September 2006
Yield Wine Bar is a small, intimate wine bar located in the heart of San Francisco's historic Dog Patch Neighborhood. Yield is such a welcome addition to my tiny growing Dogpatch Neighborhood. Owner Chris Tavelli was the former sommelier at Millennium Restaurant and brings a great knowledge of organic, bio-dynamic and sustainable wines. They are committed to supporting sustainable winemaking and agriculture, as well as family owned and operated wineries. As such, all of the wines featured on their wine list are environmentally friendly — they are made by wineries that are wholly committed to the practice of organic, biodynamic or sustainable agriculture. Most do not use any chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides throughout the wine-making process, and some have even taken it a step further and received certification for these practices. All of them are as focused on making the best wine possible as they are on making it in the most environmentally conscious way.
Yield Wine Bar is open Tuesday through Saturday from 5:30 p.m. until 12 a.m., and Sundays from 2 p.m. until 8 p.m.
2490 3rd St San Francisco, CA 94107 (415) 401-8984
For a decade, Wallpaper has been the first to uncover the best new design and urban travel spots across the globe. We think their first book publishing venture, the Wallpaper* City Guides, is the perfect way to present this decade of experience in ruthlessly researched, design-conscious handbooks for the discerning traveller. They don’t waste your time by suggesting too many things — they just suggest the best, the most exciting, the most beautiful. The first 20 are published this month and another 20 every six months after that.
Buy them online at http://www.phaidon.com/travel/
The Asus R2H is one of the first of of the highly anticipated Origami / Ultramobile PC devices to be announced. There has been a great deal of speculation as to what these devices would be, and now we know what the first generation of the UMPC really is.
The R2H is a mini-tablet pc with a 7-inch touchscreen LCD. It runs Windows XP Tablet edition with Touch Pack, and is based on the Celeron M ULV processor. It comes with 800 x 480 resolution, and has built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2, and two USB ports. The “Touch Pack” version of XP Tablet Edition includes an onscreen keyboard that lets users type with their thumbs, along with new software for playing back media, and a program launcher that makes it easier to find and launch applications stored on the device.
Awhile ago we blogged about Travel podcasts. Since then much has changed in the world of travel podcasts with some of the big travel book companies like Lonely Planet and Rick Steves getting in on the action.
Amateur Traveler:Well traveled host Chris Christensen delivers practical advice on more than 50 destinations. 35 Minutes; travel news and interviews. Updated Weekly
Lonely Planet: Authors report breaking news on specific locations and discuss topical travel issues. 30 minutes; update bi-weekly.
Rick Steves’ Europe: Interviews with knowledgeable guests make up for dull caller questions. 60 Minutes update weekly.
Travelers’ Tales: Tim Cahill, Simon Winchester, Pico Iyer discuss their often humerous wanderings. 60 Minutes. Update monthly.
The only way to the Bay of Fires Lodge is to walk—12 miles for two days along squeaky white sand. Good thing the rare Forrester kangaroos know the way. Architect Ken Latona's spare shedlike design, complete with roof-water collection, gray-water treatment systems, composting toilets, and 100 percent solar power, has won every award in the book. Still, the greatest prize is spending an evening by the glow of the outdoor fire pits, waiting for those Tasmanian devils to whirl into view.
Continue reading "Bay of Fires Lodge ~ Tasmania Australia" »
Traditional knife blocks, with their specific slots for specific knives, run out of space as soon as you buy a second cleaver. Martin Robitsch’s Schaschilk design challenges the widely accepted notion that each blade must have its own home. The box contains hundreds of wooden “chopsticks” inside a toaster-size box. You can slide in blade after blade at various angles and the Schaschlik will accommodate them until it’s swallowed your entire cutlery collection.
$125 @ Greenergrass.com
Thomas Jefferson tops the list of great thinkers who worked standing up. His preferred workstation, the stand-up desk, furnished many a counting house in the 1700’s. Standing desks still offer advantages: many claim for instance, that standing while working inreases blood circulation and productivity. Thomas Moser’s high standing desk, made of black cherry from Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Plateau in a blenhd of master joinery and chaker-inspired lines, features a lefge for readlamp and inclined writing surface.
On September 23rd Kermit Lynch will throw his yearly “Provence in Berkeley Festival”. On Provence Day they recreate some of the gastronomic pleasures of Provence. They close the parking lot to cars, set up tents and tables, peel a ton of garlic, fire up a big bed of coals, and uncork a medley of delicious provencal wines.
Provence in Berkeley Saturday, September 23rd, 2006
11:00 AM to 4:00 PM 1605 San Pablo Avenue (at Cedar St.) Berkeley, CA 94702
Sit back, relax, prepare to launch to a new dimension of Home-theater entertainment with the sophisticated and stylish Phillips HTS9800W 6.1 Channel Home Theater Surround Sound system. Designed to enhance the décor of any home interior, this sleek system features both wireless and wall-mountable speakers. Utilizing the speakers, users will be immersed in an incredible sound experience from all areas of the room. Winner of a 2006 CES Best of Innovations Award, the ultra-slim HTS9800W packs the latest home entertainment features, including HDMI connectivity, and Video upscaling (720p/1080i lines) to guarantee an unsurpassed viewing and listening experience right at home. It incorporates a multi-format DVD play system along with 6 surround speakers and a subwoofer.
Buy it online @ Amazon.com
The creations of architect Rick Joy epitomize the perfect marriage of materials, geography, and climate; this home in the sonoran Desert is an outstanding example of form following location. The use of raw, untreated steel works exceedingly well here in the Desert, reminding one of rusty cans or abandoned auto carcasses. The house is ingeniously angled to exploit precisely framed views in all directions and the overall effect is serene and sophisticated.
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