End of Silence

As with most years around here, we had some new laws go into effect on September 1st. This News8Austin story summarizes a few of the things that changed on Saturday, but I’m particularly interested in two of them.

Katie’s Law – It’s about f-ing time something like this went on the books. I’ve been advocating for this for years. In fact, this one doesn’t go far enough. It doesn’t start putting restrictions on you until you’re 79. Let’s move it up 10 years.

Castle Doctrine – Removes the requirement that someone must try to retreat before using deadly force to defend themselves. This one’s an interesting one in light of the death of musician Carter Albrecht in Dallas. The Statesman played up the tenuous connection to local musician, Charlie Sexton. I’m generally a fan of how Texas interprets this sort of thing. I live in a sketchy neighborhood that’s gotten sketchier over the last year or so. That being said, whenever guns are introduced into a situation, things can become very serious very quickly and there’s not much room for error. The Grand Jury’s out on this one as of yet, but I can’t see how blindly firing through the door doesn’t get you some sort of charge.

I finally got the chance to check out The Woodland for the first time over Memorial Day weekend. The kids were at my parents and The Wife and I could enjoy a dinner on our own. We headed down to South Congress without a destination in mind and after checking out the menu at The Woodland, walking by Enoteca/Vespaio (no web site, Claude?) and South Congress Cafe, and grabbing a few discounted games at the toy shop that was closing and moving into the new space with Cissi’s Market and Mars, we headed back to The Woodland.

The menu tends towards upscale diner / comfort food, something like Moonshine, but different enough to distinguish themselves. The decor and atmosphere are very inviting. They’ve got Live Oak beers on tap along with an impressive cocktail menu which I’ll get back to in a moment. The food was better than average. I had the Pepper Crust and The Wife had the Rueben. The consensus from reviews on various sites is that the oyster appetizer is the one to get…maybe next time. The desserts were especially tempting. Between the decor and the desserts, I got a bit of a Twin Peaks vibe. The place is relatively small, but there wasn’t a wait the two times that I’ve been there.

We returned for drinks last month and had good service from the bartender, Jeff, who’s responsible for some of the unique cocktails on the menu. I recommend checking out the SoCu, which is Hendrick’s Gin and cucumber muddled with fresh rosemary, served in a salted rim glass and sprinkled with cayenne.

They tied for best new restaurant in the Readers category of this year’s Austin Chronicle Restaurant Poll. The Woodland is owned and operated by the same people that brought you Starlite Lounge on Colorade between 4th and 5th.

Two music notes that are somewhat related:

• Steve Crossland points out that today is the 17th anniversary of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s death. I was driving from Dallas to Austin in a U-Haul truck that morning on my way to a rental house in Hyde Park to start my sophomore year at UT when I heard the news. Where were you?
• At the other end of the music spectrum, but of roughly the same era, Tim League linked a post about hardcore shows in the early 80s at The Ritz theater he’s currently renovating for the new location of Alamo Downtown. The Left of the Dial post mentions the Idle Time fanzine, which has a ton of great photos from the punk scene in Austin at that time.

You’re probably already familiar with Oaxacan Tamaleo through its easily recognizable proprietor Leonor Banos-Stoute. If you’ve ever been to the Sunset Valley (formerly Westlake) farmers market or to their old location on Anderson between Burnet and Lamar, you may have seen her balancing a pot or vase on her head. While that’s the most visible symbol of the restaurant, it’s their amazing tamales and other fare that are the real reason to pay attention to them.

The old location was a small section of a convenience store and they only took cash. It always felt like a fly by night operation that might get shut down at any moment even though they lasted there for years. I noticed a couple of months ago that they’d vacated that location and wondered whether they’d simply moved or had gone out of business. Luckily, it was the former, as Statesman food critic, Dale Rice, apprently found out this weekend. I have to think that he’d been to the old location, but maybe not. The blog post doesn’t mention it.

They’ve recently moved to a new location on Highway 71 on the way to Bastrop. They’re roughly 11 miles east of the airport. While this location isn’t as convenient to central Austin, there isn’t much on the way between Bastrop and Austin at the moment, so they’re probably going to get a decent amount of walk-in traffic. If I don’t make it out to the new location before the holidays, I’m sure I’ll be trekking out there for some tamales come Christmas. We had all of the out-of-town relatives raving about them last year.

Image from Oaxacan Tamaleo

I attended the first Fun Fun Fun Fest last December. Other than being cold as hell, it wasn’t bad.

According to Pitchfork, the lineup for this year has been released, but I don’t see much on the Fun Fun Fun Fest site yet.

First, it’s 2 days this year instead of one and takes place on November 3rd and 4th, so it might not be as cold. It’ll be in Waterloo Park again.

Here’s the bands according to Pitchfork:

The New Pornographers
Girl Talk
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Of Montreal
Okkervil River
Battles
Diplo
Murder City Devils
Lifetime
Cadence Weapon
Explosions in the Sky
Final Fantasy
Mates of State
I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness
Emma Pollock (ex-Delgados)
Neurosis
Busdriver
the Sword
the Saints
Against Me!