Keeping Austin Weird

November 18, 2015

The original Weird City

Before Portland stole their slogan, Austin was the original weird city - "Keep Austin Weird" has been the city's slogan for decades. I spent a lot of time in Austin in the late '80s and '90s when I helped start KGSR. It was 25 years ago that KGSR switched formats from Smooth Jazz "Star 107" to Triple-A. Jody Denberg and I spent many hours building the music library and getting the station up and running. I got to live part-time in Austin and experience it first hand.

Lobby of ACL Live Moody Theatre in the W Hotel Austin

Austin City Limits in the Moody Theatre

Cheri and I found a lovely RV Resort to have Dolly the Dolphin put down roots. It was just East of downtown, which made it was easy to get in and out of the city and enjoy the many features of Austin. I got to get in and visit 6th Street, which at night turns into music central with rows of clubs and music halls lining the street. Jody took me to ACL Live Moody Theater, the home of Austin City Limits. It's a beautiful new facility built for the PBS TV show. Besides the seats on the ground level, there are two balconies so that everyone is close to the stage. The walls of the lobby are adorned with photos of musicians who have performed on Austin City Limits over its years on the air. Out front, a statue of Willie Nelson welcomes people to the show. We also attended a show at the beautiful Paramount Theater to celebrate the birthday of Austin musician Ray Wylie Hubbard. I loved his show. Even though it was just him and a drummer, it sounded like a full band was performing the songs. He has a style of guitar playing where several things are happening at the same time. Speaking of great guitarists, We had a chance to catch the great singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn at a very cool intimate club in the west hills called the One World Theatre.

Bruce Cockburn in concert

ACL Moody Theatre

The new ACL Live Moody Theatre is in a part of downtown that was funky in the '80s and '90s. Jody and I used to go to shows at Liberty Lunch, a very cool, funky nightclub which was right across the street from where the Moody Theater and the W Hotel is now. We saw some great shows there in its day. The entire area has been razed and is now home to new high rise buildings. Austin is booming; there are cranes all over Austin as the city is going through a major growth spurt.

Then, there's the food: Tex-Mex! There's a wonderful breakfast tradition - migas. The Tex-Mex version features scrambled eggs, onions, tomatoes, chili peppers, re-fried beans and potatoes with hot sauce and tortillas. I enjoyed a delicious breakfast of migas with Scott, Becky and Haley from KGSR. Cheri and I took advantage and had several Ostentatious Tex-Mex meals.

Texas State Capitol

One of the major points of the Austin skyline is the State Capitol. It stands high - when it was built, it was the 7th largest building in the world. the Texas State Capitol is the largest state capitol in the US; only the US Capitol is larger. And, it's taller than the US Capitol by 23 feet. On top of the dome is Goddess of Liberty.

Whole Foods Anchor store is huge like Texas

The headquarters of Whole Foods is in Austin. I remember visiting their original store on Lamar. It was an intimate store that broke the mold of the old '70s-style granola health food stores. After the store was flooded twice, they built a new, bigger store on higher ground at the corner of 6th and Lamar. It was a huge supermarket type store with a restaurant upstairs. I was excited to go visit the store on this trip, only to find that the store had become an REI store. It turns out Whole Foods built an even bigger store across the street - a Walmart-size store. This is their flagship store, with corporate headquarters in a tower behind the store, so they went all out. It features many small stores inside the big store. I have to admit, it's the most beautiful food store I've ever had the chance to visit. But, I didn't have enough time to sit in one of the comfy couches in the clothing department.

The bats come out at night in Austin

And then, there the big tourist attraction - Mexican Bats. During the season at sunset, thousands of bats come out from under the Congress Street Bridge. These aren't the bats that used to scare us as kids, these bats eat tens of thousands of insects. And the insects are thick in Austin, especially those Texas-sized mosquitoes that liked to come out and feast on us each evening.

It was great to be back in Austin again. We got to see good friends, hear some great music and experience the Austin lifestyle. Now, we're heading off to something completely different - Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Barb & Jody, Cheri & I sharing a fabulous Austin meal