Brotherly Love

After a lovely week that involved watching two Harry Potter movies a day, a night Latin dancing at Henrietta's, and a day at Six Flags Great Adventure the girls, Mi Cariño and I got on the road to Philadelphia. Like last year, there were Queer movies to enjoy, and good food to be had.
First stop, a repeat, with Cafe Estelle. This time I had the corn and black bean omelette. I forgot to take a picture of pancakes, but believe me, we had them this time too. They were as good as we remembered.

Afterwards we made our way through Old City in Philadelphia, taking it easy and seeing the Liberty Bell from the outside once more, Christ Church, Old Pubs, and just generally enjoying the very hot day. In the afternoon we saw "Jessie and Jamie are Not Together," which was this hybrid of a romantic comedy with musical numbers thrown in. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Parts of it were really funny, while other parts, not so much. The musical numbers? Unnecessary, all of them. None of the songs were catchy or were saying things that were truly advancing the story (since most feelings expressed through song were said outloud before hand anyway), plus, the actors weren't really good singers anyway. That just takes away from that kind of thing. However, there were tons of nice sex scenes, funny date scenes, and the ever present gratuitous sex between best friends that doesn't really get addressed at the end. I'd give it a 3 out of 5 - much better than the disaster we saw last year, but not quite "Kissing Jessica Stein/Saving Grace."

After we followed Cariño's brother recommendation to find some cheesesteaks. We decided for Pat's.

I had me one with onions, peppers and mushrooms, and cheese. It was extremely tasty, but I didn't go crazy for it. It WAS a far better choice than the steaks we had last year. 

After, the girls dropped us off at the hotel before they set on the road back to New York. Picture of my hotel key, which I thought very clever and cute.

Phila, or at least Old City Phila, is chock full of these informative blue plaques. This one is right outside City Hall, by our hotel, and I enjoyed having the knowledge. I took the picture on my way to the bus stop so that I could go to NY.

Monday morning, after arriving in NY at 9:30, I watered plans and changed clothes to then go to work so that I could travel to... Philadelphia. Don't ask me. My co-workers and I drove down and arrived in the afternoon in time to record an interview and then be sent to a cocktail party at this boat/restaurant.

Very cute. Once work was over, Mi Cariño and I went for dinner to Cuba Libre. Very expensive, appetizers not really needed kinda place. Which we didn't realize until after we had the aforementioned appetizers.

The bread was great, though! Not Cuban bread, but close enough, and toasted, which makes a difference. Plus, it came with an amazing Mango Butter.

I had me a Mango Mojito to relax a bit. Once I took out all the extra mint they put on them things, it was not bad at all.

Main entree: Vaca Frita

con arroz blanco y habichuelas negras.

For dessert, Mi Cariño had a coffee and shot of liquor with soy milk concoction whose name I don't remember. Tasty but I wouldn't have been able to drink that whole cup.

The bill came in a very cute cigars box.

Another blue plaque, this one on the way to the place where we recorded. I find it lovely and hilarious that a branch of the U.S.A. Military Services was born in a bar.

View of Philadelphia from the Suite I was working at. Plenty of Memorials in that part of town.

We returned to NY Wednesday night after having had a great time. I wouldn't mind making this trip an annual thing, it was a lot of fun, and the lovely thing is that Phila still has many other things to go see. (Next year the Rodin Museum, for sure.)

Pride

An actual weekend in New York City! No, let me rephrase that: an actual weekend in New York City with mi Cariño. It was also Pride Weekend; practically perfect.

We didn't "do" much. Kept busy Saturday Morning and early afternoon in the Upper West Side with messy burgers, singing-while-walking, smiling at twenty-somethings learning to ride a bike on Riverside Park, stories, ice cream, the agony of USA losing to Ghana, book stores, and more stories. We got our gay on down by Bryant Park, where we joined the Dyke March.

Afterward there was Broadway Heartbreak, movie laughs and pizza - pretty low key, but wouldn't change a thing. Sunday was just as good, just as hot, just not as sunny. First stop was Pridefest '10.



We caught a bit of The Red States performance. They were alright, although I wished they would've move about the stage a bit more - or stood in a more organized manner. I've always been an acappella fan - no instrument like the human voice! They looked like they were having fun.

Vanessa Valtre was MC'ing and was not funny at all. Luckily Menage A Twang got on the stage rather quickly. They were rather a great surprise, as I didn't know they'd be performing. Go Emily! Not just a talented writer and teacher, but also a pretty good singer. Their songs are really laugh out loud funny.



We couldn't listen to their entire set, though, since we had limited time at the 'Fest, and so we walked on to find some comida. Enter Empanada Mama.

Typos aside, their shredded chicken was delish. Empanada Mama is in the 50's on ninth and it's a good quick spot for some really tasty empanadas.  We kept on walking, making a beeline to what I consider a NYC Street Fair must have: Mozzarepas.

This Colombian piece of heaven is perfect for the eating and walking of a fair, and it's quite filling. But they will make you thirsty. And so, we walked to the next Fair must have: Sugar water with a hint of lemon. Also known during this day as "Lemonade."

Tastes just like the kind Fabi and I used to make as children. Perfecto!

After the Fair, a mad dash to Times Square, and some Gypsy Kings "Hay un amigo en mi" accion (Yea Toy Story 3!) Cariño, her good friend Mariah and I headed to Ninth for some nourishment. Wouldn't you know it, we chose Thai Food (Ha!). We stopped by one of the Yum Yums.

The meal began with a glass of lychee sangria and some Vegetable Tamarind Soup

which was followed by some Vegetable Dumplings

and in a surprise move, Tofu with Thai Basil Sauce with white steamed rice

Dessert was Red Bean Ice Cream, which I will not show you a picture of because I did not like at all. Yuck.

We walked off the meal by heading to Junior's for some promised Cheesecake before stopping by the craziness that is Toys R'Us.

No, I did not ride "La Estrella" (although I wanted to). I did get me a Parcheesi Board, and the night ended with me showing mi Cariño how to play; unfortunately she's a pretty quick learner, and she beat me. But I'm not worried, there's always next time.

The only shadow during this weekend was the passing of Love personified, Ms. Lillie of ATL. She was one of the best facilitators I've met, and just an all around awesome person. This is an extremely overused expression, but to have known Lillie was to love her indeed, and I will miss her sweet deep voice as she walked in the office, demanded a hug and would proclaim "We'll make a Southerner outta ya yet, wait and see." Listen to an excerpt of her SC Interview here.

Homework

Alright! I seem to have posted everything I needed to post for the last week or so. Sorry for the avalanche of updates. Just a reminder that tomorrow is the LGBTQ Center's Annual Garden Party! You should go!! The awesome Bedford Gourmet is one of the food participants.

Go get your ticket!!!
Later peeps. 

Austin Pride

Friday! Our last full day in Austin. Work was a DRAG, despite some very cool stories of activism and writers. But we got through it, packed up our equipment and headed to our hotel to drop it all off. There we met up with Ben before heading to North Austin for some Thai. Chow Down recommended Titaya's.

When we got there it was chock full. Our waiter was a trip, with what we decided was an exaggerated "work" accent that made everything she said come out in a sing song. In any case, appetizers: Spinach Dumplings. (Because one must always have dumplings when one can.)

BTW, those are bits of fried garlic on top of the dumplings, not peanuts. It made for an interesting and yummy change of flavor. One of these days I'll be able to go to a Thai restaurant and not order Tofu Pad Thai. This was not one of these days.

It was delicious - I cleaned that plate gladly. During dinner we entertained ourselves with World Cup chat. Ben and I disagreed over who sang the official World Cup song this year. For some reason I thought it was Daddy Yankee. Ben said it was Shakira. We bet ice cream. Matt spurred the bet on, knowing the answer full well as he was looking at his iPhone. I should've known better. If you must know, Shakira sings this years' official World Cup Song. Stoopid South Africans, choosing Shakira. We drove to Amy's Ice Creams. All three of us got scoops of Coffee Oreo. I paid for Ben's.

One lick of that and I didn't care one bit about losing the bet. It was fracking awesome. I didn't eat the napkin out of pure luck, cuz I sure ate everything else.

Dessert taken care of, the boys decided to meet up with their friends and head South. Luckily, the Long Center was near our hotel so I chose to stick around town and walk to listen to some music. Austin Pride is this weekend and one of the many activities was an outdoor concert.

Chick at the front was pretty friendly and kept calling me Ma'am, which I thought was funny. For 10 bucks I got to buy this general admission bracelet that if I had stayed around Austin for the weekend would've gotten me into several events.

It was all good. There was more space than Lesbians, and there were mostly lesbians, which I expected since three women were scheduled: Robin Smith, Tribella and Patrice Pike. DJ Chris Cox was scheduled at 11pm, but as you know by then all the lesbians will be beddy-bye and the boys will take over. There were a lot of them - just not enough to fill up the area. The VIP's got to sit at tables set out for them. The rest had to make do with lawn chairs and blankets. I used a blanket from my hotel. I feel kinda sorry for my cleaning lady.

Having missed the first two acts I waited for Patrice Pike, who was one of the grand Marshall's for the Austin Pride Parade on Saturday, but whose music I had never heard. She was scheduled to start at 10pm - but didn't. Her music was good but nothing to go crazy about to be honest. Frankly I was more interested in the dynamics going on around me: There were very few women of color present, which surprised me a bit because, hello, Austin TEXAS? I didn't stay for the whole show one because again, Patrice Pike: feh. Two: Not a very friendly bunch. While waiting for Patrice to show up I made the rounds and attempted to establish eye contact with several groups in an effort to introduce myself but it didn't fly. I guess that lesbians are lesbians, even in a town as friendly as Austin. Three: flying back to good old NYC way early in the a.m. y'all, where I got some lesbians that do want to meet me. I think. They might just be trying to act nice. But nice is good. I wish I could've stayed for more of Austin Pride's festivities, though - Saturday morning they had a Pet Parade going on. How cute is that?!