Hot Weather
“Has it ever been this hot?”
Several times. Usually six or eight weeks later, but accuracy is not verified.
Solution? Old Austin style?
On Foot in old Austin
Last time I bought anything at the old Sears in Hancock Center, must’ve been around 2008. Used, reused, abandoned, retrofitted, I’m not even sure what’s what over there. Odd because I’ve worked, like almost literally, right across the street at the rock shop, for near a decade now.
This summer marks 9 years. That’s “9 years that I can recall and possibly document.”
astrofish.net/travel
Which put me on foot in old Austin. Almost rented an apartment across the street there, would’ve been the very early 1990s, and I couldn’t recall the specifics, either too pricey or I was too dicey. How I wound up in old East Travis Heights, which, I think, now bears another name.
Translate to a trailer park on the other side, and move around a bit, and what I did recall, I would carry, I had on me most of the time, a wallet with a frequent flyer card for Jo’s, the single location on South Congress, Little City, Texpresso, Halcyon, maybe Ruta Maya, Bouldin Creek? At any given time, I would have two or three punch cards, as that was the thing, then. I would frequent enough of the places that it was a valid pursuit. And Amy’s Ice Cream. One for there. Two or three coffee shop punch cards and an ice cream card.
Austin was a lawless frontier.
I never realized that there was a Jo’s so close at hand to the rock shop. Last time I passed that location, though, there seemed to be a drive through and it was six or eight cars deep on a warm (hot to some) summer’s morning.
Jo’s is where I first learned to love iced espresso.
On Foot in old Austin
Dr. Woo sold me cigarettes at TG&R, back when it had nickname that would now be deemed cultural inappropriate.
But was fun.
I’m like Jackson Lamb, thinking all the fun went out when we got too polite.
On Foot in old Austin
If only there was a primer for Mercury’s Retrograde — The Portable Mercury Retrograde.
Portable Mercury Retrograde: astrofish.net’s Mercury in Retrograde
Best Guess
“KORAN, n. A book which the Mohammedans foolishly believe to have been written by divine inspiration, but which Christians know to be a wicked imposture, contradictory to the Holy Scriptures.”
- Excerpt From: Ambrose Bierce
The Devil’s Dictionary.
Devils dictionary
Not that it matters, the World Wide Web thing, makes it all more accessible. I did grab a free copy of the Koran in English translation from Gutenberg.org.
- King James
- The Koran
- Devil’s Dictionary
The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce
Dream Town
I followed Chris Moore’s wonderful, Razzmatazz, and with this Baldacci, a sequel to an earlier “Archer” novel. Follows that dime-store detective, potboiler romance, echo from a half a century back? Maybe more?
“I don’t like wannabe authoritarians who lie in order to destroy people who disagree with them.” Page 304.
But only an echo. Addictive reading, with stylized hard-boiled detective fiction.
Dream Town
via Galatians
“6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
Austin Creative Reuse
- (see Austin Creative Reuse)
For many years, between Bouldin Creek and Barton Creek, the confluence entering Town Lake (Colorado River through downtown Austin), there was a huge cypress tree, like the roots on that giant, gnarled and knotted, exposed at low tide.
Me? I’m mired in my upbringing and training, while arguably well-seasoned by too many seasons in old Austin, still, there is that thin veneer of bad practices. Just being honest; I am a product of white male privilege. May not agree, but must acknowledge those roots.
Part of my familial lineage anchors in old East Austin, like, just on the other side of the old airport, and those roots run deep. Memories, faded hopes and desires, the incipient works of this career, all folded into a mix. Half-baked?
Austin Creative Reuse
In my “day job,” a career cemented into place by those years along the shores of the river? There’s a certain ineffable element I liked.
I found it again at Austin Creative Reuse.
What the place does, they recycle old crafts material, creative materials, and blank canvases. Or just about anything that falls into the “creative” category.
It’s a tremendous resource for antique paper, disparate craft elements, and outdated tools. Snippets of cloths, fragments and remnants of patterns, threads and bobbins, buttons, and more.
So much more.
I browsed for half an hour, spent maybe two dollars, and successfully didn’t buy back any donated materials. But it was the people, the volunteers especially, but the patrons, too. That essence of the cooperative, out-of-the-box thinking, the creative impulse as a cogent theme.
“What are you looking for?”
Inspiration. It’s everywhere.
Inside an almost blank diary, one page had a message scrawled, “Her friend got bullied on the first day of school. They plot revenge.”
Inspiration, indeed.
Austin Creative Reuse
Donate — reuse — recycle.
A special nod to the tireless staff who work miracles everyday.
Help support the arts in Austin.
And on to San Antonio? Spare Parts.
Underage services
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Additionally?
astrofish.net — accompanied minors must be supervised at all times.
Underage services
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The fineprint
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