Stephen Fuller Austin was born on November 3, 1793, he was the son of Moses and Maria Austin. He served three terms in the Missouri Legislature and was an editor for a newspaper in New Orleans. Austin was a Mason. Moses Austin received a grant for the purposes of colonizing Texas. 300 families would be brought to Texas. The younger Austin was not too psyched on the idea of going to Texas, actually, he was just cooperating with his father. He went on to become faithful to the Mexican laws and policies governing Texas at the time. Eventually, he was arrested by Santa Anna for attempting to set up a state government. Austin is credited with bringing Anglo colonization to Texas. He is also known for establishing the state as a populous, advanced place, despite fairly extreme geographic conditions. His detractors characterized him as weak because of his conciliatory efforts with Mexican officials. I recently learned that Stephen Austin graduated from Transylvania University in the early 1800’s. This is a small liberal arts college in Lexington and it is where my mom attended school. In its early years, it boasted of a medical school, law school, seminary, and college of arts and sciences, helping coin Lexington’s 19th century nickname as the “Athens of the West.” Today it is strictly a liberal arts college. I’m not sure why the school repositioned itself, but I seem to remember it was related to whether it would be secular or tied to a religious organization. Tranylvania’s most famous scholar is Constantine Rafinesque whose tomb is located in the Old Morrison building. Rafinesque put a curse on Transylvania and a fire later broke out that destroyed everything in the building except for his tomb. The Unitarian president of the school, Horace Helley, died shortly therafter. Rafinesque was despised by many and was known to have “loved no man or woman.” He is also credited with writing a 5,400 line poem discussing evolutionary theory–predating Darwin by 20 years.
June 29th, 2001
It has recently occurred to me how much I like the city of Louisville. In my old burg of Lexington, a statement like that amounts to heresy. You’re just not supposed to like the place. Of course, that logic is based on nothing more than a long standing rivalry between two college basketball teams. It has been two or three years since I have been there, but time away has made me realize how much I miss it. The city is starting to get the national props it deserves. In fact, Louisville is on its way to becoming America’s hottest mid-sized city. Consider the evidence:
? The February 2001 issue of the Utne Reader ranked it the third most under-rated city in the United States, next to Milwaukee and West Palm Beach. In fact, the writer claims, “It could become the next destination for those looking to cash out of expensive houses and harried careers in pricier coastal cities.” Read what else he had to say
? Downtown housing is booming. Lofts and mixed-use buildings are going up everywhere.
? Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company (Duany is author of Suburban Nation), is about to begin Norton Commons. This New Urbanist showpiece will be a development of 2000 homes on 600 acres. Unlike city infill projects that maintain the community’s urbanism, this is a brand new greenfield project. This easily could have been another cookie cutter subdivision but will instead be a model that other cities will look to.
? The city has just begun construction on a 20,000 sq. foot “extreme park” that will be located downtown, on the riverfront. The mayor, knowing the power of making downtown a “24-7″ kinda place, wants it to be one of the best in the country. Over a million dollars is going into it. The city has hosted ESPN’s X-Trials and the B3 (boards, blades, bikes) games. In fact this year’s gamesthird phase (preliminary engineering, redefine route, etc.) in bringing light rail as a transit option for citizens. This effort appears to have the support of the majority of those in the area.
? In a strange coalition of progressives and conservatives (Mitch McConnell supported this), the city and county merged governments. The city will soon be the 23rd largest city in the country. More important than size stats, this is a great example of city planning “regionalism”. See book review.
? Louisville has the largest Victorian neighborhood in the United States.
? Frederick Law Olmstead (designed Central Park, in NYC, among others) designed the entire original Louisville park system. His influence can be seen everywhere.
? Louisville’s Waterfront is becoming a place of trails, parks, playgrounds, concerts and an old train bridge will soon become ped-only, taking walkers, bikers, and joggers across the river to Jeffersonville, Ind.
? The Waterfront will also be home to the forthcoming $80 million Muhammad Ali Center.
? Krazy Fest has become arguably the most well known and respected annual punk/hardcore festival in the country.
June 28th, 2001
I believe that being an open-minded and well-rounded person requires stepping out of your comfort zone and considering opinions, arguments and worldviews that don’t always mesh with your own. It may seem cowardly to sort of “justify” my reasoning in providing the forthcoming link. But I often get frustrated at what I think can be a surprising amount of conformity among folks these days when interpreting events and cultural phenomenon. With that said, from time to time I visit the National Review Online and find it to be a place where compelling conservative viewpoints can be found. For instance, this piece about “minders” and “brainers” makes a case for how we’ve turned human conditions, such as sadness into problems with medical solutions. The author, Stanley Kurtz, asks, “Why is it that school children are indoctrinated into anti-drug awareness yet we’re medicating four million kids with a drug almost indistinguishable from cocaine?” (Ritalin). The author asserts that conditions formerly treated with traditional religion, sprituality, etc. are now, more than ever, handled by prescription drugs. And the proponents of these “solutions,” known as “evolutionary psychologists,” have essentially created a religion that relies on unsubstantiated speculation.
June 26th, 2001
I have been pretty impressed with the variety of restaurants in Austin. I’m sure there are plenty of folks that miss things like Polish nalesniki that they could get back east, but I’m quite content. I haven’t eaten much Italian food here and it seems like the city is lacking in reasonably priced, but tasty Italian eateries. Vespaio is down the street from our apartment and is supposed to be the best Italian in town, but its pretty expensive. Fazoli’s can satistfy the craving but so far there are only two of them, way up north. Any suggestions? Another gripe has been the pizza. Yo… we’ve been dying for something better than Domino’s and Papa John’s and no, Frank & Angie’s or Aljon’s ain’t it. However, recently Sarah and I went to one of favorite little bistro/cafe type things located in Clarksville. Cipollina, located at 1213 West Lynn St, is right next to Fresh Plus grocery and across the street from Jeffrey’s. So far, we have been going for their sandwiches but we thought we’d sample one of their wood-fired pizzas last night. We tried a classic Margherita pizza. Nothing fancy– just garlic, basil and tomatoes. But the crust was kind of delicate and crackery but chewy on the inside. Perfect. The cheese was a really high quality mozzarella, you could really tell a dfference.
A large pizza was $12.99. Sure it was a bit smaller than a chain take-out pizza of similar price, but it was the perfect amount for two hungry people. We even took home one piece. Dinner for two, including two mini bottles of Coca-Cola was around $16.50. I hereby declare Cipollina’s Margherita and probably their other pies, to be the best pizza in Austin.
June 21st, 2001
It is amazing how you can get so stressed trying to do something that is supposed to be relaxing.
Yesterday, Elizabeth, Zach, Sarah, Stan , and I went to Gruene to go “toobing” on the Guadalupe River. Gruene is right next to New Braunfels. Both of these little towns were settled by Germans in the 1840’s. If you are picturing flat, dusty, Texas ranching communities–you’re way off. Both towns are deep in the Central Texas Hill Country. They have historic, town square type centers and are known, for BBQ, antiques, tubing on the river, among other things. Anyway, we thought it would take 40 minutes or so and there would be a little sign for Rockin R and that would be it. Stan and I were in his new truck, while Zach, Sarah and eLiz were in a car. As soon as we get to New Braunfels a wreck ties up I-35 and we lose each other. About an hour later, Stan and I make it to Rockin R in New Braunfels but alas cannot tube. A young Rockin’ R employee greets us at the parking lot, “Aye yo, like y’all can’t be toobin’ today cuz like, all dem toobs be rented, yo.” But fortunately it was still cool to get tubes in Gruene, just a few minutes away. But we had no clue where the rest of our crew was. After driving all ’round tarnation, Stan and I head to Gruene thinking maybe our peeps have beat us. No dice. We pay $10 just to look around Rockin’s parking lot but couldn’t find the Altima. I did see a car with a Kentucky license plate from Fayette County (Lexington). I was shocked to see a Kentucky Wildcats sticker on it. Imagine that! Stan and I are bummed and contemplating heading back to Austin at this point. But on the way out of Gruene we spot our comrades and our toobing adventure would soon be on.
After buying more beer (nothing like Tecate in cans, with lime, while floating on the river) we were set. This stretch of Guadalupe is beautiful. The sun was blazing, there were hundreds of other toobers out. In fact, a newly married couple had their post-wedding festivities on the river. Pretty much the only law of the river is that you cannot bring bottles. Yes, there are actually police officers at various points along the shore and they will supposedly come after you on a raft if you are breaking this one sacred rule. But after an hour of cruising down the river at a speed of about .000001 miles per hour, I can see why this stuff is so popular. I found myself with a Tecate in one hand, some tasty, cheesy Goldfish in the other thinking, “It don’t get any better than this.” Straight out of a beer commerical. Our river rat adventure ended about 4 hours after setting off. Rockin R had a classic yellow school bus waiting for us. It totally felt like summer camp or something. The highlight of the trip back to Rockin R’s was when some crazy chick in the back of the bus starts getting up in some dude’s grill, screaming obscenities and something about respect. The whole front of the bus starts chanting “Jer–ry, Jer-ry, Jer-ry!” Lovely. Not that our group would engage is such low-brow activities or anything. We head up the hill to downtown Gruene for some BBQ and find a nice little joint right next to the famous Gruene Hall, Texas’ first dance hall. We scarfed some brisket, sausage and chicken and then headed back home. Sarah and I got sick later in the evening. Not sure if it was from the food or just being in the sun all day and then gorging on food. At any rate, I was praying to the porcelain god and had the chills and stuff. Sucked. But feel fine today and overall our toobin’ adventure was a blast. Can’t wait to go back!
June 18th, 2001
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