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35 matchs for Ripe:
35 matchs for Ripe:
We went with Ripe Coop ex Beast for NYE to-go. Best chicken liver/pickles ever + this yum yum!!
dont have any recollection of this ever having existed. Dana Carvey Show. funny as a making of doc. some ripe LCK moments to boot. timely.
Stella insistence on the primacy of space over every other aspect of the experience and process of painting was still directly in line with Clement Greenberg’s insistence on the primacy of flatness. With his 1964 “What you see is what you see” — eerily contemporary with Marshall McLuhan’s own tautological formula about the medium being the message — Stella brings Greenberg’s literal flatness to a metaphorical level: Painting is the message and metaphorical flatness is now achieved in painting by denying it any depth of content. With the Baroque metal reliefs, however, despite their apparent act of apostasy from Greenberg’s dogma, Stella clearly remained within the boundaries of the reductivist paradigm. Rather than confront the strictures of Greenberg’s Modernist tropes, he allowed them to endure by substituting three-dimensional space for flatness.But, come to think of it, when he speaks about space, Stella’s subtext is all about speed, or rather, of space as speed. Speed entered American painting as a latent concept with Barnet Newman’s “zips.” But it is worth remembering that Newman did not adopt Thomas B. Hess’s term of zip for his paintings’ vertical bands until 1966, fairly late in his career. Prior to that, he simply called them “stripes.” Even though today the term zip can’t help but connote the idea of speed, Newman was clearly on the side of slow art, with a rare, deliberate, and carefully pondered production of only 118 paintings over 25 years, versus the thousands of paintings that have poured out of Stella’s studios.
at the ripe old age of 32 the tennis gods granted roger federer one last shot at a wimbledon title. currently slugging it out in a first set tiebreaker with djokovic on espn. and, federer takes the first set....
interesting to see how this duck dynasty business plays out. if you dont know one of the dudes was interviewed by gq and said some reliably retrograde things about homosexuals and african americans and for that he was suspended from the current shooting schedule. but the network already has an entire season shot. the show is hugely popular. i think the previous season finale had 14 million viewers which is huge especially for a cable show but these days those are top 5 numbers for any show. so how do they proceed? will advertisers be scared off even if the numbers remain high? got to assume that most viewers of that show wont be turned off enough by the professed sentiments to not tune in but hard to believe there wont be pressure put on the advertisers by rights activists. maybe it will all blow over, at least one imagines that the network and advertisers hope it might.
still i wonder if there is a home on tv for this show in the future or is it destined for the internet in some capacity? or will it just be put out to pasture? how much tripe is there to be mined from their antics?
anybody watching the netflix original show, house of cards? id post a review but they all give plot points away. i cant compare it to the west wing because i never watched it but its light years better than the newsroom. one comment that i thought was true was that since netflix released them all at once, the creators didnt have to be constrained by the need to string viewers along with cliffhanger episodes and plot twist, and could develop the story with a more natural pacing. so im eight episodes in to the thirteen and its been mostly character development along with world building though i read that the last third of the season it becomes more of a political thriller. i dont know if the networks passed on this or the creators want ed more freedom (or got more money) but considering the tripe they normally feed the masses it looks like they blew it again.
I met my first Apple fanboi in about 1980. He was a fellow electrical engineering student. I did some HW and SW work with microprocessors, but did not actually have my own computer. A few people did. I was waiting until they were better.
I remember asking this guy a smart ass question about the sticker on his truck. "Why is there a hunk out of that apple? And why is it striped? I've seen red apples, green apples, golden apples, but not one with stripes." He ignored my smart ass intent, and launched into a spiel about how great Apple was. I saw the Apple ][ as just another crappy little toy computer with *gasp* a weak ass 6502.
His excitement while talking about Apple was palpable. He could think of nothing better than moving to Cupertino to work for them. I didn't get it. I guess I did take away from that exchange that Silicon Valley is the place to be. So I did at least grasp that.
Thanks Steve, for making engineering a little more exciting.
I remember asking this guy a smart ass question about the sticker on his truck. "Why is there a hunk out of that apple? And why is it striped? I've seen red apples, green apples, golden apples, but not one with stripes." He ignored my smart ass intent, and launched into a spiel about how great Apple was. I saw the Apple ][ as just another crappy little toy computer with *gasp* a weak ass 6502.
His excitement while talking about Apple was palpable. He could think of nothing better than moving to Cupertino to work for them. I didn't get it. I guess I did take away from that exchange that Silicon Valley is the place to be. So I did at least grasp that.
Thanks Steve, for making engineering a little more exciting.
The Republican Party, at its core, does not favor the government doing anything about anything unless it is to make life a bit easier for their paymasters. They do not want health care reform by any description, but they cannot say that, otherwise they are easily attacked about not being interested in rising health care costs or the plight of the uninsured. They never wanted Medicare, and have tried on at least two occasions -- Gingrich in the 1990s, and Ryan in 2011 -- to change its fundamental structure. In both cases, their orwellian word guru, Frank Luntz, told them to say they were "strengthening" Medicare.
They do not want immigration reform of any stripe. Maddow's 8/19 program referenced Republican insistence on improved border control as a prerequisite for voting on the 'path-to-citizenship' that is the only solution other than mass deportation of 11 million people to the problem. The Obama administration was snookered as well -- having beefed up border security by 3-fold, and by deporting more undocumented workers than "W," they thought they had 'earned' a vote on comprehensive reform.
I bought a Butthole Surfers tee at the concert and it while in a altered state looked like a posiden adventure tee but when I came down it turned out to be the flag of Iran, "one and only god is allah" in their language written on the flag with Butthole Surfers on top and bottom stripes.......this shirt aint gonna get much use
wylie cameo on treme.
((down w/ Spoff))
Big Wine and an “Omnivore’s Dilemma” to Expose It
Hannah Wallace
August 20, 2009 Hannah Wallace
Thanks to the slew of recent books and movies about our food supply (led by The Omnivore’s Dilemma Big Wine and an Omnivore’s Dilemma to Expose It and Food Inc.), more Americans than ever are aware of where their food comes from and what’s in it. Readers of this column also know that mass-made juice can be loaded with “flavor packs” and concentrates from up to 12 different countries.
But what about wine?
This may come as a surprise, but most of the wine sold in the U.S. today has been processed and adulterated beyond recognition by corporate growers who are intent on maximizing profits. Is nothing sacred?
Over the last 24 hours, I’ve been devouring Alice Feiring’s excellent book The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I Saved the World from Parkerization Big Wine and an Omnivore’s Dilemma to Expose It and am quickly discovering that the wine industry in many ways mirrors the food industry. At many big wineries (both here and around the world), the life is processed out of the grapes even before they appear on the vines (with over-irrigation, which increases yield but also leads to shallow roots and extraripe fruit). Then, during the fermentation process, meddlesome winemakers add everything from industrial yeast, bacteria, and enzymes to tannins and microbial agents—all to “improve” the taste and mouthfeel of a wine, often so it will appeal to a mass-market palate. (OK: they also throw in these additives to speed up the fermentation and control the process. You know, to make the whole thing more scientific.)
Some winemakers are also brandishing hi-tech processes such as micro-oxygenation and reverse osmosis (also called “ultrafiltration”), techniques that allow them to further manipulate wines.
Fiering writes:
In today’s globalized wine scene, winemakers would like to make wine as standardized as possible. Adding industrial yeast to the wine helps. It ensures that fermentation will start and finish when the winemaker wants it to, not according to the whims of nature. This is extremely important when Costco is expecting its new shipment of wine from Gallo in April—plus, the retailer doesn’t want the customer to bring the wine back complaining that it doesn’t taste like last year’s model.
Today, there are hundreds of industrial yeast replicas, including one genetically modified strain that was recently approved for use in the U.S.
At issue here is not food safety or even nutrition (though I wouldn’t be surprised if organic, biodynamic and naturally-made wines turn out to cause less of a hangover and are proven to contain more antioxidants than their processed cousins) but diversity and complexity of flavor.
Feiring believes (and I agree) that these wines are uniformly bland and characterless—they are artificial, their unique terroir masked by the introduction of such “designer yeasts,” chestnut tannins, oak extracts, and other indignities. Often, as Feiring shows, scheming winemakers mess with their vintages solely to achieve a higher score from influential wine critic Robert Parker (which, of course, leads to a surge in sales). After Parker awarded Helen Turley’s rich, syrupy 1993 Zinfandel a whopping 95 points, for example, he started a trend that hasn’t stopped to this day. “The paradigm of a great wine shifted to one big, jammy, oaky fruit bomb,” writes Fiering. “And the whole industry adjusted accordingly.”
To me, the central dilemma with Big Wine is actually one of transparency. Though I can choose to drink wines that are made in the natural Old World-style, there is no wine labeling law that requires that GMO yeast, tannins, or bacteria (or new-fangled filtering technologies) be disclosed. Even artisanal producers have begun using these “scientific” techniques—but it is unlikely, as Feiring points out, that they’ll divulge them on labels anytime soon.
Part of the pleasure (and risk) of drinking wine comes from savoring its subtle flavors and the ineffable qualities bestowed on the grapes by the terroir, the weather, and the irrigation (and cultivation) methods. Wine made in the Old World style is alive—it changes from year to year and even, once uncorked, from day to day. It has a sense of place.
Feiring’s book is an Omnivore’s Dilemma for the world of wine and winemaking. I just hope it raises the same level of awareness and appreciation for Old World winemaking techniques as Pollan’s book has for polyculture and sustainably-farmed, honest-to-goodness food.
In the meantime, I’ll continue to seek out small producers who create authentic natural wines—people like Oregon vintners Russ Raney of Evesham Wood, Brian O’Donnell of Belle Pente, Jason Letts at Eyrie, and John Paul at Cameron. (These wines are at the forefront of my mind since I’ve just returned from Oregon. Know any amazing natural wines from other regions? Please share them below.)
Big Wine and an “Omnivore’s Dilemma” to Expose It
Hannah Wallace
August 20, 2009 Hannah Wallace
Thanks to the slew of recent books and movies about our food supply (led by The Omnivore’s Dilemma Big Wine and an Omnivore’s Dilemma to Expose It and Food Inc.), more Americans than ever are aware of where their food comes from and what’s in it. Readers of this column also know that mass-made juice can be loaded with “flavor packs” and concentrates from up to 12 different countries.
But what about wine?
This may come as a surprise, but most of the wine sold in the U.S. today has been processed and adulterated beyond recognition by corporate growers who are intent on maximizing profits. Is nothing sacred?
Over the last 24 hours, I’ve been devouring Alice Feiring’s excellent book The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I Saved the World from Parkerization Big Wine and an Omnivore’s Dilemma to Expose It and am quickly discovering that the wine industry in many ways mirrors the food industry. At many big wineries (both here and around the world), the life is processed out of the grapes even before they appear on the vines (with over-irrigation, which increases yield but also leads to shallow roots and extraripe fruit). Then, during the fermentation process, meddlesome winemakers add everything from industrial yeast, bacteria, and enzymes to tannins and microbial agents—all to “improve” the taste and mouthfeel of a wine, often so it will appeal to a mass-market palate. (OK: they also throw in these additives to speed up the fermentation and control the process. You know, to make the whole thing more scientific.)
Some winemakers are also brandishing hi-tech processes such as micro-oxygenation and reverse osmosis (also called “ultrafiltration”), techniques that allow them to further manipulate wines.
Fiering writes:
In today’s globalized wine scene, winemakers would like to make wine as standardized as possible. Adding industrial yeast to the wine helps. It ensures that fermentation will start and finish when the winemaker wants it to, not according to the whims of nature. This is extremely important when Costco is expecting its new shipment of wine from Gallo in April—plus, the retailer doesn’t want the customer to bring the wine back complaining that it doesn’t taste like last year’s model.
Today, there are hundreds of industrial yeast replicas, including one genetically modified strain that was recently approved for use in the U.S.
At issue here is not food safety or even nutrition (though I wouldn’t be surprised if organic, biodynamic and naturally-made wines turn out to cause less of a hangover and are proven to contain more antioxidants than their processed cousins) but diversity and complexity of flavor.
Feiring believes (and I agree) that these wines are uniformly bland and characterless—they are artificial, their unique terroir masked by the introduction of such “designer yeasts,” chestnut tannins, oak extracts, and other indignities. Often, as Feiring shows, scheming winemakers mess with their vintages solely to achieve a higher score from influential wine critic Robert Parker (which, of course, leads to a surge in sales). After Parker awarded Helen Turley’s rich, syrupy 1993 Zinfandel a whopping 95 points, for example, he started a trend that hasn’t stopped to this day. “The paradigm of a great wine shifted to one big, jammy, oaky fruit bomb,” writes Fiering. “And the whole industry adjusted accordingly.”
To me, the central dilemma with Big Wine is actually one of transparency. Though I can choose to drink wines that are made in the natural Old World-style, there is no wine labeling law that requires that GMO yeast, tannins, or bacteria (or new-fangled filtering technologies) be disclosed. Even artisanal producers have begun using these “scientific” techniques—but it is unlikely, as Feiring points out, that they’ll divulge them on labels anytime soon.
Part of the pleasure (and risk) of drinking wine comes from savoring its subtle flavors and the ineffable qualities bestowed on the grapes by the terroir, the weather, and the irrigation (and cultivation) methods. Wine made in the Old World style is alive—it changes from year to year and even, once uncorked, from day to day. It has a sense of place.
Feiring’s book is an Omnivore’s Dilemma for the world of wine and winemaking. I just hope it raises the same level of awareness and appreciation for Old World winemaking techniques as Pollan’s book has for polyculture and sustainably-farmed, honest-to-goodness food.
In the meantime, I’ll continue to seek out small producers who create authentic natural wines—people like Oregon vintners Russ Raney of Evesham Wood, Brian O’Donnell of Belle Pente, Jason Letts at Eyrie, and John Paul at Cameron. (These wines are at the forefront of my mind since I’ve just returned from Oregon. Know any amazing natural wines from other regions? Please share them below.)
((village voice))
Counter Culture
Surfing Bay Ridge at Asmak Taama with Gibby Haynes
Matching fish with rock stars in Bay Ridge
By Robert Sietsema
Tuesday, January 13th 2009 at 3:32pm
Cook like an Egyptian
Asmak Taama
413 Bay Ridge Avenue, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, 718-921-3200
My guests, on a last visit to Asmak Taama, included Butthole Surfers frontman Gibson "Gibby" Haynes and legendary Rolling Stones scribe Reverend Charles M. Young. Six of us found ourselves wedged into Scooter's compact hybrid—Gibby's wife, Missy, sprawled across his lap—bombing down Third Avenue in the night shadow of the Gowanus Expressway. Anticipating seafood, I was flashing over the Surfers' "Pepper" video, in which a woman with a bouffant hairdo scales a fish with a ferocious cleaver, all the while smiling into the camera. You keep expecting a finger to fly in your direction.
Our destination was one of the new Egyptian fish-market cafés in Bay Ridge, where you can view the raw catch glistening in the window, then step inside and devour it. With difficulty, we extracted ourselves from the blue Honda and burst into the pink interior of the restaurant. On the monitor overhead, 100 violinists dressed in white tuxedos accompanied a gentleman tinkling on a white piano—hey, I want Egyptian TV in my apartment! In fact, the proprietors of Asmak Taama ("Tasty Fish" in Arabic) hail from Alexandria, a port on the Mediterranean famous for its seafood cafés.
After we'd settled down at one of the long tables, I rendezvoused with our proprietress at the fish display and mulled over the selection. Arranged cheek-by-jowl, the fresh fish ranked in the front window were beguiling: big striped bass, their bulging sides crazed with a delicate black herringbone; slender pink snappers; sardines larger and milder than you've ever encountered before; gleaming silver barbounia, sometimes called mullets; bulbous foreshortened porgies, their eyes gleaming; and plainspoken tilapia, a fish often farmed in a sustainable fashion. I selected a porgy, two barbounia, and a giant striped bass, then watched as the specimens were whisked away to the kitchen at the rear of the restaurant. Wisely, we left the method of preparation up to our hostess.
As the apps began to arrive, Gibby regaled us with rock-tour tales, including one about trying to cook a fish in a rented RV somewhere in Indiana as it jounced down the interstate. First to hit the table was the fried eggplant appetizer ($3.50), which swam in a dark tomato sauce with lots of hot green chilies. "Shit, this is good," intoned Gibby in his nasal north-Texas accent, as he contemplated a piece of eggplant planted on a pita. We could only nod our assent, as our mouths were stuffed. Also among the early arrivers was a basket of golden French fries sprinkled with ground cumin ($2.50); a rudimentary salad of lettuce, tomatoes, and parsley slicked with olive oil; and a plate of dirty rice strewn with toasted pine nuts. The starters were so good that we were emboldened to order more—though we were disappointed to discover that "potato salad" is the name bestowed on plain roasted new potatoes.
But whatever the apps, salads, and sides, the fish arrive with a drumroll at Asmak Taama. In the Egyptian fashion, our hulking striped bass ($15) had been coated with whole-wheat flour and spices, dampened with seawater, and flame-grilled to coal-mine blackness. The intention is that the skin be stripped off and discarded, revealing the acres of smoky pink flesh. But Scooter dissented: "This skin is even more delish than the fish," he exclaimed delightedly.
The porgy ($13) and barbounia ($7 each) appeared next. They'd been deep-fried with a crunchy coating. While the porgy was large-boned and coarse-fleshed, making it easy to extract the bland, snowy meat, the tastier mullets had fine bones and took more work to eat. In addition, we were frankly freaked out by the fierce faces of the barbounia, which had two rows of teeth like white sixpenny nails. After a discussion of rock sainthood, in which I mentioned seeing Kurt Cobain T-shirts for sale outside the Assisi Cathedral in Italy, Gibby sheepishly noted he'd been in rehab with Cobain right before his self-offing.
After pushing back from the table, we washed everything down with steaming cups of sage tea and an assortment of pastries that the hostess had excused herself to go down the street to get. But the biggest surprise was yet to come. After comparing nightmarish stories about going to high school in Texas, where both he and I remembered being beset by Bible-thumping Christians, the venerable rock surrealist mentioned he'd graduated from Dallas's Lake Highlands High School. "Holy crap!" I exclaimed. "I went to the same penal institution! You must be its most famous grad."
"No," he replied modestly. "That would be Morgan Fairchild."
Counter Culture
Surfing Bay Ridge at Asmak Taama with Gibby Haynes
Matching fish with rock stars in Bay Ridge
By Robert Sietsema
Tuesday, January 13th 2009 at 3:32pm
Cook like an Egyptian
Asmak Taama
413 Bay Ridge Avenue, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, 718-921-3200
My guests, on a last visit to Asmak Taama, included Butthole Surfers frontman Gibson "Gibby" Haynes and legendary Rolling Stones scribe Reverend Charles M. Young. Six of us found ourselves wedged into Scooter's compact hybrid—Gibby's wife, Missy, sprawled across his lap—bombing down Third Avenue in the night shadow of the Gowanus Expressway. Anticipating seafood, I was flashing over the Surfers' "Pepper" video, in which a woman with a bouffant hairdo scales a fish with a ferocious cleaver, all the while smiling into the camera. You keep expecting a finger to fly in your direction.
Our destination was one of the new Egyptian fish-market cafés in Bay Ridge, where you can view the raw catch glistening in the window, then step inside and devour it. With difficulty, we extracted ourselves from the blue Honda and burst into the pink interior of the restaurant. On the monitor overhead, 100 violinists dressed in white tuxedos accompanied a gentleman tinkling on a white piano—hey, I want Egyptian TV in my apartment! In fact, the proprietors of Asmak Taama ("Tasty Fish" in Arabic) hail from Alexandria, a port on the Mediterranean famous for its seafood cafés.
After we'd settled down at one of the long tables, I rendezvoused with our proprietress at the fish display and mulled over the selection. Arranged cheek-by-jowl, the fresh fish ranked in the front window were beguiling: big striped bass, their bulging sides crazed with a delicate black herringbone; slender pink snappers; sardines larger and milder than you've ever encountered before; gleaming silver barbounia, sometimes called mullets; bulbous foreshortened porgies, their eyes gleaming; and plainspoken tilapia, a fish often farmed in a sustainable fashion. I selected a porgy, two barbounia, and a giant striped bass, then watched as the specimens were whisked away to the kitchen at the rear of the restaurant. Wisely, we left the method of preparation up to our hostess.
As the apps began to arrive, Gibby regaled us with rock-tour tales, including one about trying to cook a fish in a rented RV somewhere in Indiana as it jounced down the interstate. First to hit the table was the fried eggplant appetizer ($3.50), which swam in a dark tomato sauce with lots of hot green chilies. "Shit, this is good," intoned Gibby in his nasal north-Texas accent, as he contemplated a piece of eggplant planted on a pita. We could only nod our assent, as our mouths were stuffed. Also among the early arrivers was a basket of golden French fries sprinkled with ground cumin ($2.50); a rudimentary salad of lettuce, tomatoes, and parsley slicked with olive oil; and a plate of dirty rice strewn with toasted pine nuts. The starters were so good that we were emboldened to order more—though we were disappointed to discover that "potato salad" is the name bestowed on plain roasted new potatoes.
But whatever the apps, salads, and sides, the fish arrive with a drumroll at Asmak Taama. In the Egyptian fashion, our hulking striped bass ($15) had been coated with whole-wheat flour and spices, dampened with seawater, and flame-grilled to coal-mine blackness. The intention is that the skin be stripped off and discarded, revealing the acres of smoky pink flesh. But Scooter dissented: "This skin is even more delish than the fish," he exclaimed delightedly.
The porgy ($13) and barbounia ($7 each) appeared next. They'd been deep-fried with a crunchy coating. While the porgy was large-boned and coarse-fleshed, making it easy to extract the bland, snowy meat, the tastier mullets had fine bones and took more work to eat. In addition, we were frankly freaked out by the fierce faces of the barbounia, which had two rows of teeth like white sixpenny nails. After a discussion of rock sainthood, in which I mentioned seeing Kurt Cobain T-shirts for sale outside the Assisi Cathedral in Italy, Gibby sheepishly noted he'd been in rehab with Cobain right before his self-offing.
After pushing back from the table, we washed everything down with steaming cups of sage tea and an assortment of pastries that the hostess had excused herself to go down the street to get. But the biggest surprise was yet to come. After comparing nightmarish stories about going to high school in Texas, where both he and I remembered being beset by Bible-thumping Christians, the venerable rock surrealist mentioned he'd graduated from Dallas's Lake Highlands High School. "Holy crap!" I exclaimed. "I went to the same penal institution! You must be its most famous grad."
"No," he replied modestly. "That would be Morgan Fairchild."
stripes just start on amc. you know you want to...
was just watching westworld thinking it would be ripe for a remake.
Bargain Bin: Yellow+Blue Malbec
Finally! An eco-friendly boxed wine we'll drink
((FROM TASTINGTABLE.COM))
Wine is a carbon Bigfoot: All those heavy glass bottles and time spent on trucks and planes add up. Wine producers have been playing with glass alternatives for years (see Franzia), but we've never tried a boxed wine we could get behind until we were introduced to Yellow+Blue (get it?) by Scott Pactor, the picky palate who owns the beloved, organic-oriented Appellation Wine and Spirits.
The unoaked Argentinean Malbec is made from certified organic grapes, then boated to Canada where it's packaged in paperboard Tetra Paks, a process that produces about a fifth of the greenhouse emissions used to make and move glass bottles.
Eco-friendliness aside, at $12 a liter, it's the perfect fall picnic wine—soft and juicy with ripe plum and blueberry flavors and enough complexity to surprise the wine snobs. Just don't forget to recycle.
Finally! An eco-friendly boxed wine we'll drink
((FROM TASTINGTABLE.COM))
Wine is a carbon Bigfoot: All those heavy glass bottles and time spent on trucks and planes add up. Wine producers have been playing with glass alternatives for years (see Franzia), but we've never tried a boxed wine we could get behind until we were introduced to Yellow+Blue (get it?) by Scott Pactor, the picky palate who owns the beloved, organic-oriented Appellation Wine and Spirits.
The unoaked Argentinean Malbec is made from certified organic grapes, then boated to Canada where it's packaged in paperboard Tetra Paks, a process that produces about a fifth of the greenhouse emissions used to make and move glass bottles.
Eco-friendliness aside, at $12 a liter, it's the perfect fall picnic wine—soft and juicy with ripe plum and blueberry flavors and enough complexity to surprise the wine snobs. Just don't forget to recycle.
Can a bottle of wine really be worth $700? Slate's Mike Steinberger this so:
What a nose—hazelnut, oatmeal, sweet white fruit, smoke, spice, and a touch of nutmeg. Stirring nose. Ripe, spicy, sublime, succulent grapefruit, pear. Perfect balance. Holy shit.
Blogs of all political stripes spent most of yesterday detailing reports of voting machine malfunctions and ballot shortages, effectively becoming an online national clearinghouse of the polling problems that still face the election system.
dont know if this is sensationalist tripe but the ads look intriguing. think its on natl geographic channel tonight or tomorrow.
sideways on hbo again tonight - thats right im payin' for it!
i caught most of it in the middle of the night last week - i think its great and ripe for a second viewing
i caught most of it in the middle of the night last week - i think its great and ripe for a second viewing
from the e-newsletter by Michael Hebberoy of ripe, clarklewis and gotham building tavern in Portland, OR:
"wd-50 · ate here two years ago, two weeks after it opened. if you care about american food, and those half crazed geniuses that are pushing its boundaries… then you need to eat at wd-50. this trip I only had time for an afternoon gin sipping session with partner dewey dufresne, easily the most charming man in the biz."
"wd-50 · ate here two years ago, two weeks after it opened. if you care about american food, and those half crazed geniuses that are pushing its boundaries… then you need to eat at wd-50. this trip I only had time for an afternoon gin sipping session with partner dewey dufresne, easily the most charming man in the biz."
Ripe opens Clarklewis.
life is full of new experiences, today i got bit by a pit bull blend dog, she got two teeth in and riped my jean leg right off, best part of it was how short the emergency room visit took....
We want to know what our resident golf-lover thinks about Annika vs. "the guys".
Another Dinner at Ripe, Sat March 15th.
Somber mood due to the war, but since Ripe works by rsvp guests showed up.
Chioggia beets and mache with horseradish vinaigrette
spring risotto (peas and asparagus)
Herb encrusted pan seared halibut with yellowfoot mushrooms
and caper beurre blanc
Italian almond poundcake with lemon curd and whipped cream.
$20 plus gratuity. Dessert $2
I brought a Charles Shaw Cabernet. $3 at Trader Joes
I love this place.
Somber mood due to the war, but since Ripe works by rsvp guests showed up.
Chioggia beets and mache with horseradish vinaigrette
spring risotto (peas and asparagus)
Herb encrusted pan seared halibut with yellowfoot mushrooms
and caper beurre blanc
Italian almond poundcake with lemon curd and whipped cream.
$20 plus gratuity. Dessert $2
I brought a Charles Shaw Cabernet. $3 at Trader Joes
I love this place.
mr Steve, Ripe front page NYT food page today....
spam for peace
Join the CARNIVAL BLOC on FEBRUARY 15th
PLEASE REPOST!
Your Friends at Mobilize New York and Reclaim the Streets
Invite YOU to a FAT SATURDAY PARTY and PARADE FOR A WORLD WITHOUT WAR!
Join the CARNIVAL BLOC on FEBRUARY 15th for a MARDI GRAS PARADE to give up WAR-MONGERING for LENT (and a long time after)
Calling all freaks, revelers, puppetistas and drummers, musicians, singers and loud hummers; samba bands, hungry marchers, jugglers, baton twirlers, fire eaters and artists of all stripes; ravers, beehives, and vikings; billionaires for bush, gore or perma-war; radical cheerleaders, reclaimers of streets and critical massers; church ladies for choice, drag queens and kings, radical rockettes, perms for perma-war, church of stop bombers, missile chicks, babes for bombs, students for an undemocratic society, new kids on the blac bloc, those united for peace and justice and anybody and everybody who thinks that this war is absurd. (sorry, but no mimes)
WHAT: A festive and theatrical CARNIVAL BLOC FEEDER MARCH to the anti-war rally on February 15th.
WHEN: 11:30, Saturday Morning, Feb.15th.
WHERE: Between the Lions, on the steps of the New York Public Library, 5th Avenue between 41st and 42nd Streets. From there we1ll march to the big rally
From the steps of the NYPL we'll wend our merry way to the United for the Peace and Justice rally, likely to be at the UN, though this is subject to change, so we'll go where they are. For details on the rally, see www.unitedforpeace.org
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Bring Mardi Gras Beads, costumes, instruments, drums, beats, boom boxes, dancing shoes, noisemakers of all kinds, bring posters and banners and puppets. Bring yourselves and friends. Be prepared to mock the Axis of Oil without mercy.
And please, playful or stern, SPREAD THE WORD!
PLEASE REPOST WIDELY!
Cypress
"We need an energy bill that encourages consumption." George Bush, President of the United States Trenton, NJ September 23, 2002
Join the CARNIVAL BLOC on FEBRUARY 15th
PLEASE REPOST!
Your Friends at Mobilize New York and Reclaim the Streets
Invite YOU to a FAT SATURDAY PARTY and PARADE FOR A WORLD WITHOUT WAR!
Join the CARNIVAL BLOC on FEBRUARY 15th for a MARDI GRAS PARADE to give up WAR-MONGERING for LENT (and a long time after)
Calling all freaks, revelers, puppetistas and drummers, musicians, singers and loud hummers; samba bands, hungry marchers, jugglers, baton twirlers, fire eaters and artists of all stripes; ravers, beehives, and vikings; billionaires for bush, gore or perma-war; radical cheerleaders, reclaimers of streets and critical massers; church ladies for choice, drag queens and kings, radical rockettes, perms for perma-war, church of stop bombers, missile chicks, babes for bombs, students for an undemocratic society, new kids on the blac bloc, those united for peace and justice and anybody and everybody who thinks that this war is absurd. (sorry, but no mimes)
WHAT: A festive and theatrical CARNIVAL BLOC FEEDER MARCH to the anti-war rally on February 15th.
WHEN: 11:30, Saturday Morning, Feb.15th.
WHERE: Between the Lions, on the steps of the New York Public Library, 5th Avenue between 41st and 42nd Streets. From there we1ll march to the big rally
From the steps of the NYPL we'll wend our merry way to the United for the Peace and Justice rally, likely to be at the UN, though this is subject to change, so we'll go where they are. For details on the rally, see www.unitedforpeace.org
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Bring Mardi Gras Beads, costumes, instruments, drums, beats, boom boxes, dancing shoes, noisemakers of all kinds, bring posters and banners and puppets. Bring yourselves and friends. Be prepared to mock the Axis of Oil without mercy.
And please, playful or stern, SPREAD THE WORD!
PLEASE REPOST WIDELY!
Cypress
"We need an energy bill that encourages consumption." George Bush, President of the United States Trenton, NJ September 23, 2002
Argintinian dinner at Ripe
Bacalao stuffed poblano pepper with corn broth
Grilled hearts of lamb, watercress, dried mango, and toasted almonds with a sherry vinaigrette
Matambre - rolled painted hills flank steak stuffed with black kale, hard cooked egg, onion, and oregano
New potatoes
Tres leche
Wines:
Don miguel gascou 2001 malbec mendoza argantina
bodega jacgres + francois lurten 2002 mendoza
valle de uco
pinot gris
layunta torrontes 2001
famaatina valley
la rioja - argentina
The Bacalao stuffed pepper and corn broth soup was amazing. So was the flank steak.
The salad was great. But the lamb heart was so finely sliced, tender that it was practically un-noticable. I guess subtle is the word. I could take it or leave it. The dried mango and almonds were my fave touch.
I loved the wines, the dessert was nice too.
All is served family style so second and third helpings on wine and food (not dessert) if you want.
Special dinner that night so price was double the usual: $40 plus tip. I love this place.
Bacalao stuffed poblano pepper with corn broth
Grilled hearts of lamb, watercress, dried mango, and toasted almonds with a sherry vinaigrette
Matambre - rolled painted hills flank steak stuffed with black kale, hard cooked egg, onion, and oregano
New potatoes
Tres leche
Wines:
Don miguel gascou 2001 malbec mendoza argantina
bodega jacgres + francois lurten 2002 mendoza
valle de uco
pinot gris
layunta torrontes 2001
famaatina valley
la rioja - argentina
The Bacalao stuffed pepper and corn broth soup was amazing. So was the flank steak.
The salad was great. But the lamb heart was so finely sliced, tender that it was practically un-noticable. I guess subtle is the word. I could take it or leave it. The dried mango and almonds were my fave touch.
I loved the wines, the dessert was nice too.
All is served family style so second and third helpings on wine and food (not dessert) if you want.
Special dinner that night so price was double the usual: $40 plus tip. I love this place.
email from Ripe
>What is Ripe and why are they bothering me?
>
>
>
>
>ripe is:
>
>a small local company that to date is best know for its
>family style dinners called "family supper",
>we are also well established caterers, and at present have a few new
>projects...
>
>
>A. family supper
>In march 2001 we began a series of informal dinners held in our home
>twice monthly for around twenty guests, after serving over 700 guests
>in our living room, we moved to our new location on N interstate,
>expanding our concept into a restaurant,
>for lack of a better word...
>..
>since march 2002 we have been serving up to 45 diners,
>3 nights a week in our spacious open kitchen...
>...
>all our guests arrive at the same time and sit together at three
>long woodentables
>there are no waiters, just cooks bringing out large platters of food
>and earthenware pots to be passed and eaten family style...
>...
>there is only one menu per week, though we encourage people to alert us to
>any
>dietary restrictions in advance.
>...
>The price of the meal is $20/per person + gratuity
>dessert is available for $5
>...
> everyone receiving this email is invited to attend one of our suppers
>dinner is served
>every wednesday, thursday and friday
>at 7:30
>
>
>b. cake
>we are beginning a new division of our off-premise business with "cake"
>offering
>special order desserts and pastries by mandy groom, formerly the executive
>pastry chef
>of zefiro and bluehour
>c. gotham bldg coffee shop
>we have just opened a humble coffee shop and lunch place on the corner of
>interstate and albina, featuring pastries by cake and food by ripe... open
>m-f 7-5
>call 503.493.2646 for more info
>(family supper is featured in
>better homes and garden this month pg 37 - 42)
>
>family supper Dates
>
>open dates
>booked dates
>what is ripe and why are they bothering me?
>
>
>open dates
>
>
>september
>27th (just had someone cancel 8 seats. let me know asap)
>october
>2nd
>16th
>17th
>18th
>midnight supper 18th
>23rd
>24th
>25th
>30th
>tentative: Native seeds day of the dead benefit 10/31 $50
>november
>6th
>7th
>13th
>14th
>15th
>midnight supper 15th
>tentative : wine dinner november 16th
>
>*october 9th and 10th are benefit dinners for community advocates
>(child abuse and domestic violence prevention) call 280-1388 for
>reservations
>
>
>booked dates
>
>september
>28th
>29th
>30th
>october
>1st
>2nd
>3rd
>4th
>5th
>11th
>15th
>19th
>22nd
>26th
>november
>1st
>2nd
>5th
>8th
>9th
>What is Ripe and why are they bothering me?
>
>
>
>
>ripe is:
>
>a small local company that to date is best know for its
>family style dinners called "family supper",
>we are also well established caterers, and at present have a few new
>projects...
>
>
>A. family supper
>In march 2001 we began a series of informal dinners held in our home
>twice monthly for around twenty guests, after serving over 700 guests
>in our living room, we moved to our new location on N interstate,
>expanding our concept into a restaurant,
>for lack of a better word...
>..
>since march 2002 we have been serving up to 45 diners,
>3 nights a week in our spacious open kitchen...
>...
>all our guests arrive at the same time and sit together at three
>long woodentables
>there are no waiters, just cooks bringing out large platters of food
>and earthenware pots to be passed and eaten family style...
>...
>there is only one menu per week, though we encourage people to alert us to
>any
>dietary restrictions in advance.
>...
>The price of the meal is $20/per person + gratuity
>dessert is available for $5
>...
> everyone receiving this email is invited to attend one of our suppers
>dinner is served
>every wednesday, thursday and friday
>at 7:30
>
>
>b. cake
>we are beginning a new division of our off-premise business with "cake"
>offering
>special order desserts and pastries by mandy groom, formerly the executive
>pastry chef
>of zefiro and bluehour
>c. gotham bldg coffee shop
>we have just opened a humble coffee shop and lunch place on the corner of
>interstate and albina, featuring pastries by cake and food by ripe... open
>m-f 7-5
>call 503.493.2646 for more info
>(family supper is featured in
>better homes and garden this month pg 37 - 42)
>
>family supper Dates
>
>open dates
>booked dates
>what is ripe and why are they bothering me?
>
>
>open dates
>
>
>september
>27th (just had someone cancel 8 seats. let me know asap)
>october
>2nd
>16th
>17th
>18th
>midnight supper 18th
>23rd
>24th
>25th
>30th
>tentative: Native seeds day of the dead benefit 10/31 $50
>november
>6th
>7th
>13th
>14th
>15th
>midnight supper 15th
>tentative : wine dinner november 16th
>
>*october 9th and 10th are benefit dinners for community advocates
>(child abuse and domestic violence prevention) call 280-1388 for
>reservations
>
>
>booked dates
>
>september
>28th
>29th
>30th
>october
>1st
>2nd
>3rd
>4th
>5th
>11th
>15th
>19th
>22nd
>26th
>november
>1st
>2nd
>5th
>8th
>9th
a friend of joe dressner
NO SPOOFALATION PLEASE
August 26, 2001
NYTimes
For Better or Worse, Winemakers Go High Tech
By ALICE FEIRING
inemakers like to say wine is grown in the vineyard. But more and more of the wine produced in the United States is grown in the lab.
In the last five years, new treatments and additives ranging from smoky oak chips to tropical-flavored fermenting yeasts have spread through the 500-million-gallon-a- year American wine industry, whose epicenter is California. They have enabled winemakers to adjust the taste and texture of their products in response to consumer demand, obscuring the line between what is natural and what is not.
While these changes have helped minimize the wine industry's risks of a bad vintage and contributed to a 25 percent increase in annual domestic wine production over the last decade, they have also inflamed an emotional debate about whether winemakers are erasing the mystique of regional differences in wine.
"Anytime I taste a wine that has nothing distinctive about the place or the climate, I call that deception," said Roger B. Boulton, professor emeritus of viticulture and enology at the University of California at Davis, who opposes what he calls a creeping homogeneity in wine. "When everything becomes the same because of winemaking practices, that's a pretty sad day."
Nearly 90 percent of wine produced in the United States originates in California, and the state's wineries have good reasons to produce wines that they know will sell. The volume of imports has nearly doubled over the last decade and now accounts for more than 20 percent of all wine sold in the country, according to Impact, a trade publication of M. Shanken Communications. Many of those imports, particularly Australian wines, are also produced with the new techniques.
The Wine Institute, a trade group in San Francisco, estimated that the retail value of all wine sold in the United States was $19 billion last year, up 5 percent from 1999.
A trend toward homogeneity in wine may be driven in part by a perception that influential wine critics like Robert M. Parker Jr. and magazines like Wine Spectator prefer particular flavors and aromas. Winemakers seeking good reviews may be exploiting new technologies not only for damage control, but also to shape their wines from birth.
There is nothing illegal about human intervention in the natural fermentation of wine. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which regulates the industry, does impose some limits. It is not permissible, for example, to use food coloring to perfect a wine's color. And artificial flavoring cannot be added to replicate a particular taste, like that of blackberries.
What is allowed, however, is the use of oak, either raw or charred to varying degrees, which can impart flavors reminiscent of coconut, vanilla and coffee, for example. But while winemakers still use oak barrels, oak chips are increasingly used to save money on lesser wines — the chips are sprinkled into stainless steel vats to flavor a wine and give it an "oak flavor profile."
Adjustments are also permitted in the level of carbon dioxide in fermenting wine, which affects a wine's acidity and fruitiness. Adding unfermented grape juice sweetens the wine. Enzymes lock in color. Yeasts control the level of fermentation. Tannins, naturally occurring chemical compounds in grape skins and wood, are used in powdered form to further enhance a wine's taste and feel in the mouth.
Advances in yeast cultivation have now made it an ingredient for taste as well. Chardonnay producers looking for a toasty, buttery taste use a special yeast that enhances those qualities. Another example is a yeast that gives a banana flavor and aroma, originally introduced 10 years ago in Beaujolais.
Marty Bannister, the founder of Vinquiry, a wine analysis and consulting firm in Sonoma, Calif., said yeast was "the essential fermentation tool." But now, she added, "people also look toward it for flavor."
Diana Burnett, fermentation products manager at Scott Laboratories in Petaluma, Calif., a leading distributor of wine yeasts, said that in the past, winemakers relied on nature, soil and skill to make the best wine they could. Now, she said, they decide in advance what flavor they want, then choose the materials and tools they need.
California's wine industry has embraced the technology of wine enhancement partly because ripened California grapes often have a higher sugar content than grapes grown elsewhere. Until recent years, the sugar was a chronic source of production problems for many winemakers — it contributes to high levels of alcohol in fermentation, which can kill the yeast prematurely and produce acetic acid, turning wine to vinegar. Wines with more than 14 percent alcohol, the normal amount, can taste hot and harsh.
High alcohol levels also raise the price to the consumer. A federal excise tax of $1.07 a gallon is levied on wine sold in the United States that is no more than 14 percent alcohol. The tax is $1.57 a gallon when the alcohol content exceeds 14 percent.
But now a technique called reverse osmosis, in which high pressure is used to separate the alcohol and acid from the wine, has helped many winemakers salvage crops that nature might have ruined. Use of the technique, originally intended to make nonalcoholic wine, has spread in recent years.
"The only thing to do with a batch of wine with acetic acid is to use reverse osmosis," said Lisa Van de Water, the founder and owner of Wine Lab, a consulting company in Napa, Calif., that specializes in emergency rescues of wines. "It's a godsend."
Many winemakers will not acknowledge using reverse osmosis, fearing that they will be perceived as having tampered with the wine. But even the best of them acknowledge that the technique is an important advance that has helped avoid calamities.
Steve Doerner, the winemaker at the Cristom Winery in Salem, Ore., known in the industry for his dedication to natural wine making, said he once had to resort to reverse osmosis. But he said such technologies should be used for disaster control, not for fine-tuning taste and texture.
"Whenever you take something out of the wine, you're changing it," he said. "And not necessarily for the best."
Vinovation, a Sebastopol, Calif., consulting and production services company that introduced reverse osmosis, disagrees, saying the technique's application is much wider than just emergency use. Clark Smith, the president of the company, said it could produce "a better wine than you would have in the first place."
In 1997, Vinovation introduced micro-oxygenation, in which bubbles of oxygen are released into oak barrels used to store wine. This eliminates the need for a labor-intensive practice called racking, in which the wine is pumped out of one barrel into another to separate it from residue and yeasts.
Vinovation sold about 100 micro-oxygenation systems last year at $2,000 each and said it expects to double sales this year. Michael Havens, owner and winemaker of Havens Wine Cellars in the Napa Valley, who produces one of California's most sought-after merlots, said he started using micro-oxygenation in 1996 after hurting his back during racking.
Mr. Havens defended the use of micro- oxygenation as just another part of modern winemaking. He said it helped to minimize the weather uncertainties that can make the difference between a good year and a bad year. "It is better to make conscious rather than random choices," he said.
Others, however, say the interventions have compromised the ethics of the industry, creating tastes and textures in wines that otherwise would not have them.
"People now think toasty oak is synonymous with a wine's taste," Professor Boulton said. "That is wrong. Should you add grape tannins as an adjustment? Maybe. But wood tannins? I have trouble with that." Techniques like reverse osmosis and micro- oxygenation "can make a good wine, but not a great wine," he said.
"If you have to resort to these methods," he added, "what does that say about your winemaking and grape growing?"
Winemakers say privately that the industry's effort to manipulate the taste and texture in wine reflects the influence of leading critics like Mr. Parker, whose rating scores can mean the difference between success and failure. Mr. Parker said he advocates minimal intervention in winemaking and does not consider himself responsible for homogeneity in wine.
"My scores have led to higher quality at all price levels, as well as to more informed wine customers," he said.
Enologix, another Sonoma company that caters to the wine industry, has developed computer software that predicts how a wine will score in reviews even while it is still juice. Enologix's founder, Leo McCloskey, said the software offered a noninvasive way to let winemakers know early if they have a potential hit. Mr. McCloskey said 65 wineries had bought his software, including leading boutique wineries like Diamond Creek, Ridge and WillaKenzie.
The ability of new technologies to create critically acclaimed wines is evident in the prosperity of E.& J. Gallo Winery. The privately owned company does not disclose financial information, but with an estimated $1.5 billion in annual sales, it is the nation's biggest winemaker.
After mastering the supermarket brand of wines, it has segued into the fine-wine category. Its highly rated 1996 and 1997 Estate Cabernets, for example, retail at $70 a bottle.
Terry Lee, vice president for research and development at Gallo, said a successful winemaker now creates a focus group and finds what flavors the public wants, then produces them. Wine critics, in Mr. Lee's view, "are gatekeepers who have an influence on the buying public."
"I've heard the complaints that all wine is tasting the same," he said, "But that's because most people don't understand what wine is about and don't understand what a good winemaker is trying to do. People who make those comments are ignorant of the facts."
That assertion angers those who believe that fine wine is about the land and not about the laboratory. Mary Ewing Mulligan, co- author of "Wine for Dummies," said a result was a loss of distinctiveness.
"There should be a distinction between a beverage and fine wine," Ms. Mulligan said. "From the beverage viewpoint, it is easy to buy a technologically sound wine, just as it is orange juice. That's great. However, with fine wine it's terribly misguided."
NO SPOOFALATION PLEASE
August 26, 2001
NYTimes
For Better or Worse, Winemakers Go High Tech
By ALICE FEIRING
inemakers like to say wine is grown in the vineyard. But more and more of the wine produced in the United States is grown in the lab.
In the last five years, new treatments and additives ranging from smoky oak chips to tropical-flavored fermenting yeasts have spread through the 500-million-gallon-a- year American wine industry, whose epicenter is California. They have enabled winemakers to adjust the taste and texture of their products in response to consumer demand, obscuring the line between what is natural and what is not.
While these changes have helped minimize the wine industry's risks of a bad vintage and contributed to a 25 percent increase in annual domestic wine production over the last decade, they have also inflamed an emotional debate about whether winemakers are erasing the mystique of regional differences in wine.
"Anytime I taste a wine that has nothing distinctive about the place or the climate, I call that deception," said Roger B. Boulton, professor emeritus of viticulture and enology at the University of California at Davis, who opposes what he calls a creeping homogeneity in wine. "When everything becomes the same because of winemaking practices, that's a pretty sad day."
Nearly 90 percent of wine produced in the United States originates in California, and the state's wineries have good reasons to produce wines that they know will sell. The volume of imports has nearly doubled over the last decade and now accounts for more than 20 percent of all wine sold in the country, according to Impact, a trade publication of M. Shanken Communications. Many of those imports, particularly Australian wines, are also produced with the new techniques.
The Wine Institute, a trade group in San Francisco, estimated that the retail value of all wine sold in the United States was $19 billion last year, up 5 percent from 1999.
A trend toward homogeneity in wine may be driven in part by a perception that influential wine critics like Robert M. Parker Jr. and magazines like Wine Spectator prefer particular flavors and aromas. Winemakers seeking good reviews may be exploiting new technologies not only for damage control, but also to shape their wines from birth.
There is nothing illegal about human intervention in the natural fermentation of wine. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which regulates the industry, does impose some limits. It is not permissible, for example, to use food coloring to perfect a wine's color. And artificial flavoring cannot be added to replicate a particular taste, like that of blackberries.
What is allowed, however, is the use of oak, either raw or charred to varying degrees, which can impart flavors reminiscent of coconut, vanilla and coffee, for example. But while winemakers still use oak barrels, oak chips are increasingly used to save money on lesser wines — the chips are sprinkled into stainless steel vats to flavor a wine and give it an "oak flavor profile."
Adjustments are also permitted in the level of carbon dioxide in fermenting wine, which affects a wine's acidity and fruitiness. Adding unfermented grape juice sweetens the wine. Enzymes lock in color. Yeasts control the level of fermentation. Tannins, naturally occurring chemical compounds in grape skins and wood, are used in powdered form to further enhance a wine's taste and feel in the mouth.
Advances in yeast cultivation have now made it an ingredient for taste as well. Chardonnay producers looking for a toasty, buttery taste use a special yeast that enhances those qualities. Another example is a yeast that gives a banana flavor and aroma, originally introduced 10 years ago in Beaujolais.
Marty Bannister, the founder of Vinquiry, a wine analysis and consulting firm in Sonoma, Calif., said yeast was "the essential fermentation tool." But now, she added, "people also look toward it for flavor."
Diana Burnett, fermentation products manager at Scott Laboratories in Petaluma, Calif., a leading distributor of wine yeasts, said that in the past, winemakers relied on nature, soil and skill to make the best wine they could. Now, she said, they decide in advance what flavor they want, then choose the materials and tools they need.
California's wine industry has embraced the technology of wine enhancement partly because ripened California grapes often have a higher sugar content than grapes grown elsewhere. Until recent years, the sugar was a chronic source of production problems for many winemakers — it contributes to high levels of alcohol in fermentation, which can kill the yeast prematurely and produce acetic acid, turning wine to vinegar. Wines with more than 14 percent alcohol, the normal amount, can taste hot and harsh.
High alcohol levels also raise the price to the consumer. A federal excise tax of $1.07 a gallon is levied on wine sold in the United States that is no more than 14 percent alcohol. The tax is $1.57 a gallon when the alcohol content exceeds 14 percent.
But now a technique called reverse osmosis, in which high pressure is used to separate the alcohol and acid from the wine, has helped many winemakers salvage crops that nature might have ruined. Use of the technique, originally intended to make nonalcoholic wine, has spread in recent years.
"The only thing to do with a batch of wine with acetic acid is to use reverse osmosis," said Lisa Van de Water, the founder and owner of Wine Lab, a consulting company in Napa, Calif., that specializes in emergency rescues of wines. "It's a godsend."
Many winemakers will not acknowledge using reverse osmosis, fearing that they will be perceived as having tampered with the wine. But even the best of them acknowledge that the technique is an important advance that has helped avoid calamities.
Steve Doerner, the winemaker at the Cristom Winery in Salem, Ore., known in the industry for his dedication to natural wine making, said he once had to resort to reverse osmosis. But he said such technologies should be used for disaster control, not for fine-tuning taste and texture.
"Whenever you take something out of the wine, you're changing it," he said. "And not necessarily for the best."
Vinovation, a Sebastopol, Calif., consulting and production services company that introduced reverse osmosis, disagrees, saying the technique's application is much wider than just emergency use. Clark Smith, the president of the company, said it could produce "a better wine than you would have in the first place."
In 1997, Vinovation introduced micro-oxygenation, in which bubbles of oxygen are released into oak barrels used to store wine. This eliminates the need for a labor-intensive practice called racking, in which the wine is pumped out of one barrel into another to separate it from residue and yeasts.
Vinovation sold about 100 micro-oxygenation systems last year at $2,000 each and said it expects to double sales this year. Michael Havens, owner and winemaker of Havens Wine Cellars in the Napa Valley, who produces one of California's most sought-after merlots, said he started using micro-oxygenation in 1996 after hurting his back during racking.
Mr. Havens defended the use of micro- oxygenation as just another part of modern winemaking. He said it helped to minimize the weather uncertainties that can make the difference between a good year and a bad year. "It is better to make conscious rather than random choices," he said.
Others, however, say the interventions have compromised the ethics of the industry, creating tastes and textures in wines that otherwise would not have them.
"People now think toasty oak is synonymous with a wine's taste," Professor Boulton said. "That is wrong. Should you add grape tannins as an adjustment? Maybe. But wood tannins? I have trouble with that." Techniques like reverse osmosis and micro- oxygenation "can make a good wine, but not a great wine," he said.
"If you have to resort to these methods," he added, "what does that say about your winemaking and grape growing?"
Winemakers say privately that the industry's effort to manipulate the taste and texture in wine reflects the influence of leading critics like Mr. Parker, whose rating scores can mean the difference between success and failure. Mr. Parker said he advocates minimal intervention in winemaking and does not consider himself responsible for homogeneity in wine.
"My scores have led to higher quality at all price levels, as well as to more informed wine customers," he said.
Enologix, another Sonoma company that caters to the wine industry, has developed computer software that predicts how a wine will score in reviews even while it is still juice. Enologix's founder, Leo McCloskey, said the software offered a noninvasive way to let winemakers know early if they have a potential hit. Mr. McCloskey said 65 wineries had bought his software, including leading boutique wineries like Diamond Creek, Ridge and WillaKenzie.
The ability of new technologies to create critically acclaimed wines is evident in the prosperity of E.& J. Gallo Winery. The privately owned company does not disclose financial information, but with an estimated $1.5 billion in annual sales, it is the nation's biggest winemaker.
After mastering the supermarket brand of wines, it has segued into the fine-wine category. Its highly rated 1996 and 1997 Estate Cabernets, for example, retail at $70 a bottle.
Terry Lee, vice president for research and development at Gallo, said a successful winemaker now creates a focus group and finds what flavors the public wants, then produces them. Wine critics, in Mr. Lee's view, "are gatekeepers who have an influence on the buying public."
"I've heard the complaints that all wine is tasting the same," he said, "But that's because most people don't understand what wine is about and don't understand what a good winemaker is trying to do. People who make those comments are ignorant of the facts."
That assertion angers those who believe that fine wine is about the land and not about the laboratory. Mary Ewing Mulligan, co- author of "Wine for Dummies," said a result was a loss of distinctiveness.
"There should be a distinction between a beverage and fine wine," Ms. Mulligan said. "From the beverage viewpoint, it is easy to buy a technologically sound wine, just as it is orange juice. That's great. However, with fine wine it's terribly misguided."
going out to a fancy restaurant is always fun as long as you get a good meal for your hard earned money--the only factor IMHO is the fact that people are starving in this world and what the effect is on the enviroment to procure these yummy's--that being said we had a true orgasmic meal in Bergamo Italy at the 2 star Michelin Da Vittorio--Bergamo is a beautiful town at the base of the Alps famous for thier Art History etc--thier focus is fish--everyone in the room looked like a millionaire and the room was too poshed up for my taste but the food WOW--a twisted Frito Misto to begin followed by lightly cooked Langostines with very rare Zolfino beans (this was the best dish), than a pasta with mussels and clams that was singing, into tuna with a salad and a veggie medly that eaten together blended like no other i,ve tasted--we drank 92 Chambolle Amourese by Vogue followed by 90 Drouhin Charmes into 85 Daumas Gassac for the 2nd best cheese course in my life, all of them ripe to purrfection and had fruit sides that just rocked--than the fun began--a campari jello with white chocolate froth, followed by rich little multitextured treats and a Moscato from the island of Pantelliera--we were so happy and content but it didnt end--a roasted herbed pineapple came out which they served with some sauce sided with a hot pepper cake--well we said enough NOT, next they removed the flowers and put down a bouquet of lollipops some flavored marshmellow and others were hard and made from mint with red pepper, than they covered the table with little treats everwhere the best being these little balls that explode when you eat them filled with sambuca and coffee beans--i must go back but only after i donate many times what was spent to Oxfarm, Unicef, Earth Island etc.....
Can You Say ? (You Can See) :
'Poetry Plastique'
Marianne Boesky 535 West 22nd Street, Chelsea Through March 10
"Art and poetry: made for each other. So it has always been. Poets write about art; artists turn to poetry for ideas. Sometimes the two disciplines meet in collaboration; occasionally that collaboration is forged in the work of a single person. All these variables are aired in "Poetry Plastique," in which image and word are flexibly intertwined.
Organized by Jay Sanders, who is on the staff at Boesky, and the poet Charles Bernstein, the selection covers a stretch of recent historical ground. At the early end are scribbly, word-peppered Blakean pages by Robert Smithson from 1962 and a labyrinthine written piece by the arch-Fluxian Jackson Mac Low from 1975. The 1970's are well represented here, with work by Carl Andre, Wallace Berman and text- and-image collaborations by Arakawa and Madeline Gins.
Other work is new. Mr. Bernstein collaborates with Richard Tuttle on a witty sculpture made of plump, strung together 3-D letters, and with Susan Bee on a noirish painting in which Emily Dickinson and Mickey Spillane face off. Dickinson's attenuated handwriting finds an echo in Mira Schor's word paintings. The show enters the digital realm in a rich text-and-image work by Johanna Drucker and Brad Freeman, and in Tan Lin's computer-generated poetry pulsing away on three monitors.
The day after the show opened, the gallery was host to a series of related panel discussions and readings. Poets and artists participated. A big audience turned up. It was great. The buzz of voices and ideas made the art in the room — and Chelsea itself, for that matter — feel alive and interactive. Some of the pieces really need that charge; they look staid and hermetic without it. But others do fine on their own, and the cross-disciplinary concept behind the show is ripe for further exploration.
Perhaps Mr. Sanders and Mr. Bernstein already have further plans along these lines. Meanwhile, art and texts mutually ignite elsewhere in the city these days: in Cy Twombly's not-to-be-missed "Coronation of Sesostris" paintings, based on a poem by Patricia Waters, at Gagosian Gallery (980 Madison Avenue, at 76th Street, through tomorrow); in a collaboration between the painter Max Gimblett and the poet John Yau at Ethan Cohen Fine Art (37 Walker Street, SoHo, through March 10); in a series of collaborative prints by contemporary Puerto Rican artists and poets at El Taller Boricua (Lexington Avenue at 106th Street, through tomorrow); in an exhibition of contemporary text-based works, "A Way with Words," at the Whitney at Philip Morris (120 Park Avenue, at 42nd Street, through March 30); and in a jewel of an exhibition of artists' diaries, with bold little drawings and sonnet-size personal jottings, at the Archives of American Art (1285 Avenue of the Americas, at 51st Street, through May 31)."
- HOLLAND COTTER for NYT
'Poetry Plastique'
Marianne Boesky 535 West 22nd Street, Chelsea Through March 10
"Art and poetry: made for each other. So it has always been. Poets write about art; artists turn to poetry for ideas. Sometimes the two disciplines meet in collaboration; occasionally that collaboration is forged in the work of a single person. All these variables are aired in "Poetry Plastique," in which image and word are flexibly intertwined.
Organized by Jay Sanders, who is on the staff at Boesky, and the poet Charles Bernstein, the selection covers a stretch of recent historical ground. At the early end are scribbly, word-peppered Blakean pages by Robert Smithson from 1962 and a labyrinthine written piece by the arch-Fluxian Jackson Mac Low from 1975. The 1970's are well represented here, with work by Carl Andre, Wallace Berman and text- and-image collaborations by Arakawa and Madeline Gins.
Other work is new. Mr. Bernstein collaborates with Richard Tuttle on a witty sculpture made of plump, strung together 3-D letters, and with Susan Bee on a noirish painting in which Emily Dickinson and Mickey Spillane face off. Dickinson's attenuated handwriting finds an echo in Mira Schor's word paintings. The show enters the digital realm in a rich text-and-image work by Johanna Drucker and Brad Freeman, and in Tan Lin's computer-generated poetry pulsing away on three monitors.
The day after the show opened, the gallery was host to a series of related panel discussions and readings. Poets and artists participated. A big audience turned up. It was great. The buzz of voices and ideas made the art in the room — and Chelsea itself, for that matter — feel alive and interactive. Some of the pieces really need that charge; they look staid and hermetic without it. But others do fine on their own, and the cross-disciplinary concept behind the show is ripe for further exploration.
Perhaps Mr. Sanders and Mr. Bernstein already have further plans along these lines. Meanwhile, art and texts mutually ignite elsewhere in the city these days: in Cy Twombly's not-to-be-missed "Coronation of Sesostris" paintings, based on a poem by Patricia Waters, at Gagosian Gallery (980 Madison Avenue, at 76th Street, through tomorrow); in a collaboration between the painter Max Gimblett and the poet John Yau at Ethan Cohen Fine Art (37 Walker Street, SoHo, through March 10); in a series of collaborative prints by contemporary Puerto Rican artists and poets at El Taller Boricua (Lexington Avenue at 106th Street, through tomorrow); in an exhibition of contemporary text-based works, "A Way with Words," at the Whitney at Philip Morris (120 Park Avenue, at 42nd Street, through March 30); and in a jewel of an exhibition of artists' diaries, with bold little drawings and sonnet-size personal jottings, at the Archives of American Art (1285 Avenue of the Americas, at 51st Street, through May 31)."
- HOLLAND COTTER for NYT
Jan Dibbets, 'Early Works' @ Gladstone 515 w 24th, through 2/14 by Roberta Smith for NYT
"In the late 1960's and early 70's, Post-Minimalist and Conceptual artists of all stripes picked up the camera to record earthworks, performances and temporary installations. But few used it with the strict yet subtly witty formalist intent of Jan Dibbets, a prominent Dutch artist who is 60 and has been showing in New York since 1969."
"In the late 1960's and early 70's, Post-Minimalist and Conceptual artists of all stripes picked up the camera to record earthworks, performances and temporary installations. But few used it with the strict yet subtly witty formalist intent of Jan Dibbets, a prominent Dutch artist who is 60 and has been showing in New York since 1969."
i think blogger is down. good thing we have a backup board. when i cant blog i strike with my halfwit venom at overripe windbags. here is my dismissive at cockcrow. hmm, nyt wont let me hyperlink directly to the post on their web forum. not even to the specific page, so if you are interested, my remarks(davement) on the web board are accessible through a link on the page in the safire piece linked to above. dratfinks, methinks. no wonder they employ gasbags like safire and friedman. at least they havent yanked my post like that bastard aol-nyt boardmonitor did to me in the past. i tried not to personalize my remarks this time around.
