The Wine Commonsewer™

2005 Peachy Canyon Cirque Du Vin

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

It may have started with that glow-in-the-dark clown shade over the glaring mid-ceiling light in my bedroom when I was just a lad but I hate clowns and jesters. Then when you throw in a jester on a cutsey wine bottle label, you run a serious risk of rejection. Oh, and for the record, I hate the Renaissance Faire too.

But, somebody, maybe Linda S, treated me to a bottle of Peachy Canyon's Cirque Du Vin, and since we had the big Mrs TWC Family Christmas Shindig on Saturday, I figured it was time to give this under-twenty-dollar wine a test drive.

Me & Mrs TWC's little sister are sort of the honorary family, er, ahh, well, drunks drinkers (winos?). Well, I am anyway, so I said Hey, Linda (the other Linda) wanna give this a try? She's cool and we go back a long way and she likes wine these days, so..... we popped the cork.

Once you get past the stupid label the wine is pretty good, a nice garnet colored, medium bodied Meritage. Half Cab and the other half is Petit Verdot, Petit Syrah, regular Syrah, with some Merlot thrown in to mellow things out. Nice color, mild black fruit on the nose and on the palate. Kind of an earthy relaxed sort of feel to the wine.

I doubt this is a long term keeper but it drinks nicely now and will for the next few years.

We enjoyed it with grapes, pesto and sun-dried tomato laced cheeses, and other assorted California-esque delicacies.

As Always,

TWC

Winter Wonderland

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Although TWC makes no claim of musical historian, I suspect that Winter Wonderland, penned in 1934, may mark the beginning of the commercialization of Christmas music.

My Ma loved this song and she filled the house with her own renditions of it every Christmas season.

As a toddler, my boy was drawn to two musical genres. Classical, which enthralled him (he'd sit listnening to the piano at Nordstroms as long as you were willing) and Brian Setzer, who puts a big-band rockabilly spin on this timeless classic here.

As Ever,

TWC

We Need A Little Christmas

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Wilson Elementary School had a little Christmas program the other night and here's Jake and the House Blonde belting it out.

I'm still learning this stuff but it seems like every time I post a video on YouTube it darkens up. I dunno.

That's Jake down front without a hat. Katie is in the back, third from the left because short kids should be placed directly behind really tall kids so nobody can see them. Katie's friend Hailey is two to the right of Jake (another tall girl, in front, with flouncy black curls) and Alissa is way down to the left on the end. Apparently she was midget enough to rate the front row.

That's probably more than you wanted to know so I'll shut up now and let you watch the video that took a record 11 hours to upload.

UDATE: Got some emails wondering how come a public school can put on a Christmas program and as Brian mentioned in the comments, some public schools just don't do that at all. In this case, the parents are pretty involved in the school and I think that can make a difference. For example, Mrs TWC's friend Michelle is PTA boss and she didn't ask, she just plunked a tree in the office foyer and had a bunch of kids decorate it. No comments. Just some applause from the staff.

It's not like PC isn't in evidence, there was plenty of Frosty, Santa, and Christmas in the Tuesday show, but the kids weren't singing Away in a Manger. Wasn't any talk about Baby Jesus, neither.

And don't even get me started on what happened when the teacher asked The House Blond to bring a plastic toy rifle to school for the Daniel Boone play about America moving west.

Oh, if you can't see it, click here.

Merry Christmas,

TWC 

Worst ISP Ever Mark Twain School of Anger Management

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

I have pretty much the worst ISP ever and it has been wallowing in the dregs of poor performance for at least a week. Offered them the riot act yesterday but apparently it'll be a while before things are back up to the normal level of lousy. BTW, it took 11 hours to upload the video of my kids singing Need A Little Christmas.

I know, I know, why don't we dump the chump. Because we don't have any other good choices though satellite is looking more attractive as the days go by. Well, we do keep an Earthlink dial-up account on tap at a smokin' hot 31.3.

I subscribe to the Mark Twain theory of anger management.....

When angry, count four; when very angry, swear.

Thanks for the ear, Mrs TWC is dam sick of having a Blue Christmas (No Elvis, he left the building). I mean the air around my desk is Santa Fe sky blue as swearing was my major and TWC's pretty creative in stringing invective together.

As Always,

TWC

Modern America's Twelve Days of Christmas

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

On the 12th day of the Eurocentrically imposed midwinter festival, my Significant Other in a consenting adult, monogamous relationship gave to me:

• TWELVE males reclaiming their inner warrior through ritual drumming
• ELEVEN pipers piping (plus the 18-member pit orchestra made up of members in good standing of the Musicians Equity Union as called for in their union contract even though they will not be asked to play a note)
• TEN melanin deprived testosterone-poisoned scions of the patriarchal ruling class system leaping
• NINE persons engaged in rhythmic self-expression
• EIGHT economically disadvantaged female persons stealing milk-products from enslaved Bovine-Americans
• SEVEN endangered swans swimming on federally protected wetlands
• SIX enslaved Fowl-Americans producing stolen non-human animal products
• FIVE golden symbols of culturally sanctioned enforced domestic incarceration

NOTE: After members of the Animal Liberation Front threatened to throw red paint at my computer, the calling birds, French hens and partridge have been reintroduced to their native habitat.  To avoid further Animal-American enslavement, the remaining gift package has been revised.

• FOUR hours of recorded whale songs
• THREE deconstructionist poets
• TWO Sierra Club calendars printed on recycled processed tree carcasses
• AND a Spotted Owl activist chained to an old-growth pear tree

As Ever,

TWC

tip of the glass to Chris C

2007 Wine Spectator Top 100 Wines

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Spectator has spoke so to speak [chuckles] and the Top 100 picks for 2007 are now cast in stone.

In some sense it comes as a surprise that a $35.00 Ridge Chardonnay captured the number two slot (excuse the blasphemy, I know, Chard IS white). OTOH, some-time contributor the Kosmik Kid once furnished TWC with a Ridge Zinfandel that was pretty much the cat's pajamas. So, in that sense, Ridge Vineyards is known for putting on the ritz now and again.

The other surprise is that eight of the Top Ten were under $80.00 US. Certainly I would agree that on its face eighty bucks for 28 ounces of pure pleasure is a bit absurd.....BUT, it's cheaper than good dope. I think. As points of reference go, one would expect that any wine rated 95 plus (that's stratosphere, boys) would command a premium price.

Whole thing right here.

As Ever,

TWC

Happy Holidays From Al Gore

As Ever

TWC

tip of the glass to Ken F

Happy Christmas

Gentle Readers,

The Tuneography moves on and TWC planned to bag on Yoko but, man, it's Christmas, the kids are in the kitchen making cookies with Mrs TWC and I can hear them singing along.

Can't see the video? It's right here.

As Always, TWC

Shirley Temple on Santa Claus

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph.

Tea Party 2007:The Six Million Dollar Man

Gentle Readers,

How quaint. A couple of hundred guys dressed as Indians smear coal dust on their faces, board three cargo ships, tomahawk every case of tea on board, and then pitch the whole mess into Boston Harbor, kindling, splinters, and Earl Gray. Kerplunk.

234 years later, it comes as no surprise that another Money Bomb fundraiser for Ron Paul is underway. Tea Party 2007 has raised almost more than three five six million dollars this Sabbath Day (sneer on, Mr Hannity and, Note to WFB: we don't need your endorsement neither). By way of comparison, third quarter fund raising totals for Ron Paul were more than any other Republican candidate.

The groundswell of support for Dr Paul continues to amaze me. There is a commonality to this grassroots movement of truck drivers and cooks, intellectuals and school teachers, anti-war activists and gun nuts--talk about lions lying with lambs.

Pretty boy Stephanopoulos may be right, Ron Paul may not be electable in a country where half the population lives off the other half via social welfare, corporate welfare, and government contracts (my observation as to the reason, not his). But Ron Paul offers a hope for the future and a message to the Crown. Millions of us have grown weary of the swamp rats in Foggy Bottom who flushed all of the taxes that you paid last year faster than you could read this sentence. And For What?

As I've often said, Ron Paul had me at Abolish the Income Tax but it's a big plus that he doesn't make my skin crawl.

As Ever,

TWC