With 2017 finally coming to a close, I wanted to wrap up with a post covering the past couple of months. I’ve been pretty inactive on a lot of forms of social media because I’ve been ramping up further into my job role, studying, and making time to spend with friends! So with that being said, I apologize for being a little MIA.
I left off with all of you in early October I believe, I know a lot has happened since this time, I’ll keep my descriptions as short as possible! But I’ll still briefly take you through the highlights of all my recent adventures.
I love thinking back to the Austin City Limits music festival because music events in Austin are my absolute favorite! I promise that there’s nothing like them! Austin has such a diverse and intimate music scene that it’s pretty exciting to go to any show. ACL is one of the biggest events that Austin has to offer and it’s pretty well-known nation wide. The line up they pull in is also phenomenal. I have a pretty particular taste in music, so I didn’t know too many (or had a desire to see) artists this year, but one of the headliners was Jay-Z and I had to see him.
I bought a day ticket way in advance and had the opportunity to take a day off from work, so it was a good time. I noticed a lot of significant changes in the festival this year versus 2015 (I didn’t go to the one in 2016). First, they had a covered beer garden playing the Astros playoff game (which I spent a decent amount of time at), and then they had a lot of sponsored stations such as an Amex Lounge. It was pretty cool because I feel like they gave out a lot more free stuff than before and the park itself seemed a little more spread out.
I first saw the artist James Vincent McMorrow, who I knew nothing about but my friend really wanted to see him. He was pretty good and definitely pulled in a big fan base. Afterwards, we had nothing to do and no one we cared to see, and we saw he was doing a meet and greet across the park, so we headed over. Foster the People were also doing a meet and greet right before him, at a different side of the table, so we were literally waiting six feet from them. It’s pretty funny because before ACL, I didn’t know too much about Foster the People, but later that week I started to really like them and even attended their show in Austin (which I’ll get to!). After waiting for ten minutes or so, we spoke to and got autographs from James Vincent McMorrow, and thank god we had a couple drinks before so we could hold a pretty good conversation! We also had enough courage to take a selfie with him (check it out!).
Once we got our autographs and photos, we decided to grab a bite to eat from the food trucks before walking over to the big stage. ACL always has a variety of local Austin restaurant food to choose from, so we went ahead and got a brisket sandwich from Saltlick (so good!). Once we were full enough, we strategically found our way through the crowd to reach some pretty good standing room not too far from the stage. Foster the People came out and were really impressive, enough to where I started listening to their old and new music after the festival. Right after, Jay-Z came out, which was honestly the whole reason I went in the first place. He performed some of his big hits like “Big Pimping”, “Hard Knock Life”, “Ain’t No Love”, “No Church in the Wild”, and you get the picture. I was really shocked, however, by the amount of people who didn’t know his songs or the words to his songs. I kept wondering why they were so close to the stage when they only knew a song here and there. It kind of blew my mind since when I saw Drake a couple years ago, the whole crowd went crazy, even with Drake’s older, less known songs.
Immediately after the festival was over, we were starving and super thirsty, so we tried to think of a good restraint to go to that was nearby. After a debate in the car, we drove over to Home Slice. There was a pretty long wait, but we were able to sit in one of the tables outside, in the back and order drinks and pizza rolls as appetizers. After eating the pizza rolls, I was super full and only had enough room for a single slice of pizza, so much for gorging myself on pizza!
Overall, ACL was a really good time and it’s fun to check it out every year! Hopefully I’ll be back in 2018!
So, remember how I told you I really got into Foster the People after seeing them at ACL? Well I got into them so much that I attended their ACL Late Night show at Stubb’s. It was after the first weekend of ACL and before the second, so I guess they wanted to do a solo show on their own while in town! They’re really good live and were promoting their newest album, Single Hearts Club, which I actually bought on vinyl after the show. What I really enjoyed about their show is that it was really chill but still uplifting while they played their old hits and newest songs. I literally stood in the same place the entire time and didn’t feel like I was getting mobbed by the crowd. The only thing I was kind of annoyed about was that we waited an hour or so after the show to meet Foster the People, and they never came out to meet the fans. We had saw on Instagram that they met fans at their Houston and San Antonio shows earlier in the week, so I’m not sure what made the Austin show different!
The week after this was exciting because the Astros were still in the playoffs! They had won the earlier match u/p against the Red Sox so it was on to the Yankees! I was particularly excited because the Yankees are my second favorite team and I was able to see the Astros play earlier this year in April and I saw the Yankees earlier this year in NY.
My dad and I took the day off and drove over to Houston, and it was something I’ve never seen before! I’ve grown up going to Astros games all my life, and usually half the stadium is empty and everyone is pretty chill (of course we have not been a good team in the past), but this game was wild! There was a line out the door to even get in, and people everywhere! The game was obviously sold out, but it’s just a sight that I’ve never seen before. The crowd went crazy for Altuve and cheered during every inning. We stayed for each and every minute of it and it was an amazing feeling when we won. Obviously, we also won the entire world series, so going to this game will always be a great memory to have!
A couple weeks later, I found out G-Eazy was going to be in Austin because Halsey had a show there the same night (and they’re dating right now). G-Eazy has been promoting a new whiskey called Stillhouse and they wanted to do a promo event on Rainey, which I found out about. I found an RSVP to get on the list online so I signed up my friends and I. If you read my earlier post, I got to see G-Eazy in San Jose at a club appearance also for Stillhouse and it was a lot of fun, so I thought I’d go again!
We started at a few other bars, and since this was Halloween weekend, I dressed up in my Beyonce Feeling Myself outfit (consisting of a bulls bodysuit, a pink fur coat, and boots and a skirt because it was freezing that night!). We eventually got to the bar G-Eazy was going to be at that night, Container Bar (one of my personal faves), and we waited while we had a few drinks. He didn’t get there until pretty late, which I’ve found is pretty typical for G-Eazy. When he finally came, my friend was actually waiting in line at the door and saw him get out of the car, so she texted me to run to the front. I headed over and saw him walk in, where he immediately locked himself into the front room of the bar. We waited outside until he walked out and greeted the fans. I saw him and I’m 99% sure he recognized me so we hugged as he was walking. His bodyguard pushed me off of him though, which I found to be super disrespectful and my friends were shocked. He then walked upstairs, where they sectioned the area off, and he watched everyone dance and talk from above. We waited awhile longer while he mingled with his friends and Halsey until he finally came down and went on stage. He performed No Limit and then left the bar. I was shocked by the amount of effort put into this appearance because he’s usually super personable with fans and loves to put on a show. I’m not sure what was going on with him that night, but I hope this isn’t becoming a usual thing.
The night after was still part of Halloween weekend and it ended up being fun, although we were pretty tired from the night before. We had collaboratively put a costume together after I tried on a Cher from Clueless costume for fun and liked the way it looked on me. I bought it and a couple of my friends decided they also wanted to dress up as the other characters from Clueless, Dion and Tai, since it perfectly went together with our friend group. The costumes turned out really good, and I was super impressed by the creativity of my friends’ costumes! My costume just came out of a package while they had to look around for their pieces. We started at Cain and Abel’s and then went out to Green Light Social and The Ranch on West Sixth that night. We actually got a lot of compliments and excitement from other people recognizing who we were and it was really fun also seeing everyone else’s costumes.
A couple weeks after that, I wanted to keep my concert/music streak going, so I went to the Saint Motel concert. I actually bought these tickets earlier in the summer and forgot about it until the week before the show. They were performing at the The Mohawk, which was a venue I had never been to before. The concept of the venue was pretty cool, it’s all general admission (which is crazy because the show was sold out), but there’s your usual pit in front of the stage, and then there’s balconies that go up like stairs above the pit and they rise higher than the stage itself. There’s also more standing room above and to the side of the stage, so I’m sure the musicians are constantly looking around at all the crazy places fans are located at. We first had tried to go to the balcony on the side of the stage, but we couldn’t see anything since there were so many people. After the opening band (and taking a few photos), we decided to just try to push our way through the crowd so we could actually see something. I held our spots in the balcony (just in case) and my friend found this side path that no one seemed to be standing at. She got pretty close to the stage, to probably about the fourth or fifth row if there were rows, so I headed down and met up with her. They put on a great show and I enjoyed all their songs, even the ones I didn’t know. Towards the end, the lead singer actually went up to the balcony we were once at and sang up there. He then went down the stairs and walked right past us in the crowd. It was so cool and a lot of fun!
Afterwards, we went back inside to the bar area where the saxophone player was walking around, so we got to meet and took a photo with him. We then went to the tour bus area in hopes of meeting the rest of the band. We saw all of them, including the lead singer. I took a photo for some other girls with him and he came up to us (who were next to take a photo) and the rest of the crowd and promised he’d be back in a few minutes to take photos and sign autographs. Not wanting to be pushy, we all said sure and waited. We waited about and hour and absolutely nothing. He never came back. We talked to the saxophone guy some more, who was pretty cool, and he told us about his history with the band. After our conversation, and meeting a girl who drove up from San Antonio to see the band, we decided to walk over to sixth street for a bit and we’d walk back to the venue on our way to the car afterwards. We probably left for an hour and when we came back, the girl was still waiting, for a total of over two hours at this point. I couldn’t believe that this guy lied and stood up his fans like that, and I feel bad for the girl who just sat there waiting.
The following weekend, one of my managers from my internship last summer had tickets to the first two UT basketball games and asked if I wanted them since he couldn’t go. I hadn’t been to a UT basketball game before so of course I said yes! The tickets were great and we were so close to the court. It was also crazy being back at the Frank Erwin Center since I hadn’t been there since I graduated there. With his tickets also came free access to a bar on the first level where they had wine, beer, and cocktails. It was really nice going there at half time for a break. The games were definitely fun and a great experience! Afterwards, we also treated ourselves to some Steel City Pops, which is this great popsicle place in Austin that lets you decorate and customize your popsicle!
As we approached Thanksgiving, a few of my friends were hosting a night called Friendsgiving where everyone brings a food item to the party and we basically all eat and share food. We went over and had a really good time and everyone cooks surprisingly really good! I guiltily ate something beforehand because I was expecting to not like the food. I also brought green bean casserole, which I had never made before, but it turned out really well for me being the bad cook that I am! We spent time together before heading over to East Sixth to one of my favorite bars, Hotel Vegas. I just recently discovered this place and I’m not sure why it took me so long. It’s a really chill bar with live rock bands, and I love how you can just vibe with anyone there. We all had a really good time and also spent some time listening to rap next door at Volstead. Also, leaving here at 2am is the best part because there are so many good food trucks around! I’m ALWAYS saying how I want a taco at 2am after we leave bars, and there’s not one, but two taco trucks outside this place. Talk about variety! There’s also a really good BBQ food truck outside as well, so I’m always set afterwards.
If you haven’t heard, Austin just opened a brand new public library downtown, right in between Cesar Chavez and Second Street. I hadn’t visited it yet and one of my friends from middle school asked if I wanted to do a photoshoot there, so of course I took her up on the opportunity! We went down and caught up and took some amazing artistic photos. One thing I love about her is that our artistic minds are always alike, so our visions turn out to be great in the end! The photoshoot I did with her was a little darker and moody since it was cold and rainy that night, and it also added some emphasis on personal things I’ve been going through. Check out the photos below!
I had been hearing about for weeks this new music festival in Austin called Saturnalia. It’s more of an underground festival with a lot of local and Texas rock acts. I found out one of my favorite artists from the band Foxygen was going to be there, so my friend and I jumped on getting tickets. It was a pretty cool set up with a lot of effort put into it. I was originally a little nervous since it was held at a Baptist Church in way east Austin, but the crowd was really good and the event seemed pretty safe.
We started the weekend with attending the pre-parties on Thursday and Friday. They started Thursday at the Electric Church over on East Cesar Chavez. The Electric Church is an interesting concept because it used to be an actual church, but now it’s used for bands to perform and a place for people to relax and drink. I’ve actually gone a couple times since this festival and have had a great time every time I’ve gone. They also had a pop up thrift shop called Neon Rainbow where I found a Fendi top from 1973. It doesn’t get much better than that!
The next pre-party was held at Hotel Vegas. We were pretty tired from the night before and our days at work/school, but we still went since we knew Hotel Vegas would be a low key, but fun, time! There were some really good bands performing indoors and outdoors playing rock and indie music. When we got inside, it was pretty cool because we found a bench to stand on top of, so we got to get a good overview of the show and the crowd. Afterwards was of course my favorite part because I got to hit up the amazing taco truck outside.
The next day was the first day of the actual festival. We didn’t really know any of the bands this day, but we still wanted to head over and scope out the place! The festival was at the Sahara Lounge and the Webberville Road Baptist Church in east Austin. I was kind of nervous going over there because it was in super east Austin and it just sounded very strange to hold a music festival at an actual church, but we still went with it and took our chances.
I’m not going to lie, the set up and overall ambiance of this festival was really put together. For this being the festival’s first year, I was really impressed by the effort and outcome of it. The indoor part was really laid back, with a bar, pool tables, and a stage off to the side. The indoor part also led to a courtyard in the back where they had a fire lit (it was little chilly that weekend) and a bunch of tables where you could just talk and have a few drinks. The outdoor part was this huge lawn area with a bar tent, vintage/thrift store tents, food trucks, tarot card readers, and a cool area with psychedelic patterns and smoke machines (for photos I suppose). There, of course, was also a huge stage that reminded me a bit of ACL. Since we had all the time in the world, we checked literally all of these vendors out and it was really cool to interact with some local Austin people.
The second day of the actual festival, and the last day, was a lot of fun because we just stayed to watch all the shows of artists we knew and artists we never knew before, but now we actually like. My favorite was seeing Sam France of Foxygen just because I’ve wanted to see him for awhile now since I love his music. He didn’t actually perform, but he gave an interesting lecture of his views and feelings towards various topics. Afterwards, I had a chance to introduce myself to him and we had a pretty good conversation. I was also thankful to get a photo with him (check below!).
After Saturnalia, Austin had a very unusual day. It snowed!! Although it wasn’t that much snow, and could be considered sleet honestly, we all lost our minds! I was actually at a coffee shop when I first saw the snow and immediately called my parents and friends freaking out about it. After debating how to celebrate this forthcoming, I decided to spend it with my friend at my old stomping grounds, UT. I thought seeing the tower and the rest of the campus covered in snow would be so beautiful, and it was! We walked all over, from the new engineering building, to the tower, to the union. We got to see some beautiful sights and it was a lot of fun!
One thing I really wanted to do before all my friends left to go home for the break was to check out the Christmas pop up bars in Austin. My friend and I decided to go down on a super chilly night, and on a week night so we could be guaranteed entry. We struggled finding parking downtown that night (I guess maybe some event was going on?), so we started out at Halcyon to get some smores to warm up and since it was close to the car.
After we warmed up a little bit and calmed down from the distress from looking for a parking spot, we walked over to the first Christmas bar, Miracle. When we drove by an hour earlier, there was a line out the door, which we were hoping would have gone down by this time, since it was getting late and was a week night, but the line actually got longer. It wasn’t too ridiculous, but it was annoying to wait in the freezing cold. We probably waited for about thirty minutes before they finally let us in. When we entered, the whole bar was so magical looking. Lights everywhere, tons of Christmas decorations, Christmas trees, Christmas music, you name it! We then had to wait in another line though, to the bar. My biggest advice for going to this bar is to not leave your tab open. At the end, I had to wait in this long line again just to close out! The drinks were super cute and worth the wait though. They have an entire Christmas cocktail menu which are all festive and perfected to a tee. I personally got the Christmopolitan, which was a very fruity drink with vodka. The appearance of it was adorable though, they even had a mini clothespin where they clipped on a tiny branch garnish.
Before the night was over, there was one more Christmas bar we wanted to check out, Donn’s Depot. This is normally a piano bar over on West 5th Street, but they completely transformed it into a Christmas wonderland for the season! They really went above and beyond decorating this place, with every single room decked out in holiday decor. I also really enjoyed this bar because it had a homey, quaint vibe to it and there was an older crowd there. We went all over the bar and took photos since there weren’t too many people and each corner seemed to have something unique and fun to it.
As a pre-Christmas treat yo self present, I tried a delicious Mexican restaurant called Fonda San Miguel. I’ve heard nothing but good things over the years about this place, but I finally decided to give it a try. It’s a very interesting concept when you get there because there’s a main restaurant area (that was full with a wait when we got there, so reservations are important!), but there’s also another portion of the restaurant that’s open seating. There were a few tables that were open, so we lucked out! The open seating area has full service with a waiter and you can still order food and drinks, so I’m not sure what the big difference is. I ordered the Sangria Margarita which was absolutely delicious! I then shared the Calamari as an appetizer with my friend, but it is a bit spicy, so keep that in mind if you don’t like spicy things like myself! As my entree, I ordered the Pork Tacos. These were also absolutely delicious, but I definitely couldn’t finish them at this point after the chip and appetizer! The ambiance was really cool in this restaurant because it had a unique layout and was very well kept. Also, the best part is the parrot towards the front of the restaurant! If you say hello, he’ll say hello back!
The next day, to also celebrate Christmas, I had dinner with some friends at my favorite restaurant in Austin, The Grove. I’m obsessed with Italian food, and especially the Italian food at The Grove! They have an amazing wine selection, where I usually get flights, and their food ranges from pizza to pasta to sandwiches. They also have a few locations around Austin, and although I usually go to their Westlake location, I went out to the one on West Sixth this night! Afterwards, we rushed over to Trail of Lights to check out the Christmas lights before they closed for the evening. The lights were really nice and haven’t changed too much over the years. I also wanted Funnel Cake so bad, so I ordered one that was loaded with berries and ice cream. It was HUGE though and I probably only finished a third of it at most, so definitely share if you can!
Finally, to wrap up the year, I drove over to Houston to attend the Texas Bowl! Obviously, I’m a huge UT football fan, so when my friend told me she had an extra ticket, I rushed over there! The game this year was at NRG Stadium where we played Missouri (and won, might I add!). We got to the game fairly early where we were able to tailgate with free beer and BBQ! It was freezing and raining though, but we were able to tough it out! After we ate and drank for a bit, we headed inside the stadium. We were sitting in the club section, which was really nice because it was sectioned off and there weren’t many people up there. They also had unlimited food and drinks, so it’s safe to say I will be dieting for the next few days. After some more delicious food, we went down to the first floor to buy a t-shirt and we also found this amazing booth that had lemonade with either Tito’s or Jack Daniel’s. I’m a huge fan of whiskey lemonade, so I got the one with Jack Daniel’s and it was absolutely delicious. The game itself was full of spirit and was so exciting to watch since we actually played well! I had a blast and am still full with pride!
As 2017 is coming to an end, I’m very excited for the new year. This was a very trying year, full of a lot of hard times for myself, but I’m also very thankful for a few of the things 2017 has brought to me. I was able to graduate from UT with a BSA in Computer Science, move into a beautiful apartment, began my first full time job, and bought my first car on my own. I’m also thankful for all the new friends I’ve met throughout this year and my old friends who have been there for me, even when they really didn’t have to be. I’m very optimistic that 2018 will be better and full of even bigger blessings.
Thank you for all of your support and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
xx,
Rachelle
