Debbie and Jeff invited Harry and Annie Weil, Suzette and me
and Debbi’s new client named Brian from the D.C. area to the Retro Music dinner
at Tanoan CC. The dinner was served in a
large room with a wall of windows facing the mountains on the north with a
spectacular view like a large panoramic Wilson Hurley painting of the late
afternoon sunlight brilliantly lighting the Sandia Mountains in golden light. A dance floor was set up near the windows and
one the other side of the room was a long buffet table and near it a bar area
and a table with tea and coffee.
We arrived early a bit before the designated 7:00 start time,
so I took a cup of Earl Grey tea with cream and sugar to relax and rehydrate me
from the 10 mile bike ride we had taken to Montano. In a few minutes folks started rolling in. Soon we were all together around a table near
the dance floor talking, when the servers began to bring large steaming trays
of food out and insert them into the hot water containers on the buffet line.
After a few more minutes when folks began to wander over to
the food, we went over and took plates of food.
The selections were lovely: a green salad with grape tomatoes and the
usual three types of dressing (Vinaigrette, Ranch and Blue), roasted potatoes, egg
noodles and beef stroganoff, chicken in a tomato and onion sauce with capers
and fresh parsley and three kinds of rolls.
There were also two desserts, a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache
filling and a cherry cheesecake. The
best dish of the dinner was the potatoes.
Suzette thought they had been boiled and then sautéed in oil. I thought they were boiled and then roasted. Any way they were dried out on the inside
and flakey and not greasy. I ordered
glasses of Sterling Central Coast Pinot Noir for Suzette and me.
The music was provided by Matt Rixx, who played the guitar
and a synthesizer; mostly a selection of 60’s and 70’s easy listening ballads like
Jimmy Buffet’s “Just another Tequila Sunrise”.
In fact tequila seemed to be the theme of Matt’s evening of entertainment,
perhaps to not so subliminally influence folks to drink more. When we left I asked for and received Matt’s
card and found out his day job is running the MattRixx Institute of Subliminal
Influence and Persuasion. No wonder we
all liked his music so much. Actually I though
he had a lovely soft voice that made it easy to listen to the music.
All in all, a very pleasant evening. Linda and some of the girls club girls were
in attendance but I did not gab with them and only danced my required two
dances with Suzette and no others. Also,
I asked Harry, who is half Jewish, how he came the U.S. and he told me a
harrowing story of being separated from his parents in Austria, when they fled
to Switzerland ahead of him by six weeks at the age of 8 years old and then how
he crossed into Switzerland on his own and left Europe from Le Havre in April
1939, ahead of the German invasion six months ahead of the war. How far it seems we are from the terror and
dislocation that ruled the world and traumatized so many lives for so long as
we sit drinking lovely wine and food with friends in the evening sunlight of
New Mexico.
Bon Appétit
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