May 19, 2010
May 18, 2010
UPDATE
The times for this weekend's festivities have changed.
100 ACRE
SATURDAY, MAY 22 4:00 PM
SUNDAY, MAY 23 12:00 PM
sorry for confusion.
100 ACRE
SATURDAY, MAY 22 4:00 PM
SUNDAY, MAY 23 12:00 PM
sorry for confusion.
May 17, 2010
GALACTIC PASSION
My friends Kathleen Keogh, Alicia McDaid and their sistas Sarah Johnson and Lena Kassof become the Galactic Daughters of Passion tonight and Sunday. Doubt I can make either performance, sadly, tonight I'll be working and Sunday performing myself (!!) but the one today seems like an especially fun opportunity. Firstly, it's free, secondly it's in the 28 Days of May house which is a sweet spot in Mt. Tabor to lounge around in on a Monday night. Also any excuse to see Kathleen do anything is a plus in my book.
Tonight
5/17/10
5pm
(they go on around 5:30, help them form the workshop as it will be presented on 5/23 at the Woods)
6461 SE Thorburn Rd
part of 28 Days in May
free
Sunday
5/23/10
8pm (doors at 7pm)
The Woods
6637 Milwaukie Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97202 | Served by bus lines 19 and 70
http://www.thewoodsportland.com/
$5
Tonight
5/17/10
5pm
(they go on around 5:30, help them form the workshop as it will be presented on 5/23 at the Woods)
6461 SE Thorburn Rd
part of 28 Days in May
free
Sunday
5/23/10
8pm (doors at 7pm)
The Woods
6637 Milwaukie Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97202 | Served by bus lines 19 and 70
http://www.thewoodsportland.com/
$5
the way to my heart
big bags of glitter in a market in the chinatown district in saigon, taken by gillie who is at just about the end of a long stay in the east.
May 14, 2010
May 11, 2010
sweets
Our downstairs neighbor Richard made us those brownies. Also, silver dollar sour creme pancakes with fromage blanc and rhubarb compote. And Winnie-the-Pooh.
KIR
The best glass of wine in town (besides Navarre, of course). On their snack list there is currently smoked steelhead trout on brown bread with creme fraiche, herbs and pickles, which makes me miss Estonia.
I am doing a performance with four of my friends at Nationale in ten days. I have a lot to do. Costumes and props to make and find, sounds to put together, maps to create. We had a good rehearsal tonight, even though only three of us were there, our first real pin-it-down one. It amazes me how much thinking there is, how many many hours of thinking go in to some tiny little hand gesture that is in so many ways arbitrary in the end. During the dance workshop that I just finished we talked a lot about how an idea isn't when you say it is... or as soon as you say it is, it isn't. You know?
May 9, 2010
MOM
I think it's telling about how great my mom is that the first drawing sold in Jess' new show at Nationale has her in it.
Happy Mother's Day!
THISTLE
A new favorite local restaurant, tucked sadly (or happily, maybe) an hour away in McMinnville. Susan and I deserved a treat last night so we made the drive in time for cheese + Lillets in their charming new bar space and then a late bite at the counter. We had a not-Caesar made with chicories, duckling breast over rapini with tarbais beans and a scrambled goose egg with chives, bacon and morels freshly foraged from Mount Hood, their crevices black from burn. The proprietors Emily and Eric couldn't be nicer, have better taste or a more delightful mini-destination restaurant. I forgot my camera (and my glasses) last night so I am nicking some of Giovanna Parolari's photos from the Navarre-Westrey dinner there in March for now. Next time I will better document.
May 8, 2010
May 7, 2010
FOLK ART
FOLK FENG SHUI AT NATIONALE. JESS HIRSCH.
OPENING TONIGHT FROM 6-9.
I'll be there at about 7, I think Let's celebrate!
Pictures taken this Monday at a session we had at the 28 days house.
May 6, 2010
May 4, 2010
May 2, 2010
SNOB
"Students who pass the Advanced Course (on the average about 25%-30%) are eligible to take the Master Sommelier Examination itself. The pass rate for the Master Sommelier Examination is approximately 10%. [...] Knowledge of cigar production, with special reference to Havanas, will be required."
-From Master Sommeliers.org
My favorite part of my job (besides eating dinner) is talking about + drinking wine with people. I love it. Especially because I am continually amazed by all the bullshit and elitism that still surrounds the subject. People are often afraid of wine to the point of catatonics, or have to show off by undermining your every move. I think Navarre is unique in pairing a huge, intimidating glass pour list with service casual enough that people don't feel too afraid to ask questions or ask for something to be chosen for them (which might even be part of the fun). I feel lucky that through working there and through my parents I have learned a lot from people who are genuinely interested in wine and who have passion for it, for having connected with growers and salespersons alike and to have been spoiled rotten with the good stuff - without being made to feel like a peon. I have been encouraged to learn - and to help customers learn - through the actual process of taste... to make wine approachable, and hopefully even meaningful, through one's own experience - versus this preconceived idea about what it is supposed to be.
And this is the beginning, no? In the 1970s California growers shocked everyone by proving Americans could make wine (and great wine at that), and I think it's time us hillbillies start being known for drinking more than bud light and bad chardonnay at the party. It's the system of wine that's the problem I think. We are taught to believe that certain people just have incredible taste buds instead of ever trusting our own. We have these crazy regulations on how wine (and all alcohol) travels from state to state. Boring, overweight men talk to us in points rather than telling us to just go out and have dinner. Even the whole rarified ritual of restaurant bottle service seems passe in many regards. Much hangs upon the small pour, laden with expectation, produced for an anxious diner at a table upon whom the success or failure of an evening can be pinned.
I would like to continue to have wine jobs, so I would like to get "certified," to become a sommelier, but so far the cost eludes me. So in the meantime... how can wine be more approachable? How can people feel empowered about their knowledge of it? I'm not sure. I'm surely fascinated, though.
(Pictures from harvest at Antica Terra, Fall 2009, the most mornings I've even been up before 6.)
-From Master Sommeliers.org
My favorite part of my job (besides eating dinner) is talking about + drinking wine with people. I love it. Especially because I am continually amazed by all the bullshit and elitism that still surrounds the subject. People are often afraid of wine to the point of catatonics, or have to show off by undermining your every move. I think Navarre is unique in pairing a huge, intimidating glass pour list with service casual enough that people don't feel too afraid to ask questions or ask for something to be chosen for them (which might even be part of the fun). I feel lucky that through working there and through my parents I have learned a lot from people who are genuinely interested in wine and who have passion for it, for having connected with growers and salespersons alike and to have been spoiled rotten with the good stuff - without being made to feel like a peon. I have been encouraged to learn - and to help customers learn - through the actual process of taste... to make wine approachable, and hopefully even meaningful, through one's own experience - versus this preconceived idea about what it is supposed to be.
And this is the beginning, no? In the 1970s California growers shocked everyone by proving Americans could make wine (and great wine at that), and I think it's time us hillbillies start being known for drinking more than bud light and bad chardonnay at the party. It's the system of wine that's the problem I think. We are taught to believe that certain people just have incredible taste buds instead of ever trusting our own. We have these crazy regulations on how wine (and all alcohol) travels from state to state. Boring, overweight men talk to us in points rather than telling us to just go out and have dinner. Even the whole rarified ritual of restaurant bottle service seems passe in many regards. Much hangs upon the small pour, laden with expectation, produced for an anxious diner at a table upon whom the success or failure of an evening can be pinned.
I would like to continue to have wine jobs, so I would like to get "certified," to become a sommelier, but so far the cost eludes me. So in the meantime... how can wine be more approachable? How can people feel empowered about their knowledge of it? I'm not sure. I'm surely fascinated, though.
(Pictures from harvest at Antica Terra, Fall 2009, the most mornings I've even been up before 6.)
May 1, 2010
FEAST
i was assembling a list of places to eat in portland for a friend last night and i laughed to myself because i never really go anywhere here unless people are visiting. first of all, i eat like a queen at work. and with ha + vl and evoe around, why go anywhere else?
and it's a good weekend to go to evoe if you can. michael, maggie, garland and i feasted upon asparagus soup garnished with duck ham (and secret foie!), mussels with lovage and cream, a cazuela of beet greens and salt-cured tuna (mojama) baked with a duck egg, octopus provencal on toast (with frisee and olives), charcuterie, and lamb meat balls with a sherry tomato sauce. and no, we could not finish, nor did we have room for that spatchcocked quail. good thing there's always tomorrow.
farm style
my first visit of the season to the saturday farmer's market. ran into lizzy + alex and shopped around for dinner. gene's stand remains my favorite in all its idiosyncratic glory.
WISH LIST
RETROSUPERFUTURE "LUCIA" IN WHITE. AS SEEN AT VENA CAVA FALL 2010.
INSTEAD I'LL BE BUYING A NEW TIRE. BLAH.
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