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trip recap

Posted on February 22, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I’ll try and keep this as brief as possible. I had a blast! I just want to give a few highlights and let you know where we diverged from the “potential vacation” posts you saw. (Not much.)

Friday night we were in Austin with Bart & Emily, who have hosted us for similar outrageous fun in the past. They’re great hosts! By the time we got into town they had a great dinner all ready for us… I think there was barbecued chicken, leftover brisket, dirty rice, and cornbread with Lil Smokey sausages in it. (Don’t ask.) Bart homebrews, so we had some awesome beer to drink on draft off the back porch, too. There was a caramel pecan porter that was like a dessert, and also a lighter one, I guess it was a wit? We went out late to see two bands play: Smoke and Feathers, followed by the Mother Hips, at the Hole in the Wall. Smoke and Feathers reminded me of a male-vocal Portishead, which was creepy but cool. They ALL had pretty impressive beards, too. There was a theramin! It was great. Mother Hips apparently have a Grateful Dead connection, and the lead guy kind of looked like my Pops. That was cool, too. Then we went back to the house and watched part of a Led Zepplin documentary. Great night.

Saturday we ate some Mexican food and hit the road. The Eola School was really cool! Just this one guy runs four businesses at once. He brews beer (was pouring a German blonde and a smoked porter – I don’t like smoke on my beer so we stuck with the blonde which was fine); he cooks burgers & fried foods; he offers hostel-style lodging (bunk beds, BYO bedding); and he’s renovating a historic schoolhouse building from the 1930′s, if I remember correctly. I give him full credit on all counts! It was well worth our detour.

Sunday we headed out into nowhere to visit the Chinati Hot Springs. It was a beautiful location several hours down a dirt road, with several clean, built-out tubs fed by natural hot springs, and rustic cabins with a community kitchen where we made our dinner and breakfast.

on the drive into Chinati


Feeling refreshed, we got up Monday morning and drove through Ruidoso and Presidio, through Big Bend Ranch State Park, into the towns of Lajitas, Terlingua, and Study Butte (one largish area) for the rest of our week’s activities.

Tuesday we hiked Lost Mines. It was a really great, scenic, steep hike of about 3 hours, out and back, to a peak with an outstanding panorama. It was moderately challenging and beautiful and well worth it. The Husband’s new gadget gave us altitude readings (not something we use in Houston! our local bike rides have elevation changes of 15-20 feet if we take the freeway overpasses) that explained why I was a touch out of breath.

Wednesday we rode some of the Lajitas trail system, which is a lot of the race course that we’re familiar with. That was nice to see; it was a casual ride (before people started showing up for the mountain bike festival), just the two of us, on familiar trails.

A few of our friends showed up Wednesday night, and the rest on Thursday. Thursday morning we got up early to do some logistics: we caravaned with some friends to leave a car at one end of our point-to-point ride in Big Bend National Park. We rode from the north end of an old jeep road down to a (different) hot springs right on the Rio Grande. This was our hottest day, in the upper 90′s, in the blazing sun with no shelter, and it was a rough and climby ride, and I ran out of water, so it was a doozy! But we had outstanding views, good company, and burning legs – it was a great day. And Tobin makes a mean margarita. The hot springs were less appealing than we had expected after such a long, hot day, but it turned out lovely all the same – these hot springs backed right up to the cold Rio Grande, so you could just hop the little wall (like a swimming pool and hot tub, but muddier) to change from hot to cold. It was a nice, relaxing day.

Friday we rode some more Lajitas trails, this time in a group, and then went back into the national park for a night hike to a waterfall. I banged my head on a rock :( but I survived and it was otherwise a beautiful evening with breathtaking sunset, as always out there.

omg sunset! Big Bend National Park

We went back to the cabin for a big community dinner involving burgers, chicken, sausages, bratwurst, mac’n'cheese, and beer. Ahem! Heavy. This was in preparation for Saturday’s epic.

We decidedly not to do the capital-E Epic ride on Saturday. We had been beaten by such hot temperatures, and were hearing such frightening tales of what the Epic involved, that we bailed in favor of what I’m calling the mini-epic. It was still a great, long, hot, challenging, FUN ride at just under 6 hours – the Epic would have put us well over 8 hours, I think. What a day! I was definitely weak out there at some points (like on the climbs! did I say we don’t have those in Houston?), but I really enjoyed the creekbeds, strangely enough, and actually had a real burst of energy at the end, and rode the last couple miles fast, hard, and happy. THIS is what we drive to the desert for.

Saturday night ended with all the necessary ingredients. We drank Real Ale Fireman #4 (thank you Real Ale for sponsoring the festival!), hung out with all our friends, saw some live music, danced, and hula hooped. The Husband grilled some delicious chicken and we collapsed in exhaustion.

Sunday, sadly, saw us making the Epic (capital-E), slightly hungover drive back into Houston. I think we made it just under 12 hours including stops. Sigh. For once I was not ready for our trip to end, even missing the little dogs. But! There’s always next year. See you in the desert!

(all photo credits to the Husband. good job Husband!)

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Adrian Zavala

Posted on January 31, 2011 by pagesofjulia

On Saturday night this past weekend (Jan. 29) the Husband and I finally went to go see our neighbor play music. We’ve been neighbors for years and friends for the same number of years, and he’s been playing music locally for less time, maybe a bit over a year? since he quit his full-time job to go back to being a professional musician. We have missed his shows many times over, because we spend a lot of time traveling and Being Very Busy, and when we’re not doing those things we like to Sit on the Couch. I feel badly that we have waited this long to see the neighbor play music, because we intend to be more supportive. We trade dog-sitting and watch each other’s homes and trade food and things; we should see him play music, too.

And now that we’ve finally seen him play music, I feel badly that we’ve waited this long, because he’s very good! I was very impressed. The Adrian Zavala Band played at Khon’s, which is a little (little!) coffee shop/bar in the Little Vietnam area of southwest downtown Houston. It was a neat little place – basic but with some good offerings ($2 Lone Star draft!), and the sense to book Adrian.

Adrian Zavala

Adrian claims to encompass “Duke Ellington meets Bad Brains”, whatever that means. I was pretty well entranced by the music. It’s a three-piece band – Adrian sings and plays guitar, along with a bassist and a drummer (um, sorry, I think I caught their names but they don’t seem to be available to me just now). I should say that I’m not a musician or a music critic; but I appreciate music, and I like to try to understand how it all comes together. Adrian’s music really spoke to me; it had me reliving old memories seemingly unrelated to the songs I was hearing. I don’t know how to explain that, but I find it obvious (to me at least) that sound is second only to smell in its mnemonic abilities – the ability to take us back in time, to tap into specific memories.

Adrian’s a pretty talented guitar player. I was trying to watch his feet to see what he was doing with the pedals; but most of what I normally think of as pedal effects he was doing with just the strings. (I cannot do this justice. See above comment re: me not being a music critic.) They performed only original music; and each song was satisfying long and complex with lots of bridges (is that right?). Guitar and bass both got to play around and show off some skills. It was fun! I would dance next time, if there were room, and if I were to be perhaps not the only person dancing??

I was musing about the comfort we find in familiarity. At one point one song diverged into a little bit of Rush, and I found myself smiling – not because it’s my favorite music (meh) but because I recognized it. But I loved the original music! I would rather hear original music (at least by Adrian; not necessarily by the next guy!) than Rush. So why smile? I think familiarity makes us comfortable; it makes us smile. I may have been imagining things, but I looked around and thought everybody else was smiling at it, too. I was thinking about the Heights mystery I finished recently, Murder on the Boulevard, which I ended up really enjoying. While not the height (ha) of literary achievement, it was a perfectly fun read; but I think it was heightened (now I’m having fun) by the familiarity of the setting. I think we all enjoy reading (or listening to, or…) things that reference our hometown, home neighborhood, etc. Familiarity is relaxing. And yet, it’s important to get out of our comfort zones, too, in the pursuit of happiness and lots of Other Things.

I’m so glad I got out of the house :) AND our comfort zone, to see some live music. We don’t do enough of that. Thanks Adrian for the performance; hopefully there will be lots more, maybe even in a bigger venue that allows for me moving to the music! Although really Khon’s is a charming little place, I think this band could use more.

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Broadway presents West Side Story: one more thing

Posted on January 16, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Referencing yesterday’s post about West Side Story: I failed to mention the bilingualism. This morning I read a Houston Chronicle article about the production, and it mentioned several changes in this revival tour, including a “grittier” feel with more violent, scruffier gangs, which I think I did observe. It also mentioned the addition of quite a bit of Spanish, and in fact for the tour it said the director returned some lyrics to English to make it more accessible. I feel that he did achieve his goal of creating realism, in that bilingual characters seemed to use Spanish when they would in real life. I’m from Houston, and I don’t know how this change plays everywhere, but Houston is a city accustomed to quite a bit of Spanish. It worked for me. I understood enough of the Spanish to be comfortable; and when I didn’t understand it, I felt at home, because that’s what living in Houston is about. I thought it was a great effect. Just wanted to add that. I’ll be back tomorrow or maybe Tuesday to tell you about finishing Lee Child’s 61 Hours and why I found the ending highly unsatisfying.

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Broadway presents West Side Story

Posted on January 15, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Oh my goodness. I had the most fabulous time last night! My wonderful father bought the Husband and I tickets to go see West Side Story here in Houston. It was at the new(ish?) Hobby Center. I was frankly surprised that the Husband was interested, but he had a great time too! (Perhaps he would not say “fabulous.”)

I have to say that my greatest reaction was to be transported back to the first Broadway musical I saw, at age 16 or so, at the Nederlander Theatre on the actual Broadway in NYC. My same wonderful father and I were visiting prospective colleges, including NYU, and he took me to see Rent while we were there. We were really far back, maybe just a row off the back wall, but it was a tiny theatre and the seats seemed to just go straight up – we were fairly far away from the stage but it was all vertical distance, as I remember it. I was just transfixed. The personality and emotion conveyed by the actors was enormous. I guess musical theatre by definition expresses itself through exaggeration, kind of like how the ancient Greek theatre used oversized masks to make emotions and characters extra-obvious to those sitting really far away in the amphitheatre. I felt simultaneously taken in by the characters and their struggles, and interested in the process by which these actors created the characters. I liked thinking about how they did this, the rehearsals, and everything that goes into it.

Rent is a powerful story. It’s a rewrite of the opera La Boheme, which I have not seen and do not know much about, but apparently it follows the story quite closely, re-setting the love of Rodolfo and Mimi from 1830′s Paris into 1990′s New York City. The illness originally was consumption (whatever that means) and now is HIV/AIDS. In Rent, then, a group of young, impoverished actors in NYC deal with AIDS’ effect on all of them, although only some are infected.

This story captured me so powerfully at 16. I cried, and I still cry and cry when I hear songs off that soundtrack. It was perhaps one of my more powerful experiences to date at that time. I also had a gay friend who came out to his family around the same time, and I remember being excited to share with him the gay culture I discovered in Rent, in San Francisco, and in Seattle during my travels.

Like Rent, West Side Story is a remake, of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Again the story is re-set in a more modern time and place: this time in 1950′s NYC. The Capulets and Montagues have become rival street gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. I had seen the movie years ago, but had forgotten how racially charged and not-PC it was: the Puerto Rican Sharks are reviled by the Irish-Catholic Jets but also by the police lieutenant (who doesn’t completely spare the Jets his racism, either, but being white they get gentler treatment). So that was a little shocking to me. One of the most fun scenes, in which the Shark girls sing back and forth about the charms of the US vs. PR (“América”), plays to some of the stereotypes, too. It’s a great, fun, funny scene, but again not entirely PC (as comedy often isn’t, I suppose). It was interesting to note.

It was such a great, fun play in general. Husband and I were both shocked and impressed at the outrageous dancing the women did in stiletto heels! (I can’t even walk in them, or even stand still!) I find it perfectly acceptable, in theatre, to know the ending; for me, it’s not about being surprised by plot twists, but about seeing a story executed. Still, I was surprised by the ending which diverges slightly but crucially from Shakespeare. For the bulk of it, though, I enjoyed knowing what was coming and appreciating how these incredibly talented actors, singers, dancers take me through a series of emotional reactions. I’m so touched.

Tony & Maria

And again, I was taken back to that little theatre in NYC when I was 16 and so touched by Rent. What a beautiful experience. There were little parallels: when Tony and Maria touch for the first time, they exchange comments about cold hands;

Roger & Mimi

I can still hear Roger and Mimi singing, “cold hands”… “yours too”… “big… like my father’s… wanna dance?” “with you?” “no… with my father.” These lines are more readily available in my memory than those from last night.

Musical theatre is amazing stuff. What a special treat. Thank you so much, Pops.

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just a little musing (little a-musing?)

Posted on January 13, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I was intrigued to read today’s post from Thomas at My Porch about grammar (oh woe) because I was also going to make a language comment in today’s post. Mine is not a complaint, though, more of a musing.

One of my favorite bands is the Drive-by Truckers. The Husband and I are a little bit fanatical about them, in fact. This morning on the way to work I was blessed by the iPod which gave me “Thank God for the TVA”, a Truckers song that was written and performed by Jason Isbell who is no longer in the band. So, we don’t get to see it played live. :( But I did hear it in the car, and I love it. Here, I found you this recording of it.

The line I’m most concerned with right now says is, “I wanted her to want me so bad it hurt.” I notice some ambiguity here. Let’s use parentheses in the mathematical way: he could mean “I wanted her (to want me) so bad it hurt.” Or he could mean “I wanted her (to want me so badly it hurt).” Does he want, so badly that it hurts, for her to want him? Or does he want for her desire for him to be painful? (I’m leaving aside the grammatical wrongness of “so bad it hurts” – should be “so badly” – but I can appreciate the southern flavor it gives.) This is the same ambiguity we see in pronoun use such as “Maria gave her mother the card, and her eyes sparkled.” Because Maria and her mother are both female, “her” is ambiguous. Whose eyes sparkled? Maria’s, or her mother’s? I think ambiguity in language is generally a problem. If I came across a sentence like the one I just made up in a book I would be frustrated. The purpose of language, after all, is to communicate.

But I guess there are exceptions to my statements, that language is solely a tool of communication, and that ambiguity is frustrating. Because the above line in the song is poetry; it’s beautiful; and the meaning of the sentence works both ways. I appreciate it. I’m okay with the ambiguity; in fact it adds to the song and, what do I know, may even have been purposeful. When is language not just about communication? When you’re passing the time, when you’re trying to look busy, when you like to hear the sound of your own voice, when you’re stalling, when you’re trying to get something you want without someone else noticing they gave it to you. Etc. But also, when it’s poetry. I think Jason Isbell is a poet, and he’s brought us our musing of the day. Thank you Drive-by Truckers.

Filed under: musings | Tagged: | 6 Comments »

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