be.” Those who lived here pre-bust (as in oil, not tech) might remember the opening of his Texicalli Grill in an abandoned Burger Chef on South Lamar, which later became an institution of sandwiches and music memorabilia in an abandoned Taco Bell on Oltorf (next to Guero’s, now the present-day Curra’s). Danny sold the restaurant in 2006, and it closed the following year.

If you judge a man on the basis of his nicknames, then Danny Roy Young rose higher than most. The “Lord of the Rub board” denotes his enthusiasm for the washboard. He frequently played his custom apparatus around town, most regularly with The Cornell Hurd Band. His title as “Mayor of South Austin” was bequeathed by the Austin Chronicle after he successfully led the opposition to widening South Lamar.

While the designation was unofficial, Danny upheld the title with charm and sincerity that is lacking from most elected offices. Until yesterday’s tragic passing pre-emptively limited his term, the Mayor of South Austin often cruised his districts in a signature ‘54 Chevy wagon motorcade, idling in the street to spin yarns with constituents new and old. It’s hard to imagine anyone else who could fill his office.

Michael Corcoran has a nice eulogy for Danny here.

No matter what changes at the Shoreline Grill, chocolate intemperance is the constant. It’s always on the dessert menu, no matter what else is on what other part of the menu. We always, always save room for this triple-chocolate delight.

We satisfied some of the rest of our appetite at lunch by trying two of today’s soups: a cannellini bean and a duck and sausage gumbo. I loved, loved, loved the gumbo, and so did the table of men with Louisiana accents just behind us. We also satisfied some appetite, and very wisely so, with crab cakes and the day’s salmon preparation.

Seafood is always impeccable here. There are also dainty but generous salads, as well as hearty fried chicken and various meat preparations for the non-vegetarians. When we splurge here, we often overhear some little morsel of gossip when the indiscreet speak loudly in the sort of commanding voices that carry, as those who must answer to no superior sometimes do when they imbibe at lunchtime. This was a beautiful day to dine here. The light coming through the expanse of windows changed moment by moment as the towering clouds by turns obscured and revealed the sun, and the waters of the river were choppy and in constant motion.

We were seated at once, even though we arrived shortly after noon. Later in the week, there’s sometimes a brief wait. I’m not sure what the parking situation is these days. We walked. Service, as always, was timely and professional. The chocolate intemperance, as always, was beyond compare.

• The Frisco has changed its seating method. It’s no longer “seat yourself.” There’s now someone leading the diners to a spot at the counter or to a table or booth. That didn’t mean we obtained one the second time we visited. There was a line out the door. We were just amazingly lucky the first time.
• A second visit to Mesa Ranch Bar and Grill, southside version, introduced us to the wonders of cowboy beans. These were mysteriously but deliciously seasoned and contained generous quantities of smokey and tender brisket. The chile relleno accompanied by savory grilled shrimp was a lunch-menu winner. This was a second mid-day visit. Dinner remains in the future. Mesa Ranch is inviting all to an open house on Sunday afternoon, August 24, offering free appetizers from 3 to 8 pm at the new south location.
• It was following a second lunch-time visit to Tien Jin that we stopped in at Buenos Aires Cafe. At T.J. this time, one of us tried the buffet and enjoyed it very much. Again, the price for the quality is amazing. We saw a table next to us enjoying some sort of delicious-looking preparation of scallops and noodles from the Chinese menu. A large family was seated at a large table equipped with a lazy susan and we saw course after course selected from the Chinese menu going to that table during the time that we were there. Maybe it’s getting to be time to order from that menu.
• I forgot to mention that the fine coffee at Buenos Aires Cafe comes to the table with a proper coffee spoon and with a small, round paper doily under the cup. These are refined touches not often seen around town.
• The pianist at Louie’s 106 appears to be none other than Kenny Luna; at least, that was the name at the piano with the tip jar just inside the door spotted at lunchtime earlier in the week. The ads in the local daily tout “our Resident Pianist,” playing Wednesdays through Saturdays, from 6:30 to 9:30 pm.

It was between lunchtime and dinnertime. We just wanted some coffee. We drank some. And it was Good. How do I know? Just as I prefer my hamburgers without distractions to disguise their true nature, I prefer coffee black and without sugar. The espresso machine was down, we were told, before even asking, so it was coffee in big cups for us. Giant cups, in fact, and shaped to hold the heat. I like to see who produced the crockery and utensils on the tabletop. These cups and saucers were marked “Crate and Barrel” and were of a type of white porcelain. This was excellent coffee.

We saw handsome-looking sandwich plates going by. Someone at our table was very tempted by the pastafrola, which appeared to be a shallow tart filled with a jam or paste. The pastry was topped with a precise and beautiful hand-cut, hand-woven lattice; the filling, we were told, was made mostly from quince. Later, we learned that pastafrola is practically the national dessert of Argentina. Another temptation resisted was a small refined pastry trimmed with coconut. The eventual choice that came to our table was a chocolate layer cake or torte with a beatiful chocolate ganache coating. Extra forks were provided so that all at the table could share.

There’s something very comfortable about this place, and it is a friendly spot. A peek into the kitchen revealed it to be spotless and inhabited by two women in white working so quickly and professionally that they seemed to move in a blur. Two earlier visits by another Austin Metblogger were described in April 2007, complete with a photo of the bakery case. Fresh flowers can be glimpsed in that picture, and we enjoyed the profusion of giant yellow roses and golden sunflowers at the counter and on tabletops when we were there. The page for the Buenos Aires Cafe has a link to the menus for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We’ll be back for coffee and a snack, and we’ll be back for more than that.

Our local daily went to town this morning, giving its most prominent space to naming the ten largest individual water users, along with the ten largest commercial ones: No dry days at these homes: Armstrong tops list of Austin’s biggest water users for June, byline Marty Toohey. Commercial users are chip-fab outfits, hospitals, and the jail. To his credit, Lance Armstrong was willing to comment to the reporter, unlike most of the ten, who included Jerry Jeff Walker.

Again, as with electricity use, there are regressive factors in the water rate system. Before a tap is ever opened, there’s a residential customer charge of $5.35 for water and one of $7.10 for wastewater. The astonishing thing, though, is that, although the number-one water consumer is reported to have been billed for 222,900 gallons for the month of June, that person and all other high-volume residential irrigators are charged under the “Wastewater Service” portion of the bill only for the first 8,600 gallons used. For those first 8,600 gallons of water, the wastewater charges are higher than the actual water charges. If all were charged a wastewater cost up to the very last gallon used, smaller users wouldn’t be charged such regressive rates.

Local blog Zanthan has asked for comments on water use by gardeners during essentially the same billing period. Many of those comments are from Austin and nearby. Here at the adobe hacienda, where we maintain a garden, dozens of potted plants, and a habitat friendly to insects, birds, and four-legged critters, water use billed from June 2 through July 1 was 20,500 gallons, about as much as we ever use, no matter what the calendar month. That water does go to the garden. We inadvertently left a hose bib open for nearly an hour one day. All watering here is done via hose-end sprinkler and within the regulation hours on the regulation days, sometimes just one of the two days. Plants in pots and in a couple of ground plantings are watered more frequently, using a hand-held hose with a trigger cutoff on the end.

Remember; Architectural Digest showed us some of the Armstrong homestead in its July issue. The local daily does not report whether the information on water use was obtained pursuant to a public information / open records request. I know that it’s with difficulty, sometimes, that we’ve been able to obtain information about our own utility account. The comments at the on-line site of the story just keep a-comin’.

Update: information on Armstrong water bill for subsequent month now available If June consumption was evidence of profligacy, what’s to be said about July? Read all about it: Champion Cyclist and Now Champion Guzzler of Austin Water (byline James C. McKinley, Jr., NYT, 16 August).

The enclosure with the latest utility bill from the entity now calling itself Austin Energy leads with the question “why is my electric bill so high?” and goes on to furnish the reply “record hot weather.” The little article reports that some customers have been asking whether the increased fuel charge is the reason for high utility bills. The response: “But the fuel charge only represents about one-third of the average residential customer bill.”

The average residential electric usage in June is reported to have been 1,233 killowatt-hours. At our establishment, we used 453 kWh in June and we used 483 in July, with “energy charges” of $16.05 and $17.15 respectively. In both months, the fuel charge exceeded the energy charge, being $16.51 in June and $17.64 in July. The regressive flat-rate “customer charge” for electric service of $6 represented over 14% of our June bill and over 15% of our July electricity bill (more, were the sales tax to be excluded). The $6 goes on the bill before a single light is turned on. We use electricity chiefly to power lights, fans, a computer, a radio, a washing machine, and a refrigerator that’s not new. In the winter, the oven takes a lot of power because, when it’s cooler, we use it a lot for baking and for the occasional roast.

I think it’s funny that the little monthly newsletter enclosure, which used to be called EnergyPlus, is now being called PowerPlus and bears a trademark sign. Where’s the money going that we don’t spend on utilities? In the summertime, especially, we do a lot more dining out (often recounted here) and also movie-going.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction

On Monday I attended the Austin City Councils’ Street Event Closure Task Force meeting. I wrote much of this post during the meeting, but decided that reflection was called for. It seems others would have done well to do the same.

I learned about the taskforce from a widely circulated email, that must have gone to almost every runner, cyclist and triathlete in Austin, and probably a lot wider afield. You can see a copy of the email here on Brandon Marshs’ Get out and do something blog. The problem is something near 100 people turned up to speak, and as per city rules, only the first 10 to register got to speak. The rest left frustrated, not understanding the process, and not understanding what to do next.

What’s clear is that the city is caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to events. They need events, we need them. Events(not just races, triathlons and crits’) form a core than binds and attracts many people to downtown Austin. The current rules, and city staffs ability to implement them, is a wash. 60-days, 30-ways, waivers, Police costs, road closures, City council overrides - these are all a fact of life for the events than run downtown.

The city has a process for coming up with new rules and processes; the task force is part of that. However, mob rule doesn’t work, unless applied at the time a decision needs to be made. Monday’s performance wasted an opportunity to get some valuable input from the stakeholders, not just a reason for people to speak passionately about their introduction to running.

Lobbying works. You might not like it, but it does. Witness members of the task force, many are effectively lobbyists for special interests groups. Lobbying has only become a dirty word since the bribery and payola cases from the 80’s and 90’s. My fellow Austinites had better get used to this. If we waste the next 4-5 meetings of the task force, each arriving increasingly earlier to sign-up and speak for their allotted 3-minutes. We need to elect a spokesperson, we need to have solutions to offer, not just complaints, and opposition.

I attended with a tongue in both cheeks, a foot in each running shoe, and splitting my time between T1 in Bouldin Creeek, and T2, a downtown race course for an event I want to take part in. Having been an organizer of some 10-domestic events in the UK, and part of the team for two major international triathlons, I can assure the neighborhoods that a race organizer that doesn’t care about them won’t be a race organizer next year. I can tell the runners and triathletes the same.

All parties need to recognize that the only solution IS compromise. We have to work together. On Monday, there was much discussion about events clashing on the same w/e and the problem this causes, for example closing all possible roads leading to a Church or business. Nothing was said about the week-in, week-out closure of the same roads for different events.

One solution postured is having a set of graduation courses away from downtown. Imagine, for four of eight weekends in April/May next year, the city will grant permission to close the access road you need to drive down to Ladybird Lake for your run, or to go meet with your cycling group to ride. It’s disruptive, it effects your planning, it breaks your routine. That’s how the Churches, businesses and public feel about your events. No matter how much that downtown 5k changed your life, you had no more right to run in it downtown, than a business does to have it customers come and buy that life changing couch(ask me about mine from Your Living Room!)

Sports participants need to also accept that the neighborhoods and business suffer in non-obvious ways. You’d never consider urinating on someones lawn first thing on Sunday, yet it regularly happens; you’d never throw your used gel packets on the ground when you get back to the car, but it regularly happens; no one minds as you discard your old top on S1st during the marathon, but we do; you always go to downtown restaurants after the race to refuel, but in reality, it doesn’t happen much, everyone else gets in their car and goes home.

This years Bat Fest will go ahead, despite the protestation of my neighborhood. We got no notice that the Bat Fest would be moved from South Congress to South 1st for this year only. Nor did any of the businesses or others affected. How can you plan around that? It’s not unreasonable to ask what is going on down at City Hall and demand change.

A few of the speakers on Monday were excellent. But while others might have made you feel good, they didn’t contribute much to the hard job the task force has to do. The time for mob rule, if needed, is at the end of the process. Let’s let the Task Force make their recommendations to city council. Then, Task Force chair Paul Carrozza can get the public meeting that he desperately wanted to placate race organizer and fellow task force member John Connley, whose email drew in the mob.

At that time we will know what is proposed. Under city rules, everyone that signs-up, should get to speak. The best part, is that you can sign-up to speak and donate your minutes to a spokesperson. So, get your thinking caps on.

What good ideas could help the city run events, find ways to enable our fellow citizens go about their lives and routines without undue disruption from us. These are the ideas the task force needs. Next meeting should be August 25, location and time TBC. I’ll be the guy in the sleeping bag outside the day before. If you really have something to add, come along.

If mob rule is needed, then it will be when the time comes to vote. Your council member needs to know how you feel about the final recommendations, given the low voter turn out at city council elections, a decent size group against any specific city resolution or process change ought to be able to gain the support of the council member. This will be especially true when it comes to the council vote of the outcome of the task force.

Ace Mart Restaurant Supply, the one that used to be just west of downtown, has now reopened at the former Bealls, across South Congress from the H-E-B at Oltorf. It’s been open all month long, but each day more stock arrives and today the Web site reflects that the opening is official.

I’ve already been by once and picked up some items. Weekday hours are from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm; Saturday hours are from 9 am to 2 pm. I didn’t find the manager when I was there, but others have done so and report that the grand opening will be Friday and Saturday, August 18 and 19, with various factory representatives there and demonstrations scheduled. The rumor is that everything in the store will be discounted by 10% on those two days.

Ace Mart is well worth a visit at any time, for any cook or party-giver, professional or not. Ace Mart is where to find heavy-duty aluminum foil on the biggest rolls produced. Serveware in massive quantities is another bargain. Head here when your friends are setting up housekeeping with a new partner or in a new location and you need ideas for housewarming presents.

Someday I will decide which is my favorite straw dispenser, and Ace Mart will sell it to me. We’ve bought a lot of Fiesta dishes here; although Ace Mart won’t sell open stock these days, anyone buying in multiples of a dozen will find good prices and a good selection here. The same’s true for the semi-equivalent bright Cantina china by Syracuse. This is a fine place to acquire sets of classic Libbey Gibraltar drinking glasses and barware. Stacking chairs of good quality and at good prices? They’re at Ace Mart. If you love your tabletop and kitchen or shop for those who feel the same way about theirs, Ace Mart will become a favorite haunt. I’m so glad it’s open again.