Filigree

Very tired. Thankfully, a surfeit of medication seems to have had an effect and so far my mosquito bites are fading quickly. I continue a pharmacological assault because damnit medical science must be a worthy opponent of mosquitoes or what are we all doing?

Today was bustling but not connected enough to make a worthwhile story - in and out of various stores buying birdseed and coffee and curtain rods. I helped Val find the office of her new doctor, and we dropped off (and picked up) library books from a building with stunning views of cliffs and mountains. I would have trouble reading there unless I found a corner without windows. There was a gallery full of amateur art - all the kind you can hang on walls - and it bore out my general suspicion that if it's acrylic on pre-treated canvas it's probably bad. (An exception is the work of my neighbor Andrea, which is part of why I'm impressed by it.) I don't know why - whether it's the preferred medium of people with limited skills and means, or whether it's to do with the way flat acrylic takes on the nubbly texture of the canvas so that it looks like a giclee print. There were some more interesting works, but they were all in other media.

Ciro has not been chosen for the DMA curatorial internship, which was expected but hoped against. (I am told that because of the shortage of stipended internships, even the undergrad slots tend to go to grad students, which I think if true is a little unethical of the museum, however well meaning. If you're creating an undergrad internship, keep it undergrad. There are reasons for those.) At least he got the news on a day with something else good in it - he spent the day as an extra on the set of some drama set in the "Italian section of Dallas" (which does not exist). He was the only Italian on set, from what I understand. Set - the Italian side of town - was Deep Ellum, which the more informed of you might recognize as a historically black neighborhood (although long gentrified) which housed any number of jazz and blues clubs and hosted luminaries like Blind Lemon Jefferson. Any more, due to some stupid development choices by the city, it's mainly tattoo parlors. And a pizza place, which equals the Italian side of Dallas. (According to the X-Files movie, of course, we have mountains. It's nice how versatile we are.)

In any case, this means that we're footloose again, pending soon-promised changes at my job and Ciro's graduation at the end of summer. (And the film shoot in August.) It remains to be seen whether one of us will be offered something that pushes us in a direction.

Feast Day

Today I ate so much my stomach is out to here_______________________]. I started with posole* at a farmer's market (which they call growers' markets here, partly because so many people are selling live plants and not just produce). Then we walked around in the mountains for a bit and I ate some kind of Chinese date variation that tastes like condensed milk. After that, of course, it was time for lunch, which featured both chili cheese fries (green and red chili**), and stuffed sopapillas (which they serve unsugared here and use more freely - sort of like beignets crossed with gorditas), and for desert more sopapillas.

From there, it was a brisk drive to the stationery store and an art gallery, which were across the street from a record store and gelateria (one scoop lavender and one thai basil coconut - I like the botanicals). At that point, I had been eating steadily for perhaps eight hours, which meant it was time to go home and take care of the dog. And have salad (with radishes and white balsamic) and a beer (wheat and elderflower, from a local brewery).

For the record, I also weeded another section of the backyard and ran an 11 minute mile barefoot, but really this was not a focus of the day and was pretty much an attempt to stop myself dropping into a food coma, which I shall now drop into.

* A soup made from hominy (soaked/hulled corn), chilies, and meat (usually pork). Found in Texas, Mexico, and New Mexico, with regional variations. Apparently pre-Columbian in origin and in that time sometimes eaten ritually with people as the meat. Although purchased in New Mexico, the posole consumed by me was pretty much Texas style; in other words, it did not feature green chilies, which are seemingly requisite for all New Mexican dishes (which ideally will also feature piñon, a particular kind of roasted pine nut). Which I like - don't get me wrong.

** As mentioned in prior footnote, green chile. There is also red chile, which is a salsa that uses roasted ingredients (or that's how it tastes to me). You can often order things with red or green chili or half and half, which is obviously the way to go as far as I'm concerned. This is called "Christmas."