dylan

do we think there is any situation in life that Bob Dylan hasn't somehow captured in his thousands of songs?  I was about to title this post "one more" when a song of Dylan's came into my head "one more cup of coffee for the road. one more cup of coffee 'fore I go...to the valley below" I don't even really know what song it is but I can so clearly hear HIS voice singing it....

but I seriously digress because I was going to post one more photo from the Colombia trip sent to me today by Nancy Pinson. (OK- two)  It is a photo of me with my arepa (the actual one I made upon close instruction) and the arepa ladies who guided me in the process...LOL  - so soon we will head to the airport but since we still haven't left I have time to post one more photo from the last trip before I go....

as you can see the folks there are quite a bit shorter than I am - LOL- even leaning in they still only reach shoulder height. And even funnier - you can see how enthralled this lady was in teaching me (another incompetent tourist she thought- LOL) how to make an arepa (she was probably thinking I can't believe you could get to their age and not know how to do this- LOL)

this and that

so I have had an assignment I needed to complete before we left town and spent the last two days glued to my desk and furiously creating two new endorsements for an insurer that consults me for my vast (LOL) expertise... so here is how I spent the last two days:

and when I finally resurfaced today mid day I found fall had fallen- all of the sudden we have trees dropping leaves of yellow/gold...  here is a view from the front door -

and then I noticed that the plumbago which flowers in the fall was also in autumn mode...

compare with a photo from June

so time marches forward or onward or just plain marches- but I was struck by the contrast of the outdoors and the indoor experience we had last Saturday night.

as you know from prior posts we were having a dinner party for friends... Laure and Arno were in from NYC and we had recently reconnected with an old friend Michael so we were celebrating good friends. 

Neil brought some magnificent wines and the clear wine of the evening to me was this Chambolle-Musigny from 1971--- speaking of time not passing - this bottle of wine was absolutely EXQUISITE!

and this also was an excellent bottle despite the passing of time--- an incredible old Chablis

 
and while it didn't show as well as the 1971 Chambolle, this wine had it's moment of glory as we inhaled the classic barnyard nose of Burgundy from this 1923 Pommard Les Rugiens. (several years back Neil had shared the '23 Pommard Epenots with us at a birthday celebration)

 

thanks Neil for sharing such amazing and instructive wines... put a new perspective on the passage of time!

and so on we go- time to pack and think about how to tell anyone who asks that my husband speaks Danish (and say it in Danish!) LOL - plans with friends on Friday and Saturday night and then our friend Aase arrives in Copenhagen on Sunday from Jutland to spend a couple of days together before we head on to Helsinki and Stockholm.... as always - more later - my camera is upstairs charging even as I type this...

so back to seascape

the play we saw last week at Remy Bumppo

thumb nail review- LOVED the lizards- the people were only mildly annoying- LOL

seriously- this was a play I had a fair amount of trepidation seeing- Albee can be brilliant- but also can be horrifying in that waaay over the top way...

this is "think theater" as they say- so...

this was the brochure for the season- and we started with ALBEE---

this was the exemplary cast

 

let me say that they were all wonderful but the actors who inhabited the lizard roles Gavino and Parris were incredible!   Albee won his second Pulitzer Prize for this play and one can certainly see how provocative the play is these days but in 1975 in the days before tea party evolution denying "creationists" this would have seemed to have been less so -

 

here is a brief blurb about Albee-  

 

this is the web site's summary:  Charlie and Nancy, a recently retired, happily married couple, are enjoying an afternoon on the beach, disturbed only by the occasional low-flying plane and their own arguments, when suddenly their peace and their ideas are threatened by the appearance of a younger, adventurous couple—who just happen to be of another species as well. This winner of the 1975 Pulitzer Prize displays all of Albee's singular linguistic playfulness as well as his willingness to make his characters bravely confront their own everyday fears and face the dangerous unknown The last time Remy Bumppo tackled Albee, both the production and Annabel Armour earned Jeff Awards. This time the human relationships with animals are strictly platonic—a journey into primordial eons and emotions, where lizard brains and human pains face futures both immediate and infinite.

here is a link to their "trailer" - I include it because it has some visuals of the "lizards" and you can see how they completely inhabit their lizard-ness...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HBJIQvv3YKs&list=UUcawFlNBNgrs2wIC6rKn-nw

then on Sunday Phil went to see the current Northlight offering on Woody Guthrie with one of his folkie buddies, Nan....

here is the group of plays we will end up with over the course of the season:

I would recommend Seascape to anyone looking for an unusual night at the theater- while I laughed heartily at a number of scenes and fully enjoyed the evening - it may not be everyone's cup of tea so to speak. Next up on our theater calendar is the Raven Theater production of Odet's The Big Knife and then the Northlight production of The Odd Couple with George Wendt.

so will continue to report on our reviews of the things we see and do and EAT- LOL...

dinner with friends

I will get back to the earlier part of the week in a bit- with a review of Seascape  from the Remy Bumppo theater.  But right now I thought I would post our menu for tomorrow night- ooops - actually for tonight with wine friends... obviously the execution will mostly be handled during the day Saturday but I do have the dessert started- LOL- I made the chocolate soil....

so I actually do have a review to give of Seascape but will have to wait to post until after the dinner party....

flawless by chris nugent

flawless is something we don't usually get to say about a meal - especially an eight course meal but our return to Goosefoot brought that review of Chris Nugent's amazing gem.  I won't spend tons of time slobbering over the incredible taste combinations or the perfect execution of each course and will let the menu speak for itself:

an amuse bouche of beet with citrus

from there we pretty much follow along with the menu but for skipping the coconut (allergy)

a palate cleanser of pomegranate, beet and yuzu

the finale: a gooseberry in a chocolate dip!

we brought the Peter Michael (and gave another bottle to Chef Chris because he has a personal connection with Sir Peter Michael) and the Cristom - we switched to the Cristom on the duck course and then back to the white for the incredible pumpkin and white chocolate dessert course....good choices and safe ones as nothing was old enough to worry about how the age had affected it and the Cristom actually opened up really nicely over the meal... probably should have aerated it....

one more

short post from Colombia- remember the story about my becoming the Obleas lady? Well here are the locals laughing at my technique while the obleas lady helps me forestall my whaffly thing breaking into a thousand small pieces...LOL

and here I am in the gambling den in Santa Marta - thank god they didn't make me put up any real money- LOL

I love the above shot because I think this person with their finger in my arm is telling me to get out of the way even though I am the one in the game and they are on the sideline- LOL- gotta love group travel - in even small groups like this one of sixteen you get challenged by some people some times- you just hope that it passes over and there isn't one person - the same person all the time... here I was lucky and found myself irritated and then moving on- different people different times- but - I will say this- I came home happy that all my travel for 2013 is scheduled for private journeys.  I forget how tough it can be to "live" with others when we do so much traveling only on our own (all of our Europe travel and multi Argentina and Hong Kong as well as Singapore and Japan) or only with just two of us and our drivers and guides (all of our southeast Asia travel - for both Phil and me and Jennifer and me)

and finally - this shot of me - in 98* with 99% humidity after an hour long walk this is one Kimo took (actually these are all courtesy of James Brock) when Jairo in a gesture of true sympathy for us bought us beers and sodas as we all looked pretty much the same- LOL-well I do have that "glow" - LOL

rumor has it that I am getting some additional photos from arepa making- will keep you posted-

the week ahead

filled with food and friends and fun-

tonight a Chicago Gourmet event at Chicago q -

our menu for tonight is - now posted above! (revised this entry on Tuesday) my comments are- good food GREAT cheesecake!

here are a few more photos from the evening courtesy of Don Newcomb- ooooh the cheesecake- it was really something special!

Tuesday both Phil and I have lunch engagements - I get Mexican- he is having Vietnamese....

Wednesday a long awaited dinner at Goosefoot (see prior entry from the end of July- actually 7/29/12 to be exact)

Thursday - the theater- and here goes- could be great could be awful-

A Pulitzer Prize-winning script and giant lizards - theatre doesn’t get any better than this.  In Seascape, land meets sea and present meets past, when an older human couple come face to snout with their prehistoric selves. Albee’s linguistic playfulness and willingness to make his characters confront the dangerous unknown create a scenario both deeply thoughtful and absurdly funny.

Charlie and Nancy, a recently retired, happily married couple, are enjoying an afternoon on the beach, disturbed only by the occasional low-flying plane and their own arguments, when suddenly their peace and their ideas are threatened by the appearance of a younger, adventurous couple—who just happen to be of another species as well. This winner of the 1975 Pulitzer Prize displays all of Albee's singular linguistic playfulness as well as his willingness to make his characters bravely confront their own everyday fears and face the dangerous unknown The last time Remy Bumppo tackled Albee, both the production and Annabel Armour earned Jeff Awards. This time the human relationships with animals are strictly platonic—a journey into primordial eons and emotions, where lizard brains and human pains face futures both immediate and infinite.

will be back later in the week with the personal reviews-

Friday Arno's birthday party at Anteprima (ten winos together for the evening!) and Saturday the dinner party here with Neil, Michael & Art, Sheila & Mary and Larno (our name for Laure & Arnaud)

oh and Sunday Phil has another theater event that I opted out of - Woody Sings! at the Northlight (and here I thought he died years ago- LOL)

so while you may not hear from me for a week or so- you know what I will be doing--- stay tuned... same bat time same bat channel....