The Resonator

I wanted to show you all something really neat that I saw at SXSW's guitar showcase that I had never seen before: the resonator guitar.


These guitars are really unique as they provide a different sound because of their metal resonator soundboard. Typically they are acoustic but can be electric, and are known to have interesting designs that add a mystery to the genres they are used for most: blues and bluegrass.

Most of what I know about them has come from Wikipedia, so if you are interested I would suggest checking out their page on it here.

For being so interesting looking, it's pretty hard to find them in Austin, but there is one place that has them called Quincy's Guitars. It's located on Congress Ave, and he calls them Reso-Phonic guitars.

I also found that Quincy's sells a reso-phonic mandolin - my favorite instrument of all time. I just had to show you a picture of it:


I found a video all about Resonators - the history and how to go about finding one or even making one. Here it is:



Now to listen to how one sounds. I think you will agree that this guitar has a very distinct sound, and I have to say that I like it! Happy listening!

Cupcakes, How I Adore You

Everyone loves cupcakes: they are the perfect size of cake for one person, and come in a variety of different flavors, sizes and decorations. I recently did a podcast on cupcakes and my favorite places in Austin. Here's what I came up with.

Starting with a shop right of Rio Grande and 28 1/2 St. called Polka Dots, this little bakery offers a lot for the taste buds.


With flavors ranging from traditional like chocolate and vanilla to smores (shown above), dirt and peanut butter and jelly, it really is one of the more creative bakeries in Austin. It was named "most creative" by UT's Daily Texan in 2008 and has been cited by the Austin Chronicle as an up-and-coming Austin bakery.

Next was a bakery at a store a little more well known: Whole Foods.


Apparently local Whole Food fanatics have been raving about the bakery's cupcakes, and I can see why. With mini cupcakes just starting at 49 cents, it's no wonder people love them - they're a steal! They also have normal-sized cupcakes at 99 cents, as well as what they call "fancy" cupcakes that range from two to four dollars.

Finally, I chose Hey Cupcake! an Austin sweet treat roadside stop just off of Congress.


With more traditional flavors with a flair, this bakery offers giant cupcakes for a reasonable price. To me it's all about the experience. For example, getting a Michael Jackson cupcake with a whipper snapper ... or a chocolate cupcake with vanilla icing and a shot of whipped cream on the inside ... while walking down Congress. They recently opened a bonafide shop on Burnet Rd.,

Here's a video of the whole story of Hey Cupcake! that I found. Check it out:



I hope you all enjoy this and hey - try to go out and satisfy your sweet tooth with a treat that's short and sweet!

Ventilo Interview as Promised

Hey all. A while back I told you I would post the interview I did with Meredith Crandell and here it is! It's somewhat long, but very informative, and Mer was really a neat person to talk to. Enjoy!

Crandell Interview

SXSW Revisited

I know I've been slacking on blogging lately, but SXSW and school has taken over my life! Anyway, I've caught a break, so I wanted to revisit the events of South-by.

It turned out to be another successful year for the musicians, filmmakers, artists and audiences of SXSW.

I didn't go to too many concerts, but I did end up attending Flatstock (as I mentioned in my last post), as well as attending the Music Trade Show, also at the Convetion Center, and a few films.

It was amazing how many people were out and about in Austin, as well as the coverage the festival got nationwide.

The New York Times said, "While CD sales topple, and major and indie labels struggle, at this year’s 23rd annual SXSW people have been turned away from packed clubs where they are clamoring to see bands that are far from household names: Grizzly Bear, Peter Bjorn and John, St. Vincent. Full houses chanted along to indie hip-hop and pondered broken hearts and God to the picking of Americana bands. Those musicians draw their audiences from people who chase down music in the news media, in blogs and on noncommercial radio stations — or maybe from a friend’s recommendation or a giveaway on a music downloading site." Read more...

Minneapolis' Star Tribune had an article about Twin Cities bands just having fun at the festival. As Minneapolis rapper Omaur Bliss said, "This is like the Disney World of music ... you gotta come to have fun, or forget it." Read full article here.

It seems that like the Star Tribune, most papers were interested in local or near-local bands who had traveled here to play. The Seattle Times writer Jonathan Zwickel wrote, "Funny thing about flying 1,500 miles to Austin, Texas, last week for the South by Southwest music festival: I ended up seeing a lot of faces from around here." Read more from his SXSW article.

All in all I think it was a great year, and I'm sure I'm not the only one looking forward to next year.

Flatstock Recap

My most anticipated SXSW event, as you all know, was Flatstock Poster Show at the Austin Convention Center. It was amazing, and overwhelming.

Artists from around the world gathered to display and sell their work to artist and art fans alike. Due to me being overwhelmed I only bought one poster (I know, lame), but it was great! It was a String Cheese Incident poster by Furturtle prints:

I think it's awesome.

Anyway I wanted to give you a glimpse of what it was like, and I found this video that shows the convention as well as some great posters.



I also found a video from the Daily Record, a Scottish paper visiting the festival. Crazy!



I really recommend any of you out there who are art fans, or even want some really cool, quality posters to visit Flatstock next year, or if you really want to they have multiple Flatstocks throughout the year, usually in Seattle and one other venue. Visit the American Poster Institute to get updates on that.

Recap: Tinted Windows at SXSW

I couldn't make it to the concert, but since I've written about their greatness, I thought I would post a video or two of Tinted Windows at South-by. Here's the band playing on Wednesday:



Voted recently as one of Rolling Stones' "Artists to Watch," SPIN interviewed the "supergroup" at the festival.



Watch out for their self-titled album to debut in May.

TMT Presents Mary Ellen Mark

Today at work, I was able to attend a Texas Monthly Talks taping in the studio, introducing the amazing photographer Mary Ellen Mark. Not only was she here to talk with Evan Smith, editor of Texas Monthly magazine, but she was also doing a talk tonight at 7 p.m. for the Austin Center of Photography. Although she is not an Austin photographer - she's originally from Philadelphia - I could not pass up a chance to show you some of her work.

She's been taking pictures professionally for over four decades, working on film sets, magazine assignments and personal projects, as well as teaching and giving talks along the way.

She recently got back from teaching photography in Mexico, before that working on Tim Burton's new movie Alice in Wonderland.

Here is some of her previous work:

Part of her Rodeo collection for Texas Monthly in 1992


Duke Ellington


A piece from her Mexico Circus collection


Johnny Depp

Had to put in that last one of Johnny, whom she said was a beautiful person - I agree, Mary Ellen.

Her latest personal project was going to 12 high schools across the nation to document today's average American prom. One of the high schools was West Lake High School here in Austin. She said she was trying to capture a true "Texas prom."

It was really great listen to their interview - check the TMT Web site for when the show will be showing if you're interested in watching it, also look out for Mary Ellen's book compilations, including:

Seen Behind the Scenes: 40 Years of Photographing on Set.

Explore UT: Steamrolling

Every year UT hosts a campus-wide event for students, prospectives, alumni and Austin families called Explore UT. This past Saturday, March 7, UT put on this major event; however, one activity caught my special attention.

In the vast building of the Art building, there is a small little room for relief printmaking (see Flatbed Visit Post). For weeks, students, teachers and volunteers have been using it for the Steamroller-printmaking event that is a part of Explore UT, carving giant pieces of wood to make an amazing print on cloth by pressing it with a steamroller.

I took it upon myself to go and see this - I mean, when is the next time you're going to see some heavy machinery being used by a bunch of art students?

Here's a bit of what I saw:

Students cutting up linens for the prints

Woodblocks ready to be inked up

UT Alum Nick Glenn, Explore UT volunteer, and his woodcut

Students inking woodcuts

Steamrollin'!

Print complete!

According to the UT event description, presenters and artists also came from St. Edward's University, ACC and Texas State University. This was a great and unique event for both artists and observers. If you're interested in participating or volunteering for next year's steamroller event, contact Sandra Fernandez or Ken Hale.

Flatstock Intro

March is a great month for Austin - we become nationally recognized for the newest talents in music, film and art through one event: SXSW. I know I've talked a lot about it so far, but really, as an blog about creatives, there's no way around it.

Onto this SXSW topic - I love rock. I love art. I really love rock poster art. Rock posters have become one of my greatest passions, and it's planted itself into a career dream. Anyway, I mentioned previously an event a part of SXWS called Flatstock.


It's basically a poster extravaganza featuring graphic designers from Austin and around the world. A few of my favorite designers are going to be there, (you can see all of them here, my current fave is Dan Stiles, but take a look at Mark Pedini - fellow KLRUian and awesome graphic designer) and their posters are up for sale!

I recently found out that they will also be having silkscreen demos all day, everyday starting March 19 to March 22. There will also be a talk on Saturday at 2 p.m. from Mig Kokinda, a local poster artist, about taking ideas, cutting them into stencils and watching your vision come to life.

All of this is taking place at the Austin Convention Center, along with a ton of other stuff like the Record and Guitar Showcase, a few film screenings, arcade games, trade shows and more.

I'll leave you with this last bit of propaganda. SXSW is also showing a documentary called Died Young, Stayed Pretty, by Eileen Yaghoobian, about poster artists throughout the nation.


It looks awesome - and I am definitely going to be seeing it. Their Web site is pretty interesting too, at diedyoungstayedpretty.com.

Watch the trailer. Yes, that is a command.

Ventilo trailer is out!

A few posts ago I mentioned my friend Meredith Crandell's short film Ventilo. Well, the trailer is out, so take a look!

Don't forget to check for showtimes here.

Let's go fly a kite!

Today was the 81st annual Zilker Park Kite Festival, where hundreds of Austinites bring their wings, tails and strings and enjoy a sunny day of kite-flying.



This was my first kite day experience - I brought a hammerhead shark kite (Academy) - but there were dozens of other kites ranging from super-hero kites, to geometrically-shaped kites, to even a kite shaped like a pirate ship (I wish I had gotten a picture!). It was a pretty amazing sight to see, especially with such a beautiful blue-sky backdrop.

Many of the unique kites I saw came from Austin's World Wind Kites, a store completely dedicated to selling kites - and it is hard to believe how many different kinds of kites there are!

World Wind offers beginner, single-string kites for newbies like me or for kids, as well as sport or stunt kites for avid fliers.

As for avid fliers, after doing some research I found that there is a group committed to kite-flying in Austin called the Texas Skyriders Kite Club - no Web site, but headed by Kelly Reed of KiteDemos. Reed designs kites and was once a sport kite competitor, as well as a member of the American Kitefliers Association, endorser of many kite competitions.

Although the festival is over, don't let that stop you from grabbing a kite and heading outside! March 28 marks the beginning of National Kite Month, so try out World Winds, Academy, Toy Joy (the kites are in the back), or wherever you'd like to find a kite - or even make your own! Have fun flying!

Street Art

Yesterday the Daily Texan ran a story about Federico Archuleta, a local graffiti artist commissioned by Cheapo Discs.

Peyton McGee, Daily Texan

Interestingly enough, Archuleta has done quite a bit of public works in Austin, like the portraits on the formerly known Intellectual Property.


I'm always intrigued by grafitti art - more impressed than anything. It's like in the old-school Paint program that I would play with when I was a kid; I hated the spray paint! I could never get anything good, except snow or something of that sort. Artists like Archuleta have such beautiful images created with what I think to be such a difficult and time-consuming material.

Check out the Daily Texan article, it's pretty interesting.

Flatbed Visit

I visited Flatbed Press Tuesday, one of Texas' largest printing press services, and I have to say, I came back feeling inspired.



Flatbed was founded in 1989 by Katherine (Kathy) Brimberry and Mark Smith as a side-project to both of their careers as teachers. It became a full-time career for both of them in 1999, when they expanded their space and moved to East M.L.K. Blvd, giving them an 18,000 sq. ft. warehouse comparable to that of one of New York's Chelsea-district galleries.

Half of the space is devoted to printmaking processes and their presses, the other half to smaller galleries.

First off, let's get a little background on what printmaking is and the different techniques that Flatbed and many artists use.

Basically, a print is any mark pressed onto paper either by hand or by a printing press. There are a few different types of printing techniques:

• Relief: a surface that is carved (i.e. wood or linoleum), and then inked, so that only the surface is shown - not what has been carved. Some of the earliest prints and illustrations were done with relief printing, mostly carved woodprints. For example, this famous Japanese print was done with with wood.

• Intaglio: This type of printmaking is somewhat of an umbrella term. It can have many different techniques such as engraving, etching, drypoint and aquatint. These type of prints are normally done on metal (i.e. copper or zinc), and whatever is drawn onto the plates will be where the ink sits, therefore what is printed. This type of printmaking makes it easier to produce finer lines, so you can end up with a result like this:

Etching by Rembrandt

• Lithography: In contrast to relief and intaglio, lithography is a print made by drawing onto a stone with oils which pick up ink, giving you the print. This is one of the harder methods of printing, but can produce beautiful results:

"Relativity" by M.C. Escher

Flatbed press provides printing services to Austin and Texas artists. With most printing presses costing upwards of $20,000, a place to print your work is necessary. They provide counselations to artists, and charge by press per day. They also teach classes like introduction to certain methods of printmaking - a great opportunity for beginning artists.

As I said earlier, half of their space is devoted to small exhibitions; right now they are hosting the Senior Art Exhibition for UT graduating art students and a small viewing of war art.

In looking at their collection of prints on the wall, I was surprised to see the name of Bob Schneider - Austin's musical wild-man - and apparently, master printer. I was able to see some of the etchings he is currently working on, and what an amazing experience! He will have an exhibition at Flatbed beginning March 12 - April 18, called "Beggar's Bag." Here's an example of Schneider's past works:

So if you have time, try to make it down to Flatbed, have a chat with Mark and the gang - it really was an inspiring experience that I would recommend to anyone. Plus they give away scraps of old prints to visitors, just another reason to make it down!

Tinted Windows

When I was in middle school, boy bands were the shiz (that's right, the shiz). From N*SYNC to the Backstreet Boys to 98 degrees, oh man, I loved them all - but what teenage girl didn't, right?

Those guys had something about them, but one band stood out among the rest: three brothers with golden hair.

Hanson.

(insert angels' chorus here)

Mmmbop was probably my sixth grade anthem.

Anyway, they made a failed attempt at a comeback a few years ago, but now one of them is back!

A new superpower band has formed featuring the middle golden boy Taylor Hanson, Smashing Pumpkins' James Iha, Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, and Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick.

Now I've been a fan of these bands for quite a while, and to think that they are coming together is so exciting! Their new band is called Tinted Windows, and they just signed on with S-Curve records on February 19.



I know what you're thinking. What does this have to do with Austin? Well, first off, they are awesome, and I think all Austinites should be informed. Secondly, they are performing their first public gig during SXSW on March 20 - get your tickets now!

Here's a little sample of their album, set to release in April:

You can see when and where to catch them in Austin here.

Hear what others are saying about them:

Rolling Stone
Billboard
Stereogum

And check their Myspace out at http://www.myspace.com/tintedwindows.

Happy listening!

Presenting: Ventilo

Hi all! So this weekend I met up with one of my really good friends Meredith Crandell, a fellow KLRUian and a recent SXSW film producer. We had a talk about her latest film, Ventilo.



She and her husband Jerin just finished their latest work, which began last summer ('08), and has been accepted into the short film category of SXSW.

I will post our conversation as soon as I finish editing it. Until then read up on Meredith's blog and SXSW's lineup for Ventilo here.

Austin City Limits spinoff

As you all know, I work in at KLRU-TV, home of Austin City Limits, and we recently had a taping for Sarah Jaffe, an up-and-coming singer/songwriter from Denton, Texas.



The taping, however, will not be for ACL, but for a prospective online short performance, yet to be named. Jaffe's performance will be the pilot episode of this new series, set to air later this year (I will update when I know more).

Here is the event description for the taping on February 15.

To hear more of Jaffe, whose song "Ever Born Again" was named as NPR's song of the day in August, visit her myspace at http://www.myspace.com/sjaffe

Cake Charmers

First off, I need to mention that I am probably one of the few college students addicted to the food network channel. Maybe it's my love for food, maybe it's my envy of people who can cook and cook well. Whatever the reason, it has become my default channel whenever I turn on the tube.

The reason I preface with that is because one of the shows I love most on that channel is Ace of Cakes, a show about amazing Charm City Cakes bakery in Baltimore that does some of the most out-there cake designs, from traditional wedding cakes to motorized snowboarding cakes. Here's a little sample of what they do:



So in watching this show, and with an upcoming wedding to plan, I was wondering if there was a bakery in Austin that does cakes like this, without a TV contract. But apparently, this whole wacky cake frenzy is a nation-wide phenomenon, so a few of my friends tell me. Bakeries will do whatever they can, for the right price.

Just from doing a little bit of research, Austin bakeries like Sansalone's Specialty Cakes and Fine Pastry and Lucy's Cakes, attempt to do what Charm City does, and get very close to what they do, but there's something about that Baltimore bakery. There is no denying these bakers have talent. I mean, whoever can reproduce Kermit the Frog this well and edible deserves some recognition.

From Sansalone's

Now, my biggest question is, how much do cakes like this cost? For big-time cakers like Charm City, all cakes are individually priced, but with a minimum of $1,000. Not to mention the extra charges of flying them down here to bake it for you. That takes some deep wallets.

The same goes with Austin bakeries like Lucy's and Sansalone's, most cakes like this are individually priced, but are undoubtedly costly. Lucy's cakes can range from $22 and up, while Sansalone's specialty cakes range from $30 and up. But, if you want to celebrate in style, an amazing cake is definitely the way to go!

Thanks to Christina at Sansalone's Specialty Cakes and Fine Pastry

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog, Austin Creatives. My name is Maggi Davis, and my plan for this blog is to discover and share the creative minds in Austin and surrounding areas, whether they be filmmakers, musicians, artists, bakers, graphic designers, etc.

Austin is home to some of the greatest, most creative minds in Texas, as well as the nation. I hope to examine the artwork of UT students, some SXSW filmmakers, the poster artwork of graphic designers at Flatstock in March, and other art from the vast array of creatives that reside in Austin.

What I am really looking for is what inspires these artists, and what inspires you. This blog is not only for those people I write about, but for you the reader as well. I hope to post often, with whatever I find via the internet, personal experience/exploration, or otherwise. But, as before, feel free to comment/contact me any time - I am always looking for new things to blog about, and can use your feedback.

Thanks for reading so far, and stay tuned for more!