Gin and Zilbertronic

It’s certainly been a long while and yet things haven’t changed all too much.

Its 70 degrees and sunny while the rest of the northern hemisphere gets to appreciate and then slowly resent the onset of a fall/winter period.  I’m still re-organizing the music on my hard drive.  My synthesizer playing is becoming epically ecstatic and irritating.  Philadelphia sports teams are breaking my heart again!  As always, the majority of my time is spent in a small confined carpeted room with a piece of metal tubing.

Yet the NEW!  It’s quite amazing!  Bella and I have our own place, and its wondrous, surrounded by an abandoned massage parlor on the one side and a dentist’s office on the other, meaning there is no use or purpose for blinds!  And windows on all sides, old glass ones with streaks, sunlight spilling in, a spiral staircase…  Almost every day we bike the 2 miles or so to school, which brings us through the Menil grounds, over Highway 59 (where sometimes we can enjoy the breathtaking sight of stopped cars as far as the eye can see, or occasionally 9/11 conspiracy theorists with a sign saying “If you believe it was a hoax, honk”), through the Rice suburbs, and to school.  Every so often there is an obnoxious motorist, but for the most part its clear sailing, although that doesn’t diminish my desire for an air horn/bell/other musical accompaniment.

Here is the place!

i’ve got a lot of catching up to do on this blog when it comes to food.  after a monstrously successful and delicious food tour through austin and a good amount of houston, i’m already set to do another one, this time with a stop in san antonio.

last time we found spiritual release at bbq stops smitty’s in lockhart, and city market in luling.  we perused the outrageous original whole foods in austin, and devoured cajun and african buffet and tres leches cake.  we warmed up for that bbq madness by having all-you-can-eat bbq at the salt lick the night before!!!  and we made a stop at chuy’s for some tex-mex. and that’s just austin.  in houston we ate mesquite-grilled catfish, fried oysters, and fresh oysters at goode co. seafood, had some solid vietnamese fruit smoothies, took in a splendid mexican breakfast at la guadalupana with cinnamon coffee and migas and breakfast tortas, and had drinks at the poison girl and quite a wild and distinct meal at hugo’s in montrose!  i need some pictures from h dog!

this trip i’m gonna be photographing and recording, so there will be blogs to come.

tomorrow we stop in luling for bella’s inaugural bbq.  in san antonio we’re after puffy tacos (deep-fried corn tortillas) and tex-mex, as well as some killer margaritas.  then onto austin, where we are searching out down-home southern’ cookin, breakfast tacos, and deep-fried avocados!  oh, and we’ll do some sight-seeing on the way…maybe.

i’m always a bit touchy when it comes to the weather, but now on the verge of being a marathon-runner my psyche is at the mercy of the sun!  i check the weather 4 times a day or so, trying to figure out the different ways cloud cover or humidity could attack.  after 6 weeks of stunningly perfect weather in texas, we finally had a few off days, where the temperature got a bit too high (up to the mid-70s) and the rain and humidity arrived.  i had a few runs that sucked, that made me just want to go home, and well, thats not how you want to feel the week of your marathon.  but this morning, i woke up to sunlight and instantly knew something had changed.  one sniff of that air, and my belief in texas was renewed!  the visions of marathon-running and buffet-bbq-ing, and margarita-drinking outside on february 15th re-appeared, and all was right in the world.  for the moment, at least…

on february 8, on the outskirts of houston, on a moderately pleasant day (70 degrees), in the midst of many strip malls, bella and i indulged in a food frenzy that included two pita wraps (falafel and freshly grilled lamb kefteh), assorted baklava, mocha, and turkish coffee.  lunch?  we are too busy for lunch, this was merely a repose from a shopping trip, which, at 3 hours, was a significant improvement from the last visit out to phoenicia specialty market.  other assorted goodies included luscious amounts of spiced olives, fresh muhamarra, fresh-baked pita bread, chocolate covered cranberries, marble halvah, hot ajvar, kashkaval, fresh feta cheese, dried fruits, sesame-encrusted roast chickpeas, and a bit of baba ghanoush!

posts will be soon coming fast and furious as the zilbers start landing in texas, and the bbq/mexican/mesquite-grilled anything hunt commences!

after a long break from the blog, you may be wondering whats happened to all the zilbers…

a lot!

i’ll quickly update you on my side of things down in houston.

for the past 3 or 4 weeks it has been sunny and about 55 degrees EVERY day except for maybe 3.  you may laugh in disbelief, but i’m currently sitting in the park outside the menil collection stealing my internet, and gleefully about to set forth on a bike ride back to school. on january fucking 30.

below are my pictures.  in short order, i….

dog-sat for a wonderful mutt named betsy, who woke me with routine maulings, and wiggled her butt when i returned home from outings.  i also had access to cable tv, a hot tub, and a fancy espresso machine for 5 days, allowing me to commence on a constant cycle of relaxation and frenzy.

i bought a bike!  a sparkly red and white peugeot!

bella and i discovered houston, all over!  i mean, we went every where.  routine picnics at the menil museum, bike rides on the bayou, margaritas at la tapatia, wild trips to far-away meditteranean specialty markets accompanied by visits to mexican taquerias, an exploration of various coffeehouses such as brasil and taft street.

i discovered the glory of the torta!  a mexican sandwich on bolillo bread, served in an immense quantity with various fillings (shredded chicken with adobo, OR chorizo, mozzarella and mushrooms) along with blakc beans and avocado and some fresh spicy green salsa.

i ran 20 miles! seriously!  i listened to podcasts for one hour, the new animal collective cd for another hour, and then girl talk and aretha franklin to bring me on home in the last hour!

i took tons of photos of the menil today, then snuck some photos of the interior of the cy twombly gallery, and THEN, without any evidence of my camera,  was mistaken for a real photographer by the woman working at the cy twombly gallery, which was very flattering.

this is simple advice, told simply, and i have to say, it’s a logical argument.

just sharing a few songs that came across french radio the past few days. i think the best thing about both of them is there potential for remixing, that is to say, if i knew how…

houston, december 26th.  apocalyptic type weather, its been around 70 degrees for a few days with pretty intense humdiity and rain, and crazy winds.  today i saw at least 4 people completely drenched while running, faces not looking too good.  from this house  you can hear the train, and the highway.  is there any place in houston where you can’t hear a car?

when i tell betsy the dog to go in her cage, she plops on her back to look cute and convince me to instead rub her belly, which generally works.  as with nishy and most dogs, i appreciate both her complete lack of an attention span, and her overpowering love/obsession with food, which it goes without saying i can relate to.

i just got this album today, so i can’t put a fine point on any of this. the song is by michna, who is on ghostly international, and i am down with the trombone usage.  really though, i’m only posting this because i know ben can do something better! this does set the bar pretty high though, in terms of trombones and electronic music.

michna – swiss glides

i spend most of my time in nîme bound within the city center, bounded by two-way roads.  it’s charming, there are tons of bakeries and good spaces to sit, a roman temple, a roman arena, and a good library, so i was content.  the other day i was led by curiosity and fell on a huge park kind of by accident, although i knew it existed.  apparently it was constructed in the 17th century in order to highlight the natural water source and conveniently at the top of everything is a well-preserved roman tower, although i didn’t take a picture of it for some reason.