Another Saturday in Austin

My favorite pic from Saturday above, which was one of those perfect Austin days. The weather was perfect, high 70s, warm and pleasant, and dry. We went to the Texas Book Festival to see Joe Ely. Behind me in the picture is the State Capitol of Texas building, a structure that is 15 ft. taller than the Nation's Capitol and the stage is the steps of that building. There it is on the right, with goats on the lawn (thinking about Dubya's "The Pet Goat" and wondering if it was one of the books available at the festival). Not sure why there are goats roaming the lawn of the Capitol during a book festival, but who cares, right?

The perfect day consisted of being able to sit in a nice theatre room in the Capitol to see and hear Joe Ely's multimedia show that surrounds his book/CD "Bonfire of Roadmaps". There's a film and some storytelling as only Joe can do, and some live songs. It was stunning, it was so good. Butch Hancock (his Flatlanders bandmate) was there with his family and sat next to us. The show was held in the same room as, and right after Jenna Bush gave her little book-talk, but we didn't have enough morbid curiousity (or were not bored enough) to show up earlier to see her (I was busy buying a new tea kettle anyway).

Then later in the afternoon, there was great live music on the Capitol steps. Joe has one of the best live shows around. The Book Festival and music show were free, by the way, and so was parking. After the show we had dinner at our favorite Asian place, Koriente, and got home at a decent hour. Right next to the Capitol, at Waterloo Park, there was a big Music Festival going on called Fun, Fun, Fun Fest. We could hear it from the parking garage. I surely do love this town.

Tags: Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music - Joe Ely