I’ll take a green one, and a blue one, and a gold one . . . (Johnnie Walker tasting event)

September 30, 2011 Leave a comment

“I love scotch.  Scotchy scotch scotch.  Here it goes down — down into my belly.  Mmmm mmm mmm.”  - Ron Burgundy

“Champagne’s funny stuff. I’m used to whiskey. Whiskey is a slap on the back, and champagne’s heavy mist before my eyes.”  - Macaulay Connor

Scotch tasting events have been popping up with increasing frequency.  One day it’s The Glenlivet, the next day Glenfiddich, then an invitation from Dewars . . . all for free.  You’ve gotta love it.  I certainly do, considering my scotch collection is second only to my wine collection in volume (admittedly though, a VERY distant second).

A couple of weeks ago I got the opportunity to visit “The House of Walker Experience” at the Cooper Design Space in Downtown Los Angeles put on by  Johnnie Walker.  JW, along with Chivas, was/is my father’s scotch of choice, and I’ve always had a bit of a nostalgic connection to that label even though I drink more single malt than blended.  And I am no single malt snob — as long as it’s good and tasty, I’ll drink blended scotch without any problem.

The event itself was more theatrical, fashionable, and self-consciously  hip than any other scotch-tasting event that I’d been to previously:

  • The reception area took up a good portion of the loft-space floor, with club-style music and lighting throbbing at a high but tasteful level
  • Very attractive hostesses wearing tiny black dresses were around every corner to help you register, serve a canapé, or point you to the bar, all with a casual friendliness that was a touch surprising and seemed genuine
  • A big screen showing twitter feeds of tweets featuring #Johnnie hashtags dominated a wall on one end of the room, a bar and a photo station with a background featuring faux Andy Warhol-styled JW bottles took up the other end.  A smattering of couches were placed in front of a long picture window which offered a view to the East of Downtown LA, with the old Bendix neon sign standing out among the vintage industrial buildings, and in a small case were a few bottles of the really exclusive stuff:  George V, Blue Label 200th Anniversary, among others

At some point, the curtains opened to the tasting room, where benches and tasting tables were arranged in rows along three sides of the room, all facing inwards.  Pre-positioned on the tables were a three shot glasses (two filled with Johnnie Walker Black and one with Red), a glass of water, a bucket of ice, and carafes filled with water, ginger ale, and Orangina.  The room held somewhere around 120-150 people.

A “Master of Whiskey” (whose name unfortunately escapes me) led the festivities, starting with a truly entertaining and informative video featuring Robert Carlyle — as the whiskey master astutely pondered to the crowd, it’s amazing he got through it on one take and without any cussing.

We started with Black neat, then with a little water care of the provided eye-dropper, then Red with our choice of Orangina or Ginger Ale to mix in, then Black again to sample with ice.  The ladies in the black dresses then appeared to dramatically present chilled shots of Gold, and later to present snifters of Blue.  In between, there were superfluous videos to accompany the announcement of each upcoming whiskey “expression” (as the different labels are called).  There was the educational bit given as most of these things do — look, then smell, then taste . . . explanations of ice vs. water . . . Q & A . . . and then that was it.

The crowd probably made the foks at Johnnie Walker and parent company Diageo pretty happy:  the room was mostly full, and on a Thursday night in one of the funkier parts of Downtown, that is worth something by itself.  More importantly for them, it was mostly the right kind of crowd — 20 & 30 somethings, dressed stylishly, many clearly knowledgeable about the brands.  In short, this was no frat party.

If there was any small disappointment, it was that they weren’t offering any Green or Swing to taste.  It would have been nice to compare it to the other offerings.

Overall, a very good event and well worth my time.  If you are a fan of scotch, try to wrangle an invitation the next time it comes to your town.  And if you’re in LA, you still have tonight or tomorrow to try to squeeze your way in.  Otherwise, I’ll see you there next year.

Filed under Drink, Spirits Tagged with , , ,

One of these things is not like the other

September 29, 2011 Leave a comment

#1)  LA Phil Principal Concertmaster or British actor who used to be in Monty Python?

#2)  Muppet or Foo Fighter?

Filed under Humor, Los Angeles Philharmonic Tagged with , , ,

At the LA Phil, some faces in new places

September 27, 2011 7 Comments

Daniel Rothmuller, Associate Principal Cello Emeritus

The Los Angeles Philharmonic is getting ready to kick-off their 2011/2012 winter season with an all-Gershwin gala this evening. Gustavo Dudamel will be conducting Cuban Overture, An American in Paris, and Rhapsody in Blue with the 71-year-young Herbie Hancock serving as the distinguished soloist.  (If you can’t make it to Walt Disney Concert Hall tonight, the concert will be broadcast live on 91.5 FM KUSC and streamed online by both KUSC and American Public Media).

According to various sources, Thomas Hooten will be joining the orchestra as guest principal trumpet for this concert, staying on for the weekend’s subscription concerts, then returning later in the month for more subscription concerts and the orchestra’s trip to San Francisco.  Mr. Hooten will not be the only musician unfamiliar to regular LA Phil audiences.  A quick scan of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s online roster shows that all the moves I mentioned in my previous posts (HERE, HERE, and HERE)  have become official.  Two of the newcomers happened to have been quite busy over the past couple of months

Read more of this post

Filed under Auditions & Appointments, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Music (News & Reviews) Tagged with , , , ,

Opening night for The Colburn Orchestra

September 27, 2011 2 Comments

School only started a few weeks ago, but the members of the Colburn School Conservatory’s flagship ensemble, The Colburn Orchestra, held their first concert of the year this past Saturday night.  Yehuda Gilad, music director and wold-renowned clarinet pedagogue, led the first in a five concert series at the famed Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena.  Thanks to the offer of free tickets combined with a publicity campaign rare for a student orchestra, the house was full.  Attendees that you’d expect to see at a classical music concert were joined by others that were atypical:  families with multiple small children, 18-year-old-ish young ladies in remarkably tiny dresses (Mark Swed would have had an absolute coronary).  No riots ensued — all were enthusiastic, but well behaved.

From my seat in Row L of the orchestra section, the venue’s legendary acoustics highlighted all that was best with the orchestra.  There were times when you forgot you were listening to a student orchestra, with the impressive string section maintaining a unified, athletic tone throughout the evening.  On the other hand, there were moments when the Ambassador’s acoustics gave the orchestra nowhere to hide,  providing challenges with regards to blend within sections and balances between them — one example:  the percussion was either overbearing or thin, with very little in between.  It’s likely things will improve in future concerts as the players become more accustomed to their surroundings.

Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition  (in the ubiquitous Ravel orchestration) provided the ideal showcase for the evening.  Maestro Gilad led a mostly middle-of-the-road interpretation that pleasingly avoided excesses of any kind, though his choice to take full pauses in between the individual sections sometimes led to losses in momentum.  That said, he took time to emphasize some interesting texture here and a rhythmic tug there to give the work some personality and avoid it sounding generic; his choices with “Tuileries” were particularly effective in adding an extra bit of air and whimsy to the movement. When he gave individual sections an opportunity to shine, they didn’t let him down.

Notable individual contributions were many. Trumpeter Joseph Brown gave the opening “Promenade” verve and nobility, then later played the muted piccolo trumpet solo in “Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle” with incisive flair.  The dialogue between the hauntingly plangent saxophone of Christopher Bartz (on loan from USC’s Thornton School of Music) and Andrew Brady’s beautifully nuanced bassoon during “Il vecchio castello,” with support by the rest of the woodwinds and strings, was easily my favorite part of the evening.  Spencer Brown played the tuba solo in “Bydlo.”  The entire woodwind section shined during “The Ballet of Unhatched Chicks,” led by Franceso Camuglia (Principal Flute), Titus Underwood (Principal Oboe), Sang Yoon Kim (Principal Clarinet), and Mr. Brady.

Francesca dePasquale

Earlier, the lone violin concerto of Antonin Dvořák served as the evening’s centerpiece, with solo duties gamely dispatched by Francesca dePasquale, a senior in Colburn’s Bachelor of Music program and scion of the prominent Philadelphia musical family.  Full disclosure:  I’ve never been a fan of the Dvořák concerto; there’s nothing particularly bad about it, just nothing compelling about it either.  Regardless,  Ms. dePasquale deserves praise for a fine performance.  While she seemed to be able to navigate the thornier passages without trouble, she was at her best during the second movement Adagio, playing with tenderness and suavity without ever allowing it to sound like mush.  When she completed the hum-along finale, the vast majority of the audience rewarded her efforts with a standing ovation.  It will be interesting to see where her career takes her.

  • WARDROBE WATCH:  For the record, Ms. dePasquale looked quite lovely, her sleeveless floor-length tiered ecru dress with black sash fashionably highlighting her statuesque frame.  Even prudish Los Angeles Times music critics should  have no problems giving her outfit a G-rating (unless perhaps he thought the skin exposed by her bare arms were a bit too much) .

The concert began with Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture.  The orchestra gave a rousing performance, and when it was done, Mr. Gilad asked English Horn soloist John Winstead to acknowledge the audience’s applause – and soon after, asked the entire viola section to do the same.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable evening for which the Colburn School, Mr. Gilad, and the orchestra should be proud.  Was everything perfectly played?  No.  There is certainly room for improvement.  But despite the occasional misstep, the orchestra invested their playing with musicality and energy, Mr. Gilad never settling for just mechanical perfection even when his musicians were able to clear all the technical hurdles placed in front of them.  It will be interesting to see how the orchestra grows and develops over the course of the year.

Colburn Orchestra September 24, 2011

Yehuda Gilad, music director and conductor
Francesca dePaquale, violin

Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture
Dvorak: Violin Concerto
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel)

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photo credits:

  • The Colburn Orchestra:  The Colburn School
  • Francesca dePasquale:  courtesy of Francesca dePasquale

Filed under All Reviews, Music (News & Reviews), Other classical music concerts and recitals (in So Cal and beyond), Reviews 2011/2012 Tagged with , , , , , ,

Three weeks worth of wine (part two of two)

September 25, 2011 Leave a comment

(Continuing where I left off from my previous post on the subject . . . )

2007 Etude Pinot Noir Deer Camp Estate Carneros and 2007 Etude Heirloom Pinot Noir Estate Carneros

As much as I love California Pinot Noir, I’ve have been largely ambivalent to those from Carneros.  Whenever I’ve tasted them in the past, they seemed pleasant enough but without the rich earthiness of Santa Barbara County examples or the brighter fruit you get from Russian River.  The sole exception to this in my experience has been wines from Etude.

I’ve had prior vintages of the Heirloom Pinot Noir before, and the 2007 version did not disappoint.  The true revelation for me was the 2007 Deer Camp:  just a hint brighter and more fruit-forward than its more famous brethren, its flavors on the palate were layered and its finish was long. For me, Deer Camp is neither better nor worse than the Heirloom, just different — though its price of $50 to $60 per bottle is unquestionably more attractive than that of Heirloom, which typically goes for $25-$30 more.  The excellent Estate regular bottling lists on the winery’s website at $40, but can be found at a veritable bargain of high-$20′s, and at that price is easily comparable (and perhaps preferable) to similarly priced favorites from Russian River, Santa Ynez, or Santa Maria.

2007 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars “S.L.V.” Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

For all the countless visits made to Napa over the years, I had never actually visited Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars until this trip, and even though I’ve had the good fortune to drink some of their famous Cabernets before, I relished the chance to try them all side by side.  I was extra lucky that they were tasting the well-regarded 2007 vintage of their wines — except for their flagship “Cask 23″ of which they had sold out of the ’07 and were tasting 2006′s instead.

All of the Stag’s Leap cabs lived up their strong reputation, with each of their personalties coming through as expected:  the entry-level 2007 “Artemis” was rock-solid and middle of the road (if you can call a $45 wine entry-level); the 2007 “Fay” subtle and subdued but  still rich; the 2007 “S.L.V.” bold and sophisticated; the 2006 “Cask 23″ layered and nuanced.  They were all somewhere between excellent and outstanding.  My favorite was the S.L.V. — easily matching the Gargiulo 575 OVX as the best 2007 cab I’ve had so far.  Mrs. CKDH preferred the 2006 Cask 23 instead, making note of the very long finish.  It was disappointing that we were unable to taste the 2007 Cask 23, and I wonder how the difference in vintage would have affected my preferences.

It’s worth noting that prices at Stag’s Leap were among the highest I’ve seen when comparing winery prices versus typical retail price.  S.L.V. and Fay can typically be had for about $80 per bottle and the winery was asking $120 — a 50% mark up.  2006 Cask 23 was listed at $180 at the winery while a quick Google search shows numerous bottles available for around $150, with one source even asking just $139.  I expect wineries to charge their full “list” price which will always be more than what you can find in the store, but these differences — in both absolute dollar and percentage terms — were a staggering rip off.  If the difference was more modest (say, a still relatively steep $20), I would have been much more tempted to go home with a lighter wallet and some bottles in hand.  As it turned out, we walked away without any wine.

1997 Robert Craig “Affinity” Napa Valley

I’ve been collecting Robert Crag’s Bordeaux-style Cabernet Sauvignon blend since the 1994 vintage.  I had a few bottles of the 1997 left and when a dear friend came into town, we decided to bring one of the bottles with us to dinner at Manhattan Beach Post.  It has held up VERY nicely:  after 15 minutes in a decanter, it opened up nicely with fruit and a hint of black pepper on the nose; lots of berry on the palate but structured and balanced, with tannins enough to allow the bottle to hold up for another few years.  It has gained complexity without losing much flavor. This was exactly the kind of wonderful experience you hope for when you lay a bottle down for this long.  It paired gloriously with David LeFevre’s yummy small plates.

RELATED POST:

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photo credit:

  • 1997 Robert Craig “Affinity” Napa Valley:  CK Dexter Haven
  • Etude Pinot Noir:  http://shop.etudewines.com
  • Stag’s Leap:  http://www.cask23.com

Filed under Drink, Napa & Sonoma, Travel, Wine Tagged with , , , , , ,

Eine, zwei, g’suffa! (Oktoberfest care of Costco)

September 24, 2011 Leave a comment

The beginning of autumn is a bittersweet time of the year.  On one hand, days are getting shorter than nights, dropping air and water temperatures make for less-than-ideal beach conditions,  and the family’s free-time and flexibility gives way to more structure and routine.  On the other hand, the football season is in full swing, performing arts seasons have just begun or are about to begin, and as if you needed an excuse to drink more beer, Oktoberfest celebrations are happening.

I’ve never made it to Munich (for Oktoberfest or otherwise), and this year will be no different.  I don’t think I’m even going to make it to any of the local Southern California celebrations this year (in years past, I’ve favored Alpine Village in Torrance to Old World in Huntington Beach, largely because the latter loses points for serving beer in plastic cups).  So to keep up the spirit, I’m just going to have to drink Oktoberfest beer at home and at USC tailgates, and leave it to our friends at Costco to help facilitate that, um, need:

For the purist, they offer the benchmark Spaten Oktoberfest — the world’s first Oktoberfest beer, according to the brewer — for the amazing price of $1/bottle (of course, this is Costco, so your going to have to buy it in 24 bottle increments).

If you prefer to support the American economy more fully, they are offering the Samuel Adams Harvest Collection:

  • The new Bonfire Rauchbier
  • OctoberFest (note the Americanized spelling)
  • Harvest Pumpkin Ale
  • Irish Red
  • Black Lager
  • The ubiquitous Boston Lager
Run, don’t walk, before they get snapped up.  You can thank me later.

Filed under Beer, Drink Tagged with , , ,

But if you want me to go, you should just say so

September 20, 2011 Leave a comment

Got a pleasant surprise in my inbox this morning: an email from the Los Angeles Philharmonic saying that Bob Mould and some special guests, including Dave Grohl and Ben Gibbard, would be appearing at Walt Disney Concert Hall in November.

Wait. Bob Mould, Dave Grohl, Ben Gibbard, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Walt Disney Concert Hall, all in the same sentence??!!!

Really. . . . Believe it. Love it. Plan for it.

Tickets go on sale Sept 25, but subscribers can get their seats early.  Details are at the bottom (taken from the LA Phil’s website).  While you ponder how many tickets you plan on acquiring, enjoy this clip of Foo Fighters joined by Mr. Mould (yeah, it’s a little weird writing “Mr.” for a punk music demi-god, but I’ve got a personal style sheet to which I’m trying to adhere)

Monday, November 21, 2011, 8:00PM
Walt Disney Concert Hall (Map/Directions)
111 South Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
323.850.2000

ARTISTS:
Bob Mould
Dave Grohl, special guest
Ben Gibbard, special guest
Ryan Adams, special guest
No Age, special guest
Best Coast, special guest
Craig Finn and Tad Kubler, special guest
Margaret Cho, special guest
Grant-Lee Phillips, special guest

Tickets go on sale Sunday, September 25 at 10am

In this very special, one-night-only event, some of today’s greatest artists gather to celebrate the music of punk and alternative rock icon, Bob Mould. Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie), Ryan Adams, No Age, Best Coast, Craig Finn and Tad Kubler (The Hold Steady), and Margaret Cho with Grant Lee Phillips will perform songs from Bob’s catalog. Bob himself will also be performing.

As the former frontman for seminal bands Hüsker Dü and Sugar, Bob has been writing, recording, and playing for over three decades. Earlier this year, Mould released his autobiography “See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody” with collaborator Michael Azerrad. The New York Times proclaimed the book to be ‘audacious and moving’ while the Wall Street Journal labeled it a “beautiful, painful, frank memoir.” Mould’s passion for the early hardcore scene along with his unique style and irrepressible drive produced some of the most influential music of the late 20th century. This extraordinary evening of music honors one of the most revered figures of punk rock, whose driving force altered the shape of American music

Photo credit:  Noah Kalina, courtesy of http://www.bobmould.com

Filed under Los Angeles Philharmonic, Music (News & Reviews) Tagged with , , ,

RIP Kurt Sanderling

September 19, 2011 2 Comments

Kurt SanderlingKurt Sanderling, prominent conductor in Eastern Europe before and after World War II, principal conductor of the Berlin Symphony from 1960-1977, and later a frequent guest with major European and American orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has died at the age of 98.  He was two days away from his 99th birthday.

During the interregnum between the music directorships of Andre Previn and Esa-Pekka Salonen, he took the LA Phil on a two-week tour of Europe.  The 1991 concerts were very well regarded, most particularly for Mr. Sanderling’s interpretation of Shostakovich.  At the end of the tour, the LA Phil’s Principal Trumpet, Thomas Stevens, told the Los Angeles Times:  “He is really a great presence and is totally in charge. He was thorough in his rehearsals, uncompromising. So in terms of preparation we were maybe in better shape than we have ever been.”

The Guardian states that:

The verdict of players in all the British orchestras he conducted, including the BBC Symphony, the BBC Philharmonic (or BBC Northern Symphony, as it then was), remained the same: a Sanderling concert was always an event, the conductor a rare figure to be respected – and permitted to talk at length about his point of view – by otherwise unimpressible musicians.

Finally, Mrs. CKDH remembers a story told by Jeffrey Reynolds, retired bass trombone of the LA Phil who frequently gave pre-concert lectures, about a rehearsal where Maestro Sanderling described the difference between Germans and Russians:

  • “When Germans are sad, Russians are very sad”
  • “When Germans are very sad, Russians are very very sad.”
  • “When Germans are very very sad, Russians are very very happy.”

Complete obituaries from:

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RELATED POST:

Photo credit:  Associated Press

Filed under Los Angeles Philharmonic, Music (News & Reviews) Tagged with , , ,

Almost like being there in person

September 17, 2011 Leave a comment

There are a few concerts left in the Hollywood Bowl season, but the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s contributions in Cahuenga Pass are done for the year and they get a week off before the new 2011/2012 season at Walt Disney Concert Hall kicks off.  In case you are feeling nostalgic for a concert you caught earlier this summer, or perhaps if you missed something you had hoped to see, KUSC is still broadcasting concerts from earlier this year and they post those concerts online for a week.  You’ve got one more day to hear Joshua Bell and the orchestra perform The Four Seasons, then they start streaming the all Beethoven concert with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Jeremy Denk, and others, and the remaining concerts follow every week thereafter.  Click HERE to hear those concerts.

No word yet on whether or not the LA Phil’s opening all-Gershwin gala concert with Herbie Hancock will be broadcast (and subsequently released on DVD) as the two previous gala concerts have been.

The St. Louis Symphony and David Robertson opened their own winter season last night with a very compelling all-Stravinsky concert including Petrushka, Les Noces (The Wedding), and Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring).  It is the first times Les Noces will be performed by the SLSO.  They repeat that concert tonight, and while most of us won’t be able to make our way to Powell Hall, we are fortunate enough to have the concert streamed live care of St. Louis Public Radio.  Go HERE at 8pm Central Time (6pm Pacific) and select KWMU-1.  You have multiple choices in streaming formats, including options for your iPhone, Android, or Blackberry mobile device, so even if you’re not near a computer, you don’t have to miss it.

If you need visual stimulus, the Pittsburgh Symphony uploaded their September 11th concert at the Berlin Philharmonie, featuring the Mahler 5th Symphony plus encores by Josef Strauss and Richard Strauss.  We are all the better for it.

Filed under Los Angeles Philharmonic, Music (News & Reviews) Tagged with , , , ,

Now taking reservations

September 14, 2011 Leave a comment

The Strand House: Finally, FINALLY -- a restaurant where the food lives up to the view. . . . Now all they have to do is figure out how to take reservations without annoying people

A couple of local star chefs who had been on hiatus from the kitchen as they started up new ventures are both now taking reservations at their respective establishments.

Michael Voltaggio a year ago

Michael Voltaggio isn’t opening his new restaurant, “ink.” (yes, the period is part of the official name), until September 21st, but he began taking reservations today.  The “Top Chef” Season Six winner was most recently Chef de Cuisine at the Langham (nee Ritz-Carlton) Huntington Hotel & Spa in Pasadena, but since his departure from there last summer, the anticipation for this new project has been growing to a fever pitch.  And if you didn’t already make a reservation today, you’re going to have to wait until tomorrow to make your reservation, then you’ll wait another 30 days before you actually sit down to eat Chef Voltaggio’s food:

  •  There is a reservation link on their website, but as of right now, that won’t get you anywhere.  Apparently, their partner of choice — Urbanspoon — isn’t working quite as they had planned.  It turns out that once they fill up all of their available tables for 30 days, the website just stops showing a reservation link of any kind; therefore, if you were to go onto ink.’s Urbanspoon sight right now, you’d see nothing related to reservations.  Confusing.  At least the ink. homepage gives a bit of an explanation.
  • What this all means is that each day, reservations will become available for tables exactly 30 days out and only 30 days out; this will go on until things slow down (unlikely anytime soon), someone cancels a reservation (possible, though tough to plan around), or Mr. Voltaggio and his team begin taking reservations for tables further into the future than just 30 days (we can hope).  We’ll see how that turns out.

The Strand House team tries to avoid getting wet underneath the Manhattan Beach pier: Exec Chef Travis Lorton, Owner Michael Zislis, Consulting Chef Neil Fraser, Pastry Chef Seth Caro

Meanwhile, Neil Fraser — former chef/owner of Grace and hopefully future chef/owner of Grace at Vibiana — and his partners, Michael Zislis (owner of The Shade Hotel and other South Bay establishments)  and Travis Lorton (late of Gjelina) recently opened “The Strand House” in Manhattan Beach.  I doubt there is a better combination of high quality food and magnificent view anywhere in Southern California — perhaps anywhere in California period.  If there is such a place, someone please tell me.  Mind you, I haven’t actually eaten there yet, I’m just going by the reviews being published (Merrill Shindler and KevinEats offering just a pair of examples), the reputations of Consulting Chef Fraser and Executive Chef Lorton, and my own wonderful meals at Grace.

Of course, I’ve been planning to get into the restaurant, but they only accepted walk up business until last week when they began to take reservations over the phone.  Even though they’re now willing to take reservations via OpenTable, it’s still practically as hard to get a reservation as ink. Moreover, when you do get a reservation, you are told that you have a time limit of 2.5 hours.  No joke — an exploding dinner reservation.  A good friend of mine said she had a similar experience, and one person even complained about it on the restaurant’s Facebook page, calling it a “silly and somewhat offensive policy.”  Can’t say I disagree with the man.  In any case, I decided to wait until they came up with a more tactful and subtle way to encourage table turnover before trying “The Strand House” for myself; instead, I walked the block and a half up the hill and grabbed a spot at David Lefevre’s still crowded and still spectaculr MB Post (where I have never been given a time limit for how long I can occupy a table).

If any of you happen to make it to either of these restaurants, I would love to hear your experience — or if you want to share your own war story of trying to get a reservation, unsuccessful or not, I’d be open to hearing that too.

  • ink., 8360 melrose ave., los angeles, ca 90069, 323.651.5866, http://www.mvink.com, reservations up to 30 days in advance on Urbanspoon.com
  • The Strand House, 117 Manhattan Beach Boulevard, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, 310.545.7470, http://www.thestrandhousemb.com, reservations via phone or OpenTable.com
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photo credits:
  • The Strand House:  all images taken from their Facebook page
  • Michael Voltaggio:  Charley Gallay/Getty Images North America

Filed under Food Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Finding flutists for orchestras in The OC, Oregon, and San Diego

September 14, 2011 Leave a comment

Pacific Symphony Principal Flutes since 2006: Heather Clark, Monica Daniel-Barker, Mercedes Smith, Ben Smolen

In what has become a nearly annual event, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra (PSO) has named a new Principal Flute:  this time around, the winner is Benjamin Smolen, the current Principal Flute of the Battle Creek Symphony.

Mr. Smolen has played as a guest with the Pacific Symphony before.  Now that he’s got the full-time gig, let’s hope he sticks around a little longer than his three predecessors, each of which held the Principal Flute chair in Orange County for ever shortening stints:

  • Mr. Smolen takes over the chair vacated by Mercedes Smith, who joined the orchestra in December 2010 after having been Principal Flute of the Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet Orchestra for seven years.  She won the audition in August of that year, just one week after having won the prestigious Young Artist Competition put on by the National Flute Association (NFA), defeating Mr. Smolen and many others in the process.  She played with the Pacific Symphony through August 2011, and then she went back to Houston.
  • While Ms. Smith was in California, filling her seat as acting principal in Houston was Monica Daniel-Barker – who happened to be Ms. Smith’s immediate predecessor at the PSO.  When she began her tenure with the Pacific Symphony in 2008, Ms. Daniel-Barker was already traveling between Texas and Northern California where she was principal of three orchestras (Marin Symphony, California Symphony, and Modesto Symphony).  She ended up resigning the position in 2009, admitting later that adding Orange County to her commute proved to be a greater strain on her personal life than she had originally anticipated.
  • The short-stay trend began with Heather Clark.  After studying with Jim Walker at USC, Ms. Clark won the NFA Young Artist Competition in 1994, became Principal Flute of the Long Beach Symphony in 1995, and Principal Flute of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in 2003.  In addition to maintaing the first chair position in those two orchestras, she was also an active studio musician by the time she won the Principal Flute audition with the Pacific Symphony in October 2005.   She began playing with the PSO a few months later, and before the end of the 2007-2008 season, she had resigned.

It’s unclear why the orchestra has had such difficulty holding on to their lead flutist.  Unlike the very public departure of Mathieu Dufour from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, there have been no public comments from the PSO, nor have Ms. Clark or Ms. Smith made any statements regarding their respective situations.  Certainly, there are a whole host of dynamics within both an orchestra and a player’s personal life which could lead to a given player to stay or leave.  Whether the previous three departures were mere coincidences or shared some common thread, I will leave for more knowledgeable parties’ comments or others’ speculation.

Speaking of the LA Phil, the flutist hired to take over for Mr. Dufour was David Buck, who has played with distinction since joining the orchestra at the beginning of the 2010/2011 season.   During his audition for his previous orchestra, the Oregon Symphony, some who heard Mr. Buck referred to him as a “flute god.”   The Oregonian raved about him:  ”He’s just about everything you’d want in a flutist, combining supple tone, rhythmic dynamism and technical agility. When he plays, the flute becomes a natural extension of an imaginative musical personality.”  Now, his old band is hoping to find another deity when they hold auditions for a new Principal Flute that began yesterday and go through the end of the week.

A different flutist made a move in the opposite direction, from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest:  earlier this year, Demarre McGill left his Principal Flute chair in the San Diego Symphony to take the same position with the Seattle Symphony.  His former orchestra begins its search to replace him in a couple of weeks.

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Photo credits:

Filed under Auditions & Appointments, Music (News & Reviews), Pacific Symphony Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Three weeks worth of wine (part one of two)

September 10, 2011 2 Comments

When it comes to wine, I’ll drink anything as long as it’s good:  still or sparkling, red or white (or pink), dry or sweet, you name it. Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the pleasure to taste (and drink) a lot more wine than usual, spanning a whole host of varietals.  As I mentioned previously, we recently got back from a trip to Northern California that included stops in Napa and Sonoma.  Lots of tasty wine sampled on that trip, and there were even more corks pulled and glasses poured before we actually left on the trip.  Too many wines to list all of them, but by popular demand, here’s a rundown on some of the most notable bottles of the past three weeks:

2004 Sea Smoke “Southing” Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills

I have a strong love (and bias) for Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir.  Many bottles of Sanford, Whitcraft, Cambria, Au Bon Climat, Melville, and Lane Tanner have happily passed through our possession since the early 1990′s, and for years, Sanford’s “Sanford & Benedict” release was for me the benchmark bottling for  its depth of flavor and year-to-year consistent excellence.  Then, Christie Bishop, friend and fellow blogger, introduced me to Sea Smoke and as they say, the rest is history.  Don’t get me wrong; I still love “Sanford & Benedict” and I drink more Sanford Pinot Noir than any other label, but Sea Smoke is now the quintessential example of this great varietal in my book.

A few weeks ago, we uncorked a bottle of ’04 “Southing” that we had kept for a while and, well, for lack of a better word . . . WOW.  Excellent but slightly restrained on the nose, this wine really hits the palate with full flavor, lush fruit and spice, with a distinctive Sta. Rita Hills earthiness that lingered for a wonderfully long time.  I might have expected this from a new release, but not from a bottle of pinot that had been laying down for  five years and then decanted for 20 minutes.  This was easily the biggest pinot noir I’ve ever tasted, and could have easily stayed in the cellar for another three years or more and would still hold up beautifully.  We brought the bottle along to Hatfield’s and as expected, it was a perfect match for Quinn Hatfield’s perfectly composed (if perhaps slightly repetitive) seven-course tasting menu.

2004 Gaetano D’Aquino Brunello di Montalcino and 2005 Fattoria dei Barbi Brunello di Montalcino

It’s usually tough to find one decent bottle of Brunello for under $60, but our friends at Costco kindly decided to sell two bottles for under $40.  We brought them with us to the Hollywood Bowl for the Rodrigo y Gabriela concert, and opened the D’Aquino first:  a bit tight at first, it eventually opened up enough to reveal a somewhat dryer flavor than your typical Brunello, while still having a nice long finish.  The Barbi was more fruit-forward and was the preferred choice between the two.  While neither was mind blowing, both were excellent, enjoyable, and great values.

2000 Domaine Carneros Late Disgorged “Le Rêve” Blanc de Blancs

Whenever we go up to Napa and Sonoma, we try to mix in old favorites with new and different places which haven’t previously visited.  Domaine Carneros is one of the few places that we consider “required reading” whenever we’re in the area, both for the awesome setting, the excellent sit-down tasting experience, and most of all, the great sparkling wine.  A few years back, Domaine Carneros decided to limit the release and raise the prices of their wines.  Their flagship “Le Rêve” used to be readily available in our favorite wine store, but is now only available in restaurants and direct from the winery, so these winery visits have become an increasingly rare opportunity to taste it.  On this visit, they happened to be tasting their very limited Late Disgorged ”Le Rêve,” supposedly only available through their club and at the winery.  Was it wonderful?  Absolutely.  Was it better than their regular release of ”Le Rêve?”  I thought so.  Did I think it was worth the $100+ club-discounted asking price?  No.  Roederer Estate’s “L’Ermitage” Brut Anderson Valley remains my favorite vintage California sparkler — at less than half the price.

2008 Ravenswood “Cooke Vineyard” Zinfandel Sonoma County and 2007 Ravenswood “Old Hill” Zinfandel Sonoma Valley

I was a huge fan of the Ravenswood Monte Rosso Zinfandel over the years, and when the winery lost access to that famed Sonoma County vineyard’s grapes, I went into a little bit of mourning.  Thank goodness we discovered their Cooke Vineyard Zinfandel last year. While the 2008 isn’t quite as awesome as the amazing 2007 version of the same wine, it is still jammy and spicy, complex yet easy finishing, and pretty much everything you’d want in a zin — except, perhaps, readily available (they only sell at the winery and through their club, and only 300 or so cases of the 2008 were produced).  If you want/need something special from Ravenswood that you could actually find in the store, all of the single vineyard designates are quite good, but the 2007 “Old Hill” was easily my favorite of the bunch.

Filed under Drink, Napa & Sonoma, Travel, Wine Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

A better idea than “warm salty nuts”

September 8, 2011 Leave a comment

I’d put ice cream up there on my list of favorites along with the aforementioned orchestras and beer. And when it comes to ice cream, Ben & Jerry’s takes pride of place in our freezer. Each time I think I’ve found my go-to flavor, they manage to invent some tasty new creation, often with a wink and a nod to some humorous pop culture reference.

Their latest creation has just been announced: “Schweddy Balls”

Christmas comes a little early this year thanks to Pete Schweddy.  If you are unfamiliar with Pete and the Saturday Night Live classic from which his holiday dessert concept sprung, follow the link below for the original skit which launched this delicious dish.

Saturday Night Live:  Pete Schweddy appears on National Public Radio

Filed under Food, Humor Tagged with , , ,

Symphony in Beer

September 6, 2011 1 Comment

You know, some things just don’t get old, especially when it involves the combination of two of my favorite things:  orchestras and beer.

Here’s a real 2007 Australian commercial for Victoria Bitter beer starring the Melbourne Symphony and Orchestra Victoria (playing as the “Victoria Bitter Orchestra”) in a performance of “The VB Stubby Symphony.”  Also below is an equally amusing video showing a behind-the-scenes look into the making of the commercial.

Kudos to the orchestras and to VB for making this happen.  Other possible combos:

  • The San Francisco Symphony and Bear Republic Brewery
  • The Los Angeles Philharmonic and Sanford Winery
  • The Louisville Orchestra and Woodford Reserve bourbon (perhaps this will be more appropriate now that they’re coming out of bankruptcy)

Filed under Beer, Drink, Humor, Music (News & Reviews) Tagged with , , ,

Getting ramped up for the new seasons

September 2, 2011 1 Comment

Welcome to September (special thanks to Pomplamoose for helping to ring it in with style).  We officially still have a few weeks of summer left, but this month is when all sorts of seasons (musical and otherwise) start anew:

Dr. Art Bartner rallies the troops (photo: Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)

My beloved USC Trojans kick-off their 2011 football season tomorrow at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum against the Minnesota Golden Gophers.  Here’s hoping that the new offensive line holds up and the defense gets a LOT better — that shouldn’t be so hard considering how disappointing they were last year.  In anticipation of the game and the annual Hollywood Bowl appearance of the USC Trojan Marching Band (TMB) with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture, the Los Angeles Times profiled Dr. Arthur C. Bartner, the very vocal director of “The Spirit of Troy” for the past 42 years. There also happen to be side interviews with two former TMB players who are now both in the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO):  Principal Horn Richard Todd and Principal Trumpet David Washburn.

Speaking of interviews with LACO musicians, Music Director Jeffrey Kahane chats with Brian Lauritzen about the first half of the upcoming 2011/2012 season on a podcast that can be downloaded or streamed from the orchestra’s website.  Their first concert is on September 24 & 25 in a program featuring Music Director Jeffrey Kahane as conductor and soloist in the Beethoven Piano Concerto No 4, with works by Mozart, Golijov, and an electric guitar concerto by Derek Bermel featuring soloist Wiej Hijmans.  If you can’t wait that long to see them, September 17th marks the beginning of an interesting series, “LACO à la carte:”  concerts featuring one or two LACO solo players, performed at residences of various foreign Consul Generals (Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Austria) plus an “Iran” themed evening at the Brentwood home of Ahmad & Haleh Gramian.  Each concert comes complete with a dinner of the respective country’s cuisine.  Not surprisingly, tickets aren’t cheap:  $250/seat for the Australian evening and $200/seat for all others, with multi-concert discounts available.

If you want something a little more affordable, you can’t get much better than the five concerts by the Colburn Orchestra this coming year:  $0.  Yup, that’s right,  my favorite price, “Free Fifty-Free” for general admission seats (Premium seats front and center cost a still-reasonable $25/ticket).   Clarinet pedagogue extraordinaire and Colburn Orchestra Music Director, Yehuda Gilad, conducts three of the concerts including mostly warhorse works by Dvorak, Mussorgsky, and Brahms.  Gerard Schwarz leads the orchestra in the Mahler 5th Symphony, and Bramwell Tovey is on the podium for Ein Heldenleben by Strauss.   Featured soloists include distinguished Colburn students Francesca dePasquale (Dvorak violin concerto), Estelle Choi (Shostakovich cello concerto no. 1), and Sichen Ma (Brahms piano concerto no. 2), plus mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke singing works by Adams and Mahler, and percussion ensemble, “Smoke and Mirrors” in From Me Flows What You Call Time by Takemitsu.  All concerts this year will be at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena.

For something a little more adventurous, try “New Music for String Quartet and Electronics,” a concert on September 17 presented by People Inside Electronics, featuring The Eclipse Quartet performing new compositions.  This info is taken from their press release:

Eclipse Quartet (photo: http://www.eclipsequartet.com)

Last winter, People Inside Electronics, a concert series directed by Aron Kallay and Isaac Schankler, put forth an international call for scores, seeking work that combined the traditional instrumentation of a string quartet (the award-winning Eclipse Quartet) with electronics. They were delighted with the response of over 60 entries, and set to work preparing a concert of their favorites.NEW MUSIC for STRING QUARTET and ELECTRONICS is the culmination of that work.

The concert, at MiMoDa Studio in Culver City, comprises five exciting pieces of new music.  Three are arranged for the full quartet and electronics: Zeena Parkins’ spellbinding Persuasion, Dan Visconti’s dynamic, eclectic Love Bleeds Radiant, and Kotoka Suzuki’s atmospheric Vestigia.  Rounding out the program are Jason Heath’s enchanting Rain Ceremony, arranged for viola and electronics, and Panayiotis Kokoras’ mercurial Shatter Cone for violin and electronics.

Do you prefer your electronic music in the form of New Wave?  Southern Californians can head over to the Hollywood Bowl tonight for a concert by the Human League, Berlin, The Fixx, and The B-52′s.  If you miss them there, The B-52′s and Human League will head to Las Vegas for a beach-side concert at Mandalay Bay on Sunday; the others will drive up to the Bay Area where they’ll be joined by the likes of Men Without Hats, Kenny Loggins, The Romantics, and many more at the Sausalito Art Festival this weekend.  That won’t be quite the one-hit wonder fest that appeared at Mandalay Bay last month, but it holds its own.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic will NOT be joining the New Wave fun at the Hollywood Bowl (imagine Chris Hanulik doing the bass riff on a special orchestral arrangement of  “Rock Lobster” or better yet, Fred Schneider doing his trademark sprechstimme to Pierrot Lunaire), but they did take part in a different kind of fun:  they were the beneficiaries of a cake-making challenge in this week’s episode of “Top Chef — Just Desserts.”  If the TV show’s judges were to be believed, they tasted pretty good.  Unfortunately, theirs are the only opinions we have to listen to since the show decided to show absolutely no footage of LA Phil musicians actually commenting on the creations; save for some out-of-focus shots of second violinists in the background, they barely got any screen time to speak of.   I guess their SAG cards will have to wait.

Filed under Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Music (News & Reviews) Tagged with , , , , , ,

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