Crime and Punishment

by dang @ 9:18 am. Filed under A & E

Intiman is reviving CHAC’s superb 2007 production of Crime and Punishment. If you live in Seattle and missed it the first time around, I highly recommend catching it this time.

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Solo has a completely new menu. It’s always a little nerve-racking to see a good place undergo a major change, but we had cocktails there last night, and the Lamb Egg Rolls with Tamarind Date Chutney are to die for. If you’re in the vicinity of the Seattle Center and craving a nosh, I highly recommend trying it.

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Poppy’s Seattle

by dang @ 12:14 am. Filed under A & E

I don’t think Jerry Traunfeld’s new restaurant needs any additional buzz (only 3 weeks open, and it was full tonight) but the waitress specifically asked us to spread the word, and they definitely deserve a plug, so here’s my take:

The structure of Poppy’s is similar to the Herbfarm in that the meal is a 10-part tasting menu. However, instead of being served in multiple courses, the entire tasting menu is brought out on a single plate, based on the Indian idea of thali. This adds an extra dimension to the meal by allowing you to taste the various combinations between the dishes, but it does also have the downside that the meal gets cold before it is finished.

Like the Herbfarm, the menu is Northwest cuisine, made up of local ingredients, and heavy on interesting herb and spice mixes and original flavor combinations. The ingredients are somewhat simpler and cheaper than at the Herbfarm, and the wines are not as good. I’m not sure if the portions are larger than at the Herbfarm, or it’s just a function of the meal being served at once, but I actually felt satiated at Poppy’s, unlike at the Herbfarm.

I’m not crazy about the large, noisy, and mostly unornamented open space at Poppy’s, and the service was dicey. (Despite having a reservation, we had to wait half an hour for a table, standing since there was no room at the bar. After twenty minutes, they offered to comp our first round of drinks, but then they forgot and we had to remind our waitress at the end. Even after we were seated, drinks and order-taking were very slow.) But I don’t like Herbfarm’s Victorian chintz and pretentiously formal service either, so that’s a wash.

Of course, the biggest difference is that at Poppy’s we paid $75 a head (including wine, dessert, tax and tip) whereas at Herbfarm we paid well over $200.

The bottom line is that Traunfeld’s reputation is completely deserved: Poppy’s is some of the best food you can get in Seattle. And at $32 for a thali, it’s a steal. If you live anywhere near Seattle, I recommend heading there ASAP.

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Trivia Question

by dang @ 4:07 pm. Filed under A & E

Who is the only person ever to win both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar?

(answer after the jump)

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Cafe Presse

by dang @ 3:26 pm. Filed under A & E

As a new project by the owners of the ever-popular Le Pichet, Cafe Presse already has plenty of buzz and doesn’t really need a plug, but I can’t help plugging it. We had brunch there this morning, and will definitely be back again. I had the Oufes Plats–broiled eggs with ham and gruyere. I thought I’d eaten eggs cooked every possible way, but I don’t think I’ve ever had them broiled before; they were soft and the yolks were perfect. The coffee was Cafe Vita (of course), and we finished by sharing a Pain au Chocolat, which was heavenly.

Cafe Presse makes excellent use of their space by being both a coffee shop and a bar (as well as a casual sit-down restaurant, although it doesn’t look like one from the outside). It also fills a major hole in pre-theatre dining: the dearth of affordable food near the Lee Center for the Arts. And to top it all off, it serves its full menu from 7am to 2am, making it an excellent place to stop for Chicken Liver Terrine or Croque Monsieur after (or while) drinking on First Hill. (I haven’t tried the terrine yet, since we’ve only been there for breakfast; but even the most grudging reviewers at The Stranger admit that it’s good.)

Highly recommended for any Seattlites who haven’t run across it yet.

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Eva Restaurant

by dang @ 9:15 pm. Filed under A & E

Just got back from dinner at Eva Restaurant; Meia had asparagus bisque and mussels, and I had a flan made with Cabrales cheese, and loin of rabbit. For any Seattleites reading, I highly recommend this place. Zagat rates it a 25 on food (equal to Wild Ginger or Chez Shea), and deservedly so; but the prices are those of a neighborhood restaurant ($15 entrees, $5 starters). If the same place were downtown instead of in Greenlake, the tab would be twice as much. Highly recommended. (And try the Malbec.)

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Waid’s Place

by dang @ 9:47 pm. Filed under A & E

There are some culinary areas in which Seattle shines. For example, it has one of the widest selections of Japanese and Chinese food in the country, probably second only to San Francisco and New York. Caribbean food, OTOH… not so much. So I’ve been anxious to try Waid’s Place ever since I heard it had opened.

If you live in the Seattle area, I’d definitely recommend you try it; and quickly too, since based on this blog post and the fact that we were the only diners there at 7:30 on a Sunday evening, I’m not sure how much longer it will be around.

Meia and I both started with a pumpkin broth and a complimentary spicy pork dip, both of which were excellent. The entrees were served with a huge array of sides, among which a small bit of okra was the stand-out; they were all good, however. My goat was fair to good; it had a bit too much of a barbeque flavor for my taste, and had a lot of fat and bone, but was tender and flavorful overall. Meia loved her curried shrimp. The only available dessert was fried bananas with whipped cream, which were light and tasty.

All in all, I can’t say I’d recommend it against the stiff competition in cities with large Caribbean immigrant communities, like New York or Miami. But for Seattle, this is a major step up, and I hope that Waid makes it.

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Pan’s Labyrinth

by dang @ 1:04 am. Filed under A & E

Meia and I just saw Pan’s Labyrinth, and I’m having a hard time putting together my thoughts about the movie. Here’s a stab. (more…)

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I left my feet in San Francisco

by dang @ 5:32 pm. Filed under A & E

Meia and I got home last night from a very nice four-day weekend in San Francisco. We just about walked our legs off, but we had a great time. Pics will be forthcoming, but I have to post a few impressions in the meantime:

Chinatown: Not only do the stores on Grant Ave all sell the same crap, they even have the same price tags and sale signs! I have to wonder if they’re all actually owned by the same company. Once you get off Grant Ave, however, things get a lot more interesting. Just don’t stand downwind from the sidewalk displays of dried fish.

Brunch: If money is no object, try the restaurant at the Campton Place Hotel. It’s the same price range as Norma’s in New York, but a completely different experience in terms of food and service. Meia and I both had the Crab Cakes Benedict; the crab was fresh, and the hollandaise was probably the best I’ve ever had.

For a more affordable but still excellent brunch, we ended up at the Curbside Cafe on New Year’s. The tables are packed into the tiny place with an elbow-rubbing density I have only seen in French restaurants. But the proprietor, Antoine, moves through the narrow spaces with acrobatic speed, and both the service and the food were very good. (Antoine can be moody, however; we saw him snap at customers who were waiting for a table and complained about being passed over.)

New Year’s Eve: Blonde Redhead were so good that I didn’t even get drunk. And I’m not much of a DJ fan, but Mike Relm kicks ass.

Transportation: Having buses that run frequently, on every major street, is absolutely wonderful. They seriously need a farecard system, however. This is the 21st century; ‘exact change’ won’t even exist for much longer.

SF MOMA: Neither of us had heard of Anselm Keifer before, but we both love him. I was also quite attracted by Clyfford Still.

Castro: Far gayer than either the Village or (Seattle’s) Capitol Hill. Greatest density of male packages (in posters and store window displays) that I have ever seen in my life.

Pier 39: We only ended up there because the bus we wanted to take wasn’t running on the weekend. Meia’s reaction: “It’s even worse than I imagined.”

We also ate lots of Chinese food, toured the houses in Pacific Heights, and watched the sun set from the West side of the Presidio. We didn’t get to see North Beach, the Mission District (except for a drive through on the way from the airport), Golden Gate Park, or any of the Bay Area outside of the city. So we’ve got plenty of grist for a future visit.

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Iraq in Fragments

by dang @ 2:34 am. Filed under A & E

If you live in Seattle, or any of the other cities where it is showing, go see this film. It is a remarkable movie, which manages to simultaneously excel as a documentary and as a work of cinematographic art.

One-man-band James Longley (director, cameraman, and co-editor) spent two whole years living in Iraq after the American invasion. He spent enough time with his subjects to get intimate access to the lives of ordinary Iraqis, and of the entire Sadrist movement in Naseriyah.

In a near-verite style (Longley insisted at Q&A after the showing tonight that it was not verite, although he described it that way in his IMDB summary), the film contains no narration; we don’t hear or see Longley at all, even as an interviewer.

The lack of narration prevents explicit political preachiness (although the viewpoint is, of course, that of the Iraqis being filmed), and the pacing and presentation are more poetic than expository. The composition and lighting of the shots are so rich that you would never guess that the filming was a one-man job.

If there is any justice in the world, Iraq in Fragments will get this year’s documentary Oscar. It would be an incredible achievement for a film-maker with only one other feature release and little name recognition, but would be entirely deserved.

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Wikipedia in a nutshell

by dang @ 1:46 pm. Filed under A & E

This week’s South Park episode already has an entry in Wikipedia, which not only contains a synposis of the plot, but also a lengthy list of violations of WoW rules in the episode.

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King Jean

by dang @ 10:16 am. Filed under A & E

Meia and I saw an all-female production of King John last night at CHAC. I have to disagree with The Stranger and say that Amy Thone (King John) was atrocious. Conveying emotion and character through the awkward (to the modern tongue) language of Shakespeare is a challenge, and she simply was not up to it. Her intonation was all over the place, with either little relation to the words she was speaking, or else an almost comedic exaggeration. (Imagine “France!” yelled in roughly the same tone as “Khan!”, “Hubert, Hubert, Hubert” analogously to “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha”, or “My mother dead” with longer pauses than William Shatner’s.)

I don’t mean to bash mercilessly on Ms Thone; she displayed excellent range and ability and would likely do very well in a role with more natural language. She should stay away from Shakespeare for a while, however.

Despite that, the remainder of the production was quite good. Ki Gottberg (author of the brilliant Compendium of Nastiness) stole the show as Constance, not avoiding the inevitable domineering-mother aspect of the role, but beautifully bringing out its tragedy as well. Betsy Schwartz as Arthur did an excellent job of playing the innocent swept up in forces beyond his control, and Tracy Repep made the most of Blanche’s soliloquy.

The show closes today, with a sold-out matinee. This was the first production of the new company Upstart Crow, and I look forward to their next project.

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Le Gourmand

by dang @ 9:39 am. Filed under A & E

If you live in Seattle, and are looking for French food, you would probably not think of heading to Ballard. You would be wrong.

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The Compendium of Nastiness

by dang @ 11:51 am. Filed under A & E

This little show is great fun! It’s a one-woman, extremely crude (both in production values and subject matter) one-hour puppet show, performed in the writer’s basement, involving black magic, sodomy, drugs, and sweet virgin (incestuous) love. The demon, in particular, is excellently played. If you live in Seattle and have a twisted sense of humor (think Trey Parker and Matt Stone meet Emily Bronte), you will want to catch one of the four remaining performances. (It’s been extended before, but they say that this time, they really mean it; May 13 is closing night.)

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The Pillowman

by dang @ 11:21 pm. Filed under A & E

Along the line of slightly more serious–albeit far more disturbing–entertainment, I saw The Pillowman at ACT Theatre today. Words fail me to describe this play, which is designed to be an intense experience even for hardened theatrical audiences, not just because of its subject matter–although a play about child-murder is obviously no picnic–but because its emotional depth makes it impossible to swat away.

The Pillowman is clever and moving, creatively structured and excellently staged. It is also very, very dark. It is playing in Seattle through April 16, and will undoubtedly play elsewhere due to the awards it received (Olivier in London and Tony nomination in New York). I highly recommend it.

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Return of Chef

by dang @ 11:04 pm. Filed under A & E

Yeah, I know, I’m way late to the party, but I finally saw Return of Chef on DVR. Parker and Stone outdid themselves.

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The Abortion Diaries

by dang @ 6:32 pm. Filed under A & E, Law & Politics

I saw an excellent documentary last night called The Abortion Diaries. In the 30-minute film, 12 women speak about their personal experiences having an abortion. In the Q&A that followed, director Penny Lane discussed the core idea behind her film: that the national conversation about abortion needs to become both broader and more personal.

There is still a good deal of stigma around abortion, and the pro-choice position is usually defended only as the lesser of evils. The notion that abortion can be the right decision, made with no regrets, is just not in the public discourse. And like any taboo, this condition is self-perpetuating: women who have had abortions will not speak out about them because of the stigma, and this public silence helps mantain the stigma. And As Ms. Lane noted in the Q&A, virtually the only women to discuss their abortions publicly are in the pro-life movement.

Conversely, the pro-choice movement is generally dismissive of feelings that a fetus has some personhood, even though those feelings are natural. They fear that any such notion gives ammunition to the other side. It is challenging to weigh the psychological needs of the mother against the physical life of the fetus; it’s a lot easier to simply argue that the latter has no value.

Ms. Lane’s film is not flawless, of course, but it is a well-crafted work and an important step towards addressing these suppressed issues.

Ms Lane is also a highly engaging speaker; the film is worth seeing on its own, but if you have the oppotunity to attend a screening where she attends in person, you do not want to miss it.

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Not Big Enough to Cover

by dang @ 12:50 am. Filed under A & E

Via Pandagon, a tale of British prudery:

A gallery has replaced a painting of a naked man with a female nude after it received dozens of complaints.

The Mark Jason Gallery, in Bell Street, Marylebone, removed the offending image by artist Edd Pearman after more than 30 men voiced their objection.

Some said the picture would upset women, others said it was pornographic.

You can see this upsetting, pornographic painting below the jump.
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Does indoctrination work?

by dang @ 4:16 pm. Filed under A & E, Religion & Philosophy

Kevin Drum wonders:

Would a fantasy story like Narnia really make children more accepting of Christian theology when they encounter it in the future? That strikes me as nonsensical. After all, the whole point of the stories in the Bible is that they are actually true. Conversely, the whole point of Narnia is that it’s a fantasy. If children make any connection at all, wouldn’t the most likely connection be that Christ’s miracles sure seem an awful lot like Narnia’s magic, which we all know is just a made-up story?

Known fiction, however, can still help us to accept something as real. Newspaper stories about new technology, for example, often contain references to similar concepts in popular sci-fi. The Army even traded on this familiarity by naming its new non-lethal laser weapon “phaser”.

Fiction may not make us inherently more ready to believe that something exists in fact, but it does at least introduce the concept, which is an important prerequisite to belief. That is especially the case with Narnia, where I think that Lewis’ main concept is not so much the “facts” of miracles or resurrections, but rather the idea of atonement through sacrifice, especially through sacrificial death of the innocent.

I don’t know if reading Narnia actually makes kids more likely to accept this concept. But for children raised without instruction in Christian theology (which probably includes most nominal Christians), it at least gives them exposure to the concept, which was probably Lewis’ goal.

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Seeing the Visible

by dang @ 10:45 pm. Filed under A & E

Just got back from seeing The Visible Men. They’re a great little band with quirky attitude and a unique sound. (Well, the singer’s voice actually sounds like the lead vocalist from Barenaked Ladies. But unique aside from that!) Unlike all too many garage bands that are just about the noise, these guys really know how to use their instruments. (And they’d better, since they have a song called ‘Semen Factory’.)

They’re out of Eugene OR, and appear to tour throughout the West; if they’re coming near you I highly recommend giving them a listen.

P.S. The clips on their website don’t really do them justice. We went to see them due to the Boise Weekly’s recommendation, and it was definitely worth it.

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