After a slow morning of coffee on the patio with mom and Larry, we all went out for breakfast at the Wy-Knot cafe on 7th st, in my old neighborhood north of downtown. Really good, rich French toast, and bacon. I have missed bacon.
After, we went to the Spanish Market at the Heard Museum, where there were a bunch of vendors selling arts and crafts stuff either from Mexico or with Mexican influences. I don't really understand why the Heard, which is one of the foremost museums of Native Americans in the US, is so terrified of the term "Mexican." Perhaps, they struggle to categorize Latin American (actually, the stuff was about 30% Mexican, 70% Mex-Am) under a single name. However, "Spanish" is a really dick move since (A) It was a term used through the early 1900s-1970s to categorize Mexican culture in the United States to not upset conservative racists (e.g. Eduardo's Spanish Restaurant, Spanish rice) and (B) the Spaniards perpetrated the greatest genocide in the history against the indigenous populations of the New World.
Anyway, it was mostly ok artwork, handcrafted stuff I could make, and stuff from Mexico of decent quality but available at 1/10th the price across the border. Fun to poke around though and see the gradations and variations of Mexican-American culture.
We got museum admittance with our tickets, so we joined the guided tour of Peoples of the Southwest which was actually pretty led by a pretty knowledgeable and engaging guide. So it was a worthwhile hour tour.
Afterwards, we drove a short ways downtown to the Certified Local Festival, which was a big street festival with vendors, information, food samples, etc. from Arizona businesses. It was a hot day and after wandering through half, we wanted to find the beer tent. The beer tent was crowded, the beers were served in small tasting plastic cups, and there was no where to sit. I suggested we quit this festival and adjourn to a nearby bar where we could actually sit down in the air conditioning and my companions readily agreed.
So I took them to the Angel Trumpet Ale House on 2nd st, and we ordered a flight of beers there which were mostly misses rather than hits, but I liked my beer, and it's a cool place.
Later that afternoon, I drove to Kiyomi-san's house for dinner in Tempe. She'd just returned from Germany and Copenhagen, visiting Saori and some other friends, and she showed me a photo of the bathroom that Saori shares with her two roommates. The bathroom is so small, the designers had to turn the toilet bowl 90 degrees to make enough space to get to the cubicle shower. Kiyomi said that the bathroom was so small, she had to turn sideways to wash her face, because there wasn't enough room to bend over the sink.
Anyway, Kiyomi brought out the propane grill and made us sukiyaki with a bunch of strange ingredients including pure gluten, tree roots, and some other strange things in addition to the leeks, beef, potatoes and mushrooms. It is, after all, "fried whatever you want." Tom made a pumpkin pie for dessert which we ate with tea inside as it was getting a bit too cool for my comfort out in their gazebo.
After, we went to the Spanish Market at the Heard Museum, where there were a bunch of vendors selling arts and crafts stuff either from Mexico or with Mexican influences. I don't really understand why the Heard, which is one of the foremost museums of Native Americans in the US, is so terrified of the term "Mexican." Perhaps, they struggle to categorize Latin American (actually, the stuff was about 30% Mexican, 70% Mex-Am) under a single name. However, "Spanish" is a really dick move since (A) It was a term used through the early 1900s-1970s to categorize Mexican culture in the United States to not upset conservative racists (e.g. Eduardo's Spanish Restaurant, Spanish rice) and (B) the Spaniards perpetrated the greatest genocide in the history against the indigenous populations of the New World.
Anyway, it was mostly ok artwork, handcrafted stuff I could make, and stuff from Mexico of decent quality but available at 1/10th the price across the border. Fun to poke around though and see the gradations and variations of Mexican-American culture.
We got museum admittance with our tickets, so we joined the guided tour of Peoples of the Southwest which was actually pretty led by a pretty knowledgeable and engaging guide. So it was a worthwhile hour tour.
Afterwards, we drove a short ways downtown to the Certified Local Festival, which was a big street festival with vendors, information, food samples, etc. from Arizona businesses. It was a hot day and after wandering through half, we wanted to find the beer tent. The beer tent was crowded, the beers were served in small tasting plastic cups, and there was no where to sit. I suggested we quit this festival and adjourn to a nearby bar where we could actually sit down in the air conditioning and my companions readily agreed.
So I took them to the Angel Trumpet Ale House on 2nd st, and we ordered a flight of beers there which were mostly misses rather than hits, but I liked my beer, and it's a cool place.
Later that afternoon, I drove to Kiyomi-san's house for dinner in Tempe. She'd just returned from Germany and Copenhagen, visiting Saori and some other friends, and she showed me a photo of the bathroom that Saori shares with her two roommates. The bathroom is so small, the designers had to turn the toilet bowl 90 degrees to make enough space to get to the cubicle shower. Kiyomi said that the bathroom was so small, she had to turn sideways to wash her face, because there wasn't enough room to bend over the sink.
Anyway, Kiyomi brought out the propane grill and made us sukiyaki with a bunch of strange ingredients including pure gluten, tree roots, and some other strange things in addition to the leeks, beef, potatoes and mushrooms. It is, after all, "fried whatever you want." Tom made a pumpkin pie for dessert which we ate with tea inside as it was getting a bit too cool for my comfort out in their gazebo.
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