The Cowboy Breakfast is one of my favorite Austin events. This annual gathering is held just south of downtown to publicize Rodeo Austin (which starts tomorrow at the Travis County Expo Center). Most people show up at the Cowboy Breakfast for the free food, but not me. This is such an excellent opportunity for us city folk to learn about the ways of the cowboys. Here is what I learned at this year’s breakfast:
Today was the kind of day that would make anyone wish they were in Austin, Texas. The clear, blue sky and warm, mid-70s temperatures were a welcome break from our recent blizzards and non-blizzards. This seemed like the perfect day for a walk along South Congress Avenue.
Austin now has a bike-sharing service called Austin B-cycle. In December, eleven stations opened in downtown and along South Congress Avenue, and more stations have been added since then. The service is expanding to the UT campus and to East Austin this month.
If it’s the first Saturday in February, then it must be time for the annual Boy Scout Report to State Parade. Each year, thousands of scouts and their leaders from all around Texas gather in Austin for this parade. For obvious reasons, Central Texas is well-represented, but an impressive number of units come from far-away towns like Amarillo, Port Arthur, and El Paso.
Sixty years of Austin music history is tough to squeeze into one evening, but Alejandro Escovedo managed to accomplish this feat in The United Sounds of Austin. Held at the ACL Moody Theatre, the program featured 30+ numbers representing wildly diverse musical genres: gospel, jazz, blues, country, folk, Mexican-American, rock, and even punk. As musical curator and master of ceremonies, Alejandro pulled together an impressive group of friends—Joe Ely, Terry Allen, Lucinda Williams, Rosie Flores, and more—for this overview of Austin’s music and musicians.
Today, January 24, 2014, is a snow day in Austin. Schools, government offices, libraries, and some businesses are closed. Many people, including Bill, are working from home instead of going to their offices. The First Street Bridge was practically deserted at 8:45 AM when I took these photos. On most workday mornings, bridge traffic is still backed up with morning commuters at that time, but not today.
Last weekend I accompanied Bill and a car-savvy friend to Austin AutoRama over at the Palmer Events Center. The event was comfortably crowded, and it was nice to see so many father-son attendees. I enjoyed walking around the displays and learning which vehicles were rare, how they all got into the building (most were pushed, not driven), and that the shiny olive finish that I admired was, indeed, unusual.
Oh, it was just a typical Sunday afternoon in downtown Austin: carriages pulled by unicorns and driven by faeries circling our neighborhood.
Austin welcomed in the New Year with…
City of Austin officials held a little news conference in front of City Hall to publicize Austin’s New Year, a free celebration planned for New Year’s Eve.