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Pics from the fabulous AustinPost.org Writers Event at the Belmont’s Dakota Lounge!
Muchos gracias to photographer Ryan Mustard!
June 12, 2009
Pics from last night’s Austin Post(.org) Writers Event
June 10, 2009
Austin Post: What is it? and Come Join us Thursday
It’s time to unveil a project I’ve been working doggedly on for the past month or so. It’s called Austin Post and it’s really freakin’ cool.
The idea behind it is to fill the void left by the death of newspapers (dun dun dun) by creating a place for Austinites to post and submit news. Those pieces of news and stories are then voted up or down on the homepage and category pages by the readers. So the end result is that the community is deciding what’s newsworthy or not, what’s important, and what’s worth reading. It’s bringing intellectual discourse back to newspapers. Online.
We’re looking for anyone and everyone to post content. Existing bloggers can simply double-post their content: any time you post to your blog, also post it to www.austinpost.org. New bloggers, or simple contributors, can just log in to Austin Post and write their content there. You pick the category it goes in, you upload an image or two and voila! you are writing for Austin Post.
Tomorrow night, Thursday, we’re hosting a Writers Event at The Belmont’s Dakota Lounge from 6-8pm. If you’re at all interested in contributing to the site, please come to the event! I’d love to meet you, and you’ll be plied with beer (or wine or cocktails), light food, and a free limited-edition Austin Post t-shirt. Be the first on the block to get this hot off the press tee!
What’s my role? I’m the Editor in Chief. But this isn’t an aristocratic editorial process–anyone can post, and the community will decide who is featured. That said, I do have some oversight on what’s featured on the front page. Write good stuff, controversial stuff, smart stuff, and you’ll get there. 
Evite is here, feel free to RSVP: www.tinyurl.com/austinpost
Check out www.austinpost.org and get writin’!
June 10, 2009
New Cafe Laguna by Austin Museum of Art at Laguna Gloria
The Austin Museum of Art at Laguna Gloria – the picturesque gem tucked away off 35th Street, 12-acre grounds featuring beautiful gardens, the Driscoll Villa, the Greek Temple of Love, and an historic home to art exhibitions – will opens a new Café Laguna today.
Housed in the museum’s 93-year-old Gatehouse, Café Laguna will serve lunch from 11am-4pm Monday through Friday. Celebrated Austin restaurateur Eddie Bernal, who is known for his 34th Street Café of savory entrees and decadent desserts, is bringing his casual yet refined cuisine to Café Laguna. The menu will feature gourmet sandwiches, 34th Streets’ signature salads and sides, as well as freshly brewed ginger-peach tea, delectable desserts, and Tèo gelato.
“Eddie Bernal has a very good reputation in the Austin community and everybody loves his food, so we have high hopes that our partnership with him will be really successful,” says AMOA-Laguna Gloria’s Site Director Judith Sims.
Café Laguna also offers free Wi-Fi service and includes plenty of indoor and outdoor seating.
For more info, contact (512) 458-8191 ext. 211 or visit www.AMOA.org.
June 9, 2009
Fastball + Black and White Years in the park
The last of the Solar-Powered Concert Series in Republic Square Park is tomorrow night, and the TBA closer is Fastball–yep, middle school/high school hotties Fastball, of You’re an Ocean, Out of My Head, and other gems, will be playing. With the Black & White Years, an Austin-based band that has tons of local acumen and rabid fans. So it’s probably going to be awesome weather (if you like the heat) for an awesome show.
Stop by the Farmer’s Market at the Triangle and pick up food, or do a Whole Foods run and bring a picnic to the park at 4th & Guadalupe. Gates (?!) open at 5 pm, music runs 5:30–10pm.
Solar Powered Concerts mean audiences experience “pollution free” music. In other words – no stage hum. Solar powered production is not only the better for the environment but also provides a sonically clean sound. The concerts benefit Blue Dog Rescue, an Austin area foster organization dedicated to rescuing dogs from our local shelters and adopting them into new homes. Blue Dog Rescue and their four legged friends will be on site.
Bicycle “Valet Parking” is provided by Mellow Johnny’s bike shop. Scooter and motorcycle parking will be provided on 5th Street by Wood’s Fun Center. For those of you who can’t walk or bike, please try to be pollution-free by checking out Capitol Metro, including the popular Dillos which service downtown, at www.capitolmetro.com.
Parking is available all day at the Laz Parking Lots located on 4th & Nueces and 5th & Rio Grande. Parking is available at the State of Texas Garage located at 4th & San Antonio after 5 pm.
Coming soon to This is Life in Austin: a free summer concert/film series calendar–keep an eye out.
June 8, 2009
Shameless Promotions: Achachay! and Language Room (not together)
In a post of shameless promotions for people we love, let me tell you about my brother’s band’s new CD. It’s effing amazing.
I’ll let him tell you about it:
We’ve put our best efforts into an amazing five song EP entitled “A Preachy Catfish” and we want you to know that it is available for purchase online RIGHT NOW, on http://www.achachay.com. Please check it out, buy it, and get others to buy. Be the first to own the recording inception of future musical legends (us of course). We put a lot of love into this and we want to share it with as many people as possible for two reasons:
(1) We believe our music makes your life better.
(2) The CD is very good.We need you guys to spread the music grassroots in every way you can. Blog about it, put it in your status and away message, twitter it, pass it around, talk about it at bars. Our goal is to sell over 1000 copies of A Preachy Catfish online, in a month. Help us. Tell us and tell the world what makes it good and what can be improved, what you wish was recorded and what pieces you love. We’re listening. We want this to be communication not just propagation. It’s a great balance of silly and serious, plus all are dance-inciting grooves. Feel free to burn it, and encourage those who get the CD free to donate via the PayPal link on our site.
A huge thanks to everyone who has supported us on the tour thus far – by coming out to shows, putting us up for a night, and just reading and commenting about it on our website. We can’t do it without you.
And then, a dear reader wrote in to tell me about her boyfriend’s band, who actually sound pretty freakin’ good. They’re playing this Thursday night at The Parish at 10, so it’s definitely worth checking out. Plus, though she’s a little biased, she swears they’re major hotties…
Reader says: “Language Room [is] local guys with a great sound, kind of a mix of Radiohead-Kings of Leon-Muse. Very alternative, sing-along-to rock. The show’s June 11th @ 10pm, and it’s gonna be a good one, with visuals to go along with their rocking sound.
Check out some of their songs off their just released album “One by One” on their myspace: myspace.com/languageroom
(“I Still Need You” being my personal fave)Or other info on their main site: languageroom.net
Take a second to hear them out, it’ll convince you to hit up the show!
And that, my friends, is some shameless promotion for people we love.
June 8, 2009
Lights. Camera. Help. Film Festival
My friend David Neff has been bugging me for awhile to post on the new nonprofit film festival he helped start. At long last, here’s all the info, and you even still have 22 days to submit a film
Lights. Camera. Help. film festival is the premiere film festival dedicated to nonprofit and grassroots organizations. It was conceived by three friends: Aaron Bramley, David J. Neff and Rich Vázquez. All proceeds from the festival will be donated to the organization that is the subject of the winning film. Films and videos with causes directly related to a philanthropic organizations should be submitted to the festival before midnight on June 30.
“We created Lights. Camera. Help. because we want to help nonprofits and grassroots organizations gain visibility through film and video,” said co-founder Aaron Bramley. “It’s a phenomenal way to tell your story, and it doesn’t have to be expensive.”
This festival is the first of its kind in the nation and reflects the spirit of Austin, a city with prominent nonprofit, grassroots and activism communities. Nonprofits, grassroots organizations and filmmakers will use the festival to spread the word about their cause, develop a community of followers, and expand the film-for-a-cause genre.
Entering a film is free: “We really wanted to make sure that every nonprofit organization is able to tell its story, regardless of resources,” said David J. Neff, Lights. Camera. Help. co-founder. “A lot of film festivals charge 50, 60 even 100 dollars to enter a film. We do not.”
“The idea was to give non-profit videos validity and merit by judging them. We want people to see these videos, know they’re important and say ‘hey, that’s a cause I want to support,’” said Rich Vázquez, the third co-founder.More details: www.lightscamerahelp.com
June 6, 2009
Guest Post: An Outsider’s Look at Austin
Natasha Minsk and myself (Red Hot Annie) were lucky enough to be asked to be part of the 2009 Texas Burlesque Fest, and we made our trip down to Austin from May 14-18. We did a number of exciting things while in the fair city of Austin, and here’s the reader’s digest version!
We shot with Chris Ledford of http://www.bluebonnetbombshells.com/ – who does the best burlesque/pinup work in Austin. We had brought only a number of burlesque costumes as well as some of Natasha’s Cheesecake Vintage dresses.
We also snuck in and shot inside the Driskill. It’s gorgeous. Next time I come to Austin, I know where I’m staying…at $250/night, I’d have to do a lot of burlesque shakin’ to make enough to stay there! http://www.driskillhotel.com/
Around 7pm, we headed down to the bridge on Congress to see the bats! We’d heard from a number of sources about how amazingit was. We ended up getting there pretty early, and we had to wait sort of a long time before the bats came out – but when they did…Wow! We expected a minute or two of bats flying out, but they must have been coming out for 10-15 minutes in beautiful ribbons. And in our spot, down by the river, the bats were actually flying right over our heads. Frightening, but worth it!
http://www.austincityguide.com/content/congress-bridge-bats-austin.asp
One of the first vintage stores we found was along Congress Street – Lucy in Disguise. When you walk around a costume store like that, you get about a billion ideas for other costumes you could use on stage. We each walked out with a couple adorable sequined goodies for shows & photo shoots. http://www.lucyindisguise.com/
We stopped at a couple other thrift stores, including Lux Revival (where I found a celluloid Jesus!) and New Bohemia where I got a great big fushia skirt that I couldn’t resist wearing that same day! Delicious cupcakes at Hey Cupcake! I got mine with a shot of fresh whipped cream in the middle!
We also had dinner at El Soy y La Luna with the girls from Jigglewatts http://www.thejigglewattsburlesque.com/ – I have to say – those girls from Jigglewatts are super talented. We saw them perform later that night at the Texas Burlesque Fest, before they headed off to Dallas that evening for another show. Ruby Joule and Coco Lectric did amazing solos and even got together for a fan dance duet that knocked it out of the park.
We headed down to Emos to get a good look at the backstage area for the show! It’s a great outdoor venue, but some of the backstage parts were a little daunting– especially the catwalk between the stage and the dressing rooms. Little did we know – our show on Saturday sold out! Our acts went well, and the audience cheered us on like crazy. I was a little nervous about performing, which is a rarity for me these days – but being in front of a totally different audience can be a little daunting. Still, I think both of our acts went really well, and we can be proud!
After the show, we had a very early 3am breakfast at Magnolia with a couple great girls after the show, including Katherine Lashe http://www.myspace.com/veronicalashe, Renea Le Roux http://www.renealeroux.com/ (who is competing this year for Miss Exotic World), and Cha Cha Velour – http://www.myspace.com/chacha_velour! Wee!
On Sunday, we had a photo shoot with Steve Hopson today http://stevehopson.com . He shot a variety of great images of the two of us together and apart. We shot at his studio on the south side of Austin, where we pulled out some burlesque costumes, as well as some vintage swimwear from my personal collection.
For our final professional commitment,, we got a last minute shoot in with Wylie Maercklein –in our hotel room, and walking around the streets of Austin. We’ve already gotten some of our pictures back from him, so you can see those at our respective websites! http://www.maercklein.com
It was a wonderful trip, and Austin was incredibly accommodating and pleasant. Only one day of rain, and the rest of the trip was warm and sunny and delicious – especially to Chicago girls like us! J
Love,
Red Hot Annie – http://redhotannie.com & Natasha Minsk – http://thehoneybuns.com
June 5, 2009
Murph Day! + free doughnuts?
What is Murph Day? A ridiculously hard CrossFit workout / benefit for The Naval Special Warfare Foundation / chance to play with CrossFitters … more from CrossFit Austin:
Murph Day 2009
Please join CrossFit Austin, as we participate in “Murph” Day presented by Windy City CrossFit, U.S. CrossFit and SEALfit.com. June 6th will be spent honoring one of the Navy’s fallen warriors, Lieutenant Michael Murphy. We will be running his favorite workout to raise money for The Naval Special Warfare Foundation (NSWF) as we host our First Annual “Murph” Day. Come out to support the CrossFit community and a great cause.
In memory of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., who was killed in Afghanistan June 28th, 2005. This workout was one of Mike’s favorites and he’d named it “Body Armor”. We will honor a focused warrior and great American who wanted nothing more in life than to serve this great country and the beautiful people who make it what it is.
“Murph”
For time:
1 mile run
100 pull ups
200 push ups
300 squats
1 mile run
Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed. Start and finish with a mile run. If you’ve got a twenty pound vest or body armor, wear it.
Any size donation to the Naval Special Warfare Foundation required to participate. All donations are tax-deductible. For more information please check the NSWF website at http://www.nswfoundation.org/. Donation forms are available on-line at http://www.nswfoundation.org/mail.html and at CrossFit Austin. Please be sure to turn in all donation forms to us so we can keep track of the donation amount, the form will also serve as your ticket to the event.
Top Finishers will be recognized in Individual Men and Women (weighted and unweighted) as well as Men’s and Women’s Teams (weighted and unweighted).
To participate you must bring in a donation for the Naval Special Warfare Foundation or donation receipt from the NSWF website
- The workout will run from 9 AM – 12 Noon, Heats will start every half hour. You will be responsible for your own warm-up
- We will have food and drinks after the final heat has finished.
I’m playing in the McMurdy Madness bball tournament, but if I wasn’t I’d definitely be Murphing! All the cats from CrossFit Central are headed over there too, so it’s a great chance to play with a ton of cool people while getting in a killer, killer workout.
In a completely incongruous segue, today is National Doughnut Day. Participating Krispy Kremes are offering one free doughnut per customer, no purchase necessary.
Dunkin’ Donuts is also giving every customer a free doughnut with the purchase of any beverage, limit one per customer.
June 4, 2009
A Band on Tour: Achachay!
I’m excerpting (ok, stealing in its entirety), a blog post I love below. It’s from Achachay!, a band touring the US in support of lowering the drinking age and promoting their music. It happens to be my little bro’s band, but even if it wasn’t, these blog posts about mishaps and adventures on the tour are some of the most engaging, funny, and well-written accounts of life on the road I’ve ever read. Read this sample, then click to achachay.com for more–he posts almost daily!
Day 6: FLORIDA! My name is Florida!
It was 3AM by the time we had loaded up and pulled out of the Celtic’s lawn parking lot. At least seven hours from Atlantic City Florida and one broken headlight still waiting to be replaced, it would seem as if we had quite the night ahead of us. Surprisingly, the 330AM-1130AM drive passed without incident. I felt electrified the whole time until about 7 when I decided to drink a Red Bull. I felt absolutely no increase in awareness, concentration or energy. Instead after about 20 minutes I felt an intense crash and had to pull over to switch drivers. Ryan and I flopped into the aft cabin while Roni and Michael dutifully moved into the front seats. Unbeknownst to sleeping Ryan and Jordan, Michael fell immediately back asleep and left Roni driving at 730 by himself. Fortunately, and despite our best efforts to the contrary, Roni still hasn’t shaken the corporate lifestyle and remains an early riser.
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Ryan cools his head
Florida was a dream. It was so awesome catching up with JP, my friend from studying abroad in Spain who I hadn’t seen in almost three years. His band Saltwater Grass was also incredible. They’re a six piece in the vein of String Cheese Incident and Widespread Panic – but a little funkier. Great energy, great jams, I just had to dance to the music. Plus they’re all a bunch of really nice guys. In fact all of JP’s crew was really cool. From the moment we arrived rubbing sleep from our eyes they welcomed us, hung out at the beach with us, throwing frisbees, running around like fools, and guiding us to the best fish tacos I’ve ever had. Atomic Flying Fish Tacos in Atlantic Beach Florida are a must – upon mentioning them right now Ryan erupted “those were awesome!”
What could be better? Catching up with old friends, going to the beach, eating delectable food, playing music, dancing to another great live act, and going to a hilarious after-party. Yeah after the show we all headed over to a house and got rowdy. And by rowdy I mean we sat around telling ridiculous stories and making up songs about people at the party. Hoff from Indiana – we’ll never forget what you do with baseball bats.
I can only speak for myself, but hanging out with JP made me realize that I am living my dream. Not just because we’re getting to showcase our brilliant Achachay! compositions in front of new people every single night, but because I get to travel around the country catching up with old friends and meeting the people they love. From Aaron and Evan and Anna and Darren and Clory and Beth and the whole Houston crew to Julie and Lea in New Orleans, to JP in Florida and Meeker in Raleigh, and all the people in the Northeast and Midwest that I can’t wait to spend an afternoon with, this lifestyle is indeed exactly how I want to spend my time.
Two more interesting tidbits.
(1): We got in the paper!!!
(2) The Fly’s Tie specifically asked us not to mention lowering the drinking age. Crazy right? I understand that they get a lot of pressure from the local fuzz and have to be really hard on IDs and whatnot, but we’re not supporting illegal behavior. We support changing the legal rights of adults. So we kept mum about it. I mentioned that there was something we normally talk about that we couldn’t and people should check out website to find out more. Barely anyone even asks us about it. More on that soon.
Regardless we’ll definitely be back to the Fly’s Tie, and we’ll definitely be playing with Saltwater Grass again.
Funny, poignant, easy to read and love. What more could you want in a blog? Visit achachay.com for more.
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