September 2009

Wednesday night I had the opportunity to attend the first public screening of a documentary about the life and background of Chef/Restaurateur Daniel Boulud called Un Certain Goût de L’Amérique. The screening was held at NYU’s Cantor Film Center and sponsored by NYU’s La Maison Française.

The film was shot in 2008 in French (with English subtitles). It traces Daniel’s background all the way back to his family’s farm in France, to his internships starting at age 15, through his moving Washington DC and eventually to New York City. It is a fascinating look at someone who knew early on what he wanted to do and set about working to be the best at his craft.

Since I have previously lived and worked in France, I followed the film in French rather than reading the subtitles. It was inspiring to see French culinary legends such as Paul Bocuse, Jean Georges Vongerichten and Joël Robuchon speak about their relationships with Daniel. Paul Bocuse for example met Daniel when Daniel was 15 and starting his first apprenticeship in Lyon at Restaurant Nandron. READ ON for more…

Just a friendly reminder that our Phish Joy Box Giveaway ends tonight at 11:59, so if you haven’t answered our eight questions now is your chance. Here’s a recap of

Originally I was going to write about the reeling and rockin’ Dark Star that went down at Betty Nelson’s Organic Raspberry Farm on September 2nd, 1968, but there’s not much to tell. The whole show smokes and it’s easily one of my favorites of the year. 1968 is the year of primal Grateful Dead – the juggernaut of a band finding its footing. Those early Stars, replete with Pig’s keys and lots of shaker and guiro, are fantastic and fun. I have to write about Stars that are perhaps off the radar and ones that take chances.

But I decided, at the last minute, since there aren’t many days of September left, to cover this gem of a show from 1991.

Thursday, September 26th was the final night of a spirited run at the Boston Garden, their first trip to the Gah-den in over ten years. The previous night was released as Dick’s Picks #17. It’s a fine show, but 9/26/91 really outshines it in my opinion.

One of the reasons why I love this show so much is because it was the first tape I ever collected. A friend of mine was there as it happened and she wrote me a long letter, where she described it to me – song by song, note by note. I fired off blanks and postage to a friendly trader in the back of Dupree’s Diamond News and in two weeks, I got a crispy AUD of the second set. READ ON for the rest of this month’s Dark Star Stories…

Saturday Night Live kicks off its 35th season this weekend with host Megan Fox and musical guest U2. Will U2 be allowed to perform the uber-rare third song in addition

Frank E. Lee of Chicago’s WXRT radio station will interview Trey Anastasio at 1PM CDT. Head over to 93xrt.com or tune into XRT to listen.

The schedule for Phish’s Festival 8 has been released and the big news is that the quartet will be performing an acoustic set at Noon on Sunday. This will be