Oakland's Lake Chalet reviewed by NY Times

In what's supposed to be a restaurant review, but comes off as more of a general commentary, the New York Times reviewed my favorite Oakland Restaurant, Lake Chalet. (As a note, Lake Chalet was where I had the Oakland YouTube Meetup and I've served as spokesperson which started because I just plain love the place.)

I had to read the review in an effort to get out of my Oscar funk in the wake of the very weird treatment by their communications staff, but I digress. I don't understand what the reviewer means by "inconsistent menu" because the food's quite the same and I might add the menu's new. They changed it about a month ago. The new Half Chicken is fantastic.

What I'm wanting and waiting for is the Zennie62 Burger. It's my dream burger and would consist of:

1 lb. ground italian sausage
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper
sliced mushrooms, drained
sloppy joe and salsa sauce
kaiser rolls, toasted
2 cups (8 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese

Then...

In a large skillet saute sausage and onion, and bell peppers, then drain.
Then stir in mushrooms and special sloppy joe and salsa sauce
Heat until almost hot
Place mixture on rolls and top each with 1/4 cup cheese

That's the Zennie62 Burger! Great with a glass of Merlot!

Hope for Haiti Now concert performances and update

Last night's Hope for Haiti Now concert featured 19 performances from artists like Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Shakira, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake, U2, Wyclef Jean, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Mary J. Blige, John Legend, Christina Aguilera, Sting, Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban, and Kid Rock Jennifer Hudson, Emeline Michel, The Edge, Dave Matthews and Neil Young.

Here's the AP's video summary:



And Hope for Haiti Now attracted stars who worked the phones like Colin Farrell, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Julia Roberts, Jack Nicholson, Charlize Theron, Steven Spielberg, Ellen DeGeneres, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Robert Pattinson, Denzel Washington, Matt Damon, Clint Eastwood, Halle Berry, and Ben Stiller.

Bill Clinton, United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti, and head of the Bush / Clinton Haiti Fund, gave this speech:



The Hope for Haiti Now concert event was in Los Angeles, New York, and Haiti, where CNN's Anderson Cooper is working to report on the country's effort to recover from the 7.0 Haiti Earthquake. Hope for Haiti Now was organized by Up In The Air star George Clooney, who said to MTV, "I think it's the same message that everybody does, that churches do, that communities do — which is everybody participate, help out, whatever way you can."

Hope For Haiti Now as event planning was put together very rapidly, about the same time as the Haiti Earthquake itself ended. George Clooney explained to MTV how he came to be involved in forming Help For Haiti Now:

"I was in New York the evening it (the Haiti Earthquake) happened. It happened at four or five o'clock, and I got a message from Wyclef that he's gonna go into the Dominican Republic and that it was much worse than what's initially been reported," Clooney explained. "We knew it was bad, but who knew how bad. And he said, 'Is there anything you can do?' So the next morning, I woke up and called (MTV CEO) Judy McGrath at MTV, and Judy said, 'We were thinking about doing something too,' so I said, 'Let's do it.' And I flew back to L.A., and as soon as I landed we got the other networks involved. And now it's every major network, every single one. At some point, it got to a place [when] you couldn't be the network that didn't [join in]."

The list of participating networks was vast: CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1, CMT, PBS, TNT, Showtime, Comedy Central, Bravo, E! Entertainment, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, CENTRIC, Current TV, Fuse, MLB Network, EPIX, Palladia, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health, Planet Green, CNN en Español, HBO Latino and Canadian networks, including CBC Television, CTV, Global Television and MuchMusic. As of this writing, there's no official estimate of the television viewer count; that should come next week.

Hope for Haiti Now may have been the most media-exposed event in history; it was also streamed online at MTV.com, YouTube.com, VH1, and MySpace, Fancast, AOL, MSN.com, Yahoo!, Bing.com, BET.com, CNN.com and Rhapsody, and on cell phones by way of Alltel, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and FloTV.

Hope for Haiti Now

You can still help now by going to www.HopeforHaitinow.org or calling by phone at 877-99-HAITI. You can even text "GIVE" to 50555.

Here are some of the 19 performances from Hope for Haiti Now, Friday night:

Alicia Keys (video link):

Donate Now: 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org

Stevie Wonder: (video link)

Donate Now: 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org

Shakira (video link):

Donate Now: 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org

Coldplay (video link):

Donate Now: 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org

Taylor Swift (video link)

Donate Now: 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org

Stay tuned.