Weekend errata June 19th

16 days 'til the cats are back on stage! Monday night, July 5th in The Lounge at The Palms. Like I said in a prior post, I'm takin' the 6th off so I can do the entire hang and blog it afterward. Cheryl will be home for the whole week (comin' home on the 2nd), so she'll be there with me too.
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So, I've long had this idea about us doing winery shows (they're quite common in California and elsewhere), so today I ambled out to Pahrump to check out the Pahrump Valley Winery, just out of general curiosity (Cheryl and I love to visit wineries), and to scope out the property on the off-chance that it might even be a potential venue.

What a cool, elegant place (the only winery in the state). I had a fine lunch in their restaurant, along with a glass of their excellent labeled 2005 Syrah wine (I subsequently bought a bottle and brought it home for Cheryl). While they bring in most of their grape stock from California in refrigerated tanker trucks, they do also have a vineyard. I roamed around, took the tour, and copped some shots.

Above, the restaurant is beautiful, a soothing environment with great food.

Mostly Zinfandel and Syrah grapes. Below, the grounds are quite lush and spacious, very nicely laid out. I gather they do a lot of weddings.

Below, very nice store and wine tasting room.

Below, the winemaking plant.

Below, the stage. Owner Gretchen Loken (very nice lady) told me they'd tried some small scale music events, without any success. As she put it, "the same 50 locals showing up each time."

Not at all what I have in mind.

We could probably put up to 1,000 people in the outdoor area, seated; maybe half that via a picnic basket/blanket wine & cheese show format.

She's open to the idea in principle. We shall see. Lotta due diligence spreadsheet and scut work to do, including sponsorship engagement. Something like this would be months out.
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MICHAEL GRIMM UPDATE

At this writing, our little bro' and Santa Fe alum Michael Grimm is closin' in on 600,000 views of his America's Got Talent round-one segment.



We're gonna be able to say 'we knew him when...'
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COOL BOOK FYI


This book is an epistemological kick in the ass and endless whack on the funny bone. A humbling combination of scholarship, erudition, and wit.

In our collective imagination, error is associated not just with shame and stupidity but also with ignorance, indolence, psychopathology, and moral degeneracy. This set of associations was nicely summed up by the Italian cognitive scientist Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, who noted that we err because of (among other things) “inattention, distraction, lack of interest, poor preparation, genuine stupidity, timidity, braggadocio, emotional imbalance, … ideological, racial, social or chauvinistic prejudices, as well as aggressive or prevaricatory instincts.” In this view – and it is the common one – our errors are evidence of our gravest social, intellectual, and moral failings.

Of all the things we are wrong about, this idea of error might well top the list. It is our meta-mistake: we are wrong about what it means to be wrong. Far from being a sign of intellectual inferiority, the capacity to err is crucial to human cognition. Far from being a moral flaw, it is inextricable from some of our most humane and honorable qualities: empathy, optimism, imagination, conviction, and courage. And far from being a mark of indifference or intolerance, wrongness is a vital part of how we learn and change. Thanks to error, we can revise our understanding of ourselves and amend our ideas about the world...

Highly recommended. I am so lovin' it. A killer addition to my research stash.
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