In Louisville
Oct. 5th, 2025 08:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ateolfContinuing Louisville! We're still on Thursday and I'm in the middle of record (mostly) and book shopping. The next stop was a place I'd spotted that looked interesting called Carmichael's Bookstore. It was a pretty cool bookstore, all new so I didn't work in bulk volume, but I don't often buy new books so hey, occasionally I could actually support the publishing industry? Let's do it:
Suder by Percival Everett, The Apple in the Dark by Clarice Lispector, The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada, and Killing Stella by Marlen Haushofer
And then it was on to the last cd shopping bout at Great Escape where I picked up:
X: Wild Gift, Simple Minds: Reel to Reel Cacophany, Simple Minds: Life in a Day, The Chinese Stars: Listen to Your Left Brain, Alessandro Cortini: Volume Massimo, and Oxes: s/t
Okay, now a nice long day has passed and it's getting on evening. I skipped lunch (or didn't even think about it) and now I'm off and about and I'm getting a little hungry and I have no plans and no idea of what to do. Jason brought up grabbing dinner after he was done recording (he's doing a residency at Woodbine so spends a few days a week there recording and stuff). I wasn't sure what time it'd be but I figured I could grab a small bite of something to kill time and hold me over (oh, I also really had to PEE and I was unmoored in the city and record stores don't often have public restrooms and eating establishments usually DO). I quickly found a barbecue place and was on my way when he called. There was a little bit of a time gap so I figured my best bet to pee was to go back to the hotel. I did so and grabbed a couple bites of doughnut for the tiding me over (yeah, they came in handy for more than just breakfasts!). Then I met him back in the city at a place called Ramsi's. It's a bit of a world fusion place with bits of Mexican, Thai, Indian, Mediterranean, etc. etc. After the heavy hamburger from the day before, I was wanting something a bit different so this was perfect. I had these onion rings with this sauce that sounded awesome (it was too, the onion rings were awesome too) and some pad thai. I also had some mocktails that were delicious. One was kombucha which I normally don't go for but this had cardamom in it and it was delicious and delivered! I ordered another one from this list of "refrescos"...I forget what it was...like blackberry or raspberry and something good sounding...I forget. The waitress came back and was said they were out of the syrup for it and suggested the other one that was my next choice anyway of passionfruit and honey. She said it was the best. So I was like sure, but then she came back and said the bartender was able to scrounge up one more of the other one. Well, when I finished that she asked about the passionfruit and I was like, yeah, I'd gotten convinced so I wanted to try it too. Then yeah, it was super duper good and she was right that it was the best! It even had a fancy cherry, delicious. Then Jason and I just hung out and talked. I ate like a pig but I'd skipped lunch and it was all hitting the spot. He had a greek salad for an left the olives and I was like, this is gauche but fuck it, can I have your olives because I fucking love olives! So bonus olives! We just kinda hung out for a while. After that, that was the night so it was back to the hotel. I loafed about a bit before going to bed. Talked to Mary Beth on the phone again. Read some. Okay, then sleep.
Then it was Friday, the day I really didn't have too much at all to do. There was going to be this fundraiser concert at Woodbine that was kind of tied to the event I was to play. So I figured I'd check that out too but it wasn't until evening. I slept in like every day so it was all fine. I was still in the room when there was a knock on the door from housekeeping. I was almost ready to head out so I went to the door to say that I'll be leaving soon. She didn't speak English though so then I tried to tell her in Spanish and we had a short, confused conversation with me trying to speak Spanish, even badly, just enough for a smidge of understanding, and her responding and sometimes using her phone to translate what she was saying for me. I'd confused things by saying I was leaving soon 'cuz then she thought I meant I was checking out but I just meant I was leaving for the day. I thought maybe they wanted to get into the room and clean and just letting them know I'm about to leave. But anyway I just confused things 'cuz she just wanted to exchange towels and for me to hand over the trash. Well, sometimes I kind of made myself understood even if badly. Okay yeah, so it's out on the town I go. I went to pick up some coffee from Sunergos that Mary Beth really loves. Then I found a grocery store to get a whole fuck-ton of Ale-8-One. You can get the bottles in Memphis, but I've never seen cans so when in Louisville I really like to stock the fuck up with several twelve-packs of the cans. I even got more than I might have because it was buy-two-get-one-free so I got six. No fucking regrets! Okay, so the dinner the night before was delicious as fuck but the vegetables and peppers and such (what I got really wasn't that spicy, but that's just how I roll, I guess) had me, uh, in some urgent need of frequently going back to the fucking hotel (to defecate, yes!). So I did those two short shopping things then hurry back to the hotel! Then I should eat, back out again. Since I hastily had almost gotten barbecue the day before, I thought I'd try to find some more. I settled on this place called Mama's Mustard, Pickles & BBQ. It was pretty mediocre. It may have been my fault as I should know better than to get brisket pretty much anywhere outside of Texas without good cause to think otherwise (hell, once in Texas I even found out you've gotta be careful there too!...though then to be fair that was a case of only-thing-open-on-Sunday, but I digress), but everything else on the menu felt too close to what I could get in Memphis and that didn't feel right. Anyway, from the feel of the place, something else probably would have been better but I'll wager that it wouldn't have been great (there is redemption to come later, however, stay tuned for that excited tale!). And uh, well, more of the same! Back to the hotel, etc. Back into town. I made my way back to Woodbine for the fundraiser concert. It was a bit of a marathon from 5 til about midnight, but I literally had nothing else to do so why the fuck not!? It'd be cool to check out the scene. I didn't know much about it but I checked out literally one act on the lineup for like a second and they seemed weird and interesting so at least worth a shot. The show was divided up into several distinct parts. The first was mostly folk-y stuff (or maybe coffee-shop, songwriter). I say it was mostly folk and it was, there was one artist in the middle that was like piano jazz singer-songwriter. She sang with this faux old-timey voice that was pretty annoying. Sometimes what she did on piano was interesting though and she did two Mary Lou Williams songs and those were really good (as there was no singing). The next section was poetry. Some of the poets also had music. One of the poets to me seemed pretty good. A lot of the others had that kinda reductive activist thing (especially one, the most popular one), the venue seems to be run by a lot of activists. Which is cool and all, nothing at all against that. Though sometimes that can be accompanied by buzzwords and saying the things that other activists want to hear with little else involved. It wasn't all like that...but some of it was. I will continue on another post. I'm not intending to end on a negative note. A positive note will follow! And again, some of the poetry was good. Just notating some thoughts. Okay, shutting up...
Suder by Percival Everett, The Apple in the Dark by Clarice Lispector, The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada, and Killing Stella by Marlen Haushofer
And then it was on to the last cd shopping bout at Great Escape where I picked up:
X: Wild Gift, Simple Minds: Reel to Reel Cacophany, Simple Minds: Life in a Day, The Chinese Stars: Listen to Your Left Brain, Alessandro Cortini: Volume Massimo, and Oxes: s/t
Okay, now a nice long day has passed and it's getting on evening. I skipped lunch (or didn't even think about it) and now I'm off and about and I'm getting a little hungry and I have no plans and no idea of what to do. Jason brought up grabbing dinner after he was done recording (he's doing a residency at Woodbine so spends a few days a week there recording and stuff). I wasn't sure what time it'd be but I figured I could grab a small bite of something to kill time and hold me over (oh, I also really had to PEE and I was unmoored in the city and record stores don't often have public restrooms and eating establishments usually DO). I quickly found a barbecue place and was on my way when he called. There was a little bit of a time gap so I figured my best bet to pee was to go back to the hotel. I did so and grabbed a couple bites of doughnut for the tiding me over (yeah, they came in handy for more than just breakfasts!). Then I met him back in the city at a place called Ramsi's. It's a bit of a world fusion place with bits of Mexican, Thai, Indian, Mediterranean, etc. etc. After the heavy hamburger from the day before, I was wanting something a bit different so this was perfect. I had these onion rings with this sauce that sounded awesome (it was too, the onion rings were awesome too) and some pad thai. I also had some mocktails that were delicious. One was kombucha which I normally don't go for but this had cardamom in it and it was delicious and delivered! I ordered another one from this list of "refrescos"...I forget what it was...like blackberry or raspberry and something good sounding...I forget. The waitress came back and was said they were out of the syrup for it and suggested the other one that was my next choice anyway of passionfruit and honey. She said it was the best. So I was like sure, but then she came back and said the bartender was able to scrounge up one more of the other one. Well, when I finished that she asked about the passionfruit and I was like, yeah, I'd gotten convinced so I wanted to try it too. Then yeah, it was super duper good and she was right that it was the best! It even had a fancy cherry, delicious. Then Jason and I just hung out and talked. I ate like a pig but I'd skipped lunch and it was all hitting the spot. He had a greek salad for an left the olives and I was like, this is gauche but fuck it, can I have your olives because I fucking love olives! So bonus olives! We just kinda hung out for a while. After that, that was the night so it was back to the hotel. I loafed about a bit before going to bed. Talked to Mary Beth on the phone again. Read some. Okay, then sleep.
Then it was Friday, the day I really didn't have too much at all to do. There was going to be this fundraiser concert at Woodbine that was kind of tied to the event I was to play. So I figured I'd check that out too but it wasn't until evening. I slept in like every day so it was all fine. I was still in the room when there was a knock on the door from housekeeping. I was almost ready to head out so I went to the door to say that I'll be leaving soon. She didn't speak English though so then I tried to tell her in Spanish and we had a short, confused conversation with me trying to speak Spanish, even badly, just enough for a smidge of understanding, and her responding and sometimes using her phone to translate what she was saying for me. I'd confused things by saying I was leaving soon 'cuz then she thought I meant I was checking out but I just meant I was leaving for the day. I thought maybe they wanted to get into the room and clean and just letting them know I'm about to leave. But anyway I just confused things 'cuz she just wanted to exchange towels and for me to hand over the trash. Well, sometimes I kind of made myself understood even if badly. Okay yeah, so it's out on the town I go. I went to pick up some coffee from Sunergos that Mary Beth really loves. Then I found a grocery store to get a whole fuck-ton of Ale-8-One. You can get the bottles in Memphis, but I've never seen cans so when in Louisville I really like to stock the fuck up with several twelve-packs of the cans. I even got more than I might have because it was buy-two-get-one-free so I got six. No fucking regrets! Okay, so the dinner the night before was delicious as fuck but the vegetables and peppers and such (what I got really wasn't that spicy, but that's just how I roll, I guess) had me, uh, in some urgent need of frequently going back to the fucking hotel (to defecate, yes!). So I did those two short shopping things then hurry back to the hotel! Then I should eat, back out again. Since I hastily had almost gotten barbecue the day before, I thought I'd try to find some more. I settled on this place called Mama's Mustard, Pickles & BBQ. It was pretty mediocre. It may have been my fault as I should know better than to get brisket pretty much anywhere outside of Texas without good cause to think otherwise (hell, once in Texas I even found out you've gotta be careful there too!...though then to be fair that was a case of only-thing-open-on-Sunday, but I digress), but everything else on the menu felt too close to what I could get in Memphis and that didn't feel right. Anyway, from the feel of the place, something else probably would have been better but I'll wager that it wouldn't have been great (there is redemption to come later, however, stay tuned for that excited tale!). And uh, well, more of the same! Back to the hotel, etc. Back into town. I made my way back to Woodbine for the fundraiser concert. It was a bit of a marathon from 5 til about midnight, but I literally had nothing else to do so why the fuck not!? It'd be cool to check out the scene. I didn't know much about it but I checked out literally one act on the lineup for like a second and they seemed weird and interesting so at least worth a shot. The show was divided up into several distinct parts. The first was mostly folk-y stuff (or maybe coffee-shop, songwriter). I say it was mostly folk and it was, there was one artist in the middle that was like piano jazz singer-songwriter. She sang with this faux old-timey voice that was pretty annoying. Sometimes what she did on piano was interesting though and she did two Mary Lou Williams songs and those were really good (as there was no singing). The next section was poetry. Some of the poets also had music. One of the poets to me seemed pretty good. A lot of the others had that kinda reductive activist thing (especially one, the most popular one), the venue seems to be run by a lot of activists. Which is cool and all, nothing at all against that. Though sometimes that can be accompanied by buzzwords and saying the things that other activists want to hear with little else involved. It wasn't all like that...but some of it was. I will continue on another post. I'm not intending to end on a negative note. A positive note will follow! And again, some of the poetry was good. Just notating some thoughts. Okay, shutting up...
