Why I don't miss Brooklyn

This is an actual photo from my new site of interest, Fucked in Park Slope. This what you get. Seriously, this is what you get for living in Brooklyn. No thanks, I'll stick with LA. And another thing, everybody whining, "When are you coming home? Why do you like LA? What culture do they have there?
They don't have that thing. Or if they do, I don't know about it cause I don't ride the bus. Case closed.

1969 Statue of Liberty (Statue of Bribery)

All over LA, there are some supposed Guerrilla installations of a pretty basic Statue of Liberty image and the year 1969. Check out this article for more.
OK, no big deal, right? Just some art, right? WRONG. This exact, boring, exploitative image is plastered all over every third giant building in LA, AND, it has nothing to do with art, but rather, an exercise in greed and an attempt to raise advertising dollars. It seems LA has put a moratorium on blanketing every available surface with advertisements. So as an "Artistic Response", these lame ass excuses for expression have started popping up everywhere as "ART" in an attempt to grandfather the spaces in, so that they can later be peppered with paid advertisements. I'd call the blatant misrepresentation of the Statue of Liberty a new low in Art, but that would be A. caling it Art, and B. giving it acclaim, even if, it's "a new low". Basically, it's just fucking shameful. And the scumbags that would degrade the Statue of Liberty so they can make some dough should have their asses dragged back to Ellis Island, shown the ledger where their poor immigrant ancestors came into this country, and kicked in the ass for exploiting it.

Ferris Bueller Moment

Get it? Anyone... anyone.... Bueller... Bueller...

Napa Valley Vintners Tasting

The Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills put on yet another tasting today. Definitely a great spot for a tasting. I got there a little early and spent about 15 minutes sitting in the lounge, watching actors come through for auditions. Got to see a couple people from LOST, like the pregnant British girl, Claire, which was fun.. but onto the wine.. Before I even get started, I'm going to acknowledge that I'm spoiled, but the truth of the matter is that I'm just getting tired of Cali Cabs. I have no Miles-esque "Merlot hatred" of them, but I just really don't need to taste any more huge Napa Cabs. A lot of great stuff, but even the 05 Phelps Insignia doesn't quite do it for me anymore. I think I had wines I'd prefer to sit with at the Howell Mountain tasting last week. Once again, nothing wrong with these... well crafted.. big, deep, dark, etc. but just one note. Anyhow, there were a couple of definite stand outs, and my number one was this 04 Beaucanon L Cuvee Cabernet Franc. Really delicious, well crafted, beautiful nose, great complexity and balance, and a huge welcome at this Giant Cab tasting. Of course, it was made by a French family from Bordeaux, and they even, much to my delight, used short capsules like the old Petrus bottles...look carefully and you can see the cork sticking out of the bottom of the capsule.
Also of note, the 07 Fleury Pinot Noir, the Frank Family Sparkling (I believe it was a 97, made at Schramsberg), Hendry's 04 Cab S., the Coho Pinots, Jaffe's latest two efforts (Metamorphosis, and Transformation), Expression 39 and Tetra.

The Mini Skirts

This is Victoria, the gang leader of the Mini Skirts, a club of Mini driving chicks. (Normal sized ladies that drive Mini Coopers) The Mini Skirts have been cruising LA for years, striking fear into the hearts of law abiding citizens everywhere. You can check them out at Theminiskirts.com


Victoria graciously let me roll with the Mini Skirts today as we did a rally cruising up through Topanga Canyon, culminating in Santa Monica where we took over Ye Olde Kings Head Pub resulting in more than a few bikers scurrying out the back door when the Skirts rolled in. It was AWESOME!

Alternative Pairings

A large part of my time is spent creating wine pairings (when I'm not doing inventory) Doing wine pairings can be kind of basic sometimes, so I decided to change it up a bit. To take it back a bit, it all started while listening to Ravi Shankar. If you've ever heard his Raga Bhimpalasi from the Monterey Pop Festival, you'd know that there are certain Ragas for certain times of the day. How great is that? Since it was afternoon, he had a particular grouping to choose from. So how, you may wonder can this be applied to checking one's brake pads? Glad you asked. I decided to have a little taste test, and see what would be the appropriate libation for a little Friday late afternoon auto work. The appropriate challenge I felt, would be Pabst Blue Ribbon (Non Vintage), and a 2005 Sojourn Sangiocomo Vineyard Pinot Noir. Results below...


I'm reminded of the time I was in a tasting room and someone commented they felt the rose tasted like rubber. The guy next to him said, "Yeah, I love that. I grew up racing cars in North Carolina, and that's the greatest smell..." So, you never know. Anyhow, all these olfactory variables in play, it seemed a good challenge. In all deference to Craig at Sojourn, I think the Pabst Blue Ribbon was the clear winner for this particular tasting. It's light barley notes and effervescence were the proper foil for the grunt work with a cross threaded nut. Besides, my greasy hands kept slipping on the glass, while they found purchase on the ergonomically designed aluminum can. Perhaps the Pinot will perform better with this evenings fare: pizza and chicken wings.

Gigantic Tasting

Monday was the Howell Mountain Tasting at the LA Auto Museum. Real shame I didn't have my camera with me, but here's an image of my car, the 67 Ford GT40 MKIII.
Although, this 1971 DE TOMASO that Elvis owned, was pretty cool too. Possibly even cooler than the car itself, is the fact that it still has two bullet holes in it from the time he shot it because it wouldn't start....


Oh yeah, there was some wine there too. Favorites: Black Sears, Diamond Terrace, Dunn, Neal Family Vineyards, Pina Cellars, and Spence.


Then there was the Family Winemakers event on Tuesday... over 250 wineries showing at the Pasadena Convention Center. So that was my St. Patty's Day...
I did the math and realized I tasted at 39 tables. So I tasted well over a hundred wines, probably closer to 200. Definitely my strongest St. Patty's day showing yet.
Favorites: Barlow Vineyards 05 Merlot, Bink Wines 07 Sauv Blanc, Cain Vyds, Clos Pepe, Coquelicot, Donum, Edward Sellers, Elizabeth Spencer, Inman, JC Cellars, Krupp Brothers, La Fenetre, Littorai, Lone Madrone, Michaud, Patz and Hall, Gary Pisoni was all poured out by the time I got there, but he poured me from his glass (funny, kinda smelled like Indica), Pride, and Wedell Cellars that had an UNREAL 02 Chard. The guy next to me swore it was just like a Batard Montrachet. I don't know that I'd go there with it, but it was definitely a fantastic chard.


Polished off the evening with a bottle of 06 Calera Mt Harlan Pinot with BBQ courtesy of Chef Justin Milgrim. Finally got to swallow some wine for the first time all day. This particular bottle has a cult status in Japan...
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/A+Comic+Book+Hero+Propels+Calera+Wines+to+Cult+Status+in+Japan%3B+He's...-a054734281

The world's biggest decanter

Ok, so maybe not the world's biggest, but it's still Ginormous, look, Robert's whole upper body can fit in there!


Nah, just messing with you, it's an optical illusion. But that thing is a 6000 ml I believe, also known as a 6L to you scientifically challenged within the group. I have got to get me one of those.


I can't remember all of what we had, especially because left my notebook at Robb and Nicole's, but there was a Faro, a St. Laurent, a white Rioja, a Pinot, a white wine blend, a Cena (Abe's unreal Botrytisized Sauv Blanc) which I got shouted down for listing apricot as a part of the fruit profile since it was way too common to be listed as a descriptor so I changed it to imaginary fruits that don't yet exist on this plane. Two wines from the Jura, one, an Arbois. This above, was the Tuna platter, and Nicole. Photos courtesy Brandy "Burlap" Brosious.

Farewell to Helen of Joy

Helen of Brooklyn, is headed off to Europe for a spell and had a farewell party. And what a party. DONE RIGHT!


Robb kicked some serious Ass in the kitchen, here he is slicing up two of THE most incredible slabs of tuna I've ever seen. I just stood there at the table slamming down hunks of tuna with some beautiful Sauv Blanc from Abe in the other hand.


When sabering goes wrong... Who knew that slamming a saber down the neck of a bottle of Champagne doesn't always result in a clean break? Half a bottle of rose champers went flying, but it made for an interesting spectacle anyhow... Here's the final result, pouring a broken bottle into a beaker with a coffee filter to strain out errant glass shards...


Abe led us through a white wine seminar, including some killer Gewurtztraminer, Grunerveltliner, Sauv blanc, Fruilian Bianco, and others. We had a stunning 07 Pichler Gruner V, but my winner was Abe's 07 Prince in His Caves, an incredible 07 Skin fermented Sav Blanc with all sorts of peachy, stone fruit notes. http://www.scholiumwines.com/the_prince.html




No party is complete, of course, without a fireshow.. AND, as an added treat, I also have a new post for the all important, "How much does my mustache suck?" site: http://howmuchdoesmymustachesuck.blogspot.com

Tre Bicchieri (Take Two)

First stop was the Palace of Fine Arts, which was truly one of the most beautiful monuments I've seen in the US. Just behind it, the Exploratorium where we hung out and played with all the fun experiments.


Obviously one of the wine industry peeps. Quite clever.


Onto the wine. So many beautiful wines tasted. First we wandered around on our own, making a few repeat stops for the 05 Sassicaia and Tignanello. My friend Summer, turned her nose up at these, of course, as Italian wines made for Americans. I don't even disagree neccesarily, but I was damn sure certain to taste them. Then, as a highlight, Fabrizio Iuli took us around to taste the Barolos of his contemporaries- Massolino, Damilano, Elvio Cogno, Michele Chiarlo, Vietti.. Really Beautiful Stuff.
And then, one of my highlights, the wines of La Tunella. A Ribola Gialla, a Tocai Fruilano, a blend of both, and a refosco.


After the tasting, we rounded up some extra wines for the dinner afterwards. In addition to Fabrizio's 04 Barbera, we also got to try his 03 Malidea (Bad Idea) a blend of Barbera and Nebbiolo. and his 02 and 01 Barbera. His '02, typically a horrendous year for wine in Italy, was amazing. Possibly the best Barbera I've ever had, knocking Vietti from it's previous post.
Here we are at an unnamed resto in San Fran where they tried to charge us $25 a bottle for corkage. Unfuckingbelievable. Even after approaching the GM, and the Wine Director, they kept up with their bullshit party line about the corkage fee. Maybe I'm harping too much about this, but none of us could believe the inflexibility of these guys. A table full of winemakers and industry people, straight from the Tre Bicchieri tasting, and they wouldn't even begin to budge on an outrageous corkage fee? Just when we were about to start popping our own bottles under the table, Summer, our fearless leader, grabbed some bottles and some winemakers, pinned the wine director to the bar, popped some bottles, translated, and then spun on her heels back to the table. Sure enough, in less than two minutes, all of our stemware was swapped out, apologies were offered, and bottles were popped. Fuckin rookies tryin to play us? My girl SumSum put a stop to that quickfast.

The further crackhead adventures of Slick and Muddy

A stop in San Francisco for my second attempt at the Tre Bicchieri tasting. Oliver came with and we made a day of wandering around The City. This sign is so perfectly San Francisco. I love the town, but sometimes it's so Fascistly Liberal it's fundamentalist. I mean what are we to glean from this hand painted sign? Crime isn't really crime if it's committed by "youth of color and immigrants"? So what's the rub here? Only call the cops on the white guys? I think these people should just go have a bake sale for Al Queda.


What's up with Oliver? Is he drinking out of a toilet? Well, yes and no. We stopped off at the Exploratorium before the tasting and checked out all the cool science stuff they had there. This was a toilet they turned into a water fountain in order to show the immediate visceral reactions our brains have to objects. But not Oliver, he drinks out of the toilet all the time.



And then there was this amazing device that transformed Oliver into a white chick in a bikini. Boy, was his fiance pissed...

Passive aggresive notes.com

I Love Love Love this site...

My buddy Louis, his birthday pig, and other Louisisms...

So, yeah, he wasn't kidding when he said he was doing a pig roast.


Since I was headed to San Francisco for the Tre Bicchieri tasting (again) Louis offered to pay for my gas if I'd get him to Santa Cruz. Perfect. We stopped off in Paso Robles to do some tasting, and to stop by the James Dean Memorial, where he was killed in his Porche taking a turn on 46 too fast. As memorials go, it was a very nice one. And right by a pretty decent road house/ diner where we got directions from some local cattle ranchers.


Here we are in his buddies' garage, tasting the latest Patricia Green Oregon Pinot Louis is so fond of.


And this, for all the old skaters out there, is an original Mark Gonzales, by Vision. I'm guessing about circa 1986. Nice!

Shit show at Tre Bicchieri LA, Venice Beach Wines to the rescue

I took a last minute invite to check out the Tre Bicchieri tasting in LA. For those not in the Italian Wine loop, Tre Bicchieri (Italian for Three Cups) is the rating system used by Gambero Rosso for the best of the best in Italian wines. Co-sponsored by Slow Food, I was really hoping for a great showing. Alas, the wine didn't show up. So, after a mad scramble, and phone calls to their distributors, maybe a fourth of the tables actually had any wine to pour. Most of them, odd vintages or completely different wines, whatever they were able to compile here in LA. As it all turned out, this was just fine, because I'd be doing it again in San Francisco in a few days and it gave me a chance to try out some different wines and vintages, and get an idea of what would be available to try when I got to San Fran.
After a couple interesting tastes: Sfursat (a ripassa, dried style Nebbiolo), Pugnitello (an heirloom variety, almost extinct), Damilano, and Vietti Barolo, I felt pretty happy about bouncing early with Mike, Barbara, and Bob, and checking out Venice Beach Wines, (Pictured above) a really great spot on the supposedly formerly sketchy Rose Ave. Oscar, who built most of the place himself, really managed to get a cute, comfortable, and homey spot together with a great little kitchen, eclectic wine list, and all around fun atmosphere. Definitely check them out if you're in Venice.
http://www.venicebeachwines.com/


Of course, another reason I like this place, is that it reminds me of a sculpture I did about 10 years ago, called November. It now hangs at my buddy's house in Brooklyn. It's a single piece of wood, cut into 30 pieces, acting as a sort of calendar. Each piece of the woodgrain representing a sunrise or new day, and reflecting the events of that day in November 1999.

Stuyvesant High School hits Los Feliz!

Ron Williams and Matt O'Brien, two chums from the old days of High School, managed a meet, and we all grabbed some beers at the lovely Drawing Room on Hillhurst. (If you're not familiar, check it out, and bring antibacterial soap) So anyway, always a good time to laugh about the old days. There's nothing like cracking up over fist fights in the cafeteria, and arguing over who was the hottest girl in the Freshman class of 1991. Although, I think we all agreed unanimously on Danielle Magaldi.

Gringos in Mexico

So three gringos walk into a bar...
It really kinda hurts to see what idiots your own people can be. These morons were a picture postcard of American frat boys. I suppose they were just having a good time, but, really, seriously? OK, so they were having some kind of bachelor party, I suppose that grants them a little bit of leeway, but you've gotta have a healthy dose of ye olde moron gene to begin with in order to display this kind of douchebaggery.


Luckily, Brandy and Elisa were there to charmingly rescue our reputation abroad. Seriously, these two should be cultural attaches for the US. Well, that might backfire somehow now that I think about it.