Hip to the Future
I flew into Austin in 1991 for a musical vacation and spent the rest of the decade there getting a doctorate at UT-Austin in American Studies. The city was strange, … Continue reading
Spirits of the Weird
Clean and sober and 66. That’s Eddy Franklin today. He was out of the office for a short errand, heading back to his state job as a paperwork wrangler. He … Continue reading
Hashtag Why Austin
In the popular imagination, Austin exists somehow separate from large scale geopolitical conflicts and historical trends. Despite our understandings of this increasingly linked world, things happening on the other side … Continue reading
Sweaty Gnarled Clumps of Limbs and Torsos
Your walk should be a brief sojourn: Red River to Congress. Ten minutes, tops. But throngs of revelers block your route like a blood clot. Faces and bodies blur into … Continue reading
What’s Being Born?
Mourning what’s dying is child’s play. Seeing what’s being born is a lot harder and more interesting. See, for example, Billy Joel’s “Allentown.” At the same time he was crooning … Continue reading
Filed Away, Forgotten For Now
Some of the other End of Austin pieces will undoubtedly focus on how the city has changed, how it is no longer what it once was, how and when it … Continue reading
The Souls of Austin
TEAO asked Robert Jensen, “How does a rapidly changing city avoid losing its soul?” Here is his response: The question presumes that Austin has a soul. I’m skeptical, for several … Continue reading
The Beginning, the Middle, and Not the End
In the beginning, when Austin was born, it was named Waterloo. Young, little Waterloo had humble beginnings as a small Texas town in the hill country, but Mirabeau B. Lamar … Continue reading
Cities Do Not Have Souls
How does a rapidly changing city avoid losing its soul? First by discarding the idea that it has a soul. Cities do not have souls. They have traditions and histories … Continue reading
Spent A Year There One Knite
Anyone who’s met me has heard me say it; I was born 40 years too late. Film, music, literature, you name it; it seems whatever I am interested in hit … Continue reading
Welcome to Mediocre, Texas
Only the mediocre are always at their best, someone said, which could be why Austin is so damn proud of itself. Welcome to Mediocre, Texas, the home of the Texas Longhorns, … Continue reading
The Capitol Complex
Austin’s status as the capital city of Texas is both a privilege and a burden. State government employs thousands locally and is a major contributor the local economy. The State … Continue reading
Neverland
When I first moved to Austin almost seven years ago, the city welcomed me with open arms. Granted, I grew up on the east coast, so it’s possible my bar … Continue reading
Austin Seen, in progress…
I originally started documenting Austin in 2006 shortly after I relocated here from Boston. Feeling community-less and curious of my new surroundings, I hopped on my bike and started photographing. … Continue reading
Interview: Imagine Austin
Approved by the city council in summer 2012, “Imagine Austin” is a 30-year plan based on 18,500+ ideas and contributions from Austinites. According to the plan’s authors, “Imagine Austin” provides … Continue reading
Little Seeds of Special Potential
As a painter, I revel in the idea of gestation and change. My concept of gestation is that it is the first phase of change, when things are growing, fortifying, … Continue reading
Between the Windshield and the Rearview
Driving in Austin suggests a metaphor: this town always has one eye on the windshield and one on the rearview. Everywhere you look things are being built, while others … Continue reading
An End Both Slow and Urgent: Blackness in Austin
Like many grad students, I always expected a fairly definitive end to Austin, a time when I was called upon to fulfill my life’s work after years of honing my … Continue reading
Memorial Wall
“It started out as something smaller, a Day of the Dead thing,” Henry Gonzalez explains, standing before the Memorial Wall at the South Austin Popular Culture Center on Lamar, “but … Continue reading
