Tootsie Yr2: Knoxville Part 2
As-planned on Thursday, I did a few hours of data entry before allowing myself to go explore.
The weather was a bit colder but nice, 50-something degrees and sunny.
First I went to the Knoxville Art Museum, since it's FREE.
It's small, but there was some great art on display!
The bottom level had mostly glassworks, which were difficult to photography so I'm sorry I can't share them :/
The middle level had a special display on lithographs.
I had NO IDEA how complex lithographs used to be!
What's this about having to use LIMESTONE?! And run it through a scanner/printer multiple times?? Crazy!!
(See a great short description with GIFs of the process HERE)
Here was my favorite lithograph of the day. I loved the texture the artist got out of it.
The top level featured an entire gallery dedicated to student art!
This was awesome. Kids are so creative!! Many pieces of art resonated with me, more than I could photograph, but here are some of my favorites of the day:
9th grader: “Behold and Not Behold, My Future"
12th grader: “Cyber Insecurity" (done on an iPad)
11th grader: “Monster I”
7th grade: “Lovin’ from the Oven”
8th grader: “An Eggstatic Life”
I took pics of several others, which you can see on my Insta or Facebook if you follow me there.
There were many more pieces with darker and more serious themes too; these are just the ones that appealed to me today.
Back outside I walked over to Cruze Farms for some ice cream!
They're a local dairy farm, and they sell soft serve made with their own milk and cream.
They also sell milk, pints of ice cream, and lots of merch in the form of shirts and stickers and pins and such.
And they partner with local businesses to include some of their goods in the ice cream, too!
(I was so tempted by the red velvet shake, omg)
The flavors are seasonal, so right now they've got "iced hot chocolate" and "candy cane" and such.
I chose a swirl of butterscotch + snow cream (it's just vanilla):
The texture was VERY good, super smooth and no ice crystals.
And the butterscotch flavor was just perfect. I could have eaten that all day haha.
I continued walking as I finished my cone, but didn't go far because I had to type up this post and have a little rest time before the show tonight.
The show went well, I think we all did a good job and the audience gave a standing ovation.
--------------------------------------------------------
Friday I woke up at 7am to walk to the Marriott to do laundry (our Hyatt has an agreement that guests can go over there for this service).
The woman at the front desk seemed either not very bright, or out of it.
I explained to her that I was coming over from the Hyatt. She nodded like she wasn't surprised and then asked if I needed quarters. I said yes please, and handed her a $20. She looked absolutely astounded. "Do you want me to break this into smaller bills?"
I said, "No, I want a roll of quarters for $10 please, and $10 back."
But she still seemed super confused, so I dug around until I found a $10, and she seemed relieved and got the quarters.
Then I continued standing there, and she raised her eyebrows at me and said, "Can I help you with anything else?"
"....Yes," I said, "Don't I need a key card to access the laundry room?"
"Yes," she said, nodding, and made me up a key card.
Then more raised eyebrows, so I had to ask where the laundry room was.
It wasn't just me either; as I walked away I heard the woman behind me asked where they gym was located, and she was given the gym's hours and rules...but not where it was located. She had to ask a second time.
Maybe front desk chick hadn't had her coffee yet. Just weird.
Anyway, laundry was boring, I spent the time updating my Foodie Finds sheets for upcoming cities and responding to some emails.
Back at the hotel I put away clothes, breakfast and data entry until it was time for lunch with Sam (keyboard).
We went to Potchke, a Polish/Ukranian/Jewish deli that just opened in March.
This restaurant didn't come up in my food research probably because it's so new, but the cashier at Mast General Store aggressively insisted that I "HAD" to eat here, plus I overheard people talking about it straight up on the street, PLUS they have amazing reviews. And then Sam said he wanted to come along...so off we went!
We almost didn't see it at first--it's a pop-up restaurant, so it's using a borrowed space--but I spotted a paper in a window that read "POTCHKE", and that was it. It was a sunny little cafe and in the display case right when you walked in were the most perfect, unreal babka buns I have ever seen.
They had chocolate, plain, orange pistachio, and even a savory "everything" babka.
It was so, so, SO hard to grit my teeth and tear myself away from buying one. But I did it, barely.
Sam got some potato blintzes that looked delicious, while I had the matzo ball soup.
This isn't traditional matzo; it's zhuzhed up with loads of herbs, amba (a type of mango chutney), and chili crisp.
The sweet tart mango and the spicy chili bits made this SO GOOD. Super flavorful! I absolutely loved it.
It came with a small "vitamin salad" which was shredded carrots, celery, cabbage, beets, peppers, and apples in a tarragon vinaigrette.
It was tangy and VERY good.
That matzo ball was gigantic, and I felt bad that I couldn't eat it all, but I managed 2/3rds of it.
We walked our meal off, chatting about this and that, musician stuff, tour stuff, career stuff.
It was nice to have company, and learn more about one of my awesome coworkers :)
In all honesty, I had just walked back to the hotel with Sam to be polite!
As soon as we got back I turned back around and started walking to Knoxville's Old Gray Cemetery.
It's the second-oldest cemetery in Knoxville, and has many big monuments and small unmarked graves.
As I wandered I tried to find "the oldest grave". The oldest one I found today was someone born in 1902.
This monument to a child was beautiful, even more so with the effect of the light on my phone lens.
Someone had put coins in her lap. Standing next to her did feel oddly like standing next to a person.
Most of the stones here are made of marble, which is softer than granite so decays more rapidly, BUT can be carved deeply and intricately into more beautiful designs. As demonstrated by the Mead monument.
This one was carved to look like a tree. There were other headstones similar to this but this was the most ornate that I saw. Most of the tree-shaped ones had Mason or other "secret organization" symbols somewhere on them, so I suppose it was a popular headstone style for those types of groups at the time.
This one REALLY caught my attention.
It depicts a train crossing a collapsing bridge.
I tried to read the words but it was very difficult.
Upon resesarching at home, there are several victims of the 1904 New Market train wreck buried in this cemetery.
That didn't involve a bridge, though, and I haven't found more about it yet.
It was a lovely walk, and put me in a peaceful frame of mind.
I walked back to the hotel and chilled out until showtime.
The show went well, and Clayton (reeds) is going to be moving on to play for Beetlejuice, so his replacement was in the pit auditing.
His name is Christian, and hopefully he'll enjoy working with us!
-----------------------------------------------------------
Saturday was nice and chill. I had breakfast and did data entry in the morning, and watched some anime, and ate lunch.
Then a show at 2pm, and we had an excellent audience that was enthusiastic and laughed their heads off :)
Christian has already asked to be added to my Foodie Finds! Someone clued him in haha.
During the break I had a light dinner and watched anime and tried to plan for the travel day. Mostly meal planning, deciding how much food to bring vs how much to buy at the airport, checking the weather for a walk to a grocery once we're in town, stuff like that.
The evening show went well, another great crowd.
It was Clayton's (reed) last show with us, and he informed me later he'd saved his last homemade caramel as a treat for when his run with us was over. Awww!
----------------------------------------------------------
Sunday. I didn't sleep well, on one hand because people came back to the hotel at 4am being super loud and obnoxious, on the other probably because I went to bed hungry and my tummy woke me up to complain. And also, my brain chose that time to remind me that I'd left my Tootsie umbrella at Olibea. Sigh. And of course it's RAINING this morning so I'll have to walk in the rain to go get it. Irony!
Had breakfast and snagged a bagel and apple from the hotel breakfast bar, to be eaten on the travel day.
The bus arrives at 6:30am, so it's gonna be an early one.
It was already starting to pour around 9:30 so I decided to wait to go get the umbrella.
Meanwhile I started packing, did some data entry, and watched anime.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Other stuff:
Walk to the theatre with me!
TikTok by @tromboneontour
I've uploaded a clip of myself playing Willie Colon's "Idilio" on the Ruby Princess in 2019.
This is just the trombone highlights for portfolio purposes; if you want the full uncut song, it's HERE.
TikTok by @tromboneontour
The weather was a bit colder but nice, 50-something degrees and sunny.
First I went to the Knoxville Art Museum, since it's FREE.
It's small, but there was some great art on display!
The bottom level had mostly glassworks, which were difficult to photography so I'm sorry I can't share them :/
The middle level had a special display on lithographs.
I had NO IDEA how complex lithographs used to be!
What's this about having to use LIMESTONE?! And run it through a scanner/printer multiple times?? Crazy!!
(See a great short description with GIFs of the process HERE)
Here was my favorite lithograph of the day. I loved the texture the artist got out of it.
The top level featured an entire gallery dedicated to student art!
This was awesome. Kids are so creative!! Many pieces of art resonated with me, more than I could photograph, but here are some of my favorites of the day:
9th grader: “Behold and Not Behold, My Future"
12th grader: “Cyber Insecurity" (done on an iPad)
11th grader: “Monster I”
7th grade: “Lovin’ from the Oven”
8th grader: “An Eggstatic Life”
I took pics of several others, which you can see on my Insta or Facebook if you follow me there.
There were many more pieces with darker and more serious themes too; these are just the ones that appealed to me today.
Back outside I walked over to Cruze Farms for some ice cream!
They're a local dairy farm, and they sell soft serve made with their own milk and cream.
They also sell milk, pints of ice cream, and lots of merch in the form of shirts and stickers and pins and such.
And they partner with local businesses to include some of their goods in the ice cream, too!
(I was so tempted by the red velvet shake, omg)
The flavors are seasonal, so right now they've got "iced hot chocolate" and "candy cane" and such.
I chose a swirl of butterscotch + snow cream (it's just vanilla):
The texture was VERY good, super smooth and no ice crystals.
And the butterscotch flavor was just perfect. I could have eaten that all day haha.
I continued walking as I finished my cone, but didn't go far because I had to type up this post and have a little rest time before the show tonight.
The show went well, I think we all did a good job and the audience gave a standing ovation.
--------------------------------------------------------
Friday I woke up at 7am to walk to the Marriott to do laundry (our Hyatt has an agreement that guests can go over there for this service).
The woman at the front desk seemed either not very bright, or out of it.
I explained to her that I was coming over from the Hyatt. She nodded like she wasn't surprised and then asked if I needed quarters. I said yes please, and handed her a $20. She looked absolutely astounded. "Do you want me to break this into smaller bills?"
I said, "No, I want a roll of quarters for $10 please, and $10 back."
But she still seemed super confused, so I dug around until I found a $10, and she seemed relieved and got the quarters.
Then I continued standing there, and she raised her eyebrows at me and said, "Can I help you with anything else?"
"....Yes," I said, "Don't I need a key card to access the laundry room?"
"Yes," she said, nodding, and made me up a key card.
Then more raised eyebrows, so I had to ask where the laundry room was.
It wasn't just me either; as I walked away I heard the woman behind me asked where they gym was located, and she was given the gym's hours and rules...but not where it was located. She had to ask a second time.
Maybe front desk chick hadn't had her coffee yet. Just weird.
Anyway, laundry was boring, I spent the time updating my Foodie Finds sheets for upcoming cities and responding to some emails.
Back at the hotel I put away clothes, breakfast and data entry until it was time for lunch with Sam (keyboard).
We went to Potchke, a Polish/Ukranian/Jewish deli that just opened in March.
This restaurant didn't come up in my food research probably because it's so new, but the cashier at Mast General Store aggressively insisted that I "HAD" to eat here, plus I overheard people talking about it straight up on the street, PLUS they have amazing reviews. And then Sam said he wanted to come along...so off we went!
We almost didn't see it at first--it's a pop-up restaurant, so it's using a borrowed space--but I spotted a paper in a window that read "POTCHKE", and that was it. It was a sunny little cafe and in the display case right when you walked in were the most perfect, unreal babka buns I have ever seen.
They had chocolate, plain, orange pistachio, and even a savory "everything" babka.
It was so, so, SO hard to grit my teeth and tear myself away from buying one. But I did it, barely.
Sam got some potato blintzes that looked delicious, while I had the matzo ball soup.
This isn't traditional matzo; it's zhuzhed up with loads of herbs, amba (a type of mango chutney), and chili crisp.
The sweet tart mango and the spicy chili bits made this SO GOOD. Super flavorful! I absolutely loved it.
It came with a small "vitamin salad" which was shredded carrots, celery, cabbage, beets, peppers, and apples in a tarragon vinaigrette.
It was tangy and VERY good.
That matzo ball was gigantic, and I felt bad that I couldn't eat it all, but I managed 2/3rds of it.
We walked our meal off, chatting about this and that, musician stuff, tour stuff, career stuff.
It was nice to have company, and learn more about one of my awesome coworkers :)
In all honesty, I had just walked back to the hotel with Sam to be polite!
As soon as we got back I turned back around and started walking to Knoxville's Old Gray Cemetery.
It's the second-oldest cemetery in Knoxville, and has many big monuments and small unmarked graves.
As I wandered I tried to find "the oldest grave". The oldest one I found today was someone born in 1902.
This monument to a child was beautiful, even more so with the effect of the light on my phone lens.
Someone had put coins in her lap. Standing next to her did feel oddly like standing next to a person.
Most of the stones here are made of marble, which is softer than granite so decays more rapidly, BUT can be carved deeply and intricately into more beautiful designs. As demonstrated by the Mead monument.
This one was carved to look like a tree. There were other headstones similar to this but this was the most ornate that I saw. Most of the tree-shaped ones had Mason or other "secret organization" symbols somewhere on them, so I suppose it was a popular headstone style for those types of groups at the time.
This one REALLY caught my attention.
It depicts a train crossing a collapsing bridge.
I tried to read the words but it was very difficult.
Upon resesarching at home, there are several victims of the 1904 New Market train wreck buried in this cemetery.
That didn't involve a bridge, though, and I haven't found more about it yet.
It was a lovely walk, and put me in a peaceful frame of mind.
I walked back to the hotel and chilled out until showtime.
The show went well, and Clayton (reeds) is going to be moving on to play for Beetlejuice, so his replacement was in the pit auditing.
His name is Christian, and hopefully he'll enjoy working with us!
-----------------------------------------------------------
Saturday was nice and chill. I had breakfast and did data entry in the morning, and watched some anime, and ate lunch.
Then a show at 2pm, and we had an excellent audience that was enthusiastic and laughed their heads off :)
Christian has already asked to be added to my Foodie Finds! Someone clued him in haha.
During the break I had a light dinner and watched anime and tried to plan for the travel day. Mostly meal planning, deciding how much food to bring vs how much to buy at the airport, checking the weather for a walk to a grocery once we're in town, stuff like that.
The evening show went well, another great crowd.
It was Clayton's (reed) last show with us, and he informed me later he'd saved his last homemade caramel as a treat for when his run with us was over. Awww!
----------------------------------------------------------
Sunday. I didn't sleep well, on one hand because people came back to the hotel at 4am being super loud and obnoxious, on the other probably because I went to bed hungry and my tummy woke me up to complain. And also, my brain chose that time to remind me that I'd left my Tootsie umbrella at Olibea. Sigh. And of course it's RAINING this morning so I'll have to walk in the rain to go get it. Irony!
Had breakfast and snagged a bagel and apple from the hotel breakfast bar, to be eaten on the travel day.
The bus arrives at 6:30am, so it's gonna be an early one.
It was already starting to pour around 9:30 so I decided to wait to go get the umbrella.
Meanwhile I started packing, did some data entry, and watched anime.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Other stuff:
Walk to the theatre with me!
TikTok by @tromboneontour
I've uploaded a clip of myself playing Willie Colon's "Idilio" on the Ruby Princess in 2019.
This is just the trombone highlights for portfolio purposes; if you want the full uncut song, it's HERE.
TikTok by @tromboneontour