Our site will be undergoing maintenance from 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 20. During this time, Bookshop, checkout, and other features will be unavailable. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Cookies must be enabled to use this website.
Book Image Not Available Book Image Not Available
Book details
  • Genre:MUSIC
  • SubGenre:General
  • Language:English
  • Pages:300
  • eBook ISBN:9780991275700

Cactus Burning

Austin, Texas and the Battle for the Iconic Cactus Cafe

by Michael F. Scully

Book Image Not Available Book Image Not Available
Overview
When the University of Texas at Austin decided to close the Cactus Cafe, a tiny live-music venue tucked into a campus corner, it sparked a months-long rebellion that drew campus and community into heated debates about art vs. commerce, the generation gap, and even the value of college football. As Austin citizens, students, and administrators waged a war of words, activists - mobilizing through social media, mass meetings, and the mainstream press - spearheaded an astonishing and ultimately successful preservation effort. Relying heavily on the voices of participants, "Cactus Burning: Austin, Texas and the Battle for the Iconic Cactus Cafe" honors the culture-crusaders who joined the Cactus' cause, while serving as an essential primer for everyone struggling to save their own local heritage.
Description
When the University of Texas at Austin decided to close the Cactus Cafe, a tiny live-music venue tucked into a campus corner, it sparked a months-long rebellion that drew campus and community into heated debates about art vs. commerce, the generation gap, and even the value of college football. As Austin citizens, students, and administrators waged a war of words, activists - mobilizing through social media, mass meetings, and the mainstream press - spearheaded an astonishing and ultimately successful preservation effort. Relying heavily on the voices of participants, "Cactus Burning: Austin, Texas and the Battle for the Iconic Cactus Cafe" honors the culture-crusaders who joined the Cactus' cause, while serving as an essential primer for everyone struggling to save their own local heritage. Artists as diverse as Townes Van Zandt, Jason Mraz, and Black Francis of The Pixies - along with countless others – have graced the stage of the nationally renowned, 30-year-old Cactus, a room with a storied past and a stature that is hard to overstate. At only 150 seats, it has long been a favorite among musicians and fans alike for its sacred listening-room experience and general air of intimacy. To the citizens of Austin, which proudly proclaims itself “the live music capital of the world,” the Cactus is simply a priceless cultural treasure and a mainstay of a vibrant live-music scene. Forced on the defensive, university administrators first blamed the closure on economic concerns. Then, in a calculated attempt to defuse tension, they shifted gears and argued that it was due to student desires for a different kind of cafe. Their new mantra was, in effect, "the kids did it," a contention that many of those same "kids" challenged vigorously. Rising above the noise, a group of students and community members joined forces. Using rallies, petitions, fundraising, and education, they compelled an embarrassed university to embrace its own multi-faceted mission statement, one that called for both promotion of the arts and service to the general public. Author Michael F. Scully, who was himself part of the Cactus crusade, tells this story from the beginning to its unexpected end. Drawing upon internal university documents, press accounts, social media postings, and his own 30 interviews with key participants, he couples scrupulous research with a reporter's insight and thoughtful prose. The result is a narrative of hope - one that will inspire others to support, and even save, the local institutions that matter most to them.
About the author
Michael F. Scully's earliest musical tastes were shaped by two formidable cultural forces - The Beatles and Bob Dylan. As a child, Scully says, I "didn't understand” everything about these artists, especially with regard to Dylan, but I “recognized that they were cool in some mysterious way." That early exposure to rock and folk would prove formative. Decades later, after sojourns through classic rock and electric blues, Scully dove back into folk (now rebranded as "roots music"), inspiring both a book ("The Never-Ending Revival: Rounder Records and the Folk Alliance," University of Illinois Press, 2008) and regular visits to the Cactus Cafe, the iconic music venue located on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. As Scully puts it, "the sounds of the Cactus are where I began and where I've ended up."  An Austinite by way of San Francisco and New York, Scully was a trial lawyer for 15 years, before he took a decidedly different turn and earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Texas. On the inspiration for "Cactus Burning: Austin, Texas and the Battle for the Iconic Cactus Cafe," he says, "When UT decided to close the cafe, I was absolutely blindsided. It seemed so wrong and so stupid. I loved the university for giving me a slot in its graduate program, and was always grateful for that. But when it announced the end of the Cactus Cafe I was heartsick. I wasn't alone, either: very quickly, a movement to save the Cactus sprang up and mobilized."  Scully applies his historian's eye to the cultural forces that gave rise to the Cactus, the artists that made it what it is today, and the Austin activists who ultimately saved it. “I’m drawn to unique, local institutions,” he says, “the kinds of places that give communities their distinct personalities. In "Cactus Burning," I hope to demonstrate that people care deeply about such places, and that when governing institutions disregard their concerns, people can fight city hall and sometimes win.” It seems at times, he says, that so many things divide us. “I love it when communities demonstrate that they can and will stand together.”