June 26, 2006
Wine Events – Getting on the Glam with Bacchus
Over the past decade, American interest in wine has grown across the board. What was once a periodic fascination with Riunite Lambrusco or generic White Zinfandel sucked down at garden parties with cubes of Monterrey Jack cheese and Triscuits has grown into a serious interest in wine and wine pairings .
Note:
The Wine Snob still appears at parties and wrinkles its porcine nose at non-Barolos, easily bruised Pinot Noir and of course anything with too gaudy a label. But, more and more Americans are tuning in to the notion of wine as an accompaniment to food, rather than a beverage strictly for attaining a certain state inebriation.
Bacchus would be proud . He would certainly give a nod to all the Maenad sommeliers around town, and to the new-found pleasures of knowing which wines give the greatest pleasure at any given time.
Wine has been around for a long time, all the way back to the first city walls ever constructed. Our ancient ancestors got the grape on as soon as they invented the clay pottery jars to keep it in. It was a magical elixir, and in many ways still is. For some of us, it remains a mystery, and we are shy about our lack of vocabulary, label-reading skills or basic understanding. The choices can be overwhelming, and now it seems that every glam spot in the city claims a notable wine list, sommelier and some special in - vino - veritas -secret.
If you need help, want to learn more, or just want to know what is going on around town, check out these events, just a few of the over 80 events coming up in July and August. So whip out that pedicure -worthy and oh-so-overpriced footwear, the Amex and whatever else you need to go glamming around town, and get the grape on.
Some notable events:
A Short Introduction to Wine ($35)
Date: Jul 07, 2006 (Fri)
Phone: 212-629-8529
Time: 6:45-7:45pm
Cost: $35
Place: Tasting World
307 West 38th Street, Suite 1910
New York City, NY 10018
Summer Latin Wine Series @ Havana Central
Date: Jul 10, 2006 (Mon)
Phone: (212)398-7447
Time: 7:30 Email: Email Event Organizer
Cost: $60/person $50/person with 3 class purchase
Place: Havana Central
151 West 46th Street
New York, NY 10036
Vinos y Tapas (The Levant: Alicante, Jumilla, Yecla, Utiel-Requena, Valencia), at Suba's Wednesday series on Spanish Wine with Tapas
Date: Jul 12, 2006 (Wed) Phone: 212 982 5714
Time: 6:30pm
Cost: $40 Id:
Place: Suba Restaurant
109 Ludlow St
New York City, NY 10002
Outstanding West Coast Pinot Noirs
Date: Jul 12, 2006 (Wed) Phone: 212-688-9370
Time: 7:30pm Email:
Cost: 150.00
Place: The Morrell Wine Store
1 Rockefeller Plaza, (49th street)
New York, NY 10019
Tags:
Bacchus, glam, local wine events, New YOrk City wine events, pinot noir, wine
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Posted on 6/26/2006
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June 15, 2006
Bars, Lounges, Bartenders, Lies & the Cocktail Skirt
While sitting in a bar that bored itself to death long ago, I pondered the 15$ glass of mediocrity masquerading as Pinot Noir.
“What the hell am I doing in this bar?” I thought to myself.
I was neither lounging nor gawking. No, I was there because there had been a promise of conversation, the hope that a group of Homo sapiens could gather together and share in that delightful elixir discovered by our Stone Age ancestors so long ago.We wanted to celebrate a life-changing moment by making a spontaneous toast to the mysteries of life, to hold up a glass of that magic potion that has followed Man on his journey from Stone Age to Information Age.
But the Wine God was in a bad mood.
Notes going on inside my head: Regulars are not attractive people. They have that sad look, as though they are the shoulder where death comes to cry. No matter how finely made up they might be, they cannot escape the perpetual autumn that embraces them. What was once beauty is now the echo of lost opportunities and a distant time when everything in the world was new and exciting; it is a sadness made all the more painful by the mocking swish of the young and not-yet-aware delivering drinks in their flippy cocktail skirts. In their youthful ennui, they sigh heavily, as though time does not move quickly enough. To them, Time is like a slow-moving river – they can’t see through the disguise, into the depaths of cosmic space that will soon wash them out to sea. In these moments, all the regulars can do is glance wistfully at the passing cocktail skirts, as if at ships long out of port.
“What’s the matter?” my friend asked. We were there to celebrate his bad news with a few drinks and I was sitting there in a lump of moroseness.It is my belief that bad news is the harbinger of the new and exciting.But something about the bar and its depressing attempts to be young and hip and cutting edge made me feel heavy and sad.
“This place is awful,” I said.
One of the weathered regulars leaned in at the Bartender, a handsome young man who nodded politely as the uninvited details spilled out onto the bar.I heard him try to laugh as he looked for an escape route.
“It does remind me of an old drag queen I once knew,” he said.“Some people do not age well.”
If bars are like people, this bar was straight from Sunset Boulevard, its curtains and couches waiting for that last bow before the funeral. It was hard to hate its weakness, but I was unable to whip up the empathy needed for another round.
I was annoyed because we were there to celebrate a friend who, in the face of bad news, needed some love. But it was hard to be positive and upbeat when the bar was a virtual funeral parlor, as many bars are (especially when viewed in the naked light of day).Like the alcoholics they sometimes cater to, bars can convey a sense of gloom and decay. .
We decided to move on. But I started thinking about bars and why we go to them. It is hard to find a place where you can pop in with a friend, have a drink and a little camaraderie. The music is always too loud, there is some gimmick to deal with, and then there are the over-priced drinks to go with the whole experience.
A bar needs decide what it is and what it wants to say – it needs to know if it is a lounge or some new cutting-edge cocktail hot spot. But when a bar begins to curl up like old leaves, it’s time for a little self-reflection – something more meaningful than added velvet curtains and a couple of couches with “RESERVED” place cards.
Tags:
bars, drag queen, funeral parlor, lounges, pinot noir
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Posted on 6/15/2006
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June 13, 2006
Big-mouthed Babettes and their Effect on the Universal Constant – or, Shut Up, for once!
A professor of Political Science one asked the question of his first-year poly-sci class, “Why is that people with the least-interesting things to say always talk the loudest?”
Here is an answer: Babette needs attention.
Nothing spoils a morning commute or a nice dinner with your beloved than a big-mouthed Babette who believes that her words are so interesting they must be shared with the whole of the world.
What is the proper etiquette for dealing with a Babette or two who are talking so loudly that you can hear them over your iPod ear-buds, or whose insipid gossip drowns out the sweet nothings that should be in your ear?
A tiny, well built paper airplane, a drone carrying the missive “please keep your voices down – we are trying to think” aimed right between her eyes… yes, I sailed one right at a chattering Babette who carried on and on about her visit to Prada Valhalla (the outlet near Milano).
The airborne missive read: “For God’s sake I don’t care how much you paid for those boots, or how many people mistook you for someone famous! Please! Shut up! It’s only 7:30AM!”
The tiny paper drone glanced off the seat next her, fell to the floor and was picked up by a Tibetan monk who was enjoying the train ride in a serenity more precious than any pair of Prada boots could ever muster.
Feeling overly pugilistic, I tried to follow the example of the Monk and ignore the chatter. I did not have to try for too long: The Babette chatter was outdone by a far worse affliction - a barrage of F-bombs.
Overhead on Metro North:
Two females about 25 and reeking of cigarettes pile into the empty seats in front of me. I can smell them – the odor of tobacco now holding us all in its nauseating embrace. And then they start IT – the morning round of insipid gossip that never leads to anything good.
Female 1: Who does she think she is, that fuckin’ bitch. That fuckin’ bitch.
Female 2: She thinks she’s all that. All that. Baby, she thinks she more than that.
Female 1: She’s not all that. She’s a fuckin’ bitch.
Female 2: Well fuck her, that fuckin’ bitch. That man of hers is all-wifed-up anyways.
(Brief pause while I try to determine the meaning of “all-wifed-up” and if anyone has ever addressed the origin of this colorful little colloquialism.)
Female 1: That fuckin’ bitch, and did you know that she had the nerve – THE NERVE – to call …. Blah blah blah, on and on and F-this and F-that….
It was a bombardment almost blitz-like in its scope, leaving the babbling Babette to wonder how, over the din of the offensive, she would be able to prattle on about her purchasing power.
That was the morning – a lovely start to the day – and then, like the endless ring cycle that is life, Babette returned later that night while I sat with my beloved trying to enjoy a little wine and cheese.
This Babette was with a man, one whom she clearly intended to bag, providing he passed the Babette Background Check. All her corporate logos were amply displayed – the Fendi Bag, the Tiffany locket, the Gucci sunglasses still on her head, the Channel sweater and scarf. He was Paul Smith from head to toe. And he was playing the game to win. His tie said it all.
Overheard in Midtown:
Babette and her Potential are sitting at a table sipping at the latest drink. He checks his Blackberry.
“They keep you busy,” she says as she gives him the predatory female glance.
He catches the glance and flashes her a smile as he replies to the message.
“Sorry,” he says. The Japanese markets are crazy.”
“I love the Tokyo Hilton,” Babette says in a too-loud-for-the-space voice.
He sums her up.
“The Four Seasons Chinzan is better,” he says as he puts away his Blackberry, “unless it’s the shopping you’re into.”
(Upscale brinkmanship is awesome to watch, especially when its only purpose is a possible horizontal liaison.)
“I like nice things,” she says unabashedly. “I guess I’m a little spoiled that way.”
(They are close to some kind of negotiation…)
“So how do you know Sam?” he asks.
“We met at a Duckie Brown show,” she says as she sips at her drink. “It was special invitation only.”
(Dodge, parry, lunge?)
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not really Sam’s type,” he says.
(She fondles her Tiffany’s locket, which he is eying…)
“What do you mean?” she asks.
“Just that he likes little girls.”
(Babette lets the locket fall against her pearly skin, the kind that has seen many milk baths and a variety of admirers.)
“Girls?”
“Girls. Not women,” he replies. “It’s a weakness. Believe me, it’s not Buddhism that makes Thailand so appealing to him. I went once. It was surreal. Personally, I’ll stick with the Riviera and leave the exotica to him.”
(Babette continues reading her dinner date, a new a shrewd smile coming to her lips.)
“Sam and I are just friends.”
“We’re friends, too. I just wouldn’t let him baby-sit, that’s all. But he is a kick-ass financial advisor, so I can overlook his little issue.”
“How do you know him?” she asks, again fondling her Tiffany’s prize.
“We used to work together at (censored) Bank. I’m surprised you met at a fashion show; not really his style. Anyway, how do you like your drink?”
“It’s nice,” she says, leaning on her elbows so that he can get a peek of things to come. “I’m glad that he asked if I could meet you tonight. He says you’re very good at what you do.”
One can only imagine what our Samantha-esque huntress meant by that remark. I don’t want to know. It was a creepy conversation that cheapened the true thrill of finding a mate, of bonding over wine and food and sharing in some of the common humanity around us. No, she was playing it like a streetwalker at a busy stoplight.
Tags:
babette, glam, glitter, nyc gossip
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Posted on 6/13/2006
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June 07, 2006
Okay avid readers, and those who long to be but feel there is not time, here are THREE events to choose from:
Alimentum, The Literature of Food , announces THREE events! That’s three – more for you to choose from, and to enjoy! Help us celebrate the Summer Issue of Alimentum, meet the writers and enjoy the written word!
CLMP presents a Literary Magazine Bonanza Sunday, June 11, 2006 11 am – 5 pm
Housing Works Café/Bookstore 126 Crosby Street Soho, NYC
All lit mags only $2 – to benefit Housing Works style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: "Century Gothic"; color: blue; ">
Meet us there!
Summer Issue party continues in Brooklyn…. Sunday, June 11, 2006 6 pm
Night & Day Restaurant
230 Fifth Avenue at President Street Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY
R train to Union Street
Enjoy and meet Alimentum writers Louis Phillips, Lynn Levin, T. M. DeVos, Angus Woodward
Hear their tales of: Eating Guinea Pig in Peru; A Brief History of Toast; A Food Critic’s Review of D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love, and
more…..
*******
“Periodically Speaking”
A Special Presentation of Emerging Writers Alimentum will present writer Margaret MacInnis
Other presenting magazines: Paris Review and Bellevue Literary Review
Tuesday, June 13, 2006 6 – 7:30 pm
The New York Public Library
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street
The DeWitt Wallace Periodicals Room (a beautiful taste of olde new yorke)
( use Fifth Avenue entrance) Free
For more info: http://www.alimentumjournal.com
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Posted on 6/7/2006
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