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Saturday Jazz Brunch Buffet hosted by Marty Williams |
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 Bay Area jazz pianist and vocalist, Marty Williams, was called "The Catalyst" by San Francisco Chronicle critic Phil Elwood. Anna DeLeon of Anna's Jazz Island recently had this to say about Marty: "Marty Williams is one of the Bay Area's hidden treasures. His piano playing and singing are passionate, humorous, and unique. Think Oscar Brown Jr. plus Mose Allison plus Monk with just a dash of Redd Foxx! Yes, unique!"
Marty was born in Indiana, and started playing piano at the tender age of 20. Marty grew up with jazz all around him. His unique style of music speaks of many things -- love, pain, the blues, joy, exuberance, funk, soul...it has a groove, a feel, a swing and so much more, whether he's playing an original composition or interpreting the well-loved creations of jazz legends.
Through his career Marty has played at numerous venues and with many other notable musicians in the US and abroad. He has been part of the San Francisco jazz scene well over 25 years. He was a member of "Cadence", featuring Eric Swinderman (guitar) Ruth Davies (bass) Babatunde Lea (drums) and continues to play regularly around the San Francisco Bay area with Eric and Ruth as well as other Bay Area notables including Aaron Germain, Jim Kerwin, Ranzell Merritt and Bob Scott. His most significant influences include Hampton Hawes, Les McCann, Ahmad Jamal, Thelonious Monk, Ramsey Lewis, Herbie Hancock, Shirley Horn, Miles Davis and Junior Mance, just to name a few...
In addition to his work as a performing artist, Marty's writing, arranging, composing and producing abilities are enhanced by the fact that he is an Apple Certified Logic Pro. His recordings are available on iTunes or through his website www.martywilliamsmusic.com.
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Nicolas Bearde: Local Jazz Vocalist |
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 Performance November 12th at 7PM. After honing his art and craft for many years with discipline and singular imagination, Bay Area-based vocalist Nicolas Bearde is finding broader recognition. A supremely gifted singer/entertainer who is fluent in soul, jazz and R&B stylings, Bearde has been compared to vocal icons like Lou Rawls, Marvin
Gaye, Donny Hathaway, and Jon Lucien. But such comparisons fail to capture his vocal artistry or do justice to his musical accomplishments on record or in performance. “He’s a breath of fresh air amidst a mass of polluted ozone-unfriendly pop,” declared Blues and Soul magazine in the U.K., where Bearde’s music has been accorded an especially enthusiastic reception and where he placed high on the list of Best Male Newcomers in the publication’s 1998 poll.
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Orgins of Halloween and Pumpkins |
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 Halloween has origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain [pronounced: sah- wen] (Irish pronunciation: [ˈsˠaunʲ]; from the Old Irish samain, possibly derived from Gaulish samonios). The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is sometimes regarded as the "Celtic New Year". Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient Celtic pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The ancient Celts believed that on October 31st, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the living and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, into which the bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks being worn at Halloween goes back to the Celtic traditions of attempting to copy the evil spirits or placate them, in Scotland for instance where the dead were impersonated by young men with masked, veiled or blackened faces, dressed in white.
Origin of name
The term Halloween, originally spelled Hallowe'en, is shortened from All Hallows' Even ("All Hallows' Eve") [eve is an abbreviation of even, an older word for evening. Halloween gets -een as a result of syncopation of even to e'en], from the Old English term eallra hālgena ǣfen meaning "All Hallow' Evening", as it is the eve of "All Hallows' Day", which is now also known as All Saints' Day. It was a day of religious festivities in various northern European pagan traditions, until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints' Day from May 13 (which had itself been the date of a pagan holiday, the Feast of the Lemures) to November 1. In the 9th century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although All Saints' Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween, the two holidays were, at that time, celebrated on the same day.
Symbols
A traditional Irish halloween Jack-o'-lantern from the early 20th century on display in the Museum of Country Life, Ireland.On All Hallows' eve, the ancient Celts would place a skeleton on their window sill to represent the departed. Originating in Europe, these lanterns were first carved from a turnip or rutabaga. Believing that the head was the most powerful part of the body, containing the spirit and the knowledge, the Celts used the "head" of the vegetable to frighten off the embodiment of superstitions.[12] Welsh, Irish and British myth are full of legends of the Brazen Head, which may be a folk memory of the widespread ancient Celtic practice of headhunting - the results of which were often nailed to a door lintel or brought to the fireside to speak their wisdom. The name jack-o'-lantern can be traced back to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a greedy, gambling, hard-drinking old farmer. He tricked the devil into climbing a tree and trapped him by carving a cross into the tree trunk. In revenge, the devil placed a curse on Jack, condemning him to forever wander the earth at night with the only light he had: a candle inside of a hollowed turnip. The carving of pumpkins is associated with Halloween in North America[14] where pumpkins are both readily available and much larger- making them easier to carve than turnips. Many families that celebrate Halloween carve a pumpkin into a frightening or comical face and place it on their doorstep after dark. The American tradition of carving pumpkins preceded the Great Famine period of Irish immigration and was originally associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.
The imagery surrounding Halloween is largely an amalgamation of the Halloween season itself, works of Gothic and horror literature, in particular novels Frankenstein and Dracula, and nearly a century of work from American filmmakers and graphic artists,and British Hammer Horror productions, also a rather commercialized take on the dark and mysterious. Halloween imagery tends to involve death, evil, the occult, magic, or mythical monsters. Traditional characters include the Devil, the Grim Reaper, ghosts, ghouls, demons, witches, pumpkin-men, goblins, vampires, werewolves, martians, zombies, mummies, pirates, skeletons, black cats, spiders, bats, owls, crows, and vultures.
Particularly in America, symbolism is inspired by classic horror films (which contain fictional figures like Frankenstein's monster and The Mummy). Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, corn husks, and scarecrows, are also prevalent. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween.
The two main colors associated with Halloween are orange and black. |
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Halloween Party 2009 Hosted by URS |
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STANDING ROOM ONLY! ALL TABLES SOLD OUT! PLEASE CALL FOR TICKET!The Unauthorized Rolling Stones Host the Annual Halloween Party at the Broadway Grill - Saturday October 31st at 8pm. Purchase Your Tickets Here!
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 It's summer. It's hot. Who wants to spend a lot of time in the kitchen when you can be outdoors celebrating the warm months with friends and family? Each of the highlighted links will take you to recipes and information to help you celebrate summer in cool style.
Party Recipes
Fourth of July is the biggest summer holiday when we are most likely to be cooking for a crowd. While you're serving up cocktails, be sure to save some beer and tequila to whip up some truly different recipes. Edible flowers and simple garnishes give not only a pretty, but tasty touch to recipes and are sure to wow your guests. Just be sure you are familiar with which flowers are edible and which are poisonous. For the sports enthusiast, get tips and hints on throwing a tailgate party or just a picnic in the park.
Outdoor Foods
Most of us enjoy hauling out our barbecues to keep the heat out of the kitchen. Try some great marinades for flavor as you toss the shish kebabs, Jamaican jerk, homemade sausage, or seafood on the grill. Of course, the kids will want hot dogs with ketchup and mustard, while the adults will most likely prefer more mature seasonings such as Worcestershire sauce, exotic spice blends, or just some simple herbs and spices. You'll want some cool desserts to go with those recipes. It's hard to turn down ice cream, and gelatin is good not only as a sweet treat, but also for cool salads.
Cool Cooking with Appliances
If you have to use your kitchen, a pressure cooker can dramatically reduce cooking times on top of the stove, and the clay cooker can handle an entire meal in about an hour in the oven. And remember, many of your oven recipes can be converted to the crockpot. A fondue party can get everyone involved in the cooking while keeping the heat out of the kitchen.
Summer Harvest Foods
When you're not entertaining, chances are you are looking for a way to can or preserve those great fruits and vegetables from your garden. Summer fruit favorites include blueberries, kiwifruit, mangoes, plums, strawberries, huckleberries, rose hips, and of course watermelon. Sweet onions and garlic are in their prime in summer, as well as mushrooms, rhubarb, and tomatoes. Get some low-calorie snack ideas while you're at it. Even canned goods from the market can be a timesaver while still producing nutritious yet tasty meals. They also come in handy in the case of those power outages during summer storms.
Tips for a perfectly grilled steak
The most primitive style of cooking--meat roasted over an open flame--can't be beat. You can pan-sear and broil all you want, but nothing compares to a grilled steak. The combination of a smoky, caramelized crust and a tender, juicy interior is what grilling beef is all about.
Choose wisely: Favorable grilling candidates include New York strip, T-bone, porterhouse, sirloin, filet mignon and rib-eye.
Size matters: Choose cuts that are 1- to 1-1/4 inch thick. Pay special attention to bone-in cuts of meat: make sure the steak is an even thickness. Meat near the bone will take longer to cook.
Use caution with marinades: Over-marinating can result in tough or mushy meat. For additional ways to flavor-up a steak, try a dry rub or top cooked steaks with herbed butter.
Handle hot coals: Sear steaks over direct heat, then move them to indirect heat to finish cooking. For a 1-inch thick steak, a general guide is 5 to 7 minutes per side for medium-rare (145 degrees F). For an accurate reading--and to avoid cutting into that sublime steak--use a meat thermometer to test for doneness.
- Easy Grilled Tri-Tip
- Sirloin Steak with Garlic Butter
- Smothered Filet Mignon
- Willy's Juicy Steak
- Barbequed Marinated Flank Steak
- Adobo Sirloin
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Press Releases 