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  #101  
Old Posted Mar 15, 2009, 7:29 AM
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Yeah, it's a bit of a ways to downtown. Not real bad, but I wouldn't want to have to do that everyday. Both my sister and her fiance work downtown too. They're actually buying a house in Del Valle, which I think is even worse, but they're happy, so I guess that's what is important.
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  #102  
Old Posted Mar 15, 2009, 7:55 AM
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Its similar in the SA metro if you start in Wilson county (mostly flat) and drive 50 or so miles northwest into Bandera or Kendall county (hilly and rocky). Heck, you could even start in southeast Bexar county and go to the northwest part and see a drastic difference just within one county.
You can see quite a drastic difference without ever leaving Travis county, too! Flat black clay soil and diverse plant life on the east, to rolling hills, to some dramatic hills/rocky, desert plant life on the west side. If you re-drew the eastern border of Travis just a tiny bit to include the lost pines area of Bastrop county, it'd probably be the most diverse geographically in the state!
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  #103  
Old Posted Mar 15, 2009, 11:32 AM
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Retractable window shades.

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  #104  
Old Posted Mar 15, 2009, 2:09 PM
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The new El Sol y La Luna just opened next to Emo's downtown. Also plenty of restaurants on S. Congress -- Vespaio Enoteca is very good Italian, Home Slice is my favorite pizza in town but is very crowded. La Taverna on 2nd is pretty good, reasonable prices, also quite crowded.

And yes, SXSW passes are crazy expensive now. I wanted to go to some Interactive events this year, since I live just a few blocks away, but damn! $450 for an interactive only badge!?!?! Didn't want to go that badly. And they don't offer single day passes.
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  #105  
Old Posted Mar 18, 2009, 10:33 PM
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I'm definitely headed to the free show on Friday. Bob Schneider, Raul Malo and the ARC Angels.

If you miss that show, the Alejandro Escovedo and his string quartet will give a live show at the San Jose Motel on South Congress. I probably won't see them since I'll be at Auditorium Shores, but they are a great band to see live. I've seen them twice. They even played at the 360 party at Austin Music Hall last year.
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  #106  
Old Posted Apr 3, 2009, 10:25 AM
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The Clash's music video to "Rock the Casbah" was filmed in Austin. Who knew? Check it out. There's several shots of downtown! Note the Radisson Hotel (Crest Inn), and the sign infront of it that says "City Coliseum The Clash". Click on "Video Link" below to see it. There's also a skyline shot from near Auditorium Shores. Wild.

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  #107  
Old Posted Apr 3, 2009, 9:44 PM
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Cool about that video. I had no idea.


For all you Austin photographers reading this, there is a documentary playing at the Draft House on Wednesday, April 8th, at 7:00pm, about Julius Shulman. He's the architectural photographer synonymous with mid-century design. Many of his photos are iconic. For example:





I imagine it's not much of a general interest documentary, but since there are a few people here who do a lot of architecture photography, I thought you might be interested.
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  #108  
Old Posted Apr 3, 2009, 9:52 PM
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I'm definitely headed to the free show on Friday. Bob Schneider, Raul Malo and the ARC Angels.
My wife was backstage at that concert! I was out of town and she went with a friend who was working the catering there. But she was telling me on the phone the singer was "Rob Schneider", and I was thinking, "What, another crappy actor has a band?" And I asked her if it was the actor and she said she thought so, maybe, because he had a hot young wife and a spoiled brat kid. I was getting a real chuckle out of that, until I found out it was *Bob* Schneider and I thought, "Well, that makes more sense!"
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  #109  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2009, 7:58 AM
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There's also a shot in that video looking down 6th Street at the old Alamo Hotel (brown building). It's gone now.

From Wikipedia:

I had a feeling that was Bergstrom!

Quote:
The Clash made low-budget music videos for several of their songs, and the one for "Rock the Casbah" may be their most memorable. Filmed in Austin, Texas, it depicts an Arab, played by Austin actor Titos Menchaca, and an Hasidic Jew, played by local stage director Dennis Razze, skanking together through the streets, often followed by an armadillo, interspersed with the band performing in front of an oil well. The humorous tone of the video fits the song, although it is easy to read the antics of the Arab and Jew as a desire for better relations between Israelis and Arabs.[2]

The U.S. Air Force became an unwitting participant in the video. Two RF-4C aircraft landing at Bergstrom Air Force Base (near Austin) from the east are featured in the portion of the video with the lyrics "the King called out his jetfighters..."

The video features their first drummer Terry Chimes, because, at the time of its release, Headon was out of the band due to his growing drug addiction.[2] Headon admitted that seeing the video with "someone else at my place, playing my song"[citation needed] was very painful for him and he spiraled deeper into depression and drug abuse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_the_Cashbah
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  #110  
Old Posted Apr 6, 2009, 6:55 AM
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A thought has occured to me...if all of California isn't in the southwest, and all of Texas isn't in the southwest (I think that's pretty obvious), then San Antonio is the 2nd largest city not just in Texas, but in the Southwest too. Also, Tower of the Americas would be the tallest skyscraper in the Southwest (at least until the Austonian is finished).
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  #111  
Old Posted Apr 7, 2009, 12:40 AM
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I wouldn't call San Antonio southwestern though. It does have some characteristics of southwestern cities, and more than the rest of big Texas cities do, except for El Paso. Things like culture reflect that region, though the architecture of the city is less Southwestern. San Antonio probably has some, but it doesn't have many adobe homes like the other southwestern cities do.

Austin is also in no way southwestern. If Austin is Southwestern, then Fort Worth is Eastern.

On a trip to Albuquerque once, I noted how different the area felt from Texas. Of course, I've never been to El Paso, so I suppose I could change my mind.
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  #112  
Old Posted Apr 7, 2009, 3:12 AM
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I don't think any region really wants to claim El Paso.
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  #113  
Old Posted Apr 7, 2009, 4:06 AM
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Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas View Post
I wouldn't call San Antonio southwestern though. It does have some characteristics of southwestern cities, and more than the rest of big Texas cities do, except for El Paso. Things like culture reflect that region, though the architecture of the city is less Southwestern. San Antonio probably has some, but it doesn't have many adobe homes like the other southwestern cities do.

Austin is also in no way southwestern. If Austin is Southwestern, then Fort Worth is Eastern.

On a trip to Albuquerque once, I noted how different the area felt from Texas. Of course, I've never been to El Paso, so I suppose I could change my mind.
I don't consider San Antonio southwestern just because of the culture. I look at geographic location, terrain, and vegetation.

I consider the boundary line of the southwest to be the far west side of Fort Worth.

Texas Live Oak and prickly pear cactus only grow in areas with dry soil. These grow starting west of Fort Worth and straight down to Corpus and westward on. I put San Antonio about 55 miles inside the Southwest, and Austin about 10 miles. Eastern Travis County doesn't have southwest vegetation or topography, and is on the border between the Southwest and South. Of course this is all my opinion, but I think it's a fairly well educated opinion

Oh, and you know how the music festival is called South by Southwest.....that's exactly how I would describe Austin's geographical location......downtown and westward is in the Southwest, while the far east side and the rest of eastern Travis county is in the South.

And...having lived in North Texas for 20 years, I can tell you that Austin and San Antonio are in the southwest and not because of the culture
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  #114  
Old Posted Apr 7, 2009, 3:28 PM
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So we're not lumping DFW with San Antonio? YES!! Victory! Kinky would be proud.

Hey M1EK, come get electricron, he's frothing in the Seattle Transit Thread!!!.
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  #115  
Old Posted Apr 7, 2009, 7:12 PM
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Even though you were a wanker WRT 'streetcar costs', I have satisfied your request.
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  #116  
Old Posted Apr 8, 2009, 3:16 AM
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Originally Posted by ydoc14 View Post
I don't consider San Antonio southwestern just because of the culture. I look at geographic location, terrain, and vegetation.

I consider the boundary line of the southwest to be the far west side of Fort Worth.

Texas Live Oak and prickly pear cactus only grow in areas with dry soil. These grow starting west of Fort Worth and straight down to Corpus and westward on. I put San Antonio about 55 miles inside the Southwest, and Austin about 10 miles. Eastern Travis County doesn't have southwest vegetation or topography, and is on the border between the Southwest and South. Of course this is all my opinion, but I think it's a fairly well educated opinion

Oh, and you know how the music festival is called South by Southwest.....that's exactly how I would describe Austin's geographical location......downtown and westward is in the Southwest, while the far east side and the rest of eastern Travis county is in the South.

And...having lived in North Texas for 20 years, I can tell you that Austin and San Antonio are in the southwest and not because of the culture
Yeah, geography wise Austin is somewhat southwestern. My dad would even say that parts west of Austin are nearly desert like. I rode my bike around this week, probably 50 miles I'm sure around South Austin, and saw some huge prickly pear cactus in people's yards. As you go farther west, they're everywhere. But to the east you pretty much don't see anything like that.
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  #117  
Old Posted Apr 8, 2009, 6:51 AM
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Yeah, geography wise Austin is somewhat southwestern. My dad would even say that parts west of Austin are nearly desert like. I rode my bike around this week, probably 50 miles I'm sure around South Austin, and saw some huge prickly pear cactus in people's yards. As you go farther west, they're everywhere. But to the east you pretty much don't see anything like that.
Correct! Even in Williamson county you can glimpse some patches of prickly pear in some of the undeveloped land on the west side of I-35.

And prickly pear isn't the only type of natural southwest vegetation around here...we also have barrel cactus and about 3 different types of yuccas.
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  #118  
Old Posted Apr 8, 2009, 7:03 PM
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I've noticed a lot of neighborhoods going native with their landscaping, or else desert like plants, even some like Yuccas and others. I've been considering doing it in our yard too. We have mostly tropical stuff, which I'd still keep around, but it freezes back during the winter. It would be nice to have some greenery year round and more flowers in the middle of the summer.
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  #119  
Old Posted Apr 8, 2009, 7:08 PM
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I did both - populated the swale with mostly natives that once established need very little water, and have a couple flowerbeds bordering the walk to the house from the street which can be handwatered from the rain barrel (bonus: normal Ph water, not the alkaline stuff you get out of the tap) for annuals and non-natives.

Many others in my area (NUNA) have done the same thing - only problem is how many still have big St. Augustine lawns in the front. Sigh.
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  #120  
Old Posted Apr 8, 2009, 7:17 PM
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Where can you find rain barrels? I'd like to get one myself. I've been wanting to plant some more stuff to make the yard more colorful and green, but I hate the wimpy stuff that freezes back every year or else dries up in the summer. I want something a little tougher. And I was wanting to plant something on the side of the house to make some shade along my bedroom wall. There's no trees on that side of the house, and it's a south facing wall. My room is the first one in the house to get hot. I was thinking of maybe an Oleander. I need something that doesn't have a crazy root system, because our sewer line runs along that side of the house and I don't want anything that would interfere with it like a tree.
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