where's the [beef]

you can take the boy out of kansas, but you can't take the kansas out of the boy...nor can you stop that boy from consuming massive amounts of bbq on his birthday.

last year at this time i had just moved to a new state and hardly new anyone, this year i was able to spend my birthday with an excellent group of friends made the last 12 months.  i also enjoyed some of the best bbq i've found in the northeast at a place called "salvage"right here in portland, and by enjoyed i mean i ordered a meal called the "meat coma."  add on the fact that at this bbq place you can order a gallon of pabst blue ribbon and i was in heaven...

stuffed, bloated, covered in bbq sauce and suffering from the meat sweats...but in pure heaven.

austin city [limit]?

this was year [eight] for my annual pilgrimage to austin to attend the austin city limits festival. more importantly this was the eighth year to enjoy a weekend catching up with some amazing friends.

as always the weekend was filled with good music, great food and wonderful conversation.  some highlights of this year include a discovery of a great east austin bar, the yellow jacket social club, after typing in "hip bar" into the yelp app.  this year also found me meeting up with a great architect, who is more of a mentor than he probably realizes.  a guy who became a friend while i was a student on my architectural internship 10 years ago.  i also added yet another "decemberists" concert to my list, as well as a performance from leon bridges. an artist who evokes otis redding and sam cooke. a fantastic musician i hope to see again.  also tacos...lots and lots of tacos!

as good of a time as we always have, for the first time we discussed the possibility of trying something else out.  we all love the music, but at the root of the weekend is the fact it's three friends making a commitment to stay in touch.  we've done acl, maybe it's time to move on.  who knows if i'll be writing about acl in 2016, but i can guarantee, i will for sure be writing about a wonderful adventure between three friends. hopefully it will include music...and tacos.

it gets harder and harder to capture new and fresh images of the festival each year, but i hope you enjoy this years batch.