Susan and I have just returned from Santa Barbara where we spent the afternoon catching up with our old friend, an international authority and scholar of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, Giovanni Maciocia . We discussed his line of Chinese herbal  formulas and looked at his amazing library of Chinese language reference books.  He is doing such great work for everyone in our profession.  His most recent book, the subject of which I can’t reveal but which is with his publisher now and will be available in about 12 months (too long!) is going to be a revelation for the Chinese Medical community. 

The book at the top is Giovanni’s copy of the "The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine", one of the oldest medical text books in the world. Susan and I often use some of the poetic quotes from this famous tome. This is what it looks like inside:

From Giovanni’s we drove to Joanne Hsian’s intimate restaurant, “Spirit Land Bistro” at 230 E. Victoria where we enjoyed a marvelous organic dining experience.  Ken, her maitre d’ steered us in the direction of a very pleasant glass of biodynamically grown 2004 Tempranillo wine from Hice Cellars in Paso Robles which Ken tells us uses “old world” methods in it’s production.  I am anticipating visiting Hice Cellars and seeing exactly what they do. 

We discovered that though Spirit Land Bistro is only a little over a year old Joanne has found the time to launch her free “Tuesday Night for Healing” series of dialogues where anyone who’s interested can hear a variety of local healers speak about their methods and philosophies.  These evenings are moderated by the nutritionist Dale Figtree and the speakers include acupuncturists, medical doctors, Hawaiian bodyworkers, cleansing experts, and many others. 

 Since Joanne is very interested in bringing Chinese Medicine and other healing modalities into the local community we have been invited to teach at Spiritland. We will keep you posted. Julian

Further information is available at:  www.spiritlandbistro.com or www.dalefigtree.com