24 July 2007

Cal State East Bay (formerly Hayward) is doing two summer productions - both seemingly altered to a PG-13 rating. Much Ado About Nothing plays this weekend and next, and then my beloved Hair begins on August 10. I have something of an obsession with Hair. Lest you question my complete devotion to this play, I offer the following as evidence: I have albums (yes-albums) from the Broadway theatre production and the movie (some say this version is heresy - I say there can never be too much Hair, even if the movie storyline does stray from the original - and this was my first introduction to the delectable Treat Williams). I also own the album from the true original New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theater production, and the album produced as "Divine Hair - Mass in F", which is the Broadway cast of Hair celebrating the third anniversary of the production by singing appropriate selections from the play, as well as the Solemn Eucharist in the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City along with the choirs of St. Martin's, Manhattan and St. Mary's, Staten Island, and of course, the Choir of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Oh, and I musn't forget Hair: Performed by the Original French Cast in - yes, of course - french. And finally, "DisinHAIRited" which is a collection of songs written by the original trio of Jim Rado, Jerry Ragni and Galt MacDermot that "was meant to be an extension, an amplification and a continuation of "Hair." It features members from various past and present tribes in songs that were first written or projected for either the original New York Shakespeare Festival production or for Broadway, as well as songs written specifically for the album. The defense rests.

23 July 2007

Ry and Si learning to knit has garnered a new favorite recipe. Let me explain. The Berkeley Central Library currently has free knitting class for kids on Fridays from 4-5 pm. It's really great because the women who teach have great energy and it's really fun. So while they knit, I peruse the shelves. I often find cool DVDs on different world music and dance - anything you can think of, really. So, as I was trying out the magazine section thinking I could find something trashy like People or Us, I happened upon Vegetarian Times. If you know anything about me at all, you know that I'm a cherry freak. Those first cherries that start creeping out pre-Spring get me going, and when full-on cherry season is here I reach somewhat of a nirvana. But I digress. My discovery in the July/August issue of Vegetarian Times:

Sweet Cherry Soup
Serves 8

5 cups fresh or frozen pitted cherries, divided
1 cup tart cherry juice
½ cup port wine
¼ cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp. cornstarch
8 whole cherries

1. Bring 4 cups cherries, cherry juice, port, sugar, cinnamon stick and 1 ½ cups water to a boil. Reduce heat to med. Low and simmer 15 minutes. Remove cinnamon stick and puree until smooth in blender or food processor, or wit immersion blender.

2. Whisk cornstarch with ½ cup soup in a small bowl. Return mixture to soup and whisk to combine. Chill 3 hours or overnight.

3. Coarsely chop remaining pitted cherries, ladle soup into bowls. Sprinkle with chopped cherries, garnish each bowl with 1 whole cherry and serve.

By all accounts this recipe was a hit. And let me tell you that the next day for lunch it was even better. I highly recommend making it the day before you want to serve it. The flavors co-mingle during their refrigerator time in a way that is wholly satisfying.

I did find another recipe in the same issue that I love as well. It didn't photograph quite as well, but it was also a big hit.


Hot Tamale Burgers
Serves 8

1 cup short-grain brown rice
1 ½ tblsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped (about 1 ¼ cup)
1 small red bell pepper, finely chopped (about ¾ cup)
¾ cup fresh corn kernels (from 1 medium ear)
1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce, minces, plus 2 tsp. sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced (about 2 tsp.)
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. salt
1/3 cup instant masa harina or yellow cornmeal
½ cup chopped cilantro
1 ½ tblsp. fresh lime juice
¾ tsp. lime zest

1. Bring rice and 3 cups water to a boil in medium saucepan. Reduce heat t low, cover and simmer 40 minutes, or until water is absorbed and rice is tender.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper, corn chipotle, adobo sauce, garlic, cumin and salt. Sauté 2 minutes, then reduce heat to low. Cover, and cook 15 minutes, or until vegetables are tender, stirring once or twice. Whisk ½ cup water with masa harina in bowl. Add to skillet mixture, cover, and cook on low 10 minutes more, stirring once or twice (mixture will feel like thick cornmeal mush).

3. Remove from heat, and stir in hot rice, cilantro, lime juice and zest. Cool 20 minutes. Wet hands and shape mixture into 8 burgers. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

4. Prepare charcoal fire or gas grill for medium heat. Brush burgers and grill rack with olive oil. Grill 7 minutes per side, or until crusty on the outside. If adding cheese, top burgers during the last 3 minutes of grilling.

I omitted the bell pepper and cilantro because, well, yucch. They had just a little spicy kick at the end - but not too much because Si ate hers all up and wanted more. We served them inside warm tortillas (flour and corn) with some avocado. And they stayed together on the grill...which can be an issue with rice-burgers.

By the way, if you haven't been to the Berkeley Central Library, you really should go. It's quite beautiful.....and everyone can learn something new!

22 July 2007

Shotgun Players are staging The Three Musketeers and have apparently been intensely rehearsing the fencing choreography for maximum reality. It looks really interesting and really exciting. I have no idea whether this is child-friendly or not....but I'm guessing that since it's free and outdoors in a park, it can't be too bad. We can always just have the kiddos look away if necessary. The Musketeers is a real favorite for Scott, and although we have TIVO'd a wishlist for any and all Musketeer programming to record, it seldom comes up with anything besides a 1939 singing version with Don Ameche, and the Mickey, Donald and Goofy fiasco. There are dozens of versions that have been made into movies and tv, and apparently, most every time a theatre company mounts a production, they do their own adaptation as well.....and this production is no exception. So it should be entirely fresh, and you can't beat the price! It's at John Hinkel Park in Berkeley, weekends at 4pm through Labor Day.

18 July 2007

We've just survived Si's first Tahitian dance competition. I do mean survived, as we arrived in Milipitas at 7:15 am and left at 8:30 pm. There is a lot of hurry up and wait involved in a polynesian competition, but it really was quite exciting to see all of the dancers perform. They begin with over 200 dancers broken into age categories - Si was in the 5-8 Beginner group. They begin by going on stage in groups of three or four - and dance to the house drummers - switching the dance based on hearing the beats of the drums. They are scored and later find out who advances to the finals. And guess what? Si advanced to the finals! So then in the afternoon, they go on stage alone to perform a solo, and get to perform with their own halau (school) drummers. Each halau has their own choreographed dance, so it's up to each dancer to remember it and do it their very best. Si had no problem being up there all alone - in fact it was her favorite part. The best part was cheering on all of the hula sisters.....and seeing beautiful dancing. If you're interested in seeing Si perform with her halau (Ke Ola Loa), they are closing the Aloha Festival in San Francisco this year. Their scheduled performance time is 4:00 pm on Sunday, August 5. If you're not into crowds, Ke Ola Loa will have their own halau ho'ike (show) on Saturday, October 6 in the beautiful new Castro Valley Center for the Performing Arts. If you'd like tickets, let me know so that I can reserve some for you.

13 July 2007

It's been a musical few weeks especially for Ry. Sadly I don't have a photo of his June piano recital (all video), but I do have his vocal recital where he was part of a trio singing a beautiful Hungarian song.







We then move on to his Capoeira Batizado, where they began by letting those kids who can really play the instruments do so. Here he plays the berimbau (that's him sitting on the bench with the long stick-looking thing in his hands), and sings - in Portuguese, of course.



And finally - what we've been waiting for since he was seven and found out he needed to be eight - BANDWORKS! It's been a week of rock n' roll camp folks, and Ry rocked out on the guitar and drums. He worked the vocals a couple of times, but let me tell you, the kid's been wanting to play drums forever and a day, and he sure did prove his case that he should continue. We can highly recommend Bandworks, should your kid have any interest in expanding their musical experiences.

The culmination of the week is a concert where they play about five songs. Since he did the morning and afternoon sessions, we got two concerts and ten songs. I'm not even going to pretend I knew all the songs - I'm not so up on my Nirvana, White Stripes and Jimi Hendrix. But I did know the Led Zeppelin, Beatles and Green Day so I was happy.

11 July 2007

If your house is anything like ours, you're right in the middle of high-tv-viewing season. Why's that? Because it's time for the Tour, of course. Oh, you aren't familiar? Here's what's happening in Stage 5, which is about to begin (live) as I write this. I have absolutely no sympathy for so-called Football "Widows". What are there - 10 football games in a season that last 3 hours or so each? Try July 7 to July 29, every day, with prologues, epilogues, fanlogues and various and sundry ancillary programs meant to enhance your knowledge of the event. In the neandratholic pre-TIVO days, our VCR recorded tape after tape. While this is another example of why one can't live without TIVO, even it's capacity is not unlimited, and when it is set to record 4-5 hours every day, even my Number 1 Season Pass selection gets bumped....which makes me very grumpy. Do not mess with my Denis Leary. Fortunately for Scott, the t.v. network Versus brings him pretty much all the coverage (and seems to be the sole reason why we pay $10/month extra for the sports package on our satellite dish). Okay...so that was a long way to go to get to the real point....there is a very cool game that you can get that is a Tour de France game. When we actually went to a stage in the French Pyrénées a few years ago to see Lance Armstrong kick some booty, we watched this father and son playing a cool cycling game called L'échappée Infernale. I bought one a couple of years later, and it really is awesome. Ry absolutely loves it. The cyclists have on the correct sponsor jerseys and are on these little bicycles...and you can update each year based on sponsorships - you know - like if somebody switches from US Postal to Discovery or something like that. Be forewarned that currently the site is only up in French....however, they're working on the English portion, and if your French is even only a little bit better than - bon jour, ça va aujourd'hui? - you'll be fine.

04 July 2007

Something fun to do on Friday evening with the whole family: First Fridays After Five at the Oakland Museum of California. It's a Jazz and Blues Summer Series and you can stroll through the galleries and gardens, have a cocktail from their "full cash bar", get a light entree from the café, and generally have a relaxed evening from 5-9. They even offer a couple of yoga classes and a ranger-led talk on Yosemite. So let's see, mom goes to yoga, dad has a drink and listens to jazz, kids are learning about the flora and fauna of one of our greatest national parks. And you can still say you spent the evening together as a family.......Can't beat that!