Drink Write

Accolades and recognition of great significance to me

Writing is such a personal and individual endeavor that for the most part the recognition and accolades that are important to you are personal and individual as well.

I won second prize and $5 for a poem I wrote in highschool.

It was a complete surprise because I hadn’t even entered—our teacher had submited the enitre class. It was the first time I thought about myself as a writer.

Event or person significant in developing my talents

I read Dicken’s, A Tale of Two Cities, when I was twelve. I put the book down and cried for an hour. That was the first time I realized that words could break your heart.

Improvisation & Collaboration

Writing is intensely solitary. But working at jazzwines.com with really bright and fun people, brainstorming and riffing on ideas of life and creativity and jazz and wine and life and creativity...really allows excitment and passion to flow into the lonelier parts.

Inspiration for my creative process

Ideas. I love all ideas. Ideas about physics, people, innovation. Just the other day in our “business” meeting we started talking about pure math and equations versus reality. As a writer, if you can communicate even a portion of the ideas to others you will have achieved something.

My ideal work partner

Most memorable wine tasting experience

We had a Jazzwines tasting with family and friends last month. The wine was so great paired with the Manchego cheese, and some Italian Formaggio di Fossa. Our friends and family were there to celebrate with us. It was a proud moment with great wine.

Favorite musical experience

Just after Christmas I was walking down the street listening to my new ipod. I didn’t have any MP3’s so my friend had put some music on it, and every song was a fun new surprise. One song came on that floored me. It was a John Prine song called “Angel from Montgomery” and it was being sung by Susan Tedeschi. It was a recording from an Austin City Limits performance. I realized that I had inadvertently stopped walking. It was so powerful I couldn’t walk and listen to it at the same time.

Musician or Winemaker I'd enjoy meeting and why

The best part of my job is I meet amazing winemakers and musicians. In brief conversations—even across the world you—feel a cool intimacy. So, whomever I’m talking to this week is exactly who I’d enjoy meeting.

I started out life as an avid observer.

My grandmother told two stories about me as an infant.

The first was that I was very serious, always watching everyone and everything around me.

And, the second was that when the dog ran away, she knew she could leave me--sitting in the middle of the room--and chase him.

When she returned, I would be sitting right where she left me—watching with a serious expression on my face.

So, I’ve always been an observer. I started my career in psychology, I think, for that reason.

I took to writing when I realized that it was the stories that mattered. Stories, I believe are the building blocks of everything; language, perception, ourselves.

Later, I went to chef school and took wine classes so I could write about two things that I love.

One thing about standing still—or still sitting in the middle of the room—instead of rushing about in our modern world, is that you have time to really know people, time to talk to them about what drives them, and time to appreciate the depth and beauty of their stories.