When I started taking pictures of food on my trips, it was partially to use them as nice desktop wallpaper, and partially because it just seemed funny to post pictures of food on essentially a music blog. The obsessive food photography thing has turned out to be one of the smartest things I ever started. Now when I travel to colleges, my visit is preceded by the knowledge that I take pictures of food, and I like yummy food, so if you want a good write-up in my blog, you should take me out to a really delicious (and hopefully photogenic) dinner. (Yes, it always works, as I am easily bought with food.)

The first photos were at Arizona State, where, coincidentally, I’m returning on Monday. The food pic follow-up, now the most-read blog entry on this site, documented my dinner with AEJ at Jean-Georges, arguably the best restaurant in New York City.

There have been the detours to non-food photo entries, like the entry celebrating Loki’s first birthday, or the entry about my first time at TMEA. The best entries, I think, are those that combine both food pictures and awesome locales, like the entry about Memphis — featuring both BBQ and Graceland — or my visit to TBA, with pictures of both cocktails and drum corps, or the entry about my performance at Cabrillo with Marin Alsop (one of the few entries to include a pic of the stunning AEJ).

But enough of the self-referential linking. The motivation for this entry comes from today’s email from the University of Texas detailing the dining schedule, reaffirming the my “John Likes Yummy and Pretty Food” reputation continues to reap great rewards. While I’m there, dinners are planned every night, with French food (Chez Nous), all-around tasty food (Hudson on the Bend), and food that Rick Clary raved about months ago (Shoreline Grill). Next Monday is Mexican lunch. No matter how the performance goes, you can bet there will be a good food picture blog entry upon my return. (Somehow, though, with Junkin & UT, I’m not exactly “worried” about the performance.)

Oh — and one last side-note. I went a little nuts, and ordered more Japanese watches a few days ago. I wanted to stop — I really did — but then I saw the High Frequency watch! To quote the Japanese-translated-to-English copy, “We all stood looking at this watches, and said to each other things like, ‘This is the most futuristic watch I have ever seen.’ ” How could I resist?!