Visited this posh steakhouse in the heart of Beverly Hills. Pre-dinner martini was fabulous. The soft-shell crab appetizer was heavenly. Then we split the bone-in rib-eye, cooked to perfection. Great big red Cabernets recommended by the house—Hess and St. Francis.
The valet told us that recent celebrity visitors included Brad Pitt and his wife (who’s that?), and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The New York Times Magazine on June 22nd, 2003, in the article Savant for a Day, reported an interesting experiment in transcranial magnetic stimulation.
The before and after pictures of this subject’s ability to draw a dog tell the story. This technique has also been used to dispel schizophenia patients’ inner voices. What is the neural basis of this?
From Greek, the process of emptying the mind or soul.
We went to see Winged Migration. It’s GREAT!
This is basically an hour and half of the most wonderful bird photography you will ever see. It has beauty; family; nature; death; humor; grandeur; strangeness; love; and dance. There is no plot, other than the hundred little plots occurring as the birds make their 500, 1,000, 5,000, or 10,000 mile trips every spring and fall.
This movie was nominated for an Academy Award in the Documentary Feature category but inexplicably failed to win the award.
See it at your local movie theater. There’s a website here.
What impressed me most about Finding Nemo was the computer graphics treatment of the water. Water surfaces, waves, surf…far beyond what was possible algorithmically or computationally even five years ago.
Of course, the movie is also great fun to watch, with great sight gags and superb voice talent. The plot is a bit predictable, though.
Urinate. Also: micturition.
May be old news for some, but the progress in the Japanese restaurant culture over the last ten years is truly remarkable. Time was, Japanese eating out was either sushi, or “izakaya” (bistro-type) fare, or the brain-damaged Japanese version of French or Italian or, worst of all, generic Western.
The wellsprings of the culinary revolution in Japan lie squarely in the izakaya tradition. But they’ve branched off in every aspect imaginable: menu, presentation, and decor. And this trend is by no means limited to Tokyo, where “new-style” izakaya-inspired restaurants have proliferated to the point of being slightly scary; during a recent trip to Shizuoka we wandered into Gazen, a fine exemplar of the movement.
Here’s some of the dishes we enjoyed there:
Pork toro (in Japanese, “ton-toro”) is a rich, fatty cut of pork. We’ve seen it in new-style izaka-yas everywhere. The mozarella cheese dish exemplifies another interesting trend: cheese, cheese everywhere. At another restaurant, for instance, we saw “cheese yakko”, using cheese as a replacement for tofu in the old stand-by “hiya-yakko”—unthinkable even ten years ago.
I’ve had a number of wonderful tofu dishes in the new types of restaurants. Common thread is that it is smooth, creamy, and creatively flavored. The zaru-dofu we had at Gazen was a fine example.
Yuba (a sort of dried soybean product) occupies a prominent place in the new restaurant culture. We’ve also seen a lot of duck. In general, there is an emphasis on the provenance of ingredients—be it fish, condiments, or even vegetables. Of course, great jizake accompanies all these meals.
One can only hope that this highly positive trend continues. Of course, being Japan, the probability is that it will degenerate before long into mere superficiality and we’ll have to wait another twenty years for the next breakthrough. Before that happens, though, perhaps some of this new great food can be exported to the US? The “hip” Japanese restaurants in the US, whether it be Nobu in NY or Katana in Los Angeles, actually come in quite low on the creativity/culinary interest scale—they seem to be more about cool decor and just mildly titillating culinary experimentation. There’s hope: I’ve heard that Gonpachi (where Koizumi famously took Bush to eat) is soon coming to LA, almost within walking distance of my house!
Defense of God’s goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil.
This page contains information on on-line resources related to the Myers family.
The Myers family group sends out birthday announcements, and is also a way to send mail to most of the Myers’.
If you use Yahoo! Calendar, you can add the Myers family birthdays directly to your calendar. Select “Calendar Options”, then “Time Guides” (under Events) on the Options page, then click “Add” next to “Friends’ Calendars”, and enter “myersfamily2001”.
I’ve put up some Myers family genealogy data.
Bob has written a good overview of the computer go problem.