But that's what Rialto Police are investigating today.  Last night at the Rennaissance Village Apartments, they were patrolling on foot when they came across four teen boys.  The boys scattered - three went one way, one went into a courtyard.  An officer followed that kid, hand-cuffed him and patted him down.  A gun fell from the boy's waistband (underneath four pairs of shorts - I also never wore more than one pair of shorts at a time) and discharged.  The cop was hit in the lower left leg.  You can imagine the commotion for police when they hear a gun shot and find out one of their own is down.

Neighbors told us it got hectic after that.  One neighbor said she was detained for interfering, although denied any wrong doing.  Police did arrest her and one other person for that reason.  The 17-year-old was taken into custody for possession of a firearm and the officer is in the hospital.  At this writing, police did not want to release his name, only to say he's in his mid-20's and had been on the force for about a year.  A rookie cop with a big heart and a love for what he does, they told me.  Good thing, then, that he'll be alright.  It'll be nice to have someone with that commitment to goodness on the streets.

We got on the train at about 8 in the morning and started reading the book on venice. The first thing we see " Tip: don't visit venice anytime between July and September as it tends to be hot and packed with tourists" Haha. ps the book was right. The plan when we arrived in venice on saturday morning was to follow the map that Sheena had in her italy book and hit all the big sites and make our way to the Piazza San Marco. After about 3 minutes in the city we realized there was no way that was happening. In case you didn't know the map doesn't really show everything in venice rather it gives you an outline of the major streets pretending that they all connect nicely and that you should have no problem getting where you want. We quickly learned that the map we had was almost useless. The best way to get around is to follow the yellow signs that lead you to the rialto and san marco. Even these signs can be confusing as well since the names will randomly change on you and soon your down dark empty alleys with spray painted arrows wondering what you've gotten yourself into. Eventually we got our way around and we saw the bigger sites. The palace, san marco square, the basilica, the pigeons, the rialto, the grande canal, the market, the gallery at the academy. To be honest some of the prettiest parts of the city were the areas where we got lost. We were virtually the only people in the area and the canals separated the sides of the street, little bridges and peoples clothes hanging, it was really nice. It didn't feel touristy when you got lost and thats such a nice feeling. It was a really great day but it definitely wore us out and we caught a train home about an hour earlier than we planned. The funniest part is on the train we were looking at our pictures and they don't convey how many people are really there and how hot it is, they're just really pretty looking. It was a really good trip though and really glad I went.

After the exhausting Saturday we had, Sunday was def a day of rest. We slept til about 12 then walked around bologna. Went up one of the due torre. Theres 498 steps to the top and it looks and feels as if the steps haven't been changed at all since it was originally built in the 13th century. The tower itself slants slightly (what doesn't in italy?) and half the stair cases feel like they're ready to collapse on top of on another as they creak while you climb up them. Also I just wonder who was the guy who said you know what build me a tower, no rooms, no real place to stop, i just want a tower with steps, and then at the top make a balcony so that only me and 5 of my friends can chill up there comfortably, no no no, i don't want enough room for 7 people only 6. Seriously i couldn't see more than 6 people fitting at the top. Also who decides to stop at 498 steps, it just seems like an odd number to choose, why not 500? oh well we climbed just under 500 steps, man 500 would have just been a better number. oh well. The view at the top was probably the best you can get of bologna. From there you can see the other half dozen towers that were built around the same time and the church in the hills. It was def fun to get up and down the tower and see it all, except for the part where I got stuck behind Sheena going down. For real I'm practically running down the steps and she sitting here taking one step at a time like she's 98 years old. Haha it was really funny. Then we got gelato, as is a staple of Sheena's italy experience. Then we walked around a bit more, went to a medieval museum, and saw some churches. It was a pretty good weekend. 

Until next time,

D.

Jody Adam's of Rialto did a cooking demo (second one) of a new series called Talking Taste at the ICA. Thanks to my friend SB, we went together. Admission is free to it with regular admission but tickets are first come and first serve.

Fresh from a 10 day biking trip from Sicily, she was happy, relaxed and full of ideas. She also did a book signing after the cooking demo of one dish-steamed mussels with spicy cous cous. One unexpected treat was everyone in the audience got to sample a little of it. This dish will be served at an upcoming BBQ event at her restaurant in Cambridge.

I admit the food at Rialto is lovely, great service and I always have a good time there. She does not call her cooking Italian but American with Italian influences. Her love of her ingredients and cooking is apparent. She was funny when asking the audience with help on following the recipe. She was excited about fennel seeds and had everyone in the audience smell them. (The seeds smelled divine, something I did not expect.)

While cooking she talked and shared some good tips such as:

1) Do not put shallots, onions, garlic in a food processor-gases released turn acrid in the processor

2) When swiping food across the chopping board (use the back of the knife-so the knife is not dulled)

3) When chopping onions, cut under water or try to make cuts into the onion and later cut it once (lessen the chances of crying with gases all over) to release the pieces (She is a stickler about knife skills.)

4) Recommended a Greek Extra Virgin Olive Oil at Whole Foods Aria

5) Canned tomatoes are great if you don't have access to good fresh tomatoes. She recommended this brand:  San Marzano

Jody has not tried Molecular Gastronomy yet nor has she gone to Per Se. She tried to have a glass of wine unsuccessfully at the latter once.

The final one in the Talking Taste series is this Friday, July 18th with Barbara Lynch.

Talking Taste: Barbara Lynch

Friday , July 18, 06:30 pm Boston’s premier chefs talk about their latest flavors and sign copies of their cookbooks while you sample their tempting recipes. The Fort Point neighborhood will welcome one of America’s foremost chefs as Barbara Lynch opens three new concepts in the area. Another James Beard Award-winner, Lynch is well known for her Beacon Hill restaurant, No. 9 Park, named to several magazines’ “Best Restaurant” lists, including Bon Appétit, Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine, and Gourmet. Lynch has expanded her culinary influence in Boston with B&G Oysters, The Butcher Shop, a full-service catering company, produce shop, and demonstration kitchen. She has been featured in Saveur, Boston Common, Bon Appetit, and The New York Times. Free with museum admission. Talking Taste is made possible through the generous support of Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC. Free with museum admission. Space is limited. Free tickets available first-come, first-served at the admissions desk one hour before the program.  (source: photo and blurb-ICA)

Chegamos em Veneza com o sol já perto no horizonte, deixando a cidade ainda mais bela e romântica do que já é. Logo de cara dá pra perceber que Veneza é única. A grande "avenida" da cidade é o Canale Grande, um canal em forma de S que serpenteia a cidade. Dele saem vários canais estreitos que avançam Veneza adentro. Por isso, não há carros circulando. Tudo depende das embarcações que por muitas vezes entopem os canais. As construções acompanham o curso dos canais e, por consequência, as ruas viram um verdadeiro labirinto.

Saiba que se perder em Veneza é apenas uma questão de tempo. São milhares de vielas estreitas, passagens apertadas e pontes que difícultam se orientar mesmo com um mapa nas mãos. Se perdeu? Siga o fluxo de turistas até um lugar mais conhecido e pergunte como chegar ao seu destino. Um mapa no bolso ajuda um pouco, mas achar o nome das ruas nele é como ganhar na loteria. Lembre-se que as melhores surpresas vem dos lugares mais inusitados. E Veneza é recheada deles.

Para atravessar o Canale Grande, a principal ponte chama-se Rialto. Para encontrá-la, é só seguir as placas pelas ruelinhas. A ponte Rialto liga o bairro de San Polo ao de San Marco onde, depois de atravessar as vielinhas do bairro, chega-se a surpreendente Piazza San Marco. O tamanho da praça de nada lembra as vielinhas que levam a ela. A gente chega espremidinho com um monte de turista com suas câmeras e de repente: pimba... Uma praça gigantesca! Ao redor da praça estão as principais atrações da cidade, ainda que eu considere como principal atração a própria cidade.

A Basílica de San Marco foi construída para guardar o corpo do santo. A entrada é gratuita mas se quiser dar uma espiadela no Pala d'Oro, um grande altar de ouro e pedras preciosas, vai ter que desenbolsar 2 euros. Vale um gelatto. Na frente está o Campanário, uma torre de quase 100m de altura de onde é possível admirar ainda mais a cidade. Também vale um gelatto.

Ao lado da Basílica, é possível visitar o Palazzo Ducale onde antigamente moravam os duques. Destaque para a Scala d'Oro - a escadaria de entrada recheada de ouro no teto - e a Sala del Maggior Consiglio - com uma pintura gigante de Tintoretto. No final da visita pelo palácio, todos passam pela Ponte dei Sospiri que conecta o palácio à prisão. Era a última visão de liberdade dos prisioneiros a caminho da masmorra.

Há ainda alguns bons museus espalhados pela cidade e talvez você consiga achá-los com um mapa. Mas o charme de Veneza só se conhece a pé mesmo. Pra esquentar, pare num boteco qualquer e peça um Spritz de Aperol, uma típica bebida colorida daqui de sabor adocicado e um pouco amargo. Se quiser provar uma bela massa, recomendo um jantar no Tre Spiedi. É fácil achar: passe a ponte Rialto de San Polo para San Marco e continue em frente até o final da rua. Vire à esquerda, passe os correios e atravesse a ponte. Continue reto, passe pela igreja de San Crisostomo, atravesse mais uma ponte e vire à direita na Salizzada San Cazian. Pronto. Dá pra chegar lá com até 5 Spritz na cabeça.

E pra completar nossa visita, fomos passear de gôndola. Elas estão espalhadas por toda cidade e pela bagatela de 80 euros (!!!) é possível dar uma volta de meia hora pelos canais - o que é suficiente, diga-se de passagem. De manhã é mais tranquilo navegar pela cidade, mas conforme vai caindo a tarde, forma-se um hilário congestionamento de gôndolas por todos os cantos. Aliás, respire fundo e tenha paciência porque a cidade é l-o-t-a-d-a de gente nessa época.

É hora de ir embora com aquela eterna vontade de ficar... vem comigo?

But... we just did three shows in California.  The first show was this past Saturday at Six Flags Magic Mountain just north of L.A..  It was a good show, we did two sets and the crowd seemed to have a great time.  There was no time to catch some rides, and it was TOO DANG HOT!!  Our next show was at a church in Rialto, CA on Sunday night.  Again, it proved to be a good time worshipping and having a great time in God's presence.  Monday we traveled to Sacramento and just chilled.  But last night... last night!  Can I get an AMEN?  We were at a leadership conference held at a church.  The band did a short 15 minute worship set before coming back again to do a 45 minute worship set after the preaching.  Well... those 45 minutes turned into about 110 minutes!  The presence of God came in, and oh my word!  There was just something fabulous about that time.  Totally unexpected.  Totally.  And it was great.  Such freedom, and it seemed that it was something that was needed by everyone, not just conference participants but also for those in the band... and so this shortened trip had a purpose on many levels!

che bene che è andata ieri...abbiamo conosciuto un sacco di bella gente, fatto tantissime foto colorate, ricevuto tanto affetto, alzato il livello di amore nel mondo, ho trovato l'uomo della mia vita che è americano e mi ha regalato una rosa, un altro ci ha regalato una birra israeliana che era buonissima e l'ha bevuta anche la greta. e poi al concerto abbiamo ballato e ballato e saltato e fatto gli ebeti e salutato la gente che passava in vaporetto...e poi dalle guglie in stazione correndo rischiando di perdere l'ultimo treno per tornare :D grazie!

The House of Style in Rialto, California is a hair weave salon owned by Sonia. She put all her family's savings into opening this salon, which was in pretty bad shape.  She has two loyal, good natured employees, Tanae and Towanda.

Peter not only makes over the salon, he gives these women a makeover. They are very cooperative and willing to learn.  Teaching Peter to do hair weaves was amusing. He gained respect for the hard work involved in this process.  Good show.

 See my Vodpod

“When you come to a fork in the road…Take it.”

- Yogi Berra

Photo and post by: Simon Vaughan

That being said, it's summary time.

The story starts in Venice, which was a bit surprising to me. We trained our behinds over there and were greeted by cloudy skies and rain.

Oh, and a boat to take us to the island with our hotel. We stayed in Lido (Not the main island, but near itish.), about a five-ten minute boat ride to the main island.

It is at this point that I'd like to address my surprise. Venice is not all canals and boats as I think we're all led to believe. There are many narrow streets crawling through the city. I was under the impression that doors opened to porches that touched water, but that's not the case so much. The Grand Canal is the biggest exception, with tons of docks and gondolas and the occasional ambu-boat rushing past.

Venice is a tourist trap. Each narrow street between Sight A and Sight B is jampacked with little shops of glass and masks. Every once in a while you'll stumble upon something good, but then you discover it's horrifically overpriced. To be fair, the prices were way better than, say, London. But that's getting ahead of myself.

We spent our few days in Venice snaking from St. Mark's to the Rialto to the cheap sections of town. We touristed the heck out of that place.

But of course, these things must end. We packed up (after everyone else had already left...we're special) and planed it to Paris. Or rather, to Beauvais. Beauvais is more commonly known as "not Paris". They were nice enough to bus us to Paris (for a friendly price, of course...), and we arrived in time to catch the Metro to a street near our hostel.

Then comes the interesting part. We get off the Metro and are greeted by a loitering group of delinquents who pass the time outside the Metro trowing bottles at walls and generally being obnoxious. We weren't inconvenienced in any way, but since we were all travel-frazzled and wary, our dangerometers were freaking out a bit.

We walked to our hostel to find the door closed, locked, and the light off. Awkward. Someone happened to be there, let us in, and explained that our check in time had been confused with AM. In other words, we were roomless in Paris. He was nice enough to cancel our payment on the rooms, and call a nearbyish hostel to check for availability.

Jackpot.

We walk the considerable distance to our new accommodations, and take in the stale and foreboding night air. Everyone's a bit uneasy and now more stressed than before.

Luckily, the hostel we ended up at was much better than the hostel we had booked. The staff was quite nice, the rooms were pretty decent, and the neighborhood was better. We slept pseudosoundly. We liked it enough to go ahead and book the next two nights there as well. It was like our safe place amidst confusion.

The trick to going to France is this: they speak French. With Italian, I could piece things together (thanks Spanish). In France, I was 100% lost. It was an interesting exchange booking the rooms; somehow the cute little old man and I reached an agreement despite neither of us speaking so much as a word of the other's native language.

With that resolved, it was off to see all that we could see. During our time there, we experienced the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle...and maybe some more stuff I can't think of at the moment. It was a lot, and totally worth it. You have no sense of scale about these monuments until you're there, trust me.

We'll call that the end of France. Next up, Glasgow. (That's Scotland for you who don't know.) Glasgow was the strangest place we visited. We had become so used to seeing languages that we didn't know. English was a welcome present. We spent just enough time in Glasgow (aka Little USA) to have dinner and marvel at the stores (Pizza Hut, Domino's, Borders, Starbucks, Foot Locker, etc.) then it was off to Edinburgh. Edinburgh was a little less America than Glasgow, but still comfortable enough to relax in.

Edinburgh had a castle, and that's about it. We happened upon a hilltop (Arthur's Seat or something like that), hiked it, and were graced with a fantastic view and a wonderful sunset.

After that breath of fresh air, it was off to Dublin, Ireland. Dublin seemed a bit rougher around the edges than Scotland. (I forgot to mention, the biggest problem with these places is climate. Cold, cold, and more cold. Pretty much standard operating procedure.) We saw another castle and a few cathedrals. But the best story relates to how we got thrown out of a pub. (In Ireland. Heck yes.)

We went in, some of us in search of a Guiness, others just tagging along. I had tried Bailey's the night before, and found it quite enjoyable. So I was up for another. We found a table and ventured off to order drinks. The bartender was nice enough to suggest what he called a "Cookies and Creme", which is some mix including Bailey's that tastes FANTASTIC. I had one of those, loving it all the way. John decided to try one after I had finished mine. He ended up not finishing it, so I had one and a half. (They really are quite fantastic. None of that alcohol taste.) We sat around talking, doodling on napkins, and being playfully harassed by the live music guy (the girls were, anyway). It was at this point, some time after finishing our last drink, that the manager informed us of this little gem: "If you're not going to order any more drinks, you have to go." How very strange. We did as we were told, and went back to the hostel a bit earlier than planned, perhaps.

So there you have it. Thrown out of pub in Dublin. Ha.

After we wrapped up Dublin, it was time for London. London was...actually quite annoying. English, sure, but annoying nonetheless. Rather expensive (stupid pounds) and awkwardly laid out. However, a number of our best experiences occurred there. We were lucky enough to snag tickets to Les Miserables (we were shooting for Phantom of the Opera, but stuff happens), which was an amazing musical. The day preceding that evening, however, was a string of arriving too late and sleet. Woo hoo. We didn't get to go in a few places, and the ones we could we dang expensive. The next day, we hit up the British Museum, holder of all manner of ridiculously interesting art. (I forgot to mention earlier that yes, I did see the Mona Lisa. She's really not that tight, y'all.) We were treated to Egyptian relics out the wahzoo, including the Rosetta Stone.

Then, we cheesed it over to Wesminster Abbey to see the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and of course Westminster Abbey. We timed it such that we actually attended Easter Service inside Westminster Abbey. Now that's a trip. It's so...huge.

There was a big hubbub that day, as our group of five split into 2 and 3. We established several meeting points throughout the day, but managed to just miss each other every time. We regrouped just before things would have gotten interesting (in a bad, someone's getting left behind without their luggage way) and caught the Metro to the train station to catch the bus to the airport at 1AM for our 7AM flight. No sleep is always a good thing.

Flight was uneventful, landed us near Rome. Metroed it to the train station and trained it back to good ol' Castiglion F.no.

Whew. That was a lot of summarizing. There's a ton of intricacies that you, faithful reader, may or may not hear some day.

Here's to newness.

Charles

今天心血來潮
突然想聽一下Rialto的第一張同名專輯
我想這個樂團應該幾乎沒什麼人聽過吧
可以說是相當冷門的一個團~呵呵
沒錯~一看專輯封面的味道就可以猜出他們是英國團了
這個樂團的成員應該都有點年紀了...
因為這張專輯是1998年的
大概是我大學的時候買的一張專輯
突然覺得自己也老了~XD
anyway~這個樂團走的是帶點懷舊、華麗的搖滾風格
又有那麼點Pop Rock的味道
歌曲的整體風格真的很特殊
當時在MTV音樂台一聽到馬上就被吸引住了
這張專輯一樣~聽超過百次以上吧
整張專輯沒話講~Perfect!!
很值得收藏~不過不知道現在還找不找得到...
講那麼多~不如讓大家聽一聽拉
目前沒找到他們的官網...
在youtube找到了其中的幾首歌
大家可以去試聽一下拉
喜歡就趕快去買回家收藏吧!!

1. Summer's Over
2. Untouchable
3. Monday Morning 5.19