An Enjoyable Profile

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/magazine/tony-rice-guitar-hero.html?_r=0

                                                                 Intro

     One morning last September, the red carpet was laid in Raleigh, N.C., for the 2013 International Bluegrass Music Awards, which had moved there from Nashville to escape country music’s shadow. The city’s bronze statue of Sir Walter Raleigh was newly adorned with a banjo. A few miles from the convention center, I was on my phone, trying to find out if Tony Rice, the legendary flatpick guitarist, would show up for his induction into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame. “Tony has canceled a lot of dates over the last decade,”his longtime agent, Keith Case, had told me, “but nobody plays like him, either.” Rice was still asleep at his home in Reidsville, 85 miles away. Pamela, his wife of almost 25 years, was debating whether to give him a B-12 shot to provide strength for the drive.
       Rice’s warm, slightly nasal baritone has been silenced for nearly two decades by muscle-tension dysphonia, a disorder that contracts muscles around the vocal cords, interrupting speech and strangling pitch. Rice attributes the throat spasms partly to the strain of singing for years above his natural range — though he does not deny that the stress of life on the road has played its part as well. The last time he recalls singing in public was the 1994 Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival. “Guys, this is it,” he said midset. “I have to shut it down.” His most recent recorded vocal is an elegant but hoarse 1999 cover of Tom Waits’s “Pony.”

                                                                  Outro

      Rice believes his dysphonia can be defeated. His doctor tells him the voice box is uninjured, though trapped. Freedom comes with relearning muscle postures lost for 20 years. He starts each day by humming whatever tune comes into his head, because “the only way you can hum is in your natural voice.” Once he has summoned his voice, he uses it for his daily prayer. Eventually he hopes to sing again in his instinctive baritone.
     “It’s getting a little easier every day,” he told me, “if I think about it” — he focused and his tone shifted, resonated — “yeah, if I think about it, I can do it.” But it’s tiring work. When it gets to be too much, he takes his pick to the strings of the D-28, the one instrument that has never let him down.

The Grove Restaurant Review

A Cozy Atmosphere for Delicious Dining

By: Andrew Noerr, Feature Writing Student

            When I took my first bite out of the voluptuous Grove French Toast, it seemed as if everything around me disappeared. I completely forgot about the pouring rain outside, the noise of the crowd in the restaurant murmuring away, the sound of food being grilled and fried in the background, and the clattering of dishes being stacked upon each other. No, the only sensation I felt was the taste of the delectable French Toast in its soft and chewy glory. There was no place I’d rather have been at that moment, and I was pleased to have chosen The Grove in Hayes Valley as my destination for breakfast on a gloomy and rainy Saturday morning.

            Even though San Francisco was being drenched in rain at the time, the people who attended The Grove that morning didn’t seem to notice or care. The restaurant was semi-filled with people chatting away happily while eating the quality breakfast and brunch items that The Grove has to offer. While the food certainly deserves the majority of the credit, it is not the only factor that contributed to the joyful ambience that filled the venue. The employees of The Grove also put in a great effort to make their customers feel very comfortable as they enjoy their early meals.

            Dubbed “San Francisco’s Living Room,” The Grove is a medium-sized communal dining café tucked on the corner of Hayes and Franklin streets. The restaurant has a cozy atmosphere that is created by numerous factors. First, numerous tables surround the interior of the café, and customers have a choice of seating themselves in a tall, comfy chair or sitting next to the large windows on pillows laying on long wooden platforms. However, this is not the only choice for people wishing to eat inside, as they can also veer left of the entrance of the café towards a fireplace where consumers can eat on unorthodox and fancy chairs that look as if they were transported from the Victorian age to San Francisco. Once seated, people are able to enjoy the soft sounds of indie rock and other music that plays through the speakers on the ceiling, as the café never seems to get too loud no matter how many people are occupying the place. The Grove truly makes customers feel that they are eating in a “grove” not of trees but of warmth and comfort.

            However, with all that has been said about the cozy atmosphere of the café, it is the delicious food that sticks out the most during dining experiences at The Grove. The menu consists of numerous great breakfast and lunch options that can sate anyone’s food tastes. For breakfast, consumers can’t go wrong with any choice, but my recommendation is The Grove French Toast priced at $8.75. This meal is simply superb, as it is made on Sweet Batard bread, and it is oven roasted to make it deliciously soft and easy to consume. Lathering it in maple syrup only increased the amount of incredible flavor that I experienced in my mouth. Customers can add caramel bananas to their order of The Grove French Toast for an extra $.95 too if they wish to go all out. Still, The Grove French Toast is a superb choice upon many great times to select on The Grove menu for breakfast.

            For those who seek to eat lunch at The Grove, there are also many appealing options for a mid-day meal as well. Upon a second visit to the restaurant, I made myself familiar with their lunch options, and it was The Grove Turkey Club priced at $10.95 that won the affection of my taste buds. It is a sandwich consisting of many different elements, and each ingredient never dominates over any of the others during each mouth-watering bite. The Grove Turkey Club is made up of house-roasted turkey with lettuce, bacon, and tomatoes on crunchy Sweet Batard bread. If customers are willing to fork over another $1.25 though, they will be treated to the addition of avocado to the already addictive sandwich. Overall, this is an excellent sandwich that can send any consumer into a satisfying food coma.

            In addition to the delicious food items on the menu at The Grove, there are also some intriguing drinks that act as good supplements to the numerous breakfast and lunch options. The specific drinks that stood out to me the most were the apple juice and lemonade. The Grove offers something a bit different when it comes to those basic menu items. It offers Ratzlaff Ranch Apple Juice and Lavender Lemonade. The apple juice comes from an apple farm in Sebastopol where all of the products are organic and freshly made. The Lavender Lemonade is unique in its own right as well, as the mixture of different flavors really blend well to help make one’s meal an overall pleasurable experience.

            Lastly, the service at The Grove was very helpful, and the employees really made me feel like I was in my own living room when I went there. When I first arrived at the restaurant, I was greeted by an African American man who smiled and greeted me immediately. He then offered me a menu which I accepted. Since The Grove is unlike a normal restaurant in the sense that customers get in line to order meals and sit wherever they like, there is undoubtedly more interaction between employees and consumers. Therefore, the quality of the service is important, and The Grove did not disappoint. The most surprising aspect of the service was that the manager talks to the customers more than the waiters/waitresses do. Manager Steve Ring spends his days not locked up in some office in the back of the restaurant, but rather he travels to every table to make sure that all of the customers are satisfied with their experience at The Grove. I was truly impressed with the kindness and thoughtfulness of everyone working at the café.

            Overall, The Grove is definitely an above-average restaurant with many intriguing meals, interesting drinks, a cozy and relaxing atmosphere, and thoughtful service. The goal stated by Ring is to have a quality “scratch kitchen with fresh food” that can appeal to anyone. It certainly seems like he is achieving his goal, and the restaurant deserves the crowds that it has received day in and day out. This is a dining experience that everyone should try, and it is recommended to not just college students but anyone trying to grab a quick meal and relax during a stressful day.

                                                                                                                                                           

The Grove, 301 Hayes Street, San Francisco, CA, (415) 624-3953. Open Mon. – Fri. 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sat. – Sun. 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Takeout. Street Parking. Cash and credit cards accepted. Good for groups ranging from 2-6 people. Recommended dish: The Grove French Toast.

Alternate Locations: 2016 Fillmore Street (415) 474-1419, 690 Mission Street (415) 957 – 0558

Rating: ★★★★

★★★★★ = Legendary, one-of-a-kind eatery

★★★★ = Excellent venue that appeals to everyone

★★★ = Above-Average, perhaps not worth the price though

★★ = Average food w/ issues regarding service or prices

★ = Not worth your money or your time

                                

           

            

One Opportunity (Immigrant Story)

One Opportunity

Salvadoran refugee escapes gang wars to seek peace and security in US

By: Andrew Noerr, Feature Writing student (2/3/14)

Disclaimer: The subject of this story was given an alias to protect his identity.

            Javier Sandoval is a refugee from El Salvador who escaped to the United States when he was 18 years old. A medium-sized young man with black hair who is not afraid to share a laugh at any moment, Sandoval opened up about his life inside the living room of a comfortable home in Marin County. When he first arrived in the US, his mindset was simple: All that is needed for success is one opportunity, and then hard work and dedication will reward you from there.

“Down there (in El Salvador), we say that the United States…. has thousands of opportunities. If you get one opportunity, then you are the cool one,” Sandoval says while laughing. “That’s all you need.”

            For Sandoval, he got that one opportunity while living with some of his uncles illegally. After looking for work, he finally got a job at a solar distribution company in Sacramento. He has worked there ever since, and it has built a foundation for him to pursue even more success. Sandoval revealed that he will soon work towards getting a GED in order to pursue a better job.

During his childhood though, Sandoval was prone to many hardships that plagued him and his family. He dealt with many issues that were mostly associated to gang wars occurring in El Salvador. However, one of the biggest challenges in his life had already been presented to him the day he was born.

            “I never met my father,” Sandoval admits. “When my mom met my dad, he got… killed. My mom was three months pregnant when that happened.”

            Even without a father, Sandoval still lived with his mother and worked hard at a young age. He attended elementary school in his hometown Santana, and then he went to San Jose High School in San Salvador. In El Salvador though, doing well in school was not the only focus for kids seeking to survive on a daily basis. Sandoval says that walking in the streets alone was extremely dangerous.

            “Down there (in El Salvador), we have a lot of fighting… and war,” Sandoval states. “(There are) gangs. Every month, they ask you… to make a payment to them. (It’s) just to be safe… (or) they’ll do something to your family.”

            Sandoval later revealed that there are two gangs in particular that are wreaking havoc in the streets of El Salvador. These gangs are called Mara Salvatrucha and Mara 18. These gangs are prominent in many countries in Central America, but according to InSight Crime, Mara Salvatrucha and Mara 18 actually sprung out of neighborhoods in Los Angeles, California. Once the US started to deport gang members back to El Salvador in the ‘90s, they simply continued their life of crime in their home countries where violence and chaos were already present.

            Even worse, the police in El Salvador are often paid by gangs to neglect crimes that occur in many cities. It was this and the allure of peace and security in the United States that prompted Sandoval to escape the country with members from his dad’s side of the family. He only found a place to live because his grandma had already come to the US illegally and found a home for herself years before he came.

            Now for the past three and a half years, Sandoval has worked hard to keep himself afloat in American society. Asked where he would like to be ten years from now, Sandoval let it be known that for him, it’s not just about achieving the American Dream. While he has a desire to visit his family in El Salvador more often, he really just wants to feel what it’s like to achieve success in the United States.

            “I just want to be proud of myself,” he says with a smile on his face.