The S 1st Art Walk didn’t disappoint. First up I got a great deal on a Cruiser bike from South side bicycle shop, they were doing 25% off for the day; which was great, as I was a bit short of time and had been looking for a street bike. Next-up was GAGA, I dropped off my canned food in the Capital Area Food Bank collection.

Just around the corner and outside Austin Baby, was Knotty bags. Michelle was busy crocheting hand-rolled, used plastic bags into brightly colored and strongs re-cycled and re-usable bags.

Over on the east side of S 1st, on the side of Amelia’s Retro-Vogue & Relics was Shadymaiden, Adrienne Pond was creating innovative and unusual lampshades.

Around the back of Amelia’s, Laura Hill, resplendent in smart, 50’s style retro clothing and glasses, was making hats for her milli*starr millinery display.

Further back was Happiness. This was the find of the day. Eclectic, quiet, cool(in more ways than one), 78704 at it’s best. I’d seen the signs but never ventured back there before. It was so good I had to call my friend and invite her to join me. Go see it yourself, some great succulents, cacti, and general good vibes.

Having toured many of the other businesses and art displays, I finally found myself at the Ultraviolet salon. Outside Henri was displaying a collection of his prints, both canvass and paper. My eye was caught by the Broken Spoke picture seen on the right here, possibly perfect for what I wanted to do with my guest room. Sadly, already sold. The picture of Barton Springs pool(center) was also interesting, but a little too photo-realistic for my taste.

Life is full of distractions, competing priorities, places to go and people to see, general noise. And so it was late this morning that I found myself going into the Texas School for the Deaf on S 1st St. It was Homecoming day and the school was open with tours, booths and later the Homecoming football game.

Since I live up the street it seemed like a good reason to go visit. $7 entry fee, $1 for the program, was good deal. What happened next both challenged, surprised and pleased me. As I strolled along the various booths, there were people everywhere. Normally this sort of affair would feel oppressive, noise everywhere, music blasting out, children screaming, parents yelling and more. Not here, almost total silence. The sound of a generator running, but not much else, yet everywhere their were people having animated discussions and having fun. It was invigorating, inspirational.

I returned later to watch the Homecoming football game, I’ll readily admit I don’t get home coming at all. My generation(in the UK) didn’t have graduation, homecoming, or for that matter Halloween. It was watching the game I found myself really challenged. American Football which I do understand, but have never played, is indeed a game of sound. Here though, while there was some noise from the crowd, the sounds were primarily the crunch of players colliding and of referees whistles. Despite the large crowds on both sides of the field, and cheerleaders, yet again everything was conducted in near silence. Watching the coaches and players though made me realize what a challenge being deaf must be.

The players on both sides were disciplined, perhaps more so than those with hearing. The slightest gesture, the instructions, the calls, all demanded total concentration. Only a few times did the game go on past the referee calling a play dead, mostly those plays whistled dead before the snap. Fascinating. Unfortunately, while I might not know much about homecoming, I could guess that it wasn’t the way Texas School for the Deaf would have wanted, by half time they were losing 24-0 to Maryland School for the Deaf. As I left about 6-minutes into the 2nd half, Maryland had scored again.

However, I left with a new respect and understanding for the challenges faced by the deaf, and having seen what a great campus, and community that support it.

[Edit: Thanks to SukiFuller for the corrections, Homecoming eh... who'da thought?]

• If you were disappointed that the second-day program for the Fiestas Patrias was cancelled this year, get ready for the Jamaica this Sunday at Nuestra Senora de / Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Hometown Boys, who don’t get down this way very often, will play at 6:30, followed by headliners and local favorites Little Joe y La Familia at 8. Admission is just five dollars, starting at noon, free before then. This is a great even for children. There’s music all day, plus food, raffles, games, and more.
• There will be another jamaica on Saturday, this one at San Jose, just off South Congress. There will be food, games, prizes, and music. I know that one band will be coming up from San Antonio, but I haven’t been able to find any posters about the event; I’ve just heard about it on the radio, and the parish’s Web site is temporarily down.
• Tejano radio KTXZ 1560-AM is at last simulcasting on the FM dial at 95.1, a boon for those who’ve been having trouble with reception on the AM band.
• Also up this week is Hacienda Radio, streaming courtesy of the fabled Texas recording label with its long list of famous artists. Listeners have a choice of Tejano, conjunto, Mexican popular, and cumbia and hip-hop artists.

Your South 1st St. reporter here. In case you missed the announcement, I did, this Saturday sees the annual South First Art Walk. From their website: “South 1st Street businesses and artists hosts their annual Art Walk and donation drive for the Capitol Area Food Bank, Saturday, October 4, from 12pm till dark.”

“The Art Walk includes music, jewelry, performances, and artwork by some of Austin’s most gifted artists. Visual artist include: Subliminal Phoenix and the 8d Crew; Performance art includes Baruzuland Shadow Puppet Theater; Creative workshops for kids are offered by Future Craft Collective and Greater Austin Garbage Arts (GAGA).” - The event is FREE.

Organizers encourage Austinites to save some cash and ozone by biking, busing or walking to this event. G.A.G.A., located at 2214 S. 1st, offers free secured bike parking and discount cards for South 1st Street businesses.

Non-perishable items and cash donation will be collected for the Capitol Area Food Bank. For every dollar donated, the Food Bank can provide five meals to a hungry child, adult, or senior.

There at lunchtime were law-enforcement people, large workplace parties, and family groups. Iced tea was constantly replenished. There were three enchiladas on the plate, not the scanty two that seem to be ever more common around town. The rice was Spanish; the beans were smokey. Lots of people had ordered those giant bowls of homemade chicken soup. In the bowls were always at least two big pieces of chicken, usually legs, along with plenty of carrots and potatoes, and rice on the side to be added at will. I forgot to ask the guacamole fans how they liked the version here. I know that the person who ordered a chile relleno with cheese was very happy with it. The acoustic accompaniment was human conversation; somewhere in the background, there was recorded banda music occasionally audible. I don’t find a Web site for El Jacalito. It has been there for years in a little strip mall on Oltorf just east of IH-35. I think that over time it has expanded its physical quarters. There has always been music on the weekends. El Jacalito is spotlessly clean. Every surface that can possible shine or gleam does so, right down to the floors. Breakfast is served, from very large plates all the way to every possible combination of breakfast taco. Takeout business seems to be brisk. There’s a bar, but at lunchtime the worker bees order nothing from it. I like it that empty Corona six-pack cartons hold the salt, pepper, and sugar on each table. El Jacalito is located at 2030 East Oltorf Street (suite 110, telephone 445-4109).

Sometime today my pre-ordered Unforseen DVD should show-up via UPS Ground. According to Laura at Two Birds Film, they had contractual AND technical issues both conspired to hold the release back until September 30th.

By coincidence, this Thursday, October 2nd, Alamo Drafthouse will be holding a showing at Barton Springs itself and presented by The City of Austin and The Austin Film Society.. The pool will be “closed” from 7pm to 10pm, and during that time normal BS charges will apply for entry to watch the film(thats $3 to you and me). I can’t wait to see it again, but have plans for Thursday and Friday, so I guess it will have to wait for the weekend!

The story headline for the feature on the front page of the arts section in today’s NYT is “Hitting the Rader: A Festival Soars in Texas,” byline Nate Chinen. It’s possible that this is a first-time visit to Austin for the author. His verdict? In brief, it’s that, “judging by the strength of the music, the smoothness of operations and the fervor of crowds averaging 65,000 daily — [the ACL fest] deserves recognition as a first-tier rock fest, with a regional twist.” Cons mentioned are sound bleed between the stages, heat, and dust. Heat? This weather was practically arctic, compared to what we’ve endured thus summer! The pros, according to the reporter, are many. He seems to especially like all the must Austin-specific features.

There was barely any music to be heard away from the festival site; when there was, it was full-spectrum sound, not just bass only, and it was always dampened within five minutes. This is different from other years, so there was not much in the way of free music outside a very small radius. It also seemed as though there were fewer out-of-town attendees. In saying this, I’m going only by the few requests for directions and sightings of perplexed map-reviewers. There was little evidence of touring neighborhoods in rental cars, but there were more people out on scooters and bikes. Either there was less beer-drinking, more care taken about containers leaving the park, a more sober crowd, or one composed of anti-litter activists. There was no beverage trash in any nearby gutters on any of the following mornings, including this one. One significant effect beyond the pay-to-go-in area was that dust was carried quite far by any prevailing breezes, and there’s been much sneezing to be heard. And something that has never happened before is that the aroma of cooking food and the scent of smoke covered a widespread area on Friday and Saturday nights and, minus the smell of food, well on into the early morning. It reminded me of the old days, when there were active railroad sidings downtown and when one of Austin’s largest hobo camps was along the river, concentrated near where the physical plant of the local daily covers all that once was wild. Right along by Duplex Sign, at the southeast end of the Congress bridge, on a cold morning the rising auras of woodsmoke, coffee, bacon, and chile would greet the pedestrian heading downtown to work.

I’m sure the ACL organizers are doing their best this year on trash, if not, shame on them. However, it didn’t get off to a good start for me today. I got a txt message around 10.00am telling me “don’t forget: small camera, 2 sealed water bottles, sunscreen, and no aerosol, cans. See you at Zilker Park!”

2-sealed water bottles, WTF! I for one had planned to use one of those 1-quart refillable bottles with a clip and attach to my belt loop and refill as needed. I’d even frozen two in advance. When I leave, the empty bottle leaves with me. Hopefully the above won’t be enforced. What was your experience?

Several of the bands in town this week for the annual Austin City Limits music festival are also taping episodes of the show. Erykah Badu cancelled, but Manu Chao, Drive-by Truckers, Gnarls Barkley, The Swell Season, and The Foo Fighters are all taping shows in the next week. ACL show producer Terry Lickona described the first taping last night as an unusual treat.

Manu Chao rarely perform in the US and it’s even more rare for them to appear on US television. They tend to focus on Europe and South America. Manu Chao’s parents fled Franco’s regime in Spain and settled in France where he was born, so many of his songs are in Spanish or French. He was a founding member of the early 90s band, Mano Negra. Like that band, his current work has reggae and ska influences along with a decent helping of latin music & rhythms and punk rock. Their most recent album, La Radiolina, was released last year. Many of his lyrics are political. I’m pretty sure I heard a few references to a certain controlled substance, not surprising given the reggae influence. He was interviewed by High Times last year around the time that La Radiolina was released.

They’re a high energy band and will do well on a festival stage. The normally subdued ACL taping crowd took a little prodding to get going. Last night’s band included 6 musicians in addition to Chao himself: a drummer, a percussionist, a trumpet player, a keyboardist, a bassist and a guitarist. They wore their influences on their shirts. The percussionist was wearing a Tuff Gong shirt and the bass player, looked like a massive soccer hooligan, was wearing a Bad Brains shirt. They all made an effort to pump up the crowd and got people clapping and shouting throughout the set.

They stuck to mostly up tempo numbers and didn’t really pause much between songs. Several of the tracks on La Radiolina include a siren sound repeated throughout. I thought it was overused and, honestly, after several songs, they kind of started to sound the same. A sampling of their recordings while writing this reveals more diversity. I’d chalk some of that impression up to my unfamiliarity with the material. I’d definitely check them out for at least half of their set. I’m glad to see the show is still making an effort to introduce its audience to artists they may not have seen before in addition to pulling in more mainstream acts like Foo Fighters.

Manu Chao is the Friday night headliner at ACL Festival, starting at 8:30pm on the AT&T stage.

Set List (may not be exact):

PANIK PANIK
EL HOYO
BOBBY MARLEY
LA PRIMAVERA POLITIKS
RADIO BEMBA…COURT
BIENVENIDA A TIJUANA
EL VIENTO
CLANDESTINO
MINHA GALERA
RUMBA DE BARCELONA
LA DESPEDIDA
RAININ IN PARADIZE
A COSA
DIA LUNA
VOLVER
RADIO BEMBA ELDORADO
MI VIDA
INFINITA TRISTEZA
TOMBOLA
ALAS ROTAS
DESAPARECIDO
ME LLAMAN CALLE

Those dining at Eastside Cafe should never overlook Pitchforks & Tablespoons, the little shop on the grounds, and a tour of the garden is always inspiring, too. Today, one of the owners was busy at work there, we saw as we left. We were replete with a fine meal, served so expeditiously that there would have been time for dessert, but also so generous in portion that there was no room for it.

The Eastside Cafe has been an Austin treasure for some twenty years, now. I was an early customer and then somehow got out of the habit. Pitchforks & Tablespoons has remained a regular stop, especially since it’s now the only place in town to buy some of the specialty dressings that some find so addicting. I think I’ve been trying the wrong days. If there’s a line, I don’t wait. Today, there wasn’t one, so now I’m going to try Tuesdays often.

There were three soup specials, a blue-plate special, and other tempting items not on the printed luncheon menu. The ruby trout and the salmon entrees came hot to the table and in generous portions, with just the right amount of delicious sauce. The person who ordered the shrimp dish can’t imagine ever ordering anything else. The green salad was very large, with a classic mustard vinaigrette. The tiny corn muffins were light and not at all sweet. My vegetable was broccoli, green and not undercooked. Lemon wedges were in generous supply. Everything we saw being ordered by anybody looked delicious. The little Craftsman bungalow is as it ever was, very homelike and very conducive to lively conversation. I’ve made a personal pledge never to let so long an interval pass between meals at Eastside.

Here’s the news on the fabulous pies of the Frisco Shop, made by the same pastry experts who produce those divine biscuits: call ahead, and do it the day before, ideally at least 24 hours before. The number is 459-6279.

This morning at 9:30, the day’s pies were still in the oven. We were sad not to take away a pie (any of the varieties would have done very nicely, thank you), but were delighted to take away two heavenly biscuits, and very happy to see how busy the Frisco is. Many of the patrons were resplendent in burnt orange.

Since we were in the neighborhood and had some time to spare, we checked out Discount Electronics for the very first time, seeking some speakers for a laptop in order to improve the sound experience for a presentation before a good-sized audience. All appears to be well organized and properly labeled. I thought that the prices were good. My fellow-seeker found an elusive item today. The two guys there were very patient with and very helpful to some far-from-young female computer neophytes. One of the staff members had a tip new to me that solved a problem that’s been perplexing me for a long time. In keeping with the general air of tidiness, this place, incidentally, has very clean restrooms. When I was busy replacing desktop innards piece by piece, I used to frequent another establishment. In the future, my first stop will be Discount Electronics.

I attended an Austin City Limits taping Tuesday night with Aimee Mann. All of us old-timers remember her as the lead singer for ‘Til Tuesday in the 80s. I, like a lot of people, became a big fan after the work that she did for the Magnolia soundtrack. Coincidentally, I happened to catch her acting turn as the female nihilist in Big Lebowski over the weekend on cable, but I digress.

She recently released a new album, @#%&*! Smilers, and played several tracks from it. Paul Bryan, who produced, also played bass and sang backup. In addition to Bryan, she had two keyboard players and a drummer. The guy on stage left who played piano and Hammond was wearing a Mean Eyed Cat t-shirt. I’m not sure how many if any of the backing band were local. There’s a heavy amount of keyboards and synthesizers in the new album and in the numbers she chose for the show. She had an acoustic guitar throughout the performance.

She seemed a bit stiff at the beginning and mentioned this after the first few songs. She was a bit freaked out by the cameras and said she felt that she had so much makeup on that if she moved her face, it would crack. She picked up on Terry Lickona’s pre-show comments to try to only get up to use the restroom in between songs. He asked that if you have to “let it go”, please do it then. She made several jokes throughout the night about that. She also felt she botched “Going Through the Motions”, a song from her concept album The Forgotten Arm, and said she was glad they wouldn’t use all of the songs. I’m assuming we won’t see that one in the final version next month when it airs.

Farther into the set, she told a story about being asked to write a song for an early scene in Shrek 3 and after being asked to revise it several times, including being asked to make it more like Fall Out Boy, the song was ultimately rejected and she brought it back its original form and completely changed the lyrics. It became “Borrowed Time” on the new album. She also mentioned before “Red Vines” that it’s about Magnolia director Paul Thomas Anderson. The original set list only showed two encores. I think they added “Calling It Quits” at the last minute. I enjoyed the performance and they definitely loosened up later in the set. Look for it to air in October. Also, check out Austin Kleon’s artistic take on the taping.

Set List:

Stranger/Looking for Nothing
Freeway
Phoenix
Save Me
Wise Up
Great Beyond
Going Through the Motions
Red Vines
Columbus Ave.
Little Tornado
31 Today
Borrowing Time
Today’s the Day
Different

One
Calling it Quits
Deathly

Everywhere around town I’ve been seeing those signs touting “office space for lease” or “commercial property available.” They’re downtown and in obscure warehouse districts north, south, east, and west, more each day. A good-sized photograph of the Frost building (credit: Ben Sklar) is the eye-catcher illustrating “Risky Real Estate Deals Helped Doom Lehman” in today’s NYT (byline Terry Pristin). The photo caption reads, “In 2007, Lehman was part of a group that bought 10 office buildings, including the new Frost Bank Tower, in Austin, Tex.”

There’s quite a bit of attention paid to this particular deal. What I found most interesting among the details is that the ten Austin buildings that included the Frost tower are reported to have been purchased in 2007 for an average of $328 per square foot at a time when others were buying Austin office buildings for an average of $221 per square foot. A person from Real Cap[ital Analytics furnished that figure.

I follow the Austin Towers blog for information on the development (and sometimes, lately, the halt in development) of various large residential schemes around town. If there’s similar regular reporting about commercial real estate, I haven’t found it yet, but would like to, since there are more see-through structures out there with each passing day. The sporadic snippets from press releases that are to be found in the local daily and in the business tabloid don’t count.

The subject of Residents Parking Permits has come up multiple times in recent discussions about businesses on South Congress and, especially Polvos on South 1st street. Local residents on small streets have to suffer from the increased traffic, noise and pollution often caused by illegal and unpermitted restaurant expansion, which means essentially the restaurants are profiting while causing problems for their neighbors, often in a 6-block area.

This excellent summary of the issues was recently written by long time Bouldin Creek resident and active member of the Bouldin Creek Neighborhood Association Cory Walton. It is posted here with his
permission.

The offshoot of the RPP discussion to home sizes and what defines a McMansion is a separate discussion to which I’d like to add for now only a focus on a word that was touched on by several: “Context.” One of the houses named in this discussion, though twice the size of Bouldin’s original 1930s era bungalows, is completely in context with those smaller originals. The Johanna Street “Castles” are not. Somewhere in between is the other home, which, while three stories high (pre-
McMansion) incorporates many elements and scale that is within the context of the original neighborhood.

I bring these points up because they are key considerations in defining Local Historic Districts (LHDs). In the same way that RPP is the only tool residents have to preserve the character and quality of their streets, LHDs is the only tool residents have to preserve and protect the character of the residential structures in our neighborhood. More on this later.

Now, back to the original RPP topic, to expand on the observations and to add an element of context: Most of the businesses on both South Congress and South First were originally built as daytime operations mostly serving the nearby community–hence the small lots and building sizes. When they were built, there were no parking requirements in the city code, but that wasn’t a problem because most were in-and-out retail or service businesses and many of their customers walked there from their homes.

With South Austin’s growing popularity, many of the business locations became restaurant/entertainment venues, expanding the buildings and operating hours, and by the very nature of the business expanding by 6x the length of customer turnover time. Their customer base comes from all over Austin and beyond, and because, as some note, our public transit system sucks, people have to drive there, and most of the businesses have sub-standard parking –which was grandfathered to that location.

So because there’s little space to build additional parking, and no economic incentive to build it anyway, there’s no place for customers to park except on residential streets. Our streets become de-facto commercial parking lots, making it imperative that city code be enforced to ensure no illegal restaurant expansion to exacerbate an already bad situation.

The physical limitations on the neighborhood’s commercial properties and their close proximity to residential properties and streets simply cannot accommodate large (or for that matter, loud) restaurants. If a restaurant wants to grow, it should invest in a second location elsewhere on a commercial property that IS able to legally accommodate the restaurant’s numbers. This is the responsible way for a successful business to grow as countless local examples have demonstrated.

By shirking this responsibility, every time a restaurant expands in the neighborhood–legally or illegally– they are in effect, pouring a few more gallons into an already overflowing bucket, and the neighbors bear the brunt while the business increases its profits.

Realizing and responding to this reality, a couple of years ago our neighbors across South Congress, SRCC neighborhood, proposed an overlay to South Congress Avenue which would limit the number of restaurants to one per block.

This would serve two purposes 1). It would limit the amount of new gallons that could be poured into the overflowing bucket (i.e. overflow parking and traffic on our residential streets until a multi-modal transport light at the end of the tunnel is reached:); but also, 2). because the ordinance defines a limit on the type of businesses on these commercial streets, it would place a limit on commercial property values and prices, so some of our signature small, locally-owned businesses might be able to stay around and operate profitably for a few more years.

Since the proposed overlay was decried by the business community and never got any sponsorship from our city council, and because city code enforcement is complaint-driven, which means the damage has usually already been done by the time residents complain, and forcing a business to remove an illegal structure has never been accomplished in the entire history of Austin, RPP seems like the only tool residents have at their disposal to retain the residential quality of their streets and perhaps encourage businesses to act more respectfully and responsibly.