Pick it up

The New Yorker brings us an article on the practically useless penny. (via Daring Fireball)

The mysterious ways of tipping

Here's a fascinating article on subtle (or not) rascist tendencies in tipping.

Tipping is a curious practice. The logical side of me says the whole thing is silly; that people should just be paid appropriately.

The sycophantic part of me, however, likes the opportunity to curry favor. In some situations where I know the person who is providing me service, but it's not a business where tipping regularly occurs, it feels downright weird not to tip—like at the comic book store where I see the same people week in, week out. Or sometimes I'm tempted to say, "keep the change" in the weirdest places, even if I'm not familiar with the person who's helping me.

So strange...

Sharper Image

Engadget mentions that the Sharper Image is bankrupt.

Sort of sad. I used to love looking around their stores when I was a kid. Of course, in the pre-iPod and pre-hi-fi days, my standards for gadgets were lower. A CD player with glass doors that you waved your hand in front of to open was simply awesome.

Their pathetic slide downmarket was, strangely, sort of a mirror of Radioshack's pathetically failed attempts to move upmarket. The one thing Radioshack was useful for—buying obscure electronics parts (which certainly never necessitated 5 stores in a 5 mile radius, and has been obviated by the internet)—is only a small ghetto in a store now dedicated to selling crappy cell phones, iPod accessories, and remote control cars.

I have to admit, Radioshack did come through recently with a cheap battery charger for Cindy's camera. Props for that...

Grindhouse, Recruiting, Art takedown, More chili

4/9

Since the reviews came out, I had been quite intent on going to see Grindhouse, so at first opportunity Will, Cindy and I went on an Angelika Monday. Robert Rodriguez's half was entertaining, and had nice portions of violence. The "intermission" was thoroughly enjoyable and might have been best distributed amongst the start, middle, and end of the entire experience. As it was, I missed some of the wonderful faux grindhouse trailers to take a much-needed bathroom break.

The highlight was Tarantino's Death Proof, which, in my opinion, could have stood on its own as a film. Not a particularly big or ambitious one, but I think that directors should feel free to make "side project" albums the way, say, Beck handled Mutations and Sea Change, or the way some bands do nice, compact EPs. The movie itself was lots of fun, from the beaming celebration of the city of Austin in the first half to the fun of doing stupid and dangerous shit with cars and turning the tables in the second half. I probably have no reason to ever revisit Rodriguez's Planet Terror, but I can imagine buying the DVD just to be able to watch Death Proof and the faux trailers from time to time.

Afterwards, a quick round a little Woodrow's.

4/10

Band practice...

4/11

More recruiting, more free drinks. Probably another night at the Volcano?

4/12

More of the same, though details escape me.

4/14

Rebecca was in town to disassemble her installation. We did lunch at Mai's, which I think has gotten Becca on a bit of a kick. I took off to catch Levi at guitar center to get myself a keyboard case and to get Jeff a digital recording interface/Pro Tools combo. After that (which took forever), I stopped by the gallery and helped clean up some tape. Once I became a third wheel, I went home and played a bit of the newly-arrived Paper Mario for Wii. Later that night, we grabbed dinner and drinks at Rudz.

4/15

Becca, Ali and I hit La Mexicana for brunch, which was good as always. That afternoon I did some shopping and went round two for perfecting our chili recipe, with Cindy's help. We corrected some problems we found with the original recipe, ending up with more of pretty much everything except the meat. In particular this batch ended up hotter, and we significantly increased the amount of beer to give us more liquid to work with. It was a success.

Afterwards Cindy and I watched Stranger Than Fiction which was a surprisingly clever and enjoyable film. The ending was sentimental and by the numbers, maybe, but I am a sucker for happy endings.

Susie; Shoes; Symphony; Jana Hunter; Chili

3/26

Band practice came a night early due to plans on Tuesday night; this may have been our first time attempting to record.

3/27

So right before South By, Dan had found himself a new girl. She's out of the picture now. But back then it looked serious. She was from San Francisco and thought she was moving to Houston, but then (oh, a couple months ago), she decided she wasn't. But in between, things seemed to be going well.

Anyway, she was in town for a visit, and Dan wanted all his closest friends to meet her, so we met at traditional Sharber gathering point Mi Luna (thankfully on happy-hour-priced Tuesday) for dinner.

The Proletariat was hosting a meet & greet with David Arquette, promoting his new film, with the Black Math Experiment, who had written a song about him, performing. We showed up, but it was too crowded and not really all that interesting, so we left for Poison Girl instead.

3/28

Char had recently gotten some Chuck Taylors, and Cindy was looking for shoes too, so we went shoe shopping. I ended up buying a pair at Urban Outfitters before we dashed off to Goode Co. Burgers for dinner. I've covered it before, but I really dig that place...

3/29

I realized that my size 11 Chucks didn't fit. The boss was out of town, so I took that chance to return them to Urban since they didn't have a size smaller. That and some school stuff made me feel somewhat ineffectual, so I made a run to Target to kill a few birds with one stone (new plastic cups for water, a record crate, presumably something else as well). Then I got back, found out that my friend from the MM list that works at shoes.com had sent me a nice coupon code, so I ordered a pair of Chucks in size 10.

Turns out, they're a bit tight. I can wear them, but prefer to do so when alcohol is involved because I don't notice how uncomfortable they are. I guess I can suffer for fashion sometimes.

3/30

I had to give my yearly talk to the students in our program, which was, as usual, a lame situation. Thankfully, almost no one showed up.

Afterwards, Cindy and I went to the symphony. I honestly don't remember what they played. I seem to recall enjoying it, though, as I usually do.

3/31

Jana Hunter played a good set up at Rudz to promote her quite good new album. Cindy and I were in attendance...

4/1

An e-mail had gone out from my funding agency that the local health sciences trade group was having a chili cookoff. Since I'm rather proud of my cooking, I quickly got in touch with Char and then got us in charge of things.

The fact that the event included lots of free beer didn't hurt.

Anyway, the budget allowed for a couple of test batches, so Char and I started our first one, basing it on Alton Brown's recipe. We did the first batch pretty much by the numbers, browning stew meat (beef, pork, lamb) with peanut oil and salt, then deglazing with beer, adding salsa (although we did a mix of salsa and pico to get some freshness in there), crushed tortilla chips to thicken it, tomatmo paste, homemade chili powder, smoked paprika, canned chipotles, and fresh peppers. Since this was a test batch for our consumption only, we also included some corn and black beans, which is heresy for a contest (a rather silly attitude, I think), but quite nice in my opinion.

Anyway, it turned out well, and Char made some honey cornbread to go with it. We had a good start on the contest...

Joanna Newsom; Thai; Car Bullshit; Bars; Jim's Birthday

12/11

The Prole, probably.

12/12

Pitchfork liked Joanna Newsom's first album of harp-based folk, but I didn't. I can only recall making it through the thing once, and I'm pretty sure I compared her vocals to a "retarded chipmunk", and not even favorably. So when her new album came out, I was prepared to pass it up, but for three little words/one big name: "Van Dyke Parks". The man apparently orchestrated Joanna's latest, and, knowing what he did for Brian Wilson's Smile, I gave it a chance on those grounds alone.

I wasn't convinced. It had potential, but I didn't exactly like it. But Cindy caught wind of her coming show in Houston and suggested we go, and as it was at the fabled Orange Show, which I had heard of three years previously when Dan, Kristin, Toni et al went to see Bonnie Prince Billy there and spoke of the place in hushed tones. It also helped that they're associated with such Houston ventures as the beer can house and the art car parade.

We arrived at the Orange Show, which was located off I-45, a little east of the U of H camps, a part of the city which I'd only been near to a) go to a law school party and b) collect my car after it had been towed. The neighborhood seemed nice enough; in Waco parlance I might draw comparisons to certain Hewitt neighborhoods. I wondered how the residents felt about having such an attraction taking up all their street parking.

There were people. Lots of 'em. The show had sold out; thankfully Cindy had been committed enough to the show to buy tickets for us and her friends Tyson and Louisa. We gave them their tickets and ventured in.

The venue gave an impression that was equal parts circus/carnival and paddle-wheel dixie-land boat. Inside was quite maze-like, with hallways carved out of the space between different buildings, stairs going off in every which direction to balconies overlooking the performance space, two bars, a screen and projector in a separate seating area, and benches immediately surrounding the performance area.

The "stage" itself looked like it might have been a fountain at some point. There was a circular wall a foot or two high around it, and the band's equipment was set up inside this circle.

We got some beer and then decided to stake out a position, settling on the smallest of several balconies (well, really a roof top) with no seating unlike the rest of them.

All in all, the venue was incredible. I guess the capacity is relatively low, so people don't play there often, but man, I wish that weren't the case. The whimsical architecture was flat out fun, and on a crisp December night it was wonderful to be sitting on top of a roof, drinking beer, spending times with friends, and listening to a concert.

Bill Callahan of Smog opened. His music, at least on first listen, was nondescript folk, but it was very serious, he had a nice voice, and maybe some good songwriting chops as well. Apparently the lucky bastard is dating the beautiful Ms. Newsom, this after previously dating Chan "Cat Power" Marshall. Nice pull, man.

Joanna came out and playe da few songs off her first record solo, some of which she usually opens with and some of which normally comprise her encore, which couldn't happen, presumably due to noise issues (and you know how we handle noise complaints in Houston). She requested that we restrict picture-taking to the first song, which seemed reasonable.

Then the band came out. One guy playing a Bulgarian tambura (think loot), which added some nice flourishes; another on accordion, which covered a surprisingly large amount of the backdrop that the orchestra provides; another on banjo/guitar; a drummer, who played percussion that was more orchestral in nature than the typical trap set and also sang harmony; and finally, a girl whose job must have been a bit boring, with some very occasional vocals and mallets.

As much as I liked what Van Dyke Parks did with the arrangements on the album, this bad fit the music much better. It was a little more folky and country; more live-action and less Disney animation. If we're lucky, she'll release a live album; the performance was nothing short of brililant. I was sold.

Jeff absolutely hates this album, and I can see why. But I can't imagine anybody that was there could have come away from the show not sold on it. I wish I could relive that night. And I hope I get to see more shows that brilliant at the Orange Show.

Afterwards, the best way to conclude such a perfect night was to grab a good dinner and some beer at Rudz. The only thing is that the Rudz burgers aren't quite what they used to be, as Eatzi's, which used to supply their delectable buns, is no longer in business. But to compensate for that, Sabrina, fresh from finishing finals, joined us for a couple rounds.

An absolutely great night. I'll add pictures later.

12/13

One of Cindy's friends had the unfortunate luck of being hit by a car while crossing a street in the med center. She'd been out of the hospital for a while, but was going back in for more surgery, and wanted a "last meal", so Cindy and I joined her and other assorted BCMers for some Thai at Nit Noi.

12/14

For some reason I drove my car in on Thursday. I left a little early with the goal of doing a little bit of Christmas shopping, in particular looking for a waffle maker for Cindy, and looking into a new cell phone for myself.

But it was not my day. The decision to drive into work and then drive straight from work to go shopping and then to take 59 to get where I was going ended up screwing me over. There was some debris on the highway, and in the dark it was hard to see. As soon as I hit it I thought I had blown a tire. I took the first exit I could, pulled off on the first side street I could, and called my roadside assistance to come change the tire for me (hey, I pay for it, you can be damned sure I'm going to use it when the opportunity presents itself). During that time I saw no less than 5 cars pull onto the same street I was on and change tires, and one guy told me he had seen ten more on the highway. Whatever I hit, it was bad, and, apparently I'm not a complete idiot.

I got the tire changed and went home, frustrated. The rim was bent. The tires are fucking expensive. It looked bad...

I think Cindy came over after that and we went for beer. I won't deny it, that helped.

12/15

Deteremined to get my car back to normal as quickly as possible, I started at Sam's Club and worked my way north, not finding any partiuclarly good deals on tires, nor good news about the rim. Eventually I ended up at Discount Tire (which isn't all that discount). They pointed me towards a place that could reshape the rim. Without driving on the highway (compact spare), it was a long drive, but I got there. Somewhere along the way, though, I had the brilliant idea to call the nice hispanic people at Rollo's Racing to see if they had a used rim they could give me. In the end, I decided it was safer to just replace the rim rather than risk having one that wasn't perfectly shaped. No sense having my year-old car not performing up to its potential.

So I went by. First they too offered to reshape the rim, but told me it woudln't be perfect, as I suspected. It turned out it wasn't quite the right rim, aesthetically, but they could get me the right one, and were even willing to loan me the non-matching one to drive around on for the rest of the day. Not only that, but the tire wasn't in fact blown; it just lost air when the rim bent. It wasn't even flat. I'm still a little paranoid that the steel belting was weakened when I hit whatever it was, but I'm trying to keep an eye on it.

So, my car fully functional if not quite matching, I finally got to stop by and look at the cell phone I wanted, confirmed that they didn't want my business enough to match Amazon's free price (and mand did they give me some bullshit about why), and then went in to work for a little while before going to get my new wheel once Rollo's got it in.

Later that night, Cindy and I met Will, Char and Angela at Little Woodrow's for some much-needed beer.

12/16

After visiting my aunt and uncle, I did some quick shopping for Cindy at Barnes & Noble and Target.

Once I got home and hid the stuff, Cindy came by and we met up with the Dan crew for some beers at the Harp. Darts were thrown as well.

12/17

Jeff and Jim had been wanting to throw a party at their swank new place ever since they had moved in a month before. The occasion was Jim's birthday, so Cindy and I grabbed some beer and went over for some drinking and socializing. Good times. Awesome townhouse.

Cindy ended up a bit drunk, so we came back to my place, I got her put to bed, and then got some good Zelda time in before taking the plunge and ordering the phone from Amazon.

I'd never been entirely satisfied with my Motorola that I'd bought in February of '05. The form factor wasn't particularly impressive, the features weren't compelling, and the interface was complete crap. A smart phone seemed to be the only way to get something that was actually useful. Palm's ran on an OS that was essentially 10 years old. Others ran Windows Mobile, and I'm pretty sure daily use of that would end with a loss of sanity or happiness. That left Blackberry, and their new Pearl was the first smart phone in a compelling form factor that I had seen. So, I went for it. More on that later...

Committee meeting; Christmas party; Shopping and Bond-age; Various parties; More shopping; Turkish people

12/4

Spent the day putting off preparing for the committee meeting, and then the evening resisting the temptation to play Wii and instead working, finally, on stuff for the committee meeting. I remember coming home late and it being cold as balls.

12/5

So the committee meeting came and went. They were mostly satisfied but suggested that I should get a paper out soon. Of course, that much was obvious. Thanks, committee!

Dead tired, I came home and took a nap. Then, having missed my usual laundry date due to the company in town the previous weekend, I caught up on that.

Char and various others gathered up at Kelvin Arms for beer in celebration of another committee meeting gone by.

12/6

Departmental party; Turks; Two Rows

Our departmental Christmas party was held at a faculty member's home, which was a great excuse to cheap out on the food and booze. Figuring nobody would show up on time, Cindy and I came fashionably late, only to discover the food gone and the beer warm. We didn't stick around long.

Instead, we went for Turkish food at Istanbul in the village. We had the Turkish pizza, but it wasn't all that great. My previous experience there, years before, had been positive, but this time I wasn't particularly impressed. The Turkish coffee was good, though.

After that, on over to Two Rows'. I'd rather pay $1 for a cold beer than drink a free warm one.

12/7

I started doing some Christmas shopping. It was expertly planned. Sam's closed at 8:30, IKEA at 9, and Bed Bath & Beyond at 9:30. I hit Sam's at 8:15, IKEA at 8:45, and BB&B at 9:15. As is traditional, I got Southern Living's Annual Recipes for Dad at Sam's. At IKEA I bought a DVD storage thingy that the full one I already had (since I had some money to spare). At BB&B, I looked at waffle irons for Cindy.

I got home from there and then met up with Cindy and Will to catch the new James Bond flick, which, as I'm sure most of you know, was excellent.

12/8

As I did last year, I joined Cindy for the neuroscience departmental Christmas party. Free food and drinks at Ouisie's; can't turn that down.

Something may or may not have gone on afterwards.

12/9

A running them for the month was having extra money. I TAed a class (which involved minimal effort) and was paid handsomely, and, the way the calendar fell that month, we got three paychecks instead of two. Plus, due to an accounting error, I'd been getting paid less than I should since June and finally got the backpay for that. So I was rolling in it.

When Jeff got me a keyboard fo rmy birthday so I could start playing with he and Vincent, it was a good start. But hell, there's only so much you can do with four octaves. So I opted to take advantage of the Levi connection and move on up. Levi got me a sweet deal on the full 88 key version of the keyboard I had, and it had semi-weighted keys, which make the feel a little more realistic. While I was there I splurged on a portable piano bench and a music stand too. All dirt cheap!

12/10

Not counting the various Asian nationals, who I don't really know anyway, the one nationality that I know the most of at school is... the Turks. There's a ton of them! Anyway, Meliz, a friend of Cindy and me, was moving away, following her boss. Vincent's girlfriend, also Turkish, was throwing her a going away party, so we went over there. There was food, nice weather, beer, and someone made mulled wine. Nice evening...

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...

The Hold Steady; The Thermals; The Bound Stems; iPod; Conference, Two Gallants and Police Brutality; The Departed; Cooking (Wings)

It was the super hardcore week of concerts, the last the most shockingly hard of them all...

10/9

I had first listened to the world's greatest bar band's (the Hold Steady) newest album on the way to the retreat the previous Friday and liked it immediately. Songs about drinking and drugs and hooking up and romance and the revelations that come about as a result of the above are featured prominently, and the entire thing wrapped up in easy to listen to mainstream rock hooks that wouldn't be out of place on a Counting Crows album.

So obviously the ideal way to see the band is at a place like Walter's—a dingy, low-lit dive with cheap, crappy beer. As luck would have it, that's exactly where they played. The cheap beer gave me the perfect buzz with which to appreciate the music, and, well, the concert was pretty much exactly what I expected—great rock, a great band, a great show.

10/10

Honestly, I barely remember this one. I'm not that familiar with the band, and I recall enjoying the show, at least. I do know it was at the Proletariat, and as it was a Tuesday, I probably had a Sparks to wake me up a bit.

10/11

Dan really loved these guys after catching them at SxSW, and while their EP didn't hook me, their album did. So I was excited at the chance to see them, which I also have to thank Dan for as he apparently suggested that the Prole book them.

The music is... difficult to describe. The bound stems are all about moments. Good moments. Moments that you could build a whole song around. Instead, they stuff a whole bunch of them in one song. Some work, some don't, but all you have to do is hold out a little because a good one is bound to be around the corner. There are elements of normal indie rock, some electronic manipulation, and maybe a little math rock.

Despite a relatively positive review on Pitchfork (maybe they're not the tastemakers they used to be, especially as evidenced by their bizarre best of 2006 list), the crowd was sparse. But god bless 'em, the band was very appreciative of the crowd they drew. Dan got a shoutout for his mad skillz behind the mixer, which, if it wasn't enough that the band was playing, completely made his night. The show itself was great, replicating their album well with the added energy of a live show, but removing some of the ponderous spoken samples that weighed their album down a bit.

At the end of the show, their female vocalist announced that we could support the band in one of two ways: buy their album, or give them a place to sleep. I attempted both, and succeeded in buying their album, but they got a better sleeping offer. I just can't top a guest room, but that was ok; everyone involved was better off. But at least I offered, right?

Anywyay, everyone should check them out. Great music, great, super nice people. What more can you ask for?

10/12

It was the night off from shows. Apple had, not too long before, announced the new generation of iPod nanos, which managed to increase storage space, and offered improved durability in a scratch-resistant aluminum shell. Despite my slight guilt over my past tendency to run out and grab any new iPod which was available (although in my defense, I skipped generation 2, the color version of generation 4, generation 5, the iPod mini, and the new iPod shuffle), once I found a buyer for my old nano in Angela, I braved the rain and went to Best Buy to buy the new nano with some gift certificates and the cash from the sale of my old one in hand. In addition, they had an insanely cheap price on the new Decemberists album, and the new Beck albumw as available as well, so I picked both of them up to add to my Best Buy tab.

10/13

The Agency That Funds Me (TATFM) had their annual retreat actually in the med center this year, which minimized driving, and even had free parking for us, which allowed driving in the first place, and God bless 'em for both those things. I showed up a bit late, because I could, put up my poster, hung around a while, and then Graham, Tiffany, Char, Jeff and I took off, first for a coffee shop (as I had some things I had wanted to work on and once again was at a conference without wireless), though the internet wasn't exactly working in the traditional sense, and then went to another coffee shop to work (which, it turns out, didn't have internet at all). Lunch at Brasil was good. Tiffany and I split a pizza, though it may have been a bit granola for her.

After that back to the conference for a bit, then I grabbed my car and went home for a while (it was so nice to have that option) to "get some work done" before returning in time for the happy hour with the free beer, and dinner, catered by Treebeard's. I wasn't overly impressed, but, hey, free meal. Dinner over, I snuck out during the keynote, went home, and grabbed a nap.

Char made arrangements for a whole mess o' people at a wine bar (the Tasting Room, maybe?). I think Graham and Angela had actually made the choice, as it was within walking distance for them. In addition to them, Cindy, and myself, other Angela was there, some first and second years, Kim, Oliver and Oliver's New Girl, and Char were there. We filled up a big table, and started putting away the bottles.

But Cindy and I tooke off to go see Two Gallants. Having been super impressed with them the first time I saw them and liking their recorded output subsequent to that, but not being overly impressed with their next show in Houston, I figured they'd at least be worth catching.

I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen.

Cindy and I got there. Dan and Kristin and a whole mess o' other people were there. The show was going great. It was great music and exciting and the duo was executing flawlessly.

Then I looked out the door of Walter's and saw a police car pulling up.

This was odd, of course, so I kind of kept an eye on the door. A young, large, latino officer with a shaved head came through the door, exchanged a few words with the door guy, and then started making his way to the front of the room, shining his flash light. I thought maybe he was lookin for underage kids there or something? At the time, that was the best guess I had.

But then he got up to the front of the room. And climbed on stage. He exchanged a few words with the Gallants' guitarist, who continued playing the instrumental bridge of the song they had been playing when he arrrived. The cop then grabbed the guitar, and the guitarist pulled back on it.

In the blink of an eye, the guitarist was on the ground, taken down by the cop. I backed up, because God knows what was going on there. A woman's voice authoritatively told us to toss our drinks and get out, and for some reason I thought maybe there was some weird liquor license thing going on, so I exited immediately.

In my absence, apparently crowd members tryed to pull the cop off the band, which was dumb but maybe justifiable, as it probably looked like he was going to kill them. It was then that the cop broke out the tazer. A guy that was taking pictures (and would later be arrested for something vague like "interfering with an officer's duties" got shoved by the cop into a century-old upright bass belonging to the opening band. Various members of the audience were harrased. a 14-year-old boy, there with his parents, got tazered. At some point the cop started chasing the guitarist with a tazer. The guitarist went behind the bar, hopped it, and then took off running out the front door.

Meanwhile, I was outside; Cindy, Dan and Kristin were still inside. More cars had showed up (four or five at that point). I saw the guitarist take off running out of the front door and off down the street. It was probably around this time that some audience members got arrested, some of whom were just asking what was going on, though undoubtedely not in the most respectful of tones. I was hanging out off to the side, about to go in looking for Cindy when she came out. We hung around for a while when we were told we could go inside and close tabs, and since I'm rather fond of my credit card I opted to do so, noting the broken bass on the floor.

We walked across the street to our cars, wondering aloud what the fuck had just happened, but taking off rather quickly rather than risk being singled out by any of the 20 or so cops that were swarming the place, opting to wind down at Rudz.

The story of what happened would come out over the next weeks and months. Apparently there were pretty much nightly noise complaints from some assholes who had moved in behind the bar and were shocked that they would be able to hear the music from the fucking rock venue adjacent to them. And apparently that particular cop had harrased Walter's patrons before. And there were all kind of other stories:

• Chronicle Handstamp blog entry with video


• Chron blog entry with e-mail criticizing the Chronicle's coverage of the story


• Chron blog entry referencing Chron story on Walter's and noise complaints


• Pitchfork interview with the band


• Interview with the band in Rolling Stone


• Two Gallants forum thread on the incident


• Heavily linked-to account on Dan's blog

It was, really, a fairly traumatic experience to see those tasked with keeping law and order escalate a situation into violence. I hope the band gets some justice in all of this. I hope this doesn't scare too many bands away from Texas, though certainly there's evidence it already has. Finally, I hope that, whatever happens, life is a little worse for that asshole of a cop and that he regrets abusing his power the way he did. Of course, a lot of this hasn't been taken seriously because the people who were there were a couple of hippy musicians from San Francisco, a bunch of kids who don't contribute much to Houston's coffers, and a whole bunch of cops, and everyone knows rock and roll is lawless, rebellious, troublesome music anyway.

Fuckin' a, man, fuckin' a.

10/14

Cindy and I met her brother up at the I-10 Edwards to see The Departed which was certainly well-acted, if a bit... opaque.

10/15

I decided to try my hand at making buffalo wings (of the boneless variety). Some breaded and fried chicken breast chunks, some melted butter, some Louisiana hot sauce, some celery sticks, and some bleu cheese dressing, and I was in business. Not bad for a first effor, though I could probably improve on both the breading and the sauce...

Best Buy; Kings of Leon; Architecture in Helsinki; Reggae Hut; Girl Talk

Back in Houston now, and taking an extra day off (shh!). I'll try to get a couple posts in.

9/18

Once again to Best Buy to get a little more money back on my TV before the 30-day price matching period was up.

I also checked out their new in-store Magnolia home theater store. It was a definite step up from the current audio experience at Best Buy, which has gotten steadily worse, and is particularly bad in my store where most of the speakers are sort of piled up in a sad little room at the back and not even hooked up.

The Magnolia store was small, though, focused much more on video than audio, and lacked a variety of audio brands. An improvement for Best Buy, but probably nothing that necessitated a sepparate store.

9/19

Cindy and I had been given tickets to a free Kings of Leon show. It was apparently some sort of service industry thing being held at the Meridian, but people who had tickets to give out were having trouble getting rid of them; hence we ended up with them. So we figured we'd check it out.

After eventually finding parking (no sense paying for parking for a free show).

It was fucking packed. Apparently they didn't have that much trouble getting rid of the tickets. And, honestly, the band kind of sucked. Well, maybe they didn't, but the combination of an annoying audience and a band with which I was not faimiliar didn't exactly make us want to stick around.

9/20

The next night was better, featuring Architecture in Helsinki's triumphant return to houston. K Record's The Blow opened up, in alternate solo form rather than as their normal duo. Alternating between charming naivete/indifference and an annoying lack of polish and over-artsiness, I ultimately wasn't impressed with their low-fi spoken word/rap but didn't hate them either.

Architecture in Helsinki came on next and put on a good show, though perhaps lacking some of the magic of their previous show at Walter's. It was enjoyable, though, and their new material had definite potential.

9/23

Our return to Reggae Hut came in the form of takeout, which Cindy picked up. We refined our order, settling on one order of jerk chicken with an extra side of their great veggies, and opting to try out their "empanadas" (they corrected Cindy when ordering, referring to them as "beef patties", which is a little too close to "cow patties" in my mind), which were nicely seasoned. Always a good meal...

9/24

For the Prole's birthday celebration, they had managed to snag indie mashup sensation Girl Talk. Cindy and I went; the usual suspects were there, and Jeff dragged Jim along. Jim looked thoroughly miserable the entire evening, though I'm not really sure why he didn't like the mix 'n match take on the past 20 years or so of pop and rock.

Girl Talk was incredible, but I'm not sure I can explain why as he just reproduced the album live. The thing with laptop music is that he could have just bee plaing it straight off the CD for all we know, but he looked like he was staying busy making the music happen.

I, for my part, got nice and trashed, and Cindy was treated to Dancing Ward, making a rare appearance. Great music + drunkeness = fun.

Car and Proletariat; Practice; Freebird's, BB&B, Holly; Tapatia, Village; The Village (again); Guitar Center and BBQ

7/24

Cindy and I left early to pick up my car from The Other Body Shop. It was way the fuck out west, near where Dan used to live (like a quarter mile away from his old house). I saw it sitting in the lot and noticed that a) they neglected to removed the tire rubber marks from the paint and b) they neglected to replace the cracked plastic on the grill. What, did they do the whole fucking repair blind folded? The incompetence is staggering. Simply staggering. Rather than let them do touch my car again, I told them that I was taking it and would let the other shop finish up their shoddy work.

Joke's on them, though, because I never actually paid the deductible.

I enjoyed driving it home, of course, though I was pissed about having to deal with more repairs, and all over a fucking tire tread from an 18 wheeler.

Anyway, later that evening it was another Monday night at the Proletariat, which I was free to actually drive to. What a luxury!

7/25

Another night of band practice. I got Whataburger for dinner on the way home, which is always nice.

7/26

Cindy's birthday was coming up, so I stopped by Bed, Bath and Beyond and picked up the magnetic spice rack she wanted. Stopped off on the way home at Freebird's for a burrito, which I hadn't done in quite some time.

Holly, who I kind of sort of dated a year or so previously, was back in town and I caught up with her and her mom for a round at Two Row's, and I remembered why I don't ever go there for dollar beers anymore: it's fucking crowded.

7/27

Took the car back by Foreign Auto Body ("the good place") and they got the rubber off the paint, which was nice. They ordered the part for the grille, and told me that I could come back in when the part was delivered and they'd install it while I waited.

Got back home in time for Holly to pick me up, and we went to Tapatia for lunch and had a little more time to catch up before she dropped me off at school.

Went to the village that night with Cindy. Had a couple rounds at the Ginger Man, then went next door to Woodrow's, where Char and some of the other usual suspects were. I was enjoying a beer when I saw a tow truck drive by with my car.

I had parked in a spot that was, technically speaking, signed as tow away, though the sign was pretty nonobvious, nailed to a telephone pole at the very corner of the street and about three feet off the ground. People parked there all the time, and still do. Dunno if it was a new pig, or if Houston was feeling poor, or if somebody was on a power trip, but I got fucked.

Took me a while to track down the car, but I eventually went to pick it up, only to see a ticket on the windshield. Grand total was about $250, which I have added to my karma list. This list includes the city of Houston for around $260 (the extra $10 is a recent addition that I'll explain when the time comes), the apartment complex for $50 (erased when I managed to get an extra month at my old rent, and get a cheaper rent than I was originally quoted when I renewed), and $2 at Sam's Roadhouse for making me pay a cover for their crappy bar (also to be explained later). Probably more entities that have screwed me out of money, but those are the ones I remember off the top of my head.

7/28

Cindy had been talking up Reggae Hut for a while, so we settled on that for her birthday dinner. It was located on Almeda, and we parked in the lot behind the building and went in. The walls were brightly colored and the place sparsely but likably decorated. I felt very white, but in a culturally immersed sort of way, not a threatening sort of way.

We settled on an order of plantains as an appetizer, an order of jerk chicken, and an order of curried goat. The plantains were given to us immediately and had been cooked to a dark color. Our meals came next. Both were served with some very well-seasoned and tasty veggies, and black beans and rice. The goat was OK. It was very much like lamb, except maybe a bit stringier. The curry seasoning was fairly light.

The jerk chicken, however, was incredible. The meat was flavorful but also moist. The jerk seasoning was spicy but oh-so-tasty. The portions were generous on all counts, and we had at least a meal's worth of leftovers. Consider me a convert.

Afterwards, sraight to Little Woodrow's (carefully choosing my parking this time). We had a few drinks there before things got a little too crowded, and we recruited Char and Angela to go to Hans' Bier Haus. As always, I enjoyed the nice selection of beer but also ran my tab up a little higher than I might like to.

This visit, we decided to try out bocci ball, which I have concluded is the ultimate drunken game, combining positive aspects of pool (rolling and colliding balls), shuffleboard (distance-based accuracy), bowling (hand-rolling), and croquet (but with less frustration). Great fun all around.

7/29

Mom and Dad had agreed to fund a little birthday spending, so I opted for some implements of rocking. I got one of those x-style keyboard stand, which turned out to not be an ideal design for my small and light keyboard (which was later remedied), but also a little shaky on carpet. I also got a keyboard bag which turned out to be a little big, but the extra size ended up being useful in solving my stand problem. Finally, I happened to see the official songbook for Ben Folds' Songs for Silverman and figured I'd grab that, too.

Levi was working and he hooked me up, saving me (or I guess Mom and Dad) a ton of money.

Cindy and I were invited to a couple of barbecues that weekend. The one thrown by her friends started first, so we headed up to the Heights to partake, bringing with us chicken and sausage to grill. There was other good food around, including ice cream cake. We took off a ltitle while later, and I checked in with Anup to discover that his barbecue had ended, so we grabbed some movies and headed back to my place for films and cocktails.

First up was The Squid and the Whale, which was painfully and realistically awkward and had the air of a more serious, more caustic Wes Anderson flick, which makes sense since it turns out he produced the thing. Great movie, but not exactly uplifting.

We also rented (but didn't watch at that time) Sarah Silverman's Jesus Is Magic which was, frankly, crap. There was something else, too, that I watched later, but I can't recall right now.

Movie with Will & Ben; Rudyard's; Midlake @ the Proletariat, Rudyard's again, and GRAB; Thai and Clerk's II; Lady in the Water

7/19

Since I was stuck at home, I was glad when Will called about doing something. Only in the end, it turned out that he was going to be hanging out at Ben's place, which was in my complex.

We watched the very... um... poorly adapted Bulletproof Monk, which I can only imagine worked better as a comic book.

7/20

Cindy's a big Rudyard's fan, so we went for beer...

7/21

Denton-based Midlake was playing an early show at the Proletariat, so Cindy and I met Dan and Kristin up there to catch the show. Their adventurous indie rock showed definite potential, but I ahven't gotten around to really exploring them further. I was very surprised, though, to see the place completely packed.

Afterwards, we went to Rudyard's (again) for some dinner. I stuck to appetizers, and went with the "nuts and bolts", which I had always wanted to try. I got my choice of several fried veggies (and other fried thingies), and I went with fried mushrooms, cheese, zuchini, and eggplant.

What I learned was that it was too much fried food for any one man. I made some crack about being able to do this since I had just been to the cardiologist. With some help, we put it all away.

The time came for a change of venue, so we went to check out GRAB, where there was more drinking, pool, and (gasp!) a little dancing, which was roundly criticized by Cindy. That's why I never do it, baby.

7/22

Since I was carless and couldn't go out to Susan and Jerry's, I decided to spend the afternoon with Cindy. We started out going to the Taj MaSpec's downtown. Cindy wanted to start a liquor cabinet, so we picked out some standards for her (vodka, rum, whiskey). I picked up some barware I had been wanting since seeing the bar episode of "Good Eats". I picked up a Boston shaker (the shaker itself with no strainer or lid; just use a pint glass as a lid and open slightly to strain), a muddler (good for julips and mojitos), and a great little jigger/pony. I picked up some beer, too, and we browsed the food selection.

We came back, had some drinks, and then decided to go for Thai at the Original Morningside Thai Restaurant. Sadly, we didn't realize it was BYOB. The restaurant was in a house. It was about 7:00 or so, but the place wasn't crowded at all, and in fact was maybe a little too quiet.

We started with the cheese spring rolls, which were good but had too much (read: any) onion. Next up was Tom Ka Gai, which was good, but I suppose hard to mess up, and then a red curry with beef. Everything was good, but nothing particularly unique or compelling. But I've felt simliarly about lots of other Thai restaurants in the village, and this one, somehow, is probably my favorite so far.

I'm not sure what other morningside Thai restaurants there are, but it's good to know we were at the original.

Afterwards, Cindy and I had settled on seeing Clerks II. I suppose I enjoyed it while I was watching it, but it really didn't add much to the original, except a new happy ending, which necessitated first destroying the original's happy ending.

I can't figure out if Kevin Smith just doesn't have it anymore, or if I've grown past enjoying his particular brand of dick and fart jokes, but something just wasn't working.

Also, watching conversations about "ass to mouth" with one's girlfriend can be awkward.

7/23

Cindy was up for seeing Clerks II but not Lady in the Water; Will was the opposite way, so he and I went to see Shyamalan's latest. We started by making a few trips to Double Dave's pizza buffet, and then played some arcade games before the movie.

The movie itself was probably the least interesting of M.'s that I've seen. There was no really mystery or no twist (or if there was, it was too obvious to be surprising). I didn't really see the point to creating an extremely simple mythology. The camera work, as usual, was great, and there were some reasonably funny character moments, although the characters were a little flat.

The film critic character, however, was a complete straw man, and was in the film only to server M.'s ego. That one left a bad taste in my mouth.

Pre-Fourth: Cecil's & the Prole; the Fourth; Fancy haircut & Cindy (briefly); Cooking; Running around with Will; Museum; Under the weather

7/3

Having taken the previous Thursday off, I didn't feel quite right about taking the pre-fourth Monday off. That night, however, the partying began, first with drinks at Cecil's with Cindy, Dan, Kristin, etc. and then at the Proletariat.

7/4

Having learned my lesson on Memorial Day, I spent the day with Cindy, a gesture which meant a lot to her. She had to go into work briefly (how sad is that?), but when she returned we went to run some errands, starting with Bed, Bath & Beyond where I picked up a grill pan and some good ideas for Cindy's birthday.

Next was Best Buy, where I began looking for a new "computer monitor", one that happened to be large enough to double as a TV and that could display a resolution of 1920x1080 progressively scanned pictures, which just so happens to be the resolution of a lot of HDTV.

After that we looked around in World Market next door, where I had to talk Cindy out of buying what I was now planning on buying her for her birthday.

We got back to my place and Cindy went to the store for barbecue supplies and for a couple of items to make Mexican martinis. We had drinks and prepared a pork tenderloin and then went to Char's for some barbecue. Between Char's ribs and our tenderloin we had a good meal. We then packed up a cooler and went to Char's old apartment complex to stake out a spot for fireworks. We were able to see both the downtown and Herman park fireworks well, and had nice, cold beer to make things even better.

We met Dan and Kristin up at the Prole for some pool and our introduction to Sparkz, the wonderfully horrible alcoholic energy drink.

7/5

I hadn't gotten my hair cut since my February trip to Austin, and the it was getting annoying. With no trip to Austin on the horizon and a trip to Waco an uncertainty, I made the obvious choice in picking somewhere to go to get my haircut: I asked the gay guy.

Jeff gave me the name of a guy at a salon not too far from me. I showed up and found the place brightly lit, well decorated, and rather fancy. Arriving a few minutes late, I found everybody in staff meeting and was told I was "early" (bullshit; I'm never early) and was offered a beverage while I waited.

Paul seemed to immediately know what he was doing with my hair and I was pleased with the end result. I was less pleased with the $80 or so of product he tried to sell me, but it was simple enough to decline it. The haircut itself was $40, expensive but less than the last one I got.

This upcoming weekend it was Cindy's turn to go to a conference, but I was able to briefly catch up with her for a beer before she took off.

7/6

The pork loin that we had bought at Randall's was on sale super cheap, so of course I got more. Like last time I used Stubb's marinade, bourbon, and habanero tabasco, but this time added pineapple juice and orange juice to the mix, and marinaded over night.

So I heated up the grill pan and put the pork loin down, and then turned to the fruits and vegetables: squash, zucchini, bell pepper, jalapeño peppers, pineapple, and apple. I sliced them up, tossed them in olive oil, bourbon, and garlic salt, and then threw them on the grill pan for a nice sear. It took a while, but the end result was damned tasty.

7/7

Will was once again banished from the house (though probably by choice), so after a length period of driving around trying to settle on dinner, we ended up at the never disappointing but never thrilling Fu's Garden for dinner, and then picked up a copy of the original Superman from Blockbuster and spent the evening watching that and reading comics.

7/8

It seems to be becoming a summer tradition that I have one particular Saturday night where I get thoroughly smashed and stay out late.

This year, it started out at the MFAH for the mixed media shindig of the month. I got in, grabbed a beer, and found Dan and Kristin. Levi had hooked them up with VIP access and they wanted to make use of it. I suppose they were watching who got on the elevators to make sure everyone had the correct color armbands on, but they weren't checking us individually. Like most things in life, looking like I knew what I was doing was the important thing, and I managed to slip onto the elevator, wristband firmly tucked into pocket. Upstairs there was a mostly decimated food table, and open bar, which I was able to order from (arm again snugly in pocket). I downed beers and cocktails in rapid succession.

Once the VIP room lost its charm, we went back downstairs and outside to catch the show. Dan's VIP wristband was still good for free drinks, so we kept after the beers. I don't remember much about the show itself. DJs, probably.

These things finish up by midnight, so the next stop was the Proletariat, where I met New Jessica (who I actually haven't seen yet), who knew Dan and Kristin... somehow, and was the sound guy's girlfriend. We chatted over pool. She was enthusiastic about my science career, which I suppose was flattering, but these things can get quickly annoying. I don't really like talking science anymore, particularly not with people who don't really understand it. But other than that, it was cool.

Next up we decided to go check out the museum after party, over in the warehouse district. I followed Dan, Kristin, and New Jessica there, we parked with only slight difficulty, and paid our way in. There was mostly just open space outside between the warehouses, with a bar set up and one building open. Oh, and port-o-potties.

The bar was stocked with Ziegen and (wait for it) Margs!. It was all free with the cover charge, so I did some double fisting. There was a warehouse open with a DJ, but it was hotter inside than out, so we mostly stuck outside.

Around 3 or so I started to sober up, and realized that if I stuck around I would only start getting drunker again, so I took off. Diving probably wasn't the smartest idea I had that night, but hey, I make the occasional mistake.

Anyway, good time, good company, lots of booze.

7/9

Yep. Hungover. Totally worth it.

Woodrow's & Will; Nashville; Superman; Cindy's crew day 1 & 2

6/25

Putting off packing for the Conference, I met up with Will for beer. And then I came home and didn't pack. The conference is the one put on by my funding agency. Their priorities have changed, so it's never relevant to what I do, but on the up side we get a total of $750 to cover travel, room and board, and we're told not to bring anyof it back, if we can help it.

6/26

I could put off packing no longer, so I got that taken care of. Jim and Jeff picked me up, and, just like last year, Jim criticized my choice of travelling in casual attire. Jim dropped us off, I checked my bag (because that's how I roll), and we partook of the first of many free meals. I opted for taco salad, which was... competent. We went on to the gate, met up with the rest of our travelling party: Jesse, Graham, Rebecca M., and that girl whose name I can never remember.

We boarded our flight, and a couple uneventful hours later we were in Nashville. My luggage showed up quite quickly, putting my anti-checking detractors in their place. Graham and Rebecca signed on for an SUV (I think a Suzuki SX4, but I'm not entirely sure), and we went to collect the vehicle (walking past a Hertz Shelby Mustang that looked pretty nifty) and drove to our hotel, the Vanderbilt Marriott (we were given the choice between two hotels and obviously chose the more expensive of the two). There was some question as to whether we should park the car in the garage or valet it, but the answer was obvious to me, as it was paid for, so valet it was.

We got checked in, rested up, got on the hotel's internet connection (paid for!), and tracked down a place for dinner. The vegetarian-inclined ladies weren't with us, so we opted for steak, and chose the highest-rated steak place that happened to have good drink specials, as this year we were required to submit itemized receipts, and spending our federal money on alcohol was verboten. Lavish steak dinners? Sure. Wine? Hell no.

The place that fit the bill was the Sunset Grill. We called for reservations but ended up getting there a bit early, so we started on the first of several half-priced bottles of wine at the bar while they got our table ready.

I liked the restaurant a lot. It was nice but not stuffy, and had a modern feel to it. We started off with appetizers, making it quite clear that we going all out. Jeff tried to charm our waiter into selling us alcohol but billing us for food items, but it his manager nixed that plan.

The guys wanted calimari, and though I'm no fan of it, I certainly wasn't going to hold them back. I tried it; there was a nice cocktail sauce, but it did no more to turn me toward calimari. The next item was a duck confit cigar: duck meat in phylo dough with goat cheese, walnuts, and a strawberry port jam (good thing they have their menu online; makes my job easier). That was different and quite good. The final item was a beef brisket tamale that was also good.

Since there was no reason to pass up a course, I selected their interesting Sonoma salad, which had apples, almond, blue cheese, and a zinfandel vinaigrette and was excellent.

When it came time for the main course, three of us went for steak, but Jeff bucked the trend and selected the truffled angus burger, which I can confirm was great, particularly with the side of sweet potato fries. When it came to my steak, there was really no reason not to get the largest tenderloin cut they had, a 12 oz. It was served with mashed potatoes, but I passed them up in favor of their specialty truffled gnocci. To complete my steak experience I ordered sides of asparagus and mushrooms, which in my mind are pretty much essential.

So the gnocci was wonderful, with the truffles adding a nice, light flavor to them. The steak was, being tenderloin, excellent, and the port wine sauce highlighted that nicely. I didn't finish my sides, but you can be sure that there was no steak left on my plate.

Finally, it was time for dessert. Knowing that it would be shear folly to each order our own dessert, we instead went with the dessert trio. Of course I wanted creme brule, my personal favorite, but the guys talked me into going with the most interesting menu items. The first was the the coconut sushi, designed to visually evoke sushi with chocolate in place of the algae sheets, coconut in place of the rice, and almonds in place of the fish, garnished with candied ginger and chocolate chop sticks.

Next up was the other guy's favorites, and indeed it was hard to top this: a butterscotch habanero bread pudding. I'm not a big bread pudding fan (the issue is partially the texture), but I think butterscotch is woefully underused, and the habanero was just right to give it an nice spicey finish.

My personal favorite, however, was the peanut butter and jelly french toast topped with bananas foster. I thought it was a wonderfully playful and clever take on the classic comfort food of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

We left stuffed and made our way back to the hotel, opting to take a constitutional across the street to the Nashville parthenon. On the way Graham had his first experience with fireflies (reminding me of the magnetic fields song "100,000 Fireflies"). The parthenon wasn't as impressive up close, having been constructed from graveled concrete, but the walk certainly helped. Pictures (which sort of suck, being taken at night with the camera phone):




I wanted a bottle of water when I got back but the hotel gift shop was closed, so I had to get it out of a vending machine. I expensed it, of course.

6/27

After the experience with the conference last year, and with no sign of things improving, we were in no rush to show up. I met up with the gang at the nearby Starbucks, ordered the biggest damn chai latte they had and a bottle of water, and then we went to the conference, checked in, weighed our options for a few minutes, and then turned right around and left for lunch. Of course, we could have eaten whatever crap boxed lunch they had for us at the conference, but with the option of actually going out for lunch, why bother?

Dad had pretty much insisted that I try barbecue joint Calhoun's, which I talked everyone else into with some slight difficulty. I was disappointed to find it had more in common with a chain like Toni Roma's than a mom and pop barbecue shop. Dad had recommended that I go with a half rack of ribs and pulled pork. This particular combo wasn't on the menu, but I ordered it anyway, and Graham, admiring my initiative at ordering exactly what I wanted, went with the same thing. We also had their potato skin appetizers (also served with pulled pork) and fried green tomatoes.

The ribs were good, as was the pork, but it was more... chain good than legendarily good. It was a satisfying meal, particularly topped off with white chocolate banana pudding, but I found it strange that it didn't live up to Dad's description.

We drove around downtown Nashville to sight see a bit but found few sights to see and so headed back to the hotel. Some world cup was watched, some naps taken, and we regrouped for dinner.

Everyone was wanting sushi (most everyone), so we selected Virago as a hip Asian fusion place. It was nearby so we elected to walk. The place was a stereotypically trendy upscale asian place, with lots of industrial materials present in the architecture and low lighting. I ordered a Kirin, my Asian beer of choice, and we also laid into some sake.

We ordered some spring rolls (standard) and thai lobster shooters: creamy curry and lobster bits served in shot glasses. I'm not particularly pro- or anti-lobster, but these were good.

Unfortunately, my dinner of sirloin topped vietnamese vermicelli salad was completely bland and uninteresting. I made my annual effort to try sushi with the same results as usual. Our waitress was a little bitchy, too, considering how much bill we were dropping.

Things were redeemed, though, with dessert. There was not one but two creme brules on the menu: a jasmine tea and a ginger. I asked our wiatress which she recommended and she suggested the jasmine, so I went with that, and made it quite clear that this dessert was mine. It came out with the coffee I had requested, and I gave the carmelized sugar shell the traditional tap with a spoon before diving in. The jasmine was a nice, subtle but surprisingly flavorful accent to the custard.

We walked back to the hotel, Jeff and I stopped off at Tower Records, and then we called it a night.

6/28

As with the day before we began at Starbuck's before going to the conference, but this time we bothered to stick around to catch a talk given by someone that was part of our group—actually, some work that I had been a part of, but my name was left off (it's OK, I hate that little fucker anyway). The bad news was that we were stuck listening to another talk, which was absolutely awful. The work was trivial, boring, and wholly unremarkable: some kind of microarray "package" for MATLAB, and the speaker actually took time out of his talk to explain how to download and install the damned thing from the web. These people are being given funding priority over real research. It's a horrible state of affairs.

Getting out while we could, we bet up with some people at the nearby borders, and hung out until lunch time, at which point we packed up, checked out, and settled on DaVinci's Pizza for lunch. They were running low on crust, so we ended splitting pizzas two to a pizza rather than each ordering our own. After a nice flatbread appetizer and some good local beer, the pizzas came out. The girls went with somethign veggie-ish with "brown sauce"—pesto and tomato sauce—that was good. I personally got the barbecue chicken pizza with jalapeños, and it was very enjoyable. This pizza place was a winner.

We walked around a bit afterwards before heading to the airport and flying home. I spotted this place, which I photographed for LS Lauren (it's her nickname; I should probably send them to her at some point):



I returned, unpacked, and then Cindy, Will and I went for a midnight showing of Superman Returns, which was a solidly enjoyable film.

6/29

I took the day off. I had been away on work for the last three days, after all! I managed to get by Aaron Brothers to pick up a fram for my Band of Horses poster, and for the sheet of paper that proves that I passed my qualifier, which is hanging in the entrance to my bedroom, a nice reminder of a trial that I finished and will never have to deal with again.

I also dropped my receipts off for the trip. My total for the trip was $720.74, a little short of my $750 budget. It was a failure on my part, but not a spectacular one.

6/30

Cindy's roommate Sarah was having a birthday party at a friend's house in that not-quite-River-Oaks-but-not-quite-Montrose area of town, so we went did some damage to the keg, and waved sparklers around. Mmm... keg...

7/1

Some of Cindy's friends from high school were in town, so I went with her to Ross' parents' house in Jersey Village. I was a little bored, but I think it was important to Cindy for me to spend time with her friends. The six pack of Shiner I brought helped, although I felt like a bit of a lush until some others joined me.

Austin: Donkey Show; Art House; Art Palace; Father's Day

6/15

Rebecca had pieces in two separate gallery openings on this particular weekend, so I decided it was a good time to work in a trip to Austin, especially since I had never seen any of her recent (duct tape-based) art in person.

So, not even a month after my last visit, I took Thursday off and traveled I10 and and 71, arriving in Austin around 5:00, just in time to partake of some Texadelphia and change at the gallery, the Donkey Show.

Apparently the thing to do in Austin now is to rent a house, live in one room of it, and dedicate the rest of the rooms to a gallery. This was the first such gallery of the weekend. It was a great house; it seemed a bit of a shame not to actually be able to use the whole thing as living space.

So I got to see Rebecca's piece. It was made entirely of off-white duct tape, run in vertical parallel lines up the wall, along the lines of the ceiling, stopping or continuing based on the intersections of other lines in the architecture. More tape ran diagonally through the air from the ceiling to the wall to form an obtuse triangle, adding some dimensionality. Due to slight variations in light levels, various regions appeared to be made out of slightly varying shades of duct tape, but it was all the same kind. The off-white worked well with the wood floors, white walls, and the superimposed lines made some nifty moiré patterns.




There was another piece on the floor that was mean to be a landscape of wall texture marked with whisps of spray paint, but to me it really wasn't that interesting.

Lots of people showed up for the opening, and we made our way through the available Tecate and wine. People started to leave, too. Some of Becca's art teachers came by, one of whom was young and cute. She had some of her stop motion animation on her iPod video that was pretty nifty (but maybe slightly disturbing). I tried to get her perspective on the place of stop motion animation (and its photorealistic effects) in the face of computer animation, but I think I lost her somewhere along the way.

Once things had cleared out some and night had fallen, we trekked to a nearby gas station to pick up some beer, forties, cigarettes, and so forth. I'll note that I only ever seem to go to gas stations for beer in Austin (or at least with Becca). These elements were communally consumed lying in the grass in front of the house, and has the hours got later and everyvody else left, Rebecca and I were left with her friends Ali and Kaitlin, sitting on the front porch, while I tried to say intelligent things about art to Kaitlin, who is much more educated than me in such matters. I like to think that I didn't make a complete ass of myself.

6/16

Becca needed to swing by Art House, the gallery where the "New American Talent" exhibit that included her second piece was, to insure that her piece was, in fact, complete. That accomplished, we went to the nearby Athenian Grill for some great cafeteria-style Greek food. I had a nice greek salad with a creamy dressing, a good chicken and rice soup, some rice, and a gyro. It was really good stuff. Different from Niko's, but very good.

Next on the list was some shopping: Rebecca needed a dress and we both needed to get a Father's Day card.

We returned to Becca's for a bit, changed, and headed downtown to hit up a happy hour before the show. We settled on an overly hip bar/latin fusion place, Saba ordered a few appetizers that were... marginal, and a round of mexican martinis that were more martini than mexican. After our quasi-dinner we tabbed out, and discovered that we hadn't been charged for our drinks, which meant that we tipped generously.

Despite her high heels, I managed to talk Rebecca into a brief trek over to the Gingerman to get let her try some Lindeman's, which she liked quite a bit. The bartender bore an amazing resemblance to Nathan from school. I followed that up with a glass of Stone IPA, and the look on Becca's face after she tried it was worth her ensuing ire over not warning her of the bitterness of the beer.

From there we went on to Art House, and I made the rounds and checked out the art. Becca's new piece was quite different from her Donkey Show piece, incorporating much more color, using the large glass window to great effect, incorporating some white tape, and altering the angles of the through-the-air runs of tape.





A lot of the stuff I didn't care for, but there was cool stuff too did. There was one piece that was a chair, with an image of another chair projected onto it, but hard to see due to the negative space in the physical chair. Another piece was a sculpture constructed of broken umbrellas. I also liked the small "room" constructed of steel and pink plexiglass. And the two large looking panes of what appeared to be glass but was actually candy (sugar and water). One piece was made of car batteries suggestively connected to gasoline canisters. One that I didn't like was a small greenhouse of plants on "life support", which was overly dramatic and dominated the room. My favorite was a bush made out of broken umbrellas.




All the while I was sipping on beer, but never enough to really get anywhere. Mom and Dad showed up with flowers (which would become a bit of an albatross later on), and though a bit weirded out by the people and the art seemed to enjoy themselves. I also had some good conversations with people about exactly how awesome Becca's work was

Things wound down and we met up with some of Becca's non-art friends over at the hotel across the street for a couple of rounds before going to an East Austin loft to check out a party. It turned out to be a little lame, so we went across the street to the Peacock to continue the drinking, and I witnessed a very shamless hookup attempt.

We went back to Kaitlin and Ali's to hang out. I talked to Kaitlin a while and then noticed that her answers were getting less and less comprehensible until I realized she was asleep.

6/17

Rebecca and I did lunch at Whole Foods (I enjoyed an excellent barbecue wrap) before heading downtown so that Becca could attend a lecture at Art House. I went to a nearby coffee shop and got cozy with my laptop to do some editing that just had to be done on a paper that the boss still hasn't read. This is what happens when I try to be responsible and productive.

But the coffee house had lonestar tall boys. Fuck coffee. I had me some beer.

Becca and Kaitlin came down after the lecture was over. Becca and I took off for the Donkey Show, where Becca had to meet someone who wanted to see her piece. Again, I worked diligently...

I suppose there was some sort of dinner involved later on, but I'm having trouble remembering exactly what. That taken care of, though, we went to Art Palace (another house/gallery in East Austin) to see the show Ali had curated. There was a keg of beer, but the girls curating that were being both bitchy and stingy, and there was no way I was going to get drunk at that rate. Growing increasingly bored, I eventually talked Becca into walking down the street (again to a convenience store) and grabbed some beer, and things improved from there.

At one point, Becca arm-wrestled all challengers (once again, camera phone plus action shot equals bad idea):


The evening wore on and Arturo shut down Art Palace so we could head north a bit to hit up a pool party. There was swimming, mezcal (which tasted... carcinogenic), cheap beer, and chicken fighting. And then the rain came. Not too long after that we took off, and stopped off at Ali and Kaitlin's, only to hear them yelling at us from the balcony, so we went up and had some more beer with them and... looked at random words in the dictionary. Yep. It got quite late, so I finally talked Becca into leaving.

6/18

Mom & Dad stuck around town long enough to do brunch with us, once again at South Congress Café, which was solid as usual. Not too long after that, I left to make my way back to Houston...