Gracie Barra, Austin, Texas, March 2017

And yet another I wrote up back in March but didn't post. Weird.

Like I said, got to go down to Austin, Texas for a minute. But I also had my first BJJ tournament coming up on April 2, Jiu Jitsu By The Bay, so I had to keep the training up. Luckily, there's some great BJJ down in Austin, and I was lucky enough to get over to Gracie Barra in North Austin. 

Opinions are everywhere about BJJ schools and styles. Gracie Barra has a reputation for being a bit more sport oriented, which was fine by me, what with my tourney coming up. They have a nice large open space, with a bunch of colored belts who were very inviting and supportive. They were gracious enough to let me train there the week I was in Austin. I trained with Anthony Leon, who's identified on their website as a Purple Belt, but who had a Brown Belt while training. I might could be wrong about that. Either way, he's a beast, but very humble. 

We went over this North-South (69) double bicep slicer/compression lock, that I really can't even explain let alone find a video to describe it. Point is, it's a cool space with some very friendly people. 

Austin, Texas, March 2017

Wrote this back in March and I don't know why I didn't put this up...

So, I got sent down to Austin for some REALLY boring work: coding for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. I mean, it's work, good work, very easy, low stress. Plus I get to hang out in Austin, Texas, visit friends, eat good food, and see some live shows.

I popped over to Al Lover's pad down in East Austin. Hung out at Hotel Vegas one night and the next night Al's like: "Wanna go to Brian Jonestown Massacre for free?"

"Uh, yeah," I said.

"Cool," he said. "And you can totally crash here if you want. Cause like, we're going to hangout backstage and party with the Black Angels and BJM. And do a lot of drugs."

"Okay," I said and didn't mention I haw work at 8 am in the morning, but that was my problem.

We went down to the Mohawk and BJM was already playing. My first time catching them. They were great, but they played for like three hours. Played so long I wanted them to stop. So I made my way inside the Mohawk where there was a whole other stage. Saw some local hot acts Teevee and Annabelle Chairlegs. Both of them were pretty darn good, even though Chairlegs did a 12-bar blues song that they really shouldn't have done. 

By the time I found Al again in the crowd he was pretty... well, let's just say he was on another level, in orbit somewhere around the moon. I told him he should do what he needed to do. That was the last I saw him that night. Which was fine. He was my back stage pass, and though I would have jumped on, I ended up having a decent morning as opposed to being a wreck from partying all night. So, for that, thank you Al Lover. 

Al's not been down there two years and it's already like he's a local celeb. People greet him on the street, everyone knows him. I mean, he says it's just cause it's a small scene, and that he's been coming down for Psychfest/Levitation events for a while now. Either way, It's a real nice thing to see, someone so tapped in to the local scene. Wish there was more of that in SF.

Also, we stayed up late and Al made some pretty good pizza dough.