It's my birthday! Hooray! Walked around downtown all day with Sab and then met up with Matt and Pam at Antone's to catch Pinetop Perkins (95 years old!) and Jimmy Vaughan and guests. What a great show! Couldn't really stand after a few hours, so we left at around 11:45 and headed home for some wine and some good conversation.
Before the gig, Saby and I ate at Iron Works BBQ. It was sensational.
It was very warm all day, too. Niiiice!
Friday, March 27, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
(parentheses)
While enjoying the company of friends the other night, I proposed we each write an essay on a musical topic. Well, I haven't forgotten. I'll be writing an essay on the unique use of single instrument rhythms in music. Yeah, it'll be funky. Gonna work on it soon.
d.
d.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Bass Emporium
Hey - forgot to mention the Bass Emporium in Austin! What a great place. Ed's a really nice guy despite not having any lefties. Shame! Of course, he *did* have 2 Gibson Eb-2s... oh man. And one of 'em had a rebuilt circuit with a nice button that one guy at the store affectionately called the Thunder Button. Boy was he right! Loved it!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Austin quick hit
Cool places I went to - map here.
Allen's Boots – Shopping, boots – got nothing, but it is an Austin institution and very cool.
Cavender's Boot City –Got boots, hat and 2 shirts. All for $210!
Sheplers – Got belt and buckle for a cool $36
The Thirsty Nickel – nice place, had a few beers, caught Diego’s Umbrella there. What a band!
Wild About Music – Neat souvenir store, all music-related stuff. Got a Bass-clef pen there for Sarah.
Nuno's – Austin institution – blues bar where we caught Princess and the ATX Boys as well as Nila Kaye
Antone's – Jimmy Vaughan, Pinetop Perkins and guests. Need I say more?
Fado Irish Pub – Horrible wait for beer and food. Cute waitress, all is forgiven.
The Oasis – Entirely weird experience, good food and drinks. AWESOME view.
The County Line – fun for the whole family. First experience of Texas brisket.
IronWorks – Best BBQ I had all week.
Moonshine – Great little restaurant, fun times with Matty and Saby.
Rudy's BBQ and Country Store – Second best BBQ ever. Awesome atmosphere, superb sauce.
Maria's Taco Express – totally cool place. Thanks to Guy Fieri’s show!
Austin Land and Cattle Company – Best steak in town, I’m sure of it. Great service from Adam the super-polite server.
The Iron Cactus – decent place, got a sunburn on the patio and enjoyed pork tenderloin Mexican style.
Chuggin Monkey – meh. Cheap beer.
The Old Pecan St. Café – ok service, ok food, chipped plates and glasses.
The Leaning Pear – superb location and service. Great food, dry county! Yeesh.
Chuy's – great Tex-Mex take out. Tasty burritos.
Austin Farmer's Market – Just a great experience. Loved the bison guy.
Vaspaio Enoteca Austin – neat little place, nice little patio, mmmm, tasty lemon dessert.
Toy Joy – for kids mostly. Had a blueberry-root-beer float made with non-dairy all-organic frozen dessert.
Bella Vista Ranch – the only commercial olive grove in Texas. Need I say more?
Allen's Boots – Shopping, boots – got nothing, but it is an Austin institution and very cool.
Cavender's Boot City –Got boots, hat and 2 shirts. All for $210!
Sheplers – Got belt and buckle for a cool $36
The Thirsty Nickel – nice place, had a few beers, caught Diego’s Umbrella there. What a band!
Wild About Music – Neat souvenir store, all music-related stuff. Got a Bass-clef pen there for Sarah.
Nuno's – Austin institution – blues bar where we caught Princess and the ATX Boys as well as Nila Kaye
Antone's – Jimmy Vaughan, Pinetop Perkins and guests. Need I say more?
Fado Irish Pub – Horrible wait for beer and food. Cute waitress, all is forgiven.
The Oasis – Entirely weird experience, good food and drinks. AWESOME view.
The County Line – fun for the whole family. First experience of Texas brisket.
IronWorks – Best BBQ I had all week.
Moonshine – Great little restaurant, fun times with Matty and Saby.
Rudy's BBQ and Country Store – Second best BBQ ever. Awesome atmosphere, superb sauce.
Maria's Taco Express – totally cool place. Thanks to Guy Fieri’s show!
Austin Land and Cattle Company – Best steak in town, I’m sure of it. Great service from Adam the super-polite server.
The Iron Cactus – decent place, got a sunburn on the patio and enjoyed pork tenderloin Mexican style.
Chuggin Monkey – meh. Cheap beer.
The Old Pecan St. Café – ok service, ok food, chipped plates and glasses.
The Leaning Pear – superb location and service. Great food, dry county! Yeesh.
Chuy's – great Tex-Mex take out. Tasty burritos.
Austin Farmer's Market – Just a great experience. Loved the bison guy.
Vaspaio Enoteca Austin – neat little place, nice little patio, mmmm, tasty lemon dessert.
Toy Joy – for kids mostly. Had a blueberry-root-beer float made with non-dairy all-organic frozen dessert.
Bella Vista Ranch – the only commercial olive grove in Texas. Need I say more?
Monday, March 23, 2009
Austin Day 4
Finally! finally it's warm! And quite warm I may add. 30 degrees baby! Oh yeah! Love it! So now we're off to downtown Austin with our wonderful guide Matt. Walked all along 6th and 5th and 4th and up and down Congress and then accross to South Austin. It was fantastic! Ok, this day was packed with cool stuff, so I'll come back to it, but boy was it ever nice out!
d.
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Austin Day 3
Ok, day 3 was awesome. We drove to Wimberley, TX.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=wimberley,+texas&sll=43.665628,-79.387614&sspn=0.007311,0.013733&ie=UTF8&ll=30.003409,-98.098297&spn=0.140036,0.219727&z=12&iwloc=addr
Why, you ask? well, that's where we went to Texas' only commercial olive grove! Yep, that's right, we went to the Mediterranean of Texas. We took a tour of the farm, took some pictures and listened to Jack as he told us all about olives and olive oil.
then we tasted. Man was that stuff ever good! Some really great olive oil there and some incredibly amazing balsamic vinegar too. yeah, he makes wine while he's at it too. fun stuff, truly. Wine was so-so, but the rest was top-notch.
After the tour, we hit Wimberley proper and went to a small café called The Leaning Pear. nice place, good lemonade. It's a dry county after-all... AARRGGHH! Had a wonderful meal despite and the sun finally came out for a peek. Took some great photos of the resto too. What a lovely place.
Had Bison for dinner. Yummy.
d.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=wimberley,+texas&sll=43.665628,-79.387614&sspn=0.007311,0.013733&ie=UTF8&ll=30.003409,-98.098297&spn=0.140036,0.219727&z=12&iwloc=addr
Why, you ask? well, that's where we went to Texas' only commercial olive grove! Yep, that's right, we went to the Mediterranean of Texas. We took a tour of the farm, took some pictures and listened to Jack as he told us all about olives and olive oil.
then we tasted. Man was that stuff ever good! Some really great olive oil there and some incredibly amazing balsamic vinegar too. yeah, he makes wine while he's at it too. fun stuff, truly. Wine was so-so, but the rest was top-notch.
After the tour, we hit Wimberley proper and went to a small café called The Leaning Pear. nice place, good lemonade. It's a dry county after-all... AARRGGHH! Had a wonderful meal despite and the sun finally came out for a peek. Took some great photos of the resto too. What a lovely place.
Had Bison for dinner. Yummy.
d.
Austin Day 2
ok, I'm a little lazy... I'm just not much of a writer.
Austin Day 2: went to the market. yup, the farmer's market. Bought some grass-fed bison, a bison-hide wallet, some grass-fed lamb, some free-range pork, some Swiss chard and some whatchamacallits. also got some other cool things for the week. What a cool experience that was to walk around the market in Austin. And Matty thought there was nothing like that here! what a guy.
After the market... errrr, not much of anything really. It was pretty windy, pretty cold. We stayed in, watched the Sens' game. I took a nap. We just relaxed all of us together!
sweet.
d.
Austin Day 2: went to the market. yup, the farmer's market. Bought some grass-fed bison, a bison-hide wallet, some grass-fed lamb, some free-range pork, some Swiss chard and some whatchamacallits. also got some other cool things for the week. What a cool experience that was to walk around the market in Austin. And Matty thought there was nothing like that here! what a guy.
After the market... errrr, not much of anything really. It was pretty windy, pretty cold. We stayed in, watched the Sens' game. I took a nap. We just relaxed all of us together!
sweet.
d.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Austin - day 1
Friday - airport. walking around. live music in the airport. neat-o. I'm in Austin baby!
Matt picks us up and off we go in traffic on the highway. I'm pretty tired but Sab's laughin', so everything's right with the world. Get to the Diotte homestead greet the girls... and Pam. Pam's happy to see us of course and the other two will come around at some point I'm sure. Open a cold beer and get a tour of the house - what a lovely place! No scorpions in sight. And then just like that, we're all piled in the minivan and we're off to BBQ. Place called The County Line. Love it. Had Texas beef brisket and smoked turkey matched with coleslaw and garlic mashed potatoes. I looooooove BBQ! What a view from the restaurant, too. Wow.
It's off to bed. More adventures follow!
Matt picks us up and off we go in traffic on the highway. I'm pretty tired but Sab's laughin', so everything's right with the world. Get to the Diotte homestead greet the girls... and Pam. Pam's happy to see us of course and the other two will come around at some point I'm sure. Open a cold beer and get a tour of the house - what a lovely place! No scorpions in sight. And then just like that, we're all piled in the minivan and we're off to BBQ. Place called The County Line. Love it. Had Texas beef brisket and smoked turkey matched with coleslaw and garlic mashed potatoes. I looooooove BBQ! What a view from the restaurant, too. Wow.
It's off to bed. More adventures follow!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Monkey Blog!
I'm going to Austin, Texas in a couple days. Here are some important facts I need to hold on tight to:
I will be seeing Jimmy Vaughan perform at Antone's on March 17th.
Turn on the lights when walking around at night - you don't want to step on a scorpion.
Yes, it's ok for me to want to come back with a new bass. It's just not a great idea.
Don't tell Saby anything she doesn't need to know. Of course, writing this here is detrimental to my health, but I'll risk it seeing as she knows this already.
American beer is not good for me.
Everything is bigger in Texas.
Just because they're cowboy boots and they come from there doesn't mean they're cheaper.
I'm on vacation.
For the one person following this blog, I'll post regular Austin rants on it. I guess it'd be nice if someone else read this thing, but I haven't told anyone else, so tough bananas for me I guess.
Mmmm, bananas.
Over and out amigos
I will be seeing Jimmy Vaughan perform at Antone's on March 17th.
Turn on the lights when walking around at night - you don't want to step on a scorpion.
Yes, it's ok for me to want to come back with a new bass. It's just not a great idea.
Don't tell Saby anything she doesn't need to know. Of course, writing this here is detrimental to my health, but I'll risk it seeing as she knows this already.
American beer is not good for me.
Everything is bigger in Texas.
Just because they're cowboy boots and they come from there doesn't mean they're cheaper.
I'm on vacation.
For the one person following this blog, I'll post regular Austin rants on it. I guess it'd be nice if someone else read this thing, but I haven't told anyone else, so tough bananas for me I guess.
Mmmm, bananas.
Over and out amigos
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