Adventures in the Lone Star State

Once again, so much living has been packed into a week that I hardly know what to tell you about first so I'll just dive right in while the granola is in the oven, soup is on the stove, wine is in the glass, and the Mommyheads are cranked on the stereo downstairs.

I just got back from a whirlwind weekend trip to Austin with my friends and fellow musicians Sue and Suki of She Mob. We were storming the streets of Austin, hanging with our beloved Oakland transplant Camille, and just generally having a great time. We ate Mexican food and Barbeque, the likes of which you can only find in Texas, and boy, did we enjoy every last bite, which we naturally washed down with ice cold beer and margaritas.










Just like the Bay area, Indian summer was in full force and it was hot and balmy and muggy and it seemed to stay light late into the evening, and when the sun went down the sky was noisy with crickets and birds and music.


We saw a great show on Friday night called the Golden Hornet Project that featured a ten-piece horn section w/ bass, drums, guitar and vibraphone, and man, was that just completely smoking. We were sad that we couldn't rally to stick around & catch the Invincible Czars, but our cheap plane fares caused us to rise at 4 am that day to catch a plane that had two layovers and ended up taking the better part of the day to get our butts to the Lone Star State, and well, some of us are old and tired and just can't party like rock stars anymore.

Saturday's highlights included a quick drive-by past the Soup Peddler's Headquarters...








...and a visit to a toy store that reminded me a lot of Berkeley's Mr. Mopps, where I simply could not pass up this fabulous photo opportunity.











As Saturday afternoon turned to evening, Sue, Suki, Camille, Jo (Camille's friend who also happens to be a Meat Purveyor) and I found ourselves in the midst of what turned out to be a little bitty all-girl hootenanny in Jo & Camille's living room, and this was my most favorite part of the trip. Suki played drums with her hands, we all sang and passed the guitar around, and once again I found myself feeling like the luckiest creature in the universe to be in such fine company, with a belly full of fine food and the warm summer air blowing in through the window.