Tootsie Yr2: Grand Rapids, MI Part 2
Oct. 17th, 2022 08:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taz_39 Long post again b/c I love Grand Rapids.
Sorry not sorry.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Thursday it was still cloudy and rainy, and it's getting colder too.
I'm going to have to start getting used to walking in the rain and cold again.
I made a TikTok for the first few days in Grand Rapids (HERE)
And here's one that can serve as a TL;DR for the below blog, since I know people don't like reading and actively thinking about things (HERE)
Sometimes I'm just not in the mood to put forth the effort to make these videos on top of everything else.
But every day while I'm traveling between cities, or eating great food, or exploring, or doing meal prep...whatever I'm doing, it's always in the back of my mind that I wish everyone could experience all of these things. Both the good and the bad. To me, it's a privilege and a dream. To others it's probably a horror show lol. Still, I want to share as much of it as I can for those who are intrigued or interested or want to be here but can't.
Anyway, I had a slow morning of creating the TikTok, taking the weekly covid test, and doing some data entry.
For lunch I had planned to get a lobster roll from Downtown Market...but can you guess how much lobster rolls are going for these days?
THIRTY-FOUR DOLLARS. Yeah, no, not paying $34 for a sandwich!!
So instead I walked to Two Beards, an infamous local deli where they've got around 100 sandwiches to choose from, all named after celebrities (or musicians, or politicians, etc).
Cute cafe-like setting, and it was very busy right at noon. Construction workers, students, dudes in suits, DoorDashers...the locals know this is where to get a great lunch at a good price.
I chose the Samuel L. Jackson: grilled chicken with smoked gouda, roasted apples, spinach, and walnut honey mustard on white roll.
Tasty as heck! And also a HUGE sandwich; the piece I'm holding there is half of a "half"!
My only regret is that I didn't swap out the white roll for a pretzel roll instead. Note to self if there's a next time.
After that tasty lunch I had a nice walk to the Grand Rapids Art Museum.
It's a pretty small museum with only three floors, but a nice selection of art that gets rotated out frequently.
My favorite two arts of the day:
I think this was called "Dawn Launch" or something, and the artist was from Maine.
This one struck a chord with me, because of the lighting in the painting making it seem like the long shadows of fall:
...and also because there were images hidden under the paint.
People as part of the land.
Maybe because I'm currently reading The Grapes of Wrath, I felt something when I looked at this artwork.
The main draw today, however, was The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited.
As a child of the 80s, Jim Henson movies, shows, and creations were a core part of my childhood.
Looking at these puppets felt the same as being in the presence of a celebrity: I felt excited and a little giddy, and like I needed to keep it together lol. I couldn't photograph everything...there were a lot of little TV screens throughout the exhibition, playing snippets from some of Henson's earliest works (Sam and Friends) and lots of screens flipping through scripts and concept art and production notes, even some handwritten musical scores. It was all fascinating, and even though the exhibit was fairly small I spent a good amount of time, making sure to read every placard and moving in chronological order.
Bert and Ernie, of course! The stripes of Bert's shirt are nostalgic for me.
Even as a child I remember how expressive Ernie's hands were, and I love how the puppet has been posed to capture that here.
Concept art for Cookie Monster:
Miss Piggy's gloves:
Got hit with a huge wave of nostalgia upon seeing this display of Oscar the Grouch's pet worm, Slimey.
There were so many little skits with Slimey, and I had forgotten all about him!
Here he is performing with the "Wriggling Brothers" circus! Lol!
Of course it wasn't all about Sesame Street and The Muppets.
My heart skipped a beat as I turned a corner and found an entire section dedicated to The Dark Crystal.
My absolute favorite Henson work, and honestly one of my favorite movies of all time.
Seeing puppets, notes, and props from this movie in person was incredible for a Dark Crystal nerd like me.
What blows me away about The Dark Crystal is the DETAIL.
The handmade, exquisite, gorgeously crafted detail that went into Every Single Piece Of That Set.
From the puppets themselves, down to background pieces that are barely noticed, and individual blades of grass in the fantasy world that was created to make this vision come to life. It's just astounding.
There were other sections for things like Fraggle Rock, Labyrinth, and some of his more obscure concept movies.
I enjoyed every part of the exhibit. Great way to spend the afternoon, savoring some lovely childhood nostalgia :)
I had planned to hit an antique store after that but it was later than I expected, so I went back to the hotel instead to rest a bit and get cleaned up.
The evening show was well attended, and went smoothly.
----------------------------------------
Friday, basically the whole day free.
I woke up a little later than usual but still made time for data entry before heading out to do some thrifting.
By the time I got to the thrift store, though, I felt very hungry, so didn't look as thoroughly as usual.
I did get some phone-friendly gloves because they were only $3, and I need to take better care of my hands in cold weather (I catagorically don't wear gloves when I should).
From there I popped into a grocery for a few pieces of fruit for Monday's travels, and then into a little bagel place too because bagels are a great travel food. This cafe had a dukkah bagel and a togarashi bagel! I got one of each to try.
Then I walked another mile to The Electric Cheetah for lunch.
Another lovely interior. It was pretty busy in there, clearly a much-loved lunch spot.
I got the walleye filet served on farro "risotto" with carrots, roasted asparagus, and a cherry buerre blanc.
The fish filet was kinda mangled, but whitefish is so freaking delicate and tough to handle and it was cooked perfectly besides.
Farro is one of my favorite grains, so earthy and satisfying.
What really brought this together, though, was the buerre blanc and those tart cherries.
It was both rich and acidic, and complemented everything so well.
A very delicious final meal out here in Grand Rapids.
Next stop was Century Antiques. I have been to this store many times before...it's become kind of a nostalgic thing to do I guess!
Back in 2014 Jameson and I were with the circus, and we were playing a game called Ingress.
Ingress was developed by the same people who eventually came up with Pokemon GO, and has a lot of the same features: you visit landmarks (portals) and capture things (in Ingress it was the portal itself; in Pokemon GO obviously it's pokemon).
Back then you could request that a landmark, statue, or building be made into a portal.
I submitted a request for this antique shop to be made into a portal. And it was!
Notice the date on this screenshot.
And here is my photo from today. Hasn't changed a bit. If people still play Ingress, then this is still a portal, created by me :)
I went inside and poked around, but only for nostalgia's sake. It was just as I remembered it, cluttered and full of fun things.
Walked back to the hotel. As I got to the parking lot I saw a FedEx truck pull in ahead of me, so checked at the front counter to see if my in ears had been delivered. Yes they had!
These are in ears...or rather, in ear molds.
Each one has a little "R" or "L" to indicate the right or left ear.
In Rochester I went to an audiologist who pumped my ear canal full of a rubber polymer.
This solidified to make a mold, which was then sent off to Sensaphonics.
I chose a custom, sparkly color (if you don't choose a color they'll be opaque like dried glue) and gave them two addresses for hotels coming up on tour, with instructions to send to one or the other depending on when the in ears were completed. A few days ago I heard from my Sensaphonics rep that the molds were done and would be arriving in a few days.
And here they are. I tried them on and it's a good fit.
For those who don't get what these are for, they're basically custom ear buds for headphones.
I wear headphones in the show because we play along with tracked instruments and also a click track so that we are all in time together.
We also each have a microphone for our instruments, and can hear each other and adjust individual levels using an Aviom mixer.
Using custom molds ensures a snug fit, helps cut out audience and background noise, and improves sound such that you don't need to turn your volume up quite as high, preserving your hearing. That's what these are for.
The molds came with this cute carrying case and a note from the rep: "Break an upper palate!"
This is a reference to a story she told me about how a cast member in her show was hit by a city bus and broke her upper palate.
From then on, all of the cast involved in that show would say, "Break an upper palate!" instead of "Break a leg!"
I had a few hours of relaxing before the evening show.
Went in a few minutes early to get my ear molds onto the actual headphones (we call them "monitors").
They fit well. The best part is that unlike my older set, these won't slide off the monitors, they wrap around the entire earpiece.
Awesome! A huge improvement already.
The show went well, the audience was SCREAMING with laughter at the "Jeff Sums It Up" part after intermission.
Some people were laughing so hard they were coughing. Don't die, folks!
Back at the hotel I had to fix my MFF sheet for Wilmington NC because we're only there for one day, Tuesday, and one of the restaurants that I listed was not open on on Tuesdays. Of course, it's the one I actually wanted to visit. Gah! This prompted me to check all of the other restuarants on the list, and a few of them had random "temporarily closed" days upcoming, but none while we're in town that I could see. I'll have to check again on Monday.
----------------------------------------
Saturday I woke up semi-early to do laundry and type this blog up.
I bought Jameson's birthday present, edited more MFF lists, and kept refreshing the Biden Student Load Forgiveness beta page, which Jameson was kind enough to send me last night. Eventually I got through and was able to apply!
At the theater our show went well, nice crowd, everything was fine.
During intermission I tripped on the stairs and nearly ate sh*t. My high heel caught in my wide-leg pants as I was stepping (was going too fast). Somehow I managed to not fall by doing a weird hopping thing until my heel was untangled.
All that happened was I bruised my arm a bit when it hit a light switch box on the wall as I flailed to stabilize myself.
The menfolk were very impressed that I was able to catch myself. So was I for that matter.
Back at the hotel just some chilling and dinner before the night show, which went well. Lots of laughs.
----------------------------------------
Sunday, a chill morning with breakfast and starting to pack.
I felt tired for no reason...maybe the weather, which has been overcast.
Both shows went well. In between I ate my meals, packed more, cleaned up, watched Made in Abyss and Great British Bake-Off.
And after the last show, time to pack it up and say goodbye to Grand Rapids.
For the fourth time in my life.
----------------------------------------
On Monday we are leaving rather late, and we have two flights and a long bus ride, so won't arrive in Wilmington NC until 8 or 9pm.
We're stopping at a Pilot on the way, so that's where I'll probably have to pick up dinner and breakfast for the next day.
Then Tuesday we'll have one show before moving on to Lexington, KY for four days.
That flight is late too, so these will be long travel days.
The goal is to endure all that, play some great shows, and make it to Providence RI, where we will have a 6-day stay.
Sorry not sorry.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Thursday it was still cloudy and rainy, and it's getting colder too.
I'm going to have to start getting used to walking in the rain and cold again.
I made a TikTok for the first few days in Grand Rapids (HERE)
And here's one that can serve as a TL;DR for the below blog, since I know people don't like reading and actively thinking about things (HERE)
Sometimes I'm just not in the mood to put forth the effort to make these videos on top of everything else.
But every day while I'm traveling between cities, or eating great food, or exploring, or doing meal prep...whatever I'm doing, it's always in the back of my mind that I wish everyone could experience all of these things. Both the good and the bad. To me, it's a privilege and a dream. To others it's probably a horror show lol. Still, I want to share as much of it as I can for those who are intrigued or interested or want to be here but can't.
Anyway, I had a slow morning of creating the TikTok, taking the weekly covid test, and doing some data entry.
For lunch I had planned to get a lobster roll from Downtown Market...but can you guess how much lobster rolls are going for these days?
THIRTY-FOUR DOLLARS. Yeah, no, not paying $34 for a sandwich!!
So instead I walked to Two Beards, an infamous local deli where they've got around 100 sandwiches to choose from, all named after celebrities (or musicians, or politicians, etc).
Cute cafe-like setting, and it was very busy right at noon. Construction workers, students, dudes in suits, DoorDashers...the locals know this is where to get a great lunch at a good price.
I chose the Samuel L. Jackson: grilled chicken with smoked gouda, roasted apples, spinach, and walnut honey mustard on white roll.
Tasty as heck! And also a HUGE sandwich; the piece I'm holding there is half of a "half"!
My only regret is that I didn't swap out the white roll for a pretzel roll instead. Note to self if there's a next time.
After that tasty lunch I had a nice walk to the Grand Rapids Art Museum.
It's a pretty small museum with only three floors, but a nice selection of art that gets rotated out frequently.
My favorite two arts of the day:
I think this was called "Dawn Launch" or something, and the artist was from Maine.
This one struck a chord with me, because of the lighting in the painting making it seem like the long shadows of fall:
...and also because there were images hidden under the paint.
People as part of the land.
Maybe because I'm currently reading The Grapes of Wrath, I felt something when I looked at this artwork.
The main draw today, however, was The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited.
As a child of the 80s, Jim Henson movies, shows, and creations were a core part of my childhood.
Looking at these puppets felt the same as being in the presence of a celebrity: I felt excited and a little giddy, and like I needed to keep it together lol. I couldn't photograph everything...there were a lot of little TV screens throughout the exhibition, playing snippets from some of Henson's earliest works (Sam and Friends) and lots of screens flipping through scripts and concept art and production notes, even some handwritten musical scores. It was all fascinating, and even though the exhibit was fairly small I spent a good amount of time, making sure to read every placard and moving in chronological order.
Bert and Ernie, of course! The stripes of Bert's shirt are nostalgic for me.
Even as a child I remember how expressive Ernie's hands were, and I love how the puppet has been posed to capture that here.
Concept art for Cookie Monster:
Miss Piggy's gloves:
Got hit with a huge wave of nostalgia upon seeing this display of Oscar the Grouch's pet worm, Slimey.
There were so many little skits with Slimey, and I had forgotten all about him!
Here he is performing with the "Wriggling Brothers" circus! Lol!
Of course it wasn't all about Sesame Street and The Muppets.
My heart skipped a beat as I turned a corner and found an entire section dedicated to The Dark Crystal.
My absolute favorite Henson work, and honestly one of my favorite movies of all time.
Seeing puppets, notes, and props from this movie in person was incredible for a Dark Crystal nerd like me.
What blows me away about The Dark Crystal is the DETAIL.
The handmade, exquisite, gorgeously crafted detail that went into Every Single Piece Of That Set.
From the puppets themselves, down to background pieces that are barely noticed, and individual blades of grass in the fantasy world that was created to make this vision come to life. It's just astounding.
There were other sections for things like Fraggle Rock, Labyrinth, and some of his more obscure concept movies.
I enjoyed every part of the exhibit. Great way to spend the afternoon, savoring some lovely childhood nostalgia :)
I had planned to hit an antique store after that but it was later than I expected, so I went back to the hotel instead to rest a bit and get cleaned up.
The evening show was well attended, and went smoothly.
----------------------------------------
Friday, basically the whole day free.
I woke up a little later than usual but still made time for data entry before heading out to do some thrifting.
By the time I got to the thrift store, though, I felt very hungry, so didn't look as thoroughly as usual.
I did get some phone-friendly gloves because they were only $3, and I need to take better care of my hands in cold weather (I catagorically don't wear gloves when I should).
From there I popped into a grocery for a few pieces of fruit for Monday's travels, and then into a little bagel place too because bagels are a great travel food. This cafe had a dukkah bagel and a togarashi bagel! I got one of each to try.
Then I walked another mile to The Electric Cheetah for lunch.
Another lovely interior. It was pretty busy in there, clearly a much-loved lunch spot.
I got the walleye filet served on farro "risotto" with carrots, roasted asparagus, and a cherry buerre blanc.
The fish filet was kinda mangled, but whitefish is so freaking delicate and tough to handle and it was cooked perfectly besides.
Farro is one of my favorite grains, so earthy and satisfying.
What really brought this together, though, was the buerre blanc and those tart cherries.
It was both rich and acidic, and complemented everything so well.
A very delicious final meal out here in Grand Rapids.
Next stop was Century Antiques. I have been to this store many times before...it's become kind of a nostalgic thing to do I guess!
Back in 2014 Jameson and I were with the circus, and we were playing a game called Ingress.
Ingress was developed by the same people who eventually came up with Pokemon GO, and has a lot of the same features: you visit landmarks (portals) and capture things (in Ingress it was the portal itself; in Pokemon GO obviously it's pokemon).
Back then you could request that a landmark, statue, or building be made into a portal.
I submitted a request for this antique shop to be made into a portal. And it was!
Notice the date on this screenshot.
And here is my photo from today. Hasn't changed a bit. If people still play Ingress, then this is still a portal, created by me :)
I went inside and poked around, but only for nostalgia's sake. It was just as I remembered it, cluttered and full of fun things.
Walked back to the hotel. As I got to the parking lot I saw a FedEx truck pull in ahead of me, so checked at the front counter to see if my in ears had been delivered. Yes they had!
These are in ears...or rather, in ear molds.
Each one has a little "R" or "L" to indicate the right or left ear.
In Rochester I went to an audiologist who pumped my ear canal full of a rubber polymer.
This solidified to make a mold, which was then sent off to Sensaphonics.
I chose a custom, sparkly color (if you don't choose a color they'll be opaque like dried glue) and gave them two addresses for hotels coming up on tour, with instructions to send to one or the other depending on when the in ears were completed. A few days ago I heard from my Sensaphonics rep that the molds were done and would be arriving in a few days.
And here they are. I tried them on and it's a good fit.
For those who don't get what these are for, they're basically custom ear buds for headphones.
I wear headphones in the show because we play along with tracked instruments and also a click track so that we are all in time together.
We also each have a microphone for our instruments, and can hear each other and adjust individual levels using an Aviom mixer.
Using custom molds ensures a snug fit, helps cut out audience and background noise, and improves sound such that you don't need to turn your volume up quite as high, preserving your hearing. That's what these are for.
The molds came with this cute carrying case and a note from the rep: "Break an upper palate!"
This is a reference to a story she told me about how a cast member in her show was hit by a city bus and broke her upper palate.
From then on, all of the cast involved in that show would say, "Break an upper palate!" instead of "Break a leg!"
I had a few hours of relaxing before the evening show.
Went in a few minutes early to get my ear molds onto the actual headphones (we call them "monitors").
They fit well. The best part is that unlike my older set, these won't slide off the monitors, they wrap around the entire earpiece.
Awesome! A huge improvement already.
The show went well, the audience was SCREAMING with laughter at the "Jeff Sums It Up" part after intermission.
Some people were laughing so hard they were coughing. Don't die, folks!
Back at the hotel I had to fix my MFF sheet for Wilmington NC because we're only there for one day, Tuesday, and one of the restaurants that I listed was not open on on Tuesdays. Of course, it's the one I actually wanted to visit. Gah! This prompted me to check all of the other restuarants on the list, and a few of them had random "temporarily closed" days upcoming, but none while we're in town that I could see. I'll have to check again on Monday.
----------------------------------------
Saturday I woke up semi-early to do laundry and type this blog up.
I bought Jameson's birthday present, edited more MFF lists, and kept refreshing the Biden Student Load Forgiveness beta page, which Jameson was kind enough to send me last night. Eventually I got through and was able to apply!
At the theater our show went well, nice crowd, everything was fine.
During intermission I tripped on the stairs and nearly ate sh*t. My high heel caught in my wide-leg pants as I was stepping (was going too fast). Somehow I managed to not fall by doing a weird hopping thing until my heel was untangled.
All that happened was I bruised my arm a bit when it hit a light switch box on the wall as I flailed to stabilize myself.
The menfolk were very impressed that I was able to catch myself. So was I for that matter.
Back at the hotel just some chilling and dinner before the night show, which went well. Lots of laughs.
----------------------------------------
Sunday, a chill morning with breakfast and starting to pack.
I felt tired for no reason...maybe the weather, which has been overcast.
Both shows went well. In between I ate my meals, packed more, cleaned up, watched Made in Abyss and Great British Bake-Off.
And after the last show, time to pack it up and say goodbye to Grand Rapids.
For the fourth time in my life.
----------------------------------------
On Monday we are leaving rather late, and we have two flights and a long bus ride, so won't arrive in Wilmington NC until 8 or 9pm.
We're stopping at a Pilot on the way, so that's where I'll probably have to pick up dinner and breakfast for the next day.
Then Tuesday we'll have one show before moving on to Lexington, KY for four days.
That flight is late too, so these will be long travel days.
The goal is to endure all that, play some great shows, and make it to Providence RI, where we will have a 6-day stay.
