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Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Austin Kleon: One Sharpie dude
We’ve all seen the myriad (mostly excellent) photos that come out of live shows in Austin. While they often capture the beauty, danger, charm, grace, wit, etc. of the moment, sometimes a change of pace is nice … a different perspective via a different medium. Enter writer/artist Austin Kleon, whose Web site I was sent today. Kleon attends shows and does Sharpie drawings of musicians on index cards. Last night, he was at the Spoon show at Scoot Inn.
The “writer who draws,” as he calls himself, has done work for SXSW and ACL, and uses his site to “post (his) creative work and explore the art of communicating with pictures and words, together.”
His ongoing project, Newspaper Blackout Poems, will be released as a book by HarperCollins in 2010.
Check out a few of his drawings from his site:
Spoon at Scoot Inn
Neko Case at Stubb’s
Shearwater at Stubb’s
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Your A-List: Best New Addition to Austin’s Retail Scene
Despite the lagging national economy, Austin still seems to be going pretty strong (right?). How else can you explain the wealth of new options for shopping that sprang up over the past year?
Newflower Farmers Market, winner with 25 percent of the vote, probably realized that they had a pretty good bet, opening an organic grocery in a town that falls over itself (commendably) for trying to promote a greener lifestyle. I haven’t made my way down south (strategic location, out of the shadow of Whole Foods and just far enough away from Central Market) to the location that opened in February of this year, so I will leave the details to our Addie Broyles, who wrote about Newflower in Food Matters.
[From Food Matters, 02/11/09]
Move over Whole Foods, Central Market, Sun Harvest and Wheatsville. There’s a new organic grocer in town.Newflower Farmers Market at William Cannon Drive and Manchaca Road in South Austin opens today. Newflower CEO Mike Gilliland, who in 2002 founded the Boulder, Colo.-based chain known as Sunflower Farmers Markets in five other Southwestern states, knows he’s entering a tough market where several other retailers already compete for green grocery dollars. Newflower takes an approach similar to Trader Joe’s, the discount natural grocer that has yet to put a store in Central Texas: “Our goal was to take elements of Trader Joe’s — low prices and unusual products — and expand it,” says Gilliland, who is in Austin this week to open the store (the first Texas one opened in Plano in November).
Produce takes up a third of the store, he said during a sneak preview on Monday. Despite the name, the store isn’t selling much produce from local farmers — yet. Look for in-season produce from local sources later in the year, Gilliland says, because “local is the new organic.”
The store, set up with lower shelves that make the space seem larger than its 26,000 square feet, touts everyday specials such as 3 for $10 wines and low prices on 750 products carrying Newflower’s house-brand label of “Serious Food…Silly Prices.” It will offer sushi and pre-made deli items to-go, an olive bar, potted herbs, freshly baked goods and organic and natural meat, including Harris Ranch beef. Newflower’s simplicity is refreshing, but don’t expect a real farmers’ market. 6920 Manchaca Road, 687-2204. Open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.
Others receiving votes
- Mellow Johnny’s, 20 percent
- Patagonia, 15 percent
- Breakaway Records, 10 percent
- Lululemon, 6 percent
- Teuscher Chocolates of Switzerland, 5 percent
- Cornucopia, 5 percent
- Domy Books, 4 percent
- Beyond Tradition, 3 percent
- Mode, 2 percent
- Kirk, 2 percent
- Minx, 2 percent
- Bo Concept, 1 percent
- Ligne Roset Boutique, 1 percent
- Millipede, < 1 percent
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Your A-List: Best Place to Feel Like a Kid
In a town with an adult populous that prides itself on feeling/staying young, it is no surprise that there were quite a few places receiving loads of votes this week. But in the end, there can only be one winner, and Austin’s beloved Barton Springs takes the honor, narrowly edging out Peter Pan Putt Putt, chain Dave and Buster’s and the eclectic Toy Joy.
Barton Springs, which received 18 percent of the votes in the poll, is almost always named by Austinites as a place out-of-towners should visit. In the era of high-rise condos and urban development, it is an oasis in the heart of the city that represents and transports us to a more quaint time, when the city felt a little more rural and a little less urban. For only $3 a day, you can go relax in the sun (or shade), chat with friends, practice yoga, read a book, listen to locals play music or watch them practice capoeira to your heart’s content. I do take a slight exception with the high price of the summer pass ($180 for 105 days) and the fact that the “south” gate is not open more hours during the weekdays, but I came here to praise Barton Springs, not to nitpick it.
And, since the City of Austin can promote their beloved crown jewel better than I, here is what it has to say on the city’s Web site:
Within Zilker Park’s 358 acres, lies one of the crown jewels of Austin, Barton Springs Pool. Three acres in size, the pool is fed from under ground springs and is on average 68 degrees year round. Over the years, Barton Springs Pool has drawn people from all walks of life, from legislators who have concocted state laws there to free-spirited topless sunbathers who turned heads in the seventies. Even Robert Redford learned to swim at the pool when he was five years old while visiting his mother’s relative in Austin. Today, Barton Springs still attracts a diverse crowd of people.Millions of years ago Barton Springs, the fourth largest natural springs in the state, was created as a result of a landshift that created the Balcones Fault.
Named in honor of Andrew Jackson Zilker. “Colonel Andy”, as friends called him, donated the land now known as Zilker Park. In 1884, at age 18, Zilker, who had left his native Indiana to seek his fortune, came to Austin with only 50 cents in his pocket and got a job at an ice plant, which he eventually bought. He then became the first Coca-Cola Bottler in Austin. Shortly after Zilker bought the land in 1901, he built a small concrete pool and amphitheater for members of his Elks Club organization, at the site of one of the three springs, where people had gathered for centuries.Native Americans called them the Sacred Springs and came there to heal their wounds. Spanish friars believed to be the first European settlers in the Austin area set up three temporary missions at the springs in 1730-31 before they moved to San Antonio. In 1837, William “Uncle Billy” Barton, built his rustic cabin on a tract of land which included the springs. Since he owned several adjoining tracts, the area came to be known as the “Bartons”. He named the three springs after his daughters Parthenia, Eliza and Zenobia. The largest spring became known as the main spring at Barton Springs Pool. Another spring feeds the Elks Amphitheater pool that Zilker built near the present day Barton Springs Pool. A third spring bubbles up from the Sunken Garden on the east side of the park.
Between 1917 and 1934, A.J. Zilker donated his land along the south bank of the Colorado in stages, to the Public Free Schools of Austin on the condition that the city of Austin buy the tract from the public schools for inflated prices. School officials placed money from the sale in a trust fund for manual training for what is known today as the school-to-work-program.
Barton Springs Pool has been a popular swimming hole for decades, but even more people showed up once it became part of a city park in 1917. In 1929, workers enlarged the irregular-shaped pool to 1,000 feet long by building a concrete lower dam and sidewalks on both banks. In 1932, the city added an upper dam. Over the years the springs has been the site of a flour mill, a source of drinking water for many citizens and a popular location for baptisms, family picnics, social gatherings, musical performances, fishing and swimming.
Many approach a dip in Barton Springs Pool’s chilly 68 degrees water with a religious zeal. Devotees relish swimming in the roomy expanse of spring water, framed by century-old pecan trees. Those who plunge down under the diving board to look at the main spring, which pumps an average of 27 million gallons of water a day, say that the pulsating action reminds them of a steady heartbeat.
In 1943, Jean Parker was the first women lifeguard at Barton Springs. Members of the Texas Pool and Beach Association decided at the conclusion of their annual conference of park and recreation authorities to allow women to lifeguard, because most eligible men had entered the armed forces. This was the beginning of the change from the traditional “big husky lifeguards watching over the flocks to beautiful girls gracing the lifeguard towers over the nations pools.”
Beverly Sheffield, who served as director of the Austin Parks and Recreation Department from 1946-1973, swam at Barton Springs for 73 years, longer than any of today’s regular swimmers. He began when he was 10 years old and on into his 80s, Sheffield continued to go the pool three days a week, weather permitting until his death.
In 1992, 2 University of Texas scientists, filed an emergency petition seeking federal protection of the Barton Springs salamander. Zoologist, Mark Kirkpatrick and his geologist wife, Barbara Mahler, prepared the petition under auspices of the Save Barton Creek Association and The Hill Country Foundation. This petition was filed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, which has authority to list wildlife under the federal Endangered Species Act. In 1998, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service named the Barton Springs salamander as an Endangered Species.
The only known surface habitats of the Barton Springs salamander (Eurycea sosorum) are located in Barton Springs pool, Eliza Springs, Old Mill Springs (Sunken Garden) and Upper Barton Springs. The salamander is lungless and relies on a pair of conspicuous red gills located behind the head for effiecient gas exchange. Currently the City of Austin and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are working together to support operation of the pool while protecting this species.
Others receiving votes
- Peter Pan Putt Putt, 17 percent
- Dave and Buster’s, 16 percent
- Toy Joy, 16 percent
- Terra Toys, 7 percent
- Main Event, 6 percent
- Austin’s Park and Pizza, 6 percent
- Lake Travis, 5 percent
- Blazer Tag, 4 percent
- Skateland, 3 percent
- GattiTown, 2 percent
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