Review: Leonard Cohen at HP Pavilion

Today, we saw Leonard Cohen in concert at the HP Pavilion in downtown San Jose.
Mr. Cohen played all the popular standards, including Dance Me to the End of Love, The Future, Suzanne, and Hallelujah.

He played for over 3 hours, starting a little after 8:00pm and finishing around 11:00pm. For a 70-year-old guy, he sure has a lot of endurance!

Here is a video of "Hallelujah":

And here is another video of "Dance Me to the End of Love":

Here are the lyrics for  "The Future":

Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
It's lonely here,
There's no one left to torture
Give me absolute control
over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby,
That's an order!
Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that's left
and stuff it up the hole
in your culture
Give me back the Berlin Wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
I've seen the future, brother:
It is murder.

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant

You don't know me from the wind
You never will; you never did
I'm the little Jew
Who wrote the Bible
I've seen the nations rise and fall
I've heard their stories, heard them all
But love's the only engine of survival
Your servant here, he has been told
to say it clear, to say it cold:
It's over, it ain't going
any further
And now the wheels of heaven stop
You feel the devil's riding crop
Get ready for the future:
It is murder

Things are going to slide ...

There'll be the breaking of the ancient
western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There'll be phantoms
There'll be fires on the road
and the white man dancing
You'll see a woman
hanging upside down
her features covered by her fallen gown
and all the lousy little poets
coming round
tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson
and the white man dancin'

Give me back the Berlin Wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
Or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
I've seen the future, baby:
It is murder

Things are going to slide ...

When they said REPENT REPENT ...

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Test driving the Ferrari F430

My wife purchased a spot on the Imagine Lifestyles test drive for my birthday. I could go in a Ferrari or a Lamborghini around a race track.

Imagine Lifestyles chose Candlestick Park as the location and created a test track using red cones in the parking lot. This is not the ideal test track, like Laguna Seca in Monterey (where I did my motorcycle racing with Keith Code Superbike School), but it would have to do.

I chose to test drive a Ferrari F430 convertible on Sunday, October 28th at 10:00am.

When I arrived at Candlestick Park, a long line of people was waiting to register for the various cars. I decided to record my session, so I got to wear a GoPro Hero2 camera mounted on my helmet. Each vehicle comes with an assistant sitting on the passenger side who explains the driving rules and offers helpful advice on how to make the car perform.

Here is the GoPro Hero2 video recorded:



My assistant explained that the Ferrari needs to have the brakes applied very hard. It was helpful advice! All cars were automatic, although I was hoping for a manual transmission.

The Ferrari was automatic and slow to come off the line. There was a delay between my pressing the accelerator and the car's response. The car handled very well in turns, but the brakes had a very long travel and had to be pushed all the way in as hard as possible to slow down.

It was not as exhilarating as racing a motorcycle around a race track. The acceleration just wasn't of the same caliber.

I had lots of fun, but I am not too impressed with the Ferrari F430. It could be the automatic transmission (I would have preferred a manual), but I didn't feel the exhilaration I had expected.

Next time, I will try the Lamborghini. It has a nice growling exhaust.

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Wedding Anniversary in Calistoga

For our 11th wedding anniversary, Inna made reservations at Indian Springs Resort & Spa in Calistoga, California. We stayed two nights, arriving on Friday, October 12, and returning on Sunday, October 14.

On the first day, Friday, October 12, we checked in at the Indian Springs Resort & Spa (after a long drive from San Jose) and ate dinner at the nearby Solbar Restaurant.

Solbar is a 1-star Michelin-rated restaurant, and it deserves its accolades. Both the food and service were superb. We enjoyed all of the dishes and can't wait to return.

The next day, Saturday, October 13, we rented a couple of bicycles (free at Indian Springs Resort) and biked around Calistoga. There are many wineries, and the whole area is peaceful and beautiful.

We made reservations at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone for dinner. The CIA trains chefs worldwide, and we want to taste some innovative dishes. Unfortunately, most of the food was mediocre, and the service was slow. We would not recommend going there again.

After dinner, we returned to Indian Springs Resort & Spa and decided to swim in the hot spring pool.

Even though it was pretty chilly outside, the pool, heated by geothermal hot spring water, was hot (bordering on hot).

It was very relaxing to float about and look at the stars.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

In the morning, we decided to go back to Solbar for breakfast. We were not disappointed!

I had the Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Blueberry Syrup and Toasted Pine Nuts. These were the most delicious pancakes I have ever eaten!

Inna had Mount Washington Eggs - two poached eggs on a split buttermilk biscuit with smoked ham, slow-cooked black kale, and spicy hollandaise. They were also perfect.

After hanging around Calistoga, we had lunch in Yountville at Bouchon Bistro. Bouchon is another Michelin-rated restaurant. It's also perfect. Surprisingly, the bread and pastries were significantly better than those from the Bouchon Bakery next door.

We really enjoyed our lunch at Bouchon Bistro. We hope to come back there again (but we do not recommend the Bouchon Bakery).

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Sunny Santa Barbara

For the Labor Day weekend, we decided to go back to Santa Barbara. Since hotels in Santa Barbara were costly, we decided to stay in a modest Best Western Plus Pepper Tree Inn from August 31 to September 3, 2012.

On the way to Santa Barbara from San Jose, we stopped by for lunch at Pismo Beach. An eatery there called the Splash claimed to have the best Clam Chowder. The Clam Chowder was outstanding, but the whole place looked like a low-end fast-food restaurant.

September 1, 2012

In the morning, we had breakfast at the Fresco Cafe and Bakery near our Best Western hotel in Santa Barbara. Fresco Cafe has very nice, healthy salads. All the food was very fresh and expertly prepared. 

We came back again to Fresco Cafe later in the trip. We really enjoyed our delicious breakfast!

After breakfast, we decided to visit the Santa Barbara Zoo. We saw many animals, including Asian Small-Clawed Otters, snakes, parrots, penguins, pink flamingos, gibbons, monkeys, anteaters, elephants, and giraffes.

We explored downtown Santa Barbara and stopped by the old Santa Barbara Courthouse the next day.

There are stunning views of Santa Barbara from the top of the Courthouse.

After spending some time in downtown Santa Barbara, we drove to see the old Santa Barbara Mission. According to Wikipedia:

Mission Santa Barbara, also known as Santa Barbara Mission, is a Spanish mission founded by the Franciscan order near present-daySanta Barbara, California. It was founded by Padre Fermín Lasuén on December 4, 1786, the feast day of Saint Barbara, as the tenth mission for the religious conversion of the indigenous local Chumash—Barbareño tribe of Native American people. The mission is the namesake of the city of Santa Barbara as well as Santa Barbara County.

Many lovely chalk murals were drawn in the parking lot in front of the Mission. These chalk murals are from the annual Madonnari Festival.

After exploring the Mission, we drove to the Alice Keck Memorial Gardens. These gardens are beautiful and peaceful and provide shade from the hot sun.

Afterward, we drove to the Santa Barbara Pier (Stearns Wharf). We saw a nice, friendly Pelican eager for snacks (especially fish caught by nearby fishermen).

Nearby, teenage skateboarders skated in the skateboarding park. Here is a short video of the action:

One day, we ate lunch at Jeannine's American Bakery Restaurant in downtown Santa Barbara. We liked the food and desserts so much that we returned there the next day.

We stopped by for lunch at The Tea Cozy in Cambria on the drive back to San Jose. The Tea Cozy is modeled after an English tea house and offers a wide selection of teas and small bites. While the tea was good, the little bites were of average quality (not as good as in London) and expensive.

A little bit further down the road on Highway 1, we saw wild Zebras.

We also saw many elephant seals lounging on the sandy beach.

Overall, we had a great trip to Santa Barbara. The drive was a bit long - about 5 hours from San Jose.

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