endeavouring to be a wee bit less critical... 7.27.05
and not entirely sure we'll be able to manage such a monumental task, nevertheless, l'Marquis will make an effort (despite writing pissy letter to EP Times recently re very obvious, stupid error running four consecutive days indicating real lack of diligent copy editing & yessss Binky, they did finally correct that stupidity but neglected to respond in any manner to our pissy note...).
Okay then, credit where credit is due, right? In local weekly known as El Paso Inc. there appears recent story re a couple of bootmaking concerns in EPTx, where many boot makers have been long established over the last century or so (Tony Lama, anybody?). Quite by coincidence, we noticed story in 'Southern Living', magazine that the Momz subscribes to, on Nevena Christi & her Rocketbuster Boots. Those Tres Outlaws (yah, right, outlaws my big brown baboon ass.. -- whoops, sorry, got to try to remember to be less critical...) fellows seem w/out website of their own, altho' some outfit called Falconhead features their product. Now, mind thee, yourstruly is not a cowboy boot kinda apefellah, something to do with traumatic boyhood experience mentioned hereabouts recently, yet realizes lots of folks deeply into fashion and many of the women of our acquaintence very fond of adding to their footwear collections (oh, Binky, we know of several candidates who are eminently fit to wear the She Devil boots Ms Christi's holding in that photo...), so, consider this portion of today's post a gesture on the behalf of the EPTx Chamber of Commerce and Tourism; if you coming out this way for WHATEVER reason, mebbe you want to do some boot shopping, there be boots aplenty to check out, many much more economically priced than the folks featured above.
Another weekly available that is targeted towards different demographic than the EP Inc. audience (altho published by the same Investor Publications) is called What's Up, and ye can visit their decidedly lame website (sorry, one cannot avoid being critical in this instance -- Huh? what's that you say, Binky? sumtink 'bout l'Marquis' nerve in critizing other websites? Huh? better take a look at d'monkey??? ooooooh, that hurts, Binky, really, really hurts -- and kinda see for yourself. Mind you, here and now we will adhere to our earlier announced intention of avoiding being overly critical, but some of you might be able to imagine how much teeth-gnashing and jaw-grinding l'Marquis experienced when reading over their Best of the Best list published last week. (Note to What's Up Editorial Staff: Kiki's, the L & J and Lucy's are NOT 'Hole in the Wall' kinds of restaurants & neither are many of those listed for consideration in that category AND Estela Casas is DAMNED LUCKY to be employed in television news broadcasting but will no doubt make a wonderful grandmother one day soon). whew, gonna be difficult, this being less than critical thing...
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a sedate sojourn on Sunday morning... 7.25.05
had yourstruly squireing the Mama-San across Trans-Mountain for brekkie and some flea market activity in the tiny town of Canutillo, Tx. While l'Marquis be at it, want to correct minor geographical error in a June post when we wrote about visiting Lupita's Tamales, mentioning location as somewhere "way out on the west side of town" and, well Binky, there be borders aplenty hereabouts and we ought to have been more specific in that Lupita's (and Papa Taco mentioned in same post) is in Canutillo, not El Paso. This is somewhat akin to the fuzzy borderline betwixt Albany and Berkeley, so whilst not a major error, we feel better now that it is corrected. ANYWAY- yesssss, we did stop in at Lupita's again, and consider thyselves forewarned now, on Sunday Lupita's is jumping and you'll not be able to avoid lining up for the goodies available there if you want 'em, because besides the usual stuff, they're serving up their menudo and carnitas (both available Sat. & Sun. only) and a big part of the local culture here on the border be that menudo for breakfast (especially after a long night of long-neck tippling while tripping the light fantastic) habit, maybe some carnitas (or colitas de puerco or pavo) for lonche. Lupita's tamales are superb, boyz und gurlz, they've got that delicately flavored masa and enough filling to make them worthwhile instead of disapointing. Ten bucks for a dozen, and that's a fair price considering their yummy-ness factor, available in red chile (w/pork), green (w/either chicken or queso) and dulce (sweet) ones, flavored w/anise, coconut & raisins. Usually a fellow outside selling some queso asadero (asadero cheese - fo' mo' on quesos mexicanos, vayasen aqui) which happens to be an excellent cheese to use for, oh, quesadillas, para exemplo, anything you might want a wee bit of melted cheese upon. Nearly a year ago yourstruly and the Momz were in Canutillo to watch young Miguelito take part in cross-country competition and as we had got there way early, decided to hunt around for someplace for breakfast, found a place open not far from where La Union & Doniphan intersect and enjoyed a fine brekkie there. Now we been back in these environs many times since then, but for some damned stupid reason, haven't happened upon that place again until yesterday. For some reason l'Marquis had imagined the exterior had been larger and painted some shade of blue, but we took a gamble on place that seemed likely enough to be the joint we'd been looking for; lo & behold, it was. It was the interior that is blue, or mostly shades of blue, as the entire interior is given over to murals painted on all the walls, with a cloud-studded sky painted across the ceiling. Ay Caramba is what the place is called (believe us when we tell you, we will never forget now...) and the family run joint offers up pretty damned good & reasonably priced chow. Matter of fact, Doniphan drive has many, many, many restaurants to choose from (ate at a place named Fuentes last Sunday, with brother Ken along for that morning's adventure, never forget that lovely wait-person's beautiful eyes...) and not only Doniphan, as if you venture into the wee hamlet of Canutillo itself, perhaps you will happen upon The Little Diner on 7th St. At one wee tiny hole in the wall nearly adjacent to Papa Taco's, the Momz and ourowndarnedself enjoyed brekkie for two, w/iced tea and got out of there for less then Seven Bucks! The flea market is pretty decent sized, the usual mishmash of castoffs, cheap ass plastic goods, some food booths, produce vendors, and the like. (you can see a couple of photos in this fellow's collection) the Momz scored herself a nice young tree, she's been wanting to find one to plant in the front yard so this find made her day. In checking out some related linky goodness we came across Rambling Cameras and some very lovely shots of desert southwest beauty, in case there be any of ye out there who might be jonesing for a wee taste of that very fine, subtle, unique to local environs loveliness. So okay, nice morning out and on the drive back to the N.E. part of town, listening to local barely listener supported PBS station KTEP (hmmmmm, that link was D O W N at time of this writing...) and chanced upon New Letterson the Air proggie, and goshdarnitall, (sometimes the universe is remarkably generous) it happened that the hostess was interviewing Jim Harrison, who happens to be one of yourstruly's personal favoritos for many moons, so, as those of ye who know l'Marquis at all, we wuz one damned happy chappy, Pappy.
alright, we get ready to wrap this monday thing up. You'll notice we've reverted to the page layout utilized hereabouts thru most of the last few months, something about the wide open spaces here has us preferring the look, colors and layout, for now anyway. Here be a couple of quick chewy linky bits of goodness, cadged from (what else) the Sunday NYT, plus some things we caught on the tube of late: brief excerpt: Younger chimps prefer kids' movies, Disney specials, ''Barney'' and the like. The mature chimps' tastes, on the other hand, tend toward melodrama and anything with lots of action and aggression. Soap operas like ''Passions'' and ''General Hospital'' are big hits, the latter, it seems, because lab chimps have gotten so used to people in white coats. ''The Jerry Springer Show'' and N.F.L. football games are also quite popular. Golf, baseball and PBS programming (except, of course, for nature shows) are not. -- wonder how they feel about NASCAR --; from the Sunday NYT Magazine, Planet of the Retired Apes; another fine piece by Frank Rich, Eight Days In July, (and don't forget, for those of ye who don't want to deal w/signing up & related issues, there's Bug Me Not). Two films to recommend to thee, both re-visited via the magick of cable television. First, a truly wonderful film (no kiddink, Binky and it has a monkey in it, too!) from China, King of Masks; l'Marquis has long appreciated the work of Aki Kaurismaki (those of ye who've not yet seen Leningrad Cowboys go America, well, what the hell are ye waiting for?), and it was a happy afternoon spent the other day watching Man Without a Past, we liked a lot of the music in the film too, so l'Marquis sez "Check It Out!"
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with a brief sojourn to the left coast as part of the month's hi-jinks, altho' far from a highlight,
the earlier part of july...
