Much to say tonight, yet

Not much time.  First, let us speak of Renee & I's fab date a few days ago.  We went shopping for Xmas presents in downtown Walnut Creek.  I picked oot what I wanted, a couple of books, at Barnes & Noble (but Renee can get 'em cheaper (natch, yet sadly) on Amazon so she has ordered them.  Here are the books:  Edith Head: The fifty-Year, ..., & A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and, ....  Hmmm, non-fiction.  Fills moi w/ joy.  Then we went to Tiffany cause Sweetie had her eye on a charm there.  We looked around & in the end she decided she'd rather get something else.  We went next door to Gap & I got her a couple of sweaters she really liked.  Merry Xmas, Sweetie! Cannot wait to get my books.

Next we drove to the City & saw The King's Speech at our fave theater, The Embarcadero.  (Saw the preview for Mike Leigh's latest, Another Year- I am v excited.)  You know, The King's Speech was good but it d'in't knock me oot.  Considering that homey, Colin Firth, plays a King, with an speech impediment he is a lock for another Best Actor nomination.  He might e'en win.  (Will Bridges beat him again with the Coen Bros' True Grit?- And am I the only person on the planet who could not give a fuck about True Grit, or the Coen Bros in general these days; or speaking of Bridges, Tron, for that matter.  Ugh.)  Anyhoo, I liked Geoffrey Rush's performance much better than Firth's.  And Helena Bonham-Carter was as fab as e'er. (It is wonderful & rare that we see her away from her insane husband's projects.)  The director of The King's Speech is Tom Hooper.  I love The Damned United.  That was a great picture.  I thought HBO's John Adams, also dir by Hooper, was a giant snooze.  Hooper had a great attention to period detail & it was great to see a Movie England that was constantly dark & raining; you just do not see that v much.  But he shot it as Talking Heads.  It was one close-up talking after another.  To his credit, Hooper did put those talking heads slightly off-center in every shot. That was refreshing.  One of my fave actors, Timothy Spall, plays Churchill.  Every time he appeared Renee burst in to laughter.  I asked her why later and she made it plain that after an FDR doc we saw some months back, anytime she sees Churchill & that baby face of his (e'en if someone is playing him apparently, too!) she bursts oot in to laughter.  She had no problem w/ Spall's performance.  I did.  I thought it was v stage-y and annoying.  I still love Spall of course, & his son, Rafe.  (Rafe Spall is the handsome fella who spies the hangman game on the chalkboard & ends up hanged, natch.  The trailer was done by Edgar Wright, dir of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, & Scott Pilgrim.)  Do not get me wrong, I liked The King's Speech; but a great, Oscar-nom worthy picture? Not so much.  & I do wanta say this:  Colin Firth was much better in A Single Man.  Much much better.  I still think A Single Man is his finest moment.  (W/ Fever Pitch a close second.)

Yor hero at SPQR 12/10

Then we went to my fave City restaurant:  SPQR.  SPQR is a spin-off restaurant of A16.  The executive chef at the time, Nate Appleman,  wanted to start his own place with the emphasis being southern Italian food, like A16, but w/ a more comfort food (so huge in big-time restaurants these days) spin.  Then, w/ no warning, right before A16 really went nuts & decided to open shop in Japan, Appleman did this.  You might have seen Appleman on Iron Chef.  I cannot stand that show.  (I like Top Chef mucho, though, & this current 'season' of 'all-stars' is prob their best season e'er.)  I read in the NYT he is starting from the bottom, working his way up in the big big City of all Cities.  The new executive chef at SPQR is Matthew Accarrino.  And he is different from Appleman that he is balls-to-the-wall southern-Italian, european food.  Here comes the black pudding, balls testicles, etc, ... But that is not my type of food, per se (ha ha.)  Still, SPQR is my fave in the City.  It is my fave b/c they play the classic rock Muzak set, b/c SPQR is tiny, b/c for the longest time they did not take reservations, b/c the service is so good, b/c their women servers (like so many chi-chi restaurants in the City) do not look like super-models, b/c Shelly Lindgren (she is my friend on Facebook, yah, ... ) runs the wine program there.  I read aboot A16 in the Wine Spectator, a mag I generally hate, yet she intrigued me b/c she ran an Italian restaurant, A16, w/ only southern Italian wines.  That is right:  no Chianti.  No Pinot Grigio.  No Barolo, e'en.  The first time I went to A16 was on my birthday a few years ago.  Sweetie treated me.  Shelly was our sommelier.  I told her flat out that I was in the industry & I di'n't recognize anything on her list.  She gave us the standard wine industry discount (30%) & produced the most excellent flight of wines for both Renee & I that I have e'er tasted.  (Read Bourdain.  Most flights of wine at restaurants are jokes.  Always avoid.  They are trying to offload wine that does not sell.)  Lindgren runs the best restaurant wine program in the city.  She is tied w/ whoever runs the program at Slanted Door, prob Sweetie's fave restaurant e'er.  At Slanted Door, in northern fucking California, mind you, there are no California wines, at all.  I cannot e'en begin to apologize for the idiots that still write to the SFChron aboot how butt-hurt they are that one of the best restaurants in the City refuses to pour local wine.  It is a no-brainer, really.  Big, blockbuster, high-alcohol (California) wines do not fucking pair well with French-Vietnamese food.  

Sweetie's terrine w/ mushrooms & crisp.

Anyfrickinghoo:  We did Burrata w/ honey & hazlenuts.  Renee got this amazing terrine w/ mushrooms.  It is not on their latest website menu.  Here is a picture, it was badass.  


I played it safe, getting a v large winter green salad (which was amazing) & what they called Fettucini verde.  It was fettucini w/ "baby" lamb, sweet peppers, greens & pecorino.  


It was one of the best meals & greatest dates we e'er had.  


Good fucking night.  I dint get to the Pony Exce$$ tonight but I will v soon.  


Love you all.  


P.S.  He is NOT being a snob. He is RIGHT. I am not kidding.


P.P.S.  I'm in lesbians w/ this song.

mds