Spring fever

I feel Spring today. Not that it is much different than the previous few days but perhaps because we’ve had a string of sunshine and warmth my soul has gotten in the mood. When we lived in San Jose, Spring was heralded with the aroma of Osmanthus fragrans all around the valley. As well as the apricot blossoms and such – but that intense scent of Osmanthus was pervasive. I detected that yesterday on a short walk, which triggered memories of life in the suburbs, with a garden and a long warm season. (Cue thousand-page recollection here, a la Proust. No, on second thought I’ll spare us all. My francais is rusty anway.)

Boo wants to help blog

In San Francisco, nothing means Spring has arrived like the annual GAYVN awards. This time hosted by Margaret Cho, with Janice Dickinson and Alec Mapa too! At the Castro Theatre, third year in a row I believe.

Stop AIDS Project is sponsoring the “Tailgate” pub crawl event tonight. Should be lots of fun and people – given the great weather I expect to see everyone out.

The stars are in town for the event, check out either of the Gold’s gym locations. I saw Nick Moretti working out at the Castro location today. Looks like his ribs are healing okay. And of course, they will be out tonight at the Tailgate events. See you all there!

P.S. When Gay Today asked who was the person most likely to have an After-party only a publicist could cover up the answer was (ta-dah):
“Is there even a question that it’s not Erik Rhodes? That’s why we love him! We just hope we’re there when it happens!”

Holla at my boy! Go Erik!

Behind the scenes of Mission Street Food

I’ve had a few posts on Mission Street Food, the Thursday and Saturday night high-concept reincarnation of Lung Shan chinese on Mission at 18th. Each night with a different menu, the responsibility of a bevy of guest chefs from around town.

The customer line up

I ran across this blog post that gives a detailed behind the scenes look at how this all takes from from the chef / restaurateur point of view.

Story here.

Gardenia tea

I’m at Peet’s on Market to do some writing (fiction, not a work assignment this time), enjoying the window seat view of the street traffic. As if I needed a reminder that Spring has arrived in addition to the delightful sunny weather (it has warmed up from yesterday) I ordered a “fancy jasmine” green tea rather than my usual coffee. I’m not swearing off coffee (yet) but I’ve already had a morning cuppa at my usual (Queen Malika). Time for a change up. The aroma is so floral it’s as if I am sitting with my Macbook in a field of flowers. Or, really, in a greenhouse dedicated to gardenias – because that is exactly what this tea scent reminds me of. So much so I have to wonder if the leaves are infused with gardenia oil. The flavor is okay – kind of overwhelmed.