Finally the big day has arrived…the unveiling of a new statue honoring Willie Nelson!
Tuesday evening Bill and I had watched as the statue arrived downtown and was installed at the ACL-Live/Moody Theater on the corner of Lavaca and Second. It has remained hidden under a big wooden crate since then.
The unveiling ceremony was scheduled for 4:00 PM this afternoon. The crowd started gathering about a hour before. At 3:58 PM, Willie’s bus rolled up Second Street, making quite an entrance.
Willie and his sister, Bobbie, stepped out of the bus and made their way to the stage. A short program featured speeches by the sculptor, Clete Shields, Austin mayor Lee Leffingwell and a few others. I stood on the curb across the street and had an unobstructed view of most speakers, including Kris Kristofferson.
But just as the statue was being unveiled, a bunch of very tall guys stood directly in front of me, filming with their cell phones raised high above their heads. So I heard, but could not really see, Willie as he sang his signature song, On the Road Again, and then also Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die. If you look closely, you can just make out Willie in the black hat on the right side of the photo below:
The new eight-foot statue is of a smiling, seated Willie holding his guitar…a great addition to our neighborhood and to Austin!
Last weekend sixteen street bands from all over the US converged on Austin for the second annual HONK!TX festival. Wikipedia describes street bands as “ambulatory, acoustic bands playing music in public spaces.” I would also add “…dressed in outlandish costumes and doing things with hula hoops.”
The first two days of HONK!TX took place up near the University of Texas, then the festival moved downtown for the final day. Bill and I watched the bands pass by on East Sixth Street. Minor Mishap Marching Band from Austin brought up the rear of the parade. (We became fans of this band.at last December’s Downtown Stroll,) Along with other bystanders, we followed the parade about six blocks over to Republic Square Park.
The Forward! Marching Band came in from Wisconsin for the festival. This group had excellent soloists…perhaps UW-Madison music majors?
Many bands featured hula hoopists and some were really quite talented. I guess majorettes are no longer fashionable?
Austin Music Hall is a medium-sized venue on Third and Nueces just a few blocks from our apartment. The converted warehouse is basically a two-story shell with a stage, ground floor and upstairs balcony. Each floor has restrooms and bar areas.
The building was upgraded in 2007 so that now seating capacity is 3,000 and general admission capacity is 4,400. Oversized music-themed artwork decorates the inside walls.
Over 150 tuba players gathered on the south steps of the Texas State Capitol this week for Austin’s annual Tuba Christmas. Concerts were held in 257 locations this year, including four overseas and twenty in Texas.
Tubists included middle school, high school and college band members, as well as quite a few adults. The group was conducted by University of Texas director Anthony Marinello. He explained that, besides tubas, players were also using euphoniums and sousaphones (marching band instruments named after John Philip Sousa).
For almost an hour, we were treated to lovely arrangements of religious and secular Christmas songs with low bass harmonies. Several times the director tried to get the large crowd to sing along but everyone just wanted to listen. Hearing all these tubas play songs like Carol of the Bells and O Holy Night was definitely a unique experience!
Question: What is even better than The Sound of Music?
Answer: A Sing-A-Long Sound of Music!
Several hundred fans attended this very fun event at the Long Center last weekend. First, before the movie started, we were given instructions on what to do with the items in our goodie bags:
Next up was costume judging. Based on audience applause, winners were chosen in three categories:
Small Children and Nuns: And there were lots of both. We were rooting for the girl dressed as a Brown Paper Package Tied Up With String. But a small Gretl (on the far right in my photo) won this category.
Individuals: Original individuals in original costumes competed in this category, but we agreed with the audience’s choice: the Baroness. She had attitude.
Groups: My friend and her daughter came up with a superb costume idea: Do, Re and Mi. We came in second place. We heard that we lost to a goatherder and goat but we couldn’t see them at the opposite end of the stage. Here we are with the von Trapp “children” (with hand-sewn outfits!) and a cross-dressing Maria.
Finally it was time to start the movie. We cheered Maria. We hissed at the Baroness. We booed the Nazis. We yelled “Rolfe! Rolfe!” and “The hills! The hills!” We waved our cards and flowers and fabric swatches. We popped our poppers. And we sang along…quite loudly!
As I write this entry on Sunday evening, Bill and I are listening to the final bands perform at Fun Fun Fun Fest. We are not actually at FFF across the lake at Auditorium Shores but, take my word for it…all of downtown Austin can hear the music!
Tonight’s headliner, Slayer, is currently playing on the stage closest to our apartment. I can now say that I have heard a thrash metal band. Their light show looks pretty impressive from up here.
I was not downtown much this weekend so I’ve missed most of the fun-fun-fun. Sound checks started around 8:45 AM each morning and continued periodically until the bands started playing around noon. The city of Austin imposed a 10 PM curfew. According to the Austin American-Statesman, this was a problem on Friday evening when a band started late and only played two songs before the curfew cut-off.
Bill went over to FFF on Friday and heard The Thermals, Black Joe Lewis, Okkervil River, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Public Enemy and Passion Pit. Bill says that he “has his priorities” (that would be UT and Giants football) so he wasn’t able to go back for the other two days.
p.s.I now see a lot of smoke coming from the Slayer stage, so I hope this is part of the show…
Last night Bill and I saw a GREAT concert, Fire Relief: The Concert for Central Texas, at the Frank Erwin Center on the University of Texas campus. Proceeds benefited the Central Texas Wildfire Fund at the Austin Community Foundation. The event was hosted by local celebrity Turk Pipkin and actor Kyle Chandler from the “Friday Night Lights” TV show.
Musicians from the Austin area and those with local ties performed for over five hours:
Here’s who we heard on Sunday, with performers listed under the photos:
