mondosapore

Season of the witch

It's been an illuminating hiatus, this break from blogging.

Detached from it, the scene appears noisy and repetitive, and increasingly personal but not in a good way.  I see some going mainstream like Neal Dorosin, who is now contributing to Wine & Spirits.  I see some assiduously hoeing their well-tended rows, like Fredric Koeppel and Deb Harkness.  I see some churning bloody water as wine bloggers make like sharks and chomp on one another -- often, it will be noted, on Twitter, a vehicle suited to limited-character attacks.  It's become Joe Dressner's new medium for launching his cryptic sarco-bombs against perceived over-reachers like Alder Yarrow. 

It's interesting to compare and contrast the recent brouhahas over Robert Parker's and Steve Heimoff's severe criticisms of wine bloggers (with Heimoff especially making valid points about the deficiencies of many bloggers) with the word and deeds of bloggers, who are fissioning into the old and the new guard.  A good example of this are the frequently testy exchanges (on Twitter) between Old Guard Lenn Thompson and provo New Guard Joe Roberts.

Whether I've changed or the meta-situation has changed, I'm not quite sure.  But it bores the shit out of me.  

Beatniks are out to make it rich

Two rabbits ruttin' in a ditch

Must be the season of the witch   

Si si, je suis un bloggueur

Yes, ladies and germs, it's been a while.  About two weeks since last I posted on this blog.  And the last few posts were just cross-posts to Muddy Boots.  

Yet, ladies and germs, I occasionally miss the old frisson that a really topping post gave me and, I assume, some of you.

Though, ladies and germs, I am glad to be free of the compulsion to write whatever crazy thoughts came into my head, perpetuating, say, a drunken rant for all posterity or till I cease to pay for the registration of this URL.

Even so, l & g, given the sort of nasty customer I am, there remains a need to spew venom on the happy warriors and poseurs of the wine and wine-blogging worlds, and this will be the place to do it.  Example: from the "town hall meetings" on "healthcare reform" I'm getting a vibe only slightly more vicious and ridiculous than the endless debate on (say) "natural" vs. "industrial" wines, or whatever terms people use to support their faith.  Add gun-toting to the mix and it will be a fun post with a bloody outcome.  Like a wine Hamlet, where everyone dies.  This prospect pleases me for some reason.