Tragedy has struck!  The deer ate my roses.  I had just been speaking glowingly about our beautiful pinkish-white “Sunset” rose and the new one, Just Joey (a stunning peachy orange).  That’s always the kiss of death.  It’s like the deer can hear you.  The next morning I woke up to badly chewed on roses, all the blossoms gone!  When I mentioned the episode on the air I received a barrage of great recommendations from KDFC listeners for keeping the deer away.  Let me share some of them with you:

-hang CDs from the branches.  The reflection of light scares the deer.

-spread human hair on the ground

-spray with wild animal urine

-hang Irish Spring soap from the branches

-plant garlic around the roses

-plant rosemary

This last from chef Alton Brown who specualtes that they don’t like it because they know how good it makes them taste!

Thanks to Geraldine Duncan, Renee Johnson, William Kroutil, Bruce Ring and all the listeners who came to my rescue.  Fingers crossed.

Bambi Be Gone!

Kathleen Battle’s voice is one of the sweetest things I have ever heard.  Here’s a recent example of her vocal artistry: watch?v=6qGMa9bxRZU.  She hasn’t appeared on the opera stage in about a decade but she continues to sing recitals and special events.  She’ll be appearing in Marin on Saturday, May 9.   Back in the 80’s and 90’s,  she managed to earn a reputation as a “diva” in the negative sense of that word and was even fired by the head of The Met.  I believe none of that matters when you have a gift like hers.  But then, I don’t have to work with her!  Win tickets this week on my Lunch Box Trivia during the noon hour.

I knew we were onto something when we kicked off this feature nearly 7 weeks ago.    Every weekday afternoon at 5, I present a piece of music that you may never have heard before.   It could be a request from a listener, a personal discovery of mine or one of the other hosts here at KDFC.    It may be a new arrangement of an old favorite, or even a vocal.   The emails have been fun to read.

Paul in Palo Alto says, “Now I rush to my car at 5 so I don’t miss the Surprise at 5.”

Jorge in Berkeley writes, “That piece this afternoon brought tears to my eyes.”

Bev in Mill Valley says, “The Surprise at 5 is the best thing to come along in ages.”

Sahita in Santa Clara laments, “John, I wish I had as much fun on my job!”

The most exciting discovery we made recently came from listener Adrienne in San Francisco.  She turned us onto an Italian composer from Milan who studied at the Verdi Conservatory.    It turns out that Roberto Cacciapaglia has been writing music since the 70s, has a huge stash of albums/CDs, has written orchestral music, opera, electronica, dance…you name it.  We featured a piece called “Olimpica” inspired by music within mythology.    It hit a chord among listeners who raved about it.  Cacciapaglia’s music is unavailable on iTunes and arkivmusic but we are going to send the emails to him and see if we/you might have some influence over that.

For a complete list of all of the pieces we’ve featured on the Surprise at 5 over the past 7 weeks, check the S@5 page.   There are links to purchase CDs and mp3s as well.   And feel free to make suggestions and give us feedback.

MTT and the YOUTUBE SYMPHONY

Michael Tilson Thomas was in NYC last night (Wednesday, April 15, 2009) conducting a premier with the YouTube Symphony at Carnegie Hall.  The orchestra members got their gigs as a result of auditions which scoured the planet looking for talent. Here’s a one hour long video of last night’s concert. Well worth watching…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueJcRmfweSM

The downturn in the economy has really hurt the travel industry worldwide and it has been especially hard on the convention and business travel segments. The U.S. Labor Department reports nearly 200-thousand travel jobs lost last year alone, my sister being one of those people. In an effort to turn things around the  San Francisco Convention and Vsitors Bureau has teamed up with the U.S. Travel Association to search for local travel professionals who can share the impact of tourism on the lives, jobs and community. The winner will pick up $5,ooo and become a spokesperson for the campaign. You can make your video on a cellphone, home computer or video camera. Follow this link for more info.

hs

The voting has begun for KDFC’s Classical Star Search 2009.  Check out the semi-finalists here and then vote for your faves.  I’m digging the guy playing “Flight of the Bumblebee” on vibraphone.  There is a host of amazing pianists and even a harpist this year.  So nice.  Get your tickets now for the finale on May 11th.  We’ll be at the beautiful new SF Conservatory of Music right next to Davies.  Once againthis year,  I’ll be intimidated by my fellow judges, Donald Runnicles and cellist Zuill Bailey.  I’ll just be there to break a tie or break up any fights that might occur between those 2 distinguished musicians.

I just had to share.  A while back KDFC and the California Lamb Board invited listeners to submit recipes for lamb.  We had a ton of entries, many of them looked delectable but the winner was, wait for it, Angela Lamb’s recipe for

Lamb-Pear Tagine

Ingredients:

2 lbs lean lamb. cut into 1-in. cubes

4 large pears – peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 in. cubes

1/2 cup slivered, toasted almonds

1/2 cup golden raisins

2 small onions,

diced 1 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp pepper

1 Tbsp. olive oil

Directions:

1. Heat oil in large saucepan and fry onion until caramelized. Mix in spices.
2. Add lamb and water enough just to cover the cubes of lamb. Cover and simmer 2 hours, checking periodically to ensure that the water has not evaporated (alternatively, bake in earthenware tagine or other casserole at 350 for 2 hours or until meat is tender).
3. When meat is tender, add pears, almonds and raisins. Cook for 5 – 10 minutes more, or until the pears are tender.
4. Serve with rice or couscous. Mmm!

Sounds so good and easy enough for me to make.  Happy Easter.

Some of us use that kind of terminology when we run into folks who are addled or overly riled about something. In a story Betsy related  in the news Thursday morning, getting off some medications may be the best thing especially if you are a senior.  The article in USA Today notes that acording to a new study commonly used medications could be a culprit in some older people’s memory problems. Unfortunately doctors don’t always recognize cognitive impairment as a side effect from some drugs like Benadryl and sleeping aids like Ambian (benzodiazepine). For a full list of  medications that could impair the elderly go to worstpills.org.

hs