Bringing your kids along for a wine tasting doesn’t make much sense, but it does make cents for the wineries in Napa who are now catering to visiting moms & dads. Some wineries are putting out crayons and games. While the parents taste wine, their kids drink juice boxes or sparkling beverages. While some visitors find it inappropriate, the winery operators figure if the entire family is coming along, why not keep the youngsters entertained?
It took glass artist James McKelvey six months to figure out how to make a glass faucet but the eventual result was beautiful and functional. The colored faucets have an outside layer of clear glass to ensure the safety of the water running past. The glass is tempered for strength. See video of how they’re made start to finish in the Third Degree Glass Factory. (via Luxist)
Las Vegas plays host early Tuesday morning to another infrequent casino building implosion. The demolition of the New Frontier Hotel-Casino is in the experienced hands of the Loizeaux family who have been in the business of blowing things up since the late 1940s. The N.Y. Times takes a look at the family that plans destruction together as Controlled Demolition, Inc. They travel the country and the globe imploding and exploding to make way for the new. The same company flattened Seattle’s Kingdome in 2000, an event that has been immortalized on Youtube. The New Frontier will be replaced by the Plaza, from the owners of New York’s Plaza Hotel.
When I read on Wikipedia that synthpop founding father Vince Clarke lives in Maine, I did a double-take. I remember thinking “that’s some town in England named Maine that I’ve never heard of before, right?” No, Erasure’s Vince Clarke actually does live in that northeastern corner of the U.S., in relative anonymity with his wife and young son. The recent Erasure album, “Light at the End of the World,” was recorded in nearby Falmouth. Singer Andy Bell, the flamboyant half of Erasure, joined Clarke in Maine for the writing and recording of the songs. It’s a beautiful, peaceful place to compose any kind of music. (source: Boston Globe)
More on picking edible mushrooms, the NY Times follows a forager in central Illinois.
Neiman Marcus is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Their famously extravagant Christmas Book has been published since 1939 and one man has amassed a collection of 50 of them. Michael Oxman became intrigued by the catalog that arrived at his home in 1976 and has been seeking out vintage printings primarily on eBay. He’s hoping to acquire all of them one day. Neiman Marcus’ fantasy Christmas Book items for 2007 include a 100 foot dragon topiary, a trip with migrating monarch butterflies on Vico Gutierrez’ Papalotzin Ultralight, a Gem Triton 1000 Submarine, and a 305-carat uncut diamond. Happy shopping.
When Elvis Costello released his first album, “My Aim Is True” in 1977, he was backed by Clover, a band from Marin County, California that just happened to be available. Now, 30 years later, he and the members of Clover are reuniting for two benefit concerts in San Francisco today.
Buses and subways get wrapped with ads, now it’s Amtrak’s turn. The Acela Express will feature an ad for the History Channel’s “1968 with Tom Brokaw” special. Individual cars and locomotives have been covered in ads before, but this one’s the entire train, 2 locomotives and 6 cars, covered in vinyl advertising. Amtrak does have to be careful with the type of advertising it will accept given that it is federally subsidized, however this fits into their goal of finding creative revenue sources.
PZEV?
I’ve mentioned here previously that my vehicle wish was for a Subaru hybrid. Their outdoors-y fans make the hybrid market a natural. But the company is, like many of its car owners, also very practical. They decided they were better off investing in a diesel engine for the near-term. So, with my loved ones constantly (and I believe irrationally) pleading for me to replace my 1997 Legacy wagon before I got stranded somewhere (mere minutes away from help!), I decided to go ahead and buy a new Subaru without getting hung up on gas savings. It turns out that I did a little better than I intended. The only car the dealer had in the model and color I wanted was a PZEV. That stands for “partial zero emissions vehicle” (yes, that’s a laughable name). It’s a modification of the term “zero emissions vehicle,” which is what the car manufacturers were supposed to be selling (at 2% by 1998) to comply with California’s ZEV program. But, as politics always goes, the manufacturers won a compromise which allows them to sell hybrids or PZEVs and earn credit points to bank against their ZEV obligations. PZEVs need to meet the Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicles standard (greatly reduced tailpipe emissions, vapor tight fuel tank). There are several on the market from various automakers, but PZEVs aren’t hyped or advertised much. I’m perfectly happy with my car’s performance; Subaru claims to have “the most powerful PZEV engine available in the U.S. market today.” They also like to point out that the tailpipe air may be cleaner than the smog-filled surroundings it is entering. I’m glad I stumbled across my PZEV, even if it isn’t as noble as better MPG and was the result of a bureaucratic deal. (my car on flickr, more on PZEVs from the NY Times)