Austin, Texas, December 2010, Day 2

Today I awoke early.  And I used that time to actually type out yesterday's Waste.  As always, you come first.  After Barbie woke up, we headed down to breakfast.

The luxurious Embassy Suites atrium.  You know, the atrium is pretty much the greatest hotel design element that you can find.  From Berlin to DC, I have seen some lovely atriums.  Indoor spaces large enough to feel outdoor.  Add swans to package (bottom center) and the argument is won.

What is it about hotel carpeting in public areas.  These designs are clearly meant to hide stains and such.  But really, is that not the pattern of a nightmare?

Josh and Alexis came from their nearby home to meet Steve, Bryna, Barbie and myself for breakfast at the hotel.  Bryna's friends Steve and Rachel met us, too.  This made us four couples for the day.  We are going to travel en force.

A quick stop to Josh and Alexis' pad for a Groupon gave Juno a chance to get into the Waste.  She had read about Oreo's extensive Waste appearance in New York, and wanted to represent the cats of Texas.  (Though she is really a Seattle cat.)  I tried to explain to her that her spot by the window was going to lead to a silhouette, and she simply rubbed her nose on mine as if to say, "Then make it beautiful."  True story.  Basically.

Our first stop was The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum.  Bob Bullock was Texas' Lieutenant Governor during most of the 1990's, and he championed this museum.

Allow me to be judgmental.  You just do not name a museum after recent, minor politician, even if he was popular and passed away in office.  Even if the museum was created due to his efforts, you do not name it after him at first, and then maybe ten, twenty years later you let the people decide it is time to name it after him.  This is history.  It takes time.

This desire to immediately canonize everyone immediately after death... you do not want to hear me go on and on about this.  But really, America is taking its public figures and deciding moments after they pass to to treat them with the reverence reserved for saints.  It strikes me as foolish and immature.

 

This museum was filled with statues that have that living tableau vibe.  No choice but to stand in with them.

The funny thing is that in still photography, the frozen statues look pretty darn real, especially when postured in motion.

I read many exhibits about the history of Texas, and I have to share one thing.  The whole myth that we are taught about how Texas was its own country?  Firstly, Texas did fight a revolution against Mexico for independence.  And when victorious, they declared their independence and formed the Republic of Texas in 1836.  But what I learned from The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum is that the Republic of Texas decided almost instantly that they wanted to join the USA as a state.  In fact, some of Texas' founders had that as their plant at the time they were fighting Mexico.  As I recall, their revolutionary was debt was $2 million and their tax revenue during the first six months was $500.  They knew that Mexico would soon attack to take some cities back, and they knew that the safest way to prevent that was to join the USA ASAP.  There were many hurdles to clear, and congress actually blocked statehood for Texas for nine years, but eventually they got in.  Which really puts a damper on the whole Independent Texas Spirit  thing that tends to get pushed out there.  And this concept that they were their own country...  yes, they were, briefly, and they wanted to trade that independence for the security of the United States of America right away.  In fact, Sam Houston cleverly established diplomatic relations with Great Britain to pressure the USA into offering statehood, his gamesmanship accurately predicting that the USA would rather accept Texas into the Union than deal with a British-influenced nation on its southern border.

This is what I learned at The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum.  I imagine that I am one of the few who notices these facts on the walls, as they are surrounded pictures of weapons, descriptions of battles, and declarations of state pride.

There was a room devoted to aeronautics.  Here you see Josh trying out the batons used to guide airplanes around airports, which I encouraged him to do just for this photo.  Just for you.

Barbie holds the paper airplane that I made, which she plans to eventually throw from the third story veranda in this building's atrium.

By now, we should all understand that every war begins with an action or event that is used to initiate the war, even though the reasons for the actual war are often quite different and existed long before the excuse for why shots were fired.  The revolt of Texas against Mexico is a perfect example.  Mexico had loaned a small canon to the people of Tejas to help in their fights against what we call today the native American tribes.  This territory of Mexico that had slowly come to be dominated by Anglos from the USA.  When Mexico essentially said, "Give the canon back," the people of Texas literally said, "Come And Take It."  Literally.  They put this statement on a flag with a drawing of the little canon you see above, which is a reproduction of the actual canon.

Here is a reproduction of the flag.  It is, one might say, amusing suggestive in the modern era.  And this is how a little Mexican canon gave the Texans an excuse to revolt against Mexico, establish their own republic, and quickly attempt to join the USA before things got ugly.  History.

I later bought a t-shirt which reads Come and take it with the flag's drawing of the canon in the gift shop.

Unlike the teeny canon used to start the revolution, this one is larger and therefore much cooler.

Another set of statues that look impressively human.

We then watched a movie at the museum all about the awesomeness of Texas, complete with water mist for hurricanes and a nip on your behind from a rattlesnake.  I jumped out of my seat when something stuck up into my bottom.  I am not afraid to share that fact.

Yours truly with Bob Bullock.  Pose courtesy of The Colbert Report.

From the cafe, where I got a wonderful organic iced tea, one gets an excellent view of the subtle Lone Star in front of the museum.

Launch!  I do not think you need a red circle to show you the paper airplane that Barbie just released from her fingers.

But a red circle is probably needed to point out the white streak that is the paper airplane that Steve just released.

Steve's airplane, making good distance.

Steve's paper airplane, about to take rest on the beam exactly where that arrow is pointing.  It may be there for a very, very long time.  Well done.

Eye of Josh.  Color desaturated.  Tinted blue-gray.

I recently learned, while chatting it up with friends at a friend's home, that your eye grows from around 17mm in diameter at birth to around 25mm in adulthood.  A not insignificant growth of nearly 50%.  But considering that you are born weighing, say, 8 lbs., to only grow 50% would mean weighing 12 lbs. in adulthood.  Clearly, the eye is amazing.  And, yes, we are all biologically programmed to find faces with huge eyes cute, so that we love our babies and make sure that they make it to adulthood.

Outside the museum, where it was barely 50 degrees in the sun, we pose with the Lone Star.

Four of us with the Lone Star.  Upside down.

The State Capital building, again.  When it was built, they claimed it to be the 7th tallest building in the world.  Not sure if that was true, or what their criteria was for a building.  I mean, did they include the pyramids or was this just for modern buildings?

For lunch, we zipped over to the lake to eat at the Hula Hut.

The Hula Hut would be right at home in Cancun.  Then again, Texas was once the Mexican region of Tejas.

A gigantic fish is leaping out of the lake THERE.

I ordered the snack size of the Baby Back Ribs.  Snack size in Texas.

Barbie ordered the Coconut Shrimp.  Or shrimps, as I like to say.

A very popular slogan in Austin.  As a university town and the official liberal enclave of Texas, Austin is well aware of its role and respects its value as the, shall we say, least Texan of Texas' citites.

Another upside down self portrait, with lens flare.  I cannot explain the upside down thing.  It is right side up on the iPhone, on the computer, and on Picasa.  Yet again, a tech accident turns out interesting.

Rachel's poodle Avi hung out in the car most of the day, but came out to play after lunch.  Josh, Alexis, Barbie and I headed back to our homes to rest up, while Steve, Bryna, Steve and Rachel went off to enjoy the afternoon with a walk.  Our not-so-secret plan is to also hit the hotel jacuzzi.

Remember the swans in the lobby?  The swan theme lives on in the hotel bathroom.  Took me until day two to notice.

My feet in an Austin hotel spa.

For the first time in recorded history, Barbie's feet join my feet on the Waste.  Momentous.

Believe it or not, this might be the last shot of the capital building for this trip.

Dinner at Thai Passion, chosen by my friend Steve who moved to Austin from Los Angeles seven years back.  For the record, this makes him the third Steve mentioned on the Waste today.  Also for the record, among the friends I have had in Los Angeles during the last twenty years, Steve, Kathy, Mark, and Josh and Alexis have all moved to Austin.  No wonder it is one of the USA's fastest growing cities.

After dinner, we headed over to the big Christmas tree.

The Zilker Holiday Tree takes a Moonlight Tower and turns it into a 155 foot Christmas tree with 39 streamers, each holding 81 bulbs.   And if you want to know what a Moonlight Tower is, I just learned the answer.  In the late 1800's, the Moonlight Tower was invented as a 150 foot tall streetlamp with a powerful light at the top, bright enough to light an area with a radius of 1,500 feet.  Austin still has 17 of their original 31 Moonlight Towers, but this one used to create the Zilker Tree is, in fact, a Moonlight Tower replica.

I love that I just learned that in the early days of electricity city planners figured the easiest way to light up a city at night was with incredibly tall and powerful streetlights spread far apart.  It certainly lighted more area faster that installing a system of short street lamps along every street in town.  And since this was pre-automobile, the purpose the the lights was quite different than the streetlights of today.

Under the tree, you see the care that the city electricians put into the design.  Public art.  You know that I love public art.

A panorama from under the lights.

After the tree, we headed over to Rachel's brother's girlfriend's brother's house.  Seriously.  True fact.

Avi the poodle is in fact fairly well camouflaged on the white rug.  He later spent some quality time with head planted on my legs.  Quite enjoyable.  It was a perfect get-together, with cocoa, a warm fire, and great conversation.

The man of the house, who I got to meet and thank for his hospitality but whom I was never introduced to properly so as to know his name, had an artist take an old photo of his mother and paint this.  I quite like it.  Enough to include on the Waste.

Heading back to the hotel, we came to this intersection where Barbie borrowed the iPhone to grab this pic of a Wilshire street sign.  We live near Wilshire in Los Angeles, and neither of us can recall ever being on or hearing of a Wilshire in another city.  Definitely Waste-worthy.

And with that, I need to sleep.  Tomorrow... road trip.