Althouse: A nighttime walk in Austin, Texas.

January 3, 2010

A nighttime walk in Austin, Texas.

30 comments:

Sprezzatura said...: Nice to know that they have streets in Austin.

Presumably (hopefully) all sorts of actually interesting things are occurring w/o being document on the blog.; 1/3/10, 11:53 PM
reader_iam said...: All this talk of Austin is making me profoundly, profoundly miss my best girlfriend since 1972, who moved to Austin a couple decades ago and, so far as I can tell, will be there forever.

Dang, guess it's that annual time of figuring out whether our trips out East will overlap &/or planning flights to places else.; 1/4/10, 12:06 AM
Anonymous said...: along the brittle treacherous bright streets
of memory comes my heart,singing like
an idiot,whispering like a drunken man

who(at a certain corner,suddenly)meets
the tall policeman of my mind
awake
being not asleep,elsewhere our dreams began
which now are folded:but the year completes
his life as a forgotten prisoner; 1/4/10, 12:21 AM
Anonymous said...: Are streets in Austin as bright and treacherous as e.e. cummings' Paris?; 1/4/10, 12:24 AM
sort of runic rhyme said...: Vintage Texas some of us have
heard about.; 1/4/10, 12:34 AM
Ron said...: Go to the Salt Lick!; 1/4/10, 1:27 AM
Ron said...: or Guero's!; 1/4/10, 1:28 AM
Mr. Forward said...: Two words of shopping advice for Meade.

Cowboy Hat.; 1/4/10, 2:39 AM
Unknown said...: Two more: Cowboy Boots; 1/4/10, 5:55 AM
bearbee said...: Two more:
Cowboy shorts

Heh....heh.; 1/4/10, 7:17 AM
Anonymous said...: Be sure to go watch the bats.; 1/4/10, 7:38 AM
Alan said...: Given where these pictures were taken, they're a whole lot closer to Guero's (e.g.: one whole block south) than to the Salt Lick. And they can take care of the boots and hat for Meade at Allen's, about two blocks south.

Windbag, the bats are wintering in Mexico right now. They won't be back 'til spring.; 1/4/10, 8:14 AM
Skyler said...: After watching the fruit bats with six foot wing spans and flying up to sixty mph darken the skies in the Philipines, I have to say that the puny stream of six inch bats coming out of a hole in a bridge is hardly worth seeing.; 1/4/10, 9:11 AM
paul a'barge said...: You like Vietnamese food?

- Tam Deli
N Lamar just above 183; 1/4/10, 9:23 AM
Rialby said...: Torchy's for breakfast tacos. Or Juan in A Million on the east side.; 1/4/10, 9:26 AM
Big Mike said...: Is this the right time of year to see the bats? Don't miss them if it is.

I think there's a microbrewery on nearly every street corner and each one's better than the one before.; 1/4/10, 9:28 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: my blog was started because of a visit to Austin in 2005. A girlfriend got married there (she's now about to have her first baby) and I started TMR to post the wedding photos. Hung out all night with my buds, Merkeley, and we wandered the city at night -"looking for action" in a strange city - and having as marvelous a time as only artists can.

Of course, my blog went on to become about art and politics, and then my divorce and all I've learned about NewAge since. It was sabotaged and pulled down, twice, by feminists and cultists in my own circle - so I moved far, far away from them all - and it's now (in this third incarnation) the nonsensical beacon of male truth we all know and love.

All because of a trip to Austin. I almost forgot about that,...; 1/4/10, 9:46 AM
KCFleming said...: "A nighttime walk in Austin, Texas."

Patsy Cline - Walkin' After Midnight
'I go out walkin'
After midnight
Out in the moonlight
Just like we used to do
I'm always walkin'
After midnight
searching for you'; 1/4/10, 10:07 AM
traditionalguy said...: Austin is a center, along with San Antonio, of the many German rancher families that settled there 150 years ago and survived in an early 20 years of a war zone among hostile Indians, Mexican land grant claimants, and American/Scots-Irish settlers become Confederates . That means the area has good beer and good sausages and a family oriented tradition of Ranches owned by the same families for over 100 years. Then on the other hand, Karl Marx was a famous German philosopher.; 1/4/10, 10:42 AM
Unknown said...: Little known, but you would appreciate it, tg; there was a small civil war among the Germans, who were Union sympathizers, and the Scotch-Irish in the area during the Civil War. The violence was intense and vicious and made Texas known as the "Dark Corner of the Confederacy".; 1/4/10, 11:10 AM
traditionalguy said...: Edutcher...I have some very Texas German friends from Beeville in Bee county Texas. The local Civil war there happened because the Gremans refused to use slaves and were opponents of the pro-Slavery Confederacy secession. That animosity towards the Germans went on in Texas until the 1920s. But today the Bee County demographics are not a racial division problem since the ranchers there never used slave labor to grow cotten anymore than the Wisconsin dairy farmers did.; 1/4/10, 11:40 AM
Anonymous said...: I didn't know Texas bats migrated. I figured they'd tough it out.; 1/4/10, 12:40 PM
X said...: try Cisco's for breakfast.; 1/4/10, 2:08 PM
BJM said...: Austin?! Yum. Grab a Voodoo Bison burger at the Magnolia Cafe (great pancakes too), or the Green Mesquite for BBQ.; 1/4/10, 2:24 PM
Pat said...: Go have a drink at the bar at the Four Seasons, right across the bridge. Best hotel in Texas, and a great bar. Overlooks the river, great place for a drink.

And I second the recommendation for Guero's. And if you have a car, it is worth driving up to see the hill country northwest of town, about 20 miles or so. Ask your concierge for the best drive.

As you know by now since you have been there a day, the whole place is magic.; 1/4/10, 2:48 PM
MommyLydia said...: Hey! You still here in Austin? Signing books or something?; 1/4/10, 3:32 PM
Yehudit said...: The Driskill, the Driskill, I say! You can find a Four Seasons anywhere.

"...Edutcher...I have some very Texas German friends from Beeville in Bee county Texas...."

My baby went to Beeville
She said dont be mad
Gotta find the life I couldve had
He was just a boy with a Beeville name
Had to see what he became

My baby went to Beeville
Baby went to Beeville
Baby went to Beeville and I'm going out of my mind

Now we get along fine
and I guarantee
My baby wouldnt lie to me
But she gets this look on her face
Someone else must have misplaced

My baby went to Beeville
Baby went to Beeville
Baby went to Beeville and I'm going out of my mind

Now the past is a place I never dare
go for who I might find there
And this very boy is bugs and bones
Someone who she's never known

My baby went to Beeville.....

--great Austin singersongwriter Michael Hall; 1/4/10, 6:00 PM
Yehudit said...: Drive by 37th St just off Guadeloupe and see if the famed Xmas tree lights are still up
http://tinyurl.com/ye3nb24

Definitely cowboy boots for both of you. A hat is in your face, boots quietly make a statement. Mike Allen's is a great place to buy them.; 1/4/10, 6:08 PM
reader_iam said...: Go for the boots. It appears a hat can do funny things to people.; 1/4/10, 7:11 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I've stayed at the Driskill (and The Four Seasons), but we're staying somewhere else this time. More about it later.; 1/4/10, 9:37 PM