General

This story seems to run counter to the commonly-accepted doom-and-gloom narrative for the Austin real-estate market:

The Austin-area real estate market continued to outperform the nation in the second quarter of 2008, a new report from the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.

Median home prices in the Austin area rose by 4.1 percent, to $194,200, from the year-ago period, while the national median fell 7.6 percent, the real estate group said.

Dallas, Houston and other Texas cities aren't doing so well.

A closer-analysis though, reveals that while median prices may be up, the market still sucks.

For such a "green" city, Austin is really behind on a lot of things. We will finally getting single stream recyling this fall.

Single-stream recycling allows you to place all of your recycables into one container rather than having to sort them out into multiple bins. In our case, we'll be getting a 90-gallon cart. For my wife and I, that's going to be really handy. We recycle pretty aggressively and I have to drive our four bins down our long, steep driveway to curb currently. Yes, Republicans do recycle.

But probably the best thing about the new program is that you can now recycle more items, including mixed paper - cereal boxes, soda/beer cartons and the like. Before we had to take that stuff downtown to Ecology Action.

My wife, Daphne Holland, has a stunning new collection of encaustic work going up today at Bradz Salon on West 6th. The collection will be on display tonight and show through August. Stop by and check it out.

This collection follows Daphne's previous highly sought-after encaustic work and integrates new techniques and imagery.

For those not familiar with encaustic painting, it is ancient form that utilizes a special beeswax blend and pigments layered onto wood panels. Daphne updates this classic medium with abstract imagery and deep layering of vibrant colors and patterns.

Daphne's work is collected by dozens of people around the country. To see more, visit Daphne's online gallery at daphneholland.com.

If you like marionettes or puppetry, see the movie Strings.

http://www.youtube.com/v/BKmkIP1GCkw