A Perfect Austin Evening

Great band, crappy picture.

When you hear that Austin is the Live Music Capital of the World, you probably think of a night at the Continental Club, or Emo's, or any of a couple dozen other venues -- packed with people, the music loud and intense and danceable, a firehose of sounds and images blasting you.

But sometime live music is a babbling brook on a moonlit evening, filling the air with just enough sparkle and rhythm to make magic. And so, last night in the "yard" of a coffeehouse under a just-past-full moon, a dozen friends and I listened to great music in what was essentially a private party.

It was the perfect arena for my mood. I was feeling pensive and quiet after a long, hard week. I went to the Irie Bean coffeehouse on South Lamar to meet up with my friend Laura and some others. Shanna, Karen and Danien were there, and so were new acquaintances like Callie, Dan, Amy, Elise and Emily. I even took some pictures, which I will post soon.

The music was wonderful. Ghosts and Sparrows is Barbara K, Richard Bowden and John Jordan. They are all great musicians, and each song turned into a jam, with Barbara on guitar, John on bass and Richard on violin alternately adding great licks and sublime texture to the music. They were accompanied occasionally by Thom the World Poet, whose meditations on Life Its Ownself were perfectly framed by their music.

A perfect Austin evening.

UPDATE 9/30/07: More pictures from Irie Bean here.

While Walking In The Park One Day

I had a friend in from out of town this weekend. I showed her around Austin, including breakfast at Las Manitas on Sunday morning and a walking tour of the Capitol.

Later, we drove out to Lake Travis and stopped for lunch at the Iguana Grill. While we were there, a thunderstorm swept over the lake. It was beautiful to see the lake so full and the greenery so lush out there.

My friend is very interested in Eastern religion and mysticism, and practices yoga as both a physical and spirital discipline. We had some lively conversations about Eastern and Western religious traditions.

So, back in Austin, we decided to go by the Botanical Garden at Zilker Park. It just seemed like a good idea at the time. Good karma. We arrived there at about the same time as a wonderful ceremony welcoming Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj to Austin. Shree Maharajji, as he is known to his followers, is a jagadguru, a "guru to the world" who embodies in his person and teachings the greatest wisdom and insight of this age and time. In his Hindu spiritual tradition, he is one of five jagadgurus over the last 5,000 years. Unlike his predecessors, who confined their ministry ("parishat") to the Indian subcontinent, he believes his teachings should be proclaimed to the world and, specifically, within the United States. To that end, he directed his disciple, H.D. Swami Prakashanand Saraswati, to establish a temple within the United States. In 1990, Shree Swamiji, as he is known, founded Barsana Dham in the hills outside of Austin (on the way to the Salt Lick). Barsana Dham is the largest Hindu temple in the United States.

The event -- which I suppose would be comparable (to a Catholic) to a visit from the Pope and St. Francis of Assisi rolled into one -- had a wonderful, relaxed quality about it. At one point, an organizer invited anyone who wanted his or her picture taken with Shree Maharajji to join him in a flower garden. He serenely put up with it all.

Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj sits under an oak tree in the Botanical Gardens at Zilker Park as his devotees gather at his feet.

H.D. Swami Prakashanand Saraswati, Shree Maharajji's disciple and the founder of the Barsana Dham temple in Austin, sits near his master at the Botanical Gardens.

Home.

Sweet.
Home.

Patience Is a Virtue

I am at DFW airport, waiting on my flight. It was a 9:00 p.m. flight, but it is now a 11:50 p.m. flight. I talked to a customer service rep, though, and she says it's still on for Austin. Let's hope neither Dallas nor Austin's runways freeze over any time soon.

Paying Attention

I am in two places at once. With one ear, I am on a conference call with my senior colleagues. With the other, I am listening to the Muzak from the airlines reservation system, waiting for a human voice to break in so I can make a new reservation.

The conference call is important. Very important. But, as I mentioned in my last post, it is not my job now. My job now is GETTING HOME. So when the human voice comes on the reservations line, I pull the conference call earbud out and focus on that voice.

My 4:00 p.m. flight's been canceled. Canceled Flight Number Five. The customer service rep is friendly. "I got ya, man," he tells me when I explain I've been trying to get home for two days. He tells me, with some drama, that there is ONE SEAT LEFT in the last flight out of Dallas to Austin tonight. Do I want it?, he teases. Hell, yeah.

That business taken care of, I pick up the earbud and can suddenly pay attention to the Very Important Conference Call.

Counting Blessings

I've now spent two nights in strange hotels, in cities I did not want to be in, with no change of clothes and having to scrounge a razor, a toothbrush, some toothpaste. But at least I have a bed to sleep in with a roof over my head, I imagine there are people in the same predicament as me who are sleeping in airports, who've not had a shower, who've not been able to brush their teeth or wash their hair.

I am trapped in some weird twilight. The world goes on around me: I talk to co-workers, the news tickers roll by on the TV, I send and receive email. But I am neither home nor somewhere else. I am just ... in-between.

In such a place, I only have one job: getting home. I could be writing copy to update our web page, but I have no interest in it. There are bills I should be reviewing and a strategy memo I should be writing, but it's just not my job now. My only job is GETTING HOME.

Third morning putting on these clothes ...

Dallas Is a Jewel, Dallas Is a Beautiful Sight

I love Jimmie Dale Gilmore's song, "Dallas."

Did you ever see Dallas from a DC 9 at night?
Well Dallas is a jewel
oh Dallas is a beautiful sight
But Dallas is a jungle but Dallas gives a
beautiful light
Did you ever see Dallas from a DC 9 at
night?

I have to admit, I am not particularly a Dallas fan. But I was humming that song as we flew into Dallas. I will not be able to get to Austin tonight, but at least I am home in Texas.

Before leaving Memphis, I scheduled a 9:00 a.m. flight to Austin in the morning out of Love Field, and so headed over to a hotel near there. By the time I confirmed the flight ("La Quinta" = Spanish for "free Internetz"), it had been canceled. Canceled Flight Number Four.

OK, I can handle this. I am now on a 4:00 p.m. flight out of Love Field.

Gone To Texas

In the late 1820s and early 1830s, as news of flowing rivers, bountiful land, and good hunting reached the ears of hardscrabble farmers in Tennessee, many of them packed up and lit out for the new territory. Often, they scratched or painted the doors to the abandoned farmhouses with the letters, "GTT" -- Gone To Texas.

I gotta get gone to Texas. I've given up on Northwest and booked a flight on American to Austin through Dallas. I figure that, worst case scenario, I will at least get to Dallas. There are only a couple flights a day to Austin from Memphis. There are probably 20 a day from Dallas.

Meanwhile, my luggage is nowhere to be found. I went by the Northwest baggage service office, where the conversation went something like this:

ME: Hi, I'd like to see if I can pick up my bag. I was supposed to be on two flights to Austin that have been canceled.

NSFCSP (Not-So-Friendly-Customer-Service-Person): Sir, your bag is somewhere within the airport, stored until we can send them on to Austin.

ME: Well, can I get it?

NSFCSP: You can, sir, but it will take several hours.

ME: So I cannot get my bag now?

NSFCSP: That's right.

ME: Well, it says I have to file a missing luggage report within 24 hours of losing it. Can I have a form?

NSFCSP: Sir, you cannot fill out that report now. Your bag is not lost until you get to Austin.

ME: But if I cannot get to it, isn't that LIKE it's lost?

NSFCSP: Sir, it will not be lost until you are in Austin and the bag is not there.

I have to admit, there's a weird logic to this.

The upshot, of course, is that I am still in the clothes I had on yesterday. Ehh.