My wife and I first listened to Wendy Reiger tell the news followed by Doreen Gentzler, both whom I have met. That was nice and it was thrilling, inspiring to see both Barrack and Michele and Joe giving of their time today to paint and repair homes and help our servicemen. George Bush is supposed to on this historic day have pardoned people. Who and why and what did they do? I did not wait long enough to hear on Channel 4 NBC news. I was too fired/ inspired and wanted to come down here and post a blog on this most important and symbolic of days.
It has been my " day-off " and I have stayed home with my wife and with our son that has the flu. I have spoken three times to my mother in Martinsburg, West Virginia that spoke about among other things the beautiful snow falling there. We just had flurries here later in the afternoon or mid afternoon that were pretty. Oh, I also walked our dog twice and that was nice.
My wife has finished the white HUGUES BEAULIEU 2007 Picpoul de Pinet southwest French ( indigenous French grape Picpoul followed by the bit of PEARMUND 2007 off-dry Riesling from just outside of Warrenton, Virginia ). I would have drunk some red but all I have now is really good red wine and an excellent magnum of Jed Steele's WRITER'S BLOCK Grenache I believe.
I looked in our fridge and discovered this last lone, black shiny can of GUINNESS Draft beer from Dublin, Ireland and decided to drink it. I think it was the right choice : it sure does taste creamy and smooth and mellow. I'm enjoying it. I thought of Bono and U2 performing yesterday at the Lincoln Memorial concert and his thanking Barrack that was sitting feet away with his children , Michele and Joe Biden and saying something to the effect : " I'm thrilled and honored to be here - four guys from Dublin, Ireland having been chosen by you president-elect Obama to be on your record ". It was something to that effect.
I'm of Irish descent, too : the name Quinn pretty much gives it away. Anyway, it just feels right to include all of this. I'm really excited about this time in our lives here and all over the world. These are thrilling times to be alive, to try and pull ourselves and our times together again. To try and come to grips with things and the times and where we are and how perhaps we have arrived here?!?
These are all of course really big issues and in many ways beyond my artistic grasp. But even I, an artist , wine-educator-enabler has been drawn into this muck of a world of politics and individual greed and total disrespect and disregard for our world and others and the fact that so many actions of theirs have landed us where we now find ourselves.
How many ways can we delude ourselves and explain our actions, justifying them in positive and not almost completely negative ones that they most-surely as the sun rises each morning were and still are?!?
Anyway, I'm excited about many things : being a bread-earner, father husband, family man, part of a community and neighborhood. It's exciting to think of my life as an artist and as a wine-educator. I hope that in my words and actions I have given back to the family, community and professions that I have followed : and that I have inspired some of those who's lives I have surely touched just by being physically close to them.
America the melting pot : so many riches and so many diverse, amazing, intriguing, mystifying influences, unbelievable, unimaginable and welcome for the most part ?!? I hope so. Our true hope is in coming together more and more without diluting completely our origins and differences.
This afternoon I read some of the interviews in ROLLING STONE Interviews. I just finished reading the one with John Lennon by Jann S. Wenner. John says about Liverpool : " We were a great amount of Irish descent and black s and Chinamen, all sorts there. It was like San Fransisco, you know ... " a melting pot it occurs to me just like the United Sates of America. I loved the brutal honesty of all of John Lennon's words : a true artist. Imagine it : dare to imagine, still, there's time to act and not be still but active and productive, helpful , too.
Last night and today just now ( 8:17 PM Monday night, January 19th, 2009 ) I have been watching with my family the concert at the Lincoln Memorial : so inspiring. Tom Hanks just read the lines of Lincoln : " as I would not be a slave, I would not be a master ... " . It's inspiring to know that he wrote his own, inspiring words and that they were not written by others.
I look forward to doing more good things, contributing more and seeing more lives flourish, people prosper and find their ways in a better, more gratifying and constructive manner.
As many others I believe I take great hope and inspiration in this new administration that begins tomorrow. These are heady times and tomorrow I will take my place on the metro with countless others and forge my way into Washington D.C. where I will go to work to sell beer, wine and liquor to those wanting to celebrate or those to drown their sorrows if in fact they are worried that our country will be less safe with Obama ( I had a young man, a customer of ours express this sentiment to me just the other day at the store ) . Of course many of you will be heading into downtown D.C. to experience and be a part of this historic day when our country swears-in Barrack Obama. Wow, incredible that we have come this far ! Thrilling, amazing, wonderful ... our 44th president of the United States of America ...
Now my wife is calling my name and I will walk upstairs to serve myself some more Chinese food from Hunan West and finish this delicious GUINNESS draft Irish beer. Cheers and happy celebrating today and tomorrow.
Thank you Martin Luther King and now Barrack Obama. Let me know if I can be of any help.
With you Barrack it's been : " Yes we can " ... and if I can add to that, now we are , and none too soon ... thank you for your inspiration.
I've proofed this once and sure that I have left out things and changed things but I want to get it out now while it is fresh and of the moment and time. If I have quoted out of context or misquoted I am sorry. Otherwise enjoy. TONY
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