9.28.06 Day 7: Kernersville, NC

I check in vain every day for a comment in my guest book, but since none have been forthcoming, I guess I need to resort to Blatant Comment Whoring™ a la yellojkt. So this is my question: Say that you had the chance to take a five-week vacation. Money is an object—you have to take the vacation you can afford. (If we had unlimited funds, we might be sitting on a beach in Hawaii right now instead of in a Holiday Inn Express in North Carolina. Which is not to say that North Carolina isn't a very pleasant state, of course.) Would you go around and visit friends, or stay at home and finally clean out your refrigerator or garage, and do all those things you've been intending to do for months/years? Or would you just go for broke, fly off to Paris, run up your credit card bills, and figure you can spend the next couple years paying it off?

This is a rare opportunity for us, and we decided to spend it visiting friends in some parts of the country we've never seen before. We're doing it on a budget, but so far the experience has been incredible. It's too bad these long vacations are usually the exclusive privilege of Europeans!

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9.27.06 Day 6: Winston-Salem, NC

I'm not done with you yet, Albuquerque! But for now, our travels have taken us (via air) to North Carolina. Neither of us had ever been here before either. From a physical standpoint, it reminds me a lot of my old home state, Maryland—very green, lots of trees. So far all the Southerners we've met have been extremely pleasant. Joe and I spent the afternoon at Old Salem, a living history museum where costumed reenactors explain their trades. I guess it's a little like Colonial Williamsburg, which I never managed to get to during my years on the East Coast. Anyway, there's a lot to see in Old Salem, so we got two-day tickets and we're going back tomorrow.

We've also checked out a couple of really good restaurants in Winston-Salem—and fortunately for us spoiled Californians, despite the town's tobacco heritage, there are non-smoking sections. We couldn't stop raving about Milner's, which features nouveau Southern cuisine; despite the warnings of my friend Shalini, who moved here from the Bay Area 10 years ago, that there aren't many good restaurants around here, I think our dinner was easily as superb as anything San Francisco has to offer. This morning, because I am just crazy about biscuits, we went to the fast food chain Biscuitville; I guess it was hopelessly Yankee of me to wish that they had a little fruit salad or something on the menu. Joe had his biscuit with sausage and cream gravy, while I had mine plain.

Our friends have two dogs, which has been great, since it's enabled us to get our "dog fix." One of them is an enormous collie; the other is a Schipperke named Revvo. He is soooo cuddly and precious, like a tiny black teddy bear.

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9.25.06 Day 4: Albuquerque, NM

¡Globalquerque!'s second day was not quite as well attended as Day 1, but there were still a few hundred people there and it was definitely a success. Joe volunteered at the merch booth, and reported that the throat singers' CDs were selling like hotcakes. I managed to check out every one of the 10 bands playing. All in all, we're ready to come back for 2007's festival, though perhaps not by car.

I really like Albuquerque so far. The climate is similar to the Bay Area's; not too hot, and cool at night. The scenery is beautiful. (No bodies of water, but lots of mountains and cacti.) There are cool restaurants and hangouts, and the politics are liberal (we've seen a few Priuses sporting anti-GOP bumper stickers—just like in Berkeley!). It also has a very diverse population. The cost of living is much lower, of course, and with a population of half a million, traffic congestion doesn't seem to be a problem. A world with affordable housing, great weather and no traffic jams? I hope I find out about the downsides before I head back home!

Because I spend a lot of time reading guide books, I've been boring Joe with all sorts of facts about the area. Did you know New Mexico is the fifth largest state in the U.S. by area? It has an official state cookie, the Biscochito (a small, anise-flavored cookie), and an official state question ("red or green?," referring to chiles). I have yet to try the Biscochito or either color of chile, but hope to do so at some point.

My Travel Pick for today is the Flying Star Cafe, a local chain of restaurants. They have free wi-fi and you are allowed to hang out for eons—in fact, Neal often works there all day. They're so roomy you're almost guaranteed to find an available table or booth. The food is excellent and the people who work there are friendly. In the Bay Area, people sit in cramped coffee shops and take advantage of the wi-fi, but wouldn't you rather be somewhere that will also sell you a delicious breakfast entree at any time of day, or a piece of pie? The only thing that would make them perfect instead of merely great is if they stayed open later; as it is, they're open 'til 11 PM on weekends, 10 PM on weeknights.

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9.24.06 Day 3: Albuquerque, NM

The main reason we scheduled Joe's sabbatical to begin in late September was because of ¡Globalquerque!, the global music festival my friend Neal puts on. This year's is the second annual event, but last year's was much more low-key and took place on a Tuesday night. G! 2006 was to be a full-fledged, two-day extravaganza with bands from Zimbabwe, Mongolia, Finland, and many other countries.

Because I've been working with Neal on the web site for months now, I felt intimately involved with the event. I even had anxiety dreams about it (what if no one came?), even though I had no financial stake in it. Neal and his business partner Tom stood to lose lots of money if it didn't work out. Neal is one of my oldest and best friends and I desperately wanted it to be a smash hit.

It was due to begin at 6 PM yesterday, but because of that weird time-change thing (Arizona doesn't observe daylight savings time), we arrived at 7. The main plaza of the National Hispanic Cultural Center, home to the festival, was rather depopulated. Oh crap, I thought.

However, it turns out that two of the festival stages are indoors (despite my work on the web site, I thought only one was inside) and one of those stages is a theater with more than 600 seats. There were actually at least a thousand people at G! I relaxed a little. Because the place is so freakin' huge, there was easily room for another thousand or so (you should come next year!), but when a band started playing on the outdoor stage, it looked genuinely crowded.

The bands' showtimes overlap so that there are always at least a couple different ones playing at any given time. We checked out the Red Stick Ramblers from Louisiana and Aurelio Martinez from Honduras, as well as the sensation of the festival, Tuvan throat singers Chirgilchin. Albuquerque has throat singing fever. The room where they were performing was SRO, and the audience went nuts after every song. It is amazing; one guy can make both a low-pitched droney sound as well as a high-pitched whistle that sounds a bit like a theremin. Today Chirgilchin held a throat singing workshop in which they attempted to teach the art to attendees; I couldn't figure out how to do it (something to do with tongue position), but it was fun to see it up close.

Around 10:45, we headed back to the motel where Neal had kindly procured free rooms for us. I'm not going to name it, but we found it a little scary. When we turned down the comforter, there were blood stains on the blanket. The toilet ran for about 10 minutes after I flushed it. The promised wi-fi didn't work. Neither did my bedside lamp. But, hey, it's free! And the bed was comfortable. I think he mainly puts up bands at that motel, and since he's not exactly dealing with the Rolling Stones, they're probably happy to stay someplace where they don't need to sleep on some random person's floor.

From time to time during my trip, I'm going to share with you special Travel Picks which you can use to plan your own vacation. These are extra-wonderful places that get my highest recommendation. Today, Joe and I ate brunch at La Fonda del Bosque restaurant at the Hispanic Cultural Center. It's an incredible bargain at $11.99, with loads of delicious foods: rice pudding, scrambled eggs, cheese enchiladas, carrot cake, fantastic fresh tortilla chips... and the fresh squeezed orange juice is $1.25 a glass. In the Bay Area, you couldn't get a glass of anything other than tap water for $1.25. Check it out!

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9.22.06 Day 1: Kingman, AZ

After 11 hours and over 600 miles, we're spending the night at a motel in Kingman, AZ, on the old Route 66 and now home to many truck stops. I had forgotten just how dull it is to spend an entire day in a car, especially when you're driving through fairly monotonous landscapes. We spent a lot of time listening to NPR podcasts (no public radio stations in the middle of the desert, I'm afraid) and the audio book of John Hodgman's The Areas of My Expertise.

I must praise the wondrous fast food chain In 'N Out Burger. Now, I haven't eaten a hamburger in over 20 years, but at In 'N Out, you can get a fabulous sandwich with everything except the meat patty, including lots of lettuce, ripe tomato and a big slice of onion. It's delicious and much tastier than the veggie sandwich at Subway.

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9.20.06 Actively Searching For Activewear

I would like to know what the bodies of fit models for outdoor gear manufacturers look like. For some reason, I am completely unable to find any women's activewear that fits me. I am not unusually built in any way; if anything, I'd say I have a fairly ordinary shape, one that's more "pear" than "apple" or "anorexic starlet".

I spent an hour trying on women's clothing at REI in an effort to find a pair of lightweight pants suitable for hiking, travel, etc. If "large" was too large, then "medium" was too small. The ones in women's numbered sizes (10, 12, 14, etc.) were either too narrow in the hip, too short in the rise, or too loose in the waist.

Then I remembered that my favorite running shorts came from the REI men's department. After fruitlessly trying on a zillion pairs of women's shorts last year, I finally skulked over to menswear and found that the REI-branded men's shorts fit me perfectly. Unlike the gals' shorts, which tend to show more thigh than I care to, they are generously cut.

Wouldn't you know it, after my aborted effort to find women's hiking pants, I immediately found a pair of North Face men's khakis that fit and were on sale. I'm not built like a guy, y'all! I totally don't get it. How is it that men's sports clothing accommodates my womanly shape and women's doesn't? Anyway, from now on, when I need activewear, I'm forgoing the women's department altogether. Besides, men's pants have so many cool pockets, zippers and things.

I did find one thing in the women's department—a really nice jacket (I bought it in "garnet"). It's lightweight and attractive. I have been searching far and wide for a new casual jacket for years. This should give you an idea of what a hard time I have finding clothes that fit and look good: my previous jacket was purchased at the Gap store in the World Trade Center.

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9.18.06 Hittin' The Road

A number of people—at least five!—have asked if I'll be blogging during the upcoming trip. Why, yes, I do hope to post photos and updates from the road. Here are some IAQs (infrequently asked questions) about the trip:

Where are you going?: If you don't already know, won't it be more exciting to be surprised? Our current plan calls for us to hit at least four other states.

Is Hobie coming along?: I'm afraid Hobie will be staying here with a dogsitter. We'll miss him, but he should be OK. The dogsitter is very, very nice.

Will you be working on the road?: I will continue to run interbridge. The retail side of the record company will be on a brief hiatus; since the CDs are readily available elsewhere, I'm hoping that won't be a problem.

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9.17.06 Tom Stoppard Is Smarter Than You Are

The opening play of ACT's 2006-07 season is Tom Stoppard's "Travesties," which readers with long memories will recall I raved over back in 2004, when Shotgun Players staged it. I loved Shotgun's production so much that I was just a tad reluctant about seeing it at ACT. Because we are going to be out of town during the play's regular run, I had to switch our tickets to one of the preview performances. Of course, critics are not supposed to review previews, because the cast is just getting used to performing the play in front of an audience. However, since I'm not a real critic, I will feel free to comment on it.

Seeing a play at the mammoth Geary Theater (which, incidentally, will be rechristened the American Conservatory Theater on Wednesday) is a fundamentally different experience than seeing one at the Shotgun Players' Ashby Stage. At the Ashby, you're immersed in the play; the actors are often just inches away from you. Somehow, this has made it easier for me to get involved in "difficult" plays like "Travesties" and "King Lear." Oddly enough, despite the fact that I'd seen "Travesties" twice, I found Act I of ACT's version to be a little tough to follow; it's a challenging act, about 90 minutes long, and the first 20 is a monologue by the character Henry Carr. At intermission, I overheard some folks say they wish they had read the play before seeing it, and Joe chatted with the house manager, who said several people have walked out.

"Travesties" makes a lot of demands on its audience; it helps to be familiar with Joyce's Ulysses and Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest," which are both spoofed by Stoppard. (One character delicately refers to Wilde as a "Gomorrah-ist.") The play is a fictionalized version of what might have happened if Vladimir Lenin, James Joyce and Dadaist Tristan Tzara had crossed paths in Zurich, where they all lived during World War I. Carr was the British consul in Switzerland at the time, and he functions as the play's unreliable narrator, reminiscing about his wartime experiences many years after the fact.

At Shotgun, Carr was played by my favorite local actor, John Mercer. He is an older man than Geordie Johnson, who is less than convincing as the elderly Carr, but brilliantly portrays the younger man as the quintessential upper-class English twit. Luckily, the two interpretations are so different that I can love 'em both without guilt!

The other standouts in ACT's cast are the newest core company member, Allison Jean White, who makes an impression as the librarian Cecily, and longtime favorite Gregory Wallace as Tzara. Wallace frequently plays eccentric and "wacky" characters, and he's given free rein to go nuts as Tzara, who prankishly cuts up Shakespeare sonnets and using the random words to create fresh works of "art." I wish director Carey Perloff hadn't decided to cast Geoff Hoyle in two roles, that of Lenin and Carr's butler Bennett; at one point, Hoyle has to cover his chin with his hand in order to make a quick switch from Lenin to the un-bearded Bennett, and it's needlessly distracting.

Those who hang on through Act II will be rewarded with a Wildean mistaken identity subplot and hilarious romantic farce. It would be interesting to return to "Travesties" near the end of its run and see how the cast's timing has improved; this is a play that needs to run as flawlessly as a Swiss watch, and I suspect that by October, all the gears will have clicked into place.

Last night, Joe and I went to the Oakland Metro to catch local electronic musician Amy X Neuburg's video shoot. Her act will soon be immortalized on DVD. I'm not sure the Metro was the best choice of venues; I've seen several shows there in the past, and the place is on a particularly noisy corner, near train tracks and a busy street that sees a lot of car and motorcycle traffic, as well as the occasional siren. But the show did attract a large and appreciative crowd; hopefully the noise can be edited out, and the sincere and enthusiastic applause will stay in.

I first became a fan of Amy's when she was performing with her avant-cabaret group Amy X Neuburg and Men. For the past few years, she's been working as a solo artist, specializing in live looping—she will sing a few bars, record it, and then play it back, in many cases adding more and more loops so that it sounds like a whole choir of Amys is singing. (K.T. Tunstall's hit single, "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree," uses similar techniques.) Amy's vocals are amazing—she is a classically trained singer with a gorgeous soprano. In one song, "My God," she begins by singing a hymn by Thomas Ravencroft, looping her vocals so she's singing in four-part harmony with herself, before shattering the prettiness with Laurie Anderson-like deadpan observations and an aggressive, shouted chorus. In another tune, "Every Little Stain," she creates an infectious rhythm by recording herself brushing her teeth. Seeing is believing, and watching Amy do her thing should produce an even better document of her talents than Residue, the 2004 CD that contains many of the songs she performed at the Metro.

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9.13.06 The Wonder Drug: A Conical Glass Testimonial

A lot of people assume that just because you're allergic to cats, you don't like cats. I love cats; they are beautiful, graceful creatures. I know some people find them to be great companions, but let's be honest, if you have a cat, you often have no idea where it is for hours at a time. When I had a cat, I used to go looking for him and find him in, say, the back of the linen closet, or wedged between a couple of under-bed storage boxes. If you have a dog, trust me, you always know exactly where the dog is. Right now, for instance, my dog is sitting on the floor behind my chair, about six inches away from my feet.

I am not allergic to dogs, which is a relief. When I had a cat, I used an asthma inhaler and took a prescription allergy drug. Allergic people can often develop a tolerance to their own animals, which happened to me, more or less. Other people's cats made me sneeze uncontrollably.

Despite my allergy, about eight years ago, I wound up joining a book club hosted by a woman who has cats. Her living room has area rugs on hardwood floors, which helps; a couple of years ago, when her house was under renovation and we temporarily switched to the home of a member with several cats and wall-to-wall carpeting, I had to drop out for a few weeks. That cat dander gets trapped in the carpet fibers and padding, and you can never truly get them clean.

Every week for eight years, I was usually good for an hour or so, then I began sniffling. I tried to be as unobtrusive as possible, but occasionally I had to leave the room because I felt a sneezing fit coming on. I had to make sure there were plenty of tissues in my purse on Tuesday nights.

Three weeks ago, however, a man named David Cole offhandedly mentioned a drug that was effective against cat allergies, and it has already changed my life: Claritin. I'd tried plenty of non-prescription allergy medications, and they never worked for me, so I finally gave up on them. Claritin, however, really works. It used to be prescription-only, and now it's available over the counter. (Literally: I had to show the pharmacist my I.D. before she'd sell me a box; apparently some of its magic ingredients can also be used to make methamphetamine.) It must have way more stuff in it than other allergy pills I've tried, because it's about five times bigger, but still easy to swallow.

Not only was I able to get through my entire book club meeting without a single sniffle, but as I was leaving, I buried my face in Bella's fur and took a deep breath as the cat's owner, our hostess, gasped in horror. About five minutes later in the car, I did sneeze—once. Then I stopped by my neighbors' place, picked up their cat and held it. No problems.

Whoever invented Claritin should win the Nobel Prize. I'm not going to get another cat (I'm now a dog person through and through), but at least I can pet them and interact with them, and I no longer dread visiting the homes of my cat-owning friends.

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9.8.06 TV Party '06

Joe and I always attend Chronicle TV critic Tim Goodman's annual fall preview night at Oakland's Parkway Theater; in the past, it's been a pretty low-key event, but this year, perhaps because Goodman has joined the ranks of the bloggers, the place was mobbed. He promoted the event several times in his blog, so this year was the first time (a) you had to be on the guest list to get in and (b) people were turned away at the door. Tim was nice enough to put me on his list. No, I don't know him, but I am a faithful reader of both his newspaper column and his blog.

Last year, Tim showed several new comedies; the only one I wound up watching regularly is "My Name Is Earl," when it moved to Thursday nights and stopped competing with "The Amazing Race" and "House" on Tuesdays. This is not a particularly fertile year for comedy so he only screened two of them: "Knights of Prosperity" and "Notes from the Underbelly." The latter has actually been pushed back to midseason. It's kind of a cute show about a couple in their 30s who are expecting their first baby. I don't think I would watch it (not much I can relate to there), but anyone who has been through a pregnancy would probably like it. "Knights" was originally titled "Let's Rob Mick Jagger," and it's about a gang of misfits who, yes, comes up with a plan to rob the filthy rich Rolling Stones frontman's New York luxury apartment. Since the show would presumably end if the plan succeeded or if the plotters were tossed in jail, I assume that every week, they will try and fail to rob Mick Jagger, making it something of a latter-day "Gilligan's Island."

By far the best-received show of the night was Aaron Sorkin's new drama, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," one of two shows set backstage at a "Saturday Night Live"-type program (the other is Tina Fey's comedy "30 Rock"; Goodman said the pilot for Fey's show is currently being reshot, never a good sign). I was a big fan of Sorkin's "Sports Night," so I'm inclined to give it a shot. I never watched "The West Wing," but my understanding is that it was based on a "fantasy president" who had all the integrity, good judgment and leadership skills Clinton & Bush lacked; well, Amanda Peet stars in "Studio 60" as a fantasy network president, jaw-droppingly gorgeous and ready to stand up for the artistic integrity of her shows' writers and producers. Heh, like that would happen in real life!

The final new program screened was "The Nine." "Inside Man" + "Lost" = "Nine." A group of hostages is held in a bank for 52 hours during a robbery gone wrong. So many eventful things happened during those 52 hours... things the writers are going to parcel out with an eyedropper during the show's run. During those two days, everything changed for the hostages! Sorry, but I don't want to keep tuning in every week, desperately hoping for a new nugget of information about the robbery. Would I be more inclined to watch it if it were, say, a 12-week miniseries? Probably yes. But the super-showy pilot episode didn't grab me. Many critics are calling it the best new drama of the season, though, so perhaps it will find an audience in its post-"Lost" time slot.

All of these shows have continuing story arcs that demand the audience follow them carefully and not miss an episode; the days of self-contained programs like "Law & Order" are apparently over (though trends being what they are, I'm sure they'll make a comeback someday). The nightmare scenario for viewers of these types of shows, though, is "Reunion," a FOX murder mystery that was supposed to play out over 22 weeks. Due to low ratings, the show was cancelled after just nine episodes. As for the killer's identity, the audience never found out whodunit—after the show got the ax, the writers admitted they hadn't gotten that far yet.

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9.1.06 Not-So-Plain Jane

Books read, August '06:

Girl in a Box by Sujata Massey
The Art of Detection by Laurie R. King
A Farewell to Legs by Jeffrey Cohen
The Iron Girl by Ellen Hart
An Intimate Ghost by Ellen Hart

Books bought:

Zip

I thought perhaps I'd try to read some more "serious" fiction in August, but it turned out to be such a busy month that I only read mysteries—I needed some escapist fun. I happened to notice The Iron Girl on the library's new fiction shelf and thought I'd pick it up since Ellen is one of my clients. (I work for so many authors that I must confess I don't do a very good job of keeping up with their books. Sujata and Jeff are both clients too, by the way.) I had read some of Ellen's books when I first started working for her several years ago, but must admit I'd fallen behind.

Anyway, I was completely blown away by how good it was. I usually read right before I go to sleep, but I found myself carrying around The Iron Girl, trying to steal a few pages while I was eating or brushing my teeth. When I finished it (in the morning!), I hurried off to the library to return it and pick up another Ellen Hart, which I then promptly devoured in just a couple of days. Trust me, it's highly unusual for me to read two books in a row by the same author.

Ellen writes two series: one featuring Jane Lawless (protagonist of The Iron Girl and An Intimate Ghost), a Twin Cities restaurateur; the other stars food critic Sophie Greenway. There are currently 13 Lawless books and eight Greenways, so if you get hooked on Ellen's work, you have a lot of reading ahead of you. I haven't read any of the Greenway mysteries yet. In The Iron Girl, Jane finally decides to go through the belongings of her late partner Christine, who died many years before. Jane is finally involved in a promising new romantic relationship and figures it's finally time to move on. However, she finds a mysterious item in one of the boxes, something that appears to tie Christine to a notorious multiple murder which took place the night before she died. Jane feels compelled to investigate, and in the process, she begins to suspect that there's much more to the seemingly open-and-shut case than anyone suspected.

Jane has one of the best-ever sidekicks in mysterydom: the hilariously over-the-top Cordelia Thorn. She's wildly flamboyant, and yet somehow manages to be a believable and extremely likable character. Some of Cordelia's antics made me laugh out loud. Oh, and Jane gets extra bonus points for having a marvelous dog, Mouse. There are too many cats in mystery fiction and not enough dogs!

Joe and I will be starting our road trip later this month, so I hope to have the opportunity to read lots of books while I'm on vacation, and visit some cool bookstores.

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