SXSW Tunes, the Rach, & More Austin Angst
Plus: running for my life, new Ant-Man, and old Lorenzo Lamas.
It’s another week. More stuff happened. Here you go.
Reading
The Astonishing Transformation of Austin
Once again, we’re back talking about Austin and “how much it’s changed!” This time we have the New Yorker with Austin’s own Lawrence Wright penning an ode. It’s a fine piece, and I have nothing to complain about. Not much anyway. He interviews new-timers and old-timers to try to capture the current moment. There is a bit of a disconcerting trend of Californians of a libertarian (red-pilled?) bent moving to Austin mostly because of it's Texas politics, though they did choose Austin and not Dallas, so that tells you a lot right there.
One thing Wright glosses over is how different things are in terms of opportunities nowadays. He talks about the reasons people moved here back then. What he fails to point out is how many people DIDN’T move here because there were no jobs! Working for the state government or the local state university were the biggest options, and outside of that, I guess be a successful journalist who can live wherever he wants? (I know that’s not fair, but he’s Lawrence Wright, and I’m nobody, so we’ll all survive.)
I’m still waiting for someone to show me the anti-Austin that’s just peachy and worth moving to. Oh wait, then it would get overrun, too. What to do?!
Watching
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Look, you’re gonna watch anyway, but the new Ant-Man is pretty good regardless. What I’d like to call out here is that everyone needs to get on board with current It-Man Jonathan Majors. We were introduced to his Kang character in the Loki series, but those of us in the know have been stanning him since The Last Black Man in San Francisco, a film I honestly (and wrongly) thought might win the Oscar that year. He’s so quirky and amazing in that quirky and amazing movie.
Oh, and he’s from Texas, so extra points.1
Listening
In years past, one of my most anticipated events before SXSW was the release of the Austin 100. Back up: Every band playing the musical festival submits one song for the press. That’s over 1000 MP3s! Well, the good folks at NPR’s All Songs Considered (led by Stephen Thompson) pared this down to the Austin 100.2
What this results in is semi-random sample of good songs. Any 100 good songs are going to yield some gems, and that’s worth cogitating on by itself. The 2015 set was especially memorable. I took the already curated list and ranked them myself. As a family, we listened to this all the time. I actually burned a CD with the songs in my preferred order and played it when my girls were in low single digits.
The other day I rediscovered that disc, and it all came flooding back to us. I made a Spotify list of the top 30, and I encourage everyone to give it a listen. Don’t sleep on the ones in the 20s. Some killer tunes lie therein.
Moving
Not-quite-couch to 10K
Last year, I decided to give running a shot for the first time in my life. My memories of doing it as a child are horrible. Elementary school PE, running the mile, hating life. Now that I’m playing tennis, I get the need to be able to move, but long, slow stuff appeals to me zero.
Still, I’m going to do it. Last year, I ran the first half of the Capitol 10K. This year, it’s on. I’m frankly in good enough shape to finish, but I need to work up to that mileage. I’m also slow as hell, so it’s going to take me like an hour and a half to complete. (Yep, 14-minute miles.)
I’ve got a nine-week program lined out. It’ll be twice-a-week runs while I keep lifting three time per week. That’ll swap halfway through. I started last week by running two miles twice. By week eight, I’ll aim for three, two, and five miles. Week nine is the event itself. I hope it doesn’t rain!
Living (in Austin)
More Symphony!
When I saw that the ASO was going to do be performing Rachmaninoff’s 2nd, I definitely had to go. Ended up bring my oldest daughter, and that lead to a new discovery. $5 student tickets day of! You can buy online. Just make sure to have a surly teen with you. The performance was amazing, of course. Now when will they do the Rach III?
For a tiny slice of pianist Michelle Cann’s encore, check out their Insta.
Miscellany
Renegade Episode of the Week: “Wheel Man”
You’d think having Lorenzo Lamas would be enough for any episode of syndicated wonder-show Renegade, but this one is special. 1993’s “Wheel Man” features not only Flash Gordon himself in Sam P. Jones, but also Walt Goggins of Justified and The Righteous Gemstones fame. Color me blessed!3
What’s Next
I’ll get into my current strength program, like it or not. (High-bar back squats!)
More movies will be released and viewed.
Professional tennis is coming to Austin! I’ll be there.
Honestly, Majors isn’t at his best in the new Ant-Man, but I bet he kills in Creed III, though hopefully not literally!
Sadly, I don’t think the Austin 100 has been done since 2020. Maybe Thompson will bring it back!
Okay, full disclosure, I don’t actually watch Renegade, but I did see these two on it as I was flipping channels.