by Christina Waters | May 24, 2010 | Art, Home |
Dirty Dozen: Amy Boewer, one of the twelve Irwin Scholars for 2010, puts the finishing touches on her military industrial altar site in time for the exhibition opening and reception, this Thursday May 27 at 5pm.
Filling the gallery’s three studios with innovative (don’t miss Carrie Ferguson‘s high-tech hygiene installation) and haunting (Cahill Wessel’s anime-meets-graffiti illustrations) artworks, the show includes pieces by Rosie Chesney, Calen Barca Hall, Nathan Dickersin-Prokopp, Leonel Diaz, JJ Campanaro, Kenny Srivijittakar, Bridget Ho, Laurel Maha and Martha Rodriguez.
Come see what the new wave looks like; reception and awards ceremony, May 27. The show runs through June 12 at the Mary Porter Sesnon Gallery, Porter College, UCSC.
by Christina Waters | May 20, 2010 | Home, Wine |
Cabrillo College’s culinary students teamed up with the Surf City Vintners for the first annual Dare to Pair food and wine challenge on May 22. And in a nutshell, we came, we munched, we sipped.
Teams of culinary students paired with wine from each of the 12 Surf City wineries took the challenge to dream up dishes that exactly matched the flavor tones of the wines. Then they came to the wineries and did a little “remote cooking.”
It was one of those sensual events that made for delicious flavors, plenty of quality schmoozing and more than a little culinary education. The student chefs (more…)
by Christina Waters | May 19, 2010 | Wine |
Chef Lionel le Morvan of Ma Maison knows his way around paté. His wonderful appetizers and even more wonderful pistachio macaroons (the kind they make at Ladurée in Paris) were a big hit at last week’s New Music Works garden gala.
Now he’s met his match—winemaker Richard Alfaro (shown here in a characteristic pose), and next weekend the two will team up, menu and Alfaro Family Vineyard wines, for a special Friday night dinner, May 28.
The menu includes avocado stuffed with wild Dungeness crab, (more…)
by Christina Waters | May 17, 2010 | Home, Movies |
The first time around, it was Robert Downey Jr. I was watching. And even with this second installment of the Marvel Comic hero, Downey is an endlessly adroit chameleon, able to pivot moods in micro-seconds. Yet, somehow—especially since most of the film reduces to a series of high-tech explosions—it’s Mickey Rourke I’m watching this time around.
No man sports tattoos better than Rourke, who’s made a performance piece out of his scars, unfathomable hair and more-macho-than-thou dress code. He could make tattoed feet a global fashion statement. But obviously the key to his seductive loser’s swagger lies elsewhere.
Seemingly free of pretense, he appears grittier, more real than the very screen he explodes upon. When he unleashes whips of fire and electricity, he’s believable. The metal teeth, the gutteral Russian accent, the unnaturally swollen fingernails that attack keyboards in order to reprogram satellite software—I submit, utterly, to whatever it is this guy’s selling. (more…)
by Christina Waters | May 17, 2010 | Wine |
Every year Bargetto Winery unveils its viticultural showpiece, a wine carefully nurtured, blended and finally chosen to wear the latest La Vita label.
The ninth release of La Vita (vintage 2006) happens this weekend, when a hundred or so friends of the area’s oldest winemaking facility will gather on the creekside patio for live music, finger food and a taste of wine. Well, more than one taste perhaps.
“It’s a unique blend of three Italian varietals,” winery director John Bargetto told me last week, when he showed off the new wine. The blend of estate grapes — Dolcetto, Nebbiolo and Refosco — has been aged for three years in oak, (more…)
