Can you believe my baby turned 30 this week? He does seem to be doing quite well and I’m proud of the man he’s become and all that he’s accomplished in his first 30 years. Will has always been a car nut – BMWs in particular – solidified when he visited the factory in Germany during his internship. He treated himself to an early birthday present which you can see here. I think it looks pretty fierce and here is Will’s update on the engine:
“It has a B58 inline 6 cylinder twin scroll turbo. Twin scroll is the epic new balancing technology! Supposed to be the smoothest engine that BMW has ever made. And 400 hp and 400 torque approximately.”
This week was a heavy one of work and travel for both of us. Diana dropped me at the Dallas airport very early on Monday and I had plenty of time to make my flight, which arrived early even though it was foggy in Austin. I enjoyed a breakfast taco at the airport (as promised last week) and then headed to the office. That’s another one of the cards that McD spoils me with on the table – found it as I was getting something out of my briefcase. The Cowboys pretended to play football on Monday night and I watched the game at the hotel until I got disgusted and fell asleep before the game was over. Diana traveled out to St Petersburg, Florida again Tuesday through Thursday for a big client presentation that went well.
Tuesday was my music day this week. I tried out a Mediterranean food truck on South 1st Street with a combo gyro and falafel (two of my favourites). I’m going to enjoy trying out and rating all the various food trucks that are generously spread around Austin. After dinner, I drove 
around the corner to the Saxon Pub, where Dave Grissom plays a free early show at 6pm most Tuesdays. I didn’t get there until 7pm and so all seats were taken and the place was packed. I stayed for a couple of songs (both excellent) and then left. I wasn’t able to identify the folks who rode their horses to the show – maybe it was the performers? I will be back in a future week to catch a full show. Dave Grissom is an excellent guitar player who started in Joe Ely’s band, played in John Mellencamp’s band, and has gone on to become a much in demand session musician (particularly in Nashville). I suspect that his show covers multiple styles and varieties of music – I’ll let you know when I get there on time in the future.
From the Saxon, I dropped the car at the hotel and wandered over to Antone’s in downtown Austin to see about their free Blues show. In contrast to the Saxon, this was a very quietly attended show. I settled in for 20 minutes or so but wasn’t drawn in by the music – too much old school blues and harmonica. And so it was off to find the next musical opportunity.
Hoping the third venue would be the charm, I walked around the corner to the Elephant Room on Congress Avenue. This is a basement jazz club that turned out to be very pleasant and a highlight of the evening for me. The sound was excellent with plenty of comfortable seating. Sarah Sharp and band were performing – I forgot to note the guitar player’s name but he was outstanding. I enjoyed Sarah’s voice and here are some quick snippets of the performance:
From the Elephant Room, it was a quick walk across the Congress “bat” bridge back to the hotel and a brief check on the election results.
Sarah was a founding member of another band named the Jitterbug Vampires which performs at the Elephant Room on Wednesday nights. She is no longer in the band and I didn’t enjoy the singer as much, but the guitar (same guy from Tuesday) and saxophone players were both very good. I listened to a few songs, and then went upstairs to a restaurant named Swift’s Attic for dinner.
The menu at Swift’s is described as “New American Tapas”. The food and 
cocktails were both excellent and I look forward to walking back to this place again soon. My cocktail was a “Newgroni” – the normal negroni recipe with rhubarb bitters added – and it’s available on tap. I’m going to have to add some of these bitters to my barrel aging negroni because they really enhance the flavour very nicely. The scallops were fresh, perfectly cooked and paired with delicious sauces and carrots.
On Thursday night I tried something completely new to me, an author night at a bookstore. Joseph Fink, author of “Alice Isn’t Dead”, was interviewed at Book People on Lamar Street in West Austin. I had been planning a trip to Waterloo records and Book People after work and when I visited the website found this event. Both stores are great examples of independent and wonderfully curated places that rarely exist anymore. Book People reminds me of Wild Detectives in Oak Cliff but at a much larger scale and without the cocktails and wine (they do have coffee) – the staff are very knowledgeable and have many blurbs and recommendations throughout the shop.
I wasn’t at all familiar with Fink’s work – apparently he is pretty well known by virtue of a podcast series that he does that parallels his books. I enjoyed the interview that Deb Olin Unferth hosted – she has published several novels and teaches writing at the University of Texas. Her questions were insightful and often quite funny. One of my favourite stories from Fink centered on his parents – his Mum and Dad met in the dining hall on their first night of college freshman year and had been together ever since. Both were teachers and they didn’t have a large circle of friends and so their lives became very intertwined. His Dad died 7 years ago and he talked about how much his Mum has changed as she became a singular person rather than part of a couple. It didn’t hurt that he mentioned Jason Isbell’s “If We Were Vampires” song in the story – one of my favourite songs of the last few years.
After the interview, Fink read a passage from the book and took questions. An interesting and different evening activity – apparently Book People hosts more than 300 of these a year – so lots more opportunities for me to listen to authors talk about their work.
I was able to go standby on an earlier flight on Friday and got home before 4 pm. We had a quiet night when Diana got home from her hair appointment and fell asleep early.
Saturday started with workouts and then a late lunch at Zaytinya (this is a 
Turkish word meaning “olive oil”) at the Star in Frisco. It’s a mezze restaurant specializing in small plates like a Greek tapas place. We had tried Zaytinya once before and enjoyed the small plates and cocktails very much. This visit was equally positive – I had an ultimate G&T (Hendrick’s gin, Fever Tree Indian tonic water, lemon, lime, juniper berries) that took the bar tender some work to assemble, Baba Ghannouge (great presentation with pomegranate seeds), and a falafel wrap. Diana tried the lamb chops – delicious once the bartender supervised them being cooked properly and not overdone.
After lunch we went boot shopping at Nordstroms. I drove around for a while before finding a parking spot and was amazed at how busy the mall was – I thought malls were going out of business. Diana found several pairs of boots that she thinks will see her through the winter. I’m not sure I was very helpful with my selections.
On Sunday we made the drive down to Oak Cliff for brunch at Boulevardier. 
You might remember me raving about a brunch we had there about a month ago. I opted for the smoky mushroom toast and Diana had the omelette. The first mushroom toast was delicious with a perfectly cooked poached egg. The second toast featured a hard boiled egg trying to masquerade as a poached egg – very disappointing for a restaurant of such repute. Even worse was the attitude when I brought it to the attention of the staff. They did pay for our entire meal – I would have much preferred they just apologized appropriately and brought me another toast.
We made it from Boulevardier over to the Twilite Lounge in Deep Ellum just in time to see the end of the New Orleans Saints game – they beat up on the Cincinnati Bengals 51-14. The Twilite is an “official Saints watching destination” and has a jukebox with lots of great New Orleans music. One of Tim’s favourites, Bonerama, was playing today – it’s a band with 4 trombones that cover rock ‘n roll songs and Tim really doesn’t enjoy them.
Now we’re home with a fire going and getting ready for the Cowboys vs. Eagles match up that starts at 7:20 pm.
This Bob Seger song popped up on a Spotify channel this week. Neither McD nor I had heard it before but we both like it a lot:
Here’s one I heard on “Discover Weekly” from Spotify by Peter Green – the best blues guitarist I’ve heard:
And finally, a beautifully nuanced version of “Can’t Find my Way Home”, the classic Blind Faith song. This is by Nathan East who was the bass guitar player in Eric Clapton’s band for years, with Clapton as a guest:
Here’s an interesting song from the band Air – I enjoy their music and haven’t listened to it in several years. They are a duo from Versailles, France with a somewhat electronic sound. This album, “Moon Safari”, was their debut. I imagine this is what Booker T Jones would sound like if he was born in Paris in the 1990s.