Wii and Beach House; Errand & Cindy; Waco & Thanksgiving

11/20

Cindy came over for a little Wii Sports and then we went to the Prole to catch Beach House.

Beach House's debut had just hit Pitchfork a week or two earlier, and it showed in the relatively small turnout. Regardless, it was a wonderful show.

If we are to take Beach House's name literally and use it as a metaphor for their music, then this figurative house is decrepit, and long abandoned. Not condemened, because that would imply that someone actually gave the thing some attention. A thick layer of dust is on everything. The door hangs on one hing. The floor boards are rotten, the furniture and upholstery tattered. Sunlight, peaking in through the grey clouds outside on the beach (which is desolate), trickles in and scatters as it hits the dust in the air. Sand litters the floor. Everything is sepia toned.

This structure, as with the music, is all that's left of some sentimental memories, memories that belong to ghosts.

That's the sound of Beach House. Old, wheezing, ghostly, sentimental. Quiet organs lay a backdrop for soft, slow guitar.

And the effect came through even more in person. Great little show.

11/21

I usually take the liberty of skipping out on school for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and so this Tuesday marked my last night in town. As such, there were things to do. At the time I thought I might take the Wii home with me, and so I made a Best Buy run to pick up a copy of Excite Truck, using some gift certificates I had earned in buying my TV. Then, off to Whole foods to pick up a few items from the grocery store for Dad, on to CVS to refill some prescriptions, and then finally home to spend a little time with Cindy.

11/22

I think I may, actually, have gone into school for a half day, or something at least passing for one. Then, on to the road, stopping off at Wendy's for a second attempt at that bacon jalapeño cheddar melt thingy, which was certainly enjoyable (man I'm hungry). The drive back to Waco was, maybe, a little busy, but nothing major.

When I arrived, Dad had a good dinner for us: curried pumpkin soup and bruschetta.

11/23-5

The rest of the holiday was pretty quiet. There was a minor skirmish over my accusations that Dad had screwed up the turkey. We broke out the smoker on Saturday to do the Christmas turkey, and I proved that I'm not wrong, I'm just an asshole, when we properly brined the turkey and it turned out delectably. We also did some pork roast and ribs which were wonderful as well and provided me with meals to return to Houston with.

Becca and I went to Cricket's on Saturday night and had a couple beers before we were herded out in the rudest, most assholeish manner possible. I was waiting for Rebecca to come out of the bathroom, was told to leave, asked if I could wait for my sister and was told that, "There's only one exit. She'll figure it out." This was all well before 2:00, by the way. I shot the guy the finger and left, wishing that I could take my tip back.

But anyway, all in all, a nice, quiet holiday. Good food (mostly) and good times with the family.

Justice League, Disturbing news, the Prole; Pizza score; Hans'; Jana Hunter and Lola's; Valhalla, Tapatia, the Petrol Station; Borat; Wii

11/13

Will came over and we watched some Justic League. Which was good.

Amidst that, Bryan sends me an IM and mentions he had gotten an e-mail from Rachal, who, apparently, is now married. I could list many reasons why this should have meant absolutely nothing, and they're all pretty much true, but at the time, it was like being punched in the stomach, having the wind knocked out of me. It took a good week or two to process. In the end, all is well, but hell, we're over three years past this and it still stings a bit. Maybe it always will, maybe it won't. But the worst is long past over, and that I'm thankful for.

So shortly after that I went up to the Prole for the usual Monday activities. I was more than a bit distracted, but good company, good beer, and good music improve any situation.

11/14

I only stop here to note that after journal club, I managed to snag a whole Star Pizza to take home. Yoink!

11/16

Jana Hunter, whom Cindy and I had met in Austin, was playing her first show in Houston since I'd met her. I only knew her musically through her affiliation with Devandra Banhart and the "freak folk" movement.

What she played was nice, light, pretty folky acoustic stuff. It was really good, actually, and I really enjoyed the show. It's funny, hearing her voice, it was like hearing a different person from the one I knew.

Afterwards, I caught up with Merry-Lynn and some of the other youngsters from school at Lola's for some cheap drinks. After paying the homeless guy a couple bucks to not deface my car, I walked into the ultra-divey place. I liked it a lot, actually. A few parts Scruffy's, a few parts Mary Jane's. Dan later would ask if I went there to buy drugs, but it didn't seem that shady to me. I thought it was rather nice, though nice as in pleasant, not nice as in high quality.

11/17

Cindy, as usual, was working late, so Kim from Keck and I went to get some dinner at Tapatia since we don't always get to hang out much, and it's a good time.

Cindy and I had made arrangements to hang out with her friend Tyson and his maybe-maybe-not girlfriend Louisa. We me them at their place up in the Heights, or, actually, in their neighbor's backyards where we were promptly offered food and beer. We took them up on the latter, noticed how nice and neighborly they were, (The Heights: Houston's Canada), and then drove a little ways to the Petrol Station, which was, gasp, outside the loop.

It was a charming little place. Equal parts neighborhood coffee shop and neighborhood bar, there was tastefully mismatched furniture both inside and outside, and pleasant-seeming people both inside and outside. Even some playground equipment out back (you know, for the kids), and a fire, which sadly we did not sit around. There was a nicely chosen selection of beer available. I'm not exactly wholly comfortable with Tyson, and his situation with Louisa was pretty strange, too, so it wasn't the most socially at-ease evening, but seeing this hidden gem of a bar was reward enough.

11/18

It was t-minus 12 hours and counting until Wii-day, and I was determined to do what I could do get one. I knew Toys 'R Us was having a midnight sale, so I called them to see what the deal was, and apparently there were already 60 people in line for 100 systems. That option didn't look good.

Cindy had made plans for us to see Borat with her brother. I made sure that it would be over in time for me to hit Amazon at 11:00 PM when the system would theoretically be available.

The film was, frankly, awful. I liked the wonderment at the cultural differences of the Americas; I hated the naked fat guys, the other gratuitous nudity, and other low-brow humor that was neither clever nor particularly funny.

Anyway, we did a sweep by Toys 'R Us just to confirm that there was, in fact, a long line, more to witness the spectacle than anything else.

We got home, I started hitting the reload button on Amazon, and Cindy went for Whataburger. Amazon never put the systems up for sale, or, rather, I missed the 15-second window in which they were up for sale. I resolved to hit one Target location for an 8:00 opening, the next for a 9:00 opening, a Circuit City across the street for a 10:00 opening, and Sam's for an 11:00 opening.

I stayed up a little longer, until 2 AM, still thinking that Amazon might put the Wii up for sale. No such luck, so, to bed.

11/19

Up at 7:05, threw some clothes on, and Cindy and I took off for the South Main Target. We got there and only saw a few people in line, and I knew that it couldn't be that easy. Apparently they had already given out the tickets for all available Wiis and that the people who had them had gone for coffee, breakfast, and/or bathroom breaks.

The remaining people politely filled us in on the situation. I quickly made for the Meyerland Target store, arriving there by 7:30. I was told by the nice ladies waiting in line to get systems for Christmas for their kids that there were 34 systems available. I think I was something like 35th in line, but not everyone in line was buying one, so I figured I was safe.

Cindy's brother wanted us to pick one up for him, too, so just to be safe, Cindy went across the street to Circuit City and was second in line after a hispanic family, who apparently was buying them to sell on eBay, and had other family members in line all over town. A fucking racket, apparently.

Anyway, turns out the store was opening early (8), so soon the manager came out and passed out tickets. As he got closer, I got nervous, as the stack rapidly seemed to diminish. Turns out, I had reason to worry, because the bastards only passed out 30 tickets (I later saw two spare Wiis sitting out).

But I got the last ticket, #30. I couldn't believe my luck. I had maybe five minutes to spare between my arrival and the arrival of the people behind me. One of the guys behind me stayed in line because he was special or something. The rest went across the street to try CC. I chat pleasantly with the ladies in front of me, some of whom wanted iPod advice for Christmas presents.

So they open up the store, and we walk to the electronics section in the back and line up. Basically, they let people walk down the aisle one at a time to pick out games and accessories. I grab Zelda, the primary impetus for the entire outing, consider picking up two more games to get a free gift card but decide it's probably not worth it, as there aren't really two more games worth buying and I already have some store credit to use at Best Buy. I also grab an extra remote, so that Cindy and I can play Sports, and, against my better judgment, grab an extra "nunchuck" attachment, which at the moment only allows for two-player boxing, and also against my better judgement, the "classic" controller for playing more traditional games with more traditional controls.

I then get up to the register and get one of the last three Wiis. The guy behind me asks to make a phone call, puts the sales associate on the phone to talk to whoever it is on the other end of the line, and is given a system to buy, just like that. Nice that he didn't try to take one of the vouchers from the unconnected customers.

So, bag o' Wii in hand, I wander through the store to the built-in Starbucks and get beverages for Cindy and I, walk out, stow the Wii safely in my locked car, and go over to Circuit City to wait with Cindy.

There's a rumor that the store will also open an hour early, but they don't, nor do any of the employees entering offer up any additional information. The wait's a bit long, and slightly cold, but a bit before 10 vouchers are passed out. There's some bullshit about having to show a driver's license so that they only do one per household, which is completely silly but not important. Then they say that if multiple people came in the same car, but of course there's absolutely no way to enforce that. Idiocy.

I briefly consider buying one to sell on eBay but decide instead to let somebody else in line have one in hopes that it will go to a loving home. I ocasionally regret that decision...

Circuit City is a bit short on games and accessories, so I'm glad that I bought my system at Target. Cindy and I return to my place, I quickly hook the thing up, and we play some tennis. It's great, though most of you reading this already know that. Cindy leaves to go visit her parents', and I take a nap.

Later I'll get up and get started on Zelda...

Randa's visit and Oliver's birthday; Kristin's Birthday; Jeff's Birthday and the Mink; GS Picnic; Cousin Jer and the Prole

11/7

Having been out of town all weekend I stayed in and got some laundry done. I also, having been taken in by a Wendy's commercial for that burger that has bacon, cheddar sauce, and jalapeños, went to get one... but they fucked up my order, and it wasn't worth driving back for. Stymied.

11/8

Randa (hi Randa!) was in town to catch a cruise with her mom out of Galveston, so she took the opportunity to get a Niko Niko's fix. I joined she, Brina, Shawn, and Cindy for some good ol' Greek food.

Afterwards, the ladies decided to join me at Two Rows' for dollar beer night in honor of Oliver's birthday. Good times were had.

11/9

Keeping the birthday theme of tapas, but changing the local from Mi Luna to Beso (which Citysearch doesn't seem to list). I had fond memories of being there with Lisa and some of her friends after I set up an internet connection for one of them, but this time I found the food had slipped towards mediocrity and the prices high.

Afterwaards, Kristin's search for novelty took us to martini specialists the Davenport. I had a very girly martini which drank like dessert, and then... hmm... round two escapes me. It was definitely something less girly. Maybe another martini, maybe a beer. I liked the Davenport, but I think it belongs in later stage of my life when I can sit around for an evening and sip $10 martinis.

11/10

Absolutely nothing happened.

11/11

The second birthday celebration of the week belonged to Jeff. We met at one of his and Jim's favorites, Mo Mong. Will and I were the only straight ones there (Cindy had another dinner to go to), and I felt... a bit out of place, but the meal was enjoyable enough. There was a free shot from a liquor rep (the fact that I can't remember which one might suggest that they're not the most effective advertisers). There was also some sort of asian beer with a tiger on the bottle. Appetizers were ordered, including wasabi crab cakes, which were good despite my general dislike of wasabi, probably due to restraint on the part of the chef. I settled on some sort of curried chicken dish for my meal, which turned out to be good, fairly light.

Afterwards, Will and I went for drinks with Jeff's crew to some gay club or another. Then we split. I met up with the usual Dan crew and Cindy at the Mink.

11/12

Ah, the graduate school picnic. A keg to polish off, barbecue to eat, parking places to find. After driving around for nigh half an hour, a very nice mother in the car ahead of me let me take a parking space that had just opened up.

So after a quick trek through the park, it was barbecue time. Barbecue this year was provided by Pappa's Bros., and was a step up from "http://houston.citysearch.com/profile/9953169/houston_tx/demeris_barbecue.html"
>Demeris, which we've had in years past, and always seems rather... marginal.

There seems to be a common phenomenon that the homeless people hover, 30 yards away or so, waiting for our leftovers. Which is great. We always have way too much food, and they sure need it more than we do. But when they start asking for beer, it's a bit of a grey area. Thankfully one that David handled, unilaterally deciding that it was probably... a bad idea.

We only had one keg this year, down from two, but it was plenty, and I told David W. that I was committed to helping polish it off. In fact, as the afternoon wore on and the beer didn't, really, a call went out. A call for a keg stand.

And then somebody volunteered me. Keep in mind that, having been to Baylor, and probably having been underexposed to keg culture in general, I'd never done one. So I did. And it was good.

Cindy was next. We got the ball rolling and then decided to make our exit, leaving the remainder of the crowd, inspired to do great things, to finish off the keg.

After that I started out for my aunt and uncle's, realizing soon afterwards that I was almost certainly a bit drunk. So I set course for home, collapsed on the sofa for a while, and then Cindy came over later and we hung out.

11/13

It turns out that decision was for the better, as when I went to Susan and Jerry's on Sunday afternoon, who was in town for a visit but Cousin Jer? So it was good to see him. He wanted to go to dinner at "the boat" which is apparently a wonderfully trashy place to get fried seafood, but that didn't work out so we ended up at something else that sort of looked like a boat, but ended up being a seafood/asian place. Not exactly what he had in mind, but we made it work.

Austin; More Ben Folds

Real-time interlude: I started this entry, well, a couple weeks back, and just haven't gotten back to it. I realize everyone is tired of being three months behind on my life. I'm trying. Really.

It's a nice Sunday afternoon, and Dan's on his way over to teach me to drive stick. I'm pretty sure this is an experience I should have had about 8 years ago, involving my dad yelling at me, but I suppose Dan can be the surrogate for that.

11/3

Cindy and I got a slightly late start on our trip to Austin, but not too bad. My primary purpose in going was to catch Ben Folds doing a proper rock show at Stubb's; Cindy was going to celebrate her friend Sarah's birthday. Cindy had considered picking up an iPod shuffle for Sarah's birthday; I insisted that we get the sexy new clip-on one, and this just happened to be its first day on sale. We took a slight detour to Best Buy, and walked out with the player with minimal fuss.

So, back on the road. Saw the very sexy Cadillac XLR on the way to Austin for the first time; it's a nice combination of sports car sleekness and interesting angularity—shame it's made by GM.

We got into town, hitting a little traffic on the way in due to a wreck, and consequently we were running a bit late. I had to get Cindy dropped off in Southwest Austin, which, as I've probably mentioned, isn't that far away, but it was a bit of a pain. Then I had to go by Becca's place to pick up her friend Ali because, hey, Ali doesn't like to drive (I don't get those people). Then downtown, to find Becca, who didn't answer her phone the first 57 times we called. Then, finally, parked, and we started the walk to Stubbs, stopping off at Mug Shots for a drink so the girls could use the bathroom (a little counter-productive, I suppose), before reaching the venue, getting more drinks, and finding a spot in the crowd. We caught the end of opener Corn Mo's set; I had previously enjoyed his Meatloaf-They Might Be Giants-Freddie Mercury-Weird Al shennanigans, I wished we had caught more of the set, but he at least won over the girls.

Ben came out and played a good show. He kept going on about an expensive new red keyboard he had bought and worked very hard to incorporate it into the songs to prove its usefulness. The backing band was sufficient but barely notable. A highlight was hearing him cover "Such Great Heights", which I had previously only seen via YouTube.

The show was good, and, though it couldn't match the earlier Houston show, it was hardly a disappointment.

Afterwards, we crossed the street to Club DeVille, whose cool back patio bounded on the back side by a rock cliff gave it a nice atmosphere, and it was a good place to be on such a crisp night. Drinks were had, etc. It struck me as a good place to see a small show, potentially (SxSW?)

We stopped by Jimmy John's on 6th and got some food (and here I shall note that, thank God, Houston has a Jimmy John's that opened up this very week), enjoying the theater of the drunk people trying to use the restroom without purchase, or with bribe. I remarked that seemed like a pretty good deal to the cashier, who reminded me that he had to clean up after the drunkards. Point taken.

Back to Becca's, where there was some wrestling with an uncooperative futon before going to sleep. Becca doesn't turn her heat on, which is just how I like it.

11/4

After a leisurely morning, thoughts turned to food, and Becca and I debated between eating in or going out, finally compromising on a light snack at her apartment and then a walk down the street to Azul. Like so many great places, it was in an old house, very homey. But we weren't inside long; just enough to order some kind of egg muffin sandwich to split and two Shiner 97s before we went out to their wonderful patio. Old, rusted furniture and tables presented themselves for our use; our food was brought out on an antique tray, and the friendliness of the place, the interesting landscaping which just barely cut off the outside world, and the warm fire conspired to make me want to stay there for the rest of the afternoon.

We didn't, though, and decided to go music shopping and then to get beer. Cindy wanted to join us, so once again we went out to Sarah's place to pick her up, and then back to down town to do some shopping at Waterloo records. Apparently our timing was perfect, as Waterloo was having a spectacularly good anniversary sale. I stocked up on a number of CDs I'd been meaning to pick up, and notably the DVD of Ben's first orechestral performence with the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra, which featured a number of the same songs/arrangements from the show earlier in the week (though it omitted some material that, well, wasn't written back when the show took place).

I wanted to swing by Lovejoy's for some bizeer, but it was getting late and the littlest Ward was getting hungry, so we went to the barbecue joint she had picked out, Artz Rib House.

Let me first point out that Rebecca taking me to a barbecue place would have, up until a year or so ago, been a minor miracle. Becca came back from a trip to France in high school a vegetarian, and remained that way. I have Taco Cabana to thank for providing Becca's meat gateway drug: bacon.

So anyway, barbecue it was. Beers were ordered, and most of us settled on some variation of... (wait for it)... ribs. Their specialty was "country-style" ribs, that is, the biggest damned ribs you could imagine, which really had a lot in common with pork chops, at least in terms of size. I lobbied for combining that with an order of baby back ribs, but Cindy wanted her own order (which I knew she couldn't finish), so Becca and I split an order of the country-style ribs and a sausage wrap. The sides left a bit to be desired, and our service was... iffy, but there's no denying that those ribs were a nice cut of meat.

It continued getting late. We made for HEB to pick up some beverages and the necessary supplies with which to wrap Sarah's gift. They had gift bags, sure, but you know what was even better? Red & white striped popcorn bags! Yep. It was inspired.

I also learned that HEB will not sell beer to you if you have only a passport and not a driver's license. Who the fuck came up with that one? If anything a passport is even more valid identification than a driver's license? And isn't it even better to be buying beer if you don't have a driver's license, because that means you're less likely to be driving drunk? Suck it, HEB. And also, can I have more of your awesome fresh salsa? Thanks.

So we made for Sarah's friend's place over in Austin, which was in reasonably familiar territory.

We got there and Rebecca and I, at least, felt a little bit out of place. Most people there had kids. I think Sarah knew a lot of them from some kind of single parents' group. But after a beer or so, the conversation shifted to Built to Spill and I suddently felt not so out of place.

Courtney returned my earlier call and invited us to her place, so Becca and I took our temporary leave and headed south to Courtney's, which, it turns out, is just a couple blocks back from Becca's.

We walked to the corner store for some beer and Courtney's very well-behaved dog (who didn't even give a sidelong glance when a very angry and scary dog behind a fence along the route barked very loudly and charged the fence). And then we hung out, drinking beer. That's it. It was nice.

Courtney had to be up early for a bike ride the next morning, so we left, I dropped Becca off, and I rejoined the party. And then Cindy and I went and spent the night at Becca's.

11/5

We got up for lunch at Hoover's, as it was Becca's friend's last day working there. We were a ways back on the list, and probably wouldn't have made it in time for breakfast, so Becca's friend suggested we comandeer the table she had just cleared. This was blamed on us, for her sake, and we got a dirty look from the host, but hey, it worked.

I had the honey-drizzled chicken tenders and biscuits, which were quite good.

Anyway, after that it was time to make our way back to Houston. Which we did.