TGI-Bats!

Travel journal entry – July 23, 2015.

I am having such a fabulous night in Austin. I'm so glad I decided to come here instead of Chicago.

Here’s what’s up tonight, so far.

I am at the corner of Cesar Chavez and Congress Ave. I assume this to be the epicenter of ATX. I am in the Radisson Hotel, dining at this really cool and beautiful restaurant. There is the most amazing art in here.. I am quickly getting, especially after watching the Jimmy Kimmel Austin show, that neon and big hand painted murals are the iconic mediums that best express Austin's unique vitality. What a beautiful and comfortable atmosphere this place has; the waiter is easy going and accommodating while the drinks and food she serves up is delicious!

I think I’m just going to sit here for a while and record my thoughts in this trusty moleskin travel log.

Okay, so I was just about 50 yards away, down the street – standing on the Congress Ave Bridge and I beheld the most phenomenal thing ever! I’d read in “Trip Advisor” that if you’re not at the “Oasis” out at Lake Travis, drinking a margarita at the end of the day, “The bats” are the #1 sunset attraction in Austin. So I Uber’d over to see what all the hub bub’s about...

8:20PM

Wow, There’s was a huge crowd. There must have been 200 people hanging out here on the Congress Bridge. They were all jockeying for position for a great viewing spot. I looked down over the guardrail to see just as many people down below perched on a one-acre quilt of blankets down below the bridge next to Ladybird Lake.

Excitement, along with a strange ammonia smell hangs in the air that was amazingly still… I swear, moving traffic generated the only breeze that happened. OMG - It’s really hot here – I think to myself: “This better be worth it!”

Everyone is checking the time with great anticipation, saying: “It won’t be long now!” I hear people telling newcomers how amazing it is to see a million and a half bats fly out from under this bridge, like a streaming cloud of black smoke. “Just wait, you’ll see.”

I gaze across the water’s shimmering reflection of downtown - up Congress Ave. Austin’s compact cityscape at dusk is a like a wonderfully bejeweled hodgepodge, a marvel of a non-cohesive architectural aesthetic that somehow works - like a giant box full of colorfully wrapped Christmas presents, no doubt honoring its own spirit of individualism.

In reflections of golden glass buildings, I see a really cool pyramid outlined with electric blue horizontal neon stripes...

Then my eyes reach up Austin’s classic downtown avenue all the way the to the Capital of Texas. Wow, even the Capital weighs in on the groovy meter with a bright red neon lit dome top...

Geez! I love the soulful kooky, vibrant look and feel of this town!

So It was getting darker and finally my first glimpse of the bats happened when someone captured a few flickering black specks when their camera’s flash went off.

Wow, that was pretty cool!

Next camera flash captured quite a few more bats in stopped motion flight, then within seconds, I actually saw what looked like a stream of blackness trickling out from the underneath the bridge against a velvet indigo blue sky.

Suddenly, as though a dam broke, a spiraling black cloud flooded the darkness, darting and dodging with the deadly urgency of Sopwith Camels that all flying insects will dread as they run for their lives until dawn.

http://www.publicartarchive.org/work/confabulating-orbits

Within about 30 minutes, the air show was over. It was now full on nighttime. I looked across at the bright glow of downtown now reflecting on the water like an illuminated candy and realized that just like the bats, Austin nightlife has just woken up.

I was drawn like a moth to fire.

As I walked across the bridge, I noticed everyone pointing out the most interesting moving light sculpture, up and just to the right, on the back of the Radisson hotel building. Wow, so amazing and beautiful how it subtly expresses the bats with it's deep silhouette and rich washing color, reminding me of a marvelous phenomenon that I have just experienced, while letting me know how important this remarkable natural habitat is to the city. I had read about this being created by light artist, Ben Livingston, who also made that blue neon pyramid building and the neon in the capital above and this gorgeous public art piece just a couple blocks down Cesar Chaves at the Convention Center.

Seeing this sculpture made me realize that I wasn’t done with the bat experience. I wanted to see this thing up close but I had no idea how to get there until I got to the end of the bridge.

OMG! It’s like someone knew that all us new batophiles wanted more.

There was the coolest trailhead, right there, between the Radisson and the lake. It led us between its funneling walls of light towards the sculpture above, close enough to study it in detail.

When my art investigations were sated, I looked back at the trail wall that brought me there, for clues about the way back. That's when I noticed one feature of moving light in the wall amidst all the others.

Being that my state of wonder was primed by the evening, I decided to follow the light that seemed to be leading me back…. It led me back to the Radisson where the path continued, as though it was inviting me up past the swimming pool area right to a sign that read “Red Bat Bar and Kitchen” Oh I get it and I also get that I am really hot, thirsty and hungry...

So here I am. Feeling refreshed and satisfied but anxious to see more. I think I'll check into the hotel, settle in and then go explore the city on one of those rent bikes for a while. If the evening continues like this - the next entry story ought to be another great one to remember.

New friends I made tonight. Man - People come here from all over!

Chuck Bukosky, Redondo Beach, CA

Maggie Mead, Doylestown, PA

Wong Wai, Shanghai

Bill Burroughs, Lawrence, KS

Johnny Sales, Hoboken, NJ

Lala DeBosionere, Paris

Ben Livingston's website www.beneon.com .

I love this artist's work! Here's a few pieces of his that I must visit while I am in town.