The catch-all category for random things about life in Austin, food & drink, politics, the occasional rant, whatever else.
The Austin American-Statesman’s Kirk Bohls is predicting Texas 48-44. He says someone has to beat USC someday, why not the Longhorns tonight? Sounds good to me.
This blog is wearing burnt orange today (and hopefully tomorrow) in support of the Texas Longhorns football team.
The CSS code is #CC6633 for anyone who wants to blog in the orange as well.
Hook’em!
I glanced up at a new calendar yesterday in order to date a check and saw that it was the 3rd. That’s odd, I thought, tomorrow is the third. I checked against another calendar and saw to my surprise that my 2006 calendar has 2005 dates.
I wonder if this means I have unfinished business or an incomplete ’05 resolution. Either way, I guess I’m living in the past. At least until I exchange the calendar.
Happy New Year.
Cheers.
I’ve always admired Ansel Adams whose crystalline technique and meditative style capture my imagination, so yesterday we finally made it down to the Harry Ransom Center at UT to have a look at the Ansel Adams exhibit that has been running since August and will end on Sunday.
I’ve read several books and spent a great deal of time studying his work, both formally and on my own, and several years ago I got to see a smaller exhibit of his work at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, but I was rendered speechless (once again) by seeing his work in person. The images jump off the walls; a few appear three-dimensional, and all invite the viewer to step into the American west.
Adams had the uncanny ability to bring the western landscapes to their fullest life in such a way that some of the places he photographed have seemed smaller and more ordinary when I’ve actually visited them. Perhaps the light hasn’t been right for me or the clouds not cooperating. Either way, the captured light on display at the Ransom Center is perfect and provides a wonderful way to visit some of these important American places in a couple of hours.
My favorite stop was Hernandez, New Mexico. I’ve seen (in books and online) and read about “Moonrise over Hernandez, New Mexico” many times, but seeing it in person was staggering. The level of detail that emerges upon close inspection of that particular image is something I’ll never forget. The little graves illuminated by the sun that set behind him just after taking the image stand out so clearly that with my eyes close to the glass, I felt that I was looking at a picture of graves until I remembered to stand back and take in the whole incredible scene.
With over two hundred images on display there are many other memorable stops in the wild and open spaces revealed in some of his most famous work such as the images of Half Dome, the White House Ruins at Canyon de Chelly (which I once foolishly tried to imitate with no success when I was there a few years ago), and the famous aspens that stand out so brightly against the rest of the forest as if spotlit by a focused sun.
One of my favorite things about seeing his work in person is the opportunity to stare into the shadows and see the detail that exists whether it is sediment layers in uplifted rock or leaves in a darkened forest. These kinds of details can’t be reproduced in books; one must see the images in person.
The exhibit lasts until Sunday and it’s free, so if you’re in Austin and haven’t seen it, check it out. It’s well worth the time to travel the west with the master himself.
On the way back from Orange today, traffic stopped on US 290 outside Elgin so that the fire department could put out a grass fire that was burning on both sides of the road. I could see the smoke for several miles as I approached and traffic seemed to be moving through it, but then it stopped. The firefighters must have arrived just as I did because there were only a few vehicles between the fire crews and me so I watched them work the fire and was impressed by how quickly they had the blaze under control.
The thing that got me was that while we were sitting there, I watched the moron in front of me flick two cigarette butts out onto the highway while the firefighters were working. I noticed she was reading a newspaper and perhaps didn’t notice the flashing lights, smoke whipping across the highway, and firefighters hosing down the results of some other fool’s inability to use an ashtry. Maybe she didn’t realize why we were all stopped when she casually flicked not one but two butts out her window. I watched them roll around and smoulder on the asphalt. Fortunately they died before the wind caught them and blew them into the dry grass.
When traffic started up again, I passed her. She was smoking, probably looking for a clean stretch of highway to torch.
The suspense is over. Here’s the tree that we haven’t put up since 1997:
Much has changed since then. It’s a different world, and yet the same old tree with some of the same ornaments that Zephyr once chewed up. I was upset when she did it, but now that she’s gone, it makes me smile to see her teeth marks on them. It’s added a whole layer of happy memories that dangle from the tree along with the ornaments.
And so amongst decorations, with music playing, food digesting, and A Christmas Story repeating endlessly on the tube, I find myself caught up in the bottom-line (no not that bottom line) magic of this time of year that when stripped of its commercialism, its overindulgence, its manufactured angst and hurry, comes to mean, for me anyway, the acting out of a desire for nothing more than simple peace and happiness, which I think is probably what most people really want. Let it be so.
Merry Christmas.
One of my favorite holiday things is Celestial Seasonings seasonal Gingerbread Spice tea. I always forget about it and then Lo! there it appears like angels on high, stacked neatly on supermarket shelves every year around this time. I’m more a coffee drinker than a tea drinker, but I always expand my hot beverage consumption to include this.
The food that for me most signifies Christmas is Mexican food. This comes from my dad’s side of the family, which was based Arizona. The tradition was that when it was your birthday, you got to pick dinner. My aunt was born on Christmas Eve, and apparently she always wanted tacos. Therefore, tacos on Christmas Eve became a Brush family tradition carried on by my dad to his own family, and it’s one I aim to keep. So for me, the traditional food of Christmas is tacos, tamales, enchiladas, quesadillas, chile rellenos, and salsa, a menu I find more exciting than the standard turkey, potatoes and stuffing that I do enjoy (immensely) the next day.
Tamales were added to the menu after we moved to Austin (where Tex-Mex on Christmas Eve isn’t that uncommon), and are usually supplied by Curra’s or (this year) Rosie’s where Willie Nelson gets his tamales. Sadly, the Balderas Tamale Factory in Round Rock is no more. They made the best hot pork tamales and often commented on how surprising it was to see “a white boy ordering hot pork.”
Well, so far we’ve covered food & drink, movies & TV, music, and decorations. Next up, that holiday tradition: travel.
The first time I saw A Christmas Story was during the summer after my senior year of high school. It was one of those few films that made me laugh until I was crying and gasping for air. This one works whether it’s Christmas or not because it deals with such a timeless theme: kids want stuff.
I still laugh every time I watch it and since it’s in constant rotation around this time of year, it’s hard not to miss. Sometimes I try to just catch the best parts, but that’s like trying to assemble a best of CD by the Beatles. Can’t be done. Although, I think the whole episode concerning Ralphie’s use of the F-word around his dad (“a master who worked in profanity the way other artists might work in clay”) is a priceless bit as is the image of Ralphie sitting there with a bar of soap in his mouth while he hears his buddy take a beating for his crime over the phone. So I watch it every year. Several times.
The other ones I never miss are How the Grinch Stole Christmas because, let’s face it, the Grinch is cool. And of course, A Charlie Brown Christmas because we all need to be reminded from time to time about the importance of selecting the ugly tree. Besides, the scene in which Linus explains to Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about is just fine filmmaking.
In order to celebrate the winter holiday of my choice (Christmas) over the next few days, I’ll be posting about Christmas and Christmas-related things that I enjoy, starting with decorations.
We usually keep it very simple because we’re lazy about such things, but we eventually get it together and do some work just in time to leave it all up for a week or two. We don’t decorate excessively since the cat likes to test his gravitational theories by knocking things off tabletops, and the dogs enjoy chewing the tasty Christmas decor. Yes, simplicity is the way of a Brush Christmas.
The tree has been an interesting issue for us. We haven’t had one since 1997 when our first dog ate the forbidden fruit from the lower branches of the tree and developed knowledge of the difference between good-to-chew and bad-to-chew. Instead of a regular artificial tree, we’ve been using these cool wooden trees:
They’re simple, set-up and take-down are a breeze, and – I think – fairly hip in their understated way. This year, however, since we now live in a house with a room from which we can exclude the hounds and cat, we’ve set up a regular tree.
But you have to wait until Christmas to see it. Ha-ha! I can feel the suspense building already.
I learned about this over the weekend:
Goodsearch is a search engine that donates a portion of its ad revenue to the charity or school of the user’s choice. You simply select your favorite charity on the search page, do your search (which is powered by Yahoo!) and eventually the organization that you selected should receive a check. If your favorite isn’t listed, I think you can enter it for them.
I’ll be searching on behalf of The Periwinkle Foundation, a nonprofit based at Texas Children’s Hospital that provides a free summer camp for childhood cancer patients. I’ve been involved with Periwinkle for 17 years as a counselor and video producer, and I love having the opportunity to help them out every time I search. Hopefully they will soon need buckets to haul all the cash around.
So give it a whirl. Help out your favorite nonprofit or school and let your search be part of your gift.
