2005-11 Vital Source Mag – November 2005
Around the World and Back Again
By Catherine McGarry Miller Bacchus is a place for celebrations. Its wall of 230 wines encased in elegant glass and chrome is a nod to the restaurant’s namesake, the god of wine. It is not, however, a dipsomaniac’s domain. Bacchus exudes class from its carte to its cultivated customers. Executive Chef Adam Siegal started, surprisingly, in the hot dog business at his stepfather’s Chicago area Red Hot huts. As a boy, Siegal stocked shelves, chopped vegetables, and bussed tables. He still likes a good hot dog – an all beef Hebrew National “run through the garden” – dog talk for topped with every veggie in the joint. Since then, Siegal has graduated to ultra-fine dining with a degree from the Culinary School of Kendall College in Evanston, Illinois, and has apprenticed under some of the world’s greatest gastronomes: At the age of 20, Siegal launched his career at Paul Bartolotta’s renowned Chicago bistro, Spiaggia. There he learned “the simplicity of cooking the way Italians cook. I learned technique to taste,” he recalls. He studied directly under the James Beard Award-winning chef, now Bacchus’ co-owner with brother Joe. “Paul’s been my mentor for 14 years and I don’t think I could have a better one. He’s helped me throughout my whole career.” For two years, Siegal explored classical French cuisine under the tutelage of Chef Julian Serrano, also a winner of the James Beard Award and executive chef of Masataka Kobayashi’s celebrated French restaurant, Masa’s, in San Francisco. “The food was classical yet very modern. It was a very intense kitchen, which suited me because I’m a very intense individual with an intense passion for cooking.” In 1998, Paul Bartolotta arranged an internship for Siegal with his own mentor, Valentino Marcetilli, chef at Ristorante San Domenico in Imola near Bologna, Italy. For Siegal, it was a year-long immersion in European cookery where he acquired an appreciation for where the food came from, the traditions behind it, and the Europeans’ passion for dining. “Their lives revolve around food. They sit at the table for two to three hours – it’s how they enjoy life.” He also helped Marcetilli achieve a Two Star Michelin rating. Back stateside, Siegal joined the team that popped the cork on the D.C. branch of Todd English’s lauded Olives restaurant. He didn’t see much of the celebrity chef, but he experienced the initiation of a national high-end restaurant. He also met his future wife, Daria, who was Olives’ manager. The spin at Olives was Mediterranean, but emphasized “taking the traditional and making it not traditional,” Siegal explains. In 2000, the executive sous chef position opened up at Bartolotta’s Lake Park Bistro, so Siegal happily returned to the Midwest. “I love Milwaukee – it’s a kind of hidden treasure. People always think of “Laverne and Shirley,” but there’s all this charm and character to the city.” He later took over chef Mark Weber’s toque and recently added Bacchus to his realm of responsibilities. With the diversity of Siegal’s culinary […]
Nov 1st, 2005 by Cate Miller
Industrial Nature
By Evan Solochek Nebulous shapes and architectural insight, the seemingly mismatched marriage of organic and synthetic, thrive within the sculptures of acclaimed artist Kendall Buster. Somewhere between abstract abodes and biological remnants, her large-scale creations entice both the eye and the body, and offer the viewer the rare opportunity to truly experience art. These mammoth orbs of steel and South African shade cloth are reminiscent of a cored pear or a beehive with a slice removed. These missing cross-sections are an essential component of one of Buster’s chief intentions. The “accessible interiors,” a distinguishing characteristic in Buster’s work, allow for a more profound interaction with the piece. The onlooker is invited inside to not only view the structure, but to be enclosed within it. “For a lot of people, it’s the simple act of penetrating a form,” says Buster. “You’re so accustomed to having this relationship to a sculpture where you’re over here and the sculpture is there and you’re walking around it and very separated from it. You can certainly enter it with your eye, but to enter a piece with your body is a kind of commitment.” Once inside, a myriad of reactions ensue. From playfulness and ease to uneasiness and intrigue, Buster wants the viewer to respond in some manner, any manner, just as long as it is genuine and unexpected. Influenced by the work of twentieth-century theorists Jacques Lacan and Michel Foucault, Buster attempts to incarnate their thoughts on the act of seeing and being seen. Fusing biology with architecture, Buster creates imposing sculptures that are interactive playgrounds where exploration and physical interaction are encouraged. Buster extends this facet through the use of translucent fabrics, which allows viewers to interact with one another by way of the sculpture. “Those inside the piece can see those outside the piece and vice versa so there is a little bit of a play there, which I find very interesting,” says Buster. “[The inside] is a small space, an intimate space. It’s truly a chamber and that leads to feelings of either enclosure or comfort. I like this idea of something being both comforting and threatening.” Suggestive of a cocoon or a womb, these membrane-covered structures envelope the viewer in a manner foreign to most human adults. Buster, who is currently a professor of sculpture at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Arts, finds the worlds of biology and architecture intrinsically linked. “I think there are a lot of interesting things to think about in terms of architecture’s biological roots and the whole notion of how biological forms have informed certain kinds of designs,” says Buster. “For me, the vessel and architecture are really about marking an empty space.” Having studied microbiology at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Buster has always been fascinated by biological structures. From fungal formations to exoskeletons, Buster’s science background is clear in her sculptures. “In one sense, I know it’s a very romantic notion, but there is a part of me that is very attracted […]
Nov 1st, 2005 by Vital Archives
Forgotten America
By Frizell Bailey First in a Vital Source series examining therole of race in social disparity in America. In his September 15th address from Jackson Square in New Orleans, President Bush spoke of the need to address the persistent poverty that was evident to the whole world in the days after Hurricane Katrina. He called for “bold action” that would ensure more black ownership of homes and businesses and increased job skills – actions not so much bold, really, as common sense. Poverty and racial inequality are nothing new in New Orleans. So how is it that it took a catastrophe like Katrina for us to acknowledge them? Perhaps we were all seduced by the hospitality and charm of the city, served up like ladles of steaming gumbo. Or maybe it was the jell-o shot mindset of “laissez les bons temps rouler,” let the good times roll. More likely, though, we all just looked the other way. No one likes a buzz kill as harsh as extreme poverty. This land is my land.There has been much talk about what to do with New Orleans’ Ninth Ward. It seems the overwhelming opinion is that it should be bull-dozed and not re-settled. After all, there’s no way to raise the land above sea level. People around the country and the world are even privately asking why people lived there in the first place. It’s never been a secret that the Ninth Ward is the most flood-prone neighborhood in the city. While letting the area return to the marsh land is probably a good idea, what people are forgetting in questioning the logic of building a community here in the first place is the original settlement patterns of the Ward and New Orleans as a whole. From the beginning, blacks have taken up residence in the low lying, vulnerable areas of the city, due in large part to economic inequality and just plain bad timing. French colonists who originally settled there purposely chose the best land, meaning the high ground. This includes the Garden District and the French Quarter. It is no coincidence that these areas were not flooded. When blacks were finally able to buy homes in the city in any kind of numbers, only low-lying land was available to them. Most of the “good” land had already been snatched up. Cost also played a part. Blacks could not afford what little higher ground that was still available, so they built communities adjacent to more affluent white neighborhoods to be near their service jobs. Much of my own family lives in the New Orleans area. When I was a kid, some lived on the Westbank in the suburbs; some lived on the Eastbank in the projects and subsidized housing. On a visit to New Orleans as a teenager, I got my first look at the extreme poverty in the city. We had to pick up one of my cousins from his home in the projects near the Lower Ninth Ward. At that […]
Nov 1st, 2005 by Frizell Bailey
Neil Young
By Blaine Schultz Reprisewww.neilyoung.com Every record Neil Young releases is an enigma in waiting, and Prairie Wind, with its deft orchestral passages, swelling horns and bluegrass touches, is no exception. On Prairie Wind Young seems to say, “Let me make a record with people I enjoy playing with.” His father’s slide into Alzheimer’s and subsequent passing leads Young to meditate on his own past and take stock. The title track finds Young in that 3 a.m. voice, singing, “Trying to remember what my Daddy said / Before too much time took away his head;” a female vocal chorus echoes “prairie wind blowin’ through my head” as a horn section punches away at Young’s harmonica shards. “Far From Home” is the other side of the coin, buoyed by the horns and sounding like a Saturday-night revival, Young tells of a trek from the trans-Canada Highway to the Promised Land of money and big cars. And only then can you bury him on the prairie. When Young lapses into a sentimental mood (“Falling Off the Face of the Earth,” “It’s a Dream,” “Here For You”) to pay tribute to friends and family, he avoids mawkishness. “When God Made Me” calls to task in a sincere ballad those who have interpreted God’s will since day one. But he’s not afraid to turn the camera on himself. “He Was the King” is a good-natured romp through memories of Elvis and “This Old Guitar” is a love song written for Hank Williams’ Martin guitar—Emmylou Harris’ vocals only sweeten the deal. “When I get drunk and seeing double, it gets behind the wheel and steers / This old guitar ain’t mine to keep, it’s only mine for a while.” VS
Nov 1st, 2005 by Vital Archives
Beverly Hills On Three Dollars A Week
You wake up to the death knell of summer—a distinctive, plaintive cry recently thought extinct. It comes complete with a touch of dying light, a scent of burning leaves, and of course, a nasty hangover. Mere weeks ago you were drinking beer on an unknown girl’s porch and back-flipping into a swimming quarry with a mob of drunken madmen. Now you wake up and stumble around the city like a zombie, blinking at your summer friends dumbly as you try to process their bodies with extra layers, longer hair. You wake up to an already-fleeting autumn and an inevitable decade of winter. You wake up with blood on your hands. You also wake up stone-cold broke, the product of a small but obnoxious raise in your rent, a bevy of un-consolidated student loans, and a newly developed cigarette addiction. We’re talking hot dogs and bologna poor here, folks. And if you happen to be a writer for a local monthly who’s already days past his deadline, this utter and complete dearth of funds poses a curious question: what can one do in one’s mid-level Midwestern city with literally three dollars in one’s wallet? Sure, there’s a free local comedy showcase down the block, but come on, you’re not that crazy. A quarter-bottle of some pilfered vodka and a half-pack of stale menthol cigarettes later, and this is what you come up with. Beverly Hills 90210. Every Monday night at the Cactus Club. Brandon Walsh gets drunk and totals his car. David Silver becomes a meth addict. Dylan McKay checks into rehab. Steve Sanders shows up and says something dumb. Oh, dear readers, these are but a few of the many not-so-guilty, drug and alcohol-themed pleasures in store for you at the Cactus Club, every Monday night at 9. For those in the know, this glorious weekly event is known as the Peach Pit After Dark, and after a year of two episodes each Monday, I’ve seriously gotten to know my 90210. There’s no reason you shouldn’t make it a weekly cause for celebration as well. Thankfully, we’ve recently moved into the heady later seasons, where the series begins to move away from its initial “issue” episodes (Brandon has a gambling problem! Steve learns about AIDS! Kelly meets her very first homosexual!), and turns into the straight-up soap opera it was destined to become. In other words, it’s getting good. So come on out and get your fix of Beverly Hills drama, and support the Cactus Club while you’re at it. Really. Now you may be asking yourself “why?” Why spend two hours at a bar watching a show that’s been off the air for over five years? To explain, we should first kill off the easy nostalgia factor, the lame, desperately recycled pop culture, “Hey, it’s Corey Feldman!” peddled by VH1. No, we, the 90210 faithful, are not here because We Love the 90s. We’re here because damnit, we really do care about Brenda’s next breakdown, about Donna’s precious virginity, […]
Nov 1st, 2005 by Matt Wild
