Announcing www.jonathanoneal.com

For now, it's an online portfolio. It might be something else later, but for now, it's an online portfolio. It might be something else later, but for now.... um, you can check it out here.

Come back to Austin soon...

...Kathleen Edwards. We weren't living here yet when you played KGSR's 15th Anniversary Party in December.

Click her pic to go to iTunes, but you can download 11 .mp3 tracks from her first two albums on the Music page of her site. Right click on the song titles and "Save Target" on the PC and Ctrl-Click on the songs for the Mac. "Back to Me" and "In State" are the real keepers.

I would hang out with me...

...in deference to Loopty Lou. Click the random iTunes party shuffle playlist to see why.

Man, I have good taste.

The Parent Trip: Part One

So, my parents arrived in Austin on Tuesday, June 6. They left this past Thursday. In the interim, we ate our weight in chips, salsa, queso, tortillas, beans and rice between here and San Antonio and generally acted like unabashed tourists for the duration of their stay.

We hit the usual suspects here (Shady Grove, Z Tejas, Kerbey Lane, Shady Grove, again, Curra's and Opal Divine's), and I got to try the food at Lucy's Boatyard for the first time. Crawfish Eggrolls for the table. Cajun Redfish for me. Texas Pecan Chicken for Jamye. Grilled Texas Gulf Shrimp for Dad. Grilled Salmon for Mom. Rolls with sweet butter for insurance against ordering dessert in any form. Good stuff. I'll be back. I'll also go back to County Line when I've got a hankerin' for some barbecue.

Did I mention the Catfish Beignets with jalepeno tartar sauce appetizer at Z Tejas? They deserve more than one line of praise here, but we must press on. We've got a lot to cover, dear reader.

On Thursday, June 8th, Jamye got us tickets to tour the UT Tower. While there was no mention of the 1966 tragedy that most associate with the tower by our guides on the twilight tour, we were given a wealth of history associated with the campus landmark. Rising 300 feet above the Austin landscape, the tower's observation deck provided an impressive vantage point to view the city, the campus, and the hill country and sunset to the west. Of course, we forgot the camera, so our friends and family who haven't experienced it will just have to imagine what it was like until we can take them up there.

Other interesting footnotes from their stay in Austin include our first visits to the flagship Whole Foods Market (which one should either always or never enter on an empty stomach... I'm not sure which), and the award-winning independent bookstore, Book People, a bookstore that reminded me of Davis Kidd before it, well, for lack of a better term, sucked.

Of course, no trip to Austin would be complete without seeing the Congress Avenue bats, and we weren't about to let my folks head back to Tennessee without having the quintessential Austin tourist experience. We saved that for Wednesday night, and I think they were suitably amazed despite Dad's rumored misgivings. Whatever your take on bats, the almost primordial idea of nocturnal critters exiting their dens en masse to feast on smaller critters is, also for lack of a better term, pretty cool.

Tomorrow, I'll recap the highlight of my parents' visit: our weekend trip south to San Antonio, and this time, we have pictures.

DEADWOOD UPDATE!

According to SaveDeadwood.net, the Hollywood Reporter has announced that David Milch and HBO have come to an agreement to broadcast a pair of two-hour movies (in lieu of a full fourth season) that will wrap up the show's lingering storylines.

I guess this is good news, but I'm disappointed nonetheless. The pace of the show over a 12 episode season was part of its charm, if you can call a series about a lawless mining camp in the late 19th century charming.

It sounds like Milch is happy, and since I trust his creative decisions, I guess I can be happy too. I hope none of the actors have already shaved their mustaches.

R.I.P.?

Well, this is a fine how do you do.

The third season of my favorite HBO show, which begins next Sunday (June 11) may well be its last. Even as media writers from all over the country crawl out of the woodwork to unite in a veritable chorus of praise for the show and a campaign launches to save it, the prospects look bleak.

Everyone involved in the production appears to be resigned to the worst, which is a shame, especially considering that David Milch, the series creator, has gone on record as saying that he had planned a four-year arc for the show. Now, with all of the third season episodes in the can, I imagine the final episode will lack a ring of finality.

I feel like Al Swearengen, Deadwood's main heavy, when he meets his new competition in town: the rival saloon owner, Cy Tolliver. "You people must've trained with the heathens, come upon us unawares."

This Must Be the Place

Jo's Coffee has the reputation of serving the finest coffee in Austin. Now, I'm no connoisseur of good java, but I was intrigued by the claims. The last two mornings I've spent having a cup of said coffee at this glorified stand on South Congress, and I'll admit, it's good stuff. The case below the walkup window containing baked goods ranging from kolaches to muffins looks like good stuff too, but I'm trying to change my eating habits after weeks of neglect. This is no small order in this land of queso.

For me, the real allure of Jo's is the clientele. From hippie slackers to corporate types, many people seem to make this place a daily morning stop. Several patrons seem to be on a first-name basis with each other and Moms with babies in strollers and songwriter types with bandana-sporting mutts have filtered in and out with equal regularity during the short time I've been there. Whatever the stereotype, the most popular sighting is the laptop user, and I'm happy to announce that Mac users outnumbered PC users 5 to 2 at one point this morning. This is also no small order in this land of Dell.

In other news, I'm home, and it has started to rain as I type this. It'll be the second time since we've been here, and it's almost startling.

Remembering the Alamo... and Shoal Creek

Jamye had already been with her parents the week before to see the Da Vinci Code at the South Lamar location, but I finally got to experience the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema late Saturday night.

Our visit was a packed showing of the third installment in the X-Men series, and we had to attend the 10:10 screening because when we arrived ten minutes early for the 7:35 show, we discovered there were only two seats available on opposite sides of the auditorium. They graciously let us exchange the tickets we purchased online for tickets to the later show for which we vowed to return early.

Suddenly, we had some free time on our hands. En route to The Tavern a little further north on Lamar, I made a last second decision to whip into the Shoal Creek Saloon a couple blocks south of our intended destination. In past visits to Austin I had noted the place mainly because of the gigantic New Orleans Saints helmet which graced its front awning. This time, I was intrigued by the sign touting catfish AND color T.V.


The catfish and hushpuppy snack we ordered hit the spot. I was also happy to discover that the televisions were, in fact, in color, but my favorite feature of this place besides the back deck which overlooked what I can only assume was the... um... Shoal Creek was that our beers were brought to the table in koozies. Next time we're looking for a place to land on a hot summer night in Austin, you can bet I'll remember that.

I wish I could say that the movie later that night was just as memorable, but it was lackluster. It had more action set pieces than you could shake a stick at, but it didn't have the heart of the previous movies. It was style over substance, which was a shame, because in more able hands, there was substance to spare. In fact, it made our order of cheese sticks at the beginning of the movie seem prescient.

Migas and Me

After I dropped Jamye off for her first day of work...


... I had to go see a man about a horse in San Marcos, TX.

Except substitute cordless phone for horse and Best Buy employee for man. The San Marcos part is true though.

San Marcos is the home of the Bobcats of Texas State University, so it wasn't quite the sleepy little town I had envisioned. I know, the Best Buy should have been my first clue.

Having arrived in town a good thirty minutes before said Best Buy was to open, I decided to go rustle me up some breakfast. I landed at the Allniter Diner on the main drag leading through downtown.

I scanned the menu and quickly settled on the Migas, but there was some verbose history of the building in the menu which I assumed I would be able to find online when I got home so I just scanned it and went about reading my newspaper. Alas, I haven't found much online, and all I remember was the name A.B. Rogers (it was his building) and the year 1906. Apparently he was an undertaker, and he sold coffins and furniture out of the building where I was drinking my coffee. I did find this, but that seemed to open up a whole new can of worms (the San Marcos Springs/Aquarena Center). Neat history there. I'll have to remember to look into it more thoroughly later.

That's Right, We're Now in Texas

I left Nashville on Saturday afternoon, May 13th to drive to Corsicana, Texas and stay with our friends, Fred and Rebecca. On Monday, Fred and I drove into Austin to pick up the keys to our new place and unload a carload full of stuff. On Tuesday, we left for the 2006 TRGA Classic golf tournament at the Pearl River Resort in Choctaw, Mississippi. Fifteen guys (4 Texans and 11 Tennesseans) took part in this year's tournament. I pulled out a second place finish, which would have been sweeter if I hadn't been leading going into the final round on Saturday.

Jamye left Nashville on Tuesday, trailed by her parents, to drive to Austin and greet the movers who were set to arrive on Thursday morning. Jamye and I were finally reunited in Austin at The Shady Grove on Sunday night. Her parents left Monday morning to drive home to Kentucky.

So, here we are in Austin, and that's us in front of the terra cotta(-ish) garage doors of our rental house and Jamye's purple Sunfire. My maroon Pathfinder doesn't clash with the doors as much, so it'll stay in the driveway for awhile, but I guess the more compelling reason why I'm in the driveway is the nine million boxes that remain unpacked in garage.

And just for nostalgia's sake, here's one last look at our old living room in Nashville...
and the view from our old deck.

WWDTD?

What WOULD Dan Tanna Do? I guess he'd have to go buy an earbud or a bluetooth compatible phone to use in his Ford Thunderbird if there were laws like this being pushed through his city of Las Vegas. Go read the Tennessean article in the preceding link and then come back, 'k? I'll wait.
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Here's why this chaps my hide: If they're gonna try to pass a law regarding cell phone usage in your car, then why stop there? The tow truck operator in the Tennessean story has it right. Here's a list of other car distractions for Nashville's Metro Council to consider along with proposed fines.
- Combing hair while driving: $25
- Eating while driving: $25
- Operating iPod while driving: $25
- Smoking while driving: $25 (fine doubles if witnessed lighting cigarette while car is in motion)
- Shaving while driving: $50
- Reading while driving: $100
- Watching television or a video on DVD while driving: $250
- Applying makeup while driving: $500

In general, people don't pay attention, and all the legislation in the world won't make them. No one can convince me that using a cell phone in traffic is any more distracting than having a conversation with someone riding in the car with you (especially if it's a heated one). Like Bill Murray said to the kidnapped groundhog that sat in his lap as he sped toward a gaping ravine in the film Groundhog Day, "Don't drive angry!" While we're at it, let's get rid of billboards and other signage that takes citizens eyes off the road, and here's another opportunity to levy fines on verbose bumper stickers.

Nashville's Metro Council needs to get its priorities straight and not worry about stuff like this, but apparently they're just going with the flow. I mean, if it's banned everywhere else in the world, then it must be dangerous, right? I would have thought that Israel had bigger worries than legislating cell phone use, but what do I know?

As for the U.S. of A., it looks like Dan Tanna's carphone is safe in Nevada for the foreseeable future.

BATS!!!!

These pictures are from the Congress Street Bridge in Austin on Sunday, April 23rd. Jamye and I stood in the bat observation area adjacent to the Austin Statesman newspaper's parking lot with several other onlookers. The bridge was jam packed on the east side to watch the exodus of over 1 million Mexican free-tailed bats. I manipulated some of the pictures in Photoshop because the lighting at dusk was obviously not ideal. Click on the pics to see them a little bigger.

The banner hanging on the southside of the bridge touting the World's Largest Urban Bat Colony

Those black streaks? Bats.

Used the flash here to bounce off the underside of the bridge and some bat bellies (white shapes on the right). Remember those black streaks? Fast bats.

SUMMER MOVIES!!!!

I'll be watching both of those at one of these.

The 2006 NFL Draft

Saturday is one of the most exciting days in professional sports. Unfortunately, I didn't realize it until this year. Perhaps it was because, as they say, I didn't have a dog in that hunt, but this year, Vanderbilt's Jay Cutler is my dog. I can see him going to the Arizona Cardinals as the tenth pick in the first round. Actually, I'd be fine with him going to several different teams, but please, Lord, don't let him end up in Baltimore, Oakland or Detroit.

Also, the Titans are picking third, and since McNair looks to be on his way out, they'll almost assuredly be taking Vince Young or Matt Leinart. I think they want Vince, but here's another scenario. The Titans give up their third pick for a couple of extra picks, say, in a trade with Arizona. Then, the Titans could take Cutler and get another offensive lineman or inside linebacker. Who knows? All I know is my DVR is set because we're going to be in Corsicana, TX this weekend, but I'll be out at the Corsicana Country Club to watch the first couple of hours before Fred and I tee off that afternoon. I'm kinda hoping we get rained out. Then I can sit, play cards and watch the draft. We can always play golf on Sunday.

But Apparently, Texas Wants Us Anyway!

Break out your Belt Buckles and dust off your Stetsons!! As many of you may already know, I've accepted a job at the University of Texas at Austin in a Pharmacology lab studying breast cancer. We're too excited! Not to mention overwhelmed with details of moving...as well as a few pangs of nostalgia and moments of sheer panic. Alas, we are still convinced it's the right thing for us right now. More details to come.

For now, we hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! bock, bock! (the following video may not be suitable to young, Easter bunny loving children).

Your move, Mr. Gates.

"Apple Opens Doors To Windows" @ Forbes.com

"Apple gives its blessing to Windows on Macs" @ Macworld.com

Apple's Official Press Release @ Apple.com

Steve Jobs breaks the news to Bill Gates:

"Have you been reading my blog, Miss West?"

Losing the Local Flavor?

Well, duh.

Texas Expatriates

I had several errands to run this morning, and as I drove around Nashville, I decided to write about something that I notice during my morning and afternoon drive times: lots of Texas license plates. On average, I'd say I see about half a dozen daily. Compound that with Texas flag stickers, Texas Longhorn emblems, Texas neon signs in bars and Texas bumper stickers of every stripe, and you've got a gen-you-ine Texas subculture brewing right here in the verdant hills of Middle Tennessee.

Now, loyal reader, I ask you this: with all this Texas swagger and pride, why are all these people living in my Tennessee town? To put it more bluntly, if the great state of Texas is, in point of fact, so great, why have all these people left? I know there's a lot of reasons for people to leave home and hearth so I really don't expect an answer to that, but there really seems to be a disproportionate amount of eau de Texas wafting through the corridors of the Capital City.

I used to see a lot of Michigan tags during my college years, and they are still abundant, but the Texas plates outnumber them at least two to one, even on the streets surrounding Vanderbilt University, where in a given week or so you can see just about every license plate from the lower 48 if you are paying attention.

We know a lot of people from and living in Texas, and they all seem to be very proud of their home state. State pride is a nice thing, I suppose, but seeing as how I have none to speak of, I can only guess as to what it is about Texas that pulls the heartstrings of its former and current residents and often causes them to wax poetic about the big and bright stars at night. Is it the flat prairies for as far as the eye can see? Is it the cowboy persona? Is it the American made truck in every other driveway and/or front lawn? Is it the sheer size of the place? Is it the Lone Star beer?

Maybe we'll find out soon, but until then we'll have to remain in the dark on what makes these folks so gosh durn happy about living in a state with over 22 million other people spread out over 260,000 square miles. By the way, that's over 7.5 acres per person. Californians only get a measely 3 acres. As for us Tennesseans, we have a respectable 4.5 acres per person. I know you can get better odds in places like Alaska (a whopping 640 acres or 1 square mile a person), Montana, the Dakotas, Idaho and Wyoming, but whoever heard of "Don't mess with South Dakota"?

10 Things I Would Miss About Nashville

Things is the key word here... as in inanimate objects... i.e. not people. That's not to say there aren't people we'll miss. That would be silly.

Honorable Mention: Blue Moon Waterfront Cafe. I'd miss it if it were still around to be missed.

10. Krystal's Combo #2 with one of Jamye's Chiks (Currently none in Austin)
9. The Blue Bar at The Gold Rush
8. Hot Diggity Dog's charred Texas Dog and fries
7. The Ryman: The best-sounding concert venue in Nashville, and maybe anywhere
6. Monterey Clubs served by Lee, B.A. and Maria at Dalt's
5. Sir Pizza: Good to the very edge!
4. The Tennessee Titans: Through thick and (currently) thin... like a Sir Pizza
3. Cajun Burgers and fries at Edgefield Sports Bar and Grill
2. Harpeth Hills Golf Course: Site of my best and worst rounds ever
1. Vandy Football: The tailgating, the intimate confines of Dudley Field, and the accompanying heartbreak

Spring is here...

...and so far, I am unimpressed. Cold. Cloudy. Windy. Rainy. Altogether dreary. No sun. No shorts. No sandals. No golf. No fun. Pbbbttthhhhh.

Editorial note: In the interim between infrequent posts, we actually have had several blogworthy events to report on here in the capitol city, namely, our visitors from California and Jackson, TN, our Oscar party, the news (or lack thereof) on the Austin front, a day in court testifying about (drumroll, please) my stolen license plate, and most importantly, Jamye's 30th birthday. So, should we press on or look back? That's the question I'll be mulling over before tonight's sure-to-be-action-packed post.