01-01-2006

Anyone Remember Judge Ito?

Just back from a nice X-mas in FL with K's mom and her husband. My cousin also managed to join us. Thanks to all of them for a very nice relaxing holiday! We recieved an awesome gift - a hot-air balloon ride, pics of which are up. On my way home, while waiting during a flight delay in the Ft. Lauterdale airport, I briefly met O.J. Simpson who was stopping to thank the guy next to me in line for buying him a drink earlier at the airport bar (disappointingly, O.J. was not flying through the airport to his rental car).

Otherwise - not much going on but prep. for our Africa honeymoon, for which Ker and I are totally amped!

Of Pandering to Peoples

Yeah!
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/12/20/intelligent.design/index.html

Always reminded me of this little gem from TheOnion:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/26351

Handshaking with Billionaires

Just finished up a great week - one of the best gigs of the year at Jitters with Steve-O and the lads, which capped off a week of celebrations in D.C. for a global award I won for my day-job with part of my team. Long story, but in summary: we presented to the owners and senior staff of the company, and got to spend some time with them partying at the Grand Hyatt, National History Museum, and the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. Pics are up. K and I had an awesome time, but were a bit worse for wear on Friday after the dinner and dancing...

Next gigs won't be until late January (back-to-back nights at the two local Triumph Brewery locations - Princeton, NJ & New Hope, PA on the 27th and 28th respectively), since K and I will be on our long-delayed and long-awaited honeymoon in Kenya, Africa!

So... Be well, and see you at Triumph (with lots of pics :-)!

Wine-er

Much to tell you about so let's get this pardee started -

On the music front: Playing this Friday with Steve-O and the boys at the Flying Pig in Malvern, PA - hope to see you there! I had a listen to the basic tracks (sans solos & vocals) for the up-coming SL release and so far the tunes are really burnin'.

On the wine front: Took the WSET exam last night, it went pretty well I think (despite some tricky questions on regional styles) and I should find out how I did in about 2 weeks. I've been asked by a few people about good wine books, especially ones making for decent holiday gifts. So, here goes - a quick compilation of Joe's Recommended Wine Library (owner tested & approved):

1. Oldman's Guide to Outsmarting Wine -This is a great book and the one I most wish had been available when I was starting out experimenting (aka heavily drinking) my way into the world of wine. Tons of info. presented in a easy style, plus some room to grow with you as gain more experience.
2. The Wine Bible - An astonishing achievement, this mighty tome is exceptional in the fact that it somehow combines breadth & depth on every important wine topic with easily accessible and eminately browsable prose. If you have some experience with wine then this could be the only wine book you'll ever need - a classic.
3. World Atlas of Wine - The gold standard by which all other wine references are now measured, it's a good-looking coffee table book that also happens to have boatloads of information on nearly every wine region on the planet. Only buy it after you are able to comfortably define the term terroir to others.
4. Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book - Packs a ridiculous amount of information into an impossibly small amount of space. Surprisingly intuitive to use after you get used to the abbreviations. Will shortly pay for itself in both real savings (on good cheaper recommendations) and/or cost avoidance (in keeping you from shelling out mad bank on an overpriced/overhyped wine).
   

So - in the words of Austria's Joseph II, "there it is." I should also note that I've heard excellent things about the Oxford Companion to Wine (but I don't own it myself yet).

Oh, one more thing - the best things going on-line for wine are probably the WineLoversPage and CellarTracker.

Later!