“Hot Pepper”
Damon joined us for a “Bachelor Watch Party” on Monday evening. Really, he and I did watch and provided lots of helpful input on the show for Diana’s entertainment. We did have a slight dinner snafu – Damon is a bit meat eater, and we had decided to have burgers since we don’t have a pan suitable for cooking steaks. The issue came when McD started to mix the “ground beef” with some pork to make the patties, discovering that Whole Foods had delivered some plant based ground beef substitute. We actually couldn’t tell the difference at all – the burgers were delicious.
Diana left on the bus for Dallas on Tuesday morning for client meetings, and I had a quiet evening in at the apartment.
A work event had me fighting traffic up MOPAC (a highway named after the Missouri Pacific railway line that follows its path) to the Top Golf complex. I had been dreading playing golf on a very dreich (you don’t know that word? – damp and wet) day, but the heaters and shelter of the multi-tiered golf bays worked very well, and I ended up having an enjoyable evening. In my welcome speech I had mentioned that I hadn’t played much golf, which everybody finds strange, anticipating that everyone in Scotland is an avid golfer, and surprised myself and others by winning the competition in my bay. My competition was trying to blast the ball as far as possible on every shot, with mixed results, while I just took it easy and was able to be more consistent. Something about a tortoise and a hare I think.
Diana graced me with her presence again on Thursday evening, and I dragged her out to see the late music show at the Saxon Pub – Eric Lindell performing a rare solo show. We’ve seen him with his band and Anson Funderberg a number of times, but never solo, and I really enjoyed the acoustic renditions of his catalog, and a few covers, including this version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”:
You might notice a better quality level in my video clips going forward – thanks to the 3 cameras on my new phone. Lindell shared that he had found the acoustic guitar at a Pawn shop for very little and had a luthier put a new neck on it – sounds good, don’t you think? He also welcomed his friend, “Rudy from San Antonio” – we met Rudy after a Delbert McClinton show in Dallas, and it was nice to catch up again. Here’s our favourite Lindell song, “Lay Back Down”:
The Friday morning 6:00 am alarm that Diana set came way too early, and I’m sure I’ve whined before that we’re getting too old to stay out late on 
school nights. There was some entertainment at the office, with a Tim Tam Jam in the accounting department. Our Australian treasurer had a whole display and demonstrated how to eat a Tim Tam properly – bite each end off, sip coffee through the middle bit, and then “Jam” it in your mouth before everything gets too messy. Who knew?
Diana joined me for a work happy hour at Baker St Pub on Friday evening. I’m fortunate to work with such a fun and nice bunch of folks. We tried a new place, Winebelly, afterwards – a place we’d seen a few months ago when enjoying brunch at Phoebe’s Diner, and thought it looked intriguing. The ambience, service and food were excellent. We started with shishito peppers and a superb chicken liver mousse. There was a wee incident with the peppers – typically 
every 10th pepper is hotter than the rest – in this case Diana got the “hottest shishito ever” and “it feels like hot knives are being stabbed into my tongue.” About 20 minutes later things had calmed down and we were ready to explore the rest of the menu. Chicken empanadas were “the best I’ve had” and the mushroom salad was also very good. We left 
perfectly sated. Oh, I forgot to mention this funny sign that was on the wall by the restrooms. Partially funny because McD used to use the mnemonic of “W.C. Fields” to remember the names of my 3 sons, Will, Campbell and Finn.
Saturday was a relatively lazy and quiet day – workout, coffee and crossword at Opa! (don’t ask about the service and food mixups from a usually great place), shopping for supplies for Denny and crew visiting, and then relaxing with books.
Comedor is a new and very well reviewed restaurant in downtown Austin. It’s been open for a few months now and it’s possible to get reservations less than a month in advance, so we thought we’d try Sunday brunch. The 75 degree weather was perfect for a casual stroll across the 1st street bridge and into downtown. The design of the place is really stunning with huge windows and a lot of bare metal. There’s also a very nice patio.
The service was very friendly (not always the case in popular, well reviewed spots) and the food was amazing. Check out D’s Papas Fritas – rosti style hash brown, soft egg, cured salmon, creme fraiche, smoked trout roe – she loved everything about it.
My Pambazo Torta with red chorizo, potato, fried egg, guacamole, queso fresco, and black bean was an explosion of flavours and plenty to send me home with dinner as well. All in a perfect huge brioche bun.
The remainder of Sunday was relaxing, with D cranking out some work, and me blogging and catching up on some reading. All interrupted by the stunning news of Kobe Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash.
I finished the memoir “Uncanny Valley” by Anna Wiener this week. As I was searching for an online picture of the book jacket, I came across some interesting material on the “Uncanny Valley Hypothesis”, and why not share this likely useless information with all of you? The hypothesis states that as the appearance of a robot is made more human, some observers’ emotional response to the robot becomes increasingly positive and empathetic, until it reaches a point beyond which the response quickly becomes strong revulsion. However, as the robot’s appearance continues to become less distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once again and approaches human-to-human empathy levels. The valley is clearly seen in this chart:
Back to the book, after that random distraction, exactly how folks lose hours down online browsing rabbit holes. This newly released book was recommended by just about everyone that recommends books – New York Times, Washington Post, and on and on. What’s all the fuss about? Well, I enjoyed the conversational memoir style, and the setting (Silicon Valley during the technology boom) is one that’s reasonably familiar to me, making for a fast paced and relatable tale that does raise a number of ethical and social questions. Here’s how McMillan describes the book:
In her mid-twenties, at the height of tech industry idealism, Anna Wiener—stuck, broke, and looking for meaning in her work, like any good millennial–left a job in book publishing for the promise of the new digital economy. She moved from New York to San Francisco, where she landed at a big-data startup in the heart of the Silicon Valley bubble: a world of surreal extravagance, dubious success, and fresh-faced entrepreneurs hell-bent on domination, glory, and, of course, progress.
Anna arrived amidst a massive cultural shift, as the tech industry rapidly transformed into a locus of wealth and power rivaling Wall Street. But amid the company ski vacations and in-office speakeasies, boyish camaraderie and ride-or-die corporate fealty, a new Silicon Valley began to emerge: one in far over its head, one that enriched itself at the expense of the idyllic future it claimed to be building.
Part coming-of-age-story, part portrait of an already-bygone era, Anna Wiener’s memoir is a rare first-person glimpse into high-flying, reckless startup culture at a time of unchecked ambition, unregulated surveillance, wild fortune, and accelerating political power. With wit, candor, and heart, Anna deftly charts the tech industry’s shift from self-appointed world savior to democracy-endangering liability, alongside a personal narrative of aspiration, ambivalence, and disillusionment.
Unsparing and incisive, Uncanny Valley is a cautionary tale, and a revelatory interrogation of a world reckoning with consequences its unwitting designers are only beginning to understand.
Khruangbin is an American musical trio from Houston, Texas, with Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar, and Donald Ray “DJ” Johnson Jr. on drums. The band is known for blending global music influences, classic soul, dub and psychedelia. The band members originally bonded over a shared love of Afghan music, and I think you can hear that coming through – not that I’ve ever listened to Afghan music, but you know what I mean. Here they’re joined by another Texan, Fort Worth’s young soul singing superstar, Leon Bridges.
Here’s a song I heard this morning that might just be what Afghan music sounds like?
Mitch Webb and the Swindols were scheduled to play the regular Wednesday night Sun radio showcase at Guero’s, but were a victim of the rain that continued all day. I was interested to see what they sounded like and am pleased to share that with you as well. They are based in San Antonio and you can hear the influences from south of the border – and I have heard some of that for sure.
I heard this song on Paradise Radio and was reminded of the live version that we enjoyed at the Kessler – gosh I miss that venue, even with all the excellent alternatives in Austin.
And finally, here’s a Glenn Miller tune that I heard this week. I forget how much I love his orchestration and arrangements. The brass accents at 2:00 in are perfect, with the hushed trombones chugging in the background.