Wine Blogging Wednesday #61 September 16, 2009: At the Source
Wine Blogging Wednesday founder Lenn Thompson of the blog Lenndevours: The New York Cork Report and who started Wine Blogging Wednesday five years ago says he likes “to hop in and host at least once a year. It’s fun to force people to drink what you tell them to. It’s a power rush.” Here’s the complete story. Continues Lenn:
Rather than walking into your local wine shop to pick up a wine for WBW, I want you to actually visit a winery and taste a wine there. Bonus points if you can taste it with the winemaker or the vineyard manager.
Post Wednesday September 16, and let Lenn know you want to play with a comment on his blog or an email.
I’m definitely playing along. I contacted Michael Meagher, winemaker for both Vino V and Old Creek Road Winery, and he invited me over on Friday for when the viognier arrives! So I get to check out harvest and do some tasting with a winemaker! So come back for that post next Wednesday, Sept. 16. Later, over on his blog, Lenn will do a round-up of all the participants.
Wine Weds: Burning Man Wine Tastings
It’s not often that I am caught without words. But in this case, I am not quite sure where to begin.
Except to say that hosting, participating and attending several wine tastings at Burning Man was one of the greatest, most unusual experiences of my life. And challenging. Ever do a wine tasting in a white-out like we did Saturday night before the Burn?
For another example, NONE of the planned wines arrived before we left EXCEPT Vino V’s Indigeno Syrah which Read more…
This was SO not me at Burning Man 2009
As you may have noticed, I was a bit negligent in posting and tweeting from Burning Man. Best laid plans and all that.
Between the dust storms and the distractions, getting to Center Camp with my laptop and finding a hot spot just didn’t happen. In fact, I only made it to Center Camp on Sunday afternoon (due to aforementioned dust storms) before we left to drop off some clothes for Andie Grace’s daughter Juniper, a few items for the Black Rock Boutique, and mail to send to Marcy Gordon who sent mail to me on the playa!
Obviously, others were hard at work as you can see from these photographs by fellow Kidsvillian Phil Spitler. I’ll be posting more from him as well as our friend Gary and more as the photos start flowing onto the interweb.
Watch for a post later today about Wine Wednesday which we held on the playa last week. I may add photos later as they turn up.
I’ll also post info on next week’s Wine Wednesday. By the way, this month’s Green Drinks Ventura County/Thousand Oaks is tonight, Wednesday, September 9th from 5:30 pm until 7:30 pm at Cholada Thai Cuisine, 1282 Newbury Rd, Newbury Park, CA 91320-3606.
Back in the Default World: How to Clean Up After Burning Man
Yes, friends, I am back in the default world after nearly a week at the Burning Man Festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. More on that plus lots of photos in the coming days.
I prefer to give myself time before immersing myself slowly slowly into the default world but this year it was not to be. Be kind to yourself, especially you newbies: it can be a rough landing back in the default world.
Some don’ts: Don’t hug everyone you meet. Don’t try to clean everything all up right away. When you do, don’t use water–it just makes slippery mud. Some do’s: Wash with vinegar or club soda. Drink lots of water, get some sleep. Assimilate. Take off your cowboy hat. Lose the playa do. Remember to wear clothes.
This was, by far, the dustiest Burning Man in my 13 years of Burning. Major dust storms on Friday, followed by whiteouts most of the day Saturday and much of Sunday were intense.
White-outs remind me of childbirth. If you remembered how bad they were, you’d never do it again.
Coming up soon: more tips on how to clean up post-Burning Man.
midtown late summer vision
these late summer nights
window open after a long hot day
fog bursts in damp air
sycamore leaves crackle
light outside flicks on
two possums wander the yard
I’m at Burning Man…or on my way!
Will post as I can from Center Camp in Black Rock City!
This is no ordinary wine tasting–and these are no ordinary wines!
I asked several wineries, most of which I got to know from the Wine Bloggers Conference, wineries which offer extra-ordinary wines, wines that would be exceptionally Playa-Licious, if they wanted to participate in an unusual tasting event–a Wine Tasting on Wine Wednesday at Burning Man! I asked them for some of my favorites–and these forward thinking wineries said YES!
If we can’t get to the playa, they said, we can still play with ya!
Has it ever been done–a serious wine tasting at Burning Man? I mean, there’s is Spanky’s Wine Bar, but I suspect they are more into the spankings than the wine…
So what wines will we be tasting Read more…
September What’s Up :: August Wrap-Up &
This may be the most abbreviated September What’s Up :: August Wrap-Up ever…because I am going to BURNING MAN (just in case you hadn’t guessed that yet)…
What’s the big deal? What is Burning Man anyway?
Burning Man started in the late 1980s with a ceremonial burn on Baker Beach in San Francisco by Larry Harvey and some friends. They has such a good time, they decided to do it again. And again. And again. More people joined in, some of them from the Cacophony Society. Too many people had too good of a time so the Police told them to go somewhere else. And they did. They went to the Black Rock Desert northeast of Reno, a huge vacant-feeling place, surrounded by stunning mountains, sharp-edged mountains, and dotted along the edge with hot springs.
The Burn had only been out there a few years when I first went in 1992. I had friends who were Cacophonists or friends with Cacophonists, and since I was in grad school in Reno, it was a quick jump over there to join friends from Santa Cruz. Friends from Reno came along also to see what was up. It was $25 if you had a Nevada ID. There were about 600 of us. We all drove to the rave. We all drove out to Black Rock Hot Springs. There was a few pieces of art. But there was an energy there that I’d never felt before. In 1993 and 1994, I did other activities over Labor Day, but yearned for that big bang in the desert.
By 1995, I had a studio at Art City in Ventura. Talking about the event captured the imagination of resident artists Paul Lindhard, Steve Knauff, Matt Harvey (no relation to Larry), and Russell Erickson, so we proposed to build a pier out there, and maybe a mini-ArtCity with a board walk. The challenge and expense of getting material out there, then the recklessness of burning it all down, kept that vision from becoming reality. But it didn’t keep Matt, Steve, Russell and MB from all becoming Burners in the next few years. I wrote about it for the Ojai and Ventura Voice in 1995 and 1996, then published an essay in the Ventura County Star. More and more people discovered Burning Man and made the trek out to the desert: from 600 in 1992 to 6,000 in 1995 when I started up spoken word entertainment, with Larry Harvey’s blessing, in the small cafe in center camp with a reading of Nevada inspired poetry I’d written for my Masters thesis at the University of Nevada. “Nobody’s gonna listen,” he said, “but I’m not going to stop you.” Little did he know that it would be so successful and continue to this day!
The event continued to grow exponentially from 1995-2002. I took off 2003 and 2004 to have a baby; in 2005 and 2007 we took him. After that first year, he would say randomly:
“The Man must fall. The Man burns. The Man must fall.” Read more…
What’s the Weather Like at Burning Man? See the Current Conditions in Gerlach and Watch Your Friends Drive To Burning Man!
Watch the traffic crawl through Gerlach; you just might see us drive by in our 90 Westfalia VW van Baby Beluga with bikes on the back, a carpet with PVC pipe inside rolled on the roof, and a black box filed with other fun camp goodies including our banners, some body paintings, and a polka dot parachute! See what the weather’s like too! Blackrockdesert.org. Be sure to click “animate.”
Also from that site, the weather forecast for the week indicates it’s going to be a bit warmer than average with the temps increasing during the week. Here’s the details: Read more…
Poetry from the 3:15 Experiment: August 31, 2009 –trials by fire
3:15am August 31, 2009
Another year of 3:15 Experiment complete
Another month of August
come and now gone.
Summer’s heat is coming
on strong but the days
are shorter & the sycamore
is going brown & losing
its leaves already
This time next week we’ll be
driving home from Burning Man
exhausted, a week’s worth
of sweat, sunscreen & dust
caked on our skin & in our hair,
intense days & nights packed with
art & bike rides, new friends, music
firing our lives
transforming us as the glaze
on clay
Trials by fire–both
3:15 experiment
Burning Man Festival
marathons to push us to do more
with our lives, to be more
in our lives
c. Gwendolyn Alley aka Art Predator August 31, 2009
For more poetry from the 3:15 experiment, where a bunch of crazy poets just completed another August of getting up at 3:15am to write in a hypnogogic/hypnopompic state, check out the 3:15 website. For poetry written in a typical state of mind, catch a ride on the Monday Poetry Train.
art predator 