Autumn activities here at the Oasis

Seems like I've been away from this blog for a long time. I have gone back to a lower frequency of posting, which I attribute to a burnout of sorts. By the time I've listened to radio news (NPR) for many hours, get my daily dose of Rachel Maddow, (almost daily) Stewart/Colbert, and wade through the endless stream of Facebook friends and Liked-pages news feed, commenting here and there, or not, (this election is INSANE) or issuing a status update maybe, plus scrolling through Twitter... I am too mentally wasted and worn out to put together a posting. It will be time for dinner+couch+TV with the spouse, or just getting out and being in the world in person. Anyway, here's a rundown.

Oct 20 was Tour de Fat, which we attend pretty much every year. It's a touring bike-themed, beer-themed, steampunk-flavored play day and costumed bike parade hosted by New Belgium Brewing Company in Colorado. MrB likes to ride in the parade. I sit it out but enjoy the day. I tend to have one beer too many and get too much sunshine. None of that changed this time. A few pics from the day:





On the 24th I went to the book signing of Matthew Inman, a.k.a. The Oatmeal - who creates some of the funniest comics you'll find anywhere. His new book is called "How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you," and contains How to Pet a Kitty along with a whole book-full of other cat comedy. I absolutely love The Oatmeal.

On Oct 27 we went to see 18-yr-old guitar phenom Carson Brock. He is the son of Kyle Brock, who goes way back to the 1970s playing bass with Eric Johnson, and gets better every time I see him. Good voice too. Look for him on your geetar radar. Here he is on the Jimi Hendrix song, Red House.


Halloween came and went. We had a solid hour of very cute costumed children coming to the door. The most popular costumes still seem to be Princess and Pirate, not much changed about that since I was little. I was never a Princess though, always a Hobo.

Nov 3rd we went to the Celtic Festival, where we had an enchanting day of wonderful Celtic music, climaxing with Moya Brennan (of Clannad) and band, including Cormac De Barra, two harps, drum, fiddle and guitar. It was really quite a treat. Here's one of her videos from about a year ago. Our venue was not nearly as magical as the setting in this video, but it was really nice, a stage in an intimate setting with the lake behind. It is still very warm here, still a bit warmer than I would like it to be, but the weather is still lovely and it cools down a nicely in the evening.


And there's cat news... mostly we do not go out except on weekends, and look forward to nightly visits from some neighborhood kitties. There's one in particular who has stolen our hearts. She is owned by the people 2 doors down but she is left out what must be most of the time. On Friday night, in the exact middle of the night, we heard a meowing in a place where there should be no meowing. There she was, on the second floor roof (which was very steep) crying at a high bathroom window which isn't any taller than a cat door.

Everybody was pretty freaked out and scared. I went outside and didn't really see any path down that wouldn't be painful. MrB was finally able to pry the screen off and pull her through there. We don't know why she was up there, whether she was escaping some critter or just decided to see if that might be an alternate place to be let in. We think she must have balanced on the plank fence and jumped up. We hope that she was sufficiently terrified by it to not try again. Anyway, couldn't help but think of this song.

The election is on Tuesday, and it can't get here soon enough. I think our heads might just spin right off at the neck. Will be checking in here again soon, I hope.

Running to help

That's our Mayor, Lee Leffingwell, as Batman. It's a fitting choice of superhero for him because this is a bat-oriented city. The reason these folks are addressing the press dressed up like this is to promote the CASA Superhero Run on Sep. 30. CASA is "Court Appointed Special Advocates" and their purpose is to help abused kids to get into a safer situation. The motto of the run is "Every child needs a hero, but abused children need superheroes." This video is just too darned cute.

2011 CASA Superhero Run from CASA of Travis County on Vimeo.

On Oct 20 there will be a differently-themed run called the Austin Thong Jog, held in honor of the memory of Leslie and benefiting the homeless. This is the first one, so there's no archived footage, only this little promo.

A bit less dressed than the first event, but probably more dressed than this annual World Naked Bike Rise that Austin participates in every June.


The Thong Jog happens at the same time that MrB likes to ride his bike (in costume) in the Tour de Fat Parade so we might miss the underwear spectacle. I can't run or jog (with this misbehaving foot of mine) and never could ride a cycle with fewer than 3 wheels - so I'm pretty much a freak and a permanent spectator, but I'm glad for the folks who do get to play along.

Silly Hats, Trashcan Music and Giddy Thrall

Saturday was an epic day for us, at least by our current standards. Usually it's me who wimps out, too hot, too late, too this, too that, {whiiiine} but sometimes things click.

Saturday morning at 10, MrB participated in the annual costumed bike parade which is part of New Belgium's traveling beer/bicycle/acrobatic festival called "Tour de Fat" (a reference to Fat Tire beer). Most people wear some kind of a costume or at least something fun. MrB rides in a Santa coat & and hat with red shorts. This year I wore a hat and shirt that looked like a zebra. It was a very, very silly hat. I will wear it again. New Belgium produces a lot of good beer, and 16 oz. of it could be had for $5. One of the acts was a couple who were yo-yo professionals (yes... that's correct). They were great. In the days of Ed Sullivan they would have been world-famous.

We allowed ourselves a pit stop at home to medicate the kitty (literally) and soon headed out to the Gypsy Picnic to see one of our new favorite bands, Delta Spirit, at 6:30pm. I'm pretty sure we were the oldest people in the crowd. I don't even care. I love this band's energy. The trashcan in the title refers to one of their songs where they use a trashcan lid as an instrument. This video did a great job of capturing their finale, which was a song I can't identify yet, morphing into that old standard "SHOUT" (Isley Bros.). It still works and still gets the crowd involved, same as always. Hell yeah! (if you don't have a chance to see it all, slide over to the 2:20 mark.) Not typical of the rest of their music, but they are worth checking out (their website has pro video, also try Spotify, iTunes...)


Now for the whipped cream AND the cherry on top. First of all, this town doesn't usually get star-struck. It's a film town, and reports of big movie stars making candid or *secret* public appearances are commonplace. But the recent 2-day visit by Johnny Depp to promote his new film, Rum Diary, and to receive a special award at the Austin Film Festival left the town in what the Austin Chronicle appropriately called a "giddy thrall." For me it was the (rather poorly-kept secret) appearance at the Continental Club, playing guitar onstage for an hour and a half with his old friend Bill Carter (whose songs are more famous than he is, such as "Crossfire" that was covered by SRV). Oh yeah, and Billy Gibbons was there for awhile too. And we were in the front row, pressed up against the stage just a few feet from Depp. If you want to see some much better shots than mine there, click here.

Here's a little local video and news coverage of his awards, etc.

This is my video, a Bill Carter song called "Willy the Wimp" that was also covered by SRV. We waited in line for 3 hours (for a 12:30 AM show). No wimps here. Not this time.

UPDATE Oct 26: Yahoo is featuring one of my videos in a story.
UPDATE 2 Oct 26: NOLA.com also linked to one.
UPDATE 3 Oct 26: Another Youtuber named AbbyandJohnny stole my videos and uploaded them to her channel. Now some of the media outlets are linking to those. Now that's just low-down and dirty on her part.
UPDATE 4 Oct 27: NME has a few of mine posted.

Tour de Fat

Saturday was one of our favorite annual events. It’s the touring circus-y celebration with the themes of cycling and beer put on by New Belgium Brewing Co., called Tour de Fat (think Fat Tire Beer). They bring bands, acrobats, beer and more (it's all free except the beer), but it’s very participant-oriented. Costumes are strongly encouraged, with costumed people and bikes being the fun part of the parade. Below was one of the coolest local parade bikes (and the original meanings of "bicycle" and "bike" will be suspended here, because all these contraptions have varying numbers of wheels, but all vehicles are non-motorized).

The weather was perfect! Sunny and about 75-80°.

Bat!!Muscles look good in fishnet!

MrB dressed as Santa... sort of, anyway. Loved his costume but he took it off after the parade (too warm). I was dressed as Batman's crazy Texas aunt who got left out of the will.
One of the contraptions New Belgium brought. Spin yourself around and try not to fall off. They also bring a collection of weirdly-designed and challenging bikes that you can attempt to ride. They are fun, even though some (most) require more skill than I have. The kids don't have much trouble though. I enjoyed the ones made from office chairs. comfy.
Acrobats taking advantage of some audience volunteers.
Stilts.
This is like a 3-way telephone, but it was (maybe unintentionally) equipped with 3-way "smell-o-vision."
Squirm-Burpee Circus bike in front with Austin-based "buggy" bike in back.
New-Orleans-style car funeral precedes the giveaway of a bike to someone who wants to trade their car for it. I think most of the cars traded are probably clunkers, but a nice thing for the environment if everybody could do that, yes?

Bikes and beer circus

Saturday was a beautiful day for the keepin' it weird bike and beer celebration hosted by New Belgium Brewery, Tour de Fat. It's a traveling circus (where most of the circus is you). We got there early for the bike race. I don't ride a bike and MrB is not big on wearing costumes so we were spectators.

 The park was a WiFi hotspot, but that was no help to these low-tech terminals.

There was pancake juggling. This guy, fortunately, was better at knife juggling than with this poor pancake, which ended up as grackle food after plopping on the stage several times.

 Some kids with a cool dad.

If only it was this easy to stop time, you could make the day last longer.

I captured a bit of the "Carpocalypse" parade on video, but you might want to turn the speakers down at first - it starts off in mid-honk.
All that fresh air and early beers gave us a good nap in the afternoon, and we spent the evening under the stars at the Nutty Brown Cafe watching one of our favorites, The Band of Heathens. And excellent day and weekend. Tour de Fat

Beer, bikes, and pancake juggling

We finally got some wonderful rain, although not enough to battle the drought. Also the temperature is cooling down - today only in the 70s! Wearin' sleeves!! According to the weather people it will clear up for the weekend and be in the 80s. As WaMu used to say (and I guess they will not be using this slogan anymore), "Whoo Hoo!" Tour de Fat rolls through town [Austin schedule]. It's a touring event put on by New Belgium Brewing Company (the name being a nod to their Fat Tire beer). Basically just bring your bike if you've got one, wear a costume if you want to, try and ride the really weird bikes, listen to music, bring the kids, bring your pets, drink good beer, get some sun.
The Squirm Burpee Circus was there last year and will be there again. No animals, of course (I would never promote an animal circus).

Beer, Bikes and Bugs of every color

A beautiful weekend here, perfect for outdoor stuff - temps in the 80s Saturday, maybe 90s Sunday. The Tour de Fat Festival was great. It's a bikes, beer and green freak party. The March Fourth Marching Band mentioned in a previous post was not there, at least I didn't see them, but they had the (Austin-based) Asylum Street Spankers, a good group from Colorado called The Reals, and a circus-y performance by the Handsome Little Devils, AKA Squirm Burpee Circus -- who specialize in Jitterbug and Juggling with some Pyrotechnics thrown in. Mr. B had some success riding the crazy bikes but I didn't even last a minute - found myself a 3-wheeler and thought it was a winner until I realized that it had to ridden facing backwards. A little too tricky for my non-existent skills.

Sunday was spent mostly browsing at Whole Foods and seed-heading the wildflowers in the yard (and trying to get pictures of various critters). This mantis was hard to photograph, as his camo is so good, our (new) camera's autofocus usually didn't recognize him as the subject of the photo. He is eyeballing me! Trying to figure out what the hell I want, I'm sure. Click to enlarge. See him?


Here's a pretty moth (above) with very intense iridescent blue colors on his back. I have still not identified him. I need to send it over to What's That Bug? Does anyone know what this is? [EDIT: see comments for the answer] Another critter we are keeping an eye on is this Anole who really wants to live inside the screened porch. Maybe he/she feels safe from predators in there, but is really only safe if Jax isn't out there. For Jax, lizards = tasty. Before he was brought indoors for good, he was once spotted with no less than two lizard tails sticking out of his mouth. Bad boy!! Jax's porch time has now been limited because of the green guy. Below is a shot of a much more common butterfly, a Monarch enjoying the later stages of the Orange Cosmos flowers.



Tags: anole - blue moth - mantis - Tour de Fat

Spokes, Spankers, etc.

Bunch of stuff happening this week!! Tomorrow, there's a CD release party for one of my clients, The Gougers. Their new record (released on the 16th) is terrific! I had not heard them before I took on their project, and I think their music is great! You can listen on the website. Another client had a CD release on the 16th, and that was The Texas Sapphires. They are a great live band and have released a live album. Now all we need is a party held earlier than midnight and we will be there!

Nothing going on Friday but some TV watching, but Saturday we are tentatively planning what looks like a fun event. It's called Tour De Fat, and looks to be a very participatory event that's all about bicycles, living green, costumes and enjoying good beer (the sponsor is New Belgium - think Fat Tire). Do check out the website links (below), and this video:



Tour De Fat [MySpace] [website]

New Belgium (mmmmmmm..... beeeeeer)

Musical entertainment will include our own prized Asylum Street Spankers, and a band I missed seeing last Earth Day (for Nickel Creek): The March Fourth Marching Band from Portland OR. They look like lots of fun. They describe themselves as a "Surrealist high-energy big band ensemble". [MySpace]. I believe it's a free event, and held at Fiesta park where they will be having the Celtic Festival in a couple of weeks.

Now, the whole bicycle thing, I think it's great. My own personal problem is that I can't ride a bike. Yesssss... I DID try to learn... maybe 10 years ago. Miserable ridiculous pathetic failure, although better than my attempt at snow-skiing. Actually, I did learn to ride a bike in an empty flat parking lot where there are no vehicles, people, obstacles, or narrow paths. Also, I can ride on 3 wheels like nobody's business. 4 is even better. So, if I am to be a cyclist, it will not be a BIcyclist.

Tags: Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music - Tour de Fat - beer - cycling