Tags: alinea, chicago, restaurants
We have been in Chicago now for three years. Getting to like it very much. I still use a few buts and ifs in describing Chicago and think of San Francisco as home but Chicago is getting there too.
I have not been traveling much lately. Kinda unusual for me as for most my career I have been traveling way too much. I do not know my way around the city well yet but good to be home. A few weeks ago took Nami to dinner at Alinea for our tenth year anniversary. Alinea is an amazing restaurant. Probably the best I have ever been to. First time I payed about $880 for a dinner for two (few sips of alcohol for me, plenty for Nami) and I thought the meal was actually under-priced (good definition of value).
It has been getting cold here but not living up to the reputation of Chicago as a cold windy city. For all I know, this could be my San Francisco neighborhood weather at nights.
It is really a shame we lost the bid to host the Olympics. Still Chicago has given some good gifts to the world: our president and SORAsound. I know some smart aleck may remind me of some of our past governors among a list of other politicians we have had. But let us please not get there as each state has had its own gift in those regards.
Back to Alinea, you are served a 29 course meal which a hungry person like me from a deprived background would thoroughly enjoy. Each serving is small, beautifully presented, tasting just great. Last desert course used our whole table as the dish! A different beauty from the Japanese Kaiseki but this would be where I will happily take my special Japanese guests to impress them with how well we do in America.
Chicago also offers some great dives – from BBQ to Hot Dogs at Hot Doug where you have to wait in line for almost an hour to get to the counter and order your hot dogs. Chicago arguably has the best restaurants in America, although San Francisco and New York are better known for their restaurants.
A great contributor to the Chicago restaurant scene is Chef Paul Kahan, a great chef, audiophile, analog man, and partner in a few hip and good food places of Chicago including Black Bird, Avec, The Publican, Big Star Taqueria, and The Violet Hour. The Publican makes the best pork belly sandwiches I have ever had. The Violet hour is a beautiful bar, Speak Easy on the outside, nice London or Tokyo bar interior inside.
The cultural scene in Chicago is rather impressive. In the great midwest tradition, it is downplayed, but it is visibly there. We have great museums, good music halls, an aquarium with funky frogs and turtles, and lots of ethnic food. At times I go to a dumpy place to have Bulgarian breakfast. Nice. Delicious home cooked kinda food but they seem to forget smoking cigarettes is band inside restaurants. Same with one of my favorite Bosnian restaurants in Chicago.
Our beaches are beautiful. Given the city boy I am, I enjoy going to the beaches by the high rises. The best of both worlds. More on that, in the summer.
Tags: hi-fi, travels
Last few years I did a lot of consulting in Miami, staying at a boutique hotel in South Beach. Few times dined at a good steakhouse (not a chain). In fact, once the night before I ate there, Gorbachev was there. This steakhouse is also known for their wine cellar which I have toured a couple of times. They have a bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild, priced at $175,000. The sommelier once told me and my guests that this wine is really vinegar now.
Maybe I mis-took him as being serious. Thinking of it, I can not help but think of the products of some companies as expensive vinegar. One can also conclude that if we do not use our gear, regardless of the price, they “vinegar”. Hope you are enjoying your music this week-end.
A customer of mine once said he is rich. He tells his daughters they have a lot of money, but they don’t have a penny to waste. That comment resonates in my mind at times as I talk to customers. I do my best to treat them as they have no pennies to waste.
An ex-president of a multi billion dollar, highly respected luxury retailer told me once that at his shops they do not sell what customers need, they sell what customers want. There are people like me who want the absolute best, and are willing to pay for it. For us “value” may be less important. We know we are paying too much for that very last bit of perceived improvement or differentiation. We also tend to be loyal to a brand or a company, or people. Those companies or brands or people can screw us once, but then they lose all the potential lifetime revenue from us as we will be goners.
Tags: garrett hongo, hila sedighi, iran, poem
I forwarded Hila Sedighi’s poem for oppressed students of Iran, to my friend Garrett Hongo, poet, audiophile and Distinguished Professor of The College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oregon. In response, Garrett wrote to me about the Polish poet, Czeslaw Milosz who once said “what is poetry that cannot save nations or a people.”
“Ferocious political oppression spawns outcry and plants a strength of resolve and resentment at the instant it punishes and strikes for fear. Yet, economic and cultural oppression do too, though the cries take longer to develop and be heard, sometimes silenced so long the result is a counter-violence some call revolutionary. Yet, violence is itself tyrannous, reigning over all redress and hope in turn. Poetry is a peaceful plaint to register our grief and outrage, yet I hope it might move millions to revive justice–in their hearts and in the world.” — Garrett Hongo
Dedication
by Czeslaw Milosz
You whom I could not save
Listen to me.
Try to understand this simple speech as I would be ashamed of another.
I swear, there is in me no wizardry of words.
I speak to you with silence like a cloud or a tree.
What strengthened me, for you was lethal.
You mixed up farewell to an epoch with the beginning of a new one,
Inspiration of hatred with lyrical beauty;
Blind force with accomplished shape.
Here is a valley of shallow Polish rivers. And an immense bridge
Going into white fog. Here is a broken city;
And the wind throws the screams of gulls on your grave
When I am talking with you.
What is poetry which does not save
Nations or people?
A connivance with official lies,
A song of drunkards whose throats will be cut in a moment,
Readings for sophomore girls.
That I wanted good poetry without knowing it,
That I discovered, late, its salutary aim,
In this and only this I find salvation.
They used to pour millet on graves or poppy seeds
To feed thee dead who would come disguised as birds.
I put this book here for you, who once lived
So that you should visit us no more.
Warsaw, 1945
Tags: concerts
Nami had two tickets to a piano recital. She was originally going with a friend but somehow instead I ended up being invited. Sat at our seats at the Chicago Symphony Center. Good location. My seat felt a bit broken but OK. Looked at the program and said “wow, Emanuel Ax.” Unbeknown to me I was going to see and hear Mr. Ax. I was delighted.
Our seats were good. I had great views of his hands. If I were a pianist like him, I would think twice before shaking the hands of some people I meet. Do they ever worry someone may hurt their hands with a too firm handshake? The performance was great. I read he will have performances with Yo Yo Ma and Dawn Upshaw. Those performances would be great to see. Sound wise, frankly I was just not impressed. In fact, I hoped that my music equipment sound better than a bad sound at this hall (at least where I was sitting).
Found out today that Vic Chesnutt took his life on Christmas eve. Really sad. Years ago I saw Vic perform. I had thought about his performance every now and then, and was impressed with what I saw as his professional recognition and progress. It seemed to me he had overcome a huge barrier many can not. Glad to see that NPR Fresh Air honoring his memory. May he rest in peace.
We have been in Chicago now for three years. Getting to like it very much. I still use a few buts and ifs in describing Chicago and think of San Francisco as home but Chicago is getting there too.
Back to Alinea, you are served a 29 course meal which a hungry person like me from a deprived background would thoroughly enjoy. Each serving is small, beautifully presented, tasting just great. Last desert course used our whole table as the dish! A different beauty from the Japanese Kaiseki but this would be where I will happily take my special Japanese guests to impress them with how well we do in America.
The cultural scene in Chicago is rather impressive. In the great midwest tradition, it is downplayed, but it is visibly there. We have great museums, good music halls, an aquarium with funky frogs and turtles, and lots of ethnic food. At times I go to a dumpy place to have Bulgarian breakfast. Nice. Delicious home cooked kinda food but they seem to forget smoking cigarettes is band inside restaurants. Same with one of my favorite Bosnian restaurants in Chicago.