Batty for Austin

Austin's SoHo is SoCo, for "South Congress" Avenue, downwind of downtown. The retro-heavy shopping was a disappointment save for one very cool store. The owners of Uncommon Objects describe their large space as "your eccentric uncle's attic." It's essentially a junk/antique store, but every item is so carefully chosen and artfully arranged, it seems more like an art installation, and a darn provocative one at that. They let me take a picture of their boot corner only. Otherwise, SoCo shopping was a bust for this yankee. One more display of Frida Kahlo objects would have sent me flying to a good dollar store. Who needs a Frida Kahlo butter knife? Enough with the Kahlo. Are she and that masked wrestler the only Mexicans worthy of such iconic treatment?

On other front, we took in a great exhibit at The Blanton, a nifty art museum on the campus of the University of Texas. Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design and Culture at Midcentury (organized by the Orange County Museum of Art) looks at the origins and appeal of "1950's west coast style through art, music, film, furniture, and more." Who knew the Eames brothers made experimental short films and animation in addition to all those nifty chairs? We also enjoyed two artists on exhibit at the Austin Art Museum, which is tiny (a gallery by NYC standards), and caught a midnight screening of Student Nurses, a 1970's exploitation flick, at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. But more than anything, we went batty for the bat cruise, which took us under the Congress Avenue Bridge for a novel view of North America's largest bat colony as it took flight at sunset.

Watch the video. It's rather like a Tim Burton animation made flesh.