The LoBu area (Lower Burnet), my neighborhood of Austin, continues to thrive and expand as an entertainment district. But a few friends and I decided to head east.
We drove just a few blocks over to Tigress bar on 100 W. North Loop. Tigress can barely be spotted amidst a little complex of stores in the hip strip of North Loop. You gotta work your brain and eyes to find it. Looks like an abandoned store front.
Tigress is kind of unassuming inside also, very minimalist furnishings but a friendly vibe. They had AMC or some movie channel playing on a TV screen. We kept glancing at some Biblical epic in wide screen Panavision from the Sixties, I recognized Telly Savalas in Holy Land garb. Hollywood has a flair for apocalyptic lighting. Intense purple, oranges, reds lit up the screen.
A couple of women shared drinks and intimate conversation beneath the TV set. One looked pretty dramatic herself with a deeply scooped neckline that revealed much chest and back. She had a nice physiognomy. And more scoop than Ben & Jerry's. A little joke...
The Bible movie got us talking about the formative films in our lives. One guy saw Psycho as a 12 year old and savored the intense feeling of fright. Alfred Hitchcock knocked off his heroine about 20 minutes into the film. A surprise beginning!
My friend said he saw Carrie in a downtown movie house when downtown was for humble working folks. He recalled how an amazing shriek of fright and delight, collectively expressed by the African-American audience, emanated from the crowd in unison when Amy Irving's character visits Carrie's grave and the hand rises unexpectedly from the earth-- an unexpected twist with the movie seemingly over. People in that dollar theater audience felt they got their money's worth. A surprise ending!
We left Tigress feeling like our time and money had also been well spent.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Curmudgeon vs. College Prof (Belichick vs. Carroll)
The Super Bowl XLIX will be remembered. Of course, there's the worst call in the history of sports, made by Pete Carroll. Carroll, coach of the Seattle Seahawks, resembles a college professor in so many ways. He's got the eternal youthful quality of a guy who just refuses to get old. Call it Southern California hype, or whatever, but the college professor wants to stay young to keep up with his students and especially to appeal to the female students. The academic stud. The guy whose got it all going on. But he's not selfish. He shares that energy with his players. He is Cheerleader in Chief, jumping up and down, patting on the back and tossing a football on the field pre-game like an enthusiastic kid!
Bill Bellichick, the New England Patriots coach, actually a year younger than Pete Carroll at 62 years, has the look of a football gnome-- a rumpled hoodie compared to Pete Carroll in a dry-cleaned polo shirt.
The quarterbacks for each team are a study in contrast too. Tom Brady is the surgeon. Russell Wilson is an improviser, a speedster, a shape-shifter.
Brady moved his team down the field with a general's careful determination. And if Brady is General Brady than Belichick is the Commander-in-Chief, clomping around Command Central with a look of mild dissatisfaction plastered on his face.
Carroll has the perfect mentality for Russell Wilson. Carroll tolerates the unknown, the unknowable, way better than the Patriots coach ever could. In a pre-game special Russell Wilson proclaimed a turning point in his quarterbacking career when he pleaded with his coach, "Let me go." The game played several years ago was actually against this same New England Patriots team. Wilson found his rhythm when freed from the constraints of scientific football, to begin his career as a master of living in the moment, the improvisational magician with incredible speed moving out of the pocket and beyond the restraints of the planned play.
The question remains-- why did Pete Carroll make such an inane call at the end of the game? To turn a phrase... he got too cute. Yeah, the prof that tries to stay cute for the college girls and clever and creative, the gambling man-- just lost his cool.
"You gotta know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em, " as Kenny Rogers instructs. Carroll held all the cards on the one yard line. Just hand the ball off to Marshawn Lynch or let Russell Wilson improvise with his legs, but do not throw the ball under any circumstances.
The Grinch, Bill Belichick, was careful not to criticize Carroll. I liked that. He may be a cheater and a winning-obsessed, non-smiler but Belichick is not a braggart, didn't crow at a moment that would have tempted anybody... He was sitting on top of the world and still kept a straight face. Now that's a poker player.
Bill Bellichick, the New England Patriots coach, actually a year younger than Pete Carroll at 62 years, has the look of a football gnome-- a rumpled hoodie compared to Pete Carroll in a dry-cleaned polo shirt.
The quarterbacks for each team are a study in contrast too. Tom Brady is the surgeon. Russell Wilson is an improviser, a speedster, a shape-shifter.
Brady moved his team down the field with a general's careful determination. And if Brady is General Brady than Belichick is the Commander-in-Chief, clomping around Command Central with a look of mild dissatisfaction plastered on his face.
Carroll has the perfect mentality for Russell Wilson. Carroll tolerates the unknown, the unknowable, way better than the Patriots coach ever could. In a pre-game special Russell Wilson proclaimed a turning point in his quarterbacking career when he pleaded with his coach, "Let me go." The game played several years ago was actually against this same New England Patriots team. Wilson found his rhythm when freed from the constraints of scientific football, to begin his career as a master of living in the moment, the improvisational magician with incredible speed moving out of the pocket and beyond the restraints of the planned play.
The question remains-- why did Pete Carroll make such an inane call at the end of the game? To turn a phrase... he got too cute. Yeah, the prof that tries to stay cute for the college girls and clever and creative, the gambling man-- just lost his cool.
"You gotta know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em, " as Kenny Rogers instructs. Carroll held all the cards on the one yard line. Just hand the ball off to Marshawn Lynch or let Russell Wilson improvise with his legs, but do not throw the ball under any circumstances.
The Grinch, Bill Belichick, was careful not to criticize Carroll. I liked that. He may be a cheater and a winning-obsessed, non-smiler but Belichick is not a braggart, didn't crow at a moment that would have tempted anybody... He was sitting on top of the world and still kept a straight face. Now that's a poker player.
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