The sharp, clean scents of lavender and rose waft from the backyard of a brown South Congress Avenue home, where there are just a few rusted kegs, dead grass and a drooling American pit bull rather than the garden one would assume is there. The scent is instead from local natural soap maker JohnPaul Fierro’s laboratory, where he concocts vegetable-oil-based natural soap and body care products for his company, South Austin People, or So.A.P.
When local sign maker and artist Evan Voyles was a boy, his favorite sign was the Terminix bug. Perched on a pole at the intersection of 12th Street and Lamar Boulevard, the bug fascinated Voyles with its big, glowing lightbulb eyes, metal antenna and huge wings.
The afternoon sun hammers onto the tannish storage unit that’s sits next to Helm’s business office as owner Joshua Bingaman carries meter high stacks of cardboard shoeboxes from it and loads them onto the bed of a vintage, light blue GMC truck. The boxes hold Bingaman’s prized handmade men leather boots and shoes and were on their way to Stag, a local, men’s apparel and lifestyle brand and store.
Most men don’t like to pee when they’re being watched. Others can’t pee when someone is too close because feeling exposed prevents the stream of other urinal patrons. Some just rue the entire construction of a bathroom because it presents both situations.
Jannifer Wilkins spoke without words, her hands forming a language that Barbie Parker, her interpreter, decoded. Wilkins was born deaf, and has been singing since she was a child; since before she could remember. When asked about music, her hands moved with even greater dexterity exemplifying her passion for the subject.
Latin American studies senior Asiago Ogaisa is a big believer in karma, and rightfully so. While in Vietnam, Ogaisa ate dog, a traditional staple of the country’s diet, but just a week later, a dog bit him in Thailand.
Smoke licks across the blackened top of the yellow school bus of Old School BBQ & Grill like it was a normal day for serving up barbecue. But inside owner Dan Parrott’s mind, he was fine-tuning the special menu for Bill White’s send-off party in Houston this weekend.
Last winter on Lake Travis, there were 30 knots of wind, so much that advertising senior and UT Sailing Club secretary Jennifer Beazley had to take the main jib, or front sail, down from her boat, forcing the railing to go almost entirely in the water.