When one walks into the theater to see “Precious,” the film made from the novel, Push, by Sapphire, one walks directly into the violent, hidden underbelly of American society which is seldom talked about, let alone displayed on a movie screen.
Claireese “Precious” Jones, played with haunting perfection by Gabourey Sidibe, is a 16 year old girl, extremely overweight, barely literate, (she tell us that the tests she takes score her as being “less than dumb”), and Read more…
When’s the next meteor shower? When’s the full moon? What’s up in the skies for 2010? Tidelog knows!
What are you grateful for this Thanksgiving season? I’m grateful that my 2010 Tidelog came in the mail today! Tidelog helps me know about everything from the low and high tides to solar and lunar eclipses, meteor showers, full and new moons, and all other interesting oddities in the sky! I received my first Tidelog back in 1993, and I’ve had one just about every year since. I find them an invaluable source to plan evening hikes and bike rides as well as camping trips. 
So what’s up for the rest of the year according to my 2009 Tidelog? And what will be some of next year’s high points according to my 2010 Tidelog?
In case you forgot to consult your Tidelog, this past few weeks we’ve had some nice meteor showers and as the Taurid shower wanes, the Leonid is due on Monday with potentially strong showers of fast, bright meteors especially around 11pm PST as we roll through a denser filament of the comet Tempel-Tuttle. Mid-December brings us the Geminid showers and the year ends with a blue moon–that’s two full moons in the month of December with the second full moon on New Year’s eve.
Next year starts the Quadrantid meteor shower being drowned out by the light of the waning moon, but Jupiter is bright at sunset in January and at the end of the month Mars shows up. Read more…
A visit to a Cork Forest in Portugal & a few words about TCA
EWBC Day 2: A visit to a cork forest–but first, a word about TCA
Randal Grahm, forgive me, I know you believe in the screwtop closure, but after visiting the cork oak forests in Ribatejo, Portugal today as part of the European Wine Bloggers Conference, I am now a firm believer in cork. And, if you’re listening, and I hope you will be, I will tell you why. I may not convince you in this post but hopefully by the next one I plan about the importance of the cork forest ecosystem.
Cork as a closure for wine got a bad name because some wines became “corked” which means that they became infected with TCA and turned bad. Tasted awful. Smelled worse than you can imagine.
While this is a rare occurrence, if it is YOUR special wine that got corked, you’re not going to be a happy camper about it. You will be tempted to turn against cork. (Read another post about cork taint here.)
Alternative closures to cork are nothing new. Really. But they have become more popular in recent years. So popular that it has had an impact on the cork industry and that industry is fighting back. With both fists. And a LOT of money–millions in fact into research and development to understand where TCA comes from and how it can be prevented.
Turns out, TCA infection can come from a variety of sources, not just cork. The cardboard box, for example. Just about anywhere, actually. But cork was and is the prime suspect so the cork industry has figured out ways to sanitize the corks and remove the risk of TCA almost completely so that instances of TCA from cork sources are reduced to the point where the many benefits of using natural cork (instead of a screw top or a plastic cork) shine and win.
Yes, cork is more expensive, than a screw top. Or a plastic cork which costs practically nothing and adds practically nothing to the value of the wine. Just say no to plastic. Period.
But there is more to the picture than a simple closure. And in an upcoming postt, I will tell you about the cork trees, cork forests, and the natural ecosystems and the human communities that revolve around healthy, productive cork industry–an industry which relies on YOU, the consumer and the wine producer, staying with cork.
And one day soon, I hope to show you pictures of my new beautiful cork floors!!
PS Thanks to Enoforum Wines for hosting my visit to Portugal!
Green Drinks & Wine Blogging Wednesday November Edition 2009
Tonight, Wednesday November 11, from 5:30-7:30pm Green Drinks Ventura County will be held at Wine Essentials, 2390 Las Posas, Camarillo. It’s a free networking gathering for folks in green lines of business and activism.
In his prompt for the next Wine Blogging Wednesday, #63, Rob Bralow of Wine Post suggests: Find Your Muse. Here’s his guidelines for the November edition to be posted NEXT Wednesday, Nov. 18:
- Choose a wine you know well and have enjoyed many times, but perhaps have not had the time or the motivation to write about OR a wine you have seen in your wine shop that you have been meaning to try.
- Time how long you enjoy the wine. Round numbers are more than acceptable but exact numbers get extra points.
- Take twice that amount of time to write your blog post. Use the time to find out something you might not have known about the wine and to edit your writing. A wise man once told me that there is no good writing, only good rewriting.
- NO SAMPLES! Too often the wines written about are out of convenience rather than genuine interest. Make this one of the wines that you decided to purchase.
- Last but not least, give your writing some flare. Use a style that will challenge you. Be creative and enjoy writing for the sake of the words. Be picky about which words you use. Think about the rhythm and the rhyme. Poetic phrase will be rewarded.
Writes Rob, “My coach always told me that the simplest tasks can sometimes be the most difficult. There is a lot of room to maneuver in this challenge, but do not make the mistake of waiting until the last week to begin writing. You may find yourself running out of time.”
Send submission by e-mail to Rob by Weds. November 18.
Rob’s prompt seems to be pointed at the myriad wine bloggers who get free samples from wineries, drink them quickly, and post a quick response that would fit into the 140 character limitations on twitter. Hmmn. Time how long I enjoy the wine then take twice that much time? Sometimes I taste a wine for a week or more. I hate to admit how much time I take to write some of my posts. I am a poet. If I didn’t enjoy writing for the sake of the words, I wouldn’t be here. I always try to write with flair, with imagination, with heart and meaning. I do admit however that I usually do the prompt the night before.
Now choosing a wine that prompts my muse: that I can get into! Too bad I have already enjoyed all my bottles of RBJ Theologicum…but I am sure I will find something in my cellar to break out for the occasion. Or maybe I’ll be able to find some wine from Portugal. The muse sure inspired me there on my recent trip sponsored by Enoforum Wines!
What will you do for Wine Blogging Wednesday? Let us know over here also!
PS Hey Lenn, how about letting me host it one month sometime soon? Let’s do wines of Portugal–even better, wines of the Alentejo! I know some good ones!
Graham Greene: I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint manage to escape the madness…
“Writing is a form of therapy: sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear which is inherent in the human situation.” Graham Greene
Maxine Kumin says that writing poetry enabled Anne Sexton to endure life for as long as she lived. One who agrees might point to this poem as proof: Read more…
Poetry from Portugal: The Embark & The Goodbye by Luis de Camoes
from Ploughing the Sea: Poems from the Lusiadas
by Luis de Camoes
Canto IV: 86-93
Having done everything practical
To make ready for so long a voyage,
We prepared our souls to meet death
Which is always on a sailor’s horizon.
To God on high who alone sustains
The heavens with his beloved presence,
We asked His favour that He should endorse
Our every enterprise and steer our course.
The holy chapel from which we parted
Is built there on the very beach,
And takes its name, Belem, from the town
Where God was given to the world as flesh.
O King, I tell you, when I reflect
On how I parted from that shore,
Tormented by so many doubts and fears,
Even now it is hard to restrain my tears. Read more…
Poetry from the 3:15 Experiment: nothing to tag a poem on
August 13, 2009 3:15am
I am going to fall b
ack to sleep
before I choose to write anything
Bits & pieces of ideas float
but no words have form nor weight
There’s nothing to tag a poem on tonight
it’s all fog; not even the foghorn is solid
Only one eye will stay open at a time
The cowboy boots a cold pool of water
There will be another day
& the pen will come clip clopping
Insistent like a thunderstorm
Consistent as the summer fog
Above is a poem from the 2009 3:15 Experiment where poets from all over the world awake at 3:15am every night in August to write and then in the following month to post unedited their hypnopompic/hynogogic ramblings.
Although I had plenty of sleep last night and should be all caught up after my adventures in Portugal, I am feeling overwhelmed by it all just as during the 3:15am experiment I am at times overwhelmed by the desire to sleep. As much as I’d like to, I have “nothing to tag a poem on” when it comes to writing about my recent trip to Portugal.
And I admit I am feeling melancholic as well. I wish I was still there, breathing with the pace of the land and the people. They say that time is slow in the Alentejo, like what I call mountain time, when you slow down to the pace of the breath of the place.
I wish that I had taken the time last week to figure out the logistics so that I could have spent a few more days in Portugal, to let my experiences settle a bit, to write, to sit quietly in the countryside, or by the sea, or within a castle’s walls, before I had to go home. At the very least, I should have looked a little more deeper into the opportunity to attend the Wine Futures Conference in Rioja on Nov. 12 and 13, to have tried harder to stay for another week, to have trusted my family and my students would be taken care of.
I am used to traveling at a different pace–by foot or by VW van, used to camping at night and sleeping close to the land. I am used to navigating the town, the trails on my own. Don’t get me wrong–I loved the hotels we stayed in, especially in Evora at the M’Ar de Ar. What a pleasure.
But it is a different pace, a different experience when you spend most of your day outside in a place, smelling the air, crushing the herbs between your fingers. The moon was full while I was there in Portugal, shining its light upon the co
rk oaks, castles, and Roman monuments, but I never got a chance to gaze on the stars, my ancestors hanging out in the sky there, watching, protecting, the same but different than at home.
I wasn’t ready to leave. I feel like I was torn and part of me I left behind with my yoga pants and my cashmere sweater, some tears of laughter, my footprints on stone pavement, my fingerprints on castle walls. The soft “sh” sounds of the Portuguese language soothes, echoes in the memories of the wine caves at Carmim and Borba, soft like lapping water of the Tagus along the waterfront of Lisbon, the hush and crash of the waves on the westernmost point of Europe on the coast by Sintra pictured above.
Wish here, shush, shush, the voices whisper, wish here, shush shush.
The quiet shushing voices wash away the fears, wish for my return. I will be back, I tell them. And not just in my dreams.
For more poetry, catch a ride on the Monday Train.
Sleep, Sleep, Glorious Sleep!
I am starting to understand what people talk about when they talk about jet lag.
Last week, while I was in Portugal, I didn’t worry about it. When I’d been to Peru in 2001, I didn’t have any problems with jet lag going or coming and even slept on the plane going there curled up against the window (it’s only three hours difference but it is also a LONG flight: we went from LAX to Miami to Lima). In Lisbon, I stayed up late: two hour dinners starting at 8:30 or 9pm or later, followed by writing and keeping caught up on projects on the other side of the globe where it was mid-afternoon or evening. Most nights I slept 4-5 hours; one night I actually slept for 6. The days were so busy and exciting visiting wineries and castles and delicious lunches closed with an espresso that while at times I grew quiet, I never dozed off or wanted to. It didn’t really feel like jet lag was much of a problem.
Sleeping on a crowded plane is a joke. I didn’t sleep much going to Portugal or coming back home–except for the leg from Lisbon to Zurich when I had three seats to myself and could stretch out and sleep for two hours. (Next time, in addition to my silk wrap I used as an additional blanket and pillow, and plenty of warm clothes, I will have ear phones, one of those neck supports, and an eye covering beyond pulling my beret down over my eyes!)
So when I arrived in LA, I was a zombie Read more…
Now that I’m back home in Southern California, everyone’s asking me about Portugal. As soon as I start talking about one thing or another, people are so full of questions, I never seem to finish as story when I’m off on a tangent and another and another!
I am realizing just HOW MUCH I learned in one jam packed week. There is so much I want to say, so many stories I want to tell that I see I will need to spend some time just figuring out how to present it here in this medium.
I’m tempted to start off by writing a post about my last day in Lisbon when we visited the ancient city of Belem, the castle at Sintra (pictured), Read more…
Leaving On A Jet Plane…
My bags are packed
I’m ready to go
I’m really not ready to leave Lisbon Portugal, to end my trip sponsored by Enoforum Wines. But then, I love to travel, I love new roads. I love the castles, the countryside, the coast, the history, the rolling cork oak covered hillsides of the Alentejo, the historic buildings at Belem in Lisboa like this tower which was originally out in the water, protecting the people from invaders from the sea.
I love Portugal. These explorers are my people–they are the earliest Art Predators!
My trip here to Portugal has been an amazing experience. I had absolutely no idea what to expect last month when I wrote a 200 word essay about why I wanted to come here. I didn’t know the first thing about Portuguese wine and cuisine. I just knew it sounded like a great adventure and I wanted to go! Read more…
art predator 