2006-05-30T18:05:00.000-07:00

ARCH ENEMY Frontwoman GOSSOW Looks Back On U.S. And Mexican Tour - May 27, 2006

ARCH ENEMY frontwoman Angela Gossow has posted the following message on the band's official web site:"THANK YOU SO MUCH to everybody who rocked the house with us on the U.S. tour!!! We all had a blast and we have met a lot of wonderful people — you, our fans and friends in metal! A special 'hell yeah' goes out to HATE ETERNAL, NEVERMORE, GOD FORBID and those crazy lads from CHIMAIRA. Drinking a whole bottle of hot sauce and then throwing up before the show — that can't be good for you, Mark! "After getting off the tour bus New Jersey, we traveled to Mexico. Yes! We made it to Monterrey with ALL our gear; we had 22 pieces of excess luggage and an overbooked flight. Well, actually two overbooked flights. The level of stress was boiling up; Sharlee [D'Angelo, bass] didn't get a seat and was on standby. I was 99% sure my luggage wouldn't show up (a nightmare come true for any woman) or at least my microphone. But all our gear made it over there (and all band members and crew!). Now we were ready for those margaritas they promised us. Let the killing begin. "And hell, yes, how it killed! We did a signing session in Monterrey, with hundreds of kids piling up in front of that store. I am sorry we couldn't sign all your stuff and take pictures, but we had a little bit of soundcheck to do. Daniel [Erlandsson, drums] actually played on a golden sparkle drum kit that night and it took him a while to take it in and accept it, he-he... The show went well despite all the dodgy rental gear we had to use. The Iguana club was packed to the ceiling. Mexican metal fans…screaming, jumping, moshing. Wonderful. "The next morning it was a 7:30 a.m. lobby call for us. You can't really do this with a metal band, especially not with me. I am NOT a morning type. And 7:30 a.m. is in the middle of the night for me — considering the fact that I never, NEVER get up before 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon on tour. The earliest time I feel human is 12 noon. But we had a flight to catch, playing that night in Mexico City. So I put on the blackest sunglasses I could find and made my way down to the lobby on all fours (I can't walk that early either). I was relieved to see the guys being at least as grumpy as I was. I was not alone in my disgust for early mornings. But the late evening made up for this. "Mexico City. The venue (Circo Volador) we played is HUGE. And we managed to pretty much pack it. The show — beyond comprehension. Imagine 2,300 kids jumping up and down simultaneously. Singing along. Screaming. Absolutely overwhelming. There is no better way to end a successful tour. It was our first time in Mexico and we will come back for more. We are also looking at options to play other South American countries. We didn't have the time to do a signing session in Mexico City. Travel, sound check and show are already a lot to handle in just one day. We will do this when we come back. And I hope its sooner than later. "A special thanx to the promoter Alejandro and his good people with EyeScream Concerts for taking care of us. It was all so smooth and well-organized! "We will take a little, well-deserved break now before we enter the European festival season. We are playing plenty of them. See you on some muddy, green field in the middle of nowhere soon!"ARCH ENEMY will release their first DVD, "Live Apocalypse", on August 8 via Century Media. The disc is "chock-full of phenomenal live footage, in-depth interviews and promotional video clips," according to a press release.

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=52908

2006-05-30T18:03:00.000-07:00

Le Cirque's Velvet Touch Returns to a Jeans Scene

By DAVID CARR
Published: May 24, 2006

FOR months, as the latest incarnation of Le Cirque has been built out in the Bloomberg tower on East 58th Street, regulars have stopped by, ostensibly to check the progress of construction, but mostly scouting to see where they will sit.

Le Cirque, the 3.0 version, is a huge bet — with $18 million already invested — that New Yorkers still yearn for the social validation bestowed by a good table from Sirio Maccioni and his three sons.
They are betting on a restaurant that exhibits all the virulent Darwinism of a high school cafeteria — everyone wants to sit with the cool kids — and further requires them to dress as if they were going to the prom.
Even though the current dining scene is dominated by downtown casual, "people want some glamour, they want to dress up," said Ruth Reichl, editor of Gourmet magazine, rather decked out herself on Monday night at a party held by the magazine at Le Cirque for its own invited guests and attended by some of the sharpest knives in chefdom.
Near the end of the night some pricey French reds were decanted near the chef's table, which was surrounded by members of the New York dining elite including Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Danny Meyer, Rebecca Charles, Dan Barber and Mr. Maccioni himself. The cool kids at the party, as generally happens, had ended up in the kitchen.
And so continues a story as old as the city where it's told. An immigrant, by dint of hard work and long hours, finally gets a restaurant he can call his own. His sons, in spite of his protestations, follow him into the business. They, like their father, are destined to feed the needs of others every day before collapsing into bed, only to wake up and do it again.
Except that this story ends with the family owning the reincarnated Le Cirque, as well as the Manhattan trattoria Osteria del Circo and two more Le Cirque locations in Las Vegas and Mexico City.
For the time being, Marco, the middle son, will work with his father at Le Cirque; Mauro, the youngest, will run Circo; and Mario will return to Las Vegas.
After a string of opening parties, the fancy circus tent at 151 East 58th Street will fling open its doors to actually seat people — carefully, strategically, hierarchically — next Wednesday.
THE latest incarnation of Le Cirque — Le Cirque 2000 served its last meal as 2004 closed — is a stab at a kind of immortality in a business where heat is measured in weeks.
Mr. Maccioni, at age 74, is working in a medium he all but invented, where haute cuisine combines with a carefully managed social hierarchy to create a kind of entertainment combustion.
"Le Cirque spawned certain disciplines that we all follow," said Drew Nieporent of Nobu.
But will a dining scene now stuffed with casual excellence respond to the gaudy elegance of a Cirque feathered into a huge tower on the East Side?
Corby Kummer, an editor at The Atlantic Monthly who writes about food, called Sirio the consummate maître d'hôtel but said the next generation of Maccionis will have to attract a new generation of swells.
"They are out there, but will they dress up and come?" Mr. Kummer asked. "They like Perry Street, they like Mario Batali, they like good food with a more casual approach."
Le Cirque redux is, as the circus décor in the new location suggests, a bit of a high-wire act in a city that is now rife with ambitious chefs and knowing mâitres d'hôtel, many of whom were schooled by Sirio.
Among his feats of hospitality, none has been more Olympian than the one last Thursday night, when 1,400 people showed up to inspect the new restaurant.
"I worry about everything, everything," Sirio said, rocking on his heels in a black patterned tux as the first guests began streaming in. His Old World charms were draped over Bill Cosby, Billy Joel and Tony Bennett. Many of them were lavish in their homage, and he responded with a Tuscan warmth specific to him, speaking Italian to some, French to others, a musically accented English to most.
But the A-list is somewhat ossified, and it is the stream of Euros, downtown scenesters and newly nouveaux riches that must come back if Le Cirque is to elbow its way back to the table.
"Sirio is a complete natural," said Julian Niccolini, a partner at the Four Seasons, standing outside the tent. "You can't go wrong at his restaurant."
"But we are all going after the same clientele," Mr. Niccolini said, "and it will take time to see how it settles out. It is competitive for all of us."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/24/dining/24siri.html

Circo hi hi