YOU'VE GOT YOUR TROUBLES

Rod Allen, lead singer for the Fortunes, died at 63 after a battle with cancer. The Fortunes, a British Invasion pop band with Merseybeat harmonies, is best known in the states for their hit, "You've Got Your Troubles," which hit the U.S. top ten in 1965.

SORRY, WINE SNOBS

$90 wine tastes better than $10 wine -- even if it's the same wine.
This story will have wine merchants and advertisers jumping for joy -- but wine snobs will either confess ignorance (not very likely) or scramble for rationalization. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology and Stanford's business school have linked the enjoyment people experience drinking wine directly to the price tag. That proved to be the case, even when drinkers were unaware it was exactly the same Cabernet with drastically different price tags. We're talking pleasure centers of the brain here, not just the subjective blather we've learned to ignore from wine snobs. So keep buying your two-buck Chuck, but if you really want a great wine slap a high price tag on it. Me, I'll have the ninety-buck Chuck.

Salute!

For more about the study, click here.

SQUARE ZEN, BEAT ZEN, ZEN

Gary Snyder (1930- ), American poet, Zen Buddhist, mountaineer, environmental activist, deep ecology philosopher, founder member of the Beat Generation. Snyder grew up on small farms in Oregon and Washington, studied at Berkeley and Reed, ran off to Japan to study Zen Buddhism in the early 1950s, translated Zen texts, wrote poetry, helped bring Buddhism to the West. Snyder was the model for "Japhy Ryder" in Jack Kerouac's novel, "The Dharma Bums."

Rolling In At Twilight
Rolling in at twilight -- Newport Oregon --
cool of september ocean air, I
saw Phil Whalen with a load of groceries
walking through a dirt lot full
of logging trucks, cats
and skidders

looking at the ground.

I yelld as the bus wheeld by
but he kept looking down.
ten minutes later with my books and pack
knockt at his door

"Thought you might be on that bus"
      he said, and
showed me all the food.

               Gary Snyder

For audio interview with Gary Snyder, 1991, by Don Swaim, follow link:
http://wiredforbooks.org/garysnyder/

TV OF TOMORROW!

Here's "TV of Tomorrow," directed by the great Tex Avery in 1953.

Tex Avery, pointing his finger.

GUITAR LESSONS

I love all kinds of music, but there is nothing like great guitar playing.


Doc Watson and Leo Kottke


Jorma Kaukonen, Jefferson Airplane induction to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "Embrionic Journey"


Jimi Hendrix plays 12-string acoustic blues, "Here My Train a-coming"

PEN MIGHTIER THAN SWORD

In Mexico, one man is using his pen to express himself. Gonzalo Rocha is a political cartoonist south of the border. This clip comes from AlJazeeraEnglish.

EIGHT ARMS TO HOLD YOU

This grilled octopus with fennel, green sauce and chickpea puree may look strange to you, but it tastes fantastic. I ate it last night for my birthday, at a wonderful Northern Italian restaurant, Cafe Juanita. The grilled octopus began a perfect meal (actually, the Grey Goose martini kicked things off nicely) and joined the other antipasti from the sea, bacala -- salt cod fritti -- with a caper maionese. Delicate, lightly done. The prima piatta was goat cheese gnocchi with Lamb Sugo. Amazing. For the main course, my girlfriend Wendy ordered the Roasted Duck with Peccorino Romano and pomegranate seeds, which was perfect. I had the cinghiale - Wild Boar braised in organic local milk -- with a "Ligurian Silk Handkerchief" - a delicate sheet of homemade pasta. This was food elevated to the high level of art. Everything was perfect.


Yes, an extravagant meal -- a birthday feast -- and it might puzzle the meat-and-potaoes types, or offend those thoughtful vegetarians and vegans who sneer as I pass by. With all due respect, to hell with them. This is life!

To finish, we had a Pralus Chocolate Souflee with Crema Inglese, and a couple liqueur glasses of Limoncello. Ahhhhh.

Gourmet Magazine ranked Cafe Juanita among the fifty best restaurants in the country, and I can see why. It was definitely worth the drive to the Eastside.