The Bald Heretic – Short, bald dude with a goofy beard – Page 50

Wait A Minute Mr. Postman

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I headed off this morning to go to Starbucks and grab a coffee in preparation for the day ahead. In the front yard there were feathers scattered across the lawn, an indication that something horrible happened to one of the many doves that frequent our yard. I assumed that a neighborhood cat had scored a tasty meal and hoped the day’s rain would wash the carnage away.

As I was returning home, having acquired the aforementioned coffee I spotted the neighborhood Cooper’s Hawk landing on the neighbor’s mailbox. I ran inside and grabbed the camera and managed a few shots before he spooked and flew away.

If you click the images below and examine the larger version you can clearly see feathers in his talons. Feathers that match the feathers that litter my front lawn. I guess this clears the neighborhood cats of suspicion in at least one bird death…

Cooper's Hawk

#1 – Père Anselme, Cótes De Provence 2007 Rosé

Country: France
Region: Vin de Pays d’Oc
Vintage: 2007
Price: $8.93

Please keep in mind, we are reviewing these wines in no particular order and we are NOT ranking them. This wine is the first we have tasted in the challenge and therefore #1

Cynthia’s review:

Let me begin by saying that I know absolutely nothing about wine. In addition, I also admit that I have never even read anything about wine. (a telling admission for a raving bibliophile) I guess this makes me the perfect wine critic- I have no preconceptions of any kind.

The first wine in our “Ten Wines for One Hundred Dollars” challenge was a Pere Anselme, Cótes De Provence 2007 Rosé. The label on this bottle indicates that it is mostly Grenache with the addition of Syrah, Mourvédre, Cinsault and “other regional wines”. (????)

Although I am not typically a big fan of Rosés, (they sometimes remind me of Koolaid) I actually liked this wine. It was fruity, but not sweet. Initially, we had chilled the wine a bit too much, which gave it a nasty bite and aftertaste which wasn’t pleasant. When it warmed just a bit- still cool- it smoothed out a lot and was actually quite nice. Reading the label on the bottle after the fact- I see that it recommends serving the wine chilled at 48 degrees. (OK- learning moment for me- I guess I should actually read the label before consuming the wine !) We had this wine with a dinner of roast chicken ( with rosemary from my garden) risotto and a zucchini/green bean/carrot mix and it was really very good. Again, I plead ignorance about which wine should be served with which food, but I thought that this combination was very nice indeed. The label on the bottle indicates that this wine “goes well with starters, tomato and lettuce salads, salade nicoise, taboulé, Mediterranean fish dishes… spicy cuisine, exotic Mexican and Asian food, white meat, turkey brochette.” OK- I agree with most of that, but really can’t see this wine going very well with spicy Mexican and Asian food- I think the flavor would completely disappear.

We’ve decided that our reviews in this challenge will result in either a “yay” or “nay” vote. Despite the fact that I am predisposed to dislike anything French, my vote on this wine is a firm “yay”.

Jay’s Review:

Much like Cynthia, I am not a big fan of Rosés (and I *like* Koolaide!). They strike me as too fruity, if not in taste at least in appearance. I don’t mind swishing my wine a bit, I just don’t want to look like a swish drinking wine if you know what I mean.

That being said, the wine was very tasty. As Cynthia mentioned, it was not so great when it was chilled too much. But when it was allowed to warm up a bit it the flavor and the finish evened out quite nicely and by the time we finished the bottle I was lamenting the fact that we had run dry of this fine wine.

Add me to the “yay” column for the Père Anselme, Cótes De Provence 2007 Rosé

The $100 Wine Challenge

Cynthia and I have been educating ourselves about wine over the last few years. We’ve enjoyed the occasional trip to our local Italian restaurant which offers a modest corking fee when you bring your own bottle to enjoy with dinner and we’ve especially enjoyed exploring local wines when traveling to Spain.

As part of our ongoing education we have been visiting Spec’s and have the services of a knowledgeable young man by the name of Gerald. He has been giving us good advice and has come to know what we like and don’t like in regards to wine and has been very helpful to us. We’ve taken to calling Gerald our “Wine Sherpa” …

Gerald has been very good about making recommendations about wine that fits our budget, which is in the $15-$20 per bottle range. We’ve occasionally bought more expensive bottles for special occasions or to have on hand and we’ve also had some very tasty $10 bottles.

Since we know it’s quite easy to spend $100 plus on a single bottle of good wine we came up with the idea of finding $100 worth of good wine in the form of 10 bottle for $10 or less. The concept has a lot of appeal to me as 10 bottles of $10 wine will stretch quite a bit further than one bottle of $100 wine. This would also serve as a gauge of our Wine Sherpa’s skill in suggesting wine for us. We told Gerald of our plan and we gave him one week to think about it before returning to his store to let him pick out the wine.

When we arrived at the store yesterday Gerald walked us around and presented us with 10 bottles he thought we would enjoy.

The $100 Challenge

In the spirit of absolute honesty, there is one bottle in this batch that was closer to $11 but the rest were under $10 and the whole purchase came out to $100.74

Over the next few weeks we will be sampling the choices made for us and writing our thoughts about each one and posting them here.

Strange Fruit – Swoon

After having seen Strange Fruit perform “Spheres” on Saturday night at Discovery Green I was compelled to make it back out for their Sunday afternoon performance of “Swoon.”

I was reluctant, Fall in Houston seems rather meaningless. It was hot and humid but I felt the sunshine and the unique photographic opportunity was worth braving the elements for, so I headed out for the 3:00 pm show.

Again, the actors shimmied up their bendy poles, but rather than orbs they donned period costuming and performed a love story (of sorts)…all in pantomime set to music. I was struck by how much the whole thing looked like a René Magritte painting come to life.

Strange Fruit - Swoon @ Disovery Green

The blue sky, the George R. Brown and the aerial acrobatics all combined for a very thrilling and enjoyable show. I like how it appeared that the actors were literally falling from the sky at some points during the performance.

Additional images in the gallery

Strange Fruit – Spheres

Strange Fruit performed this weekend at Discovery Green. It’s hard to describe, so let me borrow from their web site…

Strange Fruit is a Melbourne-based performing arts company that produces and performs a remarkable style of work that fuses theatre, dance and circus, using a unique elevated medium. Perched atop 4 metre high flexible poles of original design, the troupe delivers a sublime performance, bending and swaying in the air, captivating and engaging the audience in absolute fascination.

On Friday and Saturday night they did a show called “Spheres” in which the performers shimmied up to the top of tall, flexible poles and then encased themselves inside of giant white fabric spheres which then began to sway back and forth like so many dandelions bending in a light breeze.

Strange Fruit - Spheres @ Disovery Green

As dreamy, ethereal music played the performers emerged from the spheres in the form of four characters and proceeded to put on a pantomime that was, well…hard to describe.

Again, from the web site:

Creation, exultation, liberation, life, the universe and everything. The Spheres take a whimsical look at physics, the miracle of birth and humanity’s existential relationship to our planet. Giant, illuminated orbs of luminous beauty contain characters that gradually emerge to stand and rise above their spheres of existence. This piece is beautiful, reverent and sublime.

Strange Fruit - Spheres @ Disovery Green

The whole show lasted about 30 minutes and it was really quite beautiful and pleasant to watch. Also, quite a challenge to photograph.

Strange Fruit - Spheres @ Disovery Green

These pics don’t really capture the movement so well. In my next post I cover their daytime performance of “Swoon” and it gives a better sense of how extraordinary this was.

Additional photos in the gallery.

Fab 40

The Fab 40 pay tribute to the original Fab 4 with a free, live performance of “Abbey Road” on Saturday, September 12 at Discovery Green.

40+ (probably closer to 50) local musicians – handpicked by Beatles enthusiasts David Blassingame and Steve Candelari – performed the Beatles’ album “Abbey Road” from beginning to end.

It was an ambitious project. Nearly felled by illness, loss of critical instruments and the weather, it went very well despite all this.

Fab 40

You can see a slideshow of all the photos I took that night by clicking here.

Roy Head

Roy Head is one of my all time favorite performers. He’s a local legend due to his 1965 hit single “Treat Her Right”

Check out the moves on the young Roy Head in this video from 1965

He’s about to turn 70 next month but you’d never know it from the energy level of his live performances.

All shots below with the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 on the Sony Alpha 700

Roy Head

Soul Fest – 2009 – The El Orbits

The current line up of The El Orbits is Thomas Escalante on vocals, Jim Henkel on guitar, Allen Hill on the bass and Eric C. Hughes on the drums. On Saturday night they opened for Roy Head, Barbara Lynn and Archie Bell. They also served quadruple duty as the backing band for each of the acts throughout the entire evening.

For this show I used three different Sigma lenses on the Sony Alpha 700, each of which is represented below.

Sigma 20mm f/1.8 – Click for larger image

The El Orbits

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 – Click for larger image

The El Orbits

Sigma 10mm f/2.8 Fisheye – Click for larger image

The El Orbits