Scouts

kate_tx2


Name: Kate W.

City: Austin, TX

Kate first fell in love with Austin during a cross-country road trip in college. After graduation, she relocated to the city, taking a job managing an art gallery. (I didn’t run the gallery, exactly). Kate is now going it on her own as a freelance art writer and curator. She is the Austin correspondent for the Texas art site glasstire.com and also writes for the Austin Chronicle. She also has several curatorial projects lined up in Austin over the next year. Kate goes to “every single art opening in Austin,” and also attends a lot of shows.


When she’s not writing about art, Kate also makes it, usually in the form of video. She noticed a gap in the Austin art scene when she first arrived (“it’s a lot of two-dimensional stuff, painting and drawing, and I wanted to something more experiential.”) So she started the Austin Video Bee, a collective of female artists who make collaborative videos and curate multimedia exhibitions. A lot of her videos are up on her website, katehrineawatson.com.


posts by this scout:

Guilty Summer Movie Pleasures

(Sep 03, 2010) The eighties was a great time for dumb summer movies — the kind of flicks you want to watch on VHS after a long day of indulgin...

David Byrne+Texas = Movie Magic

(Aug 11, 2010) Why, for the love of God, hadn’t anyone told me about the awesomeness of David Byrne’s 1986 musical film True Storie...

Foodie TV Love

(Aug 05, 2010) In the summer months, when it turns far too hot for exercising outside, I am forced into the gym to run on the treadmill. So how d...

San Antonio’s Secret Art Jam

(Aug 04, 2010) When I moved to Austin, I imagined I lived in a bubble far away from the rest of Texas. The state, frankly, scared my east coast ...

Another Classic Film by Jeunet

(Aug 02, 2010) Why, oh why, is summer the worst movie theater season for anyone with an IQ higher than a rock? Lucky for us non-neanderthals, ...

Fashion decisions get crowdsourced

(Jul 30, 2010) Ever since reading about fashion websites that offer public feedback, I have been completely obsessed. A massive gallery of inter...

Best Girl Groups for Summah

(Jul 13, 2010) What could be better on a hot summer night than speeding down a wide Texas boulevard with your lady pals cranking 6o’s gir...

My Ongoing Love for Claudia Kishi

(Jul 12, 2010) A Contemporary Claudia If you were born in the eighties and you’re an American lady, there seems to be a fair to excellent c...

A plethora of Texas Swimscapes

(Jul 06, 2010) Ok, so Texas is huge and Austin ain’t exactly close to any real ocean. So where’s a girl to go when she wants to bea...

Gorging myself on classic Canadian (?!) television

(Jul 01, 2010) Yes, I’m pretty damn late on this, but why didn’t anyone tell me about the amazing TV show Trailer Park Boys sooner? ...

Classic Films to Beat the Heat

(Jun 28, 2010) There’s nothing better than sitting in a dark, old movie theater on a brutally hot evening. It’s just so…decade...

The Lure of Internet Celebrity News

(May 20, 2010) I try my damndest not to get sucked into guilty internet pleasures as ubiquitous as blogger Perez Hilton, TMZ or Gawker. But fro...

Cinema: A Local Adventure

(May 20, 2010) Austin is a lucky, lucky town to have the incredible Alamo Drafthouse movie theaters. There are now nine throughout Texas, but Au...

Vintage Bathing Suits Deep in the Heart of Texas

(May 12, 2010) In my other, non-blogging life, I have a strange day job these days: romance novelist. It’s cheesy but great, and I’...

The Goofiest Horror Film of The Decade?

(May 10, 2010) I’m a sucker for all kinds of cheesy horror films, so naturally I jumped at the chance to see the most insane horror flick ...

Protected: Socializing in General: Back to Basics

(May 07, 2010) Potlucks are serious business in Austin... In Austin, it’s an absolute necessity to get creative when it comes to finding th...

Experiments in Tacoland, USA

(May 06, 2010) Austin is most definitely one serious taco town. Breakfast tacos, if not the official food of my city, certainly are consumed mor...

Art+Reality Show= Huge Hit?

(May 04, 2010) Is it possible that I might finally get sucked into the insane world that is reality tv? The answer is disturbingly a resounding ...

Underground Gems from SXSW

(May 01, 2010) Well, I survived another year of SXSW, and I hope you did too. This year the crowds seemed…crowdier? The places were packed...

Best Austin Dive Bars for Hiding In

(Apr 02, 2010) In town for South By Southwest and wonder where you can escape the crowds and see, well, Texas? There are too many options to eve...

Mix and Match: Menswear/Work Gear/Combat Garb

(Apr 01, 2010) As seen on the street at Paris Fashion Week This spring, before it gets too damn hot, I’m gender bending with the best of th...

Country/Rock Biopic Glory

(Apr 01, 2010) One of my personal heroes, the legendary Dolly Parton, made the news last month with the official statement that she’s worki...

My top three Texas SXSW bands

(Mar 27, 2010) Brooklyn-based indie kingpin party promoter Todd P is back at SXSW this year with an incredible line up of shows. First on my lis...

The Creative Life of Dying Public Access

(Mar 24, 2010) If public access TV served as a proto Internet-like tool for creativity, where does the medium stand now that it’s a dying f...

Restaurant Trailer Explosion!

(Mar 18, 2010) The city of Austin is a lovely swirl of activity these days. When I first moved here three and a half years ago, there were three ...

The Sexy Evolution of the Contemporary Vampire/ The Guilty Pleasure of Twilight

(Mar 16, 2010) I have to admit, I’m a bit of a horror flick nerd, and I could postulate and theorize all day long about why the myth of th...

The Genius of Vintage Variety Shows

(Mar 15, 2010) The format of the variety show has, for the most part, been tossed in the  trash can and replaced with a global obsession with ...

Death of an Austin Landmark?

(Mar 12, 2010) Just a few weeks ago, I was drinking a Lone Star and listening to one of my favorite musicians of all time (Jonathan Richman of t...

A Few Movies I Plan to Sneak into at SXSW

(Mar 03, 2010) Although I’m regularly too poor/cheap/etc. to buy an actual badge for any “official” SXSW events, there are sco...

South By Sundress Alert

(Mar 01, 2010) It’s coming, it’s coming! The temperatures are rising, the sun is emerging, and word is already trickling in a month ...

A New Model of Corporate Participation

(Feb 17, 2010) Eric Nakamura and Saelee Oh, from Scion Installation 6 Tour: Video Last fall, I was stunned when I saw that one of my favorite fil...

Television, Texas-Style

(Feb 17, 2010) It’s true, I love the camp and the drama of living in a state with an epic self-mythologizing complex. The pride and the br...

‘Tis the Season (for Feeling Creepy)

(Feb 03, 2010) I love Austin in the winter. Temperatures drop below fifty in January (and sometimes February, too!) and the need to cozy up and ...

Not to be Missed Houston Art Spots

(Feb 01, 2010) When I moved to Texas, I had no idea that I’d end up loving the wild and woolly city of Houston. Houston seemed like “...

That Vintage Scandavian Look

(Jan 29, 2010) I can’t stop watching “Let the Right One In,” the gorgeous Swedish vampire flick that has set a new bar for th...

Underrated Disco Geniuses

(Jan 25, 2010) My first experience with disco was a familiar one for a kid in the ’90’s:  dancing my heart out to the YMCA at my co...

Notes from the (70’s) Underground

(Jan 14, 2010) Until I started blogging for this site, I never truly realized how much my life revolves around the vintage. Apparently you coul...

Found Video Blogs Are Taking Over My Life

(Jan 13, 2010) As someone who relishes discovering bizarre gems from the past, I bask in the vast treasures to be discovered on the internet.  ...

Vintage Teenage Angst Revisted

(Jan 08, 2010) What is it about the end of a decade that makes us want to press the “reset” button and start anew? How do we cultura...

British TV Awesomeness

(Dec 28, 2009) What is it about the Brits that make them awesome at making weird, gut-bustingly funny television? I’m not sure, but I can&...

More Excuses to Dress Up

(Dec 24, 2009) I live in a notoriously dressed down kind of a town. Go to the fanciest restaurant in town (my favorite? Uchi! Mmm) and you’...

Xmas in Texas

(Dec 21, 2009) A friend made this tableau the last time it snowed in 2006. Snow comes rarely to Austin, Texas. I’ve spent multiple winter h...

The Eastside Goes Wild

(Dec 10, 2009) It’s official: the Eastside of Austin is happening like crazy. Just one year ago, lone coffee shops and galleries dotted th...

A New Attempt at Family Comedy

(Dec 04, 2009) The family comedy sitcom genre is as old as the hills, but as everything around us changes dramatically (even the medium of telev...

The rebirth of the Sock Hop

(Dec 02, 2009) Once a month, everyone awesome in Austin, Texas comes out and dances like a crazy person. Now entering its third year, the Second ...

Three Sites Changing the Future of Art

(Nov 19, 2009) In a moment when the art market seems to be woozy with apocalyptic visions of economic crisis, several new websites are truly ch...

Vintage 70’s Heist Film Glory

(Nov 17, 2009) OK, admittedly, I don’t exactly have the temperament to shoplift even a candy bar, much less rob a bank. But what was it ab...

Letters, Notes and Ephemera from Days Past

(Nov 02, 2009) from BibliOdyssey Obviously, the web is a virtual treasure trove of endless found items, but it seems like recently I’ve not...

The real live music happening in Austin

(Oct 31, 2009) Sunset Austin has many slogans, and most of them are lame. “Keep Austin weird!” shouts an endless stream of tie-dyed t...

Guilty Pleasures from the Past, Reclaimed

(Oct 30, 2009) My So Called Life Dear internet, why are you such a treasure trove of time wasting pleasures? Thanks for ruining my life again! Th...

Confessions of a Cowboy Junkie

(Oct 29, 2009) Feathers Boutique I’ll be the first to admit it: I’m not a Texan. So how did I find myself with a closet full of west...

In a Marfan state of mind

(Oct 20, 2009) Marfa, Texas. This place is a living legend in the desert: nearly impossible to get to (and 6 hours from Austin), I make the journ...

The Eyes of Texas are Upon Me

(Oct 16, 2009) James Dean, Giant When I first moved to Austin, it seemed everywhere I went I heard the creepy University of Texas cheer song, &#...