Huh…it’s been two weeks again, hasn’t it? Bother. I’ll be honest with you: While I’m thrilled that my new medication is working a treat, the fact that I’m no longer receiving regular steroid shots isn’t doing anything for my energy levels. Four years on steroids leaves one accustomed to the feeling, and going cold turkey has left me feeling a little blah. I have a bunch of stuff queued up for this space, but it’s just taking me longer than normal to get to it.
In the meantime, we’ve made yet another trip out to beautiful Marfa, Texas. This is pretty much a perfect time to go out to the desert: It’s warm without being oppressively hot and the nights are chilly without being cold. It helped that there happened to be a meteor shower, so I saw a handful of shooting stars and that’s something I’ll never get tired of.
We stayed with a few friends (Danielle, Lauren, and Stuart) and rented a house instead of the usual trailer lodging at El Cosmico. This afforded us a proper kitchen, which resulted in some gazpacho and nachos (not at the same time) and gave us somewhat better toilet facilities than we normally have.
I also brought my old MG-1 synth out there with a bunch of pedals, which Stuart took too like a fish in something fish like very much. It turns out I don’t know much about using a delay pedal and he made it make some noises I’ve never been able to find. Humbling, but a lot of fun to watch.
Anyway, that’s still our default getaway until it winds up being to people-y (and it will, sooner rather than later I think). We have some other destinations in mind, but I think our next one will be Terlingua, an hour or two south of Marfa.
As a side note, the drive is pretty brutal (7 1/2 hours-ish), so we broke it up by driving halfway Wednesday night and staying at a Motel 6 in Ozona. I cannot in good conscience recommend staying at the Motel 6 in Ozona. At $50 a night, it was no bargain at all. The less said about it the better. We would take Amtrak out there, as the train stops in Alpine (15 minutes from Marfa), but the only train going out there leaves San Antonio at 3:45 AM and that isn’t quite as convenient as the planners at Amtrak seem to think it would be.
One especially nice thing about the trip was getting to see Träd, Gräs och Stenar play at El Cosmico. They give the sense of having been around since the dawn of time (actually 1967m which is pretty much the same thing). I won’t try to describe the music beyond saying that it was ideal listening for sitting in a hammock at a trailer park in the middle of nowhere. For some reason, they remind me of King Crimson in that they seem to be ruled by an aesthetic of how they make their music as opposed to the traditional “we gotta write 10 songs and make a record” routine. I can’t really justify that impression, but that’s what I thought of. Really great sound-if you get the chance, make some time to see them.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see Khruangbin, who I really adore. I’m confident I’ll get a chance to do so again, but very much my loss in this time around.
And, then home again. Everything is suddenly hot and muggy which is the opposite of the desert. My skin has felt sticky every day since returning. To make up for it, Nicole (who is now “Coco” thanks to Jules, our waiter in Marfa) has been buying some marvelous ingredients and daring my not to screw them up. Last night, we had a handful of big scallops to grill along with artichokes, ramps (which are amazing, btw), and grilled focaccia, which we topped with goat cheese, roasted garlic, smallish, semi-hot peppers, and fiddlehead ferns. Fancy, right?
Tonight was just as good, but I’m too tired to list out the ingredients which I hope I treated as well as they deserved. I’m beat. Off to bed, and tomorrow is Friday which is coming too soon and not nearly soon enough at the same time. I figure most of you know what I’m talking about.
Goodnight,
-RK