“Think before you speak, read before you think”
It was a scorcher of a week in Austin with temperatures hovering around 
100 degrees all week. Work was a bit less all consuming this week – thank goodness. I had a work dinner on Monday at III Forks steakhouse. Diana had been wanting to try their happy hour with oysters and champagne for a while, and so walked across with me. She ended up being invited to join us for dinner, which thankfully meant very little work talk. We ended up having a very nice evening all around.
On Tuesday evening, Diana was committed to watching a very exciting 
episode of the Bachelorette, where two of the remaining four contenders for the love of the Bachelorette are sent home. She has a particular dislike for Luke P. (can’t blame her from what I’ve seen) and was looking forward to him going home. She decided to invite our friend Damon (he travels in from Philadelphia every other week, and was just hanging out in a hotel room) over to watch it with us. The next morning I got an earful – “first of all you were talking all through the episode, and then you and Damon fell asleep while I was making a pizza”. Oopsy – we must be working way too hard.
Diana headed to California on Wednesday to check on her family and attend a baby shower. I focused on work with a brief respite on Thursday night for an excellent dinner with my boss at the Odd Duck. This is rapidly becoming my favourite Austin restaurant – such a casual feel and amazing combinations of fresh flavors. The pork chop dish with creamed corn, shishito peppers and mushrooms was particularly yummy.
Saturday began with a swim and sauna and then I finally made a visit to the downtown Austin library. This is an amazing facility in the heart of downtown, constructed at great expense and heavily patronized. The modern design of the building is beautiful and the open layout of all six floors is quite something.
I enjoyed the quotes that can be seen from inside the facility on the panel in the right hand picture. The Fran Lebowitz one is my favourite.
There’s a very good farm to table restaurant inside the library, and I enjoyed some great roasted beets while I completed the crossword.
There are a lot of interesting displays inside the library to draw patrons interest. I enjoyed browsing the Texas music selection.
The sixth floor rooftop garden provides a good view of the river and our apartment building. What an amazing facility!
I stopped into Le Politique for a coffee on the walk back to the apartment, and completed the New York Times crossword puzzle. I’m not often able to finish the Saturday version without some help, or looking things up.
After a little time to cool off from walking a couple of miles in 95 degree weather, I drove over to the Austin Film Society to watch a documentary on Blue Note Records. “Blue Note Records – Beyond the Notes” covers the history from the start of the label in the 1930s through the present day.
What an interesting story. Founded by Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, who fled Jewish persecution in Germany, in 1939, the label transitioned through many phases of jazz, was sold to a larger label, and then rebounded recently with Don Was as chairman. The artists who recorded for Blue Note are a veritable who’s who of all eras of jazz – Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, through to modern day ground breakers like Robert Glasper. I discovered a few new gems that I’ll include in the New Music section later.
Jeff Lofton, a jazz trumpeter who calls Austin home these days, participated in an interesting Q&A after the film.
I read about the Long Play Lounge in the local paper and thought it was located close to the Austin Film Society. As luck would have it, less than a mile. Another great establishment – turntables spinning from an extensive collection, a creative music themed cocktail menu, friendly service, and a patio with music playing. I look forward to sharing this find with McD soon.
The temperature finally dipped below 100 degrees on my drive back to the apartment. Even Penelope was starting to complain a bit – some German version of “How can it still be 100 degrees at seven o’clock at night?”.
After parking the complaining “P” in the Catherine garage, I walked across Congress Avenue bridge to the Fareground food hall and enjoyed the amazing chicken hawaiej hummus. While Odd Duck is atop my restaurant list, this particular dish is my favourite in Austin so far. The hummus is wonderfully creamy and on a par with Shaya in New Orleans (rarefied company) and the flavors with the chicken are amazing.
The sunset was pretty on my walk over with lots of people on the river:
A few blocks further into downtown, Joe Ely was playing at Antone’s. I always enjoy a Joe Ely show and I’ve seen several, dating back almost 30 years to a memorable show he did in San Antonio, with Ian Moore on guitar. This was a full band show and quite different to the solo acoustic sets that I’ve seen recently at B.B. King’s in New York, and at the Kessler. Antone’s was quite full of a lively crowd of folks – quite the scene when Ely took the stage and started to get warmed up.
Here’s “Dallas”:
Things really heated up with “All Just to Get to You”:
I’m getting old and had a busy day, so didn’t make it until the end of the show – I know how disappointed you are.
Sunday was a pretty lazy day of swim, sauna, laundry, and catching up on some reading.
Here’s the first song from the Blue Note movie that really caught my attention – I love the piano chords and the answer from the reeds:
Then there’s this one from Horace Silver, hadn’t heard of him until watching the movie. Can you hear Steely Dan’s “Rickie Don’t Lose that Number” coming from Donald Fagen’s love of this song?
And another I hadn’t heard of – Lee Morgan’s Sidewinder:
This one is not on Blue Note records, but one that I heard at Antone’s waiting for Joe Ely. What a good sound: