Previously owned but still wanted

One thing we really like about Austin is that the community strongly supports independently owned retailers. Sure, there are chains and box stores here and there, but I've never been to another city of comparable size that has so few Starbucks or McDonalds. Maybe you've heard, however, that the economy isn't doing too well. One reason many people shop at the larger retailers as opposed to the smaller, independent places is that you can usually count on lower prices at the big guys. For example, while everybody else was suffering last month, Wal-Mart actually did pretty well.

That's where the second-hand store comes in. Among the hundreds of cool independent stores is a strong contingent of second-hand shops. Whatever you're looking for, be it books, music, furniture, clothes, or odds and ends, if you are looking to save a few bucks -- and aren't we all these days -- chances are you'll find a store here in Austin that will turn you into a regular.

Now that we've been here for over a year, we've had the opportunity to make the rounds. Here are a few places we've been that really stand out:

An All-Around Second-Hand Mecca

Okay, after dissing chains and boxed stores, the first place I mention is a chain. But Half-Price Books on North Lamar simply rules! Walk in, browse through the books, find the first one that you can't resist, and we challenge you to walk out with just that one item. Junky for media but don't feel like you can justify the cost? This place is where you'll go to get your fix. There's a huge, well-organized collection of books that seems to replenish itself faster than shoppers can deplete it. Recently I was looking for a book and they didn't have it, but I returned pretty shortly thereafter and they had multiple copies.

If all the place had was used books, it would still be great, but HPB also stocks tons of CDs (and vinyl if you're old school like that), a large wall full of DVDs, computer software (not used but deeply discounted), video games, board and table games, magazines, posters and more. There are other outlets in Austin -- the one on South Lamar is pretty good, too -- but this one is my favorite. As an added advantage, there's a very large Goodwill store next door, which we haven't been to but have been told has lots of second-hand goodness inside.

It's hard to resist filling up a shopping bag. Here's evidence from our last visit:


The yield from one trip to Half Price Books (plus a couple of things from Recyled Reads)

More Books

When we moved here, we were surprised that there were so few used book stores in town. For a while, Half Price Books was single-handedly carrying the torch. Lucky for us, just a couple of weeks ago, a new venture operated by the Austin Public Library opened up. Recycled Reads doesn't have nearly as deep an inventory as HPB, but the prices are about as low as they get: $1 for most paperbacks and $2 for most hardcovers. Plus, there's a green, feel-good element to shopping at Recycled Reads: Items Recycled Reads is unable to sell will go to Books Beyond Borders to provide books and funding to third-world schools and libraries, and unusable items will be recycled into building material.

The Used Music Capital of the World

Shopping for used music is something I haven't been able to resist since living in Boston and frequenting Disc Diggers, Planet Records, Nuggets and the like. Hartford didn't have jack by way of good music stores, let alone good used music stores. In Austin, there are too many to count. Aside from the already-touted Half Price Books, here are some other stand-outs.

Waterloo Records

This place is an Austin institution. Waterloo isn't huge, but it packs a ton of good music inside, both new and used. There are lots of spots throughout the store that show off things like staff recommendations, top selling new CDs and Texas music. It is also a good place to find new vinyl, which is often hard to get these days. The used section is great and well-organized. There's a great section with all of the CDs that have come in during the past 7 days that have yet to be organized and filed. Great place to flip if you're coming in without any idea of what you want. Watch out if you're there with me, though, as I might lose track of time and kill the afternoon.

Waterloo also regularly hosts free live appearances by good local and non-local artists.


Alejandro Escovedo, an Austin-based breakout artist, rocking Waterloo

Cheapo Discs

Right up the street, Cheapo Discs packs a ton of used (and some new) CDs and LPs into the former original location of the Whole Foods flagship store. Sure, the place is a bit grungy -- one time a bat started circling the store while we shopped, making the two young ladies working the registers shriek each it passed over the checkout area on its circuit -- but this place has tons of good stuff at good prices. Similar to Waterloo, it has a big section with newly acquired, yet-to-be-filed music, just in case you show up without an agenda. Cheapo might be the best used music store I've had the pleasure of spending spare change in.


Here's our prior entry about a trip to Cheapo.

Antone's

Antone's is a lot smaller than Cheapo or Waterloo, but the place has some history. Antone's is heavy on the Texas music and blues, but also carries lots more across the musical spectrum. It makes for a good side attraction when visiting Ruby's BBQ.



Friends of Sound

I've only been here once. Friends of Sound is vinyl paradise -- particularly if you're into Moog synthesizer records, space music and other loungetastic audio treats. There's a big room in the back with lots of bargains, but you might have to sift through a lot of Leo Sayer, Journey and Herb Albert to find what you're looking for.

Furniture, accessories and lunchboxes

We posted a long time ago about a day we spent checking out many little furniture stores, including several vintage ones: Room Service Vintage, Hog Wild Texas, Austin Antique Mall, Austin Home Collection and It's New to Me. I guess I don't need to repeat what we said earlier -- keep these places in mind if you are in the market for a Fonzie lunchbox. Eyyyy!




Stay tuned for my upcoming list of the best previously owned CDs we've obtained since we moved here. That was 16 months ago. Can you believe it?

Happy New Year

Hope everone had a good New Year's Eve. We weren't sure what we would be doing until the last minute. If you've been following our blog, you might recall a post a few months ago about Dai Due, a roving supper club. Well, Dai Due was throwing a very tasty sounding New Year's Eve bash in a heated tent at a farm in East Austin. Limited seats. By the time some friends of ours and we decided to sign up, it was already full. So we got on the waiting list. Lucy for us, a few days before 12/31, we got a call from Jesse, the chef who does the cooking, letting us know that some spots had opened up.

The event took place at Rain Lily Farm, pretty close to downtown Austin. Good location, because the East Austinites are known for putting on good fireworks displays on New Year's Eve. The night was supposed to be a bit on the chilly side, but it stayed reasonably mild and very clear. It wouldn't have mattered anyhow -- the organizers set up an enclosed tent with several propane heaters and had a couple of fires going outside. There was also the option of sticking close to the outdoor kitchen, where Jesse and his cohorts worked on all sorts of meaty and veggie delights.


The long menu -- lots to taste


Jesse working the grill (above) and the fruits of his labor (below)

The evening started with some champagne cocktails and fresh, raw gulf oysters, which we enjoyed outside by the fire. Dinner started at about nine, and courses just kept coming and coming for about 2 1/2 hours. Almost everything was locally sourced, and it was consistently delicious. Highlights for me were the grilled rack of lamb, the grilled quail, and mozzarella grilled over lime leaves (served with a top notch grilled tomato). Rachel was partial to the antelope tartare. I tried everything, which was something of an acomplishment, and nothing was a throw away.

Rachel, Heather and Fabian, looking happy because they've already eaten

We washed everything down with good wine that we shared with partners-in-crime Heather and Fabian. Smart of us to take a cab! After dinner, as midnight approached, we managed to get up out of our seats for champagne and some cool fireworks, which were all set off by amateurs (legal here in Texas -- of course). Several folks in the neighborhood chipped in on the display, and at times it felt like we were surrounded by 'works. The folks partying next door shot off some great ones.

Fireworks, throught the trees

Great night, great food. Not the sort of thing you'd want to do every week, but if I could sign up for next New Year's Eve right now I'd ante up.

No more food, please!

Fun Fun Fun and Eat Eat Eat 2008

We've been receiving a steady stream of visitors since we moved down here nearly a year ago. Last up was my sister and brother-in-law, Melissa and Chris, who flew in from New Jersey for the weekend. If you've been following the blog, you'll probably guess that we planned much of our weekend around what and where to eat. If so, you're right, so I guess we owe you a tamale or something.

We picked our guests up from Austin-Berstrom airport, which is conveniently located well south and east of downtown Austin. Happens to be right in the direction of Lockhart, one of the great BBQ meccas of Texas. We picked them up at the departure area and kept heading south.

After a pretty quick drive, 30 minutes or so, we found ourselves in Lockhart. Having been to one of the three main Lockhart BBQ places already (Kreuz Market), we decided our options were the remaining twosome of Smitty's Market and Black's Barbecue: one, the other or both.

We opted for both. First we checked out Smitty's Market. Smitty's is owned by relatives of the family that runs Kreuz Market, which used to be located in the Smitty's building. After the family patriarch passed away, his children couldn't agree on some things. One of them took the "Kreuz Market" business and moved it into the roomy place it still is in today. The other set kept the original building and equipment and reopened as Smitty's Market.

Where we ordered a pound of brisket, one hot sausage and a few pork ribs. I have to say, the brisket was excellent. Second best of the briskets I've tasted behind only Louie Mueller, and not by much. Ribs were also moist and tasty, not as well done or overly salty as they were at Kreuz.


Rachel, Chris and Melissa in front of Smitty's during our BBQ double-header



Melissa and our food pile. As for amenities, what you see is what you get (paper, plastic knife)


Venerable BBQ pits at Smitty's

After our warm up lunch, we had our final course around the corner at Black's Barbecue. Here we just decided to get a small amount of turkey and brisket to sample, along with a few sides we couldn't resist. The brisket was cut differently and not as smokey or spicy as Smitty's. Good flavor and pretty good texture, but not stand-out like Smitty's. Turkey, like any decent BBQ, was not dry and had a good smoky-sweet flavor. One difference between Black's and Smitty's is that the former offers sauce, the the latter doesn't (and doesn't need any).


Plate of turkey and brisket, Black's BBQ

We hit up some other memorable food and drink spots during our weekend. Once again, we proudly showed off Austin's Mexican food with a meal at homey, old favorite Habanero and another at Sago, a more upscale, modern take on Mexican. We also had a great breakfast at one of Austin's southern food institutions, Hoover's Cooking, where Rachel and I remarkably had never been. Chicken fried steak, eggs, biscuits, cheese-garlic grits and hoecakes (like a pancake with cornmeal) were among the things we all got to taste. Enjoyed a fresh beer, too, at the Gingerman, which is known for the wide selection of beer on tap.

Melissa and Chris are both music fans. As luck would have it, one of the better music festivals outside of the big two (ACL and SXSW) was being held that weekend, the Fun Fun Fun Festival at Waterloo Park, right downtown.


Three hardcore festival goers

The line-up at this year's Saturday/Sunday festival was heavy on the old American hardcore punk music, but it had lots else to offer as well. Saturday afternoon was beautiful out, so we went that afternoon and caught Dengue Fever, a band from L.A that play a style heavily influenced by Cambodian pop, especially from the 1960s. Their set was short and had a few sound issues, but was lively and fun, especially for the daytime outdoor setting. We also heard a fair amount of a great set by Texas's Centro-Matic, followed by another good set of tight indie-rock by Bishop Allen (at Melissa's good suggestion). After a taking a break and having some dinner, we headed back to Waterloo to catch some of Z-Trip's turntablist gig near the entrance before heading over and seeing The National close things out as the night started to get just a bit crisp. An excellent, well-rounded day of music.


Dengue Fever's Ethan Holtzman and Senon Williams


Bishop Allen

Crazy dancer being watched by his puppy

Typical hairstyle mix at an Austin music festival

We didn't have time to do much else. We took some walks, strolled some shopping areas, drank some good java and hung out. We always like to talk about all the things we didn't do but could have to try so people will want to come back and visit us again.

Special thanks to various grandparents for taking care of Gabe, who we hope can make it down to Central Texas another time.

ACL 2008: People-watching

A few more shots from ACL 2008. Thought I'd better post these before ACL 2009. When you aren't watching the musicians, you can always watch the people!

Some good shirts:

Are you looking at my headgear?

Sharp-dressed men:

ACL 2008: Day Three Review

By the time we got to day three this year, we were pretty exhausted. Days one and two were both long ones, and while the heat and dust weren't as bad as they were in some prior years, they were still a factor.

A crowd either trying to combat the dust or preparing to rob a train

Additionally, the lineup for day three was probably a bit less loaded than the first two days. So we decided to make it a short day. We left a bit later than usual and arrived at about 4:00. After catching a bit of the Silversun Pickups' show, we saw the second half of Neko Case's set. Neko's got a great voice -- perhaps a bit one-dimensional (belting it out!). She does sound great live though. Next, we caught a bit of Austin-based Okkervil River. The band sounded pretty good, cranking out faithful renditions of lovely tunes from a recent album. We'd probably have caught more, but got hungry and went to the food court. By the way, the food at ACL is great. They have a very wide range of choices: meaty delites like BBQ, burgers and sausage, ethnic options like kebabs, burritos and noodles, vegetarian items, frozen treats (very important for a late-September event in Austin) and lots more. The beer selection sort of sucks though.

After Okkervil and food, we met up with our group and caught our last act of the day -- The Raconteurs. Guitarist/singer Jack White, better known as the key half of The White Stripes, cautioned the crowd that he might be a bit off due to his suffering from a bad back. I couldn't tell. We'd seen the band a few times, and they rocked and rolled just as hard as usual, rarely giving the crowd a chance to sit down and catch their breath.

Overall, this festival was another great one. Great weather and fab music has a funny way of making you forget that you're grimy and stuck in a dusty field with 65,000 other people. We got to meet up with Kurt, a fellow member of the Tufts class of 1993 and one-time GM of WMFO 91.5 FM, where I put in 4 excellent years as a deejay. (Kurt has a cool music blog, The Good, the Bad, and the Funky -- check it out.) Oh, can't forget to give a special thanks to Heather and Fabian, who were so generous as to drive us there all three days and always managed to find good parking!

Rachel and Kurt, getting ready to put a wrap on ACL 2008

Rachel, Heather and Fabian, cooling in the shade

Will we be back next year? Well, about a week after the festival, Rachel already bought a pair three-day passes for ACL 2009. See you there!

ACL 2008: Day Two Review

Day two was another long one. Arrived at about 2:00 and didn't leave until about 10:00. Eight hours is a long time to spend on your feet in the hot sun, breathing in dust. Thankfully, the weather didn't get too hot -- "merely" 90 degrees or so -- and we had a few good opportunities to sit down and catch a breather.

If the musical theme of day one was world-influenced music, day two's was R&B (and R&B-influenced). A lot of our prior days at the festival had been a little heavy on the indie-rock/pop, so it was good once again to mix it up a little.

Day Two's Best Show: Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

I was really looking forward to this show. I had heard and read lots of positive things about Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings' live performances. Plus, I'm a long-time supporter of tha funk. The Dap-Kings play a very pure, classic instrumental funk that wouldn't sound out of place in the Stax, People or Atlantic Records studios in the late 60s or early 70s. Yeah, it is a bit derivative. That doesn't bother me, though. I didn't really have an opportunity to catch the original masters in concert. I was either way too young or not yet born.

The Dap-Kings came out first, looking quite Dap-per and thus living up to the band's name. The band (3 horns, 2 guitars, bass, drums and percussion) played a few "warm-up" instrumentals that got the crowd moving, before bringing out Sharon Jones. The band didn't move all that much -- they were way too focused on tight, flawless playing. Ms. Jones, in contrast, was a dynamo. Her voice was powerful and expressive -- a little bit Tina, a little bit Otis -- and as she was dancing and jumping all show long you'd have never guessed she was in her 50s. She had some fun, too, bringing out a couple of fellas from the crowd to dance with her for two of her numbers (funny choices from the audience, too -- look below and you'll see what I mean). She and the band tore through "100 Days, 100 Nights" and other songs from their latest album. Like all of the good shows at the festival, the only bad thing was that they couldn't play a longer set. Guess we'll just have to catch 'em next time they roll their funky bus through Austin.


Sharon Jones serenading a big dude from the crowd


A trio of dapper Dap-Kings

Day Two's Best Crowd: Beck

Beck played the headliner's spot on day two: last show of the night on the festival's biggest stage. Beck is an artist with two personae (if not more) -- the mellow, folksy Beck from albums like Sea Change and Mutations, and the "hippie-hop" white R&B of Odelay and his more recent albums -- you're never sure what you're gonna get. Being that his latest albums were more in the latter mold, I figured we'd probably get a set of mostly up-beat numbers. That's exactly what he delivered. Beck and his band roped the crowd in early by leading off with his first hit from back in 1992, "Loser," and kept the pressure on all night. The crowd really dug songs like "Devil's Haircut," "Where It's At" and "Qué Onda Guero." He did take a quick break from the electronic Beck to play a couple of tunes from Sea Change. I was sort of hoping he'd mix in a few more of his more melodic, poppier numbers. He didn't, and I might have been a bit disappointed, but the crowd wasn't and it kept on grooving until the close of day two.

Wish We'd Seen It: John Fogerty

Another casualty of the "too many good acts at the same time" problem: overlapping sets by Fogerty, the Black Keys and Iron & Wine. Everything I've read said that the old timer put on a great show. Supposedly his voice, his guitar playing and his set list were all great.

What Else We Saw and Heard

• We planned on getting to the festival in enough time to make sure we were there when Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings started. We got there early, so we were able to catch a bit of the Fratellis. Sounded pretty good, but nothing that really stood out.
• After Sharon Jones, we stayed close by and caught a bit of CSS on a neighboring stage. Some of the people we were with really liked them, but it wasn't really my cup of tea.
• Austin's Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears drew a pretty big crowd for the smaller Austin Ventures stage. His mix of blues, rock and funk was a good follow-up to Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. A bit less tight and more raw, but still good at getting people on their feet and dancing.
• The mellow soul of Erykah Badu was a good wind-down from the earlier sets of energetic R&B. She sounded good live. She couldn't resist getting a bit preachy from time to time, but also displayed a good sense of humor.
• Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band played most of Oberst's latest self-titled album, plus a cover of Paul Simon's "Kodachrome" that appealed to some of the older members of the crowd, as well as some of the younger ones. We saw Conor play with Jim James and M. Ward at the Newport Folk Festival in 2005, so it was nice to see and hear him play an entirely different set of songs with a different sounding band this go-round.
• Iron & Wine, a band we missed at one of the prior festivals we attended, played a well-executed set of interesting, moody songs that meshed well with the darkness of their night-time slot.

A Photoshopped Fratelli


Mystic Valley Band and Conor Oberst (far right)


Iron & Wine's Sam Beam