Today’s after National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo). Withdrawal? Confusion? Overload. Why are electrical plugs called outlets when people pour so much back what’s plugged into them?

Playing with http://thatcan.be/my/next/tweet while listening to WWOZ’s Piano Night. Speaks volumes how they still broadcast their fundraiser. The live performance must be up past 11, as I’m about to be.

With enough work, all up here, also realize we’re quite educational.

I hide behind the stupid typo. Oh, those of skill, but they have to know what’s definite, so I ran away.

Puppies have to let people use their prices. Funny how many ways. Oh, no, rather than the systemic!

Yes, yes I propose a quick, easy method, and purposefully broadcast ignorance subjected to eat them.

With all the t-world for driving in circles to cable news. And just plain tired.

Tired of ‘emergencies.’ I said retort with all up now. I thought of business.

And there just was a wonderful rendition of Louisiana 1927. It’s well past my bed time, but the music is so good.

From fourty thousand feet it all should look
so still but still its not but still esprit
and shifting down below perception’s brook
with current rivers flowing on the sea.

Now streams are passed from stewardess to us
and so we downed them just to be polite
to her and to the flows of daily trust
when midnight catches us surprised in flight.

Then ice and land and clouds at once all flow,
together slipping past at our full speed.
The ground approaches upward and we grow
toward it more soft with our eroded need.

These images wash out by jet-lagged night.
Exhaustion’s wind did drive this surreal flight.

The last leg of my flight from Atlanta to Anchorage was a bit uncomfortable. Let’s just say there were three seats holding at least the weight of five to six people. And I had the window seat. The view was my escape.

As were the lines from this week’s final Big Tent Poetry prompt. Thanks to Joseph Harker for the lines. And thanks to Carolee Sherwood, Deb Scott, and Jill Crammond for running BTP!

If I intend to try more sonnets, I need to re-read my Byron.

5/23/2011

5/5 stars

They serve an honest po'boy up in the frozen hinterlands. The key? *Crunch*. Real bread means a real po'boy. And the gumbo was rich in sea bugs and everything else. Their special was dirt cheap compared to the amount of filling food.

Yeah, sure, it may not be as "authentic" as a Louisiana home meal, but it's far closer than some of the schlock served near the New Orleans convention hotels. Plus quick and cheap. If I were up here during the actual cold season (not summer), I'd probably live at this place.

Yelp tags: Food Southern

5/23/2011

3/5 stars

It's still airport food, but at least places on the west coast get one thing right: sticky rice. No Uncle Ben's here. Otherwise, the katsu sauce was one of the major brands. The gyoza were a nice touch. Being able to shovel the rice into my mouth while my flight was boarding definitely was a winner.

I feel bad leaving this at three stars. In most of the US airports, Asian fast-food is so disgusting that I lose my appetite from the smell. This wasn't bad. But it wasn't good enough to bump out of three stars. If you're in Concourse C, this probably is the best food. It's fast enough for you to reach your connection.

Yelp tags: Asian Fusion Sushi Bars Japanese

5/27/2011

3/5 stars

Firmly ok. The coffee's quite good; they seem to stick to rather up-front, clean varietals. The space is comfortable if a tad sterile. The hours aren't bad. The location is great, and there's no push for you to leave quickly. Kaladi's a good stalwart against the ultra-corporate homogenized places.

I twitch a bit at the misinformation on some of the large coffee posters, however. High-altitude is not synonymous with good, and the implication that lower altitude coffee is of lesser quality is utterly wrong. Similarly, storing coffee isn't as simple a trade-off as depicted.

But their specific style of coffee is quite good.

Yelp tags: Coffee & Tea

5/27/2011

4/5 stars

I'm so glad the conference hotel was booked up. I found an inlet-facing, relaxing room here. Copper Whale sits between the Earth and Mars on the planet walk, is only about 2-3 blocks from the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail along the inlet, and is 5 (very short) blocks from the "arts" area on G Street (aka Darwin's). The walk to the anti-labor hotel hosting my conference was a bit longer but well worth it. Pretty much everything in Downtown Anchorage is an easy walk from here, and likely an even easier bike ride. And a bonus: This was less expensive than the conference hotel. This trip was taxpayer-funded, so that means something to me.

I was here for work, so I wasn't able to fully enjoy the B&B aspect. However, breakfast was available early enough to enjoy it out in the spring air. Quite nice coming from 90 degree weather in May. Here the tulips hadn't even opened. Ferns still were unfurling. Nice.

The folks here answered questions over email while I was in flight. I had forgotten that I'd be checking in very late (AKDT), but they have an easy way to handle it. I had to check out too early, but they seem ready to handle just about anything. Wi-Fi performance was better than at most hotels I've seen.

I chose the shared bathroom option. Not a problem considering I was only there to sleep. Well, except for that one night/morning families with teen girls stayed there…

Yelp tags: Hotels Bed & Breakfast