ACL festival lineup announced - flashback to 1993

They announced the lineup for the Austin City Limits Music Festival today, which is going to be a little later this year -- Oct 2-4, 2009.

And guess what, I've actually heard of some of the bands. I think I've even seen some of them play too - though it was back in 1993 when I stayed somewhat current with music.

ACL lineup

• Pearl Jam
• Dave Matthews Band

• Beastie Boys
• Kings of Leon
• Ben Harper and Relentless7
• Thievery Corporation
• John Legend
• The Dead Weather
• The Levon Helm Band
• Ghostland Observatory

• Sonic Youth
• Mos Def
• Toadies
• Flogging Molly
• The B-52s
• Lily Allen
• Citizen Cope
• Arctic Monkeys
• The Decemberists
• Coheed and Cambria
• Andrew Bird
• Girl Talk
• STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9)
• Phoenix
• Bassnectar
• Bon Iver
• !!!
• Avett Brothers
• The Airborne Toxic Event
• Medeski, Martin & Wood
• Clutch
• Michael Franti & Spearhead
• Grizzly Bear
• Heartless Bastards
• Passion Pit
• White Lies

• Dan Auerbach
• The Walkmen
• The Scabs
• Reckless Kelly
• DeVotchka
• Blitzen Trapper
• The Virgins
• Here We Go Magic
• Eek-A-Mouse
• K'Naan
• Asleep at the Wheel
• Dr. Dog
• The Raveonettes
• The Knux
• Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears
• State Radio
• Los Amigos Invisibles
• The Felice Brothers
• Federico Aubele
• Raul Malo
• Daniel Johnston
• Poi Dog Pondering
• Brett Dennen
• Rodriguez
• Henry Butler
• Preservation Hall
• Sam Roberts Band
• The Greencards
• Sara Watkins
• Walter "Wolfman" Washington
• David Garza
• John Vanderslice
• Zac Brown Band
• Todd Snider
• School of Seven Bells
• The Dodos
• Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3
• Alberta Cross
• Deer Tick
• Bell X1
• Alela Diane
• The Wood Brothers
• The Parlor Mob
• Rebirth Brass Band
• Marva Wright
• Terri Hendrix
• L.A.X.
• Lisa Hannigan
• The Low Anthem
• Sons of Bill
• Suckers
• Sarah Jaffe
• Cotton Jones
• The Henry Clay People
• Papa Mali
• Jypsi
• Vince Mira
• Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights
• Mimicking Birds
• Jeffrey Steele
• Jonell Mosser
• Leatherbag
• Keith Gattis
• Damien Horne
• Sarah Siskind
• The Dexateens
• Nelo
• Danny Brooks
• Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
• The Soul Stirrers
• The Durdens
• Palm School Elementary
• The Gospel Silvertones
• Diaconos
• Quinn Sullivan
• Ralph's World
• Q Brothers
• Milkshake
• Telephone Company
• Loose Cannons
• Lunch Money

Wow.

Taken by TXalex.

See it at a larger scale here. (Once you are there, click on it again.)

Eeyore's Birthday, or Holy crap there's too much to do in April

This Saturday, April 25th is Eeyore's Birthday, otherwise known as a big hippie party at Pease Park. Everyone dresses up in costumes (fairies and wood elves are popular, but really anything goes) and toast everyone's favorite grumpy donkey with various beverages and other substances.

See photos at some local photographer's flickr account here.

I've been here going on 5 years and still haven't made it over, so this year we will be going with toddler in tow. (We're going to take the bus as recommended, and he is already looking forward to it). My co-worker, who was born and raised in Austin, says she went as a kid and always had a blast. She still goes every year.

I've never been to it before because THERE'S ALWAYS TOO MANY FUN THINGS TO DO THIS MONTH. A lot of it has to do with the fact that the weather is gorgeous right now, and everyone wants to be outside before the 100 degree weather starts.

April used to be kicked off with Spamarama, a celebration of SPAM. Sadly, that event shut down last year and is sorely missed by yours truly. I don't know if you can tell, but I love festivals that celebrate food and drinks, potted meat products included. I just did a quick google search and it looks like some Baptist church is throwing their own Spamarama, which stands for -- I kid you not -- Students Proclaiming Awesome Message about Repentance and Mercy Available. Vomit.

Fiesta also occurs in late April - which takes place in nearby San Antonio. It's a 10-day celebration and the entire town goes nuts. We went every year as when I was a kid.

Who can resist Weinerdog Races? These are held in Buda (just south of Austin) every year. This year's theme: "Weinerdog Millionaire." I had a dachshund growing up so this event holds special interest to me.

Last weekend was the Texas Hill Country Food and Wine Festival. I've never been and am hoping to someday make it (why can't they space things out more???) I went to Design Ranch instead, which is a hands-on workshop event for geeky graphic designers such as myself.

And last but not least, there's camping. We usually try to schedule a camping trip to Enchanted Rock in April so we can see all the wildflowers, but pregnancy has gotten in the way this year. Two years ago the flowers were amazing.


Oh yeah, and my birthday is April 29th, which is always a reason for major partying. I prefer to think of the month of April as one big giant celebration of my awesomeness.

Austin with 1% growth of jobs= Best City for Job Seekers. Plus Chicken and Waffles.

Austin is just barely showing positive job growth right now, but shoot! It's enough to rank us as the Best City for Job Seekers, according to Forbes (via Yahoo).

I think they factored in that you can search for a job on your wireless laptop computer while catching some sun at Barton Springs. Try doing THAT in Portland.

Job gains/losses in Texas are not equal across the board, according to the Texas Workforce Commission:

"Trade, Transportation and Utilities added 5,800 jobs in March, and the Financial Services industry grew by 3,100 jobs. Education and Health Services gained 300 jobs in March for an increase of 59,600 jobs over the year reflecting a strong job growth rate of 4.7 percent. Industry losses hit Construction and Manufacturing the hardest, down 18,800 and 11,900 jobs, respectively."

In totally unrelated news, a trailer serving Chicken and Waffles has just opened near my house. To those of you who have never worshiped at the altar of Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in Los Angeles, let me tell you, the combination is divine. Hopefully Lucky J's will satisfy my cravings. If not, I will just walk across the street and get some Amy's Ice Cream. (Amy's is worth a whole blog post on its own. The best ice cream on the planet.)

Austin unemployment numbers for March

Just out from the Texas Workforce Commission. Austin is at 6.7%, compared to the US national average of 8.5%.

Look for jobs here.


Edited to add: My bad - the press release from the TWC is kinda confusing. Texas is at 6.7%, and Austin is at 6.2%, compared to the US national average of 9%. These numbers are not seasonally adjusted. Figure it out here.

Spa Party, Collective Unconsious Subliminal Machine

A couple months ago my friend Aimee and I went to an Austin Mama Bloggers event hosted by livemom.com. There was a silent auction benefiting Baby Ike, and Aimee ended up winning this awesome massage/dessert party for 6 people, which was donated by local massage therapist Sara Ballard and her pastry-chef sister-in-law. She threw the party last weekend and invited a couple friends over, including lucky me.

So Saturday I left my husband to paint the kid's bedroom by himself and ran off for a foot & hand massage. Not a bad deal. We all brought food and wine and gabbed about crazy things like pulsating umbilical cords and how good Uchi sushi is (totally separate conversations, by the way). It was so much fun that 3 1/2 hours lapsed before I realized I might have a divorce on my hands if I didn't get back and help out a little back home. Sara was an awesome massage therapist, by the way. Check her out.

Afterward it dawned on me that all of us present at the party had recently moved to Austin - within the past 5 years. Most of us were California expats - I counted 5, plus one from Florida and one from DC.

My husband and I felt like we were making a really unique, personal decision to move to Austin in 2004 - that is until we moved here and met tons of other people who had made the same choice. Now I think we tapped into some collective unconscious -- and I can't help but picture a scene from the movie Delicatessen where a character whispers suggestions through his building's water pipes and drives his neighbor Aurore crazy:

Of course, I don't think we're being driven crazy by listening to this "Move to Austin" message. In fact, I'm supremely glad we made the move. I'm just saying that no one wants to think that they're blindly following subliminal messages. I prefer to think of us as vanguards.

The question is, am I now part of the subliminal machine? I'm merely passing on information to already interested parties, right?

--MOVE TO AUSTIN, MOVE TO AUSTIN --

Austin TX has a new Licensed Architect

That's right, my husband just found out that he passed his last Architecture exam - the letter came in the mail today. I knew he could do it! After he files all the paperwork and pays the extortion money licensing fees, he will finally be able to call himself an Architect (as opposed to an Architectural Designer). Here's a little of his past brilliance (photos of the Georgetown, TX public library):

Not to diminish this news, but he also got laid off on Friday. So no one better accuse me of having an unrealistic view of the job market in Austin anymore, ok? And - if you're looking for a fabulous architect (residential or commercial), contact me and I'll hook you up.

Keeping Realistic Expectations in Austin's Job Market, especially for new college grads

I got my first "dislike" mail the other day from a guy who graduated from college 3 years ago and has not been able to find a job in Austin. He believes this website and blog is misleading about the job market in Austin.

Hey, just wondering where you got your job data from? Been living in Austin 3 years, since the day I graduated college, and still haven't found a job making more than $12/hr. Inquiring minds want to know.

I responded that I get my information from the Texas Workforce Commission and online Business Journals, such as Austin Business Journal and Forbes. His reply:

Oh OK, thanks! I guess their information must be inaccurate, as I know a number of people with Bachelor's/Master's and even higher degrees who have difficulty finding jobs here. To be perfectly honest, I think your site is misleading as a guide for people moving to Austin,because I don't know anyone who's just moved here and gotten a job in any short period of time.

I do agree that I am pretty upbeat about a person's chances of making it here, and perhaps I'm not giving out the whole picture. Things are tougher now in Austin than they were last year, and are probably going to get worse before they get better. New unemployment numbers are due out next week, and I'm betting that Austin is going to be around 6.4 - 6.6%. We'll see.

But I do think that this poster has some very lofty expectations about finding a job in Austin. Anyone moving here needs to know the following:

1. Please don't move here as a new graduate and expect to find a job that pays $60,000 a year. Look at these income statistics for Austin. (Let's not forget to mention that marketing is a notoriously low-paying industry). The upside to this is that living expenses are still somewhat affordable when compared to other more expensive parts of the country, so you'll be able to stretch your dollar more.
   
2. There are a lot of college grads in Austin, and therefore there is a lot of competition for entry level jobs. This is even in boom times, like we had 3 years ago when this guy started looking for a job. Sometimes you have to take the $12/hr entry job to get experience. My first job after college paid $10/hr, and my main task was getting Starbucks for my boss -- but it looks dynamite on my resume and helped me get a much better 2nd job, making ... $12/hr. Suck it up and get your foot in the door, and work your way up the old fashioned way.
   
3. Anyone who is moving here and expects to find a job quickly is in for a reality check. Even when you live in a town and have connections, it still takes time. However, if it's been 3 years and you haven't found something yet, it ain't Austin, it's you. You're either being too picky or your interview skills need help. Get someone to go over your resume and interview tactics (preferably a mentor), gain more skills (take classes at ACC, do some pro bono freelance work or internship), and network more. Or see #2.
   
4. In a recession know that you are not going to find your dream job, regardless of your level of experience. You may have to park it in a job that is less than ideal and ride out this storm. Economist Nouriel Roubini, who is one of the most conservative estimators out there, thinks things will be improving in 2010. The Austin market may take some time to adjust to all the incoming traffic we're getting as well.
   
5. The whole country, nay, the whole developed world, is experiencing a recession right now. Our employment figures are better than most parts of the country. It is not a stretch to think that your chances are better here than in Detroit. You'll have to weigh the odds yourself.
   

Baby and Kid Activities in Austin

My friend Nicole, who is 37 weeks pregnant, and I just met for lunch at Wahoo's Fish Tacos (I swear I could eat a Banzai Bowl every day of the week). I'm 26 weeks pregnant, so naturally all we talked about was babies, pregnancy, labor, maternity leave, and what the hell we're going to do with ourselves once the kiddo arrives.

Luckily I remember a few things I did when I was a stay at home mom with my first child. Frankly, a newborn will probably have as much fun at a storytime as a lecture on geophysics, so new moms may not have much use for this list yet. These are good things to know about when the kids are a little bit older:

1. Friday morning storytime at Family Connections. You can also check out books and sanitized toys, and take parenting classes here. This is a good place to meet other moms - I found this storytime to be the easiest place to strike up conversations. Very newborn friendly.
   
2. The public libraries around town also have story times, and you can generally find one for every day of the week. Not as fun with a newborn - because they seemed to be a lot more focused on quietness (as opposed to the Family Connections one, which is a total mad house).
3. Book People, our fabulous independent book store, has a lot of story times as well.
   
4. The Austin Children's Museum is great for toddlers and up, and Mondays is Baby Bloomers, where kids 3 and under have the run of the place.
5. Wednesday mornings there's a farmers market at Boggy Creek Farms. Lots of moms bring their kids to let them play in the dirt and ogle the chickens. Grab a cup of coffee and a croissant and enjoy the sun. This was one of my favorite activities. Also newborn friendly, especially if you have a sling for your petit cher.
   
6. Zilker Park has an excellent playground, and a choo-choo train. Bring your jogging stroller and go for a hike on the nearby Town Lake Hike & Bike.
   
7. Butler Park, a new attraction near downtown, has a really cool water feature for kids to run around in when the weather is nice. See photo above.
8. Wednesday afternoons there's a farmers market at The Triangle, where they also have a water feature for kids to play in, plus live music and tasty treats.
   
9. Austin has a tiny zoo down south. Great for kids who are fascinated with animals.
10. Central Market (the one on Lamar) has a great playground next to their grocery store, with lots of shade under huge oak trees. I met many moms here - it really became the center of my social universe there for a while. Friday and Saturday nights they have live music and the place is packed with families.
    
11. Austin has a lot of great parks with playgrounds. My son and I had a regular rotation between the ones in Central Austin, just to mix things up. My favorite is the one near my neighborhood, Brentwood Park, with Shipe Park a close second.
12. You'll notice I'm not mentioning shopping because I HATE TO SHOP. But you might like it, so you should know that the mall in Northwest Austin, Lakeline Mall, has a play area and a bouncy-house place.
    
13. Speaking of bouncy-house places, there's a kiddy gym down south called Going Bananas which is all bouncy structures.
14. I'm an organizer at heart, so I formed a play group with other moms that were in my birthing class, and we met once a week. This was such a treat for me, especially when my son was really young and I didn't feel like there was much point to going to a storytime. But you don't have to be the one to organize, you can find existing ones at meetup.com, or Austin mama. Find walking groups at SeeMommyRun.
15. Yoga Yoga has post-natal classes, where you can bring your infant and get back into shape. Personally I never found this class much use because my son just wanted to nurse the whole time, and who needs to pay $10 to sit next to a wall in the dark and breastfeed? But, again, it's great place to meet other mamas.
16. Check out the local family magazines, like Austin Family. You can pick these free publications up all over town, like at Whole Foods, HEB, Central Market and kid-friendly places like the ones mentioned in my above list. They have calendar sections of the various events in town and are quite handy.

Pie, Music, and Politics

We took the inlaws to Shady Grove on Sunday night, and had this awesome chocolate pecan pie a la mode for dessert. Last night over a dinner of homemade chalupas we started talking about that pie again, and it got everyone all fired up for another pie outing.

My husband thinks I need to do a pie entry on my blog, but to be honest I don't know of too many places that serve pie - at least the way I want it: homemade/tasty and in a diner at 9pm. There's the Night Hawk Frisco Shop, whose pie is ok, but I had a hard time thinking of another one. Then we remembered the legendary Threadgill's, which is just down the street from where we live. So off we rolled to try them out.

Threadgill's is where Janis Joplin got her start singing. I WORSHIPED Janis Joplin when I was 16. Back in high school I wore flannel and tried to talk about how cool Sonic Youth was so I could fit in to the slacker/alternative crowd, but secretly I couldn't imagine why anyone would prefer listening to them when such awesome music already existed. Turns out my mother-in-law also worshiped Janis when she was in high school, so we were pretty giddy when we walked through the doors.

Dessert remarks: The carrot cake and the pecan pie were deemed the best. The peach cobbler tasted weird - we think it was made with pumpkin pie spice - and the chocolate chunk cheesecake was ok. My son did not like his banana pudding, but thought the Nilla Wafers were divine.

And now, back to music. This morning on the radio the producer of the TV show "Austin City Limits" was on, probably because tickets to the Austin City Limits Festival go on sale today. Oh man! I just went to their website now, and looks like it's a little later in the year, so it might be cooler, and they're trying to control all the dust that normally cakes festival goers. The line-up isn't yet announced, but there are strong rumors pointing to Pearl Jam, Beastie Boys, Mos Def, The B-52s, Sonic Youth (hey, speak of the devil!), John Legend and Thievery Corporation. Among many, many others.

That same dude (I wish I remembered his name) mentioned Texas Governors who have gone to the ACL TV show tapings. I was not surprised to hear that the super bad-ass Gov. Ann Richards (please look her up if you think Texas has always been a red state) was a regular, and was even spotted dining with Leonard Cohen before a show. George W. Bush and the current gov, Rick Perry, have never been to a show. Lame-o.

How Green is My Valley?

We took my visiting in-laws to Zinger Hardware store this weekend. It's one of those cute hardware stores that has more fun, gifty type items than actual hardware. We were on a mission to buy more Salt Lick BBQ rub, which we had given my father-in-law for Christmas last year and he had gotten addicted to. My mother-in-law was super excited to find their Tula Hats - she had been wanting a certain one for 2 years but had not been able to find it until Zinger. I was super stoked to see marshmallow eggs - because, again I'm pregnant and cannot help my cravings - until I saw their display for Mythic Paint.

According to Mythic's website, Zinger is the only dealer in Austin of this true no-VOC, low-odor paint. VOC's, for those not in the know, are the toxic chemicals and odors in paint. My husband and I are shipping off the kiddo to my parents' house this coming weekend so we can paint 2 bedrooms, and I've been comparing no-VOC paints to get ready for the event. I have been wanting to go with Benjamin Moore's Aura paint (and in the process rip off the color from this website) but the only BM dealer near me is barely open on the weekends and I'm going to need access for when I change my mind at the last minute and freak out at all the ugly colors I've bought.

Mythic retails for $45 a gallon at Zinger.

Building a new house vs buying an old one

My friend Donna called me the other day to invite my family to the Crawfish Festival this weekend. We love hanging out with Donna and her husband and kids - our toddlers were born days apart and can entertain each other while we discuss other more important things over pizza and beer. Like potty training. (Funny how four adults, each with graduate degrees, have regressed to discussing poop. Ah, the joys of parenthood).

Anyway, Donna was also very excited to report that they're building a new house in Steiner Ranch, which is on the way west side of town, near Lake Travis. It's a gigantic subdivision known for its highly rated schools and views of the lake. They live in Pflugerville but don't really like the elementary school that they track to, and have been thinking of moving to Steiner Ranch for a while. Turns out housing prices on new home construction for the area have come down about $100k (this is according to Donna - can't find any research to show), and right now her builder is offering half-price upgrades as well. So, in her words, a new house with a view is going to cost less than a 20 year-old house with no view, all in the same neighborhood. Here's a link about building new homes in Steiner Ranch.

Donna has one reservation-- the commute is going to be worse for both her and her husband (who both work downtown). I'm not sure how long it takes to get into town from out there, but I would imagine it's 45 minutes or so.

Maybe, could it be? I'm one step closer to finding boat friends?

More good employment news for Austin

Thanks to Aimee for this:

Forbes Ranks Austin Among Best Places for Business and Careers
In a recent March story, Forbes.com ranked Austin No. 8 on the list of Best Places for Business and Careers. This year Austin jumped 39 spots compared to last year's rank of No.47. The study explored 200 metropolitan cities and examined each on 11 different criteria. Factors such as subprime mortgages, job growth over the past five years and employment projections for 2011 played a major role in improving the city's status...

Here's a link.

Buy Chad Kultgen's book

Normally I wouldn't post this here, but I have an ulterior motive - beer. Chad Kultgen will buy me a beer next time he sees me if I promote his book. The only way I can see this tying in to the topic of this blog is that he's originally from Dallas, which is 3 hours away.

My totally nuts friend from college, Chad, has written a second book and is very close to getting on the bestseller list. He wrote a couple scripts in college that I still am hanging on to - I can't decide if I like "God Turd" or "Sea Zombies v. The Commandos" better. I guess I have a second ulterior motive to help Chad get famous so those scripts will fetch enough on eBay to send my kids to college someday.

From Amazon:

Product Description

With the publication of The Average American Male -- and the release of the shocking viral videos that made it a water-cooler sensation -- Chad Kultgen became one of the most talked-about authors of recent years. Now, with The Lie, Kultgen returns with an even more salacious -- yet also more searching -- novel that reaches deeper into the craven inner workings of some of most depraved minds in America: college students.

His subjects are Brett, the rich hedonist whose appetite for sex is matched only by his contempt for women; his best friend, Kyle, the brooding science geek whose good intentions lead him to one disastrous decision; and Heather, the social-climbing sorority girl who has the power to destroy them both. As this devil's triangle plows through four years of college, Kultgen offers a astonishing take on the wild and amoral universe of college today: a frathouse world where sex is social currency, status means everything -- and winner takes all.

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.