Well, Hardy Wallace may be the goode guy who got that high profile blogging job in Sonoma County, but in a day or two, I’ll be there too, congratulating him and wishing him the best as we both attend the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference in Santa Rosa, in the heart of the Sonoma County Wine country, right next door to Napa.
Honestly, I was so consumed with my application for the Murphy-Goode wine blogging job that the conference filled up and, like last year, I joined the waiting list.
I’m not a passive waiting list person. I’m a proactive waiting type person, and thus, last year, at the last minute, I was able to squeeze myself in to the 2008 Wine Bloggers Conference even though there wasn’t room or food for me at the Friday night dinner. The rest of the conference was well worth missing most of the first day.
So this year, when I received an email that said I probably wouldn’t get in this year, I took action and wrote the following to the organizers Reno Walsh and Allan Wright of Zephyr Travel and Joel Vincent of Open Wine Consortium:
Hey Reno and Allan and Joel,
Not to bug you or anything, but I’m wondering if we can work something out so that I can attend at least some of the sessions and/or some of the tastings at this year’s WBC.
I learned so much at last year’s conference, both about wine and social media, and I met so many awesome people, that I have really been looking forward to attending this year, and even planned my summer, my summer school class syllabus, and my child care needs around it. (I know, so why didn’t I get myself registered? sigh).
I imagine all the Murphy-Goode madness (yes, I was caught up in it too and even made a video which you can see on https://artpredator.wordpress.com or http://winepredator.wordpress.com) has made the conference attendance even more desirable by everyone in the industry. Not to mention pressure to allow the MG finalists who are already up there to be able to attend.
Since I’d really like to make the move INTO the industry, attending the conference, even in some small odd way, just to connect with folks, is really important to me. Much of the networking goes on at the after parties and beside the pool I know, but if I go up there, I’d like to be able to have at least “some” legitimacy–I’d like to attend some if not all of the sessions so I can learn learn learn!
So I’m wondering:
Can I help out with the conference at all? I can be there early Friday or even Thurs to help set up. I have LOTS of event experience–stage manager, house manager, event manager, poetry host 6 years, etc, etc as well as lots of experience working at and organizing conferences.
Can I skip some of the sessions that are going to be too full? Scouts honor I won’t try to sneak on the bus or sit at a banquet table if there’s no room…and I swear I won’t say anything either!
Or maybe one of the wineries or presenters needs a hand and that would get me in a few of the doors?
I’m easy going, flexible, and a good problem solver. Let me know soonest if something can be worked out.
best, gwendolyn aka art predator aka the woman who blogged from the bus…
A few hours later, I got a call from Reno. Yes, my letter convinced them I really wanted to be there and I belonged there, and yes, they could use my help at the conference, and yes, they thought they could make space for me for most of the events–except of course the Friday night dinner!
YAY! Off I go! Next stop, SF to stay with Burning Mom Toni Moran and then on to the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference in Santa Rosa where you’l be hearing a lot more from me–both about all the wonderful wine and social media!
And who knows what other exciting developments might occur in the next few days!!
Hardy Wallace aka Dirty South Gets A Really Goode Job
So his wasn’t the prettiest face on the page, I am sure he’d be the first to admit.
But anybody who knows Hardy, or gets to know Hardy, knows he’s a really Goode guy.
No surprise that Murphy-Goode snapped up the guy who flew across the country to be first in line in San Francisco to sign up to compete for a really goode job as Murphy-Goode Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent–someone who’s seriously been big into wine for awhile–when we met at the Wine Blogger’s Conference, it seemed everybody already knew him!–and someone who certainly doesn’t take himself too seriously.
According to the winery’s press release,
“This is Murphy good!” Wallace said after he was named the winner at a ceremony on the Healdsburg Town Square. “Seriously, this was my dream job before the job ever came along. My dream has come true!”
The good-humored Wallace is founder of the popular “Dirty South Wine” blog, is a musician, and a Sommelier Guild level I and II.
“This was an extremely difficult decision given the talent of all the candidates, but Hardy really knocked us over in the interviews with his passion and enthusiasm,” said Murphy-Goode winemaker, David Ready, Jr. “He’s like us: he’s a people-person who loves wine.”
Wallace will live for free in a charming, two-bedroom home near downtown
Healdsburg. He starts “work” on August 15, 2009.
Congrats, Hardy! You ran a great campaign for the job and you deserve the $10,000 a month for the next six months, the accolades, and all the Liar’s Dice you can stand.
But the real congratulations goes out to all the people (myself included!) who went for it, who said, “hey, I’m in!” People who took a risk, made a video, submitted it, promoted it. People who gave it a go.
Because you never know where something might take you!
(Hey something? I’m ready when you are!)
One more time, because I know you want to see it again, here’s my video:
Let me know if you’ve got a social media job for me! My adventurous soul is up for just about anything–especially in the area of wine, and particularly, wines along the biodynamic/sustainable spectrum which would capitalize on my background in environmental studies!
According to this article in The Arizona Republic last October 2008,
Tucked inside a controversial $700 billion federal bailout bill is a tiny fringe benefit for bike commuters that has been pushed by the cycling community for the past seven years.
The $240 annual benefit per person, or $20 per month, will reimburse bike commuters for things like bikes, tires, lights, locks, helmets, padded shorts and CamelBak hydration backpacks.
That would mean to me that you could spend your money on a way cool flashing monkey lectric light OR one of these “Bike Glow” lights pictured above.
The article also states that “commuters who use mass transit such as light rail and city bus systems can receive up to $115 per month to offset their transit passes, plus an additional $220 per month to reimburse them for parking fees. The bike incentive is part of the renewable-energy-alternatives portion of the 451-page “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.”
Under the new program, commuters who ride bicycles to work will get their own, albeit smaller, fringe benefits. And like the program for mass-transit users, the new benefit is expected to come from employers to employees who submit receipts. Employers, in turn, get tax benefits for reimbursing their employees.
How exactly do you get your money? Submit receipts to your employer?? That I haven’t figured out yet. Be easier if you can write it off on your 2009 tax return. If you know how this is working out, please pass it on!
In the meantime, you may still have time to order your monkey lectric light more here (https://artpredator.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/yogathon-228-electric-light-bike-parade-36/) and/or Bike Glow lights in time for the First Friday ArtRide August 8 (the Animal Fair Ride) and for this year’s Burning Man Festival in Nevada or Labor Day Weekend! And it sure looks to me like you’ll get that money back! Yay!
Me and the Man in the Moon
“There’s two lonely people
in the wholewide world
that’s me and the
man in the moon
Just before I’m counting sheep
Through my window
He comes to peep
and with each other we’re
sympathizing”
Trust Charles Phoenix to find and share the perfect picture for today’s anniversary of the first walk on the moon. (What, you don’t know Charles Phoenix? Quick, run right over and sign up for his slide of the week on his website and have delivered to your in box a photo like this along with commentary!)
Yes indeed, it’s an image of President Nixon speaking from the White House to the moon on an old black and white TV, much like the one many people watched the moon walk on. My parents had sold ours a few years before, so I missed seeing it live; instead I listened to it on the radio, imagining it, picturing the man on the moon, and the man in the moon.
“Mr. Moon, Mr Moon
You’re out too soon
While the sun is still in the sky
Go back to your bed and
Cover up your head and wait
’til the day goes bye.”
My grandmother, my father’s mother, watched it, watched the moon landing, the moon walk. She grew up during the Depression of the 1930s, and she thought walking on the moon was possibly the most amazing and exciting event of her entire life. She saved all the clippings about the moonwalk in a shoe box for my brother, who didn’t really seem to care, one way or the other, and didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. Maybe he was too young.
He was the one presented with the shoe box. He was the oldest boy grandchild.
But I was the one who always yearned for the moon. And I always will be the one with the moon on my mind, and in my soul, the one singing “Me and the Man in the Moon.”
In the video, Fred Sokolow with Junior Brown and Ian Whitcomb play and sing “Me and the Man in the Moon” (available through aixrecords.com).
When I was growing up, we had a player piano and this was one of my favorite songs to play and to sing along. I know a bunch of songs like this one from the 20s and 30s, many of them very obscure to most people alive today.
One day, no one will be around who was alive for the moonwalk either.
Here are the lyrics to ME AND THE MAN IN THE MOON: James V Monaco (melody) Edgar Leslie (lyrics) 1928: Read more…
Some Zen Haiku by Santoka Taneda from “Mountain Tasting”
Some works of zen haiku by Santoka Taneda from the collection Mountain Tasting translated from the Japanese and introduced by John Stevens:
If there are mountains, I look at the mountains.:
On rainy days, I listen to the rain.
Spring, summer, autumn, winter.
Tomorrow too will be good.
Tonight too is good.
(And yes, I did some “mountain tasting” of my own this past weekend. We had a lovely time camping in the mountains of the southern Sierra over the weekend with Baby Beluga, our new 90 Westy with the 16″ GOWESTY rims and wheels! More details and photos to follow!)
During the Japanese-Chinese war, no protests were allowed, and poets were expected to support the war effort. In response, Taneda wrote a series of powerful poems. Here are three of them:
The moon’s brightness–
Does it know
Where the bombing will be?
Winter rain clouds–
Thinking: Going to China
To be torn to pieces.
We move silently
in the cold rain
Carrying the white boxes in front.
Santoka Taneda (1882-1940)
Art Predator Off to the Woods in a (new) 90 Westy!
Yes, Art Predator is taking a few days off for a southern sierra adventure in the familiy’s new 90 Westy–the Baby Beluga! One night and day camping and rafting on the lower Kern River, then camping, fishing and relaxing along Peppermint Creek, with photos and a report upon return!
The Ventura County Fair is coming up early early August and we ArtRiders ask:
What better way to get to the Fair than to ArtRide there? and in your wild animal best?
You can go on your own anytime of course or join us for one these two Animal Fair themed bicycle rides dressed as your favorite animal:
ONE: First Friday ArtRide, Friday August 7
We leave the Promenade by the Aritsts Union Gallery at 6pm and travels to various art galleries participating in First Friday, then, by 730pm, we’ll ride to the fairgrounds where we’ll lock up our bikes and roam afoo, grabbing some food and some beer and then listening and dancing to Huey Lewis and the News. About 945, we’ll bikes over to the ocean to watch the fireworks go off at 10pm!
TWO: Animal Fair Parade Ride, Saturday Aug 8.
That’s right, we ArtRiders are putting in an application to be part of the Ventura County Fair Parade which travels Main Street from Ventura High School to the farigrounds, starting at 10am. Let me know by Sunday July 19 if you want to ride with us so I can put your name down on the application!
I love these silk-screened animals on bikes which I found at the aptly named VROOOOOM site here:
http://www.vrooooom.org/index.php?/present/animals-on-bikes/
Want a free clean energy sticker? Shepard Fairey, the acclaimed artist who created the iconic Obama “Hope” poster, has created a beautiful image depicting a clean energy future. Click here to get yours: http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51607&id=16564-6732763-ycT3qhx&t=2
Show Congress that Americans are ready to make the switch to clean, renewable sources of energy. If hundreds of thousands of us put these stickers on our cars, bikes, laptops, lockers, cubicles, and dorm-room doors, we’ll send a strong message that America’s clean energy future matters to all of us.
This weekend Venturans can find out more about clean energy at FUEL, a documentary film and a locavore food event at the Bell Arts Factory, 432 Ventura Ave. which will have two screenings Saturday, July 18 at 3pm and 7pm. Admission is $10. A locavore feast will be held at 5pm, thanks in part by donations from McGrath Farms.
Fuel is considered a comprehensive and inspiring film about alternative fuel sources, was an “Audience Favorite” winner at Sundance and received 11 Standing Ovations, and is considered “one of the most hopeful films of the year”.
Trailer: www.deborahdupre.com (paypal avail on this site for tickets)
* Deborah Dupre – “FUELs MOM” will be joining us for Q & A !
The showing benefits VCCool – Ventura Climate Care Options Organized Locally (www.vccool.org) and VC Biodiesel Cooperative (www.vcbiodiesel.org) Organisers send a Thank you to: Bell Arts, Community Environmental Council, California Solar Electric,Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions, Green Building Council, Green Home & Family Magazine, Grow Food Party Crew, Hopedance, Local artist Davey Miller, Ojai Valley Green Coalition, Oxnard Methodist Church Community Garden, and a Place of Peace, for their participation and support!.
Please RSVP for FUEL via email to Kendra at earthworks_works (at) yahoo.com
Tell them the ART PREDATOR sent you!
Kid Poets Post Poems on Mass Transit
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Local Students Provide Poetry in Motion
Make Your Own Sound Poetry with Bill & BP
You can watch this, the traditional way, by hitting play and watching and listening.
Or make your own sound poem. Start one video, then start the next one about 10 seconds later, so they both play at the same time, creating a new sound poem.
For more traditional poetry, ride the train!
art predator 