The last time Austin Bunn rolled through town it was as playwright during the Fringe Festival. He went on to add author of books and films to his bio, and then expanded all that with producer and director. Oh, and he’s a professor.
And also? A spectator of tennis tournaments.
Let’s stick for a moment on the writer, producer and director bits… Austin released a short film earlier this year called Campfire, a docu-fiction story set at a gay campground. I hadn’t watched it til just this second. It’s got some adult themes and visuals, and it’s quite lovely — highly recommend. You can stream it on YouTube.
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We met up in the city to bend elbows and catch up. We then stowed luggage and wandered into the relatively new Safi for dinner. (Formerly Salazar, now small plates with Moroccan influence and also quite lovely.)
There were many gaps to fill, spanning states and life shifts, plus ideation of a campaign of sorts for Ithaca, New York. The most popular slogan there, “Ithaca is GORGES” needs competition (See Google image search).
I taxi’d Austin and his brother up north to the tournament area afterward because that’s how we roll in the midwest.