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We're super excited about this information-packed issue featuring the great STEVE DeMAN (King of Lowrider Graphics), Createx's NEW AutoBorne paint reviewed, An amazing lettering step-by-step by Glen Weisgerber, PAT GAINES's special feature on on how to make up to $6,000 in a weekend airbrushing at local sporting events, NEIMAR de LIMA DUARTE'S retro guitar, pinstriping sensation TODD HANSON, and tons more!
This issue will be available in ALL Barnes & Noble stores, Books-A-Million, art stores, and many other mainstream outlets. The digital version, scheduled for release late next week will be available throughhttp://www.airbrushaction.com/, iPad, Google, and ReadR.
Airbrush Getaway Workshops: http://bit.ly/1kvcNaE
Airbrush Action Magazine: http://bit.ly/1gGWzny
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/airbrushaction
Airbrush.TV: http://www.airbrush.tv/ (largest selection airbrush videos.)
NEW Blog: http://www.airbrushaction.com/blog/
Iwata: http://www.iwata-medea.com/
Createx: http://www.createxcolors.com/
FBS Tape: http://www.fbs-online.com/


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Gone to Texas
Some 200 years ago,
as adventurers pulled up stakes seeking a fresh start,
three letters chalked on homestead doors revealed their destination…
This rich tradition continues each August,
as a new generation of adventurers converges upon Austin.
The University of Texas at Austin
celebrates your arrival
and welcomes you to your new home.
Join other new students at the Tower
the night before classes begin and discover
what it means to be a Longhorn–
the culture, traditions and magic of Texas.
Tuesday, August 25, 2015 • 8:30 p.m. at the Tower

subset: commoncrawl


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ACHICA > Kidswear Clearance > Pepe Jeans Jag - Pop Flower Print Swimshorts
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Usain Bolt bewitched the Olympic Stadium as he became the first man to achieve a "double double," successfully defending both the 100m and 200m titles at the London 2012 Games – but the world's fastest man admits he may relinquish his crown at Rio in 2016.
Arguably the most gifted athlete in Olympic history, the Jamaican sprint king sealed his status as a global phenomenon at Beijing in 2008, winning three gold track medals and smashing three world records. A year later he slashed his time for the 100m to an incredible 9.58secs – the fastest time since the introduction of fully automatic time measurements.
At the age of 14 Bolt, now 26, broke on to the athletics scene, graduating from regional meets and national competitions in his home country to starring in Caribbean athletics events.
But the 1,95 m runner – also a promising high jumper and cricket player in his youth – took his first steps on the path to Olympic greatness when he won his first medal at high school, a bronze in the 80m hurdles.
Two years later he made his name on the world stage at the IAAF World Junior Track and Field championships in Kingston, Jamaica, when he won the hosts their only gold medal with a 20.61s run in the 200m – a time he lowered in 2004 to set a new World Junior Record.
The following three years saw him dogged by injuries, but he returned to form in 2007, breaking Donald Quarrie's long-standing Jamaican 200m record at the country's Senior Track and Field meet.
But it was 2008 that saw Bolt rewrite the history books. The Jamaican broke the 100m World Record in New York – something he has now achieved a phenomenal three times, along with two global bests in the 200m – before taking his first Olympic sprint double, confounding doubters who said inexperience would count against him at the Beijing Games.
Bolt – by now the most famous athlete in the world – arrived in London for the 2012 Games on the back of Achilles tendon problems and having been upstaged by his countryman Yohan Blake at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea.
Second place finishes in the 100m and 200m in the Jamaican trials prior to the Games led to speculation that his best days were behind him. But come August 5 in the Olympic stadium it became clear that Bolt was determined to reaffirm his status as the king of sprinters. After taking 100m gold with an Olympic Record time of 9.68s –leaving Blake snapping at his heels in silver-medal position – four days later he became 200m champion and declared himself a "legend."
He said: "I have been saying this for the last three years, that I want to become a legend, and I've done it. Now I'm going to sit back and relax and see what I'm going to do."
Though not everyone agreed with this assessment, Bolt's part in Jamaica's 4x100m relay win on the final day of London 2012 suggested his claim might be true. However, only by the time the Rio Games are over will the world know if he was right all along – and Yohan Blake may have something to say about that.


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Totally deceptive?Well, maybe not totally, but seemingly so. Some of us may consider ourselves lucky to have a Total Wines in the neighborhood, though certainly not your local wine shop. Total wines claims the lowest prices, though there is no case discount andpricesfor many wines such as Bordeaux at $75 and up or Champagne at $30plus are really not such great bargains. Like Bevmo, Total pushes "direct" purchases which appear to be sweetheart deals of some sort. They certainly don't offer wineries, wholesalers, or consumers any deals when it comes to the real deal like boutique wines from Washington or Oregon.
Total has achieved a certain amount of infamy with a line of wines priced at $1.97 - Two Buck Pacific Peak, if you will. After driving almost an hour to check out Two Buck Peak, I was only able to find a Chard and a Cab buried among otherbargain/value wines at $4.99 and $7.99. Prices were not obvious and placed so low that only a miniature poodle could have read them.Why? The boss told us to do it that way.
It was a real treat tofind wine from Uruguay. Desaffortunadamente, two different blends in the same space withapparently the same price, but not at checkout. Competitors Costco and Trader Joe's would never display such carelessness or sloppinessor is it deception? Great to have a source of interesting wines and beer, but please, just because you are a big box, don't compete with "too big to fail" banks in apparently deceptive practices.
I recently gave a class on Holiday Wine Gifts. We tasted a baker's dozen and I threw in one more for a total of fourteen. I also gave the students a list of Best Holiday Wine Gifts. A gift should be different and special, not some run of the mill everyday wine.A holiday wine should be festive, celebratory, and pair well with holiday fare. Giving can be out of love, caring, obligation, showing off, status, or prestige among other motives. Giving is a social transaction and on certain occasions,such as births, weddings, holidays, takes on an obligatory tone. There is the obligation to give, to receive, and to reciprocate. How many orphan gifts make the rounds of recycling. Is it an insult to give a recycled gift. Gift wine is not just primarily about what is in the bottle. It is about esteem, status and prestige. A gift indebts the receiver, obligating him or her to reciprocate (quick, honey get out another homemade fruitcake) Most of the wines we recommend are widely distributed in the United States.
The most celebratory wine is Champagne or Sparkling wine. Fortunately, Champagne quality is consistently pretty good across the board, so you can almost buy any bubbly and get a decent wine. Remember, Brut is dry, and Extra Dry is sweet. Go Figure!We recommend the
following sparklers at decent prices (with one exception):
After astay in the hospital with bad food and no wine, I'm Back and Okay. Does a Gold medal equal a 100 point rating? 95 points? 90 points? Does a Gold medal mean anything? Does a 100 point rating mean anything? Does a wine blogger's opinion mean anything? Okay! Enough! Basta! Bob Tovey recently sent along a piece in the L.A.Times by Jerry Hirsch aboutRobert Hodgson, winemaker and economist whodid "An Analysis of the Concordance Among 13 U.S. Wine Competitions," published in the Journal of Wine Economics.
"An analysis of over 4000 wines entered in 13 Wine Competitions shows little concordance among venues in awarding Gold Medals. Of the 2440 wines entered in more than three competitions, 47% received Gold medals, but 84% of these same wines also received no award in another competition. Thus, many wines that are viewed as extraordinarily good in some competitions are viewed as below average at others. An analysis of the numberofGold Medals received in multiple competitions indicates that the probability of winning a Gold Medal at one competition is stochastically independent of the probability of winning a Gold Medal at another competition, indicating that winning a Gold Medal is greatly influenced by chance. (J. Wine Econ., Vol4. Issue 1. Spring 2009, p. 1)"
What does this mean? There is no correlation among scores at different competitions? A Gold Medalwinneratone competition doesn'tmean much and and is unlikely to win another Gold. Is this a case of " garbage in, garbage out"? Winemakers and wineries seem to believe inand invest in Gold Medals, but apparently wine consumers don't ( Thach, Wine Business Monthly, 2008) . It is understandable that winemakers would seek validation for their efforts. Everybody seeks recognition, but it appearsthat the consumer may be smarter than the CEOs and marketing types at wineries and wine conglomerates. Of course, most consumerschoose a wine based on a pretty label or maybe a wine rating. I used to hope that a medal at least meant that the wine was not bad,because at least a small group of wine tasters liked it but now I wonder.
How does a wine get a Gold Medal and what does it mean? The methodologyvaries tremendously among wine competitions? At least most competitions are single blind, that is, the tasters are told the varietal they are tasting or the region. Sometimes the name of the specific wine is revealed before the final rating. Usual a flight is tasted by a group of tasters, and while the identity of the wine is unknown they discuss the wine and a certain consensus among a certain number of tasters is required to give an award. Thus, the process becomes politicized and pressure can be brought to bear to award a medal. In fact, it is rumored that judges, who don't award enough medals don't get asked back. Now, it is difficult to taste dozens or hundreds of wines in a day and there is a lot of palate fatigue. So typically, tasters are encouraged to refresh their palates with red meat, olives, cheese and bread. This is all very well, except that most of thesevictuals enhance the taste of wine. The French have a saying, "Buy on bread, sell on cheese." Why do you think so many wineries offer cheese, salami, etc., in their tasting rooms? Altruism? State law?
Then,there is the question of statistics? Ratings are what mathematicians call ordinal numberswhich are notreally amenable to the usual calculations done with normal or nominal numbers. Are the ratings reliable? Do raters rate the wines the same way or are they all over the place?How are tasters chosen? By qualifications? By reputation? By who's available? I doubt that most tasters are reliable in the statistical sense. That is, are their rating reproducible and is there any relationship among their ratings? Then there is validity. Even if the tasters are consistent among themselves and each and everyone of them, do their ratings validly relate to anything elselike whether you like the wine?
So much for competitions. What about ratings and points? Is 90 better than 89? Is Parker reliable and valid, that is consistent and accurate? Wine Spectator? Others? Tune in!
It appears that the Wine Spectator (Oct. 15, 2009) has discovered a couple of dozen value wines from the Northwest. Out of 500 wines they recommend only 5% from the Northwest. That's because they missed some of the best ones I mentioned in my 10/14post "Half Price Wines." They start off with 2007 Substance Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.The 2006 Boomtown Cab Sauv from Dusted Valley gets the accursed "89". Actually you should look for wines with the "89" mark on their heads as there is no statistically meaningful difference between a wine scored "89 and one scored "90" except the price. Eyrie Pinot Gris gets a 90. This is a fairly big Pinot Gris that combines fruity body with some crisp acidity. Pacific Rim Rieslingscores an 88, while Hogue Merlot scores an 86. Waterbrook Chardonnay gets an 88. Some of the other wines they recommend, I wouldn't. Seems they missed a wealth of value wines from the Northwest.
Geologists get together to talk dirt in Portland, Oregon. Once again we are informed that minerals don't go directly from the soil to the wine and that you can't taste the minerals in wine, hence no "minerality." Despite many attempts to make wine tasting seem objective, it remains, and always will remain , a subjective experience and despite Ann Noble's bestattempts at a "Tasting Wheel" we are reduced to metaphor when describing taste - no color spectrum here. So what is "minerality" or "stoniness" in a wine? It is a poor attempt to describe a quality with no name. Perhaps it is aniconic, an absence, an absence of fruit?
Then there is the question of "Terroir." Last night I had the good fortune to consume some Foie Gras with a 2001 Chateau Angludet from the village of Margaux. Although terroir usually refers to micro-climate, even on the scale of an entire Appellation or AVA there are differences associated with place. At the simplest level, it appears, for example, that St. Estephe is a little colder and rainier than Margaux, but what gives Margaux it's "elegance." Is it a group delusion? A hallucination? A belief? Cultural? A winemaker's prototype? Does the soil contribute? In any event, wines from different places usually taste different, although I'm sure there are many winemaker's who could, and have, obliterated these differences.
So different places can produce different wines, but do different places produce different Foie Gras? The little tag attached to the "pot" of Foie Gras claimed "terroir." What is terroir in this case? Place? don't think so. Feed? Maybe. Hype? French marketing? Bingo!
Oooooow! Who will be judged? At least Matt Kramer's piece in the Wine Spectator admits that there are wine bloggers in contrast to several years ago when Alder Yarrow in his eminent Vinography blog bemoaned the fact that we were not acknowledgedat allin the mainstream media, but it is a back-handed compliment, if it can be called a compliment at all. Essentially, Kramer bemoans the democratization of wine information. He describes "one of the peculiarities of wine discussion on the internet...[as] simultaneously deflating and inflating." He goes on to define the "deflation part...[as] a welcome demolishment of barriers to self-expression....The inflating part is a 'wisdom of crowds' preening about how we know best....The real issue is who gets to be believed." He goes on to describe a tasting group he leads where "over time our individual tasting strengths and weaknesses became unmistakable." That's good! That's called reliability. "Above all, we knew whose judgment to respect and whose to discount." Again, reliability. "The challenge today for those who wish to acquire credibility is to demonstrate a foundation of knowledge." How does Kramer demonstrate his credibility? By tasting lots of free samples? By going on junkets? By getting paid ads from wineries reviewed?By WSETs, MWs or Master Sommelier credentials? Has he reported his activities to the Federal Trade Commisssion?"Have you published a nice little monogragh on the subject, having visited the zone, talked to the producers, tasted multiple examples from multiple vintages?" Have YOU, Matt, published 'a nice little monograph on the subject."? I remember when you were a fairly decent wine writer for a local Oregon newspaper. You were kind of like a proto-blogger. Youhad some cred. Now you claim cred because writingfor one of themajor wine mediaseems to have gone to your head. "Give us some reason to credit [YOUR] judgement." What's the bottom line? Will print media go the way of the buggy whip?Who will be left standing on judgement day?
The most recent issue of Cigar Aficionado arrived at my doorstep unsolicited. While it wasn't in a plain brown wrapper, it didn't take long to find some soft porn similar to food porn and I'm not referring to the model on the cover.
"The color is rich amber. The texture is almost viscous as its liquid coats the side of the glass and ever so slowly gives up its legs to gravity.... You flirt with the aroma a bit, prolonging the sweet anticipation and then put spirit to tongue. First comes the mellifluous sweetness...followed by nips of spic[iness]. Then you sense the slightest bite...before the sweetness returns as a hard candy, but much deeper than that...." p. 37, Cigar Aficionado, October 2009
No, we are not talking about Eliott Spitzer's whore, although the prices are almost the same. This is in the " Good Life Guide" to Cognac. This sexy hussy is L'Or de Jean Martell available for only $3600. Some high priced tastes are available for as little as $130. Others can be had for $300 or $400, and you can even take a peek at Remy Martin Louis XIII in a 100 ml bottle for only $200.
You can have your Cognac and eat it, too, or rather smoke with it, too. You could accompany your high-priced libation with a Corona described as "such (a) little cigar", but wouldn't you rather have a Corona Gordas "thought of by some as the perfect size - not too big and not too small." For the more macho man we have the Robusto. You can take your "big smoke" to the Las Vegas weekend at the Venetian the weekend of November 13th. Isn't this a little obscene with millions of people unemployed. Please, sir, can I have another sip? Can you spare a dime? What would Freud say? A cigar is a cigar is a cigar? Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar? How about some Price Albert and E. & J. Gallo Brandy?
Eddie Murphy once had a routine where he kept repeating the word "half" and the audience kept cracking up. When he uttered some more obscene words the audience laughed even louder. While "the worst recession since the depression" is obscene, it is no laughing matter. Restaurants have closed, wine bars have closed, upscale eateries are trying to work off their excessive wine cellars, and wineries are having trouble selling wine over $30. While few have stopped drinking wine (some probably are just getting started), virtually everyone has moved down to half the price of what they paid before. Wines under $15 are doing great. Washington wines are too pricey is a frequent complaint, but it ain't so. It may be true that many of the "boutique" wineries offer most of their wine at over $30, but in fact roughly half the wine in the state is priced under $20.
Under $10
There are a number of wines from Chateau Ste. Michelle which are widely distributed throughout the states. The Riesling, Gewurz, and Pinot Grigio are representative of type and reasonably priced. Here is a list of reliable value wineries in addition to Ste Michelle with fairly wide distribution:
1) Columbia Crest Two Vines - The Merlot and Chardonnay can be had at any gas station in Washington and are usually "on sale" for about $8 at many supermarkets - amazing value.
2) Columbia Crest Grand Estates - these wines see some oak and are good food wines
3) Red Diamond -Another member of the Ste. Michelle portfolio - Outstanding Merlot, Cab, Syrah and Chard for less than $10 at supermarkets
4) Hogue - Excellent dry Chard and pretty good Rieslings of varying sweetness levels - good value at supermarkets
5) Sagelands - less widely distributed, but available in some supermarkets. good stuff
6) Barnard Griffin - excellent Syrah. all good values at State Liquor stores in Washington and some supermarkets
6) Pine and Post - frequently posted off to about $5. Excellent value, especially the Chardonnay
Under $20
These may be a little difficult to find but they are worth it. Check high-end supermarkets and wine shops.
1) Dusted Valley - all "Boomtown" wines
2) Balboa - all regular bottlings - Merlot, Cab Sauv, Syrah
3) Parejas - all of Mark's wines are excellent, especially the Gewurztraminer which is a
great value
4) Vin Du Lac - Larry purposely keeps prices down and quality up, especially the whites
5) Eliseo Silva - This is a whole line of outstanding varietals at around $15 - Merlot, Cab Sauv, Syrah, Chardonnay
6) Randall Harris - a very acceptable Merlot at a very good price.
7) Northwest - Bob Deff offers good wines at good prices and you can have them personalized for special events such as a wedding or you can have your own label
( for a fee, of course)
8) Bergevin Lane - Who says Danes can't make wine. Look for Calico Red, Calico White, and Fruitbomb
9) Martinez & Martinez - Make really good, inexpensive wine on purpose. Some winemakers get it that we are not all billionaires.
10) Revelry - Another winery that gets it!
11) Ryan Patrick - Rock Island Red is usually rock solid.
12) Waterbrook - A variety of very good wines at very reasonable prices.
13) Goose Ridge - A whole line of delicious wines at reasonable prices made under the supervision of winemaker Charlie Hoppes.
14) Dunham - Not only is Eric an outstanding artist, but he is very fond of dogs, hence his Three Legged Red and his Four Legged White
15) Hightower - Speaking of dogs, try Murray Cuvee from Hightower way up on Red Mountain. Hint - a dog on the label often suggests a value wine from a good winery.
16) Apex - I've always been fond of Apex Chardonnay when it was made by Brian Carter. Now that the brand is owned by Precept Brands it may not be quite the same.
17) Kiona - Another Red Mountain winery. This one makes a huge variety of wines , almost all excellent, many of which are in our price range.
18) Terra Blanca - Ken Pilgrim's wines are almost always excellent. If you can't afford the flagship Onyx, you can usually find a Terra Blanca Merlot or Cab discounted to around $12 at some supermarkets and Costco.
19) St. Laurent - some lucky dog's gonna get some Lucky White or Lucky Red.
20) Gordon Bros - Jeff Gordon makes a variety of well priced wines that are outstanding values. The Merlot has garnered "90 plus" points and is frequently available at Costco for less than $20.
21) Brian Carter - Brian is a superstar winemaker, yet his Abracadabra blend can be had for about $18 at the winery.
22 Sleight of Hand - Superstar Trey Busch makes two very reasonably priced wines - the Magician Gewurztraminer and the Spellbinder Red - Trey is one of the few to put everyday wines in screwcaps and special wines that need cellaring have corks. Wish other wineries would follow his example.
22) Novelty Hill - Their motto should be "never a bad wine." Superstar Mike Janiuk makes their wines several of which can be had for less than $20. You can even get one or two Januik wines for around twenty at the winery - Januik Red?
23) Saviah - pricey but worth it. The Jack will give a whiff of this quality for under $20.
24) Cayuse - Christophe Baron is a Rock Star winemaker. Try the Rock Star Red for only $19.99. Sorry, just kidding.
25) Mountain Dome - This Spokane winery only makes bubbly. It is dry and yeasty and competes in quality with California and French sparklers in the same price range.
26) Wine of Substance - We end with a science lesson. Have you ever used the periodic table you were forced to study in high school chemistry. Here's your chance
except this time you can taste your chemicals or rather your varietals. Substance wines have names like RE, ME, CH, CS, SY meaning Riesling, Merlot, Chardonnay, etc.,. They are only twenty bucks each and they are excellent. What a great painless way to learn about varietal characteristics.
Not "half' bad - over 30 wineries offering over 100 quality value wines for under twenty bucks. Maybe I should have called this "100 Best Washington Values Under Twenty Dollars.
Speaking of investment and billionaires got me to thinking of the wine market as similar to the stock market in some respects. If LFIT, TOUR, MARG, MTON, HAUT, LMHB, & PETR are equivalent to big caps such as GOOG, AAPL, AMZN, FSLR, ISRG, GE, MSFT, then perhaps we should seek out the equivalent of small caps and micro-caps such HEST, ADAM, FALL, CDNC, NOTE, OS, PALU, CAYU, & QUIL. Personally, I would settle for any of them.
The 2005 Bordeaux vintage was hyped to the extreme and new billionaires forked over as much as $750 a bottle for a typical First Growth. Back in the good/bad old days when everything was going up and people were spending like crazy, people would pay any price. After all, like real estate, the price of wine could only go higher, so buy it and flip it or hold it as an investment, but for heavens sake don't drink it. Now that people are jobless, afraid of being jobless, underwater, and trying to be retired on 201ks, the market for "investment" wine is in a slump and virtually everyone across the spectrum is paying half or less per bottle than they used to. Last year, I picked up a bottle of 2005 Chateau Segonzac, a Cru Bourgeois from the Premieres Cotes de Blaye at Trader Joe's for around ten bucks. When I opened it a few days ago, I was so pleased by the deep red color and the bouquet overflowing the bottle. In my glass, it had the smell and look of a very good wine. Ah, a real Bordeaux, I thought as I put my lips to the glass. Beautiful black berry fruit hung from a big dark structured wine with lots of tannic backbone. While clearly a case of infanticide (this one needs at least another 3 years of ageing in the bottle to shed its tannins), the wine was delightfully European in style. I thought of some of my friends who are so used to tasting user- friendly, "gout americain", fruit forward wine who would have turned up their nose at so much structure, so much tannin and acid, but for a moment I felt like a billionaire, somebody who had made a rich discovery.
Another great vintage after the 2007? According to the Washington Wine Commision great weather resulted in an early start to harvest in Washington. Dick Boushay of Boushay Vineyards, one of the oldest in the state, says, "We're probably a week ahead of last year. It looks outstanding. The weather has given us both plenty of sugar and good acidity. Also, the color in the reds is great..." Jim McFerran of Milbrandt Vineyards says, "I look for Cabernet to be the star of the vintage." I'm tellin' ya, It's going to be a feast!
We actually visited the Washington side of the Gorge first and we started from the east. Maryhill was the first stop. Perhaps more infamous for rock concerts, Maryhill winery is a destination tourist site. Spectacular views, delicious BBQ and a wide selection of wines invite a picnic. We tasted through almost the entire selection of bottles. The 2007 Gewurz was another classic with tastes of pears & peaches, again, perfectly balanced. The 2005 Sangiovese Classic is indeed a classic Chianti-like version with a smokey, leathery nose and tangy fruit. Close your eyes and you are in Tuscany.The 2006 Syrah Classic was medium to light bodied with the taste of marionberries. The '07 Winemakers Red is light round and fruity with a smokey leathery nose, too. At $14 a bottle it is a great wine for your picnic. The 2006 Zinfandel Reserve with 1.5% residual sugar taste like a light Port. Interesting, but hard to pair with food - blue cheese, maybe. The 2007 Muscat Canelli is sweet and flavorful, but not too sweet - an excellent dessert wine. Overall Maryhill offers something for everybody, even though the average profile is fairly light bodied and fruity. Be sure not to miss the Maryhill Museum nearby. We stopped at Cascade Cliffs where Barbera is the thing - soft fruity and friendly - maybe the best Barbera we've tasted. We also got a sip of Naked Chardonnay from across the river in Hood River. I guess they have a bottle exchange program or something.
On to Syncline winery in Lyle. Following various back roads with the navigational help of Kathy we ended up in sort of a hollow with a house, barn-like structure, various outbuildings and vines growing outback. James & Poppie Mantone were on hand along with two very able pourers and the winery dog. Although most of the grapes are sourced from Horse Heaven Hills and the Columbia Valley, this was a nice setting in which to taste wine. As usual the excellent Mouvedre was sold out. All of the wines were excellent , though the 2007 Syrah was a little disappointing after the 2006. The 2008 Subduction White is a blend of 42% Chardonnay, 30% Roussanne, and 28% Viognier. The 2008 Viognier was pleasingly dry, round, and fruity with a hint of citrus in the finish. The '08 Roussanne had a wonderful hint of walnut in the nose and excellent acid balance. The 2007 Cuvee Elena was the Tovey's fave - a complex, but smooth blend of 70% Grenache, 17% Mourvedre, 9% Carignane, 2% Cinsault, and 2% Syrah leaves only eight varietals to go for the mythical thirteen of Chateauneuf- du- Papes. This time around I preferred the McKinley vineyard designate Syrah over the regular Syrah, but the mindblower was the 2007 Steep Creek blend of 61% Syrah, 24% Grenache & 5% Mourvedre. Steep Creek is big and complex with tastes of cranberry, spice, pepper and nutmeg on an earthy base. Of all the Rhone Rangers, James may be the Lone Ranger himself. Whoa!
James recommended Cor winery, but the tasting room guy was a wiseguy and the wines weren't very good. Turn left onto Canyon Road, right on Lyle Snowdon Road to Domaine Pouillon. Where we tasted a number of excellent wines. We liked the 2007 Blanc du Moulin, a Roussanne/ Viognier Blend, the 2007 Black Dot, a Rhone style red blend and the medium bodied Cab/Syrah blend, but 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Barrel Select 100% Cab knocked our socks off - big spectacular and complex everything you could hope for in a Cab. The proud owners hope it spotlights Columbia Gorge Cab, but in fact the grapes were sourced from the Columbia Valley. Is it Mistral Ranch or McCormick Family or Memeloose? Apparently, Mistral Ranch is owned by the McCormick family who produce Memeloose wine. Did I get it right? No matter! We finally found the winery on its spectacular perch above the Gorge. We talked with the father, but apparently the son makes the wine. The vineyards are on both sides of the river. The wines were good but a little lighter than we like. We particularly liked the Idiot's Grace Cab Franc and the Pinot Noir. To us, this winery represents the current state of the Columbia Gorge and its future - lots of potential. Phelps Creek in Oregon and Syncline in Washington show what can be done.
Worried about the economy? Don't gorge out, visit the Gorge and relax! The Columbia Gorge AVA is one of several bi-state wine regions on the Oregon/Washington border. Just as there is a tendency to think of the Walla Walla AVA as being in Washington even though some of the best vineyards are in Oregon, there is a similar tendency with the Columbia Gorge except for its proximity to Portland, Oregon. The Gorge is AVA number nine in Washington (followed by numbers ten - Snipes, and eleven - Chelan). The Columbia Gorge AVA stretches some forty miles along the windy Columbia River From White Salmon to Biggs. The wineries are mostly concentrated around Lyle in Washington and around Hood River in Oregon. Driving along I-84 from Portland, you might not even guess that this is a wine region except for an occasional winery sign. The vineyards are most hidden away with the exception of the well established, pioneering Celilo Vineyard. Frankly, the Gorge reminds me of the Yakima Valley in the 1970s. A few wineries clustered in small towns, hidden vineyards, lots of orchids. Orchids are a good sign. Since grapes are fruit, if you can grow other fruit, you usually can grow grapes and you know there is enough water. Bob Morus at Phelps Creek winery tells me that for every mile that you go east through the gorge the rainfall diminishes by one inch. The gorge is an amazing transitional zone from the moist climate of the Cascade Mountains to the dry heat of the desert. You can grow Pinot Noir in Hood River and Zinfandel in the Dalles
The quickest and easiest tour would be from Portland to Hood River. There we visited Cathedral Ridge, Pheasant Valley and Phelps. Naked winery's claim to fame is hot, sexy, fun names like Virgin and Sugar Daddy. Their Chardonnay is pretty good. At Cathedral Ridge Jessica did a great job of serving up the wines. We found most of the wines to be too light in style for our taste. The 2007 Riesling however was classic with just the right balance of acidity and sweetness and a wonderful nose of peaches and flowers. The 2007 Huber Pinot Noir tasted of cherry vanilla pudding but was too tart for my taste. The 2007 Necessity Red is an interesting experiment - a blend of Pinot Noir and Zin. The '06 Syrah was worthy and but the flagship 2006 Rock Star Red was the standout with a great nose and smooth fruit muddled with spices. Pheasant Valley Winery was next in line. We liked the McDuffee Chardonnay and the 2006 Syrah. We found the Tempranillo to be a bit rough and the 2007 Estate Organic Pinot Noir too acidic. Of the three Pinot offerings, we preferred the 2008 Estate Organic Pinot Noir which was fairly light with good cherry flavors. It would be fun to taste this with Pheasant Montmorency.
When we got to Phelps Creek I didn't recognize Bob Morus because he wasn't wearing his hat. I met Bob at Debuts and Discoveries in Seattle last year and asked him how come an Oregon winery was debuting in Seattle. He said he wanted to familiarize Seattle wine drinkers with his wine. Unfortunately for me he had only brought his second line which is quite good, but I didn't get to taste the Phelps Creek. Now finally I got to taste Phelps Creek. Bob took us on a tour of his vineyards which are hidden away up the hill from the tasting room. Talk about "slopes" - rolling hills with near southern exposure and a view of Mount Hood. The truck picked up an arrow shaped piece of gravel and we limped back to the tasting room where we tasted an amazing array of wines. Tom had tasted us on the 2008 "Unoaked" Columbia Gorge Chardonnay - whistle clean, fresh and light, truly a delight from Celilo and Jewitt Creek vineyards. The 2007 Estate Reserve Chardonnay was equally beautiful in a yeasty way. If the Unoaked was a pale blond , then the Reserve was a light brunette. As many of you know, I am not too fond of Riesling and Gewurz, but the 2008 Gewurz was perfect - "OMG, WOW, typical with just the right balance of sugar and acid." The 2007 Celilo Dry Rose was made from Merlot, but dry enough to almost pass as a European model. But wait, there's more!
Move over Willamette Valley! Pinot Noir from the East side of the Cascades! Once you've tasted "Le Petit" Pinot Noir Columbia Gorge 2008, you will never want to drink French Beaujolais again. This baby is made from Pinot rather than the Gamay that is traditional in Beaujolais. The traditional carbonic maceration of 69% of the Pinot grapes produced the most beautiful wine to have with salmon. "Ey, va-va-va-voom" - Light pie cherry, cranberry and strawberry - very fruity light, round and soft - a great quaff! Now on to the bigger guys and gals. "Becky's Cuvee" 2007 is still fairly light with a walnut or Hazel nose. A well known psychoanalyst once sagely said, " A man is a man and 'v'oman is a 'v'oman." Winemaker Peter Rosback made Judith's Cuvee Pinot and Cuvee Alexandrine was made by French winemaker Alexandrine Roy. Boy, are these wines different! The difference between a man and a "v"'v'oman? Not at all! The difference between France and the U.S. Using Oregon grapes Alexandrine managed to make a Pinot that tastes more like a Bourgogne than an Oregon Pinot Noir. With the exception of Richebourg and a few other Burgundies, I almost always prefer Oregon Pinot Noir. My winner? Judith's Cuvee. Altogether an interesting experiment. Phelp is the standout winery on the Oregon side of the river - proof that outstanding wine can be made in the Gorge. Tune in next week for the Washington side of the Gorge.
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text: Urban eXperiment: The new French underground Magazine features 13 February 12 by Jon Lackman This article was taken from the March 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.Thirty years ago, in the dead of night, A group of six Parisian teenagers pulled off what would prove to be a fateful theft.They met at a small café near the Eiffel Tower to review their plans, before heading out into the dark. Lifting a grate from the street, they descended a ladder to a tunnel, an unlit concrete passageway carrying a cable off into the void. They followed the cable to its source: the basement of the Ministry of Telecommunications. Horizontal bars blocked their way, but the skinny teens managed to wedge themselves through and climb to the building's ground floor. There they found three keyrings in the security office and a logbook indicating that the guards were on their rounds.But the guards were nowhere to be seen. The six interlopers combed the building for hours, encountering no one, until they found what they were looking for at the bottom of a desk drawer -- maps of the ministry's city-wide network of tunnels. They took one copy of each map, then returned the keys to the security office. Heaving the ministry's grand front door ajar, they peeked outside; no police, no passersby, no problem. They exited onto the empty Avenue de Ségur and walked home as the Sun rose. The mission had been so easy that one of the youths, Natacha, asked herself if she had dreamed it. No, she concluded: "In a dream, it would have been more complicated."This stealthy undertaking was not an act of robbery or espionage but rather a crucial operation in what would become an association called UX -- "Urban eXperiment". UX resemble an artist's collective, but far from being avant-garde -- confronting audiences by pushing the boundaries of the new -- its only audience is itself. More surprising still, its work is often radically conservative, intemperate in its devotion to the old. Through meticulous infiltration, UX members have carried out acts of cultural preservation and repair, with an ethos of "restoring those invisible parts of our patrimony that the government has abandoned or doesn't have the means to maintain". The group claims to have conducted 15 such covert restorations, often in centuries-old spaces, across Paris.What has made much of this work possible is UX's mastery, established 30 years ago and refined since, of the city's network of underground passageways -- hundreds of kilometres of interconnected telecom, electricity and water tunnels, sewers, catacombs, subways and centuries-old quarries. Like computer hackers who crack digital networks and surreptitiously take control of key machines, members of UX carry out clandestine missions throughout Paris's supposedly secure underground tunnels and rooms. The group routinely uses the tunnels to access restoration sites and stage film festivals, for example, in the disused basements of government buildings.UX's most sensational caper (or, at least, revealed so far) happened in 2006. A dedicated cadre spent months infiltrating the Panthéon, the grand structure in Paris that houses the remains of France's most cherished citizens. Eight restorers built their own secret workshop in a storeroom, which they wired for electricity and internet access and outfitted with armchairs, tools, a fridge and a hot plate. During the course of a year, they painstakingly restored the Panthéon's 19th-century clock. The neighbourhood must have been shocked to hear the clock sound for the first time in decades: on the hour, the half-hour, the quarter-hour. Eight years ago, the French government didn't know UX existed. When their exploits first trickled out into the press, the group's members were deemed by some to be dangerous outlaws, thieves, even potential inspiration for terrorists. Still, a few officials can't conceal their admiration. Mention UX to Sylvie Gautron of the Paris police -- her speciality is monitoring the city's old quarries -- and her face breaks into a smile. In an era when ubiquitous GPS and microprecise mapping threaten to squeeze all the mystery from our great world cities, UX seems to know, and indeed to own, a deeper, hidden layer of Paris. It claims the entire city, above- and below-ground, as its canvas; its members say they can access every last government building, every narrow telecom tunnel. Does Gautron believe this? "It's possible," she says. "Everything they do is very intense." Read page 2 1234 Read on one page Latest on wired.co.uk


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ibm.com Community
COSO in the Cloud
Richard Steinberg 270004HRBG email@example.com | | Tags:  openpages erm risk itg it-risk coso risk-management | 0 Comments | 3,198 Visits
If you haven't already seen it, it's worth a look – The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission just published a thought paper dealing with risks related to cloud computing. It leverages off COSO's enterprise risk management framework, speaking specifically to issues surrounding hosted services delivered over the internet. The paper is geared not to the techie, but rather to management level personnel who need to understand not only the benefits, but also the associated risks. The paper briefly outlines the many benefits of cloud computing, including greater technology value at lower cost, faster speed of deployment, common technology platforms, reduced need for support personnel and related expenditures, and environmental benefits.
Naturally, most of the focus is on the risks. These include the strategic – with lower barriers of entry for new competitors and related challenge to current business models – and dependency on cloud service providers which in turn drives legal and related risks. Others include lack of transparency, reliability and performance issues, security and compliance concerns, and elevated risk of cyber attack or data leakage. The paper also deals with issues inherent in moving to the cloud, such as the extent to which management considers the impact on the company's organization and IT and other personnel resources, noting "In many cloud scenarios, the organization no longer has complete or direct control over technology and technology-related management processes. Management must determine if it has the risk appetite for the entire universe of potential events associated with a given cloud solution as some of these events extend beyond the organization's traditional borders and include some events that have an impact on the [cloud service provider(s)] supporting the organization."
The paper also discusses cloud issues in the context of COSO's ERM Framework's eight components, outlining how each can be addressed and used in evaluating cloud computing alternatives. It provides suggestions for dealing effectively with the more significant risks, and highlights key decisions to be made by senior management – as well as responsibilities of C-suite executives – and areas on which the board of directors needs to focus its attention. If your company is already in the cloud or considering going there, the paper is worth the read.
Santa's Gift from COSO
Richard Steinberg 270004HRBG email@example.com | | Tags:  erm coso | 0 Comments | 946 Visits
In case you were too busy watching your kids open their holiday presents you might have missed a "gift" for you – COSO's updated internal control framework. During the holiday season the draft was exposed for public comment, so if you haven't already done so, you might want to get your hands on it and tell COSO what you think, and how it might be further improved.
In looking over the draft you'll see that the fundamental concepts and structure remain. The definition of internal control, the five components, and the COSO cube are unchanged. So are the three categories of objectives, except that the reporting category is expanded to include all reporting by an entity: financial and non-financial, internal and external. This brings the internal control framework in line with how the reporting category of objectives is defined in COSO's Enterprise Risk Mana
Other enhancements include:
You'll see the term "ICEFR" (pronounced ice-eh-fer), which is the acronym for internal control over external financial reporting. Because of the importance of the internal control framework for reporting under such requirements as Sarbanes-Oxley, COSO decided to offer a separate guidance document highlighting how the framework can be effectively applied for that purpose. It's organized around the five internal control components, containing approaches for and examples of their application, with direct linkage to the principles and attributes in the framework. It's important to keep in mind that the ICEFR guidance is just that, guidance; it will neither replace nor modify the framework. It will be exposed for comment later on this spring.
Well, it's a case of speak now, or…. If you're involved in any way with internal control, you'll want to provide your input on the document. By the way, I'm biased in a positive way – for full disclosure, I was the lead PwC project partner of the team that developed the original Framework, played a similar role with the COSO ERM framework, and advised the project team that developed this updated framework. But you may have different views, and it's important to make them known. The comment period ends March 31.


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Long road back
Entertainment | After years of false starts, Christian vocalist Michael English is back with a message of redemption
"Long road back" Continued...
On the small stage at Foothills United Methodist in La Mesa, Calif., Michael English croons through a bluesy take on the hymnal standard "Blessed Assurance," the audience swaying and clapping like honky-tonk patrons on Route 66.
"Not everybody appreciates me fiddling with the hymns," English says, pausing to tell a story in his Carolina drawl. Once, after he sang the same guitar-twanged rendition of Fanny Crosby's 19th-century classic at a North Carolina concert, an elderly lady marched up to English and got right in his face.
"I thought she was going to tell me how much she enjoyed it," he says. "Instead, she poked her finger right in my chest and said, 'Don't you ever do that again!'"
The audience of about 250 howls with laughter. English once routinely drew thousands. But these days, a couple hundred represents a pretty good turnout.
"How many of y'all have never heard of me?" English asks the crowd. About half the people raise their hands. "Well, I want to thank you for coming. There was a time in my life when I thought no one would ever come to hear me sing again."
In 1991 after a successful run with the Gaither Vocal Band, English rocketed to the top of Christian contemporary music (CCM) as a solo artist with songs like "In Christ Alone." In December 1992, he joined the cast of Young Messiah, the most successful Christian music production of all time, touring with artists like Twila Paris, Steven Curtis Chapman, and a young singer named Marabeth Jordan.
In 1993 English released his second solo album, Hope. By then, his lean good looks and powerful delivery had ignited a fan frenzy new to Christian music. At one venue, an over-eager young girl actually ripped out a chunk of his hair. It was the kind of mania reserved for boy bands, not a married man of nearly 30 with a daughter of his own.
The following spring, English nearly swept the Gospel Music Association (GMA) Dove awards, including the prestigious Artist of the Year honor. By then it was an award he was ashamed to receive. During the Hope tour, he and Marabeth Jordan had had a brief affair. Like English, Jordan was married. One week before the Doves, English learned she was pregnant with his child.
"I desperately, desperately did not want to win" Artist of the Year, English writes in his memoir, The Prodigal Comes Home, released last year. Steven Curtis Chapman had taken the honor several times and "is one of the finest Christians I have ever known. I did not want to be in the same category as Steven Curtis-didn't deserve to be."
A few days after trudging across the stage to accept the award, he wrapped his six Doves in newspaper and returned them to the GMA. He confessed his sin to his manager, Norman Miller, who recommended a year off and marriage counseling. But English, looking for a way out of his troubled marriage, refused. Miller quit. English's record label, Warner Alliance, froze his contract. Then, after issuing a public statement, English walked away from Christian music.
That, for most fans, was the end of the story. But for English and those close to him, the affair was only the beginning of family breakup and a nightmare of prescription drug addiction that nearly cost English his life.
It is a story he sings about on his first studio album in nearly eight years, also titled The Prodigal Comes Home, which hit stores last week. Today English hopes his story will bring encouragement to a wider audience-Christians for whom healing is a long, painful struggle.
Christian radio, which immediately and completely blacked out English's music in the wake of his 1994 fall, seems receptive to his comeback. In early February, the new album's first single, "The Only Good Thing in Me," debuted at No. 29 on the CCM charts.
"I've had some people be honest enough to ask questions like, 'Is this guy going to fall again? Can we really be sure he's all together?'" said promoter John Butler of Curb Records, the singer's label. "Because of the platform he's on, people managing radio stations have a responsibility to their audiences as to what they put on their radio station. I understand and respect where they're coming from."
But one radio executive who saw English on television told Butler, "I wish more artists would be open and honest. . . . I can't think of any other Christian artist that would go on TV and be that real."
Michael English grew up in a house trailer in North Carolina tobacco country, the son of an electronics salesman. His father often traveled, which was just fine with his mother since the two fought when he was at home. For a season, his mother numbed her loneliness with alcohol. But she gave it up cold when Michael was 14 after he lugged her liquor bottles into a fallow field and smashed them with an ax. Michael had not known she was watching from the trailer window.
Raised in the Pentecostal Free Will Baptist church, English learned about a hall-monitor God who wouldn't think twice about sending Christians to hell if they stepped off the straight and narrow. After his life went south, that theology would haunt him: "No matter what I did after I fell, I figured hell wasn't going to get any hotter," he said.
When English was only 10, his father formed a Southern Gospel group, the Singing Samaritans. The group quickly recorded its first album, He Pilots My Ship, which they sold after concerts in little country churches across both Carolinas and Virginia. Shy by nature, English hated it when his father made him "testify" before congregations about what God had done in his life.
"I was only 12 or 13 years old," he writes in Prodigal. "As far as I knew, He hadn't done much yet."
As a boy, English idolized Southern Gospel's "full-timers," successful groups like the Stamps and the Happy Goodman Family. At 18, English auditioned for a full-time group called the Singing Americans, and got the job. The following year, he met and married Lisa Bailey, just after she graduated from high school. A couple of years later, they had a daughter, Megan.
English got his first big break when he was asked to join the Goodmans, one of the groups he had idolized in his youth. Then in 1985 his career took off when Bill Gaither auditioned him to sing lead for the Gaither Vocal Band. In 1992, the Gaither Vocal Band won the Grammy for Best Southern Gospel Album. That year, English's debut solo album, Michael English, was also nominated for Best Pop Gospel Album.
It seemed the sky was the limit, until the revelation of English's affair brought his success crashing down around him. English moved out of his home and divorced his wife. He appeared briefly on the pop charts but missed Christian music and tried to return. Many fans felt betrayed, though, and refused to embrace him.
"I was hurt. I was a big fan of Michael English," said Mark Hall, now lead singer of the group Casting Crowns. "When I found out what happened, I felt fooled and . . . I jumped right in and grabbed a stone with the rest of the crowd."
After leaving Christian music, English found immediate acceptance on the Nashville party circuit. Young, handsome, and wealthy, he had no shortage of new admirers who didn't care what he'd done. "It was easier to count the ways I felt Christian music had mistreated me than the ways I could have behaved differently," he says. "It was more satisfying to feel angry than ashamed."
English also found satisfying a friend's suggestion to pop a pain pill before hitting the clubs. English had an old prescription for Loritab, a narcotic he'd taken once after a medical procedure. He now found that the pills helped him relax, overcome his natural shyness with people. The Loritab also had an interesting side effect: Its buzz blunted the shame that gnawed at him when he wasn't quick enough to blot it out with anger.
It took only a couple of years for English to become a complete slave to hydrocodone (the narcotic ingredient in Loritab), the most abused prescription drug in the United States, according to the FDA. Because it is not a regulated substance, "white-collar" abuse through forged prescriptions, over-prescription, theft, and "doctor shopping"-going from one physician to another, complaining of pain-is rampant.
By 1999, English had developed a $400-a-day habit and become a grossly overweight recluse. Nabbed in a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation sting in 2000, English submitted to a grueling detox procedure that his book chronicles in graphic detail.
Still, he would relapse twice more.
"I can't tell you how many times I stood over the toilet holding all my pills, thinking, 'OK, God, I'm going to do this. I'm going to flush these, and You're going to rescue me,'" he remembers. But each time, he would chicken out, afraid God would turn His back.
One night, alone in his apartment, an experience he says was supernatural set him on the road to recovery. Floating in a narcotic haze, he was suddenly looking down on himself. "Who is this swollen, dirty, pathetic man?" he remembers thinking. In an instant of clarity, two questions burned into his mind: Is this the way you want it to end? Is this the way you want your daughter to remember you?
"And suddenly, I knew that if I didn't make a change, God might remove His hand from me entirely," English says.
With the help of friends and family, he made it through a rapid detox program and got himself into a methadone clinic that helped him kick hydrocodone for good. He has been clean and sober since early 2002, the same year he met and married his second wife Marcie.
Today, the couple has a 3-year-old daughter, Isabella, and English has been singing and telling his story in small churches like Foothills United Methodist. After almost every show, he receives email like this one from an Oklahoma woman in January: "Michael, there was a young man on the front row, 18 years old, who lost his dad to addiction when he was very young. Now the young man is addicted to OxyContin. Something you said at your concert struck a nerve with him and now he's in rehab."
Now Christian music seems ready to give him another chance. "As with any public ministry, Michael stepped down, which was the right thing to do," said Casting Crowns' Mark Hall. "He spent time with wise counsel. He repented of his sin and made peace with those he hurt." That includes his first wife Lisa and his daughter Megan. Lisa has since remarried and continues to live in Nashville. Megan, now 23, and her husband Keith spend time regularly with English's second family, including her half-sister Isabella.
English also reunited with his former manager, Norman Miller. This spring English will go on tour with the group Avalon, another Miller-managed group. "Once God does something truly miraculous in your life, you don't take things for granted anymore," English says.
Does he ever get tired of being known as "the guy who fell"? Sometimes.
English remembers driving down the road in Nashville one day recently, having just received an email from radio station executives saying they needed to have a talk with him before they would play his music.
"I got down about it and started feeling sorry for myself," he said. "I thought, 'Is there ever going to be a time when I don't have to talk about this stuff?'"
Then a song came on the radio by gospel legend Dottie Rambo:
Roll back the curtains of memory now and then / Show me where you brought me from and where I could have been / Remember I'm human and humans forget / So remind me, remind me, dear Lord
The song's message hit English: "I started realizing, you know what? If God has to remind me of where I came from to keep me on course, then I say, bring it on."
-Lynn Vincent is co-author of The Prodigal Comes Home (Thomas Nelson, 2007)