I took this image about 42 years ago down in San Antonio. I was walking around Commerce St. with an old Nikon film camera fitted with a 28mm f3.5 Nikkor lens. Shot on 100 ASA Kodak Ektachrome film.
Yes, those are 40+ year old Converse All Stars. Still have them around here somewhere...
B. and I are celebrating our 44th Valentine's Day together. Cooking scrumptious stuff at home for dinner. Followed by lava cakes with fresh made whipped cream. Then headed to the couch to watch "Valentine's Day" (the movie) and drink pink Champagne. But not too much Champagne; one of us has swim practice in the morning.... And a portrait shoot.
Hope you are having an equally good Valentine's Day. A nice day to chill out on.
We're in Austin. We're already slackers....
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Happy Valentine's Day to you. Hope you and B had a wonderful day. My wife, and I woke at 0700 to a snow storm here in Portland (well 35 miles out of Portland close to Mt. Hood Oregon), so we started a fire in the wood stove, I made breakfast, and coffee then we settled back to a couple of movies that were on our watch list. Then around 5 or 1700 hours went to dinner with friends, it was fun, although tomorrow I'll be back on the treadmill and cross trainer. I'm even looking for a pool close by to start swimming again, or we discussed putting in a Lap pool. The closet pool that has lap lanes is 9 miles away. :)
I wouldn't have gotten the "Slacker" reference without having just read the New Yorker piece on Austin. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/13/the-astonishing-transformation-of-austin
It reflects many of your observations, and reminds me of one of Yogi Berra's famous quotes, "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded."
I was impressed by the New Yorker piece on Austin. Never been there, but it was easy to correlate Lawrence Wright’s detailed profile with what you've written over the years. It struck me as a massive effort - pulling oneself as a long term Austin resident (or “citizen” as he termed the earlier experience) - out of that role and into the viewpoint of a wide ranging objective reporter. I seldom have enough attention span left these days for the traditional New Yorker book length treatment of a single subject, but this one held me all the way thanks to your earlier introduction. What did you think of it?
I think Lawrence was right on the money. The city has been growing endlessly since the end of the 1980s. the cost of living was skyrocketing even before Covid, et al. If we were renters, on salaries we would have had to leave a while ago. Most of what made Austin so fun and so livable has been replaced by typical ostentatious spending and hollow social climbing signaling by new arrivals who've already dropped the turd in their own punch bowls and decided to move the party here. We've gone from a city that revered the VW Beetle and old pick up-trucks to an almost unrecognizable train wreck of Bentleys, Aston Martins and a sea of Teslas. The wannabes are driving the leased Escalades. We've gone from "music capitol of the world" to corporate homogenized elevator music culture. It really went to hell when Formula One came in to town. We used to be a bright blue dot of smart people and kind politics in a sea of red. Now the selfish new arrivals are here mostly so they don't have to pay state income taxes and the city is quickly turning purple. Sad to see....but what in the USA is any better?
Saw Janis Joplin for a $1 cover charge decades ago. Tickets for the good seats at the upcoming Madonna concert are going for $1200. I think that mostly sums it all up.
Whoah, $1200. Where have I been? That's a ton of money to drop on a concert.
The last live concert I attended in a large venue was to see Simon and Garfunkel at the CNE stadium in Toronto. That must have been in the early to mid 1980s and I don't remember it costing me more than $20 or $25. But even that annoyed me because all I could see was the large display screen, not much different than watching TV except a lot colder down on the lake front.
The only thing missing is Nero and a violin.
Thanks. People on their way up and wealthy enough to have a reason to avoid taxes seem to have a tendency to make greed the priority. Not all, obviously, but enough to wreck the environment for the rest. Ostentation, bad taste, and a bizarre, inflated sense of entitlement can make coexistence all the more prickly.
https://austinkleon.com/2023/02/14/images-can-blind-us/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Another take on Austin at the link (which doesn't look right as I type in the comment box but will hopefully manifest as a link when I click Publish). I'd love to visit sometime but global warming concerns about flying and the sheer cost of doing so make it unlikely...
My recommendation to Austin Kleon is that he take time out from his "life of privilege" and meet some of his new neighbors. The ones knocking down nice old homes to build McMansions. The ones who are investing in gated communities. The ones whose ideas of live music involve steaming something different on their entertainment systems. You know, all the folks who live From car to house to office to car. Time to step outside the Kleon bubble.
The worst insult anyone could call anyone when I was at school, was a 'pseud'.
Clearly pseud pays...................
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