Icarus strikes again

Oh this, it's just my flying suit. How cool is this? I imagine coming to some vaguely foreign, but still immediately homey, locale, where just as I put down my worn leather suitcases, my wildly eccentric, genius-inventor uncle, comes soaring over a ridge in this thing, crashing into a pile of hay right next to the barn. "Oh hey, glad you made it, help me out of this thing will you? Gotta do some work on the rear stabilizers."

2005 Drouhin Burgundy Tasting (and Bacon and Cheddar Crickets)

So we started off with '02 Vero (by Veronique Drouhin) Fantastic year for White Burg, but I just don't think it was really made to put down and age. It was interesting, but a bit disjointed and awkward. Honestly, we may have been asking a bit much from a Vero; had it been a straight Drouhin, it might have been a different issue, but the Vero was made to drink young. Then onto the 05 Meursault, very nice, bright fruit, good structure, but really just a stepping stone to the 05 Puligny-Montrachet, which was a delight. Again, another very fine wine, but hey, the whole point is these are just village wines, but they were tasty and could probably rival some premier crus from other vintages.
Then onto the reds. '05 Savigny-Les-Baunes, Volnay, and Gevrey Chambertin. The Savigny was killer for what it was, the Volnay was drinking well, and the Gevrey... Damn, I think it was rocking. I wish I had a case to put down and see where it will be in ten years. Then, a 96 Savigny Les Beaunes P. Cru, and a 96 Beaunes-Greves P. Cru. The SLB was a bit stinky and funky, it blew off with air, but came back again and lingered, and the Beaunes-Greves was the wine of the night, really nice marriage of fruit and complexity, silky tannins. Good show.


In another tasting of sorts, a refusal to eat a Bacon and Cheddar flavored Cricket. That's right- Brandy Brosius eats bugs.

Yuk!

Someone stole my Hubcap

So my friend says to me the other day, "Somebody stole one of my hub caps." (Absence of hubcap pictured here)
"Oh yeah?", I replied. "Think it was the same guy that ripped off your side guard strip, started to peel off the back one, ripped off your antenna, and scratched the hell out of your front hubcap? 'Cause I hear Jetta POS hubcaps are trading at a premium these days."

Wednesday Night Burgundy Meeting

Nah, just kidding, this is Domaine Carneros where we went last week. The tasting was at XIV, a Michael Mina Joint on Sunset. But the Domaine made for a cooler picture so I put it in.


Gros Frere et Soeur Vosne Rominee, and Mongeard-Mugneret Nuits St. Georges. I think the Mongeard- Mugneret was my Burgundy of the night. The Gros was, well, gros. And I mean that in the French. It was big. Big and dark. Hugely dark, syrah like dark, what's-going-on-here-how-can-this-possibly-be-Burgundy-dark. It was one of those, "Huh?" moments. Not that I like to give scores anyway, but if I did, I wouldn't give one for this wine. I couldn't. I don't know what's going on. (As if that's stopped me before)
Then there was the Mongeard-Mugneret. This Nuits St. Georges was my Burg o' the tasting, by not the best wine there. Do you follow? Can't say I blame you. It had it's fruit up front, making it over the wall of the early tannins, and it's earth was there too, rounding out it's complexity. Nice mid-palate, more than decent finish. Interesting to play with. But was it love? Sadly, no.
And then, there was the Groffier Bourgogne. Now, this was fun. Like when your date shows up in sneakers, and you don't know for sure what you're going to do that night, but there's a good chance it just might involve hopping some fences. Light, sweet, nice little pucker. A doll. And a cheap date.


Some 06 Bordeaux as well: Le Tertre Roteboeuf, yeah, ok. It was nice, but not showing me much. I'm not one of those expert winetasters with a crystal ball, who starts palm reading the juice. It's there or it isn't, and for me, didn't get much. Sorry, buh-bye. My favorite was the 06 Roc de Cambes. I've liked their stuff lately. I feel like you could pick them out of a line up with a telltale chocolate nose. Like you just caught a six year old sticking their entire head in the cookie jar. What? Who, me? Good stuff.

Quick trip to Sonoma

Yup. The legendary 03 Pegau Da Capo. 100+ Points from parker, $795.


So we stopped of at the Sojourn tasting room to meet Craig. When the Burgundy flag is flying, (that crest under the Sojourn sign), it means the Burgundy tasting is in effect. If you've got a Grand Cru Burgundy you're willing to pop, you're welcome to come on in.

We had: 93 Gros Frere et Souer Grands Echezeaux, 97 Drouhin Grands Echezeaux, a Magnum of 06 Mugnier Nuits St. Georges Clos de la Marchale, 03 Raphet Clos de la Roche, 97 Moillard Corton Clos du Roi, 96 De L'Arlot Nuits St. Georges Clos de Forest St. Georges, and of course, although a Rhone, the 03 Pegau da Capo. Wine of the night: 97 Drouhin Grands Ech.

As an added bonus we got to taste through the 07 Sojurn Pinots and two cabs the Howell and Spring Mountain. 07 is shaping up to be an extraordinary year for Cali pinot, with just about every 07 pinot I've tried from Santa Rita to Carneros being some of each producers best, with the possible exception of 04. The undeniable winner of the Sojourn Pinots was the 07 Sangiocomo, but the baseline 07 Sonoma Coast was rocking too. Hopefully Craig will make it down to LA soon to do a tasting at Noir.

Fairies, Sprites, cotton candy bustiers, and drinking absinthe out of lightbulbs

The Well at the Orphanage

Here's the water truck. They've got to truck in all their water, get it up the hill, and then fill up the well. If you take a look at the deep ruts under the front tire, you can see why it's not as easy at it seems.


Once we actually got the truck up to the right spot, attempting to fill the well.


Unfortunately, the water isn't all that clean, but they do have a couple filters on it.


They spent about an hour trying to get the truck up the muddy hill. There was a young 13 or 14 year old kid grinding the gears, and dumping water out of the top of the truck making matters worse and worse.


We filled up Many Many Many wheelbarrows full of fill and rocks, fallen branches, and pretty much any other sheetrock, wood, or garbage that was available to build up enough dry material over the mud to get the truck up the hill. But then the connector to the hose kept failing. Half the water we finally got up the hill flooded back down before we could get it into the well. Just kind of how it goes in Mexico I guess.
Jesse, who'd been back and forth many times to oversee the work on the Soccer field, and has been working with Casa Hogar and other orphanages for a while now, had a pretty good angle on it. He said, you do the best you can, and try to leave your work in a place where it's at least finished in it's stage, so whoever comes next, can build off from what you've done. It's a great way to be, because some of the biggest bummers of volunteer work are the feelings of hopelessness, when you can't get something done, or it seems like your project will just fall back into disuse. Not to beat a metaphor to death, but it's easy to get stuck feeling like the work can't get done, and it'll all just keep sliding back down the hill. It's important to find something positive to hold onto, and build off of, to get even just one thing done.

Casa Hogar

We went down to Mexico to visit an orphanage affiliated with Brandy's Montessori School up here in California. Through Brandy's school, a bunch of money had been donated to build a soccer field, and we went down to document, help out, and hand out winter coats. I helped edit a few short films we put together.


And to think, I had to go all the way down to Mexico just to be the tallest guy on a line.

The Farwell Holiday Party

Some beautiful white Burgs popped over at the Farwell Holiday Party: 00 Vinny G Batard Montrachet, My personal Fave, the 01 Ramonet Batard Montrachet, and an 02 Deleger Chassagne Montrachet. All beauties.


When setting up for Mike's Party, he sent me over to his storage unit and set me up with picking out the wines for the party.... Soooo, Amongst the Loring and other favorites, I picked out a horizontal of Roessler. Awesome.

Christmas lights in LA?

Of course what really made it so magical wasn't the two hour wait in the rain to drive through the display put on by LA Water and Power (Paige's take on them later) but rather the cherubic like voices of the ladies in the car.

New Cop Cars

A buddy sent me this shot from down in the old neighborhood of DUMBO. Something about the irony of new faster cop cars and the perfectly framed grafitti on the wall between them...

The Brewery

Up there, on the top floor, by the red light is where we went to the last show


This is from the balcony. I had a particular idea in mind, but, the timing was off. Somewhat similar to the Violin in the metro vid.

Gallery at the top floor of the Brewery

Yeah, so I don't know if this grouping could be defined as a collection or not, and then again, I don't really care so much anyway, but here they are..


A little difficult to make out in the picture, but this is a set of three riot gear shields.


This one I liked the best. If I had any money, I would've bought this. Maybe I'll just buy an American flag one of these days and do it myself. Unstitch the block of stars, and move it to the middle. I should've checked to see who the artist was, or even what the title was, but that just wasn't really on my radar at the moment. Trying to dissect and discuss this piece is a great example of overthinking and the general bullshit involved with modern art in general, but hey, that's what we love it for anyway so here goes..
It drew me in right away. I'm into fabrication, the way things are made, and this one was so simple and beautiful, it was perfect.
But onto the interpretations, I kept thinking: No man is an island. To me, this really brought out the increasing isolationism of the US under Bush the Younger.
Important Note: While cleaning out my car yesterday, I found the original price list for the show. The title of the Flag piece was, " No man is an Island" perhaps that's why I kept thinking it. Huh.

People with guns

Barbara's at the Brewery

While on said visit to the brewery for the Art Walk, we stopped in to visit Barbara, who brought me up to her wine room and we perused the list and she even popped a bottle of 01 Graff Mourvedre for us! Thanks Barbara!
P.S. Take extra special notice of my crappy mustache.