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So much socializing. So much. And not in a bad way.
The master class at St Thomas was an interesting proposition; there are 12 people in Chanticleer, and, as Alan and I discussed later, it's hard to get a coherent and followable set of suggestions for a learning choir out of so many individuals. Plus, some people like to state their opinions several times in different ways, and a lot of time gets taken with suggestions flying thick and fast and it's hard for the choir to remember all of them between chances to sing. It was sort of like that with the King's Singers masterclass we saw at St Thomas, and they are only six people. At least Chanticleer has a director to consolidate the suggestions and perspectives and run the stop-and-start process with the student choirs.
Alan and I met up again after they went back to the hotel to change and regroup, and we went for a late Thai lunch in the village. Unfortunately I had forgotten that the entire restaurant culture of the village is closed between 2 and 5, so we tried three different Thai places before giving up on the idea and going to the Banh Mi place on Holcombe right by my house. I'd never been, so I couldn't recommend it from experience, but it was close and I love Banh Mi, so we pulled in and gave it a try. We had a pair of smoothies, too, and he was so hungry I don't think it matters that it wasn't as high-quality as some other places we could've gone. And the guy at the counter (who also made the food) was extra cool and we had a running conversation about the marathon of How I Met Your Mother that was playing on the TV.
Once the beastly hunger was assuaged, Alan had expressed interest in hearing some of the music I did in grad school and once out, so we stopped by home to get my computer and take a drive while listening. We tooled around my neighborhood and ended up sitting in the driveway while hearing Genocide, Archive, Air Travel Blessing, What I Wouldn't Do for You, Rain, and my arrangement of '39, and he was especially impressed with Archive and Rain. Which was gratifying.
Mama pulled up in the van basically just in time for me to take it off to church, which was cruelly vexing as usual, so when I picked Alan up from the hotel afterwards to hang, I was up for anything with a decompressive atmosphere. He told me about his amazing dinner at the Black Lab, which I'd recommended to him as we passed it on our several trips up and down Montrose. He wanted to go back to Anvil, which he'd also heard about from me and Dan, and maybe Hearsay, which Dan insisted he should try when Alan mentioned he'd go back to Anvil, and I was so wound up from church rehearsal that I didn't mind the idea of a bar, so I made a pretty straight shot to Westheimer from the Galleria-area hotel. And then downtown, where he was pretty much done drinking but totally amazed by the gastropub quality of the Kobe dog, mac-and-4-cheese, and rosemary-parmesan fries I got to evaluate the place. Our brains were really both melted by that mac and cheese. It was heavenly. And he was pleased that the TVs were both playing basketball. We got into a fairly deep discussion of his perspective on the game and various famous players, which was a new one on me.
I had a couple navigational miscalculations on the way back to drop him at the hotel, so it was coming up on 1am when we got there, but he was gracious about it and kept telling me what a good job I was doing as designated driver. Ah well. Driving is not my favorite thing to do, but I'll do it in a heartbeat if somebody else is even thinking of drinking.
This morning he'd planned to forego the YMCA for a shopping trip at the Galleria, which I opted out of, and if we saw each other before the tour left town it'd be at lunch. And boy did we have lunch. Wow. He texted me to meet him at Indika, an Indian restaurant on Westheimer where I'd never been, and I made it before anybody had even ordered. Besides Alan, two other Chanticleer boys were there: Matt Knickman, whom I met on the gym trip, and Casey Breves, who, it turns out, is best friends with Jesse Obbink, whom I know from chamber choir. They'd been hanging out the whole time the tour was in town.
It was an extremely amiable and animated lunch, especially since the food was of royal quality. I'm not often found at high-class restaurants, since I'm fairly indifferent to the recreational aspect of eating, but I could certainly appreciate the offerings there. We all continually exclaimed about how great it was, even in the middles of our engrossing conversations. Casey seemed to be very interested in and appreciative of my explanation of my experience in the CI department at NEC, and there was a fairly long and hilarious recurring sidetrack about Matt's interest in appearing to be as straight as he is. I've never had as fun a single meal with people I previously didn't know. And they had fun, too; Alan jokingly suggested I come with them to Louisiana, and they were so enthusiastic about the idea that it was briefly investigated seriously. I would have loved to, but it would either be a bus or a rental car back before Sunday, and I didn't know what the prices were. Maybe I should have gone, I don't know. It would have been such fun.
Ah, well. Instead, tonight I'll go to the Rice social dance society class and learn the basics of the Rumba and Tango. It was a great day already anyway.
The master class at St Thomas was an interesting proposition; there are 12 people in Chanticleer, and, as Alan and I discussed later, it's hard to get a coherent and followable set of suggestions for a learning choir out of so many individuals. Plus, some people like to state their opinions several times in different ways, and a lot of time gets taken with suggestions flying thick and fast and it's hard for the choir to remember all of them between chances to sing. It was sort of like that with the King's Singers masterclass we saw at St Thomas, and they are only six people. At least Chanticleer has a director to consolidate the suggestions and perspectives and run the stop-and-start process with the student choirs.
Alan and I met up again after they went back to the hotel to change and regroup, and we went for a late Thai lunch in the village. Unfortunately I had forgotten that the entire restaurant culture of the village is closed between 2 and 5, so we tried three different Thai places before giving up on the idea and going to the Banh Mi place on Holcombe right by my house. I'd never been, so I couldn't recommend it from experience, but it was close and I love Banh Mi, so we pulled in and gave it a try. We had a pair of smoothies, too, and he was so hungry I don't think it matters that it wasn't as high-quality as some other places we could've gone. And the guy at the counter (who also made the food) was extra cool and we had a running conversation about the marathon of How I Met Your Mother that was playing on the TV.
Once the beastly hunger was assuaged, Alan had expressed interest in hearing some of the music I did in grad school and once out, so we stopped by home to get my computer and take a drive while listening. We tooled around my neighborhood and ended up sitting in the driveway while hearing Genocide, Archive, Air Travel Blessing, What I Wouldn't Do for You, Rain, and my arrangement of '39, and he was especially impressed with Archive and Rain. Which was gratifying.
Mama pulled up in the van basically just in time for me to take it off to church, which was cruelly vexing as usual, so when I picked Alan up from the hotel afterwards to hang, I was up for anything with a decompressive atmosphere. He told me about his amazing dinner at the Black Lab, which I'd recommended to him as we passed it on our several trips up and down Montrose. He wanted to go back to Anvil, which he'd also heard about from me and Dan, and maybe Hearsay, which Dan insisted he should try when Alan mentioned he'd go back to Anvil, and I was so wound up from church rehearsal that I didn't mind the idea of a bar, so I made a pretty straight shot to Westheimer from the Galleria-area hotel. And then downtown, where he was pretty much done drinking but totally amazed by the gastropub quality of the Kobe dog, mac-and-4-cheese, and rosemary-parmesan fries I got to evaluate the place. Our brains were really both melted by that mac and cheese. It was heavenly. And he was pleased that the TVs were both playing basketball. We got into a fairly deep discussion of his perspective on the game and various famous players, which was a new one on me.
I had a couple navigational miscalculations on the way back to drop him at the hotel, so it was coming up on 1am when we got there, but he was gracious about it and kept telling me what a good job I was doing as designated driver. Ah well. Driving is not my favorite thing to do, but I'll do it in a heartbeat if somebody else is even thinking of drinking.
This morning he'd planned to forego the YMCA for a shopping trip at the Galleria, which I opted out of, and if we saw each other before the tour left town it'd be at lunch. And boy did we have lunch. Wow. He texted me to meet him at Indika, an Indian restaurant on Westheimer where I'd never been, and I made it before anybody had even ordered. Besides Alan, two other Chanticleer boys were there: Matt Knickman, whom I met on the gym trip, and Casey Breves, who, it turns out, is best friends with Jesse Obbink, whom I know from chamber choir. They'd been hanging out the whole time the tour was in town.
It was an extremely amiable and animated lunch, especially since the food was of royal quality. I'm not often found at high-class restaurants, since I'm fairly indifferent to the recreational aspect of eating, but I could certainly appreciate the offerings there. We all continually exclaimed about how great it was, even in the middles of our engrossing conversations. Casey seemed to be very interested in and appreciative of my explanation of my experience in the CI department at NEC, and there was a fairly long and hilarious recurring sidetrack about Matt's interest in appearing to be as straight as he is. I've never had as fun a single meal with people I previously didn't know. And they had fun, too; Alan jokingly suggested I come with them to Louisiana, and they were so enthusiastic about the idea that it was briefly investigated seriously. I would have loved to, but it would either be a bus or a rental car back before Sunday, and I didn't know what the prices were. Maybe I should have gone, I don't know. It would have been such fun.
Ah, well. Instead, tonight I'll go to the Rice social dance society class and learn the basics of the Rumba and Tango. It was a great day already anyway.