Photographic Miettes #1

Things are going to get a lot more intense tomorrow when SXSW gears up, and I don't really have a lot to say about my trip to Philadelphia, because it was mostly about catching up on my sleep and getting to know my nephew, whom I hadn't seen since he was about 6, ie, about 15 years.

My sister lives in a neighborhood of classic old Philadelphia row houses that looks like this (although I don't think this is her block):

This was something of a working visit, though: I recorded four pieces for Fresh Air at the WHYY studios:

The studios are just behind those glass windows on the ground floor. I got to use the studio just after Terry Gross had finished that day's show, but she hustled out the door as soon as I produced my camera and my producer, Phyllis Myers, took a couple of shots, since we don't have a current promo shot of me. Don't I look professional?

After that, following a longstanding tradition, she took me to lunch in the Reading Terminal, a converted train station that's a market hall with a lot of little eateries inside. We settled on Delilah's, a soul-food place which advertises "everyday soul," because every other place was jam packed with visitors to Philadelphia's annual Flower Show. I would have preferred extraordinary soul, but settled for the best fried chicken I've had in a decade (and the only fried chicken I've had in half that time) and a weird, dry, version of macaroni and cheese that was a big disappointment. Still: the chicken rocked.

The next morning at 4:15 am, it was off to Austin, no help to Continental Airlines' baggage check-in at Newark Airport, who will be getting a formal complaint against one of their employees and her supervisor later this afternoon.

That ordeal over, I'm on the ground in Austin for a while, had some fine enchiladas last night, and will be tormenting my European readers with some food photos that should make them writhe with envy. Although I bet I could make a killer mac & cheese with some of that old Cantal and Laguiole one of my cheese guys at the market sells...