Between watching the Red Sox
playing the Yankees on the eve of the Democratic National
Convention, otherwise known as the reason they're closing
I-93 , and going to hear Hun Huur Tu at the Lowell Folk
Festival it's been a pretty good weekend. In Lowell,
besides hearing good music, I took a ride on the trolley,
had a raspberry lime rickey from Gary's Ice Cream and an
iced mocha from the Coffee
Mill (for some reason I
only drink iced mocha in Lowell -- during LCK!, during
the Lowell Folk Festival, and of course at Spinners games
--- they call it Spinnerccino at the Spinners games), and
bought some delicious samosas at a booth selling Indian
food to benefit a Jamaican orphanage.
One thing about the trolley ride in
particular is that it gave me a different visual
perspective on some of the mills. I have a thing for red
brick industrial landscapes anyway (just ask the Hermit
Potter who points out that I come away from just about
every art event with photos of the studios, not the art
or artists). It almost made me want to take pictures
again. It helps that it's been a crystal clear sunny day
with puffy white clouds. The kind of day that people move
here for before they realize we only get 10 of them a
year, if that. Sunshine after a week of rain will make
anything look photogenic.
I sort of wish I could be cool and
trendy and blog about the DNC, but given the
aforementioned closure of I-93 and the fact that I don't
have a blog, cool and trendy ain't gonna happen here.
Think of it, here I am in the awesome Commonwealth of
Massachusetts not much more than 20 miles from the DNC
and I'm journaling about the iced mocha and samosas in
Lowell. I can't wait until Peter Gammons bobblehead night
at the Spinners next week. Wonder when they're going to
have Dana
Gioia bobblehead night at
the NEA.
Lowell has a lot more coffee shops
than just the Coffee Mill anymore, though I'm still loyal
to the Coffee Mill for the poetry and the iced
mocha, and the interesting thing is that they're all
within about a block of each other. I expect Caffe
Paradiso (yes, that Caffe Paradiso, oh hermetic potter of
worcester if you are reading this -- though the Lowell
incarnation does not yet show up on their
web site) and the Coffee
Mill to start putting competing hawkers out on Palmer
Street to draw the people in. The Higher Ground seems to
be gone since last time I was in town (which was last
year sometime), but there's more than enough specialty
coffee to go around. I just find it odd that my favorite
Cambridge coffee shop is now across the street from my
favorite Lowell coffee shop. Is there some sort of
espresso attractant in the cobblestones of Palmer
Street?
Oh, and I have yet to understand
the relationship between the Cigar
Ladies and the Coffee Mill,
but I'm sure everyone but me understands what handmade
purses from cigar boxes have to do with coffee. They, the
Cigar Ladies or their minions, had a table selling the
cigar box purses set up on Palmer Street outside the
Coffee Mill. I sat outside with my iced mochachino or
however you spell that and watched people do double takes
at the cigar boxes. I even heard people discussing cigar
boxes intensively in Spanish with the word Cubano
occurring frequently. I don't think Caffe Paradiso has
cigar box purses, but then again you don 't need 'em when
you have gelati. At least I assume the Lowell incarnation
has the same fabulous gelati -- and the same cannoli...
better check that out next week sometime. It's vitally
important.
Speaking of cannoli, I am convinced
I am developing some kind of dementia. I went into a new
Italian takeout place down the street from where I live
to get a pre-made lasagna and decided I also wanted to
order some cannoli. I saw them in the pastry case and
thought mmmm mmmm I would like some cannoli. By the time
someone asked me what I wanted, I couldn not think of the
word cannoli. All I could do was describe them. I could
not retrieve the word. Now, I knew it seconds before or
maybe it was minutes before. I finally got the cannoli
and had a good laugh. Strange and disturbing but true.
Hmm. I've now forgotten what
"other things" Lowell was to be among in this entry
unless it was the Democratic National Convention or the
Pinstripes of Evil, 'cause it definitely wasn't the
cannoli.
