Great and inexpensive honey chrysanthemum tea.

I’ll be heading out of town for a few weeks, but will likely return with a few new images and stories. I’ll see you soon.

Recently I met Justin, who restores vintage cars on the side, in South Slope, Brooklyn.

Under the hood of the 1953 DeSoto that he’s been spending some time on recently.

While we were shooting, we also talked over some beers. That’s another vehicle of his in the background, a 1950s Ford delivery truck.

When I moved to Brooklyn (via Manhattan and Queens for a few years), I was surprised to learn that many people have project cars. I had assumed the concept only existed outside of large cities – but there are definitely a few very close to my apartment, including a super-loud drag car a few doors down.

Some cyclists in Adams Morgan, a neighborhood in Washington, DC.

This past weekend, Jenn and I took a bus down to DC to hang out with Terry and Stacey. Stacey took us to a large public pool with a diving board – something I hadn’t seen in years, maybe due to insurance liabilities. Definitely the best way to spend the afternoon on one of the hottest days of the year: flying through the air, trying new tricks (while hopefully not landing on one’s stomach).

• I forgot to thank Big Joseph for the great birthday dinner over in Bushwick two weekends ago. After eating, Jenn, Big Joseph and I went over to my cousin Julia’s open studio party, a short bike ride away. She and her friends were in great spirits, and I recall talking to someone for a while about fire-breathing / fire-swallowing and such.

An alleyway near Columbia Heights, in Washington, DC.

The glorious Hamilton Pool, in Austin, Texas.

• I just returned from 10 days in Austin with Jenn and a bunch of friends from Seattle and Cincinnati. We rented a house and set out to swim and eat our way through the city, also catching some local music in the process.

I’ll always be partial to palm trees. They remind me of fond memories of visiting Florida in the early 90s. Always magical.

It was good to see Daniel Johnston’s illustrations still up, like this spot near the University of Texas campus, off of Guadaloupe. Many stores sold clothing with his illustrations printed on them as well.

Brad and Jenn near the large Capitol Building, in downtown Austin.

Sapphire performing a song at a drag game show night at Jo’s Coffee Shop.

Austin seems to be overflowing with little animals and insects. This green anole (Anolis carolinensis) was in our backyard, and would occasionally puff up its reddish throat.

Austin will be continued in part 2.

• A quick note, unrelated to Austin: two Brooklyn-based filmmakers have just released new short films that I’d like to mention:

Sean Dunne (who created “Man in Van” and “The Archive”) just put out a new short film called “The Bowler.” Like his other pieces, this too presents, without overt judgment, the life of an unique individual. Worth checking out, even if you’re not curious to see into the life of a man from Staten Island, all of Sean Dunne’s pieces are shot and edited beautifully.

Another Brooklyn filmmaker, Terrence Elenteny, mentioned his new short film, “LeBron James: King of NY,” to me the other day as well. While I’m not the biggest fan of professional basketball (collegiate is more appealing to me), there are some great moments in this short, which is comprised almost entirely of interviews with people on the street in Manhattan.