No sleep 'till...Manhattan

Coming off of a trecherous trip to San Francisco and LA (riddled with rain storms and delays; didn't get home until 3:30am ATX time), I did an about-face 5 hours later (with Mollie in tow) back to the airport for our trip up to New York. Further delays in Austin, but finally made it into the city for the weekend.

I'm more partial to downtown, and that may just be because it's the area I'm most familiar with. We did two nights in the East Houston hotel, great location to get into the East Village, Lower East Side, Chinatown and SoHo. These are a few of my favorite neighborhoods. The West Village will always be top of the list, and for good reason. But it's already been discovered and fully exposed. Chesen has really introduced me to the LES as newly defined hub of downtown Manhattan.


Amazing building near the LES. Matt P had dreams of acquiring it in some fashion and finally made inquiries into what appeared to be and uninhabited dwelling. But alas, artists a plenty and just further realization that there is a minute amount of unclaimed real estate in Manhattan.


The updated high-line in the West Side, around the Meat Packing district. It's almost worth a trip up to city for to see this alone. It's a fantastic example of neighborhood revitalization and urban sustainability. Yes, quite an undertaking. But



Natives Matty P and Chesen. Great friends and solid city guides.


Looking out towards the Hudson and Hoboken, NJ.


Handrail sliding-not as easy as it once was.

Glass

Mollie surprised me on my half-birthday (never had one of these, but I dig it. a birthday celebration 6 months into your current year) and set up a private glass blowing lesson at Austin Art Glass on South Congress. Aaron Gross owns the shop and teaches private lessons (as well as UT classes).


It's a process of heating the glass in a kiln, blowing out for some volume and size, and then rolling out the shaping using a variety of shaping tools (paddles, metal sheers) and a cooling process.

Left over broken bits.

Rolling it out.

Extremely hot kiln to melt the glass together, prior to blowing it out.

some nightmares do come true

Failure of the Music Industry

Got my email from Pandora last night. User's will be capped at 40 hrs. of free listening per month. The email states that while this will not affect the market share of Pandora listeners, that (based upon my listening levels) I would probably be affected. I listen to Pandora quite a bit (more than 1.3 hours per day). And so, I will have to pay. Options include annual subscription at $36 a year, or paying a monthly fee once 40 hrs. is reached.

Part of me understands where the music industry is coming from. The landscape has changed, no one is buying albums anymore, and they are trying to hold on to whatever revenue outlets they can legally grab. But as a consumer, I disagree with this. I would urge the record industry and copyright holders to think more creatively. Give people a product that goes beyond what they can listen to for free or can buy from itunes. What's going to keep us from just buying the songs we like, rather than having to purchase the full album? There needs to be an incentive there. And what about the dozens of songs I have bought on Itunes after learning about the artist through Pandora? Are those royalty dollars not getting back to you?

Forcing me to pay to listen to a single online music station is not going to work for me. Once I exceed my 40 hours, I'll find some place else to listen.

Prevention?...at what cost?

Mr. Robert S. McNamara passed away this week at 93. And in light of all famous, infamous, and/or notorious deaths being completely eclipsed by the passing of Michael Jackson and the onslaught of media coverage surrounding it, I've seen little more than brief (if not disregarding) obits and sidebars circulating through the media about this milestone. The King of Pop's talent and curious lifestyle gained the attention of millions. So too did the incisive decisions of Mr. McNamara affect millions of lives and help set the United States on a new trajectory; one of a war lost, civil unrest, and a loss of reliance upon elected officials.

My education of Mr. McNamara is short. My interest stemmed from research about the Vietnam war done some 10 years ago, and culminated in the examination of Errol Morris' illuminating documentary, THE FOG OF WAR. The film pieces together direct interviews between Mr. Morris and Mr. McNamara with archival footage of Mr. McNamara's childhood, college career, service during WWII and time in office as the Secretary of Defense. Mr. McNamara narrates his story through the telling of lessons learned from the war. Amidst the revels of triumph (Cuban Missle Crisis) and grief of defeat (Bay of Pigs) there are candid, poignant moments that provide the viewer with a sense of introspective, pensive thought on behalf of an older and (perhaps) wiser McNamara.

Either that, or Mr. McNamara is so savagely cunning with his remorseful facade that nothing more is illustrated than the duality of man. In fact, he himself had called out this trait in a third person retrospective of what he would have said during his acceptance speech upon winning (ironically) the Medal of Freedom in 1968. "You are thinking this man is duplicitous, you are thinking that he has held things close to his chest, you are thinking that he did not respond fully to the desires and wishes of the American people." He was either so moved by the award of the medal from President Johnson, or so frazzeled and disillusioned by his seven-year service to the administrations that he pardoned himself from speaking during the engagement.

Critics have called him nothing more than a bean counter (his formal education in accounting), a war monger who saw the world in black and white and people as numbers; figures that could rightly be extinguished as a means to an end. And while his name will forever be linked to Vietnam and it's bordering countries, his hand in the bombing campaigns over Japan during WWII were equally as tragic. He laments in the film, "we were behaving like war criminals...if we lost the war, we would have all been prosecuted as war criminals."

His practice, by his own claim, was prevention; averting nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as war with China through Vietnam. Hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of lives for the prevention of further escalation.

Holy Cacao

1207 S. 1st St., Austin, TX, 78704.
512-851-CAKE (2253)
http://www.theholycacao.com/

Holy crap.

We had a few minutes to spare on Friday evening after a long week, and decided to head down to lower South 1st to check out the "other" trailer park eatery. Right next door to the area Torchy's and Shuggie's have made famous is 1207 S. 1st, a more modest lot graced with two trailers. One houses Izzoz tacos, which we have not yet tried but plan to. The other is a smaller and colorful desert trailer named after that holiest of holy culinary element, the cocoa plant.



The brain-child of two desert lovers, Holy Cacao boasts a short menu of confectionary goodies for those on the move. S'mores on a stick, cake shakes (using elements of cake crumbs and Blue Bell ice cream), and their famous cake balls (a fudgey cake rolled up and coated with a heavy chocolate icing). And while the cake balls may be the proprietiers claim to fame, it's the frozen hot cholocate that really helps Holy Cacao carve out it's own desert niche. Not content on competing with the other (cup)cake vendors in the South 1st area (Hey Cupcake!, Sugar Mama's), Holy Cacoa transcends the bounds of the moist, spongy delight with it's concoction of real dark chocolate (no mixes here) melted and blended together with ice and milk. It's beauty not to be outdone by it's simplicy, Holy Cacao also offers this beverage infused with a mix of ancho chile, cinnamon, and is that some cayenne I detect? Whatever the mix is, it's called The Mexican and it's absolutely wonderful. This is real HOT chocolate, served frozen. It's a cold up front, with a nice warm chocolate down the back; an icy mix that gives you a nice smack in the kisser.

Life: for the living?

I spent part of my morning catching up on the recent Interview Project interviews. All of the episodes perform a quick examination of what I would call the "American condition", with a slice-of-life motif. David Lynch has always been interested in the post-modern/post-industrial America, seeming to be especially intrigued by the social fallout of this era and how the ideals of the Golden Age society now stack up against the social freedoms and norms of the present globalized American culture. (sounds like a thesis statement)

I enjoyed them all, but one interview (the most recent) really struck me. The interview with Clara, which is the first released interview of a woman, crossed into the somewhat antiquated notion of settling; the idea that one was supposed to settle into their life (settle down into marriage, kids, grandchildren, etc.) in order to be a proper citizen and contributor to social norms.

She didn't have any regrets about this, but did sum it up as being something that she just thought she was supposed to do. She supposes that her dreams as a child was to be married and have her own children. The thing she's most proud of is her children (and their children). That is to say, that what she's most proud of is family, and in the most base term, pro-creation.

She says she didn't have any regrets at all, "didn't step on anyone's toes." Her final adage is that "life is for the living." It doesn't matter if anyone remembers her, because she's lived her life and had her time, and made the decisions that made her life fulfilling to her.

It's easy to think of this as naive, as simple. And Clara's not exactly living the burgeois life of a retiree (is anyone these days?) with her small home in rural Colorado, encircled by a chain link fence. There's something missing to her life, something grand that should signify or justify existence. There's something 'un'-settling.

But the reality, for her, is that no, there's not. That this is existence. That existing is no different than living. And that living, is no different than breathing. Breathing, and walking, and talking and having children and watching them have children. That childhood dreams are simply based upon what we think might be achievable for us. And that perhaps a dream which seems so simple still yields the same amount of satisfaction when achieved.

Life for the sake of living. Existence because we exist. It's an element philosophical prescription. I am what I am, and I exist because I am; a rudimentary cogito ergo sum where being trumps thinking. Clara has tapped into something elemental in the aging post-industrial American society; that simply living is something to be proud of.



*he once sat on the corner of Hollywood Blvd and La Brea Ave. with a cow to promote a movie. what's more American than a cow?

Courtyard

Early on, we had put in some concrete pavers into the courtyard. As is the usual case, this project turned out to be much more difficult than initially perceived. Under the gravel was some heavy clay dirt. Under that was hard, Texas caliche.

Because of this, we had initially limited it to four rows of pavers. It turned out nice, but we went too deep, and the courtyard was therefore on a slant.

Mollie's dad came in to help put in the final rows. It involved raking back the gravel, digging up the clay and rock, and then leveling the space out with sand.

After 500 lbs of sand, we finally got it right.

It was a full day's work, but the end result was worth it. Outfitted with some standard replica glider chairs and succulents, it's good place to enjoy an evening drink.

rufus

some cats just can't get enough...

succulents and artwork

I think we have more fun with these plants than anything else. one reason is that they are self-sustainable (for the most part), and look interesting without much skill in arrangement or pruning.





Mollie finished up her map project, and they turned out really well. we nearly quit after not finding an adhesive which would keep the maps on the canvas. good old schoolhouse rubber cement was the solution.


We found a much needed framed fabric from Uptown Modern to cover up some wall space in the living space.

Backyard project

finally finished the backyard. this took quite a bit of planning, and ended up being a bigger project than expected (insert lack of complete surprise here).

while having the deck completed was the first step, we then finally got the file cabinet drilled and spray painted, and started the planning process on the rest of the yard.

We hooked up with Jonathan from AUSTIN OUTDOOR STUDIO after reading about his work from another austin blog (who knows which one, too much blog surfing). The studio is close by, and focuses on design/build with an emphasis on steel for materials.

We had a basic idea of the materials and aesthetic, but needed someone with the experience to keep us thinking about the things we did not know about. Jonathan came up with the first renditions below after our initial meeting:

the gray area was to be filled in with white gravel. we settled on limestone, cut into .5-.75 " sizes. I'm all for xeriscape, but having a larger amount of green was important to us, especially for visitors (the doorway leads into the guest bedroom). The square path was an idea I stole from a house in Hyde Park (the Dollahite house, for those familiar), and the green adds a nice contrast to the white limestone used for ground cover.

the steal framework only took a little over a day to be welded together and into the ground. metal stakes were drove into the ground and welded to the frames.

a day into the project, I decided to incorporate a small wall to cover up the AC units. this had been something I had planned on doing later, but realized it would make sense to get the posts cemented in before we laid down the gravel.

we used polygal sheets as the walls, which is a reusable and recyclable product that picks up light well (next step is to get some lighting behind and make it a big light box).

with the grass in and gravel down, things really started to come together.

our recycled file cabinet planter is working well, but some of the plants are getting too much water. we've unfortunately lost some of the herbs as a result. we'll need to install a gutter system on the roof to defer water to a better location.

I had Jonathan install a simple metal frame to the outside of our fence for lighting. we ran commercial grade lights from it to the awning over the garage doorway. (lights from the lightbulb shop)




the succulent garden in the landing has struggled a little bit. too much summer sun is my diagnosis. hopefully they will take off once fully established.

the grass is doing well, but does require a lot of water. having put this in at the tail end of spring, we did get some solid rain showers to help it establish it's roots into the soil.


all in all, we're extremely happy with the end result. it's a small oasis for us to enjoy the sun, and something nice to look at from a few different angles. thanks to Jonathan and everyone at Austin Outdoor Studio. They do great work.