Saket Vora

When a colleague of yours asks whether you’d like to join a group of friends to come up to Lake Tahoe for a weekend at his family’s condo a mere fifty yards from the water — and enjoy wakeboarding or tubing via the family speedboat — you would be hardpressed to say no. That’s what happened the weekend following the beach bonfire. Chris, one of our great interns this year, generously offered this opportunity. Two cars headed up on Friday after work: the kids being the merry band of interns: Chris, Shyam, Patrick, and John; the adults being me, Sean, Chrissy, and Dustin. My car ended up unintentionally stopping for dinner at the exact same Rubio’s that I’ve stopped at during every previous Tahoe trip, and the kids had beaten us up by the time we rolled up to the condo just past the Nevada border in South Lake Tahoe. The condo was great — rustic, well stocked, and exuding warmth that lived up to its primary purpose as a winter time ski lodge.

That night, we took our drinks out by the beach and relaxed in the cool summer night, gazing up at the band of the Milky Way that painted its way across the night sky.

One of the interns asked about breakfast the night before, and I chuckled: with cooks like Sean and Chrissy around, breakfast is of no concern. Sean prepared skillet potatoes, bacon, and eggs while Chrissy whipped up fruit pancakes. Dustin got the mimosas flowing and Patrick kept the coffee brewing. Outside on the second story porch, you could look out at a forest clearing and see horses trotting about.

We roughly sketched out the day and by ten headed down to the dock. Chris (what a champ) had made the trip to Tahoe the last two weekends to learn how to pilot the boat himself and he did an amazing job. And what a gorgeous boat too — sleek, comfortable, and spacious for the eight of us. The first session was wakeboarding, with Dustin and the interns (except Chris, who was in the captain’s chair the entire time) all taking stabs at it. The start proved notoriously difficult, with the handle ripping out of their hands just as they lifted out of the water. At this time of morning, the lake is already pretty choppy due to all the traffic.

Sean settled into the co-pilot’s chair and hoisted the orange flag with a bemused expression everytime a swimmer was in the water. I often had a camera in my hand. Chris’s generosity with the lodge and boat motivated me to spend some money instead on renting a set of lenses for the weekend. I picked up a long zoom lens (70-200mm f/4L IS), a fast wide prime lens (30mm f/1.4), and a wide angle zoom (10-22mm f/2.8). I also had my personal 24-105mm f/4L. Since Patrick and I shoot nearly identical cameras, we geeked out and would just swap cameras throughout the weekend, tag teaming with one person shooting a zoom lens while the other took the wide shots.

It proved invaluable for the tubing shots, and we’re really happy how they turned out. We later docked and swapped out the wakeboards for a giant inner tube. Tubing was a blast — we went out in pairs and Chris really cranked up the boat, crisscrossing to send the tube skittering across the boat’s wake and swinging it around on sharp turns. There’s a manuever he knows that is guaranteed to flip the tube and employed it rather judiciously, hehe (I didn’t get flipped!).

It’s hard to express now just how blissful it was out on the lake. The warm California sun beaming brightly, the coolness of the breeze, the deep blue water, the forested snow-capped mountains at all points on the horizon, and the thrill of a motorboat. What incredible fortune to experience it.

Around three we jetted across the lake to a crowded waterfront restaurant known for their rum runners. We anchored the boat in the harbor and took their dinghy to the dock. A live rock band jammed while we nursed our drinks, people watched, and ultimately eat our lunch. Boating and tubing during the morning certainly worked up an appetite.

After lunch we made a beeline back home and docked the boat. After freshening up, a few of us popped over to the nearby Safeway for dinner supplies. I was going to make pizza monkey bread, and ended up buying pizza dough from a pizza place (they were rather confused at our request, but complied anyway). Chrissy was going to make these white chocolate and mousse pyramids, and Sean whipped up some excellent guacamole. –My– Troy’s jambox got the tunes bumping, and even the air hockey table was getting some use. We took a break to watch the sunset from the beach.

We got an assembly line going for the monkey bread, with Dustin, Chrissy, and Chris all preparing the stuffed balls of dough while I assembled them into a bundt pan. I probably should have left it in ten minutes longer, but the finished result was still pretty cool:

Chrissy’s mousse pyramids came out of the fridge looking and tasting awesome:

Before calling it a night, Patrick and I headed out to the beach with Sean’s tripod, and we tried to capture the Milky Way. Nothing could beat seeing the granduer of it for real though. The next morning we had a deliberately lazy start, finished off the fruit pancakes, bacon (of course), and Sean used the extra eggs and leftovers and improvised two pans of delicious frittatas. Most of our group made it back on the boat, but Dustin and Shyam ended up too engrossed in their chess match that they ended up staying on the land.

After another unsuccessful stint wakeboarding, we took it easy and Chris piloted the boat across the lake to the scenic Emerald Bay. It’s an iconic view from above, and now we were going to see it from the water. Along the way, a guy with two chicks on his jetski enjoyed our wake. We made a leisurely pass around the Bay, seeing Kungsholm and the stony tea cottage on the small island in the middle of the Bay.

After reaching back to home base and freshening up, our group split for the afternoon. Chris, Sean, and Dustin decided to lounge around the house while Chrissy and I took the interns out for hiking by Eagle Falls near Emerald Bay. The hiking was a lot shorter than I remembered it, but the epic snowfall of the previous winter kept both the Upper and Lower Eagle Falls gushing. And it’s always a treat to see Emerald Bay from above. We made it back just in time for a leisurely sunset.

And with that, we bid Tahoe adieu. We left as darkness was settling in, making a good distance away before finally stopping for some food (hunger was kept at bay when Dustin heroically dived into the trunk via the backseat opening to retrieve snack food…no stopping the car for us!). The only thing opened was a Carl’s Jr., and I was jazzed to see a veggie guacamole burger. I pointed to the picture and ordered it, but when it came it was a normal burger. I returned it, asking again for it. This time, I got a lettuce wrap…with still a burger. Chrissy, Dustin, and Sean were enjoying this immensely as I went up again. Some teenagers were hanging up front, waiting for the food and watching this. I ask again, explaining what I want and the wait staff looked perplex. As I went back to the table to wait, apparently the cook asked increduously “wait, he doesn’t even want bacon?” to which one of the teenagers replied “nah man, he’s serious! no meat!” Considering the quality of food available to us at that point (we had struck out on a pretty sizable list before settling for Carl’s Jr.), the amusement experience was worth it.

The skyline of San Francisco became visible by midnight, and I dropped my friends off before finally calling it a night myself.

What a wonderful weekend, full of some real and much needed R&R. Huge hat tip to Chris for making it possible.

Two weeks ago (wow, time is going by fast), I headed to the Independent on a Wednesday night to see a double header — Other Lives and The Rosebuds. Sean and I grabbed dinner beforehand, and the others trickled in too — John , Jian-Wei, Veronica, Michael, and Karla. I actually had heard of Other Lives, the opener, but then my buddy Win from back home told me about The Rosebuds — who hail from Raleigh, NC! And coincidentally, Veronica went to undergrad in Stillwater, OK — where Other Lives is from. So it turned out to be a nice double header.

Other Lives is a such a treat to see live. They recently released their second album, Tamer Animals. The band’s layered instrumentation and harmonies reminds me at times of the Fleet Foxes, but vocally is sometimes closer to The National. On stage, they had a violinist/cellist, guitar and keyboard, another violin/guitar/marimba player, bassist and tympani player, and the drummer. Really cool, and they sounded terrific live. The cellist at one point brought out these cool looking claw like bells she held in each hand. David – the violinist from the Rosebuds, also came out and played with the band for nearly half their set.

The Rosebuds played a nice set too — one that got noticeably tighter in the second half. I hadn’t heard much of the band before, except their latest album Loud Planes Fly Low, but really enjoyed their show live. They did a good job engaging with the audience, showing their appreciation and leading us in some sing-a-longs too. They also get a special mention for having one of the coolest band shirts I’ve ever seen:

Another interesting tidbit — I’ll be seeing Other Lives again this fall when they open for Bon Iver, and the Rosebuds will be opening for Bon Iver too on the second half of their summer tour.

This Saturday we took our fight for a proper summer to the beaches — was time for a beach bonfire! There was some heated discussion on where to do it — after all, up in NorCal there really isn’t anywhere with a proper “beach”. Those in the city are cold and windy and crowded, ones down south are warmer but much farther away. Chrissy organized an outing to Bonny Doon beach down in Santa Cruz, the same beach we went to last year. Its cove sits well below the road and is nicely secluded. Sunish, an intern colleague from 2008 was in town from LA and joined in. Chrissy’s car left with Sunish, her roommate Chad, Gurpreet, and me while the 4044×24 (Sean, Joey, Dino, and Christophe’s crew) headed down in another. We were later joined by a car full of interns, and it was nice to see Patrick and Shyam not in the lab on a weekend.

We made our way down the bluffs and over to a large rock, which provided shelter from the wind. Again, being NorCal we were dressed as if we heading out on an autumn hike. Except Chad, who was rocking a mighty fine blazer. Gotta class it up sometimes, you know? I got –my– Troy’s jambox out and nestled it on a rock ledge, providing some tunes. Those things are seriously cool.

The weather got noticeably better the later it got in the evening. After sunset we broke out the wood and got the bonfire going (using an *entire* container of lighter fluid, as boys tend to do), grilling up sausages and later s’mores. As always, it felt good being by the fire, in a circle of friends.

The last time we were here, we made it back up to our cars at 10:15pm and all got parking tickets. Weren’t going t make that mistake again…so we wrapped things up and hauled the gear back up the bluffs for the ride home. Check that experience off the summer todo list.

Our bi-weekly food challenges continued, with the next one being Battle: Something on a Stick. Now that begs a grill to be fired up, but I was struck with a vision that avoided heat all together:

Homemade sushi (tuna & salmon), hanging from chopstick fishing poles, suspended over a pond of soy sauce, with wasabi lillies. Yep!

The night before I stopped by a nearby Asian grocery store and got all the sushi tools and ingredients, and practiced two rolls that evening. Cut my veggies and prepared my rice. But what about the fish? I honestly couldn’t execute this idea without having fish…I mean, think of the fishing poles! I had no idea what to ask for at a grocery store or how to cut the fish either. But Chrissy had the eureka moment and said I could get prepared fish from the sushi bar at work. After whittling the chopsticks into fishing poles on the bus ride to work, I pinged the head guy at Caffe Macs with the special request, and they were amazing — it bounced to three different people and confirmed in under 4 minutes. So responsive and helpful!

Before the time of the battle, I made several rolls of sushi and started ‘plating’. Chrissy was sitting this battle out, so kindly offered to help.

There’s always money in the banana stand, courtesy of Sean. Nice plating!

People really liked the presentation (got a bonus award for it), but real substance tok home the victory. This time from Craig, who won in a landslide with his steak lollipops. He marianted strips of steak overnight in a marinade made with Jack Daniels, grilled them, then coiled the strips before putting a stick through it to resemble a lollipop, served with a homemade creamy wasabi sauce. Well played, sir, well played.

Monday, July 4th itself was an amazing cap to the weekend. The day started by meeting up with Melih and going for a long run in Golden Gate Park. I didn’t realize it until after, but it felt so good just to be able to talk about things that I don’t talk to anyone else about out here. We walked to the Panhandle from his place, did about 4.5 miles running and 1.5 miles walking, and then headed back for brunch. I got to see Micky and little baby Amelia for the first time since the delivery day, and was excited to see them both doing well. I stayed for a short brunch, which (mostly) Micky and Melih made look effortless yet incredible in their usual fashion.

I had to leave early though and head back home to quickly grab food and supplies for the day’s main event — a July 4th cookout on Crissy Field, by the Presidio and Golden Gate Bridge by the water. Sean and Joey were holding a cookout too at their house, but I protested — on a holiday like July 4th, let’s go outside! So I proposed a rival cookout, hehe. After loading up the car, I headed over to Chrissy’s place to pick her, Chad, and Gurpreet up. She cooked up a storm — making potato salad, cookies, basil/mozzarella/tomato stacks, and rounding up sausages and various cookout sundries. She even bought a portable grill that morning!

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Brock and Heather were on time, getting to Crissy Field right at 2pm. My car was running a bit late, but we finally made it there and scored a parking spot near the field. The others were actually unloading the trunk when I spotted a car pulling out of a spot ahead, and I just sped ahead and grabbed it. We hauled our bounty over to the spot Brock and Heather scored, nestled in between two small hills to give us protection from the wind. The weather could not have been better — warm, shining sun, blue skies.

Travis and Leane (from whitewater rafting) joined up with us, and later in the evening Jon and Chris came by too. With a bit of tinkering, we finally got the grill going. I later had the terrific idea of bringing the grill in the middle of our blanket spread (instead of off to the side) and it went about as well as you can imagine.

We all heard Crissy Field gets blanketed in the infamous summer fog, but as the evening waned on the weather kept holding up. So instead of packing up early, we just ended up staying for the fireworks. From Crissy Field, we saw the fireworks over in Sausalito, Berkeley, and then finally around 9:30pm the dual fireworks from Piers 1 and 39 in San Francisco. Nice show, especially with the running commentary.

I couldn’t have asked for better way to cap such an eventful, fun-filled holiday weekend. Big hat tip to Chrissy for doing such a great job helping to organize this!

The Sunday of July 4th weekend, after Coyote Valley, was spent at the wonderful Stern Grove in the Inner Sunset. Stern Grove is a music venue nestled in a grove of trees, and each summer is host to free Sunday concerts by the Stern Grove Music Festival. They even get the SF Symphony, the Ballet, and the Opera to do free performances in the grove. This weekend were two big time acts – Neko Case with local folk-rock act The Dodos opening. I had not listened to much Neko Case at all, but everyone I know who has mentioned her says she’s an amazing vocalist. My friend and colleague Casey told me about the Dodos last year, and I like their percussion heavy sound.

Stern Grove concerts start at 2pm but are infamous for getting packed early. Having nothing else to do, I decided to trek over early in the morning with blankets, food, a book, and reserve spots for my group. Found a parking spot half a block away, and found an area on the wide granite terrace at the foot of the hill. Our view of the stage:

Friends started showing up around 12:30, and we broke open the food for a picnic. The spot was big enough to fit some friends who I realized were coming quite late, and soon we had a fun crew assembled. The sun broke out from behind the trees, and we soaked up the heat and the sunshine. Felt good, for being summertime in San Francisco! The concert was fun — though honestly for such a big venue they could have definitely turned the volume up a bit.

On Saturday morning of the July 4th long weekend holiday, I was greeted by the following text message: “On my way, do you have a backpack we can use to carry ammo?” An auspicious start to America’s Weekend, no? On tap for the day: sporting clays at Coyote Valley down in Morgan Hill, south of San Jose. Sporting clays is a shooting sport — think golf mashed up with a shooting range with shotguns instead of 7-irons. We were led by our fearless leader Chrissy, who brought along her 12 gauge shotgun and a pile of ammo. On the way down from SF, we picked up Chris and Jon — Paul, Matt, and their friends would be arriving later.

We rented an additional shotgun (and over/under, meaning there are two barrels that fire in succession and you can load two shells at a time) that Jon and I shared, with Chris and Chrissy sharing hers. This was the second time I’ve ever fired a real gun before. It was Chris’s first time, and Jon had been before. Chrissy gave us her thirty-second safety course and we headed off to the first station. Coyote Valley has around 18 or so different stations, each with two launchers that throw small orange clay discs into the air at various trajectories. There are buttons to control the two launchers. The person shooting sets up at the station, and then their partner will launch the first clay. As soon as the shooter fires, the second clay is launched. The goal is to hit both of the clays. Each of us got six shots per station, and we kept score for each station (6/6 being perfect).

The stations can vary quite a bit. Some look out over a clear expanse, with the clays coming across your view. Other stations are in the woods, looking out into a narrow clearing thus reducing the time you can get a clean shot at the clays. Some are at the foot of a hill, so the clays come either down or away from you at an angle. Others you look down angle at the clays, some have the clays fly almost vertically above you, and two actually were in the style of “rabbits” in which a clay bounces and rolls along the ground.

We took a break about halfway to get a cold beverage and it was good timing because Paul’s crew rolled up. Matt’s cousin just arrived from out of town, Lan, Ben and Lauren came along too. Our party of four stuck together and they followed one station behind.

Jon, Chrissy, and I were at first closely tied for the lead, but then after the short break Chrissy and I starting pulling ahead, closely matched for 1st. At this point though, my shoulder was definitely feeling the pain. At times I’d gingerly prop it up. But I prevailed, and won the group by a single point.

At the last station we did, none of us could get the first launcher’s clay. I wanted another shot, so I took shots and finally got it. Then, to mess around a bit, I wanted to see if I could hit the easier clay with my offhand — my right hand since I’m left handed. My left shoulder could use the break, anyway. I lined up, and boom got it on the first shot. Was Chrissy up to the task?

She’s such a good sport :)

After freshening up from the 10k race, I picked up some groceries for a picnic and raced back up to the City. Next up: a free concert in Golden Gate Park by the SF Symphony! I figured I’d make a picnic out of it, so some friends were going to come by for the show. Rendezvoused with Patrick in Noe and headed up, the parking gods shining down (along with the spectacular warm sunny weather)  upon us as we scored a spot close to the meadow. I’d say our spread was pretty standard yupster fare:

Friends trickled in, and it was great to see people from a variety of different connections. Patrick and Rishabh from work, Simon and Jess (Simon and I were roommates at Stanford), Gurpreet (great photographer, interned with Chrissy), Eric (classmate of Lux’s at Columbia, fellow college football nut), and Veronica (John’s friend and former colleague). Of course, on such a nice day in San Francisco there all sorts of people out and about. Chrissy even came by briefly after a paragliding lesson in the morning.

The lineup for the symphony’s concert was fan friendly:  Rimsky-Korsakov’s Night on Bald Mountain (made famous from Fantasia), Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and Bethoveen’s Symphony No. 5. Patrick was particularly delighted to hear Night on Bald Mountain, for his two-year Disney Imagineering project revolved around Fantasia (his team from NC State placed 2nd nationwide from hundreds of entries, and he was apparently offered a job on the spot by a VP!).

The performance was great to listen to, especially Symphony No. 5 (though true, I was most familiar with that one). After the show, Veronica suggested we continue enjoying the fine day by getting ice cream at the famous Bi-Rite Creamery down in the Mission. Sure! We scattered out but re-grouped there, once again the parking gods smiling upon me as I took a spot just two blocks away. The grassy hills of Dolores Park were barely visible under the throngs of hipsters and yupsters enjoying a warm day in San Francisco. After enjoying our salted caramel, honey lavender, balsamic strawberry, creme fraiche, etc. ice creams, we finally headed home. I grabbed a pint of mint chocolate chip to go and headed to Chrissy’s place; she wasn’t able to make it out but I wasn’t about to deny anyone some Bi-rite. Ended up spending the evening hanging out with her and Chad. Talked music (Chad and I actually share a bunch of musical interests), and tried to convince Chrissy on the worthiness of Battlestar Galactica, while she waxed eloquent of Grey’s Anatomy. So we traded, watched an episode of both.

It wasn’t until almost 1am that I finally made it back home. And what a day! Up at 5am, my first road race, SF Symphony in the Park, ice cream with friends, and an evening of great conversation.

On Sunday July 10th, I participated in my first road race since I started running a few months ago. It was a 10k (6.2 miles) run down in Los Gatos called the “Jungle Run“. I had been doing this distance before during my runs in the park, so I knew I could do it. Stephanie was also running this race, and we got there early at around 6:30am. The race started and finished at the Los Gatos High School track — we warmed up by doing a couple of laps in a slow jog, and stretched the legs out. While Stephanie is used to running early in the morning, it was new to me — I do mine mostly in the evening or in the late morning. It was a bit chilly to start with, but with the sun out it started to warm up. The half-marathoners started at 7:00pm, and then by 7:10 the 10k runners were lined up. We ended up farther back from the starting line than we should have been, so when the race started Steph and I ended up darting our way through the pack for the first quarter mile or so.

The race took us through some neighborhoods before weaving through a park and along a paved trail running by a lake and stream. There were a few steep, short hills — one at the very beginning, one around mile 4, then a gut-check at around the 5 mile point. I was able to stick with Steph for the first two miles or so, but then she started to break out. Overall I was still feeling pretty good — I had RunMonster going but with it clipped to my shorts I wasn’t aware of my pace. Right around mile 4 though, I started to feel the legs cramp a bit. There was a super high priority project the week leading up the race, and I wasn’t able to find time to do some light runs, so the day before the race I did a 4 miler in the park — felt great actually and was my best pace. But people said I probably shouldn’t have done a run like that less than 24 hours before the real race. I had to take a quick breather so did a 30 second walk, but gathered myself and finished the race running. I definitely felt I could do better in those last two miles.

I crossed the finish line with a chip-time of 53:47, which comes out to about a 8:40 minutes per mile pace — actually better than I had expected! Steph was there waiting, finishing 15th out of 470 women with a chip time of 50:16, finishing just a hair over an 8 min/mi pace. Wow! She crushed it.

We got some water, a snow cone, and took in the atmosphere for another half hour. After that, headed back up to Mountain View where I freshened up and headed back up to the City. Next up for the day: a free symphony in Golden Gate Park!

Last Friday was Battle: Pie at work. This battle’s contestants: me, Paul, Chrissy, and first time entrant Stephanie. Being the kickoff to the long July 4th holiday — America’s Weekend — I went all out with the patriotic flair. My entry was a strawberry rhubarb fruit pie, with the filling cooked down a bit on the stove top with sugar, butter, and rum. The blue part of the pie were blueberries. Leftover pie crust was used to form the stripes, and the cute stars were courtesy of Stephanie, who used a star-shaped fondant cutter for her hand pies.

Chrissy’s brought a chocolate cream pie with a thick meringue topping, but the real kicker was a layer of peanut butter between the chocolate cream and the pie crust. You don’t expect it, but the flavor takes a delightful leap onto your taste buds when you take a bite.

Stephanie made hand pies, with three types of filling — apple, strawberry, and blueberry. Homemade pie dough and really well made. The apple filling had just the right hint of nutmeg and cinnamon. Yum!

In my opinion, Paul won the match. He brought in an exquisitely prepared chocolate cream pie (a riff of a Julia Child recipe) made with a dash of dark coffee, rum, and Cointreau, with an Oreo crumb crust, topped with a dusting of cocoa powder. It had the perfect combination of culinary expertise, excellence in technical execution, intelligent adaption of a recipe (with the Cointreau and Oreo crust), presentation, and it tasted spectacular. Way to go Paul, huge props. :)

Friday was a great day for another reason too — for lunch Chrissy and I made a run to Ike’s Place in Stanford and got sandwiches for the team. Some of them had never tried Ike’s before, but they became instant fans.

I was planning on staying in the Sunday after the Pride Celebration, but then I heard about the Alice Summerthing free concert in Golden Gate Park happening that afternoon. How could I pass that up? And wouldn’t you know, I even recognized the artists too — Michelle Branch, Matt Nathanson, and OneRepublic.

Chrissy was thinking the same thing too, so we drove up to the park, luckily found parking not too far south, and got some food for a light picnic. The meadow was packed. I had seen the preparations for this while on my run the previous day, but I had never seen so many people here before. We kept making our way back, and found a little alcove tucked behind some vendor tents. Couldn’t see the stage, but we were so far anyway that we wouldn’t have seen anything anyway. But we could still hear the music.  Weather was warm, sunny, and nice. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Two Saturdays ago (need to post these sooner), I went for my weekend long run in Golden Gate Park and set new personal distance record, so that felt good. After freshening up at home, I immediately headed over to Chrissy and Dave’s place to rendezvous — they, Dave’s friend Jacqueline, and I headed up to Civic Center for the 2011 Pride Celebration. This weekend was SF Pride, arguably the signature event for the gay community in San Francisco. The timing was rather apt too — just the day before the New York state senate passed a bill that would make New York the largest state to allow gay marriage. We spotted several “I Love NY” signs in the crowd — it was just bittersweet that California wasn’t already on the list.

There were stages setup around Civic Center with live music and dancing, food stalls, information booths, and a general party atmosphere. The following day would be the big Pride Parade. After kicking it around Civic Center, we decided to head down to Dolores Park where a march and bike parade was going to happen. I realized that we were going to pass near the famous Ike’s Place sandwich shop. I had barely eaten anything since my long run earlier that morning, so Chrissy and I made a detour for Ike’s, then found a spot in the park to eat. JLo (Jon) happened to be in the City that day for the launch of a friend’s new suit apparel company, so he dropped by looking all snazzy.

We took in the crowds at Dolores Park until the motorcycle march took place, then Chrissy and I ended up headed back home; we lost Dave and Jacqueline somewhere along the way. The bus lines were a huge mess, so we ended up walking all the back to Noe. There was a epic block party unfolding in the Castro district…obviously.

First, let me get the requisite origin story of the way: following a bad breakup and failed promises of a band, Justin Vernon retreated back to his father’s cabin in the woods of Wisconsin, bringing with him a guitar and basic recording equipment. He emerged several months later with what became the album For Emma, Forever Ago whose raw, emotional, and haunting sounds propelled his new music project – Bon Iver – to prominence among the indie music scene.

Last week saw the release of his self-titled second LP, and it’s an extraordinary album. We are no longer in a secluded cabin in the woods, left alone with our thoughts. Vernon has emerged, expanding the core of his sound (with that signature falsetto) with more lush instrumentation and textures. Some of the tracks themselves are named after places; some real like Calgary or Perth, and some not like Michicant, or Hinnom, TX.

My favorite song so far is Holocene, a devastatingly beautiful track.

…and at once I knew I was not magnificent
strayed above the highway aisle
(jagged vacance, thick with ice)
I could see for miles, miles, miles

As a fellow Bon Iver fan I recently met so perfectly described, “the line that ends with ‘magnificent’ makes my stomach turn every time, but in the best possible way.”

Bon Iver – Holocene
(song removed by request)

I’ve listened to this album dozens of times over the past few weeks, and still find it difficult to find a second song to showcase this album. You’ll undoubtedly hear Calgary, the first single, so I’ll offer another track:

Bon Iver – Minnesota, WI
(song removed by request)

The summer tour kicks off in late July, so check the schedule for dates. Chicago 7/24 (sold out), Atlanta 7/28, Raleigh 7/29, Berkeley 9/22.