Janice Williams Loves Austin

I can’t believe the weekend is already here. How quickly a week goes by when you are out of town for two days of it! And I didn’t work at the “office” today either, so it really was a short work week. Just the way I like it!

I wanted to backtrack a little bit to my trip to Amarillo and our wonderful Memorial Day. I’ll skip all the travel troubles on the way up on Sunday (which began with waking up at 10 a.m. when I needed to be leaving the house at 10 a.m.).

Monday, Memorial Day, dawned bright and windy in Amarillo. A beautiful spring day. The night before had been full of hail and rain and tornadoes all around us in the Panhandle. Quite exciting! But Monday was clear and calm (well, except for the wind) and beautiful. Mom and my sister Mackie had driven up the day before and I flew up. I had arrived earlier than they did, so I had already had a good visit with my Aunt Dorothy.

We went to Aunt Dorothy’s for lunch. You should be well acquainted with her family from my entry about Trent’s graduation just a week before when they were all in Waco for the festivities. But they were happy to throw another party for us in Amarillo because they are great party throwers and great cooks, every one of them. I always have to take a picture of the beautiful table at Aunt Dorothy’s because it is always so elegant, even with paper plates.

The kids are ready to dig in. I don’t blame them. From top to bottom we have a big plate of donuts, a casserole of oat meal and fruit, French toast, monkey bread, a ham and hashbrowns and cheese casserole, an egg and sausage casserole, and fruit. Nothing like a light breakfast!

These are the same kids you saw at their uncle’s graduation and Ph.D. ceremony at Baylor. AnnaBeth, Alex, and Jonathan.

They had the day off from school so they could be with us. I got to see Jonathan the next morning at home since he is only 5 and will start kindergarten in the fall, but the others had gone to school for the last week or so. Here they are, still yearning for that good food.

They weren’t the only kids on hand. My cousin Heather dropped in, too, with her baby girl Sidney. I am always flattered because my aunt (and lots of that family) will interchange my name and Heather’s name, confusing us with one another and saying that Heather always reminds them of me. That is high praise because she is a doll and has the sharpest wit. Plus she’s really really smart. This is not the greatest picture because of the bad photographer and the moving target, but it is Heather.

Sidney deserves a better picture though, because she is a beautiful child that like to say “outside” a lot!

We had a wonderful gathering and lots of laughs and fun and then Mother and Mackie and I went to the cemetery for a Memorial Day service honoring veterans. Daddy was a Korean war veteran and served in the US Air Force and he is buried in a new section of the cemetery called the Field of Valor. They had a very nice service for Memorial Day. This is where we were, because if you can find a tree in the Panhandle (and they are all planted, they are not native), you take advantage of it. Have you ever seen a flatter landscape?

But the ceremony was this other direction. Notice the wind blowing the flags straight out. The storm the night before had destroyed a lot of the large flags they had on display in the cemetery and there were leaves and branches strewn across most of it.

There was a nice flyover (several, in fact), too.

We did some grave visiting while we were in the cemetery. That is what Memorial Day is for, after all. At one time I lived in Amarillo with two great roommates, Diane and Beth. Beth’s parents are buried in the same cemetery as Daddy and I finally found their graves. I knew them both well when they were alive. Diane’s mother died before I knew her, but she is also buried there so I checked on her grave since Diane lives in San Antonio now. My Uncle Homer and my grandparents (Mother’s parents) are also buried in this cemetery, so we visited them all. Mackie had come prepared with flowers and flags for everyone’s graves.

Next we went across town to the other cemetery and visited Daddy’s parents graves, my dear cousin Judy who died in December, and my older brother who died as a baby.

Through with the cemetery visits, Mom and Mackie took me to my friend Sandy’s so she and I could go visit Jamey and have a mini-college reunion. This is Sandy’s sweet cat at her front door.

Sandy and I visited Jamey at his radio remote (add that to my list of why I’m glad I’m not in radio— remotes on holidays!). Later we had dinner with my mother and then we stopped in to see my cousin Larry for a bit. A really good day with lots of great visits and lots of people to see and lots of good people to remember fondly.

It will be a quick update, I am on my way to move into a new office downtown, smack dab on Congress! I worked two blocks away when I first moved to Austin, so this will be a return to a very cool neighborhood. I’m looking forward to being in the center of things again. I haven’t really “declared” here what I’m doing these days, but one of my many jobs, but the one that keeps me the busiest, is working for Marsha Milam Music. She is a talent buyer and booker and she arranges all of the wonderful music series (plural) around the area and the state:  The Hill’s Free Texas Music Series, Unplugged at the Grove, KGSR’s Live at the Lake (starts Sunday!), and many more. I am trying to be a good detail person (not really my strong suit) and keep her files organized and contracts perused and advance information sent to bands.

Last night I was at Unplugged at the Grove for porterdavis and Del Castillo. A great line-up and one of the biggest shows of the season so far. I would say it was the earliest crowd, for sure. The place was packed by 6:30. It was a good show. I can’t be more effusive because I just wasn’t into it this time, know what I mean? Not their fault at all. Del Castillo had the crowd dancing and shouting and on their feet and it became a more and more fevered pitch before it all ended.

Still lots to catch up on here, lots of pictures to post, too. When will all of this happen? There is no telling. The weekend is jam packed, but I’m hoping I can get away with the computer during some downtime. Enjoy the weekend!

Days fly, but I won’t again. Fly that is. After spending two miserable days in airports in order to enjoy maybe 40 hours in Amarillo, I have declared that I will no longer fly anywhere that would take me 9 hours or less to drive. All day Sunday and again all day yesterday my mind kept thinking, “I could be in Brownwood by now. I could be in Lampasas by now. I could have eaten in Sweetwater. I could have had a chocolate malt instead of these peanuts!”  No longer will I have that internal argument about which is cheaper or which will get me there faster. If I had had my car with me in Amarillo I could have easily rearranged my plans to have another meal at my Aunt Dorothy’s (which, in and of itself is worth the 8 hour drive). But, no, instead I was sitting about 10 miles away at the airport, waiting for weather to clear up in Dallas.

And I’m not caught up on my sleep or my work or my life, so I’m still not ready to write FULL entries. Now in addition to the things I said before that I needed to write about we can add my trip to Amarillo (and I’ll have pictures) and the Band of Heathens and Ruby Jane show tonight at Hill’s. And my commitment to 30 bands in 30 days in June. All of that still to come . . .

There is so much to write about and I am falling behind (and falling asleep!).  I want to write about the Josh Grider and Charlie Robison show on Wednesday night at Hill’s. I want to write about the Robyn Ludwick and Jimmy LaFave show at the Shady Grove last night. I could write about my afternoon of frustration and the &*#$% (bad word describing a woman) that parked behind my car this afternoon, and I must write about getting together tonight with my best friend Beth and my old boyfriend Scott and his wife Cynthia (and tell the stories they BEGGED me not to put on the internet). I haven’t seen Scott in about 20 years, so it will make for very interesting reading. But first, I will write (right after I move the laundry to the dryer) about American Idol. I know where my priorities (clean underwear) and the priorities of my readers lie.

I think I have made it clear that I truly love and am addicted to American Idol. It’s not like I really care or even vote (except I did vote when my friend Anne’s brother Will Makar was in it), but I like the uncertainty of where it is going to end up and, as a music and radio person, I like to feel like I have superior knowledge about these things and I like say, “Ha, I KNOW who is going to win!”

And, did I declare it here a few weeks ago? If not, I meant to. I said that David Cook would be the American Idol of this seventh season. Now, after they sang on Tuesday night, I faltered and thought that David Archuleta really might come out ahead because he certainly SANG better through the night. But David Cook is the better entertainer and will really be better on the talk shows and the Superbowl halftimes and things that the Idol must do. Archuleta will probably still have a fine career and, once he fires his obnoxious stage father, he will do well with his voice.

But as for the big finale, it was really fun to watch. Last year Mark and I both dragged home after various work events. But we didn’t want anyone to tell us who one before we saw it for ourselves so we started watching last year’s finale at about 1:30 in the morning. I fast-forwarded as much as possible and missed the group sings and celebrities (okay, Prince, ho-hum). As it neared the end I was keeping an eye on the bar that shows how far the recording has gone and I commented “I hope the DVR didn’t shut off before we know who won.” Dang it if that didn’t happen! Within seconds of knowing that Jordin Sparks won, the DVR stopped. Oh, the sinking feeling. Sure, we went to the internet and saw that she had won, but we didn’t get to experience it or see the final song.

So, knowing that was likely, I set the DVR this year to record a full half hour beyond the specified time. Mark wasn’t home when I got home from Hill’s so I eventually settled down to watch it with or without him. Without him I watched it more slowly and put up with the nonsense stuff and the group sings. I enjoyed seeing the contestants who now are forgotten (the gay stripper guy?). And I enjoyed the celebrity surprises! Seal! (okay, I don’t care) Bryan Adams! (Bryan Adams, I have stories about him and his hey-dey, when did he get old?) and ZZ Top!! (refer back to my blog where I met those guys 30 years ago. Oddly, they haven’t aged a bit!). I really did like David Cook singing Sharp Dressed Man with ZZ Top, that was fun to me and he was good.

Sure there were other celebrities. I like Mike Myers from SNL, but his Love Guru thing was weird and long and just too much of an outright plug for what appears to be a lame movie (full disclosure: I have never seen an Austin Powers movie). It might have been okay if it hadn’t required the Davids to be actors, which they are not. I did appreciate and laugh at the “Mareshka Hargitay” greeting he gave everyone (Mom, Mareshka Hargitay is not an Indian greeting, it is the name of an actress who is the daughter of Jane Mansfield). George Michael sang. Yawn. Donna Summer is apparently still alive (though Mark insisted, “That’s a dude!”) Carrie Underwood is very good, but WHY OH WHY does she insist on milking that microphone on stage. If no one has told her now, they probably never will tell her (and yes, Faith Hill does it too), but STOP IT CARRIE STOP IT.  Just hold the damn microphone. Hold it. Do NOT milk it anymore.

I also enjoyed and appreciated Graham Nash singing with Brooke White and thought that that was super cool and had to be incredibly cool for her. Graham Nash!! Of course, she’s 20+ years younger than me so maybe she isn’t quite as in awe as I would be. I’m trying to think o