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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2006 > April
April 2006
The Blantini, revealed
It’s shaken, not stirred.
Hey, it has a grand new building. Why shouldn’t the Blanton Museum of Art have its own cocktail? Concocted by cocktail mixologists at Corzo Tequila and Bacardi, the Blantini is take on the Mexican martini.
During this weekend’s Extremely Grand Opening, the Blantini will be served at a cash bar Saturday 9 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. and Sunday 5 to 7 p.m.
The Blantini
1 and 1/2 oz. Corzo Tequila
1/2 oz. Cointreau
1/2 oz, Rose’s Mango Infusion
1 oz. lime juice
1 oz. orange juice
splash of bourbon
splash of lemon-lime soda
Shake over ice in cocktail shaker and strain into a salt-rimmed glass. Garnish with a lime wedge.
See you at the Blanton — meanwhile read our 24-hour bolg.
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Okay Mountain is A-OK
Say hooray for Okay Mountain! The newest addition to Austin’s burgeoning indie gallery scene opened last night. With its roll-up garage door opening to a big back patio, the white-walled warehouse space at 1312 E. Cesar Chavez St. has a vibe that’s at once cool and keep-it-real.
I predict great things for Okay Mountain. After all, the posse of artists behind it — Michael Sieben, Josh Rios, Nathan Green, Sterling Allen, Peat Duggins, Tim Brown, Ryan Hennessee and Justin Goldwater — are the same folks who virtually out of thin air brought you two of the first alt galleries Fresh Up Club and Camp Fig. Okay Mountain is the new offspring. And from the looks of the first exhibit, it looks good. Jason Villegas’ mixed media mash smartly riffs on the reckless consumption of our ‘me-must-have’ age.
Because the Okay mountaineers are so excited about the opening of the Blanton Museum of Art, they’ll be open extended hours this weekend, noon to 5 p.m. today through Sunday.
And so are their friends. What’s popped up as a kind of triumvirate of East Side art galleries — Okay Mountain, Art Palace and the Donkey Show — are all keeping the doors open noon to 5 p.m. through the weekend.
And if you make it Art Palace, be sure to check out The Pod Show, an exhibit of drawings by Argentine artist Eduardo Navarro staged in portable-on-demand storage unit.
Jane Jacobs 1, New Urbanists 0
I like to think Jane Jacobs would approve of the new Satsuma 53 project. The four-unit two-story mix of residential lofts above street-level commercial space by Krager and Associates Design-Build brings a smartly scaled touch of cool modernism to the funky North Loop corridor just north of Hyde Park. Everybody at the open house last night seemed to groove to features like the balconies perched right above the sidewalk. Jacobs would have loved the possibilities for neighborhood interaction those balconies present.
Of course had the often conservative New Urbanists had their way stylistically with the project we might have ended up with some pseudo-historical freak — something with faux 19th-century brick facade and wrought-iron balconies.
Instead, the off-beat independent North Loop businesses like Room Service just have a mod new neighbor that fits in.
Meanwhile downtown: What’s not to like about Volitant Gallery? The sprawling corner gallery at 4th and Congress has a suitably urban vibe. And for the premiere show, director John Markey presents provocative and rebellious new art by Latin American up-and-comers that is suitably sophisticated. I’m keeping my eye on this place.
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Viva Jane Jacobs
When Jane Jacobs, the pioneering urban activist and writer, was asked in 2001 by the conservative mag Reason what a city should be like, she gave a characteristically terse, earthy response:
“It should be like itself,” she said.
Jacobs, who was 89, died Tuesday in Toronto, her hometown since she and her family de-camped from the U.S. in the 1960s in protest of the Vietnam war.
The architecture and design press is filled with appreciations today. As well it should be. In 1961, Jacobs transformed the way we think about cities with her ground-breaking book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”
Her attack on postwar modernist urban renewal policies was a celebration of city neighborhoods. From the stoop of the Greenwich Village walk-up where she lived in the 1940s and 1950s, she taught us all how to look cities and they way they work as organic entities. Educated more by her experience as a journalist and activist than as architect or urban planner, she became a clear strong advocate for cities in which residential and commercial, old and new mix in a lively pedestrain-friendly hodge-podge.
Personally, I’ve always been impressed that she had the chutzpah to take on master builder Robert Moses, who was busy slaying New York neighborhoods by criss-crossing the city with massive freeways. In fact, Jacobs’ efforts to stop a proposed expressway across Lower Manhattan contributed toward saving SoHo, Chinatown and the west side of Greenwich Village. Think about that the next time you’re tripping through Lower Manhattan. I do.
Another thing I always liked about Jacobs: The New Urbanists worshipped her, but she didn’t really like them. The New Urbanists took as gospel truth Jacobs’ praise for dense, small scale mixed-use neighborhoods dotted with parks and laced with short blocks. Only thing is they didn’t read closely enough. Jacobs rejected the kind of top-down, all-in-one look-alike approach that the New Urbanists favor. If we did things their way we’d have psuedo-historical, neo-precious architecture — bizarre recreations of some idealized version of a 19th-century American small town. After all, it’s no mistake that “The Truman Show” used the New Urbanist utopia of Celebration, Florida as a nightmarish all-too-perfect town.
Jacobs liked the mix of old and new styles, of some buildings in a little better shape than others. She liked cities with an organic feel for history. So do I.
What does Austin sound like?
Ever wonder what kind of aural impression Austin makes? I do.
That’s why I’ll be headed over to “Austin’s Soundtrack” Thursday night at 9:30 p.m. at the Creative Research Laboratory, 2832 East MLK Blvd. For one thing, it’s free.
Brazilian artist Mario Ramiro — who creates “accidental rapâ€? from ambient sounds encountered in the city streets and electronic music — is in the house. And he’s collaborating with local experimenter Skyler McGlothlin to create music based on the sounds of Austin. Brazilian video Roberto Monteiro, who is currently living in Austin, will provide the visual backdrop.
Ramiro is an innovator’s innovator. Beginning in the 1970s, he first made his mark with “Urban Interventions,” disrupting public spaces in his native Sao Paulo with huge plastic installations. Since then he’s used just about every from of electric or electronic device — from photocopiers to computers — to make some of the most mind-expanding electronic art.
“Austin’s Sountrack” is part of the Sin Titulo international symposium sponsored by the Blanton Museum of Art. The Blanton has brought 50 artists, criticts and curators specializing in Latin American art for three days of talk, talk, talk. Unfortunately, the audience seats for the free event have all been taken.
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Art Quake
Yeah, we splashed it all over the front page Sunday: Austin’s having an Art Quake.
The seven stories that filled Sunday’s paper capped seven weeks of coverage we’ve been rolling out in advance of the opening of the new Blanton Museum of Art. But wait — there’s more: Check out Thursday’s XL for additional coverage, including a guide to what’s on view at the new museum.
Yeah, I think it’s taken the new Blanton — bland architecture or not — for Austin to FINALLY declare itself home to a real live art scene. I’ve witnessed — and written about — lots of terrific energy and talent percolating from the ground up over the last few years. Now, the Blanton gives us that institutional topper.
There’s even more sprouting up, too. About 100 turned out Friday night for the grand opening, of The Donkey Show, the newest addition to Austin’s indie gallery scene. UT alum and San Antonio native Risa Puelo returned to Austin last year from New York after snagging a master’s from Bard’s prestigious curatorial program. Why? “There’s an energy here,” she told me. “It’s possible to really do things here.” I mean, could Risa ever do this in the Big Apple: Find a funky, affordable rental house with an empty side lot and two roommates who don’t care if she turns the living room and yard into a speculative space for adventurous artists. Nope. Not possible.
For the first exhibit, Risa invited Austin fave Ali Fitzgerald and San Antonio-based Cruz Ortiz. Fitzgerald turns in a rougher, more casual version of the sprawling Western epic she displayed recently at Art Palace. I like the current iteration as much as the previous one — this version, on paper, has the same crazy cast of characters, but feels even more chaotic. I found Cruz Ortiz’s pop culture and cartoon-inspired drawings and crafty printed objects inspiring when I saw them a few years ago in Mexic-Arte’s Young Latino Artists exhibit. The rambling 3-D cardboard letters and drawings he’s showing at the Donkey Show offer the same clever blend of pop culture — and pop culture criticism.
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Go ahead, shout about it!
What’s not to shout about?
We’re finally getting what we have been so patiently waiting for — a real art museum. One that has its own prominent building. One that already has a comprehensive and impressive collection. One that has the potential to draw attention from around the world. One that has the power to be the long-lost catalyst of Austin heretofore scattered art community.
Of course, I’m talking about the new Blanton Museum of Art which opens with a bang Saturday — and also a free 24-hour party starting at 9 p.m.
Oh yeah, I’m among those that are seriously disappointed that the new Blanton is no innovative architectural expression. But still — go ahead and say “yey” people! We have an art museum!
Art isn’t the only thing this blog will cover. Pretty much every thing I see — art, architecture, theater, dance, opera, movies, technology, books, design, fashion, people, politics, nature, media — is fair fodder.
But for the moment, I want to shout about the new Blanton. Thursday night I dropped in on a preview of the place for UT students. More than 2,000 showed up with 700 coming through the front door just in the first hour. And they weren’t there for free food (which didn’t look very good) or the tunes spun by DJ Rob F and Dynah (which were great). Nope — the kids were there for the art, to look at it and talk about. And then talk about it some more.
Who says the kids want it virtually?
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