I spend so much time being busy…
Cats: miscellanea|…and have so little to show for it.
Hm.
I really have been doing things. Here’s the rundown.
Thursday
Thursday evening I was invited to have dinner at Oggi, the Italian place on Van Ness just South of Olive in the Tower. I accepted. Along with some very entertaining dinner conversation, there was also good food. Here’s what I ate, and a mini-review. The appetizer was “tubes and tentacles”, but on the menu I think they called it something along the lines of fried calamari. It arrived in a huge bowl, plenty of calamari for two people, and it was quite tasty with the accompanying sauce. For my entree I chose the meat lasagna. I have to say it was good, certainly good enough. I didn’t think it had enough of the “meat” part of the equation. The texture was nice (sans enough meaty goodness). I think it could have had a bit more tomato pizazz added to the flavor. Still, I ate the whole thing, so it couldn’t have been too bad. Dessert was shared, and just on a whim, we chose to order the chocolate raviolis. After all, when you see THAT on the menu, don’t just wonder? I did. So we ordered it.
This is what it looked like upon arrival, giving us pause:
Okay. So… yeah, they’re raviolis, made of chocolate flavored pasta. Inside was a chocolate creme filling, and they were served in a soupy sauce of what appeared to be raspberries and blueberries. (There may have been a boysenberry or two, I don’t recall.) The pasta was a bit al dente and not at all the nice, slick texture I usually associate with a ravioli of any sort. The filling was delightfully sweet and light, with a lovely chocolate flavor. The sauce/soup was like a thin berry syrup with fresh berries, that part was also great. For some reason, though, the mixture of these three things left something to be desired. I think having to chew through a tough ravioli that is only marginally cocoa flavored, but mostly bland, to get to the good stuff, and then only getting that little taste of the good stuff, was just too much, even if it WAS bathed in berry goodness.
This is what the plate looked like after dessert was consumed:
The comment was made that it resembled the remains of a slaughter.
Edible, but definitely not a dessert I will order again. It just didn’t deliver. Even less than my lasagna did. I’m still glad we ordered it. You just don’t see chocolate pasta drowning in berries all that often. Now I can say I’ve tried it.
So, my final review of the place: Oggi is a lovely restaurant. The atmosphere is pleasant. The service is superb. We were well cared for throughout the experience. As for the food… I’m told the chicken marsala was quite good. My lasagna was good, just not enough for my picky tastes. The appetizer of calamari was very tasty. The dessert was barely passing as desserts go, but still a FUN experience.
I would recommend Oggi. You get plenty of food, and by and large the food is good. Just… only order the chocolate raviolis if you’re looking for the experience and not exciting flavor.
After dinner was a trip downtown to Broadway Studios for a late night Art Hop look at what was going on there. As always, a wide variety of art to see, and people out and about, even at that hour. I had the pleasure of being introduced to local artist and filmmaker Teresa Flores, whose film that was playing during Art Hop happens to be titled “Joy”. (It has nothing to do with me, but from what I hear it is a thoughtful film and worth seeing.) I just enjoy these little congruities of life.
Later we dropped by Starline Grill for a drink, then because the evening was so pleasant, as only a temperate spring evening in Fresno can be, we wandered around the block. Heading back down Wishon toward Olive we passed the knitty-people-yarn-wool-store-place. (I forget the name of it, but it’s one of those shops where you can go buy interesting yarns with which to make interesting things, and see interesting things that have been made with interesting yarns.)
We saw a creature in the window. At the time it was referred to as “sheep like creature”. I have since decided it is a sheep-duck… a sh’duck… a shuck, or deep… OR… a very tall platypus in winter coat.
Whatever it is, this is what it looks like:
Friday
Full Circle Brewery celebrated eight years of making great stuff to drink, even having a birthday cake and horse ovaries (or hor d’ouevres) for the occasion. Suicide Lounge played for the party. I had so much fun. I’m feeling more and more comfortable on stage, and I think it shows in my singing. It flows much more easily, and I can put a great deal more of what I feel into my interpretations. We do so many songs that speak directly from my heart. No photos, the pictures that were taken by a friend didn’t turn out at all, so… oh well.
After that, several of us congregated at Starline Grill for late night snacking and chatting. It was fun.
Saturday Spent most of Saturday sleeping, but managed to rouse myself in time to go downtown with lecram to Milano on the Fulton Mall.
The evening was kicked off with some fantastic original music from Poplord. I took a few photos at first (this is the only usable one):
Then I didn’t remember to take any more because I was enjoying the music too much. After Poplord was an encore performance of Sprawlzilla vs. Mainstreet. I’ve seen it before, but it was entirely enjoyable a second time. Timely, clever, and enormously entertaining. I couldn’t stay for the music of Docabilly, because I had to get up EARLY in the morning.
Sunday
Because every week, LJ and I are taking a burlesque class to learn the art of the tease. So far… it’s fabulous fun. I can’t wait to get a chance to actually see one of the shows hosted by our teacher, and the only award winning filmmaker who is also an award winning burlesque artist, Penny Starr Jr.
If you’re ever in the L.A. area, check out the Victory Variety Hour. I’m going to find a way. It looks like so much fun!
After class, we found ourselves in an enormous shoe store. Surprisingly, there weren’t too many shoes that struck my fancy, but I did find one pair that wanted to come home with me.
Then we journeyed off to the ORIGINAL Original Tommy’s for a chili cheesburger, where we stood up and ate, just like everyone else has done there for decades. After that was a jaunt down to Olvera Street to wander the stalls.
By this point I was exhausted, but LJ had a specific errand in mind that needed to be accomplished. So I found myself at Frederick’s of Hollywood, staring at a sheer, net-like apparatus that is probably pretty hot on a skinny waif of a woman, but that I knew would fail my ample bosom miserably. I did find a few other things on which I might be able to base some fun costume-y things with very liberal application of shinies, sparkles and fringe.
And… I ended up with a lovely emerald green corset. Because it also wanted DESPERATELY to come home with me. It’s not like my other corsets as it’s one of the mass-produced, somewhat more cheaply constructed types. This is actually a good thing, because it moves with me, and I’ll likely be able to sing in it. (Which I fully intend to do.)
So… that’s my weekend.
