Think Pink June 23 on Nat’l Pink Day
Happy National Pink Day! Cheers!
While National Rose Day is the second Saturday of the month of June, National Pink Day is June 23. It’s also Pink Flamingo Day!
Seriously though, National Pink Day is a day set aside to celebrate all things pink:
to wear pink, to enjoy foods and beverages that are pink, and to give a donation to any of the charities that use the color pink. Use #NationalPinkDay in social media. You even listen to “Pretty in Pink”!
In particular, the color pink and the pink ribbon is associated with breast cancer; when you wear pink today, who do you wear it for? Who are you remembering or honoring?
As Wine Predators, we should toast those who have battled breast cancer too.
With ROSE of course!
But which one?
How about one made by women? One that’s estate grown and sustainably farmed?
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Here’s a Sun Salute to United Nation’s International Yoga Day!
Today is the United Nation’s International Yoga Day! Have you seen this video of how to drink wine while doing yoga? It’s a fun one!
I started doing yoga when I was in college at UC Santa Cruz, but I didn’t get into it until I had a serious rock climbing accident where I fell 15′ onto my back and my chiropractor was my yoga teacher. Later, when I moved back to Ventura, my teachers kept asking me to sub; one of the first classes i subbed was a Patagonia where I had two students: Yvon and Malinda Chouinard! When I learned one of my favorite Yoga Journal writers, Erich Schiffmann, was doing a 40 hour teacher training in Santa Barbara, I figured it was time to take the plunge. A few years later, I followed that up with Iyengar teacher training with Bryan Legere who I studied with for…
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What I knew a week ago about Muhammad Ali I could write on the palm of my hand. I knew the song. I saw a few of the fights. I knew about rope a dope.
Art Predator’s garage door by gauvin as displayed at the “doors” art show at Art City October 2014
And I had a portrait of Muhammad Ali on my garage door with the inscription “mess with the butterflies …mess with me” painted by gauvin for $200 for gas money to get to the Taos Poetry Circus.
And honestly, I had no idea I was going to have Muhammad Ali painted on the garage door.
But when it was done? I loved it. It totally made sense as I had planted a guerrilla garden on a vacant lot to provide food and shelter to birds and bees.
Following his death on Friday, I have been learning so much about Ali, and learning to respect what a great man he was.
Ali applied for conscientious objector status: “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong,” Ali told a reporter. “They ain’t never called me nigger.”
And now I have even more respect for the man on my garage door. Here’s some of what I’ve learned along with a tribute and a memory from Ron Wells. Read more…
- because Trump “deliberately appeals to the basest and most violent elements in society”
- because he “denigrates women and minorities.”
- “because the history of dictatorship is the history of manipulation and division, demagoguery and lies”
- “because neither wealth nor celebrity qualifies anyone to speak for the United States,to lead its military, to maintain its alliances, or to represent its people.”
- “for all these reasons, we, the undersigned, as a matter of conscience, oppose, unequivocally, the candidacy of Donald J. Trump for the presidency of the United States.”
Nearly 15,000 have signed the petition; see and sign the petition here.
What’s the alternative?
Please join me on Thursday, May 26, at Ventura College Read more…
Please celebrate with me the worldwide recognition of the excellence of California Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay and post #500 on Wine Predator!
Time to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Judgement of Paris!
And post #500 on Wine Predator! My first posts were in 2008 where I talked about the first Wine Bloggers Conference held in Santa Rosa, CA. Any day now, I will reach 90,000 page views.
And it’s been quite a climb to write 500 posts which average close to 1,000 words (we’re talking 500,000 words, yes?) hence the choice of Tercero’s 2010 “The Climb” to mark the occasion! (Read about other Tercero reds here and Tercero whites here).
I started blogging about wine not long after I started blogging in November 2007 with Art Predator. Like the Ojai/Ventura area newspaper column that proceeded it, Art Predator…
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Gwendolyn Alley, Students Read in Ventura
At the end of each semester, after writing endless academic papers and book reviews too, my students and I create a class anthology of our recent creative work, and then many of us read from it at an open mic following the featured reader.
And this semester I am the featured reader!
Just in time for National Poetry Month, CITY SPEAKS 3 is up and ready for your listening pleasure at a park in Pasadena located at 1199 S. Fair Oaks Avenue (S.W. corner of W. State St. and Fair Oaks Ave.)
The newest Episode brings the voices of E. Amato, Conrad Romo, and Terry Wolverton to this sculptural poetry/sonic installation daily, through Dec, 2016 from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM for a sonic experience. Read more…
RIP Prince: Dearly beloved, we are gathered…
Four hundred years ago, at the age of 52, William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, died on the same day that he was born: April 23.
Two days ago, on April 21, 2016, at the age of 57, Prince Rogers Nelson died; he was born June 7, 1958.
Both were masters of the written word. But more importantly, both showed the world a way of being in the world. Read more…
Earth Day: a whale of a tale
Happy Earth Day!
Depicted is a group project by some of my students. I challenged my classes to form a group and take an action during a three week period related to an environmental issues, environmental or social justice. Read more…
Poetry for Poem In Your Pocket Day
Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die,
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams.
For if dreams go,
Life is a barren field
frozen with snow.
~Langston Hughes
Happy “Poem in Your Pocket Day”!
This poem by Langston Hughes is perfect for today’s “Poem in Your Pocket Day“: it’s eloquent, timely, and it’s short enough to fit easily in your pocket! Read more…
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