Haven’t done a linkfest in a while (see previous post for my excuse), so this one’s over due. But I am managing to get it together on a Friday! And I haven’t been drinking either! So, on we go…
Naming Game
We here at the W&S west coast hq often amuse ourselves by looking out the window at the intersection of Market and Valencia Streets. This charming little corner of San Francisco is a snapshot of urban diversity, boasting an art supply shop, a divey piano drag bar, a showtunes bar, two churches for right-wing crazies, Zeitgeist, three pot clubs, an AA club, a wine magazine (ahem), a public TV station, kink.com, a free health clinic, …, and probably a dozen other places I’m forgetting.
Anyway, it seems that the forces of gentrification are hard at work and now this little patch even has it’s own charming name, The Hub (I eagerly await the arrival of the restaurant with said name to make it official). But over at the Tablehopper, a website and weekly San Francisco restaurant newsletter that I consider essential reading, Marcia Gagliardi posted a round up of some emails she received as part of a contest to name this vivacious little corner of the city (she learned later of the name, The Hub). Some clever responses here; I think I’m torn between Inner Zeitgeist and Kinkyland.
(Click here to read the original post–and you’ll need to scroll down about half the page)
Wine Fraud: Fake Jefferson bottles, court battles and a whole stew of controversy
Somebody pointed Wine Authentication Services by Russell H. Frye out to me while I was in New York last week. It’s an amazing time sucker of a site, so I won’t really talk about it much here.
Also related: the fake Jefferson bottles case–subject of a fascinating New Yorker article last Fall–was dismissed in court. Link to the Decanter article via Lyle Fass’ blog, Rockss and Fruit.
Follow the bouncing ball
Or in this case, hundreds of thousands of them.
An Italian group in Rome–also responsible for dying the waters of the Trevi Fountain red last Fall–released a multitude of colored plastic balls down the Spanish Steps earlier this week. Both acts were apparently political protests and the leader of the group, Graziano Cecchini, is associated with the Italian right/center-right (interview with Cecchini in Italian following the Trevi Fountain incident here). I’m not sure I see the political connection, but the Italians are rather colorful when it comes public protests.
Political motives and intentions aside, it’s all rather amusing. There’s a video and write up here (found via BoingBoing), and the same story appeared on the New York Times news blog, the Lede.
Mozzarella, cow diseases and the Mafia
(Thanks to Lindsay for the tip)
Speaking of southern Italian food…
Jeremy Parzen over at Do Bianchi has posted a couple of times recently on the origins of sugo alla puttanesca. An informative look at one of my favorite pasta/pizza sauces. Go here to read up. Also, there’s an interesting follow up to the post (written in Italian) by Terry Hughes at Mondosapore–be sure to check out the comments thread.
As with many Italian dishes or specialties, there’s a story of nebulous origins for this fiery and delicious sauce.
Drooling now.
Bigger than the playoffs
Okay, maybe not. But for those of us who grew up at the beach in California, surfing and surf culture are a part of life. And this past weekend, the granddaddy of all surf contests took place just south of San Francisco near Half Moon Bay at Mavericks. Big, big waves…
SFGate has an entire section devoted to the 2007/08 Mavericks season, with awesome photos like the one above, here.
Some random things:
Portishead is touring!
Where to buy the best meat in San Francisco (via Gridskipper)
Lastly, Looking for a good burrito? Try here.
spume 