I just got the brochure for the Germantown Performing Arts Centre’s 2007-08 season, and it looks pretty enticing. Check it out here.

As a jazz fiend, I’m especially hyped about the lineup of vocalist Diane Schuur, salsa king Eddie Palmieri (whom I saw a couple years back at Montreux Jazz Festival in Atlanta) and the great Brazilian husband-wife duo of Airto Moreira and Flora Purim.

The big show of the year, though, has to be violin master Joshua Bell. Dude’s mastery of his rare Stradivari instrument is matched by his commanding stage presence (the ladies dig him). Expect this one to sell out basically immediately. Check out this very interesting piece for further reading.

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For all of you who have wondered how to find yourself meaningful work that will make you happy, make money and give you exactly the kind of life you want, consider the inspiration of Marci Lambert. A Memphis mom of two, Marci posted to iDivamemphis when I first started blogging about my lament that I'd never be a good enough scrapbooker. Then a few weeks ago her site turned up again -- it's a full-fledged business now -- in a note from a pal headlined, "Why the hell didn't I do this?"

How did she build her business, called Makearteveryday (that's a page of her scrapbook offerings, left)? Between last year and now, Marci says, she just kind of followed her bliss. A friend wanted a framed scrapbook page for his wife for their anniversary; Marci put one together. Another friend wanted a mini-scrapbook of the house he was selling; Marci made one. "I've kind of fallen into a lot of this."

Well, yes and no. ...

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Everyone likes to eat but it's a smaller number who actually like to do the cooking. Continuing on the Tapas topic that I touched on with the Dish Tapas Tuesdays, today's post has to do with a cooking class at Crave Catering at 317 Madison Ave. The class will focus on preparing Tapas dishes as well as Sangria. Sounds like a nice prep class for the weekend bbq's. The class will start run from 6-9pm and costs $50. It's a hands-on instructional class from people who really know what they are doing. If anyone gets a chance to go to this tonight, I'd be really interested to know how it went.

Once you get done eating all that great Tapas, perhaps you'd like to wash it down with some interesting libations over at Dish for this weeks meeting of Drinking Liberally. This is an informal, inclusive progressive social group. Drinking Liberally gives like-minded, left-leaning individuals a place to talk politics. You don't need to be a policy expert and this isn't a book club - just a place where you can come and learn from peers, trade jokes, vent frustration and hang out in an environment where it's not taboo to talk politics.

Bars are democratic spaces - and while I usually try to abstain from talking politics or religion while drinking- if everyone is on the same page about the idea of "having fun while sharing ideas" it would probably be a good time. It all starts at 6:30 and just goes until the conversation ends, I suppose.


Writing this blog is usually a pretty fun experience and I genuinely enjoy doing it. But one of the cooler parts of it is when someone offers my readers something free just because they read this blog. Today is one of those days. The Orpheum theatre is hosting a production of the Mel Brook's play The Producers June 8-10th and I have been given the opportunity to give away a pair of free tickets to the show. USA Today had this to say about the show (in case you haven't heard about it yet) :THE PRODUCERS is the funniest, most fearlessly irreverent thing ever seen on stage!". Since this is only one pair of tickets (sorry it's not more, but I think the Orpheum wants to start slowly with this kind of thing), I want to make it a little more interesting than just having the first person that emails me getting the tickets. Email me with the story behind the ghost that supposedly haunts the Orpheum (name, story, etc, etc.) and I will get you set up with your tickets. I'm not 100% sure about the night that they are for but we can get that straightened out as soon as someone gets back to with a response. Have fun! Hopefully some more things like this will come my way soon. Also, even if you don't get the tickets, check out the show anyway. It's one of the most heralded shows that's been on Broadway in years and it's cool that The Orpheum gets to host a production of it. I'll be at the Damien Rice show tonight and will probably hit up EP's or the Drinking Liberally function after that, so if it takes a bit to get back to any of you I apologize in advance.Continue Reading »

1) our Lab was cancelled yesterday.
2) I had a lovely salad bar lunch!
3) I spent psuedo-class time finishing off notecards
4) I settled in for a nap while going over said notecards
5) I'm pretty sure I "dreamt" about OH- and H+

1) I printed out chapter outlines last night after work
2) I did some "highlighting" before bed
3) I slept with the window open
4) This morning I had to take an antihistamine
5) So now I'm a little drowsy

1) We have no coffee creamer and or milk
2) That's the only way I can consume coffee
3) *insert eye rolling here*
4) I have to leave early for class
5) So I can hit Starbucks on the way

My life in groups of five. How fun.


~~J

p.s.

1) Andy Roddick (tennis star) has had some injury problems this year,
2) but he was doing well during his first round match at the French Open.
3) The commentators were talking about how it was his "best" in years
4) I had to stop watching and go to work,
5) Then he lost, draw your own conclusions. I have my own (see #4).Continue Reading »

In tomorrow’s Playbook I’ve got a story about doughnuts, and I’ve put away more than my share of them over the past few weeks. Believe me, right now it doesn’t matter to me if I never see another one in my life. But I will, because I won’t be able to stay away from Gibson’s on Mt. Moriah. So many people wrote to tell me about their favorite doughnut shop and some went into a good bit of detail about Gibson’s–all saying that it’s a special place.

I’ve been there many times over the years–I live in East Memphis–but I guess I wasn’t paying close attention. People in there are having fun! It’s not just the doughnuts, but it’s the atmosphere, the vibe of the place. Not long ago someone said much the same thing about Bryant’s to me–that he thinks its a special place, where people from all walks come together and break bread together every morning. A common thread is that both Bryant’s and Gibson’s have community tables. I know there’s one at the Cottage, too. Anyone know of any others?

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A few months ago, while doodling some blog posts here and there, I was at Terry Hughes’ mondosapore and Gabrio Tosti happened to mention in a response to something an unusual strudel from the northeast corners of Italy that he made sound like manna from heaven. “Hey,” I joked, “bring some of that back some time.”

So two weeks ago, I received an email message from Gabrio, who owns the Italian wine store De Vino on Clinton Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, that said something like, “Your strudel is on the way.”

Two days later arrived by UPS a package about the size of a shoebox, neatly and tightly wrapped. The handsome wood container, pictured below, held a strudel from Fior di Mela — “Flower of the Apple.” I am, apparently, the only person in America who has had this strudel, at least on this side of the Atlantic, because it is available only in Italy and only by mail-order. Every red-blooded man, woman and child should wish otherwise, because a strudel from Fior di Mela is a wonderful thing, chock-full of apples, sultanas and pine nuts scented with cinnamon and wrapped in a rich, buttery crust that’s almost cake-like in consistency.

Fior di Mela — the website is fiordimela.it — was founded in 2005 by Federico Corrò in the Val di Non in Trentino, a region in northeastern Italy known primarily for white wines. Though strudel may seem a foreign concept to the Italian sensibility, trained on such creamy or custardy desserts as tiramisu, zabaglione and panna cotta, don’t forget that until the end of World War I, this region of Italy was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire; the Val di Non — which the Google translator waggishly renders as “go them not” — is only 100 miles from the Austrian border.

Each strudel from Fior di Mela — there are five versions — is made to order by hand by Ettore, who has been working in the strudel tradition for 35 years, and shipped on demand; they are not available in stores or restaurants. The apples, Corrò told me in an email message, are the secret of the strudel’s goodness, though it seemed to me that everything about my strudel was filled with goodness. They’re Golden Delicious apples, the only variety in Italy according the status of Denominazione d’Origine Protetta. Curiously, the cultivars for these apples are from Virginia, so Fior di Mela has indelible roots in the United States.

Corrò would like to bring Fior di Mela this country, but supplying the consumer trough of American culture requires more than one artisan turning out handmade strudels on demand, so we’ll have to see how that goes. In the meanwhile, travelers to Italy, and especially to Trentino, should look up Fior di Mela, a small and exclusive operation with large aspirations.

The car runs on friggin air, people! Air!!
And you will probably never see one on the North American market.

The corporatocracy will see to that.

Source
By Bob Ewing

The world’s first commercial compressed air-powered vehicle is rolling towards the production line. The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre, will be built by India’s largest automaker, Tata Motors.

-The Air Car uses compressed air to push its engine’s pistons. It is anticipated that approximately 6000 Air Cars will be cruising the streets of India by 2008. If the manufacturers have no surprises up their exhaust pipes the car will be practical and reasonably priced.

The CityCat model will clock out at 68 mph with a driving range of 125 miles.

Refueling is simple and will only take a few minutes. That is, if you live nearby a gas station with custom air compressor units. The cost of a fill up is approximately $2.00. If a driver doesn’t have access to a compressor station, they will be able to plug into the electrical grid and use the car’s built-in compressor to refill the tank in about 4 hours.

The compressed air technology is basically just a way of storing electrical energy without the need for costly, heavy, and occasionally toxic batteries. So, in a sense, this is an electric car. It just doesn’t have an electric motor.

But don’t let anyone tell you this is an “emissions free” vehicle. Sure, the only thing coming out of the tailpipe is air. But, chances are, fossil fuels were burned to create the electricity. In India, that mostly means coal. But the carbon emissions per mile of these things still far outdoes any gasoline car on the market.