Deutsche Krimis im Netz

Olympia ist ja schön & gut, aber worauf ich wirklich gespannt bin ist der nächste Tatort! Lange habe ich darauf gewartet mir Tatort im Netz anzusehen, im Januar habe ich dann entdeckt, dass die ARD es mir endlich ermöglich hat! Diesen Sonntag ist es wieder soweit: "Tod auf dem Rhein" am 28. Februar 2010, 20:15 Uhr, zu sehen in der Mediathek von DasErste.de. Super! Eine Beschwerde habe ich, die Videos stehen "Aus Jugendschutzgründen... jeweils ab 20:00 Uhr bis 6:00 Uhr zur Verfügung," was für mich einige Zeitverschiebungsrechnerei und seltsame Sendezeiten bedeutet. Überraschenderweise hat das ZDF anscheinend keine Bedenken seine SOKO Folgen, die ich mir schon seit einer Weile zu Gemüte führe, zu jeder Tages- & Nachtzeit zugänglich zu machen. Ist Tatort brutaler? Nicht, dass mir aufgefallen wäre, aber im Vergleich mit den immer sensationslüsterner mutierenden Ami-Krimis (mit Ausnahme von Law & Order, letzter Vertreter einer aussterbenden Gattung), in denen es nur noch so von Sexualdelikten undenklichster Art und megapsychenden Serienmördern wimmelt, kommt mir jeder deutsche Krimi noch recht zivil vor. Punkte sammelt das ZDF auch mit der Übersichtlichkeit seines Angebotes, bei der ARD bedarf es gehöriger Mühe diverse Seiten zu navigieren um ein Minimalangebot an Videos zu ermitteln. Scheint an der Struktur der ARD zu liegen, die so viele Sender unter einen Hut zu bringen hat. Na ja, da bleibt wenigsten noch was zum Anschauen wenn ich im nach Hause komme.

Of Mint, Olive Oil & Zaatar. Prize-winning Tunisian actor, director and playwright Nabil Ghachem teams up with dancer/choreographer Feliz Guarino to present a performance combining Middle-Eastern poetry, story-telling, theatre, music and dances from the Silk Road.

Presented by Mosaic Theater. Saturday, February 20, 8:00 PM. Cabrillo BlackBox Theater, 6500 Soquel Drive, Aptos. $15 general, $12 students/seniors, $10 with Cabrillo Student Card.

Nur soviel zum Medaillenspiegel: Wenn man bedenkt wieviel kleiner Deutschland ist als die USA find ich's super, dass wir an zweiter Stelle liegen!

Chocolate Santa Cruz

According to Yelp, service and food can be hit & miss. My advice to the amateur food critics not enthused over Asian chicken salad, or mushroom soup at a place called CHOCOLATE, how about you try what Chocolate does best, which is... who would have guessed?... chocolate! Hallo? Expect the hot chocolate drinks to be rich and dense, the Chicken Mole and Chocolate Barbequed Pork Roast entrees to be spicy, intense, addictive. My only complaint was the dressing on the greens; it was too acidic for me. I will ask them to hold it next time. I'd rather use the olive oil & balsamic vinegar that sit ready on every table. Otherwise, my friends and I left very happy last night. A second location under the same ownership, the Backstage Lounge, opened recently next to the Rio Theater on Soquel. It offers "Asian inspired food." The menu looks good, let's hope in this spot they even get the Sesame Chicken Salad right.

UCSC Orchestra

Of course, we don't have to wait until SCC Symphony's March concert for our next dose of classical music! More Brahms, yay! Guest conductor Yair Samet leads the UCSC Orchestra in a program featuring Beethoven: Egmont Overture, Brahms: Symphony No. 2, Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 3, featuring Misty Blakely, winner of the 2009 UCSC Concerto Competition.

Friday, February 26, 2010 - 7:30pm - Saturday, February 27, 2010 - 7:30pm
Music Center Recital Hall
$10 general, $8 senior, $6 student. General admission seating.
UCSC Ticket Office: (831) 459-2159 or santacruztickets.com

Santa Cruz County Symphony

I've been busy celebrating my birthday, as well as the birthdays of other Aquarii. By the way, there seem to be more of us every year. How is that possible? Are people converting?
Two weeks later I still find it worthwhile to report on Concert 2 of the SCC Symphony season: Bold and Beautiful, referring to Beethoven's Symphony No. 4, and Brahms' Piano Concerto No 1. The Civic's acoustics are a not that good, the sound seemed muffled, not as crisp as you would like it, but the orchestra was in really great form! We were sitting in the nosebleed section to the right side of the orchestra (where the fans of the opposing team sit at Roller Derby bouts). In terms of sound it doesn't seem to make a big difference where in the auditorium you are, but the way the piano was set up, unfortunately, we didn't see much of soloist Jon Nakamatsu from there. We really liked what we heard, though! Beautiful. The next concert "Romantic Rhapsodies" on March 27/28 (with a Saturday night performance at the Civic, and Sunday matinee at the Mello Center Watsonville) will offer Barber's Adagio for Strings, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3. Program notes:

2010 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great American composer, Samuel Barber. We feature our string section in his moving “Adagio for Strings.” The emotionalism continues with Klein composition winner, Tessa Lark, in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. The concert concludes with Mendelssohn’s melodious Third Symphony, “Scottish.”