Ape

Thanks to Dger – and almost a year after it first debuted on Britain’s ITV – you can all begin to enjoy No Heroics. Trust me, you need some of The Hotness. If you can’t locate DVDs, watch here.

No, it’s not a wicked new software to partner up with your Livescribe pen. It’s a question: Do you know some of me? If not, that probably explains why you’re still referring to that awesome work you did in California as “ethnography research.” Duh.

Great info-design spin on a classic fairy tale, tipped this way by Ms. King.

My favourite summer grape, hands down, has to be Pinot Gris. For many wine drinkers, maybe neophytes more than others, it’s often mistaken as “sweet,” an off-base description that speaks more to the pear and apple powers in the mouth than the sugar that’s either natural occurring in a wine or the sugar that’s slipped in by unscrupulous blenders. I caught the Pinot Gris bug about 5 years ago when my boy, Stanley, returned from a photo shoot at Nike HQ in Portland and brought us back a bottle of Elk Cove. I think that was the name of it. I’m terrible at remembering wineries and vintages; I never caught the bug for caring too much for those facts – like I did with a Roots Radics discography – and I don’t care much for flexing my interaction competency or subcultural capital as an oenophile. I just enjoy the smelling, tasting and conjuring of what I enjoy. That’s why, every summer, I make sure to taste every Pinto Gris in my general price $15-$30 price range. And so far, the Andre Blanck 2007 has all the pear and apple, touch of smoke, near perfect acidity and life from cork to last sip that I love. At $20 it’s summer’s Pinot Gris #1. Number 2 to follow. Recommendations welcome. Pictures to shop by  welcome.

Steve Friedmann was right. Malivoire is, arguably, at the very top of the Canadian wine game right now. Their 2008’s are stunning, and well worth a trip to wherever the best of Beamsville is carried. Of the winery’s selection, it’s their Lady Bug rosé that will shine this summer: better than virtually anything in the $14 range – including the best of French or Spanish rosés – it also wins awards for being able to play in the same branding market as all those shitty wines with the ridiculous animals names. Why? Playful and pretty – like the taste – with a simple spin on design that equally reflects what’s on the nose and in the mouth. Congrats to them – another  Canadian producer (and that really only makes 3 or 4) worth writing home about if you live in France or Spain (or Oregon).