I'm back at work today after a fabulous weekend of culture and cuisine here in the Bay Area. After checking into my hotel on Saturday, I spent a couple of hours at the Mountain View Art and Wine Festival, then drove into San Francisco with a friend to see Cosi Fan Tutte at the opera. It would've been a totally fantastic experience if not for the fact that a couple in our row thought that it would be a good idea to bring their loud and squirmy 3-year old son to the performance! Fortunately, they left at intermission and we enjoyed the rest of the show in peace.

On Sunday, we took in the matinee of The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets, an amazing avant-garde collaboration between Robert Wilson, Tom Waits, and William S. Burroughs. The music and stage production was brilliant and the cast was stellar, featuring Marianne Faithful, Matt McGrath who played the lead in the stage production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and a real blast from my past, Richard Strange from the proto-punk glam band, Doctors of Madness.

Afterwards, we dined at Farallon. I guess we weren't good-looking enough to rate a table on the main floor, because we were seated in a dark booth upstairs where it was difficult to appreciate the unique decor. However, our disappointment was mitigated somewhat by our terrific waiter and the superb 5-course tasting menu with wine pairings. Highlights of the meal included the Roasted Alaskan Halibut with sweet corn risotto, squash, and Main Lobster Fondue, followed by the Grilled Filet of Beef in a red-wine sauce served with an incredibly buttery and warm foie gras, and French Chanterelles. The wine pairings were very good as well; my favorites being the 2000 Stuhlmuller Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2001 Qupe Bien Nacido Block Eleven Chardonnay. We were utterly stuffed afterwards, and had to keep checking our big toes for signs of gout.

After all that excitement, the rest of this trip is going to seem downright dull.