Cru d'etat

I'm a student of sensuality, and am familiar how "taking away" one sense can have the wonderful effect of enhancing the others in our fine five: taste, touch, sight, smell and sound.

So I was interested a week ago, to be invited by two close friends to dine in the dark at a local San Francisco restaurant, Opaque. We would be served in complete darkness, by legally blind servers - and fine fare would complete this strange and fascinating experience.

We were led down twisting, velvet-lined corridors to our table, and managed to find our places without either upsetting the table nor knocking even a plate or piece of silverware off. When food began to arrive, we coordinated between our server and us four, to put it all within groping reach. Our first trick was to pry a piece of bread out of the napkined basket and dip it (rather than our fists) into the butter. So far so good. And plus, if you didn't put your bread on it's assigned bread plate, who could tell anyway?

After an "aumse bouche" - my favorite term in the world for an appetizer before an appetizer, literally meaning, to amuse or tease the mouth, but hey, I'm all for amusing a bush! - came a plate of cut up veggies with three sauces. Our server announced, here is your cru d'etat.

Speaking enough french to order in a restaurant and have a conversation about love while keeping myself out of jail, I know that what he meant was, crudite - meaning raw cut up vegetables.

Without knowing it or meaning it, I'm pretty sure, he put "crudite" and "coup d'etat" (meaning revolution or overturning the current regime) in a blender, pressed "whirl" and got "cru d'etat."

I have to say, his slip of the toungue was the best thing about the night. We all found our eyes strained for sight, giving us slight headaches, not at all enhancing the flavors of the food. Likewise, it hard to really feel and get into what each other were saying, without being able to see body language and facial cues.

Grateful for our sightedness, we all commented how the visuals of food - it's shapes, presentation and variety - all add to the experience of eating. At least during this night, taking sight away didn't add to the taste, texture, sound and smells of our meals. The food was fine, but not worth the whopping price tag, attached to the novelty of blind dining.

As we exited the restaurant, back into the twilight of the street, we realized Opaque had gotten away with quite a "coup" indeed. Somehow, we'd paid twice as much for mediocre food, and helped them save on their electric bill!

Cru - raw
d'etat - of the house

Opaque: Raw Deal in the House!

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Love versus Love

I couple weeks ago I went to see a new-to-me band, Loop!Station, a performance of their new album, Love versus Love.

An impassioned women singing, Robin Coomer, and an impassioned man playing cello, Sam Bass. All live, they loop their tracks, layering them, overlapping them, singing along with themselves, creating a gorgeous blast of intoxicating music.

When I walked in to the venue, they were already playing, and I was nearly knocked over by a gorgeous tsunami of sensuous, sonorous sound. I continued to weep for the rest of the hour's performance.

You have to check them out. If you don't know where to start, try "The Last Time" from their album, "Balance on What."

http://www.loopthis.com/
http://cdbaby.com/cd/loopstation1

And for their glorious, powerful, exalted new CD, "Love versus Love," you'll have to wait as patiently as me. Do get on their mailing list. Your ears and heart will never be loved so well.

"Love versus Love," Robin says. "Which will win?"

Loving, opening to love, devoting our lives and selves to love - is not always a dance with the daisies.

Love is the greatest game there is. 99.9% of humans make a conscious or unconscious choice that to love, fully and openly, is too painful, too vulnerable, too unpredictable.

It's true. It can be.

Lovers, the 1% of 1%, we are courageous, crazy, and somehow the most sane. It takes a great roar of YES to life. It's easier to hide, to numb out, to say NO to life.

The reward of loving - ourselves, another, this chaotic life - is often blown-open hearts, lives in cinders, work charred and scarred.

And the rewards are also heaven on earth: what comes from living with arms thrown wide, head tossed back, open, open, open, truly seeing and being truly seen. The wash of creative fire that comes only of the inclusive embrace our YES as opposed to the painful pushing away of our NO.


“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”

C.S. Lewis


Love versus Love. Which will win?