Title: Austin to San Antonio - Saturday
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Blog Entry: Saturday morning I make a quick visit to South Congress St in Austin for coffee at Joe's. Road blocks are everywhere due to the 5 films currently being made in the town. We circle round through the park, littered with cyclists and runners and canoeists and walkers and frisbee throwers...... Austin is a keep fit kinda town. [br] At Joe's, an open air sidewalk coffee bar,the air is thick with cellphone talk about studios and scripts and funky dressers pecking away on their laptops. [br] Pretty soon I'm on the road, heading down I35 to San Antonio. I'm a big fan of signage, and American signage is up there with the best, sometimes it borders on hallucinatory. From cut price Vasectomy reversal, (ouch !) to Choose adoption reject abortion - tel 555 ..etc etc.. I saw a church draped in banners declaring "30 Minute Worship". Do Americans see that sign, I wonder, and say to their fellow faithful "Why, the worship is taking a good 40 minutes at my church, I think I'll switch right away!" Fast Food. Fast Faith. I passed a mission style building with a large cross on the front and a banner reading "Catholic Bathtubs" The front parking area was strewn with all sizes and shapes of baths. [br] I arrived at the gig, The little Aussie Bakery, on the edge of a park in San Antonio and behind the Witte Museum. I was met by Jo Lynn who hosts the River Road House Concerts, and John the Australian owner of the bakery. The PA is a beautiful and extraordinary Bose affair. Which belongs to George, the support act for the night. It consists of 2 speakers, about 2ft long and 4" wide, one on top of the other, and a small 2 channel box with simple 3 band EQ and Volume. The sound is natural and acoustic. George offers to lend me his lovely Taylor guitar, can't remember what model, ident numbers have never been my strong point, but it was very pretty with lots of abalone inlay and detail and gold coloured heads. It also took the capo very well without going out of tune. [br] The gig was excellent, although a struggle at times owing to a table of friends of the owners' from Poland. It was clear that they were not versed in house concert etiquette and nothing was going to quiet them completely. The best I could hope for was some kind of minimal control over their volume. I managed to achieve this to a degree by occasionaly announcing a Polish song, this would get their attention and reassure them that I was friendly, if sometimes a little bossy. I made a point of acknowledging their applause so they felt marginally involved. Once we got to a singalong opportunity though they really came into their own, singing with gusto and surprisingly good harmony. [br] I knew the easy solution would have been to change my programme but I didn't travel thousands of miles to play polish crowd pleasers. The end result was smiles all round. Jo Lynn has an excellent well run series, with enthusiastic and involved people. The venue was superb and John offered me accomodation in his guest house for the 3 days I would be in San Antonio next week. I sold a few cd's and was well paid. Result ! [br]
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