The Hurricane Blows
Austin Dispatches |
No. 157 |
Nov. 3, 2012 |
Halloween,
the Stateside Theatre called to tell me the Nov. 1 Jason Moran concert was
cancelled because he was
stuck in New York City, swamped by Hurricane Sandy.[1]
Sure, Sandy killed dozens of people,[2]
knocked out power for millions more, cost billions in damage and disruptions,[3]
and even delayed Halloween in New Jersey,[4]
but it prevented me from seeing one of the
greatest jazz musicians
of our generation.[5] “Why must
fate becurse
me?” I mock lamented to the ticket office. The woman on the phone laughed.
On the Town
Sep. 26: “Melanie
Ordones Welker” may not be eclipsed so fast. She, “Zelda Medrano” and
many others
attended Rio Grande restaurant in Pflugerville for the first time, resulting in
that venue’s best turnout to date.
When I finally circulated over to her to say hello, she asked if I could give
her a lift home. She arrived with a friend who left early. I had a meeting the
next morning and had to leave early myself.
On the way to her place, she was relaxed, chatty, and fun to be around,
in a way she hadn’t in months. Mind you, this was outside a salsa setting, for
the first time. If Welker’d been smart enough to
behave this way
toward me more often, she wouldn’t’ve ruined her chances.
Sep. 29: So I was
in the supermarket checkout line, stuck behind an
aging hippie
buying brown rice and organic produce. “Anything else?” the clerk asked.
The hippie requested a carton of brand-name cancer sticks,
the kind that benefit
big corporations and Southern rednecks.
That’s how he stays so thin.
The hippie
still isn’t dying fast enough.
Oct. 2: The
Gracywood Neighborhood Association had e-mailed me about National Night Out,
only Texas participates two months later than the rest of the country because
August is “too hot.” Arizona in August ain’t exactly frigid.
Also, the event was to be held between 5 and 7 p.m., when many of the adults
were commuting home and everybody else could go out and inhale their exhaust
fumes. Anyway, the association newsletter listed so many requirements for
showing up at one of the block parties I opted not to attend. Instead, I drove
to the Alegre Park – neighborhood? subdivision? section? – for exercise,
starting about 7:15 p.m. Hardly anyone else was outside in the warm, sere
weather at dusk, and those were people who would’ve been walking their dogs
regardless of the occasion. If my observation was characteristic, National Night
Out is just another stupid event that produces results opposite from what its
organizers intend.
Oct. 6: A jazz
festival of real jazz finally enticed me to visit Zilker Park after a dozen
years’ residence. The crowds and the officious twits with their charges and
rules about when and where I can park, kept me away. Also, it’s a park, and I
don’t relish stepping in dog shit because too many Austinites ape foreign
savages when it comes to sanitation.[6]
I encountered a friend at the festival and we golf clapped through several sets
of jazz standards at midtempo on a day of
overcast skies and
soft winds .
Oct. 14-16: The
next weekend, I enjoyed the acts I wanted to see at the ACL Music Festival
without dealing with traffic, parking, crowds, variable weather, paying for
tickets, or even leaving my apartment. ACL conveniently set up a
streaming
channel on YouTube, and KUT-FM broadcast additional shows.[7]
Oct. 17: After
nearly 30 years I finally saw “Ornette: Made in America,” the documentary on Ornette Coleman’s triumphal
return to hometown Fort Worth, in the ‘80s, back when some rich Texans were
positioning Fort Worth as an avant-guard challenger to New York City.[8]
Oct. 22: Also
nearly 30 years after I first heard of it, I attended a free showing of “New
York Eye and Ear Control” on the UT campus.[9]
The
soundtrack is fantastic.[10]
The film itself, however, was the sort of New York mid-‘60s experimentalism that
gave the avant-guard a bad name,[11]
and perpetrated by the sort of
pretentious art frauds Don Draper would give a stern talking to in a pertinent period episode of “Mad Men.”[12]
The follow-up, “Wavelength,” was even worse. I left after 10 minutes. Both of
them compare unfavorably to “Ornette.”
Oct. 26: On the
coldest
night of the season, I attended Institution Theater to watch
improvisation in the style of Quentin Tarantino.[13]
Except the actors didn’t seem all that familiar with Tarantino’s work or style.[14]
Then I attended a
Halloween party at Esquina de Tango as Mitt Romney, by
parting my hair, graying the temples with talcum powder ($1.77), and knotting
the neckwear in my wardrobe closest in a pattern to a rep tie (less than $10 on
eBay years ago).[15] However,
my costume may have been too subtle for
everyone else at the party – probably belonging to the 47 percent.[16]
I left after the band’s third song. If it’s an example of Israeli cultural
offerings, Iran is
justified
in building nuclear weapons.[17]
Oct. 30: In
marked contrast, Gilberto Gil’s performance at Bass Concert Hall
surpassed my expectations. The septuagenarian sang sustained high notes
without strain. His backing band included a fiddler and a guitarist doubling on
five-string banjo. But instead of
bluegrass, they played
reggae.[18]
Halloween: I
finally
dined at Rio Grande, before the
salsa
dance and costume party. The
food is average. The
distaff attendees continued this year’s holiday trend of copying
Anne Hathaway as Catwoman from “The Dark Night Rises,” which is to say, looking
slinky and feline in
basic black.[19]
An exception I danced with was trying for a
zombie look but instead resembled a
cheesecake
model. I gave her an objectifying appraisal. “You look
fine to me.”
“I’ll bet,” she purred.
Nov. 1: I tried
to enjoy the Polish Film Festival, but the first projectionist caught his tie in
the sprockets, the second caught his hand. Then the reels ran in reverse
sequence.[20]
Cultural Canapés
The
holiday seasons were out of whack on the radio. I didn’t hear
Halloween
songs on broadcast stations until Oct. 15, but KAZI-FM
played the
first Christmas song on Oct. 24.[21]
The Oct. 26 Chronicle reports that environmentalists
attempted an enviro-themed haunted house – “Ecopocalypse,” which depicts a “near
future when the
environment has collapsed and nature is back being red in tooth and claw.”[22]
Wait, that’s supposed to scare us? Nature is already
red in tooth and claw , as anyone knows who’s watched animals kill each
other for food, defense or social dominance on nature shows, which somehow are
always aired around
dinner time. The truly scary enviro-themed haunted house
would depict a world where watermelons gained control and shut down
civilization, similar to the Khmer Rouge
takeover of Cambodia in the ‘70s.[23]
But that might expose them too much for what they really are.
October marks the 30th anniversary of
commercially available compact discs.[24]
I remember the early hype about them. I held off buying CDs for years for lack
of money and a compelling reason to do so, until I attended the spring 1998
Austin Record Convention. All the cheap, crappy records – the career mistakes,
the vanity releases, etc., that used to be in the dollar bins at
used record
stores sold for at least ten times that at the
convention. The good stuff sold for considerably more. The Japanese and European
tourists bought up all of it the way people preparing for hurricanes strip
supermarket shelves. By this time, the record industry had been pumping out
comprehensive CD releases, spurred by the surprisingly brisk sales of the Robert
Johnson box set.[25]
Business Roundup
Speaking of 30 years ago, Nissan Motor Co. plans to revive
its Datsun brand for emerging markets in 2014. Price range: $3,000 to $5,000.[26]
General Motors will locate its new Austin IT Innovation
Center in what used to be Dell’s Parmer location, where I’ve worked before.[27]
After several months’ research, I’ve concluded that
newcomer Sprouts Farmers Market bests H-E-B in price on produce.[28]
The Oct. 19 Chronicle lauds an explosion of Indian food trailers. The real
explosion is in the customers’ colons.[29]
Austin Death Watch
Police arrested a bum for assaulting a UT coed in North
Austin on Sep. 20.[30]
Police also arrested three members of the dwindling Occupy Austin excrescence
for trespassing on private property. If only all such statists could be
summarily dispatched.[31]
The police chief has fired yet another officer.[32]
The Travis County attorney’s office concluded Oct. 24 that the Austin City
Council violated open meetings laws multiple times, but the attorney is letting
the councilmen off the hook.[33]
In a similar mentality, the Chronicle feels sorry for a “mentally retarded”
convict on death row for more than two decades. Note that the Chronicle doesn’t
dispute that this felon fatally stabbed and strangled a woman in her apartment,
or that the criminal justice system gave him due process. But he had such a hard
childhood, the Chronicle weeps.[34]
The latest scheme for a MoPac Expressway toll road
is to add toll lanes to the left of north- and southbound sides, from Lady Bird
Lake to Parmer Lane. The tolls will change based on the
speed of traffic . The Statesman reports construction will take 28
months from mid-2013, with predictable aggravation during heavy commute times.[35]
Drivers on the new stretch of Texas 130 tollway, between Mustang Ridge and
Interstate 10 near Seguin, have collided with feral hogs near Lockhart.[36]
Austinites must register their water wells with the city,
now that the City Council voted Oct. 11 to infringe on property rights and
doubtless use the registry against well owners in the future, in the same
fashion that adherents of the statist quo, from neighborhood association
busybodies to the jet setting globalists who meet at Davos, will use gun
registration and comprehensive financial-transaction and medical data as tools
to eliminate anyone they deem a threat.[37]
Meanwhile, the Chronicle reports the future Water Treatment Plant No. 4,
long a
contentious topic in Austin politics, has already racked up $15 million in
overruns.[38]
Behind-schedule construction projects, such as the new
federal courthouse, are harming downtown businesses.[39]
Additionally, Warehouse District businesses have expressed concern that the
Austin Fan Fest, scheduled simultaneously with the first Formula One race, could
gridlock downtown and hurt their revenues.[40]
The rich, powerful and influential inhabitants of Westgate
Tower, an esthetically drab downtown condominium that was Austin’s first
high-rise in 1966, could get a property tax cut because the city is considering
granting it historic landmark status.[41]
White newcomers to East Austin are fighting a proposed “affordable housing”
project in the Montopolis neighborhood, to the indignation of the established
browns.[42]
The Business Journal reports a California company, ParkMe
Inc. has developed a smartphone application for drivers trying to find an
available parking space among the 5,200 in Central Austin. Given City Hall’s
impact, such as eliminating minimum parking requirements for developers’
projects, the company should change its name to FuckMe.[43]
Austin’s creeping bureaucratic tyranny is consuming the
city’s uniqueness, as exemplified by the code disputes over the restaurant Casa
de Luz on the southside.[44]
City meddling in the economy also prompted a payday lender to close most of its
stores in town.[45]
Neighborhood News
In late September, vandals attacked the Capital Metro bus
stop at Stonehollow Drive and Gracy Farms Lane. Either them or disgruntled
riders.
A hobby and gaming store has opened in an unnamed strip
mall off Parmer Lane, between Limerick and Lamplight Village avenues. A
Montessori school has expanded.[46]
A jewelry store has opened at The Shops at Arbor Walk.[47]
At the Crossroads Shopping Center, a precious metals buyer
and a video game rental store have opened and Joe’s Italian Cuisine has closed.[48]
Notes in the Margins
A longtime reader was skeptical about last issue’s lead
tale.
Imagine that. Fortunately, he was also amused by it.[49]
Perhaps as much as I was while writing an outlandish hook to save the topical
political commentary afterward from irrelevance.
At least I thought it was outlandish. Five days later,
Entertainment Weekly reported actress Martha Plimpton will clean someone’s house
to promote her network sitcom that I hadn’t heard of before, and it’s entering
its third season.[50]
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NOTES
[1]
Trachtenberg, Jay. “Music Listings.” Ed. Raoul Hernandez. AC 26 Oct. 2012:
90.
[2] “Disaster
Zone.” The Examiner – Washington (D.C.) 31 Oct. 2012: 1.
[3] Ruse,
Leslie, and Cara Townsend. “Supermarkets Struggle With Outages.”
(Parsippany, N.J.) Daily Record 2 Nov. 2012: A1-2; Spector, Joseph. “NYC
Devastated: Costs ‘Staggering’ to Repair Transit.” The Ithaca (N.Y.)
Journal 31 Oct. 2012: 1A+.
[4] Mast,
George. “ ‘Outlaw’ Not Just a Choice of Costume.” (Cherry Hill, N.J.)
Courier-Post 1 Nov. 2012: 1A+; Peralta, Eyder. “New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie ‘Postpones’ Halloween.” The Two-Way 31 Oct. 2012
<http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/10/31/164033068/new-jersey-gov-chris-christie-postpones-halloween>.
[5] AD No. 119n10
(Dec. 7, 2008).
[6] “Music
Listings.” Ed. Hernandez. AC 5 Oct. 2012: 74.
[7] Austin
Chronicle ACL Music Fest Preview 12 Oct. 2012: 25; Curtin, Kevin. “ACL
Doubles Down.” AC 12 Oct. 2012: 63; Smothers, Hannah, and Shane Miller.
“Weather Doesn’t Rain on Concert Goers’ Parade.” DT 5 Oct. 2012: 1;
“Statesman at ACL Music Festival.” AAS 13 Oct. 2012: B5.
[8]
Applebome, Peter. “Caravan of Pipe Dreams.” TM Jan. 1984: 124+; Baumgarten,
Marjorie. “American Independents.” AC 12 Oct. 2012: 57.
[9] “
‘Wavelength’ and ‘New York Eye and Ear Control.’ ” Idem., 19 Oct. 2012: 78.
[10] Ayler,
Albert et al. New York Eye and Ear Control. ESP 1016, 1966.
[11]
Kostelanetz, Richard. Twenties in the Sixties: Previously Uncollected
Critical Essays.
[12] “Christmas Waltz.” Mad Men AMC, 20 May 2012;
“The Hobo Code.” Mad Men AMC, 6 Sep. 2007.
[13] “Comedy.” AC 26 Oct. 2012: 76.
[14] Bernard, Jami. Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies.
New York City: HarperPerennial, 1995; Clarkson, Wensley. Quentin
Tarantino: The Man, the Myths and His Movies, rev. ed. London: John
Blake Publishing , 2007; Dawson, Jeff. Quentin Tarantino: The Cinema of
Cool.
[15] “Mask Instructions: Be Prince for a Night.” AC 26 Oct.
2012: 22.
[16] Salam,
Reiham. “Who Are the 47 Percent?” NR 15 Oct. 2012: 18-20.
[17] Waltz,
Kenneth N. “Why Iran Should Get the Bomb.” Foreign Affairs Jul./Aug.
2012: 2-5.
[18] Fawcett,
Thomas. “Gilberto Gil.” AC 26 Oct. 2011: 90.
[19] The
Dark Knight Rises. Warner Bros. Pictures/DC Entertainment/Legendary
Pictures/Syncopy, 2012.
[20] Lewis,
Anne S. “No Hollywood Fluff, Please – We’re Polish.” AC 2 Nov. 2012: 51;
Weshinskey, Winnie, and Bruce Elliot. “Polack Jokes.” Retro Hell,
163.
[21] Egner,
Jeremy. “KAZI Radio Raises Its Voice for Summerfest.” XL 29 Aug. 29, 2002:
5.
[22]
Whittaker, Richard. “Ecopocalypse Is Here.” AC 26 Oct. 2012: 28.
[23] Johnson,
Paul. Modern Times: The World From the Twenties to the Nineties, rev.
ed. New York City: HarperPerennial, 1992: 654-657; Rand, Ayn [Alissa
Rosenbaum O’Connor] and Peter Schwartz. Return of the Primitive: The
Anti-Industrial Revolution, 2nd rev. ed. New York City:
Meridian, 1999.
[24] Gruss,
Mike. “On Its 30th Birthday, the CD Still Knows How to Rock.”
The Virginian-Pilot 10 Oct. 2012: E1.
[25] Eisler,
Dan. “Dribs ‘n’ Drabs.” E-mail to Frank Rossi, 19 Mar. 2000.
[26] Dawson,
Chester. “For Datsun Revival, Nissan Gambles on $3,000 Model.” WSJ 2 Nov.
2012, Eastern ed.: A1+.
[27] “In the News.” CIN Sep. 2012: 5.
[28] Gaar,
Brian. “Sprouts Emerges in Growing Field.” AAS 6 Sep. 2009: D1.
[29] Pailes,
Kenny et al. “Indian Explosion.” AC 19 Oct. 2012: 46-49.
[30] Maly,
David. “UT Senior Attacked by Transient.” DT 25 Sep. 2012: 1-2.
[31] Maly. “Police Arrest Protestors.”
Idem., 8 Oct. 2012: 1+.
[32] George,
Patrick. “Officer Fired for Shooting at Car.” AAS 13 Oct. 2012: B1.
[33] Coppola,
Sarah. “City Council Won’t Face Charges.” Idem., 25 Oct. 2012: B1; Kanin, Mike.
“Open and Shut.” AC 26 Oct. 2012: 32+; King, Michael. “The Law Is an Ass.”
Idem., 17-18.
[34] Smith,
Jordan. “Two More in Line for Death Penalty.” AC 19 Oct. 2012: 28.
[35] Wear,
Ben. “Toll Lanes Coming Soon to MoPac.” AAS 1 Oct. 2012: B1.
[36] “Drivers
Hitting Hogs on New Tollway.” Idem., 27 Oct. 2012: B3.
[37] Price,
Asher. “Owners Must Register Wells.” Idem., 12 Oct. 2012: A1+.
[38] Kanin. “WTP4: Running on Overruns?” AC 19 Oct.
2012: 22.
[39] Grattan,
Robert. “Construction Projects, Especially Those Behind Schedule, Taking
Toll on Frustrated Businesses.” ABJ 19 Oct. 2012: A3.
[45] Garza,
Vicky. “Concerns Among Owners in Warehouse District About Fan Fest Leads to
Meeting With Organizers.” Idem., A3.
[41] Bell,
Brenda. “Condo Owners Could Get Property Tax Cut.” AAS 14 Oct. 2012: A1+.
[42] Pagano, Elizabeth. “Montopolis Battle Lines.” AC 26
Oct. 2012: 26.
[43] Calnan,
Christopher. “Parking by Smartphone.” ABJ 26 Oct. 2012: A2; Grattan.
“Parking Downtown? That’s so 20th Century.” Idem., A1+.
[44] Ulloa,
Jazmine. “Casa de Luz Dispute Pits Old Against New.” AAS 27 Oct. 2012: A1+.
[45] Gaar. “Citing City’s New Rules, Payday Lender Closing Austin Locations.”
Idem., 3 Nov. 2012: B5.
[46] “Impacts.
CIN Sep. 2012: 4.
[47]
“Relocations.” CIN Oct. 2012: 5.
[48] AD No.
145n53 (Oct. 8, 2011); “Impacts.”
CIN Oct. 2012, Northwest Austin ed.: 4-5.
[49] Ijagbemi,
Bola. “Re: Austin Dispatches No. 156.” E-mail to Eisler, 2 Oct. 2012.
[50] Bierly,
Mandi. “Raising Hope’s Plimpton Is Ready to Clean Your House.” EW 5 Oct.
2012: 36.