| Vitruvian Mind |
| The Man will burn! |
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Posted on March 31st, 2007 by Myk.
Categories: Travel & Leisure, Humor & Pop Culture.
I found a phenomenally intense article from Vanity Fair on Moscow nightlife. It reinforces my previous postings on Russia and goes even beyond. In several important ways, my view on life was shaped by this world. It all started when I went to Titanic (superclub in Moscow circa 1996) at age 16…and of course the tusovka (party scene) was my home during my early 20s–which might somewhat explain my sarcastoelitist life perspective.
So, I know some of the personalities mentioned (Pasha and Sinisha crazy mother fuckers really) in the article and there are few places in the world where these characters could exist, let alone even thrive. But thrive they do. A few years ago, these clubs were taking home $100K in cash every night–I’m sure the number is easily double that now. Sadly, as the events became more grand, the quality of the party deteriorated. But to get a sense of how it IS and how it WAS, a real sense, you gotta read the article by Brett Forrest Midnight in Moscow.
Posted on March 30th, 2007 by Bodell.
Categories: Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine.
So apparently the movie Sideways devastated American sales of Merlot and elevated Pinot Noir to its rightful status as a world-class red wine varietal. To many, in the United States at least, the pre-eminent white varietal remains Chardonnay thanks in large part to Kendall Jackson’s retention of some residual sugar within the wine, giving the US novice wine-taster a hint of sweetness not found in Chardonnays fermented dry.
Yet, many Americans are turned off by the mere suggestion of Riesling as an alternative white wine primarily due to its unfortunate association with the German Liebfraumilch—a sweet, inexpensive and generally low-quality white wine made in part from Riesling grapes and which is marketed in the traditional long, slender brown or green-colored glass Riesling bottle.
Riesling can be the perfect choice with a little experimentation, however, and at reasonable prices. It’s also a great varietal to pair with food as the general lack of wood used when fermenting and ageing the wine allows nuances of the grape to surface.
A few notes for the next time you’re in the local wine shop and want to try something new:
1. Most Rieslings come from France (the Alsace region), Germany and Austria although the United States is making a run at the market with plantings in New York, California, Washington and Oregon.
2. Riesling can be fermented dry or left with residual sugar, making the wine sweeter. Although wine drinkers with more sophisticated palates may want to jump to the bone-dry, highly acidic Rieslings (often denoted on the German bottles as “Trocken” and equally delicious with or without food), sweeter Rieslings may be preferable when served with certain spicy cuisine such as Thai or Indian, or something that can use that high acidity like a Gruyere cheese fondue!
3. As the grapes ripen on the vines, sugars within the grape increase allowing for two possibilities: 1) greater potential alcohol; and 2) greater potential sweetness and complexity. For higher quality German wines, a classification system exists whereby a name designation denotes the period of harvest, or conversely, the length of time the Riesling grapes are left on the vine. This naming convention is a good indicator of the amount of sugar allowed to form within the grape. The first picking (grapes with usually very high acidity and lower sugar content) is denoted (and labeled on the bottle) as Kabinet, and tend to be dry as all of the sugar is left to ferment to alcohol. The next picking, generally made into a sweeter wine as sufficient sugar exists to ferment to a reasonable alcohol level plus retain residual sugar for a semi-sweet, or “halbtrocken”, end product is denoted as Spatlase. As the grape continues to hang and the sugars continue to form, the wine generally becomes sweeter and sweeter until you approach that rich, honey-like dessert wine of which a half of glass is plenty for the evening. In order of sweet to sweetest, this is Auslese, Berenauslese, Eiswein and Trockenberrenauslese.
4. Rieslings (especially those from Germany) tend to have lower alcohol which makes for a superb choice to have with lunch or hors d’oeuvres. These light, yet very complex, wines don’t overpower delicate appetizers and the high acidity acts to cleanse the palate.
As the warm weather approaches, why not foray into a new wine varietal and enjoy a chilled glass of Riesling either alone or with some spicy cuisine? The crisp, low alcohol and highly acidity wine – sweet or dry – is versatile and just might be the next Pinot Noir.
Posted on March 29th, 2007 by Myk.
Categories: Philosophy & Spirituality, Coming Events.
Direct from Zaadz…
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Enjoy everyone.
Posted on March 29th, 2007 by Sprad.
Categories: Media & Entertainment.
Enter any url to find out whether the web page is accessible by the Chinese. The difference between a site that can be accessed from behind the Great Wall and one that cannot is about 1.3 billion potential commenters on whatever your labor of love may be.
Posted on March 28th, 2007 by Darvish.
Categories: History & Politics.
Reading the entry by Myk on the lessons learned from the movie 300, I was reminded that I wanted to write my own commentary on the movie here and so rather than reply to his, here is my version.
While I’d be the first person to stand up for the underdog overachiever, neither the movie 300 nor the whole crap story that a hard-up Greek historian dreamt up inspire the least bit of admiration in me. Let me first make it clear that I am a firm believer in the survival of the fittest and not naïve to the fact that the victor always writes history. In this case, the Greek were eventually the fittest and crushed the Persian conquest to become the victor and thus have every right to present history in any which way they damn well please. However, in a time when mass media seems to progressively become more tainted with bias, when tensions between the West and the near East are at an all time high, and when ignorance in our country soars to never before seen heights starting at the top, I expected more from the self-proclaimed Indie types in Hollywood - more than a complete fabrication of history in which the Persians are demonized, more than using this fabrication to fuel the fires of the ignorant, and certainly more than creating fictional heroes and demons when so many real ones are around us.
You see, while some consider it foolish to believe the Herodotus tale that 300 Spartans would actually decide to go to battle against millions of Persians knowing fully well that they wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell in even putting a dent in the Persians’ progress, I actually believe that this sort of human spirit is possible when it comes to matters of patriotism and passion for your country and countrymen. I witnessed it firsthand when in 1980 a well equipped Iraqi army, much better organized than the flakes fighting the recent US invasion, attacked a completely disorganized and unaware Iran which was still putting itself back together after a bloody revolution. The Persians in the small border cities then where, much like Herodotus’ Spartans, well outnumbered (perhaps not as ridiculously exaggerated) and had little or no weapons or trained soldiers given the country was in chaos. And yet there were stories of teenage boys strapping grenades to their bodies and jumping under Iraqi tanks to slow their progress because they knew if the Iraqis made it to their village, their mothers and sisters would be raped and killed, and because they had been taught from the day they were born that a land weltered with their blood is far more admirable than a land surrendered to the enemy. A movie about that, glorified in all of that artistic cinematic beauty, would well serve the cause of inciting bravery and heroism and fighting our epidemic ignorance all at once. But then again, I’m not naïve enough to think these self-porclaimed Indie types are actually Indies.
Posted on March 28th, 2007 by Vlad the Impaler.
Categories: Science & Technology.
Often mistaken for the Danish Association of Reformed Pornography Addicts, DARPA is actually the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, the US Department of Defense’s advanced research arm. You may be familiar with some of their previous creations, such as the internet.
http://www.darpa.mil/body/off_programs.html
The link above connects you to the lists of projects they are currently funding. They have some absolutely mind blowing stuff happening. Take some time to troll around through their project listings and you’ll see exactly what I mean. Projects like the High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS) and the Multi Dimensional Mobility Robot (MDMR) are just the beginning. They’re at the forefront of advances in technological, biological, and even psychological research. One particular point of interest are the loads of Artificial Intelligence programs that are in there, including one called HI-MEMS, which is of course, cyborg insects. I’m getting a vision now of a world halfway between Terminator and Starship Troopers. Of course by then their space programs will have advanced far enough that the exercises can probably be staged on the moon for greater civilian safety.
So enjoy a glance into the future, courtesy of the US government. And remember two things:
1) What you see here are only the programs that they’re willing to tell the public about. Imagine the ones they keep secret.
2) You are now being monitored, so please proceed accordingly. Seriously, you are.
Posted on March 28th, 2007 by Sprad.
Categories: Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine.
So I’m not quite sure if any of you ever made it down to Milk & Honey in NYC, but it seems the whole speak easy scene seems to have gotten tired of the cold and has made a 3000 mile jump to the sunnier side of the country.Welcome to R-Bar, a turn-of-the-century style saloon in the heart of Korea-town. Owned by the same people from previous gigs at La Poubelle, Ye Olde Rustic Inn, and 4100 Bar, the space is decked out with crystal chandeliers, dark timbers, and wrought-iron accents; the Kooks/Miles Davis/Journey-stocked jukebox sets the mood. With plenty of candlelit nooks and crannies, there’s enough privacy to break up with someone without causing a scene or make up while lounging on the Cleopatra chaise.Happy hour begins at 5 pm, and the tasty bar food menu starts beginning of April.
Evidently “Yo ho ho” is the password, (I even hope I’m kidding, but then again it is a Speak Easy)
It is after all, “A pirates life for me”
R Bar, 3331 West Eighth Street, at Irolo Street, Koreatown (213-387-7227).
Posted on March 28th, 2007 by Myk.
Categories: Consumer Products, Science & Technology, Sports & Health.
From PSFK, we have the latest from the fast track…
All Nike Shoes To Be Nike Plus iPod Compatible
An article in the Boston Globe publishes a remark by Nike president and chief executive Mark Parker that says the sports brand plans to make its entire line of running shoes compatible with Apple’s iPod nano line by the end of this year. The Globe says, “The company wouldn’t disclose everything that’s coming but hinted at changes from Nike Shox and in apparel. Nike did say it plans to make all its running shoes compatible with its Nike+ technology by the end of the year.”
That’s pretty cool, right? We see techonolgy encroaching more and more on professional athletics in areas such as synthetic sweat-evaporating caps (MLB) and computer optimization approaches to team building (NBA). We should be seeing loads of technologies improving the amateur sports experience as well.
Posted on March 28th, 2007 by Orlando.
Categories: Philanthropy & Environment, Business & Finance, Humor & Pop Culture.
I mean that almost literally.
Maybe most of you haven’t thought about this, but have you noticed how the wealthiest and most powerful industrialized countries in the world are also, on average, among the ones with the coldest temperatures? Really, they are. I don’t feel like doing too much hardcore researching for you douche bags, so I’ll just use the Economist.com quality-of-life index as a reference:
The top 10 ranking in QOL
1- Ireland
2- Switzerland
3- Norway
4- Luxembourg
5- Sweden
6- Australia
7- Iceland
8- Italy
9- Denmark
10- Spain
Granted, Italy, Spain, and Oz are somewhat oddballs there as far as temperature goes, but when you compare them to the bulk of the bottom 10 they start to look as chilly as a polar bear’s nutsack.
The bottom 10 ranking in QOL
1- Zimbabwe
2- Haiti
3- Tanzania
4- Nigeria
5- Tajikistan
6- Uzbekistan
7- Russia
8- Botswana
9- Kyrgyz Republic
10- Turkmenistan
Shocking. What I love about that list is the blaring exception to the climate rule: Russia. Look at Myk shaking his head and curling his fingers in anticipation of leaving me a comment saying how that list is wrong because it “doesn’t factor in…” followed by a stream of nonsense I don’t care about because the Economist set it up in a cool little tabled PDF file that looks professional. It’s apparent that russia blows.
I’m mostly kidding. For one thing, the quality-of-life index doesn’t necessarily mean the highest ranking nations are the most powerful. Indeed not, seeing as the USA is 13th, China 60th, and the super power that is Nepal didn’t even make the list. That’s the other thing, not all countries are listed. So, as much as I like to goad my CCCP pals reading and/or writing on this site about Russia being 7th from last behind motherfuckin’ Botswana, arguably one’s best source for pure AIDS that’s probably airborne by now, I probably can’t.
So, getting back to the climate thing, why is it that those colder countries do better overall? Even economically, not counting those money laundering havens like the Cayman Islands or those black-gold repositories in the Middle East which–much like Asians in a calculus class–skew the shit out of the curve causing the statistics to be all out of whack. Colder countries still do better overall. Why?
Is it because those countries are populated by white people, and you know how those guys are?
Nah, look at those damn Japs. Crafty little buggers, they fit something like 130,000,000 little Asians on an island no bigger than California. Also, the Chinese are moving along quite strongly too. Both of those countries, at least the metropolitan hubs where the good stuff takes place, are cold. Cold enough to snow, that’s how I measure it.
It could be that the warmer weather just makes you want to relax and have a good time, or like in the case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo which is split at the top by the Equator and is just about one of the hottest countries on Earth, makes you want to kill other black people because they’re blacker than you.
The 4 “alpha world cities“, meaning the four full service world cities, are London, New York, Paris, and Tokyo. Their average annual temperatures are in the 50’s and 60’s.
It’s gotten to the point where I don’t even know what point it is I was trying to make. I believe it’s that now people can have an excuse as to why they aren’t making enough money. Location, location, location.
And black people. Damn those black people.
Posted on March 26th, 2007 by Myk.
Categories: History & Politics.
We thought to note the fact that one of our favorite economic blocks in the world turned 50 yesterday. Much has happened and many facts could be mentioned, but we wouldn’t want to make you suffer the details. Suffice it to say that on March 25, 1957 the Treaty of Rome was signed by Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, & Luxembourg; creating the European Community. 50 years later, the EU is much bigger, much more bloated, and is, in simple terms, kind of screwed. Two of its founding members, France and the Netherlands, have rejected The European Constitutional Treaty, sending shock waves through the continent.
The Berlin Declaration, read yesterday by German chancellor Angela Merkel on the occasion of the anniversary, is a very short statement regarding the EU. You can read it here.
From my selfish persective, I just want is the exchange rate to work in my favor like it used to. The good old days…
The important thing is that we’re inviting you to see it–for free–this weekend.All you need to do is 
