Biketoberfest on a BIKERGO–here I come!
Yesterday I had so much fun riding around Marin County on this fabulous yellow Bikergo with inventer Steven Ascher that he invited me to ride with him to Biketoberfest over in Fairfax, the original home of mountain bike!! Of course I said yes!
Biketoberfest looks like lots of fun, plus it’s a fundraiser to support cycling in Marin County. Several rides went out at 10am this morning, there’s like 20 breweries offering tastings, food, music, vintage bikes and I am sure plenty of schwag to bring home!
PS There are so many awesome features on this bike–no wonder I fell in love with it at Burning Man! (Read that story here.)
But you’ve got to check out the basket on the bike–it’s got this great little attachment that lets the basket just snap on and off so you can take it with you to the Farmers Market or the store or in the house! Plus you can cinch it closed while you’re riding to keep stuff from blowing out. And it’s big enough so you can leave your helmet and your jacket in it while you’re sitting and drinking coffee watching people pass by as they admire your Bikergo and squeeze the seat!
I’m off to San Francisco for a BIKERGO ride, a poetry reading for “The Book of Practical Pussies” & DECOMPRESSION SF!
This weekend, I get to go on a BIKERGO ride with inventor Steven Ascher! He saw my post about how much fun I had riding the BIKERGO at Burning Man, he loved my enthusiasm and he invited me to go for a ride sometime! Read my post about the Bikergo, the best bike at Burning Man!
Just so happens that I was looking for an excuse to go to the Bay Area this weekend to attend SF Decompression on Sunday and to visit with NYC experimental poet Lee Ann Brown who’s in SF with others to read from her latest anthology The Book of Practical Pussies. 
Plus I’ve been invited to a shindig thrown by Murphy-Goode’s Hardy Wallace.
What a weekend! Poetry, cycling, art, wine! Who knows what adventures the weekend may bring! I know I am up for it all! Bring it on, world! I’m ready and willing!
Uh, the book of the what? The Practical Pussies? Lee Ann Brown writes: Read more…
You can buy a lot of wine for $11,000: Does the new FTC law fine bloggers who don’t report payment or gifts?
Twitterland and the Blogosphere has been hopping lately with news that the FTC is going to start fining bloggers (and presumably other social media users) who do not make it clear that they are getting paid to promote a product. Many wine bloggers who subsist on samples, free or discounted wine shipped to them by the winery or given to them by the winery will run the risk of getting fined if it is not clear that they’re blogging for wine, blogging for the wine industry, or paid in some way.
PLEASE NOTE: NO FREE WINE WAS CONSUMED WHILE WRITING THIS BLOG POST!
While there’s been a lot of whining amongst the winos I follow, as well as a general uproar, I think overall this is a good idea. I can usually tell when someone is pimping a product. But not always. And the general public is not as well versed in the sneaky ways of affiliate marketing and various nefarious schemes to make it seem like regular folks are writing about products.
Personally, I much prefer to say where, when, and how–and to know that transparency is the industry standard.
An article today by Jay Yarrow in the Silicon Valley Insider says that’s not what the FTC means. According to the article, “The assistant director at the FTC overseeing this ruling, Richard Cleland, says that’s not true. He tells Fast Company:
That $11,000 fine is not true. Worst-case scenario, someone receives a warning, refuses to comply, followed by a serious product defect; we would institute a proceeding with a cease-and-desist order and mandate compliance with the law. To the extent that I have seen and heard, people are not objecting to the disclosure requirements but to the fear of penalty if they inadvertently make a mistake. That’s the thing I don’t think people need to be concerned about. There’s no monetary penalty, in terms of the first violation, even in the worst case. Our approach is going to be educational, particularly with bloggers. We’re focusing on the advertisers: What kind of education are you providing them, are you monitoring the bloggers and whether what they’re saying is true?
Mashable was one of the first sites to report on the FTC change.
http://mashable.com/2009/10/05/ftc-blogger-endorsements/
And here’s a selection of others who rapidly followed suit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/opinion/08sicha.html?_r=1
In related news, a blogger temporarily lost her unemployment benefits in confusion on what kind of income she was receiving from Google Adsense:
It’s a new world out there. Watch your step!
Wine Blogging Weds #62 Announced! “A Grape by Any Other Name”
According to Dale,
“The idea is to taste wines labelled with their lesser-known varietal synonyms. For example: Read more…
A twitter post from Jo Diaz about a contest for a wine blogger to travel to Portugal drew me like a mouse to cheese to her blog where I found out that yes, the winner would get an all expense paid trip to travel in Portugal for week exploring the wines and the region plus $1000!
Something right up my alley!! So of course, even though I found out about the contest only a day or two before the deadline, I applied, getting my submission in just in time! Here are my 200 words:
WOW an all expense paid trip to the Alentejo Wine Region of Portugal with Jo Diaz of Wine-blog.org? And to blog five entries?
Choose me, Art Predator aka Wine Predator! Have Macbook, will travel! And blog like mad about wine!
As an established blogger, I’ve posted live at the 2008 and 2009 Wine Bloggers Conferences, at WordCamps and other events.
As Art Predator, I prowl for the aesthetic—that which engages the whole soul, according to Coleridge. Wine, food, travel: I’m always looking for exciting experiences to share with my readers and subscribers.
Plus I’ve never been to Europe! Instead of a post college trek Continental trek, I backpacked from Mexico to Canada. They don’t call me a “wash’n’wear” kind of gal for nothing!
I am thrilled by the opportunity to share with readers the joys of the journey and what I learn about the exciting wines of this region. With my background in creative writing and environmental studies, I will write with flair about the land and the people, because as lovely as the wines may be, it’s the stories that surround them that create a full aesthetic experience which “engages our souls.”
Well the good news is that the wonderful Wannabe Wino aka Sonadora is going to Portugal at the end of the month to attend Enoforum with Jo Diaz of WineBlog.org and to write at least five blog posts about the trip and her experiences!
And the other good news is I’m first runner-up to go!
I know, I know, it could be seen as bad news. But it’s really not. I am thrilled to be first runner-up if it’s behind Sonadora. I read her blog, Wannabe Wino, we follow each other on twitter, not to mention she had a really great response to the challenge of saying why she should be chosen to go! You can read her response and the announcement that she won on Jo Diaz’s blog here.
What an amazing opportunity for Sonadora! The European Wine Bloggers Conference is happening when they arrive, and I am sure that, like me, Sonadora will take advantage of the chance to attend.
So who or what is this Enoforum which is sponsoring the trip? According to Jo Diaz, “the six founders are the six cooperative wineries from the Alentejo Region, in the south of Portugal. These six wineries encompass 12.000 hectares (296,523 acres) of vineyards, with a yearly production of 60 million litres (6.7 million cases) of wine. In September 2005, new shareholders joined this group: “PME Investimentos, S.A.” and “INVOCAPITAL, S.A.”” They will also be hosting Jo and Sonadora for a few days in Lisbon.
Have a fun time you two! I look forward to reading about the trip!
Poetry from the 3:15 Experiment August 4, 2009: Alice in Twitterland & The Wine Twitter Court
August 4 2009
3:15amMost knights these days
I dream about a twitter wine court
these are men and women
their avatar faces on
their twitter names on cards before them
they sit in a jurors box
like in Alice in Wonderland
weighing in snarking on wine
and lifeI am most like Alice
mostly
standing on the ground before them
listening to their pronouncements
my eyebrows raised high about my teeth
my sweaty palms press into my pinaforeTheir pronouncements have little to do
w/me yet I cagely
watch the conversation
wait for a chance to pipe in
hesitate to say somethingthen do
Mostly my words are ignored
but at least they’re uttered
in front of this kangaroo court
that lives in the dreamtime
I’ve been transcribing this year’s 3:15am Experiment poems and preparing a poetry manuscript collecting 100 of them to start submitting to contests and publishers at the end of the month. (The 3:15 Experiment is where poets from around the world participate in an experimental writing project by waking up at 3:15am local time and writing then publishing it as is unedited on the website…)
I don’t remember writing this 3:15 poem; in fact, that’s one reaosn why doing the 3:15 Experiment is so magical-you’re writing poems half awake and half asleep, in a hypnogogic/hypnopompic state, connected still to the unconscious.
While I didn’t remember writing it that night, once I reread it and started typing it, I remembered images from the dream which must have inspired me to write that poem. In the Juror box (which looked a lot like Tweetdeck!) there’s @ElJefeTwisted Oak, Thea @WineBratSF, @Sonadora, Hardy Wallace, @sonomawineguy Jim from Michel-Schlumberger, @RandallGrahm from Bonny Doon, @marcygordon and @winebard. @PMabray and @JoelVincent were there too. And more.
It’s not too surprising (the dream that is). I wrote this 3:15 Experiment poem just a week or two after the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference. At that time, I was really starting to get into twitter, even though I’d been on it for about six months, and I was following a lot of wine people (I still am!) But I was starting to really follow some of the conversations, investing more time in it, and learning more about the people posting the tweets.
Since then, I’ve tripled my followers and those I follow as well as my tweets! More importantly, I’ve learned how important it is as a tool to find out what’s going on in the world and on the web that has value…and I’ve learned that I have contributions to make to the conversation, and that I am part of the conversation. Now, two months later, while I still sometimes feel like Alice in Twitterland, I no longer feel ignored.
Thanks to my tweeps for making me feel welcome in Twitterland!
For more poetry, ride the Monday Train! It leaves the station here every Monday and everyone is welcome to ride!
And I suspect this poem will make the cut into the book–what do you think? Do you like it too? Should a poem about Twitter be one of the 100?
My CSA* box over the summer provided me with a HUGE abundance of carrots. In fact, at one point I had so many carrots in my refrigerator that one drawer was basically devoted to them. I should have taken a picture of them so you would believe me!
* A CSA, in case you don’t know, is Consumer Supported agriculture–that means I bought a share into a farm and get a dividend each week in whatever is being produced.
It’s not that I don’t like carrots, because I do–raw ones, not cooked ones. I just never seem to get around to scrubbing them clean and eating them. When I’m on a road trip, I love to snack on them; I have found they’re great for keeping me awake and alert while driving at night. I’ll usually pick up some sweet nantes which I can eat straight out of the bag. If I don’t eat them all, when I get home, they’ll join the others in the drawer.
Two events saved the day, or at least saved my refrigerator space: someone loaned me a juicer and I made carrot soup.
One of the reasons I finally got around to making the soup was because after my husband had lip cancer and plastic reconstructive surgery, he had to drink everything through a straw. It’s almost three weeks later, and he’s still eating soft foods and lots of soups. And carrot juice and carrot products are super cancer fighting foods! Read more…
Since Decompression Parties are like mini-Burning Man Festivals sans the Man and DUST STORMS, expect to see theme camps, wild costumes, stages with entertainment, lots of music and dancing everywhere, and to be entertained where ever you might wander! And like Burning Man itself, this is not a SPECTATOR SPORT–come dressed to participate!
Plus Decompression is a great opportunity to give and get gifts, either left over from last year’s burn or special to Decom. we have a few more stickers and bandanas to share!
LA’s Decompression Party is today from noon until midnight. Read more…
I’m going to try to live blog the ALOUD at LA’s Aratani Theater in Japantown: “Cities, Bicycle and the Future of Getting Around” led by David Byrne who has a new book out, Bicycle Diaries. So please keep coming back to see how this post evolves!
As we drove in from Ventucky, as we left the crowded freeway and found ourselves on the city streets, cars were joined by more and more bikes. In fact, it looked like there were several hundred bikes in a sponsored bike corral.
The program starts out with various video clips almost like one world one bike, one world one bike ride. Every film you’ve ever seen from the wizard of oz’s witch and Dorothy must have shown up in this 5 minute clip, followed by a request turn off cell phones and not to tweet which got a laugh. Hopefully my live blogging will be permitted.
David Byrne is up first. He’s got some slides to get us going including a shot of LA which he took as he flew in.
We’re right in front!! And David Byrne is right in front of us! OK I’m feeling a little star struck. Back to business. Read more…
Did you know that almost 50,000 people a day ride bikes for one week in Black Rock City? And that most of those people ride bikes exclusively for their form of transportation from the time they arrive until the time they leave a week or so later? Yep. How do they do it? Easy–cars are banned from the streets of the city. To get around, people have to walk, ride a bike (there’s thousands they can borrow), or grab public transportation (aka ArtCars).
Did you know that 500,000 people a day commute by bike in Copenhagen? That’s a half million people–riding bikes!
How can we promote, create, fund this radical act, this Copenhagenization, this Black Rock City approach, in the United States–in our cities and communities?
That’s a big question, and one which this site, Copenhagencyclechic, is devoted to exploring how to Copenhagenize the world. And it seems like this coming year at Burning Man, as we explore the theme of Metropolis, we will all learn ideas of how to get around in these cities we have grown.
One obvious way is to create commuter routes like you see on the map of Copenhagen on the left. If we can spend millions of dollars on highways to move individuals in cars, why can’t we spend a much much smaller amount of money to facilitate the safe travel of people on bikes?
If we spent just a fraction of the amount of money that we do on vehicle infrastructure needs on alternative transportation needs, we’d be able to get around more safely and reduce our carbon footprints. We’d be a lot healthier and a lot happier. OK I admit don’t have research on that one at hand–except that I know I feel happier when I commute by bike and it seems like my fellow cyclists are also a very jolly group of people!
Tonight, instead of going on the Mustache Ride here in Ventucky (meet at the Promenade at 530), I’ll be driving down to LA to learn more about how we can create this change in our communities when David Byrne and local bicycle activists convene for a lecture as part of the LA County’s ALOUD series. I understand there’s still tickets available. And if there’s wireless, you know me, I’ll do my best to live blog it for you.
art predator 