I recently returned from a whirlwind trip to Dallas, where I visited several new attractions, including the Perot Museum of Art and Science, the brand-new George W. Bush Presidential Library, and the new Klyde Warren Park, a 5.2-acre downtown green space built—somehow…amazingly—over the recessed Woodall Rodgers Freeway between Pearl and St. Paul streets in the Arts District. I also enjoyed a sneak-peek tour of the observation deck of the 560-foot-tall Reunion Tower, which has been closed since 2007 and will reopen after a major renovation this fall. When the observation deck reopens, it’ll have high-powered telescopes, a 50-foot-long digital panel presenting Dallas history and geography, and a new bar and café. The view from up there is terrific, and it’s a great place to gain perspective on all the new things going on in Dallas.  I can’t wait to revisit in the fall.

The Perot is a stunner: Designed by architect Thom Mayne, who won a Pritzker Prize in 2005 and is known for “layered architecture” that breaks the rules of traditional form, the building includes a glass-enclosed elevator on the building’s freeway side. Angles of stone and glass, a landscaped roofscape with rock shards and drought-resistant plants, and 11 exhibit halls make the Perot interesting for kids and adults alike. My favorite exhibit: Artist Daniel Rozin’s “Wooden Mirror,” an assemblage of wooden tiles that move when YOU move in front of it. The piece, according to the placard next to the display, uses a microprocessor with a camera to interpret an onlooker’s image in pixels, then tiny motors lift each tile to catch light—mirroring what the camera sees. Fascinating, fun, and I love the comforting “whpp-whpp-whpp” sound that the piece makes when people dance in front of it.

We also took a trip to the Bush Presidential Library, which opened to the public earlier this month. Workers are still putting finishing touches on the building itself, and I took a moment to watch an engraver wield a hammer and chisel to imprint the names of donors on an outside wall. No matter your political leanings, the exhibits here are fascinating, especially the halls dedicated to the terror events of September 11, 2001 and the infamous “hanging chad” drama that kept the country in presidential limbo in 2000.  I will say that the famous “Decisions Point Theater,” which has been lampooned recently in Doonesbury and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, presented a more-balanced view of events than I’d expected; I certainly got a taste for how the President and his policymakers must weigh the advice of many different experts during a crisis. See for yourself when you visit.

After a picnic at the Klyde Warren Park, where food trucks offer items such as burgers, gourmet hot dogs, and Vietnamese rice bowls, we visited Fair Park, which opened its midway and many of its rides for a pre-State Fair season dubbed “Summer Adventures in Fair Park.” Along with a few other daredevils in the crowd, I rode the rollercoaster and the hilariously scary-kitschy lost mine train ride, rearranged my internal organs on the dragon-boat ride, then took in the view from the famous, 212-foot-tall  Texas Star Ferris wheel (the largest Ferris wheel in North America).

Yes, I have a new view of Dallas. 

Among the many things I learned at the second annual Austin FOOD & WINE Festival, which took place at Austin’s Butler Park April 27-28, here are my favorite take-aways:

1) The old adage about drinking red wine at room temperature works well in, say, Scotland, when room temperatures are considerably lower than averages in Texas. In Central Texas, especially in summer, room temperature is usually too hot. So cool your red wine in the fridge and take it out about a half hour before serving it. Interestingly, when we drink red wine that’s too warm, our perception of fruit goes down, but our perception of alcohol and tannin (that bitter, inside-of-the-banana-peel taste) go up.  So chill that red wine, y’all.

2) Shrubs are more than pretty plants. In the restaurant and bartending world, shrubs refer to a lively mix of fruit, sugar, and vinegar, which were used in the 1800s to make soft drinks—and lively and refreshing cocktails. Shrubs and drinking vinegars are experiencing a comeback of sorts, and Bill Norris’ Saturday session on the topic was both fascinating and loads of fun.

Bill, the beverage director of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, demonstrated how to make strawberry and peach shrubs—and how to use them in tasty and refreshing cocktails. Here’s how to make a strawberry shrub: Take a cup of strawberries and dice them. Put them in a bowl with a cup of sugar. Almost immediately, the sugar will start to draw the water from the berries and form syrup. Put the bowl in the fridge and stir a few times over the next two days. After about 48 hours, strain the solids from the syrup and add about a half cup of good-quality white balsamic vinegar. Taste it, and then add more vinegar (up to a cup)–you want the shrub to be taste balanced—sweet, tart, and complex.  To make a delicious anytime drink, add a tablespoon or so of shrub to a glass of water, either still or sparkly. To make what Bill called a “Bitter Berry” cocktail, mix 1.5 ounces of light rum with 1 ounce of Aperol or Campari and ½ ounce shrub. Shake and enjoy.

I fell so in love with shrubs that I went home Saturday and made three—a strawberry shrub, a mango shrub, and a guava shrub. (That’s a photo of my strawberry shrub in a bit of fizzy water.)

3) The Cult of Celebrity Chefs is alive and well. The queues to get into sessions by such of-the-moment chefs as Tim Love, Paul Qui, Marcus Samuellson, and Andrew Zimmern, started forming 45 minutes before their sessions began, which meant you had to really plan your day. Chef Tim Love, in particular—whose Woodshed Smokehouse and Love Shack restaurants in Fort Worth enjoy enthusiastic, carnivorous fans—channeled an odd mix of rock star and evangelist preacher, grilling rib-eyes and encouraging 11 a.m tequila shots while blasting a soundtrack heavy with ZZ Top. I couldn’t get into any of his three hands-on grilling sessions, but I lurked on the outskirts behind the barricade at his raucous “It’s Tailgaiting Time in Texas” grilling demo, and willingly accepted nibbles of steak offered by boisterous strangers. Best. Rib-eye. Ever.

Brazil—the fifth largest country in the world and the host country of 2014’s World Cup and the 2016 Olympics­–has been making headlines this year, as media outlets as varied as Condé Nast Traveller, the International Business Times, and the New York Times rave about its wines, beaches, music, cultural diversity, and food. The country’s culinary offerings— a literal melting pot simmered from Portuguese, African, Italian, German, Arab, and Japanese influences—extend far beyond the grilled meats most people think of when they think of Brazilian food. Imagine savory pies made of chicken, sausage, cheese, herbs, olives, and eggs; chewy, fudgy candies known as Brigadeiros, the national dessert of Brazil; or Cocada de Forno, a buttery cake made with coconut, sweetened condensed milk, and rum.  I’ll add my personal favorite new obsession to the list: Goiabada com Queijio, a classic Brazilian pairing of mild, fresh cheese and jewel-like slices of guava paste.

A quick internet search of plane fares reveals that flights to, say, Rio de Janeiro run around $1,000. And while we’d never argue that it wouldn’t be worth it, Texans can enjoy a taste of Brazil without leaving the Lone Star State during Central Market’s two-week-long Passaporte Brasil event, presented at stores in Austin, Dallas, Plano, Southlake, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. Passaporte Brasil kicks off today (April 24) and continues through May 7.

Along with foods, wines, coffees, flowers, textiles, and housewares from Brazil, the event also features cooking classes taught by Brazilian chefs, Brazilian music, and demonstrations throughout the stores. Of special interest to oenophiles, the country’s burgeoning wine industry receives the spotlight: The southern tip of the country, where topography and climate resemble that of the Piedmont region of Italy, was settled by Italian immigrants who imported their love of wine. A recent sampling of Brazilian bubbles from Casa Valduga and Don Guerino vineyards makes me think that Brazilian sparkling wine may be the next Big Thing. See www.centralmarket.com for a schedule of activities, classes, and events at the store near you.

Rolled in chocolate shavings, coconut, cocoa, and other ingredients, these chewy candies are Brazil’s national dessert

In Austin, artists and musicians are finalizing prepwork for this weekend’s Arts City Austin Festival (April 13-14), which transforms the streets surrounding City Hall and the 2^nd Street entertainment district into an outdoor art fair. Among the reasons to go: Hundreds of artists will display their works throughout the festival grounds, more than 150 pieces of art enliven the galleries inside City Hall, local food trailers offer sustenance and libations, musicians perform non-stop, and perhaps best of all-the weather promises to be spectacular!  Tickets cost $8; free admission for kids age 12 and younger. It’s also free if you ride your bike!

Interactive kids’ activities at Art City Austin

First produced in 1951 as the Texas Fine Arts Association’s Spring Juried Art Fair, the event—renamed Art City Austin— moved downtown in 2008. It’s organized by Art Alliance Austin, which works to advance the city “by integrating art, culture, and creativity into public life.” See www.artallianceaustin.org,

Sometimes, part of the fun of taking a vacation is the planning—researching itineraries, hotels, restaurants; making plans for special activities; even reconnecting with friends in a different environment. On the flip side, then there are the pleasures associated with last-minute travel—the fun and freedom of spontaneity, the relaxation of expectations, and the refreshing sense that all is right with the world when something serendipitous unfolds.

I recently took an overnight trip to Houston, and since I had business to accomplish, I didn’t want to splurge on a hotel. Hoteliers will tell you that to get the best deal on rooms for leisure travel, it’s best to establish a relationship with a property or hotel group so that you’re made aware of specials. But for no-frills lodging, I sometimes take advantage of services such as the company lastminutetravel.com, which act as brokers for unsold rooms. Going this route works best for, wait for it….last-minute travel. I booked a room two days before my departure and managed to score a $61 room rate at a property (Crowne Plaza River Oaks, in this case) not far from Rice Village, the Houston Museum District, and the behemoth Medical Center.  The room was just fine, and even had a small fridge and a nice view of the full moon, but the hallways seemed a little timeworn-but for $61 I’m  not complaining.

Here’s how it works: You request your destination and date, and then you choose which general area of town you’d like to stay in. The name of the hotel stays hidden until you book, but you can see images of the rooms and public spaces, and you can also see a list of amenities. After you book the room, you’ll see where you’ve ended up. In Houston alone, I’ve used this service to reserve rooms at the Hyatt downtown, the Hampton Suites near the Galleria, and now the Crowne Plaza at Kirby and US 59. We’ve used lastminutetravel to book rooms in Saint Louis, Plano, and Oklahoma City, too. Highly recommend.

Have you ever tried this or a similar website to reserve travel?

In Houston this Saturday, March 23, from 11-2, the always zany and creative Orange Show Foundation hosts its annual Easter Orange Hunt, when kids of all ages can tour the Orange Show site—a veritable playground of whirligigs, moats, and brightly tiled and painted structures—and collect eggs, candy, and (of course) oranges. Also on March 23, the Orange Show will also host its first annual PEEPS Art Contest. Using Peeps marshmallow treats, contestants will make sculptures, costumes, and other works of art, following the lead of similar contests in Washington, D.C., Denver, and Westminster, Maryland. If you’d like to submit an entry, bring it to the Orange Show for judging by noon on Saturday. Winners will receive Peeps prizes, gift cards, and recognition on the Orange Show website, www.orangeshow.org.

a Peeps creation from the Westminster competition

The Vernal Equinox and the first official day of spring—March 20—is so close we can taste it. Well, FEEL it (in the sun’s warm rays on our skin), SEE it (in the leaves budding out on even the pecans, which somehow know when the chance of frost has passed), and SMELL it (in the fragrance of all those flowers). It’s tough to be inside in weather this glorious. So get on out there. We just received word that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s “Texas Outdoor Family” program, which kicked off a few years ago to encourage people to enjoy the great outdoors, has expanded this year to include themed weekends organized around such topics as learning to mountain bike. On March 23-24, at Stephen F. Austin State Park, groups of up to six participants ($65 for all!) can learn basic camping skills (such as how to pitch a tent, build a campfire, and go geocaching) along with mountain biking safety, etiquette, and rules of the (off)road. Amazingly, most equipment—including tents, handheld GPS untis, cookware, lanterns, and bikes—are provided. You’re on your own for food, clothing, and sleeping bag. Sign up for this program or others by calling 512/389-8903; www.tpwd.state.txus/calendar/texas-outdoor-family-stephen-f.-austin-state-park-houston-1.

In line the other day to see Hunky Dory, the coming-of-age film starring Minnie Driver entered in the “Narrative Spotlight” category at the SXSW Film Festival, I got to chatting with one of my fellow queue-standers about our experiences as passholders. She told me that had purchased a pass for the past few years and had some tips. The satellite spaces, she said—this year at the new Alamo Slaughter location and the Alamo Village—seem especially designed for passholders, and she said that once the music contingent starts, the movie crowds thin out a bit. But sometimes things don’t go as planned.

“A few nights ago, I was in the pass line at the Alamo South,” she told me, “and it was looking pretty good. I was pretty sure I’d get in.” She paused for effect as another passholder leaned over to hear the story. “And then, a busload of badges pulled up. Dang it! It was all over. So I came up here and got into the documentary about Deepak Chopra. Which was excellent.”

Such is the nature of readjusting plans during South by Southwest, and maybe life itself, a theme echoed by the film See Girl Run, a movie that delved into the rich dramatic potential of exploring what could have happened if we had made different choices in our lives. What if we had chosen a different path? In one scene, the father of the protagonist, a young woman on the verge of abandoning her marriage to reunite with a lost love from high school, compares maintaining a relationship to a high-tech missile. Unlike old missiles, he explained, which can’t be adjusted once they are launched, newer missiles can readjust course in mid-flight to stay with the target. I liked that analogy, as life has the tendency to throw curveballs just when things seem steady. And even something as simple as a conversation has its inherent readjustments and allowances for give-and-take. In a Q&A after the movie, the director noted that if you go into a conversation knowing exactly what you’re going to say, then you’re not really listening and thus, not really having a conversation.

Many of the films I’ve seen so far, really, seem to have secondary themes of change and adjustment, acceptance of change, and the perils and rewards of growth and decay. The documentary Welcome to the Machine, for example, examines how technology has change the world we live in, and poses the (unanswered) question: Is humanity better or worse thanks to technology?  And is there any real way to return to the way things were, now that the Genie is out of the bottle?

Last night’s documentary, America’s Parking Lot, follows two avid Dallas Cowboys tailgaters as their 35-year tradition at the old Texas Stadium comes to and end. We see the stadium’s implosion and the two fans attempting to piece together a new tradition at Jerry Jones’ new 1.2 billion Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. Yes, it’s funny–one protagonist names his daughter Meredith Landry and unabashedly admits he thinks about the Cowboys more than his wife. And yes, it’s a rather scathing study of how pro football has evolved into a rich man’s game. But Cowboys fandom and economic politics aside, it’s a story of change and tradition, and what those two intangible concepts mean.  Life seen through the lens of football? Now that’s a Texas tradition. Seek this one out, even if you can’t see it during SXSW.

It’s day four of the South By Southwest Film festival, and I’m reflecting on the busy weekend. So far, my experiences as a passholder have been positive—I’ll admit I was worried about standing in line only to get bumped by badgeholders, but so far this hasn’t happened. Friday night, the opening night of the festival, I attended a packed showing of one of last year’s festival favorites, the Australian horror movie The Loved Ones. I knew it would be dark (reviewers billed it as Sixteen Candles meets Carrie), but I was unprepared for the level of gore, and it was only when I began to focus on the makeup skills required for such effects that I could open my eyes fully during certain scenes.

Day two began with dark skies and nearly continuous downpours. My first plan, a midday screening of the documentary about musician Charles Bradley, a James Brown doppelganger whom I had seen perform at this year’s Austin City Limits festival, didn’t pan out. Screening at one of the 40-person theaters at downtown’s new Violet Crown venue, the film filled up before I got in the queue, so instead I headed to the Paramount, where a long line of people snaked around the building, huddling beneath umbrellas and hoping to gain admission to the World Premiere of the film Trash Dance, a documentary about choreographer Allison Orr’s spellbinding dance project with the City of Austin’s Solid Waste Services.

Orr, whose Forklift Danceworks (www.forkliftdanceworks.org) has created ballets with firefighters, service dogs, and Italian gondolas, orchestrated a dance with garbage trucks, cranes, and other sanitation equipment on the abandoned tarmac of Austin’s old Mueller airport, an event I witnessed live this past summer.  This, the documentary about the project, illustrated how Orr won the trust of the 24 Solid Waste Services employees who starred in the production, most of whom entered the project with healthy skepticism. With a score by Austin composer Graham Reynolds, the film made me (and many other audience members) laugh and yes, cry. After the show the cast and crew took the stage amid stand-up applause and cheers, I realized that this moment—the marriage of audience and cast— is what makes seeing a film in a festival setting unique and worthwhile. It was a theme I’d witness multiple times over the weekend–the sense that somehow we’re all participating in this creative endeavor together.

Later on Saturday, I stood in line with other passholders at the Alamo Village, chatting with strangers and hoping to gain access to the film The Babymakers, a comedy about a young couple trying to start a family. After failing to conceive, the male protagonist stages a heist of the sperm bank to which he had donated years ago–and hilarity ensues. A Q&A after the film with director Jay Chandrasekhar and fellow star Kevin Heffernan made the experience doubly worthwhile.

The third film I screened on Saturday, the Seattle-made Fat Kid Rules the World, blew me away. It tells the story of an overweight teenager who finds salvation of sorts in the discovery of punk rock, and the characters were so fully drawn that I felt as if I knew them by film’s end. The cinema was full of cast and crew, so energy was high, and a pre-movie chat with my neighbor, who worked with lighting design, gave me an appreciation for an aspect of filmmaking I hadn’t considered. When the director, Matthew Lillard, told us that he had been an overweight teen himself, I realized why certain scenes seemed so authentic. As with the screening of Trash Dance, the appearance of cast and crew reinforced the sense of a supportive and involved movie community.

The sun emerged on Sunday, and with the sun came the crowds. Plans to see the documentary The Source, about a group of LA followers of controversial restaurateur-turned-spiritual-leader “Father Yod” in the 1970s, were thwarted by parking problems. But later in the day, I once again headed north to the Alamo Village to see the Texas-made movie Kid+Thing, a moody drama about a young girl in East Texas who discovers—yet chooses not to rescue—a woman who had fallen down a well. While the scenery was evocative and the young star—12-year-old Sydney Aguirre—excellent, the movie didn’t speak to me personally. But others in the audience disagreed, and that inconsistence reminds me of the subjective nature of moviegoing, and what a wonderful thing it is that we all have different tastes!

Five down, more to come. Stay tuned!

What’s the old saying about March roaring in like a lion? In Austin this year, it seems especially appropriate: Blooming mountain laurels perfume the air with their sweet-tart aroma, bluebonnets have started to appear on the roadsides, and if you explore downtown, you’ll sense the electric buzz forming as shopkeepers, bartenders, restaurants, theaters, and hotels prepare for the wildly popular event known as the South by Southwest Music, Film, and Interactive Festival, which runs March 9-18 this year.

Last year, the event’s 25^th anniversary, the festival’s official registration surged 40 percent over 2010 numbers (with a total fest attendance of 286,000 people!). Here are more impressive numbers: More than 2,000 musical acts performed on 92 stages across the city; the interactive contingent drew almost 20,000 registered attendees (from 53 foreign countries!); and the film contingent attracted more than 66,000 film fans who flocked to see 140 features and 153 shorts. According to organizers, SXSW was directly and indirectly responsible for injecting some $168 million into the Austin economy. (And these figures don’t even begin to consider the impact of the hundreds of unofficial events, concerts, parties, and attractions offered during the festival.)

For the past decade, I’ve experienced SXSW on the fringes, ducking into free day parties and big concerts at Auditorium Shores, standing in line for movie tickets, and enjoying the crush of visitors from around the world who descend upon Austin each year. But this year, I have a film pass (available in limited numbers for $70 in-store at Waterloo Records), and I plan to see as many films as my schedule allows. With 132 feature films and countless shorts and other events to choose from, these next weeks should be action-packed. (See my colleague Jane Wu’s blog for details on some of the festival’s films with Lone Star ties.)

I visited recently with SXSW Film Conference and Festival Director Janet Pierson about the event’s growth, maturation, and significance, and why choosing a film you’ve never heard of may be the most direct route to inspiration.

“Since the Film and Interactive Festival started in 1994, the independent film world has changed profoundly,” Pierson says. “The digital revolution has made a huge difference. In the mid-1990s, there were hundreds of films made every year; now there are thousands. When people made films in 35 millimeter, making a movie cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and took a long time. But thanks to digital advances, cameras became less expensive, and filmmakers could edit well on their laptops. This year, we moved the deadline for submissions up to mid-November, because the number has been steadily increasing year-to-year. This year, we received more than 5,000 submissions, a 7% increase from last year.

“As film festivals go, and I’m including fests such as Cannes, Toronto, and Sundance, we skew toward American-made films. We’re neither a regional film festival nor an international film festival. We look for balance, so our films range from comedies to documentaries, dark dramas, and may feature themes as ‘small’ as two people walking down the road.”

While Pierson acknowledges that the Film Festival is primarily a “badge event” designed for film industry folks (film badges cost $595), she says it’s still possible to see some of the movies with a pass or by purchasing individual tickets ($10)—as long as seats are still available. “We want full theaters, and the venues vary tremendously,” she says. “I mean, if you don’t have a badge, you’re not going to get into the world premiere of The Cabin in the Woods (the directorial debut of Drew Goddard, the writer behind the hit TV show Lost), but you can easily see certain films at the Vimeo or Canon. Or try the Alamo South Lamar—sometimes it’s crowded and sometimes it’s not.

“We’ve vetted everything,” she told me, “and we think it’s all great. Take a chance on something you’ve never heard of. Success for us is when we’ve inspired people.”

I’m ready!