My weekend

It's that time of the year (free cake, free cake) again. We had a night-out the weekend before at the Mission Street in SF (foreigncinema for drink and Lolinda for Argentinian steak) already. So this weekend was to be with friends and family. The Saturday started with EPL as usual: very happy to see Chelsea fell to Crystal Place. Then it's time for the San Francisco International Pen Show. I arrived ~10:15 and immediately headed to Susan Wirth's seminar. Very educational and entertaining (checking out other people's pen testing samples) After playing with many pens and ink, we left for K&L Wines. The excuse was to pick up my 3 bottles ordered last year. And of course we didn't miss the Sat afternoon tasting there. The theme was Chilean and Argentinian wine. Some were surprisingly good. Dinner time was all to myself. I originally wanted to try the Habit burger and picked the one in Daly City (Serramonte) The line was way long (not expected) so I had Boston Market instead (also had a line! But not as long) Next, it's party at my friends place (thanks to the Tangs!) Awesome ribs :) And we all had fun trying out new bottles of ink (with the cheap plastic pen branded "Dollar", rightfully so)

The Sunday started with EPL as well: very pissed to see Man U fell to Swansea. Also watched the pre-recorded Arena bowl victory of the mighty San Jose Sabercats (which was 17-1 in regular season. We went to one of those 17!) I finally got to try the Habit burger at lunch time. It's indeed pretty good (and not pricey) Glad that we beat the line by arriving before 11:45. The next activity was people (and new products) watching at the Valley Fair mall (when it's so hot, no one wanna play outdoors with me) I often told my son that as much as we don't enjoy shopping, we don't wanna be ignorant about what's out there either. Then it's preparation for cooking the celebration dinner ("So steak" and "So shrimp", named after my cooking instructor!) And watched more sports of course: Juan Pablo Montoya let the IndyCar title slipped away by crashing with teammate (and defending champ) Will Power. "Mr. Consistent" Scott Dixon ended up winning his 4th title. The MotoGP race at Silverstone was also won by an veteran driver and former champ, Valentino Rossi. It was close between him and Marc Marquez for many laps but the latter fell. This season of MotoGP has been good so far with lots of competitions, lead changes, and polesitter being overtaken at the start! What a happy ending to the relaxing weekend.

Guitar music

I felt that I wrote too much about saxophone music lately. I actually still play my guitar and still love guitar-centric music. Here are a few I listened to recently (some during those July trips)

• Rüdiger Krause: A Guitar Named Carla. Not sure if the guitarist really named one of his guitar Carla (referring to pianist/composer Carla Bley here) but the songs on this album were written by Carla and re-arranged for various instrumentations (solo acoustic or electric guitar, guitar + bass, or guitar/bass/piano.) Carla Bley herself played on the last piece.  
• Andreas Kapsalis and Goran Ivanovic: Blackmail. This was reviewed by an old (2013) guitar magazine that I "gave away" during the trip. Both are (nylon) acoustic guitarists with awesome techniques and it's a treat for all fans of guitar, especially those all enjoy world music. You can find more music of Ivanovic here. He has collaborated with other great guitarists like Fareed Haque as well.
• Nick Colionne: Influences. I first learned about this smooth jazz guitarist from the Epiphone newsletter (so I guess it's always good to be associated with a big brand name) Compared to saxophonists, there aren't as many smooth jazz guitarists out there (other than Norman Brown or George Benson) And Colionne is a versatile one judging by the last blues rock tune (Sting Like a King B) on this album and his videos demo-ing Epiphone Broadway guitar.
• Mark Egan: About Now. Saw the ad from an old jazz magazine about this release by a jazz bass guitarist. If you enjoy fusion and melodic bass playing (as lead and accompaniment) like I do, you must check it out.