by Christina Waters | Mar 14, 2007 | Home |
Remember the delicious culinary moves of Bella Napoli founding chef Giavanni Di Maio? (I still miss that place.) Okay, now recall that I recently re-discovered Di Maio cooking in an underwhelming setting? Right. Well, Di Maio has just taken over the kitchen at Greg D’Innocenti’s delectable Star Bene on East Cliff. Authentic Italian comfort food made by an authentic Italian is yours nightly from 5pm, or at lunch on weekdays. Di Maio is 100% Neapolitan and specializes in the sauce-intensive, luxurious dishes of southern Italy. The Pasta Norma, oh God. The veal marsala, mi piace moltissimo. Star Bene, easily one of the prettiest little dining rooms in the county, is still located at 21245 East Cliff Drive (between the Yacht Harbor and 17th Avenue). 479-4307. Bring a big appetite. And just say “Ciao!”
by Christina Waters | Mar 13, 2007 | Home, Movies |
Opening this Friday at The Del Mar is an exhiliratingly odd and haunting underwater monster sci-fi thriller called The Host. The work of South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho, this is an all-you-can-eat package of film genres crammed into a juicy two hour ride. A dysfunctional family forms the centerpiece of what is sometimes an existential gloss on contemporary alienation, sometimes a delicious parody of Godzilla, Monster from the Black Lagoon and that grainy footage from Roswell. What starts off as a scream-fest when picnickers are attacked by a mutant monster-fish rising up out of Seoul’s polluted Han River, quickly morphs into ironic comedy as we meet precocious Hyun-Seo, her slacker father Gang-Du (who runs a snack shop by the river with his father), plus Gang’s brother — an unemployed university graduate and his sister, a champion archer. Relax, it’s easy to understand when told by Joon-ho’s uncanny, often poetic camerawork.
The film is stained a dozen shades of urban grey punctuated with the pop colors of Korea’s youth culture, and everything turns suddenly alarming when the government puts the feckless family into quarantine. Terry Gilliam meets Art Bell (more…)
by Christina Waters | Mar 10, 2007 | Home |
to see my article on Love Apple Farm grower, Cynthia Sandberg in the March 8 GT Weekly. Great photos throughout the Dining Special, by Kelly Vaillancourt.
by Christina Waters | Mar 8, 2007 | Home, Wine |
As wineries all over California are busy retrofitting their vineyards in order to pass Demeter biodynamic certification, the Fetzer family’s Patianna winery is already making killer wines that would make Rudolph Steiner proud.
Biodynamic techniques rule at the Mendocino estate where proprietor Patti Fetzer and winemaker Mike Lee are turning out wines as good for the earth as they are good for the connoisseur. Biodynamic techniques —which stress meticulous attention to seasonal and lunar cycles, hand management of vines, companion planting and artesenal composting — yield wines rich with the unique terroir of the land on which they are made. Here’s my favorite new example: Patianna’s much-praised 2005 Sauvignon Blanc. This gorgeous white wine weighs in at medium alcohol and major complexity, loaded with crisp tones of lemon, sage and mineral essence. It’s also got one of those very sexy, very easy-to-use screw-tops. I’ve preferred this grape to the oft-flabby chardonnay for many years. Patianna’s version will make a believer out of you. Available at Shadowbrook’s Rock Room lounge. And at Shoppers Corner for just under $17.
by Christina Waters | Mar 8, 2007 | Home, Movies |
Nothing prepared me for this spellbinding package of high def digital cinematography, under-stated horror and savvy, ensemble acting. But that’s exactly what Zodiac delivers. Long (2 hours, 40 minutes) yet so taut and intricately edited that time stands still. And anyone old enough to recall the shock and awe the Bay Area experienced during the early 70s as the serial killer of the title insinuated himself onto the front pages and the collective psyche, will be gripped by this brilliant true-life crime film.
Director David Fincher has already shown his dark power in Seven, and earlier in the cult classic, Fight Club. This time he restrains himself, turns the colors down to the saturated browns of another era, with a few David Lynchean touches of aqua and acid yellow, adds some vintage Donovan to the Hurdy-Gurdy Man soundtrack and shoots away. (The digital process used by cinematographer Harris Savides is called Viper. No film, no videotape — this is the first major motion picture to use the process). The effect is visually pulverizing, as chrome grilles of Ford Galaxies fill the entire screen, every stop light oozes danger and the editorial offices of the San Francisco Chronicle take on the frenetic pulse of an entire city.
Three compelling actors — each at the top of his game — power this film along, like a mystery play in three acts. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith, on whose book the film is based. With bulldog tenacity Gyllenhaal’s character gets caught up in the newsroom excitement, as the Zodiac killer begins sending his coded messages in to the newspaper. Journalist Paul Avery (played by an astonishing Robert Downey, Jr) starts tracking the case in print, while homicide detective David Toschi (played by Mark Ruffalo) tries to connect the dots as more murders crop up around the Bay Area backroads. Each man attempts to make sense of the seemingly random killings, and the enigmatic hand-written notes from Zodiac, as the film tightens, yet never succumbs to thriller genre pornography. (more…)
