::Wondering Mind::

I remember my first two years in China, living in Tangshan and scouring the supermarkets for decent red wine to no avail and trying just about every bottle of Gan Hong ( dry red) that i could fine to try and find something remotely palatable. My oh my, how have the times changed!!
fast forward to Beijing life, a few years later, wine is all around us.. I could make a song out of it. Decent tastings (and free) on a monthly basis with prices getting better and better. There is also a rumor that the taxes on wine import will go down soon thus making it easier to get quality wines at lower price points.

Hot on the heels of me ordering my case of mixed Sangre from Torres, I went over to sample some Chilean nectars at the Top Cellar Chilean wine festival. A figured it would be a good opportunity to try a few new varieties and just meet more wine-drinking merry folks in the ‘jing.
Mission accomplished!
I was extremely surprised at the quality of the offerings as well as the generosity of the pours. The event was on a thursday at 7:30 p.m and was supposed to last until 8:30 but the free pours kept coming past 10:00 p.m. with great conversation and a lot of interesting folks.

The highlight of the night for me was the 2003 Raminara Grand Reserve Syrah-Carmenere which proved to be amazingly balanced and so easy to drink. It displayed a pleasant personality throughout the few glasses i had the pleasure of sipping.
I can’t seem to find much information about the producer or the vineyard other than one article in Spanish in a Chilean website. Considering the strength of the portfolio i tasted yesterday, I must admit that it’s baffling. Maybe a star on the rise…

The surprise of the night came in the form of a Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2005 Stella Solaris which was ..uhm..uhm.. potent to say the list. It knocked out my taste buds in the first round to the point where i needed a couple of glasses of water to just get rid of the dryness in my mouth.

The beautiful thing about this wine festival that Top Cellar is having at the moment is the “buy 2 get 1 free” offer of the wines displayed at the time and the offer is valid for 1 whole month… yours truly needs to make some time and go stock up.

I found it… after years of digging and searching through online record stores, sampling sites and everywhere i could think off, I finally managed to get my hands on it and it was worth the search and the wait.

I’ve mentioned Concrete Blonde a few times in this blog and more specifically their enigmatic and charismatic singer, Johnette Napolitano who I consider to be one of the truest artists from the last 20 years. Her voice, her lyrics, her attitude… gosh.. so sensitive yet strong… a fragile rose with the prickliest of thorns.

So, back when Concrete Blonde first disbanded, she was on a creative high and made a bunch of records with different people in bands named “Vowel Movement” and “Pretty & Twisted”. She also worked with the Talking Heads. In the meantime, she recorded a solo album “The Sound of a Woman” that was never released. Recording Industry legend had it that a few tapes leaked before the company tanked and were floating around but i had never been able to find it or hear it before.. until yesterday… I finally got “Sound of a Woman” and it was worth the search.. pure Johnette in the way a like her… feisty! I can’t say i’ve enjoyed scrapbook I or II and I have yet to hear most of “Scarred” but this little gem of a record is worthwhile.

Sound of a Woman tracklisting:
1 - I’m Your Queen
2 - Sound of a Woman
3 - I Can Do Anything
4 - Deliver
5 - Something Fast
6 - Tados Los Santos
7 - Firefly
8 - Human
9 - Closer
10 - Sleep
11 - Lullabye for Fabiana

The lyrics are typical Johnette with passages like:

“I cry like a cloud and laugh like a clown”
” this is the sound of a woman that knows how to bow down and get back up again”

and it just goes on with her opening her soul in every song… it’s painfully beautiful..

gosh I used to hate hearing those words when I called someone and got their answering machine or voicemail, especially the voicemail on the mobile. It just felt like the biggest scam in the word to leave a 30s message saying: “yo, this is blah blah, call me back”. the way i figure it, you see a missed call from a person, you call them back.. simple ain’t it?

As I was watching “Sideways” (see previous post), there were a few instances of people leaving messages that meant a heck of a lot more than a phone conversation because it was uninterrupted communication. There was a also a case of someone being saved by a voicemail because they managed to avoid a potentially problematic conversation..

As that took place on the screen, I was reminded of a few situations recently where I wished and even longed for answering machines to be widely available in the middle kingdom.. i guess they do have their uses after all.. so here’s one to old fashioned technology that we love to hate

I just had a lovely evening drinking a nice Merlot and watching this absolute gem of a movie about love, life and more importantly wine… This is a case of “If i were to explain, you wouldn’t understand” in terms of trying to tell someone why the movie is so good and I’m sure it’s not to everyone’s taste. come on now, it’s an indie flick and has all the indie ingredients. The person that will enjoy this movie is the same type of person that will be in love with this quote taken from it:

On wine:

How it’s a living thing. I like to think about what was going on the year the grapes were growing; how the sun was shining; if it rained. I like to think about all the people who tended and picked the grapes. And if it’s an old wine, how many of them must be dead by now. I like how wine continues to evolve, like if I opened a bottle of wine today it would taste different than if I’d opened it on any other day, because a bottle of wine is actually alive. And it’s constantly evolving and gaining complexity. That is, until it peaks, like your ‘61. And then it begins its steady, inevitable decline.

need I write more? didnt think so

Why do you stay in China?
I get asked that question on a regular basis by folks on the other side of the world trying to understand the attraction of living here. I end up answering with a mix of “it’s safe, comfortable and I have a really comfortable life here. I’m also learning a lot professionally and I am in a position few folks can claim they are in as far as witnessing a transition in society or this magnitude.”
however, the emphasis is always more on the “safe” and “comfortable” aspects.

As of late, it’s a bit more iffy iffy… The closer we get to the Olympics, the madder this place is getting! It feels like someone hit the hidden panic button and opened Pandora’s box on Beijing. There is a scary amount of bad vibes in the air right now as well as a bit of clear animosity between locals and expats, especially in certain parts of town like sanlitun and wudaokou. Between the visa issues/clampdown, the boycott of many things French and the locals going on their nationalist kick, it’s hard to look at things with rose-colored glasses. It’s really hard!

I can’t say I’ve been subjected to any bad treatment anywhere or that my life has suffered from it yet but that is also because i’ve somehow managed to stay away from the hot spots and stick to the house whenever possible. But still, a year ago, I would have never told a visitor to avoid any part of town because there might be potential for trouble.. and i’ve done that twice in the past week.
I could probably ramble on and on about this for a while but somehow, it doesn’t seem worth it. I’m just looking forward to the closing ceremony of the Olympics so that normality (whatever that means) is back and the madness subsides.

Sure, I could always get the hell out of dodge until it’s all over I can’t and won’t do that! Call me crazy but after 4+ years of being in this side of China and hearing about 2008 this and 2008 that, I bloody hell deserve the right to be here and see it all go down. I’m scared of what is all gonna be like but at the same time, I know it will be memorable.

as to the madness and chaos, here’s hoping they are temporarily permanent and not permanently temporary….