Friday, August 10, 2012

DIGITAL NEGLECT: A year passes.

For some reason the Siren Call of blogging, tweeting, tumbling has as all but silenced in the OnePot camp. But it has been a tremendous year - filled with constant new insight into the power and praxis of conviviality.

Mind-expanding collaborations with summit series, architecture for humanity, the 30 project, clinton global initiative, mastercard foundation, xprize, theo chocolate, global washington, town hall, chase jarvis, the recording academy, the burning man project and so many remarkable individuals - continue to challenge what we believe is possible around the common table.

 Ironically in this period of DIGITAL SILENCE we have forged our strongest technology work to date - in collaboration with the Masters of Communication in Digital Media at the University of Washington - and as a recipient of their inaugural Teaching Fellow position - much has been accomplished.

 Here is a quick recap of our first year in Academia - the early ideas of fusing the Table and the Digital - and the Masters Course that is coming in the fall... http://flipthemedia.com/2012/08/the-table-of-truth-dining-to-learn-and-engage/#more-13643

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Hebb/One Pot embark on Master's Fellowship with MCDM at UW. Focus: Social Ritual + Digital Narrative.




[In an effort to open source this collaboration, here is the syllabus from our first session. The goal of the Fellowship is to develop academic rigor/curriculum and new digital tools/strategies for the work we have come to call *tablemaking, *social ritual and on occasion *radical hospitality. MCDM = Master of Communication in Digital Media // University of Washington]

Lunch Session Number One: The Salon, The Symposium, and The "Erotic" Life of Small Gatherings.

Special Guest: Stephanie Snyder, Curator Reed College Museum, Getty Fellow, Writer, Artist, Friend. Stephanie will be joining us via Skype from 12:30 to 1pm

>>>Hakim Bey - Communique #6 1. Salon Apocalypse "Secret Theatre"

>>>Allan Kaprow. Notes on The Elimination of the Audience.

>>>Michael Hebb - Tablemaking - TEDx Rainier

>>>Diedrich Diederichsen. People of Intensity, People of Power: The Nietzsche Economy

>>>Stephanie Snyder. Letters from the Symposium.

>>>Anne Lill. The Symposium, Wine, and the Ethics of the Polis. Trames, No 3, Vol 3, 1999

Menu:
Fall chicories, walnuts, goat ricotta, pickled peppers, banyuls vinegar, spanish olive oil.
Slow roasted tomato and pork sugo, trenne, cracked pepper.


photos by Filiz Efe and Scott Macklin

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

We Forgot to Blog.

So many things have been happening in utter silence in the ONE POT world. We might get better about posting the haps , and we might not. In the meantime head over to NIGHT SCHOOL to see the public facing pretty stuff we have lined up for Seattle Washington.

Dream Hampton, Kimya Dawson, Mark Bowden, Cameron Sinclair, Y La Bamba, Adam Braun, Sean Carrasso, Ellen Gustafson, Warby Parker, Matthew Segal, and Eric and Encarnacion are all joining us in the next month. WWW.NIGHTNIGHTNIGHT.ORG

DJ Spooky / came / conquered

Night
School with Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky on Ice
from Scott Macklin on Vimeo.

Night School // ~5 min. Lesson // DJ Spooky // Book of Ice


On September 25, the second season of Night School kicked off as Michael Hebb brought the accomplished composer, multimedia artist and writer Paul D. Miller AKA DJ Spooky to the Sorrento Hotel for a gathering of music and discussion around his latest work, The Book of Ice. Thanks to a unique partnership with the Master's of Communication in Digital Media (MCDM) program at the University of Washington, a video series giving viewers an inside look into Hebb's events will be created throughout the year.

What emerges is an intimate look into DJ Spooky's recent travels to Antartica and his thoughts on climate change, symphonic hip-hop and the future of humanity itself. Mix all of that in with a string quartet playing Spooky's newest compositions that are all inspired by the sounds of ice and you get the essence of what can only happen at Night School. Check it out.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

stadler's nafta tour; sf, la, seattle and beyond.

matthew stadler's 12 city nafta tour ends in seattle with the sweet music of john roderick and deep pots of carne en su jugo. july 6th.

(oh, and matthew's heavily anticipated new novel Chloe Jarren's La Cucaracha, with books made fresh that day, like thick tortillas, for each and every guest.)

i will let matthew explain this spectacular twelve city carpet ride (see below), which we are honored to have a small part in... but first, grab tickets here, includes the book, hebb will be cooking, roderick will be singing, and we will be in conversation with our hometown hero mr. stadler.

buy tix, fifty dollars.

facebook event page

penthouse of the sorrento (seattle).


Publication Studio NAFTA Tour 2011

Chloe Jarren's La Cucaracha, made expressly by Publication Studio and Third Place Press for that day and gathering.

more info and dates here...


Matthew Stadler is the author of five novels, including Landscape: Memory, The Sex Offender, and Allan Stein, for which he's been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, and a United States Artists Fellowship, among many other prizes. He was the literary editor of Nest Magazine; his stories and essays appear in ArtForum, Domus, Wiederhall, The New York Times, and Fillip, among other journals.


stadler and hebb in sf and la.

june 21st - san francisco - we are taking over the intersection for the arts gallery / hubsf with chef leif hedendal cooking. grab tickets here.


june 27th - los angeles - we are invading a falling-down-mansion in los feliz with chef colleen french cooking. grab tickets here.

The Other Side of Nashville and evening w/ Bobby Bare Jr, Tucker Martine, Carey Kotsionis, Kevin Murphy (The Moondoggies), Jason Dodson (The Maldives)




the other side of nashville, a night of songs and stories.
june 19th. 7pm. penthouse of the sorrento (seattle).

bobby bare jr. is a nashville superstar, and an indie rock demi god, and one of the most entertaining charisma-rich brilliant human beings we know. tucker martine is straight up one of the most in-demand producers of our generation (hot off the billboard number one decemberists album) and he is a nashville native and one charming man, and carey k. will melt your heart, period. kevin and jason are heroic musicians, and this night is going to be quite memorable.



from bobby:


"there is more than one type of music made in music city and more than one type of kid that is born in nashville. hear the stories of 2 sons of the city and a handful of remarkable special guests as we evoke the other side of nashville."


grab tickets here. fifteen bucks.

facebook event page (because i am certain you want to invite every last friend)

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

!Flash! Night School Symposium with Little Bee Author Chris Cleave.

A very very very last minute engagement with NY Times Bestselling Author Chris Cleave.

In Conversation with co-founder of Seattle Reads Chris Higashi and director of Sweet Crude/Seattle City Council candidate Sandy Cioffi.

Tomorrow. 8:30pm. Fireside Room. No Charge.


Q: Have you been to Nigeria and witnessed the horrors that are at the center of Little Bee?

Chris Cleave: No I haven't and no I wouldn't - not to the Niger Delta area where the Nigerian parts of the book are set. Westerners there are frequently kidnapped and ransomed. I wouldn't dare. Everything I know about that area is from journalists, much braver people than me.


(In 2005-2008, Sandy Cioffi made four trips to the volatile Niger Delta in Nigeria to film Sweet Crude, documenting conditions there and interviewing the region’s key stakeholders, including leadership of the armed resistance movement. In April 2008, she and her film crew were detained by the Nigerian State Security Services and held in military prison for seven days. She completed Sweet Crude, which has garnered several awards including the Lena Sharpe Persistence of Vision Award at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2009. She is currently running for Seattle City Council.)

Chris Cleave's debut novel Incendiary, about a terrorist bomb in London, was published in Britain July 7, 2005, the day of the London subway and train bombings. It won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award, was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize, won the United States Book-of-the-Month Club’s First Fiction award 2005 and won the Prix Spécial du Jury at the French Prix des Lecteurs 2007. His second novel is titled Little Bee in Canada and the US, where it is a New York Times #1 bestseller. It is titled The Other Hand in the UK, where it is a Sunday Times bestseller. It was shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards. Chris Cleave has been a barman, a long-distance sailor and teacher of marine navigation, an internet pioneer and a journalist. Cleave is in Seattle May 12-14 for The Seattle Public Library’s Seattle Reads Little Bee program.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

one pot returns to seattle. dinner with sharifa, tomorrow night


the past three months have been a w h i r l w i n d, our little picnic-basket-we-call-one-pot has missled down in nyc several times, landed in la for multiple explosions, ignited a cruise ship on the open seas, started a small fire on a quiet caribbean island, gathered combat veterans in the hills outside of san diego, and erected several trenches in the embrace of san francisco. we could easily write several volumes. the sheer joy at these tables has been crushing, in a good way.

tomorrow night, one pot comes home. we are so tired we can only copy and paste... from our newsletter.

tomorrow night. join me. i will cook. you will share pots of food with renowned writer and scholar sharifa rhodes-pitts. we originally thought that this would be better as a symposium, but at the final hour we are changing gears and lengthening the table, and making this a communal feast. the table and the conversation will be fortified by the likes of charles mudede, sandra jackson-dumont, and nick licata.

i have ten seats left. get 'em here:

https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/166075

.

more info on sharifa below:


Penthouse Symposium / One Pot Dinner.

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, author of Harlem is Nowhere. April 20th. 7pm.

In Conversation with Nick Licata, Charles Mudede, and Sandra Jackson-Dumont. Food prepared by Michael Hebb / www,onepot.org.

"This is a lovely book about the romance-and dangers-of bibliophily...Beguiling." Zadie Smith

Topic: Sharifa's new book: Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America.

$40/person, includes a hearty dinner prepared by michael hebb/one pot and a copy of Harlem is Nowhere.. Tickets available here: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/166075



Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts is a writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, New York Times Book Review, Harper's, The Nation, Boston Globe, Transition, and Times Literary Supplement. She has received awards from the Rona Jaffe Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Originally from Houston, Texas, she graduated in 2000 from Harvard University and was a Fulbright Scholar in the United Kingdom. Sharifa is writing a trilogy on African-Americans and utopia; her first book, Harlem is Nowhere, will be published in 2011 by Little, Brown & Company.


"Rhodes-Pitts is one of that rare breed of writer who, on the strength of her hypnotic voice and idiosyncratic thinking, can turn ever sentence into a crooked finger, impossible to resist." Laura Miller, Salon.com

"It makes a startling, alive sound, one you cock your head at an angle to hear...Ms. Rhodes-Pitts drops us inside her wide-scanning cranium as she searches for her own version of Harlem..." Dwght GARNER, New York Times

More about Harlem is Nowhere below...

Vogue.com
http://www.vogue.com/culture/article/q-a-with-sharifa-rhodes-pitts-author-of-harlem-is-nowhere/

NPR, Talk of the Nation
http://www.npr.org/2011/01/31/133377760/dreams-and-reality-forever-intertwined-in-harlem

The HARLEM IS NOWHERE mixtape, by DJ Rupture, featuring Shabazz Palaces!
http://www.domusweb.it/en/mixtape/domus-mixtape-2-the-sound-of-harlem-nyc/

Thursday, February 3, 2011

What to do on Monday in Seattle.





















































Chamber Vs. Chamber No. 5

Feb. 7th : No 5

7pm. Fireside Room.

"Cold Landscapes"

Mount Eerie with the OdeonQuartet and rising-star Kaylee Cole.

(Odeon quartet features members of the Seattle Symphony)

These three musical outfits will explore the relationship between music and place, and specifically cold and frozen places.

Ticket: $18 (only 70 seats available). Buy tickets here.

Facebook Event Page



Chamber vs. Chamber. As the musical fraction of the Sorrento's Night School, Chamber vs. Chamber endeavors to spark a dialogue between rock and traditional chamber music, combining classical chamber performances with indie-rock theatrics. Each Chamber vs. Chamber evening will include multiple illuminating performances and a lively post performance conversation between the musicians, hosted by City Arts editor Mark Baumgarten.



Performer Bios:


OdeonQuartet

Formed in 1999, OdeonQuartet is comprised of distinguished artists who are dedicated to presenting concerts of the highest artistic quality and building new audiences for chamber music through performances and educational outreach programs. The artists include Gennady Filimonov and Artur Girsky violin(s), Heather Bentley viola and Rowenna Hammill cello. Gennady has been soloist/concertmaster in collaboration with Rod Stewart, Linda Rondstatt, Tony Bennett, Sarah Brightmann, "Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber" , "Heart" and many others. Artur has been a member of Seattle Symphony Orchestra since 2006. Heather has appeared as soloist with the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, the Northwest Sinfonietta, the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra and the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra. Rowena joined the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble with which she performed for ten years, eventually as Associate Principal and serves as Associate Principal Cello of the Los Angeles Opera.


Mount Eerie is Phil Elvrum. The 31 year-old multi-instrumentalist has played in other bands, and worked as a producer, but remains best known for this solo project, which began under the name the Microphones in 1997. In 2003, he renamed the project Mount Eerie (and added an "e" to his last name, Elvrum) after returning from a trip to Norway, where he lived alone in a remote cabin for a winter. To date, his most critically acclaimed album is the Microphones' 2001 epic The Glow Pt. 2. The first official Mount Eerie album-following the Microphones' final 2003 full-length, also called Mount Eerie-is 2005's No Flashlight: Songs of the Fulfilled Night. It was followed by 2007's Mount Eerie pts. 6 & 7, a 132-page, hardcover book of his photography, packaged with a 10" picture disk. In early 2009, the journals he kept and drawings he scribbled in Norway were released as a 144-page hardcover book called Dawn. It came with 16 color photo cards and a CD of songs he wrote while living in the cabin.


Kaylee Cole played her first Spokane show in April 2007. By January 2008, she was out in Seattle on a mini seven-show tour that warmed the ears of repeatedly rapt audiences. Cole's diverse audiences across Pacific Northwest gigs have gobbled up her two EPs, waiting hungrily for the release of the album. Recorded in September 2008, her self-released album We're Still Here Missing You, collates Cole's unpretentious lyricism with a style of music that does not waver in its organic attention to unique, charming melodies. Now living in Seattle, Washington Cole spends time touring and working on her new record with TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

TEDx: Rainier: Tablemaking. Talk finally up for viewing...



Huge thanks to Nassim Assefi for making TEDx Rainier a magical reality. And David Llama for editing out a mountain of "ums and buts" and making the whole thing so much prettier.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Night School is back in session.

...five months of upcoming night school events at the ever-glamorous hotel sorrento: perched on first hill in the emerald city known as seattle. we couldn't be more excited about the mash-up of strange and lovely offerings ahead, wallace shawn, simon ford, a metal band named lesbian, the portland cello project, sharifa rhodes-pitts, odeonquartet, absinthe, blindfolded vodka, erick castro, mount eerie, kaylee cole, chopin and silent reading...

clearly the "only thing all of these things" have in common is....


Night School at the Sorrento: Winter/Spring Term commences...


Penthouse Symposium No. 10
: Wallace Shawn in conversation with Sean Nelson. No. 11: TBA No. 12: Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts.


Chamber Vs. Chamber No. 5
: Odeon Quartet, Mount Eerie, and Kaylee Cole. No. 6: Portland Cello Project and Lesbian.


Drinking Lessons No. 17
: Blind Vodka Tasting. No. 18: Master class with Simon Ford and Erick Castro. No. 19: Absinthe Soiree Part Deux with American Standard Time


The Silent Reading Party continues with Kyle O'Quin playing Chopin....



Winter term begins with some lovely news, City Arts will now be co-producing the Night School series and documenting each event in a series of journal entries authored by editor Mark Baumgarten and available at cityartsonline.com. We have an incredibly rich line-up of happenings at the hotel, here is the complete line-up, (sorry about the length) stay tuned for a few late Spring additions.




Penthouse Symposium No. 10 : Wallace Shawn in conversation with Sean Nelson.

Thursday, January 20th.

Wallace Shawn in conversation with Sean Nelson. Topic: Wallace's new book Essays.

The Penthouse Symposium concept is simple: we will continue to host some of the leading intellectuals, artists, and writers of our time for an intimate and casual course on a subject of their choosing. Past Symposiums guests have included: Atul Gawande, Garry Wills, Lesley Hazleton, Bill Mckibben, Alan Khazei and many others.

*Upon confirmation of their reservation guests will receive a pdf of required reading. In a Symposium dialogue is encouraged.

$40/person, includes a hearty stew and a copy of Wallace Shawn's new book. Buy tickets here.

Facebook event page.


Our thanks to Town Hall Seattle for making this event possible.

Wallace Shawn. Known to stage and film audiences as an extraordinary character actor, Shawn is also an Obie Award-winning playwright and best-selling author. His celebrated works include The Designated Mourner and The Fever, along with the poignant film My Dinner With Andre, which Shawn co-wrote. His most recent work, Essays, released in 2009, is a highly personal, often self-deprecating collection of Shawn's perspective on life, politics, morality and the power of art.

Sean Nelson is a Seattle writer/musician/filmmaker. Probably best known for being the lead singer in Harvey Danger, which disbanded last year, he was also in the Long Winters, and has recorded with Death Cab for Cutie, The Decemberists, Robyn Hitchcock, the Minus 5, and many other bright lights besides. His debut solo LPs, Make Good Choices and Nelson Sings Nilsson, are due out in 2011. Nelson co-wrote and starred in Lynn Shelton's My Effortless Brilliance. His debut as a screenwriter/co-director, Treatment, will be making the film festival rounds this year.



Penthouse Symposium No. 11: TBA



Penthouse Symposium No. 12: Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, author of Harlem is Nowhere
.

April - date TBA. *Pick up the current copy of Harper's for a feature excerpt from Harlem is Nowhere. **Sharifa will appear on NPR's All Things Considered Jan 31st - check local listings.

Topic: Sharifa's new book: Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America.

$40/person, includes a hearty stew and a copy of Harlem is Nowhere.. Tickets available Feb. 1st at Brown Paper Tickets.

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts is a writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, New York Times Book Review, Harper's, The Nation, Boston Globe, Transition, and Times Literary Supplement. She has received awards from the Rona Jaffe Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Originally from Houston, Texas, she graduated in 2000 from Harvard University and was a Fulbright Scholar in the United Kingdom. Sharifa is writing a trilogy on African-Americans and utopia; her first book, Harlem is Nowhere, will be published in 2011 by Little, Brown & Company.



Chamber Vs. Chamber No. 5 and No. 6.


Feb. 7th : No 5

7pm. Fireside Room.

"Cold Landscapes"

Mount Eerie with the OdeonQuartet and rising-star Kaylee Cole.

(Odeon quartet features members of the Seattle Symphony)

These three musical outfits will explore the relationship between music and place, and specifically cold and frozen places.

Ticket: $18 (only 70 seats available). Buy tickets here.
Facebook event page.



April 17th: No 6

7pm. Fireside Room.

"Metal and Resin"

The Portland Cello Project and Lesbian.

Portland's celebrated Cello Project will perform pieces ranging from classical compositions to Motörhead and beyond, fusing the beautiful with the brutal. PCP's collaboration with artful noise architects Lesbian will combine lush string arrangements with their epic musical meanderings, making for an undoubtedly unique and unforgettable evening.

Co-produced by KEXP Seek & Destroy host and City Arts Magazine columnist Hannah Levin.

Ticket: $15 (Only 70 seats available). Buy tickets here.

Facebook event page.

Chamber vs. Chamber. As the musical fraction of the Sorrento's Night School, Chamber vs. Chamber endeavors to spark a dialogue between rock and traditional chamber music, combining classical chamber performances with indie-rock theatrics. Each Chamber vs. Chamber evening will include multiple illuminating performances and a lively post performance conversation between the musicians, hosted by City Arts editor Mark Baumgarten.

Performer Bios:


OdeonQuartet

Formed in 1999, OdeonQuartet is comprised of distinguished artists who are dedicated to presenting concerts of the highest artistic quality and building new audiences for chamber music through performances and educational outreach programs. The artists include Gennady Filimonov and Artur Girsky violin(s), Heather Bentley viola and Rowenna Hammill cello. Gennady has been soloist/concertmaster in collaboration with Rod Stewart, Linda Rondstatt, Tony Bennett, Sarah Brightmann, "Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber" , "Heart" and many others. Artur has been a member of Seattle Symphony Orchestra since 2006. Heather has appeared as soloist with the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, the Northwest Sinfonietta, the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra and the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra. Rowena joined the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble with which she performed for ten years, eventually as Associate Principal and serves as Associate Principal Cello of the Los Angeles Opera.


Mount Eerie is Phil Elvrum. The 31 year-old multi-instrumentalist has played in other bands, and worked as a producer, but remains best known for this solo project, which began under the name the Microphones in 1997. In 2003, he renamed the project Mount Eerie (and added an "e" to his last name, Elvrum) after returning from a trip to Norway, where he lived alone in a remote cabin for a winter. To date, his most critically acclaimed album is the Microphones' 2001 epic The Glow Pt. 2. The first official Mount Eerie album-following the Microphones' final 2003 full-length, also called Mount Eerie-is 2005's No Flashlight: Songs of the Fulfilled Night. It was followed by 2007's Mount Eerie pts. 6 & 7, a 132-page, hardcover book of his photography, packaged with a 10" picture disk. In early 2009, the journals he kept and drawings he scribbled in Norway were released as a 144-page hardcover book called Dawn. It came with 16 color photo cards and a CD of songs he wrote while living in the cabin.


Kaylee Cole played her first Spokane show in April 2007. By January 2008, she was out in Seattle on a mini seven-show tour that warmed the ears of repeatedly rapt audiences. Cole's diverse audiences across Pacific Northwest gigs have gobbled up her two EPs, waiting hungrily for the release of the album. Recorded in September 2008, her self-released album We're Still Here Missing You, collates Cole's unpretentious lyricism with a style of music that does not waver in its organic attention to unique, charming melodies. Now living in Seattle, Washington Cole spends time touring and working on her new record with TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek.


Portland Cello Project. Since the group's inception in late 2007, they have performed with a veritable "Who's Who?" list of Portland musicians, from Laura Gibson to The Dandy Warhols, Horse Feathers, Mirah and Loch Lomond, just to name a few... The group's newest full-length is being released on June 9th, 2009 on their new label, local independent Kill Rock Stars. This CD and indeed the relationship forged with this well-suited record label embodies the group's belief that "collaboration is the cornerstone of independence and artistic freedom." Two of the artists who have collaborated with PCP: Thao Nguyen of Thao With The Get Down Stay Down and local musician Justin Power, contribute four songs each to this CD, the Thao and Justin Power Sessions. And the other four songs on the record are strategically placed examples of cello sublimity and madness: from a Pantera cover, to a solemn religious piece by John Tavener.


Lesbian http://www.myspace.com/lesbianwitch





Drinking Lessons No 17,18, and 19.


Jan. 24th : No 17.

"Vodka... Blind"

7pm. Fireside Room.

Andrew Friedman, owner of Liberty and the President of The Washington State Bartenders Guild is co-hosting this unique evening dedicated to understanding and appreciating that fine white liquid known as vodka. Expect a blind tasting of 8 local and imported spirits. Everyone has a favorite vodka, but how will yours stack up? Reserve your seat now and help us pick the winner- taking the crown as the Drinking Lessons Vodka of the year.

$20/person per class. Sorrento Hotel, Fireside Room. Buy Tickets Here.

Facebook event page.




March 2nd: No. 18.

"Gin Roundtable and Master Class with Simon Ford and Erick Castro (Rickhouse/SF)"

Simon Ford is hands down one of the most renowned bartenders and liquor professionals in the world, and we are thrilled he will join us to teach two courses on a subject he knows better than almost anyone. Star mixologist Erick Castro from the renowned Rickhouse in SF will be joining Simon for two distinct Drinking Lessons.

March 2nd. 6:00pm. Penthouse/Sorrento room. Gin Roundtable - only twenty tickets available. Engage in a two hour exploration of the history of gin with Simon while Erick mixes golden age gin cocktails. $40/person. Buy Tickets Here.

Facebook Event Page


March 2nd 8:30pm. Penthouse/Sorrento room. Gin Master Class - only twenty tickets available. Previous bartending experience suggested. 2 hour course on gin history, cocktail technique, and philosophy. $30/person. Buy Tickets Here.

Facebook Event Page

Simon Ford (Industry Visionary and International Ambassador) currently works in the capacity of International Ambassador for Plymouth Gin and the Director of Brand Education for Pernod Ricard USA. Over the past seven years, this role has taken him across the globe training the experts and first-time barkeeps alike as well as directing on-premise strategy for a portfolio of brands in the US. From running a wine shop to opening some of England's most lauded cocktail bars, judging spirits in competition and marketing some of the biggest brands on the planet have made Mr. Ford a highly respected voice in the spirits industry.

Simon received the award for Best Brand Ambassador at New Orleans Tales of the Cocktail 2007 and was named an Industry Visionary in the UK. His bar in the UK has won numerous awards including Best New Bar, Theme Magazine 2002, Best Bar, Theme Magazine 2003 and Best Cocktail offering, Theme magazine 2006 in addition it was named in the Guardian News Paper as one of the top 10 cocktail bars in the UK and as one of the Great Cocktail Bars of the World by the Diffords Guide.

Erick Castro / Rickhouse. After earning his chops at Bourbon & Branch, Castro was assigned the beverage director position at its newest sister bar, Rickhouse. Since it opened in June of 2009, and under the direction of Castro, Rickhouse has been named one of the World's Top Bars by Food & Wine magazine. Recently, it also won The Cheers: Benchmark Award for Top Cocktail Lounge 2010.




April 18th : No 19.

"Absinthe Soiree Part Deux with American Standard Time"

7pm

"An absinthe soiree" with Gwydion from Marteau Absinthe and Marc from Pacifique Absinthes and star bartender Nathan Weber from Tavern Law. Held in the Fireside room - the more the merrier. This more casual drinking lesson is only $20 and includes absinthe tasting, history, tasty bites from the kitchen, and several absinthe based cocktails will be available. Greg Vandy of KEXP fame and American Standard Time will be spinning "absinthe" inspired tunes throughout the evening.

$20/person per class. Buy Tickets Here.

Facebook Event Page

Behind the Bar:

Gwydion Stone. Maker of Marteau absinthe, Gwydion founded The Wormwood Society, an organization devoted to absinthe education...

http://www.absinthemarteau.com

Marc Bernhard. Owner and distiller of Pacific Distillery, makers of Voyager gin and Pacifique absinthe, Marc professional background is in herbs and spices...

http://www.pacificdistillery.com

Nathan Weber. Star bartender and Bar Manager at Tavern Law, awarded top 25 bars in America by GQ magazine.

DJ Greg Vandy, Was once a bartender but is better known as the famed DJ behind KEXP's Roadhouse and author of the spectacular new blog American Standard Time.



The Silent Reading Party continues...


Five new dates for the Reading Party, now with special guests and music. Kyle O'Quin (Wild Orchid Children and Kay Kay) will play Chopin and other delights on that piano. Come early! January's reading party was sitting-on-the-floor-packed.

Upcoming Dates: February 2nd, March 2nd, April 6th, May 4th

Special Guests: each month we bring in luminaries from the Seattle community, to read silently, and entertain us with their post reading party "book reports" published on the SLOG. Past special guests have included: John Roderick, Heather Mchugh, and Dow Constantine.

The Reading Party runs from 6pm - 9pm in the Fireside Room. There is no charge. Happy hour menu is available for the duration of the event.

Facebook Event Page

"The Reading Party. Silent sustained reading at a bar, because no one wants to read alone."

- Christopher Frizzelle

-

Mr Frizzelle has more to say about these popular gatherings here...



What is Night School?

Night School is a collaboration between the Sorrento Hotel, Michael Hebb, an array of intellectuals, artists, writers, filmmakers, mixologists, chefs and the leading cultural institutions in the Northwest. Night School was established to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Sorrento Hotel. Please visit www.nightnightnight.com for more information.




Monday, October 11, 2010

TEDx Rainier. Talk and Slideshow. 10/10/10.

The fancy video version should be up soon. But here is the talk from yesterday.


[for a better version of the slideshow - click here]

TEDx Rainier. 10/10/10. 9 minutes. Benaroya Hall, Seattle.

I have had the good fortune of traveling around the world with my table - like one would a boat - bringing coffee farmers together on their farms at a common table to document their stories, as Nassim mentioned my table has ended up on i-5 medians as a tool to spark dialogue about commerce and use of space, this table I speak of has gathered many of the countries leading musicians to sing and share eating and drinking songs, and I have used my table to recreate the classic Greek model of the symposium with thought leaders ranging from Gore Vidal to Mary Robinson to Spike Lee.

A few of my adventures at the table are going to slide by behind me. My hope is that these images create more questions than answers.

These Table-based travels are at the core of a hunch I’ve had for fifteen years

That hunch – is that The Table – the place where we come together and share food – is one of the most important cultural sites in the modern world.

And the second part of the hunch – the common table is in a state of peril.

"We don’t eat together anymore. "

I don’t need statistics to point to today’s bleak conditions of conviviality. The breakdown of the family meal, the prevalence of the drive through, and the rise of the solitary dinner are self-evident modern realities.

Arising from that backdrop there are two main tenets shaping my life’s work

1. The world of progressive ideas is in dire need of civic rituals. If these wonderful ideas we are sharing today will ever take root and leave today's stage and effectively re-shape the world. We need to rethink how we gather, how we convene, the table needs to be part of this rethinking.

2. And secondly, I am incredibly proud to be an active part of the local food movement, and the achievements of the past decade –. But – without meaningful, powerful, new, evocative, inspiring models of how we can share local food, how we can sit together and eat local food – this esteemed movement – will plateau.

In order for the food revolution to gain real, culture-shifting momentum – we need to put the proverbial horse back in front of the cart. Without re-considering, and re-imagining how we eat in community – real progress will elude us.

I am appalled at how little consideration, energy, and thoughtfulness is invested in models for sharing food – and blown away by the remarkable work that is being done in small pockets of this country to reinvigorate the rituals of dining.

This is the departure point / the context within which I have chosen to dedicate my life and work. On this unsteady footing I have put a strange flag into the ground – and decided to call this practice:

Tablemaking.

I have already gotten feedback that it is too leaden or too sloppy a term. But perhaps with some tenacity I can slip it into low-grade usage.

Tablemaking – working definition. The thoughtful or imaginative or progressive use of the common table. Any action that reinvigorates the common table, i.e. any action that inspires people to eat together.

There are have been profound uses of the table throughout history – here are 3.
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas understood the importance of the table and the hearth – as the quintessential site of cultural exchange – a modernist revolution found its earliest spark at the salons and dinners hosted in their Parisian apartment. The NY Times calls the Stein salon “The First Museum of Modern Art”

Every year millions of members of the Jewish faith gather at the SEDER table – history is literally consumed, faith becomes flesh, gratitude for ancestors is solidified and a new year opens up. The artistry and elegance of the Seder ritual should be considered a masterpiece of performance art, it is a grand opera, an extraordinary dance, ageless theatre – and the Seder - got new wings this year when Obama hosted the first ever White House Seder, White House staffer Eric Lesser. "the first time in history that gefilte fish had been placed on White House dishware," Obama’s 2010 Seder was the result of a dark basement interlude. In 2008 Eric Lesser and two other staffers gathered an ad hoc Seder in the basement of a campaign outpost. Obama happened upon them – was intrigued - and sat down to dinner.

Katharine Graham was hailed as the most powerful woman in publishing, at a famous dinner party in the mid seventies – a decade after she took over control of the Washington Post and not long after her renowned efforts during the Watergate Scandal – K. elegantly crushed an age old dining tradition. After the last course was served – she told her host Joseph Alsop – that she would rather go home than be excluded from the standard male-only postprandial cigar and whisky discussion. She was invited to stay – and soon became the most sought after dinner and post dinner companion – and a seat at one of her own celebrated dinner parties became known as the most powerful seat in DC.

So we have Obama Katharine Graham, and Gertrude Stein all activating the table in poignant ways – but the more commonplace examples deserve mentioning, the thanksgiving feast, the communion, the ritual of family supper and to me the most important historic use of the table – I call it the harvest feast.

And by this I mean a dinner that results when your neighbor decides to kill a large animal – lets call it a pig. Pigs are big. One family cannot consume and entire animal at one or even several sittings. Historically your neighbor would pick up the phone and ask you to: come eat pig.

And with that simple telephone call - a brilliant and complex interaction of gift culture is established - you are going to need to feed that neighbor.

What do we call the modern / urban harvest feast?

The dinner party.

What makes a dinner party distinct from making a reservation at a fabulous local restaurant - the future - a dinner party implies a future - it is what Marcel Mauss calls "the obligation to return” you might not be roasting a whole pig in return – but a basic obligation to return the cultural exchange is established.

It can be argued that the commonplace urban dinner party carries with it the root of all civil society. The world of giving.

Heady shit for offering up a little stew.

Another thing the basic dinner party has in its favor: the hearth. A center point – what Eliade calls “the axis mundi” - that contains the identity of an individual / a family. There is very little risk, very little vulnerability – and perhaps equally little reward in making a reservation at a restaurant – but inviting someone into your home is human, scary, gorgeous.

Secretary of State Clinton:

"Hearths, whatever they look like, and wherever we gather around them, where we tell our stories and pass down our values, bind families together."

Stated during her Clinton Global Initative talk last month.

And I don't mean to beat up on the restaurant - only to underscore the notion that we need more options - we need many models - and not just the type of dinner parties our parents had - but evocative, compelling new reasons to eat together.

I might also submit that the fear of cooking for other people – the fear of entertaining – is likely encroaching on the fear of public speaking as our nations biggest fear.

Before we wrap I up I urge you to consider the work of my under-discovered colleagues - that are deeply challenging how we can and should come together around food - the folks at OPENrestaurant in the Bay Area, Sunday Supper at Kurtwood Farms on Vashon, Highlands Dinner Club and FEAST in Brooklyn, Outstanding in the Field, and a stunning example Maverick Farms – that is using communal meals in the Blue Ridge Mountains to bring attention to the deeply endangered farming community in North Carolina.

I will have successfully spent my time on this stage if you return home today and cast a different type of glance at your dining room table. And more importantly - if these two questions flit around in your brain and inspire action.

How can we expect to revolutionize our food system without a deep investment in how we eat the food from that system?

And How can we expect to create a progressive state without meaningful civic ritual?
Will you even remember the ideas shared today - how will TEDx Rainier become flesh - I assert that a conversation you are about to have - at lunch - will be equally if not more memorable than anything I have said in these nine minutes. Sharing food intimately can turn the ethereal into a palpable reality.

By now – you should have received a strange kind of dinner invitation. Go ahead and open that up. It is an invitation that actually requires you to conceive, design, and host a dinner.
Yep – it is more of a challenge and less of an invitation - I challenge everyone in the audience – and anyone who has taken the time to listen to this talk on the web – to gather a group in the next week and eat together – with a degree of intentionality or fervor or thoughtfulness And enter into a talk with that group of individuals about the importance of eating together – And I want to know how these dinners go, I want to know what you cooked, or had someone else cook, and how the discussion went – simply jot your experience down on one pots facebook page.

We can start another national movement. And get that word Tablemaking some mileage.

Thank You.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Night School = Alan Khazei Penthouse Symposium. Sept. 27th.

Night School and the Penthouse Symposium series continues with CITY YEAR founder and author of Big Citizenship, Alan Khazei, Monday September 27th, 7:30pm. In conversation with Reuven Carlyle, Tim Burgess, Joel Connelly, James Kelly, Gaurab Bansal, Susan Rich, Stephanie Delaney and special guests.

Monday, September 27th
Doors open at 7:30pm.
Stew served at 8:00.
Conversation begins at 8:15.
Alan Khazei. BIG CITIZENSHIP: How Pragmatic Idealism Can Bring Out the Best in America.
Get Tickets Here.

The Penthouse Symposium concept is simple: we will continue to host some of the leading intellectuals, artists, and writers of our time for an intimate and casual course on a subject of their choosing. The Symposiums are held in the historic Sorrento Hotel penthouse "Top of The Town". We have been lucky enough to host Garry Wills, Bill Mckibben, Atul Gawande and many other remarkable thought leaders.

Upon confirmation of their reservation guests will receive a pdf of required reading. In a Symposium dialogue is encouraged.

$30/person, includes a hearty stew made by onepot.org, a cash bar and a copy of Alan Khazei's new book Big Citizenship (Retail $25.95). Makers Mark is a generous sponsor of the Penthouse Symposium series.

BIG CITIZENSHIP

Two months before the 2008 Election, Alan Khazei capped a twenty-five year career as a social entrepreneur by persuading Barack Obama and John McCain to appear together on national television to agree that national service was good for America. With their backing he helped frame the Edward M. Kennedy Service Act, which was signed into law within 100 days of Obama's inauguration-an extraordinary example of effectiveness in action.

In Big Citizenship, Khazei shares his experiences founding and growing his City Year program, saving Americorps, and creating the new national campaign called ServiceNation, offering inspiration as well as practical advice. He addresses how to balance private and public funding; work with all levels of government; build bipartisan support on even the most contentious issues; attract volunteers, and get young people involved.


Alan Khazei is the founder and CEO of Be the Change, Inc. Alan previously served as the co-founder & CEO of City Year, a youth service corps that helped to inspire the development of AmeriCorps. Alan serves on the boards of City Year, New Profit, and Share our Strength. In 2006, US News & World Report selected Alan as one of America's 25 Best Leaders. An honors graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Alan currently lives in Brookline with his wife, daughter, and son. Full bio here.

Reuven Carlyle: Democratic member of the Washington House of Representatives, representing the 36th district since 2009

Tim Burgess: Seattle City Council Member and chair of the council's Education Committee

Joel Connelly: Political Columnist for the Seattle P-I.

Gaurab Bansal: Families and Education Levy Oversight Committee.

James Kelly: President of the Urban League.

Susan Rich: a Seattle poet, author of three books, most recently, The Alchemist’s Kitchen, published by White Pine Press, New York. She is a former Peace Corps Volunteer, Amnesty International Student Coordinator, and Electoral Supervisor in Bosnia.

Stephanie Delaney: a college administrator and lifelong volunteer. Her current volunteer activities including serving on the Self Help committee of Legal Voice and coordinating the volunteers for the St. Martin de Porres ministry for homeless men at Christ the King Parish.