Favorites of 365

Tomorrow marks the first day of June, which means I just gotta push through around 90 more posts till I wrap up my first 365 project. Phew. But this all seems childsplay when compared to my friend, Kevin (aka Han, aka Kenny, aka Lao Toe, aka Monkeyphobia, ) who's made over 1300 paintings via MS paint (thirteen hundreds! ) between 2004 - 2009. He's def one of my main driving forces to finish this one up and continue to challenge my 2nd, or possibly 3rd 365.

Sometimes faster than others, but I generally spend about 30 minutes on any one of the 365 pieces I have so far. I'd try to force myself to create something new every day and the ideas fluctuates in quality. Here are some of the favorites from the past couple of months:

↑ 05/31/11 - A for An Abduction.


↑ 05/30/11 - When there’s no end in sight, just keep pushing.


↑ 05/28/11 - They’re there, you just have to search for them.


↑ 05/12/11 - I make lots of tehm.


↑ 05/03/11 - My 2 and a half feet Craft-Cube


↑ 05/10/11 - Dedicated to all photographers and artists.


↑ 05/02/11 - The rainbow of death.


↑ 04/22/11 - Happy Earth Day.


↑04/17/11 - I’ll finish this one later.


↑ 04/11/11 - Best tool to make things happen - your own hands.


↑ 04/10/11 - A good place to start, now make it happen.


↑ 04/02/11 - Poor Batman.


↑ 03/25/11 - King Kong’s perspective. (Top of Empire State Building)


↑ 03/07/11 - 3 points.


↑ 03/02/11 - I’m a night person.


I know many of you have started the 365 since Jan 1st - keep it up, you're about half way there!
365's a good training for patience, commitment, and creativity. If you haven't started one yet, start now.

To see me struggle daily with a new post, please click here.

'til next time,
 -Benson|| Twitter || the movement|| The Imaginary Zebra website || Shop of Imagination ||

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Napa Valley - Wine Tasting Trip

It may sound strange to most that Napa Valley was once known for its various crops instead of wine. It wasn't until Napa took the title amongst France, Italy, and Spain in 1960s that it became known in the wine industry (They even made a movie about it.) If you're a Californian or visitor of California,  you ought to come out for, if not wine, its spectacular scenery, gorgeous weather, and the Napa culture.

UC Davis, locating closely to Napa Valley, has its place in the field of viticulture and enology (though, we have a pretty legendary brew master as well) I felt that it became a part of our responsibility to know the basics of wine (or at least something about it.)

With our friend, Carmut, visiting and Jim's growing interests in wine, we decided to take a trip for some wine tasting.  

↑First stop - Domaine Carneros.

Quick look at logo: It seems most wineries feature their architectures in their logos/emblems. A refreshing approach after seeing many corporate logos.  Gotta keep it classy with the serifs.

I wasn't exaggerating about the view.



↑The only group photo we had - yet the couple in the center paid more attention to the camera than our own.




↑Champagne Sparking wine sipping. Quick lesson from the host: There's no difference in taste between sparking wine and champagne, but an indication on where they were made. Only sparkling wine made in France are titled "champagne."


↑ First tasting. Though, white, sparkling are made of both white and red grapes. It remains white because all red grapes are skinned before extracting its juice. Feel like a boss, yet?




↑Tasting two. I was turning red at this point.

We were brought down to the basement, where they ferments the wine. The host also explained the process on how they extract the yeast..etc. I was too busy taking pictures and trying to figure out the difference in taste between the two wines I tasted than listening about the steps. Oops.


Cork machine:




Tinted red, usually serve as dessert wine. They left a thin layer of skin from the red grapes for the coloring:

↑Beautiful looking wine. Heard the ladies like 'em.




↑Corks.




↑There you have it, Domaine Carneros.





Got the munchies? a quick lunch break before the next stop:

↑Bouchon Bakery.




↑Wine tasting + phone interview sounds like a good way to go.

Macaroons.


GIANT MACAROONS!

↑Never seen macaroon as big as this. A quick image of the GIANT GUMMYBEAR popped in my head when I saw this. Might be a good idea for some, but it was too overwhelmingly sweet to finish this alone. Heck, it was a tough task even for the 3 of us.



Stop #2:

↑ For those who have watched "Bottle Shock," this is the winery of Gustavo, who were one of the main guys from Chateau Montelena.









Stop 3: Robert Mondavi Winery.

↑Perhaps the most renown winery for us UC Davis Students. (Mondavi Center) There were no three stories chateaus or fancy windows. The winery was wide and refreshing.


↑Props to the minimalistic bear.




No wine tasting for this one. Just basking ourselves under the sun, running across the field like 5 year olds. loved it.

Wrapping up the day with BBQ rib sandwiches. chyea.


Now, quick question of the day:



'til next time,
-Benson|| Twitter || the movement|| The Imaginary Zebra website || Shop of Imagination ||

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