Random thoughts
No new pictures, because the camera's broke. Liz's camera finally died, and now it only takes black pictures. Useful if you want a picture of the dark, but otherwise not so much. So what does that mean to you, dear reader? No pictures of the nice new bed that was delivered on Tuesday.

I'm beginning to realize how utterly spoiled we were in Syracuse with the Central New York Regional Market. I've been trying to find an equivalent in South Florida, and so far I've come up empty-handed. This morning, I went to what looked like the most promising one in the area, the Pompano Beach Green Market. Not even close. There were about a dozen booths, almost none of which were actually selling produce. Worse yet, there was a terrible Southern rock band playing. The guitarist had a rebel flag guitar. So, apparently there are parts of South Florida which are the Southern United States. Not where I live and work, though. Perhaps it's too early in the season. Perhaps I turned up too late. I will try again later in the season.

Since I was in the neighborhood, I went down the street to the CD Collector. It was a decent used store, but nothing like the Sound Garden, the legendary Syracuse (and Baltimore) CD store. However, I had better luck at the fish store. I picked myself up a nice piece of tuna for dinner and made some mental notes (Conch fritters, conch chowder, lobster bisque... these could be potentially useful...).

I also stopped at the British Depot and picked up some frozen British foodstuffs. So, perhaps a Piccadilly Steak & Kidney Pie review soon... I also stopped by CD Heaven while I was in the neighborhood. Again, a decent used store. What was more interesting about the CD Heaven trip was one of the customers. When I walked in, there was a guy on a cell phone looking through the recent arrivals bin. He kept telling the person on the phone, "No, he's busy. He's got headphones on." After a couple minutes of this, he tapped the guy at the listening station on the shoulder and told him he needed to "talk to her." Listening Station Guy then proceeds to have a five-minute argument with someone he later described as this "crazy Israeli woman I've been with four years." The conversation mostly revolved around her screaming and carrying on and why should Listening Station Guy have to try to have a conversation with her while she's "acting like a maniac." The conversation ended with him saying that he "whished [she] had someplace to go too, so [he] wouldn't have to deal with [her] anymore" and that if she did have somewhere to go he would "drop her off there."

Crazy.

Following this, I decided to go home via US-1, so I could stop by the CD Warehouse on Sunrise Blvd. So far, this is the best used place I've found. The two times I've been in, I've found loads of stuff that I actually want to pick up, although I've resisted much of it. The Fugazi discs I passed up in the new arrivals a couple of weeks ago are now gone (I bought two of the four they had). What they don't have is a great new selection. This is where I think I'm going to miss the Sound Garden. For all the stuff they don't carry that I complain about (much of Frank Zappa's catalog, some of the weirdo stuff that I end up buying at Other Music when I'm in NYC), they have a mostly excellent selection of new discs (especially new releases) and very good prices. I just don't think I'm going to find that here. I think I'm going to have to frequent several stores that specialize in particular genres, rather than the one-stop shop approach I've been used to.

But I have not spent all of my time shopping. Last night, I got in some drinking. I met up with a couple guys from work and another guy who doesn't work there anymore for some rum & cokes and political discussion. And bad karaoke. Really bad karaoke. Except for the metalhead looking longhair guy who sang Stevie Wonder's "Superstition." That guy could actually sing.

Tonight's dinner was seared tuna with a cilantro-lime Madeira sauce. On a bed of greens. With roasted asparagus. It turned out reasonably well, especially for my having had to use a nonstick pan. The rest of the week had been mostly burritos. Mahi-mahi the last couple of days. Chorizo before that.

Speaking of food, the Lexis holiday luncheon was this week. It was at the Capital Grille, which I get the feeling would normally be out of my price range. I had a lovely meal of seriously rare filet mignon, spaghetti squash and mashed potatoes. When I ordered the steak rare, I got the warning that it would be cold and red in the middle. Perfect. I think some of the other people at the table thought it was a mistake. Hell, no, that was some serious beef. Dinner was leftover pizza from the previous night's takeout from Mauro's Pizza By The Slice, a rather decent New York style pizza shop down Hollywood Blvd. The slice/extra large pies are 26 inches. $16 for a plain, which is pretty cheap. As it was, I got three meals out of the medium (18 inches/$12) I bought on Tuesday.

I could really go for a coffee. Particularly a nice cup of espresso. I think I'm going to go see if that gelato cafe place is still open.
- posted by Johnny B @ 8:51 PM (1) comments

 
Day Three
It's day three in the new place. I spent most of the night putting together the new table and chairs. Think of how much cooler this pic would look if I had the full-on wireless thing going on. Unfortunately, the wireless router is in Syracuse and I'm on a cable. Tomorrow night I will probably go wander around Hollywood, or else I will season my new cast iron skillet.


- posted by Johnny B @ 12:12 AM (0) comments

 
Day Two
The second day in the new apartment. The mess is cleaned up from the floor, but remains in the kitchen.




- posted by Johnny B @ 11:57 PM (0) comments

 
Day One
The first day in the new apartment.






- posted by Johnny B @ 11:45 PM (0) comments

 
We have internet
Yes, the internet is here. The DSL connection is up and running. I have pictures to post, but first I have to put together a table. And maybe make some espresso.
- posted by Johnny B @ 9:33 PM (0) comments

 
Movin' on up

As anyone who reads this probably knows, I've recently moved to the Miami area to take a job at a law school library. So far, the job is going well. I'll post more about that later. First, I wanted to do quick reviews of a couple of restaurants I stopped in on the way down here.

The first is the Dutch Kitchen in Frackville, PA. It's right off Exit 124B on I-81. It's a homey little place with loads of knick-knacks for sale on the walls. There's a regular dining room, which is attached to a small diner with counter. I had the Baked Pork Sausages, which were awesome. I also had a bowl of New England Clam Chowder, which was quite good. I ordered a piece of the pumpkin pie to go and ate it much later on the road. Service was quick and pleasant. I think the whole thing cost me about $17 or so, plus tip. I highly recommend a stop if you're driving I-81.


The second was this tiny place on Highway 80 in Pooler, GA called Don's Famous Barbecue. It's about 1 mile west of I-95, off Exit 102. Don's is a tiny little place, with a bunch of small tables and booths. Ordering is done at a small cash register near the entrance, and then the food is brought out from the kitchen to your table. I had the pork sandwich, which comes sans sauce. Hot and mild sauce are provided at the table. I preferred the hot, but the two mixed together was also quite good: spicy and a little sweet. The pork was tender, but not overly so, it's chopped rather than pulled, so it's texture is more similar to well-cooked ribs than the usual pulled pork shoulder. I had the sandwich and a small soda, which amounted to about $6.00. Far, far more satisfying than what I would have received for $6.00 in some crappy fast-food joint, that's for sure.



I have finished the slight redesign of this site. All of the links should now be working. The front page is a little ugly. I'll do something with it at some point, but right now it's functional. Eventually, there will be content under the rest of the menu options. For now, I've posted some new stuff in the writings section. Mostly papers from library school, and a few I wrote in London that weren't up here before for some reason.

More later.
- posted by Johnny B @ 8:24 PM (0) comments

 
It's been how long since I posted?
Oh, crud. I never even finished my San Antonio series. Of course, I haven't actually had the pictures developed yet. I never posted St. Louis, either. I'll see what I can do about Miami.

Miami? Yes, Miami. I'm off tomorrow for a week, looking for a place to live. Why? Well, because in theory I start my new job there in about three weeks, meaning that I need to find somewhere to live, and quickly.

If anything interesting happens whilst I'm away, I shall try hard to post. If I was more awake, I'd review some restaurants we visited over the weekend, but I'm not, so I won't. Not right now, at least. Perhaps in the morning.

I turned comment moderation on, btw. I hate spam.
- posted by Johnny B @ 10:43 PM (0) comments

 
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 Johnny B @ 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 Johnny B @ 7:47 PM (0) comments