Latest / Austin Signal / Whooping cough cases rise in Austin

Transcript

Whooping cough cases rise in Austin · Austin Signal

0:09
Whooping cough is particularly
0:11
dangerous to infants and young
0:12
children, and it's a growing concern
0:14
here in Austin and across Texas.
0:17
Austin's local health authority
0:18
continues to report cases, as
0:20
does the state's Department of
0:21
Health Services.
0:22
We're going to hear more about the
0:23
local and statewide numbers.
0:25
Plus, Texas teens face more barriers
0:27
to getting an abortion than other
0:29
age groups after the state six-week
0:31
abortion ban went into effect in
0:33
2021.
0:34
The findings of a new study that
0:35
looks at the impact on Texas and its
0:37
surrounding states.
0:38
That's coming up.
0:40
The Austin Signal is a production
0:42
of KUT News, hosted by
0:44
Jerry Quijano.
0:45
And there's a new book out that
0:46
captures this moment in time in
0:48
Austin's music scene.
0:49
We're going to chat with a couple of
0:51
the folks behind that effort.
0:53
That is up next.
0:54
And it's right here on Austin
0:56
Signal.
1:08
Thank you for tuning in out there.
1:10
This is Austin Signal.
1:12
I'm Jerry Quijano.
1:13
It's Monday the 17th, already
1:15
more than halfway through November,
1:17
nearly the end of 2025.
1:20
Thank you spending part of your day
1:22
here with us.
1:24
A quick check in with the KUT
1:25
newsroom.
1:26
The Austin Independent School
1:27
District made some changes to
1:29
programming and student
1:30
reassignments in the final
1:32
version of a school consolidation
1:33
plan that was released late last
1:35
Friday.
1:36
10 schools are still set to close
1:38
before next school year.
1:40
Superintendent Matias Segura says
1:42
the revised plan reassigns just
1:44
short of 4,000 students
1:46
and eliminates more than 6,300
1:49
empty seats from the district, a
1:51
district that has been seeing
1:52
declining enrollment over
1:54
the last decade.
1:55
That plan is expected to help save
1:57
more than $20 million.
1:59
The AISD Board of Trustees is
2:02
set to vote on the plan this
2:03
Thursday, along with the turnaround
2:05
plans. For two dozen
2:07
schools.
2:09
Whooping cough is a growing problem
2:11
here in the Austin area.
2:12
Whooping Cough or Pertussis cases
2:14
continue to be confirmed by Austin
2:16
Public Health, and it's not just
2:18
happening locally.
2:20
The Texas Department of State Health
2:21
Services reports a surge statewide.
2:24
Texas has seen 3,500 cases
2:26
through October of this year.
2:28
That is approximately four times
2:30
more than there were reported during
2:31
the same period last year.
2:33
More than 10 times the case is
2:35
reported in the same period two
2:37
years ago.
2:38
Here to talk about this more is
2:39
KUT's healthcare reporter Olivia
2:41
Aldridge. Olivia, thanks for being
2:43
with us.
2:44
Hi, Jerry.
2:44
So do officials have any idea
2:46
why we're experiencing and seeing
2:48
this uptick in cases?
2:51
Well, vaccination rates for whooping
2:52
cough are down, and it's a very
2:54
contagious illness, so it'll spread
2:56
more if fewer people are vaccinated.
2:58
And that's why the state health
3:00
department is really urging parents
3:01
to make sure that their kids get the
3:03
Tdap vaccine.
3:05
That also protects against tetanus
3:07
and diphtheria.
3:08
And for adults to look into
3:10
a booster, if they are around
3:12
people who are vulnerable to
3:13
whooping-cough, that includes
3:15
infants, pregnant women, and
3:17
anyone who's immunocompromised,
3:19
You mentioned that Tdap vaccine.
3:21
Austin Public Health expects that
3:22
there were several cases that passed
3:24
around at Austin school campuses,
3:26
but the whooping cough vaccine,
3:28
that T-dap, it's required for
3:30
schools, is it not?
3:32
Yeah, kids are technically required
3:34
in Texas to get a Tdap vaccine
3:36
before starting school, but
3:38
fewer people are actually getting
3:40
it. So in Austin ISD specifically,
3:43
just 74% of kindergartners
3:45
were up to date on that shot during
3:47
the 2024, 25 school
3:49
year, around 85%
3:51
among seventh graders.
3:53
In Texas, you can get a
3:54
conscientious exemption for required
3:56
vaccines like this, but the data
3:58
also shows us that locally,
4:00
not all of these kids actually have
4:02
those exemptions on file and
4:05
rates for pretty much all vaccines
4:07
have been slipping since COVID.
4:10
For a story I did earlier this year
4:12
that was more focused on measles
4:13
vaccination rates, folks at
4:15
Austin ISD told me that it's just
4:17
been. Battle for a number of
4:19
reasons getting everyone into
4:21
compliance since that time when
4:23
things were pretty disrupted.
4:25
Whooping cough was not something I
4:26
would heard all that much whenever I
4:28
was a youth so I'm learning a little
4:30
bit as we're going around it seems
4:31
as though it's more dangerous the
4:33
younger the affected person is
4:36
who really needs to be most
4:38
concerned here when it comes to
4:39
whooping cough.
4:40
Sure, right? It sounds kind of like
4:41
an old-timey Victorian illness,
4:43
doesn't it?
4:43
It really does it sounds like like a
4:45
fainting couch or something you need
4:46
to get fainten couch for your
4:47
whooping cough or something like
4:48
that
4:49
Sure, but it is descriptive,
4:51
it's, you know, people start off
4:52
with a little bit of a cold, then
4:54
they're getting this really serious
4:55
persistent cough that kind of does
4:56
have this distinctive whooping sound
4:59
potentially.
5:00
It can be pretty mild for many
5:02
people, but especially for
5:04
babies under the age of one, it
5:06
can be pretty dangerous.
5:07
They can struggle to breathe, they
5:09
can stop breathing, and
5:11
again, DSHS says around
5:13
a third of infants with whooping
5:15
cough end up hospitalized.
5:17
We can read more about Olivia's
5:19
reporting on Whooping Cough over at
5:20
KUT.org.
5:22
I want to switch topics to another
5:24
story that you reported last week,
5:26
which is that Texans under the age
5:28
of 18 were disproportionately
5:29
affected after the state
5:31
enacted its six-week abortion ban
5:33
back in 2021.
5:35
First off, who conducted this study
5:36
and what time frame were they
5:38
looking at?
5:39
So it was published in the American
5:41
Journal of Public Health, and some
5:42
of the authors are part of this
5:44
Texas-based research group called
5:46
ReSound Research for Reproductive
5:47
Health.
5:48
They used to be affiliated with UT
5:49
Austin.
5:50
They looked at this time period
5:52
around when Texas's Senate
5:54
Bill 8 was passed.
5:55
That was the approximately six-week
5:57
abortion ban passed
5:59
prior to Roe versus Wade being
6:01
overturned.
6:02
Of course we now have a more
6:03
restrictive total ban,
6:05
but data from this period is
6:07
interesting to researchers because
6:09
it's some of the earliest data
6:10
available on the effects of
6:13
restrictive abortion bans kind of
6:14
in this era and
6:17
can maybe indicate more of
6:19
what we might be seeing in states
6:20
across the country now.
6:22
Well, from reading your reporting at
6:24
kut.org, I noticed that overall
6:26
facility-based abortions dropped in
6:27
Texas, but when it came to patients
6:29
under 18, they were way down,
6:31
60% fewer during the
6:33
time of the study.
6:35
We're obviously here in Texas so
6:36
we're worried about that.
6:37
Did we see that there
6:39
was an effect on abortion numbers in
6:41
the states surrounding Texas in the
6:43
same time period?
6:45
Yeah.
6:45
So keep in mind with those
6:47
statistics you're talking about,
6:48
there's only six weeks within
6:51
time frame when people can be
6:52
getting that procedure when
6:54
this was the law.
6:56
But the study's authors also looked
6:57
at Texans traveling to
6:59
surrounding states.
7:01
So it got statistics
7:04
on the number of Texans who
7:05
left the state of Texas to six
7:07
surrounding states to have
7:09
in clinic abortions
7:11
there.
7:13
What they found was that there were
7:15
a lot more Texans doing that than
7:17
before, maybe unsurprisingly,
7:19
but it still didn't compensate for
7:21
that overall decrease.
7:23
It really didn't come close.
7:24
So I think for minors under
7:26
the age of 18, there was still an
7:28
overall 26%
7:30
decrease in the number of abortions
7:32
they were getting, even if you
7:33
included those out-of-state
7:36
numbers.
7:37
Okay Olivia, we only have about a
7:39
minute left with you.
7:40
Were there any other important
7:41
takeaways that you found from this
7:43
study?
7:44
Well, I would note that, you know,
7:46
as we discuss, laws and trends have
7:48
changed.
7:49
The study doesn't factor in
7:51
telemedicine, for instance, so
7:53
medication abortion sent by mail
7:54
from doctors in other states.
7:56
And we know that that's increasingly
7:57
common in the US and kind of the
7:59
post-Roe era.
8:01
So it's not comprehensive of all the
8:03
abortions that could have been
8:04
taking place, but it does show us
8:05
some interesting trends.
8:07
All right, we have been speaking
8:08
with Olivia Aldridge.
8:10
She is KUT's healthcare reporter,
8:12
and you can find more of her
8:14
reporting over at kut.org.
8:17
Olivia, thank you for talking to us
8:18
today.
8:27
And thank you for being with us here
8:29
on Austin Signal.
8:30
You can hear us every weekday
8:32
afternoon at one o'clock on KUT
8:34
News 90.5 on the
8:36
KUT app and online at
8:38
KUT.org.
8:40
Hope you're having a nice Monday
8:42
and hey maybe your Monday
8:44
morning commute seemed smoother
8:46
than usual and if so
8:48
you are not imagining that.
8:50
New research shows that Monday
8:52
mornings have the fewest traffic
8:53
delays on average.
8:55
Compared to rush hour during every
8:57
other weekday.
8:59
But as KUT's Nathan Bernier
9:01
reports, the trend says more about
9:03
who can skip traffic than
9:05
how to fix it.
9:07
Nobody likes to go into the office
9:09
on Mondays, so for those who can
9:11
choose which days to commute,
9:12
they tend to avoid it, and that
9:14
creates an opportunity for people
9:16
like Kenna Pierce.
9:17
She lives in South Austin and works
9:19
in North Austin.
9:20
I go to work on Monday and I take 35
9:22
and the traffic is way less
9:24
in the morning anyway.
9:25
On the way home it's always bad.
9:27
A new report by Texas A&M
9:28
University's Transportation
9:30
Institute backs that up.
9:31
Researchers looked at traffic data
9:33
in almost 500 cities natio nwide,
9:35
and a clear trend emerged.
9:37
Mondays is...
9:38
Hands down the least
9:40
congested weekday.
9:42
David Schrank is a senior research
9:43
scientist at the Texas A&M
9:44
Transportation Institute.
9:46
He's been studying urban mobility
9:47
for more than 35 years,
9:49
which is long enough to know that
9:50
the same thing that makes Mondays
9:52
smoother, basically people making
9:54
their own choices about when to go
9:55
into the office, can also make
9:57
Mondays way worse.
9:59
Because you don't know
10:01
which Monday ever
10:04
employer in town is going to call
10:05
their people in you're no one's
10:07
expecting it. And all of a sudden,
10:09
wham, everybody's out there trying
10:10
to use the system at the same time.
10:12
Or something else happens, like bad
10:14
weather is forecast on Wednesday, so
10:15
people decide to go in Monday
10:17
instead.
10:17
Of course, not everyone has the
10:19
luxury of choosing which days to
10:21
commute, but Austin does have
10:23
an unusually large number of people
10:25
who work from home at least one day
10:26
a week, according to a poll
10:27
conducted by Moveability Austin.
10:30
That's an organization whose main
10:31
purpose is reducing traffic by
10:33
convincing people not to drive
10:34
alone.
10:35
When people are stuck in traffic,
10:37
they like to think it's the
10:38
traffic's fault. But actually you
10:40
are traffic.
10:41
Lonnie Stern is MoveAbility's
10:43
executive director.
10:44
Their Austin area poll found about
10:46
60% of Travis County
10:48
respondents worked from home, at
10:49
least occasionally.
10:50
For Williamson County, it was 55%.
10:53
For Hayes County, about 50%.
10:55
The poll found remote work is an
10:57
economic privilege.
10:58
People allowed to work from home
11:00
tended to have higher incomes,
11:02
higher education, and were over 35
11:04
years old.
11:05
And remote work just is not possible
11:07
for much of the workforce that's
11:08
considered essential.
11:10
Like those in retail, healthcare,
11:12
construction, or hospita-
11:13
Work from home isn't going to be
11:14
a panacea.
11:15
We find that people who work from
11:17
home may then take extra
11:18
trips during those off hours.
11:21
So that's why we're starting to see
11:22
the midday traffic spike
11:24
where it used to be very
11:26
predictable. Everyone drove in and
11:28
everyone drove out for the workday.
11:30
Now they're making all these trips
11:32
in the middle of the day.
11:35
Texas A&M's research found the
11:37
same thing.
11:38
Another factor is all the extra
11:40
trips by delivery trucks because
11:42
of more people shopping online.
11:44
And more baby boomers have retired
11:46
and now they're driving around
11:47
during the middle of the day.
11:49
So if Monday is the best day
11:51
to commute, what's the worst day?
11:53
On average, across all the roads
11:55
measured in Austin, it was Thursday,
11:58
especially afternoons between four
12:00
and six p.m., in Austin anyway.
12:03
In Houston, Dallas, and San
12:05
Antonio, Fridays between 4
12:07
and 5 is still the worst time
12:09
to be on the roads.
12:10
I'm Nathan Bernier in Austin.
12:22
It's Austin Signal, thank you
12:24
for being with us.
12:25
We hope your Monday morning
12:27
and Monday afternoons commute goes
12:30
smooth.
12:31
Something that didn't move very
12:32
smooth this weekend was the Texas
12:35
football team.
12:36
They came up short in a road game
12:38
against Georgia, and joining me
12:40
now to talk a little more about that
12:41
is KUT's Jimmy Maas.
12:43
Howdy, Jimmy.
12:44
Good afternoon, Jerry.
12:45
So Jimmy, a final score of the game
12:47
against Georgia, 35 to 10,
12:49
seems like a walloping.
12:50
Was the game any closer than the
12:52
score indicated?
12:53
A score not indicative of
12:55
the game.
12:56
Although, man, the game and
12:58
the season really did unravel quite
13:00
quickly there in the fourth quarter.
13:02
They were only down four points.
13:04
Texas, I mean.
13:05
Georgia was leading by four.
13:07
And then on the ensuing drive,
13:09
they had a fourth down, seemingly
13:10
they stopped Georgia with a little
13:12
momentum.
13:13
And then a fake punt.
13:15
And then four downs later,
13:17
the costly penalty on another fourth
13:19
down. And then, a quick touchdown,
13:21
and then a quick.
13:22
Onside kick that fooled Texas.
13:24
It happened very fast.
13:25
Next thing you know, it is, they're
13:27
18 points down and they
13:29
had nowhere to go.
13:31
There was kind of a junk touchdown
13:32
at the end, but with
13:34
that,
13:37
there were a lot of expectations on
13:38
this Texas team and I think if you
13:40
were trying to hold that team to
13:41
that same standard the pre-season
13:43
number one, that was a very
13:45
disappointing game.
13:46
Absolutely absolutely as like you
13:48
said preseason number one this team
13:50
had made the college football
13:51
playoff two times in a row I'm
13:53
If you are holding Texas to the
13:55
standard that is the highest
13:57
grossing athletic department
13:59
in division one sports,
14:01
it is a very disappointing game.
14:03
If you have some sort of circumspect
14:06
view that like, well, it's a
14:07
young team, young quarterback read,
14:09
you know, it s hard to make the
14:10
playoffs for three years in a row
14:12
and it's
14:14
very even more difficult to come
14:16
in with those kind of manning sized
14:19
expectations and live up to them.
14:22
This season may be right about where
14:24
you'd expect and it's not over.
14:26
It's there's still a little.
14:28
Little bit to play there's a little
14:30
bit of sliver of hope that the you
14:32
have a game this weekend against
14:33
Arkansas here I DKR Arkansas
14:35
here closing out next Friday against
14:37
Texas A&M and that
14:38
That game will determine whether
14:40
Texas A&M may get into the SEC
14:42
Championship.
14:42
That's right, so lots to play for
14:44
still.
14:45
That's KUT's Jimmy Maas with a quick
14:46
update on the Longhorns.
14:48
Jimmy, thank you. Thank you.
14:49
And thank you for tuning in to
14:50
Austin Signal.
14:51
We will be back in just a moment.
14:59
You're tuned in to Austin Signal
15:01
here on KUT News.
15:02
Thank you for making this part of
15:03
your Monday.
15:05
You know that feeling when you wanna
15:06
look up a favorite old local band
15:08
or photos from a now shuttered
15:10
venue, and once you've finally found
15:11
an archived link that sends you down
15:13
nostalgia lane, eeeek,
15:15
a piece of the internet no longer
15:17
exists.
15:18
A fantastic alternative to that is
15:20
a good old fashioned hold it in your
15:22
hand book, a lasting testament to
15:24
a sound and to a moment in time.
15:27
Out now that's putting a new shine
15:29
on the artist venues and stories
15:31
right at the heart of our local
15:32
community music community it's
15:34
called austin's music scene your
15:36
guide to the city's most iconic
15:37
artists and venues and today
15:39
we're joined by the book's
15:40
editor-in-chief mitch baronowski and
15:42
its photo editor david brendan hall
15:44
uh gentlemen thank you for coming on
15:46
Austin Signal.
15:46
Thank you for having us.
15:48
It's great to be here.
15:48
Thank you.
15:49
Well, Mitch, let me start with you.
15:51
Why did you and your team, you know,
15:53
why did you want to create this
15:53
guidebook in the first place?
15:55
You know, we are a
15:57
team of fans and
15:59
journalists and creatives,
16:01
and we were
16:02
chatting with the folks at HAM.
16:04
It's their 20th anniversary at the
16:06
Health Alliance for Austin
16:06
Musicians, and wanted to do
16:08
something special.
16:10
And we, in taking a look at
16:11
the landscape, we realized no
16:13
one's ever really tried a book about
16:15
the current live music scene.
16:17
We have so much talent in this town.
16:19
We've had our history books.
16:21
We've our biographies
16:23
and our memoirs.
16:24
But we haven't had a snapshot of the
16:26
scene today.
16:27
And so we really set out to create a
16:28
love letter, if you will, because
16:30
let's face it for a lot of
16:32
musicians, a lot artists, it's
16:34
a labor of love.
16:35
And this project was for us a labor
16:37
love.
16:37
Yeah, absolutely.
16:40
I think that one
16:42
of the challenges was
16:45
figuring out how we create
16:47
this snapshot.
16:49
And one thing we wanted to do, just
16:50
to clarify that a little bit,
16:52
was make it so that all the artists
16:54
that you see in the book are active
16:56
right now. The idea that you can
16:57
pick up the book, read about an
16:59
artist, check out the photos, and go
17:01
see them. Find out when they're
17:02
playing something. Yeah, exactly.
17:04
So There is an
17:06
immediacy to the concept of the book
17:08
also, which is the difference that
17:10
Mitch was talking about, you know,
17:11
rather than a Retrospective
17:14
or something like that.
17:15
Of course, it may turn into that
17:16
over time. Yeah
17:17
Yeah, but it's starting out at this
17:19
at this stage, right?
17:20
You mentioned that immediacy.
17:21
I love that You know, there's an
17:22
index of artists. You can actually
17:24
fold through the pages and see
17:26
Everything photos look beautiful
17:28
How important was it for this thing
17:30
to actually be like a tangible book
17:31
and not just an online guide?
17:33
Not that there's anything wrong with
17:34
that. But how important was for this
17:35
to be a real thing that people could
17:37
hold?
17:38
Super important.
17:39
I mean, we have, we have a digital
17:41
companion to the book as well,
17:43
where we're, we'll be sharing
17:44
exclusive content, bonus content
17:46
that you can't find on the page.
17:48
But, um, how awesome, uh,
17:50
to have something that feels like
17:52
a coffee table book, but also has
17:53
the practicality of a field guide,
17:55
if you will, and our friend Emma
17:57
Schmidt, just to call out one of the
17:59
many talented folks who worked on
18:01
the, on the book with us, uh did
18:02
these amazing hand-drawn
18:04
illustrations of venues across
18:06
town.
18:07
Inside the back cover, it folds out
18:09
to this great hand-drawn map of
18:11
the venues across town, and you can
18:13
really use that to plan your live
18:14
music experience.
18:16
So I kind of described the creative
18:17
strategy as a reverse mullet.
18:18
It's sort of, you know, party
18:20
in the front with all the great
18:22
photos from, from David Brendan
18:24
hall and others,
18:26
and a business in the back with all
18:27
the nuts and bolts that you need to
18:28
really take advantage of this town.
18:30
Yeah, well, as Mitch was saying
18:31
there, David, most of the photos in
18:32
this book belong to you, and
18:34
you were talking a little bit about
18:35
you, you were born and raised here,
18:37
I believe you said, and so you've
18:38
been on the scene for a long time.
18:40
How many years of work did you,
18:42
were you able to kind of amass into
18:43
this book?
18:44
Well, we wanted to
18:47
pull from photos from my
18:49
archive that was as current as
18:50
we possibly could.
18:52
Now, I have some photos that go, you
18:54
know, back 15 years, but
18:56
we tried to keep it within the last
18:57
decade, and even then made
18:59
some choices. Well, this is an old
19:01
photo of this band or this artist.
19:04
They have a different vibe or the
19:05
band members have changed.
19:06
Yeah. And those were cases where.
19:08
Really needed to reach out to other
19:10
photographers or the artists and get
19:12
updated photos.
19:13
And a goal of mine was to include as
19:15
many other photographers as possible
19:17
within the restrictions
19:19
of our modest
19:21
budget, but also tried
19:24
to be generous in that sense to
19:26
as many perspectives
19:28
as we could get.
19:29
And so about maybe to answer your
19:31
question, 10 years of
19:33
coming through my archive and
19:35
a lot of that thanks to
19:37
working with the Austin Chronicle,
19:39
who opened a lot of doors for me, so
19:41
shout out to them.
19:42
Absolutely.
19:42
Absolutely.
19:43
Absolutely. And then KUTX.
19:44
NKUTX for
19:46
everything.
19:47
Education on the
19:49
music scene, commitment to
19:51
it,
19:53
to spotlighting that for
19:55
people every day.
19:58
And I think that
19:59
with the
20:02
choices that we made,
20:04
it was a difficult process.
20:07
An editorial process.
20:08
Yeah, and the difficult
20:11
editorial process and it came
20:13
together in such a short
20:15
amount of time.
20:16
I think we pulled all these photos
20:18
in a matter of two and a half,
20:20
three months. So it was quite the
20:21
trip down memory lane.
20:23
A perfectly imperfect process.
20:24
I mean, no, no one book can do
20:26
justice to the, to the broad,
20:28
deep talent that's in this town.
20:30
And so this is a start and we just,
20:32
we're trying to give the readers a
20:34
cross section.
20:35
And that's why we, you know, we
20:37
decided to use genres to sort
20:39
of organize, organize
20:42
discovery of artists, if you will.
20:44
And we have country Americana,
20:46
blues and soul, Latin and
20:47
world, hip hop and R and jazz
20:50
electronic and experimental
20:52
There's so much to discover.
20:54
I learned a lot, David learned a
20:56
lot.
20:56
Yeah that was that was one of the
20:57
fun things is that you know of
20:59
course Mitch and I both have our
21:01
segments our niches in the scene
21:02
that we know but you know
21:04
I there was stuff like particularly
21:06
jazz that I don't
21:08
know a whole lot about and so
21:10
really learned about artists that
21:13
haven't been on my radar the entire
21:14
time I've been in the seen and
21:16
connected with photographers also
21:18
who were really involved in that
21:20
and people that came in to consult
21:22
with us and educate us.
21:24
On on some of these so it was that
21:25
it was a process of discovery for us
21:27
and we hope that you know it's
21:29
uh... Vehicle for discovery for
21:31
others and it's
21:31
And did y'all expect it to be a
21:33
source of discovery, because I
21:34
assume, like, you know, you write a
21:35
book, you're perceived as, like an
21:36
authority on that topic, right, but
21:38
was that rewarding to be
21:40
able to be enlightened as you're
21:42
going along in this process?
21:43
Well, you know, it's interesting
21:44
because we often talk about the
21:46
Austin music scene as if it's
21:48
some monolithic entity.
21:50
And when you go down this path, what
21:51
you quickly discover is this great
21:53
insight that there is not just one
21:55
scene. You know, that holds space
21:57
for all of these great scenes,
21:59
all these micro scenes.
22:00
And so you can go to Africa night
22:02
at the Sahara Lounge on, on
22:04
Saturday night, or you can dip in
22:06
to the white horse for Armadillo
22:08
Road on a Sunday night, or You
22:10
know, you can go to ABGB
22:12
on Sunday afternoon.
22:13
You can do all these great things in
22:14
this town. Chickensh, bingo, at
22:16
Little Longhorn, right?
22:17
Thank you for that.
22:18
It's all here.
22:20
Anyway, scenes are personal.
22:22
They are highly personal.
22:24
Just to highlight something that you
22:26
sort of did there inadvertently
22:28
that the book is more than just
22:29
artists. That's right.
22:30
It's the venues, it's the festivals,
22:32
it is the nonprofits that are
22:35
giving back to the scene also.
22:36
Absolutely. So all that is included
22:37
in there as part of the guide.
22:40
And then to backtrack a little bit,
22:42
I mean, you were asking about,
22:44
did we expect it to, you
22:46
know... To learn and to be
22:47
enlightened by that.
22:48
Well, I think that you have
22:50
to when you're creating a project
22:52
like this.
22:53
Or even when you're
22:55
conversing with people about the
22:57
scene or any music scene.
22:58
And I was talking to Mitch about it.
22:59
And I think one of the most exciting
23:01
things about music in general
23:03
is that one person cannot know
23:04
everything.
23:05
There is always something to
23:07
discover. Even if someone comes to
23:08
me and says, you've probably
23:10
photographed everything.
23:11
You've seen everything. I'm like,
23:12
absolutely not. There's no way, try
23:13
me. And so through this
23:15
and even just all the time, you got
23:17
so many chances to discover music.
23:19
And that's part of the magic of it.
23:20
And it was part of magic of this
23:21
project. Can help please.
23:23
Translates to other people picking
23:24
up the book in Austin and beyond.
23:26
I think there's reach beyond here,
23:28
too
23:28
Absolutely.
23:29
It's a way to be
23:31
welcomed into the Austin music scene
23:32
and have a good knowledge.
23:34
We got about two minutes left and
23:35
you mentioned Ham earlier.
23:37
Some proceeds from the sale of your
23:38
book are benefiting Ham.
23:40
Again, that's the Health Alliance
23:41
for Austin musicians.
23:42
How important was it to use this
23:44
project as a way to give back to
23:45
those musicians, to the community?
23:47
Super important.
23:48
I mean, it's open enrollment right
23:49
now for Ham.
23:52
Most of the artists we interviewed
23:54
and talked to, and we must have done
23:55
at least 70 interviews for this
23:56
project,
23:58
they're not opposed to
24:01
change or growth.
24:02
Austin has changed a lot over the
24:03
last decades.
24:05
One common hope is that
24:07
the scene remains affordable
24:09
for them to stay here
24:11
and perform here and make their
24:13
art here.
24:14
Uh, we, we heard that
24:16
routinely and, you know,
24:21
You know, working with Ham made it
24:23
abundantly clear that we have to
24:25
support these artists in this
24:26
community if we want the scene to
24:27
thrive.
24:28
And so I'd say that's another great
24:30
note. We have an impact section in
24:32
the back of the book.
24:33
We recognize all of the great
24:34
nonprofits beyond Ham who
24:36
are working to sustain the scene.
24:37
And we give readers tips on how they
24:39
can amplify these nonprofits in
24:41
their.
24:42
We have been chatting with David
24:43
Brendan Hall and Mitch Baranowski.
24:45
They're a couple of the members of
24:46
the team behind the book.
24:48
Austin's music scene, your guide to
24:49
the city's most iconic artists and
24:51
venues.
24:52
I did notice that it says first
24:53
edition and you mentioned, uh,
24:55
you know, that maybe there will be
24:57
future ones. We only have about 30
24:58
seconds left.
24:59
Uh, but you said there's going to be
25:00
like a little bit of supplementary,
25:02
uh, information available online.
25:04
Yeah, we'll be launching an online
25:06
companion component and
25:08
stuff we couldn't fit in the book in
25:10
the very limited amount of pages
25:11
that we had.
25:13
So hopefully many more photos,
25:15
interviews, profiles,
25:17
the scene will continue to change
25:19
within a few months, within,
25:21
it could be next
25:22
week, another artist
25:24
or band forms or another venue
25:26
opens and then things will change
25:28
and we can update that in real time.
25:32
Reflects how this scene is
25:34
ever-evolving.
25:35
It's it's never gonna stop about
25:36
Thank you for going out and
25:37
supporting live music.
25:38
Yeah. Keep going.
25:40
This is David Brendan Hall and Mitch
25:41
Baranowski.
25:42
Thank you for being with us here on
25:44
Austin Signal.
25:45
Thank you.
25:46
And thank you out there for being us
25:48
on this Monday afternoon
25:50
or whenever you're tuning in.
25:52
This is Austin Signal, I'm your host
25:54
Jerry Quijano.
25:55
We have more information at kut.org
25:58
slash signal.