Austin; More Ben Folds
Real-time interlude: I started this entry, well, a couple weeks back, and just haven't gotten back to it. I realize everyone is tired of being three months behind on my life. I'm trying. Really.
It's a nice Sunday afternoon, and Dan's on his way over to teach me to drive stick. I'm pretty sure this is an experience I should have had about 8 years ago, involving my dad yelling at me, but I suppose Dan can be the surrogate for that.
11/3
Cindy and I got a slightly late start on our trip to Austin, but not too bad. My primary purpose in going was to catch Ben Folds doing a proper rock show at Stubb's; Cindy was going to celebrate her friend Sarah's birthday. Cindy had considered picking up an iPod shuffle for Sarah's birthday; I insisted that we get the sexy new clip-on one, and this just happened to be its first day on sale. We took a slight detour to Best Buy, and walked out with the player with minimal fuss.
So, back on the road. Saw the very sexy Cadillac XLR on the way to Austin for the first time; it's a nice combination of sports car sleekness and interesting angularity—shame it's made by GM.
We got into town, hitting a little traffic on the way in due to a wreck, and consequently we were running a bit late. I had to get Cindy dropped off in Southwest Austin, which, as I've probably mentioned, isn't that far away, but it was a bit of a pain. Then I had to go by Becca's place to pick up her friend Ali because, hey, Ali doesn't like to drive (I don't get those people). Then downtown, to find Becca, who didn't answer her phone the first 57 times we called. Then, finally, parked, and we started the walk to Stubbs, stopping off at Mug Shots for a drink so the girls could use the bathroom (a little counter-productive, I suppose), before reaching the venue, getting more drinks, and finding a spot in the crowd. We caught the end of opener Corn Mo's set; I had previously enjoyed his Meatloaf-They Might Be Giants-Freddie Mercury-Weird Al shennanigans, I wished we had caught more of the set, but he at least won over the girls.
Ben came out and played a good show. He kept going on about an expensive new red keyboard he had bought and worked very hard to incorporate it into the songs to prove its usefulness. The backing band was sufficient but barely notable. A highlight was hearing him cover "Such Great Heights", which I had previously only seen via YouTube.
The show was good, and, though it couldn't match the earlier Houston show, it was hardly a disappointment.
Afterwards, we crossed the street to Club DeVille, whose cool back patio bounded on the back side by a rock cliff gave it a nice atmosphere, and it was a good place to be on such a crisp night. Drinks were had, etc. It struck me as a good place to see a small show, potentially (SxSW?)
We stopped by Jimmy John's on 6th and got some food (and here I shall note that, thank God, Houston has a Jimmy John's that opened up this very week), enjoying the theater of the drunk people trying to use the restroom without purchase, or with bribe. I remarked that seemed like a pretty good deal to the cashier, who reminded me that he had to clean up after the drunkards. Point taken.
Back to Becca's, where there was some wrestling with an uncooperative futon before going to sleep. Becca doesn't turn her heat on, which is just how I like it.
11/4
After a leisurely morning, thoughts turned to food, and Becca and I debated between eating in or going out, finally compromising on a light snack at her apartment and then a walk down the street to Azul. Like so many great places, it was in an old house, very homey. But we weren't inside long; just enough to order some kind of egg muffin sandwich to split and two Shiner 97s before we went out to their wonderful patio. Old, rusted furniture and tables presented themselves for our use; our food was brought out on an antique tray, and the friendliness of the place, the interesting landscaping which just barely cut off the outside world, and the warm fire conspired to make me want to stay there for the rest of the afternoon.
We didn't, though, and decided to go music shopping and then to get beer. Cindy wanted to join us, so once again we went out to Sarah's place to pick her up, and then back to down town to do some shopping at Waterloo records. Apparently our timing was perfect, as Waterloo was having a spectacularly good anniversary sale. I stocked up on a number of CDs I'd been meaning to pick up, and notably the DVD of Ben's first orechestral performence with the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra, which featured a number of the same songs/arrangements from the show earlier in the week (though it omitted some material that, well, wasn't written back when the show took place).
I wanted to swing by Lovejoy's for some bizeer, but it was getting late and the littlest Ward was getting hungry, so we went to the barbecue joint she had picked out, Artz Rib House.
Let me first point out that Rebecca taking me to a barbecue place would have, up until a year or so ago, been a minor miracle. Becca came back from a trip to France in high school a vegetarian, and remained that way. I have Taco Cabana to thank for providing Becca's meat gateway drug: bacon.
So anyway, barbecue it was. Beers were ordered, and most of us settled on some variation of... (wait for it)... ribs. Their specialty was "country-style" ribs, that is, the biggest damned ribs you could imagine, which really had a lot in common with pork chops, at least in terms of size. I lobbied for combining that with an order of baby back ribs, but Cindy wanted her own order (which I knew she couldn't finish), so Becca and I split an order of the country-style ribs and a sausage wrap. The sides left a bit to be desired, and our service was... iffy, but there's no denying that those ribs were a nice cut of meat.
It continued getting late. We made for HEB to pick up some beverages and the necessary supplies with which to wrap Sarah's gift. They had gift bags, sure, but you know what was even better? Red & white striped popcorn bags! Yep. It was inspired.
I also learned that HEB will not sell beer to you if you have only a passport and not a driver's license. Who the fuck came up with that one? If anything a passport is even more valid identification than a driver's license? And isn't it even better to be buying beer if you don't have a driver's license, because that means you're less likely to be driving drunk? Suck it, HEB. And also, can I have more of your awesome fresh salsa? Thanks.
So we made for Sarah's friend's place over in Austin, which was in reasonably familiar territory.
We got there and Rebecca and I, at least, felt a little bit out of place. Most people there had kids. I think Sarah knew a lot of them from some kind of single parents' group. But after a beer or so, the conversation shifted to Built to Spill and I suddently felt not so out of place.
Courtney returned my earlier call and invited us to her place, so Becca and I took our temporary leave and headed south to Courtney's, which, it turns out, is just a couple blocks back from Becca's.
We walked to the corner store for some beer and Courtney's very well-behaved dog (who didn't even give a sidelong glance when a very angry and scary dog behind a fence along the route barked very loudly and charged the fence). And then we hung out, drinking beer. That's it. It was nice.
Courtney had to be up early for a bike ride the next morning, so we left, I dropped Becca off, and I rejoined the party. And then Cindy and I went and spent the night at Becca's.
11/5
We got up for lunch at Hoover's, as it was Becca's friend's last day working there. We were a ways back on the list, and probably wouldn't have made it in time for breakfast, so Becca's friend suggested we comandeer the table she had just cleared. This was blamed on us, for her sake, and we got a dirty look from the host, but hey, it worked.
I had the honey-drizzled chicken tenders and biscuits, which were quite good.
Anyway, after that it was time to make our way back to Houston. Which we did.
It's a nice Sunday afternoon, and Dan's on his way over to teach me to drive stick. I'm pretty sure this is an experience I should have had about 8 years ago, involving my dad yelling at me, but I suppose Dan can be the surrogate for that.
11/3
Cindy and I got a slightly late start on our trip to Austin, but not too bad. My primary purpose in going was to catch Ben Folds doing a proper rock show at Stubb's; Cindy was going to celebrate her friend Sarah's birthday. Cindy had considered picking up an iPod shuffle for Sarah's birthday; I insisted that we get the sexy new clip-on one, and this just happened to be its first day on sale. We took a slight detour to Best Buy, and walked out with the player with minimal fuss.
So, back on the road. Saw the very sexy Cadillac XLR on the way to Austin for the first time; it's a nice combination of sports car sleekness and interesting angularity—shame it's made by GM.
We got into town, hitting a little traffic on the way in due to a wreck, and consequently we were running a bit late. I had to get Cindy dropped off in Southwest Austin, which, as I've probably mentioned, isn't that far away, but it was a bit of a pain. Then I had to go by Becca's place to pick up her friend Ali because, hey, Ali doesn't like to drive (I don't get those people). Then downtown, to find Becca, who didn't answer her phone the first 57 times we called. Then, finally, parked, and we started the walk to Stubbs, stopping off at Mug Shots for a drink so the girls could use the bathroom (a little counter-productive, I suppose), before reaching the venue, getting more drinks, and finding a spot in the crowd. We caught the end of opener Corn Mo's set; I had previously enjoyed his Meatloaf-They Might Be Giants-Freddie Mercury-Weird Al shennanigans, I wished we had caught more of the set, but he at least won over the girls.
Ben came out and played a good show. He kept going on about an expensive new red keyboard he had bought and worked very hard to incorporate it into the songs to prove its usefulness. The backing band was sufficient but barely notable. A highlight was hearing him cover "Such Great Heights", which I had previously only seen via YouTube.
The show was good, and, though it couldn't match the earlier Houston show, it was hardly a disappointment.
Afterwards, we crossed the street to Club DeVille, whose cool back patio bounded on the back side by a rock cliff gave it a nice atmosphere, and it was a good place to be on such a crisp night. Drinks were had, etc. It struck me as a good place to see a small show, potentially (SxSW?)
We stopped by Jimmy John's on 6th and got some food (and here I shall note that, thank God, Houston has a Jimmy John's that opened up this very week), enjoying the theater of the drunk people trying to use the restroom without purchase, or with bribe. I remarked that seemed like a pretty good deal to the cashier, who reminded me that he had to clean up after the drunkards. Point taken.
Back to Becca's, where there was some wrestling with an uncooperative futon before going to sleep. Becca doesn't turn her heat on, which is just how I like it.
11/4
After a leisurely morning, thoughts turned to food, and Becca and I debated between eating in or going out, finally compromising on a light snack at her apartment and then a walk down the street to Azul. Like so many great places, it was in an old house, very homey. But we weren't inside long; just enough to order some kind of egg muffin sandwich to split and two Shiner 97s before we went out to their wonderful patio. Old, rusted furniture and tables presented themselves for our use; our food was brought out on an antique tray, and the friendliness of the place, the interesting landscaping which just barely cut off the outside world, and the warm fire conspired to make me want to stay there for the rest of the afternoon.
We didn't, though, and decided to go music shopping and then to get beer. Cindy wanted to join us, so once again we went out to Sarah's place to pick her up, and then back to down town to do some shopping at Waterloo records. Apparently our timing was perfect, as Waterloo was having a spectacularly good anniversary sale. I stocked up on a number of CDs I'd been meaning to pick up, and notably the DVD of Ben's first orechestral performence with the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra, which featured a number of the same songs/arrangements from the show earlier in the week (though it omitted some material that, well, wasn't written back when the show took place).
I wanted to swing by Lovejoy's for some bizeer, but it was getting late and the littlest Ward was getting hungry, so we went to the barbecue joint she had picked out, Artz Rib House.
Let me first point out that Rebecca taking me to a barbecue place would have, up until a year or so ago, been a minor miracle. Becca came back from a trip to France in high school a vegetarian, and remained that way. I have Taco Cabana to thank for providing Becca's meat gateway drug: bacon.
So anyway, barbecue it was. Beers were ordered, and most of us settled on some variation of... (wait for it)... ribs. Their specialty was "country-style" ribs, that is, the biggest damned ribs you could imagine, which really had a lot in common with pork chops, at least in terms of size. I lobbied for combining that with an order of baby back ribs, but Cindy wanted her own order (which I knew she couldn't finish), so Becca and I split an order of the country-style ribs and a sausage wrap. The sides left a bit to be desired, and our service was... iffy, but there's no denying that those ribs were a nice cut of meat.
It continued getting late. We made for HEB to pick up some beverages and the necessary supplies with which to wrap Sarah's gift. They had gift bags, sure, but you know what was even better? Red & white striped popcorn bags! Yep. It was inspired.
I also learned that HEB will not sell beer to you if you have only a passport and not a driver's license. Who the fuck came up with that one? If anything a passport is even more valid identification than a driver's license? And isn't it even better to be buying beer if you don't have a driver's license, because that means you're less likely to be driving drunk? Suck it, HEB. And also, can I have more of your awesome fresh salsa? Thanks.
So we made for Sarah's friend's place over in Austin, which was in reasonably familiar territory.
We got there and Rebecca and I, at least, felt a little bit out of place. Most people there had kids. I think Sarah knew a lot of them from some kind of single parents' group. But after a beer or so, the conversation shifted to Built to Spill and I suddently felt not so out of place.
Courtney returned my earlier call and invited us to her place, so Becca and I took our temporary leave and headed south to Courtney's, which, it turns out, is just a couple blocks back from Becca's.
We walked to the corner store for some beer and Courtney's very well-behaved dog (who didn't even give a sidelong glance when a very angry and scary dog behind a fence along the route barked very loudly and charged the fence). And then we hung out, drinking beer. That's it. It was nice.
Courtney had to be up early for a bike ride the next morning, so we left, I dropped Becca off, and I rejoined the party. And then Cindy and I went and spent the night at Becca's.
11/5
We got up for lunch at Hoover's, as it was Becca's friend's last day working there. We were a ways back on the list, and probably wouldn't have made it in time for breakfast, so Becca's friend suggested we comandeer the table she had just cleared. This was blamed on us, for her sake, and we got a dirty look from the host, but hey, it worked.
I had the honey-drizzled chicken tenders and biscuits, which were quite good.
Anyway, after that it was time to make our way back to Houston. Which we did.
Labels: Austin, bars, cars, concerts, restaurants
posted by L. Maxwell Ward at 4:16 PM
