Monday, May 28, 2012

Lost in Austin

I arrived in Austin Texas after spending some time in the desert. Before that I was living in Tel Aviv for eight years, somewhere in between I spent some time In LA. I hate LA the way you would hate an old love, one you were never in love with but you savor a nostalgic flavor for. but that is for another post, Austin is the issue here. I have only been here three days but It feels like a week, that what great cities do well- dysmorph time, make you feel like you are living 10 lives but losing 11 every day. My friend in NY told me that if he stayed there he'd be dead by forty because time there is so dense. But that is for another post as austin is the city we are talking about.

Yesterday I went to an art opening. The artist was a friend of my host. A wonderful host who created a great shortcut to Austin. we'll talk about him later. His name is Ethan Azarian, the artist I mean. He paints great colorful murals all around Austin. Yesterday he presented his paintings in an art space he rented, I really like the DIY art shows with no curating and puffy stuffy gallery owners. Next to each image was a short text written on (band tape). On the invitation it said-"his work is so colorful and cute"Artist's mother- now that's art appreciation.
I didn't take any picture of the art but here is the artist. I remember cows, houses and red shoes. maybe some chairs.


Ethan Azarian



One thing I learned in austin is that when you go to a burlesque crowd house party unexpected things will happen. Here is the list of the unexpected from last night: I cut my ankle closing a door; A woman with a long golden glittery dress, red wig, 7 inch fabulous heels and long shiny blue eye lashes went inside the pool disco dancing; some people got naked, the last part was my fault, Tony said that someone always gets naked in those parties and after a while I demanded that it happen. Two guys in the pool took off their underwear. That's an anti climax, I know. I won't tell you about all the unexpected things that transpired cause my parents will probably read this and I don't kiss and tell.


Disco queen



The great thing about traveling is that everything is unexpected, like E 6st street bars. They all ( and by all I mean the 3 that i've seen) have a front cover of a normal semi empty nothing special bar but when you walk outside to the the back yard you discover dozens of people sitting on picnic tables enjoying the nice May breeze and eating ridiculously good trailer food cooked by punk folks.  East side King is responsible for the food trucks at the Liberty and Grackel bars. at the latter you'll find a vegetarian dish with eggplant that tastes like incredibly tasty scallops, I kid you not, any friend of mine will know I do not joke about eggplants. I also found out that there are some pretty good local beers around, I especially liked the porter at Lovejoys.



Lovejoys, what a cheerful name for a punk/bike/badass place. It's such a nice shitty dive bar. When they don't have a loud live show it's a great place to start your evening or play some pool. Tony Romano took me to lovejoys, in fact he took me to all the places above, and below. He is also an artist and a carpenter  and a landlord, super landlord. I'm lucky to have the chance to stay at his house, and I got lucky because I'm a couchsurfer. If you are not a couch surfer yet, become one. One day I will write the couchsurfer guide to the galaxy but until then just take my word on it and go the website:
http://www.couchsurfing.org/


Tonyromano


Tonyromano has been building the incredible house for the past 11 years, Its spacious, full of light and air, beautifully furnished and full of spirit. I got here a week after his open studio and his art was still on the walls and shelves. It's hard to capture the whole space so I'll try to show it in the details.








Here is some other things I liked in Austin so far:













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