As my 19th summer in Texas approached, I started dreading the inevitable heat earlier than usual. Each year, I considered options such as visiting my family in New York City during peak tourist season, getting a movie theater pass to watch every new release, or picking up a new hobby
With every big, booming song gifted to us from The Beach Boys — from “California Girls” to “Sail On, Sailor” — you’ll find a leafy cousin, a condensed, sleepier mini-symphony like the hula ballad “Little Pad,” or, earlier, “The Warmth of the Sun.” One constant, however muted, is the presence of
Complaining about the New York Times is an unvanquishable media pastime, but ultimately as useful as slingshotting rocks at a zeppelin. The volley might annoy the crew and result in a few light directional changes, but if the whole overstuffed galoot finally takes a nosedive it will be due to
[note: this piece was originally published on my now-deleted substack, and then on the End of Austin in January of 2024] In February of last year the New Yorker published an article by Lawrence Wright entitled “The Astonishing Transformation of Austin.” Wright is the author of several books about al-Qaeda,
Visiting an estate sale is one of the most indirect but intimate ways of trying to understand a person you have never met. Instead of through their work, their personality, or their physical features, a person shopping at or working at an estate sale experiences a person (sometimes dead, but
It begins with a quest. A marauder, simple traveler or possibly a knave takes to the road or a barely visible forest path in search of some knowledge, treasure. In this case, the trail winds east on Cesar Chavez street and ends just a block east of JuiceLand and Poke-Poke.
I don’t know how I first heard about Flaming Hydra, a website that posts (usually) two pieces by authors or illustrators each weekday — usually nonfiction writing, but not exclusively — but it probably had something to do with the fact that a lot of my favorite writers were involved from
Three cheers for the not-so-distant past of tactile media, when newspapers explained the everyday, books contextualized the past, and DVDs and VHS cassettes made these discoveries audible and extra-visual. The constant flow of commentary describing the present itself becomes history, ready for excavation, especially online. And as for accessing that
At the opening keynote of SXSW Interactive in Ballroom D at the Austin Convention Center, Hugh Forrest, the easygoing President & Chief Programming Officer of SXSW, walked us through the usual round of thanks to volunteers and staff before addressing “the elephant in the room.” On screens flanking his sides,