It’s A Dog’s World

It’s a dog’s world.

Anyone who doesn’t believe that is true has never been to Austin, Texas. The city has 12 places where dogs can be off-leash. One of the larger and more popular off-leash spots is at Auditorium Shores, along Lady Bird Lake. Dogs roaming with their canine buddies at Auditorium Shores have it all going for them.

First and foremost, for a dog, it’s the place to see and be seen in Austin. If you’re a dog, you must know you’ve arrived when your owner takes you there. Dogs can mingle and show off their athletic prowess chasing balls, sticks, flying discs, and whatever else can be thrown for them to retrieve.

Next, dogs at Auditorium Shores “strut their stuff” in full view of the Austin skyline. I’m sure they know, at some level, that residents of high rise condominiums across the lake, with telescopes and binoculars, are watching them shamelessly cavorting and frolicking.

And speaking of the lake, there is a beach, of sorts, where dogs can swim and cool off. I’ve seen bigger dogs swim almost the width of the lake to retrieve a ball an owner has thrown. Michael Phelps is a great swimmer, but I’ve never seen him swim way out into a lake and retrieve a ball with his mouth and bring it back. These dogs, showing off on their own miniature version of “Muscle Beach,” could certainly teach Mr. Phelps a thing or two.

Lastly, the dogs are happy knowing that Auditorium Shores has an ample supply of Mutt Mitt boxes, which provides the owners of the dogs running around without a leash, the high honor, and distinct privilege, of picking up their poop. There is even a Facebook site, called Scoop the Poop Austin, which has a call to action for the dogs of Austin: “Hey, Austin Pups! If YOUR owner picks up poop, have him/her submit a photo of you!”

Like I said, it’s a dog’s world.

Guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan And Austin, Texas Are Inseparable

Mention Austin, Texas, and people think of live music. Mention Austin and live music, and people think of Stevie Ray Vaughan. They are inseparable, and always will be.

Born in Dallas in the fall of 1954, Vaughan took to music at a very early age, and by his late teens, he had already quit school and was playing in Austin’s lively music scene. Playing in many different bands over the years, Vaughan gained a reputation as a very good blues guitarist in the Austin area. In the early 1980’s, he played on David Bowie’s, Let’s Dance, album. From then on, he became very famous, very fast, along with his band, Double Trouble.

Along with the rise to stardom, however, came an addiction to alcohol. In the late 1980’s, he checked himself into a rehab, and came out sober. And while his musical talents on the guitar continued to bring him great success, it all came to an abrupt end in 1990. Following a concert in Wisconsin, he boarded a helicopter which crashed soon after it took off. Vaughan perished in the crash, at the young age of thirty-five.

Following his death, it was not lost on anyone in Austin that Stevie Ray Vaughan and the city were connected to such an extent, that they could never be separated. In 1994, the City of Austin erected a memorial statue, in his honor, near the site of many of his Austin concerts, on Auditorium Shores.

It’s been nearly twenty years since his death, but in Austin and around the world, he is still remembered as one of the great guitar players of all time. And, locals and visitors alike visit the statue in great numbers every year, and many, leave small tokens and offerings to his memory.

And like Buddy Holly and J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper), two other Texas musicians who, similarly died in an aircraft crash shortly after takeoff over thirty years earlier, the music that Vaughan, Holly, and Richardson made did not die, but lives on, even though they’re long gone.