On Friday night, my sister, our friend Tammy and I went over to Harmoni for dinner and drinks. In short review, their cheese course [appetizer] was fantastic, brie, manchego and something else I can't remember, but all three were phenomenal. Served with a tiny bit of sliced fruit, a raspberry puree (with the brie), and candied walnuts, this plate was the best part of the night. We ordered a bottle of the Hahn Meritage, always a good go-to wine on a night that you just want to enjoy a damn good bottle of wine. For dinner, I ordered a grilled salmon with pasta... somehow expecting a flavorful, fanciful meal. Everything else had gone well so far, but the meal itself was disappointing. It had a lot of fire and almost no flavor. The fish was vaguely fishy, shadowed by a lot of heat. Overall, a disappointment. I did, however, get to grab a bite of my sister's hamburger, which far out-shined the salmon plate. Cheers to good wine; it saves the day!

Saturday, I went over to the Florida Music Fesitval. I went to explore the bands, the connections, the people, the groupies, the industry panels. The bands? To be honest, they were great. I saw several and each and every one of them actually had an ounce of talent or more. It was great to see young kids doing so well, promoting themselves, pressing their own CDs, their own t-shirts. Makes me proud! [gag] On the other hand, the industry panels were thoroughly disappointing. I've been in this industry long enough to know that it takes a long time to get anywhere... you don't get paid... and you have to put up with a lot of shit. To be completely honest, they didn't have any other insight to offer. I felt bad for these kids; it's a farce to say that an internship will be your way into a job. It's a farce to say that it can still happen for you several years after you're out of college. There's nasty business in the music industry and while, no I don't think you should tell that to the kids, be honest. Tell the how you got there, what you did, how you started your own label, how you got into production, how you got into booking. These are things kids don't know. How do you approach industry pros who have your future in their hands? I think those are the questions I'd like kids to ask.

Sunday, the fam and I took a stroll down to Cypress Gardens. In its heyday, I'm sure it was a thriving and bustling amusement and theme park. To be honest, it was actually a pretty decent place. We got in for free with some passes from the Ginn Open and took a stroll around. The place was moderately busy, nothing like Disney on a spring day, and looked like it was in decent condition. On a sad note, many of the areas were closed down, closed early, had few employees working... the place didn't look dilapidated in any way, so it somewhat came as a surprise that so many areas of the park were closed down. We watched the waterski performance (lame), wandered around the Topiary Garden (awesome, if you ask me), the Botanical Gardens (lovely, but a lot of very strange dead ends to their pathways), headed for the Aviary only to discover it was closed... the Nature area was closed... We gave up after that and left the park. Sad, I think. It surely was something before Disney came and invaded its space.

Bizzy, bizzy weekend. I had a good time, took a break from some of the work I've been doing and had a good time. My father accepted a position in Washington, D.C. so it was great to get a chance to spend some quality time with my 'rents before they left town. I'm sure it will be a busy week of helping them pack up... [jealous].

I'll get out of here soon. [I hope.]

Labels: business, change, cheese, complaints, economy, family, recession, review, weekend