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When did old Austin die?


DCA_HORN

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On 5/11/2024 at 8:14 AM, Neonmoon said:

The US population gained roughly 100 million people from 1980 to 2010

Austin metro gained about roughly about a million more people in same time period. 

More people kills unique culture. Just becomes the same mass blob as every other place. It happened to a ton of places 

Yep, doing simple pleasures like going to Town Lake to walk the trail became very unpleasant because so many people and this became a constant theme regardless of the activity until I sadly said, I’m done and left Austin.

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On 6/7/2024 at 10:22 AM, NAVY said:

Which regular were you? I bartended nastys from 96 to 99 while getting UT degreed. Blowpop & DJ Mel were the shit 

I absolutely poured you a pitcher of rita 

Well shit. I stood on a table in Nasty's to cheer my housemate, a big valkyrie-looking rugby girl, as she oil-wrassled in a big tub y'all had down on the floor.

Wait-- I may be brain-damaged-- was Nasty's West Campus? I am thinking about the place on an alley up towards Threadgill's, with Bill the Cat as its logo.

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17 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

It says Christie's was on Barton Springs Road.  I'm usually pretty good at recognizing the orientation of a building, but what is there now?  The Hyatt?  

Yep Hyatt Regency site.  That Christie's place was some pretty high cotton when I was growing up in Austin.  Just like the Villa Capri!  

Link to some great old commercials:

https://texasarchive.org/2010_01862

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On 6/11/2024 at 10:25 PM, RDCanecutter said:

Well shit. I stood on a table in Nasty's to cheer my housemate, a big valkyrie-looking rugby girl, as she oil-wrassled in a big tub y'all had down on the floor.

Wait-- I may be brain-damaged-- was Nasty's West Campus? I am thinking about the place on an alley up towards Threadgill's, with Bill the Cat as its logo.

Everclear will no that. Nasty is now called Back Lot. It’s a bit short of 38th. 

I was not around for the oil wrestling but was aware of the legend after I started working there. 

IMG_3210.png

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  • 7 months later...
On 6/12/2024 at 9:34 PM, DalTxHornFan said:

Just like the Villa Capri! 

Austin is a City, which has died by one thousand paper cuts.

 

One nostalgic one was the closing of the Villa Capri.  It was long past its late 60s prime when I stayed there for a week as a 10-year old kid because it was across from the Disch, and I was going to baseball camp there in the early 80s.  But it had a pool, and, even 40 years later, I still remember staying there.  But that place was a top place back in the day.

 

When Mad Dog & Beans closed: My sister is eleven years older than I am, but when we would visit her at UT, we'd hit up MD&B for burgers, but mostly for the Cookies 'n' Cream milkshake (no drugs were exchanged as far as I know).  That place was craft burger long before such a dumb phrase existed.  Probably my #1a burger (Hamburgers by Gourmet in Houston was the top-spot contender).  Anyway, it closed two weeks after I got to Austin as a freshman in 92.  I ate there twice during that short period of time.  Porky's Demise, Fries, Cookies 'n' Cream (or mint chocolate chip) milkshake.  Perfect.  So that 5 years after you got there thing is an average.  I'm apparently to one extreme of the curve in some respects.  1,000 paper cuts.

Edited by dcbc
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Ha Ha- I have always joked that I fucked up Austin by being too cool to too many out of town folks,  As well as peeing in every establishment mentioned in the many pages above.  I read about the first six pages.

Big tip of the hat to dcbsc for the revival!

And hilarious about Mad Dog and Beans! The Austin's favorite, and the first cookies and cream.  In 1979 when I came up to UT, that cookies and cream thing became huge.  Probably honestly one of the first Texas designer Ice creamsQ How Blue bell shit that bed is an FDA story too long to tell. I had a great talk with the owner of Inner Sanctum at the last (my first) Austin Record convention . Two months ago

i have closed down so many legends in Austin on the last night. But If I had to to rank them. From my 1979 freshman and beyond viewpoint,,, This is the chronology of death!  As my party machine lifestyle remembers it back then.  Carve me up boys! Probably not remotely in the correct time order, but fuck it! iw WAS Austin!!!!

1) Closing of Club Foot! Only because I worked there, and had a lot of crazy times! And fuck I saw U@ in that bar!  As well as Joe Ely introduce this kid... Charlie Sexton.  Not a real milestone beyond mine personally.

2)  Steamboat 1864 (on 6th street you minions!) Mainly a lot a Stevie Ray Vaughn Wednesdays,  followed by Extreme Heat Thursday for Ladies nights.  Did I say I knew all the bartenders! Phil fron extreme heat died recently before a reunion.  He was a fun and good guy! fucked him up with a 714 one night and we bonded after that.

3) Jakes- on 5th. Famous for fried oysters of all things in Austin.  I was a young'un and not a regular.  but i knew we lost something.  Probably the first displacement in Austin I can recall?

4) Flannigans!  The last bastion of disco and 25 cent drinks!  I was going to say Mother Earth, but I got laid at Flanniga's.  Plus I totally fucked up and dropped a hundred into the tip jar on 25 cent drink night.  I got a lot of fucking attention. and I could not pull it back.  I was going to tip a $20! painful for me the,. A great memory today... though fuzzy.

5) Wylie's!!! Fucking loved that place.  I was a young buck encroaching on the old guard way back when. Second Date with my wife there.  I knew so many bartdeners and waitresses there.  Jerry the owner was a good guy, and the staff were wilder than shit. Too many stories to tell there. 

6) The dirty book Store and the underground hot tubs on 6th street.  Sounds fucking craxy as shit, but true.  I could buy a girl a drink at Wylies, a rose from max, and forbidden dirty bookstore trip, and then a hot tub.  I feel pity for most everyone everywhere writing this.

7) When X became Illegal. Upper Barton creek on X, that may have been non-music peak Austin,

8)- Liberty Lunch - not just for what it was for so long.  But it was a loss of a jewel to an amazing software company. that backed out of it's deal ultimately.  A sign of the 80's whoredom.

9-) Nuevo Leon - loved those folks and put so many people in their seats it was crazy. Should be open now like Matt's.  Son lost track of the prize and fucked it up.  My daughters were there as infants. Like first trip infants with VIP status.  Loved Rachel and Robert.  i used to spontaneously stand up and start singing :the Eyes of Texas" post game.  Best place ever back then for Post UT games.

9-1/2 -Closing of paradise on 6th. last of my od guard batenderws and owners.  if you ever tried "The Crawl" you are a bad ass like me!

10) Shady Grove- For me it was a place I went as it was opening when I was putting my wife through Pharmacy School.  As usual I knew the bartenders and manager and was very well take care of.  I can remember when they first started bringing in some acoustic acts to play outside.  It famously become "Unplugged at the Grove" over the years.  But for me it was my neighborhood joint,  With quality food, and a good overn pour from where I usually sat.  I miss them every time it;s cold as hell! And every time it's a false spring RIP.

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If you want to know when Old Austin is truly dead.  It will be when ,Steve Werthheimer dies. That could be #10.  But as long as there is a Continental Club.  There will always be a few last gasps of old Austin as long as a respite behind Continental as SXSW survives.  When Continental goes, what have you got left? But the cattle call that is Matt's El Rancho's "new" location?

 

ON A BRIGHTER NOTE!  I honestly don't know if Old Austin can ever truly die as long as folks like me keep retelling the stories?  The best part of Austin now, as it was then was the attitude.  An embrace of nearly everything, a kindness to nearly everyone. Not the frat boy story of Austin... but the cooler one...

Edited by horn4life
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