Study Break at “Canción del Cuerpo”

Graduation weekend, for a few of my friends, was a great way to kick off December. But since I don’t graduate until May 2010, I have to get back to reality—which consumes of test. With all of the studying I decided to take one last study break before I really concentrate on the books.  I attended the Dance Repertory Theatre’s Fall Showing of Canción del Cuerpo (Song of the Body). The show was from December 4-5, 2009 at the B. Iden Payne Theatre in the F. Loren Winship Drama Building  on the UT campus.

Lyn Wilshire

The student dance company has award winning dancers and choreographers. The artistic director Lyn C. Wiltshire , performed all around the world. Wiltshire performed with dance troupes such as The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre  and The Dance Theatre of Harlem . 

Co-Artistic Director, Yacov Sharir studied in Paris, Jersalem, and the United  States. Sharir also choreographed for Hartford Ballet , the Kibbutz Dance  Company of Israel, and other places around Texas and received a few awards for his various works.

Yacov Sharir

Canción del Cuerpo had six acts that were choreographed by associate professors and students from campus. Each act was only half way complete. They will show the last part of the acts in March for the Spring Showcase.

Dancers from Columbia helped choreograph some of the performances. In the spring, five student dancers will travel to Columbia to finish each dance.

Click on the YouTube clip to see interviews with audience members and photos from the show.  

Study Break at Shakespeare’s Pub

A little snow to kick off finals isn’t that bad! 

6th St.

Unfortunately Austin didn’t receive any snow. All of the meteorologists said there was a 60 percent chance it was going to snow on Friday, but Austin received about five flurries.  All the snow was either in the hill country or Houston. After being disappointed with the meteorologists’, my girlfriends and I decided to just go to 6^th Street before Hell Week …I mean Finals Week, begins.

Inside the Pub

I was having fun!

Some Friends

 The last few days have been very cold, but it didn’t stop us from celebrating  Hunter Lawrence’s 46 yard kick Saturday night against Nebraska. It’s was freezing outside, but all of UT (who didn’t go to Dallas) were on 6^th Street.

 My girlfriends and I went to  Shakespeare’s Pub on 6^th Street and between San Jacinto and Trinity. The club was completely packed. Even to get in the bar, there was a 10 minute wait. Once we finally got inside, the atmosphere was pretty exciting. In the back room, there was a romantic setting aligning the stage. Candles were lit, lights draped from the ceiling, and a huge Christmas tree was in the corner. The DJ played great music. Everything was the latest music in Hip-Hop and R&B—which is hard to find in Central Texas.

 I have been there before, but it I’ve never stayed longer than 20 minutes. But on Saturday, we stayed the entire night. It was a nice late night study break especially after the big win against Nebraska.

Black Friday Mayhem

Black Friday, a shopaholic’s favorite holiday! It’s certainly one of my favorite days, besides my birthday and Christmas.

 The day after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day in America. I spent Thanksgiving in San Antonio with family. It was great to be home. San Antonio has a lot of great shopping centers—North Star Mall, The Forum, The Shops at La Cantera, etc. The Tanger Outlet in San Marcos, which is only about 45 minutes north, also has great places to shop.

Coupons arrived at my house a few days before the extravaganza of Black Friday. I was super excited to see all of my 30%-50% coupons be put to great use for the day. Most discounts for chain stores were highly publicized in the Thanksgiving newspaper edition.

Online or at the mall, a shopper is bound to catch a great deal. But it’s nice to catch a few sales for the majority of Christmas gifts. I’m not a die-hard shopper who camps outside of the mall the night before; I’m more of a person who gets up at a reasonable time and shops. But I did go to sleep very early. We still had guests in our house, but I made sure I was going to get a good nights rests.

Shoppers at North Star Malll

My grandmother, “Mema,” and I were at the mall for about four hours. Time flew by, and the crowd had semi-died down by the time we arrived at North Star Mall. As we ate our lunch, Burbank High School Band, played a few hits for the shoppers. Watch the video below to see the band perform. The audio is off at the beginning but the band’s music toward the end, plays perfectly.

Ladies Night Out!

Happy hour…the place where you can kick back and enjoy a beer from one of Austin Brew’s  selections, or a simple cocktail.

As an early pre-party Thanksgiving celebration, a few of my friends and I went downtown to  McCormick & Schmick’s  for their late night happy hour. Their usual happy hour last until 7pm, but their second happy hour is from 9-10 pm.  This works out great for my schedule, since I’m a busy college student who  works and goes to school.

 McCormick & Schmick’s  offer great seafood dinner plates that cost about $20 during normal business hours. The place would be ideal for a nice romantic date. During happy hour, a few selected items cost $1.95-$4.95.

Laura looking at the menu.

I really enjoyed McCormicks, it’s affordable and good. Appetizers during happy hour are cheap. I was really hungry so I got calamari, buffalo quesadillas, and a Sangria. I’m usually a margarita type of girl but since they don’t offer frozen margaritas, I’d thought it would be nice to try a new cocktail.

Buffalo Quesadillas

Sangria

Fnan Gelai

Graduating UT senior Fnan Gelai said she would go back to McCormick & Schmicks. “I really like it a lot it’s a really good happy hour for college students. I think it’s very reasonable and the food was good…but they need to have frozen margaritas,”said Gelai.

Overall, the night ended great. We are all so busy that it was great to meet up and unwind for girls night out.

 

McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant
401 Congress Ave.
(4th St. and Congress Ave.)
Austin, TX 78701

Phone: 512.236.9600
HOURS:
M-WED: 11:00AM-10:00PM
TH-FRI:  11:00AM-11:00PM
SAT:        4:00PM-11:00PM
SUN:       5:00PM-10:00PM

 

Early Morning Fire In North Austin

Today at my internship with KXAN, I got to go with Kate Weidaw (general assignment reporter) on an early morning fire. I have already gone to different fatal accidents, interviewed two Broadway actors from Spring Awakening  and other things. But this was one of the most interesting assignments.

Kate Interviewing Cpt. Marc Saenz

The police scanner in the newsroom went off at around 6:30 AM informing us about a fire. There was a previous fire earlier this morning so we had our hands tied with a lot of breaking news.

The fire was on Rundberg Lane in North Austin.  It’s only about a ten minute drive from the KXAN station so Kate and I drove to the Total Beauty Care in the Rundberg Shopping Center. There were about four fire trucks, a few EMS trucks and of course a few nosey on-lookers. The humidity was horrible but the smell of burnt hair products lingered in the air. By the time we arrived there was a huge cloud blowing west. Austin Firefighters did a great job maintaining the fire. I’m sure the two businesses on the sides didn’t have fire damage, but I know they had water damage. As the sun slowly came out, you could see inside of the business and the roof had fallen down.

KXAN Live Truck

Sorry for the small pictures. Since I’m an intern I like to help out with equipment and setting up the Live Truck. I can’t always bring my camera, since I’m technically at work but hopefully you can understand what’s happening in the pictures.

From what I saw, the business was a complete loss. For any suggestions or ideas please contact klrobin501@aol.com.

Smoke from the Fire

 

 

Poetry Slam & Dance

In a recent blog, I posted something about a new group karaoke smack-down  that would be a fun place to go after work. That competition was exciting but tomorrow night will be the ultimate smack down of words and jazz hands. It’s the weekly Austin Poetry Slam, Vocal, and Dance Competition put on by O.P. M Entertainment. This is one of Central Texas’ premiere places to be for Thursday late-night cocktails and fun. There’s live entertainment, with everything from rhythmic dance moves to expressive poetry. All of this will surely awaken even sleep-deprived college students.

A few People on Stage

Lyricists, dancers and singers from all around Austin are welcome to participate or just sit back and watch the show. Spoken word and dancing is every Thursday night at The Parish Room , located on 214 E. 6^th St.  After each poetry and dance battle,  The Parish Room turns into a club playing the top Hip Hop and R&B music. DJ Dontizl mixes the hottest music until 2 AM.

DJ Dontizl

Creator of O.P.M Entertainment, Chas Moore, said “We bring you four events in one night.
[It will be] hosted by two-time Austin Poetry Slam Champion, Christopher Michael.” I have to admit O.P.M events are pretty exciting. There last major event, besides the poetry competitions, was the Jay-Z concert after party. While there were several other parties for Jay-Z, many people who attended the one by O.P.M said it was one of the best.  O.P.M. events are always pretty successful and every once in a while you’ll spot a Hip Hop celebrity at an event.

Cocktail Hour

Performances have the opportunity to possibly win $1000 in each of the three categories—poetry, dance, and singing. So if you think you have what it takes to impress Austinites with  creative expressions, this might be a great competition to enter. But if you’re really good, the top acts compete in the The Showcase for a $5000 cash prize, later in the year.

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Late Night Soul Food

With all of our pastry posts, I thought it would be nice to help you expand your waistline with something different. Soul Food, the tasty artery-clogging treat for your soul!

Outside of Hoovers

Hoover’s Cooking located at 2002 Manor Road (walking distance from The University of Texas campus  ) has the “crème de la crème” in southern cooking.  The owner, Hoover Alexander credits his success to his mother’s East Texas Cajun cooking. The menu has everything from fried chicken and mashed potatoes to muffuletas for vegetarians.

Each plates cost between $10-13, but it’s worth it. They serve HUGE portion sizes, so you can take some of your leftovers home. My dad, whose 6’3 and 200+ pounds, had to take home a doggy bag because he was stuffed. 

Catfish Plate

Chicken Fried Steak

 Interview with Jessica, an employee at Hoover’s.

What are your hours?

“We’re opened Monday through Friday 11am-10pm and 8am-10pm on weekends.”

What do u recommend for a vegetarian?

“Ummmm, we have a veggie plate. You could order a lot of sides. You could do okra, salad, macaroni and cheese, mash potato and gravy. We have a lot to choose from. We even have a smoked sandwich called The Bella Muffuleta.”

What’s the most popular dish?

“It’s definitely the fried catfish or the chicken fried chicken. The pork ribs are the most popular too.”

What’s the price range?

“Maybe about 10-13 per plate. We have happy hour from 3pm-6pm. Margaritas and min sandwiches are cheap. Or you could get four wings for $3.”

This is definitely one of my favorite places to go, when I want to cheat on my diet.  Bon Appetite!

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Morning Art Tours on the Eastside

Today at my internship with KXAN Austin News, I interviewed a few local Austin artists. This was one of the few interviews I was allowed to do by myself, so I was super excited! It was just me and Frank, the cameraman. The story I worked on is for the upcoming E.A.S.T. (East Austin Studio Tours) event.

The tours started in 2002 with only 20 artists. Today the tours showcase over 300 artists exhibiting—art, furniture, jewelry, paintings and more.  This is a FREE event,  but bring your check book just in case you want to make a purchase.

Since I’m currently interning at KXAN I’m not allowed to take any footage/audio—that hasn’t aired—from the interviews and post them on this blog. But since I interviewed each person I posted a few of their comments below and snapped a few candid photos. The reporter’s story will air Friday morning, November 13, between 5 -7 AM on channel four. If you miss the show, there will be more information on the KXAN website.

Interviews

Adam Carnes/Organizer of E.A.S.T

Where are the tour stops?

“All of the tour stops are in East Austin. [Tours are] east of I-35 and north of the river.”

Are you all doing the Yellow Bike Project this year?

 ”Yes… the Yellow Bike Project fixes up bicycles and paints them yellow. You can pick up  a bike and ride it to another stop on the tour or leave the bike and get another one.”

What do the artists sell at E.A.S.T?

“It varies from studio to studio but you can buy t-shirts for $15. Some of the paintings [sell] for thousands of dollars. All of the artists keep the proceeds for their own sales. E.A.S.T. doesn’t get any part of their commission.”

                                                Brian Halloran/Painter

Describe what the event is like for an artist.

“Well this is my first time doing it. The event hasn’t even started yet, but there have already been hundreds of people here.” 

 

Leanne painting

Leanne Venier/Professional Artist

How long have you participated in E.A.S.T.?

“This is my third year.”

Where is a lot of your art located in Austin?

“I have more work at Hyde Park Bar & Grill, which is coming down the day of the tours.”

 Tours provide the opportunity to visit over 150 studios in East Austin. Studio tours begin November 14-22 at 10 AM. Contact Big Medium  for more information.

If you have a story suggestion, send an e-mail to klrobin501@aol.com.

Africa comes to UT

About an hour ago, I went to UT’s Annual Fest Africa on Main Mall. The event is the biggest showcase of African talent on  The University of Texas campus. Different acts sing, dance, and read poetry to the audience. Most performances displayed the many unique cultural qualities of Africa. It was fun but, I was not blown away with excitement compared to previous shows.

Fest Africa Audience

Food

Even the food was different. Two UT seniors, who are a part of the ASA organization and wanted to remain anonymous, complained about the food. “The rice was dry…the only thing I enjoyed was the plantain.”

Each year I’ve gone to the event, I have always left wanting more. Unfortunately this year, I left and did not feel the same way toward Fest Africa. But I really was impressed with the educational background The  African Student Association portrayed. In between one performance the hostesses spoke about positive and negative influences in Africa.

My personal favorite was the acknowledgment of Nelson Mandela and some things he did to help end apartheid. Another educational segment was about what they’ve done on helping Darfur.  ASA did a good job on coordinating their theme, ‘the heroes, the people and the villains’ into some performances.

Nelson Mandela

There were a few highlights from the event. For instance, I loved the fashion show. They had a lot of beautiful traditional African clothing. All of the models looked great, but the shirtless men defiantly stole the show. As soon as the oiled up, caramel-skin men came out, the ladies cheered. All of a sudden the dying crowd suddenly woke up. Then I was blinded by flashbulbs coming from everywhere. I wish the crowd would have been a little bit more respectful to each performance and I know the show would have been a lot better. ASA’s next major event is Miss Fest Africa.

Fashion Show

Fest Africa Preview

Fest Africa

Looking for a free cultural experience on the UT campus?

If so, you should attend Fest Africa in Main Mall Friday, Nov. 6.

Each year the African Students Association showcases the richness of African culture through poetry, dance, and art. The festival is  from 7-10pm.