Tusca-palooza

I am safely ensconced in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, MOST grateful to be staying in a hotel voluntarily, instead of under duress, which I was when my car's alternator went *croak* on my last trip south.  However, I am not SO joyous that I'm inclined to break into a chorus of "Sweet Home Alabama" - or "Elvira," for that matter. Believe me, that's all for the better.

Actually, today was mostly uneventful. Most of my day was spent driving - and the drive from my grandad's place to here was really QUITE similar to my drive from there to Memphis - I just diverted when I got to Nashville. And unfortunately, once I hit territory I'd never seen it was overcast or dark.

So most of my amusement came from listening to my MP3 player on random - with a music collection as weird diverse as mine,  you get some truly wild segues. My favorite was "The Magic Store" from The Muppet Movie being immediately followed by Bryan Adams' "Cuts Like a Knife." Going from "I am the Very Model of a Cartoon Individual" from the Animaniacs soundtrack to the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" was trippy too. Yes, I'm weird and don't care what anyone thinks.

Beyond such musical mash-ups, my only real adventure today was visiting Dreamland BBQ in Tuscaloosa, on the recommendation of my dad. This is the kind of place you'd find on the Food Network's Drive-Ins, Diners and Dives - and indeed, this joint is a mix of all three.  This was the original location, so it has a ragtag sort of atmosphere - it's basically a sports bar with a few tables and three or four booths in a building that's almost ramshackle. At the same time, there's none of that bland, corporatized feel that permeates so many chains these days. Therere are all kinds of football pictures and memorabilia on the walls - Paul "Bear" Bryant stuff, and Crimson Tide gear, natch.

The menu is pretty slim pickins - basically, ribs, sausage, banana pudding and ribs. Even before I order, my server hands me six slices of white break and a cup of sauce to dunk it in.  I guess this is the opposite of an aftertaste.

 I order the half-slab of ribs, and they're pretty tasty - nice and thick, and the sauce has a vinegary tang to it, which makes it distinct. It's not up to, say, Montgomery Inn in Ohio or my all-time favorite, the Bar-B-Q Shop in Memphis, but it holds up.

For dessert, I order the banana pudding, since that's all there is to order, sweets, wise, and I like that QUITE a lot - even more so than the ribs, I'd say. Perfect mix of taste and texture. I should have sprung for more.

Finally, just to give you an exquisite taste of the atmosphere of this place, I snapped a shot of the ads on the table. Yes, that's a Roto-Rooter ad, right next to the Dreamland logo.

Draw your own conclusions.

Monday will be my first day in NOLA, although since  I won't get there until the afternoon, I'm not sure what I'll have time to do, but I will have something to share, I'm sure. I'm generous that way.

Southern Man - for a week, anyway

I'll let the strains of Neil Young run through the heads of those readers who dig classic rock - and let Lynyrd Skynyrd fans seethe a little.

Well, how 'bout that. One sentence into the first post about my vacation and I'm already off topic! But what the heck, freewheeling is good, right?

Any ol' way I hit the road today, and am typing this from my grandad's house in Kentucky via a 'Net connection that's as flaky as that cereal Tony the tiger eats. On my way down I stopped for a lunch break just outside Lexington, intending to eat at a Steak n' Shake. At first I was chagrined to find the place overflowing, but that afforded me a better culinary opportunity.

I swung next door, pleasantly surprised to find a Back Yard Burgers. I've been to this chain before, having discovered it on one of my many visits to Memphis, but I didn't know they were in Lexington as well. And this gave me a chance to eat inside; I had only driven through before.

I selected the Spicy Buffalo Slaw cheeseburger, which is a burger with cole slaw, ranch dressing and the same buffalo seasoning you find on hot wings. It was good, but a bit peculiar to mix the buffalo sauce taste with beef instead of chicken. One can only wonder if this item was created by a chef who wasn't looking and grabbed the wrong meat package. Stranger things have happened. Just ask me or my dad about the famous "hot apple pie" story.

I was more amused by the ketchup bottle at my table. It was one of those upside-down plastic bottles, but the label said, "DON'T SQUEEZE ME." At first, I was thinking maybe there was a mix-up at the Charmin factory, but a closer look at the bottle showed it also said, "Our fries are so good, you really don't need any Tomato Ketchup. But hey! It's a free country!"

Well, God bless America, because the waffle fries were good, but not THAT good.

While I'm here in my bedroom at granddad's place, let me share a story about something I found the last time I was here, in August. Scanning across the bookshelf, I spied a book called "With a Feather on My Nose" by Billie Burke. Those of you who know your movie history know that Billie Burke is most famous for playing Glinda, the Good Witch of the North in The Wizard of Oz.

So imagine my surprise when I open the front cover and find it's an autographed copy! And I didn't even have to click my heels three times or anything!

And just so a particular friend of mine knows - I did indeed give a shout-out when I crossed the Rockcastle County line, but I thought "AIEEEEE" might attract too much attention, so I settled on "YEE-HAA!" More of the local flavor anyway. ;)

Wow, quite a bit of writing just for the first day! Just imagine the novels you'll read when I get to NOLA! For Sunday: I travel to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for perhaps a visit to Dreamland Ribs.

It's another blog! And this time, it's personal!

Hi everyone. Yes, it's another blog by Eric Robinette, but don't worry, I haven't gone all Sybil on you - at least not yet. Maybe closer to Three Faces of Eve.

Next week I will be going to New Orleans for the first time to visit my dad (who lives there), and I'm very excited! That inspired me to keep a trip journal, because I haven't done much writing outside of news stories and movie reviews, and I'd like to flex some new muscles and be all buff n' stuff - at least in a literary sense!

Then I thought "Well, gee - why don't I put it on a blog where everyone can see it?"

And so I have. But this blog won't die when my trip ends. It will live on, as a way to share details about my life and about subjects besides movies, which will be confined to sircritic.com.

As it happens, though, my trip is turning out to be heavily movie-related. I'll let you all take a minute to reach for your defibrillators.  CLEAR!

Recovered? Anyway, here's what's shaping up for the NOLA trip so far.

Disney's new movie, The Princess and the Frog, is set in New Orleans. Alas, the movie itself will not play there while I am there, but the Museum of Modern Art has this cool exhibit, which I plan to attend!

My dad says he also intends to take to The Clover Grill, which was featured in a scene from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. 

And check out this EXTREMELY cool-sounding theater I found! They are showing Miracle on 34th St. (blessedly, the ORIGINAL and not the mezzo-mezzo 90s remake). And if you know me, you know I love nothing better than to see old movies in old movie theaters!

So that's some of my itinerary so far - and I welcome comments on this blog to. So in the interest of spawning some, let me ask you - anybody been to New Orleans and/or have any suggestions as to what I should see? I'll be there from Monday Nov. 30  through Friday Dec. 4.