Scratches

http://www.wineandmusic.com/Palate_independent_arch.cfm?ArchID=13

Caduceus Cellars

by Sheila Dean


Arguably, the most prized legacy to Maynard James Keenan, lead singer to modern rock bands Tool and A Perfect Circle, is sitting in an arid Northern Arizona valley.

"I've lived in Arizona since 1995. I consider it my home and therefore the place where I would establish a family business. The Verde Valley in Arizona is a perfect spot for pioneering a vineyard. This became very obvious to me while traveling through parts of Italy, Sicily, or the Rhone Valley of France. Difficult terrain and harsh weather conditions provide just enough friction for the right vines to produce an excellent wine grape."

Keenan earned a fortune in one of the toughest businesses in the modern Western world: music. He could have had any number of entrepreneurial ventures. However, he chose one of the most high maintenance forms of agriculture known to man: a vineyard. His direction and motives for a wine enterprise are spiritual in nature.

"There seems to be more of a sense of magic that surrounds a vineyard as opposed to say a Christmas tree farm or a cabbage farm. Most individuals who have spent any quiet time walking through a vineyard would agree. Wine is a living breathing entity. To truly align yourself with its process is to choose a spiritual and connected path. Like the path of any artist, it's a process of becoming more conscious of the world around you and your place in it."

Keenan's duties to Merkin Vineyards, the vine farm that produces the grapes for Caduceus Cellars, has profoundly committed the Keenan family tree. "To give you a glimpse into the depth of this commitment, you should know that I will not live to see the full potential of these vineyards in my lifetime. This will be my gift to my children and my grandchildren, should they choose to continue on my path. As it turns out, I have family on my father's side who owned extensive vineyards in what was, Northern Italy. Now it is a part of Southern France. I trust my intuition. I have to believe that I would have somehow found my way into a vineyard regardless of my musical venture."

Keenan's progression toward wine-making started with a 1992 Napa Valley Silver Oak.
"I had it with the right meal, at the right time of day, in the proper quiet space and it changed me."
While Keenan's music career was considerably time consuming, he somehow found time for his wine craft. Opportunity met its destiny in mentor, Eric Glomski of Page Spring Cellars, as he created a forum to learn the art of winemaking.
"Many winemakers do custom crushes and bottle wine for small restaurants and/or individuals who make a comfortable living and just want their own wine label. I have to assume that Eric initially thought I would be one of those people. Completely hands off. I believe he was pleasantly surprised to find me there on the morning of crush to help as much as I was able to. I'm guessing that he saw in me the same passion that had infected him. So the relationship has grown from there."
Keenan chose his vines based on his international experience and passionate tastes in wine. He then factored in local terrain and weather. The creation was a wine suited to his own palate. The end product was Caduceus' 2004 Primer Paso, a Syrah blended with 12% Malavasia. The Primer Paso, like all of Keenan's wines, is only available to be purchased and tasted from Page Spring Cellars in Cottonwood, Arizona.
Keenan only produced 225 cases of the wine this year. He indicated the production for 2006 would be considerably larger. His wine label is Caduceus, named after the staff of Greek god, Hermes. The Caduceus was used to mediate quarrels among gods, turned everything it touched into gold, and exercised influence over both the living and the dead (spirits). The Caduceus was also the even exchange for the lyre invented by Hermes, herald of the gods given to Apollo, the god of music. In Greek society, it was the mark of the ambassador, the herald and holymen. Keenan chose his Caduceus logo based on a philosophy of his life.
"Caduceus, is the staff of Hermes: the herald of commerce, temporality, transformation, and thieves. The double helix of serpents relates more to the rising kundalini and our DNA. It spirals upwards and moves towards the wings of Hermes. For me it suggests a spiritual awakening to a higher ideal and our temporary nature. DNA and kundalini rising has a very specific meaning in and of itself: to transcend our temporality. Live for the moment but look to the future. I think at one time or another I was a slave to either one perspective or the other, planning only for the future and sacrificing the moments, or living only for the moment and wallowing in a selfish lifestyle that had no future. I'm attempting to perfectly blend the best parts of the two."
Visit Caduceus Cellars

I had a really interesting response letter to my article published in February, Scratching For Spiritual Resources. It can be found in the Letters Section of March's Edition of The Meta Ball Online.

http://www.metaball.ca/ball_Mar-06/letters.html

Asia Argento's the Heart is Deceitful above all Things

Asia Argento's auteur film The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, had sensational elements to draw an audience to her film. Unfortunately, the film was so tough to sit through I doubt it could keep much of the audience in their seats.

The character portrayals were extreme and one-sided. The film was imbalanced by what could pass as a pornographic portrayal of a young child dragged to the bad side of the railroad only being held there by his impressionability, deceit and a very limited attachment to his biological mother.

What bothered me most about the film was not simply the portrayal of pedophile rape, abuse and serial neglect, but the writing and directing of the child in this film was cartoonish. Jeremiah, the protagonist, was a tabula rasa with absolutely no will or identity of his own. If there was any evidence of the "hoax" of J.T. Leroy, it was revealed here.

After the initial rape/abandonment scene, Winona Ryder gave a scary performance of a pushy, uncompassionate child therapist. It became obvious Jeremiah, his family and the other characters were merely colorful cardboard cut out puppets of sorts . The problem with this was "sensitive" material became a hipster joy-toy, recruiting acting employments of shock-originals like Marilyn Manson. For people who worship deranged sex and damage, it goes cow tipping. For the rest of us, it's just damn disturbing.

I have a tendency to dismiss projects like this one based on the fact that I really do not like people making light of others misfortune. The general public knows bad things happen to children. It's one thing to regard it with understanding. It's a another to make carnival art out of it.

Studio City, CA- While TOOL is quietly managing the recording of their new album, Danny Carey booked several performances to display his chops as a performer. Most of these performances take place in the Valley. While many possible appearances have been advertised to see Carey there were no real guarantees that he would show.

La VaLee is a respectable jazz club with an intimate setting. If the truth be told there isn't a single "bad seat" in the house and reservations are recommended. The warm and somewhat modest interior of the nightclub had an almost seaward feel, with salmon pink walls and sturdy deep oak furnished interiors. We weren't seated quickly. Our male waiter lacked finesse and was unattractive. The mediteranean food was fair and arguably overpriced for what it was. Anyone could say that this was a mediocre venue to support jazz pallate enthusiasts with a jazz wallet.

Over the span of the late Spring and throughout the Summer, Carey has made several appearances in clubs of the same calibur; modest settings attracting jazz flies. The genre tends to absorb some of the most accomplished talent market wide. It has been remarked in the past, that if you can play a decent jazz set you can play just about anything. A very tall Carey appeared sometime around 10 PM before the final set. An intermission was officiated where eyeryone had time to notice & absorb what was going on. TOOL fans who made it out were both nervous and surprised to be in such close proximity to Carey. One ToolArmy member, a fan who paid $90 dollars for "insider" status with the band commented that Carey had gotten his booth seat, but had no real complaints knowing he would show up. Other fans smoked and milled around hedging on the approachability of Carey. Carey reputedly has somewhat of a rather intimidating association with an "uncommon" belief system for the West. He also is, by far, the most accessible member of Tool with regards to his availability to press the flesh. Tribal Tech, organized by Jazz player Scott Kinsey delivered an engrossing and interesting set; fusing electronic & tribal world elements. A common thread worth noting that was the comical use of "Deep Forest" Pygmy song samples. Again, it could have been an indirect props to one of Carey's other side projects: Pygmy Love Circus.

Prior to Carey's appearance, Tribal Tech's performing drummer was also the lead singer for another one of Carey's side projects, VOLTO! It seemed as if this was a circular knot of close musical associations for him. Carey appeared relaxed, after sharing drinks with friends. He was later formally announced, and handed drumsticks to begin the set. He then delivered a quite technical, fluid set with with bright and clean changes. A sound different from TOOL's drumkit, but noticably it was the same guy being followed by the other musicians on the stage.

Danny Carey would never immediately come to mind as a "jazz man", appealing to a more musically sophisticated audience, but the substance is there. At the end of the day, it seems that Mr. Carey just likes improvisational cues with other players, like many many other musicians. He seems to have been frozen in some capacity by the TOOL gig, but not for long. The defrosting Jazz trickles are nonetheless associated with TOOL, as well. The web community at Toolband.com represents and promotes activities and events loosely tied with ideologies of the band's players, along with being a well rounded community artisan, and just being a plain old TOOL fan.- SD

Friday, October 14, 2005

Venice, CA- Ordinarily I would not be caught out on Full Moon in September, but I never saw Butcher play out live either. Hence the draw.

The earlier part of the evening I watched the opening acts. Surprisingly enough, there was a common thread: husband-wife teams playing in bands together. It worked. It's a phenomenon, but at husband-wife teams in business and artistic endeavors have proven a workable combination when it comes to output. Camella Grace, Butcher's lead singer is the wife of Adam Jones the guitarist for Tool. Jones artistic influence on Butcher is tangible.

Both bands had different styles from Butcher. Butcher's sound was muchmore elaborate with engrossing visuals (SPIRAL EYES) and a professional cadre of players [Scott Reeder, Sasha Popovic and Phil Trujuque] . The consistent question of the evening was, of course, "What's up with the girdle? "Camella was wearing a white corrected-brace "thing" with an elaborate lace up pattern over her black dress.

Tool's tribal impressions were imminent in Butcher but it didn't steal the identity of what Butcher was doing with the music. Camella Grace gave an emotional performance illustrating past words and sound, what a pain it is to carry such a criminal world on one's shoulders. The competition was tough between keeping your eyes on the band and baby rhinos defending themselves from jackals, evil geishas, and the ritual slaughter of something hard to identify trying to save itself up on the screen. One of the most compelling songs in the set (next time I'll get the set list) depicted someone essentially wounded in the heart area of the chest. You can see the damage done. The question is answered when you see the cute little Asian girl nibbling on organ (presumed a heart) meat and then flinging it against the rocks. Ouch...

It was much more of an art performance and a great surprise. The band talented performance penetrated a stage so dark you couldn't se the players. The gist of Butcher's sound is dark, cavernous and ethers with lowing ghostly vocals echoing up from the bottom spreading into the room. The tonality rolled kind of like smoke.

I could have guessed but I realized mostly too late who was who at Good Hurt that night. What was especially odd were, the people there who knew who I was that I didn't know very well or at all because of mischievous Members of TOOL showed up. I met all of the members of Butcher. There was probably some sort of an afterbirth, but I opted to sneak off with another began Burning Man instillation artist instead. I left at closing time. As I turned to go, the crowd huddled around the patio door like grounded vultures hoping to get a piece of the TOOL family action.

Some months ago I saw Inara George's live show at The Echo in Echo Park, as their feature performer Monday night. Songs from her LP, All Rise have been featured on KCRW's Morning Comes Ecclectic. At first appearance, you could mistake the Topanga native as a dead ringer for Alyssa Milano with a pixie cut in a vintage mod-style dress. Like any professional, she made articulate singing look easy.

Her astonishing sound centeres around her seamless silky voice and a natural sounding lilt, punctuating expressions as she sings. On her more frank and upbeat songs, her tones become buoyant giving the listener company for the electronic retro ride shetakes them on. As an original talent she has a definite fit in the current Adult Alternative format.

One can hear a coordination of the band's influences drawing from Stereolab, Bjork, Radiohead, Coldplay, The Cranberries, some Moody Blues, and even Nina Simone. If you do get All Rise, there isn't any song that is worth skipping.

Her live players that night each had as much character as she did. The band was Inara George, an intense, gangly redhaired keyboardist, a comically enthusiastic drummer, a coolly relational bassist and her co-writer and guitarist, Michael Andrews with a stylish mop-top and mod striped belbottoms. Andrews who produced
All Rise also has a background in film scoring for films like Donnie Darko.

George ended the evening singing Autumn Leaves andpromoting a Topanga tribute to Leonard Cohen. Her ballads in particular are extremely bare and intimate.

The emotional tones in her ballads express a languid,
gentle sadness, both warm and melancholy . For introducing these elements into a special evening W&M suggests a 2001 Mondavi Merlot, a juicy quenching vintage with a lucid balance and soft finish.
-Sheila Dean

CFQ caught up with Dave Gebroe, indie filmmaker to follow up on his plans for his film Zombie Honeymoon; a unique romantic comedy about the dilemmas a new bride faces when her husband is turned into a flesh-eating corpse.Zombie Honeymoon’s aim was to combine both high and low art as an inspired tribute to his sister’s dead husband. Gebroe, halfway through the script of his next horror film, reflected back on that process from start to finish.

"When it's just a pile of pages, you have to paint a very detailed picture to try and convince people that what you have is of some kind of worth...as the process grinds on, you have to do less and less talking, and can rely on the film to sell itself. It's a relief, since you naturally begin to be sapped of energy anyway."

Gebroe continued to stress how important determination is to making a horror film.

"You just can't give up. If you think it's possible. If there's even a glimmer of possibility that you'll sputter out and collapse before the finish line, all I can say is--DON'T BOTHER. Low-budget filmmaking is one of the ultimate exercises in masochism, where you're doing most of the work by yourself and the ultimate reward is generally the finished project and the memories of brutalizing yourself on a daily basis for years."

Gebroe cited his experience on the first day of rehearsal as an example of how crucial real determination is to the filmmaking process.

"I got a call…from the main investor. Who broke the news to me that he was pulling out his entire investment. I didn't let on that we no longer had the money to make the film. I made sure a fake smile was plastered on my face the entire time. I didn't start crying until I had said good-bye to the actors. Then I broke down and wept for hours. And then, of course, I pulled together the remainder of financing necessary to continue with the picture, and I did it within 48 hours."

Zombie Honeymoon went much farther than simply finishing as a production. The film’s momentum picked up after it’s premier at The Hamptons in October 2004. The film started grabbing publicity and reviews in trades like, Variety. ZOMBIE HONEYMOON then headed for the film circuit. ZOMBIE HONEYMOON became a featured selection at festivals like Slamdance, Barcelona, and Sitges.Gebroe commented on ZOMBIE hONEYMOON’s initiation into the both the film circuit and the distributing market for his film.

"Slamdance was work, since it was early on and we didn't yet have a distribution deal. It was grueling, although it was definitely fun, too. A lot of cast and crew were out there hitting Main Street, handing out swag and supporting the film. By the time of the Sitges Film Festival in October, the film had already been picked up so I didn't have to break my back promoting it--plus it was a horror/fantasy film festival, so I knew it’d be well-received. And I was out there alone, so it wasn't as much of a group-spirit thing. Not to mention, Quentin Tarantino and FX wizard Greg Nicotero were there, and loved the film. They were really impressed with it. That was worth the trip alone."

"We've shown in many different festivals, most of which I didn't even need to enter. The reviews have been amazing all around, and the entire experience since it started screening has been less and less of an effort because people hear about it and they want it...instead of me having to sell it to everyone."

Gebroe is still fighting the good fight.

"You'll always find opposition from others in making a film. It's like pushing a humungous boulder up a steep hill with one set of hands. But if you truly believe in what you're doing, and it's a good project, it'll get made."

More information is available about Zombie Honeymoon online at www.zombiehoneymoon.com .
- SD