Yesterday my friend asked if I wanted to go out for lunch and, upon picking me up at 2:00 pm, suggested Mexican food and margaritas. That sounded great to me. I still had some school work to finish up, but I figured, eh, I'll be home by five...six at the latest.
Little did I know that lunch and a margarita (mojito for her) would turn into a sangria, or two, or three...
Let me back up here. Lunch? Cantina Laredo. (201 W 3rd St.) Food? Excellent. We shared a guacamole appetizer - made table side and probably the best guacamole I've ever had. Then I ordered a plain old frozen margarita and a cup (actually a bowl) of chicken tortilla soup. Now I've had a lot of chicken tortilla soup in my time - it's one of my favorite foods - but this tortilla soup was absolute perfection. The presentation was nice as well: the waitress brought out a bowl with a layer of baked tortilla strips and avocado slices on top, then poured the soup and shredded chicken - a GOOD amount of chicken - over it. While it was missing out on some veggies, which I usually like in my tortilla soup (like at Azul Tequila and Escalante's - both of these have great soups also) it was still the best tortilla soup I've ever had. I definitely recommend it. Margarita? Ok. Not the best, but not bad.
So the friend I was with is a waitress at Maria Maria downtown (415 Colorado St.). Since we were already down there (and since she informed me that it was Sangria Sunday at Maria Maria - half price Sangria: $3.75) we decided to go. Well, the sangrias were fabulous, and I'm not just saying that because they were half price. In fact, they were so good that we had more than we'd planned and spent about three hours there, convincing some friends to come join us.
So the next time you feel like drinking on a Sunday, go get yourself a sangria. (And try the food too! I ate there once before, and it was pretty tastey from what I remember. They also have good guacamole too - seafood guacamole with crab meat and shrimp...Mmmm!)
Today I finally gave in and bought a new DVD player after the one I've had for three or four years decided to believe that no DVDs exist a couple days ago. (It's actually been acting up for about half a year now - sometimes it thinks there's no disc, sometimes it thinks it's open and stops in the middle of a movie - but I will keep anything for as long as I can until there's absolutely no way I can use it.) And I got it just in time for Netflix day.
I've been re-watching Gilmore Girls, disc-by-disc, for the past few months through Netflix (after spending the months before that re-watching One Tree Hill), and I'm in the final season with one more disc to go after this time. What ever will I do with my free time after that...Oh, right, there's that whole school/work thing - what free time?
Some people may think "Gilmore Girls? You mean, that WB chick show that aired with all the other primetime teen soap operas?" Call it what you will, but how many CW shows do you see today that are about a successful single mother - who owns and runs an inn despite having been pregnant and on her own at sixteen - and her above 4.0 average daughter - who would rather read than get wasted, ended up at Yale and, eventually, writing for some newspaper that I won't remember the name of until I watch that last disc. Unlike today's "teen" shows, which focus on rich kids' social and sex lives, Gilmore Girls was brilliantly witty, smart, and as much for adults as it was for teens.
The show follows the lives of sarcastic, "cool" mom Lorelai Gilmore and her daughter, sweet, booksmart, big-blue-eyed, Rory (short for Lorelai) Gilmore in their adorable small town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. Lorelai goes from running an inn to buying her own while trying to find "the one," while Rory goes from small town public school to expensive and competitive private school (paid for by Lorelai's estranged parents who force themselves back into her life by making her return the favor with "friday night dinners") to Yale.
The show is full of "coffee coffee coffee" (as Lorelai would say), witty and sarcastic remarks, and a plethora of pop culture references (my favorite: "Hey, did anyone ever think that maybe Sylvia Plath wasn't crazy, she was just cold?" as said by Lorelai while she and Rory are huddled by their open stove for warmth while waiting for Luke - of Luke's Diner, and secretly in love with Lorelai - to fix their broken window.)
So, say what you want about Gilmore Girls, but having been a bookworm, alcohol free, almost straight-A teenager, it was nice watching a show with a character my age that I could actually relate to. And now it's both fitting and interesting (and scary, at times) to have gotten to the final season during my "Gilmore Girls through Netflix" phase as Rory prepares for and freaks out about the real world as she finishes up her last year of college - just like me!
The Sounds @ La Zona Rosa - 10.9.09 (www.lazonarosa.com)
Yours truly will be there, making the four year dream of seeing her favorite band live come true.
Some quick info on The Sounds: Swedish band; three albums - "Crossing the Rubicon" (newest), "Dying to Say This to You", and "Living in America"; a little bit of rock, electronic, pop, and New Wave. Think Paramore...but good, and not as mainstream.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Due to lack of inspiration and creativity - and feeling the excitement of only having to wait a month rather than a whole year for the next season of So You Think You Can Dance (Premiere: September 9) - just a few videos today: Some of my favorite dances from season five.
Also, because I never got around to blogging my feelings about the results of season five (about a month late, I know), congratulations to Jeanine! About half way through the season, I was betting on her, and she definitely deserved it.
This season was tough because I could never tell if they were all so equally good (the best dancers yet, according to the judges - not quite sure about that), it was hard to tell who were the best...or if they were all average, equally average. However, I think this was the first season where the show truly became a learning experience. The judges always talk about how that's what being on this show is - a chance for the dancers to learn and grow. This has always been true, but I got the feeling the judges really wanted to emphasize that this year by throwing a few average dancers in there (Example: Kupono) over some of the other better dancers up for Top 20.
Jeanine winning proved this. She was always great from the beginning, but I don't think she was always the best. The first half of the season, I thought Kayla (the judges favorite through most of the season) would win.
(As much as I love Jeanine and her and Jason's contemporary dance - first video - I think Kayla and Kupono's "addiction" dance - above - was my favorite of the season.)
But despite having high hopes for Kayla, I think Jeanine definitely grew the most through out the show. She was able to take on more and more genres (perfecting all of them) as the show went on...even though Kayla could do anything thrown at her as well.
While I'd like to go more into depth about the season, as I said, it's been over for awhile now so I've already talked the ears off all my friends who are SYTYCD fans, as well as mine.
But I will say, Broadway dancer Evan, should NOT have been in the top four. Jason (first and third video) deserved that spot, for sure. And if not him, Ade. While I think Evan has a great personality, and while I find him adorable as well as a good dancer, he never progressed through out the show...which is kind of a big deal. That's the only thing that really frustrated me this season. I think viewers kept voting for him because they felt bad for him because the judges' comments were usually negative. Hello! It's because he wasn't growing as a dancer like everyone else. (This is why I don't watch reality talent shows, in which America votes for the winner: at some point there's too much emphasis on popularity and not enough on talent; it should be an equal of emphasis. But, I still watch this one because I love dance; that is, watching dance.
Ok, one more. My favorite dance in SYTYCD history ( from season two). This particular video is actually a season five performance. Old cast members came back during the 100th episodes to perform some of the shows best/award nominated dances again. The "Ramalama" dance, as they call it, was one of them. It was choreographed by Wade Robson, who danced in the routine himself this time around.
Can't wait to start commenting on the next season! Two weeks!
I'm interning for Freshman Studies this semester (translation: I TA for a freshman writing class and sit in on the lecture it's paired with - Literature & Philosophy to be exact) and thought I'd share how the professor opened the lecture today:
Not sure what the literary/philosophic meaning was behind it - he didn't say (pretty sure it was just for kicks), but it was a humorous start to the day. Kind of makes doing drugs while driving look...fun (some of them, at least)? I smell a controversy.
St. Edward's University offers a variety of entertainment throughout the year: Student Life events/activites; Hillfest, featuring a band and carnival-like actvities; musicals/plays put on by the theater department; sports; Omni performances; recitals (I myself have played in four piano recitals during my time at St. Ed's); and, most recently, a 2-3 day ACL-like music festival featuring the musical talent of our fellow students.
I could probably go on.
But in my three years here, I've noticed a different kind of entertainment streaming through and "performing" on the sidewalks and lawns of campus.
Every year, there seems to be a student or two using their down time to - sometimes unintentionally, I'm sure - "entertain" students who are walking to class or relaxing outside during their breaks.
I thought about this on the first day of the semester as a couple of acquaintances and I were watching a student create a tightrope between two trees on the Ragsdale lawn. We'll call him "the tightrope guy."
And so we watched "the tightrope guy's" less than acrobatic attempt to conquer the tightrope. He certainly got off to a rocky start, losing his balance before even taking a step. When that didn't work, he tried jumping and landing with both feet onto the tightrope...No, that didn't work either.
(Watching all of this, I was curious to know if he had practiced this before tightrope walking in public or if he thought maybe he'd just wing it...unless it was completely spontaneous, which would make happening to have a tightrope on hand kind of impressive - either that or raise some questions.)
After taking about ten minutes going back and forth between tightrope walking attempts and adjusting the rope around one of the trees, he conquered that tightrope, with about five steps (I suppose that's impressive for me, since I myself have taken zero steps across a tightrope...or even been near a tightrope for that matter.) He even gained a following - two students whom he gave a demonstration to before letting them give it a go (one being quite successful, the other holding her friend's hand and being so hesitant to take the first step that she stepped backwards, and I lost interest.)
But good for you, "tightrope guy" for sharing your unusual hobby with us! Perhaps the start of a tightrope club is in order.
One of my fellow "audience members" questioned if St. Ed's is secretly a clown college as he brought up another one of "the perhaps-unintentionally-keeps-us-entertained-with-their-unusual-hobbies guys," "the Samurai guy." Ok, not so sure if I remember ever seeing this guy, so I can't explain his "act," but I've heard of him, and he sounds self-explanatory.
Also mentioned as we were watching "the tightrope guy": "the unicycle guy," who unicycle-d past me a couple times today; the idea being to get the two together. I second that idea. (Club? "Tightroping for the advanced?")
Watching the tightrope guy also reminded me of last year's guy with an unusual hobby: "the juggling guy." And it wasn't the similar circus act that reminded me of him, but the realization that "the tightrope guy" is "the juggling guy." This leaves me curious as to what other tricks he might have in store for St. Ed's students during his time here (Or...is he secretly enrolled in some sort of acrobatic circus course?)
I think it's quite fitting that our campus has a bit of unusual "entertainment" going on (almost on a daily basis) as we are located in South Austin, which is known for its weirdness. And it's nice to know that if you're stuck on campus for whatever reason and can't roam the weird streets of Austin, the spontaneous entertainment and memorable characters will come to you.
