End of Silence

My Bloody Valentine at the Austin Music Hall

You can view the whole set here.

Since we haven’t done one in a while and I hear that there’s some sort of festival thing going on this week, please come join us for a meetup of Metrobloggers both current and former from around the country (world?) this coming Monday, March 16th at 6:30pm at Jo’s Coffee on Second Street between Colorado and Lavaca (map).

I’ve posted about both of these in the past, but they’re worth mentioning again.

Tomorrow morning is the Cowboy Breakfast that kicks off Rodeo Austin. Even though I’m not a big fan of rodeos or country music, I’m a pretty big fan of free: free coffee, free donuts, free pancakes. I seem to remember some chainsaw wood carving and livestock as well. This annual event at Auditorium Shores is always packed. You can park at the Palmer Events Center garage, but you’ll want to get there early. It starts at 6am. The kids have enjoyed themselves every year.

Explore UT is this Saturday from 11am to 5pm. It’s billed as the “Biggest Open House In Texas”. Many of the departments at the University of Texas hold demonstrations or exhibits. It’s great for school aged kids.

Office Space 10th Anniversary - Photo by Jette K

I’m a little late on this, but that’s nothing new. I’ve seen several posts re-capping the Office Space 10th Anniversary screening at the Paramount a little over a week ago and have been insanely jealous and kicking myself for not trying to get tickets.

If you’ve never seen Office Space, go out and rent it immediately. Better yet, buy it. You’ll want to see it again once you’ve seen it the first time anyway (and after that go rent Idiocracy). The 10th anniversary was held here probably because it was filmed in Austin and is Mike Judge’s home town. I used to see him at several South Austin eateries.

I sent out the first link on Twitter a week or so ago. Jette K, Austin film critic extraordinaire, has posts on Cinematical and Slackerwood with reviews of the events along with some pretty great shots.

The Alamo Drafthouse blog also had a couple of posts: one pointing to a Flickr photo set and the other about a  G4 Attack of The Show episode that covered the anniversary festivities.

An old co-worker spent most of the summer of ’98 as an extra in the film for about 5 seconds of screen time.

Reading the reviews on Yelp, it’s pretty clear that there’s no middle ground on Ethiopian food. It seems you either like it or you don’t, especially injera bread, the spongy, slightly sour bread you use if you don’t want to use your hands to eat. I thought some of the reviews there were pretty ignorant and obnoxious, something you *never* see in Internet comments.

I first tried Aster’s as a lunch takeout option from Whole Foods, but ever since the restaurant at 26th and I-35 opened, I’ve been wanting to go check it out. My introduction to Ethiopian food was at a restaurant in Washington DC about 8 years ago with an old college friend of my wife’s. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the place, but I enjoyed it. If you’ve never had it, Ethiopian food is a little like Indian food, but different enough to make it a nice alternative.

The decor of the restaurant is pretty spartan, but the place is inviting. It’s not very big, roughly 10-12 tables. The patio looks like it nearly doubles the capacity though it was too cold last night to eat out there. We ordered three meat dishes for three adults and two kids and had plenty of food. Each meat dish includes smaller or side portions of three vegetarian dishes and two injera breads. Our food arrived on a large platter with all of the choices spread across three injera breads opened out flat (this is where taking a picture would’ve been a good idea, but Yi to the rescue via Flickr).

We ordered the DoroWott, Kitfo and the mild lamb dish (either the Keyi- or Alicha- BeggWott). We were served FasoliaWott, Gomen, AlichaMiser, KeyiMiser, Azifa and Bedergan as sides with double-helpings of some of those. Many of the dishes are spicy, but there’s enough mild dishes for those who don’t go for that. I’d never had the Kitfo, which can be served uncooked or seared. I went for the seared version. The flavor isn’t like many things that I’ve had before. I quite liked it. I’ve left out the descriptions, but you can find them on their web site, which, incidentally, needs some help.

The service was good. Our waiter was knowledgable and attentive and the price was reasonable. It was just under $60 for the five of us. I was the only one who ordered beer or wine. My mother-in-law enjoyed the Ethiopian spiced hot tea. If I didn’t work so far away, I’d be all over their lunch buffet and specials. The place was pretty well packed at 7pm last night. I hope they’re doing that well as a general rule because I’d like to see them stick around.