Yesterday marked the ten year anniversary of my move to Texas so I thought I’d celebrate by doing an All-Texan revue. It’s Tuesday so let’s fine out what Miss Plumcake is…
Reading: O. Henry’s Short Stories
Hearing: Lyle Lovett’s Natural Forces
Watching:Giant
Smelling: Tauer Lonestar Memories. Swiss perfumer Andy Tauer isn’t Texan, but we might make him an honorary one after this. Lonestar Memories is a BIG scent –I have to put a teensy drop behind my knees the night before I want to wear it– but its bone-dry combination of wood smoke, brush fire and open skies make it a smart, untamed scent for men or women.
Loving: The Lance Armstrong Foundation I can’t say I just love Lance Armstrong as a person and I think those yellow rubber bands are dopey, but the LAF does great work, especially with providing support for young men like my brother who are testicular cancer survivors. He (Lance not my brother) made a surprise visit on stage last night with Lyle Lovett. To his credit he didn’t try to sing.
Hating: Well, I mean, really.
Wanting: Big obnoxious custom cowboy boots. Texans never mind a bit of vulgarity it’s “a nice splash of paprika” as Diana Vreeland would say. I own one pair of Western boots and they’re the most unassuming things on the planet, just regulation-issued brown ropers with a low heel and almond toe. They’re dead useful without being showy but secretly I yearn for a pair of enormously over-the-top boots inlaid with all sorts of craziness. You can drop a good $4000 on custom boots, and they’re truly works of art, but I’d settle for these at a mere $1800.
Buying: Bluebonnet seeds
So what’s shaking in YOUR state today?
May I be so bold as to add a category or two? I have been in exile for a while but boy do I miss Texas.
Eating:
Kolaches from the Bon Ton Bakery on 290 and from the Czech Stop in West
Goode Company BBQ
Chueys
Dos Pesos/whatever it is called now and their flour tortillas
Real Dr Pepper from Dublin
That Mexican place on the Riverwalk
Dancing:
Broken Spoke
SPJST Hall
Gruene Hall
Wurstfest
As far as what I am doing in Milwaukee:
Eating:
Cheese curds
Venison summer sausage and brats (my uncle is a fourth-generation sausage maker how lucky am I?)
Pretzel rolls
Fish fry
Reading (waiting for at the library) The Abortionist, written by a guy in my neighborhood
Visiting the Wisconsin Historical Society Museum, where we saw the Oldest Piece of Toast in Wisconsin and really, after that, what is there to say except I am so grateful it hasn’t snowed yet?
Comment by class factotum — November 24, 2009 @ 3:11 pm
Excellent additions! I always bring a ton of kolaches from the Czech Stop whenever I stop in West, and as soon as people see the big paper bag they start to hover like vultures.
Of course the best barbecue to be found is in Lockhart, it’s like roasted baby angel meat. mmmm.
Comment by Plumcake — November 24, 2009 @ 3:17 pm
Ah, kolaches from West. Sheer greasy poetry.
I am that rarest of beings, a liberal in Texas. I envy your living in Austin, where people are fairly sane. It gets a bit lonely up here in Ft. Worth.
Comment by mdegraffen — November 24, 2009 @ 3:58 pm
Yeah, Cowtown is not known as a bastion of modern thought. Nice art museum though. I think part of the reason I’m such a Texas jingoist is that I live in Austin where pretty much everyone is hip and groovy and bedeck their cars with about a million bumper stickers promoting Important Social Issues.
Comment by Plumcake — November 24, 2009 @ 4:13 pm
I was trying to think of that BBQ place — is it Schultz’s? Too many years since I had to leave in search of employment. My husband says he will move to Texas when they legalize gay marriage and I point out that not only does Wisconsin ban gay marriage but Wisconsin also has 1) a state income tax and 2) snow.
Comment by class factotum — November 24, 2009 @ 4:24 pm
Lots of good things in my life right now:
Listening: Florence and the Machine (saw her at a party recently, and she was so well dressed, and so friendly), Camille, and Prince circa Dirty Mind.
Reading: Collections of Nothing by William Davies King, which is sublime. I just finished Tove Jansson’s The True Deceiver, if you only know the Moomins check out her wonderful novels, such chilly delights.
Wearing: Cashmere cardigan, boyfriend length, hot pink, say no more. Except to add my new necklace from pointyobjects on Etsy.
Loving: finally getting the ovaries to ask my boss for extra time off next year (unpaid) to do some necessary travel, and it being cool. Lesson learned: stop avoiding conflict when there is none to avoid.
Hating: That I am so close to finishing NaNo – but so far!
Comment by Margo — November 24, 2009 @ 4:44 pm
To add – Plumcake, I am so happy that your brother is better.
Comment by Margo — November 24, 2009 @ 5:16 pm
Wearing: a jacket. In Austin. Sweet! Also, my new haircut WITH BANGS.
Listening: Avett Brothers.
Watching: The last two nights of November sweeps, thank God.
Smelling: Kettle corn. mmmm.
Wanting: A closetful of full, full skirts.
Comment by Sarah — November 24, 2009 @ 6:40 pm
Well, my state actually WAS shaking last night!! We had earthquakes.
I’m having A Day. My kitty is being rotten and arguing with me over the keyboard (I keep telling her if she doesn’t Knock It OFF I’m going to give her to Cruella De Plumcake for wardrobing purposes. I really need her to stop it, as I really want to finish off coding data by tonight so I can send it to my colleague. I am tired and I don’t want to work and there’s a huge proposal to do and it’s due like 12 seconds from now and argghh.
I am listening to They Might Be Giants and I am smelling some of my husband’s Diesel cologne, which is nice. I am wanting these (http://www.zappos.com/n/p/p/7573961/c/1394.html) in a bad way. Tell me there are ugly and too young for me and that they would hurt my feet.
Comment by Lisa — November 24, 2009 @ 7:13 pm
Lisa, I am a shoe haterrrr, but those are gorgeous, and would look great on you. Better on you than anyone else, I have to say.
Comment by Margo — November 24, 2009 @ 7:26 pm
Lisa, I think you THINK you want them, but you secretly find the metallic snake/dot print dissatisfying because in person they’ll read more ’70s In a Bad Way than ’30s In a Good Way.
Comment by Plumcake — November 25, 2009 @ 1:09 am
Well, I think you THINK you want them, but you’re in a state of disquiet because Zappo’s describes the shoes as “spectacular hels”. Lord knows that would shake me a bit, too.
Proofreaders should be worth their weight in gold and be far less rare.
Comment by chachaheels — November 25, 2009 @ 8:22 am
Chachaheels, not to mention that any copywriter who does not run her prose through spellcheck should be fired.
Comment by class factotum — November 25, 2009 @ 9:48 am
Reading: Luxe, or How Luxury Lost its Luster…luxury goods companies existed for years by providing the best, most exclusive product and have shifted that focus, pretty recently, essentially to profit alone. Also learned that the Empress Josephine spent HALF of the $15 million France got from the Louisiana Purchase on clothes in ten years. And that’s in 1803 dollars, not 2009 dollars.
Hearing: Django Reinhardt. But itching to pull out my Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas CD soon.
Watching: The Graduate. Giant new TV in living room has the most incredible crystalline picture — I’ve never seen anything like it and I don’t even CARE about stuff like that. Also the sets and clothes in the movie are so amazing and that little Dustin Hoffman is cute as a bug.
Smelling: Cabotine by Gres. So clean smelling.
Loving: My sweet little boy and my precocious girl
Wanting: This year to be over. It’s been tough all around on everyone although I consider myself extremely fortunate, considering. Besides, everyone knows 2010 is the future and we’ll all get to start wearing shiny silver jumpsuits and taking a jet-pack to work soon.
Comment by missm — November 25, 2009 @ 12:46 pm
Lyle Lovett. I’ve seen him live every year for something like 9 years running. I’ve been listening to the new album all month. :) The man has a true, real, amazing talent. (A candidate for the hotness??? I might as well also nominate Francine Reed for the fierceness!)
I was never a really die-hard country fan (with a few notable exceptions). I am always trying to explain to people that Lyle is so, so much more than a 10-gallon hat and, uh, unusual looks. I’m trying to pick a Lyle song to play at my wedding.
Seriously, if anyone hasn’t given him the time of day because “you don’t like country,” please reconsider. It’s not too late. What would you be if you didn’t even try? You have to try. ;)
Comment by Casey — November 25, 2009 @ 8:14 pm
Couldn’t have said it better myself, Casey, and yes he’s already in the works for the Hotness.
Comment by Plumcake — November 26, 2009 @ 1:55 am
I am not a concert person, but I have seen Lyle and he is on the very short list of concerts I would go to again. He (and the Large Band) was amazing!
Casey – as for the wedding, there is always “She’s no Lady -She’s my Wife” :) – I think that was played at some point at my reception 17 years ago!
Comment by Anne — November 26, 2009 @ 2:08 pm
I had an adjunct professor in law school who looked just like Lyle Lovett, only with small black hair.
It was really uncanny. I had a hard time not staring at him in class, but then, I was supposed to be paying attention to him, so I could cover.
Comment by zuzu — November 27, 2009 @ 1:12 pm
You made the perfume sound so interesting that I went to Tauer’s website. There I found that he will mail you samples of 8 of his perfumes for about 23$, shipping free. So I got them.
They are superb. They are magnificent. They are as close to perfect as anything in this mundane world can come. They make me babble incoherently. Check them out.
Plumcake, thank you.
–s.
Comment by Starlady — December 8, 2009 @ 10:46 am