Holiday Odds and Ends pt. 2

Can you believe in all the years that I have lived in Austin I had never visited the Stevie Ray Vaughn statue until this past Christmas?



Some 10 years ago my X and a bunch of friends and I stumbled up and down the grassy knoll near Town Lake (now called Lady Bird Lake) trying to find this thing. We were drunk verging on hung over and had been dancing into the wee hours of the morning hence the excursion was not a success. I think we all eventually collapsed under the bridge and tried to blend in with the transient population that night--never mind the plethora of PVC leather and velvet we wore.

In retrospect, I have no idea how we missed it because the thing is huge. My brother waned a pic with good ole Stevie (in case you're a poor soul who doesn't know who he is, Stevie Ray Vaughn, a TX boy, was one of the greatest blues guitarists who ever lived, an inspiration to many rock gods and unfortunately had his life cut short after a tragic helicopter accident after a show in 1990)so Christmas morning, the family set out to Lady Bird Lake on a mission to get the photo and because none of us were drunk (perhaps a tad greasy in the stomach from breakfast at IHOP, but certainly not drunk) we succeeded!



It was a beautiful Christmas day with blue skies, cool crisp winds and bright sun out. A lot of people were walking up and down the lake (which is really a river...too complicated to go into) with their dogs or kids. A lot of other people were paying their respects to Stevie...Apparently the statue is one of the most visited landmarks in Austin, TX next to the capitol building and the UT Tower where Charles Whitman shot down a bunch of students back in the 50's. Anyhow, mom wanted a pic with Stevie too. Here she is snuggling with him:



So of course I had to take a pic too. I asked him to make me a rock god and maybe rub off some of that stage persona onto little ole me. I also asked him if I could have a pony:



(as T just pointed out a second ago, if he made me a rock god, I could easily afford my own pony, so why bother asking for one?)

On the way back to the car, T spotted some beautiful black swans in the lake and I took it as a good omen:


**
Christmas Eve dinner was lovely. Instead of going with a fancy schmancy roasted goose or ham or turkey...I decided to go with store bought tamales this year with guacamole, rice, beans and a big salad since I wasn't in the mood to cook an elaborate meal. Mom make curry empanadas that went really well with everything. As always, Jbro helped me in the kitchen as T took photos:



My best friend Shawn was in town and joined us for dinner. Of course no get together in my household is complete without a good ole fashioned jam session after the meal. Since I bought my brother a new Vox tube amp for Christmas we just had to try it out to make sure it sounded right and all. (For the record, he's getting a stick of gum for his birthday since I spoiled him and went over budget....he's my brother. He's talented. He deserves good gear so I don't mind...)

I think Shawn had a good time:


Brown Dog enjoyed the music as well:


Momma was dancing:


Shawn's looking pretty hot here:


Family pic:


And of course one with my best friend:


***
So, we've got a New Year's party coming up and then a few more days off. Unfortunately, I've been doing contract work a good bit during the break. However, I haven't been so busy that I haven't been able to socialize. Lots of friends in town. Lots of parties. Lots of food and lots of music. Till then, enjoy images of my brother doing a lyrical jazz routine to Benny Bennassi:

Well Shit...RIP Amanda

I can't even begin to describe the multi-level suck-i-tude we're all feeling right now.

Basically my brother got into an icky hit-and-run car accident this morning. In short a red truck in the lane next to my brother's lost control and veered in front of his vehicle. After slamming the breaks to avoid hitting the guy, my brother's car hydroplaned, spun out of control on the freeway (it was raining heavily) and bonked into the truck and ricocheted off into the sunrise. The impact was so bad, car wouldn't start after that incident. Fortunately, two really kind Samaritans helped push my brother's car off the freeway and onto the shoulder.

Meanwhile, the asshole who swerved in front of my brother and caused this accident in the first place decided tear down I-35 and try to get away. WTF? What a moron! First off this is Thanksgiving weekend, so there were tons of people on I-35. Secondly, practically everyone has a cell phone so as this prick was speeding past a whole string of eyewitnesses, a bunch of which who were probably itching to go home as well, there was a lovely chorus of phone calls to 911 in rapid succession. In fact, by the time the police and ambulance reached my brother, a cop car had already caught the idiot in the truck who tried to run away.

As you can see my brother looks okay, but the car certainly doesn't.



He was struck in such a way that he whacked his head into the windshield, but aside from a mild headache, my brother appears to be physically sound. He's pissed off as hell of course. We're guessing the dude ran because had no insurance, which sucks balls, but we've got to thank God in the fullest for seat belts. It's a miracle that no one really got hurt. We're still waiting on more info...

Emotionally this has been taxing for us. I mean, we just lost out dad. To think we almost lost JBro is something too difficult to process at the moment. "Amanda" was my brother's first car and it was a generous gift from my dad. He received it his first year of college with the rationale being that since he commuted a bit he needed a reliable car. As he you can he was a very excited



Fast forward to today and Amanda is now a gnarled heap of twisted metal.



T, my mom, and I joined my brother at the wreckage yard helping him carry off his personal belongings. The freezing cold rain came out relentlessly stinging us repeatedly. That along with the grey over cast skies didn't help anyone's demeanor as we all dealt with this in our own ways. T was of course, was feeling thankful my brother was fine and joining in on cussing whenever we recounted the asshole who took off from the accident scene. My mother resorted to fretting and affectionate nagging wanting to be helpful, but really just getting into my brother's way.





I of course sulked quietly and took photos, my fingers barely able to press the shutter, it was cold out.

I focused on the damage trying to imagine how the impacts happened.






I fixated on the patches of red paint from the truck permanently fused into the surface of my brother's Acura. It had no business being there. Its brash red was adding insult to injury, flaunting itself, commanding attention like blood.




I was struck by how organic Amanda now looked post accident. Her smooth and symmetric lines were now marred by crinkles and blisters and cracks. She could not hold onto all her components. Her entrails were now exposed.



Soggy, wet and dejected we drove home in T and I's modest blue Nissan feeling tired and worn out trying to figure out the best scheme to get my brother back home to Dallas. I sat in the front with my brother's CDs balanced on my lap feeling oddly calm. I asked God to send good karma down to those who helped my brother. I sat back, feeling thankful that T and I were home when my brother called, that we had a functional car, that my brother wasn't hurt and did have insurance, that the accident happened close to home...it could have been so much worse.

sleepless in Austin

Well, it's past midnight and although I realize it isn't *that* late, I can tell already there's no way I'm going to be able to fall asleep easily. Even though I'm physically tired, my brain is not doing a good job at shutting off. Normally I can will myself to drift off. I am after all a huge fan of napping/sleeping/dozing/lying comatose. This hobby I place second only to eating. Speaking of which I'm hungry again.

Currently my mind is thinking of the "Evil Pink Sugar Cookies." The local grocery store, HEB, carries these things in 10 pack clam shell containers and they precisely look like this spinkles and all:



There's something about the mouth feel that makes these things delectable. They're super soft and in reality, have absolutely not substance. In fact, you get maybe a 2 second high off of these things because there's not any chewing involved. And yet, the delicate flavor (they're actually not too sweet) and inviting aroma of butter makes you want to eat another one...and another...and thus a new form of crack is born.

I offered one to my mom today who tagged along with us for grocery shopping. To my horror, she wiped off the icing before eating the cookie:

"The color scare me," she said.

Indeed, there are very few edible things in nature that come in that shade of pink. I asked her if she liked it.

"Like what?"

The cookie.

"Oh, I forgot I ate it. I bet it's fattening."

See? Not even my mother, who I inhereted my gluttony from, could even remember she tasted such a thing.

T thinks they're vile and in a lot of ways they are because aside from flour, sugar and egg, I can't quite figure out what other ingredients are. Caranuba wax. Why would you need that? They're also 90 calories each. Still, they taste darn good to me.

***
My brain is also abuzz because there's been so much going on lately. As you know, my mom moved up here into our home and then a couple of days later found an apartment in the neighborhood, so it seems like all we've been doing lately is moving boxes, packing and unpacking.

My brother came down Saturday morning to help mom move (again) and I only got to spend about 10 hours with him. My friend Mark had already planned to introduce me to his friend Dave who works over at Guitar Resurrection (a fantastic locally owned shop specializing in vintage guitars and amps) because he was looking for a theremin player for his band. That conversation went fairly well above all the ripping and roaring from the sound room next door as Mark was hammering out power chords over the Bogner Amp (3 grand...sheesh, amps are expensive) he's been eyeing for some time. I ended up buying a guitar slide for my brother, oohing and ahhing the various accessories in the store, musing over various guitar picks all shades of the rainbow and then settled on some heavier gauge ones simply because I liked the color. I'm really not a guitarist, but I do appreciate the accouterments. Mark kept mentioning he always feels like a kid in a candy store whenever he visits and I don't blame him...

I have mentioned this before, but I'll say it again. If you're a single woman and you really want to find a guy, just walk into a guitar store. It would help if you knew music, especially if you can play guitar (because your hotness factor will shoot through the roof) and bonus points if you can keep up in conversation about types and feature of guitars, but just knowing an instrument helps. If you don't you can always be the one asking for lessons---believe me, they staff will want to teach you. I have yet to meet a chick who actually worked at a guitar shop. For whatever reason, even though I know there are a lot of gals who play guitar, you'll find mostly men, roughly in their early to mid 20's in various manners of dress (yet all slightly dishelved even if the outfit consists of a suit) hanging out on a Saturday afternoon there. It's like Fry's electronic store but with less geeks or Home Depot with less dads.

Anyway, after the music store excursion, Mom, T, JBRo and I watched Beth perform works by Hayden and Beethoven with the Austin Choral Consort at St. Matthew's Episcopal church. Mark was there too since his vocal coach is Barry Scott Williams, the choral conductor. That was a lovely affair and would have been a nice way to end the night except that mom really wanted a television and the only place open that late was Walmart.

I hate Walmart. Not even just the corporate aspect of it, but the layout, the chaos, the shitty products and the people! This is where my classism and judgemental side rears its ugly head. Arrrgh! People, just because it's Walmart doesn't mean you suddenly need to look the part of trailer trash. A tube top should never be worn on anyone over 150 lbs. If we can see your ass crack when you're not even bending over, the skirt is too darn short. Wear deodorant....I mean, I don't see these types of people on a day to day basis in the city. I only see them in Walmarts. Makes no sense. Do they live there?

Not only were we at Walmart, it happened to be during tax free weekend, so the lines were enormous. Here we were at 11:00pm fighting to grab the HD flat screen TV for mom amongst wailing kids, screaming parents and a whole mess of weirdos who were there just because they had nothing better to do. We just sat next to a timpani and 200 piece choir for the past 2 hours and the night before T and I were at a rock concert, so the sounds of whiny kids really got on our nerves.

Nevertheless, we got mom a TV.

***

It's about 1 am now and I'm starting to crave hot sauce and chips. I'm thinking if I stay up longer I'm eventually going to want a steak dinner. Better go to bed now. Long work day ahead....

the fluff that launced a thousand tunes

Hippo has inspired yet another song!
My brother sent this to me today and it features his fantastic guitar work as well as the glockenspiel my mom got him for Christmas some years ago. He slapped it together using Audacity and voila! A new hippo song. I love the title too:

"Hippo Dances in the Rain"

Isn't that the cutest imagery?

Of course, she'd be dancing in this motha-fucking ice storm right about now dodging ice pellets. Ugh...we can't get our mailbox open. It's completely fused shut at the moment.

That's not too bad, but I am concerned about driving conditions. Us Texans aren't used to driving in harsh weather like this. You've got your scaredy cats like me who will inch super slow and those crazy soccer moms in their SUVs who think they're invincible. They closed the upper deck of I35 today and the stretch to Georgetown only just now opened. Yikes!

Speaking of bad weather conditions, I'm still utterly fascinated by snow. It's just so strange how it makes no sound as it comes down. It's fluffy. It doesn't look like those pretty snowflakes you cut out from paper for elementary school projects. It doesn't taste like anything either (I maintain that rain water has flavor whether it be pollution or what not). Snow is so powerful that it inspires me to run out of the house wearing mismatching pajamas two jackets, socks and clogs just so I can stand outside with my mouth open and look like an idiot:



Fortunately, UT is closed tomorrow. I get another day of vacation and another attempt at getting my sleep schedule back on track. However, this also means that my first day of my new job is delayed yet again. I guess that isn't too bad, but it is kind of strange. I suspect I'll have more catching up to do than before. But enough of that...

Because of the cold, my cats are snuggling more than usual. In fact, they don't normally sleep together. In fact, Genghis and Hippo fight all the time, but here they are snuggled up in the warmth of our bed:



Genghis looks like a passed out college student.

JBro: "Hippo Dances in the Rain"

My brother Johnny (I call him JBro for short) has this amazing talent with coming up with songs on the fly. He's also good about creating beautiful or haunting melodies from mundane inspirations: dolphins, salad dressing and most recently, my cat. Granted, Hippo has been the subject of several songs over the years and even drove the last impromptu "recording session" with my bro and I.

Why?...you might ask. Well, it's because we're all a silly bunch of folks, but to be honest, anything that exudes that amount of cuteness is worthy of more than one song.

But seriously, I think the guitar work here is quite good and surprisingly catchy. Add to that the lovely glockenspiel that my mom got him for Christmas ages ago and I think we have another classic on the way. If not, we've certainly created a great homage to my adorable cat.

Listen to:
"Hippo Dances in the Rain"

Visit:
Johnny's Myspace
Johnny's Blog


JBro with Hippo...my adorable half-Ragdoll half-Siamese chubby kitty, the inspiration for so many songs.

best burger in the world continued

Ah yes, the legendary burger from Star Seeds was so good that my brother made a trip down to Austin just to try it out (actually, he came down for my hubby's b-day, but the burger was a good added incentive). Here he is in front of the restaurant:


Yeah, it's a dive, but hey, the food is good.

Here he is sampling the mediocre fries. Nothing compared to the burger though:


Luxurious:


I took a pic of my burger. I couldn't finish it, but did get much more eaten than this photo indicates...just had to work on it slowly. Look at the yummy busted yolk oozing onto the plate:


Our trusty waiter who yelled at the chef when he forgot the bacon. Consequently, JBro ended up getting a huge pile of bacon for his burger. Nice:


Travis and I looking content and fed:


Once again, all 3 of us showed up wearing concert T-shirts. I'd like to say my attire consists of more interesting items, but I'd be lying. Same goes for my husband. My brother on the other hand has the occasional Hawaiian T-shirt, some kick ass business suits and apparently a new TX Rollergirl's shirt.

JBro and Cindy Adzuki Jamming...first show

I finally gave in and signed up for a YouTube account since it's stable and well, easy to use. What better way to capture moments like there, eh?

Anyhow, my brother came down to celebrate my hubby's bday and we spent a lot of time jamming on the various instruemnts around the house. Here's an example with theremin and guitar:



The party itself was a blast and I got to see tons of friends--some I hadn't seen in ages. We broke out instruments and jammed all night while eating good food. Trav got some amazing gifts. I'll post more details on that later.

As for the Lucid Dementia show, that went well, but it was a weird night. First of all I was greeted with a waiver I had to sign when the person working the desk noticied my SLR that I brought in. All this hoo haa with photography--bleh! I figured just asking the band leaders were good enough, but no, apparently you had to agree with the club not to take pictures of audience members. ???

More disappointly though, the bulk of the usual suspects were not at ELysium due to being completely exhausted from the night before with KMFDM. I was freaking tired too and feeling sick that morning (see previous post) but left work early and slept it off. However when I awoke, I just had this foreboding feeling of absolute dread I couldn't shake off. It mostly nerves, but the super intuitive side of me was telling me that the likely hood of seeing someone I knew at the show would be small. Turns out not a single person I knew managed to make it out (12 midnight show...yes, goes to show my friends and I are getting old). Fortunatey, Trav caught a little bit of it on the digital camera when he wasn't busy acting as my "roadie". Darling husband's job was to carry my harp and theremin to a from stage and make sure things were connected properly. It was cute and amusing.

The usual sound guy from the club wasn't there and according to him the output levels from the PA system were off. I had no fucking clue what was going on except that there was a tech guy, wedging a mic under legs trying to fit it under my harp at one point.



It sounded neat amped up while filling the club with it's out-of-place dulcet tones. Bernadette, the theremin, sung amazingly well. Supposedly the DJ thought it was just me at first until he realized I was flapping my arms about. As for glitches, it was a little nerve wracking when the taped intro didn't come on cuin the rest of the band in the beginning and I was sitting out there, nervously improvising for an extra 45 seconds or so getting anxious, but all went well from that point on-- at least as far as I can tell. Lucid Dementia put on a powerful performance and I really enjoyed watching them the rest of the night and taking photos.

6 seconds of harp soundcheck:



You can't see much in this clip except at the end (which was spliced from soundcheck), but you can definitely hear Bernadette's operatic wailing which got plenty of compliments after the show and even a unsolicited few hugs from strangers. That felt nice. The band was just a dream to play with and I'm definitely going to cherish that experience.



The rest of the show was fantastic. I'll most likely post details of that in my music blog later. For now, after staying up past 2:30 am for 3 nights in a row, I think I'm going to go to take a long nap again. So tired...but there's home-made bread pudding from Sammi in the fridge waiting for me when I wake up.

Johnny Luck

There are a few simple facts about my brother:

1) He loves dolphins.

It's almost a fetish. This started with a McDonald's Happy Meal back when they didn't suck and back when the toys were actually decent. He got a stuffed dolphin and I got a stuffed snake. One of them took more labor to create, I'm sure, and I think I got shafted, but that's besides the point. Anyhow, he named it "Seaweed." A few weeks later Mom took us back to Mickey-D's and I got a stuffed ball and he got yet another stuffed dolphin. This one was cuter apparently and he named her "Weaseed" Okey Dokey. I tried not to dwell on the fact that I got the shorter end of the stick again.

2) Johnny = Good Luck

As indicated by part 1, luck follows my brother like an abandoned puppy. You know those cheesy games you find in cereal boxes that are along the lines of "One in one million will win a wonderful-useless-toy-that-is-only-cool-because-this-is-a-contest?" It usually involves a scratch off card that's packed in cellophane. Anyhow, from these games my brother has won:
-A He-Man action toy
-A New Bike
-A Cabbage Patch doll (Neither of us wanted that, so he chucked the ticket. I do wonder if the people who set that game up had a word with Nabisco)

Now, it doesn't end there. He's won small amounts of money from random stints with scratch off lottery tickets. However, by far the best prize Johnny has ever obtained was back when he was only in 1st grade. I was in 5th. It was back when school cafeterias were offering items from fast food chains for the first time and HotPockets was doing a promotional contest in my district where each time you ate one of those stinkin' things, you'd get a ticket stub placed in a hat. No limit, since the point was to sell as many of those fowl inferior under-achieving strombolis as possible. The prize? A brand new Sony Play Station. I ate those fucking things every day for an entire month. My brother, due to leaving his lunch on the bus one day, bought one. Who won the play station? You guessed it. A twerpy little 6 year old from Colony Bend Elementary.

3) He reeks of southern bachelor.

You know Hank Hill from "King of the Hill?" That's pretty much my brother except he's Asian. Not only is my bro a staunch republican, he sounds like Hank. The boy's got 3 guns. One is a semi-automatic named "Missy." Here are what some of our conversations sound like. Imagine a guy with a drawl saying these things.
**
J: You know that band HIM. They suck. Unwholesome for a boy to look like an emaciated chick. Silly Swedes.
Me: I think he's from Finland anyway.
J: Shoot, it don't matter. They're both foreign. They're both white. What's the difference?
**
For Christmas I asked for a guitar stand.

J: I have a perfect guitar stand to give you... It's a big ass guitar amp.
Lean your guitar on that. It looks cool and bachelor-padish.
Me: Your guitar amp isn't that big
J: Compared to nothing, it sho is.

**
On abortion...
J: Well in case you haven't noticed, I can't exactly be doing any birthin' anyway. Oh, you're serious? Well, yeah, I'm for. Just ya know, staple a hussy's legs shut if it gets to be a problem. It's a cheaper solution anyway.

**
Random e-mail which really confused me.

J: I wish I could make seaweed and weeseed christmas cards. Don't you be thinking they're gay now. My dolphins are God loving creatures.