Wine of the Week

 

Holiday Edition

While I don't want to seem repetitive, I feel the need to recommend the latest vintage of a wine I profiled last year, as it is much improved and worthy of note. Additionally, it makes a great, reasonably priced holiday gift (okay, I'm a little late in the game to be recommending anything for the holidays) as well as a lovely fireside swill.

So here it is, the 2005 Orin Swift "Prisoner". I was skeptical, as last year (though still recommended) was a little flabby in the mouth and definitely fell apart sooner than it should have. But I tasted the new vintage and was happy to find a bit more tannin and acid to ground the wine with a nice backbone. Okay, I'm starting to sound like one of those wine snobs, so let me rephrase that. This year's "Prisoner" tastes more like adult wine and less like it should have come out of a juice box. It has less Zin in it, and the fruit is less ripe with more tempered extraction.

As usual, the bottle is very handsome, with the label featuring the Goya painting after which the blend is named. Available at many retailers for $32.

Pinkberry in the media

 

Click on the hypertext article title if you want to see Travel & Leisure's late arriving blurb on the oft-blogged-about yogurt emporium. My guess is that the Larchmont branch is doing close to the same numbers as Huntley, though the rent is undoubtedly higher. They have Baskin Robbins, two doors down, shaking in their boots as traffic to the ice cream shop has dropped drastically. Comparison photos to arrive here, soon.

This is not my beautiful house (finally): Photographic Edition

 

Okay, so here are the photographs. I may as well post them here since you're unlikely to ever see them on the TV. I am guessing unless RAINES does gangbusters in the ratings, NBC will just cut their losses further and air only the first few episodes, and bury the additional. If it turns out to be a surprise hit, our living room may just have its television debut after all. But that's an uphill battle at best.















The above shows you the 'blacking out' of our living room that they implemented on the 'set-up' day.














If you look closely, you'll see hordes of people shooting an exterior shot a couple houses up from ours. But mostly you'll see the roof of my car.



















Above, you see the interior of our living room, dressed to resemble a crazy forensics artist/comic book nerd's lair. Oh, a dead crazy forensics artist/comic book nerd's lair...

Should we be concerned that they kept a few personal effects of ours to dress the fireplace, including three photographs of us? And, no, I'm not referring to the more prominent, and very creepy drawings. Those I will have to credit the art department with.

Below: I'm ready for my close-up...



















And finally, at 5PM, they get to the scene at our house. Notice anything missing below? Like the black-out tent they set up the day before? Well, it was already dark, so no artificial movie magic needed. Plus, the grips got to wrap early.

You'll also note in the right photograph our driveway being used as a satellite craft services station as well as the sound guy's area. Nobody was munching on granola bars or pixie stix, however (except me), as the bulk of the crew was in our house, trying to get the day overwith. Plus, I was told that there was a truck around the corner with a much better array of foods.



















Well, in the end it doesn't look like our living room looks so different from the way it usually does, but for the addition of those odd drawings and some clutter. They kept our rug, our furniture, even our drapes. Should we be flattered, or reconsider either our design standards or careers? I hear the LAPD is looking for forensics artists.

Camera charge

 

Okay, so my camera is ALMOST done charging. I will post photos soon. But in the meantime it looks like Raines, the show that used our living room might be D.O.A., as it was announced in various publications this week that NBC has curtailed production as of episode seven (we were episode six).