Guardian of the Non Sequitur

Slate Daily Podcast includes a variety of weekly podcasts on different subjects.  I think i prefer the Culture Gabfest (FB) infinitesimally more than the Political Gabfest (FB), which is to say it teeters back and forth as to which I prefer each week.

One thing they do is have each gabfest participant “endorse” some cultural item each week.  Movie, television show, book, music, it can be almost anything, usually in the entertainment genre.

I often remember weeks later “there was that /insert item here/ that they mentioned” and I just can’t remember it.  My Google Foo is relatively good, but finding a list of them is not easy.  So, I’m going to see if writing them down myself will help.  I highly recommend making this podcast regular listening.

Feb 16, 2011; No. 126; ”Church of High Modernism And Puppies Edition”

Dana’s pick: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, and writer Callie Khouri’s commentary track on the new 20th-anniversary Blu-ray edition of Thelma & Louise.
Julia’s pick: The 1940 romantic comedy The Shop Around the Corner.
John’s pick: Thomas Mann’s essay “Herr und Hund” (“A Man and His Dog“).
Steve’s pick: Montreal bar Bily Kun (French).

I have no patience with the incurious.  What can they learn about life and what can anyone know without learning. -Sylvester Milner in The House of a Thousand Lanterns, by Victoria Holt, 1974

Though I took a long rest, I was still feeling beat down, the remnants from a brief cold.  I’ve heard from others it can linger for weeks.  Not having done much fore-scouting for the music portion of SXSW, I thought I’d head to Waterloo Records and start from there.

Meanwhile, the people I knew that were here for SXSWi were catching their last lectures and mostly heading out of town.

It’s been two years since I’ve been to Waterloo and the neighboring ice house is no longer.  In its place is the 24 Diner.  I sat down and had a Dr Pepper to sooth the throat.  I was also offered a taste of the Avery Hog Heaven.  It was a very hoppy barley wine, and if I was feeling well it would have complemented my meal excellently.

I had a stuffed chard on a bed of wheat berries.  After having 4 slices of bacon with breakfast, the vegetarian option sounded good.  And it was.

I stopped by Waterloo.  It was a sedate shadow of what it will be over the next few days with a different band playing in-store every hour (including Cheap Trick Wednesday at 6!).  There were no copies of the weekly Austin Chronicle, and no dailies starting until Wednesday.

I briefly tried to catch up with Bill C. again, but he hopped out of town, exhausted after his daily lectures following minimal sleep.  Will killing time at The Ginger Man, trying two beers (Independence Oatmeal Stout was a delicious desert for my lunch), I pulled a book off the shelf (quoted above).  I read it there and have been continuing it.  Hopefully I can finish and re-shelve it before I leave town.

I headed back to my crash pad and got in some extra rest knowing I’ll need it over the next few days.

I did not check the weather before I left Houston, so now on Tuesday morning I’m tossing my only pair of jeans into the washing machine.

I don’t have a jacket or any rain gear with me either.  It will be a bit nippy tonight, and raining all day.

Yesterday, after I got settled into my cousin’s place, and did some grocery shopping, I headed into town.  I parked across MOPAC from Zilker Park and rode my bicycle into town.  It was a nice day for it, and gave me a chance to get used to some of the routes that might be useful later in the week.

I locked up the bike, almost left my pannier, but thought better of it, and found some lunch.  Darwin’s Pub had a nice Chicken Shawarma, though their beer selection was minimal.  Around 4pm, I headed over to Buffalo Billiards (even thinner, though larger, selection).  There was an informal iPhone Developers Meet-up.  It ended up having about a dozen people, about half had done development work.  So, I spent some time chatting and getting to know some people, mostly from Texas, though the organizer was from the UK.

One who I met was Jacqueline, and happened to attend the same high school as I did.  This happens more often than you might think.

After that I headed to the west side for a Houston organized party (Houstonians got free drink tickets, and a friend bought me another).  I saw quite a few Houston friends.  JR was camped out with a video camera.  (Ex Houston) Mayor Bill White showed up and had a brief chat.  He’s running for Governor.  I wish he was still our mayor, and will definitely vote for him for Governor.

Jacqueline had checked in on another party and then stopped by the Houston one.  We chatted for a while and suggested we try the FourSquare party.

FourSquare, Twitter, Gowalla, and (to a less extent) FaceBook are ALL OVER the SXSWi part of the conference.  So much that there are lots of anti-SXSW whiners on-line and #fakesxsw humor from the non-attendees.

We swang by the FourSquare and it had a line out the front, we tried out the BeerCamp at Emo’s.  Their Beer Pong tournament was over but free beer was still available for the waiting in line.  The rain started, we chatted under a tent with some young strangers (Austinites schooling in Lubbock, off for the spring break).

My iPod had died by this point, and I totally missed hooking up with my good friend Bill C.  I totally should have borrowed a phone and called (sorry Bill!).  Jacqueline suggested we try out Beauty Bar (a new one, I was unfamiliar with) as the rain continued.  I stayed there for a while, but decided I needed to get back to my car and/or bike, so I left her to stay out for the rest of the night (and I think she did).

I started walking to find a cab, to get to my car.  I was planning on abandoning my well locked bike.  But I got all the way to the bike and after consulting with the pedi-cab drivers decided that that I needed to come back and retrieve the bike.  Then I decided that I was already soaking wet and warm from the walk, so decided to ride to the car.  I got home about 12:30, had to strip clean to get dry and warm.

I was of course soaked to the bone and a bit muddy from the ride.  Thus the need to wash and dry my only pair of pants this morning.  Sounds like they’re ready for the dryer.

They assigned me to seat 41 before I boarded the train. So, naturally, when I got on, there wasn’t one.

Once he came to mark our seats, he fixed where he wanted us. We were underway on time just before noon, and though I was quite hungry, the earliest reservation was at 2:00 by the time it got to our car.

I was seated with two older guys.  Both hard of hearing, and one nearly blind.  Minimal conversation entailed because it required me to yell.  A young guy visiting a friend for his first time in Houston was seated to me after we had already been served.  He spent much of the meal texting, and indeed every time I saw him on the train after that he was texting away.

Later in the evening after we had passed over the Sabine river into Texas I sat for a while in the observation car.  When  we were passing through Dayton, there were about four other tracks next to us, and a line of shrubs and fence hemmed them in.  Three small calfs were running along the other tracks, obviously spooked by our passing.

When we got close to town, there was an obvious 50′ hill on the north side of the tracks.  I’m assuming it was a landfill from the looks of it.  In the flat coastal area, it stuck out quite obviously.

We pulled into Houston almost an hour early, the sun was setting on the skyscrapers and looked quite nice.  I was out of change, and there was a long line of confused people in line to the incompetently slow station attendants.  I didn’t think I had a chance of getting change easily.  I called my mother collect.  She was planning on picking me up, but not for a while.

She commented that I looked like a homeless person with my shaggy hair and travel beard.  A brief ride, and I was home.  Still several days later I’m still settling in, but I will only have a few days until I’m on a place to Reston, Virginia for over a week.

I got inside the station, the first stop on the trip where I had no real plans. I called two hostels I had found online with cheap private rooms. One was full, the other had been closed “for several years” (Katrina time frame?). There was one listed on the ad board, but they didn’t take calls between noon and 5:00p. I didn’t care to wait till 5, so I called the Holiday Inn down the street from the station and got a place there.

Prior to getting the room just down the street, I had preemptivly checked my baggage for the following day’s trip.  Not the best idea, but I didn’t care to try to go “uncheck it”, and I wanted to walk to the hotel anyway.  I got quite sweaty walking eight blocks in characteristically warm New Orleans.

I bathed, watched a little TV, and decided my slight scratchy throat was enough to keep me in from an adventurous night. I ate downstairs. The seafood gumbo was fabulous, the shrimp creole was mediocre.

I was in bed by 10:00p, hoping to wake early for a walk, but being awake from 2:30a – 5:00a, likely from my sporatic napping, nixed that idea. I did finally rise by 9:00a. Without a change of clothes and only two hours to kill I didn’t want to hike about town getting sweatty.

I checked out and cabbed the short distance to the station. He made sure to charge me the minimum of $10 for people with luggage even though he didn’t need to carry my small bags.

If I hadn’t been to New Orleans over a dozen times, I would have felt bad for not venturing out. But it was just a weigh station to me this time. Soon I was back on the train.

I was sleeping with the windows open and at 5:30a a neighbor’s cell phone went off, about 20 times, consecutively. Apparently someone who punches elevator buttons to speed them up had obtained a phone and was furiously punching buttons.

I reracked and awoke at 9:30a, showered and packed to leave town. I worked for a little while before John and I headed to Wrigley around noon, Marsha to join us shortly after the 1:30p game time.

John and I walked about for a few Wrigleyville photos and went inside early enough to get our free Wrigley pins and see some batting practice. Seats: 509, 6, 102-104

The game left Marsha slightly annoyed by the variety of White Sox fans in our area that were less than gracious winners. Cubs 1 – 4 Sox.

From there we headed to their favorite Mexican place, which was amazingly unbusy for the reasonably short walk we made from the game. After a taco salad and some margaritas, we stopped once more at Joe’s.

After one drink there we headed home and John walked me over to Lakeshore drive. That was the first time on my cloistered visit I realized we were only two blocks from the lake.

John put me in a cab to Union Station via lower Wacker (I’ll have to rewatch the Blues Brothers when I get home) and I was soon downtown again for less than $20.

The lobby for the train was half blocked off “in the interest of security”. There were several other questionable security rules.

By 8:00p The City of New Orleans train was making its way out of Chicago.

I spent some time in the lounge car, which was combined with the dinner car instead of being two different and larger cars. I chatted with a variety of interesting folk until about 10:00p when I turned in.