Kirk and Robert on KVAL

At 12:00 Thursday, Kirk Lybecker joined Robert Canaga for an interview on KVAL with Laura Rillos.
Take a look.

Today's Latte'

This one was made by Kate Richards at Perugino.
Perfect!

And now a litttle night music

Goes well with chocolate and wine!

Time for tonight's "Wine and Chocolate!"

Mitch at Perugino sold me a bottle of Lambrusco Rosa, a bright red, best served chilled(not cold) with enough sparkle to warrant a punt and a wired cork. I matched it with three very different chocolates from Fenton& Lee.
All foil wrapped, the first was the espresso(copper foil): Loved the taste of the chocolate but the wine was just not a match. I think this would be better with a cleaner, dryer champagne.
The second was Tanzanian 75% cacao(peach foil); This one stood up very well to the wine and as it melted in my mouth, a sip of the cool wine blended with the rich taste and the result was very appealing. Not, I am sure, to all tastes but I will serve this as a treat for a small party without hesitation.
The last, and most surprising, was the Dark. Wrapped in red foil and so rich you could smell it as the foil came off, this one made the wine luscious and wonderful! Melted slowly in my mouth and met the wine with a welcoming smoothness. The taste of the two was almost to much. The wine is sweet but not cloying; fruity and pleasant without being "desert wine" so the dark chocolate was a good foil. The contrapuntal effect had may taste buds happily confused.
I recommend a visit to the Fenton & Lee shop for a few daring pairings of your own. Try some and let me know what combination you fancy.

Kirk Lybecker at OPUS6IX

Kirk Lybecker will join Robert Canaga on a visit to KVAL's studios on Thursday at noon for an interview with Shelly Kurtz.
Shelly's segment will cover the First Friday Art Walk and Kirk's show, "City of Industry".
Be sure and read SUZI STEFFEN from Eugene Weekly. She did a nice review of Kirk's work.
And I do agree, it is a great show.
Be sure to come on First Friday, have some good wine, relax with friends, meet the artist, and enjoy the show.

First Friday in Eugene!

On February 1, 2008, the Lane Arts Council’s First Friday ARTWalk will be hosted by local artist and art advocate, Judy Allison, beginning at 5:30 p.m.

#1 Passionflower – East Broadway and Oak

Local authors Sandy and Peter Jensen will be reading Live Love Poems. Excerpts from Sandy’s book I Saw Us in a Painting, as well as selections of great love poems from many cultures and times, will be read aloud. It will be a fun event with lots of audience participation. Please bring you favorite love poems to share!

#2 Diva -- East Broadway and Olive
The overarching theme of DIVA’s exhibition this month is architecture. The artwork in Deborah Heal’s exhibit The Great House is featured in the Member’s Gallery. Influenced by her experiences living in Santa Fe, she shows paintings inspired by the vistas, colors, and shapes of the landscapes of northern New Mexico. Deborah Heal thinks of artistic potential as a great house. Just as rooms in a house are decorated differently, Deborah Heal strives to explore the different styles and functions of art in her own work.

The exhibit Architects as Artists, continues throughout February. It features the work of internationally renowned architect, Robert Harvey Oshatz. Oshatz presents models, photographs, floor plans, drawings, and video of his work in three of the DIVA galleries. Alongside his pieces are historical and recent images of downtown architecture from the city of Eugene, selected work of downtown proposals from UO architecture students, and artwork by local, working architects.

#3 Fenario -- East Broadway and Willamette

Stephen Beebe is currently living in Chico, California. Stephen's art is mixed media pop surrealism, often incorporating found objects. He has a bright, urban inspired aesthetic and color palette. His work seems to be influenced by urban contemporary life and has similarities to contemporary "low brow" art.

#4 Jacob’s Gallery -- 7^th and Willamette

The exhibit Reliquary: The Everyday Sacred consists of recent works by three Eugene artists, Sarah Grew, Claire Flint, and Ken Herrin. Three distinct voices share their explorations of everyday objects and experiences. Sarah Grew’s work combines found objects to create abstract forms. Claire Flint has a more traditional form with detailed still lifes and Ken Herrin’s sculptures are made from combining found objects into abstract, three-dimensional works. From purely abstract to the narrative figure, and using a wide array of techniques, each artist ‘iconifies’ the mundane in order to share their vision with the greater public.

Reviewed by Robert, Jan. 18th

#5 Blue Moon -- 6^th and Olive

This month come see jeweler Margarita O’Brien whose works are playful, colorful and beautifully detailed miniature ‘paintings’ on metal take the forms of wearable pendants, earring and wall art pieces. Margarita uses fine cloisonné and glass enamels of fine silver and copper. Also showing jeweler Renee Ford’s structural architectural inspired pendants with natural gemstones, whimsical “Peek-a-Boo” pierced back natural gemstone pendants and earrings along with figurative formed silver and copper vessels.

The following downtown merchants and galleries will also be open late:

Goldworks, Harlequin Beads, LaFollette Gallery, Magical Dreamtime, New Zone Gallery, Opus6ix Gallery, Sun Moonlight Gallery, Café Perugino, Karin Clarke Gallery & Annex, White Lotus Gallery, Museum of Unfine Art, and DNA Photographic.

Mozart on a Winter's night

We braved the snow and ice tonight to attend a wonderful performance by two flutists, a harpsichord player who did a little piano also, and a cellist. The setting was perfect. A small sanctuary, close seating, perfect acoustics, just enough brave music lovers, and a mix of music from Magic Flute to Bach.
The Oregon Mozart Players Chamber Music and Chocolate events are so wonderfully innocent, disarming, and intimate, much like I would assume they were 300 years ago but with better lighting.
Many years ago (1976) I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend a concert of Mozart's music in the palace on Lake Chiemsee in Bavaria. It is a scale model of Versailles, and has it's own Hall of Mirrors. It was lit by more than a thousand candles! As we sat in awe of the music, the wines, the feel of the room, and, after about an hour, the smell of wax, burnt wicks, and people who at that point in time, did not see the need to bathe every day.... I began to fold into the time that the music was written, to feel as if we were indeed transported to a slower time. I do admit to a love of the grand theatric, and dancing the night away in Ludwig's last castle was indeed a life shaping event, but equally as important is the small event we find here in Eugene, presented by our friends and neighbors, such as tonights concert. We must take advantage of these and enjoy that small moment that shapes us forever.
Here is a little night music.