The Winspear Opera House / Dallas

I'll say this for our friends to the east. They don't do anything in small scale and low budget.

The Dallas Arts District, east of Stemmons and south of Woodall Rogers, has been doing a lot of building and expanding in the last few years. The Myerson is twenty years old, but the Wyly Theater is new, as is the Winspear Opera House. Under construction is a 3,000 person outdoor ampitheater, and a five acre park that will cover the Woodall Rogers Freeway for a block. This is serious development given the times we are in, but I am happy for them and will be one of those who frequents from time to time.

I visited the Winspear last night with a friend and I liked it. It is large enough for a big-city audience, but not so large that operatic voices get lost. The acoustics seemed very good, at least from where I was sitting. It is a much more attractive building on the exterior than the Myerson, which is next door, and inside, it is what a good opera house is these days: comfortable, well-designed for sound, and light on ornamentation. The chandelier-effect lights  in the hall's center are reminiscent of the Metropolitan Opera and a nice touch.

We saw the final performance of Donizetti's, Don Pasquale, which I will not critique because I am not qualified to do so. I enjoyed it, especially the main character's voice and acting. The Don Pasquale role is the lead role and was performed by Donato DiStefano. He was the show.

The Seven/Eleven Building just east of the Winspear has five restaurants on the ground floor of the building, all with indoor and outdoor seating. That's a pretty cool place for a light dinner and drinks before or after the show. They also have valet parking. I parked a block away for $2, but I'm a cheapskate when it comes to parking.

My only disappointment is not being able to take the train to and from Fort Worth. The time schedules with the train and the opera were too uncertain to be comfortable.

500 Places to Eat Before it's Too Late.

I like to listen to the radio while I am working on the house. This afternoon, I stumbled onto the Rick Steve's Travel Show while he was interviewing Jane and Michael Sterns, authors of the above mentioned book.

Like many readers of this blog, the Sterns like to taste local fare when they travel, and not taste the normal chain restaurants. As they said today, one could travel from coast to coast and eat virtually the same meals every day. But Why?

This couple has made a living for thirty years doing something they love, traveling and eating. They have a word for the kind of place they are looking for. They call it, Roadfood.

Everyone likes to get out on the open road once in a while. My wife and I just returned from such a trip. I wish I had bought this book before we left.

Some information on the Sterns taken from their website:

The Sterns have won three James Beard journalism awards for their monthly column in Gourmet magazine, which takes readers to the best restaurants in small towns and cities all around the country. They are weekly contributors to "The Splendid Table" on Public Radio.

http://www.roadfood.com/

(The website looks very helpful, by the way)

Say Hey.

My childhood hero is in publishing news these days. I probably would not mention it, but since I am reading the newly published biography, and because I am beginning to smell the sweet aroma of spring training's freshly mowed grass, I thought I would say a few words about the greatest player ever to play the game called baseball.

Those of you old enough to recognize the title, Say Hey, know that I am referring to Willie Mays.

In 1960, when I was eight years old, Willie Mays had been a professional baseball for nine years, but it was about then that I began to notice him. I'm not sure how or why, I was a Phillies fan. No one told me Willie Mays was a great player, no one else in my family followed him. I can only guess that I was captivated by the way he played the game.

Mays did it all. He hit for percentage and power, he was a base stealer, he caught anything near him in the field, and he had an accurate and powerful throw after a catch. There was no weak spot in the game of Willie Mays. None. And he did it all with a composed enthusiasm that made you want more. One example of this was his signature "basket-catch." When a bloop fly ball was hit to him, he'd get under it, glove closed at his waist, and make the catch, not head high like everyone else catches, but at his belt. It was like he was saying, "I'm not even going to raise my arm for this one." It's a bit hackneyed, but in Mays' case it was true, he made the game look easy. The only player in modern times to play a game so well and with such vitality is Michael Jordon. Mays was to baseball what Jordon was to basketball.

I know there are many great players in baseball. But none of them compare to Mays as the overall best. Not Mantle, not DiMaggio, not Williams, not even the Babe, himself. Willie was better than them all.

Willie Mays is one of the few players in all of sport where a word was assigned to describe a play that was made.  I am referring to "The Catch."  A play that is considered by everyone to be one of the greatest defensive plays in the history of baseball.

Before the days of frequently televised games, young boys learned about a favorite player by listening to the games on the radio, and by reading a player's box-score statistics in the newspaper. I listened every night to the Philadelphia Phillies, Willie played on the San Francisco Giants, so my only chance to follow him live was when the two teams played, or during the All-Star game (he played in 24 of them). The every-day information came from the box-scores, which are a listing of the player's statistics for a game or a season. My daily sports page ritual was to pull the sports page from the paper, and before scrolling through the Phillies lineup, to find the Giants' game and Mays' daily "stats." They looked something like this:

Mays, W. 4 - 2 - 2. 

The more hits and rbi, the better I felt -- and the more convinced I was that nobody played the game like him.

Thanks Willie. I sure am enjoying the book.

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You can see "the Catch" on youtube here:

The Catch:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dK6zPbkFnE
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