by Christina Waters | Aug 21, 2013 | Home |
Il Trussardi is so stylish it makes your teeth ache, and your palate whet. I had made my lunch reservation online, timed for one of the days off from my “Ring” marathon at Teatro alla Scala.
I was personally escorted up one floor by a young woman in a snug grey suit, then handed over to another handler/server who introduced me to the Hugo Boss model who seated me at a window overlooking the opera house.
Inside a glass exhibition kitchen, the chef and his team were in the throes of dramatic food prep. As I perused the three-course “business” lunch (60 euros), the San Pellegrino arrived, a huge balloon of Chianti riserva arrived, and another Hugo Boss model offered me my choice of exquisite rolls. I sank back and let myself be pampered.
The meal began with one of the best pasta (more…)
by Christina Waters | Aug 19, 2013 | Home |
Why am I not surprised that a man who has been in therapy for 50 years is committed to the past as destiny? And when that man is a master filmmaker, well the results are either nihilism, existentialism, or….a Woody Allen film. Blue Jasmine—powered by Cate Blanchett’s remarkable performnce—is one of the most sobering films of the past decade. A searing indictment of a life wasted, Blanchett’s character traces (backwards and forwards in time) the stages of one woman’s ruin, and ultimately offers us no hope that mistakes which detonate the lives of others can ever be atoned.
Former socialite and wife of fast-track investment svengali Hal (Alec Baldwin in a pitch perfect performance as a slick cad), Jasmine finds herself suddenly fallen into poverty and depending upon the kindness of her estranged sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins in a brilliant brilliant performance as a sweet good time girl).
We quickly get the picture. And yes, Streetcar Named Desire oozes (more…)
by Christina Waters | Aug 13, 2013 | Home |
Channel your inner Zorba and come join the feasting, singing and dancing the weekend of Sept. 6-8. That’s when the Santa Cruz Greek Food & Cultural Festival fills the corner of Church & Center streets with the sound of bouzouki and the aromas of moussaka, spit-roasted lamb, baklava, and of course ouzo!
Easily one of the most enjoyable and authentic street festivals on everybody’s calendar, the Greek Fest offers food, drink, dancing by Greek dance groups from all over the Bay Area, traditional arts and crafts, splendid desserts —baklava, loukoumades, and even a raffle for a trip to Naxos!
Come dance, play, and eat like a Greek – Fri. 5-10, Sat. 11am-10pm, Sun. 12-8pm. You won’t believe how much fun this is!
by Christina Waters | Aug 8, 2013 | Home |
Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years, 1953-1966.
Like all Bay Area fans of Diebenkorn’s über Californian abstract expressionism, I went to see the deYoung partial retrospective (the Ocean Park/LA period of the painter’s life is not included) with high hopes.
And indeed the large show gives us deep access to the painter’s early efforts, his inevitable deKooning experimentation and his evolution into the quintessential visionary of the vast, sweeping coastal vistas of the West. What we don’t find in all of these large-scale, oft shockingly dulled, yellowed, and cracked canvases is a central engine of insight.
We can see how his work evolved—lots of Matisse, Cezanne, and Bonnard influence, lots of pure California consciousness and Bay Area figure painting ambience. But somehow there is a missing center to it all. As if he could not find that elusive point of fullness, the essential “aha!” magic that deKooning had all day long.
The work is enormously appealing to painters who can literally watch the various phases unfold—drawing, gesture, painting, over-painting, and generous organization of huge acres of cobalt blue and terra verte green. A painter’s painter he was. But a quiet melancholy inflects the oeuvre and ultimately drains the joy that a single Matisse can provide in an instant.
My take-away is that painting large enables discoveries of color voodoo unavailable to small, careful works. Also that the deYoung cafe makes a terrific espresso. And the drive back down Highway One leads through a landscape of real world Diebenkorns.
The show @ the deYoung Museum runs through September 29
by Christina Waters | Jul 31, 2013 | Wine |
Pizza & Poetry – that’s the theme for this delicious wine-tasting party to benefit the late winemaker Katy Lovell’s family. Your $20 per person gives you access to fabulous pizza, salad bar and oodles of Poetic Cellars wine tasting. Come toast a valiant life, and enjoy the summer afternoon up at Nonno’s Italian Cafe, in Redwood Estates – Sunday, August 4 from 2-5pm.
Nonno’s is located at 21433 Broadway Rd., Los Gatos. 408/353-5633.
