Crazy Christmas Cookies

If you've ever wondered what a couple of four years will do with a batch of cookie dough, cutters, colored icing and sugars, wonder no more...

Sexy Is as Sexy Does...

Saw Tom Waits on Letterman last week and was blown away by the man’s energy. Last time I felt that from a musician on TV was a scrawny Bruce Springsteen on the Old Gray Whistle Test (BBC TV) circa ‘79. Don’t have video of that to show, but check out The Boss rehearsing for his Dancer in the Dark Video below. By this point, he’d built up a few muscles ~ still makes me melt.

As for Mr. Waits… just goes to show that smart and funny ~ with some rhythm thrown in ~ does equal sexy. Again, no current video, but see what I mean on this old Letterman clip below.

Bruce Springsteen ~ hot, hot hot!

Tom Waits on Letterman

I'm blogging

You just know that every blogger on the planet is going to post this! Sheer brilliance.

Sony Cyber-Shot

Now that I am finally the digital age with my new Sony Cyber-Shot ~ did I mention I love this camera? ~ I'm going to be a girl out of control... move over Henri (as in Cartier-Bresson). Here's the first of my sure-to-be gallery of rogues portraits...





Just to I don't have to repeat myself, ready my review of Alembic on Yelp ~ highly recommended. The 2004 Dashe Cellars Dry Creek Zinfandel is extremely yummy!

Slow Club

Just a snapshot taken with my new supercool Sony Cyber-shot while I was dining with Anthony at the Slow Club Thursday night. By now we were onto desserts and I ordered the gorgonzola colcelatte and Chateau Grillon Sauternes with raw star thistle honey and toasted walnuts ~ to die for, as was the rest of our dinner with the exception of the fried 'cardoons'. For those of of you who don't know what a cardoon is (and we seasoned gourmets had to ask, as did each of our neighboring diners) it's a member of the fibrous vegetable family a la artichoke. Well, the cardoons were a joke ~ utterly inedible and so rubbery we could stretch them like rubber bands. Anthony would never complain but, of course, I will so our darling waiter removed them from our bill... This is our darling waiter

You Make Me Feel Mighty Real

My friend is having a christening party for his son this coming Sunday and I'm the 'event coordinator'. We've gone back and forth on the need to have a canopy as a rain contingency ~ the problem being that they're very expensive to rent. In the end I found an affordable solution at REI and called to ensure that they had the item I needed in stock. When I was put on hold I was treated to this blast from the past. This is guaranteed to get you dancing!

Dancing in the discos in Scotland, I had no idea that Sylvester was a San Francisco phenomenom and that I'd land up living here in the thick of gay culture. Funny how life turns out:)

Halloween

A little background on Halloween:

The origin of Halloween dates back 2000 years ago to the Celtic celebration of the dead. A Celtic festival was held on November 1, the first day of the celtic New Year, honoring the Samhain, the Lord of the Dead. Celtic ritual believed that the souls of the dead returned on the evening before November 1. The celebration included burning sacrifices and costumes. These early events began as both a celebration of the harvest and an honoring of dead ancestors.

Halloween spread throughout Europe in the seventh century. It began with "All Hallows Eve," the "Night of the Dead." It is immediately followed by "All Souls Day," a christian holy day.

The first lighted fruit was really carved out of gourds and turnips. European custom also included carving scary faces into the gourds and placing embers inside to light them. This was believed to ward off evil spirits, especially spirits who roamed the streets and countryside during All Hallows Eve.

The Irish brought the tradition of carving turnips with them to America. They quickly discovered that pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve.

I can attest to that since, growing up in Scotland, we used to raid farmers' fields at night to find the biggest turnips, which then took hours to carve because they're rock solid. On Halloween, we'd don costumes and go door to door with our lanterns asking for "a penny for the Guy" ~ screw candy, we Scots went straight for the cash!

Here's my Halloween tune for the day.

Blast from the Past Song of the Day

Who knows why this song popped into my head today, except that it's totally cute and makes me smile. Unfortunately, you'll only be able to play it if you have iTunes, at least until I can reconfigure the format.

Some of you might even remember the album cover... from the 60s. Personally, I was still a twinkle in my dad's eye;)

Tilly and The Wall

If you didn't catch them on Letterman last week, here's a sample called Bad Education or check out their brilliant and bizarre web site.

The Departed

Leonardo DiCaprio stole the show in this tense stomach-twister. I was skeptical walking into the theater since I’d heard that the plot didn’t hold together and that, towards the end, Mr. Nicholson was a parody of himself eliciting laughter from the audience. It’s true, we did laugh, but I think it was a deliberate ploy on Scorsese’s part to relieve the gut wrenching tension, we were rooting for our guy DiCaprio that strongly. The rest of the cast was superb with flawless performances, especially from Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg. It will be interesting to see who gets the nominations come Oscar time. And for all you Leonardo fans, this pic comes courtesy of Warner Bros…. yum!

Shoes Shoes Shoes...

I watched a surprisingly good movie last night ~ In Her Shoes. Of course I shouldn't have been surprised since it was a Scott Free production with Curtis Hanson directing and featured lots of fabulous shoes!

Rent the DVD and be sure to watch the special feature about filming in an Assisted Care Facility for Active Seniors ~ super darling real seniors ~ maybe Florida wouldn't be so bad after all, though currently the retirement plan is Puerto Vallarta.

Then today, I received an email from Ms. Hattie, newly returned from a sojourn to Oklahoma, suggesting that In These Shoes? could be my theme song. Not that I'm close to being Imelda Marcos... much the pity;)

Marie Antoinette ~ Brava Sofia!

I’ve never been a fan of Sofia’s or, indeed, of Kirsten Dunst’s, but with Marie Antoinette, they’ve both hit a home run… and in such glamorous style!

With a total budget of $40 million, I can only imagine how much was spent on wardrobe… and every inch of Shantung silk was worth it, dammit! I won’t start on the shoes… drool.

I’d heard some rumblings prior to the movie about the choice of a contemporary soundtrack, but it worked. Actually, it worked brilliantly. In fact, instead of feeling immersed in stodgy, historical Versailles, I felt like I was hanging out with some rather daring-do people that would fit nicely into my own party circle ~ if only we could afford the fancy pad☺

The movie was utterly decadent from start to finish. The only question at the end (since we know our history) was how those women could indulge in all that champagne and cake and still retain miniature waists?

Tea Partay

Whoever thought of this is brilliant!

Snoop Dogg is in the House...

As in The Big House, one of San Francisco’s best kept secrets for staging a private party, and, boy, was it a party! Price + Price planned the party so, naturally, the décor was stunning, the food delicious, and the vibe super cool…

Snoop Dogg rocked the house and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ in his own inimitable style for the guest of honor who turned 50. I shot video with my phone camera but in deference to Snoop’s request, I won’t post it... just this pic instead:

Craig Ferguson Keeps It Real...

I was assiduously avoiding all things 9/11 when Craig blindsided me with his monologue bringing instant tears to my eyes. It took a fellow Scot to bring out the patriot in me. I won’t even attempt to give the gist of his monologue since I’d fail to do it justice and you can see/read it for yourself at http://www.cbs.com/latenight/latelate/comedy/

When he introduced Aaron Brown as his first guest, that infamous day and the days and weeks ensuing came rushing back. Somehow, I’d managed to forget just how depressed everyone was. What was both moving and inspiring was the story of Ralph Geidel, a New York Fire Fighter ~ a humbling reminder of what it takes to be a hero… makes me want to run away and help the starving and needy in less fortunate parts of the world. But, I’ll stay here instead and vow to finally get my butt in gear and do something locally.

On anther note entirely, I believe I’ve found my muse again… and his name is Craig. Doesn’t he look handsome in his funereal suit and tie?

Haven

Cynthia found it entertaining and engaging. I thought that Orlando Bloom must have needed a tax break and a vacation... that or he owed first-time feature director Frank Flowers. The film was shot in 2003 and has, from what I can gather, gone through the film festival circuit. The thing that bugged me most was the obvious attempt to be different simply for the sake of being different i.e. jerky, out-of-focus cinemaphotography and non-linear story line ~ with lots of exposition for the slow pokes in the audience. It opens next week. You decide.

Zihuatanejo Sunset

View from our hotel

In Search of a Muse...

Since I can't find one, I'll give you this brief update:

Zihuatanejo is a charmingly authentic fishing village unspoiled by hoards of tourists. It has beautiful beaches and enough restaurants, night life and shopping to keep it interesting. In fact I could have used another three days... which likely would have led to another three... and another and another.... As my good friend Skip said, "vacations suit me."

Speaking of Skip ~ pick up the September issue of San Francisco Magazine and turn to page 194 to see him looking totally hot and stylin'.

Then get ye' to the De Young to see the Cheech Marin exhibit of Chicano/a art. Allow plenty of time as there's tons to see ~ all fabulous. Also, the Gee Bend Quilts. Try going on a Friday evening when the foyer rocks with people dancing to live Cuban music and the Peach Sangria and Raspberry Margaritas are strong enough to warrant having only one!