Go hear Dianne!

Dianne Nola
The Rite Spot,
2099 Folsom/17th St.
Wednesday, November 30
9-11pm
No Cover
rite spot!
is a cozy Italian restaurant with a full bar and piano.
It is located in the outer Mission.
She will be performing originals, blues and jazz
( voice and piano)
Dianne's site

Oak Ridge Boys and Girls

The day is a series of reunions accompanied by good foods. We meet with our special friends the Einsteins (I went to nursery school with Ruthie). We eat --yes you guessed it--leftover turkey (and some bread pudding which David & Laura's wee one, Ava, devours impressively). And we drink way too much black tea.

Later on, Susannah, Chevy, and Susan come over and we scheme to find (and crash) the Brynestaad Reunion. After several false starts (including arriving at the entirely wrong house, calling information for phone numbers, doubling back to Sonya's house and vehicular/ route logistics) we split up into the globally unconscious contingent of 4 cars for 6 women and head to Oak Ridge. Success!! We find the cozy Brynestaad home and mingle with good old friends and eat superlative and diverse snacks of the world: baba ghannouj with pita, dolmas, gjoest (and other) cheese, ribs, meatballs, stuffed celery, ginger snaps, Norwegian cookies, cous-cous, and more more yum. I get to chat with all the Brynestaads--except my friend Sigrid who didn't make it home for the holidays--dang! Jay Manischmidt & I raise our glasses to the memory of Jarrett Washington.

After the party we make a detour and have a night-viewing of the 185 Outer Drive Eichler house. It is strange but nice to see the house where I was a wee lass. Now someone else reads in my old bedroom and sleeps and wakes up and goes off to college and dreams about her old house fondly... You can take the girl outta Oak Ridge, but you can't take the Oak Ridge outta the girl...

What rhymes with Orangery?

Under a rain-washed November Tennessee blue sky I walk with my siblings talking about food before our thanksgiving dinner. My sister Miriam laughs at our culinary preoccupations whilst indulging them. And why is it funny? Cuz it's true. We are obsessed. I tell reverently of a carmellized endive & cambozola sandwich on focaccia. MMMMMMM. We love food--and word games. Comfort food, gourmet food, puns, plays on words, food for thought.

Tht night we eat a massive trad meal with all the trimmings and diverse variations thereof. And then we play a smoldering round of fictionary which reaches a fever-pitch of such hilarity my brother Danny is laughing so hard that tears are rolling down his face. We learn the word "gibberellin" which doesn't mean a language of hand signals and foot stomping used by larger primates ( Sarah's brilliant fake definition).

The night after Thanskgiving we are taken to The Orangery by our hostess Sonya (my mom). Our mom. The Orangery is Knoxville's only 4 (or more) star restaurant. We enjoy each and every star, starting with slabs of hot bread the waiter delivers with tongs to each plate--and this bread is so important: as the conveyance for the Orangery's housemade pate. Sitting innocently in a wee dish this pate is shaped like a tawny floret speckled with generous flakes of black truffle (or you can have plain old butter which is molded into a botanical aspect as well). The wait staff appears with freebie mini-appetizers of tuna tartare with a sesame/ gingery dressing served with a crunchy fried wonton for texture contrast. Nice. Our real appetizers soon follow and I am treated to the sight of the gigantic white bowl/ plate with two plump shrimp in a shockingly green pond of pea puree (which can't possibly sound as good as it tastes). YES~~~ Another appetizer of note: Sarah has the bunny--I sample it, and yes, rabbit does taste like really great chicken.

Lobster Crepes. Need I say more? Well, I will: faultless flat tasty pancakes (crepes!!oh yes) filled with succulent toothsome hunks of lobster meat, and topped generously with a buttery buttery somewhat sweet sauce that reveals and amplifies the lobstery-ness of lobster, in all lobstery glory. When we were ordering the waiter had asserted somewhat alliteratively that the ladies love the lobster crepes. But I say: let no man miss his chance at this crustacean delicacy. Fear not for your masculinity! Eat on, man.

For dessert we send a few orders of warm-center chocolate cake round and round the table for tastes, a lemon souffle, and a special holiday dessert: "study in pumpkin" --the latter being three pumpkin treats, the best of which is pumpkin creme brulee. Oh lord.

After a meal like this we may wax rhapsodic. Or if you are my nephew Elan you might just rap. Some may wax their legs, or go compose a fugue--or enter a fugue state-- or try to rhyme orange with porridge. Or blog about it to you my fair readers.

Lest our Lawyers Love Lasagna!

Moving most meekly in the morning I make mouthwatering marinara
Andrew adjusts the altitude of his automobile's ascent as
We wend our way waiting to wail wistfully
Borders blasts our best beats
Emeryville energizes each and every ego
Seaworthy sold--some spaces on shelves

Let's leave and lap lasagna lovingly!

A Roseville by any other name would smell as sweet

Across the Bay Bridge, east on 680, past Benicia, past Sacramento to Roseville go we with our mission--we go to rock. We arrive a bit too early at our destination: the strangely (for a nightclub) sweet smelling Owl CLub. We head over to the nearby pizzeria (a brightly lit establishment with an aroma Andrew praises and Gary damns with fainter praise) and indulge in various cheese and meat covered carbohydrates and a pleasantly ice-cold salad. Back at the club Andrew sets up his entire 7 piece kit completely filling the riser, so that he looms and almost hovers above Gary & me, his drums like a fancifully unwieldy (and loud) spider-spaceship-gameboy. The highlight of the set comes with the song "Emily" which is changed tonight to "Kimberly" in honor of our friend Kim ( in the house) who I inexplicably (and mortifyingly for me) addressed as "Emily" at the CD release party last week. Kim gets the joke, as does her partner Teresa ( of Local Honey- an awesome defunct Sacramento band soon to be replaced by her new project) and we would all agree...what's in a name? Kim by any other name would be Emily.

Specifica TV

The moon is bright over the specific, I mean Pacific, Ocean. We arrive at Channel 26 in Pacifica. There is a flurry of activities--directors, producers, floor managers, sound guys, bustling about their various jobs, are we in ther way? But no! we are the band! We set up for sound check and the monitors are mysteriously shorting out. Ian Butler- our host for the evening- rushes in with a backup amp for the keyboards, but Gary (audio detective extraordinaire) tracks down the problem at the last possible moment, fixes it, and we get the hell off the stage so the show can start shooting. The comedians are HILARIOUS...and then we come on and do our best to fit in with the comedy format--and the crowd obligingly chuckles/ laughs with and at us and all is well in TV LAND, specifically in Pacifica. Then, Andrew and Gary are hungry, (ok I am too) and we end up eating fried squid, shrimp and lobster sauce, and chicken with bok choy at Lee's, and it is good. Specifically.

That Blogging World

Join us in welcoming back to the World of Blog our erudite NYC correspondent, Laura the Little Red Menace.

A few of my favorite things

Mmmmmm.

1) Shrimp wrapped in bacon and wrapped in eggroll skins and fried> Where? We got it from our neighborhood Thai restaurant, Pad Thai on Mission Street.

2) Large Hearted Boy: a super cool music/ popculture website and blog where True Margrit got recommended!
Large Hearted Boy recommends SEAWORTHY by True Margrit!

3) Amoeba Records-- SEAWORTHY is displayed prominently in the NEW RELEASES!!

Lovely.

Seaworthy's First Official Week at Sea

I am so sorry fair readers to lapse so--very very busy--even for blogging. I can't wait to tell you:

The SEAWORTHY Cd Release Launch Party on Thursday, Nov 10th, 2005 at Red Devil Lounge was a smashingly, terrifically, blissfully, rocking instant-classic-of-a-night of piano-pop, laughter, joy, and tears of joy ( and pure rock). We fully felt the flush of love, fervent support, and fierce tapping-toes and clapping hands of friends, fans, and fellow musicians in a frothy flight of frolicsome rock & roll fantasies made real.


In other words--it was a super-fun night.

A massive and GRATEFUL thanks to all who came and all bands who played on the bill (Brian Kenney Fresno, Griddle and Fred). Special kudos go to our special guests who sat in with the True Margrit trio: Pam Delgado, Ralph Carney, Amy Meyers, Xifer Fortier, Kat Downs, Ned Howey, and Judea Eden. YOW!!!!

& Thanks Sarah Aldinger & Red Devil!!

What else?

We played three Borders Books in three different towns (San Rafael, Palo Alto and Sacramento) starting the day after the Red Devil show and that was a nice mini-tour to help us gently return to reality.... (sort of)...

We have another fabulous review to share with you at Smother.net web magazine where we are an Editor's Pick!!:
hey, they really like me!

We have a day off of the mini tour and Andrew is up to his old tricks: YES! He has fried chicken in bacon fat (it was the September tour theme food and it has returned!)....oh god! He puts the bacon back in,,,uh,,, bacon-- that Andrew Bacon.

Remember: bacon is thicker than water...

Street Date: now!

Today is the day is the day is the day of the date it is that SEAWORTHY is **officially released**. YOW! It can be procured so many places, that I feel multiplicitous indeed.

And where you may ask? Borders (& Borders.com) Tower (and Tower online), Amazon (which is online personified),Cdbaby.com, Amoebas in the Bay Area, and Rasputins.

And if that weren't enough: read the lovely review by Alan Haber
please read this-my vanity loves company

I am beside myself (and that is disturbing to see your very own doppelganger--eeek).

Rehearsing with the crew

Ouch! This is another instance of the alarming nature of the alarm clock. I am in the middle of a dream mashup in which I am trying gamely to sing Sparrows Point's song, "Fear I'm Fading" into Neil Aaron's "Butterfly". It's a supremely unlikely combo of metal & folk-pop. Just when I am getting it, the beeping ruins the chorus. I jump up--Ned Howey is coming over to rehearse his bassoon parts for the CD Release party!! I must be prepared!

Ned arrives with his basson and we run his tunes, mark up some charts, and generally have a lively morning-time session. He is just simply fabulous. And bassoon is a sadly underused instrument in pop music.

There is a lapse of time during which emails, phone calls, and a recording session occur. And then Judea Eden, Amy Meyers, Kat Downs, Pam Delgado, and Gary come over and we practice all the harmonies from SEAWORTHY for the big big big show. Six vocalists--yeah that's the sound! We are all rather pleased with the results, it is going to be quite stunning.,,I believe this vessel will float.

Diva Radio & other fun

It's 9:30 a.m. and I am trying to wake up & the alarm is beeping, but maybe it will just stop. Stop! OH! wait! I gotta go up to KUSF again! Fontain Riddle is gonna have me on her show: Diva Radio!

Sarah & I whizz up to KUSF (mysteriously we end up in the exact same parking spot Gary & I parked in Friday..spooky). Fontain is there right on time to let me into the studio. We sit down at the table with her assistant Corty running the board in the control room. He appears to give us a signal/gesture/high sign of some sort. So Fontain starts asking me questions about SEAWORTHY. But Corty interrupts, saying:

"We aren't on the air yet."

We feel a little silly. But undeterred, we start over when it's the proper time and Fontain asks lots of questions, we play half of SEAWORTHY, some new fans (Mike Massure and John Priola) win free CDs, and all is well in Diva Radio land.

After the show Sarah & I go to Bambino's in Cole Valley. We split Eggs Benedict and Pecan Belgian Waffles--so neither of us is trammeled into being strictly savory or strictly sweet. Divas need variety.

Song deprivation is worse than sleep deprivation

Today I am woozy--why? I dunno, not enough sleep and lots of songs bouncing against my skull in heavy rotation..which is better than the opposite man--who has lotsa sleep and no tunes, right?

After a day o' mixing the tunes, it's time to head off to dinner with Chelsea and Sarah. We are looking for parking on 16th street & suddenly I know: I am ravenous! Praise all chefs, we soon are tucking into imperial rolls and shrimp rolls at Sunflower on Valencia. Sarah gets a beef & noodle dish (yum), Chelsea has curry eggplant (yum yum) and I get the deep fried garlic noodle prawns (yum yum yum). What mystery ingredient is in this food? The dining room takes on a shimmering golden light. I feel faint, I feel good, I feel delirious. We go around the corner to the Roxie Theatre where Chelsea's short film "Numerical Engagements" is being screend in the the 21st Film Arts Festival of Independent Cinema. Her film is hand processed, romantic, off the cuff, clever. The swirling images on the screen are playing games with my food-addled senses and I am a willing participant...

After Chelsea signs autographs, we roll on over to the Lower Haight for a stop at Kenny's birthday party. He is drinking cocktails at Underground SF, and spinning tall-tales about his three-day (and counting) birthday-bender escapades involving breaking & entering in his own apartment, much alcohol, and some irretrievably lost hours due to afore-ingested alcohol.

At the appointed hour, Gary picks me up out in front of the bar and we speed up to KUSF for our radio gig. Dr, Midnight is a fine & cordial host, welcoming us and our songs into his studio. New tunes, Seaworthy tunes, tunes by Griddle, Brian Kenney Fresno, more Seaworthy. The songs keep coming, perhaps as a reflection of what's happening in this particular brain. But hey, there's a song in everything and everything is in song, and in bloom except it's fall-- which I love.