Wilfrid

@hollywood I regret and withdraw my earlier comment. I am so happy that you like Hinds. Not only have others on Mouthfuls been prompted to see them, but friends and indeed my daughter, and while not necessarily becoming obsessed nobody has said, why are you bothering they're crap. I should check out Fontaines DC, but essentially you are right. I was so lucky to get on this journey with this amazing live band (and with Ana) and joyous to see where it goes.

Wow, this is wild. And because you can put it on Kindle for nothing or a few cents, the bite-size chapters are ideal for train/bus rides. This won't take me long. Must remember I skipped Sheltering Sky.

Naked Lunch is really good. I tired of Burroughs' misogyny a long time ago, but a remarkable writer. Now a couple of chapters into Wuthering Heights and I admit I have not read it before. I've owned it in a uniform edition with Jane Eyre since I was a kid and must have come to assume I'd read it.

Yes he was still alive. Aged 89. Feast of the Goat was gripping.

No. Yawn.

Oh yes, blast from my past.

It's not literally a vocal tic at all, but just a way of describing people constantly, and in this case totally unnecessarily, using a word or phrase without even knowing it. "So I was like..." is notorious. But please go ahead and disagree of course.

Right now I wish it would go ahead and stop raining.

Go ahead and change the subject.

Let's go ahead and talk about this remarkable vocal tic which I am honestly hearing more and more -- although it's not new. I could post this in the Cheerful thread because it's easy to go ahead and find it funny. But I decided to go ahead and post it here. I thought to myself, extending it slightly: "Why don't I go ahead and post it here?" Why don't you all just go ahead and admit you hear it everywhere? Maybe you go ahead and use it and there's no law against that. Peak usage that prompts this post. Waiting for my flight in the airport at Austin, the guy calling a flight just across the way was a major go-ahead-Head. Every single announcement he went ahead (ah variation) and made: From "Why don't you go ahead and check your carry on?" to every single boarding call. "We're going to go ahead and board Zone 5." Not just me, people around me cracking up. Someone needs to go ahead and tell the poor guy he's doing it, he has no idea. Anyone else hearing this? Why don't you go ahead and let me know.

Way over 200 dead now. The impact on the Dominican community is immeasurable.

And it depends what you mean by decor/ambience, even service. Roberta's was like someone's garage with non-matching furniture and pretty random service and drinks served in jars. That, apparently, was the point and greatly added to its appeal.

"(P)rimarily... food with ambience, service and price taken into consideration." NYT 101. And better than the quote above.

Into the third part of Sleepwalkers. It's not disappointing; one reservation is that, as it goes on, Broch is drawn more and more to flights of speculation, even short essays, because he has points to make. Better when you're immersed in the characters. I've already started dipping into Naked Lunch. I don't know when I first read it, but I imagine I was struck by the vast quantities of drugs, weird sex and insects. Now it just comes across as very, very funny.

The great merengue singer along with mounting numbers (120 +) audience members as the roof collapses on Jet Set in the capital, DR. This one goes to my heart deeply. Jet Set is where I saw Tono Rosario and Milly Quezada, where my daughter's mother brilliantly flipped off Pedro Martinez, where I used to go outside to eat a chimichurri burger to soak up the liquor. Also close to home, Philippa's aunt was down there for a couple of days for a funeral, thought of going to Jet Set, but decided it was an inappropriate combo. Thank god. And Rubby was the soundtrack to that unforgettable part of my life. (This official video is silly but you get plenty of Rubby being great.)

Every classic started out as a bartender experimenting.

A beautiful show of serene figuration at The Contemporary: https://thecontemporaryaustin.org/exhibitions/jiab-prachakul-sweet-solitude/ And open I'm told since the 1930s but I just found out about it. The O. Henry Museum in the little house where Porter lived before he was jailed, changed his name, fled to New York and wrote some 400 stories. No, there's not a lot of original stuff here but nice conversations with the docents. Home to Harlem, timely flights both ways. Great trip.

Oh no. I met him once. Nice guy.

Uncle Wilf is popular.

I think it's just a tribute to Texas. I didn't realize how often they'd played SXSW.

They have Mesa, San Diego, then a break, then Japan. I told Ana I wasn't coming to Japan. "That's very disappointing," she said. Then a bunch of European dates in the summer. Nothing in New York she says, but a new album is on the cards.

A few steps from Midnight Cowboy, Parkside, which is an actual restaurant (for this strip) and dead on a Sunday night. I am fine with some orange wine and charcuterie at this point. Beef tartare with house chips a gift from the chef, that's how dead this is. (I am fine, I don't need to be in a moshpit tonight.)

Midnight Cowboy, where you have to push the bell for Harry Craddock's apartment to get in. One from the list, Midnight Martini with a squirt of dill-lemon potion, then a Martinez where the bartender had fun with a Basque vermouth. Not pictured but it just looked like a Martinez.

IMG_1387.mov

Well I had not been to Lambert's. Hitting it Sunday afternoon there's just a short bar menu, but the chopped beef should hold me.