Tito and Little Mimo

This is so cool--I just had to share it!

From under a beer truck to health food ...

While we're buried under the massive project of getting our house ready to sell, we did take 90 minutes to go eat in a wonderful HEALTHY new restaurant, The Golden Chalice, in Chanhassen, MN.

Do you remember in the news last October, the woman who was crushed by a beer truck? No one could see her Subaru beneath the truck, so she tapped out 'shave-and-a-haircut' on her horn?' Then the EMT's realized her horn wasn't an electrical problem, but a human trapped under the truck.

That's our friend, the author Debbie Johnson.

She survived the beer truck accident (after weeks in the hospital) and we want to help her survive her restaurant venture.

If you like healthy food--or are just a plum foodie--please go eat there this week. And if you know anyone with food allergies, diabetes, or celiac disease, Debbie's food is all good stuff, low-glycemic, gluten- and sugar-free.

It's amazing she can make it all so delicious, yet so healthful.

Dave and I had the hummus platter, then he had a ginger stir fry while I had a cashew-curry dish. Awesome! I had to take my dessert home, a "tart" tart (they also offer a "sweet" tart and many other desserts.)

Everything was delicious--and I also noticed that the food really imparted a feeling of life to me that I rarely get with restaurant food.

The atmosphere is just lovely too. Soft music and lighting...(but brighter lighting in the Gallery area of the business.) Here's a link to their web site with directions, lunch and dinner menus, the phone number, hours and more:

Please go this week. Yum!!!

Postscript: Debbie met the love of her life and has moved to be with him!

Important classical music links you should know

Here are some good answers to a few of the most common questions (click the links) about classical music resources on the internet:

• Where can you educate yourself about classical music?
• Is there a quick crash course in classical music? 
• Where can you download classical music?
  
• Where are the classical podcast directories (see also)
• Where can you listen to classical music streaming online?
• Where can I begin to learn music theory online?
  

Who are the most important composers to know, and how can you find their music to listen to?

Here's a list of over five dozen of the most referenced and otherwise significant composers. Clicking the last name link will take you to a page where you can click the name that appears in bold red to download and listen to music by the composer:

1. Wagner, Richard
2. Bach, Johann Sebastian
3. Debussy, Claude
4. Stravinsky, Igor
5. Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
6. Beethoven, Ludwig van
7. Liszt, Franz
8. Schoenberg, Arnold
9. Chopin, Fryderyk
10. Schumann, Robert
11. Brahms, Johannes
12. Mendelssohn, Felix
13. Strauss, Richard
14. Haydn, Franz Joseph
15. Rossini, Gioachino
16. Ravel, Maurice
17. Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da
18. Berlioz, Hector
19. Corelli, Arcangelo
20. Gluck, Christoph WRvon
21. Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Il'yich
22. Bartók, Béla
23. Mahler, Gustav
24. Monteverdi, Claudio
25. Webern, Anton
26. Weber, Carl Maria von
27. Handel, George Frideric
28. Lully, Jean-Baptiste
29. Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay
30. Fauré, Gabriel
31. Mussorgsky, Modest
32. Franck, Cesar
33. Meyerbeer, Giacomo
34. Berg, Alban
35. Satie, Erik
36. Schubert, Franz
37. Verdi, Giuseppe
38. Scriabin, Alexander
39. Dukas, Paul
40. Gounod, Charles
41. Borodin, Alexander
42. Hindemith, Paul
43. Vivaldi, Antonio
44. Massenet, Jules
45. Sibelius, Jean
46. Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel
47. Cage, John
48. Bellini, Vincenzo
49. Reger, Max
50. Varèse, Edgard
51. Grieg, Edvard
52. Paganini, Niccolò
53. Glinka, Mikhail
54. Gershwin, George
55. Chabrier, Emmanuel
56. Scarlatti, Alessandro
57. Hasse, Johann Adolf
58. Frescobaldi, Girolamo
59. Lasso, Orlando di
60. Sammartini, Giovanni Battista
61. Buxtehude, Dieterich
62. Busoni, Ferruccio
63. Gabrieli, Giovanni
64. Couperin, François
65. Balakirev, Mily
66. Prokofiev, Sergei
67. Salieri, Antonio
68. Josquin Desprez
69. Dvorák, Antonin
70. Stanford, Charles Villiers

To keep abreast of news and interesting links on Classical Music, visit or subscribe to @Classical_Music on Twitter. Want an RSS feed of just Classical Music posts? Here you go!

Why share yourself with others?

One of the surest ways to feel good--about yourself, about the world-- is to help others in some way.

Shoveling someone's driveway, being the highway Good Samaritan, or volunteering for an organization that does good works are guaranteed ways to help create a world we all want to live in. (I have more than one friend who feeds the homeless whenever they can. Another uses her bellydance skills to entertain and teach at women's parties where everyone contributes a few bucks--and all the money goes directly to cancer patients.)

Here's an article about sharing yourself with others to get you started.

Bellydance news search from around the world!

I now have a link to belly dance in the news on my Mideastern dance site. Click bellydance news and enjoy! (And it changes all the time, 'cuz it's news.)

Also, over to the right here on my blog, and on my web site, I now have a search box that allows you to search the entire World Wide Web for ALL things related to belly dance, Raqs Sharqi, Middle Eastern Dance, Oriental Dance, etc. Just click in the box, type in your search terms, and it will ONLY give you results related to your search terms AND "belly dance."

Enjoy!