Life Lessons on the WB

Or the former WB anyway, seeing as it no longer exists and has been replaced by The CW.  Either way, my roommate and I spent this Saturday night in, drinking a bottle of a white wine we can’t pronounce (some sort of “veltliner”?) and watching the first 6 episodes of the first season of Felicity.  So much wisdom.  SUCH a great show.

The quoteable line this time -

“If equal affection can not be, let the more loving one be me.”

As I let that settle, I kept thinking… what a wonderful way to approach people.  To spend your energy.  If, when faced with a circumstance where the feelings, the affection can’t be equal, what a great feeling to know that the one caring the most, the one with the affection, the feeling, maybe the love… is you.

You may interpret that to be a little sad, perhaps obsessive (ok, maybe just obsessive if you watch Felicity and realize she’s kind of a nut job sometimes), but I see it as comforting.  If that’s my goal, then I don’t see how I can ever fail.  And to go through the world, trying to out-love people (again, in a healthy, non-obsessive manner) – well, you just can’t beat that.

Ok, I’m a cheeseball.  I know this.  Good night

Spring Fever

Today is the second day of two days that I’ve enjoyed weather warm enough to sit on the porch for awhile.

Last night, pinot grigio by my side and laptop hosting Facebook and gmail pages in my lap, I sat on the porch for an hour or better, enjoying the mild pre-Spring-y-ness and calmness of my St. Paul neighborhood.

Just prior to my porching, I’d just gotten back from a work happy hour with a well-respected manager and two of her associates from the “other” side.  We cheers’ed to a great team effort on a recent pitch as we clinked our Sacre Bleu pinot noirs, but in my head I was cheers’ing to the merging of the planners with the buyer.  Incest I can really get behind.

Anyway, (oh! my neighbor and his lovely lady friend just home!  Perhaps, they’ll join me out here)… I came home, changed into sweats, grabbed the rest of my bottle of wine, and came out on the porch to enjoy the Thomas Kincade-esque lamp posts and calmness of my neighborhood streets from my wicker throne on the porch.

Roomie Angie and her bf showed up a bit after and joined me.   We discussed many important things, did a yoga demonstration, and ultimately decided that LOST is the most addicting show.  EVER.

Today, I put in a half day, ran some errands (ok, Target for some uber cute Leprechaun chic attire for tomorrow’s debauchery and bar crawling), and am now back on the porch.  I came back to a book I recently started (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young), read about 2 chapter and then decided to do this instead.

So here I am.  No pinot grigio this time, but I do have a glass of REALLY crappy champagne next to me.  And I’m listening to 89.3 The Current’s live broadcast from SXSW.  This music, this overly sweet bubbly concoction, paired with this amazing late Friday PM sunshine and the kids on my street I’m watching on their bikes = pure Twin Cities heaven.

How I Spent My President’s Day Weekend

Day 1 – Friday
No, this day doesn’t really count as part of the holiday weekend, but I took it off anyway, hoping for some plans that didn’t pan out – either way, knowing I had Monday off as well, figured I’d take advantage. Friday was a waste of a day – I spent the whole day sick on the couch. TGF reruns of The OC and 90210 on SOAPnet. That’s all I’m going to say about Friday.

Day 2 – Saturday
My dad is a certified wine-o courtesy of St. Paul College. By day, he’s IT department whiz at NWA’s computer helpdesk. By night, a part-time know-it-all wine-seller at The Cellars in Woodbury. This particular week he was giving a seminar at the store and asked me to be the “lovely assistant wine pourer” (his words, not mine). The “wine education” was a battle royale between West Coast wines. We pitted Washington-Oregon against Califoria to see whose grape was top notch. I don’t remember who won. I just know that I got two good bottles of wine out of the deal!

Two hours of wine pouring (aka tasting) was followed by dinner and some father-daughter bonding and shrimp n’ steak cooking, then a nap, then out with pals to The Independent in Uptown for a small birthday shindig. As was discussed with dear friend Mr. Brown, The Independent is one of the BEST people-watching spots in the Cities. All walks of life. All kinds of attitudes. We pinned stories on innocent passersby as they passed by.

Day 3 – Sunday
I will not bore you with the productivity that was my Sunday, but it was. Oh, and Si was in town and cut/colored my hair for me (I’m an addict). And I did advance my “practice” as my yogi calls it in an early Sunday morning yoga adventure. I’m so hooked. Good thing too, because now I’m paying for it… Anyway, highlight of the day – Fuji Ya’s Sunday night happy hour – Bangalang and I got two tempura rolls, I got my usual hamatchi (yellow tail), we split some gyoza (potstickers), and a bottle of chardonnay. Next time, I’m sticking with sake. 1/2 priced bottles of wine aren’t a bad deal, but sushi+sake=way more fun. Oooh… I have sake at home… and chambord… OOH! Purple haze! Purple haze!

Anyway, then we spied our sushi bar-sharing neighbors to the right, a couple of tie-dye-wearing, stringy-hair-sporting, talkin-like-they’re-trippin hippies, as they were served a pineapple roll and strawberries all drizzled in some sort of sauce and chocolate. So, the Fuji Ya Happy Hour virgins that we were, we asked the sushi chef what kinds of desserts they have. Turns out that comes with the sushi bar! Deliciousness.

Day 4 – Today/Monday/Pres Day
That brings us to today… I’d vowed *not* to go into the office today, but I made the mistake of checking my email from home this morning and letting that stress me out, so I did. 4+ hours should mean an extra vacay day though for coming in on a holiday, so that’s at least worth it. Back in the STP, Erna and I FINALLY signed our lease (though we’ve been living here since December 1… well, technically Nov 1 for me, but the subleasing doesn’t count…), and now Roxy owes me $150.

Meow.

Holla

A shout-out to my friends at Sacre Bleu who posted this blog of mine on theirs. Check it out!

In Vino Veritas…

… and in Vinho [Verde] there is deliciousness.

I think I found one of my favorite white wines – or at least, white grapes. This Vinho Verde is the most fun you can have with a white wine short of drinking champagne (and anyone that knows me knows how much this girl loves champagne). The one I picked tonight was a great coincidence; then again, maybe it was fate.

Read the rest here at Wine Lover’s Playground.

Tavern at the Park

Ok, so I didn’t end up checking out that sushi place (see below). Believe me, we had every intention of doing so, right down to packing my giant purse with the Riesling and sake that Dad recommended. We met my dear friend and colleague for drinks and appetizers at a wonderful place across from Millenium Park called (appropriately), Tavern at the Park, where “drinks and apps” turned into probably the equivalent of a bottle of wine each between myself and Ms. Catherine, and my date/man-friend probably had a few (good) shots of brandy in his Brandy 7′s.

Then, our host, Ms. Catherine of Viacom fame (I’m being vague so as not to incriminate, ha), announced she happened to be practically related to the O&Os of said eatery. There were introductions and by the end of our “apps” (which ended up being an order of [amazing!] calamari, some mussels and pepperoni (at their recommendation – LOVED it!), and the shoestring fries/onions), the friendly folks at The Tavern had comped two rounds of champagne and a monstrous dessert! The three of us split some sort of white chocolate fondue business, complete with pokers for our bananas, strawberries, pretzel sticks, marshmallows and even Rice Krispy treats!

All in all, an AMAZING experience, great wine (and since the point of this whole thing is to note good wines, I’ll have to dig out the scrap papers where I wrote down the names of them!), and fantastic company (my date is HOT, and Ms. Catherine of Viacom is one of the sweetest, smartest, and most wonderful people with whom I’ve ever had the pleasure of both a professional relationship and friendship.

So we’ll do sushi next time. I’ve still got the sake.

I’m so punny.

Email convo –

Me: Thanks for the tips!
Dad: What tips?
Me: On the sake and riesling recommendations for the sushi place! see Dad’s recommendations
Dad: Ah
Me: Ahi!
Dad: Sure.
Me: Like ahi tuna… get it?

They Tried to Make Me Go to Rehab…

Friend and colleague, Ryan just brought something rather amusing to my attention.

Now, I am aware of contextual advertising. (Wikipedia defines it as: “the term applied to advertisements appearing on websites or other media, such as content displayed in mobile phones, where the advertisements are selected and served by automated systems based on the content displayed by the user.”)

I remember first noticing this in gmail, when a friend and I were emailing about where to meet for drinks that afternoon, and there was a link on the side of the page offering to Google-Map the restaurant location for me. I have since noticed ads for local bands, restaurants and punk rock accouterment when I get my First Ave and City Pages newsletters. Anytime a date or time is referenced, the little Google elves ask me if I want to add it to my calendar.

So I was aware of contextual advertising in that realm of my life. What I hadn’t noticed were the context of the ads appearing on my MySpace home page. I knew they existed, but the first one I always saw was the site-sponsor, Match.com ads, so I kind of zoned out the rest. Here’s what the context of my MySpace page and profile dictates I am in need of:

The guilty content?

Interests: wine, microbrews…
Companies: Sacre Bleu Wine – Roving Wine Reporter/Wine & Pop Culture Analyst

The first time I noticed the ads, they were links to rehab facilities…What does it mean if MySpace thinks I’m an alcoholic?

I’ll Drink to That!

Legend has it that Marilyn Monroe took baths in 350 bottles of champagne. To that, her biographer adds, “She drank and breathed champagne like it was oxygen.” I think she was on to something!

Many people have said that champagne isn’t a just region, it’s not just a drink… it’s a state of mind. And I completely agree.

My last roommate and I spent one evening a couple of years ago sitting at our kitchen table with a couple of bottles of champagne, a notebook, and a pen. If champagne was for celebrating, then we were going to find things to celebrate, just to have things to toast to! There was nothing specific – no recent major milestones specifically to cheers to.

Oh, but we found things! We toasted to random Tuesday nights we were both home and could have dinner together. We toasted to “Sex and the City” in syndication. We toasted to having jobs that paid the rent, to friends, to healthy families, to having good hair days. And while the point wasn’t one big event in particular, it just further proved the natural partnership of champagne and celebrations that you just done see with, say… a Gewürztraminer.

But what is it about champagne that was made for celebrations? Why is it so elegant? Why do we associate champagne toasts with weddings, on New Year’s Eve, for promotions and housewarming parties?

Is it the bubbles? Is it more expensive to make? Is it something in the region, Champagne, France?

Why is champagne so romantic? Why are strawberries and champagne sexy (and they are!)? Did some great novelist decide it was the drink of love? Did ancient gods and goddesses believe something strange about its powers? Was there a song written about it?

Either way, all of this made me wonder – where did our cultural obsession, fascination, romance and affair with champagne begin?

It actually turns out that while it might romanticize and glamorize the idea of it, the elegance and mysticism in our love affair with the bubbly actually is – ahem – rooted (thank you) in its own attributes. Oh, and some clever marketing.

Champagne is distinctively unique because of where it comes from. The Champagne region of France has a unique northerly climate and chalky soil. Other regions can’t boast this lucky combination, and therefore real Champagne – the drink you get from that region – is truly one of a kind. Sure there are other sparkling wines, but “Cava toasts” or “Spumante and strawberries” just doesn’t sound as pretty.

Scientifically anyway, and according to Karen McNeil in The Wine Bible (where I found a good bit of this awesome information), champagne’s story begins 65 million years ago when a (cue deep Discovery channel narrator voice) vast prehistoric sea covered Northern France and Britain. As the waters receded, they left behind a great crescent of chalk, making the soil rich in minerals and fossils. It is here on this soil that the region of Champagne originally emerged.

When wines were first being developed in this region, it wasn’t at all what its producers had in mind. Since the region is one of the coolest in the world, this impacted the way the grape sugar fermented. The cold temps would almost freeze the yeasts, which slowed down the fermentation process. When spring would come and warm them back up, they’d begin a second fermentation – this is where the sparkle comes from.

It sounds crazy, but this was NOT well-received. The end product was hardly drinkable; it was fizzy, gritty, and extremely tart. Heavy sweeteners were even added to try to disguise the bitter flavor.

Burgundy, another region of France and Champagne’s toughest rival in wine production and sales, was dominating the wine production at this time. Champagne (the region) tried for decades to try to improve their wine. Finally, instead of trying to change it, they took a fresh approach. They no longer were trying to disguise the sparkle, but now actually realized what a unique quality that was. They eventually found ways to produce and improve all of the steps in the process, and this changed the flavor into the drink we know and love.

I know this is great historical information and all, but it still doesn’t explain why champagne has the reputation it does today. Now we get why it’s special, but how did the bubbly earn its place in so many traditions and celebrations?

It turns out that this has a lot to do with the way it was originally marketed. Champagne makers (known as champagne houses) originally touted it as being a preferred drink of the royal, aristocratic, and other community higher-ups like knights and military officers. However, despite that prestige, they also made sure to portray it as a luxury for anyone and any occasion.

This absolutely worked (and still does! You know your designer purse makes you feel a little more Paris Hilton than you really are). By the turn of the [20th] century, most champagne drinkers were a part of the middle class!

Next, in another smart marketing move, they made an effort to target women (the household money-spenders!). The labels had pictures of love, romance, marriage, special occasions like baptisms, and other family events that the woman in the family would emotionally connect with.

Later, wine label images took a political spin. They commemorated the centennial anniversary of the French revolution, appealed to people across political persuasion – conservative folks loved the depiction of Marie Antoinette, while their more liberal counterparts celebrated the revolutionary scenes. World War I soldiers were pictured, usually with their country’s flag; this particular image would be tailored specifically for the country to which it would be imported. Talk about geo-targeting!

You can draw your own conclusions, but all these events and pictures highlight milestones in life, relationships, and a country’s history. And still today, the tradition of champagne for celebrations continues.

So, even though it turns out that champagne owes its popularity not to mythology or literature, but in fact to capitalism, as someone in the advertising industry, I think sometimes good marketing is worth celebrating!

Food for Thought :)

If white wine goes with fish do white grapes go with sushi?