Pictures

A few months ago I got a new camera, and the sound of the shutter clicking when a picture is taken is so awesome that I snap tons more shots than I used to just so I can hear that sound. If it helps me with my perspective, color, lighting, and all those other things you can manipulate, so be it. Here are a few photos I've taken since coming to Austin late last week. For any of the ones on here, click the image to make it appear larger. I'll also continually update my Flickr site with new photographs, so check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/keepmusicevil/for more of Austin (as of right now the 20-25 most recently uploaded are from Austin and the rest are from Madison, Seattle, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, etc)!

This is my favorite picture I've taken in Austin so far. I just like the yellow and the focus on the bicycle with the nonchalant bypasser walking past.


Yesterday I walked past Barton Creek where tons of people were playing in the area just outside of where the pool spring water hits the creek (the pool is closed on Thursdays until 7pm for cleaning, so this area was maybe more crowded than it would be on a typical day when more people would be inside the pool area). For the uninitiated, Barton Springs Pool is a spring-fed natural swimming pool with clear, cold water (around 68*F year-round) in Austin that's a lot of fun to swim at when it's over 100 degrees outside.


This is the sign that greets visitors to the creek area:

I guess technically no one was swimming since it's not really deep enough, but there were a lot of people in the area and I don't think that sign is much of a deterrent. (Not that it should be; let the people swim!)

Public Transportation Rules

I kind of knew this beforehand, but I, for one reason or another, never fully took advantage of Madison's bus system. Thinking back on it, it was totally because it was easy enough to walk downtown from where I lived that I couldn't fully justify that $2 cost for such a short ride. In Austin, however, where I'm staying way up on the northwest side of the city, the cost of such a ride is much easier to stomach. Not only is the ride long enough to justify the cost, but the cost of catching a bus to downtown is lower. In Madison any single ride was $2. In Austin, you can take the express bus which runs down the freeway from the far corners of town into the campus or downtown area for only a dollar, and all non-express intra-city buses are fifty cents! Commuter rail is slated to start running soon which is another non-driving option, and bike and walking trails appear to be plentiful. Fuck you, gasoline, I'm not paying for you as often as you thought I would.

For some reason the availability of this bus has eluded me for the first two days of the week but this morning I wizened up and checked out the schedule. I can walk approx 2 mins to the stop for the 982 express, which will take me to a wide range of stops along Guadalupe from the campus all the way to the river. I wanted to get the comprehensive bus system guide book from the Metro office on Congress between 3rd and 4th, so I got off around 5th and Guadalupe because I jumped the gun on the "Stop Request" button and the driver stopped before my intended exit at 4th and Guadalupe. Instead of heading straight to the Metro office, though, I headed south east to the Congress street bridge and went across the river to meander around the SoCo area (not THAT SoCo, though it would have been cool if the Flaming Lips were playing like they did at the SoCo fest in Madison last year), but I changed my mind and went west toward Zilker park on Barton Springs. Once I hit Lamar I went back across the river and walked along Cesar Chavez back to the Congress area where I hopped up to 6th and walked down to Red River and back to Congress then up to the State Capitol area and across to Guadalupe then up to Campus where I caught the bus back. The art museum I saw on the way looks cool, so maybe I'll head back tomorrow to check it out!

Total distance walked (not including to bus stop from apartment and back to apartment from bus stop: 5.5719 miles (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2169061)
Distance to bus stop: 0.1231 miles
Distance to apt from bus stop: 0.5279 miles

Total walking distance: 6.2229 miles. Not bad, eh?

Some pictures from the walk, and where I'll continue to post more Austin pictures: http://flickr.com/photos/keepmusicevil/

Need a job to go to shows

The problem with living in Austin is that there are way too many fantastic shows to go to for me to have no income. Fuckin' A, I think this means I have to get a job. Some of these shows are worth risking homelessness, so I'll probably buy tickets regardless of what the employment situation looks like.

Stuff I want to see so far:

8/17 - A Place to Bury Strangers. It's $8, so fuck it I'll probably go.
8/20 - Xiu Xiu. Jared said they're really good and I'd like to go, but I'll probably have to catch them next time around.
8/24 - My Morning Jacket. I don't even think I'm going to look up the price since there's much chance at all of me going to this.
9/22 - Juan Maclean. I never really got into the DFA scene, but J-Mac was at least an artist I heard and did vaguely enjoy listening to a time or two.
9/13 - Wreckless Eric. This is the dude that wrote that song that Will Ferrell sang to Maggie Gyllenhaal in Stranger than Fiction. His other stuff is pretty good too. $10? Maybe.
9/24 - Stereolab. Even at $25 I have to go. Stereolab are so amazing that I'll abstain from eating for a week if I have to.
9/26-28 - Austin City Limits festival. I already bought a ticket and don't think it's possible for me to get my money's worth. Maybe I can scalp for crack money?
9/29 - Cut/Copy. A song and a half at Pitchfork Festival were not nearly enough so the bullet has been bitten and I've already gotten tickets.
10/10 - The Walkmen. At least if I go I know it won't be nine degrees below zero like it was after their January show in Madison, right?
10/14 - Magnetic Fields. It's expensive, but what's the point of living in Austin if I'm not going to go to shows, right?
10/20 - Girl Talk. I've seen him enough to know that I'll be missing a hell of a show, but at the same time I think I can easier live without seeing an artist for the fourth time than I can for the first time. This logic applies to the My Morning Jacket show above, too. I may also be in L.A. for my cousin's wedding, so I'm not counting on Girl Talk.
11/13 - Of Montreal. I've seen them a bunch of times but it's always a good show. I should seriously have found a job by this point, so we'll seeeee.

Thoughts, opinions?

Well then

It's 3:30 pm on the second day after moving to Austin last Friday (the weekend doesn't count here, since Danny also came down to Austin for the weekend so it's likely I would have been here anyway just to hang out) and I'm bored. It's kind of strange moving to a new city where you don't know too many people and when you don't have any plans. Counting my host, Jonathan, I know well a grand total of three people in Austin: Jonathan, my brother, and my aunt. These people are busy during the day (well, my brother is busy at night working as a bar back, so he's sleeping until mid-afternoon) which leaves me to my thoughts and devices.

Yesterday, for example, I carpe diemed the shit out of the day by going to Target, Randall's (a grocery store that's too expensive for me to be shopping there), a few thrift stores, and the movies. Add in a bunch of tv, and you'll begin to see what I'm up against here. Today I tried to look for a sketch pad at Hobby Lobby, but Hobby Lobby wasn't where Google Maps said it was, so I went thrifting and to a different grocery store to get Guacamole fixins. Let me tell you something about guacamole: make sure your avocado is ripe enough! The internet told me that there should be a little give when you squeeze it, but apparently I didn't allow enough give and I ended up with an unripe avocado that I could not mash with a fork so I tried cutting it into a bunch of little pieces to see if I could mash those, but that didn't work either so I guess I'll have to get another avocado. My cilantro, lime, salt, and roma tomato will just have to wait, I guess. I'm going to let it sit to see if it gets any softer before I give up.

After the guacamole mishap, I ate an orange in the dark. It's dark in here because if you open the blinds to allow in natural light it gets really hot. Cloud cover is also moderate to heavy so it's pretty dark. And that's the story of how my blog was named. More later, perhaps?