I worked two shows of the Beauty and the Beast Broadway in Austin show from the Bass Concert Hall over the weekend. The show was great. My favorite number was “Be Our Guest”; great music and great choreography, including tap.
Between shows, I went up to the balcony on the 6th floor to see the post-sunset sky over the 40 Acres.
We headed to campus tonight to catch Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. And a few sights along the way.
The tower was nicely lit. It couldn’t have been for the game tonight.
The venue was Hogg Auditorium, which recently finished a renovation. Very nice.
Paul Simon was in attendance and got a shout out from Wynton during the show.
I headed down to the University of Texas campus today to meet up with a bunch of friends to celebrate Laura’s birthday. Not all the ladies could make it, but we had a great lunch at Gabriel’s Cafe in the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center, just down the street from the UT Tower. We all enjoyed catching up with eachother. Afterwards, we walked the few blocks to the Blanton Museum. Tuesday’s are free!
I haven’t been down to the museum district since before COVID. And things sure have changed! There is a new pedestrian-only mall that goes all the way from the Capitol Building, up to the Blanton – and huge new office buildings where there used to be only a surface parking lot.
The Blanton has done much work on their grounds, and this pretty awesome feature consists of a dozen 3-story tall structures that they call Petals. They provide much needed shade.
I need to come down more often to enjoy the exhibits.
Happy Birthday, Laura!
I ushered for two University of Texas graduations this weekend at the Bass Concert Hall. I need to remember to wear earplugs next time. Wow. One ceremony had about 500 grads. As each walked across the stage, their friends-and-family-posee cheered. Very loudly.
It’s all good; it was a special day for each of the graduates. Well done Class of 2023!! Go live your best lives!
Over the holidays I spoke with a couple of friends who volunteer as ushers for the Texas Performing Arts organization, which hosts events all year at the Bass Concert Hall on the UT campus, and several other local theaters.
I was interested. I do have “theater” experience after all … I worked on the tech crew for the event coliseum at the university I attended back in the day – setting up, tearing down, and working spotlights for concerts, and helping Monte with productions for the showbiz club where we worked. Ok, so theater may not actually be in my blood, but I’ve at least stubbed my toe on it a few times. 🙂
I had an interview this week, attended a training session for volunteer ushers tonight, and decided to join for the remainder of this season – through August – to see how I like it. And to see how it fits in with all the other things I enjoy doing.
A bonus: I got to see some cool views of an empty Bass Concert Hall tonight.
I need to get back in the groove and post more frequently. Here’s a quick recap of July.
Pat, Nga, and Nicky visited us for a week. We split our time between being tourists and lake bums. We walked around the University of Texas campus one afternoon.
We’ve spent much time on the boat, enjoying the lake with friends. We rafted up overnight with Kurt & Kevin, and Brett one weekend. It’s nice to be on the hook with a breeze blowing through the boat.
Doray dropped of some eggs from her chicken coop. I love the varied colors.
When Pat and Nga were visiting, I bought a fiddle-leaf fig plant. I asked Nga to pick it out, and she selected a good one. It’s already putting out new leaves.
On to August!
I ventured downtown over the weekend to snap a picture of the University of Texas at Austin’s Tower bathed in burnt-orange light, to honor the graduating Class of 2020. My friend’s daughter graduated this year and I took this shot for her.
Congratulations to the Longhorn graduates!
I’m in my 3rd year of remotely stalking Tower Girl, the Peregrine Falcon that lives atop the University of Texas at Austin Tower. The University has a live-streamed webcam pointed at her nest box on the northwest corner of the clocktower. And they recently upgraded it, so it now also has audio. Be careful with that audio volume, though. The UT clock tower chimes every 15 minutes and it is LOUD. This is a snap from about 5 minutes ago. She has reportedly had a male hanging around lately, too. February/March is the time she has been laying eggs, so I’ll be tuning in to see how it goes this year.
As long as I’ve been watching, none of the eggs she lays each year have hatched. I hold out hope that this is the year for baby falcons!
Noreen and I did some shopping yesterday, then headed to the University of Texas campus. We went up in the UT Tower on a tour. Monte and I have done this once before but it was a dark and rainy day, so I was looking forward to getting a better view.
As a part of the tour, you can go outside and walk around all 4 sides of the top of the tower.
My town, looking south from the UT Tower:
The UT Tower, viewed from the Turtle Pond just north of the Tower:
The UT Tower with the UT Tower Memorial in the foreground, a remembrance of the victims of the shooting that happened over 50 years ago:
After the tour, we grabbed lunch on the drag, and then mosied over to Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon to experience chicken shit bingo. We didn’t win 🙂 But it was fun to cross that off my bucket list.
Back home, we mournfully watched the Seahawks lose to the Rams. Keeto is very broken up about it.
Monte and I rang in our anniversary with a trip through the Texas Hill Country. We had our own mini-Oktoberfest exploring Altstadt Brewery and spent the weekend in Fredericksburg.
We enjoyed the wine and brews of the region and some local good-eats. We also did our share of antiquing and mantiquing and each brought home a little sumpin-sumpin.
The Longhorns have an off-week, but we caught them chilling in the shade near the Pedernales River:
We did a number of laps down Main Street in Fredericksburg. Next week is Oktoberfest in F-burg, so GET DOWN THERE! 
You gotta love the Texas wine trail… grape vines and live oaks.
And zinnias as far as you can see…
Happy Anny to us!
I’m always looking for opportunities to visit our local museums. I heard about a new exhibit at the Harry Ransom Center on design and the Arts & Craft movement. So we took a trip to the University of Texas campus to see it today.
It’s a small museum but I enjoyed browsing the show.
We walked around campus a bit and grabbed lunch afterward.
I booked a couple of tickets to tour the University of Texas Tower tonight. It has been, thankfully, a rainy weekend, so I didn’t get the pre-sunset view that I was hoping for, but I enjoyed the tour and the 360 degree views of the city.
A panoramic view from the observation deck, located below the clockface, looking south.
I was on campus tonight to join an old college roommate and her family watch one of her daughters in a dance competition. And her team won!
I caught a quick shot of the UT Tower. It is lit up in orange tonight; for Honors Day. Hook ’em!
By the way, if you ever want to know what the occasion is for a lit up tower, checkout this link. And a background on the university tradition of lighting the tower here.
Today was another welcome, wonderfully drizzly day. We just need another 100 or so days like it.
My cousin graduated from the University of Texas yesterday with his bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering. Today we drove to his parents’ house in San Antonio to celebrate with him, his family and friends.
On the way home we could see the UT Tower lit up in burnt orange from I-35. But today, instead of the #1 on the tower, reserved for times when the Longhorns win a national championship, there was a #11, to honor the class of 2011. Monte drove me around to at least 3 different vantage points on campus to try to get a decent shot. This was the best one I captured.
Congratulations to all the new Texas-Ex’s!
Sheila365 