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Archive for August 2012

Hedonists at STK

Aug31

Restaurant: STK [1, 2, 3]

Location: 755 North La Cienega. Los Angeles, CA 90069. 310.659.3900

Date: August 29, 2012

Cuisine: Steakhouse

Rating: Gluttonous fun!

_

Back in July I joined up with the “Hedonists” Meetup group for a spectacular food and wine (and all around overindulgent) evening. No sooner had I recovered when we set out again, this time to “trendy” Hollywood steakhouse STK. These are big dinners, 12 people, and everyone brings one (or more) bottles of wine. They’re vetted too by the host so every bottle is either old, highly rated, or both.

The space is chic and modern. Above is the La Cienega entrance.

At Hedonism events the wines are always spectacular. We start out with this rose champagne. “The NV Brut Grand Rose comes across as very Gosset in its bright, piercing minerality. This is one of the driest Roses in the market, and truth to be told, it takes a special palate to truly appreciate this wine. Frankly, a touch more sweetness might not be a bad thing.”

These look like Glazed Pop’ems, but they’re savory. And that sauce is pretty much a under-spiced chimichurri.

More my taste, Parker 92, “You can’t help but smile when you taste the 2002 Chassagne-Montrachet en Remilly. Its flowery nose leads to a fat, deep, medium-bodied personality. Broad, rich, and plush, it coats the palate with lilies, sweet minerals, and pears. Drink this concentrated, generous, pleasing wine over the next 6 years.”

Some oysters on the halfshell.

“Poached pears and spiced apples can be found in the superb aromatics of the 2000 Nuits-St.-Georges La Perriere (white). Medium to full-bodied, plump, and fat, this is an exceedingly ripe wine, crammed with loads of pears, anise, and toast flavors. It is harmonious, seamless, and reveals an admirably long, pure, and delineated finish.”

“TUNA TARTARE. soy emulsion – avocado – taro chips.”

I brought this puppy, which is just beginning to open up. Parker 94, “Gaja’s 1997 Barbaresco is undoubtedly the finest he has yet made. An exquisite effort, it boasts a dense ruby/purple color in addition to an extraordinary nose of black cherry liqueur, smoke, licorice, mineral, and floral aromas. The wine is full-bodied, opulent, and loaded with fruit. Despite its precocious nature, there is abundant tannin, and thus 3-4 years of cellaring is required. It should age effortlessly for 25 years.”

“ROASTED BONE MARROW. truffle – olive tapenade – pickled shitake mushrooms – grilled country bread.”

Some bordeux, old and adolescent.

“The 1966 Ausone, tasted twice from well-stored bottles in Bordeaux, this wine reveals an amber/rust overtone to its medium garnet color. At first the nose offers attractive faded fruit, old leather, and dried herb-like aromas. In the mouth, the wine possesses sweetness on the attack that quickly faded to reveal astringency, harshness, and a medium-bodied, hollow personality.”

“The 1995 Lynch Bages, a dense ruby/purple hue is accompanied by reticent, restrained aromatics suggesting earth, herbs and subtle fruit. The wine hits the palate with a brutal, tannic overlay, but behind that are impressive levels of black and red fruits. As is the case with many 1995s, the wine’s structural components still dominate, which makes one wonder if these cuvees will ever shed enough tannin to be charming and enjoyable to drink. Certainly depth, weight and richness are all present, but the tannins remain elevated and somewhat foreboding.”

“BEEF TARTAR. black truffle – sliced radish – soy caramel.”

Parker 99! “The late Michel Delon always thought that this was the greatest vintage he had produced. We often tasted it side by side with the 1982, because I always preferred the latter vintage. Of course, the two vintages are quite different in style, with the 1986 a monument to classicism, with great tannin, extraordinary delineation, and a huge, full-bodied nose of sweet, ripe cassis fruit intermixed with vanilla, melon, fruitcake, and a multitude of spices. The wine has always been phenomenally concentrated, yet wonderfully fresh and vigorous. The wine still seems young, yet it is hard to believe it is not close to full maturity. It is a great example of Leoville Las Cases, and another compelling reason to take a serious look at the top Cabernet Sauvignon-based Medocs of 1986.”

“MIXED GREENS. hazelnut butter – pickled strawberries – saba vinegar.”

Parker 96, “Sitting next to my former colleague, Pierre Antoine Rovani, at one of the tastings, he commented that he didn’t like the striking green note in the aromatics of this wine, which I didn’t detect at all, and a subsequent bottle at another tasting did not reveal it either. I do think there is a hint of bay leaf and a meatiness to it. In short, I find this to be a spectacular Pichon Lalande. Dense purple in color, with loads of coffee, mocha, creme de cassis, and chocolate notes, this is a somewhat unusual blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, and a whooping 10% Petit Verdot, with a little bit of Cabernet Franc. The Petit Verdot certainly gives the wine more of a tapenade, floral note, which I think can be interpreted by some as herbal. This is a rich, opulent, stunning Pichon Lalande that is beginning to drink beautifully, yet should continue to improve for at least another 10-15 years and last 30 or more years.”

“Bone-in filet with crabmeat and bordelaise.” Certainly a great steak, and bordelaise makes EVERYTHING better.

Parker 99! “A compelling example of this noble terroir in the northeastern sector of Napa Valley, the 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard still has a dense purple color and possesses a seamless personality with spectacular notes of licorice, incense, black raspberries, black currants, crushed rock, and spring flowers. Stunningly full-bodied, multi-layered, with great purity and expression, this fabulous wine is still youthful but very accessible, as the tannins are velvety and well-integrated. This wine will keep aging beautifully for a minimum of another quarter century. Bravo!”

There were also two fantastic Insignias (99-100 pointers). These evenings get chaotic and it was hard to snap photos of all the late arrivals. I was more concerned with pouring myself a glass!

“Bone-in porterhouse.” Have a little beef!

Parker 98, “There are 2,600 cases of the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard. As I indicated last year, this is a fabulous effort that manages to conceal its 100% new French oak aging. Its dense ruby/purple color is followed by beautiful aromas of blueberries, black currants, acacia flowers, licorice, and spice. The tannins are softer than I remember, but this is certainly one of the vintage’s most extraordinary wines. Full-bodied with a seamless integration of tannin, acidity, alcohol, and wood, it is exceptionally pure and full as well as impeccably balanced. The impression is one of elegance allied with substantial flavor authority. It can be drunk now or cellared for 25+ years.”

Some other cut of steak, can’t remember which.

“New York strip with salt.”

Parker 90, “The classy, rich, well-focused 1992 Cabernet Sauvignon possesses a Chateau Margaux-like fragrance and personality. Neither overblown nor excessively extracted, it is a beautifully made, pure, cassis-dominated wine with well-integrated toasty new oak. No component part dominates, and the wine exhibits no hard edges. Rich, medium to full-bodied, and authoritatively flavored, this Cabernet is approachable now but promises to age gracefully for 12-20 years.”

Lobster anyone?

“LOCAL HALIBUT. brown butter – capers- lemon – fingerling potatoes.”

1983 Mount Mary Vineyard Cabernet.

Some stellar mac & cheese.

Something healthy? Except for the butter!

“Parmesan truffle fries.”

“Sweet corn pudding.” We took to calling this stuff “corn porn” it was so good.

Parker 96, “Deep garnet colour. The nose is just beginning to evolve into musky, dried plum and raisin aromas with whiffs of tree bark, nutmeg, cumin and cloves. The palate is seriously big and voluptuous with medium to high acidity and a medium to firm level of fine tannins. Very long finish.”

“COCONUT CREAM TART. toasted meringue – banana ice cream – chocolate.” This thing was amazing. I ate like two myself.

“CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE. warm baked cookie – vanilla ice cream.” Also pretty spectacular.

“WARM FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE. nutella ice cream – cocoa nib crunch.”

Parker 86, “Every bit as good as the more open-knit and expressive 1976, the 1975 is lighter and more typically Coutet in its proportions, with a graceful, fresh taste, very good concentration, and years of evolution ahead.” This Barsac might not be Chateau D’Yquem, but it has matured to be a unique amber honeyed beast of its own.

“STRAWBERRY RHUBARB CROSTATA. lemon sherbet – black pepper caramel.”

Fresh fruit.

Foodwise, STK is very good, perhaps not quite so good as Mastros or as inventive as Cut, but very good nonetheless. In addition, they are considerably cheaper than Mastros (which can be quite punishing on the wallet). And as a further bonus, they played 80s pop hits exclusively the whole evening, which is so my taste (having gone to high school in the 80s). When I walked in Tears for Fears “Shout” was just starting up. Perfect!

The overall evening was spectacular. The place treated us really well with swift and friendly service you hardly noticed. Plus, there was the excellent company and all our amazing wines!

For more crazy Foodie Club meals, click.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

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By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: beef, Foodie Club, Gosset, Hedonism, hedonists, Hollywood, Parker, Steak House, steak tartare, STK, Wine

Untimed – Logo Faceoff

Aug29

A while back, Cliff Nielsen, the amazing artist who created the cover for The Darkening Dream, finished the amazing new cover painting for my second novel, Untimed. This is going to replace the stock photography clock cover to the left, but I’m not ready to reveal it (I will in a week or three) but I’ve been experimenting with logos and wanted to collect your opinions. As a side note, I’ve been doing my mechanicals myself. Not only is it cheaper, but my photoshop skillz have gotten moderately elite — at least for a programmer/author.

Below are three takes on the logo. You can even see just a hint of the cover illustration here, but I cut it tight to be a tease (and content aware filled out a bit of someone’s head!).

A fairly heavily “styled” version where the text is inspired by antique clock parts (this is after all a time travel novel with clockwork killer machines). Thanks to longtime friend Jason Rubin for help on an earlier variant of this logo.

A similar brass treatment, but using a more strait forward lowercase type treatment. The font is modeled after an 18th century typeface.

Same deal as above, but all uppercase.

Similar to the top-most one, but with arabesque tooling in the metal instead of brushing. This new variant was added 9/12/12, after most of the comments. Since people liked #1, I wanted to work in that direction.

So, dear readers, which version do you like? Let me know in the comments. None of the above is a viable opinion, but please give reasons.

The back of a Breguet watch, I was going for a similar sort of vibe with the arabesque tooling.

Related posts:

  1. Untimed – The Second Cover
  2. Untimed – Meet the Tocks
  3. Untimed – Two Novels, Check!
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  5. Untimed – Out on Submission!
By: agavin
Comments (26)
Posted in: Untimed
Tagged as: Art Design, Book, Cliff Nielsen, Cover art, Fiction, Logos, Time travel, Untimed

Sugarfish – Sushi by the Numbers

Aug27

Restaurant: Sugarfish

Location: 11640 W. San Vicente Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90049. Phone: 310 820-4477

Date: August 13, 2012

Cuisine: Sushi

Rating: Fish is good, format is annoying

_

My relationship with sushi goes way back. My parents first took me to Washington DC’s (then) single Japanese restaurant, Mikado, in the 70s and I started on sushi by eight years old. In the 80s I constantly evangelized sushi. To people’s unanimous response of “yuck, raw fish?” I’d respond, “but it’s SO good.”

Fast forward to 1994 and my move to California. Sushi was just going mainstream and I was an experienced devotee. I’d been to Japan, I knew the names of most fish in Japanese, I’d had a sushi poster over my bed since high school. Still, Sushi Nozawa, conveniently located just 5-10 minutes from Universal Studios (where we were then making Crash Bandicoot), was hands down the best I’d ever had. There were a couple funny things about it:

1. The rice was warm and fell apart easily

2. There was often vinegar like sauce on the fish (which was really good)

3. The seafood itself was incredibly fresh and not fishy at all

4. Chef Nozawa, who made everything personally at the tiny sushi bar, enforced all sorts of rules in a Seinfeld “soup nazi” like manner. No cel phones. No mentioning California or Spicy Tuna roll, no asking for anything. Just “trust me” he said.

All and all an amazing experience.

Fast forward again 10+ years and I’d long been dining happily at what Nozawa spawn restaurants: Echigo, Sasabune, Sushi Zo, and the like. These chefs trained with the master, and deliver fantastic sushi in his format (sometimes including cel phone and roll rules — although at Sasabune I have twice seen Brett Ratner pacing back and forth between customers with his iphone/blackberry glued to his ear).

Then we have Sugarfish, Nozawa’s direct progeny. It’s a problem child for me, mostly because of the format: It’s a chain (albeit a small one) and the chef is missing. Any chef. There is still a vestigial sushi bar, but there are no knife-wielding Japanese guys in white hats behind calling out as you enter or leave. Instead you order packages of “trust me” off a short men and caucasians bring it to you. This seems… unclean… improper.

The Sugarfish menu (see here: Lunch Menu) feels like a packaged corporate imitation of the whole experience. Converting what is essentially a handmade and human relationship (diner and chef) into a by the numbers formula. And besides, even “The Nozawa,” the largest package, is like a snack for someone like me used to gigantic omakases (sample some on my sushi page)!

But here it is:


I’ve never been a huge edaname fan. These are fine, but the oil gets all over your hands.


“Tuna sashimi.” The fish is good, but the whole thing is dominated by the sweet vinegar sauce. Not that I mind, as I love sweet vinegar sauce.


“Albacore sushi.” Tasty enough, and melt in your mouth.


“Salmon sushi.” Good enough fish, but blander than some.


“Yellowtail sushi.” Also nice pieces of Hamachi. Nothing wrong with it, but like almost everything else on this menu, a bit boring.


“Halibut sushi.” Also nice fish.


“Toro hand roll.” Felt a tad bland for some reason.


“Blue crab hand roll.” This was tasty, and the crab hand roll was always a highlight at Nozawa, but this felt like an 80% imitation, perhaps not sweet and crabby enough.


“Halibut fin sashimi.” Bizarrely served at the end. By normal Japanese standards this should have come before any rice. Still, it was a fine dish, again amped up by the vinegar sauce.

Overall, Sugarfish has good fish. Not great fish, but the typical good fish that is now widely available in LA. But the whole thing is so watered down, a packaged imitation of the real sushi experience aimed at dabblers. The room was filled with women catching lunch. They like sushi, may even recognize that better places are tastier, but they aren’t committed to the experience. Unless I’m in a real hurry, I’ll take a human chef who can recommend what is fresh or make me something I haven’t tried before. Nozawa once said to me, “today I have seven types of fish and every day, I ask myself, can I do seven fish well? Should I perhaps do only six?” This espouses the very Japanese sentiment that any small thing can be done exceedingly well with enough focus and concentration. That doesn’t seem to dive with corporate packaging.

For more sushi reviews, click here.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Echigo Sushi
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By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Brentwood, California, Japan, Japanese cuisine, Los Angeles, Nozawa, Sugarfish, Sushi, Sushi Nozawa, Universal Studios

Split Croatia – Boban

Aug24

Restaurant: Boban

Location: Hektorovićeva 49, 21000 Split. Rezervacije: 021/543-300 info@restaurant-boban.com

Date: July 21 & 24, 2012

Cuisine: Dalmatian

Rating: Split Institution

_

Boban has been around for almost 40 years, which is forever in restaurant time. And while not the most modernist place in the universe they still do a very good job.


There is a nice interior (clearly updated since 1973).


And a lovely patio.


Poship is another Dalmatian white grape and widely available. This particular midrange example is easy to find and makes a good food wine with seafood.

The menu as usual is large but also fairly typical.


We started with some fish pate, this one being a mix of different white fishes.


“Fish carpaccio.” While the Croatians inherited this dish from the Italians, they don’t follow the “no cheese with fish” rule – in fact, they love the combination. This was a nice carpaccio and styled more like a beef one than seafood.


“Steak tartar.” I do love good steak tartar and this was a very generous portion. The beef was also good. The prep was a little reminiscent of hamburger meat given it’s strong Tabasco/Worchester sauce flavor (there was tons of other stuff in there too). Tasty on bread but not peppery enough and a little smooth to enjoy as easily straight up.


“Penne pomodoro.”


“Fuzi with smoked ham and truffles.” This was a typical form of the Istrian dish. Good, but not as reach and creamy as the one at Kadena.


“Gnocchi with shrimps and butter sauce.” Croatian gnocchi are huge, but tasty.


“Mushroom risotto.”


“Scampi risotto.” This is also a typical Croatian risotto in that it’s soupier and less buttery than the Italian equivalent. When done well, like this one, they are quite good.


“Black cuttlefish risotto.” Very common in Dalmatia and hard to get right. It’s salty and briny  and requires a good balance (which this one had).


Salads tend to be small side courses tossed on the table like in Italy. This is a typical “mixed salad.”


And a “tomato salad.” I was told by those who can tolerate that much tomato that the Dalmatian tomatoes were fantastic.


“Almond semi-freddo.” A very nice dish with local candied oranges and cinnamon.


My son amused himself at the end of the meal by mixing the leftovers into a “soup” and trying to get us to eat it.

Overall, Boban is a very good place. It was probably the second best place we ate at in Split after Kadena. The atmosphere and service were lovely and the dishes quite good, if sometimes a bit “classic.”

For more Croatian dining reviews click here.

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By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: 1973, Adriatic Sea, Boban, Croatia, Croatia Split, Dalmatia, eating-croatia

BlogTalkRadio Interview

Aug22

Yesterday I did a really fun one hour radio interview on BlogTalkRadio about The Darkening Dream, with tangents into writing, video games, TV, and all that good stuff. You can find the page for it here, or listen directly below (click the play button).

https://all-things-andy-gavin.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/blog_talk_radio_show_3658587.mp3

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By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Arts, Blog Talk Radio, BlogTalkRadio, interview, radio, Talk radio, The Darkening Dream

Wool – Life in a Tin Can

Aug20

Title: Wool (Omnibus)

Author: Hugh Howey

Genre: Science Fiction

Length: 550 pages

Read: August 11-12, 2012

Summary: Classic. 5/5

 

While this Omnibus feels like a novel, it was originally published as a series of five novellas — and self-published at that. But don’t let that scare you, it’s better written, better edited, and far more engaging than 95% of New York published SciFi. In some ways a throwback, in some ways very modern, Wool is a contained (in both the literary and literal way) post apocalyptic tale in the mould of Larry Niven or A Canticle for Leibowitz. Technically this is an ARC story, about an isolated world built to survive a destroyed environment. The people in Wool live in a 148 floor Silo in the ground. To leave is to die.

The book is written in first person tight from multiple points of view. Each section has a fairly clear POV character and the narrative voice highlights their perspective. There is no single protagonist. The first novella is basically a short story introducing the world and ending with the usual short story twist. It did very well on Amazon and the author wrote a second (using a minor character from the first as the POV) and then a third which essentially transitions to the larger story’s most important character (Jules). It’s very much to Howey’s credit that this serial construction does not feel artificial. The works holds up both individually as a cohesive and epic novel.

Several things lead to the overall excellence: The characters are well developed and mostly likable (the main villain is a little thin, but interesting enough). The world is intriguing  and detailed with an appropriate pacing of reveals. There is a good amount of death and suffering in this novel and it lends a generally tragic air to the whole situation as well as the specific events. There is also a lot of tension despite what might nominally be plotting that doesn’t showcase a lot of overt external conflict (in the first 2-3 books). Basically it’s just very good.

The silo is well thought out. My  only real beef at a technical level (and this doesn’t distract from the book at all) is the unlikelyhood that such a contained ecosystem (in all senses of the word) could remain so functional over several centuries. On a practical level earthly eco-systems function because of the ENORMOUS quantity of solar energy constantly added. Wool features a pretty big system powered by a single main fossil-fuel generator. Maybe that’s possible, and Howey’s navel background lends copious verisimilitude and gritty detail, but I suspect to really make a big spaceship or ARC last a long time you’d need some really serious juice. Large scale hydroponic farming alone would require a hell of a lot of power. But as fiction, it’s really well worked out.

Additionally, at a realistic level, I’m not a big believer in the predictability of human large scale behavior (aka history), but in the context of Science Fiction like this (taking its queue from Asimov’s Foundation), there’s no problem. In the real world, despite the endlessly repeating basic patterns of history, no human has ever proven to be a great predictor and controller of the long term specifics.

Another minor peeve is that the Kindle version, while well proofread, has a very unusual formatting with a tiny font oversized spacing between paragraphs. I had to jack the Kindle scale feature up several notches to even read the text. There’s (currently) really no reason not to use the default font style for MOBI/EPUB body text in a novel.

But if you like Science Fiction, post apocalyptic worlds, or just plain old good novels. Read this. Seriously, it’s one of the most enjoyable speculative novels I’ve read in years. Bravo.

For more book reviews, click here.

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By: agavin
Comments (5)
Posted in: Books
Tagged as: Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, Book Review, Fiction, Hugh Howey, Larry Niven, Science Fiction, Wool

More Awards

Aug19

The Darkening Dream has recently won a few more book awards for both the novel itself and the awesome cover. The full list can be found here.

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By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Arts, Awards and Bestsellers, Book, Darkening Dream, Literature

Split Croatia – Kadena

Aug17

Restaurant: Kadena

Location: Ivana pl. Zajca 4, Split. tel./fax. +385.21.389.400 info@restorankadena.com

Date: July 19 & 23, 2012

Cuisine: Dalmatian

Rating: Best kitchen we ate at in Split

_

Food in Dalmatia is of a generally fairly high standard but sometimes a bit repetitive. Most restaurants have a very similar menu and the influences of modernism are infrequent. The ingredients are quite good, particularly the Adriatic Seafood, but sometimes flavors are a bit more muted than I prefer. Things have less zing than in Spain and even considerably less garlic than in Italy.


Kadena was probably the best place we found in Split and is quite good. The view and outside patio was absolutely delightful too.


“Fish pate” is the traditional Dalmatian amuse. It’s basically tunafish but this particular example was very good. Besides various seasonings it’s dusted with almonds and olive oil, both excellent and local.

Croatians tend to be very protective about products that they do make, and hence we rarely saw any international wine. Given the seafood heavy cuisine I tended to stick to whites, trying to find interesting local wines as opposed to generic new world variants. “GRK” (Greek in Croatian) is a Hellenistic Greek that came to the Island of Korčula in recent centuries. It was my favorite and this is a great example. This is a full bodied white grape with a fairly high alcohol (hot weather = 14+ %!). It has a lot of flavor and is an excellent food wine made only by three producers.



Have a little menu!


As usual at better restaurants we were offered the fish plate to chose our victim. The Adriatic lobster was still squirming.


We chose a large sea bass (Branzino) and this John Dory. Ugly but tasty.


Local Croatian cheeses. Croats make fine cheeses along the Italian model. They tend to be mild to middle powered and  flavorful.


“Rucola, Cherry Tomatoes and Grana Padano Cheese.” This Italian cheese is in the Parmesan family (hence the Grana bit).


“Vegetarian Salad. Rucola, lamb’s lettuce, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, grana padano.”


“Salad with Shrimps. Shrimps, arugula, cherry tomatoes, green salad, grana padano.”


“Ravioli stuffed with Spnach and Curd.” Curd is ricotta-like cheese. For my three year-old’s palette the mushroom sauce was subbed out for tomato sauce.


“Surlice Pasta with smoked ham and truffles.” I had this pasta dish at least half a dozen times in Croatia and this particular version was one of the richest and tastiest. It had a lot of local smoked ham. This cousin of Prosciutto is stronger flavored, closer to a Virginia ham.


“Risotto with Scampi, Mangold, and Brie.” A seemingly odd combination, with was one of the two best rissotos I had in the country, and I had a lot of them – many good!


A different producer of Grk, this one more common.


“Fillet of Sea Bass stuffed with Scampies. Broccoli veloute with flavored potatoes.”


The grilled sea bass. Simple but good.


The John Dory.


Some excellent grilled vegetables.


“Lamb chops marinated with Mediterranean herbs.” I’ve been spoiled by New Zealand lamb. Here in Croatia it’s a little more old school, tougher, and cooked more.

Overall, Kadena is a very good place. A lovely patio, a large menu, fresh ingredients, and good execution. Definitely the best we had in Split and one of the top couple  we had during our entire month in Croatia. If you are staying in Split you shouldn’t miss it.

For more Croatian dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Split Croatia – Konoba Nevera
  2. Game of Thrones – Croatia
By: agavin
Comments (6)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Adriatic Sea, Croatia, Croatia Split, Croatian cuisine, Dalmatia, eating-croatia, John Dory, Kadena, Korčula, Wine

The Last of Us – August Teaser

Aug15

August arrives, and with it another teaser. This continues that cool creepy vibe driven by the bluegrass soundtrack.

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Season 2 Episode 1 Clips
  2. Game of Thrones – The Houses
  3. New Game of Thrones 2 Teaser
  4. Diablo 3 – Commercial
  5. New Last of Us Trailer
By: agavin
Comments (10)
Posted in: Games
Tagged as: Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, Games, Naughty Dog, survival, Survival horror, The Last of Us, Video game, zombie

Game of Thrones – Season 2 CGI

Aug13

This video — unfortunately narrated in German — shows many season 2 Game of Thrones FX shots both before and after. I find particularly interesting how they modify real locations, grafting on and extending the world.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvDE1kpm1eg]

I was actually just in Dubrovnik last month, so when I next watch Season 2 (bound to happen soon enough) I want to keep an eye out for the locations.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Me on the walls of Kings Landing — achem, Dubrovnik

This is my own photo of the same wall that is behind Tyrion and Varys as they look out over the sea. I thought so at the time from memory but I didn’t have the shot in front of me to compose it the same.

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Season 2 Episode 1 Clips
  2. Game of Thrones – Season 2 Trailer
  3. Game of Thrones Season 2 Peek
  4. Game of Thrones – Season 2 – First Look
  5. Game of Thrones – The More You Love
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: A Song of Ice and Fire, CGI, Computer Graphics, Dubrovnik, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Season 2, special effects, Visual effects

Untimed Art Finished!

Aug13

All twenty-one interior illustrations for my time travel novel, Untimed, are now finished! These are painted by Dave Phillips, an awesome artist I commissioned earlier this year. I thought I’d use the occasion to show two new images. And because I love process, I’m posting both the rough and final versions. To get a close up look at this, click one of the images and it will bring up a Smugmug lightbox. You can use the arrow keys to flip back and forth between the rough and the final to see the differences.

Donnie: Two's company, three's a crowdDonnie: Two's company, three's a crowd

Above is is “Two’s Company, Three’s a Crowd.” Our protagonist Charlie has to go all the way from contemporary Philadelphia to 1725 London to meet a girl, but she has more than her share of baggage!

For those of you who are curious, Donnie, the guy in the middle with the crazy wig, is actually nineteen and dressed as a “Macaroni.” Remember the line from Yankee Doodle Dandy: “He stuck a feather in his hat, and called it macaroni”? In the early 18th century it was in vogue for trendy young men to dress in outlandish colors (Italian Style) and they were called Macaronis. Tim Roth also plays a fantastic and similar dandy in the excellent 1995 film Rob Roy.

Sideways: This is Philadelphia?Sideways: This is Philadelphia?

Time travel isn’t just about competing for girls, sometimes tiny changes can have big consequences. Well, maybe letting Ben Franklin get killed and leaving the clockwork men to run amuck doesn’t qualify as “tiny.” When Charlie gets back home to modern day Philadelphia (above), things look a bit different then he expects!

Previously released images can be found here and here and stay tuned for more.

Find out more about Untimed here.

Related posts:

  1. Untimed Fourth Draft Finished
  2. Untimed – Out on Submission!
  3. From Sketch to Final
  4. Untimed – Two Novels, Two Drafts!
  5. Untimed – The Second Cover
By: agavin
Comments (10)
Posted in: Untimed
Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Dandy, London, Macaroni, Philadelphia, Rob Roy, Tavern, Tim Roth, Time travel, Untimed, Yankee Doodle Dandy

Split Croatia – Konoba Nevera

Aug10

Restaurant: Konoba Nevera

Location: Firula Road 17, 21000 Split. Tel: 021/388-736

Date: July 17, 2012

Cuisine: Dalmatian

Rating: Tasty

_

Our first stop in Croatia was Split, a seaside town in Northern Dalmatia. During the third century AD, the Roman Emperor Diocletian “retired” to Split and built a great pleasure palace by the sea. He had toured all of the known world and pronounced Dalmatia to be the loveliest part of it. It sure seems like a pretty choice spot. The Adriatic is sparkling blue, the weather is warm, but seasoned by a brisk maritime breeze.

As we were fresh off the transatlantic haul, we chose a casual place not far from our hotel. Konoba seems to roughly translate as “tavern” in English and appears to mean a traditional and informal eatery.

Despite the casual vibe, Konoba Nevera rates #3 for split on Trip Advisor. Nothing like a good kitchen!


Konoba Nevera is a block or two back from the water with a delightful breeze.


The interior is cute and casual.


Perhaps leaning a hair toward kitcsh.


This is one of those huge multipage menus. I was lazy and only photoed about a third of it. As latter travels would prove, the contents are archetypically Dalmatian. Menus don’t vary a lot here, but execution does.


Posip (pronounced Poshipa) is a popular Dalmatian white varietal mostly from the Island of Korcula. It’s medium bodied, maybe even full bodied, and not unlike a Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi. Fuller, less sapidity, and more fruit perhaps. A very nice food wine and not boring like many international whites.


This was good home baked rustic bread.


“Caprese.”


“Fish soup.” There is rice, not to mention a lot of olive oil, in this soup.


“Treasures of the sea.” This is a mixed appetizer plate. We have some marinated octopus, sardines, anchovies, fish carpaccio and a bit of salad. The balls in the scallop shell are an awesome tuna salad cousin that is sweeter and more briny than the American standard. This was all nice stuff, all fresh and light.


“Spaghetti pomodoro.” A very light olive oil, tomato sauce with a bit of herbs.


“Seafood risotto.” I love this form of risotto and this was a fine example with a nice bright tomato and brine taste and very fresh shellfish.


Some really tasty grilled vegetables.


“Dorade, grilled.” Salty and succulent, fresh white fish doesn’t really get much better than this. Very very similar to the same dish in Italy or Greece — and probably much of the rest of the Mediterranean for that matter.

This was a great first taste of Croatian cuisine. I found it flavorful, yet light. There isn’t a lot of butter or animal fat in most of these dishes. They lean toward seafood and olive oil. Somewhere between Italy and Greece, literally and a culinary way. I’m liking it so far.

For more Croatian dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Croatia
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Adriatic, Adriatic Sea, Croatia, Croatia Split, Dalmatia, Diocletian, eating-croatia, Konoba Nevera, rissoto, Seafood, Split

The Alchemist – Fantasy Snack

Aug08

Title: The Alchemist

Author: Paolo Baciqalupi

Genre: Fantasy Novella

Length: 96 pages

Read: July 28-30, 2012

Summary: Nice little short

 

Having recently read Baciqalupi’s excellent Ship Breaker I thought I’d breeze through his fantasy novella — and breeze I did. Written in first person, yet with a bit of almost Arabian Nights allegorical style, this is a story about a world where all magic has consequences, specifically in that it feeds deadly bramble vines, causing them to choke and strangle the city. As usual for Baciqalupi the world building and the writing is first rate. This a very contained story with a small character count and a lot of focus so it isn’t bogged down by some of The Windup Girl’s problems. The mains are good too, but I did find the villains slightly contrived. Like many shorts there is a bit of a twist.

Overall, the vibe of the story is excellent, and this is conveyed through the skilled use of voice. A tasty snack indeed.

For more book reviews, click here.

Related posts:

  1. Short Story: The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate
  2. Very Best Fantasy
  3. Quick Eats: Italian-Iberian Snack
  4. The Way of Shadows
  5. The Wise Man’s Fear
By: agavin
Comments (6)
Posted in: Books
Tagged as: Alchemist, Book Review, Fantasy, Fiction, Paolo Baciqalupi, review, The Alchemist

Maximum Weird – Perdido Street Station

Aug06

Title: Perdido Street Station

Author: China Miéville

Genre: Gothic Steampunk Fantasy Scifi Horror

Length: 710 pages and  lots of words

Read: July 16-24, 2012

Summary: Astonishingly Imaginitive

 

I am in utter awe with regard to the creativity oozing from this novel.

While perhaps not for everyone, and not perfect, this is a  first rate work of fantasy. And I mean that in the broadest sense because the book is set in a unique milieu that is part Dickens, part steampunk, part fantasy, part Blade Runner, part Lovecraft and a whole lot more. As one agent said of my first novel’s early drafts: Perdido Street Station suffers from an extreme case of too-much-ness. It has too many words, too many characters, too many points of view, too much description, too many subplots, too many races, too many kinds of magic, too many villains, too many heroes, too many really really big words, or old words (I had to use the dictionary every couple of pages). Still, it works, even rises to greatness.

Amazing things about this book:

1. The prose: which is highly descriptive, deft, and subtle, building elaborate piles of intricacy out of slashes of words.

2. The main characters: Isaac, Yag, and Lin all have some real depth.

3. The world: is just so creepy, slimy, and cool — although not for the faint of heart. This book is dark. It makes The Darkening Dream seem like vanilla icing.

4. The monsters and the weird: nice and creepy. This is a book where human on bug sex is the sweet part!

5. The clarity: for all its length and bewildering array of everything, the book is easy to follow and read (provided you have a dictionary handy).

6. Imagination: No shortage of amazingly cool ideas, images, races, monsters, technologies, places, etc. in this puppy.

Things that aren’t as strong:

1. Pacing: the masses of description, which while evocative, effective, and downright creepy, are constant and unrelenting. The city itself is a character and this slows things down a bit. It doesn’t drag, but it isn’t lightning fast either.

2. The tangents: there are more than a few here, and not all of them worth it.

3. The minor points of view: A number of characters pop in, have their couple POV pages in the sun, and then vanish (usually into  the deadpool). This isn’t always maximally effective.

4. The baroque plot: The story is easy enough to follow, but it does take A WHILE to get going and is not always full of classic drama created from thwarted desire. In fact, the first third or so is distinctly short on that, but is fast paced mostly because the world is so fascinating.

5. Actions of the government and other non-protagonist forces: There are some big chunks in here where the government is trying to do stuff, and only indirectly involves the regular characters. This stuff is less effective because of the emotional disconnect.

6. Deus ex machina: oh-too-coincidental happenings and escapes occur a number of times.

Overall, in the same way that Vegas transcends cheese by way of pure magnitude, Perdido climbs to greatness on the strength of its positives, rising above any petty flaws. If you appreciate flights of imagination, good writing, and the weird, it’s required reading. No question. Not for the square, the staid, the boring, or the grounded who do not at least dream of flying.

For more book reviews, click here.

Related posts:

  1. Ford’s Filling Station
By: agavin
Comments (5)
Posted in: Books
Tagged as: Arts, Bas-Lag, Book Review, China Mieville, Fantasy, Perdido Street Station, Science Fiction, Steampunk

More Pizza – Hostaria del Piccolo

Aug03

I updated the post on this newish rustic Italian to include twice the yummy pizza, pasta, and old-school Italian delicacies. Click here to see all the details.

Related posts:

  1. Hostaria del Piccolo – Pizza + Pasta
  2. Quick Eats: Piccolo
  3. Piccolo – A little Italian
  4. Ultimate Pizza – The Birthday
  5. Ultimate Pizza – Day 2
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Hostaria del Piccolo, italian, Italian cuisine, pasta, Pizza, Santa Monica California, Tomato sauce

Video Games, Novels, and Ideas

Aug01

Since I’ve created thirteen video games and written two novels I’m often asked how the process compares between the two. This is a complex topic, but here goes one stab at it, focusing on the generation of the idea.

The idea part 1: The What

Both games and novels start with a basic idea, and it’s essential to focus on what’s important. In both cases, this is a creative process, imagining something blurry and only partially formed that calls out to you.

Games are about gameplay, so this is then a question of gameplay genre. Not the Horror vs Mystery type of genre, but what kind of game is it. Generally you start with one of the proven gameplay types: Platformer, shooter, driving game, sports game, etc and then try to bring something new to the table. For Crash Bandicoot, this was “character platform game in the vein of Donkey Kong Country, but in full 3D” (there were no 3D platform games when we started).

This was not easy in 1995!

With novels, the core idea is also genre, but the meaning of this is different. In starting The Darkening Dream, I had this image come into my head – and some might consider me disturbed – of a dead tree silhouetted against an orange sky, a naked body bound to it, disemboweled, and bleeding out. The sound of a colossal horn or gong blares. The blood glistens black in the sunset light. Bats circle the sky and wolves bay in the distance. But sacrifice isn’t just about killing. It’s a contract. Someone is bargaining with the gods. Complex ideas are the intersection of multiple smaller ideas. To this I brought a desire to reinvent the classic Buffyesque story of “a group of teens fight for their lives against a bunch of supernatural baddies trying to destroy the world.” But the twist is that I wanted to ground all of the magic and supernatural in “real” researched historical occult. This defined the book as a kind of supernatural thriller from the get go.

The idea part 2: The Who and Where

Part 1 gives you a core, or germ, of the project, but to start moving with it you need setting.

Again, looking at The Darkening Dream I had this disturbing image in mind. This was a vampire moment, but not exactly your typical one. For years, I’d been noodling on my own private vampire mythos, grounded in a kind of religio-historical thinking. Coppola’s Dracula, for example, has Vlad’s dark power grounded in rage and the Christian god forsworn. But I liked the idea that the most ancient of vampires was far older than Christ, perhaps older than civilization itself. This got me thinking about Neolithic religion. Pre-civilized peoples were essentially shamanistic. The shaman (sometimes called a Witch Doctor) interfaces between the people and hidden powers, both wondrous and terrible. What if one of these men, millennia ago, struck a dark bargain: blood for life. And so was born the idea of the vampire blood gods, dark deities of old forests, of sacrifices bleeding on trees, of gnashy gnashy teeth, slick with blood. This held the key to a ancient vampire explanation grounded in belief. Gods created and fed on faith, instead of the other way around. And the blood gods are not alone. Other ancient gods might still linger, diminished, but still powerful. There seemed a natural synergy between their fate and the syncretistic quality of human religion. As the belief changes, so does the object of said belief. 

This meta-idea is very complex, a kind of world setting rooted in history, but reaching back to basics, novels are fundamentally about protagonist and the drama generated by the obstruction of their desire by opposing forces (often antagonist). I tend to think of the antagonists first, but this is a little backward. I knew I wanted a teenage girl, mostly for reasons of contrast with these sinister villains. She too, should be a dabbler in some school of occult-religious power. I like the idea of magic involving hard work and study, call it bookworm power, so I conceived of this studious girl, kind of an older Hermione Granger, daughter of a scholar father with a hidden past. As a heroine, she seeks to use her growing skills to “do the right thing” but all such power if fraught with danger, and her naivety gets her in way over her head.

This magical-religious thinking lead me to a conflict between the old (superstitious?) way of thinking and the modern (technological?) world. I was drawn to a number of cusp points, but settled on the eve of World War I. That war changed the human political landscape, completing the process of casting down King and Church that had been ongoing since the Reformation. It also provided an era with significant room for sequels (WWI, WWII, cold war, etc.) and a freedom from cheap plotting shortcuts like mobile phones and the internet.

The first real Crash

With Crash Bandicoot, the notion of setting was much simpler, but no less important. Back in 1994 when we were visualizing our 3D platform game we wanted to follow in the tradition of using a quasi-animal character. Various factors led us to a sort of Looney Tunes style character design and world. In the early 90s, voice for video game characters was technologically dicey and tended to be cheesy, so we thought to convey strong personality through animation.  We also liked the idea of taking a real animal that had a distinct name, yet one rare enough that few people knew what it looked like. In this way, we hoped to “hijack” the animals name and have our character become representative of this real animal. This quest for a cute, well named, and rare animal led us to the Bandicoot, and hence to an isolated island setting full of exotic animals. In the cartoon space it seemed natural for the villain to be an evil genius, misunderstood, surrounded by idiot minions that bungle his brilliant plans :-). Doctor Neo Cortex was born. Since normal rodents are a bit mousy, and not necessarily that cool, we gave him the Evolve-O-Ray program in which he was “enhancing” the animal life of his island. Crash took form as the goofy “bungled” product of these experiments, fighting, in his goofy way, to protect the natural world from this renegade scientific program.

Snowball on the hill

Once you work out the basic creative concept for a big project, the rest of the ideas tend to flow outward from these first principles.

In world of The Darkening Dream I drew on historical and religious settings, people, magics, and sects to provide allies and enemies, creating their motivations out of their own peculiar frameworks. With Crash, the cartoon style of the world and the practical needs of the platform game drove decisions. Platform games (and many other game types) have Bosses and Sub-bosses. If Neo Cortex is the boss, then he needed henchmen (mutated animals and lab assistants) and middle management (the various Sub-boss animals). His island needed varied settings (read variety), but it was a jungle island, so this led us to island-compatible settings like beach, jungle, caves, etc.

In previous posts I discussed the differing importance of story to novels and video games, the origins of the magic in The Darkening Dream, and the history of Crash Bandicoot. Sometime in the future, I’ll probably continue this series by talking about production itself.

Related posts:

  1. How do I get a job designing video games?
  2. Games, Novels, and Story
  3. Making Crash Bandicoot – part 2
  4. Crash Bandicoot – Interviews “R” us
  5. So you want to be a video game programmer? – part 2 – Specs
By: agavin
Comments (15)
Posted in: Darkening Dream, Games
Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot, Doctor Neo Cortex, Donkey Kong Country, Fiction, Games, Hermione Granger, Ideas, Neo Cortex, Platform game, The Darkening Dream
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