Festivals this Weekend

On Saturday, June 19, the yearly Japanese Cultural Fair will take place again from 11 am to 6 pm on Mission Plaza. "We believe that through the arts, craft, and culture of Japan, we can improve mutual understanding among neighbors on the Pacific Rim as well as enrich our community life here in Santa Cruz" states the Fair's website. I'm looking forward to San Francisco Taiko Dojo, and Marianne's Green Tea Ice Cream!

For something completely different (or maybe not, looking at the Japanese lady's hat): This weekend also brings us the "Central Coast Crazy Hat Days," a fundraiser organized by Mountain Parks Foundation in co-operation with California State Parks. I've never been there, nor do I own a crazy hat, but it looks like so much fun I might be tempted to throw myself into the crowd inexperienced and hatless. For more information check out the events page of the Mountain Parks Foundation. The Mercury News' offers images from previous years and links to performing artists.

Aida sold out!

My friend JZ even volunteered to buy tickets early, but unfortunately we were still late, Aida was already sold out the afternoon of the show. Holy opera cow! So she secured tickets for next week's Roméo et Juliette. I finally found the Met's website for their HD live broadcasts as well as summer encores. It turns out that I had caught the tail end of two operas on PBS. Eugene Onegin and Carmen looked like two very attractive productions. I'm a little disappointed that Madama Butterfly will only have an encore appearance in Canadian movie theaters, particularly since Anthony Minghella directed. Grumblegrumble. O well, there's still a lot of opera deliciousness to enjoy.

The Met comes to Santa Cruz

Two of my friends brought this to my attention (thanks, guys!). I'll definitely be there for Aida, for which I found a helpful review on MusicalCriticism.com. But let's start with the basics, Wallace Baine's article in the Sentinel:

Native New Yorkers will tell you that California is nice and all. But there are certain finer things in life that are only available to those who live in or near New York City, among them a great pastrami sandwich, good playground basketball and the Metropolitan Opera. Well, you can scratch at least one of those off the list [...] The Santa Cruz Cinema 9 will be showing full Met productions on the big screen in glorious high-definition, beginning Wednesday June 16 with Verdi's "Aida." The summer series will feature recordings of six well-known, fully staged operas, each Wednesday night through the end of July. All times are 6:30 p.m. and tickets will be $15.

June 16 -- "Aida" June 23 -- "Romeo et Juliette" July 7 -- "Eugene Onegin" July 14 -- "La Boheme" July 21 -- "Turandot" July 28 -- "Carmen"

Sommerwein

It's finally summer! Balmy nights call for... Riesling, of course. Chilled, peachy, slightly bubbly, yummy! This Mosel Riesling is available at Shopper's. I liked it so much, I had to take a picture of it.

Ich sehe im Geiste schon wie der Franke kritisch die Nase kräuselt, aber ich bin dem Herben schon so entwöhnt, dass ich einen recht lieblichen Mosel-Riesling an einem lauschigen Sommerabend ganz köstlich finde. Gefiel mir so gut, dass ich gleich ein Foto machen musste. Und, ganz genau, der Sommer ist endlich angekommen, und fühlt sich einfach wunderbar an!