Terra Toys has been a magnet since it was one of the first new retail establishments in years to open its doors downtown on Congress, on the lower part of the Avenue that sported an array of bars catering to those who also rented mailboxes at the same places and would turn over their monthly VA or SS disability checks and then run a tab all month until credit ran out. Terra Toys survived there and seemed to thrive until one of the recurring real-estate booms demolished its premises. That’s when Terra Toys pioneered on South Congress, continuing to sell its little handmade wooden toys on wheels and expanding to offer one of the very best selections in town of books for children (still true) and then Dragonsnaps, selling clothing for children.

Again the real-estate juggernaut charged through, and now Terra Toys is located at 2438 West Anderson Lane (445-4489; open at 9 am every day of the week but Sunday, when it opens at noon). Terra Toys still offers Steiff, Madame Alexander, kites, toy robots, dress-up clothes and hats, board games, construction toys, art supplies, activities, and much, much more. Don’t forget those showy cocktail rings sporting giant facted “jewels,” just three dollars. Most of the creatures on wheels and other handmade wooden toys from the old days went as presents, but I’ll never, ever give away my chicken on wheels or my wonderful floating battleship.

Change is in the air though. Turns out that iconic Bouldin Creek coffee shop will be moving sometime over the summer. According to the latest Bouldin bulletin, the newsletter of the neighborhood that proudly claims “weird starts here”, Bouldin Creek Coffee is moving to the long vacant Big G tire store location on the corner of S 1st and W Mary. Just up the street really, but it will be interesting to see how they handle the move.

Real change though is at Becker Elementary school on W Milton. Long a neighborhood corner stone, the small South Austin public elementary school is going dual language. What this means is that on top of the already excellent classes provided at the school, now the children will work together in English and Spanish. As someone who has long admired the ability of the Dutch to speak better English than many Brits and Americans, they do exactly this in their elementary schools. This is a massive opportunity for elementary age school kids.

Becker is having an open evening on Tuesday 2nd between 5-6:30pm, open to kids and parents. Come see what the school can offer your family. Becker is one of four AISD elementary schools chosen to pilot this program.

Next change for Bouldin Creek neighborhood, is that its’ neighborhood associations Annual General Meeting is moving to Austin City Hall on the 9th at 6:45pm. All residents from the West side of Congress to the East side of S Lamar, from Barton Springs to Oltorf are welcome and encouraged.

In fact, if you’ve ever been to a Bouldin Creek Neighborhood Plan Contact Team (BCNPCT) meeting before, at least one, then you are strongly encouraged to come to their meeting on Wednesday 3rd from 6-7pm at Morning Star on South 1st. BCNPT will be discussing and voting on two key ordinances, front and side parking, and Mobile Food vending. Arguably, the neighborhood has more mobile food vending than any other neighborhood in Austin.

They will also be electing officers, in order to vote on either of the ordinances or the elections, you need to have attended at least one prior meeting on the BCNAPT according to its’ rules. Even if you’ve not previously attended, this could be your first, and you’ll be able to vote at a future meeting.

The laughter began as soon as the curtain rose following the spritely overture. This production is absurdist and witty. It employs a small orchestra, a large chorus, a starring cast of fine singers and actors (I’d single out the king, plus his astrologer), costumes to which photos do no justice, and a wonderful set and lighting design. The choreography is truly outstanding. Everyone participates in these clever movements and dances, and performs very well. The choreographic elements are a true enhancement and are integral to the success of the show.

We in Austin are fortunate indeed to have an opportunity to see and hear The Star and in this first-rate production. The Austin Lyric Opera production has three performances remaining: on February 3, 5 (Wednesday and Friday at 7:30 pm), and 7 (Sunday at 3:30 pm).

The reasons cited for this are a strong local economies(I guess they didn’t check with city hall on tax revenues) and good prospects for job growth; also that we are a college town. Described as a “smaller market” it says we tend to thrive during recessions as more people enroll at universities.

I’m up here for Ops Camp Austin. What? One of the other new cool things thats happening in the tech industry, and in which Austin is also a major driver, an “un-conference”.

Unlike the big commercial conferences that spend a fortune on big locations, put on endless sessions in parallel, all indiscernible from each other and attendees suffer through death by powerpoint multiple times a day. They also tend to be expensive to attend, the hotels are expensive etc.

So an un-conference is the opposite. It costs nothing to attend, it’s informal, there is no pre-set agenda, talks get posted to an informal grid, they are limited in time and thus powerpoint charts, and theres both an air of excitement and anticipation, we don’t know what we are going to do but it’s a big turnout from a lot of new and established Austin Tech companies.

• The idea of the Mayor’s Book Club is a little bit hokey. Some years I read the book selected and some years I don’t. I’d been passing this year’s by each time I saw it displayed at a library branch, but eventually my resistance broke bown and I borrowed it. You should, too. The various summaries I’ve seen don’t do Amigoland justice. It’s a fast read and an entertaining and good-humored one. I look forward to reading more by Oscar Casares, who teaches at UT.
• John Mackey, nearly synonymous with Whole Foods, is the subject of a long article in the New Yorker of January 4, with extended quotations from JM himself (”Food Fighter: Does Whole Foods’ C.E.O. know what’s best for you?” by Nick Paumgarten). We read about the WH origin story, with passing reference to Central Market. Although the writer draws out JM very well, he doesn’t have much, if any, success in coaxing others to talk about JM and WF on the record. I enjoyed reading the description of the fountain of chocolate and the brief passing reviews of prepared foods from those counters.
• Taking his place on a very short list, our own James McMurtry is named Most Valuable Rocker in The Nation of January 11. That is one category among the many in “MVPs of 2009” (byline John Nichols).

It’s a virtuous circle, Statesman cover the “faux fight”, TWC and News Corp aka Fox buy space in the Statesman; TWC charges us for cable, Fox charges TWC for their coverage; Fox sells advertising space during and between it’s coverage, and when they can, they charge directly for the product; the advertisers put up their price to cover their additional cost. The common theme here… we get charged more for what is little more than a fake fight. In the end we know the corporations will settle, it’s in all their best interests. They just want to obfuscate the issues so much that in the end we will just accept what ever we are told. The “opposing” sides have already launched web sites with their own version of the truth.

TWC would have it that FOX are demanding a 300% rate hike in order to carry their programming. According to the Statesman, Time Warner’s current deal with FOX in Austin, and several other markets (like Dallas, LA, Detroit, Orlando, and Tampa) expires at midnight Dec. 31st. We’ve seen this before with TWC, and the same “play” is also running between Comcast and Directv over teh Versus network. At the heart of the issue is the same seen in previous other disputes between cable network providers and the cable company: Money.

Given the channel bundles that are forced on us on all the TV providers, not just TWC, a 300% rise isn’t really such a big deal, TWC carry hundreds of channels, and charge a bundle for anything over the legal minimum channel bundle. Fox on the other hand have dozens of channels. which I for one never watch. Ok, I do record games off the Fox Soccer Channel, check the result and if it looks like a good game, put it on one evening. Fox would have it that TWC has a license to print money, and what it is asking compared to what it provides, the additional charge is easily justified. TWC on the other hand is raking money in from both charging for basic programming, and cable bundles, as well as from video/movies on demand and profits and revenue is up…. Fox looks on admiringly and wonders, “how can we get a piece of that action?”

The real issue here is the lack of transparency and obfuscation. TWC should be subject to two rules in any market where they provide cable. ONE. They should allow customers to select their own cable channels and channel bundles. Trust me, I wouldn’t want any of the News Corp. aka Fox channels, and given the quality of most of the non-HD channels on TWC, I’d even pass up on the Fox Soccer Channel, as you really can’t tell who has the ball during a long shot. That would allow TWC to defray the charge demanded by Fox, since the Fox signal actually isn’t being broadcast to however-many-million viewers. TWO. On their web site, TWC should be be REQUIRED to list the constituent rebroadcast costs for each channel and for the services that TWC provide.

Of course, neither TWC or News Corp. would want that. It allows customers to have a real choice, which they don’t have now. It also effectively eliminates these faux battles that get drummed up as negotiating tactics by marketing departments every time a deal is up for renewal. 10% of something is better than 100% of nothing at all.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not on TWC’s side. They provide a service which is barely out of the 1990’s, and their DVR/Cable box and remote, barely out of the 1980’s. I’m certainly not on FOX’s side, since I really don’t watch any of their coverage and mostly the only time I see any of their “news” its when it is being lampooned by Jon Stewart, which interestingly, I watch on the Internet for free…

[TIA: I updated a number of minor typos in this post, my apologies]