Where weird is a catchword

Preeti Verma Lal

Nearly one million pregnant females. All hiding in the cracks of a bridge. Waiting for sunset. This is the time they step out of their homes. In hordes. Flying away for their dinner of insects. All of them pregnant. These 3.5 inch tall Mexican free-tailed bats that weigh just about 12 grams are not permanent residents of Austin, Texas. They migrate every year to have their babies in what is known as the Live Music Capital of the World. Picture this. One million grey bats emerging out of the Congress Avenue Bridge flapping their tails into the burnished orange of the evening sky. Every night they devour nearly 30,000 pounds of insects. If Bacchus is your Lord, perhaps you’d recognise them — the Mexican free-tailed bat is the Bacardi logo.

In the city that lives off life, live music, Longhorn football and takes pride in being weird (Keep Austin Weird signs are everywhere!) the bats are not the sole claim-to-fame reason. With 270 live music venues, it is the world’s largest live music venue. Wherever you go, the beat of the drums, the twang of the guitar and deep-throated vocals stalk you. Not like an evil follower, but a friendly city companion that walks hand-in-hand around the city that was first settled in the Ice Age and thousands of years later became the capital of Texas state.

Music — and art — is no upstart in the city. As if Austin was born to be arty, allowing words and musical notes to weave its sinews. Janis Joplin sang here. Author O’ Henry strummed the guitar and mandolin, joined a musical band and worked in Austin’s General Land Office building. Kurt Cobain was often seen wearing the Hi, How Are You? tee which was the album cover of local singer Daniel Johnston (the original album cover graffiti still stands on the side of pharmacy). Sandra Bullock often flies in and mingles with the guests who walk into her restaurants Bess Bistro, and Walton’s Fancy and Staple. Cyclist Lance Armstrong owns Mellow Johnny’s, a bicycle store. It was here that Michael Dell started making personal computers. Fashion designer Tom Ford was born in Austin and Nobel laureate JM Coetzee came to Austin on a Fullbright scholarship. So many bright heads in Austin. So much music. And an incredible amount of football. All in one city.

As Elizabeth Alderson of Austin Detours drives around the city, she pulls more fun stories out of her sleeve. It begins with a tipsy touch — Forbes magazine named Austin the #1 Drunkest City in 2008. But it surely wasn’t a drunk man who made the State Capitol, a pink granite behemoth that sits next to the University campus. With 400 rooms, 900 windows spread over four floors, this is the largest Capitol building in the United States. Replete with paintings, sculptures and portraits, the building, which was opened in 1888, is an architectural delight. At its heart is a rotunda where whispers echo. Known as the Whispering Gallery, visitors can stand on a large brass star and whisper. The faint sound hits a crescendo and echoes through the walls.

The State Capitol is the handiwork of a brilliant trained architect but Hope Outdoor Gallery is where doyens and novices can pick paint and brush and draw what their heart asks them. It was purported to be a residential high-rise but it was abandoned in its infancy and the brick walls now serve as canvas for painters and graffiti artists. On a wall smiles Einstein. On another a snake spits fire. Flowers acquire a magenta tinge on another wall while dragons wriggle out of crevices. In Hope Outdoor Gallery paintings are not framed in gilt; instead, these meld with the afternoon sun and the morning breeze.

If dragons are sketched in Hope, it is ghosts that add intrigue to Hotel Driskill, an Austin icon that was built in 1886. Often called the most haunted hotel in Austin, the Driskill oozes ol’ world charm with its white columns, dazzling chandeliers and tales of smoky apparitions that strut around the rooms. No one is sure about the Driskill ghosts but every Austinite will tell you that it was in Driskill ballroom that US President Lyndon B Johnson met Lady Bird. It is here that all Texan governor’s balls are held. That 1886 bakery still follows a 1920s cheese soup recipe. And the cinnamon roll that comes with a mop of white sugar is scrumptious enough to die for.

Austin is like a pretty woman. Charming throughout its 24-hour run. However, it is most beautiful at night. Walk on 6th Street (they call it Dirty 6) and music will sink under your skin. Rap. Rock n’roll. Jazz. Blues. Heavy metal. As beer flows, everything sounds music to the ears. If music be the food of love… Was Shakespeare thinking of Austin when he wrote these lines? I am not sure about the bard, but I’d wear the Hi, How Are You tee and go wherever Janis Joplin went in Austin. And when my feet get sore, I’ll pick a bicycle from Lance Armstrong’s shop and cycle to Sandra Bullock’s restaurant. Better still, I could go to Hope Outdoor Gallery and draw a few Lady Bird wildflowers.