So here I am in the beautiful, quaint, amazing village of Gimios, France. It’s in the rugged Languedoc region located between the Pyrenees and the sea. The climate is Mediterranean and the region generally has about 300 days of sunshine a year. Everything about it is wonderful–EXCEPT I HAVE NO INTERNET. So how am I posting this, you…
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Mission Statement: WWOOF
So, a lot of people have been asking what I’m doing here, in France. Why I decided to come here. Some people seem to think I’m here on whimsy, some sort of pleasure cruise through the winemaking countryside of Europe. One friend asked me if I was a “trust fund baby”, because, of course, how…
Read MoreAnd Then I Found Myself
Over the last few days, I have found myself in a number of places and situations that, whether expected or unexpected, took me by surprise. They were also largely beyond my control. Alas, I don’t think that after three days here I can say that I have truly “found” myself in any meaningful sense of…
Read MoreTurning On A Dime: A New Outlook On The Recession
So guys. Recession: 2008-present. We still in it, and it don’t look like it goin’ nowhere. It stickin’ around for a wee little while longah. And how many of us have wished, at least once, perhaps occasionally, perhaps on a semi-daily basis, that it were over with? That we could return to the days when…
Read MoreOregon on B&W
This last month in Oregon has been pretty revolutionary for me. For a number of reasons, not least of all my dramatically changing life plans due to my inability to find a job. Curse you, shitty job market! Curse you, unemployment rate! But “revolution” is a word that implies both upheavals and excitement, and Oregon…
Read MoreMake Way, Joseph Heller, for Dostoyevsky
“THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV is a joyful book,” begins the introduction to the Pevear and Volokhonsky 1990 translation. These were the first words within the hard copy that I read when setting out on this adventure, and given what I knew about its subject matter, this seemed a strange and perplexing statement. How could a book…
Read MoreDigital Photography & Environmental Preservation
Hey world! I recently watched two videos featuring some incredible time-lapse photography out in the wild of the Pacific Coast. The first, entitled “The Majesty of Oregon” instilled in me a tremendous desire to go look at all of the places featured in the video, especially since I was living in Oregon at the time.…
Read MoreAllergies, locavores, honey, oh my!
Whoa, Nelly! I may have just made an extraordinary, completely unscientific but completely logical discovery, and it pertains to the fact that for the past twelve-thirteen years or so, I have suffered from that dreaded vicious disease known as hay fever, or more scientifically, seasonal allergies. I suffered particularly bad allergies in St. Louis, where I spent…
Read MoreThings I Learned While In Oregon
1) Oregon is the best-kept secret in the United States. 2) “If you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes!” is a saying commonly attributed to the following states: Oregon, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Washington, Idaho, Montana, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin,…
Read MoreA Map of Harvest
Tomorrow is the last day of harvest. The last day of my first harvest season. We will put all the wines that we have labored over for almost two months to barrel and to bed. How did THAT happen? Thanksgiving Day snuck up on me like a puma, leering at me through the woods of…
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The Z-Axis 