I watched a "documentary" called Mondovino. It was the "Super-Size Me" of the international wine business, sort of. Nearly the entire time that I was watching it I wanted to throttle the filmmakers, other times I was bored and might have pleasured myself, by sleepfulness. If not choke them then at least slap them, perhaps a throttling is, how do you say in continental smugness.... extreme, no?
They trotted out the same old tired dogma that everybody wants to hear: the world is changing, and for the worse, globalization is destroying everything that is precious, the only authentic people are the aging underdogs, silly americans can do nothing right,or only by accident, they are to blame for most, if not all, of the world's problems, they say stupid things, just watch, etc.
Some of those assertions might be true, but coincidentally those same observations work when changing the national proper nouns. I learned it from YOU FRANTZ....
But when watching the film I couldn't possibly help or stop myself from feeling that they used the very best hard-wrought footage of the poetic Frenchies wandering their vineyards, waxing poetic about the meaning of tradition, the love of earth, terroir.... but when others are on camera not only did they use the worst possible footage, the questions were leading, if not accusatory. It is difficult to imagine any American agreeing to another interview after their portrayal. Though if that turns out to be wrong then I simply assert that there are stupid people everywhere, they are conditioned to love cameras.
They might notice the razor, but they're looking at the mirror.
Most people do.
And that's just how they treated the people, the "talent," as it were.
The geographic bigotry that was going on was even worse, and much more up front, out in the open. The message of the film is that the rest of the world has ruined France by making wines.
In Vino Veritas.
There is one scene where they seem to blame the foreman of a vineyard for the fact that Mexicans work for him but they do not own the vineyard that they're standing in. They act as if it is the iniquity of the Americans that has prevented Mexicans from making great wines. I suppose it is also our fault that they don't have a space program.
How naive and very French of them; those who invented the potpourri moon....oh, scents..sational....
I'm getting so tired of people trotting out this same tired and assumed dogma. They seem ever refreshed by the same sentiments. If I were doing what I truly loved then I would not care, but I reduce myself down to petty differences, and take pleasure there, a broken man
That's why I bought the Mondavi wine tonight. Because their treatment of him was unfair and even vaguely cruel and accusatory... a self-made man who only seeks to make good wines and share them, how crass. The same love of the more provincial examples the filmmakers use against him. Who knows, perhaps Robert Mondavi liked to eat kittens on his free time. I don't know and I don't care. The wine is pretty good.
I do like Pinot's and this one is a good one. I just took a swig straight from the bottle just to check. It's good. You can always tell by swigging. Poor wines really reveal themselves in that way. Interestingly the Mondavi wine that I'm drinking tonight seems to embody the old-world winemaker description of wine. I forget the exact words that he used but it seems to possess the very essence of what he described.
Oh, but for a blind tasting between them, instead of that shoddy mockumentary... documentard, fartce.
I was meant to start a one-week detox today but my instincts told me not to, three times, like Charles Dickens and the Doubting Thomas. I kept fighting my inner voice out of blameworthiness, but finally I came-to and realized that every time that I don't listen to my inner voice I suffer... when I do listen to my inner voice things go along very well for me, even swimmingly at times, but my inter-personal relationships suffer. As I get older people have shifted their efforts to control me from outright looks of disappointment and stern words to concern for my health.
As if....
My health is as sound as it ever was, just before the other times, perhaps even more so, perhaps less... but in the best of all possible waze.
My health makes lots of sounds, for sure... signs, symbols, hints, secrets, emblems, stains, confidants, rug burns, manifestations, double -agents, breakouts, promises, omens, threats, marquees, logos, intimations and sleeping drugs. My health is intact, prudently both savoir and laissez faire... and that's a very tact fact, kids.
Just (1 fair, fair-minded, equitable, even-handed, impartial, unbiased, objective,neutral, disinterested, unprejudiced, open-minded, nonpartisan; honorable, upright,decent, honest, righteous, moral, virtuous,principled. Kids.....
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