On Monday, about 215 low brass players participated in the annual Tuba Christmas Austin concert. It was a pleasant, sunny day, so a larger-than-usual crowd gathered in front of the Texas State Capitol to listen to the (low) sounds of the season.
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Your leaves are so unchanging.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your leaves are so unchanging.
Not only green when summer's here,
But also when it's cold and drear.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your leaves are so unchanging.
“Friendship” was the theme of this year’s Gingerbread Village at the Four Seasons Austin. It was actually six separate villages: Austin, plus our five sister cities: Saltillo, Mexico; Koblenz, Germany; Angers, France; Adelaide, Australia; and Oita, Japan. Each city/village was covered by a plastic snow globe. In this post, I’ve included the Four Seasons’ description for each city, plus one or two interesting Fun Facts from their Wikipedia entry. The village(s) remain on display through Christmas Day.
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Over two weekends in mid-November, the public was invited to visit art studios and galleries during the annual East Austin Studio Tour. EAST covers a huge geographic area east of I-35 and west of I-183. According to the organizer, non-profit Big Medium, over 60,000 people visited a record 807 artists this year.
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Warm temperatures and free street parking prompted Bill and me to visit Creek Show on Sunday evening. This 6th annual light-based display is sponsored by Waterloo Greenway, a non-profit working with the City of Austin to plan and build a park along Waller Creek on downtown’s east side. Creek Show runs 6:00-10:00 PM nightly through November 17. Admission is free.
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Community Altars is an annual exhibit at Austin’s Mexic-Arte Museum on Congress Avenue. Ofrendas (altars) are created to honor deceased members of the Latino/a and Mexican communities, in conjunction with the Catholic Holy Days of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day (November 1 and 2). The colorful ofrendas will remain on display at the museum through November 24.
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The annual Texas Book Festival was held in and around the Texas State Capitol this past weekend. Sessions took place inside the Capitol building and under huge, white tents on 11th Street, Colorado Street, and Congress Avenue. Nearby church sanctuaries were also used for the most popular authors. Since the Paramount and State theaters were being used for the Austin Film Festival, the most popular authors spoke in nearby churches.
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Last weekend I visited the 58th annual Gem Capers show, sponsored by the Austin Gem and Mineral Society. I’ve gone to these shows before, but certainly not 58 of them. This year’s theme was “Canadian Minerals.”
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Since I was out-of-town on the official Austin Museum Day, I decided to take my own mini-tour of the exhibits at my favorite local haunts.
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Weekend One of the 2019 Austin City Limits Music Festival was a real scorcher. I’m not only talking about the music (great, as usual), but also the weather. Afternoon temperatures reached 96°F, 97°F, and 99°F for the three days. Bill and I attended ACL Fest on Friday, and we can testify that the heat was brutal for the musicians as well as for the festival goers.
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