Seeing as it is December I am going to shut this blog off.
I plan on leaving this blog as is so that it can be a record of both the trip — and the research and preparation i did to take the roadtrip down south. that part of the blog, the prep, was actually just as enjoyable an experience as the roadtrip itself. not shocking, but wanted to mention that. just sort of looking back, am coming to these realizations.
Thankful to have had the opportunity to spend time with some lovely folks along the journey — Amy and Marian and Ian et al. — as well as fellow Postcarders at Wigginstock 2012 and beyond. Also nice to spend my first Korean-American Thanksgiving in the boozum of the fam at my sister’s in Aurora.
But like Steve Martin, above, I have really enjoyed the process of blogging. I don’t want to leave. So I decided to continue at a new blog HERE, if you are interested in following along, please join me.
my last day in Aurora was a real treat. Claud, my sister, set up a concert with a trio group she plays with locally.
the trio is usually a quartet, but one of the musicians couldn’t make it. so it was my sister Claud on violin, Jeanie Schroder of DeVotchKa fame on bass and flute, and her lovely husband Paul Schroder on cello.
they did two separate sets with all different types of music. i’ll ask my sister if she can send me the set list — it was pretty freaking cool.
i requested a Vivaldi when she had told me she was planning the concert for us. i filmed video of it and will post if everyone okays it being on here.
Claud and Jeanie on violin and flute, respectively, did a bunch of Telemann, which was a real revelation for me. it was the same music but staggered a measure or so. i remember it vaguely as something she played in high school. but i really heard it here. and loved it. going to track some of that down.
growing up with music / music in the family
growing up in our house — in Lincoln, Nebraska especially — there was music playing all the time. either on our stereo during wine & cheese puzzle nights and card game nights — or coming from the ever-present $50 beat-up pianos we always had, with whatever instruments we were all playing.
Grandma Pearl (our last $50 beat-up upright piano in background)
this is a picture of Grandma Pearl at my Aunt Barb’s house with what was the last $50 beat-up upright piano we had. i think my mom gave Barb our last one.
we then got a gorgeous Baldwin baby grand in memory of our Grandpa Sam when he died in the early 1980s and we moved to Omaha.
i always think the music influence came from our mom, who was a talented pianist. Mommy played a lot of music growing up, but our Dad and Grandma were piano players (and music lovers, especially Da) as well. Grandma Pearl was a talented singer as well, a coloratura soprano.
photographic proof: Daddy and Grandma Pearl at the piano
and we had a piano in Omaha when i was really little and our parents were together. though i was too young to really remember.
piano at Omaha house, November 1966 that’s left to right, Aunt Carol, Claud, Michael, Uncle Buddy, Grandma Pearl and Grandpa Irving
so Mommy would often play music when we were falling asleep at night. i always loved hearing her play — it is sort of a blissful thing i remember about my childhood. when i moved into my neighborhood here on the Upper West Side i used to hear some guy singing opera standing on West End Avenue not far from my house, where it echoed through the canyons of the tall apartment buildings. i would also hear a lot of musicians and singers practicing. now the neighborhood is more gentrified i don’t hear the music as much anymore, which i’m sad about.
Suzuki Method
Claudia and i started out playing Suzuki Method as little kids. i remember a lot of practicing and cool colored tabs on my little quarter-sized violin — the places to put my fingers….
for some reason i decided to quit violin and move on to other instruments (the ill-fated oboe year, then piano, sporadically) but my sister Claud kept with it, playing with school orchestras up through high school, then playing with friends in college and in the Redwood City Orchestra when she was working in San Francisco.
our brother, Michael, played trumpet in junior high and high school i think. if i recall correctly, that trumpet case served as a seat on many weekend bus rides between Lincoln and Omaha when we visited our dad. in high school Michael moved from trumpet to sousaphone (the tuba that wraps around your body). i liked his trumpet playing a lot.
so Claud was orchestra, Michael was band, and i was just all over the place. as usual.
another thanksgiving…
Thanksgiving 1975 (i think) (left to right) unkown woman, Muriel Herzog, Erika Herzog (standing), unknown woman, young Christiansen son, unknown man, mom Christiansen, Michael Herzog, Jimmy Brygger (Mommy’s boyfriend)
ah, the 1970s….
the yellow and white bowl in the bottom left corner (my mom is spooning some gravy or something) is the same one in the cheese post below… freakishly.
another fancy dinner: Mommy, me, Michael, Claud
okay, enough with the nostalgia.
back to the present day.
music in the sun room
music in the sun room
it was super sunny so they reconfigured the setup of where they stood and stuff. my dad was in the front row for the whole thing — i think it meant a lot to him to be able to see Claud play.
my dad, wearing my Lucero Women & Work hat — it was really sunny
i’m a long-time Lucero fan. the most recent record, where the hat is from (i’m a sucker for merch), is pretty damned good.
my sister Claud
and so it goes…
my niece Jazzy J plays violin now, and my niece AJ is a talented singer and plays the guitar. my biggest wish is that they are in a band (i can only dream). thankfully my other two nieces, Mariel and Jessica, are big music fans as well. though they are not big fans of twang but i try to slip a little bit to them every now and again.
AJ and Jessie listening to the concert
it was such a nice day outside we had the doors open.
and then i came home.
flying home
back to figuring out next steps post-Credit Suisse.
the short-term plan in addition to job searching is to continue moving furniture around, get some progress on some digital projects i have had in the works, re-hook up my stereo and get all my music out of storage — and maybe plan another vacation for next year. it won’t be Wigginstock, of course, but i hope it will be just as great of a journey.
i watch this movie pretty regularly. one of the best scenes. about a birthday party but it still applies.
so much food. wow
AJ’s cool crust experience
kimchi prep
massive vat of kimchi my sister’s mother in law made. omg.
cheeses (my contribution) — the “after” picture
so much food… it was a little crazy
kimchi
oh yeah! we had two turkeys and a ham. ridiculously yummy. for some reason i didn’t get a shot of the turkey
yumula
my placecard of awesomeness (made by my nieces, who know me well)…
Grandpa Herzog’s placecard (my da) — note the guy in jail
my bounty, for which i am extremely grateful for…. my first korean-american thanksgiving
pic is a little messed up but this was our blessing / table…
Chuck made this teapot burner turner thingy with his 3-D printer. so freaking cool
it’s late and i’m freezing / needing to go to bed. very short and sweet trip to Denver, which was long overdue. loved seeing my awesome nieces and getting a chance to hang with the fam at Claud’s comfy home. feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to experience this.
my flight was delayed at LaGuardia. they told us they were waiting on a part for my plane. for four hours today. haven’t flown United Airlines in forever. completely full plane. as i was going to my seat and the space got tighter i had a bit of the claustrophobia. yikes.
question: do airlines ever think that maybe it takes forever to plane and de-plane because the space is so tight? maybe this is acceptable but compare contrast to my road trip flying just SUCKED.
the people at the gate were — i thought — considering what an impossible situation it was, pretty great. they handled a lot of very irate New Yorkers very well. though i still say flying has become the most uncomfortable form of travel in the US that we have today.
my sistere is so organized! i’m a calendar item!
we were talking about the upcoming fud for thanksgiving. i’m already in seventh heaven!
one of my nieces drew this. what a talented girl….
random
saw this picture on twitter and thought is was just so beautiful. my sister is going to play with her quartet this week. can’t wait.
although i’ve been home for a bit i didn’t blog the last bit of my roadtrip. so i wanted to do that now.
and i’m going on a little trip this week to denver for thanksgiving with the family so i will probably do at least one blog of that trip.
so in the meantime, when i should be moving yet more furniture around and sorting my laundry, packing, and doing dishes / cleaning the hovel chez moi, i thought i’d finish blogging my last trip. i mean, what better time than now?!? all that stuff can wait. right? ha!
pittsburgh to new jersey to points beyond
the music of this last part i remember being the soothing continued sounds of the new Sun Kil Moon record, which is fabulous.
something comforting and just 100% suited to the end of my trip about this record.
Mark Kozelek really outdid himself. is it the strings? something warmer about the production, more melody? from the outside you’d never think that he has been nothing but consistent in releasing music that is very similar — really great but often more than a lot just samey. but for some reason this record stands out to me in how strong it is, how personal it is, how melodic it is, especially compared to other releases i’ve bought of his recently. yes, he’s one of those auto-purchase artists i’m a long-time fan of. the list is not long but it is deep. oy.
kings restaurant in pennsylvania
in trying to reconstruct the last few days of my trip, the photos were shamefully sparse. i think once i got to ohio the driving became more pressurized — i wasn’t in ohio or pennsylvania to see stuff really, but was really more focused on getting home.
once i left Columbus, Ohio and continued on I-70 towards Pennsylvania the driving got increasingly difficult. you can’t really tell it from the maps but eastern Ohio is freaking hilly as shit, and i don’t really enjoy the feeling of driving on the top of what i consider to be super high hills where there seems to be huge drop offs to the left and right, with not a lot of places to stop to rest. i actually don’t remember many rest stops (if any), or i know i would have stopped at them and chilled out a bit.
my northern route through Ohio and Pennsylvania was an effort to avoid areas that i knew had bad weather from Storm Sandy. i didn’t want to go through West Virginia because they got at least a foot of snow in many areas. and i didn’t want to go through Virginia up through New Jersey (the route i came when i started my trip) because i know that the Jersey shore was hit pretty hard. so i was staying north.
i was a bit shocked that when you go across on I-70 from Ohio to Pennsylvania there’s a little bit of West Virginia up there that you have to drive through. Wheeling, West Virginia. hilly as shit? check. grim dark stormy weather? check. freaking tunnel and bridge in an area known for traffic accidents? heck yeah! check.
i remember that i was driving a long day driving into Pittsburgh to see the wonderful Ian. it was dark and as anyone who has been to western Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh knows, that is some seriously hilly country. i will say this over and over again but my maps app on my iPhone 5 — as disparaged as it has been in the press with this new phone release — saved me. i was white-knuckling it getting to Ian’s house in Pittsburgh, exhausted from the hills, the drive, the dark, stressed to get home. and the map app got me there. i loved the iPhone 5 map turn by turn navigation. i would not have been able to drive my trip the way i did as easily as i did. so thankful and grateful to have this tool.
after leaving Pittsburgh i stopped a lot more. i was really tired, an accumulated tiredness that i just couldn’t shake. i had a snack at a King’s Restaurant in Somerset, PA. Frownie indeed (see below). a very very depressing stop. probably one of the more dicey areas i visited. was pretty glad to leave.
King’s Restaurant (Somerset, PA)
i really hope this is not the same chain as the King’s Restaurant in Omaha on Leavenworth i grew up with. Don & Millie’s (owned by Bob Kerrey i think) on Farnam Street in Omaha continues to make the amazing Cheese Frenchee sandwich of my childhood. hope this is a totally different chain.
Cheese Frenchee (Don & Millie’s in Omaha, NE). yum.
Pennsylvania Turnpike – expensive and grim
and then once you get to Pennsylvania i was on the Pennsylvania Turnpike with all these tolls and weird tunnels and stuff. not enjoyable driving at all – winding mountainous roads with what seemed to be crazy drivers who pass much closer than they did in the south and would tailgate and/or not move into the passing lane.
i think after the warm family feeling of visiting Ian in Pittsburgh, then leaving that to face the unknown of what i was returning to — my hurt New York City post-Sandy — and the very daunting future of life post-Credit Suisse, i was a lot more stressed out and just worried. i really wanted to get home, make sure i had groceries and supplies if there was no power or utilities in my apartment, and get back to the reality of my life i had been able to sort of suspend with this vacation / roadtrip.
another stop in penna
so i stopped after only about 6 hours of driving. again having a hard time staying awake and just feeling exhausted. though the hills sort of stopped feeling quite so hellacious east of Pittsburgh. or maybe i just got inured to the hills hills hills and driving high speeds on said hills.
i stopped in Carlisle, Pennsylvania to sleep and got grub at the surprisingly solid Middlesex Diner.
Middlesex Diner (Carlisle, PA)
it wasn’t the fanciest food of my trip but it was a solid diner and the prices were reasonable for the food i got. i remember a grilled cheese sandwich and coke (comfort food combo extraordinaire). and a salad with chicken. i was hungry, tired, and stressed. i think i ate dinner and just passed out.
Funck’s, blessed Funck’s
secretaries always have that sign that says something like: “Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine” and it really describes my journey from this point on. i wasn’t very prepared for this part of my journey.
i also was sad the roadtrip was ending.
one last gasp stop — at the amazing and wonderful Funck’s Restaurant in Annville, PA.
i really hadn’t driven that far. but i was stalling. and was concerned how bad New Jersey was going to be. so i stopped.
am i glad i stopped. the place is odd. a lot of stone work inside and out. and it feels like it has been there forever. serves a lot of regulars and a lot of military personnel i think. but the food — and the service — was amazing. i think it was the best wait service i’ve ever had in my life, actually. not to overstate it or anything but i needed comfort and sustenance and this hit the sweet spot 100%.
Chicken Corn Rivel Soup, Funck’s Restaurant
i had no freaking idea what the Rivel was. it’s like a Pennsylvania Dutch dumpling. so good. and it was a cold dreary day. just really what i needed.
Fish Sandwich, Funck’s Restuarant
after all the pork and meat of the south, i wanted a hot sandwich but wasn’t really up for a burger. so i asked the waitress and she recommended the Fish Sandwich, which she said was “a nice pice of fish.” Tilapia. she wasn’t kidding — i’m not a huge fish fan but this was really good. it was hot, light, and just every bite delicious.it usually comes with fries but she let me have the soup instead.
and i wanted dessert — yeah stalling — so when we talked about that she did something amazing. she gave me a sample to try of the pumpkin pie. it was delicious. and so smart. i don’t know why restaurants don’t do that more. i totally got the pie because of that. ate it on the road and it was divine.
so if you are in this part of Pennsylvania this is a solid, good place to stop. i enjoyed this last bit of my roadtrip.
onward New Jersey
had the bright idea to try and stop at a Whole Foods outside the storm radius in New Jersey. or so i thought. planned to stop for groceries and gas in Milburn-Union / Vauxhall, NJ, though the signs when i got there said Marlborough, NJ.
rude shock. traffic lights not working. gas stations had tape roping them off because they were all closed. and although i called earlier to make sure they were open, i should have pushed more when the woman i spoke with said they were open until 6 pm. they were open until 6 pm because they were running on generator power!
so i was able to stop and get groceries but it was pretty freaky. a bit apocalyptic even. Whole Foods had food, luckily, but it was very weird — half lit cases and some of the aisles were pretty cleared out. i was able to get what i wanted / needed no problem, but still needed gas.
i knew it was going to be a problem as i started tracing my steps back on I-78 and saw signs for no gas. or the weird odd-even license plate thing (which i had no idea about). there was a TravelCenters of America sign a while back i had seen, so eventually i ended up calling them to see if they had gas. they did but i could only get $40. which was fine / enough. thankfully. so i drove back 45 miles, which seemed to take a good hour. got the gas from the TCA, and headed home. all very surreal.
bye bye rental
drove into my hurt New York City, saw my UPS guy delivering packages (hi Frank!) and so knew all was pretty much okay in the world. dropped off all my crap and groceries, had a few semi-asthma attacks getting it up into my apartment (my poor neighbors in my brownstone is all i can say about that). then off to LaGuardia Enterprise rental to return the car.
car rental (apologies for the blurry pic — was freezing)
this is a pic of my car. it was a Buick and had a weird model name. but was a great little car. got good gas mileage i think. was 4 clicks up in terms of model type. and the woman who gave it to me initially did me a solid, as it only had about 3,000 miles on it — was basically a brand new car. great car rental experience.
mileage counter on my trip: 3,324 miles
so i took a quick snap of the mileage (sorry these are such bad pictures i was freezing and a little exhausted / stressed to be back). i drove 3,324 miles in 2 weeks. essentially New York City to New Orleans and back.
took the M60 bus home — who knew?!?
to chez hovel moi. yeah there was power, just no one home.
chez hovel moi
Denver
so tomorrow i go to Denver for a few days to see the fam. first time going to my sister’s house — she’s lived in Aurora for a long time and i’m a bit embarrassed / ashamed of that fact.
believe it or not, i don’t travel much. and don’t really like traveling. it might be due to the fact that when i was young we took the bus every weekend for 10 years (from 1971 to 1981, when i was around 4 years old to about 13 years old) to see my dad in Omaha. the Lincoln to Omaha trip every weekend was not something i had a lot of choice about and while it was semi-defining as a development of my life — and is pretty representative of my childhood — i think i’m just not innately a traveler.
crabby traveler
so i was born on July 21. at night. it’s the cusp of the Cancer sign, astrologically. my chart is sort of whack.
my very unbalanced astrological chart
astrological charts aren’t usually so concentrated in one area — but mine is all sort of in the bottom right section. which explains a lot about me i think. and as i get older i sort of accept and know this about myself. there’s also something about a deep connection to the mother and if the mother isn’t present basically i’m screwed (uh oh) but i won’t dwell on that now.
l’argent de poche (Small Change) by Francois Truffaut
it sort of explains why i’m as odd as i am, i think. the 1970s were pretty crazy.
oh 1970s filmmaking
anyway, i’m a weird Cancer / crab and just don’t innately like to travel. so prepping for trips and forcing myself (which i typically have to do) to travel is a bit of an ordeal. and tomorrow i go away for a few nights. to the boozum of my family, as it were. big pluses are having all four of my awesome nieces in one place. so i’m looking forward to catching up with them, and seeing a bit of Colorado.
there are rumors of shrimp scampi (my bro-in-law Chuck is a great cook), if time allows. and my sister is an amazing cook, remembers a lot of our childhood recipes. our mom was a truly gifted cook and many of the recipes of my childhood haunt me / have given me a pretty high baseline of what i consider good food. so Claud may be able to make some of them.
so i may post a few posts of that trip here. not sure if i will continue this blog or let it sit and be my roadtrip blog. sort of a shame to let it go but i’ll see how it feels.
so i had the chance to spend the night with a good family friend from Lincoln — another treat of this trip. Ian lives on this crazy steep hill / cliffside. i have loved Pittsburgh so much, ever since a summer program i did at Carnegie-Mellon University during high school. it’s what got me on the path to going to Michigan, in a weird but very roundabout way, which leads me to where i am today.
plus it’s so freaking green and pretty. i just love that about Pittsburgh.
Ian and Katy have a nice backyard. i loved this sculpture. Katy is an artist so there’s a lot of cool stuff all over their house.
cool sculpture at Ian and Katy’s house in Pittsburgh
hot ginge alert!
we stayed up late (late for me now is past midnight!) to see the without parallel brilliance that is Louis CK on Saturday Night Live. let’s just say that Louis did a GREAT job, i laughed more than i’ve laughed at SNL in a long long time, and actually watched every skit. the music (Fun) was painful, as usual. yuck. but Louis was great…..
Louis CK on Saturday Night Live, November 3, 2012
there was a great spoof of his TV show. i’m already over this dumb Abraham Lincoln craze (?). Spielberg yet again over-scores his films and makes me want to take a nap. he may be a proficient but he drives. every. point. home. so deliberately it just telegraphs everything as it happens. yucky filmmaking.
anyway…. Louis at Abe. read something about how when they were filming this the village was still without power / completely dark. which freaked him out a lot. because the village is not supposed to be like that.
Louis CK as Lincoln on SNL
this was a gross but awesome bit. the myth of the last people left at the bar hooking up. which seems like a rule or something.
slurp!
this was pretty on point, given the election and everyone being so afraid to admit it’s a lot about race.
“but i don’t have any black friends…”
dawg
this was how Indian, the dog, likes to sit. i fell in love with him. he’s not really a dog. he’s more of a person. 100%.
dawg named Indian (he likes to hide)
fud for brunch
this morning (Sunday) we had a great brunch. i whipped out the addictive okra chips from Mississippi. this is a better picture than i’ve gotten previously.
a better picture of the okra chips
these come from Katy’s garden. such interesting shapes. since Katy is very much from the south it was great to have southern-influenced food as my last gasp of this trip. i’m going to miss all of this stuff i’ve been experiencing — the food, the people, the landscapes. just all of it….
green tomatoes from Katy’s garden
these were dipped in yoghurt and egg and then rolled in falafel mix. very light healthy.
fried green tomatoes (baked once)
this batch was double baked i think, so they were more crunchy. they were yummy!
fried green tomatoes (well, baked)
and this is a blurry (sorry) picture of how Katy was making hers. it looked so good….
fried green tomatoes with cream cheese and a little bit of Sriracha
fell in love with Indian. he let me pet him and i was in heaven.
Indian
in the backyard “harvesting” the green tomatoes. apparently they have a hedgehog problem so not a lot of crops from the garden survive.
picking the tomatoes
music
music has been the new Mark Kozelek / Sun Kil Moon, which for two days now i can’t seem to quit. i got the deluxe version and haven’t had the chance to sample the bonus tracks. this is a long, delicious sip of gorgeous storytelling and soothing melodic riffs. i think it’s my fall discovery. highly highly recommend.
to continue the underlying theme of suicide that has unwaveringly threaded itself through this journey, my favorite track is this one:
“Elaine” is also wonderful — once it hits the 2 minute mark there’s a riff that played loud is beyond sublime….
next steps
i was literally falling asleep from accumulated exhaustion driving through these somewhat traumatizing winding highways of Penna so i decided to err on the side of safety and get a hotel for the last night. and make the final attempt tomorrow.
am going to try (if i’m not too stressed and can figure it out) to bring in a donation to either Staten Island or Brooklyn or Queens. i also need to make sure to bring in some groceries as i have no idea what that situation is going to be like in the city, if the trucks can’t get in because gas is so hard to come by.
Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic 