Category: Austin

Talked to Cory at the Green Muse about his vision for the back patio. It will be an Asian-inspired garden, with azaleas in pots, bamboo, and monkey grass. They’ll show films, and have “live music, of course.”
The front sign is being designed and constructed by Faith (?), who did the Blue Genie, Pieces of the Past, and a sculptural sign for a chiropractor of people raising their arms, bending, and touching their toes. Wonderful, playful things that make me smile, make the neigborhood nicer, and are good advertising, too.
At a table next to me, three women were preparing a photo shoot for a landscaping magazine.
I asked Cory about how he learned to garden. “You plant something and it dies, and you try to figure out why. It’s a slow process.”

So, I went to the journalers’ happy hour last night, following David Nunez’ testimony that they don’t bite.
Talked with Jette, of Celluloid Eyes, who did this brilliant impersonation of Prentiss Riddle, Greg Bueno, and several of Greg’s friends from Japanese class.
The group seems quite friendly and social. A good number of the social activities that I do seem to involve some flavor of work (I tend to start and/or organize things). It was fine to show up, hang out, chat, be friendly.
There are sub-cultural differences between journal-writing and blogging, although the lines among the genres are rather blurry. Online journal-writing is clearly a personal genre, whereas blogs can be more or less personal.
Journalers are pseudonymous but social, creating a set of nuances and ambiguities about level of personal disclosure. The social convention for journalers isn’t to have online comments, but to have conversation in a mailing list. The convention is also to use fewer links. The journalist stereotype of blogs is a series of journalistic comments upon hyperlinks.
Journalers (at least my impression from last night) do care about writing. The upcoming Journalcon will be described as online writers’ conference.
This piece, which is a first-person, impressionistic journalistic story, marks me as a blogger, I guess.
I also keep what could probably be described as an online journal, but it’s password protected. (If you know me and you’d like to subscribe, send me email, I’ll get you a password). I started it for a few friends who wanted more of the “gardening,” life-trivia stories, of which I publish a few on this weblog. I’m less brave than, say Mr. Nunez about writing about misadventures for the eyes of potential clients.

The late, unlamented 509 Coffee Shop on Oltorf in S. Austin has been taken over by two employees who are rebuilding with passion. The old place had bad coffee, inedible food, and “yeah, what” service. The new owners bake their own pastries, serve good-but-not-brilliant coffee, have a little fern-bonsai-cart garden by the front door, and are turning an industrial tub-in-concrete slabs into a water-garden in the back. The decor is bohemian-ratty, with art-by-people up on the walls.
One of the owners notices me shift position, sitting behind a table on one of the long benches against the walls. “We’re going to re-upholster those. They get uncomfortable if you sit on them too long.”
There are lamps on the tables, plenty of power outlets, and there’s a brand new WiFi AP (put in last week).
See you there.

There’s a set of bills in Texas, as well as SC, FL, GA, AK, TN, CO, and MI, that extend criminal penalties for cable piracy to the internet.
The bill is very broadly written, and could be construed to ban firewalls, NAT, anonymous email, and any number of other normal things you’d do with your internet connection.
EFF-Austin is working on this, in conjunction with other civil liberties organizations. We’re being quiet about it for the next few days.
More soon. Send me email if you’d like to know more.

David Weinberger expressed great puzzlement over this ubiquitous Texas term, when in Austin for SXSW.
Fortunately, Prentiss Riddle comes to the rescue with a pronounciation guide, a definition from a Spanish-language guide to Aztecisms, and links to the wikipedia entry on Nahuatl (the language used by the Aztecs, from which we also get the words “chocolate” and “tomato.”)
Thanks, Prentiss.

Yesterday was Austin Blog day, but presumably Chip hasn’t set this to reject late trackbacks. The topic is “what to do with four free hours in Austin.”
If I had four free hours, and it wasn’t raining, sleeting, or (!) snowing, I’d spend some time on the garden. The front beds need a row of annuals to replace the begonias.
February, I’m told, is Rose Maintenance Month. I need to prune the straggly rosebush in the front bed, and dig up and move a volunteer rosebush from its current location on the gravel walk by the AC compressor to a more hospitable spot.
Also, the walkways and paths need some blowing/clearing, and there are little green thingies that have sprouted, that need to go away. And have to figure out how to dispose of the grass that sprouted in recent weeks between the boards of the deck.
I’m fairly new to landscape responsibility; suggestions welcome.
For folks not in Austin, there’s a very uncharacteristic thin coating of snow on the ground. Probably will be gone by noon.

David Nunez has a very funny write-up of the Austin Blogger’s meet-up at Spider House last night (perhaps you had to be there to appreciate the write-up, I dont’ know.)
As I said in David’s comments, Instapundit may get millions of readers, but we get to hang out and be silly and do creative projects. A-list, who needs it? Community groups have all the fun.

When : Thursday, January 23rd, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Where : ACLU of Texas statewide headquarters, 1210 Rosewood
What : Initial strategy and organizing session for local resolution campaign
Before the meeting,
(1) Please take a look at the “Safe and Free” section at the ACLU national website at http://www.aclu.org, including the model resolution.
(2) Also take a look at the website at http://www.bordc.org, particularly the tools section that shows the outline and planning for a successful campaign in Massachussetts.
(3) Bring a list of personal contacts and resources that you can ask to support or contribute to this campaign. (I.e. other organizations, churches, institutions, friends, etc.)
(4) The Austin Chronicle published an article about an effort already in the
works by the Austin Against War Coalition. I can’t get those people to return my emails, so if you have contacts or know who they are, please try to wrangle a status report out of them.
(5) Please rsvp if you can attend so I can tell the office how many to expect. Also, you can invite individuals that you know are willing to volunteer on the campaign, but this is not an “all hands” call for volunteers. That will come later.

Public Forum : An ACLU Perspective on the 78th Texas Legislature.
ACLU of Texas Executive Director will discuss the many issues facing the Texas legislature that affect criminal justice and human rights.
This forum is being sponsored by the First UU Church of Austin on Sunday, January 12th, from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm. The church is located at 4700 Grover Ave. Directions can be found at http://www.austinUU.org/direct.htm
Now seems like a good time to show up at ACLU events.