PolarLava::Blog

In a rare night out —the last being my company Christmas party in mid-December, Mary Lou and I went to dinner and the Falletta Competition last night.  First up was an early dinner at Tsunami.  This is a well spoken of local Asian restaurant.  We started with a bottle of Francis Coppola Bianco Pinot Grigio, a Japanese Ginger Salad from ML and a Spicy Tuna Roll for me.  For our main course, ML had the Fresh Island Fish (with an avacado salsa instead of tomato bacon sauce) and I had the Hawaiian Butterfish.  A truly outstanding dinner accompanied by a first class waiter.

After dinner we were off to Kleinhan's Music Hall for the finals of the second biennial JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition.  This concert/competition featured Isaac Bustos (USA), Pablo Garibay (Mexico) and Masao Tanibe (Japan).  All three proved to be truly amazing performers and we had a wonderful evening.  Bustos finished third, although I had him ranked second; Tanibe, who clearly won the Audience Choice Award finished second —he was my pick to win; and Garibay whom I ranked third won both the Buffalo Philharmonic Musicians' Award and the overall competition.  Apparently I missed something!  ;)  But I obviously wasn't alone as Tanibe's passion and performance certainly wowed the crowd.  All in all it was a nice relaxing evening out with my beautiful and loving wife.  And it the end, that's all that really mattered to me.