Tootsie Yr2: Cincinnati part 3
Last week, I posted all about Jungle Jim's because it took up SO MUCH. Time, media, and words, lol.
But other things happened too!
I met up with my boss Brett again on Wednesday, he took me to Pappadeaux for lunch because I'd never been.
We had alligator bites for the appetizer, and they were really good! Best alligator bites I've ever had actually.
We both had fish for our mains, cajun catfish with shrimp etouffee for him and tilapia with hazelnuts for me.
It was very good, the fish was perfect. I only wish they'd chopped up the hazelnuts, it was weird chasing whole hazelnuts around the plate.
As we ate we talked. About lots of things.
How we're doing. Misc health issues that we've noticed as we've gotten older, and lowering tolerances to things like alcohol and dairy and fatty foods. Other circus people and how they're currently doing. Circus family who have passed away, and memories that we had of them. Our plans for the future.
It was great. Brett is someone that I consider a true friend...someone who was there for a very important part of my life, and who guided me through a lot of that, and continues to support me today despite all of my shortcomings. He and his family are precious to me, and getting to spend time with him today was a true joy and a memory that I'll cherish :)
After lunch Brett said, "Let's go to Jungle Jim's!!"
I laughed helplessly and said yes, of course!
We parked at Rhino. Inside we poked through alcohol, but Brett doesn't drink any more and I drink very little so it was mostly just window shopping. I went back to the cookware section and found a silicone grippy thing that I'd wanted and hadn't gotten, it'll help me pick up my hot Itaki containers instead of using my sleeve or a paper towel. Brett found a promising-looking low-carb bread, and I discovered a powdered egg white mix to supplement my protein intake. We dug through the European candies looking for Polish "birds milk" chocolates but didn't find them.
Overall I hardly bought anything, but enjoyed having a second chance to look at the aisles and ask myself if there was anything I'd forgotten on the first trip. Nope! All good.
From there we went to Brett's house just a few minutes away.
Brett gave me a Ziploc full of beef jerky that he'd made himself, insisting that I try a piece to make sure I'd like it.
You guys, it's REALLY good! It's very dry and almost crispy, which is how I personally believe homemade jerky should be. When I was little I used to go to the Bloomsburg Fair specifically for the homemade jerky sold under the bleacher seats, and it was just like this, super dry and peppery and just fantastic. Good freaking job, Brettastic!!
He also gave me a big jar of honey that had fallen off his Amazon truck and he'd been allowed to keep.
I'll be sharing that with the production office as they keep honey on hand for tea, so the whole company can enjoy it :)
Brett brought me back to the hotel and we hugged goodbye. I'll miss him, but it was wonderful to see him again!
------------------------------------------------
Shows have been going well. Soto (MD) is back on the bandstand, and I'm sure it won't be long before we all get notes on how we're playing (a good and normal thing...always strive to improve!).
The cast took a day trip to the zoo and got to see the hippos, I don't know if they were able to interact but they did get to watch a feeding so that was cool! I also saw from their pictures that more mammals were out, including lions and giraffes and such. Everyone seemed to have a great experience.
There were also other carpools to Jungle Jim's, so I'm seeing lots of international snacks around the production office and in dressing rooms. Oh, and company management got us some local ice cream from Graeter's! I couldn't partake because I was already having a bad lactose reaction (too much dairy overall this week but especially the black raspberry milk) but it looked delicious and was very nice of them to do that for us.
-----------------------------------------------------
On Thursday I had a slow morning, and spent most of that typing up the massive blog post for Jungle Jim's.
After that I got a few supplemental groceries, just some Greek yogurt and fruit, and had lunch before taking myself on an adventure across the river to Kentucky!
The view of Cincinnati was nice.
It was a balmy 60F and partly sunny. My excessively shiny shoes flashed in the sun as I walked, and brought me joy :D
The bridge.
The bridge walkway, which looks like an add-on or afterthought. Definitely feels kinda dangly.
Halfway across the bridge, the Welcome to Kentucky sign.
On the other side you can go directly onto Main Street. Very hipster vibes, cute overpriced shops.
There were two occult shops, and those are always fun for the looking so I popped in and wasn't disappointed.
Skulls skulls everywhere.
Even some animals in jars.
Loads of taxidermied heads, and foxes and raccoons and badgers and such that I didn't photograph.
One of the shops had records for sale.
And a two-headed snake skeleton, framed.
There were also deer and coyote jawbones, which I guess are used for decoration or jewelry (they all had holes in one end, like for hanging or running a necklace chain through), and lots of crystals, incense, tarot decks, etc etc.
I enjoyed looking and felt bed for not buying anything.
On the way back there was a train going by overhead, that was cool.
All in all it was a 4-mile walk plus the mile to the theatre that night, so I had good cardio today.
While waiting for the elevator I was staring blankly out the 9th floor window, and was startled to notice some beehives on the roof.
These are a collaboration between the hotel and Fifty West Brewing Company.
They use honey from the hives, and lavender from the rooftop garden, to create a beer called "NP Buzz".
I don't drink beer, but maybe I'll have to try it before we leave!
The show went well, nothing to report. Supposedly there was a "Cincinnati trombonist of note" in the audience, but I heard about this secondhand and post-show so there was nothing that I could do about it.
-------------------------------------------------------
Friday I woke to a dreary rainy day. It's good that I got a walk in yesterday!
I decided to try out some more of my unique international foods today.
- Evergreen Coconut Milk Drink, Banana flavor: this was very good! Creamy banana coconut beverage with little cubes of coconut jelly. However the label clearly says "NON-DAIRY" but the ingredients list SODIUM CASIENATE which is from milk!! So if you are vegan this is still not for you.
- Wild Boar Jerky: tasty! This was real whole strips of feral pig. Was it good, yes. Was it worth how much real feral pig costs? Not really!
- Empire Spruce Soda: Blech. Tasted just like pine sap. Worse than that, it was nearly flat, not bubbly at all. Glad to try it but not for me.
- Granadilla Pulp: it's just passionfruit pulp, so it was delicious :)
- Vedshakti Toothpaste: Not bad! The color of the toothpaste reminded me of red clay. Sort of a "brick" color.
The overwhelming flavor was of clove, which was fine with me. It was a little sweet I guess, but mostly herbs and clove.
There may have even been a little spiciness to it, but there are loads of herbs and even fruit extracts in here that I have NO clue what they are, so I don't know which would have caused the spicy aftertaste.
Not sure if this is true for everyone, but for me clove causes a mild and temporary numbing sensation of my tongue and throat.
This is why I sometimes carry clove candies, because it helps me out with motion sickness.
Anyway, it's a nice toothpaste and I'll use up the tube. Now I'd like to try the herbal one as well!
Before lunch I got a little bored, so walked a mile to OTR Bagel Bar to get my Travel Bagel for Monday.
They have weird flavors like Fruity Pebbles and Flamin' Hot Cheeto bagels.
They were out of Fruity Pebbles so I got graham cracker instead.
On the walk back I asked Jameson to check on my plants, especially the vanilla orchid as I wanted to know how the flower bud is developing.
Here is what the vanilla bud looked like before I left three weeks ago:
And here it is today! WOW!!! That's a cluster of flowers!!
I hope they can hold off blooming until I get back!
But if not, I still have to be grateful that it bloomed at all!
And that wasn't all. MY BANANA TREE HAS FINALLY FRUITED!!!!!!
You guys!! I'm so excited!!
Two years ago I planted two banana pups, which have grown taller than me and multiplied into six trees.
February 2021 after putting the pups in the ground:
The largest tree, which is the one fruiting right now, has been through a lot.
Here it is after one of TWO frosts that it endured:
And here it is after Hurricane Ian came through and knocked it completely over.
It's a screenshot from a video that Jameson took, sorry for the low quality.
After that I thought it was pretty much finished and would either die or never fruit.
But it surprised us all by growing a pup underneath itself, and pushing itself back up!!
Here you can see the pup, almost as tall as the original tree, their trunks right next to each other and both trees upright.
Photo taken three weeks ago.
All of this makes it EVEN MORE impressive that this tree is fruiting!
Sidenote, my neighbor Tom is going to be super pissed!
We planted banana trees at the same time, but after the first year he dug his up and replaced it with a larger one because he wasn't satisfied with how it was growing (that is CHEATING). But he planted the new tree in the same spot, and treated it the same way, so I'm not sure how he expected it to behave any differently than the first one.
Here's his tree, photo taken today:
For the record, several times over the past two years I have gently, passively hinted suggestions at him in-passing.
For example, that he might want to consider removing the brick barrier around the tree; that moving the tree away from the fence could help it grow bigger; that maybe he could try switching to slow-release dry fertilizers instead of a liquid spray; and perhaps stop trimming all but two of the leaves off. He has smiled and waved me off every time. I tried y'all! And I have no idea why he's doing these things either.
I rode a "My banana tree finally fruited!" high for the rest of the day, and breezed through the evening show on a cloud haha.
It was St. Paddy's Day too, so downtown was rowdy and festive. That was nice to see.
------------------------------------------------
Saturday, I got up early to walk to Sleepy Bee for breakfast with my trombone buddy Phil and his brother.
Phil and I attended the PA Governor's School for the Arts back when that was a thing.
That summer was magical; it was one of the defining moments of my musicianship.
I learned a lot, made new friends, and improved my musical abilities a great deal.
I haven't seen Phil since that time...good lord, that's over 20 years ago!
Anyway, we chatted about our doings and enjoyed a tasty, healthy breakfast.
They both had some form of fluffy, delicious pancake.
I had avocado toast on multigrain with a poached egg, pickled raisins, arugula, evoo, and walnut dukkah.
It was very flavorful, healthy, and a perfect portion size.
I couldn't help showing off my banana and vanilla orchid pics. Luckily Phil's brother gardens so he "got it" as far as my excitement levels haha. We swapped plant stories and pointers, and Phil said they were planning to visit Jungle Jim's after we ate based on my recent pictures and posts. I gave some small advice regarding that trip ("Get a map right away!" and "Expect to spend more than you expect!").
It was great to see these two and share a meal together, and I'm excited that they'll be at the show later this afternoon!
From there I went back to the hotel and relaxed and did some job hunting before our first show.
The show went well. I was a little distracted with thoughts about this tour ending, but still played my best.
The walk back to the hotel was rough, it is back below 30F and very windy.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, I decided to do Sleepy Bee Cafe again because I didn't really have enough random leftovers lying around to make three whole meals. This time I went with their "Queen City Bee" sandwich: vegan goetta, sliced green apple, arugula, over easy egg, and "nectar sauce" (sweet and tangy aioli) on a milk bun.
Sooooo good. Look at that lovely yolk.
Goetta is similar to scrapple. They're both a greyish "meat mush" made from carcass scraps boiled for a long time and then blended with some sort of binder and spices. Scrapple is made with pork carcass and cornmeal or flour, while goetta is usually a mix of pork and beef and uses oats for a binder.
The end result is very fatty and not very good for you, which is why I chose the vegan version, made with cremini mushrooms.
It was crunchy, chewy, nutty, and flavorful. Far superior to goetta and scrapple IMO!
The rest of the two-show day was very normal.
Our final two shows in Cinci went well and were well attended.
---------------------------------------------------------------
This two week stay in Cincinnati has been wonderful and memorable.
I am so grateful beyond words that I got to be here...to visit my circus home, to interact with elephants, to share circus memories and foodie finds with friends new and old. It really was amazing, and a highlight of my time with Tootsie the Musical.
This tour ends in June, but these wonderful memories will stay with me forever.
And when I woke up this morning, facebook reminded me that six years ago today, the circus train pulled out of Cincinnati for the last time on a rainy Monday. What an appropriate coincidence.
----------------------------------------------------------------
It's Monday morning and I'm typing this up before we head out to St. Louis.
We'll be here for two weeks as well, so that'll be really nice.
There's a lot to look forward to...museums and restaurants of course, and some local friends...and playing shows for people ready to enjoy themselves and have a good laugh!
But other things happened too!
I met up with my boss Brett again on Wednesday, he took me to Pappadeaux for lunch because I'd never been.
We had alligator bites for the appetizer, and they were really good! Best alligator bites I've ever had actually.
We both had fish for our mains, cajun catfish with shrimp etouffee for him and tilapia with hazelnuts for me.
It was very good, the fish was perfect. I only wish they'd chopped up the hazelnuts, it was weird chasing whole hazelnuts around the plate.
As we ate we talked. About lots of things.
How we're doing. Misc health issues that we've noticed as we've gotten older, and lowering tolerances to things like alcohol and dairy and fatty foods. Other circus people and how they're currently doing. Circus family who have passed away, and memories that we had of them. Our plans for the future.
It was great. Brett is someone that I consider a true friend...someone who was there for a very important part of my life, and who guided me through a lot of that, and continues to support me today despite all of my shortcomings. He and his family are precious to me, and getting to spend time with him today was a true joy and a memory that I'll cherish :)
After lunch Brett said, "Let's go to Jungle Jim's!!"
I laughed helplessly and said yes, of course!
We parked at Rhino. Inside we poked through alcohol, but Brett doesn't drink any more and I drink very little so it was mostly just window shopping. I went back to the cookware section and found a silicone grippy thing that I'd wanted and hadn't gotten, it'll help me pick up my hot Itaki containers instead of using my sleeve or a paper towel. Brett found a promising-looking low-carb bread, and I discovered a powdered egg white mix to supplement my protein intake. We dug through the European candies looking for Polish "birds milk" chocolates but didn't find them.
Overall I hardly bought anything, but enjoyed having a second chance to look at the aisles and ask myself if there was anything I'd forgotten on the first trip. Nope! All good.
From there we went to Brett's house just a few minutes away.
Brett gave me a Ziploc full of beef jerky that he'd made himself, insisting that I try a piece to make sure I'd like it.
You guys, it's REALLY good! It's very dry and almost crispy, which is how I personally believe homemade jerky should be. When I was little I used to go to the Bloomsburg Fair specifically for the homemade jerky sold under the bleacher seats, and it was just like this, super dry and peppery and just fantastic. Good freaking job, Brettastic!!
He also gave me a big jar of honey that had fallen off his Amazon truck and he'd been allowed to keep.
I'll be sharing that with the production office as they keep honey on hand for tea, so the whole company can enjoy it :)
Brett brought me back to the hotel and we hugged goodbye. I'll miss him, but it was wonderful to see him again!
------------------------------------------------
Shows have been going well. Soto (MD) is back on the bandstand, and I'm sure it won't be long before we all get notes on how we're playing (a good and normal thing...always strive to improve!).
The cast took a day trip to the zoo and got to see the hippos, I don't know if they were able to interact but they did get to watch a feeding so that was cool! I also saw from their pictures that more mammals were out, including lions and giraffes and such. Everyone seemed to have a great experience.
There were also other carpools to Jungle Jim's, so I'm seeing lots of international snacks around the production office and in dressing rooms. Oh, and company management got us some local ice cream from Graeter's! I couldn't partake because I was already having a bad lactose reaction (too much dairy overall this week but especially the black raspberry milk) but it looked delicious and was very nice of them to do that for us.
-----------------------------------------------------
On Thursday I had a slow morning, and spent most of that typing up the massive blog post for Jungle Jim's.
After that I got a few supplemental groceries, just some Greek yogurt and fruit, and had lunch before taking myself on an adventure across the river to Kentucky!
The view of Cincinnati was nice.
It was a balmy 60F and partly sunny. My excessively shiny shoes flashed in the sun as I walked, and brought me joy :D
The bridge.
The bridge walkway, which looks like an add-on or afterthought. Definitely feels kinda dangly.
Halfway across the bridge, the Welcome to Kentucky sign.
On the other side you can go directly onto Main Street. Very hipster vibes, cute overpriced shops.
There were two occult shops, and those are always fun for the looking so I popped in and wasn't disappointed.
Skulls skulls everywhere.
Even some animals in jars.
Loads of taxidermied heads, and foxes and raccoons and badgers and such that I didn't photograph.
One of the shops had records for sale.
And a two-headed snake skeleton, framed.
There were also deer and coyote jawbones, which I guess are used for decoration or jewelry (they all had holes in one end, like for hanging or running a necklace chain through), and lots of crystals, incense, tarot decks, etc etc.
I enjoyed looking and felt bed for not buying anything.
On the way back there was a train going by overhead, that was cool.
All in all it was a 4-mile walk plus the mile to the theatre that night, so I had good cardio today.
While waiting for the elevator I was staring blankly out the 9th floor window, and was startled to notice some beehives on the roof.
These are a collaboration between the hotel and Fifty West Brewing Company.
They use honey from the hives, and lavender from the rooftop garden, to create a beer called "NP Buzz".
I don't drink beer, but maybe I'll have to try it before we leave!
The show went well, nothing to report. Supposedly there was a "Cincinnati trombonist of note" in the audience, but I heard about this secondhand and post-show so there was nothing that I could do about it.
-------------------------------------------------------
Friday I woke to a dreary rainy day. It's good that I got a walk in yesterday!
I decided to try out some more of my unique international foods today.
- Evergreen Coconut Milk Drink, Banana flavor: this was very good! Creamy banana coconut beverage with little cubes of coconut jelly. However the label clearly says "NON-DAIRY" but the ingredients list SODIUM CASIENATE which is from milk!! So if you are vegan this is still not for you.
- Wild Boar Jerky: tasty! This was real whole strips of feral pig. Was it good, yes. Was it worth how much real feral pig costs? Not really!
- Empire Spruce Soda: Blech. Tasted just like pine sap. Worse than that, it was nearly flat, not bubbly at all. Glad to try it but not for me.
- Granadilla Pulp: it's just passionfruit pulp, so it was delicious :)
- Vedshakti Toothpaste: Not bad! The color of the toothpaste reminded me of red clay. Sort of a "brick" color.
The overwhelming flavor was of clove, which was fine with me. It was a little sweet I guess, but mostly herbs and clove.
There may have even been a little spiciness to it, but there are loads of herbs and even fruit extracts in here that I have NO clue what they are, so I don't know which would have caused the spicy aftertaste.
Not sure if this is true for everyone, but for me clove causes a mild and temporary numbing sensation of my tongue and throat.
This is why I sometimes carry clove candies, because it helps me out with motion sickness.
Anyway, it's a nice toothpaste and I'll use up the tube. Now I'd like to try the herbal one as well!
Before lunch I got a little bored, so walked a mile to OTR Bagel Bar to get my Travel Bagel for Monday.
They have weird flavors like Fruity Pebbles and Flamin' Hot Cheeto bagels.
They were out of Fruity Pebbles so I got graham cracker instead.
On the walk back I asked Jameson to check on my plants, especially the vanilla orchid as I wanted to know how the flower bud is developing.
Here is what the vanilla bud looked like before I left three weeks ago:
And here it is today! WOW!!! That's a cluster of flowers!!
I hope they can hold off blooming until I get back!
But if not, I still have to be grateful that it bloomed at all!
And that wasn't all. MY BANANA TREE HAS FINALLY FRUITED!!!!!!
You guys!! I'm so excited!!
Two years ago I planted two banana pups, which have grown taller than me and multiplied into six trees.
February 2021 after putting the pups in the ground:
The largest tree, which is the one fruiting right now, has been through a lot.
Here it is after one of TWO frosts that it endured:
And here it is after Hurricane Ian came through and knocked it completely over.
It's a screenshot from a video that Jameson took, sorry for the low quality.
After that I thought it was pretty much finished and would either die or never fruit.
But it surprised us all by growing a pup underneath itself, and pushing itself back up!!
Here you can see the pup, almost as tall as the original tree, their trunks right next to each other and both trees upright.
Photo taken three weeks ago.
All of this makes it EVEN MORE impressive that this tree is fruiting!
Sidenote, my neighbor Tom is going to be super pissed!
We planted banana trees at the same time, but after the first year he dug his up and replaced it with a larger one because he wasn't satisfied with how it was growing (that is CHEATING). But he planted the new tree in the same spot, and treated it the same way, so I'm not sure how he expected it to behave any differently than the first one.
Here's his tree, photo taken today:
For the record, several times over the past two years I have gently, passively hinted suggestions at him in-passing.
For example, that he might want to consider removing the brick barrier around the tree; that moving the tree away from the fence could help it grow bigger; that maybe he could try switching to slow-release dry fertilizers instead of a liquid spray; and perhaps stop trimming all but two of the leaves off. He has smiled and waved me off every time. I tried y'all! And I have no idea why he's doing these things either.
I rode a "My banana tree finally fruited!" high for the rest of the day, and breezed through the evening show on a cloud haha.
It was St. Paddy's Day too, so downtown was rowdy and festive. That was nice to see.
------------------------------------------------
Saturday, I got up early to walk to Sleepy Bee for breakfast with my trombone buddy Phil and his brother.
Phil and I attended the PA Governor's School for the Arts back when that was a thing.
That summer was magical; it was one of the defining moments of my musicianship.
I learned a lot, made new friends, and improved my musical abilities a great deal.
I haven't seen Phil since that time...good lord, that's over 20 years ago!
Anyway, we chatted about our doings and enjoyed a tasty, healthy breakfast.
They both had some form of fluffy, delicious pancake.
I had avocado toast on multigrain with a poached egg, pickled raisins, arugula, evoo, and walnut dukkah.
It was very flavorful, healthy, and a perfect portion size.
I couldn't help showing off my banana and vanilla orchid pics. Luckily Phil's brother gardens so he "got it" as far as my excitement levels haha. We swapped plant stories and pointers, and Phil said they were planning to visit Jungle Jim's after we ate based on my recent pictures and posts. I gave some small advice regarding that trip ("Get a map right away!" and "Expect to spend more than you expect!").
It was great to see these two and share a meal together, and I'm excited that they'll be at the show later this afternoon!
From there I went back to the hotel and relaxed and did some job hunting before our first show.
The show went well. I was a little distracted with thoughts about this tour ending, but still played my best.
The walk back to the hotel was rough, it is back below 30F and very windy.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, I decided to do Sleepy Bee Cafe again because I didn't really have enough random leftovers lying around to make three whole meals. This time I went with their "Queen City Bee" sandwich: vegan goetta, sliced green apple, arugula, over easy egg, and "nectar sauce" (sweet and tangy aioli) on a milk bun.
Sooooo good. Look at that lovely yolk.
Goetta is similar to scrapple. They're both a greyish "meat mush" made from carcass scraps boiled for a long time and then blended with some sort of binder and spices. Scrapple is made with pork carcass and cornmeal or flour, while goetta is usually a mix of pork and beef and uses oats for a binder.
The end result is very fatty and not very good for you, which is why I chose the vegan version, made with cremini mushrooms.
It was crunchy, chewy, nutty, and flavorful. Far superior to goetta and scrapple IMO!
The rest of the two-show day was very normal.
Our final two shows in Cinci went well and were well attended.
---------------------------------------------------------------
This two week stay in Cincinnati has been wonderful and memorable.
I am so grateful beyond words that I got to be here...to visit my circus home, to interact with elephants, to share circus memories and foodie finds with friends new and old. It really was amazing, and a highlight of my time with Tootsie the Musical.
This tour ends in June, but these wonderful memories will stay with me forever.
And when I woke up this morning, facebook reminded me that six years ago today, the circus train pulled out of Cincinnati for the last time on a rainy Monday. What an appropriate coincidence.
----------------------------------------------------------------
It's Monday morning and I'm typing this up before we head out to St. Louis.
We'll be here for two weeks as well, so that'll be really nice.
There's a lot to look forward to...museums and restaurants of course, and some local friends...and playing shows for people ready to enjoy themselves and have a good laugh!