Our February 11, 2008 Show

See the SlideShow 

Download the Podcast(or subcribe using iTunes)

See the video of Kurt in Love Iragi Style

Check for current gigs for these guests

Seems like everyone took us up on our invitation to be our "not exactly Valentines" on February 11!  We started out with something new:  a hysterical video of Kurt's performance in  "Love:Iraqi Style,"  taped in LA at Groundlings theater.  The laughter only died down when Vicki Burns took the stage with her rendition of "I'm Old Fashioned."  Next, the audience hung onto every word as Beth Lisick regaled us with tales from her stint as a Lollapalooza slam poetry star, her recent book tour for Helping Me Help Myself, and life in general.  Beth even performed one of her greatest hits (?) with the band, a rare treat.   By the time Chuck Siegel took the stage to rhapsodize about chocolate -- while passing out Charles Chocolates truffles to the audience -- we all thought we'd died and gone to heaven.  And as if this wasn't all enough, we had fabulous music before, during and after the show by our own Cafe Americain (and Vicki!), plus a surprise drop-in guest, our favorite dixieland jazz master, Mal Sharpe.   We couldn't even get people out of the house after the after-party-- the band, Kurt and I were all on our way out the door before the last audience members gave up their tables.

About Our Featured Guests

BETH LISICK

Bay Area performance celebrity and writer Beth Lisick has published poems, essays, and a short fiction collection, and she wrote a weekly nightlife column for SF Gate for eight years. Her stage and screen collaborations with writer/performer Tara Jepsen have yielded some uncomfortable moments, the most recent being a short film called Diving for Pearls, which continues to play the international film festival circuit. She also co-organizes the Porchlight Storytelling Series, a popular monthly show for  storytellers in San Francisco. Her 2005 book, Everybody Into the Pool, was a New York Times extended list bestseller and made Entertainment Weekly's list of Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2005.  And her newest book, Helping Me Help Myself (on bookshelves January 3) is already the talk of the nation. . . literally:  she gave a Talk of the Nation interview with Neil Conan on New Year's Day.

CHUCK SIEGEL

Chuck Siegel started his first premium chocolate company, Attivo Confections, in San Francisco in 1987.  For more than seven years he dedicated himself to recreating his childhood favorites with a  gourmet sensibility.  Products that are now fairly common in the world of gourmet confections were first created at Attivo, including The Apple, a giant Granny Smith coated in fresh cream caramel, dipped in bittersweet chocolate and coated with Macadamia nuts or crumbled biscotti, as well as the first gourmet s'more.  After taking a break from the world of chocolate and becoming part of the Silicon Valley "dot com" revolution, Siegel went back to his true love and founded Charles Chocolates in 2004.   Now three years old, Charles Chocolates is regarded as one of the most notable super-premium chocolatiers in the country.  The company makes its product in Emeryville and recently launched a retail store there as well.

VICKI BURNS

Vicki Burns is a jazz singer who has been delighting audiences in the Bay Area for the past ten years.  Before moving west in 1989, Vicki performed regularly at  prominent Boston area jazz clubs throughout the 80's, including Ryles, 1369 Club, the Starlight Roof and the Turtle Café.   In the Bay Area, Vicki's been a featured performer in concerts and special events at the San Jose Museum's "Women in Jazz" series, the San Jose Jazz Festival, The Great American Music Hall, Kimball's East, and "The Jazz and All That" Festival in the Fillmore.  In the East Bay, her regular gigs include Sweet Jimmie's, Dillard's, Downtown, and the Claremont.  In San Francisco Vicki performs at such venues as Enrico's, Hotel Donatello, Bistro Yoffi,  the Cosmopolitan Cafe, the Firefly, as well  as numerous other locations around town.  Her CD Siren Song has received airplay on more than 60 radio stations throughout the country.

Plus a special (anti-)Valentine's Day contribution by TSL host  Kurt Bodden