Birmingham Trip

After work on Tuesday, Mary Beth and I hit the road and went over to Birmingham. The drive went pretty smoothly, but just before we got into Birmingham, we saw some emergency vehicles get on the interstate just a little way up ahead of us and then pretty soon we were passing an incident with a car completely engulfed in flames on the side of the road and the firetrucks had just gotten there. There were a couple of other cars stopped a little before on each side of the road but they didn't look damaged like they were involved in an accident. I was focused on driving past it all and out of the way of the emergency and other stopped vehicles so I didn't get a good look but you could feel the heat from the fire as you drove by. I'd thought the car looked like it was just stopped and on fire (but as I said, I didn't get a good look), but later Mary Beth said she saw that the car on fire was upside down. So that was pretty disturbing. But not much else to do but get out of the way and keep on going. It was night when we got into the city and there's not a whole lot open at night (it wasn't super late, but still). We just went to this bar kinda placed called Jack Brown's as it was about the only thing open (turns out there's also one in Memphis just down the street from us). They do burgers with involved toppings. The burgers themselves were kinda fast food level (not bad fast food, but kinda small and nondescript anyway). I had one with mac'n'cheese on it and that was okay (Mary Beth's was better with her mushrooms and stuff). I'd try the one in Memphis again to at least try the peanut butter one, but not in any sort of urgent hurry. Then we got to the hotel and stuff and checked in and went to sleep. Oh wait, first we went to this bar Mary Beth wanted to try and sat next to a Sloimer Ghost Buster (they had lots of Halloween stuff up). I had a nice mocktail with beet juice and other things and it was good.

Then Wednesday we got up and went and had barbecue for breakfast! So this place is called Dreamland BBQ and it was sooo good! We had variations on rib tips and they had the crispiness but also bits of deeply soft and melty fatty rib that was just so good. We got totally stuffed up for the first of many many times this trip (pretty much every time we ate, everything was so damn good!). Then we went and knocked my record shopping out of the way. There are only two record stores that really come up in Birmingham and neither is very great, but I got a couple of things. At Seasick I picked up Jaco Pastorius: Word of Mouth (this one's a bit of a risk because, while I've heard one song on it that's surprisingly great, I'm not sure sure about the rest of it and feel it could be a case where I love one song and hate the rest, but we'll see!). The next record store is Renaissance and it's the better of the two, though a bit crowded with decades of stuff (some of it junk, and it can have a junk shop feel as you go around, but at least there's a little charm with it). I picked up Chad Anderson: Mellifluous Excursions: Where you Been (it's on Mahakala so while I don't know this one in particular, it should be some good jazz). I had also tried to look at this one Coltrane Prestige-era box set but it was missing the booklet so the owner talked to me about jazz a bit and he was nice. Then we went towards the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute where we had our appointment for our tour (it's a little weird where you scheduled when you go within timeslots). We were a little early and we hung out for a bit at Kelly Ingram Park across the street. There was a guy who set up his drums and was playing along with music blasted from a speaker, kinda drum karaoke. It had a cool sound echoing in the park with the buildings around (it's not a huge park). Anyway, then it was time for our appointment and we went to the civil rights museum. It's interesting, living in a different time with its own civil rights museum, the slight differences in focus given the regional area of the civil rights movement and the different regional focuses (obviously, the things that happened HERE will get a little more focus HERE, etc., anyway it's nice to expand my perspective). So yeah, good museum, though towards the end when it's starting to get into the progress made and how things have gotten better (it doesn't really do a "oh everything's all better now and we won" kind of thing, it does get into places where the struggle continues but it leans more towards civil rights issues in other countries), but that's where it started especially hitting me with the depressive feelings thinking about how much it's all sliding back and how much worse things are getting right now. Anyway, after that we went to this place called Paramount. It's a bar with a little arcade in the back as well. Mary Beth wanted to try a couple of appetizer things there that sounded really good. So we ate them even though we were still full from breakfast/lunch and had a big dinner looming around the corner. But the risotto balls and peanut hummus were really delicious. I also finally got to try Grapico (tried one other place but they didn't have it anymore) and it was delicious, never heard of it but Mary Beth suggested it's something I should try! Then played around in the arcade. There were signs that it was closed for a private party but an employee said it wouldn't start for a little while and we could play around for like thirty minutes or so. So that was nice and we did! I really wanted to play some skiball but the machines ate my credits and I wasn't able to play. But I dicked around on the modern versions of Asteroids and Pac-Man and the original Simpsons game as well as little bit of pinball. I didn't do well but it was a fun diversion! Then we went back to the hotel to gussy ourselves up for our nice dinner reservations. We went back downtown to this place called Helen and had a really delicious dinner. We had some Iberico pork and lamb and okra and it was tasty. Now, I arrive at dinner thinking I'm full to start with but I trooped forward! For dessert I had this muscadine sorbet that was just absolutely delicious. Really tasted like muscadine grapes, subtle and refreshing while you're eating it and then the aftertaste with that sharp skin flavor. Then we walked over to this other bar that's nearby where they don't have a cocktail menu but you give an idea of what you want and they improvise for you and I had some delicious mocktails! Okay, back to the hotel for sleep.

I awaken with some time to have digested and other things and we start our Tuesday with a fancy breakfast/lunch at a place called Chez Fonfon. It's French food, as you may have guessed, and it was another delicious meal. We started with steak tartar and I got coq au vin (this information will be recalled in a little bit). Some delicious dessert too. Okay, next we went to the Birmingham Museum of Art. We were really impressed by it the last time we'd gone so we went back again (and it's free too). It's still a really good art museum. Okay, then it was back to the hotel for rearrangement and rest (don't know if it was intentional but we both ended up taking a short nap). Well, back to the city to get ready for the show (I say city and we stayed out of it a little bit, but really not far outside of the city, maybe still technically in a suburban part?, but our backs-and-forths only took a relatively small number of minutes). We went back to Saw's for some pre-show barbecue. There's a location right across from the venue. There was also a show at this venue across the street, no one I'd heard of but it was a little earlier than ours and people were queued up for it outside so there was a lot of traffic with both shows to be going on at the same time. Anyway, Saw's! It was just as delicious as before. Barbecue chicken with white sauce and it was just divine. Sides were divine as well. Then back across the street to Saturn, our venue. We were a little early and going to wait a bit. They had just about every generation of videogame console and I was about to play Ninja Gaiden on the NES but by the time I went to look around at everything else someone else had taken up Double Dragon on the NES so I snoozed and lost! But we hung out a bit to await the show. Well...maybe this is a convenient place to break it up and start a new post!

Autechre and More Trip

Okay then we get into the show and start waiting for Autechre! David showed up too and we talked for a while with him. Then the music started. Cygnus was first and he had some pretty sweet Detroit-ish styled electronic music (it was a bit of later idm still swimming in Kraftwerk inspired sounds). It was good! Then it was Mark Broom and he was pretty good, idm-ish, more straightforward, a lot of sampled hip hop vocals. At some point during the openers Karl and Gretchen showed up but as the music was going on I didn't really get a chance to talk to them. There was no break between the two openers, they were very back-to-back.

This time Rob and Sean didn't crawl under the table to get onstage, but the house shined these bright red lights at the audience so we were pretty much blinded into not being able to see them go onstage. So there's this ominous droning music and these bright red lights are blinding us and this goes on for a little while while they get set up. Then all the lights shut off like before and they start in with it. They had a pretty brief drone to start and then it was just into it with pure unadulterated Autechre pummeling us. I mean, it was very very Autechre and maybe felt like the most unrelenting beat-wise of the times I've seen them (but my memory isn't great). I mean, it starts off like there's almost a normal kind of driving beat but it quickly shows its seams as it mutates into varying levels of incomprehensibility. So yeah, nonstop sounds and it was sooo good! They played a long set, probably about an hour and a half. I picked up a t-shirt afterwards. Then yeah, back to the hotel to sleep. But yeah, it was a great great show. It was worth the trip along with everything else we did.

Okay, then we get to...today! We wake up and check out. We didn't eat first thing for once, but our breakfast/lunch was a bit of a ways out of the city. On the way we stopped to check out a sex shop called Kalli's Love Stuff. Then it was to this town called Bessemer that on a map kind of looks part of the metropolitan area or maybe a suburb or something but it really feels like a rural small town (a large-ish small town but totally has that feel and doesn't feel connected to Birmingham). So we eat at this old old-school diner called The Bright Star. Snapper is their thing and fried snapper throats. It sounds weird and I was a little scared to get it...but it's delicious. I'm thinking maybe that's organ-y but it's just meat (fish meat). It's friend and the fish itself had a soft quality that reminds me of alligator nuggets or a slightly fluffier fish. Really good. And we had all these sides that were delicious and dessert that was delicious. Really good. Well, to add to the small town feel...while we're eating a parade has ended up starting on the street that the restaurant is on...as well as that our car is parked on. We had no idea a parade was about to start up so we are of course completely trapped until it is over. It didn't last super long and we weren't in a terrible hurry. So when in Rome, we sat back and enjoyed the three different marching bands that came past us (as well as lots of what looked to be homecoming queen contestants so I'm guessing it was the town's homecoming parade). When we finally got freed up we went back into the city to check out this bookstore called Jim Reed books. It's another piled-high place and I picked up a few books: Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes, Martha Quest by Doris Lessing, Long Division by Kiese Laymon, The Jaguar Smile by Salman Rushdie, and Broken April by Ismail Kadare. Then a quick jaunt into a grocery store (Publix, so exotic!...I mean, we popped in briefly but it does seem way better than our Kroger monopoly!). I wanted to pick up some Grapico which I did (and some local ginger ale that I haven't tried yet but figure I might as well give a go). THEN we pick up some barbecue that we were too full to eat but to pack in a cooler and eat later. The place is called Miss Myra's and it had been recommended as the best so we wanted to try it even though there weren't enough meals/time to do so! We had a little taste and it's promising! Okay, now we're out of the city and hitting the road. While talking to David at the show, he'd recommended this burger place in Tupelo he said he was stopping at 'cuz it's the best burger ever, according to David. It's called the Neon Pig and we stopped there too. It was really good, though it kind of feels like it's cheating and something other than a burger as it's got so many types of meat blended together in it...but yeah, it was really delicious. And yeah, still full as fuck from that. Anyway, we made it back home. I'm sure I missed something, but I guess I'll try to cram in anything else I can remember into future posts.