Veggie Chili & Purgatory Hill

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Sunday, Nov. 15.

Today is the day of the "Veggie Chili Cook-off" and tonight it's some music at the Continental Club.

Kate did a review for Addiction and then booked the hotel in Melbourne for our Spring trip. She then looked on TripAdvisor and had second thoughts about her choice — damn! Our first outing this morning is to the Whole Foods Market for breakfast fixings, chips and salsa, wine, and salad fixings to go with our pricey feta that we had bought yesterday in San Antonio at the Pearl market. We have a kitchen and a fridge to stock for our long stay. We're going to be here for a week.

We drove to the Farmers' Market on North Burnett to spend the afternoon with the other hippie peacenics sampling vegetarian chili at the cook-off. It's a competition for who makes the best chili (cf. the Cook-offs in Luckenbach and Terlingua). We both voted for the Indian Garam Marsala chili as the best of the bunch but we didn't stay around to see who actually won. There were a lot of contestants. Texans like their chili, aka "a bowl of red", but they're usually the type that say, "You don't put beans in chili, you don't water good whiskey down" (Tom Russell). Here we're with the Austin vegetarians who will put beans in chili!

Kate bought Jessica a "Cats for Peace" t-shirt and a "Keep Chili Weird" shirt for us. There were many interesting T-shirts at the Veggie Chili Cook-off:

• Keep chili weird (vegan and delicious)
• If you're not part of the solution you're part of the precipitate
• Vegan girls kick ass
• Save an animal, eat a vegetable
• Austin boxing babes (don't mess with them!)
• Keep Austin vegetarian
• Don't have a cow man!
• Fight like a girl

There was this pretty young goth-girl with purple hair who was wearing a T-shirt that said "And then Buffy staked Edward. The end." We didn't know what this meant and had to ask her. It had something to do with the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" TV series. We've not seen the show.

We rented two bikes for the week at a bike shop near 29th and Lamar (just to the west of UT). We struggled to get them into the car with help of a young fellow with scabby knees who worked there. He recently had a "run in" with a car on his bike and that explains the scabby knees. 

"Were you wearing a helmet?" 

"No." 

Of course not — even motorcycle riders don't wear helmets!

We had looked into buying used bikes but ended up renting instead. It's hard to get hold of folks selling their bikes and we didn't want to fuss with repairs or selling them at the end of the week. The rentals are in good shape with locks and helmets and it only costs $70 a week for each one. With these bikes we can get some exercise, enjoy the weather and explore the bike paths around Town Lake.

When we got back to our apartment around 4:00 in the afternoon it was still quite warm. We packed our bathing suits and biked along Town Lake to Zilker Park and the Barton Springs Pool for a quick dip. There's still lots of folks taking advantage of the warm day and several snorkelers with fins, a few in wetsuits and one guy with a single huge fin for both feet who swam like a whale or a dolphin.

We biked back and decided we'd try Threadgill's South, which is at our doorstep, to have a drink and some eats on an outside patio, but they don't have a patio. We didn't want to eat their "home cooked food" in an inside air conditioned spot with suited folks so we return to our apartment. We didn't want to walk too far but there are lots of places within walking distance that we might have tried.

We had stocked up on food and wine at the market (six bottles of wine gives you a 10% discount, so of course, as Canadians, you buy six bottles of wine) with the intention of having dinner in our apartment. Turns out there are cockroaches in our apartment which makes that idea less appealing. We killed a big one (and yes everything, including the cockroaches, are bigger in Texas) and there are lots of little tiny bugs which we can only guess are the babies.  Anyways we enjoyed a salad with the feta, olive oil and sun dried tomato that we had purchased at the Pearl market. Kate enjoyed a Becker Chardonnay which is still great.

We took a cab over to the Continental club, it's a $4 cab ride that a healthy person could have easily walked. We had the bikes but weren't brave enough to ride at night. And Kate is still suffering from her twisted ankle acquired on our recent Algarve trip.

At the Continental Club Pat MacDonald, formerly of the band Tim Buk 3, and Melanie Jane, a classic cellist on tambourine, were the early act at only five bucks and they were playing from 8 to 10:00 which turned out to be more like 9 to 10:00. They play under the name "Purgatory Hill" and he plays electrified slide blues, e.g., Willie Dixon's "Spoonful", on a cigar box guitar that someone had made for him. The neck of the guitar seemed to be made from a pair of broom handles. It's an interesting instrument (it's sometimes called a "Diddley Box"). He also banged a base rhythm with his boot. They played "I Wanna Be Your Dog", the classic punk song by Iggy Pop. They had a friend on banjo (sic!) join them. It was a good show and interesting how they could make such a full sound on minimal instruments. We got a "Purgatory Hill" bumper sticker and later Kate used it to decorate her walking cane.

Melanie Jane was very good on tambourine and when it was explained that she played cello in another life this made more sense. She's very thin, almost emaciated. But she has clear/clean bare arms so the junkie theory is dead. They are touring and just visiting town. They were crashing with friends, couch surfing. She said she'd fallen in love with Austin and wanted to stay. But Pat MacDonald says, "If you do then there's an extra seat in the van" and then asked "Are there any volunteers in the audience who would like to tour with me?"

He seems to have some local fans. We recall that Tim Buk 3 used to play at the "Hole in the Wall" on the Guadalupe "drag" just at the north end of UT.

At the Continental Club there were old posters from 2006 for "Kinky as Governor" (Kinky Friedman is a popular, and very funny, musician from the Austin scene of the 1970's/80's who we love and who also ran for Governor). The place is still very tiny but not as grungy as we had recalled. There are three rows of tables facing the stage, say 12 people, some chairs and benches, say 12 more, and then standing room for perhaps two dozen more. The dance floor was not used as a dance floor tonight, instead it was standing room. The bathrooms are tiny and there is a 20-ft long stand up bar as you enter. There's a back room with a pool table which might hold another two dozen but seem to be more of a backstage green room area for the performers.

Gueros, where we ate the other night, is across the street and south one block from the Continental Club. They have an outdoor patio with music — but we believe it's really just a queuing area for the restaurant. Apparently Bill Clinton eats or ate there (cf. Lincoln slept here).

We hailed a cab on Congress to return home. We had asked the door man to call one for us but he said cabs won't come if they call because the fare will grab the first one that comes by. It was still quite warm when we got back but we head off for bed.

Transcribed and edited during the OMIGOD! pandemic of February 2022 from notes taken at the time.