216683 Curiosities served
You Don't Know Tacos
Previous Entry :: Next Entry
Read/Post Comments (6)
I'm starting to wander around the house, saying Dorothy-like, "I'm not getting sick. I'm not getting sick. I'm not getting sick..." I've been around a lot of people recently who are just that, and I'm starting to feel a tad weary myself. I don't think that clicking my new black boots together is going to help any.
***
This weekend, spent alone (Steffi's was in DC visiting friends), I kept busy by trying to tackle a long to do list I put together Friday night.
That first item to get crossed off was Jack Williamson book Darker Than You Think, which was a quick and entertaining read. At times I wasn't sure if the book actually earns all the praise it has been given as a seminal work in the horror genre, but after the last page my doubts were erased. If I weren't feeling lazy, I'd consider putting up a short review of it, but tonight it's not going to happen. In fact, I kind of expect the rest of this entry to be lacking.
I also Xed through the "watch movie and drink beer" listing. Dude Where's My Car? probably was a movie (incredibly, incredibly mysoginistic) that I could have done without, and the one beer I downed probably kept me from sleeping soundly that night.
I think the most productive thing to come from Friday evening was the "Viertelstunde" journal entry. I'm still riding the high of having made a significant decision regarding job, life, and academia. Again, I'm hoping this isn't some flight of fancy that results in a forgettable crash landing.
***
Saturday was spent mostly on the telephone (I must have received 5 calls all before noon -- an outright anomaly), working on a website design, and visiting with a friend/colleague's family. I made good progress on Heather Delisle's "studio website" and hope to have something to show her soon. About the only insightful thing I can say about that at this point is that I was a little surprised at how quickly the overall look developed. I'm just not used to having things fall so smoothly into place when starting with a blank screen. Two and a half hours were about all the time I needed to put together a really pleasing first draft.
At 5:30 I drove over to see Kevin, Perla, and their son Alan. Kevin works in the Dey110 Instructional Technology Lab with me during the week, and he had invited me to go out with them for an authentic Mexican meal at a Tacqueria he had located in Durham. Although we didn't end up at the place he was aiming for, we did find a suitable eating establishment nearby and had a spicy meal for just over 20 bucks.
To make a long story short and finally touch on the title of this entry, I ate three authentic Mexican tacos. No hardshell, bent-oval tortillas - no lettuce, no tomato, and no cheese, in fact. Basically, a real taco is either a soft corn (what I had) or wheat tortilla about 4 inches in diameter filled with meat. Mine came with charred pork, cabeza (cow head), and a chipotle-spiced chicken. Once you've got your plate it's on to the fixin's bar to add salsa, pico de gallo (ok, so there are a few tomatoes to be had after all), lime, cilantro, and some other offerings I didn't recognize. The whole culinary experience was almost exactly like opening a doorway to Mexico and stepping through for a short evening. Kevin and I were the only "gringos" in the place.
So, no, we Americans don't know tacos.
***
Today, Sunday, was a good cap to an eventful weekend. Jason came by to hang out for the afternoon, so I spent most of the morning shopping and cleaning in order to preapre for his arrival.
Another first in terms of culinary experimentation: A craving for a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich sent me in search of a short recipe on the Internet, and once I had a firm grip on the ingredients I was off to the supermarket. Preparing the gooey stuff was straight-forward except for one brief hiccup: To get bullion cubes to dissolve, one needs boiling water. Mere hot water ain't up to snuff.
A most pleasant lunch outside on the concrete "stoop" was followed by a mercifully brief and traumatic search for Trinity the Cat. Just before Jason and I sat down to commence the interview I had hoped to conduct this afternoon, I became much too aware of the cat's absence and began to worry that she had slipped outside while Jason and I were carrying plates and sundry items back into the kitchen. About 10 minutes were all we needed to scare her up, and, in retrospect, I hope I didn't freak Jason out too much with my anxiety and concern. Trinny's done this to us before, so I wasn't nearly as angst-ridden as the first time when she "disappeared." I still have no clue where she was hiding, though...
For the next 75 minutes, Mr. Lundberg and I conversed about his and his wife's (Janet) small publishing enterprise they call Two Cranes Press. I've been wanting to set up some interviews with some interesting folks with interesting projects for a while now, so I finally made good on the threat to put Jason on the hot couch. I also finally got the opportunity to put my little, thrown-together sound studio to use and recorded the interview digitally. In fact, Jason left the house today with a burned CD copy of the entire dialog.
Hopefully, sometime soon I'll get a chance to work on editing the material into a somewhat shorter piece and, perhaps, make some of it available through the website. Hard to say right now what might get cut, but the two of us easily managed to nearly fill an 80 minute disc with our talk: Jason gave some really good information about what's it like to run a small press, how to receive and evaluate over 200+ email submissions in a short timeframe, creating a writer's contract, his interactions with Daniel Wallace for the chapbook Off the Map, as well as TCP's marketing strategies to get their work out to readers and indepedent bookstores. Since I also have a personal interest in do-it-yourself publishing, I hit Jason up for some advice for the newbie.
A good interview and afternoon altogether.
***
Final thought: I certainly won't ever be able to put this journal offering in the "Best Of" pile. Just as a sort of self-reflection, I have to say that, while writing, I wasn't particularly focused or motivated. However, the positive that comes from this is the realization that I actually managed to put down a lot of material despite the fact that I honestly didn't feel like doing it.
I mention this because when I do find myself in grad school again, there will certainly be (many) days when I'll experience this same sort of mental malaise. I just need to demonstrate to myself that, despite such obstacles, it's still possible to work.
***
This weekend, spent alone (Steffi's was in DC visiting friends), I kept busy by trying to tackle a long to do list I put together Friday night.
That first item to get crossed off was Jack Williamson book Darker Than You Think, which was a quick and entertaining read. At times I wasn't sure if the book actually earns all the praise it has been given as a seminal work in the horror genre, but after the last page my doubts were erased. If I weren't feeling lazy, I'd consider putting up a short review of it, but tonight it's not going to happen. In fact, I kind of expect the rest of this entry to be lacking.
I also Xed through the "watch movie and drink beer" listing. Dude Where's My Car? probably was a movie (incredibly, incredibly mysoginistic) that I could have done without, and the one beer I downed probably kept me from sleeping soundly that night.
I think the most productive thing to come from Friday evening was the "Viertelstunde" journal entry. I'm still riding the high of having made a significant decision regarding job, life, and academia. Again, I'm hoping this isn't some flight of fancy that results in a forgettable crash landing.
***
Saturday was spent mostly on the telephone (I must have received 5 calls all before noon -- an outright anomaly), working on a website design, and visiting with a friend/colleague's family. I made good progress on Heather Delisle's "studio website" and hope to have something to show her soon. About the only insightful thing I can say about that at this point is that I was a little surprised at how quickly the overall look developed. I'm just not used to having things fall so smoothly into place when starting with a blank screen. Two and a half hours were about all the time I needed to put together a really pleasing first draft.
At 5:30 I drove over to see Kevin, Perla, and their son Alan. Kevin works in the Dey110 Instructional Technology Lab with me during the week, and he had invited me to go out with them for an authentic Mexican meal at a Tacqueria he had located in Durham. Although we didn't end up at the place he was aiming for, we did find a suitable eating establishment nearby and had a spicy meal for just over 20 bucks.
To make a long story short and finally touch on the title of this entry, I ate three authentic Mexican tacos. No hardshell, bent-oval tortillas - no lettuce, no tomato, and no cheese, in fact. Basically, a real taco is either a soft corn (what I had) or wheat tortilla about 4 inches in diameter filled with meat. Mine came with charred pork, cabeza (cow head), and a chipotle-spiced chicken. Once you've got your plate it's on to the fixin's bar to add salsa, pico de gallo (ok, so there are a few tomatoes to be had after all), lime, cilantro, and some other offerings I didn't recognize. The whole culinary experience was almost exactly like opening a doorway to Mexico and stepping through for a short evening. Kevin and I were the only "gringos" in the place.
So, no, we Americans don't know tacos.
***
Today, Sunday, was a good cap to an eventful weekend. Jason came by to hang out for the afternoon, so I spent most of the morning shopping and cleaning in order to preapre for his arrival.
Another first in terms of culinary experimentation: A craving for a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich sent me in search of a short recipe on the Internet, and once I had a firm grip on the ingredients I was off to the supermarket. Preparing the gooey stuff was straight-forward except for one brief hiccup: To get bullion cubes to dissolve, one needs boiling water. Mere hot water ain't up to snuff.
A most pleasant lunch outside on the concrete "stoop" was followed by a mercifully brief and traumatic search for Trinity the Cat. Just before Jason and I sat down to commence the interview I had hoped to conduct this afternoon, I became much too aware of the cat's absence and began to worry that she had slipped outside while Jason and I were carrying plates and sundry items back into the kitchen. About 10 minutes were all we needed to scare her up, and, in retrospect, I hope I didn't freak Jason out too much with my anxiety and concern. Trinny's done this to us before, so I wasn't nearly as angst-ridden as the first time when she "disappeared." I still have no clue where she was hiding, though...
For the next 75 minutes, Mr. Lundberg and I conversed about his and his wife's (Janet) small publishing enterprise they call Two Cranes Press. I've been wanting to set up some interviews with some interesting folks with interesting projects for a while now, so I finally made good on the threat to put Jason on the hot couch. I also finally got the opportunity to put my little, thrown-together sound studio to use and recorded the interview digitally. In fact, Jason left the house today with a burned CD copy of the entire dialog.
Hopefully, sometime soon I'll get a chance to work on editing the material into a somewhat shorter piece and, perhaps, make some of it available through the website. Hard to say right now what might get cut, but the two of us easily managed to nearly fill an 80 minute disc with our talk: Jason gave some really good information about what's it like to run a small press, how to receive and evaluate over 200+ email submissions in a short timeframe, creating a writer's contract, his interactions with Daniel Wallace for the chapbook Off the Map, as well as TCP's marketing strategies to get their work out to readers and indepedent bookstores. Since I also have a personal interest in do-it-yourself publishing, I hit Jason up for some advice for the newbie.
A good interview and afternoon altogether.
***
Final thought: I certainly won't ever be able to put this journal offering in the "Best Of" pile. Just as a sort of self-reflection, I have to say that, while writing, I wasn't particularly focused or motivated. However, the positive that comes from this is the realization that I actually managed to put down a lot of material despite the fact that I honestly didn't feel like doing it.
I mention this because when I do find myself in grad school again, there will certainly be (many) days when I'll experience this same sort of mental malaise. I just need to demonstrate to myself that, despite such obstacles, it's still possible to work.
Read/Post Comments (6)
Previous Entry :: Next Entry
Back to Top
