Good food & great music make for one awesome Saturday.

Saturday's events couldn't have gone any better.

Initial plan was to start early with TKB at 9:15am, go hiking at Pacifica the rest of the day, and then head to Michael Manring's album launch in Berkeley afterwards. Nothing wrong with this plan, except that:

a) We couldn't wake up early enough for kickboxing, and
b) Hiking at Pacifica--although an absolutely lovely idea--wasn't such a wise plan lest we intended on showing up at the concert all sweaty, rugged and muddied.

Somehow while finalizing the day's itinerary, ribs came into the picture, and Bebs (our event planner) recommended the following sched:

Brunch at 11am at the Bharwani home;
Sight-seeing at Jack London Square;
Early din-din at Everett&Jones for some yummy RIBS;
Then off to Berkeley for the album launch.

We made a go at the plan and it turned out to be one GREEAAATT Saturday. I took some pictures along the way, unfortunately I had but ONE BAR of juice left on my camera as the charger conked out on me. So without further ado, here are snippets of our Saturday in the sun.

This is Jack London Square on a quieter weekend. Funny that there weren't a lot of people out on the street that day, but the change was welcome.

Raf, Bebs and moi hamming it up at Everett&Jones. Being the big carnivore that I am, I found myself researching online one day for the best tasting ribs in the Bay Area, and E&J happened to be one of the names I came across. We finally decided to check the food out and decide for ourselves if the fuss truly was worth it.

We ordered the slab of ribs, supposedly good for 3-4 people, and hoped for the best. Well, the last pic on the strip may not be much of a visual aid, but imagine it twice heaped and that's how the platter arrived at our table. We could have had two more people at our party and we still would've been more than full! And boy, the ribs was OOOOOOOOH SOOO GOOD. Tender, juicy and not too drenched in barbeque sauce, unlike the others I've tasted.

This place is definitely worth coming back to. :)


The main event: Manring at the Berkeley Jazz School

Whoo boy, this man and his music is mind blowing! I don't think anyone's taken bass playing to such amazing heights as he has. Twas extremely good to see him again. Same down-to-earth musical genius, genuinely nice person, and apparently funny, too! His new album, Soliloquy, is craaazy brilliant stuff. I haven't listened to all 14 songs yet (kinda need time to grasp each one), but worth mentioning are Excuse me, Mr. Manring and Selene, a beautifully moving piece.

Bebs, Raf and I queued after the show to get our CDs signed. He warmly greeted Bebs with a hug, shook Raffy's hand, and told me he liked my pictures! :) I offered to send him a CD of the ones I took at his last gig, to which he gratefully thanked me for. All this time I'm looking at this man amazed: There is no air of stardom in this guy. Doesn't he know what an accomplished musician he is?? Makes me all the more impressed.

I may not fully comprehend the complexities of his music the way a bass blayer would, but I am definitely chalking him in my list of favorites. The guy is hands down extraordinary.