It’s time for end-of-year portfolio assessments. First up: the giant wrecking ball that’s been tormenting Austin.
Unexpected Rewards and Opportunities at Year’s End
As the year ends, an unexpected prize is awarded to What's Vanishing Next? and an opportunity to pay it forward is bestowed.
Blessings for The Man in Black
A broken-down bus that long lived at Austin's famous honky-tonk shows some respect for the Man in Black. The missing 1948 Flxible Clipper bus that once lent its retro funk to Austin's best-known dance hall, the Broken Spoke, made an unannounced road trip last spring to Adkins, Texas and ended up parked at Texas Pride Barbecue. Seems... Continue Reading →
Overcome by Tall Towers and Big Cranes
We'd honestly like to see more of the Tiniest Bar in Texas. It's just that these days, cranes and other towering structures are rapidly closing in on it. Makes it kinda tough to spot such a tiny bar. Hang on, Tiny Bar! Don't let the Tall Towers and Big Cranes bring you down! ♣ Related articles Tiniest... Continue Reading →
Walk Back to Weird at Wiggy’s
Walk or Don't Walk, it's up to you at Wiggy's I have long been fascinated by juxtapositions. In fact I've tried to build my entire Vanishing Austin photography series around them, and this one always grabs me as I look towards downtown in the early evening. Despite the other towers rising all around and high... Continue Reading →
Yes, there's reason to worry that Austin is no longer weird. But if you look around—weird is everywhere.
Blue is the color of summer in Austin. Blue skies. Blue pools. Blue lakes. Blue neon. Blue tattoos. Blue is happy. Blue is what I see every time I go out with my camera in Austin. If you love blue and live in Austin, you're in luck. Austin has a lot of Blues: True Blue Tattoos (above,... Continue Reading →
Boots That Are Made for Walkin’
Allens Boots is a place I steer all of my Austin visitors to, direct from the airport, so they can stride confidently around town in some real boots. Then they can learn to walk with a swagger, just like a real Texan. Since 1977, Allens has remained a true South Congress landmark, where musicians, celebrities, movie stars... Continue Reading →
An Austin ghost sign that has long served as an iconic landmark, and dates from the time a pack of Wrigley's gum cost you a nickel, is now forever hidden from view by a new Marriott.
The Pattern of Change
It takes a whole lotta cranes to hoist up a new Marriott in downtown Austin, where change is changing faster than you can say change. Above, the upcoming architecture at 2nd Street and Congress Avenue demonstrates the pattern of change in a city where urban = growth. UPDATE: Today's Austin American-Statesman reports Austin city staff have... Continue Reading →
Speeding into the Sunset
Austin Speed Shop is bidding farewell to South Lamar, to make way for, yes, another luxury apartment development. Its new location near by is still under wraps, but it's not likely to have the Keep Austin Weird charm of, say, the floor—where original owner Francis Reissig inscribed "1959" with his initials into the building's wet concrete after it... Continue Reading →
Endangered Species of Austin unveiled on KXAN
KXAN's Josh Hinkle focused on Capitol Saddlery's oversize boot to showcase my new poster debut, Endangered Species of Austin, drawn from my Vanishing Austin series, in his on-air piece, and an online story that aired in conjunction with the poster-signing reception hosted by Austin FastFrame. ♣ See all 99+ photographs from the Vanishing Austin series HERE, and shop for the Endangered Species of Austin... Continue Reading →
A Rare Treat: An All-Art Issue from Rare Magazine
Featured in the Art issue of Rare this month, my work (including my Vanishing Austin photo series) is in good company with many notable Austin visual and performing artists: Rare Magazine :: August/September 2009 :: Art ♣
Finally, Overtaken
More than a year before a corporate giant’s expansion plans doomed Las Manitas, I enjoyed my first breakfast there amid the late Saturday morning hub-bub and was greeted as warmly as a regular by Cynthia Perez, one of two sisters who’ve owned the Congress Avenue café for over 25 years. She took note of my... Continue Reading →
Movin’ On—Carefully
How do you move a neon sign? Especially one that's achieved icon status in Austin? As it turns out, very carefully. When the Night Hawk Frisco Shop moved from its original Austin location at Burnet Road and Koenig Lane to new digs a bit south on Burnet Road, of course its original neon had to... Continue Reading →
What Would Johnny Say?
Progress overtook a humble little bar on Austin's West 5th Street, but the bar is still intact.
What’s Vanishing Next?
At a much-loved Austin coffee shop on West 6th Street in Clarksville, a young man behind the counter handed me my biscotti, looking on in astonishment at my Vanishing Austin series. "All these places are gone??" he asked, seeming a bit dumbfounded. "No no no," I told him hastily. "This series of photographs is my... Continue Reading →
Is Your Austin Vanishing?
Soon a bland corporate hotel chain revered the world over for its predictability will stand in place of this textural, colorfully cheeky block of individuality, replacing the contrasts of angles and styles and skies that exist now along Congress and 2nd. A corporate logo stamped on countless buildings will take the place of the gaudy... Continue Reading →
Jann Alexander :: Pairings 