Discover Austin Texas! An Austin blog with hundreds of unique articles.
Laguna Gloria on Lake Austin
There’s a quiet retreat waiting for you. And if you live in Austin, it’ll only take you a few minutes to get there.
Feel free to take your dog, child, significant other, or best friend. But you may find that Laguna Gloria becomes your favorite place in Austin to explore all by yourself. [Read more…]
Revival Cycles on Bolm Rd.
I was at a house party in East Austin last week, and one of my friends told me, “I’ve never been this far east before!”
I’m not surprised. Years ago when I was at UT, the common recommendation was to stay away from the eastside. The area was old and “not safe.”
These descriptions still apply to parts of Austin’s eastside, but those who venture under I-35 to previously unexplored territory are surprised by what they find. Good food, unique local businesses, nightlife and a vibrant art community are right on our doorstep, with a flavor all their own.
One of the best representations of the underrated beauty of the eastside was displayed [Read more…]
Deco lettering of Brown Building on Colorado, 1938
What would you do if the Austin you know and love was being threatened by strip malls and national corporations?
Large changes are easy to spot. But historical and cultural landmarks can be quietly replaced, one at a time, until our city’s architectural heritage is gone.
Behind every old building is a special story. Without the buildings, the stories are told less, and that part of who we are as a city is lost. [Read more…]
Great hall at Texas Military Forces Museum
The military knows something about keeping secrets. The Texas Military Forces Museum, however, shouldn’t be one of them.
Imagine a world class museum in the heart of Austin that is not only accessible to the general public, but free.
That’s right. Free. [Read more…]
Nicholas Dertien experiments with glass – “Trapped Breath”
If you’re an Austin artist, your work can be displayed at City Hall. All you need to do is apply…and be selected over nearly 400 of your peers.
Think you got the chops?
The People’s Gallery is in its 8th year at Austin City Hall and runs through January 10, 2013.
The exhibition exists to “showcase regional artistic endeavors and to encourage public dialogue, understanding, and enjoyment of the visual arts.”
It’s great to live in a city that values cultural depth and development, wouldn’t you agree? [Read more…]
The bow of the Eagle
Editor’s Note: Because the Austinot’s founder, Eric Highland, is a 20-year veteran of the United States Coast Guard, I was delighted when I first heard the following story. I’m grateful to Richard for sharing his story and aspirations with our community, and for the example he sets for his generation of young Austinites.
This guest blog post is by Richard Barr Dent.
What motivates a high school junior to compete for a ride on one of the last sailing tall ships in the United States fleet?
At four, it shocked me to leave Cincinnati. “Austin is hard,” I told my grandmother. No tree leaves changed colors in Autumn. No snow for sledding in the winter. Luckily, I realized we were only three hours away from the Texas coast. Trips to Galveston, tours of the Elissa, the tall ship that is the pride of Texas, and nights spent aboard the U.S.S. Lexington with my Cub Scout Pack 29 kindled my maritime interest. Before Austin, my only exposure to the sea was the movie Muppet Treasure Island. [Read more…]
What will become of the bound book in the age of Kindles and Nooks? Will pages disappear alongside the scroll and clay tablets? If the citizens behind the Austin Book Arts Fair have anything to say about it, the answer is a defiant, printed and bound, “No!”
This weekend, the Austin Book Arts Fair will celebrate one of mankind’s greatest inventions: the humble book. Taking place on the beautiful grounds of the Villa at Laguna Gloria, owned and operated by the Austin Museum of Art, the Austin Book Workers promote books and book arts throughout Central Texas. This is the perfect event for children and adults who believe in the power of books to transform and enrich life. [Read more…]
Looking for a date spot in Austin this weekend? Well hold on and let me tell you about a unique place you can check out with your significant other. Austin is known for its off-the-wall approaches to art. This weekend, you have a chance to get an artistic take on something you may have seen a thousand times before, just never like this.
Local artist Heather Trolleston has been working with the “Urban Musuem,” named Art on the Way, to display her Spiral Plexus artwork.
Art On The Way (AOTW) is an Austin nonprofit organization/museum which purposefully utilizes public and private plots of land that would otherwise fall into disuse. AOTW reclaims this land and does something incredibly special and beautiful it. You may have seen a few of their older displays driving across the city. Basically, they transform forgotten pieces of land into venues where local artists can [Read more…]
The invention of the camera gave us the ability to capture the world around us in fleeting moments of time. Then, few people could afford to own a camera and film was limited. What remains of that era are family portraits, and images of important events and political figures.
Today, cameras are widely accessible and digital features allow us to create and discard photographs with barely a thought. We take pictures of our cocktails at parties, our dogs when they fall asleep on our chest, a dandelion on the side of the road.
From one perspective, these types of photos are excessive or [Read more…]
A few months ago, if someone had asked me who makes the finest swords in the world I would have replied without hesitation, “the Japanese.” This shows my level of local ignorance.
What if I told you that one of the world’s most talented master sword makers lives and operates in Austin’s backyard?
Don’t believe me? It’s true. Not only that, but this American master sword maker has blown away every single world record in Japanese sword cutting and they aren’t getting the trophy back any time soon. He hasn’t beaten the Japanese by a small margin; he has decimated them. This master owns the charts.
All of them. [Read more…]
