Here’s a screen shot of my application video for the position of Murphy-Goode Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent!
Please click on the link below to watch the video on their site and to vote for me, please!
http://www.areallygoodejob.com/video-view.aspx?vid=MEPRrfj1uHU
Thank YOU!!
Here’s MY SuperHero, sneaking in a nap between chapters of Melvin Beederman, Super Hero, one of their favorite chapter books to read and reread. And reread again. We couldn’t recommend Melvin more. The Dad comes highly recommended too.
For the Big Monkey, aka Dad to the Small Boy, catching some extra shut-eye is a favorite weekend pastime.
So is putting some sockeye salmon on the grill! 
Thank goodness for us! That’s another reason why he’s my Superhero–the man knows how to grill and grill it good!
Saturday night we went pink: pink salmon, pink sparking Codiniu pinot noir cava, pink beet salad with goat cheese and walnuts on greens from our garden, even a pink lobster! Plus some homemade basil-arugala pesto for some colorful contrast. The dry, pink sparkler made for a beautiful table as well as a festive occasion; bonus was it went well with the meal. What a treat! Yummy!
Now you can see why we’re celebrating Father’s Day all weekend! Happy Father’s Day to all the dads! Today and every day! Cheers!
My campaign to be the Murphy-Goode Wine Country Lifestyle correspondent has required me to find, buy and drink Murphy-Goode wine. I know, I know, it’s a tough challenge, but I’m up for it!
When I first heard about the Murphy-Goode wine blogging job, I had just bought a bottle of 2005 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon at my favorite wine store, Ventura Wine Company.
Say what you will for the advantages of on-line retailing, and the energy and enthusiasm of Gary Vaynerchuk, but I like going into a brick and mortar store.
I like feeling the heft of the bottle, fingering the labels, readng them over front and back. I love talking with Nick, the owner, or his daughter Nicole, and getting into conversations with other customers, exchanging tips and recipes. Continue reading
So you might have gathered that I’m applying for another “dream job”–this time, instead of Caretaker of the Great Barrier Reef, I’m up for Murphy-Goode’s Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent.
So, my 60 minute video application awaits approval and processing (and it came out soooooo great! Whoo hoo!!). In the meantime, I’m headed for a carnival, a blog carnival that is, over at Andy’s Goode Life Blog where she asks us to respond to these three questions:
1. How to avoid the dreaded red wine teeth? Ahh, the scurge of red wine drinkers, especially for those of us with a passion for heavy bodied reds like syrahs.
At Doug Cook’s birthday party at the Wine Blogger’s Conference, toward the end of a long day of tasting and drinking wine, we were all laughing at ourselves and each other, joyously celebrating our red teeth! It was a mark of a day and an evening well spent amongst new and old friends sharing some of our favorite wines.
So, enjoy!
Now, if you’re doing a photo shoot that’s another story. It’s best not to drink much anyway if at all. Bring a toothbrush. And if it’s a first date or a business dinner, and you’re worried about first impressions, choose to drink something white!
Extra, extra read all about it! VinTank to help Art Predator win Murphy-Goode wine job!
Okay, I admit, I am exaggerating a little bit, but it’s really exciting news! After I groused over at VinTank and here on Art Predator about how VinTank was providing an unfair advantage to the 8 candidates they’ve chosen before the contest is even over, VinTank’s Paul Mabray commented on their blog and on mine that they are happy to help ALL the applicants–those that ask anyway!
What’s in it for VinTank? If they’re in the business of social media wine consulting, why are they giving away all this information for free? Because they get it–they understand that what they do to help the wine industry will help the wine industry hire them! Further, by nurturing enthusiastic wine bloggers like me, they are developing talent for all those jobs VinTank recommends they fill.
So, Paul and partners at VinTank, I’m asking, I’m asking! Help me get not just a Goode job, but a great job! Help me further develop the skills I need to get a job in social media in the wine industry! (I even have some ideas of places to pitch!) I’m all ears and thrilled to learn more from the experts about using social media tools to communicate stories and make the world a more exciting, interactive place!
And since I know many of my readers want to better reach the world with what YOU want to say, I’ll share what I can with you!
First step, though, is to do my homework and read VinTank’s white paper on social media and the wine industry. Whoo hoo! I love this kind of stuff, I really do. And it smells and sounds like the coffee is almost brewed. Mmmn, coffee. Mmmnn, wine.
Stay tuned!
Art Predator aka Wine Predator on the Prowl for Murphy-Goode Wine Blogging JobSo I know you’re wondering, “what’s up with this Murphy-Goode wine blogging job you’re going for?”
Glad you asked! In this June 5 LA Times article, Murphy-Goode winemaker Dave Ready Jr admits they jumped on the “best job in the world” idea and made it their own by offering $10,000 a month for six months and a house in Healdsburg in the heart of Sonoma County wine country to the winning applicant via a 60 second video:
Ready said he got the idea of hiring a “lifestyle correspondent” via video application from the Australian state of Queensland. Early this year, tourism officials there caused an online sensation by inviting people to submit videos for “The Best Job in the World.” The gig: spending six months as caretaker of a palm-fringed island surrounded by azure sea, and using blogs, video updates, photo diaries and other online media to promote tourism. More than 34,000 people applied for the roughly $120,000 job, which went to Ben Southall, a self-described adventurer from Britain.
“We thought, ‘Wow, can we apply this to the wine industry?’ I guess we can,” Ready said as applicants joined him in sipping samples of Murphy-Goode wine. Many said they had learned of the job — which calls for an imaginative, inquisitive “people person” who is also a communications whiz — through e-mail lists or from friends.
With the deadline looming on Friday, Murphy-Goode has over 1300 videos posted on their website; they’ve warned they won’t accept more than 5,000. But according to Ready:
the main weakness among the applicants so far was their inability to show a passion for wine or for life in the bucolic Alexander Valley, not their mastery of the Web as a marketing tool.
Hmmn passion, passion, passion…I just think that’s a Predator attribute if there ever was one. And passion for wine? For life in the great outdoors in a special place like the Alexander Valley? Hhmmmm, I would say while there’s plenty of evidence for that all over this blog, it’s gonna be up to me to lead the Murphy-Goode folks there! And I need to make sure that comes through in my video as we finish editing it!
Because, honestly? The tech stuff and how to use social media stuff can be learned rather quickly by anyone who’s a good writer.
Being passionate, enthusiastic? Ahhh, now see, that I have learned, my friends, that I have learned is one of my gifts. It was my passion and enthusiasm, the poetry I had for describing coffee which got me a tasting room job at Ridge Winery in my early 20s.
I am like the Pied Piper, leading my charge on bicycles with 50 people along for the ride in Santa suits or prom dresses, by organizing community cleanups and planting days, or simply in the college classroom, keeping my students awake, showing them how to be ALIVE, encouraging them to be human. To lead a life full of aesthetic, participatory experiences, not anaesthetic spectator ones.
Hmmn, now isn’t that what social media is all about anyway? Being human and interacting with each other?
Just over a month ago, Queensland Tourism announced Ben Southall Gets Best Job in the World!
Which meant that Art Predator aka Wine Predator did not. And for those of you who follow this blog (and there are a lot of you, lurkers and commentors alike), you know my huge disappointment. You likely recall that I wrote a lot about Australia (not just my typical AUS wine posts!) and the Great Barrier Reef in the weeks leading up to that announcement–posts that, I must admit, have very long tails and continue to be quite active.
In the same post, I mentioned that Murphy-Goode was a week or so into a contest looking for a “Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent,” and I wondered whether I should throw my hat into the ring. I even bought a bottle of 2005 Murphy-Goode Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon at the Ventura Wine Store on Telephone.
But I was still licking my wound, letting the warm consoling words of friends wash over and heal me.
Until now. Yes, friends Helen and Dave have been after me to apply ever since I told them about the Murphy-Goode wine blogging and social media job while we were en route to the Delicious Wine Tasting in Santa Monica. Dave keeps giving me that “I’ll never forgive you if you don’t apply” look. So I’ve decided to go for it.
One minute video applications are due Friday June 19 at midnight, California time. I’ve got my script ready, and my lines rehearsed. Some filming and editing is done, my friends and family are lined up, and the tritip is marinating for the fine dinner party we’re going to have with some Murphy-Goode wine up at my mom’s house.
And then. And then.
And then I’m cruising the internet and find this: a wine marketing think tank, VinTank, has already vetted the existing candidates, chosen their favorites, and even helped them promote their candidacy. At one point, they even offered Murphy-Goode $100,000 in services if M-G chose one of their favorites!!
Hello? Murphy-Goode Dream Job? My dream has been squelched before I even finished my video!
OK, I admit, this is a great way for VinTank to draw attention to their white paper on the wine business and social media. And one of the candidates they chose (Todd Havens) was one I chose and even featured on my blog in this post: Art Predator Gets Best Mom, Ben Southall Gets Best Job in the World!
Yep, he’s really good. And his video is really good–or is that goode?
Anyway, now I am in a quandary. The invites are out. Friends and family have made plans. I’m looking forward to seeing them, to enjoying the great meal I have planned, and to drinking this Murphy-Goode wine I bought!
So–The party’s is ON!!
PS And you know it–you will be the first to know how it goes! I am counting on you, my faithful readers, to vote and support my candidacy! Together we can do it, we can put the Art Predator to work at a Really Goode job!
And, if you get a chance, drop those folks over at VinTank a note and ask them to save a spot for the Art Predator aka Wine Predator. They won’t regret it!
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 