The Metropolitan Opera is positioning their September 25 opening night gala as a celebrity event, complete with red carpet arrivals. The performance of “Madama Butterfly” will be simulcast on a jumbo screen in Times Square with 650 cushioned seats (plus standing room) and giant speakers provided. These publicity stunts are part of new general manager Peter Gelb’s plan to show that “the Met is interested in being part of mainstream society and contemporary culture.” An open house including a rehearsal is scheduled for the 22nd. To extend its reach beyond local audiences, the Met has partnered with various media companies to broadcast performances in movie theatres and on the web. Their more traditional radio and PBS TV broadcasts will of course continue. (NY Times article)

While I miss the Asian food the most, the Mexican food in the SF Bay Area is also difficult to leave behind. Witness the oh so tough initiation of SF Chronicle writer Bill Addison into the food section staff. He went to 85 burrito joints in 10 weeks and picked his favorites. Dan Johnson, founding editor of Burritophile.com says SF area folks are spoiled: “Your average burrito in San Francisco would be something that in any other city would knock your socks off.” Worst, I was spoiled and didn’t know it!

The gigantic Seattle Public Library booksale is this weekend at Magnuson Park. “Preparation for the sale goes on year-round,” explains the sale’s chairwoman. “We have volunteers who sort through, repair and organize donated items for approximately 20 hours every week.” 200,000 items are sorted under a huge roof.

Jennifer McIlvaine‘s clever bruschettas are a fixture at several Seattle area farmer’s markets. Her Bruschettina stand and recipes, including her unique chickpea and octopus topping, were featured in a recent Sunset magazine. McIlvaine’s fans will lament the news that she is moving to Italy and will stop operating the stand in October. However, she is selling the business, hoping to find “an individual who will run it in the same spirit as I have!” And she’s moving to the land of amazing food with a man she fell in love with during an internship in Tuscany, so it’s best to celebrate her future happiness and not think about the potential loss of crunchy yumminess.

September 11, 2001
The personal story that stayed with me from the weeks following the tragedy was the essay published in Salon (and other publications) written by violinist William Harvey. Then a freshman at Julliard, Harvey played at the Armory for the 69th Division of the Army as they returned from the rubble. Today I wondered what had become of Harvey. I assumed he’d graduated and went onto a professional career and that I’d find a few search hits for his name in either graduate school or symphony programs. Well, I did, but there was more. Harvey did graduate with a Master’s degree and many honors from Julliard this year. He’s now the interim concertmaster of the Spokane Symphony. And he’s a composer. But the best part is that he founded Music for the People following his experience with 9/11. Its mission is “to send young classical musicians around the world to use music as the medium for cultural diplomacy.” He’s also keeping a weblog of news related to this project. He has first hand accounts of trips to Zimbabwe, the Philippines, Moldova and Tunisia. It’s a shining example of positive action triggered by the tragedy.

Members of the Gou family in China have been reclaiming their original name, Jing, changed in the 10th century. Of course a news story in English isn’t likely to give the exact Chinese characters and meanings involved with the names, but it is clear that Gou sounds like the word for dog though it wasn’t the same character. The dog soundalike has caused distress over many years. A thousand years of oral history has distorted the original reason for the change, but a look at the Chinese characters makes the alteration clearer than the explanation given in the American news story. The right side of the character “jing” resembles “fan” which means revolt or rebel. A Jing of that time decided to remove that portion, leaving “gou” which means careless. The news story gives the meaning as humble, which, since I’m illiterate, means I need to ask the Daddy Dictionary for clarification next time I see it (or maybe someone literate will send email).

Gourmet magazine’s covers this year have been mystifying, an extreme minimal style devoid of bright colors and text. Sara Dickerman took notice over at Slate in July, calling the covers “muted-to-the-point-of-mousy.” A few months have been more colorful, but the photography is definitely trending into a specific common expression of “muted elegance.” Dickerman dissects it with more photographic knowledge.

Now appearing in a grocery near you: Daisy Duck peaches, Mickey Mouse grapes, SpongeBob SquarePants spinach, Dora the Explorer oranges, and Tasmanian Devil apples. Produce marketing is aiming squarely at the kiddies and their parents. On the one hand it may encourage children to eat more fruits & veggies. On the other hand, the produce section had been relatively free from the annoyances of licensed products. I queried the consumer of a Minnie Mouse white peach and she stated that the fruit was cheap, huge, and delicious. Perhaps we won’t have to pay more for licensed fruit. (thx Tracy!)

Did Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart compose the melody to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?” Nope. The tune is a French melody “Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman.” Mozart did write variations on the theme, but Trivial Pursuit got it wrong in identifying him as the composer. Wikipedia reveals that there are actually five verses to Twinkle Twinkle, from the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes. Parents will have to improvise their own finger movements for these new words.

Hayao Miyazaki’s son, Goro, has directed his first film “Gedo Senki” based on Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series. The film was released in Japan this summer. Le Guin wrote her account of the film’s history, describing how she declined Hayao Miyazaki’s original request to create an Earthsea film. She was eventually introduced to his films and realized his genius. A new correspondence with Studio Ghibli began and she gave her consent to a film but was soon disappointed to learn that Goro would be taking over the film. His father was completely uninvolved. Le Guin’s review of the resulting film seems disappointed, but not entirely negative. She knows that much worse has resulted from film adaptations and, more pointedly, the SciFi Channel’s TV adaptation.