Young girls and gin may be the cure
It's a rare occurrence that I belong to the right group. Today is one of those occasions. Free wireless access is available in the San Antonio Airport for Road Runner customers. Since I have a two hour wait until my flight leaves, this is a welcome surprise.

I got ahead of myself last night, so I will start at the beginning. I am in San Antonio for the American Library Association Mid-Winter Meeting. I decided to attend the conference for the job placement service. It seemed like a good way to contact a good number of employers in one place. How wrong I was. What I didn't realize before I registered was that there were only going to be a few academic employers at the conference, and most of them only have a couple of upper-level openings each. The booths were mostly occupied by large public libraries. I did receive some good advice on my resume and job search in general. I talked to some nice people from South Florida who expressed their surprise that so many people were looking for academic jobs, because they traditionally open up around graduation in the spring. Unfortunately, I think that a lot more of us are graduating mid-year than in the past. In the medium-term, I shouldn't have problems finding something, but in the short-term, I am in trouble. Especially, as I have only a few weeks left at my current place of employment. I am sure I will work something out, but in the meantime it creates at least a mildly stressful situation. Not that I expected that I would definitely find something here, but I would have had stayed home had I known the pickings would be so slim. I certainly could have made better use of the funds spent on this trip.

I arrived on Thursday night and picked up my rental car. Avis gave me one of the ugliest cars I've ever seen in my life. It was an orange Pontiac Sunfire. The thing was absolutely hideous, and has no visibility on the driver's side blind spot, making it very difficult to change into left-hand lanes. Otherwise, the car was reasonable decent. It had a CD player, new wipers and good tires, which would be important on Sunday when I drove to Austin in the rain. I had little difficulty finding my hotel out on Austin Highway (out in the unfashionable end of town, far from downtown and the conference hotels). I checked in, dropped my stuff and immediately headed back out to the Sonic I passed on the way in as I had become rather unreasonably hungry.

I returned to the motel and found, much to my chagrin, that the internet connection in the room was not wireless and I did need the ethernet cable I had forgotten back home. I hit up the phone book looking for places nearby that I might find a replacement cable. First thing in the morning, I picked up a cable down the street at the Mall-Wart. I hate shopping there, but it was the only place I knew how to find and it was only a $9 ethernet cable. I also stopped at Shipley Donuts for a sausage and cheese croissant, a donut and some coffee. I set back to the motel and prepared for the first day of the conference. I arrived downtown around 10:30, parked in the garage across from the convention center and wandered around for a bit. I searched for an open wireless connection and found one, and also bought an overpriced cup of coffee in the lobby. Eventually, I found the placement center, where I attended the 11:30 orientation. Then I set off to the other side of the convention center to look at the job listings again. Unfortunately, the owner of the open network I found previously must have realized that several hundred librarians were attempting to connect and closed it off. I returned to the placement center, printed off a resume and signed up for the critiquing service. Someone had cancelled, so I got a spot that was ten minutes after I signed up, rather than late afternoon, as with most of the open spots.

I did receive some good advice, and spent most of the rest of the afternoon modifying my resume, then posting the changes online and updating my files, as well as looking at the job listings. Using the computers in the placement center gave me a headache, so I decided to apply to jobs later that night from my hotel. I ran into someone I know from Syracuse at the placement center, and we decided to go get some Mexican for dinner. First, though, a trip around the exhibits was in order. The exhibit hall was a complete free-for-all that almost completely turned me off. The sight of a bunch of alleged professionals tearing through the convenion center trying to grab as much free stuff as possible was appalling. I did pick up a flashing Google pin for Liz and a copy of Frommer's San Antonio and Austin from the Wiley booth, as that was of immediate practical use. I refused all other proffered goodies, though, as I already had enough junk to carry. I also briefly met Terry Moore, writer of Strangers in Paradise, one of Liz's favorite books.

After Charlie was completely loaded up with stuff, we flipped through the Frommer's book looking for somewhere to eat and settled on Rosario's, which appeared to be just down the street. As it turned out, it was a bit of a walk, but well worth it. Rosario's is in the Blue Star Arts District in San Antonio. It's in what appears to have been a large storefront at some time in the past, as there are a large number of unused entrances along the outside of the building. The whole inside is done over in red, with painted portraits lining the walls. Each table contains a small vial of roasted tomato salsa, to go with the chips supplied by our waiter. I didn't stray too far out into unknown territory, ordering the chorizo Sopes, Enchiladas Suizas and a margarita. The food was all excellent, and the service very good. I recommend a visit to anyone visiting the area. After dinner, we headed back to the convention center, me to fetch my car, Charlie to catch the shuttle to his hotel. His swag bag broke right outside the restaurant and so he ended up hailing a passing cab rather than continue to carry the now unwieldy collection of convention fluff. I continued on foot, and was soon back at the motel.

Unfortunately, my cunning plan was not jibing with the reality that I was going to be quite so exhausted. I crashed hard and instead, after another Shipley's breakfast, applied to jobs in the morning. I then headed back to the convention center where I had a nice conversation with a couple of people from South Florida who told me that they didn't have any entry-level academic jobs, but that they usually opened up in the spring. I failed to get any bites on the positions to which I applied, but i did take the time to upload my resume and information of the site fun by the librarians in Florida. I also had bratwurst and root beer at Schilo's, a little German deli down the street from the convention center. I highly recommend that any and all root beer afficianados stop in for a drink. Following lunch, I walked over to the Alamo and took a look around. I wonder how many of our landmarks are left that are not across the street from a collection of bars, shops and a wax museum. I was reading a plaque on the far wall about the log palisade used to fortify the opening between the church and the barracks when I heard a voice behind me shouting "Hi there, stranger!" I turned around to see Scott Nicholson waving to me out of the back of a car as the light changed to green. It was stopped from being a completely surreal moment only because I had heard that he was in town for the conference.

Dispirited by the prospects at the placement service, I headed back to the motel a half-hour before the placement center closed and headed back towards the motel to change into some more casual clothes. On the way, I was distracted by the CD Exchange on Broadway and poked my head in to see what they had. One Jesus Lizard CD, copy of the Misfits Evilive, and a short conversation regarding the Jesus Lizard and how someone had brought in and sold all of their albums, all the Butthole Surfers albums and a bunch of Albini projects the same day later, and I was back at the motel changing.

After consulting the phone book, the Frommer's guide and the San Antionio Current, I made a short list of places I wanted to visit and drove out. I got lost once and almost accidentally drove into Fort Sam Houston, but I did get a good sense at what some of the outlying areas of San Antonio are about. I found a drug store where I could purchase a disposable camera and some cough drops, drove by the local record store (but didn't stop) and wandered around the San Antonio Quarry Market (a large outdoor mall) for a while. I attempted to stop at Earl Abel's Restaurant for dinner around 7:30, but the place was packed. I continued my wandering, almost ended up in Fort Sam Houston, as previously noted, and took a couple of pictures. Eventually, I returned to Earl Abel's and had my first ever Chicken-Fried Steak. It's a unique taste sensation that needs to be experienced for one's self. I highly recommend trying it at least once. I also had some excellent cream of chicken soup and some mashed potatoes. Earl Abel's is a local institution which is unfortunately coming to a close. They will be closing March 15th, after 65 years in their location at Broadway and Hildebrand (and another 15 or 20 before that in a downtown location). It's a shame that these older places are closing, to be replaced by faceless, soulless chain food. I'm glad I managed to get a meal in before they're gone for good.

After dinner, I sat in the motel and watched the Spurs game. I'm not a basketball fan, but I was too spent to do much else, and I didn't want to go right to bed after such a heavy meal. I began to think that if I lived here, that the Southern food would kill me, but then I realized that, as things are at home, I probably wouldn't eat out more than once a week anyway, and with all of the other food available, I wouldn't necessarily be eating Southern food all of the time.
- posted by John @ 3:28 PM (0) comments

 
In Your Wildest Dreams
I'm posting from Threadgill's in Austin, TX, home of The Reverend Horton Heat. I'm in Texas for the American Library Association's Mid-Winter Meeting in San Antonio. Seeing as the reason for my being here, namely the job placement, is not going so well, I decided on a day trip up to Austin. One of the great things about Austin is, of course, lots of wireless access. Thus, I am able to post while I eat my dinner (don't tell Liz, she probably won't be hot on my using her laptop while I'm eating). For the record, I am eating of Threadgill's Five Vegetable Plate. This particular dish gives you a choice of any five of the many "vegetable" sides on the menu. The definition of vegetable is a bit liberal, to be sure. My choices were: Red Beans and Rice, Macaroni and Cheese ("Considered a vegetable in Oklahoma"), Scalloped Potatoes, Fried Okra (yum), and Broccoli and Rice Casserole (which includes water chestnuts!). I picked up a cheap copy of the Threadgill's cookbook at the Half-Price Book Store down the street, and I'm really hoping it includes a recipe for the Broccoli Rice Casserole.

I ate lunch at Hut's Hamburgers, a cramped little hamburger shack on 6th. It's a dumpy little building with a bar on one side and a ton of tables all crammed together. Sports pennants and all kinds of news clippings and photos cover the walls. The burgers are mostly named after rock stars. I ordered "Arnold's Best" (a burger with bacon, Jack cheese, lettuce and guacamole) and a side of fries. The fries were a little undercooked, but the burger was excellent. I split my time while eating between reading the Austin Chronicle and half paying attention to the second quarter of the Steelers-Broncos game. When I left it was 10-3 Steelers.

Around all of the eating, I participated in my usual "visiting a new place" activities. Namely, driving around, getting lost and visiting as many record and book stores as possible, I have yet to figure out how all of the books I accumulated today are going to fit in my luggage. I'll stuff them in somewhere. I didn't intend on buying anything, but some things are just too hard to pass up ($7 Terry Pratchett hardcovers, a half-priced hardcover of Kitchen Confidential, the aforementioned Threadgill's cookbook, and a few others). The Pratchett books were acquired at Book People, a long-time Austin independent, and the largest independent book shop I've ever seen. I also picked up some music at Cheapo Discs, which is just completely ridiculous. They keep a week's worth of recent arrivals out of the main bins, arranged by day. Today Monday was empty, but the rest were pretty full. The new arrivals section alone is the size of the pop/rock used section in the Sound Garden. At the very least. I did the short look through all of the discs and I was in there for two hours. I also visited (for a shorter time), Waterloo, which is a mile or so down the street (and across from Book Peopls). Waterloo is more reasonably sized, and interestingly arranged. All of the new non-classical, non-international (aka "World Music") discs are arranged alphabetically. Pop, rock, jazz, reggae, heavy metal, country, etc. are all mixed together. I picked up the ever-elusive Aluminum Tunes by Stereolab, as well as a used copy of Flip Your Wig and a couple of other things. I also passed up a bunch of things I would really like to get some day, in the interests of saving money.

I've been eating in a lot of local landmark-type places here, and I'm seeing in person what exactly it is that the Dinosaur BBQ is going for. I know they're basing their food and atmosphere on New Orleans mostly, but Texas isn't all that far away, I still haven't been to a barbecue place yet, Hopefully, I'll be able to grab lunch at one tomorrow. But, the atmosphere of many of these places is similar. As is the copious list of Threadgill's sides. I must say that on the atmosphere front, the Syracuse Dino does a pretty good job. The Rochester Dino has a bit of a different atmos, but the original has it down pretty well. I hope to be able to compare the barbecue soon.

The bill just came and it turns out my waitress' name is Mercedes. Does it get more Southern than that? Anyway, she rocks. I'm off back to San Antonio with my piece of Pecan Pie to go.
- posted by John @ 7:47 PM (0) comments