Pure Skin

Last Christmas, my scheduled flight to Austin -- where both my sons lived -- got canceled, the rescheduled flight got canceled, and it became impossible to book a flight that would get me to Austin in time for Christmas. It was 5…

It's a podcast. About Austin, Texas. Omakase. Driving 1235 miles in one day. Don Imus. Torturing a man by telling him he looks like Mr. Bean. Etc. You don't need an iPod. You can stream it right through your computer her…

There was always another café: That's Café Mundí. Waiting for food at The Salt Lick: (The answer to Question 2 .) At Vespaio, we split two pasta dishes... And gobbled up calamari: By far our favorite restaurant was Uchi, but …

A video rental store: A hot dog place: I love the hot dog's "I couldn't help it" expression. Hold the mustard! Juicy sunshine: Yeah, you know you want a tattoo: The devil's making you want it. Let's take…

I need to get on I-35 and head north, out of Texas, back through Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri... Who knows? Starting out at 6 a.m., who says I can't drive the whole way home? It's only 1200 miles or so... UPDATE, 1 a.m.: Ho…

I follow Chris into the Spider House : It's a pretty unusual café, built out of an old house that -- I guess -- had a lot of spiders in it when they moved in: There's lots of hilariously rusted, junky furniture in the yar…

Oh! I'm sorry. I didn't watch "American Idol." We went out to a cool Austin restaurant called Uchi . We ordered the omikase. What was that? 10 courses? We lost count! We put our trust in the chef and accepted wh…

Because vlogging's the big thing now. BONUS: Vlogging from the road, literally. I-35, Oklahoma, tempting fate. I've got a longer one, too big to put on YouTube, where I discuss dying in a fiery wreck and specula…

It's rustic, yet impractical. Cool, yet absurd. You'll find it at Cibo , a restaurant in Austin, where we've eaten twice. Not only does it have great food, good atmosphere, and nice music, it stays open all day from 7…

Tony Bennett is the guest celeb and the songs are the old standards. We're watching from a hotel room overlooking Town Lake here in Austin, Texas. At some point it will be sundown from the point of view of the bats that roost…

Here in Austin, I've got places to go. You're expecting something from me? Events are taking place... Just off in the distance.... No, no weddings or gala events for me. Just need to wander around... and see the pedestria…

There's some desperately bad graffiti under that bridge ( the one with the bats ): Man, that second one is so bad it makes me want to crumple up into a helpless ball of emotion and whimper "Hold me!" Let's go to…

Posing at the Arthouse. In Austin, Texas.

Good lord, Nina's back in France again. Investigating cognac , apparently. Me, I'm in the U.S.A., in Madison's southern counterpart, Austin. Where I did have a cognac last night. But first: On the other side of the t…