A Day Off in Lafayette

So this is how one (meaning me) spends one's day off in Lafayette, Louisiana. I started the day off by sleeping late (9:30). Wandered outside to put some Round-Up on a persistent vining problem at the rear of my property. Decided that there were too many students walking out there and I'd rather just take a photo of the yard.


Next, I called James to see what he was doing. We decided on lunch at a new restaurant in town, Zoe's Kitchen. It just opened up in River Ranch, Lafayette's newest hotspot for the rich and wannabe's. This place is a Greek-leaning chain from Alabama (I think). I've been here a few times and have had very good healthy-ish meals.


This is the Grilled Chicken Plate with a Greek Salad and Potato Salad. The food is fresh and they make their own vinegarette dressing which is yummy. The generous helpings of feta are nice too. Personally, I could do without the onions, but to each his own. As for the potato salad, don't do it. Get the pasta salad or the rice pilaf. Both are excellent. BUT...the real reason to go to Zoe's is....


The CAKE. It is called YaYa's Chocolate Cake. It is perfection. Its just a sheet cake and actually looks like a spice cake or coffee cake of some sort, with a fudge-like icing. So good. And at $2.00, it is the bargain dessert of the decade.

I'm sorry to say that I was a bit less enthusiastic at our next destination. A place where aisle upon aisle of nearly monochromatic ceramics exist in harmony with a multitude of various plastic grapes and artificial green vines. I had to keep reminding myself we were in the 21st Century and not in my mother's china cabinet circa 1983. I don't want to advertise for the place, but the name rhymes with "Knobby Bobby" in case you would be interested in viewing such a spectacle in person.CLICK ON PHOTO to get the full idea.


I picked up the new Raveonettes CD "Lust Lust Lust" at Barnes and Noble. No photo sorry. Next stop, Dollar Tree, where I snatched up a nifty Ipod protector/belt clip for one hundred pennies. It is kinda girly, but it was ONE DOLLAR, and I like it :


We made our way back to my house and I suggested a walk in the park (which is like 2 blocks from my house. On the way to the park, we encountered some very fine Lafayette stencil grafitti.

We made it to the park...walked all the way around the park, and decided we deserved a break so we laid down on this grassy knoll in the middle of the frisbee golf course, where James decided he needed to balance a ball on his nose - or maybe I prompted him a little. I can't recall. It was a delightful end to the day.

Prince on Solid Gold (and more)

Its way past my bedtime and way past the point where I could write anything coherent.Instead I'll paste a link to one of my favorite music info blogs, Idolator. This link will take you to a place you need to be. A place where a New Yorkish-cool music blog dissects a copy of Spin Magazine from 1990. You will be treated to a list of the most commonly used words in Madonna's lyrics as well as those of Paula Abdul, Tracy Chapman and Guns And Roses. How original Guns and Roses seems compared to the rest!

http://www.idolator.com/371807/project-x-spins-35-rock-lists-compiled-by-spin

(sorry I think you'll have to copy and paste if you want to go here)

The site continually alerts me to things that are missing in my life. Like this clip from "Solid Gold" circa 1983. According to Spin Magazine, on "January 29, 1983 Prince appeared on Solid Gold. Prince brought his entire stage set-up, complete with lights, ramps and backdrop, not to mention eight backing musicians, and then lip-synced '1999.'" Enjoy.

Grapefruit Is The New Lime

I never ate a grapefruit until about a month ago and since then I've had this craving for them. I just ate a whole one. Thought I'd stop at half of one, but just couldn't do it. So good. Just don't eat any of the peelings. Anyway, grapefruit and I are in the honeymoon phase. We'll see if the affair will last.

New Jarvis Cocker Live Concert Clip

Ladies and Gentlemen, Jarvis Cocker, Live in Buenos Aires March 13, 2008. He's playing a new song called "Girls Like It Too". Jarvis was formerly the lead singer of one of my favorite bands Pulp (see "Disco 2000" & "Misshapes" for mid-90s Jarvis wonderfulness).

Well Hello....Welcome to My Living Room

Bloggity blog blog. Here's my blog. I'm Michael. I'm a hardcore nerd living in Lafayette, Louisiana. I love my mother and my Ipod. I suppose that in order to have an interesting blog, one must write about himself. It seems self congratulating. "look at me..look what I did!". So for every one post about "me me me", I'll hopefully have a dozen or so about things I'm interested in writing about - Restaurants. Independent films. Odd music. New York City (circa 1979 preferably). Louisiana's own superstar, Broccoli Spears (that's a joke...I'd never stoop so low). Chocolate Cake and other baked pastries. New Orleans. The 80s. Waiters and waitresses. People who deserve to be more famous than they are (not that fame is all it's cracked up to be). Things that are absurd. Minutiae. Bizarrities. New York City. Swimming. Dancing. The Catholic Church. (I've had to give them all up...)