Cupcakes and crappy wine publications...

Happy Birthday Brenden!

I have a little time 'twixt birthday celebrations to post. I'll see how much I can get done. I just got back from Brenden's 1st Birthday Party (son of Kelli and Rick). It was really nice. He's quite the cute kid and very well behaved. He got oodles of presents and lot's of attention and sugar...he'll surely pass out soon. I just loved the Cookie Monster cupcakes so I had to post a picture of one. I'm not generally a big fan of super sugary overly-iced cupcakes, but the mere fact that the Cookie Monster had a cookie in his mouth was pretty awesome. We had a nice time in a park shelter in Redford. Luckily it's a gorgeous day! Some of my friends are taking me to La Shish for dinner for a belated B-day thing for me in a couple of hours. That'll be nice. Next week some other friends will be taking me to Zingerman's Roadhouse for dinner. My Sunday social calendar is filling up. Anyone else want to buy me dinner?


Kathleen with the Wiggle Worm




I don't know what else to post about other than some completely random stuff (what's new?).

Look at these crazy Dubya environmental stats since 2000 here. I first saw them in Rolling Stone in Tom Dickinson's "The Briefing" report. That's some scary-ass shit! Somebody knock that California Condor out of his mouth. However, it may be worth losing one endangered species if he chokes on it.

What is this world coming to? Dennis Hopper is going to do TV. The uber sixties counter-culture freak-out film icon is going to do TV. Scary.

I learn the darndest things from Entertainment Weekly. Apparently ABC is going to offer Spanish closed captioning of all its shows. Very smart move on their part. Did you know that Peter Weller, that's Mr. Robocop to you, teaches literature and fine arts at Syracuse University? Did you also know that he's applied for Ph.D. candidacy at Princeton, Columbia, NYU, and UCLA? Hmmm. Didn't know that. That's pretty cool.

That reminds me. Which movie is the most violent? Robocop or Red Dawn? I've heard both, but I'd really like to know which one reigns supreme in bodycount.

Thank goodness fall is coming. My electric bill went back down to $35.00 from almost $200.00 the last couple of months...

The entire Chef series is out on DVD! Awesome! I also want to get the new Sigur Ros album. I caught the last few minutes of a BBC show called Posh Nosh very late the other day starring Richard E. Grant. It's a spoof of a husband and wife cooking show and it' f'ing hilarious! How come I didn't know about this???

WINE RANT

There is a very influential and popular wine publication called the Wine Spectator. I tend to be very loathesome of it. The new "The Best of Australia" issue came out so I thought I'd give it a look. The Wine Spectator has articles about hotels, food, vacations, and sometimes even wine. They (along with The Wine Advocate) are proponents of the 100 point scale. The scores awarded are based solely on the opinion of the writers. Although I am in no way a slave to Robert Parker, I do enjoy and tend to agree with The Wine Advocate. I've drifted away from the Wine Dictator (Spectator) through the years. Usually the only useful stuff I come up with is the "GrapeVine" section (industry news). The Wine Spectator officially sucks ass now. I was looking at some of the scores awarded to some of the wineries and I was scratching my head. Generally, the Aussie scores were low across the board, but some of them were absolutely undeservedly abyssmal. The Dictator (Spectator) awarded the 2002 Bowen Estate Coonawarra Shiraz 73 points. WTF?!?!? I've had the wine...it's delicious! It's not a 100-pointer, but it's definitely 90's material. I'm not just saying this because I've been to the winery and had a great time. "Province Effect" has in no way influenced me. The wine is great! Perhaps the biggest head scratcher is that Henschke "Hill of Grace" Shiraz is on the cover and they only gave the $325 bottle 82 points. Double WTF?!?!? The d'Arenberg scores are undeservedly low, the Two Hands are awfully high, the Wolf Blass are a little high. The Kay Brothers scores are embarrassingly low. About the only high scoring wineries that I agree with are Dutschke. Some of these wineries are making stunning, world-class wines. There have been complaints through the years that the only wines that score well in the Spectator are those that buy a lot of advertising. The magazine will undoubtedly argue that the two-page ads for a high scoring wine placed near the review are purchased after the review. Cynics like me tend to wonder where the truth lies. I'm not a fan of the 100 point system. I understand it and see where it can be helful, but these scores are obviously skewed. Of course I am basing this soley on MY OPINION, but I can tell the difference between a 73 pt. wine and a 95 pt. wine.

Thanks Wine Spectator! I'd rather shave Abe Vigoda's back than read you again! I'll start reading you again as soon as Steve Guttenberg's career gets back on track. At least your magazine starts a good fire...

Cheers,
Jason