Here’s a recap of my Music Midtown experience: 

the black keys

what's better than one funnel cake??

love.

I have a feeling that Music Midtown is here to stay, people! 

In the mood for some more music?  Well, you’re in LUCK.  One of my favorite bands, Austin-based Ghostland Observatory, will be in Atlanta preforming at the Masquerade on Wednesday, October 5!

ghostland observatory

I first saw Ghostland live at Austin City Limits Music Festival (’09) playing with the University of Texas Marching Band for a few songs.  It. was. INCREDIBLE!  Anyway, they are electro-rock-funk-ish or kinda elecro-dance-soul-rock: hard to put into a box, but they have a really great, unique sound + I can guarantee that they put on an awesome live show with lots of lasers and stuff. 

For iTunes research, check out these Ghostland albums: delete.delete.i.eat.meat and Robotique Majestique.  Codename: Rondo is their newest, but I like the previous two better.

If that’s not enough to convince you, GO’s lead singer has an impressive set of braids he rocks out on stage.  You’ll def want to check them out… They’re sorta mesmerizing.  (You can kinda see below.)

And, the show is at the Masquerade on North Ave.  Not only have I never been to that venue before, but also I usually drive faster down North when I pass it because it reminds me of a haunted house or something out of a bad episode of Law & Order. 

the masquerade

However, I just Sherlock Holmes-ed Wikipedia.com and while the Masquerade looks like a pile of sticks from the street, the venue actually has a lot of history + the inside of it seems fairly reasonable.

xx, L

The Masquerade
695 North Ave NE
Atlanta, GA  30308
404.577.8178
http://www.masqueradeatlanta.com/

(currently trying to find this for my condo)

I’m pretty sure that the chandelier was my favorite Texas-inspired decoration, but it’s hard to say for sure…

After oogling the walls for about 15 minutes, we sat down and perused the extensive menu.

Without a second thought, I ordered up a Mexican Martini, which I am sure was inspired from my beloved Trudy’s in Austin.  It wasn’t nearly as good as Trudy’s world-famous MM, but it did the trick.

Elizabeth opted for the Texas Bloody Mary which arrived with an olive + a green bean.  She enjoyed it, but we both agreed that a Bloody Mary is an awkward dinner drink. 

My favorite item we ordered for dinner was a special we all saw on the chalkboard outside of the front door: the Bacon Taquitos.  They were absolutely mouthwateringly good!  No joke.  AMAZING.

Slick, Elizabeth + I all ordered tacos for dinner.  Each of our plates looked similar to Slick’s pictured below.  From left to right:

The Tex Taco: Chopped brisket with a spicy mustard sour cream, BBQ sauce, griddled jalapenos, diced onion + shredded lettuce.  (Very tasty + the house special.)

The Carinta Taco: Chopped pork, griddled jalapenos, diced onion + shredded lettuce.  (It was so incredibly salty, Slick + I couldn’t eat it.  I do not recommend.)

El Guapo Taco: A flour tortilla filled with refried beans, a crispy taco shell with house ground beef, lettuce, cheese + pico de gallo.  (My favorite!  It was like a fancy Cheesy Gordita Crunch from Taco Bell!  And, I’m pretty sure it weighed about three pounds.  Judge me.) 

Scott ordered the enormous Big Tex Chicken Chimichanga: a huge tortilla filled with pulled chicken, pinto beans, pico de gallo + cheese rolled and fried, topped with their signature Texas queso + pico de gallo.  Did I mention how enormous it was??!

It was a feast, to say the least.  (Rhyming!) 

scott + elizabeth

Are they a cute couple or what?! 

I can’t say that any of us actually finished our massive meals, but we truly put in some serious effort.  NO room for dessert, although the Red Velvet Cheesecake sounded tempting.  After we settled up with our server, we walked around the restaurant again and discovered a substantial party room in the very back complete with TVs, pool tables + skeeball!  This space is totally ideal for a birthday party or a fun night out with a group!

Big Tex Cantina was very enjoyable.  It’s priced well, the restaurant doesn’t accept reservations but it’s large enough that you wouldn’t have to wait forever, + they’ve done really well with the Texas-themed decor (at least in my book!).  The menu is extensive + I have faith that the restaurant will be successful.  Having the Fox Bros. name behind it, at the very least, means something.  If you are trying to satisfy a random Mexican food craving, I probably wouldn’t recommend making the trek to Decatur to test out Big Tex over heading to Taqueria del Sol.  BUT, if you are into trying out new spots, you love the Great State as much as I do, or you are seriously hungover (get the Chimichanga - trust me.), Big Tex will do the trick. 

YeeHAW, partner!

xx, L

Big Tex Cantina
308 W. Ponce de Leon Ave.
Decatur, GA  30030
404.377.3939
http://www.bigtexcantina.com/

She’s an Austin-based jewelry designer + retailer who I’ve recently become obsessed with.  Please see how gorgeous her designs are… 

She specializes in colorful cuff bracelets, cocktail rings, bib necklaces, chandelier earrings + bridal jewelry.

If Kendra sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve seen her stuff featured in InStyle, Lucky, Real Simple, Allure, People, Martha Stewart Weddings or US Weekly – just to name of few of the publications she’s been in thanks to her celebrity clientele.  (I believe that I’ve also seen her on Gilt Groupe before…)

She has her only retail store on South Congress in Austin, and (fun fact), it was recently voted one of the “Top Ten Places to Work in Central Texas.”  When I was visiting Austin last weekend, I stopped by her boutique with my girlfriends to check it out.

Here’s a peek inside:

It’s a really energizing space + makes you want to spend lots of $$$.  (Go w/ your girls…)

Anyway, one of the coolest things about her store is that there’s a color bar for you to design your very own customized jewelry.  You can also do this online on her website, but I thought it was so much fun to do it live when you could actually hold the various settings + stones up to you.  After much consideration, I selected a pair of teardrop earring settings + iolite quartz stones for my creation.  Within ten minutes, one of the colorists put them together for me + I was able to wear them right out of the store! 

Soooooooo…what do you think?!

my customized earrings

If you have a classic solid color dress to wear but you still want to make a statement, check out Kendra Scott Jewelry online.  Her stuff is so amazing - I want it ALL.  (Just another reason to love Texas, if you ask me…)

xx, L

Today, I leave for my bi-annual extended weekend in Austin and my boots are all packed up + ready to go!

Get ready, Texas, I’m a-comin’ HOME!

xx, L

(Inspired by the supa-chic Mrs. Wolkove.)

The raccoon in me could only resist them for so long…

They are going to look amazeballs w/ the printed Spring dresses I picked up at Bloomingdale’s + Urban Outfitters last night to wear in Austin this weekend! 

Can’t. hardly. wait.

Just can’t. 

xx, L

i'll see you this afternoon, old friend.

I’m heading to the Live Music Capitol of the World this weekend to fill up on Tex-Mex and visit these schmegegges:

camp folks

greenspan + nalick

the other stac shap

goldie + ms. graham

lovely lara

the hardins!

cutest baby ever, little miss hadley hardin

leiber

mr. wolkove

I’ve been living in Atlanta for almost six years now, and I love it, but I make sure to get back to Austin twice a year to see close friends and to remind me of my precious Texas roots. 

Think that’s annoying?  Too bad.  You can’t pretend to ignore the lyrics, “God blessed Texas with his own hands/ Brought down angels from the promised land…”  I mean, it’s science.

don't judge

The purpose of this particular trip, however, is to celebrate Amy’s birthday!  The weather may call for rain, but that won’t stop us from having an excellent time.  Happy almost birthday, Ams!  Can’t wait to see you!

the brilliant mind behind our amazing Q+DD logo

Catch y’all on Monday! 

xx, L

Let’s take a step back, shall we? 

I’ve never turned my nose up at a cupcake, but they aren’t my favorite dessert in the world.  I can take ‘em or leave ‘em pretty much any day.  Magnolia (NYC), Sprinkles (Dallas) and Belly General Store (Atlanta) all have excellent cupcakes, but I’m not writing home about them.  Hey Cupcake (Austin) is definitely the closest I’ve come to cupcake-on-the-brain.

Hey Cupcake (Austin, TX)

Until now…  A girl in my book club brought a box of Cami Cakes to a meeting last week, and well, that’s all it took.  I’m officially hooked!  After talking about/ thinking about Cami Cakes for what seemed like days and days and days, Slick and I popped in yesterday after a visit to the Atlanta Humane Society to get a few treats for a little dinner celebration we had last night @ Fat Matt’s (more on that later). 

I’d frequently passed Cami Cakes on drives down Peachtree St. from Midtown to Buckhead, but I’d never noticed it.  It’s situated in a short, kinda boring strip (dry cleaners, tax advice, etc…)  nearby Varasano’s - so it’s easily overlooked.  I will most certainly NOT miss it from now on!

When you walk inside Cami Cakes, you are overwhelmed with the wonderful aroma of freshly baked cupcakes.  Slick’s first question to the gentleman behind the counter was, “How IN THE WORLD do you work here and you’re not 900 pounds?!”  Slick has excellent people skills. 

The cupcakes are artistic and creative, while at the same time flavorful and very moist.  Nothing is compromised in the making of these beauties!  You can choose from delicious flavors in their long glass case including – THE ELVIS: Creamy banana and peanut butter frosting topping their classic chocolate cake garnished with a hint of salt, and SWEET POTATO: Cinnamon and real sweet potato mixed into their buttery yellow cake and topped with cinnamon cream cheese frosting.  Yum!

We eventually left the store with a small box of the following:

Top Left – RED VELVET: Their classic Red Velvet cake with cream cheese frosting studded with lightly toasted pecans.  (Their best seller!)

Top Right – CHOCOLATE COCONUT PECAN: Rich and creamy caramel frosting with loads of coconut and pecans topping their classic chocolate cake.  (My least favorite…)

Bottom Right – CARROT: Moist spice cake loaded with carrots and pecans beneath cream cheese frosting studded with lightly toasted pecans.  (Absolutely delicious.)

Bottom Left – CLASSIC CAMI: Their signature yellow cake with classic pink buttercream frosting.  (Can’t beat the classics!)

After dinner, our cupcakes were gone in a flash!  SUGAR RUSH!!

Stop by Cami Cakes ASAP and you’ll see what I mean.  This just may be the second happiest place on Earth (next to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, of course!) 

Welcome to Cupcake HEAVEN!

xx, L

Cami Cakes
2221-B Peachtree Road
Atlanta, GA  30309
404.748.4288
www.camicakes.com

Austin

Rougher than watered-down-Nashville-country-music, Texas country musicians really know how to rock.  In particular, I’m a big Pat Green fan.  He’s about as Texas country as they come: born in San Antonio, raised in Waco, educated at Texas Tech and toured with Willie Nelson.  His songs like “Southbound 35,” which references the drive I used to make between Dallas and Austin for school, “Carry On,” which suggests you should eat + drink your cares away at El Arroyo – one of my favorite Austin Tex-Mex joints and “Texas On My Mind” are a great comfort to me living in the South, where people tend to find my state pride irritating.  (I know they are just jealous.) 

Lady Bird Lake = Me + Stevie Ray

Pat Green’s concerts are packed in Texas.  In fact, he may just be the most famous country music artist you’ve never heard of…  Well, as luck would have it, Pat Green is preforming in Atlanta at Variety Playhouse on Thursday, February 25 @ 8:00 p.m.  Tickets are super cheap and it’s going to be a great show! 

Pat Green

Need a bit more convincing?  This should help – here’s the Q+DD on Pat Green:

I’m for wildflowers in the window
Mechanics you can trust
I’m for crackers in my chili
And leavin’ grudges in the dust

I’m for drive thru order takers
Who can muster up a smile
I’m for takin’ in that stray dog
That’s been hangin’ round for awhile

I’m for turning off the TV
Gettin’ off the Internet
I’m for learning all the words
To the Gettysburg Address

I’m for dusty pawn shop guitars
And boxers passed their prime
I’m for soakin’ up the wisdom
When an old man speaks his mind.

I’m for laid off factory workers
When the wolf is at the door
You don’t have to guess what I’m against
If you know what I’m for

I’m for Texas Margaritas
Gettin’ outta debt
I’m for havin’ faith in something
That hasn’t happened yet

For the shy kid in the corner
Afraid to ask the girl to dance
For the ex-con outta prison
Who just wants a second chance

For the inner city teacher
With her heart stuck in her throat
Can still see God in every child
And never gives up hope

I’m for dusty pawn shop guitars
And boxers passed their prime
I’m for soakin’ up the wisdom
When and old man speaks his mind

I’m for Detroit factory workers
When the wolf is at the door
You don’t have to guess what I’m against
If you know what I’m for

I’m counting all my blessings
When the wolf is at my door
You don’t have to ask what I’m against
You don’t have to guess what I’m against
You know what I’m for

 - Pat Green “What I’m For”

Pat Green

Goosebumps.  Everytime, goosebumps…  If you are looking for a fun, high energy concert, I encourage y’all to check out Mr. Green on February 25.  Plus, Variety is a killer place to see a live show.  I’ll be there clad in vintage boots, my cowboy hat and tight jeans (J Brand - not Wranglers, but whatev.) attempting to get Slick to two-step with me. “So, take me out to the dancehall/ Tap my foot down to the rhythm/ Tell ‘em to play that old song that we all love…” 

Just don’t forget:

xx, L

ACL 2009

STATE RADIO
http://www.stateradio.com/
genre: alternative rock
When Can I See Them in Atlanta? - They won’t be in town anytime soon, but you can catch them opening for 311 in Miami, Orlando, Gainesville and New Orleans.

Prior to forming State Radio, singer-songwriter/guitarist Chad Stokes Urmston was a founding member of the phenomenally successful indie-roots band Dispatch. That Vermont-formed trio had a remarkable six-year run, culminating in a 2004 farewell gig in Boston that drew 110,000 fans. Three years later, a reunited Dispatch sold out three nights at Madison Square Garden for a Zimbabwe benefit concert. By then, though, Urmston was already off and running with State Radio, which since 2002 has distinguished itself as one of the most politically outspoken American music acts since Rage Against the Machine — if not Woody Guthrie. The trio (rounded out by bassist Chuck Fay and drummer Mike Najarian) plays an engaging mix of rock, folk, punk and reggae, but the main agenda here is a pronounced emphasis on social and political activism. If ’60s protest singer Phil Ochs were alive today, it’s a good bet he’d be tuned in to State Radio’s frequency. (www.aclfestival.com)

State Radio

BON IVER
http://www.boniver.org/
genre: folk/ indie rock
When Can I See Him in Atlanta? – sorry, he’s not currently touring…

You may or may not find Bon Iver in the “I” section at your local record store. Wisconsinite Justin Vernon manipulated the French phrase for “good winter” for the one-man-band name. And a fitting name it is. For Emma, Forever Ago is the result of Vernon’s three-month solitary stay in a cabin in a remote part of his home state, where he turned frustration and heartbreak into a haunting set of songs featuring bare-bones instrumentation and his ghostly voice whispering, creaking and moaning through it all. Initially self-released in 2007, the album found a label last year, which has kept its winter going for months and months on end, no doubt helped by some of its songs appearing on Grey’s Anatomy. But the TV support shouldn’t undercut a beautifully cohesive statement made by a guy bummed out in a cabin in the cold. Alone. (www.aclfestival.com)

Bon Iver

PHOENIX
http://www.wearephoenix.com/
genre: alternative/ indie rock
When Can I See Them in Atlanta? - sometime next year…

The French band, Phoenix, didn’t exactly arise from ashes, but it did ascend through Air. The synth-pop-rockers — Laurent Brancowitz, Christian Mazzalai, Thomas Mars and Deck d’Arcy — started out as a garage band, released a single on their own Ghettoblaster label, signed to Source Records and began backing labelmates Air, with whom they did a remix on that famed French outfit’s “Kelly Watch the Stars.” Phoenix’s first single, “Heatwave,” preceded the 2000 release of United. Their latest, this May’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, features the songs “1901” and “Lisztomania,” both of which the band performed on Saturday Night Live in April. Phoenix tracks have appeared in a couple of films directed by Sofia Coppola; silky-voiced lead singer Mars is the father of her child. (www.aclfestival.com)

Phoenix

BRETT DENNEN
http://brettdennen.net/
genre: folk
When Can I See Him in Atlanta? – 11/14/09 @ Tabernacle

His freckled face, red hair and high tenor make singer-songwriter Brett Dennen seem far more boyish than 30, which he’ll turn on Oct. 28. But the Oakland, Calif., native is certainly in tune with his inner child. Dennen, who broke out with his 2006 sophomore album, So Much More, is heavily involved with the Mosaic Project, a San Francisco Bay organization dedicated to teaching children to live peacefully in a diverse world. He wrote a music curriculum for the program, which was released in 2003 as the award-winning album Children’s Songs for Peace and a Better World. He’s also teamed up with the clothing label Life is good to help needy kids, and has a page on his Web site called “Love Speaks,” which is dedicated to recognizing deserving non-profits. Dennen’s latest album, Hope for the Hopeless, was released a year ago. It reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot Independent Albums chart, and the lilting single, “Make You Crazy,” made it onto the mag’s Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks. (www.aclfestival.com)

Brett Dennen

GHOSTLAND OBSERVATORY
http://www.ghostlandobservatory.net/
genres: electro/ rock/ funk
When Can I See Them in Atlanta? – 12/11/09 @ Masquerade

Already legends in their hometown of Austin, the duo of Aaron Behrens and Thomas Ross Turner melds guitars, sequencers and programmed beats into a white-hot mix of punk rock, digitized funk and techno. Taking cues from disparate influences ranging from Daft Punk to Jerry Lee Lewis to Queen, Ghostland Observatory delivers with sweat and screams. Studio albums include 2005’s delete.delete.i.eat.meat, 2006’s Paparazzi Lightning and last year’s Robotique Majestique, but Ghostland’s calling card remains its high-energy live shows — a cathartic experience for the duo and their devotional crowds alike. And don’t be fooled by the act’s reputation for incorporating over-the-top light shows into their festival showcases; far from being a smoke and mirrors distraction, all those lasers are merely techno-gravy ladled onto the duo’s already explosive dynamic. Singer/guitarist Behrens may well be one of the most electrifying frontmen in rock working today, and the deceptively reserved-looking Turner is a veritable mad scientist behind his bank of keyboards, cooking up one sky-rattling jam after another. (www.aclfestival.com)

NOTE: Ghostland is one of my FAVORITE bands and was incredible at ACL.  I strongly recommend seeing them in Atlanta!

Ghostland Observatory

Happy downloading!!

ACL 2009

xx, L

Can you find her?!

(I’ll give you a hint…)

Austin City Limits Music Festival 2009

Information on Austin City Limits Music Festival 2009: www.aclfestival.com

(Check out the band lineup – it’s sickkkkkk.)

ACL 2009 Band Line-Up

 See y’all on Tuesday!  Have a super duper weekend!  PAZ.

xx, L