If you’ve gone up I-35 between Austin and Dallas, you’ve probably seen the giant concrete dome caterpillar at the same exit that has the concrete dome starship-shaped gift shop. I looked it up. It’s a group called Monolithic that makes buildings by schmearing concrete over giant balloons. As you might imagine, their website claims that
Blog Posts
Austin hotdog roundup: Third Base mini corndogs
On rarely finds an opportunity to use the word “adorable” when talking about tube steak. Yet that is what comes to mind just before one devours the deep-fried nuggets that are Third Base’s mini corndogs. Why did we need those sticks in the first place, one wonders? When the Jetson’s promised us that we could
Pinballz: fun, plus a salacious name
Just when you thought that the institution of the arcade was dead, swallowed by home gaming systems and slightly upsetting subcultures, along comes Pinballz Arcade. Located along Research BLVD, this two-story arcade boasts over 80 pinball games. And certainly they have every pinball game I ever loved. Including this rare heads-up video display pinball game.
Meditating on Rambutan
In a basket on a shelf in a discrete corner of the produce section of the local organic grocer, one finds the rambutan. You think to yourself, this looks interesting. It’s red and spiny. It has that particularly tropical look to it that seems so out of place in an American supermarket. You want to
Taco cart near my bus stop
This is a food frakker post, but really, it’s also another in the series of “things along my commute.” I really wish this taco cart was open when I got off the bus in the morning. It advertises breakfast tacos, but if it’s not open at 9am, then I’m not sure what sort of breakfast
Swarm of Mourning Doves
My new house has a bird feeder in the back yard, so one of my first thoughts on moving in was, hey, wouldn’t it be great to have a birdfeeder out the back window, so I could see all the new and exciting birds in this new neighborhood. So I bought some seed and poured
Ant swarm on the gate
Have you ever noticed how the ironwork on chainlink fences, particularly on the gates, usually have animals on them? I never noticed myself until the cast-iron lions on the front gate were covered in a swarm of ants.
Weird House on Austin’s East Side
Building back houses is a thing here in Austin. You’ve got a backyard and you’ve got absurdly high property taxes and you’re just going to put two and two together. But few of those back houses look like a subdivision of Mos Eisley. I saw this as I was biking past the Texas State Cemetery.
Many Views of a Cloud
About a month ago, right at sunset, there was this huge cloud over Austin. At the time we were a bit short of rain, so it was an extra-exciting event. So I was inspired to shoot this time-lapse of the event. Right, so it’s a cloud, right? As it turns out, I wasn’t the only
Buses, Cap Metro and Art
Another entry in my series on “things I see from the bus.” I heard about the bus bench art project back when I was regularly commenting on Austin public transportation issues, and as it happens, my bus route goes right past the bench in question. The media involved: one bus bench and a variety pack