Not sure how I missed this one, but Alamo Drafthouse has added a blog. Even better, they’re posting trailers to YouTube. Brilliant! Now if we can just get them to overhaul that damn frames-based site, I’ll be in heaven.
BoingBoing gave our favorite theater some link love today since they’re showing Lost Vegas: The Lounge Era on January 8th.
If you’re looking for last minute gift ideas, check out their swell holiday schwag. The Wife got me this pack for my birthday last week.
I like St. Arnold’s beer. I’ve liked it for quite some time, particularly the Amber. I’ve been known to grab a Lawnmower or an Elissa on occasion, but Amber is definitely my favorite. I’ve run into the St. Arnold people at Gingerman a few times and they’re always very cool and personable. I’ve always dug their marketing, perhaps it’s the lapsed Catholic in me.
The St. Arnold people have started a blog and a campaign to get some of the Texas laws governing microbreweries changed. Essentially, they want to be able to sell their product on the premises. They can’t do that now. If you take a tour of St. Arnold in Houston or Live Oak or Independence here in Austin or Real Ale in Blanco or Rahr & Sons in Ft. Worth and find a beer you like in their tasting room, you can’t buy it there. You have to find a store that sells the beer and get it there. Stupid, eh? No reason you shouldn’t be able to buy a six pack or a keg from the source.
Texas wineries successfully lobbied to be able to do this a few years ago. The microbreweries say that laws like this are the reason that Texas only has 5 microbreweries. Just 5! When we typically rank near the top in state beer consumption! What’s up with that? Greg Koch, CEO of Stone Brewing in California, and home of my absolute favorite beers, agrees with them.
Much of the commentary points out that this should really be a non-issue and passed with relative ease. I hope so. I’m looking at you, Eddie. Now somebody needs to start a lobby to get Real Ale to brew more Lost Gold IPA. I’m just sayin’.
MSW wasn’t the only one at Trail of Lights last night. On a whim, I decided to try capturing the Austin holiday tradition of spinning under the Zilker Tree. I was pleasantly surprised at the results.
Ballet Austin is having its 50th Anniversary this year. Their 44th annual production of the The Nutcracker starts tomorrow evening. Some local bloggers, including yours truly and my daughter, attended the tech rehearsal last night at Bass Concert Hall. In my rush to make the rehearsal, I forgot my tripod, so you’ll have to forgive the photo quality. We also only made it through the first act; bringing your four-year-old daughter to a 7pm weeknight performance probably isn’t the best idea. Still, she must’ve enjoyed it as my wife reports that she spent most of the day spinning around and crashed for an out-of-character nap at 3pm today. I have a feeling that won’t be the last performance I attend in the near future.
Enough about my home life, how was it, you say? It was good. I attended two or three performances of the Nutcracker as a kid in Dallas. Reading a review on the Ballet Austin site from last year, I’d agree with Patti Hadad. The two dolls brought in by Herr Drosselmeyer had the most impressive performances. I was a little disappointed in the sword fight between the nutcracker prince and the mouse king. I remember it being much more impressive. I’ve always preferred the first act to the second, so maybe I’m a bit biased.
The Statesman had a story yesterday on tryouts for the Nutcracker in its Life and Arts section. Ballet Austin is comprised of the main company and Ballet Austin II or the apprentice company. It also runs the Ballet Austin Academy. The main company has 20 dancers and the rest of the Nutcracker production is filled in with dancers from the apprentice program and the academy, totaling somewhere near 100 dancers to stage the production.
I honestly haven’t paid much attention to Ballet Austin in the 15 years that I’ve lived here, but it’s apparently really coming into its own. It’ll move to the Long Center when it opens in May 2008. Apparently the addition of Stephen Mills in 2000 has really put the company on the national map and they’re a fund raising machine, sharing the generosity that they receive with other non-profits in the city. For instance, tonight’s dress rehearsal is attended mostly by people served by other non-profits, who wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to attend. It’s all an encouraging sign that Austin is growing into a city large enough to support a wider range of arts than those that make it the “Live Music Capital of the World”.
There’s another photo in the extended entry after the jump.
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It’s that time of year again. The tree is up and decorated. The eggnog is chilling in the fridge. And there’s a massive gaggle of Santas drinking their way down Sixth Street. Santa Rampage or Santarchy, depending on your preference is a yearly event in many cities around the country, like Washington DC.
Austin’s gathering of Santas will happen this Saturday, December 9th at 7pm at Hickory Street (8th and Congress). The santas will start their machinations there and continue on for the rest of the evening. I’m guessing they won’t be too hard to find if past years are any indication.
Image via Santarchy DC