Austin Arts Insider Features New Vanishing Austin Poster

Above, the new Vanishing Austin poster by Jann Alexander (c) 2009

Austin Arts Insider Rob Faubion features the new Endangered Species of Austin poster in today's column on tripvine.com. I'm grateful for the publicity, since sales of the poster help support my on-going effort to photograph Austin before it vanishes (so to speak) for my Vanishing Austin series--there are 68 images to date, published in slide show form on my website, VanishingAustin.com

Endangered Species of Austin unveiled | KXAN.com

Vanishing Austin/Capitol Boots by Jann Alexander (c) 2009

KXAN's Josh Hinkle focuses on Capitol Saddlery's oversize boot to showcase my new poster debut, Endangered Species of Austin (from my Vanishing Austin series) in his on-air piece and online story that aired in conjunction with the poster-signing reception hosted by Austin Fastframe:

Endangered Species of Austin unveiled | KXAN.com

Above, Endangered Species of Austin poster by Jann Alexander (c) 2009

The vivid color poster, printed on quality paper and sized 24 x 36" to fit a ready-made frame, features 16 beloved Austin icons and is available for purchase online at http://VanishingAustin.com/ and around Austin at many local retailers, including AMOA Museum Store, Authenticity Gallery, Austin Visitor's Center, Austin Fastframe North and South locations; also at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar and the Keep Austin Bizarre Bazaar.

A Bitter End for the Warehouse District?

A crane overhanging the vanished Bitter End last year portends its doom--

and maybe that of the entire Warehouse District.

Pictured: "Vanishing Austin / Until the Bitter End"

(c) Jann Alexander 2009

Can This District Be Saved? asks Katherine Gregor in the current Austin Chronicle cover story about Austin's Warehouse District. A provocative question indeed. Can Austin find the guts to maintain some of the historic fabric that makes it so attractive or will the City Council let the developers have their way with us?

The Heritage Society of Austin is working to preserve the District's historic character. It has an online petition drive (in its quest for 1000 signatures) at Save the Warehouse District to ask that City Council adopt special protections for the area at the September 24th Council meeting.

Vanishing Austin

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A Rare Treat: an all-art issue from Rare Magazine, featuring Vanishing Austin

Featured in the Art issue of Rare this month, my work (including Vanishing Austin) is in good company with many notable Austin visual and performing artists:

Rare Magazine :: August/September 2009 :: Art

Pictured: 'Vanishing Austin / Frisco Gold' by Jann Alexander (c) 2009

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KUT Asks, What's Historic? And Offers Hope for What's Vanishing

Vanishing Austin

kut : Item | Just What Consitutes "Historic?"

Source: kut.org

Today Austin Officials celebrated the City’s designation as a “Preserve America Community.” KUT’s Mose Buchele reports that attitudes towards what types of landmarks should be preserved are changing. — Mose Buchele

http://kut.org/items/show/17710

The Stars Come Out at Night

Vanishing Austin / Frosty Beer, Wiggy's Wine by Jann Alexander (c) 2009

I have long been fascinated by juxtapositions, and this one always grabs me as I approach downtown in the early evening on West 6th Street. Despite all of the other condos rising high above the Frost Bank building, its lighted tower top seems to always find a spot in my photographs of Vanishing Austin. With neon that's becoming a relic these days in Austin and a loyal following, Wiggy's Spirits, above, doesn't seem to be going anywhere for now, though the little white pedestrian is crankin' along.

VANISHING AUSTIN PRINTS, POSTERS AND NOTECARDS are now available for purchase online. You can choose from many sizes -- affordable small prints to poster-size images -- all beautifully reproduced on archival fine art papers, in brilliant high-quality color, with professional framing options you can customize to fit your living style. Visit http://AustinDetails.imagekind.com/VanishingAustin

Going, Going, Gone? But Not Forgotten.

Endangered Species of Austin poster by Jann Alexander (c) 2008

Some still stand, some are gone, and with luck, some may never go. 

The Endangered Species of Austin poster, a 24 x 36" signed custom print, reflects what we love to love about Austin. It's available for holiday delivery by special order--for more information, email AustinDetails@mac.com.

Stop by my booth at the Holiday Art Festival at AMoA-Laguna Gloria on Saturday & Sunday, December 6-7 from 10 am-5 pm to see the Endangered Species of Austin poster and the entire Vanishing Austin series of photographs, nearing 50 to date.

Movin' On--Carefully

Vanishing Austin/Movin' On by Jann Alexander, AustinDetails.com

How do you move a neon sign? Especially one that's achieved icon status in Austin?

As it turns out, very carefully.

When the Night Hawk Frisco Shop moved from its original Austin location at Burnet Road and Koenig Lane to new digs a bit south on Burnet Road, of course its original neon had to go along. Above, the crew proudly displays the sign moments after removing it from the distinctive gold stucco home it had known for a half-century.

Austinites love to love the Frisco, and luckily for them, the restaurant's original service, many of the original staff and now the original neon survive in the new location, even if the original menu does not. The funky little gold building, replaced by Walgreen's, may not remain, but the Frisco's motto, "There's nothing accidental about quality," is still practiced daily by a loyal staff and appreciated by an even more loyal clientele.

Vanishing Austin/Movin' On copyright Jann Alexander 2008.

What Would Johnny Say?

That's one Mean-Eyed Cat.

The signs of progress are overtaking the humble little bar on West 5th Street--witness the yellow-clad condo rising in a wink to the bar's star and the explicit spelling of M E A N that dances across its front facade.

I've been photographing the Mean-Eyed Cat ever since I discovered it, about the time it opened, not long after I moved to Austin (as quick as I could). My image, above, Mean Cat Meets Condo is my nod to Johnny Cash (whose song, Mean-Eyed Cat, inspired the bar's name, theme, just about everything except its former chainsaw-repair-shop roots). The environment that once let the dive bar with a lot of local color be just that, a funky dive bar at the end of the tracks, now mimics the song's lyrics "Dear John, honey, baby, I'm long gone."

It might have ended up worse. CMT.com reports that owner Dave Marsh fought the developers who'd planned to raze the building and replace it with condos; once historic designation was finalized, development was planned to work around the Mean-Eyed Cat rather than replace it. Hence, the startling proximity of new v. old, a modern condo that's bound to end up all sleek and hip, in contrast to the once-condemned chainsaw-repair shed that turns out to have some history, after all.

I guess Johnny would be pleased. I know I am, that local color and new development managed to peacefully co-exist.

What's Vanishing Next?

At a much-loved Austin coffee shop on West 6th Street in Clarksville, a young man behind the counter handed me my biscotti, looking on in astonishment at my Vanishing Austin series. "All these places are gone??" he asked, seeming a bit dumbfounded.

"No no no," I told him hastily. "This series of photographs is my take on what Austin stands to lose whenever a new high-rise condo overtakes the old-style artsy Austin buildings with all the charm and funk and personality that these have." (well, I said that more or less.)

He seemed relieved.

"But look," I pointed out. "Already this is gone. And this. This, too." We both looked longingly at the Alamo Drafthouse neon sign that once enlivened the Warehouse District (I called my image Remember the Alamo). And we contemplated the image I called Frisco Gold, where soon Walgreen's would stand in place of the Frisco-Nighthawk's vivid golden orange-roofed home on Burnet Road.

But his face lit up when he saw the one-of-a-kind mural that Marriott would soon raze--painted on the side of the building next to Las Manitas (Avenue Cafe) on Congress. "That Joseph's mural," he explained about the image I call Stylin' High, "I love seeing that mural because that's my name. Joseph."

We both considered this loss solemnly.

He promised to visit my Vanishing Austin blog and post a comment.

Commentary on Cranes and Their Creations

The building cranes loom everywhere in Austin, giving us an unusual skyline these days. It's hard to avoid casting them as characters in my Vanishing Austin photographs. When the snake that graces the east side of Ranch 616 actually seemed to have a reaction to the cranes, that was an image that seemed to embody my concept for my photographic journey through Austin old and new. Its title: Vanishing Austin / Duelling Threats. (Though you gotta wonder who's winning.)

Sometimes it's the tall towers that seem to mock the scale of the architectural ambiance that thrives so far beneath them. Still, I'm rootin' for the little guy--like the Tiniest Bar in Texas. Whose owners say they're makin' a stand, right there amidst all the high-rise action on West 5th Street, in the shadow of the Monarch. Below, Vanishing Austin / Tiny Bar, Tall Tower.

In the Warehouse District, cranes reflect back in the existing high-rises (which are themselves being overtaken by the newer skyscrapers) and provide an artsy backdrop to an older block that still stands. Here's to a fight until the Bitter End (below, Vanishing Austin / Until the Bitter End).

Is Your Austin Vanishing?

Soon a bland corporate hotel chain revered the world over for its predictability will stand in place of this textural, colorfully cheeky block of individuality, replacing the contrasts of angles and styles and skies that exist now along Congress and 2nd. A corporate logo stamped on countless buildings will take the place of the gaudy vibrancy of Tesoros and the Joseph's mural and will cast its own lengthy shadows on the sparkling Frost Tower.

That's Austin, Vanishing.

What's next? Post your concerns for what's uniquely-Austin, yet poised for visual mediocrity--when you fear your favorite bit of Austin eye-candy is about to be overtaken by bland new development, comment here.

I've been photographing the visual derring-do that is Austin's homegrown architectural charm in my Vanishing Austin series since 2004. I've got 40 images to date, many juxtaposing the old against the new; and sadly, many more in the photography pipeline to go. Your thoughts about this series, and your suggestions for places you'd like to see honored in the series, are welcomed here.