Milagro - A Spanish Miracle From Argentina In Cleveland Park : Pretty Amazing, Really - Good Friend, Too : July 2010

It was a weekend in Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel : 202-36304265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com on facebook at : clevelandparkwine.com ) and Brennan Downey was tasting some of his excellent Italian wines here in the store in Washington D.C. N.W. in our Cleveland Park neighborhood.




Milagro and Vince and others of our many loyal and faithful Cleveland Park customers came to our store to buy whatever they needed for the weekend as well as to soak up/in the good cheer and will and friendliness and vibes of well-being and gathering and sharing and overall caring for and about one another that I pride this store in emanating/radiating and emitting so as to give out/forth an overall positive aura that heals and makes on smile and relax and enjoy and get into the great spirit of sharing whatever they have on this particular moment.




It works , too. Almost everyone gets into the spirit - this spirit of things when they come to Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits : that's the idea - the grand plan of mine. It's essential to all of our well being, really. Trust me on this.

Doesn't matter if it's for wine-makers, wine owners, reps sales managers, brokers, doctors, lawyers, artists, architects, musicians, photographers, social workers, teachers , customers, : it's for everyone.




We love our customers and I hope that most love us.




Vince, you were saying? You have a point to make?
Please share ...




Brennan was actually tasting both wines of Italy and of Uruguay. We work with both countries really well and enjoy selling both. Here we had I believe a dry Sauvignon Blanc white and a dry red Tannat from CARRAU Ururguay, as well as an excellent Italian Piemontese Arneis or was it a Cortese dry mineral and touch of citrus medium-to-light-bodied, bright white? I will have to enlarge the picture above a bit later to see better which one and include it here later.

We also tasted an excellent dry, earthy, pithy, medium-bodied Tuscan Sangiovese from the town/area Vernaccia which is actually much better known for it's whites than it is for it's reds. Having said that this red is excellent and a great accompaniment to food. I have now met the owner twice at the annual Downey portfolio tastings.




Thanks Brennan, it seems that you as well as Vince and I have all fallen under the Milagro spell/charm. Like that smile, like hers very much, too. Even my Canon Power Shot digital camera is now smitten with Milagro.




The wines are good : the company perhaps even a tad better? They complement each other wouldn't you say. What do you think Milagro?



Milagro loves wines and now that she has moved away from Cleveland Park still makes a special effort to return and buy her wines from us when she can. She even brought her family to meet us recently.




What are you saying here Milagro? You are making a point or an observation here and I did not hear it. I'll ask you Brennan later when I see you. Perhaps you remember what Milagro thought of your wines? Did she like those of Uruguay? I believe that she did.





It was a better day for having seen all of you here in Cleveland Park. Thanks Milagro, Vince and Brennan ... It sure did help to make my day just that much better and memorable. Cheers, here's toasting to you all, TONY

New Views From Old Ones 6/26/91 To 2/10/2008 Till Now (Shots / Ways Of Seeing Things) August 26th, 2010

It's fun to look back and to collect and mount things differently so as to see what " new " and " exciting " things can be gleaned with a " fresh " perspective.

Looking at all these pictures that I have assembled here - some of my drawings with ink pens and others with India Ink and black watercolor I see how so many of my " threads " of observation and " connection " are pieced together here and how they all relate and help to explain a bit more of my ever expanding circle of ripple that spread out over my life as if on the surface of a seemingly still pond or lake and continue to reach out and create a constantly expanding circle of moments and images and points-of-view.




I like the direction that I have taken and I like that I let the process of art be an equally important " constant " in my life where I am willing to yield-up in part the reins to see where we the artist and the individual and the moment and time and place are able to get to together where every part is important in the process and there is no changing/rearranging : simply doing and letting things be as they are and as they turned out without editing.




I'm never quite sure exactly what I will get by believing in " the artistic process " pretty much raw and unaddressed and messed with : just turning the engine on so-to-speak and jumping on for the ride " of the moment". Living fully as is possible in each and every one of these moments and not thinking about others except in how they might relate or inspire another that might naturally " spring " from the moment at hand.




All the arts inspire me and that includes music and acting and singing and all the visual arts, too. I like to see mine next to those of others and here there is a fertile mish-mash of images to helpfully fire the gut and stir the soul. Cheers and enjoy. I will probably comment more but for the time-being here are the photos that I took to share these various images and works of my own art.




I will probably add more here but am excited to post this now and share this with you all immediately. You may fill-in lots of the gaps and the holes with your own thoughts, gut feelings and reactions and impressions. Leave me a comment in the comment department if you would like at the end of the blog.




It is now Thursday evening here at home in northern Virginia at 11:45 PM on August 26th, 2010 and it's almost time for bed now. A la prochaine, TONY




P.S. : there does seem to be a whole lot of the color blue in many of these photos.