Maybe the smartest idea I've ever had: SALSA at Alamo Drafthouse.

Tim League? Henri Mazza? I'm lookin' at you, boys.

Can we please make this screening happen at the Drafthouse? I personally think it's begging for the Master Pancake treatment. It's like La Bomba, Car Wash, Fame, and Center Stage all rolled into one:


...and that's just the OPENER!

One small step for my cat, one giant leap for this freaking blog.

Sometimes pets just say the darndest things!

Behold: Austin Eavesdropper now has separate tabs for music, food/drink, fashion, and a loose category I'm choosing to call "Awesome And/Or Life-Saving."

Right now that last tab is reserved mostly for artists, like Knitta Please for example. But truly it could go in any direction.

NOTE TO PUBLICISTS: Hi! I love you! No I am being serious, if you are an Austin publicist (or publicist bringing something neato to our city), I really do want to hear from you. I am terrible at responding to the queries that Austin Eavesdropper gets, but that is mostly because I'm just a gal, a gal with a gay, GARY!, and we run this happily chaotic site all by ourselves. But with the creation of new tabs comes the contributions of new voices, people who can talk about things like food and fashion in far more intelligent ways than I can.

So! please do keep sending your queries, and I will now field them to the appropriate Austin Eavesdropper contributor.

NOTE TO READERS: Who knew this spectacularly random blog would ever get readers?!  I am so thankful that you, person reading this screen right now, offer your eyes, your suggestions, and sometimes your comments to a site that has slowly morphed from a bumbling Frankenstein to an almost-pretty swan of a blog. I'm really not even sure where I'm going with that analogy but I think you get the idea.

While I will still continue to blog about my life (and notably my friends, husband, or cat) here on Austin Eavesdropper, we hope that with these changes, it can be a more useful resource to all who visit.

huzzah!

UPDATED: More thrilling than a zombie outbreak: Wine for 25 cents!

For real, this is happening.

Just got word that Maggiano's Little Italy, in The Domain, is selling $0.25 samples (2 oz. each) TODAY ONLY of Ruffino Salute Amico.  Which means that for just two dollars, you can get reasonably drunk.

Everyone knows how I feel about The Domain (conflicted), but this is more than worth the trip. They're open until 10pm tonight, so go fellow winos, go!

UPDATE: Just got word that, in fact, this easy-to-overdo sample extravaganza is enforcing a cap. Sad face. Happy liver.

From the publicist:

"The restaurant is only allowed to give out one sample per person. While the one sample may not be quite as thrilling than a zombie outbreak, the other offer (free flatbread with a purchase of a glass or bottle of Salute Amico) might be just as tempting."

Well publicist, Eavesdropper readers will take flatbread over human flesh any day! Thank you for the update.

San Francisco show review: Miike Snow.

If you've been anywhere near SXSW, Brooklyn Vegan, or an episode of Gossip Girl lately, you've heard of Miike Snow. An innocuous-enough sounding moniker, until you realize that's "Miike" with two I's, not one. The extra "I" means that it's time to party.

I first came across Miike Snow like most people did, with the animal head-heavy music video.


This song, along with "Cult Logic," remains Miike Snow's most popular contribution to the 2009 cadre of indie dance grooves. If synthesizers make you drool, like they certainly do me, you'll find its marriage on this track with light reggae beats a refreshing way to get down. The sound is familiar and yet, like nothing you've ever heard before.

Then again, maybe it is. GARY! informed me that Miike Snow isn't "Miike Snow," the frontman's real name is Andrew Wyatt. And that his main production collaborators are Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, known in the music world as Bloodshy & Avant, and even better known as the Grammy-winning pair who laid down the "Toxic" track for Britney Spears.  Proving that, in the world of music economics, there really is such a thing as the trickle-down effect.

But enough of this Reagan talk: Let's talk about Miike Snow's SHOW that I caught recently.  Happy, GARY!, Andrew and my two dear friends from Sacramento, Jon and Ila, went to go see this group and Delorean exactly two weeks ago at San Francisco's La Zona Rosa-like venue, The Independent, an excited beehive of tight pants and hipsters.

So, this is exactly how I felt while watching Miike Snow.  You may be asking, "were you on a crazy drug trip?" The answer is no, I was not, but I was in fact standing behind the tallest damn man in the world, requiring me to experience the whole thing by jumping up and down in place.

Miike Snow - pardon me, "Andrew" - and his friends started out the show wearing Phantom of the Opera masks, which tickled Jon and me to no end. Before the set began, we looked at each other, and as so often happens with this man, intuited each others' thoughts. And in this case those thoughts were lifted directly from Andrew Lloyd Webber: "Think of me / think of me FONDly / when we've said GOOD-BYE!"

Oh, Phantom. How you deserved Christine.

Back to Miike Snow: Well the set was incredible, of course. I got a harder cardio workout than I ever do at the gym. Here they are, masks-adorned, performing "Burial."


Next up was "Sylvia," masks off.  Are you as surprised as I am by how much Andrew, the lead singer, resembles John Lennon?


Anyway, because we had just been spoiled the night before on the endearing stage antics of Sia, I was hoping for a little more audience interaction...some, "hey San Francisco!" thrown in between songs. But in keeping with the band's mysterious aura - WE WEAR PHANTOM MASKS AND AREN'T GOING TO TELL YOU WHY - no trifling chatty-chat fell from the mouths of Miike Snow. Le sigh.

The highlight of the set for me, however, was the pseudo-tribal version of "Animal," accompanied by big, deafening drums. You know that scene at the end of Apocalypse Now when they slaughter the buffalo and chop it all to pieces and it gets all jungle-psycho? That's how I felt, all intense and savage! (Says the middle class white girl, checking horoscopes on her iPhone, chewing on a pen that says "Eat at Jason's Deli!").

After that, I tumbled out of The Independent with Jon onto the street, where we giggled about God knows what.  Phantom of the Opera?  Slankets? The hit film and 1988 dance musical, Salsa?  These are all distinct possbilities.

Later, we traipsed around the city with our band of friendly fools, ducking into a classy bar, then into a seedy diner, and finally into a taxi cab whose driver casually played disturbing tenets of Scientology over a cassette tape. We laughed. The driver did not. At one point, GARY! wrote, "HE IS GOING TO KILL US" on his cell phone, in a feeble attempt to stifle our life-threatening giggles.

But we made it home alive.

Calling all Austin Fashion Designers

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Hey Austin friends, do you design the fashions?

Do you like teaching teens?

If so, I have a job opportunity for you.  It's a short gig this summer (two weeks), and should be fun fun. Email me if you're interested (address on the right margin) and we'll talk shop.

A post from GARY: Sia, I told you so.

Hello my darlings.  Over the next couple of days, we're going to do a mini-series of posts here on Austin Eavesdropper covering the bands (and vineyards!) my friends and I got to see in San Francisco this month. That way, if they ever come to Austin, you can impress your company with the inside scoop.

First up is Sia, with a show review by GARY! Now, I wasn't that familiar with Sia before GARY! told me about her, but I can tell you in all honesty that this was one of the most moving performances I have ever attended. Maybe it was the fact that a man proposed to his future wife in the middle of it. I am not joking. Or maybe, it was the woman who REMOVED HER PROSTHETIC LEG DURING THE SHOW and tried to give it to Sia as a heartfelt gift. I'm not joking about that, either.

But more likely, the magic of Sia's shows can be explained by her own candid, warm, and very real stage presence. She actually talks to people during the show. She remembers individual fans in the audience, and thanks everyone profusely after each song. In short, she's one of those people you would be a fan of anyway, whether she was a singer, an actress, or a Starbucks barista. All it takes is a few seconds around this woman, and you are completely and forever won over.

Here's GARY! with a little more about Sia, and our live show experience:

Oh, SIA.

Friends, the first time I became familiar with this Australian song bird was on a dance compilation I acquired many years ago, from a DJ in Houston. The track was “Drink to Get Drunk,” and if you were ever in a club back around 2001/2002, you have probably heard it before.  Alternatively, if you were ever a Six Feet Under fan, you may also be familiar with "Breathe Me," a Sia song that backed the epic season finale in the show's very last episode.

But despite a rabid fan base, Sia never really achieved mainstream success in America.

Back in November though, she leaked a dance-y, upbeat pop track from her Twitter account: "You've Changed."


Given that Sia's previous albums consisted mainly of atmospheric downtempo tracks and ballads that dealt more with substance than catchy pop hooks, “You’ve Changed” marked a departure - especially from quieter, more thoughtful pieces, like "Soon We'll Be Found."


Quite versatile, yes?

We caught Sia at the wonderful Regency Ballroom while we were in San Francisco. Some things you should know about a Sia concert:

1. Presents or “prezzies” for Sia are always welcome and will be discussed onstage at length,
2. Crowd interaction is encouraged,
3. If you knit, bring your gear because Sia will let you up onstage to knit while she sings,
4. Her fans are some of the nicest people you will ever meet,
5. Be prepared to get to know your performer. Sia isn’t just there to sing, she’s there to chat. Not only does she talk to the audience, she lets the audience talk to her (sometimes inviting them onstage for the purpose),
6. This is the longest show I have ever been to. Her set lasted about two hours that night.

Here she is performing "Never Gonna Leave Me." To get a real taste of this experience, I kept the tape running while she accepted a few random “prezzies” from fans, and then, acted as videographer for a marriage proposal (wait for minute 5:04):


(EDITOR'S NOTE: Tolly here, that video totally made me tear up).

Next, here is a gorgeous cover of Madonna’s “Oh Father," which I believe will be released on her new album We Are Born (available June 22).


This next clip comes from another fan at the show who captured yours truly offering the shirt off his back! I guess you could say I got caught up in the moment, as did the guy who, after me, threw his pants on stage.


Sia eventually offered to give back that infamous pair of pants back to the now pant-less fan. Please note the enormous homemade bubble-blowing wing contraption she wears while negotiating with him.


Don't you love how she continues to hold/display the pants as she begins the next song? Haha.

Anyway, I taped a whole mess of other songs, so if you like what you see here, check out my mini Sia YouTube channel of videos from that night. We loved this girl, and pray to God she comes to Austin some day.

That’s all I got,

g.

Music Monday: Bootleg Casxio.

As you may or may not know, I tend to be less of an equal-opportunity music appreciator, and more of a band favoritist. A one (or two, or three) band kind of girl. A "band-aid," as Penny Lane called it in Almost Famous.

A "creepy stalker" if you will.

This is the reason I straight-up texted Casxio a few weeks ago after SXSW, and asked if they had any bootleg tracks they could send my way. And lo, they responded!

"Anticipation" is one of two they sent, and it is my favorite. It is on Casxio's soon-to-be-released EP, and I think it's a good song for a Saturday night. Or any night that needs a quick injection of sass.

"Anticipation"

What do men want? (For their birthday?)

Alright, so I'm as sentimental a fool as the rest of you.

Whenever it gets close to Ross's birthday - about a month away - I start looking at our old wedding photos.

The day after his birthday, you see, three years ago, he flew across the country to California to come get me from grad school, and help move me and my stuff home to Austin - for good. We were engaged back then, and had been for two years.

But rather than fly, we drove home to Texas in my car. Which literally broke down once every hour. He performed most of the driving, while I chirped hollow, annoying encouragements along the way. 

"Oh, look! A saguaro cactus!" 

"Wow, this road is smooth." 

"Who's excited for CRACKER BARREL?"

(And if this tells you anything about the trip, Cracker Barrel really was the highlight of the whole thing).

When we finally pulled into our Austin driveway, sloughing off sticky Red Bull cans, beef jerky wrappers, and relational tension when my good mood finally ran out, I said meekly: "Happy birthday...do you, um, still want to marry me?"

And he said: "Bringing my future wife home is the best birthday present I could ever ask for."

!

(Pause. I feel compelled to apologize here, because this same story would make me throw up in my mouth a little if I heard someone else tell it. So, sorry everyone).

Anyway. This is why I think long and hard about Ross's birthday presents. I've knitted.  I've done power tools. I've thrown a surprise party.  I have two ideas for this year, one more experiential in nature, and one that is more gadget-y.

But neither one is perfect?  He is a contented man. And shopping for men that claim to be already fulfilled is a near-impossible task. Even though Austin provides no shortage of novel adventures to try, and handmade bits of magic to gift.

so what do men want for their birthday?

(PS: This has nothing to do with anything, but while we're going back in time may I show you my favorite wedding pics? These were shot by the lovely Cory Ryan and manipulated by moi).

Allow me to direct your attention to the three best faces in this photo:

Knitta, please! Lamar Street Knit Bomb.

Late Monday night, Lamar Street got knit-bombed, y'all.

I know what you're thinking. Dear God this is radass.

So this Saturday, Art City Austin goes down, and these knit-tagged street signs are a little taste of the public art you'll see decorating downtown. Magda Sayeg, who created the knit sleeves above, is one of Art City Austin's commissioned artists.


To me, Magda epitomizes the type of art that Austin does best: handmade craft, with a semi-guerilla spirit. Austin Craft Mafia, the lingering spirit of the Enchanted Forest, etc.

What I'm trying to say is - in the words of C+C Music Factory - it's "the things that make you go hmm."

As part of Magda's artist commission this year, she will also cover parking bollards along Cesar Chavez near Austin City Hall with lovingly knit sleeves. Which I might STEAL! (Just kidding. I won't steal.)

The second commissioned artist for Art City is Daniel Morrison, an architecture student at UT. Using discarded cardboard boxes, Morrison and a team of volunteers will create roughly 20,000 unique pieces of what he refers to as “a very large puzzle,” titled Cardboard Sky.

Once finished, the cardboard swath will be suspended in the air in the plaza of Austin’s City Hall.  It will look kind of like this!:

In addition to these two offbeat public installations, there will be a whole slew of artists at the Art City Festival happening on Cesar Chavez. Check out the full line-up here.

Magda Sayeg photos above by Johnny Walker. Yes. That is his real name.

Huisache Grill / One of the coolest birthday presents ever.

Have any of you visited Huisache Grill in New Braunfels?

Ross and I ventured down a few weeks ago for my birthday. Look at this dashing couple we discovered!

Hi Mom and Dad. You're looking quite studly in your leather jacket, sir.

Huisache Grill is the new "in-between" restaurant for my parents (who live in San Antonio) and Ross and I.  I can't quite remember how they discovered it, but it's built literally next door to the train tracks, and when the train rolls by you can look out the window and see it a little more than an arm's reach away. It also has its own wine bar. And because wine + odd novelties = Moseley Family solid gold, we've been eating there often.

What a carnivorous family, right? Anyway, the food here is delicious, and largely country club-type dishes. Bacon-wrapped sirloin, salmon cakes, turkey club sandwiches. No Burmese-fusion or surprise sushi rolls here, but sometimes you crave simple food. You know. 'Merican.

For my birthday, my parents gave me the most awesome present ever: a vintage jewelry box, filled with vintage necklaces, earrings, rings, brooches - WHEE! I was ecstatic, and have been wearing around my new treasures everywhere.

Ross looks a little weary, probably because I just squealed in his ear.

San Francisco, off the beaten path.

Oh, Reader.  San Francisco and its attending locales are silly with sensory pleasures. Vintage clothing on Haight Street, music in grand old Oakland theaters, dim sum in Chinatown. But you knew that already.

Some of my favorite memories from this past week in San Francisco actually happened slightly off the beaten path. Am I getting old?  I must be: While slightly embarrassed to admit this to you, I confess that next to meeting up with old friends from Sacramento, I enjoyed our excursions to wine country and a science museum best of all. This, after a string of mind-blowing musical performances. I know. Am undeniably older.  Either that, or gay men - my band of companions - simply do not age like the rest of us. A semi-plausible theory when you think about it.

Here are some of my favorite shots from those two trips. Wine country first, then museum. Guess what the last picture is!

We are BACK! Also: What books are you reading?

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HOORAY!  Kiss kiss Austin, I am back home and ready to smother you with love, like an overbearing Italian mother. Hugs for Mama!

Reader, we will resume  regular posting here on Austin Eavesdropper this week. I've got too much fun stuff to share with you, both from my adventures in San Fran, and upcoming awesomeness here in town. But first, a question.

what books are you reading right now?

I wrote an intensely personal piece on the airplane that I considered posting on this blog, but decided in the end that some things are best kept personal. However, the bottom line was this: I miss reading. Good reading. When I read less, I am a less effective writer, which has certainly been the case for me lately. Plus I just miss it, the act of holding a book in my hands, and spending some time with the people who animate its pages. You know?

So I am open to your valuable book suggestions. Memoirs have been calling to me recently, as have anything about food politics. However, I'd love to dig into some fiction, too: my tastes trend toward Ann Patchett and Zadie Smith, both contemporary writers, but trust me, my own list of unread fiction classics is impressive. (Someday, I tell myself, someday I'll read you Moby Dick!)

What are you reading, friends?

San Francisco calling.

Hello friends!

GARY!, Andrew, Happy and I are on Day 3 here in San Francisco, and last night, we met up with my beloved Sacramento friends, Jon and Ila. It's been a whirlwind of shows, dance parties, kindred spirits, hearts-beating-in-time and louder-than-necessary squeals, and every time I see something lovely, I am definitely that obnoxious person who goes, "WAIT, stop. Picture time!"

Here is what I have spied with my little eye.

I had a pretty proud pun moment here. "Who needs their homework grated?" I said.

Chinatown, where we ate our first day. Coincidentally, it was at a dim sum place my dad and I actually visited years ago, New Asia, where groups of Chinese performers sometimes put on shows - during lunch - on a stage flanked by more chandeliers than the eye can see. Isn't that how every lunch should be?

(Freaky!)

This is a temporary, free zip line currently set up near Fisherman's Wharf that I am campaigning to go on. The only problem is, you have to travel there and get in line way early (7:00!) for a wrist band before they run out, and we can never get up at that hour. Girls and gays need their beauty sleep.

Love from San Fran!

(I miss you, Ross and Claudia!)