RIFA I PASSI: CONCERT IN THE ABBAYE DE QUARANTE

This Friday night, 19 September, 2014, as a part of cultural programming that takes place throughout the year in several small towns like our Quarante that cooperate regionally, the tourist office presented a free concert in the Abbaye de Quarante performed by the seven female singers comprising the group Rifa i passi. The above Youtube video was not taken Friday night but both the setting and the sound quality approximate our local abbey, built 1,100 years or so ago, just a few steps from our front door. Pictures of the abbey available on the web appear below.

This was plainsong singing at its best in the proper setting and the ladies received two well-deserved standing ovations, one at the end of their main set and one after their encore, during which they brought out their first instrument, an accordion used just for chords, then sang a final chant as they moved down the main aisle of the abbey from the altar to the exit. The pews were full and folks stood along the walls and in the back. It was a magical evening.

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RESTAURANT TEN, UZES: RESTAURANT REVIEW

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Kreuz Market vs. Smitty’s Market: Texas Barbecue in Lockhart

I was born and raised in New Jersey. I didn’t taste Texas barbecue until I was twenty-two years old. What the hell do I know about barbecue? And what could I add to the millions of words that have been written on the subject? Well, I know a bit about food. I’ve managed to check out a few of the finer joints in Texas – Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse in Dallas, Joe Cotton’s in Robstown before the fire, the dear departed Williams Smokehouse in Houston, and the incomparable New Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Huntsville . So I can speak from a reasonably wide experience. This will not be a comprehensive discussion of the relative merits of Texas barbecue as opposed to the fare available in places like Memphis or the Carolinas. It’s simply a take on our recent visits to Lockhart and the relative merits of Smitty’s versus Kreuz from our point of view. I’ll get all over academic in a later post. On our way out to the ranch in Crystal City, we stopped at Smitty’s. You have to look

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