El Paso: Afternoon Keys

Esparza brothers, Organ Symposium, El Paso, Texas. September 2016.

September 2016.

While I miss dearly the always-accessible joie de vivre of the zydeco, cajun, and creole music of South Louisiana, I'm learning the nature of El Paso's music scene.

There is a wide and deep river of classical music here.

Organ Symposium, El Paso, Texas. September 2016.

One example of this was the Organ Symposium I attended one Sunday afternoon at Western Hills United Methodist Church on El Paso's west side.

Organ Symposium, El Paso, Texas. September 2016.

The musicians included children and adults, and both an organ and a piano.

Below is Ryan Esparza playing a piece by Liszt:

And below a turn with Mendelssohn by John Esparza:

Here is an endearing story played out by a father and sleepy daughter while Dennis Margheim performs a work:

Allowing fine classical music to wash over one's spongy brain is a not-bad way to pass a Sunday afternoon.

Toronto: And More Organs

Sandy and I walked down (up?) University Street on our way to see Jane Bunnet and Hilario Duran at the boutique department store on Bloor. The walk felt interminable.

As we proceeded up the congested sidewalk, I saw a wavery mirage on the side of a large building.

At first it made no sense. It was immense. It was some sort of graphic. Vibrant color. Undefined shape.

Heart on University Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. June 2016.

Was it a huge photo that was actually inside the building and I was seeing it through a glass exterior? Or was it some sort of projection onto the side of the building? A reflection from another building that faced this one?

What was it? Gigantic, red, amorphous.

Finally, when we got close enough, I saw. A heart. Not a heart like a Valentine heart. Not a painterly rendition of a heart. An actual heart, as in ripped from a chest, heart. A real heart. Wha????

Heart on University Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. June 2016.

Toronto! What kind of place are you?

And then there was this, I swear to God, on the sidewalk within sight of the Godzilla heart:

Across from heart on University Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. June 2016.

Toronto?

Toronto: More Organs

Pig intestines. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. June 2016.

Mmmm, pig intestines.

It's funny how tourism works. Oh, right, excuse me: traveling.

We take pictures of things we find extraordinary, but which local folks find ordinary.

Like, ooh, pig intestines! Or toe-biters!

Nothing wrong with this, just human nature. Animal nature, in fact. We stare at or draw closer to that which is different and curious to us.

Toronto seems to like its organs. Like those brains.

And these uteri:

Uteri. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. June 2016.

I'm sure uteri must be tasty, but I don't know. Kind of primal, like a new mother eating the placenta of her newborn. Does a woman feel the same about eating a uterus as a man feels about eating a uterus? Maybe this question also applies to eating fried scrota.

Is there a different flavor between a uterus that has never carried a fetus versus one that has?

Below is an excerpt from a Village Voice article on pig uteri:

The reproductive organs are slippery and crunchy--again, not unlike overcooked squid. But, like beef penis, uterus doesn't have much flavor, except a whiff of very wet dog, and an aftertaste of musky, murky piggishness.

Pig tails. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. June 2016.

The above pig tails don't fall into the organ category, but I've got to put them somewhere. Consider them a lagniappe. Brings back memories of the Step 'n Strut Trail Ride in Plaisance, Louisiana, a few years ago, at which fried pig tails were available. I regret I didn't try them then.

Fried pig tails, Step n Strut, Plaisance, Louisiana. November 2014.

While we're reminiscing, and speaking of brains, I remember those sizzling brains in Kutaisi, in Caucasus Georgia, which Sandy and I visited together.

Brains, Kutaisi, Caucasus Georgia. March 2012.

Las Cruces, NM: A Thai-German Restaurant?

This is classic New Mexico: A Thai Restaurant that serves German food.

I had pad thai. My mother, visiting from Missouri, had the jaeger schnitzel.

Strictly speaking, Renoo Thai Restaurant is not in Las Cruces; it's in Organ, a village between Las Cruces and the Organ Mountains, hugging Highway 70. The restaurant is in a historic building that looks like a plain butterscotch box from the highway, but is quaint and charming on the entrance side.


Ve vill be back. อย่างแน่นอน