The Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum lies just east of Zilker Park and the Barton Springs Pool. In 1985, sculptor Charles Umlauf and his wife Angeline gifted this property and 168 sculptures to the City of Austin. Six years later, a garden and gallery building were built in the lower section. Their house on top of the hill has been restored and is available for private events. Both the house and his studio will be opened to the public in the near future.
If you didn’t get to this weekend’s Classic Game Fest at the Palmer Events Center…well, you just missed Austin’s biggest retro gaming event of the year. This was the opportunity to relive that huge portion of your childhood (and beyond) devoted to video games. Fest attendees of all ages tackled arcade, console, and computer versions of classics such as Super Mario, Tetris, PacMan, Ms. PacMan, and Mario Kart.
For 18 long months, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema on South Lamar has been closed. Their previous building was part of an old decrepit shopping center which was razed and is being rebuilt as a mixed-used project called Lamar Union. Most of the site is still under construction. Only the movie theater, The HighBall nightclub, and the adjacent parking garage are finished.
The Austin Ice Cream Festival definitely wins my vote for “Most Appropriate Festival for the Month of August.” This was a perfect outdoor activity for a 100-degree day in Austin. For a $10 admission, Bill and I each received three tickets for ice cream samples plus some other sweet treats. Since children under 8 were admitted free, this event was popular with families.
Lots of construction in downtown Austin means that I have been taking lots of photographs of cranes. These things are everywhere. It’s interesting to watch them in action, lifting up loads of girders and supplies as a building grows taller and taller. Watching a tower crane swing around in circles during one of our violent summer thunderstorms is downright scary, though. I’m guessing the cranes aren’t tied down so that they can align themselves with shifting wind currents.
Now that we live closer to Zilker Park, the Zilker Summer Musical has become one of my favorite summer traditions. This year’s show is Oklahoma! by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. This is the 56th consecutive year for summer musicals at the Zilker HIllside, which has the distinction as being the longest-running outdoor donation-only theater in the country.
When the Austin temperatures soar, Bill and I head for the dark and cool environs of The Paramount Theatre for their Summer Classic Film Series. Generally there are two “companion” movies on most summer evenings, with some daytime showings on weekends. Since a single admission covers both, we often end up staying for the second film after an earlier show.
I’m not a fan of the hot Texas summers, but I do look forward to Austin’s live music during this time of the year. There’s a wide variety of great, mostly-free concerts practically every day of the week. Here’s some of my favorite music events so far this summer….
Yesterday, Austinites gathered together to “embrace their weird” at the 11th annual Keep Austin Weird Fest. This festival combined some of Austin’s favorite pastimes: listening to live music, eating at food trailers, dressing up in costumes, doing a 5K race, and admiring the downtown skyline.
Ever since moving downtown, I have wondered about the City-Wide Garage Sale. How big is it? Who sells there? Is it all junk? Should I have sold my stuff there instead of holding a downsizing yard sale? So on Sunday afternoon, I decided to satisfy my curiosity and check out “Austin’s Favorite Vintage Flea Market.”