Destination Unknown

Outdoor Market

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:17:03 -0600

There was an outdoor market in the park next to the hotel, today, so after registering for the convention we decided to take a little walk.

Some interesting architecture in the park.

Outdoor Market

The market.

Denver State Capitol Building

The state capitol building, visible from the park, complete with gold foil roof.

City Hall

City and County Hall

Geico Ad

Hey, good news! I just saved a bunch of money by switching my car insurance over to a company that doesn't spend 2/3 of its annual budget on advertising.

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More pics from Telluride...

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:49:49 -0700

More pics from Telluride:

Dadaist Graffiti

There was a borded up building Telluride that had some interesting and confusing graffiti on it. This one says:

SAVE THE WORLD
BAN THE PREIST
FREE THE NUGS
KEEP THE [PEACE SYMBOL]

Evidently, the author is using some code with which I'm not familiar.

Dadaist Graffiti 2

This one says:

DON'T TAKE
THE PEACE
OR FEED THE
BEAST, BUT
KEEP OPEN
MIND'S, AND
BE OPL

Surely, this is advice we should all live by.

Civil Liberties

On the same building, this borded up window was made into a display for the Telluride's Bill of Rights, adopted by their City Council, I suppose. The sign says, "Your Civil Liberties are Safe in Telluride." Under the sign and above the display, someone else wrote:

Civil Liberties 2

"But Not Your Property Rights"

I'm sure there's a story behind that.

Recycling

Never let a boogie board or a used ski go to waste.

Court House

Miguel County Court House

Some mountain views we took on the way out of at a sight-seeing pulloff.

Lizard-Head Peak

This is Lizard Head Peak. Check out the Wiki article on it; it's interesting. The first guy to successfully climb it, in 1920, said, "A rottener mass of rock is inconceivable." I would imagine so. It's also over 13,000 feet at the top, so bring your oxygen.

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Austin - Monday Night

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:24:44 -0600

Okay, I've been back since Sunday, but I've been playing catch-up at work. I'll get back into it now.

When I left off, we were taking a very long walk from the hotel to a coffee shop called Ruta Maya, where the opening party was being held.

Bad Fences

I just liked this fence. It wouldn't keep much in or out, but it still stands, like a testament to poor maintenance.

Five Dollars Too

I guess if you're a local you know what is $5, but still not what else is $5. As an outsider, I don't know either.

Chetes Y Arthur

No idea.

Guitar 6

Yet... another... guitar.

Steroid-Free Roses

This pic is blurry, as the Olympus doesn't seem to take very good dusk shots. The marquis on this florist shop advertises "steroid-free roses." Tell me, are roses taking steroids a problem? If you buy a dozen roses for your sweety, is she going to reject them if the petals are a little too buff? Will she put in her diary that you gave her roses today, but put an asterisk next to the entry? Our modern times.

After a ridiculously long walk, we finally made it to Ruta Maya, and had a great time listening to an odd mix of music served up by a DJ and I had a tasty BBQ meal provided for the NPS poets. I took a number of pictures, but none of them came out very good. I'm still getting the hang of this new camera.

Needless to say, we took a taxi home rather than take that walk again. Strix hadn't eaten anything, yet, and I needed a little something else in my stomach, so we went out to a 24-hour diner called Katz's Deli. I had the reuben sandwich, and it was okay.

We slept in the next morning, then went in search of lunch. I can't remember where we ate, but we did see some interesting things along the way.

I Said No Parking

This is a rather dramatic statue of a woman in flowing gown lighting the fuse of a cannon, taken from an odd angle. I took it from this angle, because it looks like she's getting ready to blast a car out of its parking space. I found it interesting that they positioned the statue so that it was firing into the street.

I Said Exact Change

Wait a couple minutes, and then she's aiming it directly at the door of this bus. Who will be the unlucky sod to be the next to step off the bus?

Mrs Weasley Fights Back

Taken from a slightly different angle and cropped, the torch she's using to light the cannon becomes a wand, and I retitle this piece, "Mrs. Weasley Fights Back." Man, am I a nerd.

Guitar 7

Another guitar. What a shocker.

Paramount Storefront

Sorry for the reflection. This is the storefront of the Paramount Theater, where the finals were to be held. There, the best of the best from the preliminaries and semifinals would face off for the final battle.

Guitar 8

Oh, for God's sake.

Cool Building

Just another neat old building in downtown Austin.

Guitar 9

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. This one was outside Antone's, and yes that's Antone himself on the front of it.

We were at Antone's for the opening ceremony of the National Poetry Slam. Antone's is a dank, dark little bar that draws some really big name bands, and it seemed an odd place to me for the opening ceremony. My misgivings were answered, however, when I found that the "opening ceremony," was about five minutes long and more or less consisted of the Poetry Slam, Inc. president welcoming everyone to the venue.

Immediately following the introduction, they went directly into the "Rookie Open Mic." This was for anyone who had never performed at National Poetry Slam before to get up and perform their best piece without having to worry about scoring or competing. I signed up, and as soon as it got started I started to wonder what the hell I was doing there. It seemed that every poet who got up there was extremely good, both in their writing and their delivery and performance. I leaned over to Strix a couple of times and whispered, "I am so screwed." But, I was committed, so I waited it out and when my name was called I got on stage.

Reciting a poem of your own creation in front of an audience of strangers on a stage with bright lights shining in your eyes in a strange city is very different than what I had done before. At Andrea Kristina's, I knew a good number of the people there, I read my poetry from paper rather than out of my own head, there is no stage, and it's a very comfortable atmosphere. The atmosphere on the stage at Antone's was anything but comfortable, and halfway through "The Tyranny of Grammar" I froze up, forgetting my next line. The audience started snapping their fingers, the poet's way of offering encouragement, and after repeating the same line a couple of times I unstuck myself and finished the piece.

Despite my flub, I was proud of myself. There was a time in my life when I wouldn't have been able to recover when I got stuck, but I did recover, and I finished. Hell, yeah.

More tomorrow.

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Geocaching in Austin

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 18:00:34 -0600

Strix has gone back home, being out of vacation time as of today, so now I have the computer to myself to catch up my blog.

Sunday, we went geocaching. The first one was supposed to be a microcache near Joe's Bar and Grill. We didn't find it, but we were hungry, so we went ahead and had lunch there. I don't remember what Strix had, but I had some of the best fish and chips I've ever had.

The second cache was supposed to be in a park, and we searched long enough for me to get a number of mosquito bites, but didn't find it. I was feeling down, being zero for two, but we decided to press on, despite it being hotter than hell and more humid than the ocean.

Love Bites

This little guy was on a lamp post on the way to our third cache.

Megafood

Some giant food and a rooster on top of a building. Why? Because.

Mirror Guitar

Part of Austin's public art project. This one is covered in fitted pieces of mirror.

Self Portrait

Damn, I'm handsome!

Alcotizing

This billboard seems particulary apt for Austin.

Castle

A boarded up "castle" on a hill here in Austin. It's visible for a quite a distance, earning the neighborhood the name "Castle Hill." I couldn't get a shot of it without the dumpster in front of it. The cache was close by, and we did find it, so the hike seemed somewhat worth it.

Uber alles

Across the street from the castle, someone taped a map of Germany to a dumpster and wrote "Deutchland Über Alles" on it.

Zebra Girl

On the top right corner of the map, they attached a black and white photo of a girl wearing a zebra costume. Über alles? How about über weird and über creepy? Anyone know what this is about?

Big Snitch

This enormous golden snitch was in someone's yard on the way back to the hotel.

For Lease

A very, very nice house for lease that we saw on the way back.

Cat Magnet

I just liked this ad. Very funny. I like the look on the cat's face.

Another gorgeous old building. This one is now in the use of the Texas Teachers' Association.

After returning to the hotel and cooling down for a while, we went back out and made our way to a park where a public concert was being held.

Music Lover

The fauna here in Austin is particularly tame. I don't mean the bar-goers, but rather the birds and squirrels. This guy didn't move until I got close enough to grab him.

Concert Gazebo

The band warms up. They played a nice mix of big band and swing for us.

It would have been a lot more comfortable if my mosquito bites weren't starting to each, and if we had somewhere to sit other than on a hard park bench, but it was a good concert and enjoyable, anyway.

After the concert, we made our way back to 6th Street and ate dinner at a sushi restaurant called Maiko's. They have a terrific happy hour with sushi specials and cheap sake.

More later!

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In Austin, Texas

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 10:35:43 -0600

Saturday morning, we flew out from Albuquerque on ExpressJet, direct flight to Austin for the National Poetry Slam competitions. I hate flying, with the the lugging of the luggage and the stripping down at the security checkpoint. (It always takes longer when I get female security personnel, I don't know why.)

As we expected, stepping off the plane was like walking into a sauna. It doesn't take long at all to acclimatize to the dry air in New Mexico, and going back to 95% humidity is quite the treat. On top of that, of course, is that it's August and really damn hot, humidity aside.

We're staying at the Extended Stay America, which is expensive for what it is but it's downtown and close to the slam venues, and since we're staying here for a week it will be nice to have a fridge and microwave. The other poets from Farmington are staying at an Econo Lodge way out on the edge of town, but I didn't want to commute in for our competitions, and we don't have a car.

After enjoying the air conditioning of our room for a little while, we went out and took in some of the sights of downtown Austin.

Neat Building

Anyone know what this building is? It's cool.

Guitar Art 1

A lot of cities have public art programs like this one. Someone, usually a business, sponsors the piece, and the artist gets an undecorated form, and they get to decorate it how they want. In Austin, they have guitars. In Kansas City, it's cows, and in Milwaukee, its "beasties." This guitar is decorated with old computer boards, with printer connectors for the struts.

Clydesdale

There were a number of these horse-drawn carriages downtown. I also saw a few bicycle rickshaws, believe it or not, but didn't get a picture of any of them. I have only seen them on TV images of foreign countries up until now.

Classy Dog

Downtown Austin is a justaposition. High class restaurants and night clubs are a block away from places like this, the Dirty Dog Bar, with a picture of a dog... um... being affectionate with a woman's leg for its sign. No, we didn't go in. There are also a number of massage parlors and tattoo joints that looked like each ink came with a free case of hepatitis. One massage parlor's sign said, "Modeling and Oriental Massage." Modeling. I'd never heard that take on it before.

It also became clear while walking around downtown Austin, that it has a serious, serious homeless problem. There were places where the homeless outnumbered the tourists, restaurant patrons, and bar-goers combined. Most of them were just hanging out, and a few were panhandling. Some of them were too busy talking to themselves to be bothered talking to other people. I'm going to take a stand and say that Austin has a problem with the homless, but the homeless apparently do not have a problem with Austin.

I'm also going to go out on a limb and say that Austin has a drinking problem. I have never seen so many bars and clubs in such a small vicinity. Many of the homeless carry coolers that they keep their cheap beer in, and I saw one man just tossing his empties in the grass. Drinking seems to be the local hobby, which is fine with me since I'm on vacation and not driving. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. But I worry for Austin as you would worry for a friend that's hitting the bottle too much. If there were an AA meeting for cities, Austin should go.

Guitar Art 2

More guitar art. I couldn't get a full shot of it due to an unusually high concentration of homeless people congregating here.

Carriage

Another pic of one of the horse-drawn carriages.

Driskill

Another thing Austin has a lot of is really neat old buildings. They were built with style, and they have been well preserved.

By this time, I was getting pretty hungry, so we at a Vietnamese-Thai restaurant called Mekong River. Whenever we're out of town, Strix and I try to find cuisine that we couldn't get back home, and Vietnamese fits that category. After perusing the menu, however, we both got dishes that could be better described as Thai food. Strix had the pineapple curry with tofu. I had a dish called the "Rated R Shrimp." I think the "Rated R" part of the name refers to the spiciness of it. It's shrimp and vegetables, served in a sort of hot and sour sauce. It was very tasty. Strix enjoyed her curry, too, but had them box it up so she would have room for an order of sweet sticky rice, which we shared. If you've never had sticky rice desserts, you should. It's rice cooked down in a coconut milk mixture, and in this case it was topped with custard and a coconut cream sauce. Very good.

If you don't think you would like Vietnamese or Thai food, Mekong also has a New York style deli, right inside the restaurant.

We went back to the hotel for a while, mainly just to get out of the humidity and to nap off our dinner, then went back out at nine to a place called Antone's. Antone's is a dirty-looking blues bar, but it boasts a history of some pretty impressive performers and draws an eclectic and generally clean crowd. Ten bucks a head got us in to see Gary Clark Jr. He was truly amazing, and his bass player Nick Current also sang on a couple of songs, too.

Nick, by the way, looked like he wasn't sure if he wanted to be Brian Setzer or David Bowie, but he did know how to play and belt out the songs.

If you go to Antone's, don't bother with the mixed drinks. They're overpriced and taste a little watery. Stick to the bottled stuff.

Another good reason to come to Antone's: this is where some of slams are going to be. My bout is slated for a different venue, but I hope they have a bar. My poetry will probably sound better if the audience if half-sloshed.

More later. Ciao!

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Just a Building

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 15:52:08 -0600

The Justa Building

Just a building I liked that was visible from the terrace of the convention center.

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Leadership Involves Silly String

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 17:36:28 -0600

My leadership class meets once a month, and the last class day was Friday. It was a particularly interesting day, including a mock County Commission meeting in which we all got special rolls to play and a Jeopardy-style game at the end of the day. It was a little different than the show Jeopardy, in that whenever you answered a question wrong you got pelted with silly string.

Afterwards, I went to a social at the home of one of the alumni. I know it's tacky to take pictures of another person's home, particularly if you don't know them very well, but I really liked his house.

These are camera phone pics, so they don't quite do it justice, but you get the idea. It was a really neat fusion of Art Deco and Southwest themes.

Following the social, I met Strix at the IHOP for a Mensa dinner. We have a tradition of eating pancakes on Friday the Thirteenth, so this was a friggatriskaideckapancake party. As it happens, the number of attendees added up to thirteen, as well.

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Mexico

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 21:09:51 -0600

Originally posted on my old blog on February 23rd, 2006:

After lunch, our goal was to go to Mexico. Stina had never been to Mexico, and I had never been out of the country, so this was one of those trips you make just to say that you've been there. We could have gone south from Las Cruces to El Paso, Texas, and gone from there to Ciudad Juarez across the border. As it happens, Ciudad Juarez is notorious for its crime, so we decided to cross at another location, so we headed west from Las Cruces on I-10 to Deming, New Mexico, then south on Highway 11 to the border.

We parked on the U.S. side of the border and crossed into Palomas, Mexico. We had expected poverty, but we did not really expect to feel so completely out of place just across the border from the U.S. It was obvious that the people of Palomas were not used to seeing caucasians. Other than the children begging us for change and one guy that tried to sell us something, no one bothered us, but neither of us wanted to stay very long.

We did take a couple of pictures while we were there. Palomas has a church that is somewhat famous for photographers, so we stopped there and took a couple of shots.

Mexican Statue

A statue in front of a government building.

After about half an hour in Palomas, we walked back across the border, showing our ID to the border guard. I'm hoping to have a more positive experience in Mexico in the future. If I do, it won't be in Palomas.

After being back in the good old U.S. of A., we made our way back to Alamogordo and called it a night.

My vision is blurring now, so I guess I'll write about what we did today tomorrow!

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