A Caption-Fest Blog. Unconnected splinters of reality while cruising along in sunglasses and a hat. And yes... pants.

Every time I leave the house with a Fuji X100V I use it in a different way but when I look at the images after I get back to my office I'm always a bit amazed at how much I like the files. I had no real ambition today other than to cover some miles and get some fresh air but the camera can't be denied when it's ready to shoot. I've grown insanely fond of the built-in, four stop neutral density filter. I can shoot stuff like the stickers on this pole at f2.0 and join the "endless bokeh" crowd without even breaking a sweat...

Everywhere I go in central Texas there's a company making whiskey. The only local stuff I've tried is Nine Banded Whiskey (because one of my fellow swimmers is a partner in the venture...) and Milam Whiskey, from Blanco, Texas. They're both pretty good but then I'm probably a highly flawed judge since it's not something I enjoy on a regular basis...

There is a trend in Austin, and it may be nationwide, to have bar with lots of outdoor seating and then have a food trailer somewhere adjacent to the outdoor seating. Contained within the confines of the bar's "space" but somehow also separate. Taco Flats was a popular Austin Tex-Mex restaurant back in the 1980's and I guess this is the (final?) iteration --- an afterthought on the grounds of a booze factory.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that, if you are a UT student and you are getting stumbling drunk on Sixth St. most tacos will probably pass your taste test. With flying colors. Ew. Flying colors....I just got that. The old "Technicolor Yawn." 

I have little to say about this image from a 1950's advertisement plucked from one of the general interest magazines of the period. It actually does a yeoman like job multi-tasking poor taste, racism and sexism all in one go. I'm not really sure why a current company rehabbing a downtown space would decide to paper the windows during construction with ads like this but, on the other hand, there were probably even worse advertising messages back then. Hey, I just report on what I see. Note that the gentleman on the far right is holding what appears to be a Speed Graphic down by his waist...

This is exterior wall art for a new bar on West Sixth St. It makes me think of the Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." Maybe that's Mr. Kight. While the drawing of the man evokes a UK or EU image from the past the white and red stripes remind me of the land of the rising sun. A strange melange when taken in with the green fence just in front. 

When I rounded the corner from the weightlifter on one side of the bar I looked up and noticed that there were lights strewn above the roof's edge. They seem to echo the color scheme of the background graphic in the image just above. I was happy the X100V has a digital teleconverter function because the image would have been too far away to work in a 35mm frame. Click on this one because the red lights are quite interesting; at least to me.

This is a building I walk by frequently, but when I do it's mostly in the afternoons and it's right next to some taller buildings that block the direct sun. This morning I saw it this way for the first time in a long time. It's actually a western wall so it is facing away from the sun but all the buildings around it have mirrored or otherwise reflective windows and all the lighting pattern on the brick is a product of the morning sun bouncing off the east walls of the building across the street and reflecting back. I think it's fun. 

I'll just leave it to you to punch in and read the sign. It's a typical Texas story but that doesn't make the whole trope less entertaining. Especially when presented next to a brick mermaid...

There was once a restaurant called Carmello's that sat on 5th street, nearly east to the freeway. It was a traditional and nice Italian restaurant that served big portions, had white tablecloths and black clad waitpeople. One nice amenity was that they had their own big parking lot for customers. You drove in through a little archway and someone valet-parked your car for you. During one of the economic downturns (I think it was in 2001-2002) the business fell off, people started dining more casually, and the owners ran the numbers and figured they could make more money just running a parking lot close to the new Convention Center so they shut down the restaurant. At some point I think they considered doing something else with the property since most of the actual restaurant (but not the parking lot arches) was demolished but then the project was abandoned. Once everything cleared out I discovered that the entire back wall of the parking lot was covered with these whimsical fresco paintings. Some of them are quite endearing. I strolled slowly through the parking lot today as though it was a big, open air museum. Sadly, the harsh UV of the Texas sun will one day fade the paintings into oblivion. If I cared about antiquities I guess I would make a project of documenting them and then researching to find out who painted them. And why. I may actually be too lazy to do that. But I intend to do the photographic part...

We're having devilish weather here. It's been dropping down to almost unbearable lows in the nights. Last night I put bigger covers on the bed and noticed that it was forecast to be a bone-chilling 45° overnight. It was still in the 50s when I went for a walk. I took along a thick, casual sport coat and suddenly remembered how much I enjoyed having jackets with big pockets. I could actually drop an X100V into one of the pockets. It's only going to hit the mid-70s this afternoon and the sunlight is annoyingly bright and contentious. We'll soldier through. What else can we do? And then there's the hat. You may tease me but this image may just get me a gold star from my dermatologist....

And once again....the prow of Darth Vader's space ship. In downtown. See the reflection of the traintracks? Weird, right?