Skip to content

Time To Get On That Burning Man Bike!

August 5, 2014
wooden bike Ventura County Fair

the perfect caravansary Burning Man bicycle–it’s handmade from wood

10 To Dos for your bike BEFORE you leave for Burning Man.

Are you  heading out to Burning Man 2014? If so, don’t wait until you get to BRC to ride your bike! Bicycles are the primary means of transportation in Black Rock City, so now’s the time to get on your bicycle! Over the years, I’ve written a number of posts about bikes and Burning Man, and so here’s 10 reasons why you need to start riding NOW: Read more…

Burning Man 2014: In the News, Be the News

August 4, 2014

orbgirlBIGAs we get closer to Burning Man each year, there is an annual media feeding frenzy.

Here’s a quick news round up of three articles I read today about Burning Man that I think may be worth your time:

First:

An interview with that starts with via Read more…

Burning Man 2014: Where to Camp and How To Send A Letter to Black Rock City NV

August 3, 2014

6 o'clock sector Black Rock CitySo you’re going to Burning Man?

Do you know your address yet?

If you want people to be able to find you, or you want to get snail mail via the Black Rock City Post Office,2014-BRC-fin-lg

 you need an address:

Your Name (playa and photo id name)
Contact Phone Number (recommended)
Camp Name
Camp Address
C/O BRCPO
Gerlach, NV 89412

Read more…

Join the 3:15 Experiment TONIGHT!

July 31, 2014

315time4transformation1It’s July 31! That means it’s time to set your clocks for 3:15am and participate in the 3:15 Experiment, a writing experiment for poets/people who want to experience writing  in a different non-drug induced state on consciousness, in this case, a between sleeps or hypnopompic/hypnogogic state of consciousness, where you are neither quite asleep or wide awake.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE 2014 3:15 EXPERIMENT:

  • Begin at 3:15 AM on August 1. THAT’S TONIGHT. Continue each day until August 31.
  • You may write any length, style, form, content, voice, rhythm, etc.
  • DO NOT EDIT your work. This is raw stuff, baby. That’s part of the experiment. You are welcome to edit, collage, break apart the poems later for whatever purpose you choose, but please SHARE THE RAW STUFF with us on the website after the experiment.
  • (Optional) Do not read what you have written until the month is over, except to skim the work to make sure everything is legible.
  • TIP: do not use a felt tip pen unless you don’t care about ink stains on your bed. Many a poet has fallen asleep in the middle of writing.
  • If you can help it, don’t even get out of bed! The point is to ride that dream state, that precarious point between sleeping and waking and sleeping.

Read more about the 20+ year history of the 3:15 Experiment here.

Learn more about how to participate in the 3:15 Experiment here–whether you are at Burning Man or traveling or at home!

Read a few 3:15 experiment poems here and  here and here. Or read reviews about my 3:15 Experiment poetry collection here.

Print Writers Accuse Bloggers of #WordCrimes at #WBC14

July 20, 2014

I’ve been busy blogging about the Wine Bloggers Conference over at Wine Predator. More to come, but in the meantime, I’ve got this one plus posts about the speed dating er blogging er tasting and tweeting sessions.

Gwendolyn Alley aka Art Predator's avatarwine predator.............. gwendolyn alley

Wherein I somehow manage to weave together wine blogging, wine bloggers, and print wine journalists with Weird Al Yankovic, Mark Twain, Fenimore Cooper, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Christopher Walken…

“I may be mistaken, but it does seem to me that “Deerslayer” is not a work of art in any sense; it does seem to me that it is destitute of every detail that goes to the making of a work of art; in truth, it seems to me that “Deerslayer” is just simply a literary delirium tremens.

“A work of art? It has no invention; it has no order, system, sequence, or result; it has no lifelikeness, no thrill, no stir, no seeming of reality; its characters are confusedly drawn, and by their acts and words they prove that they are not the sort of people the author claims that they are; its humor is pathetic; its pathos is…

View original post 1,788 more words

Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin with the Guilty Ones June 10: concert review by Ron Wells

June 12, 2014

 

Phil Alvin is back from the dead. Literally.

 

After 30 years, he and his brother Dave have decided to find some “common ground,” and make music together again. And the music world is all the better for it.

For those who might not have heard, Phil was on tour in Spain a few years ago when he suddenly had to be taken to a hospital where he underwent treatment for an abscessed tooth which caused his throat to swell and almost close. His heart stopped and he flatlined twice. Only through the work of Dr. Mariella Anaya-Sifuentes—who is thanked in the liner notes to the new album—was his life saved.

And thus, the brothers Alvin decided to put aside their differences and put out an album together for the first time in 30 years. Such an amazing and improbable story is like the blues songs created by the early masters of the genre.

Read more…

Ventura Music Week: 100 Bands, 40 Venues, 10 Days! Films, Roadshow Revival, more!

June 9, 2014

As I wrote about yesterday here and at Wine Predator here, as the weather shifts from spring to summer, festival season  seriously kicks in–music, food, wine, beer, name it–there’s a festival near you celebrating it!

329In Ventura, Music Week 2014 is in full swing with acts performing all over town since Thursday’s kickoff with a full schedule of acts this past weekend and plenty to come.

Here are a few highlights:

Tomorrow Monday June 9 at 7pm, the Ventura Film Society along with Ventura Music Week hosts 20 Feet from Stardom at the Century Downtown (555 E. Main, 93001) with an after party across the street at Amigos.

Sometimes a singer can get very close to stardom, and yet remain a thousand miles away. Or at least a few feet away. The documentary 20 Feet from Stardom by Morgan Neville explores some of the greatest backup singers of all time who, for reasons hard to explain exactly, never got the recognition nor stardom they deserved. With this film, that will change.
The energy and passion of the music in this movie comes through vibrantly loud and clear in almost every frame. Front and center are the singers who are usually hidden in the shadows of the superstars they support. These are primarily, though not exclusively, African-American women who came from church choirs where their fathers were ministers, and who learned to completely and joyously embrace the call and response of the minister and his congregation.

Read the rest of Ron Wells’ review of the 2014 Academy Award Winning Best Feature Documentary here. Tickets are $10.

One of the more unusual events is the art show and film showing in the Atrium at City Hall on Tuesday June 10 that showcases  Ventura County’s top music photographers and music‐influenced art created by Ventura’s local art community.  This is a by donation event with appetizers, beer and wine available; since Four Brix is a sponsor, I hope they will be pouring their wine! Afterwards, head to Amigo’s to hear my buddy Doug Johnson play swing and blues with his band.

Read more…

Blasters Show Review by Ron Wells; See Dave + Phil at Live Oak This Weekend

June 8, 2014

Live Oak Music Fest Poster 2014Since Dave and Phil Alvin of the Blasters are playing Friday from 9-10:30pm at Live Oak Music Festival this coming weekend, I figured it was about time to post this review by Ron Wells of a recent Blasters concert in Santa Ana, CA. More info on Live Oak follows the review.

The music business is a cruel mistress.

In the late 70’s and early 80’s, so many great bands were playing every night in every kind of club imaginable in LA. Social Distortion, X, Los Lobos, Black Flag just to name a few, and, of course, The Blasters.

And yet the big record contract went to The Knack with “My Sharona.” That band is long gone and easily forgotten, but the others are still standing in one configuration or another.

I saw the Blasters so many times I lost count of those days at The Whiskey, The Palladium, Madame Wongs and so many more clubs, dives, and hole-in-the-wall venues. They were my second favorite American band after Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. The Blasters blew the roof off the joint of every time they played, and that was after only one song. Bodies of audience members jumped, rocked and rolled everywhere, as sweat dripped off the walls like some sacred water. 

Read more…

John Oliver Explains Net Neutrality With Dingos and Shrek: Now Go Comment!

June 6, 2014

There’s a lot of rhetoric rolling around about “net neutrality.” According to Wikipedia, “Net neutrality (also network neutrality or Internet neutrality) is the principle that Internet service providers and governm1904230_747714048582057_3882181196357620842_nents should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, and modes of communication.
Proponents often see net neutrality as an important component of an open internet, where policies such as equal treatment of data and open web standards allow those on the internet to easily communicate and conduct business without interference from a third party.[5]
A “closed internet” refers to the opposite situation, in which established corporations or governments favor certain uses.” Right now the “open internet” is at risk because certain commercial entities are trying to create a system where some companies have access to a favored or fast lane of access. In this video, comedian John Oliver  explains how “cable companies are trying to create an unequal playing field for internet speeds” which is being covered “so boringly that most news outlets aren’t covering it.”Well John Oliver comes to the rescue with plenty of humour in this 13 minute video which closes with a very funny call to action because yes you do need to do something! go to fcc.gov/comments and tell them why YOU INSIST we maintain net neutrality!
Do it before July 4 because it really is about independence!From the transcript:
4:41
it’s not just anti-corporate hippies who think that abandoning net neutrality

Read more…

#ThatDamNation Floods 23 @Patagonia Stores TODAY

June 5, 2014

DamNation floods 23 Patagonia Retail Stores across the country today, Thursday, June 5th, 2014; #ThatDamNation photo contest ends June 7.

A ragingly powerful and award-winning documentary film, Damnation explores our dam culture and examines the change in “attitude from pride in big dams as engineering wonders to the growing awareness that our own future is bound to the life and health of our rivers.” The #ThatDamNation contest invites YOU to contribute to the conversation with photos of your own (scroll down for details).

“DamNation’s majestic cinematography and unexpected discoveries move through rivers and landscapes altered by dams, but also through a metamorphosis in values, from conquest of the natural world to knowing ourselves as part of nature,”states the DamNation website.

060114_DamNation_Retail_Email

Read more…

art predator

art predator )'( seek to engage the whole soul

Skip to content ↓

Crushed Grape Chronicles

Adventures in Wine Exploration

The Wine Rules

Shining a light on the wine industry

CabbieBlog

Taxi Talk Without Tipping

Jack Elliott's Santa Barbara Adventure

. . .tales from one man's wanderings, regional insight and history

The magical world of wines from Grocery Outlet

The best and the worst of Gross Out.

Stephen McConnell

A Daily Journal of Fruit, Structure, Varietal honesty, and Balance.

Sonoran Images

Photography by Steven Kessel

SpitBucket

Diary of a Wine Student

Syrah Queen

Wine, Food & Travel Resource

The Paper Plane Journey

About my passion for wine and travel

Briscoe Bites

Booze, Baking, Big Bites and More!

Mythology Matters

Matters of Myth, and Why Myth Matters

Smith-Madrone News

Good Thoughts & Great Wine from Spring Mountain, Napa Valley

Fueled by Coffee

Lifestyle, food, parenting, DYI

Bottled Bliss

Day-colored wine, night-colored wine, wine with purple feet...

Do Bianchi

Negotiating the epistemologic implications of italocentric oenophilia.

deborahparkerwong

Global wine culture

Elizabeth Gabay MW

Wine, Food and History: from the Rhone to Piedmont

Budget Trek Kashmir

Kashmir Great Alpine Lakes Trek -Ladakh Trekking - Trek Guide

Oldfield's Wanderings

Objects in blog are closer than they appear

Memorable Moments

With Lists & Adventures That Keep Life Interesting

Vinos y Pasiones - 10 años

Potenciamos tus proyectos de vinos, gastronomía y enoturismo. Descubrí todo lo que nuestra plataforma tiene para vos.

Best Tanzania Travel Guides

from Kilimanjaro to the Serengeti and beyond

LUCAS GILBERT

The Best Guide in Tanzania

Pull That Cork

Wine makes our life more fun.

Always Ravenous

Adventures in Food and Wine

Joy of Wine

"Wine cheereth God and man." -- Judges 9:13

Side Hustle Wino

If you're not having fun, you're not doing right.

Vineyard Son Alegre

Organic Wine And Olive Oil From Santanyí, Mallorca (Spain)

Lyn M. (L.M.) Archer

storyteller | image-maker

What's in that Bottle?

Better Living Through Better Wine!

ENOFYLZ

My humble wine blog

PostSecret

Discover true secrets that have never been shared. Explore the surprising stories behind the secrets.

foodwineclick

When food and wine click!

The Flavor of Grace

Helene Kremer's The Flavor of Grace

The Swirling Dervish

Wine Stories, Food Pairings, and Life Adventures

ENOFYLZ Wine Blog

Living La Vida Vino!

Dracaena Wines

Our Wines + Your Moments = Great Memories

Sonya Huber

books, essays, etc.