End of Silence

Many local news sources are reporting that The Bitter End, damaged in a fire in August, will not be re-built after all. The current location and the parking lot to its south are slated for a new hotel sometime in the future.

From what I can gather, most of the current employees of the restaurant will move across the street to the new Capitol Brasserie, run by the same group that owns Bitter End. I suppose that Craigslist posting last week wasn’t all that necessary? Capitol Brasserie replaces another venture by the same owners, Mezzaluna. From the description, it sounds like Capitol Brasserie will be something similar to Les Halles in NYC.

I guess B-Side will remain open for now, but I’m assuming that it’s ultimately doomed as well. The articles seem to imply that Bitter End may return at an alternate location, but plans are vague. There’s a meeting for employees to discuss the future of the location and its staff sometime today.

So we’re going to lose another decent local business and parking lot to a hotel? Seems to me that parking is scarce enough as it is in the warehouse district. Do we really need another hotel downtown at the expense of an existing (historic?) building and business?

For the second time in the past 18 months, I or someone in my family has noticed two or more people standing on the 12th street overpass on I-35, holding a banner over the railing with “Say no to gay marriage” or something to similar effect.

I posted about it last April when I saw it and wondered if it was legal to protest in this way. Sure, it’s probably covered under free speech, but it also slows down traffic, which trumps everything else in my opinion. Nevermind that I disagree with the sentiment. Nevermind that the amendment to which they’re undoubtedly referring is worded poorly, opening the door for arguments like this. Nevermind that the amendment simply re-iterates something that’s already illegal and is explicitly writing discrimination against a particular group into the state constitution. I’m annoyed at anyone who makes the commute on I-35 any worse than it already is.

And as a friend posted a few days ago from a conversation she overheard: “If gay marriage is a threat to your marriage, then your marriage sucked anyway.”

The ruling just came out late this afternoon. I checked a couple of hours ago and didn’t see anything. You can get the details from the Statesman or News8Austin. Essentially, the judge ruled that bars should have the option for judicial review when they’re up for license or permit revokation from violating the ban. He also effectively dropped the $2,000 fine written into the law to $500, because that’s the penalty by state law for a Class C misdemeanor violation. He also ruled that showing some decrease in revenue at some of the bars affected by the ban didn’t outweigh the public health risks.

So, you still can’t smoke in bars. It still has to be enforced by the bars. The fine for the bar has dropped and they have a chance for review if they’re in danger of losing a license or permit. Personally, I’m glad the ban stands, but I think that the bar shouldn’t be the only liable party when a violation occurs. It should be the bar and the violator, just as it is in offenses that involve drinking. That way, some of the obligation is taken off the bar owners and staff and put on the individual.

Just a quick reminder that some of us Metbloggers will be down at Casino El Camino tomorrow starting at 5:30pm to get happy and celebrate our first birthday. Joe and Chaos will be on hand to serve your drinking needs. I’ll be the one scarfing down an Amarillo Burger (here’s a fairly recent shot of my ugly mug in case that’s not enough to go on). Come by and say hello.

For those of you who missed out on getting tickets to Queens of the Stone Age, it looks like there are still tickets available for Gang of Four tomorrow night, also at Emo’s.

Who’s Gang of Four, you ask? What a sweet kid. There are plenty of places out there on the Internets that can give you more in-depth info than I can. Suffice it to say that certain bands on today’s music scene (*cough* Franz Ferdinand *cough* Bloc Party *cough* Bravery) owe an awful lot to this bunch of brits who broke out in the late 70’s. Their ground-breaking album, Entertainment!, was recently re-released (not the first time. It was re-released roughly 10 years ago on the Rollins/Rubin label Infinite Zero) and a new album, Return the Gift, hit stores today. Check it out, chickadees.

Update: I should add that Return the Gift is newly recorded versions of old songs and remixes of old songs, not new material. I shouldn’t pass judgement without hearing it first, but it’s hard not to view this as an attempt to cash in. I suppose I can’t fault them. I’d just buy the Entertainment! re-issue if I were you.