Read.East.Listen: Heart strings

Read: I respect a cranky artist, which is at least how songwriter Peter Case initially comes off in his book "Epistolary Rex." Kwame's is a big Peter Case fan so we were happy to get a seat at Case's recent KC Turner-produced house concert in SF last weekend. Case didn't play my favorite of his tunes, "Two Angels," but he nonetheless pulled on heart strings with a highly literate, sharply honest, blues-inflected set. He was selling his book as well as his CDs after the show, so we went home with the aforementioned title. The tome, actually a correspondence with David Ensminger, is as tell-it-like-I-see-it as Case's songs and performance persona, part poetry, part rant.
PC: "Fear is our teacher, our spiritual leader. Dishonor and death our traveling companions. Wise up America! Begin to leave your fears behind, okay? You can start the process with little ones: tell somebody what you really think!"
Eat: Lots of goodies on the La Mesa Whole Family Fare blog, including this simple Avocado Smoothie. Raw, vegan, yum
Listen: Paste Magazine offered a Valentine's sampler on NoiseTrade that's Half Love Songs/Half Anti-love Songs. I especially liked the last track by Samantha Crain, "Never Going Back"

Read.Eat.Listen: Deception

Oh Lance, did you have to? What an ugly story Armstrong's has turned out to be, especially for those of us who love the sport of cycling. I hung up my bike racing shoes more than a decade a go, but having been double-dipped in the sport for a time, I'm at once fascinated and revolted by Lance's 'coming clean' on Oprah (or 'Doprah' as the Twitterverse deemed it). I was racing bikes and working an editorial job at VeloNews in Boulder, CO when Lance won the 1993 world championship and signaled what a powerhouse (albeit now exceedingly tarnished) of the peloton he would be for the next 12 years. When the finish line photos came in, we all poured over them in awe. The world couldn't help but be thrilled and impressed by his achievements. And even long after I'd stopped riding competitively, I kept track of Lance and his victories.  I'd learned enough from those in the know that the accusations had merit before this week's Oprah 'event' ...but the depth of his lies is truly astonishing and oh-so-disappointing.
READ: The Secret Race: Inside Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups and Winning at All Costs
EAT: Crow? Nah, will stick with something real, but deceptive in it's own way (i.e. no dairy about the cream, no white sugar, no cooking) ala this raw triple chocolate cake recipe.
LISTEN: Miles Davis - Deception-Davis

Powered by mp3skull.com Big news for SF music lovers is that the new SF Jazz Center is opening January 21. Located in the heart of Hayes Valley, close the the symphony and ballet, it's exciting and accessible.  NPR will be streaming the big opening night concert which is star-studded and, alas, SOLD OUT. Thank you NPR!

Three Ps (& a D) in Portland

I'm not here for work or to play, rather I'm in Portland on a bit of a lark while my S.O. works. A wintry, rainy Northwestern city might not be the first choice to visit if you're feeling under the weather, but Portland is hardly a place with which to find fault. Portland really is cool, figuratively as well as literally. As we're staying downtown, I spent my first day in the area and The Pearl District, enjoying some R&R and literary inspiration.
Yoga Pearl: Located, fittingly, in Portland's Pearl District, Early morning Mysore Style Ashtanga class is followed in quick succession by led Hatha and Vinyasa classes with some Yin Yoga and Restorative classes for good measure. The serene studio also boasts a Wellness Center and one of the best smoothie & juice bars in town...

Prasad: I'll go to Pearl for Prasad alone. Veggie bowls, healing elixrs, an extensive juice and smoothie menu. If the Wellness Shot (ginger juice, lemon, cayenne & echinacia straight up) I took doesn't cure me, I don't know what will. Especially since I chased it with Blackberry Kiss smoothie made with Oregon's own Marionberries. Yum and OK, now, I could look at books.

Powell's City of Books: Lest anyone think that no one reads actual books anymore, Powell's City of Books spans a city block and  keeps its shelves stacked high with seemingly every tome known to humankind. The largest independent new and used bookstore in the world has color-coded rooms that help you locate your area of interest. There's also a downloadable app that guides you turn by turn through the stacks if you don't want to ask one of the stores friendly book loving staff. It's hardly my first visit, but...wow, I'll say again. I whiled away a couple of hours here, decided on my purchases while reading them over coffee — they let you bring up to 5 books to browse into the cafe — bought the latest Alice Munro collection and re-remembered about 10 titles I want to/need to read.


Ok, about that D. That would be for Ducks. As in Portland Ducks, who I have to say I haven't been following. Nonetheless, I met self-proclaimed 'the biggest Duck fan' on the planet, a gentleman who was flying back to PDX via AZ where the Portland Ducks took the Fiesta Bowl. The birder in me eclipsed the football 'fan' and had to ask what kind of duck is a Portland Duck? Not a wood or a mallard or a whistling duck but a 'Donald-type Duck' I was told. A Disney Duck, was the general conclusion. In any case, congrats to the Ducks!

Read.Eat.Listen: Short forms

Read: I spent a few mostly unsuccessful years writing short stories before ceding my hand to essays and songs. Nonetheless, I remain a fan of the form. Alice Munro, Junot Diaz and the likes can still pull me into unwavering focus with their truth-filled fictions. This week I’ve been eating up Susan Minot’s Lust and Other Stories. She's more recent work but I missed this when it came out. Clear, immediate heart-breaking reads that are truly short and easy-to-fit lit for a busy schedule.

Eat: It's been the week of the almond thanks to making a batch of fresh almond milk.  Not many easier thing to make really. Soak raw almonds in water, drain, whir in a blender with 3 parts water to 1 part almonds, strain, voila.  Add agave, salt and vanilla to give it more shape. Yum.

-->

Listen: Aimee Mann, whose songs are sharp and telling stories of their own, has a new release 'Charmers'. We already knew Aimee was great and this collection is no exception. What else is there to say?