Day 1: Austin

Finally made the drive down to Austin. There's an interesting feeling you get when you are within a few miles of some places where it seems like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders and a sense of calm and belonging comes over you. That could also be the delirium from sitting in a car for 7 hours, but I like to think I got the former yesterday.

I was extremely fortunate to have a couple of close friends of mine from undergrad living currently living in Austin who offered to let me house sit for them while I am down here. My travel buddy, Bryce, and I met her last night and learned that she would be spending the weekend with family in Dallas. After getting settled in, we all went to dinner and then Bryce and I decided to try and find a coffee shop where we could complete some homework we brought with us.

However after a look through the "coffee" section of the urbanspoon app on my phone, we unwittingly ended up at a kava bar named Squarerüt. For those of us who are not from metropolitan areas or the Polynesia, kava is a plant whose roots can be brewed into a drink that looks and tastes like dirt and whose consumption results in high mental focus and body sedation.

While at the bar, I decided I would ask the barista, Garrett, if he knew of any open mics in the area or where I should go for information on them. I had already looked through The Austin Chronicle, a local events and classifieds bulletin, and found nothing. He replied that he did not, then shouted to the rest of the bar asking if anyone knew of any, which proved to be an unorthodox, yet effective means of getting information. One person said that Strange Brews coffee had one and another replied that Stompin' Gronds did too. He then wrote down the names on a receipt and told me that Strange Brews was not too far from the kava bar.

After a fairly unsuccessful gander at analyzing our Beethoven score assignments, Bryce and I then resolved to make the best of the remaining 20 minutes we had left before midnight and make a beer run to the gas station down the street before we headed back to the apartment.

Being the homebrewing beer geek I am and also knowing that Austin has a thriving microbrewing community, I took a good look at the beer my colleague had selected. The beer he had purchased was a six pack of pint-cans of IPA from a local brewery in the same area of Austin we were staying. It was called TPA ("T" is for "Texas") from South Austin Brewery with the tag-line "liquid Austin soul" written near the top with a descriptor on the side of the can making a reference to the music culture of Austin. Best of all, there was a guitar pick hidden beneath one of the sections of the cap holding the cans together. 

Though I didn't realize it after a full day of driving and a night of drinking kava, there was a surprising amount of information on that six pack revealing of the local culture.

- It is likely that Austin is a community in which both music and brewing are valued.
- It is evidenced that the brewing community values interpersonal relationships and community cohesiveness
- It is evident that pride is taken in the independence of the beer and brewery and value is placed on individual identity and creativity

I am looking forward to what I find tomorrow.