I am sitting in the Stockinette Cafe, using their WiFi. I took all my telecom modems and cable boxes back to Comcast this morning after I watched the Tour de France. I had my last burrito (Tex Mex Fajita of course) at Bubby’s Burritos. I did my last load of laundry in the venerable Maytag Neptune in the basement. i went for drinks at Bar Majestic for the first time on a night when drinks were full price. I ate my last meal at Ox before my birthday. Ox is now closed so that’s a true last. I updated the last place online for the address change and made my first Amazon order for shipping to the new address. I made my last cup of tea using a pot to boil water on the stove so you can probably guess what the order from Amazon might be (electric teakettle). I threw out two mysterious frozen things from the freezer. That is not a last unless I start putting dates on things with a Sharpie. I am going to French class for the last time tonight. I have gathered up some basic clothing and cleaning items to be loaded into Mazzy Star come morning. I have put up “No parking” signs for the move. I have had what will probably be my last decaf iced latte at the Stockinette. I will have finished my last bottle of Bedell 2007 Cabernet Franc tonight. I will also need to pack up the rest of the wine tomorrow. it’s going with me in Mazzy Star. I am leaving Jersey City, something I would have never thought would have happened. But it’s making a lot of sense. I have a job interview next week I am excited about (part-time but immensely up my alley). I have Calle 13′s new one in the car CD player and XM at the ready. I guess it’s time to go.
Posts Tagged ‘Calle 13’
Wine Blogging Wednesday #58: Music and Wine
June 12, 2009The babes over at Gonzo Gastronomy probably won’t mind that this post is a bit late but the Negress will bring it to their extremely wandering attention. This is an easy task since the best wine does play melodies in your mouth. Think of the fruit as a soaring melody, a bit of oak as a percussive accent and the balance of acid and tannin as the skilled hand of the orchestra’s conductor. If the melody becomes overpowering, you have cloyingly cheap sentiment. Too much percussion and there’s a headache coming because you can’t hear anything else. If one section of the orchestra sticks out, the conductor is clearly not paying attention.
OK. The writer and the metaphor are exhausted. While the Negress loves contemporary composers and the work of the American Composers Orchestra, recent events have persuaded her that her wine needs to rock. No, we’re not talking a lot of minerals on the palate. We’re talking leather pants, drinking too much, singing loudly and thrusting a lighter (or a cell phone if you’re younger than the Negress) into the air. To celebrate her ongoing obsession with the LA band Airborne Toxic Event (all Don DeLillo fans are permitted to smile here), the Negress cracked a bottle of 2004 Trentadue Petit Sirah. Before that, she been keeping time with docile, agreeable whites, the kind of wines you bring home to Mother. The Trentadue is as mannered as Mikel Jollet’s writing, but you could easily see it drinking too much and calling you too late. The worst part is, you would answer the call, put on clothes, and head over there even though you know better. Petit Sirah is an indie rock kind of wine, shyly staring at the stage, leaving the bravura to emo and metal. But, like the Shins, a good Petit Sirah can change your life.
While the Trentadue is excellent company, we stocked our wine equivalent of our Ipod with some different kinds of tunes. We have some 2005 Bordeaux waiting for the end of the world, and we swore we would not buy more wine since we are moving in a couple of months. But our favorite wine store only had two bottles of this insanely fabulous wine from Montsant made by a girl winemaker, 2007 Can Blau, which reminds us of Elvis Costello and XTC for its spiky smarts. We have the six years of the Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon, which is like having a Metallica boxed set (Metallica is the perfect metaphor for Cali cabs. Big stuff, no?), some Chilean and Argentinian favorites including a Sauvignon Blanc where part of the sales prices goes to health care for the vineyard workers. In my everyday life, I can’t live without Calle 13 (all right, ellos son de Boricua, not South America) so having some everyday wine with a Spanish accent seems righteous.
Other things have happened in the month since the last WBW and we’ll have posted about all of them by Monday.
