Random musings of Jeromey Balderrama
You may have seen this on the weekend’s highlight packages, but this is easily the funniest thing I’ve seen all day. Make sure to watch the video through the replay:
However, what made me laugh out loud here at work was the blog post on Shutdown Corner, offering a likely conversation between the Pigeon and the Raider. Definitely worth clicking through for a read.
After spending a few days in College Station and enjoying the company of family, we made the weekend trip out to Austin – where we originally flew into. We were excited to explore this storied college town that is known as one of the South’s greatest cities, and the live music capital of the US. This has turned out to be a fantastic city, one that we have really enjoyed.
We drove into Austin and made our first stop Mayfield Park. Mayfield Park was basically a garden/nature preserve that offered some small hiking trails through a forest. As we walked through I couldn’t help but be reminded of the Blair Witch Project. As we walked into the walled area of Mayfield and saw all of the peacocks and other large birds. We collected some great pictures of these beautiful creatures, as well as some night shots of us around the scenery.
As we were walking out, we spotted a huge one in the tree – which we noticed by the bird’s um. rainfall.
We headed out from Mayfield over to Mount Bonnell, which is a large hill that’s capped off by a series of stairs. It reminded me of Red Rocks in a way. When we got to the top we were treated of a nice view of the river overlooking the city. The houses nearby were large and extravagant. Coupled with driving up and down large hills, it almost had an “LA” feeling to it.
We drove into downtown and arrived at our hotel – the Hilton Garden Inn. The hotel had a nice 18th Floor Bar that had a really nice appetizer, with some really underrated appetizers. My sister aid that the queso dip was the best that she had ever had.
We headed out to downtown, starting our evening with dinner at Piranha Killer Sushi. This was a great middle-of-the-road sushi place, with reasonable prices, a great atmosphere, and good food that was presented well. If you’re in Downtown Austin, in the mood for Sushi, and aren’t looking to spend an arm & a leg – give them a try. We were pleasantly surprised.
Next up was the staple of our trip: seeing a band play in the live music capital of the US. We went to the storied Elephant Room, which is a place that has been a live music staple in Austin for quite a while. We caught a modern/experimental jazz band called “Blaze”, a quintet featuring drums, bass guitar, trumpet, bari sax and a turntable.
The experience we had at the Elephant Room, described in one word, would be “token”. As someone who appreciates and makes live music, it was spot on for what I was expecting and hoping for. The picture in my mind, was illustrated by everything in the Elephant Room: the fact that it’s in the basement and dark, making it an underground experience; the fact that it was classy, but yet a little dirty; they had a diverse and eclectic mix of beers; and the band that played was rooted in jazz, but doing something strange and new. As it turns out, the experience was exactly what I expected – not that it’s a bad thing.
What made the live music experience in Austin so compelling was the fact that the mystique of live music scene was enough to draw people out. As with each band performance, you have the friends and fans that come out to see the band – this is typical of what you see in a city like Denver. Unlike Denver though, the remainder of the room was filled with people knowing that they were going to see some live music that they may have never heard before, offering a great intimate musical experience. The fact that people seeking this experience filled the bar only added to the venue (and city’s) reputation for the great musical experience. In a circular way, the city’s success feeds on itself, creating an environment that leaves musicians in other cities very envious (and perhaps even a little jealous). It was really something to see.
Speaking of things to see, we departed the Elephant Room and made out way over to the famed 6th Street. Christina and Tony had been there a few weeks back and saw the street lined with various bars and clubs, and were eager to see what this place would look like on a weekend. What we saw on Saturday was unlike anything we were expecting. It turns out that 6th Street is closed on weekends to allow for the volume of pedestrian traffic. The people descend upon the street in a way that more resembles Bourbon Street in New Orleans, only with newer surroundings and a wider street. The whole scene was just chaotic. We ended up not going into any bars, and made our way back to our hotel room.
The next morning we woke up to join my cousin and her family for breakfast at the Kerbey Lane Cafe. They served these wonderful gingerbread and pumpkin pancakes, and we were treated to some great new tastes. We were also entertained by my second cousin, who will turn 2 in a few weeks.
Austin turned out to be a great city, definitely exceeding my expectations.
It’s day three down here in College Station, Texas, where were are visiting my sister (who is going to grad school down here) and her husband. We flew into Austin late Wednesday night and saw that even the airport has stages for live music! We’re heading up to Austin as I write this, so hopefully will have some pictures to post of the live music scene.
As soon as we stepped out of the airport, we were welcomed by that Texas humidity. It’s definitely not the pleasant Colorado fall weather out here. Thursday had temperatures spanning to the high 80’s, with the humidity approaching the same. I think we ended up bringing the cool weather with us though, as on Friday it cooled down to the 60’s with very low humidity. Today is the low 70’s with the humidity staying low, feeling like a pleasant late-summer day.
The last two days were filled with me working, but I did manage to break away in the evenings to enjoy some great restaurants Christina & Tony found. We had lunch at Madden’s, in the neighboring town of Bryan. They had the most amazing tomato bisque that was simply to die for! We also enjoyed lunch at “Freebirds” which is basically a variation of Chipotle. For those in Fort Collins: I’m not sure if it would rate the quality of Big City Burrito, but it was definitely a step up for Chipotle and maybe Qdoba. For dinner we went to FishDaddy’s Grill House, which had some excellent smoked ribs that were a great value. We’ve definitely ate well down here in Texas!
On Friday afternoon we went to the Messina Hof Winery and experienced a brief tour followed by an excellent tasting. if you’re a fan of sweet wines, this would be a great winery for you. They had a really good Port that went well with chocolate, as well as the Solera Sherry – which tasted like a cinnamon roll. At the vineyard there was this pond that was full of turtles. When we approached them, they all swam right over to us, thinking we were going to feed them. It made for a crazy picture:
The Vineyard also made for some pretty pictures as well:
Before we left College Station my sister gave us a tour of the Texas A&M campus. It’s a beautiful, spread out campus. One of the highlights was this tree that created it’s own arch over the sidewalk. They say that if you walk under the branches with the person you love, that you’ll be together forever. Bethany and I snapped a picture under this tree:
We then stopped off at the book store and snapped a picture in front of her new university:
Next up: Austin!
I’m writing this from the airport terminal as we’re waiting to board our flight to Austin. We’re heading out to College Station to visit my sister and her husband for a few days. I’ll be working from out there, but it’ll be nice to have the evenings and weekend to spend with my sister. We’re really excited to be heading out. I’ve been pretty good about keeping up with NaBloWriMo so far, keeping up a post a day. Thank you for taking the time to read my posts, as I hope it’s at least half as enjoyable as it has been to write these. I’ll hope to be able to share some great Texas pictures over the next few days and get a glimpse of what my sister and her husband’s life is like in Texas.
Well the week is nearly over, and while I have a bunch of random thoughts floating through my head, I’d figure I’d do a culmination of random thoughts in one big post. So without further ado, here are my thoughts going into the weekend.
First a Friday thought. I woke up this morning to find on Twitter that Barak Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize for doing. Maybe he got it for closing Guantanamo – oh wait, it’s still open. Well how about withdrawing from Iraq – oh wait, we haven’t done that either and are escalating things in Afghanistan (and don’t get me wrong, I think it’s important to fight on both of these fronts). Maybe it’s for getting the Olympi-oh wait. Ok, politics aside – can we all agree that the Nobel Peace Prize is simply the Norwegian way of promoting their politics? Obama joins the hallowed names of Jimmy Carter (for whining about Iraq) and Yasser Arafat (for going to a meeting).
My brother-in-law pointed me to a Time.com article about this that is pretty spot on, especially in the end:
"Compare this to Greg Mortenson, nominated for the prize by some members of Congress, who the bookies gave 20-to-1 odds of winning. Son of a missionary, a former army Medic and mountaineer, he has made it his mission to build schools for girls in places where opium dealers and tribal warlords kill people for trying. His Central Asia Institute has built more than 130 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan – a mission which has, along the way, inspired millions of people to view the protection and education of girls as a key to peace and prosperity and progress." [Time.com]
Again, so does this award have any less credibility to it? Hell, the Grammys are now more relevant.
Shifting to football: Historically people think throwback jerseys are cool, and I love the Broncos Orange uniforms (either from the late 60’s, or the ones from the 70’s to mid-90’s). This weekend the Broncos are going to prove that Throwbacks can be ugly. To celebrate their 50th anniversary, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the AFL, the Broncos are going to wear their "mustard & brown" striped-socks uniforms. Frank Schwab from the Colorado Springs Gazette captured the first look on his blog. If you notice Jabar Gaffney (#10), he twisted his striped socks to look like a barbershop pole.
To make matters worse, I think the refs are again going to be wearing their cream-sicle colored uniforms again. I think I’m going to avoid eating anything before the game, because all of these colors are going to make me sick.
Staying on the Broncos, I have to say I’m really nervous about the amount of press coverage Denver has gotten. I wasn’t complaining when Denver wasn’t getting any respect for their first three games, I was completely fine with them flying under the radar. I think under-rated teams thrive when they have the "nobody believes in us" attitude in the locker room. Now a week has passed, and the next thing you know everyone is talking about the Broncos and Daniel Graham is on the cover of Sports Illustrated. This is a little too much attention for my comfort level. The only thing we have going for us is the national media’s infatuation with Tom Brady and the Patriots, and still don’t give Denver a chance. Let’s hope the Broncos prove them wrong again. My guess is that we’ll win 2 of the next 4 games to be at a very healthy 6-2.
My Rockies Prediction this weekend is that at least one of the games will get postponed or canceled. It’s going to be a cold one this weekend, and far be it that baseball players face any kind of adversity when it comes to weather.
Lastly, I’m very pumped for Greenfoot’s first show for the fall. We ended up taking time off in the summer due to my wedding and Julien working in California for a few months. We’re really pumped to be playing a full night of music on Saturday night. We’ll be over at Signature’s Night Club, which is a place that is gaining some really positive reputation around Denver for being a great place for bands. If you’re in Denver and looking for something to do on Saturday night, come check us out!