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| Vanishing Austin / Moody Blues by Jann Alexander |
IT WAS A WEEK THAT BEGAN with breakfast at Austin Java with a longtime friend, colleague and photographer (and a Texan living in Washington, DC), Molly Roberts, allowing us to catch up on photography, the great outdoors, people, Texas roots, kids and life. A major influence in turning me towards Austin, Molly remains in DC as connected to the photojournalism world as ever, now adding writing and publishing to her photography and picture editing and social media skills at Smithsonian magazine.
Then a little reception at Austin Details Art + Photo to talk photography, printing and the gallery scene led to drinks at Manuel's that same evening, pre-bat flight, with Molly and her friend Ray--and we added Austin photographer Lance Rosenfeld, who's got DC roots too, talking photography once again--where photodocumentary work is heading (towards collectives, Lance and Molly feel; and for Lance, back to the East side, where "all the young creative people hang out").
Walking to Manuel's along Congress Avenue with Molly, Ray and Lance, we'd waited with a cyclist at a stop light who was heading west on 6th Street on a very special one-of-a-kind Trek bicycle, wearing just what you'd expect another Lance--Armstrong, that is--to be wearing. And looking a lot like Lance Armstrong, too.
Another day, lunch with two AIGA board members, a senior art director and a marketing/graphics professional, talking about coworking and our new collaborative space for creatives, CoCreate, and the Austin AIGA, the world of advertising I came from and the one they're in, and life in the new Austin. Whatever that is.
When a developer/designer named Jason arrived to use our CoCreate space thanks to a story in the Austinist, we were delighted to make a new connection from New Orleans, and hear his take on his former city's similarities to Austin. That puts Austin in good company.
Then another lunch another day, at the Roaring Fork, where the waiter mistook us for tourists. Our table included good Austin friend Alison Beck (with UT's Center for American History) and Susan Antone (Cilfford Antone's sister and Antone's club partner), blending a conversation that encompassed the Austin that was, inspired by my Vanishing Austin series; photography collections and archives that Alison is responsible for at the Center; and the amazing 30 years of Antone's musicians and performance photographs that Susan Antone has made. Which is headed to the Center for American History, along with many other notable photodocumentary collections already archived there.
At another meeting, hosted by the Downtown Austin Alliance, a driven former astrophysicist named Torvold Hessel presented his starry-eyed vision for a yet-to-be-built Austin Planetarium. Right here in downtown Austin. Really.
As if those weren't enough heady Austin contrasts, Thursday's behind-the-scenes tour of the newly restored and now reopened State Theatre by new exec director Jim Ritts revealed a very old Austin tidbit rarely seen now: the old movie marque alphabet collection, dusty black letters that once announced a new Clark Gable movie playing, or a new variety show coming to the old vaudeville house.
At last glance, the Paramount marquee showed Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt coming next week. I'll be there.
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