Discover Austin Texas! An Austin blog with hundreds of unique articles.
“She wanted to know if she had to be present to win our raffle,” James Whelan of SIMS Foundation told me. “She hadn’t been out since the death of her husband, and she wasn’t sure how long she would be able to stay.” He went on to share that later that night, he saw her lost in the music, dancing. To him, that moment showed just how important live music is to the people of Austin.
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Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum is a place most Austinites have been at least once. This beloved art venue offers vibrant programming, which includes summer camps, family days, and yoga. The peaceful space is also a popular event venue.
But as I walked in to do research for this story, I realized I’d never taken a proper tour. That’s how I missed a key fact regarding touching the statues. I had to confirm: is it really okay to touch the art? “Yes,” Program Director Sarah Athans replied as she smiled, “at least the bronze ones.”
This fact, along with a longtime relationship with Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, set the perfect conditions for Touch Tours to become a part of the garden’s offerings.
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Growing up, service above self was emphasized in my household. One of the many ways my parents would give back was through blood donations. On days when she donated, my mother would come home and jokingly declare she could not possibly hold a cooking utensil with her sore arm. On those days, we would eat out to celebrate this good deed, and thus service and eating out were forever linked in my mind.
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The first time I went to Texas Hill Country as a wine destination was about 15 years ago. It was akin to visiting a small farm, and I left without bothering to dream of what it could become.
If this story were made into a romantic comedy, a montage would now begin of Texas wine makers learning the Texas grapes, testing and finding the grape varietals that were going to work best in Texas, and building beautiful tasting rooms and properties. People from all over the world would hear of the Texas Wine Country region, as the number of wineries grew to more than 260. I would return a decade later, and fall in love.
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Several cult favorite movies, “Dazed and Confused,” “Office Space,” and “Boyhood,” share something in common: Austin. As Austinites, we not only enjoy these movies for themselves, but get to see our city on the big screen.
Currently, a movie is in production that not only has Austin as a backdrop, but also prides itself on having deep Austin roots. The “Vecinos” script was written by a local playwright; it had two separate runs as a play; and the film uses local talent, and crew.
“Vecinos” tells a story many will appreciate, about family, love, and the complexity of finding the people and places that make a home.
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Going hand in hand with our love of all things active, Austin is a city that loves adventure. Austinites can be found enjoying activities ranging from water obstacle courses to ziplining.
So when it’s time to introduce people to our city or take a break ourselves, what better way to do it than via some of our favorite things: biking, paddling, and floating? Thankfully, we have a great guided option for all these activities in Austin tour company, Frontera Tours.
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As a blog that loves all-things local, one of our greatest joys is seeing our favorite local businesses grow. Kong Screen Printing is dear to our hearts, so when I realized it would soon be celebrating eight years, I jumped at the excuse to see what the team has been up to.
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The mystique of Pique-Nique en Blanc Austin started in early March 2019. An announcement was made in the form of an online post. This year, it simply stated the date, “4.28.19,” followed by the words, “invitation to follow.”
The post was on an all-black background, with the type in white.
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As we enter our hottest season, the words “plumber” or “air conditioning problems” may induce a mild panic. But here in Austin, the panic may turn to a chuckle as we remember the ever-constant Radiant Plumbing & Air Conditioning commercials featuring the company’s owners, Brad and Sarah Casebier.
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Do you ever go on a wine-buying mission and find yourself standing in front of the shelves, frozen with indecision? In these moments, the options are usually to phone a friend, decide based on the appeal of the label, or just turn around, defeated by the despair of indecision. Note: The Austinot does not recommend this last approach.
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