Latest / Austin Signal / Central Health budget preview, Running in the heat, Can Longhorns go undefeated?

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Central Health budget preview, Running in the heat, Can Longhorns go undefeated? · Austin Signal

• 0:08
  Thousands of people here in Travis
• 0:10
  County depend on central health for
• 0:12
  their wellness needs, particularly
• 0:13
  those who earn the least amount of
• 0:15
  money. County commissioners are
• 0:17
  meeting this week to discuss the
• 0:18
  upcoming budget for central health.
• 0:20
  We're gonna tell you what's in it.
• 0:22
  And the dog days of summer are still
• 0:23
  with us halfway through September.
• 0:25
  That means folks are still choosing
• 0:27
  the treadmill over the trails,
• 0:29
  though that's not the case for at
• 0:30
  least one group of run-in fools out
• 0:32
  there. How they manage,
• 0:34
  that's coming up on today's show.
• 0:36
  The Austin Signal is a production
• 0:38
  of KUT News, hosted by
• 0:40
  Jerry Quijano.
• 0:41
  Plus, there's a new number one team
• 0:42
  in college football after an
• 0:44
  all-time comeback this weekend by
• 0:45
  the Texas Longhorns.
• 0:47
  While the season is still young and
• 0:49
  there are plenty of tough games left
• 0:50
  on the schedule, can they go
• 0:52
  undefeated and possibly earn
• 0:54
  a national championship after two
• 0:56
  plus decades?
• 0:57
  We'll tell you. That's up next on
• 0:59
  Austin Signal.
• 1:08
  Howdy out there, this is Austin
• 1:10
  Signal. I'm your host, Jerry
• 1:12
  Keconnell. It is Monday, September
• 1:14
  14th. Thank you for tuning in
• 1:16
  and making us part of your day.
• 1:18
  The National Weather Service has
• 1:19
  issued another heat advisory that's
• 1:21
  in effect today until 7 p.m.
• 1:24
  And they're expecting more of the
• 1:25
  same tomorrow, issuing an advisory
• 1:27
  that is gonna run from noon until 7
• 1:29
  pm on Tuesday.
• 1:31
  As always, the advice is to drink
• 1:33
  plenty of fluids, stay in an air
• 1:34
  conditioned room. If you can,
• 1:36
  avoid the sun as much as possible.
• 1:38
  And check up on relatives and
• 1:40
  neighbors.
• 1:42
  Travis County commissioners are set
• 1:43
  to vote tomorrow on a billion dollar
• 1:45
  budget for the county's hospital
• 1:47
  district, Central Health.
• 1:48
  That proposal would include funding
• 1:50
  for community mental health
• 1:51
  programs, among other things.
• 1:53
  And if approved, the budget would
• 1:55
  come with an effective tax rate
• 1:56
  increase of 6%.
• 1:58
  Olivia Aldridge is KUT's healthcare
• 2:00
  reporter. She's with us now for a
• 2:02
  breakdown of the proposal.
• 2:03
  Olivia, welcome back to the show.
• 2:04
  Hi, Jerry.
• 2:05
  All right, so real quick before we
• 2:06
  get into the specifics of the
• 2:08
  proposal, can you just give us a
• 2:09
  reminder what is Central Health and
• 2:11
  who do they serve?
• 2:12
  Central Health is our local public
• 2:15
  hospital district.
• 2:16
  Basically, it's the agency that's
• 2:17
  charged with funding medical care
• 2:19
  for low-income residents.
• 2:21
  I'll point out a few significant
• 2:22
  things that they do.
• 2:24
  They contract with Ascension to
• 2:26
  offer care for indigent and low-
• 2:28
  income people at Dell Seton Medical
• 2:30
  Center.
• 2:31
  Central Health also has what's
• 2:32
  called MAP, or the Medical Access
• 2:34
  Program, which covers local
• 2:35
  healthcare options for people who
• 2:37
  can't afford health insurance, but
• 2:39
  also don't qualify for something
• 2:40
  like Medicare or Medicaid.
• 2:42
  And then they also directly offer a
• 2:44
  range of health services, including
• 2:46
  specialty care in partnership
• 2:48
  with a chain of clinics called
• 2:49
  community care.
• 2:51
  And all of this is paid for with
• 2:52
  Travis County property taxes.
• 2:54
  Okay, so now let's talk about this
• 2:56
  $1 billion budget.
• 2:57
  I wanna ask you to go through
• 2:59
  each $1 of that billion,
• 3:01
  but what sort of services would be
• 3:02
  covered with this budget?
• 3:04
  Yeah, well, a big chunk of this, 366
• 3:06
  million or so, is actually reserved.
• 3:08
  So it leaves about 650 million
• 3:10
  that's actually getting spent,
• 3:11
  right?
• 3:12
  The bulk of that is gonna go towards
• 3:14
  the actual delivery of health
• 3:16
  services.
• 3:17
  And this year, that includes
• 3:18
  significant funding for mental
• 3:20
  health crisis services.
• 3:21
  That includes things like new
• 3:23
  psychiatric department beds
• 3:25
  and some funding for a future
• 3:27
  mental health crisis center.
• 3:29
  And this focus on mental health is
• 3:31
  something that Austin Mayor Kirk
• 3:32
  Watson has really pushed for.
• 3:34
  He leaned on central health pretty
• 3:35
  hard this year to support the city's
• 3:37
  No Wrong Door initiative, which
• 3:39
  if you haven't heard of that, it's
• 3:40
  trying to help intervene with folks
• 3:42
  who are caught in a cycle of
• 3:43
  homelessness and law enforcement due
• 3:45
  to behavioral health challenges.
• 3:47
  Yeah, we actually talked about the
• 3:49
  No Wrong Door program with Sam Stark
• 3:51
  of The Austin Current.
• 3:52
  You can find that episode at kut.org
• 3:54
  slash signal.
• 3:56
  I want to ask you about the impact
• 3:57
  to taxpayers.
• 3:58
  Anytime that we talk about a budget
• 3:59
  proposal, there's always some sort
• 4:01
  of pushback. What has been the
• 4:03
  pushback to this one?
• 4:04
  Well, the budget on the table, as
• 4:05
  you said, comes with a tax rate
• 4:07
  increase.
• 4:08
  And for the median homeowner in
• 4:10
  Travis County, that's going to add
• 4:11
  about $36 to their annual
• 4:13
  tax bill.
• 4:15
  And Central Health says all of the
• 4:17
  new revenue that that generates is
• 4:19
  going to go towards these mental
• 4:20
  health investments that we talked
• 4:22
  about. But there's some folks who
• 4:23
  aren't happy about that.
• 4:25
  Community members who have said,
• 4:27
  Central Health has raised taxes a
• 4:29
  number of times over the past few
• 4:30
  years, at the same time as there
• 4:32
  have been increases from the city.
• 4:34
  County, you know, the school
• 4:35
  district and that can really add up.
• 4:38
  So the mayor of Lago Vista is one
• 4:40
  person who's kind of pushed back and
• 4:41
  questioned if the services this tax
• 4:43
  increase would fund would really
• 4:45
  benefit the communities outside of
• 4:47
  Austin as well.
• 4:48
  From your reporting, do you
• 4:50
  anticipate that the county
• 4:51
  commissioners will approve this
• 4:52
  budget and do you expect that there
• 4:53
  will be a long process to get it
• 4:55
  approved?
• 4:56
  Commissioners typically have
• 4:58
  approved the budget submitted by
• 4:59
  central health, but it's also not
• 5:01
  unprecedented for them to push back
• 5:03
  on some areas of the budget or
• 5:05
  ask for a delay of a week or
• 5:07
  two weeks so they can hash some
• 5:09
  things out.
• 5:10
  All right, that is Olivia Aldridge,
• 5:12
  she is the healthcare reporter here
• 5:13
  at KUT, and she's gonna be
• 5:15
  following the developments in this
• 5:17
  story this week, and if there are
• 5:18
  any that happen this week we'll
• 5:19
  bring them to you right here on the
• 5:20
  show. Olivia, it's always great to
• 5:22
  talk with you.
• 5:22
  Thanks, great to be here.
• 5:33
  Alrighty, all summer long Austinites
• 5:34
  have heard recommendations like,
• 5:36
  stay indoors, drink lots of water,
• 5:38
  and check on your neighbors.
• 5:39
  In fact, that sounds vaguely
• 5:40
  familiar to how I started the show.
• 5:42
  Anyway, it's how the city is trying
• 5:43
  to keep people safe through the
• 5:45
  scorching heat. It makes sense,
• 5:46
  right?
• 5:47
  But what about those people that you
• 5:48
  see out for a run in the middle of
• 5:50
  triple-digit temperatures?
• 5:52
  What could possibly drive
• 5:54
  them to do that?
• 5:55
  Well, KUT's Luz Moreno Lozano,
• 5:57
  who is training for a marathon
• 5:59
  herself, takes us behind the
• 6:00
  scenes of her run club.
• 6:02
  So let's take a listen.
• 6:03
  Even in the unbearable heat, getting
• 6:05
  together for a Saturday morning long
• 6:07
  run is a ritual.
• 6:08
  I set my alarm for 4.45,
• 6:10
  force feed myself a banana and a
• 6:12
  protein bar, and try to hydrate as
• 6:14
  much as I can on the drive in.
• 6:16
  This is pretty much what most
• 6:17
  Saturday mornings look like for the
• 6:19
  dozens of foolish people I run with.
• 6:21
  This summer, several of us have
• 6:22
  chosen to marathon train.
• 6:23
  We signed up for a race set for the
• 6:25
  first weekend of October, the
• 6:27
  Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon in
• 6:28
  Minneapolis.
• 6:29
  That means hardcore running is
• 6:31
  taking place in the thick of the
• 6:32
  summer heat in Austin.
• 6:35
  On this particular July, Saturday
• 6:36
  morning, it's already 76 degrees
• 6:38
  at 7 a.m.
• 6:39
  Humidity is 97%, so
• 6:41
  it really feels much hotter than
• 6:42
  that.
• 6:44
  Now I know what you're thinking.
• 6:45
  Loose, there has to be a better
• 6:47
  way.
• 6:48
  Treadmills are cool, right?
• 6:50
  Or what if you just did a half
• 6:51
  marathon?
• 6:52
  Well, it's just not what we've
• 6:54
  chosen to do.
• 6:55
  This will be my seventh marathon and
• 6:57
  I enjoy being able to push new
• 6:59
  limits and do it with the people
• 7:00
  that I love.
• 7:01
  All right, let's do it.
• 7:03
  On this run, I've agreed to pace a
• 7:05
  10 minute per mile group so I line
• 7:07
  up at the front of the pack and we
• 7:08
  began our 10 mile journey along the
• 7:10
  Ann and Roy Butler hike and bike
• 7:12
  trail east.
• 7:13
  It's a new route for us so I'm a
• 7:14
  little nervous about missing a turn.
• 7:17
  But that's not for several miles.
• 7:18
  So my focus for now is to keep pace
• 7:20
  and keep everyone together.
• 7:22
  My friend, Abby Huntoon is battling
• 7:23
  some knee pain on this run.
• 7:25
  This isn't painful right now.
• 7:27
  I can feel the dot, like where
• 7:28
  that issue is.
• 7:30
  I can...
• 7:31
  Feel that it's
• 7:33
  not okay. It's not painful.
• 7:35
  I mean, real pain is after.
• 7:37
  Even while managing her injury,
• 7:39
  Hinton has been pretty consistently
• 7:41
  training with me all summer long,
• 7:42
  along with several of our other
• 7:43
  friends, so she knows the ins and
• 7:45
  outs of running in this heat.
• 7:47
  One of the most important strategies
• 7:48
  is simply slowing down.
• 7:50
  I have to practice being patient
• 7:51
  with myself, which is
• 7:54
  sometimes hard.
• 7:55
  We can get down on ourselves.
• 7:56
  It's like, oh, I'm supposed to be
• 7:58
  running a 350 marathon.
• 7:59
  Why am I running, you know,
• 8:01
  a 10, 10, 30 minute pace?
• 8:03
  Yes.
• 8:04
  But realistically,
• 8:07
  you want to be running your long
• 8:08
  runs, I believe it's one to
• 8:10
  two minutes slower than your
• 8:12
  marathon pace.
• 8:13
  Some days you can push the pace on
• 8:15
  the mileage a bit.
• 8:16
  The goal is to avoid bonking.
• 8:18
  That is what we call the
• 8:19
  over-exertion hitting the wall phase
• 8:21
  that often comes with nausea,
• 8:22
  fatigue, and lightheadedness.
• 8:24
  We came to our first water stop a
• 8:26
  little more than three miles into
• 8:27
  the route.
• 8:28
  Believe me when I say that it is
• 8:30
  such a beautiful sight when there is
• 8:32
  a truck bed of jugs filled with cold
• 8:34
  water and Gatorade.
• 8:35
  I use this time to breathe, refuel,
• 8:38
  and remind myself I can do this, but
• 8:40
  also to check in on my friend Rob
• 8:41
  Young. Rob, are you still alive?
• 8:45
  Still happy you came?
• 8:46
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 8:47
  There must be hills coming.
• 8:49
  We can't stand around for too long
• 8:50
  or we'll get cold.
• 8:51
  My friend Kia Simmons hands out one
• 8:53
  last piece of knowledge before we
• 8:55
  take off.
• 8:55
  Running in the heat is free speed.
• 8:57
  It's like training at altitude, then
• 8:59
  coming down to sea level.
• 9:01
  Your body adapts to the
• 9:03
  training so that you're flying race
• 9:04
  day. Yeah.
• 9:05
  Yeah.
• 9:06
  Well, that's one way to think about
• 9:07
  it.
• 9:07
  That's how we go about it.
• 9:09
  But slowly, the miles start to tick
• 9:11
  down, the conversation bounces
• 9:13
  around,
• 9:15
  the temperature
• 9:16
  starts to rise, and eventually there
• 9:18
  are just a couple of miles left.
• 9:20
  This can be the hardest part, when
• 9:22
  you're so close to the end and all
• 9:24
  you want is a huge glass of ice
• 9:26
  water, a cup of coffee, and a
• 9:27
  shower.
• 9:28
  This is when the rubber meets the
• 9:30
  road, when all the training you've
• 9:31
  been doing pays off.
• 9:33
  The mental focus to keep those
• 9:34
  breaths rhythmic, your stride
• 9:36
  steady, and your brain centered on
• 9:37
  getting there.
• 9:39
  Here's what my friend Lance Martin
• 9:40
  had to say about it.
• 9:41
  I feel like
• 9:43
  an allied warplane that went on a
• 9:44
  bombing run was strafed
• 9:47
  and just like trying to
• 9:49
  keep it together to
• 9:52
  get to the landing strip.
• 9:55
  I feel every
• 9:57
  part of my body is at war with
• 9:59
  itself.
• 10:00
  This far into a long run, it's not
• 10:02
  uncommon to be deep in thought about
• 10:04
  why in the world you've decided to
• 10:06
  do this.
• 10:07
  Questioning your life choices is a
• 10:08
  rite of passage when you become a
• 10:10
  runner. But for each person, the why
• 10:12
  is different.
• 10:13
  Martin says he likes the hurt so
• 10:14
  good feeling afterward.
• 10:16
  Others are motivated by knowing they
• 10:18
  have an ice-cold popsicle waiting
• 10:19
  for them after the big finish.
• 10:21
  For many of us, it's a good
• 10:23
  distraction from life, time away
• 10:24
  from being a parent, a spouse, or
• 10:26
  a professional.
• 10:27
  My friend Mike Nicholson, who was
• 10:29
  just returning from an injury, says
• 10:30
  runners often find a rhythm whether
• 10:32
  they need to or not, and it becomes
• 10:34
  meditative.
• 10:35
  And it's like, we're a
• 10:37
  part of gazelle-ish, you know,
• 10:39
  it's very like...
• 10:40
  I heard of gazelles.
• 10:40
  They're still very, like,
• 10:42
  communal, like they're part of
• 10:44
  this herd, you know?
• 10:45
  We are a special group of people who
• 10:47
  do this every week.
• 10:48
  All right, way to go guys.
• 10:54
  Yeah,
• 10:56
  let's do it again next week.
• 10:59
  Thank you.
• 11:02
  The totally normal people could get
• 11:03
  up way before the crack of dawn to
• 11:05
  marathon train in the dead of Texas
• 11:07
  summer.
• 11:08
  And I think for most of us,
• 11:10
  we wouldn't have it any other way.
• 11:12
  Woo!
• 11:18
  Oh god guys, that was awful.
• 11:21
  I'm Luz Moreno Lozano in Austin.
• 11:29
  All right, is anybody else just
• 11:31
  tired after listening to
• 11:33
  that? I don't know how Luce was able
• 11:34
  to talk so coherently
• 11:37
  while running. She did say lots of
• 11:38
  OK, kept it simple,
• 11:40
  but I think that's the key.
• 11:42
  Luce, we admire you and
• 11:44
  good luck on your marathon and
• 11:46
  good luck in the training,
• 11:47
  especially, as I said earlier, under
• 11:49
  a heat advisory today until seven
• 11:51
  o'clock tomorrow from noon until
• 11:53
  seven.
• 11:54
  Got a lot more about that and other
• 11:56
  things coming up after this break.
• 11:59
  This is Austin Signal, welcome back.
• 12:01
  The story you're about to hear is
• 12:03
  about art, but it's not about the
• 12:04
  art that people make to process
• 12:06
  their emotions or find community.
• 12:08
  This story is about commercial
• 12:10
  art, the kind of creative expression
• 12:12
  that's intended to extract
• 12:14
  value and maximize profits.
• 12:17
  Someone asked our ATXplain project
• 12:18
  about a particularly effective piece
• 12:20
  of commercial art here in Austin.
• 12:22
  The Texas Standard's Sean Saldana
• 12:24
  has that story.
• 12:26
  A while back, I met up with a woman
• 12:28
  named Ellen Pezarek in North Austin
• 12:30
  and made her put on a massive
• 12:32
  inflatable costume.
• 12:35
  I've never worn one of these before.
• 12:37
  I hadn't either.
• 12:38
  It was like, you should see me.
• 12:39
  Ellen had a question about one of
• 12:41
  Austin's most well-known businesses
• 12:43
  and one of their marketing ploys.
• 12:45
  This is a place where you can get a
• 12:46
  turkey sandwich, sign up for the
• 12:48
  turkey trot, which has a turkey
• 12:50
  mascot.
• 12:51
  And so naturally, she and I just
• 12:53
  had to get dressed for the occasion.
• 12:55
  I feel ridiculous, I feel like
• 12:57
  a turkey in every sense of the word.
• 12:59
  Ellen's question is about the giant
• 13:01
  fake submarine sandwiches you
• 13:03
  see outside of various thundercloud
• 13:05
  subs locations.
• 13:07
  And much like us in those ridiculous
• 13:08
  costumes, they are impossible to
• 13:10
  miss.
• 13:11
  And that's because each one of these
• 13:13
  subs is about 16 feet long
• 13:15
  and 4 feet wide.
• 13:17
  They also weigh anywhere from 400
• 13:19
  to 800 pounds.
• 13:21
  We're part of the spectacle now.
• 13:22
  We are drawing people into
• 13:23
  thundecloud subs much like this
• 13:25
  particular sub.
• 13:28
  Hopefully we're doing a better job
• 13:29
  than this particular sub right now.
• 13:31
  Alright, so the sub we were looking
• 13:32
  at had seen better days.
• 13:34
  The colors were faded, it looked a
• 13:36
  little moldy, and it was maybe not
• 13:38
  the most appetizing thing in the
• 13:40
  world.
• 13:41
  After inspecting it for a while and
• 13:42
  embarrassing ourselves for no
• 13:44
  reason, we finally got to Ellen's
• 13:46
  question for ATXplained.
• 13:47
  I just want to know where
• 13:49
  those sandwiches come from, who
• 13:51
  makes them?
• 13:52
  These sandwiches have been in Austin
• 13:53
  for a very long time.
• 13:56
  Anybody who's lived here has surely
• 13:57
  noticed them at some point.
• 13:59
  And to understand their origins, I
• 14:01
  took a trip over to Thunder Cloud
• 14:02
  headquarters in downtown Austin.
• 14:05
  That's where I met up with Mike
• 14:06
  Haggerty.
• 14:06
  We got those giant subs probably
• 14:09
  25 years ago.
• 14:10
  Mike is one of the owners of
• 14:11
  Thundercloud, and after we got
• 14:12
  settled in his office, he filled
• 14:14
  me in on the backstory behind these
• 14:16
  iconic subs.
• 14:18
  Well, they kind of tell you what
• 14:19
  you're looking at.
• 14:20
  You're looking in a submarine sandwich
• 14:21
  shop. So great big sub, that
• 14:23
  says it better than anything.
• 14:25
  ThunderCloud has locations all
• 14:26
  around central Texas, but only five
• 14:28
  have these giant fake sandwiches.
• 14:31
  And the ones you see around town
• 14:32
  today are these same exact ones that
• 14:34
  were built all those years ago.
• 14:36
  When they get weathered and faded,
• 14:37
  ThunderCloud will commission
• 14:38
  somebody to repair them.
• 14:40
  And sometimes in this repair
• 14:41
  process, there will be some
• 14:43
  surprises.
• 14:45
  When we started rebuilding them,
• 14:47
  we found multiple giant
• 14:49
  subs with holes in them
• 14:51
  that had been made by birds
• 14:53
  that had nests in them.
• 14:54
  We never actually saw the birds,
• 14:56
  we're not sure what kind of birds
• 14:57
  they were, but they found it safe to
• 14:59
  be living in a giant piece of bread.
• 15:01
  A few weeks after I spoke with our
• 15:02
  question asker, Ellen, that nasty
• 15:04
  sub we inspected was actually
• 15:06
  getting repaired.
• 15:07
  Which is why I drove back down to
• 15:09
  Thundercloud and met up with Gabriel
• 15:10
  Portillo.
• 15:11
  We're about 12 feet up in the air
• 15:13
  working.
• 15:15
  Right now we are just painting some
• 15:18
  ham.
• 15:20
  Gabriel is an artist who goes by the
• 15:22
  name Paste.
• 15:23
  The day I was out there, he was
• 15:24
  joined by another artist named Eric
• 15:26
  Ross.
• 15:27
  Both of them are longtime creatives
• 15:29
  who draw inspiration from culture,
• 15:31
  the world around them, their
• 15:32
  personal experiences, their hopes,
• 15:34
  their dreams.
• 15:36
  All of which is to say, this was
• 15:38
  their first time rebuilding giant
• 15:40
  fake sandwiches.
• 15:41
  We're kind of uh
• 15:43
  winging it a little bit but
• 15:46
  so far so good it's worked out
• 15:48
  pretty off the record
• 15:49
  Yeah, so this is not how
• 15:51
  off-the-record works in journalism,
• 15:53
  but it is totally fine
• 15:55
  because the day before I arrived,
• 15:57
  Pace and Eric spent hours and hours
• 15:59
  covering this thing in chalky
• 16:01
  white plaster.
• 16:03
  When I got there, they were putting
• 16:04
  the final touches on their work.
• 16:06
  So what's the technique for painting
• 16:08
  ham?
• 16:09
  You dip the brush in the paint,
• 16:11
  and you just paint it.
• 16:13
  You don't have to stay directly in
• 16:14
  the lines for any of this.
• 16:15
  No, no.
• 16:15
  Which is why I like it.
• 16:18
  Paste and Eric are both veteran
• 16:19
  artists, and seeing them breathe new
• 16:21
  life into this sand, which was
• 16:23
  honestly kind of surreal.
• 16:25
  At the same time though, these guys
• 16:27
  were just the repairmen.
• 16:29
  To get to the bottom of our
• 16:30
  question, I had to make one final
• 16:32
  stop.
• 16:33
  So a few weeks later, I met up with
• 16:34
  Dale Whistler at his home in
• 16:36
  Wimberley.
• 16:37
  I know that everybody loves these
• 16:38
  sculptures and they've done
• 16:40
  just what I wanted to,
• 16:42
  to create an air of
• 16:44
  levity, at least in the Austin area.
• 16:46
  Dale is our creator,
• 16:48
  the artistic mastermind we've been
• 16:50
  searching for.
• 16:51
  He told me that he first moved to
• 16:53
  Austin to go to UT in the late 70s.
• 16:55
  He started off as an economics
• 16:57
  major, but it did not take him
• 16:59
  long to realize that he could never
• 17:01
  be some suit-wearing businessman.
• 17:03
  I was there with my shorts and
• 17:04
  Birkenstocks and I thought, hmm,
• 17:07
  it's kind of a mismatch here.
• 17:09
  Dale switched his major to art,
• 17:11
  graduated, and then started working
• 17:12
  at an ad agency doing creative work.
• 17:15
  And apparently it was at this phase
• 17:17
  in his life when Dale had his
• 17:19
  big awakening.
• 17:20
  One day, I called up
• 17:22
  a sign painter to ask if
• 17:24
  he needed some help marketing.
• 17:25
  He said, sure, come on by.
• 17:27
  And when I walked into his studio,
• 17:29
  it smelled like the painting studios
• 17:31
  at UT.
• 17:32
  I said, you need an apprentice?
• 17:34
  And he said, Sure.
• 17:35
  Dale quit the ad agency,
• 17:37
  started apprenticing, and then got
• 17:38
  into the game of making commercial
• 17:40
  art.
• 17:41
  Part of what makes these things
• 17:42
  possible is to
• 17:44
  simplify an image,
• 17:46
  make some easier to create,
• 17:48
  but also easier to sort of digest
• 17:50
  visually as you're
• 17:52
  driving by at 40 miles an hour.
• 17:54
  The way you simplify these images is
• 17:56
  using Styrofoam, giant
• 17:58
  chunks of it.
• 17:59
  For the average person, this stuff
• 18:01
  is just packing material.
• 18:03
  For Dale, it's a canvas.
• 18:05
  You start with a big block of foam
• 18:06
  and a hot wire and
• 18:09
  you draw on the outside of the block
• 18:10
  and then carve into it with a
• 18:12
  hotwire.
• 18:13
  So it's kind of like carving marble,
• 18:15
  except it's really soft.
• 18:17
  After Dale has the general shapes,
• 18:19
  he puts them together, coats them in
• 18:20
  acrylic plaster to make them hard,
• 18:22
  and then paints the exterior in
• 18:24
  bright colors.
• 18:25
  Over the years, Dale has used this
• 18:27
  and similar processes to create
• 18:29
  commercial and non-commercial art
• 18:31
  that can be seen everywhere.
• 18:33
  I think my favorite sculpture is
• 18:35
  the giant ice cream for Amy's
• 18:37
  ice cream.
• 18:38
  But they're in that same area along
• 18:40
  Guadalupe. The New World Deli has
• 18:42
  a giant globe and
• 18:45
  there's, of course,
• 18:47
  the manja monster, which was
• 18:49
  originally for manja pizza,
• 18:51
  which now sits atop Wheatsville.
• 18:54
  Dale also created the iconic arm
• 18:56
  that hangs outside of Hyde Park Gym,
• 18:58
  the giant metal bat that spins in
• 18:59
  place at the corner of Congress
• 19:01
  Avenue and Barton Springs Road,
• 19:02
  and all of the fruit that sits atop
• 19:04
  the old parking garage for the
• 19:06
  downtown Whole Foods,
• 19:08
  along with dozens of other
• 19:09
  sculptures and murals that longtime
• 19:11
  Austinites have come to accept as
• 19:13
  part of the city's landscape.
• 19:15
  But it's not like most people know
• 19:17
  that he is the guy who did all this
• 19:18
  stuff.
• 19:19
  Uh, this is funny that you've done
• 19:21
  so many of these things, because
• 19:23
  I... I grew up here in Austin
• 19:25
  and some of my early memories
• 19:27
  were just like, you know, tapping my
• 19:29
  mom on the shoulder and being like,
• 19:30
  is that a real sandwich?
• 19:32
  Right? That sort of thing.
• 19:34
  You get that a lot?
• 19:35
  Whenever people piece together that
• 19:36
  you did all this stuff.
• 19:38
  Now this is a good point.
• 19:40
  I would expect that people would
• 19:42
  write, at least, email to
• 19:44
  me and ask how
• 19:46
  I did these things.
• 19:48
  But they don't.
• 19:50
  Dale Whistler is an artist whose
• 19:51
  contributions are known but
• 19:53
  unknown.
• 19:54
  I think over my career I've
• 19:57
  gotten four emails, two
• 19:59
  of them from children who had
• 20:01
  a class project.
• 20:02
  And I, maybe, maybe
• 20:04
  one call.
• 20:05
  Anybody who's been in Austin for
• 20:06
  long enough has seen and maybe
• 20:08
  even marveled at his work.
• 20:10
  But his art doesn't sit in any fancy
• 20:12
  museums and he has no
• 20:14
  following of loyal fans.
• 20:16
  When Dale steps outside, he
• 20:18
  is unrecognized.
• 20:20
  You know, one of my
• 20:22
  wishes is
• 20:24
  that in doing public work
• 20:26
  and then knowing me, that
• 20:28
  people would be inspired to do
• 20:30
  things themselves.
• 20:31
  It might be inspiring to people
• 20:32
  that, oh, he did all these
• 20:34
  things, he's just a normal guy.
• 20:36
  Maybe I could do something like this
• 20:38
  too.
• 20:39
  Dale has also achieved every
• 20:40
  artist's dream of creating things
• 20:42
  that will outlive them.
• 20:44
  And we know that he's created art
• 20:45
  that will outlive him because a lot
• 20:47
  of his giant sculptures are made out
• 20:49
  of styrofoam, a material
• 20:50
  that is not at all biodegradable.
• 20:53
  The bad thing about Starfoam is it
• 20:54
  doesn't go away.
• 20:56
  The good thing about star foam as an
• 20:57
  art material is that it's easy
• 21:00
  to sculpt, lightweight,
• 21:01
  inexpensive, and it doesn' go away
• 21:04
  Dale now spends his mornings doing
• 21:05
  yoga, his days meditating,
• 21:07
  and during our conversation,
• 21:09
  I got the sense that he felt just a
• 21:11
  bit of guilt about putting thousands
• 21:13
  of pounds of non-recyclable material
• 21:15
  into the environment.
• 21:17
  This really came into focus when he
• 21:18
  showed me some of the art that he's
• 21:20
  created more recently.
• 21:21
  We are looking at a...
• 21:24
  It's a classic
• 21:26
  Calder style, hierarchic
• 21:28
  mobile, but it's made of
• 21:31
  cedar sticks.
• 21:32
  The mobile Dale showed me is about
• 21:34
  eight feet long and made entirely
• 21:36
  out of driftwood, rocks,
• 21:38
  little pieces of wire and some
• 21:39
  string.
• 21:40
  This is what Dale now spends his
• 21:42
  time creating.
• 21:43
  I think the styrofoam sculptures
• 21:45
  occurred because
• 21:47
  I was addressing a
• 21:49
  certain need that
• 21:51
  people asked me to
• 21:53
  do.
• 21:54
  So given my own proclivity,
• 21:57
  I would create things more
• 21:59
  like this that are
• 22:01
  natural materials.
• 22:03
  This is not very commercial
• 22:06
  Hopefully, it's a little bit
• 22:07
  commercial. Hopefully, people would
• 22:08
  actually want to pay money for these
• 22:10
  things.
• 22:11
  So if anybody out there
• 22:13
  is in the market for some art that
• 22:14
  will not last forever, I know
• 22:16
  a guy.
• 22:17
  His name is Dale Whistler and he is
• 22:19
  the man behind Austin's giant
• 22:21
  fake subs.
• 22:24
  I'm Shawn Saldana in Austin.
• 22:28
  You
• 22:32
  OK, there was a lot of hype
• 22:34
  going into this weekend's matchup
• 22:36
  between top-ranked Ohio State
• 22:38
  and fourth-rank Texas.
• 22:39
  After one-half, things didn't look
• 22:41
  good, and at the beginning of the
• 22:42
  final quarter, the Longhorns still
• 22:44
  trailed by 20.
• 22:45
  And somehow, they start this week
• 22:46
  undefeated and ranked as the top
• 22:48
  team in the nation.
• 22:49
  How did they do it?
• 22:50
  Here to tell us more is KUT's Jimmy
• 22:52
  Moss. Hey Jimmy.
• 22:53
  It was a wild 17
• 22:55
  minutes of football and it all goes
• 22:57
  back to just before the third
• 22:58
  quarter or fourth quarter started
• 22:59
  two minutes prior.
• 23:02
  Texas is down 20 points.
• 23:03
  They're in their own end of the
• 23:04
  field. It is fourth down and
• 23:06
  nine. That is how desperate they are
• 23:08
  and they decide to go for it
• 23:10
  and they get it afterwards.
• 23:12
  Steve Sarkeesian was asked about
• 23:14
  that play.
• 23:15
  There's 17 minutes left in the game.
• 23:17
  Does it ever cross your mind,
• 23:19
  like, to wanna punch just so it
• 23:21
  doesn't get any worse?
• 23:23
  Did you think about that?
• 23:24
  Nah, that's how losers think.
• 23:25
  Winners win, baby.
• 23:26
  You gotta go for it.
• 23:30
  Sark you know a year ago
• 23:32
  They didn't hire me to
• 23:33
  keep it close, they hired me to win.
• 23:36
  And he won the biggest game of
• 23:38
  his, at least home win
• 23:40
  is in his tenure at Texas.
• 23:41
  I would say probably that number
• 23:43
  one, defeating number one Ohio
• 23:44
  state. It's akin to maybe going on
• 23:46
  the road to beat Alabama a few years
• 23:48
  ago on it in,
• 23:50
  uh, Tuscaloosa, but this is a
• 23:52
  signature win at home.
• 23:53
  It is one of the bigger events I've
• 23:55
  seen at DKR personally with
• 23:57
  my own eyes.
• 23:58
  It is, uh, you know, it.
• 24:00
  Everyone was asking, trying to think
• 24:02
  of like bigger moments, it's like
• 24:03
  Notre Dame. There was a double
• 24:04
  overtime win 10
• 24:06
  years ago or so.
• 24:07
  That was the first Texas is back
• 24:08
  moment. Yeah, Texas is.
• 24:09
  Yeah, Texas is back and then they
• 24:10
  kind of weren't.
• 24:11
  And then, you know, there's, it goes
• 24:13
  way, way back to the nineties.
• 24:15
  There's Phil Dawson kicks a field
• 24:16
  goal to beat Virginia. These, these
• 24:17
  are the kind of moments that people
• 24:18
  will talk about forever and ever.
• 24:20
  It's that kind of win that happened
• 24:21
  on Saturday.
• 24:23
  Does it mean Texas is actually going
• 24:24
  to run the gauntlet and stay number
• 24:26
  one?
• 24:28
  It's real. I mean, they're,
• 24:29
  everything's in front of them.
• 24:30
  They have a lot of things on the
• 24:32
  schedule that are, could be quite
• 24:33
  painful.
• 24:34
  Most of their schedules filled with
• 24:36
  ranked teams and once you get into
• 24:37
  SCC play.
• 24:39
  LSU is on the schedule, Oklahoma's
• 24:41
  on the schedule, Mississippi's on
• 24:43
  the schedule. Two of those are in
• 24:44
  top 10 right now.
• 24:45
  Texas A&M is also on the schedule.
• 24:46
  That's another top 10 matchup
• 24:48
  currently.
• 24:49
  So way too much to go for
• 24:51
  the season, but this will be a,
• 24:54
  this is like fast check at the
• 24:55
  airport or whatever, the elite class
• 24:57
  that you get. They get to skip a
• 24:59
  line for a little bit when
• 25:01
  there's a debate about should Texas
• 25:02
  be in the playoff.
• 25:04
  They're going to get, they get the
• 25:05
  fast pass at Six Flags going ahead,
• 25:07
  so.
• 25:08
  Um, until the, you know, you get to
• 25:10
  rack up another couple of losses,
• 25:12
  then, and then we have a new debate.
• 25:14
  Yeah I think that that was the
• 25:15
  biggest thing I feel like there have
• 25:16
  been a lots of the games where Texas
• 25:18
  ends up in this place and maybe
• 25:19
  doesn't come out on top what
• 25:21
  do you think change why were they
• 25:22
  able to actually come out on top
• 25:24
  this time around.
• 25:24
  It's just that all that adversity
• 25:26
  in the past, you just kind of like
• 25:28
  bottle it up and you need somewhere
• 25:29
  to vent it.
• 25:31
  And Ohio State was the unwitting
• 25:33
  victim of this.
• 25:34
  You know, Arch Manning
• 25:36
  said after the game that he did not
• 25:38
  want to go through another
• 25:40
  press conference after Ohio
• 25:42
  State and go, is he
• 25:44
  really the thing?
• 25:45
  And you know, this time he was like,
• 25:46
  I don't want to answer any of those
• 25:48
  questions. So I had to answer it on
• 25:49
  field. Yeah.
• 25:50
  Yeah, he said after the game and the
• 25:51
  postgame interview that he had a lot
• 25:53
  of nightmares after last season's
• 25:55
  game And I'm sure not many
• 25:57
  nightmares after Saturday's game
• 25:58
  This it was such a huge game so
• 26:00
  many eyes on it and the
• 26:02
  game itself was a result in
• 26:04
  its own But there was a little bit
• 26:05
  of controversy that resulted after
• 26:07
  the gain. Can you speak a little
• 26:08
  about that? Yeah the
• 26:09
  Republican candidate for
• 26:11
  railroad commissioner tweeted a
• 26:13
  photo of the student section
• 26:14
  celebrating the game, a
• 26:17
  huge win. Everyone's emotional and
• 26:19
  tapped and he said
• 26:21
  something to the effect
• 26:23
  of this is a basically positioning.
• 26:26
  It was a photo primarily of Asian
• 26:28
  South Asian students celebrating and
• 26:30
  he basically posited it as
• 26:32
  a problem.
• 26:33
  And then he was
• 26:35
  criticized by GOP lawmakers,
• 26:37
  including John Cornyn, Governor Greg
• 26:39
  Abbott, and others, but then
• 26:41
  he doubled down and
• 26:43
  posted another one saying that
• 26:45
  it's still a problem.
• 26:47
  So I'm not sure where exactly
• 26:49
  this goes from here.
• 26:51
  Many people have asked for him to
• 26:52
  delete the tweets.
• 26:53
  Many people've asked for them to
• 26:55
  stop his campaign.
• 26:57
  It's hard to say where this goes or
• 26:58
  how bad it gets for Beau French, but
• 27:01
  he is sticking by his
• 27:03
  controversial position.
• 27:05
  Okay, well, there is
• 27:07
  certainly that to consider, but
• 27:09
  looking forward...
• 27:11
  No, there's no relevance that like
• 27:12
  there's, no, they were not, we
• 27:14
  don't know whether these students
• 27:15
  were in any way not already
• 27:18
  Texans, Americans, whatever.
• 27:20
  For all I know, they're all
• 27:21
  registered to vote against him.
• 27:23
  I don't know.
• 27:23
  And this was a real picture.
• 27:25
  I know right now we have to be able
• 27:27
  to distinguish between a real photo
• 27:28
  and AI photo. This was actually a
• 27:30
  real of just students who were at
• 27:31
  the game.
• 27:32
  In the stadium at DKR Texas
• 27:34
  Memorial Stadium on Saturday night.
• 27:36
  Okay, well, we will certainly have
• 27:37
  more coverage this season of The
• 27:39
  Longhorns, and KUT's
• 27:41
  Jimmy Moss will be bringing it to us
• 27:42
  right here on Austin Signal.
• 27:43
  Jimmy, thank you very much.
• 27:44
  Thank you. And thank you out there
• 27:46
  for tuning in and spending the day
• 27:47
  with us. So we're going to be back
• 27:48
  at the same time tomorrow.
• 27:50
  We'll talk to you then.