July 4, 2011 represented the end of a perfect Aptos summer weekend.
What was right was a: The Weather; b: Nicene Marks; c: The Musitelli Handball BBq: d: Cabrillo College- Full Monty summer musical.
Let me start with my favorite part - our (Kate and I) bike ride to the epicenter. We hauled the bikes through the entrance - paid out guest fee(though nothing in a California state park is staffed) and landed this side of the bridge just before the main creek flow. We went for about 45 minutes and we had to catch the library open before we got home. This is a ride we take often - but havent yet done this year. The forest is so peaceful and primeval. We were the oldest riders - but quite a few older people were taking walks. There has been lots of rain this year so the road was rutty and still muddy in places.
This was all done on Saturday - but we had also decided to take in the "Full Monty" at the new Cabrillo College performing arts building. The Full Monty was wonderful. We had seats to the side but still could readily appreciate the performance. The acoustics were good and the stage was ample. The actors were talented young professionals including some theater arts students from UCSC. The first half of the play was overly long. The second half was snappy with a satisfactory Holywood resolution. The neardowell out of work factory employee father makes good on his promise to his co-workers and especially his son.
The weather for Aptos was the best and Kate made use of our solar heated pool. She made fresh lemonade from a bumper crop of our tree and swum laps and jacuzzed each day. Even Joe and friends came by for a short swim. The pool and a per swim cost basis is by far our biggest luxury. This karmic-ly balances our walks and bicycle rides that are free and a marvelous luxury.
The handball Musitteli July 4th bbq was very nice. I had Arnie's Chili, Austen's Shrimp, Wes' Margaretta's and skirt steak and everyone's wine. Ted and his girlfriend Julia came for a first time. Dave and Anita, Gus and Joy, Gary and Betsy, ... were all there. Lots of talk and fine food with the weather cooperating. I even drove both directions.
Great weekend, great fun and lots of appreciation for the local community and the local geography and weather.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Recent Experiences-Continued
The E- experience was extraordinary. Okay it was expensive - but it was a 3 hour 20 course show with wine pairings.(I will scan in my menu.) The Cosmopolitan is the latest fashionable Vegas hotel. It has a rat-pack theme and 50's retro flavor. We went to the third floor where a grouping of fancy restaurants encircled a lounge that contained a pool table; various games; a set of 45's and old phonograph to play them - and what looked like Jetson furniture. The bathroom was starly modern - where you went past dark marble walls and came upon very square - highesh basins.
The Jose Andres E(accent acute) restaurant was a secret back room for 8 inside a large restuarant that spilled out into the lounge. We were guided at 8:10 to a back table by a pleasant young lady and given champagne. But she also commented to Kate about her work in genomics! Apparently in the time it took online to get our reservations - a tale for another day- Kate was Googled. We were seated with two other couples. We all got escorted into the back room and I was seated next to a lawyer from Vancouver - He was there with a partner(?) also from Vancouver. They were both very interesting and foodie. Kate on my left side set next to another male couple who were quieter and from England. To the far right on what was a second right angle table was the final couple from New York. The man who had a big personality and knew all the New York and Vegas 3 star restaurants was a divorced Jewish man in his late 40's and a younger girlfriend. I deduced the Jewishness when he talked about catering his 4 year old son's future bar mitzvah. So there was lots of foodie talk. Apparently no one had been to El Bulli except us - when we visited last summer but couldnt get in. But the Vancouver Lawyer had been to the new no.1 that is in Copenhagen.
The 20 course were all small - but to my delight they were all interesting and tasty. One day I will blog on the Restaurant Paul Bocuse in Lyon and my first encounter with 3 star cooking where I was dragged along by Roger Schank from our AI conference and found that I could not eat most of what was put in front of me -if I am remembering correctly- a lot of it look like sweetbreads or intestines. Some that I remember include a blue cheese filled pastry; a wierd multi-dimensional soup - which had different areas and tastes and textures; a quails egg with caviar; and 17 others. We started off with lots of sherry and were never without drink. But must impressive and entertaining were the three chefs(all young) and their skill set and repartee. We saw lots of gadgets - a smoker that looked like a small fire extinguisher and some liquid Nitrogen for freezing some of the dishes.
All in all an amazing event and in my new ranking of food experiences number 1. Other top 5 events are Cyrus in Healdsburg, my first Woody Allen at the Carnegie, the Ile de Auberge in France.
The other event for me was Ka - Cirque De Soleil at the MGM and indifferent experiential probability theory both at the Bellagio and Grand. For Kate the other life-experience was Lady Gaga monster tour at the MGM arena. On a side note the Bellagio was the much nicer room and service and on this trip was considerably less expensive than the Grand.
The Jose Andres E(accent acute) restaurant was a secret back room for 8 inside a large restuarant that spilled out into the lounge. We were guided at 8:10 to a back table by a pleasant young lady and given champagne. But she also commented to Kate about her work in genomics! Apparently in the time it took online to get our reservations - a tale for another day- Kate was Googled. We were seated with two other couples. We all got escorted into the back room and I was seated next to a lawyer from Vancouver - He was there with a partner(?) also from Vancouver. They were both very interesting and foodie. Kate on my left side set next to another male couple who were quieter and from England. To the far right on what was a second right angle table was the final couple from New York. The man who had a big personality and knew all the New York and Vegas 3 star restaurants was a divorced Jewish man in his late 40's and a younger girlfriend. I deduced the Jewishness when he talked about catering his 4 year old son's future bar mitzvah. So there was lots of foodie talk. Apparently no one had been to El Bulli except us - when we visited last summer but couldnt get in. But the Vancouver Lawyer had been to the new no.1 that is in Copenhagen.
The 20 course were all small - but to my delight they were all interesting and tasty. One day I will blog on the Restaurant Paul Bocuse in Lyon and my first encounter with 3 star cooking where I was dragged along by Roger Schank from our AI conference and found that I could not eat most of what was put in front of me -if I am remembering correctly- a lot of it look like sweetbreads or intestines. Some that I remember include a blue cheese filled pastry; a wierd multi-dimensional soup - which had different areas and tastes and textures; a quails egg with caviar; and 17 others. We started off with lots of sherry and were never without drink. But must impressive and entertaining were the three chefs(all young) and their skill set and repartee. We saw lots of gadgets - a smoker that looked like a small fire extinguisher and some liquid Nitrogen for freezing some of the dishes.
All in all an amazing event and in my new ranking of food experiences number 1. Other top 5 events are Cyrus in Healdsburg, my first Woody Allen at the Carnegie, the Ile de Auberge in France.
The other event for me was Ka - Cirque De Soleil at the MGM and indifferent experiential probability theory both at the Bellagio and Grand. For Kate the other life-experience was Lady Gaga monster tour at the MGM arena. On a side note the Bellagio was the much nicer room and service and on this trip was considerably less expensive than the Grand.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Recent Experiences
I just needed to kick start the blogging process again. Most recently, today,
I went to TBE Jewish Film festival and saw "The Hank Greenspun Story." A documentary
about publisher of the Nevada Sun Times life. It was mesmerizing. It sued a stylistic trick of an old typewriter writing out beginning story lines. It had several components - all of a piece. He was a war hero -WW2. He was an immigrant son of a streetwise Jewish Mom who ran a local convenience store and an ethereal father who studied talmud and had a framing business.
Coming back from WW2 he tried different gigs - getting a law degree and practicing criminal law in NYC - but it was going nowhere. He and an acquaintance decide to set off to Las Vegas and pursue their fortune. He uproots his young family and heads west for fame, fortune and adventure.
He has run-ins with the Mob, Joe McCarthy, the IRS, Richard Nixon, Senator McCarran of Nevada; does gun running for the Haganah, negoiates an Israeli peace agreement with the Saudis , - and all the while is a much beloved father and husband. A remarkable figure.
The movie gives a succinct history of the US, Israel, Las Vegas, Atomic Testing from a deeply personal hands on perspective. Wonderful - thumbs up.
So unto moderniste cuisine and the E-restaurant - where Kate and I ate last Thursday night. A disclaimer as all of you know I am not a foodie and would dine on tuna and yams for long stretches. Kate has had here a foretaste of M-cuisine in NY at WD40 and of course last summer we pilgrimaged (sic) to El Bulli on the Costa Brava. We had just scheduled a spring break mini-holiday in Vegas - so that I could do more probability research and Kate could join the throng seeing Lady Gaga. As in now our custom we decided on looking for a new high end eating experience and Kate came upon a "secret" M-restaurant within a restaurant in a new hotel "The Cosmopolitan."
I went to TBE Jewish Film festival and saw "The Hank Greenspun Story." A documentary
about publisher of the Nevada Sun Times life. It was mesmerizing. It sued a stylistic trick of an old typewriter writing out beginning story lines. It had several components - all of a piece. He was a war hero -WW2. He was an immigrant son of a streetwise Jewish Mom who ran a local convenience store and an ethereal father who studied talmud and had a framing business.
Coming back from WW2 he tried different gigs - getting a law degree and practicing criminal law in NYC - but it was going nowhere. He and an acquaintance decide to set off to Las Vegas and pursue their fortune. He uproots his young family and heads west for fame, fortune and adventure.
He has run-ins with the Mob, Joe McCarthy, the IRS, Richard Nixon, Senator McCarran of Nevada; does gun running for the Haganah, negoiates an Israeli peace agreement with the Saudis , - and all the while is a much beloved father and husband. A remarkable figure.
The movie gives a succinct history of the US, Israel, Las Vegas, Atomic Testing from a deeply personal hands on perspective. Wonderful - thumbs up.
So unto moderniste cuisine and the E-restaurant - where Kate and I ate last Thursday night. A disclaimer as all of you know I am not a foodie and would dine on tuna and yams for long stretches. Kate has had here a foretaste of M-cuisine in NY at WD40 and of course last summer we pilgrimaged (sic) to El Bulli on the Costa Brava. We had just scheduled a spring break mini-holiday in Vegas - so that I could do more probability research and Kate could join the throng seeing Lady Gaga. As in now our custom we decided on looking for a new high end eating experience and Kate came upon a "secret" M-restaurant within a restaurant in a new hotel "The Cosmopolitan."
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