May 8, 2009
I’m fairly certain my mother never imagined me growing up to be a PR Guy in the wine industry. That kind of career wasn’t on her radar for her son. Both her husband and her father made livings in construction, the former building high-end homes in Marin County, the latter building most of the homes in Kentfield and Greenbrea. The fact is, my Midwestern mother, a daughter of the depression who watched two boyfriends die in World War II before…
Apr 27, 2009
There was a bottle of rich, exuberant wine I'd been sitting with and taking long drinks from and enjoying and being strung out by for months. It pleased me. It confounded me. It drew me in. And I drunk as much as I could get my hands on. It was captivating. And wines will do that to you. They will bury you in delight. They will entangle you. And they can make you believe that the delights of the senses…
Apr 20, 2009
This last weekend at a gathering of friends, the issue of "Love" came bubbling to the surface. There was a cynic among us who assured his friends that love can not be measured, can not be observed and one cannot prove they feel love. What bothered him most was the cavalier way the term was thrown around, despite its transient and unresolved nature. The conversation got me thinking about how people so often profess their "love of wine" and the…
Apr 15, 2009
My therapist told me once that it’s healthy for me to express my disappointment, my anger and my hurt, rather than bottling it up and being passive-aggressive. I used to have a hard time doing this. I used to turn the other cheek quite often or at least turn my back and walk away. I’ve gotten over that and now I’m able to express myself pretty thoroughly. For example: DEAR ANONYMOUS: SCREW YOU, YOU COWARDLY F*CK! DON’T TELL ME I…
Apr 9, 2009
It's always interesting to follow those folks who you worked with in your past to see where they ended up and what they pursued. But it's a pleasure to see them go on to do wonderful things. The problem is that it's not always easy to track old colleagues and old friends. This, of course, is why Facebook is such a wonderful tool and why you so often see written on the Walls of Facebook users something like, "I can't…