Comments on Today the Stranger Suggests

It's true: Ototo is delicious. Possibly the best sushi I've ever had. But they're open every night - is the city really so slow tonight that the best suggestion is eating dinner?

L.A. quartet Lavender Diamond are, as their name suggests, a richly hued and light-filled affair, with often severely simple songs packed to the brim with easy riding hope and goodliness. Begun as a solo performance project, LD is now a full-fledged quartet including guitarist Jeff Rosenberg (ex—Young People), cartoonist/drummer Ron Rege Jr., and original birdsongstress Becky Stark. Their new album, Imagine Our Love (their debut for indie mammoth Matador Records), contains styles spanning from buoyant, Belle & Sebastian—ish jams to more-hushed, china-shop-fragile ballads. Overwhelmingly, the songs deal with love, lost love, and treading lightly over the world; the lovely "Garden Rose" extends a passive and yielding stance even in the face of accidental death or potential insincerity. The overarching vibe is of extreme and penetrating tenderness, all the way up to the band's sweetly forthright calls for "Peace on Earth Forever." SAM MICKENS

I ate at Ototo once and while I agree that the sushi is top notch, Ototo itself is a trendy hellhole. Go down the hill to Fremont and eat at Chiso instead. The sushi is every bit as good and the atmosphere is a lot better.

I agree Chiso is better but Ototo is the only place I've seen that serves a Lobster Roll.

Cream Cheese in Makisushi? I want
to retch. There isn't a decent
sushiya in Seattle since Sanmi closed. As for Japanese grinds, Tsukushimbo
is Da Kine.

---Jensen