In the music industry, we call it G.A.S. As in, Gear Acquisition Syndrome – a desire to acquire more basses, guitars, whatever, usually brought on by exposure to an awesome instrument pick up made by an acquaintance. In my “spare time” I run a social network for bass guitarists, so I have a lot of…
Category: book reviews
In Plain Sight (Uncovering Wes Walker’s “Hidden Napa Valley”)
The first thing that you think (if you’re me, anyway) about the late Wes Walker’s Hidden Napa Valley ($19.95 from Welcome Books, I received an advanced sample copy of the newly updated edition) is how unexpectedly small it is. At 7 and 1/4 inches square, you almost want to greet it with a cliche; “Oh,…
What Price Bordeaux: Bordeaux’s Loss of Identity By The Numbers
Master of Wine and scientist Benjamin Lewin’s non-fiction book What Price Bordeaux has a title that, unlike many non-fictional works, is meant to convey a series of meanings or themes that are touched on at some point in the body of the work itself. In this case, What Price Bordeaux refers, at turns, to The…
Tastes of Things Before My Eyes: The Beauty of Wine, Under A Microscope
Just when you thought that wine has been analyzed form pretty much every angle possible, along comes Philadelphia native, biochemist PhD and former medical research scientist Sondra Barrett. Sondra’s journey to wine seems spiraling and circuitous: Originally a researcher on human leukemias, she was asked to photograph a patient’s leukemia cells, which lead to her…