Personally, I can’t imagine a #Cabernet Day better than last year’s at the Burning Man Festival in the Black Rock Desert. I was joined at my Art Predator and Wine Predator camp in Kidsville by Jim Morris (aka Sonoma Wine Guy on Twitter) and Tony Fletcher (blogger, dj and author of several books on music and musicians including Keith Moon) plus author Mark Lorentzen aka Puma who always brings over $1000 worth of fine wine to Burning Man.
Happy Bitch for a Rosy Afternoon
This is my friend Sophia Kidd. We’ve known each other about 20 years now, ever since I returned to Ventura and had a studio at Art City. She’s a poet, a curator currently active in the southwest China’s contemporary art scene, particularly that of time-based-art, a philosopher, a film buff, and she just spent the past three years in China getting her Masters on a very esoteric topic (yes, she wrote it in Chinese!)
And, as you can tell, she is one HAPPY BITCH!
So that’s why, when she came over yesterday so we could figure out the nuts and bolts on a performance event “dubword::GEIST” we’re curating with Steve Aguilar to be held at Art City on August 20 (for more see below), I popped the bottle cap on the bottle of Happy Bitch rose from Hudson Valley New York that I had chilling in the fridge. It’s a Continue reading
2011 Big House Birdman at the Beach with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy 2012
If it’s the first week of August, it’s time for the Ventura County Fair.
And that means Fair food and Fair entertainment including fireworks every night and music too! Last night we were on the Ferris Wheel when the fireworks went off; another highlight was a deep fried hot dog with a spiral of potato chips which my son and I were going to share but he polished off by himself!
This year, like most,
don’t tell anyone but
my family, friends and I ride our bikes down to the beach to enjoy the fair’s concert from the “cheap seats” –our bike seats or a bench on the beach!
That’s what I did on Saturday to see Joan Jett and that’s what a bunch of us did tonight for Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
Out there by the 
beach the sound isn’t too loud–a bonus as we’re not blowing out our eardrums and we can visit with each other. There’s also plenty of room to dance with views of the seashore!
Another bonus is we can bring our own food and drink. This year a group of us gathered for an informal light dinner along the bike path featuring local fresh olive bread, cheeses, humous, vegies, an arugula portabella feta salad, a couscous salad, and, the star of the show, raw oysters from the Jolly Oyster. Continue reading
2012 Wine Bloggers Conference in PDX: Wine Predator to Ignite!
It’s almost that time again–time for the annual Wine Bloggers Conference!
This year we’re meeting in Portland –close to the Willamette Valley home of Oregon’s justly famous pinot noir and pinot gris! I barely scratched the surface with my trip there last July– highlighted by my visit on my last night to Coleman Vineyard south and west of McMinnville (Gotta love Coleman’s Facebook about page which says: Think globally. Eat locally. Dress casually.) More on Coleman soon!
I’ve made the pilgrimage to the Wine Bloggers Conference a regular part of my wine, writing, and blogging education: I attended the inaugural conference in 2008 as well as 2009 in Sonoma, followed by 2010 in Walla Walla. I also attended the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference in Lisbon as a guest of Enoforum Wine.
I keep going back to the Wine Blogger Conferences because I learn so much about writing and wine–two of my favorite activities combined into one!! It’s amazing to try so many wines from so many regions in such a short time. And over the years I’ve made some wonderful friends as well as connections in the business.
This year in Portland, over 350 consumer and industry wine bloggers will gather on Thursday August 16 for a welcome by Oregon Wine Board. Highlights include speed tastings, a keynotes by Bonny Doon’s Randall Grahm and Sideways novelist Rex Pickett, plus many sessions on topics related to wine and writing including IgniteWine! where I will be presenting on “Sex, Wine and the Semi-Colon.” I’m currently debating whether I should include real-life examples of typos or mechanical errors that I come across in wine blogs–but I know that will open mine up to criticism and I am sure there are a few mistakes around here too! What do you think? Is it a good idea or not?
For an example of a great IgniteWine presentation, check out the video above!
In the meantime, please subscribe (in the upper right hand corner) so you don’t miss a single drop!
WBW #79 Gets Literary With Katniss Everdeen & Professor McGonigle
For July’s Wine Blogging Wednesday #79, host Brix Chix Liza prompts wine bloggers to ponder: What wine would your favorite fictional character drink?
I asked my fellow wine predators to send me their answers. Henny Kim sends this submission:
In the time before Panem, I guess people my age weren’t allowed to drink alcohol. Haymitch told me as much when he had time to talk between swigs of his awful booze. Imagine a world where the adult didn’t l
et kids do things because it was considered unhealthy. A world where children weren’t used as pawns for a vicious game of control and survival. I am thinking about this when Gale shows me the bottle he spotted during our hunt outside District 12. The bottle has a curious shape—like what humans used to call a bowling pin—and contains a dark pink liquid, the same shade of my lips when I’ve been running after wild game and a little out of breath and slightly sweaty. The pretty label shows small leaves and lettering, but the words that stand out are a bold black Sofia and then Rose in a girlish pink script. I wonder about how life must have been in a time when people had their names written on their own bottles and about who this Sofia Rose had been, how sad she must have been to discover she’d lost her bottle in the woods. After Gale manages to pop out the cork, he hands me the bottle, but I hesitate, thinking that since my name isn’t Sofia Rose, this drink doesn’t belong to me. Continue reading
et kids do things because it was considered unhealthy. A world where children weren’t used as pawns for a vicious game of control and survival. I am thinking about this when Gale shows me the bottle he spotted during our hunt outside District 12. The bottle has a curious shape—like what humans used to call a bowling pin—and contains a dark pink liquid, the same shade of my lips when I’ve been running after wild game and a little out of breath and slightly sweaty. The pretty label shows small leaves and lettering, but the words that stand out are a bold black Sofia and then Rose in a girlish pink script. I wonder about how life must have been in a time when people had their names written on their own bottles and about who this Sofia Rose had been, how sad she must have been to discover she’d lost her bottle in the woods. After Gale manages to pop out the cork, he hands me the bottle, but I hesitate, thinking that since my name isn’t Sofia Rose, this drink doesn’t belong to me. Continue reading WBW#78 report & #79 gets literary!
Last month for Wine Blogging Wednesday #78, we got our “viggy on” –which means that, according to host Frank Morgan, over 29 bottles of viognier were opened, tasted, and reviewed on various blogs (including this one). Bloggers wrote about wines from California, Virginia, Australia, Washington, Portugal, and more.
July’s Wine Blogging Wednesday host Brix Chix Liza asks wine bloggers to ponder:
What wine would your favorite fictional character drink?
And she’s offering a prize for the best entry!
I’m going to ask my fellow Wine Predators to email me their stories and I’ll post them here. While the obvious literary guests should have been fellow wine blogger Deb Harkness‘s heroine from Discovery of Witches and her vampire/geneticist wino sweetheart, I invited Professor McGonigle over for Sunday dinner. You’ll have to wait until Wednesday to hear about what we ate and drank and talked about! (Oh, and there might be pictures as well!)
Wanna play? Here are the rules:
- Think of a favorite character. Any genre, any timeline, any story.
- What wine would he/she/it drink? Tell us about the wine. Work it into the story.
- Extra credit for those who write a scene with the wine
- Your deadline is Wednesday, July 25th
- Leave a comment at Brixchicks #wbw79
- Facebook BrixChick Liza
- Tweet @brixchick_Liza
- Email WBW79 at brixchicks dot com
- If you are thinking of dressing up as your character, We LOVE that! Instagram us: brixchick_Liza
- Be sure to use the #WBW79 hashtag.
Pinot Gris from Alsace: Summer Sensation
A few weeks ago, SoCalArtGal, Annie AnyDay, Bacchus Schmacchus and I gathered for two twitter tastings of 9 (yes NINE!) wines in two hours!
That was a lot of wine even for us!!
First we did five wines from the Alsace region of Europe:
Lucien Albrecht Cremant d’Alsace Brut Rose
The Furst Pinot Blanc
Gustave Lorentz Riesling
Schlumberger Pinot Gris
Trimbach Gewurztraminer
followed by four delightfu, light effervescent and refreshing Vinho Verde wines from Portugal!
But for today, I’m just going to share a few notes about the Pinot Gris, later a bit about the Alsace region and soon, I promise, we’ll share our thoughts on the other wines from Alsace as well as the wines from Portugal! Continue reading
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 