Por Vida

how do i explain the brilliance of Alejandro Escovedo. well i can't. you'd have to see him (and band) for yourself and that would mean coming to Austin. but trust me, if you like your rock shows to border on being a religious experience then you would not be disappointed. i'm hoping the Club's listings are accurate and he is playing again next Tuesday, my birthday. a girl is never lonely at the Continental Club. i met a couple of die hard Alejandro fans who had come up from San Antonio. Daryl was flipping out because there was also an Australian guy there who he and his friends had just befriended. i never met him but he looked more typical of the not from Austin Austin music fan, a guy, old... looked liked he'd done well on the meeting his heroes front as he had a Stetson with many autographs on it. the night before i went to the Saxon pub to see singer-songwriter Hayes Carll. no i don't expect you to know who any of these people are. Willie Nelson has played there and his daughter, Paula, has residency there. go here to see her kicking a drunk fan off the stage. apparently it's actually a stunt. Hayes' was a very peaceful show with songs about bad livers and broken hearts and some funny stories in between. 

so i picked up the car yesterday and managed, with the help of GPS, to get back to the motel. still getting my head around the 'right' thing, but it's more knowing what lane i need to be in to avoid ending up somewhere i don't want to be that is the hardest part. i drove to the Alamo Draft House which isn't a bar but a cinema. this is an independent chain of cinemas. they show first run films but they're so much more than that. they screen sci-fi classics, Japanese invasion films, films with celebrity guests and beat films. they have theme nights like Music Monday, Weird Wednesdays, when they show really obscure stuff, and Terror Thursdays when they show old horror films at midnight. they have interactive nights with sing-alongs like Just Can't Get Enough: The New Wave when they play music videos and the audience, sings along! at the film i went to see, a documentary called The Unforeseen, they previewed a quote-along night for Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. the audience get free blow up air guitars and dipping dots (the ice cream of the future - looks like candy). excellent! heh heh. The Unforeseen is produced by Robert Redford and is about the effect real estate development is having on Austin and the environment. it's a pretty universal tale but its focus is on Barton Springs which feeds into a 900-foot long natural pool in the centre of Austin. i'm yet to go there but it's high on the list. be nice on a day with clear skies. so far haven't had one of those. i almost forgot. the other cool thing about the Alamo is that between each row of seats is a bench, kind of like at a lecture theatre but the bench has menus on it and pieces of paper and a pencil. you write your order on the paper and slot it in the place in front and someone comes and takes your order and brings you your food and drink. then they bring you the bill. none of this gets in the way of the movie going experience.

the day before i picked up the car i did the free Texas State Capitol tour which i found worthwhile. i enjoyed hearing that they haven't figured out what they're going to do with the portraits of the State governors once they run out of space on the walls of the inside of the rotunda. they have no idea when this will happen as governors can be governor for as long as they can get re-elected. fortunately this isn't the case for President, in some cases anyway. i asked the tour guide, a young woman studying at UT, about the Malick film and she confirmed they had been there filming. even though it's a public building they weren't sure if the film crew were allowed to block exits and the like but they did which caused disruption to the tours, but she said it was worth it as she got to see Brad Pitt.

today i drove to Wimberley, TX but i'll save talking about that till later as this is getting long and i'm majorly bummed because i've discovered Alejandro is NOT playing my birthday. the one Tuesday in 8 weeks that he's not :-( .