[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,