Barry's Life in Napa Blog

So my plans came to fruition and we managed to see enough of the major Oscar contenders to feel in the know when the awards were presented. That gave me the opportunity to feel cheated when No Country for Old Men won the Best Picture prize. I love the Coen brothers, but I will never see how you can vote for a soul-less hit man movie to be Best Picture. The only way that works for me is if people base their judgement on some kind of technical standards, because you can't argue that NCforOM is not very well made. But I guess I am looking for more than technical perfection. I want a great film to teach me something about humanity, reveal some wisdom about life, inspire me - it's got to be something more than a thrill ride. NCforOM is in the same category as Silence of the Lambs - great flick, scary, entertaining, but in the end, empty of meaning. Even the critics have trouble finding any deeper meaning, for the most part. "...the movie demonstrates how pitiful ordinary hu...

I don't know why it matters, but I always try to see all the movies nominated for the big Oscars before the awards are handed out. I guess I want some sense of ownership when the prizes are announced, and I want to option to say "Oh, what a farce! Any fool could see that The Long Noisy Exhalation was a far finer film than The Osprey Sings at Lunch ! The Academy is all about politics!" or "It's obvious that Garson Canard only got the nod for Mr. Annoying this year because he was passed over last year for his much better portrayal in The Hemlines of Peoria ." If I haven't seen any of the movies, all I can do is sit there and say "Oh, she won? What do you know? Must have been good." And running out to see the winners after the awards is too herd mentality for me. The last thing I want to do is cram into a theater with a bunch of losers who couldn't get off the couch and get out before the Academy Awards - in other words, a bunch of losers ju...

About three days ago, a restaurant by the name of Taylor's Automatic Refresher opened in Napa. This is the third Taylor's in the world - the original is about 20 miles north in St. Helena (that's the original in the photo), and the second one is about 45 miles south in San Francisco. The original Taylor's was a classic old roadside drive in burger joint. They probably had car hops back in the day. In 1999, these two brothers, Joel and Duncan Gott, bought the old place and restored it. (The Gott name is big these days. They have Palisades Market in Calistoga, and there's Joel Gott wine , too, which is a great value, and Joel is part of the Three Thieves label as well.) When they took over Taylor's, the menu was reworked to reflect a contemporary Napa Valley food and beverage perspective. What that means is, you can get a chil cheese dog for $4.99, or you can get the Ahi Burger with ginger wasabi mayo for $13.99. You can get a $3.99 grilled cheese sandwich (Amer...

I just hate it when people copy me, but when you are a fashion trend setter - well, it's a burden that I have to bear, you know? Here's the deal: Read the story here. Once all these follow fashion monkeys start aping my cutting edge ways, it just ruins it for me so I guess I will have to go invent the next hot new trend. Remember that Flock of Seagulls hair...?

Get ready to fire off your best smears on the public education system - with the awareness that Mrs. Blogger is a teacher and I may get all medieval on you as a result - but go ahead, sure. Here's the trigger: OCEANSIDE, Calif. -- John Corcoran graduated from college and taught high school for 17 years without being able to read, write or spell. (This from San Diego's Channel 10. Full story here .) The story is amazing, sad, astonishing, and above all, a tribute to the human capacity to adapt to obstacles. Amazing to think a person could make it all the way through college being totally illiterate, but then to walk back into the fire by choosing to be a teacher - astonishing. I knew a local guy who was a successful businessman, pillar of his community, even a County Supervisor, who I swear could not read a word. I became suspicious of his literacy at one point and took an opportunity to test him in a way, sliding a note to him during an interview and asking "what do you th...

Like the snail said after he was mugged by the turtle - "It all happened so fast." One minute we're there watching some guy you never heard of catching the most important pass of the Superbowl up against his face, and the next minute it's Fat Superbowl Tuesday (guess it's a four-day weekend now, which is a sweet deal. I'm already planning a little vacation for February 2012. Maybe Carnival in Rio? I've always wanted to prance about in a fish suit.) and we're doing the red state-blue state war games again. Hardly got Christmas kicked to the curb and we're like 1/9th of the way through the year already and here it is almost VD. Boy, that ol' tempus sure does fugit, don't it? Just a few more ticks of the clock and W will be backing his U Haul up to the door and loading up his malaprops and it will be off to Lazy Brain Ranch in Texas to cut the dickens out of that brush. (Ever notice how only Republican Presidents like to cut brush? Old Reagan...

This just in - the beard has passed the "scruffy" stage is approaching the "gnarly" point as we end week six. I continue to receive a steady stream of comments. Most people say something like "it looks good" which is questionable. Other are more direct with a comment like "it's really coming in" which tells me we're reaching that gnarly stage. Also interesting that men tend to see it as a challenge of sorts - many will say "I can't grow a beard like that" as if I am performing some kind of trick. There is clearly a manhood issue - guys who have spotty beards feel they have been denied some aspect of maleness, I guess. While the nasty thing is keeping my face warm on these "cold" winter mornings, I don't know how long I can stand it. Chances are the beard has about 4 weeks to live.

To mark this blog's first birthday, I gift to you this real email I received at work this week. I am not making this up. After studying the anatomy of pigs and humans, I wonder if human is being served as pork. Pork has been called the other white meat. Why is pork so red and bloody now? Humans have a certain number of ribs, and pork has several more than human. I have studied the Niman Ranch web site, and wonder if their meat is really pork. Are the roasts really from the back of a pig? Could the ambulance drivers who do "dementia management" as discribed on the Sacramento First Responder website be actually taking the body to a butcher. Do ambulances have GPS tracking devices on them? Is there a GPS database of where the ambulances have been? The church of euthanasia has a how to butcher a human discription http://www.churchofeuthanasia.org/e-sermons/butcher.html. (Editor's note: this site has a lot of really offensive stuff on it. I wouldn't go there if...