Friday night concert downtown

For a year that started out with us going to very few concerts, we sure are ending it with a bang.  Three Fridays in a row this month with concerts, three concerts again in the space of 8 or 9 days in December.  I sit here listening to some Samara Joy Christmas music knowing we have tickets to see her in the New Year as well as Dan Mangan.  Lots of shows to go see.  Yay!

Last Friday Van and I left Olive in the care of Conrad (and both of them were very very fine with that)

and headed into DTLA, first to Joyce, a restaurant I had been to before and liked.  Joyce was already in the holiday spirit what with Christmas decorations up, and their drinks menu

was themed to tie in with that.  I opted for the Sketches on Christmas and liked it. 

Van and I shared the food, and it came out fairly quickly.  The cornbread was great,

the watermelon salad also (and different than what we expected - that was fun to see set down on the table). 

I didn't photograph the shrimp and grits, and I did like then, but I think the real star was the fried Cornish game hen. 

Three pieces plus biscuits, it was a nice play on what you would get at a fast food chicken restaurant.  Rather than get dessert, I opted to go not-sweet and ordered the Mother of Pearl Martini. 

It was interesting, and a generous pour, but at a certain point it tipped over into too funky, and I didn't finish it.  And that was fine!  Just enough food and beverage, and with that dinner done, we headed through DTLA

and over to The Novo on foot.

I liked the venue.  Van had got us VIP seats, which meant a lounge upstairs and great seating at the front of the balcony.  It was odd to me, though, that they didn't monitor the experience well.  Anyone could come up to the lounge, no gatekeeping of that.  Moreover, the ushers didn't monitor seats and tickets, and so there were folks who were squatting in prime seats who had to leave as more people with the correct tickets came along.  Like us.  It was strange that that happened, but not a real bother otherwise.

Van and I stayed in the lounge through the opening act, Bay Ledges. 

There were screens set up, and we could watch it there.  We didn't know him or his music, and honestly, it was a little dismal.  One guy on stage singing along to his canned music - he was doing what he loved, and I admired that, but I wasn't into what I heard.  I gave it a listen the next morning on a walk, and no, it didn't grab me.

The main act was what we were there for, or Van certainly was.  Leisure, a collective from New Zealand who have put out a handful of albums.  I'm not sure how Van stumbled on them, but he seemed to know a bunch of the songs.  I messaged Dion and Minna in NZ after the show, and they had never heard of Leisure.  Anyway, I have to say that they were tight.  I mean, they were playing so well together, there were no lags, no fumbling around.  They had coordinated outfits, they swapped lead on the songs, and it all went together so well.  I was impressed by them as a band.

But...

The sound!  It's not a big venue.  Not tiny, but not big.  That sound was so so loud.  And I swear it got louder by the end.  I was plugging my ears with my fingers during the last song.  I could feel the bass hitting my chest.  It was too much.  And it meant that the singing got lost in the mix.  A lot of the singing - and singing duties were shared - was softer and higher than I would have guessed from five men, and ultimately, I could hear the singing but not understand a lot of it.  And that meant that a lot of the music started to sound the same to me.

How would I classify the group?  Retro-soul/funk/pop?  In recordings, they sound kind of chill-out and lounge-y, sort of dance-y.  In live performance?  They came across as 90s white funk and made me think of Jamiroquai very vaguely.  I didn't have a better point of comparison.  Anyway, as the set went on, I continued to admire the group, but I was enjoying myself a little less.  A shame.  I think that better sound would have gone a long way toward me having more fun.

The show over, Van and I had the walk back to where the car was parked, a thick fog settling over the city as we made our way there and then on to home. 

One concert for November done.  Bring on the next!  

brown butter raspberry tart

One of my favourite dessert recipes gleaned from my years at the restaurant was the brown butter blueberry tart.  Brown butter was a revelation to me back in the 90s.  What flavour! So good.  It wasn’t an especially popular dessert in my recollection of those days, but it was an easy one to make.  I glance at the recipe once in a while to remind myself of proportions, but I can essentially make it from memory.  I also seldom use blueberries.  I like something more tart against the sweetness of the filling, and mango is my usual choice followed by raspberries.

We had Geoff over for dinner last night.  He and Kent are back in California after months in France.  We had thought they were moving there for good, but no.  Alas, they are also no longer together.  It was good to catch up.  I made us all ribs, we enjoyed some drinks with dinner, and there was the tart for dessert.  

Tasty!

Olive loved getting a car ride over, the treats and attention.  She had been a rather subdued little girl in recent times, but it seems that treatment for an ear infection has helped whatever had her feeling low.  She happily sat, getting attention and affection from her daddy while we kept chatting after dinner.

A nice dinner, and now we have leftovers of the tart to enjoy for a few nights!

Manuela

While Conrad was out of town, Van

and I took advantage of some gift cards he had on hand and got ourselves to DTLA for dinner at Manuela, a place I've been a few times now.  And you know, I think it was a better experience this time than last time.  So, let's jump back to a week ago yesterday and talk a little about that meal.

Our waiter, whose name I've forgotten now (sorry!) was great.  Maybe a little extra, but certainly attentive enough and helpful with advice on the food and drinks.  That was one big point in favour of the place.  It was on to cocktails from there,

with me opting for the I'm Your Huckleberry (it went down nice and easy) and Van for the Florida Man. 

I also had a glass of a British wine, a rose, with my dinner, but no photo.  Ah well.  Cheers to us.  We sipped and awaited food.

The food?  Terrific.  A delightful salad to share,

a nice piece of halibut for my main. 

The okra side dish was very good, too.  But really, what do we go to Manuela for?  The biscuits and ham. 

The last time I was at Manuela, I thought the biscuits were lacking.  This time?  So good.  I'd still rank them below Everson Royce Bar, but I cheerily, greedily, shoveled back my share of them.

We did get a dessert as well, but no photo of it.  Fig leaf gelato, and it was really superb, but it was also too much food at that point.  Bellies full, we brought date night downtown to a close and headed home.  Yep, we'll be back! 

Taos and NM, the rest of the trip

Sunday night, online happy hour is done, dinner is done, Great British Bake Off is done.  So let me FINALLY give an overview of the rest of the Taos trip.  I thank you all (all two of you) for your immense patience....

On the Thursday, we flew from Burbank to Albuquerque

where Courtney and Robert met us.  I should add that we flew Southwest, not a usual experience for us.  Yes, we survived, and the convenience of going direct between Burbank and NM was greatly appreciated.  Still, it felt odd.  Ah well.  We made it there, got picked up, and headed north.  We stopped in Santa Fe to shop for provisions, and made it to Taos late in the afternoon.  A storm was rolling in,

but the eight of us were cozy inside Michael and Amy's home. 

We settled in, then the eight of us enjoyed what turned out to be a very very very boozy night. 

Fun, but yikes.  I haven't been that hungover in, well, ages.

Friday morning I got up and felt somewhat fine, making some decaf

and taking a few photos,

but Conrad and I got a short distance into a walk, and I told him I was not doing well.  We turned around, I went to bed, and it was hours later that I felt human enough.  I missed any activities that day, which - thanks to the night before - were minimal and low key.  I did make it to dinner that night, but all in all, the Friday was a wasted day.  A shame.

On the Saturday, we all went into Taos late in the morning.  Can I be honest?  Taos was not what I thought it would be.  I was expecting an affluent little community tucked into a little river valley, greener than the surroundings, cute and charming and monied.  And certainly there is money in the area.  The art in the art galleries is not going for cheap!  But aside from the little touristy town center with its adobe buildings and shops,

the town is not as pretty and as cared-for as you might expect.  We saw the historic church

and poked in a few shops and galleries, but I wasn't all that impressed.  The surrounding landscape was remarkable, the town was kind of only ok.  Sorry!

When we got back to the house on Saturday afternoon, the others were all engrossed in a football game.  I had no interest, nor did Conrad, so we

took ourselves out on a walk down to the highway and back, getting home just as sunset was coming on. 

Nice walk, some good time for the two of us.

Sunday morning I went out on a walk again, seeing a balloon in the distance,

enjoying getting some steps in.  When everyone got going, we had a nice adventure planned.  I already blogged about the Rio Grande and its gorge, but before we got there, we drove to some private land where we all went searching (successfully!) for shards of Indian pottery. 

The views of the mountain behind Taos and the surrounding were extraordinary.

That kind of wraps up Taos, and that's kind of pathetic.  It was nice to spend time with our friends and meet new people, but it was a long trip for seeing so little.  And yes, I know I am too blame for being so hungover the first full day.  Shame on me.  But Taos didn't quite impress, sorry to say, and I wish we had used our time better.  Ah well, we saw some things, dined fairly well, and did our best to enjoy what we could!    

Leisure

Happy Saturday!  A placeholder hello this morning - we’re at Van’s and being lazy and I am not near my laptop.  So let me post a shot from last night when Van and I went to see Leisure in concert.

More blogging to come this weekend!!