wanderlustmedia

Link to my current Blog!

2008-05-19T13:08:00.006-04:00

...Should have done this a while back, when it became obvious that I wasn't organized or disciplined enough to draw a line, whether regarding language (--English & Spanish) or content (--Wine & Food & Travel related, versus more general & personal writing) and post reglarly to both templates...I guess sometine soon I could-might-should change my signature to my email templates so that recipients can hotlink to 'Sangre y Pajas en Flor/ViNomadic', rather than here--d-uh.http://vinomadic.blogspot.com/

Orientado al Sur, Aliento busca Norte

2007-12-29T14:23:00.000-04:00

merced al antojo y cólicos de añoranza convulsa
el viajero mide infructuosamente cada paso de su ruta perdida

extrañando cada paraje superado
o meramente anterior
cada techo que le separó de la noche

cada lecho que le permitió levantarse aún al día
después de machacarle al esqueleto
largas estaciones de avanzada soledad

buscando reflejar sobre pies al aire
un aliento repite al otro en espejo turbio

bajo el agua corriente que lava la vista
encostrada de ilusiones en polvorosa
un aliento repite al otro

hebdo.Unterwegs redux!

2007-12-02T12:19:00.000-04:00

Tal vez completo mis primeras dos semanas en la Argentina sin haber engullido un bife. La única carne roja que he consumido fue el relleno de un poco de picadillo en una empanada y en un par de zapallitos rellenos.

'Zapallo' es calabaza en Gaucho, y zapallitos no son zucchini sino un calabacín verde oscuro, redondito...

...

Uf. Lunes 17 de diciembre: mañana se cumplen cuatro semanas de aterrizar en Buenos Aires, pasado mañana miércoles serán dos de partir de Rosario a cubrir por carretera los casi mil kilómetros hasta Mendoza...
Un segundo 'posteo' en 'el difícil' hoy mismo para mi blog sobre vinos, nada en castesshano...y tengo que probar como carga 'wanderlustmedia', ya que alguien, no recuerdo quien, mencionó haber intentado buscar, leer y contactarme por este lado sin resultados...

Bueno, entonces enviaré este saludo preliminario a los hispanoparlantes de mi dulceamarga isla 100x35 (160x50 en kilómetros...!) y otros parajes... a ver...

welcome --

2007-03-17T15:44:00.000-04:00

...bienvenidos, cyber-breadfruits! (SOUND, OFF: 'The Sheltering Sky', by King Crimson)

unterWegs:urQuell-flowstop

2006-12-07T19:59:00.000-04:00

mi madre y yo/ my mother & me--

lack echoes absent source
& mirrors void infinity

--my father'n eye?

unterWegs:renewal, rededication

2006-11-14T15:24:00.000-04:00

why is it so hard to write these days? I fret over appropiate tools--
I may need to compile my own Whole Earth (Scribbler's) Catalog
in my tendency to oversegment process & build perfectionistic hurdles
between inspirational, associational, development, editing & structuring stages...
ANYWAY--

...three nights in Fort Bragg at the Harbor Lite ( http://www.harborlitelodge.com/ )
& a sunny morning farewell got me running down th northern bank of Noyo Harbor by seven...
(Thanksgiving Coffee, of which I'm a 'shareowner', has its offices, roasting facility & main warehouse on th southside, maybe just a little inland from th main fishboat docks--)

th foreground of eucalyptus over piney aromas, mingled with some kelpy marine notes took me directly to La Guardia, my maternal GrandDad's hometown in Galicia, just across Rio Minho from Portugal-- wonder if anybody's trying to propagate Albarinho vines around th NW end of Anderson Valley? --or anywhere else near these parts?

Yesterday, between gusty showers, I drove north close to Westport & visited Pacific Star-- http://www.pacificstarwinery.com/pacstar/index.jsp
th Westernmost Winery in th lower 48, at least-- (I was told there is a winery on Kodiak Island, Alaska, although they work with berries rather than grapes)
--came away with three bottles of atypically subtle wine made by Sally Ottoson.
Also atypical, they were what by other wineries standards might be 'Library' wines, with a few years of bottle age & showing nicely. My nose was still half-asleep & it was only on a second taste that th Viognier opened up for me, so I will withhold what would be woefully inadequate tasting notes & trust to share not only th V--, but their Grenache (more a 'Claret' to me that th Rose they label it as! --& drinking deliciously six years after harvest!) & idiosyncratic Charbono with th right people at th right time.

Un abrazo, d--

PARticipatoryECONomics

2006-10-02T10:40:00.000-04:00

th Cafe Central network would be a ParEcon model project...

(--main project for WLM, an 'anti-franchise' of local community-based cafetines culturales that host & are themselves linked by th WanderLustMedia 'portal',
an online 'gathering' of resources for exiles, migrants & th otherwise displaced or wandering labor market pool we all to different degrees are part of...)

as much as possible self-funded by Fair Trade products of high market value from th places of origin of its members:

Cacao Gourmet from Dominican Republic
Cafe from various countries
Wine rom Argentina...

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=1198116

Rinzai circling, take 1

2006-10-02T01:30:00.000-04:00

falling in time?
clutching at straw dogs of life passing--

a plunge or a glide

drawing a jagged line
in imaginary sand
between feeling & body

tearing my nails out
on blackest thin air

Take One

2006-10-01T16:38:00.000-04:00

jackson browne - casino nation

2006-10-01T00:16:00.000-04:00

http://videos.digett.net/jacksonbrowne/casino/casino_nation.mov

aguacero de cieno

2006-09-29T17:43:00.000-04:00

la noche se inicia�
en picada profunda

su�fina ceniza de hulla
llueve impuros monsones

de tiempo sin medida
que coagula el mar

logrando un puente
de carronya compacta--

costa a costa quemada
puerto a ruina de puerto�

esperando romper el alba
por el horizonte gris

November Arc, Barcelona 2003

2006-09-29T16:33:00.000-04:00

she wear th fat belt
she meet my eyelid
she draw her butt cheek line
so dark & close to my own dead & gone edge

she hold th crowd back
she keep a friend cool
she trigger-happy looker
wearing my own stolen heart of gold
--on cuff-linked sleeves, dear--

surrender, dear eye-- do remember, my eye--
think again, sink again, try again, memory!

she sit on blow clean slate
she squeeze my mem'ry gland
she march all night on lace-white friends
all grown so old before our time!

she foreign spectate-- or
correspond to speculate address!
(in my mind's eye only--
argue come to blows again?)

Route 101

2006-09-29T13:28:00.000-04:00

�San Ardo...ghostly oil town, desperate gas stop on route 101 after missing 'last chance' fuel station & minimart maybe around Soledad?�

Roetory - Paper News

2006-09-27T13:22:00.000-04:00

On Sep. 26, 2006, at 07:56 , Mark L. Williams wrote:

Why am I reminded of a Hitchcock film?

Hitchcock! Oh no! Deja vu all over again!

Rehoe Story - Paper Climate News

2006-09-26T19:44:00.000-04:00

�...just foolin 'round down that old improv cut-ups way to intro a pic I think I'd mentioned from last year's ramblings--�
finally located th cd backup-- this may have been on Mother's Day,�up in Lake County...('Cobb Mountain Wake-up...')
--got a few more spent th afternoon working on...

OK, the lowdown: Custom Crush Your Own Wine

2006-09-23T23:07:00.000-04:00

Hola, todos--

Alan Baker, whose decision to make Pinot Noir from Wentzel Vineyard in Anderson Valley was my own catalyst for involvement, conducts a thorough, focused interview with Crushpad director Michael Brill in th linked podcast.
This will provide better answers to questions about th workings of th project than any I might attempt. Hope this clears any doubts and inspires many of you to join in!

http://www.cellarrat.org/archives/2006/08/ratcast_49_cust.html#comments

The services provided by custom crush facilities range from the bare
minimum of equipment and facility use, to a full service operation
which does absolutely everything, from acquiring the grapes to
delivering the cases of wine with labels they design for you
according to your instructions.

E¼
I'll take a look at how this is done today with an interview with the president of one of the most innovative of custom crush facilities, Crush Pad in San Francisco.
At right is Michael Brill president of Crush Pad, in the barrel room of the urban winery he started in 2004.

Click here to listen to/download Ratcast #49, Custom Crush Your Own Wine

Basically the smallest batch of premium wine you can make is a single barrel.

One barrel = 25 cases = 300 bottles

Custom crush facilities will typically charge you by the barrel or by the case with various things included. The two operations here in Northern California which cater to those who are not as familiar with the winemaking process both charge by the barrel. The price ranges
from about $4,000 to as much as $10,000, with the majority of the wines that us wine geeks would really want to go for landing
somewhere in the middle of that range. This makes the bottle price range from around $14 to $35.

Well, turns out that Lonelygirl15 really wasn't - Intl Herald Tribune

2006-09-18T18:18:00.000-04:00

...are you following this?�
You've all read Wm. Gibson's Pattern Recognition, I trust? Life imitates Art, & at a furious pace...

I have a project generally inspired by th book & th Chris Marker classic�La Jet�e, featuring a mix of found footage & clips�
from my '94- '99 stint as video documentarian-- finally threw in th towel on digitizing 25-26 hours of Hi6 footage on my iMac G5
& took it to a pro...let's see how far that $et$ me back...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/13/technology/web.0913lonely.php

The discovery and the swift and subsequent revelation of other details surrounding the perpetrators of the videos and the fake fan site that accompanied it are bringing to an end one of the Internet's more elaborately constructed mysteries. The fans' disbelief in Lonelygirl15 was not willingly suspended, but rather teased and toyed with. Whether they will embrace the project as a new narrative form, condemn it or simply walk away remains to be seen.
�

The masterminds of the Lonelygirl15 videos are Ramesh Flinders, a screenwriter and filmmaker from Marin County, Calif., and Miles Beckett, a doctor turned filmmaker. The high quality of the videos caused many users to suspect a script and production crew, but Bree's bedroom scenes were shot in Flinders's home, in his actual bedroom, typically using nothing more than a Logitech QuickCam, a Web camera that retails for about $150.
�

Together with Grant Steinfeld, a software engineer in San Francisco, Flinders contrived to produce and distribute the videos to pique maximum curiosity about them.

Anti-Obesity Compound Found in Brown Seaweed

2006-09-18T18:08:00.000-04:00

...also seems to help control blood sugar & nip prostate tumors in th bud-- Wakame rules!

TED Blog

2006-09-18T17:07:00.000-04:00

know about th yearly TED conference in Monterrey?��

http://www.ted.com/

http://tedblog.typepad.com/

06 September 2006

Jill Sobule's musical tribute to Helen Fisher

At TED2006, Helen Fisher delivered an unforgettable talk (now available online) focusing largely on love: Its evolution, its vital importance to human society, and the science behind the stages of lust, infatuation, and long-term attachment. Inspired by Fisher -- and, well, slightly disturbed by the biochemical basis of it all -- singer/songwriter Jill Sobule penned a pensive tribute, which she began performing in clubs this spring.

We didn't want to wait for the next CD, so Jill recorded a special demo just for TED ... Here, timed with the release of Helen Fisher's TEDTalk, is Jill's lyrical response: The End of Love (MP3. Duration: 3:33).

Technorati Tags: Helen Fisher, Jill Sobule

Posted by June Cohen | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Helen Fisher on TEDTalks

Helen Fisher is an anthropologist with Rutgers University, specializing in gender differences and the evolution of human emotions. Her most recent book is Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love. In this wide-ranging talk, she outlines the bio-chemical foundations of love (and lust), and discusses the natural talents of women, and their new significance in the modern world. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 24:13)

Download this talk: Video (MP4) | Audio (MP3)

More TEDTalks: TEDTalks website | iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video)

A Writer Who Uses Death As His Protagonist

2006-08-24T19:26:00.000-04:00

By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
Published: June 22, 2004

THE LEMON TABLE
By Julian Barnes
241 pages. Alfred A. Knopf. $22.95.

...The doddering old soldier in ''Hygiene'' looks forward to his once-
a-year rendezvous with a call girl -- whom he has been seeing for
more than two decades -- only to discover that she has recently died
and that he never knew her real name. And in ''Appetite,'' a
senescent doctor, who was a control freak in his younger days, is
reduced in his dotage to sputtering obscenities at his wife, who
likes to torture him by reading aloud recipes filled with just the
sorts of vague lists of ingredients and directions that most grate
against his love of precision.

Even art seems to offer few consolations to its creators. The
Turgenev character in ''The Revival'' is more preoccupied by his
failures in love than by what he achieved or didn't achieve with his
work. And the Sibelius-like composer in ''The Silence,'' who has been
suffering from writer's block for nearly 30 years, complains about
''the infinite wretchedness of the artist's lot'': ''so much work,
talent and courage, and then everything is over,'' he thinks. ''To be
misunderstood, and then to be forgotten, such is the artist's fate.''

amVorstadt: In Memoriam

2006-08-10T00:39:00.000-04:00

(in memoriam-)

i remember drunk-
drunk jumped off th bright
tightrope of fun

cry-spit rubbing fear in my face
all th way down

i remember drunk-
drunk closed up th beach
picnic too late

under th rain
i waited for daylight--
waited 'n waited
'til night fell again

[Fwd: Common Parasite Reveals Its Strongest Asset]

2006-07-29T15:31:00.000-04:00

ok, here we are--

**
*Date: *June 24, 2006 16:25:20 GMT-04:00
*To: *Adriano Gonzalez >, "Mark L. Williams"
>
**

Message from sender:
...am I infected??

*SCIENCE * | June 20, 2006
*A Common Parasite Reveals Its Strongest Asset: Stealth

*
By CARL ZIMMER
Toxoplasma gondii infects over half the world's population.
Scientists are now discovering some of the secrets of the
parasite's success.

It has been found that the parasite has the ability to change the
behavior of its host: infected rats

and mice are less fearful of cats; in fact, some of the infected
rats actually seek out cat urine-marked areas again and again. The
parasite alters the mind, and thus the behavior, of the rat for its
own benefit, leading to a propagation of the lifecycle.

[2]

The mechanism for this change is not necessarily completely
understood, but there is evidence that toxoplasmosis infection
raises dopamine levels in infected mice.

Given the close biological similarities and common inheritance
between mice and humans, it has been suggested that human behaviour
could also be affected in some way, and some epidemiological links
may have been found between latent /Toxoplasma/ infections and car
crashes, slower reactions, an increase in risk-taking behaviors, and
possibly some forms of

schizophrenia

.

Several independent pieces of evidence point towards a role of
/Toxoplasma/ infection in some cases of schizophrenia

[3]

:

* Acute /Toxoplasma/ infection sometimes leads to psychotic
symptoms not unlike schizophrenia.
* Some anti-psychotic medications that are used to treat
schizophrenia, such as

Haloperidol

,
* also stop the growth of /Toxoplasma/ in cell cultures.Several
studies have found significantly higher levels of /Toxoplasma/
antibodies in schizophrenia patients, compared to the general
population.
* /Toxoplasma/ infection causes damage to

astrocytes

in the brain, and such damage is also seen in schizophrenia.

*Human prevalence*

The U.S. NHANES (1999-2000) national probability sample found that
15.8% of U.S. persons above 12 years of age had Toxoplasma-specific

IgG

antibodies, indicating that they had been infected with the
organism. This prevalence had not significantly changed from the
1988-1994 data.

[4]

It is estimated that up to 50% of all people worldwide are infected
with /Toxoplasma gondii/.

The incidence of infection is highly specific to each nationality
with ranges such as 22% infected in the

UK

to *over 88% in France*.

[5]

...well, there you go!

eb
Copyright 2006
The
New York Times Company |
eb

The Weather

2006-07-14T16:17:00.000-04:00

Subject: Blog: The Weather Channel

http://www.weather.com/blog/weather/8_9667.html?from=blog_rss

...Alberto got its act together better last night and this morning. It's still a little discombobulated in its structure, with visible satellite loops during midday clearly showing a low-level elongation, with, at least for awhile, two well-defined spinning centers, one of which tried to relocate underneath the convection.

�� ...excuse my weird black sensayumor, but sure sounds like my braw!

...I'm still not sure why we're even talking about another Alberto, given the deadly and disastrous flooding that an earlier Alberto brought, in 1994. I'm sure folks in southwest Georgia and thereabouts think Alberto should have joined the ranks of retired names!

The tale of how much impact this version of Alberto has will be told by exactly how things evolve tonight, tomorrow, and beyond, and how it compares to other "A" storms of the past. There have been some notorious ones besides Alberto in 1994, such as Allison in 2001, Andrew in 1992, Alicia in 1983, Agnes in 1972, and Audrey in 1957.

� � �� ...well, it must be Karma, maaaan...! I nominate 'Adriano' for 2008's first name-storm!

Haciendo Punto En Otro Blog

2006-07-05T22:56:00.000-04:00

The Secret to Being as Radical as We Want to Be is to Finance the Revolution Ourselves

By Michael Shuman and Merrian Fuller

If Mohandas Gandhi were a typical North American activist these days, he would probably be wearing a three-piece suit and working in a plush office with his law degree prominently displayed. He would have little time to lead protests, since every other week would be spent meeting with donors - and those power lunches would hardly go well with fasting. He would be careful to avoid salt marches or cotton boycotts, so as not to offend key donors. To sharpen his annual pitch to foundations, he would be constantly dreaming up new one-year projects on narrowly focused topics, perhaps a one-time conference on English human-rights abuses, or a documentary on anti-colonial activities in New Delhi. To ensure that various allies didn't steal away core funders, he would keep his distance and be inclined to trash talk behind their backs. In short, there's little doubt that the British would still be running India.

The problem with activism today is that it is largely funded by grants and gifts from rich foundations and individuals. The long-standing assumption that you can take the money with few strings attached, and then run, needs to be fundamentally reexamined.

Building a philanthropic base of support can cripple an organization's mission and wreck it altogether when the well runs dry. Most nonprofits have engaged in a kind of fundraising arms race in which our best leaders focus more time, energy and resources, not on changing the world, but on improving their panhandling prowess to capture just a little more of a philanthropic pie that actually expands very little from year to year. Armies of "development" staff spend as much as a third of an organization's resources, not to advance the poor, but to cultivate wealthy donors. Significant numbers of our colleagues create campaigns, direct-mail pitches, telemarketing scripts, newsletters and other products exclusively to "care and feed" prospects and to frame positions that will not offend the rich.

Ruralisation & Cohousing

2006-06-24T23:25:00.000-04:00

http://www.holon.se/folke/lectures/Ruralisation-filer/v3_document.htm

http://www.cohousing.org/default.aspx