Hello!

Welcome to The Epic! I am launching this blog as a manifesto for and a guide to living well. The title and motto of the blog are taken from the Epicureans, at least some of whom believed in the notion that not one minute of the future was guaranteed to them and that as a result they had the duty to live life to its fullest every moment.

I believe in discovering fun and pleasurable things wherever I find myself each day and I am told I have a knack for unearthing them. My hope is that by sharing in my pleasures and some of my ways of finding them you will begin to collect all the riches that lie in the moments of your life. They are there. Take them! All our lives should be.....Epic.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

7 And Counting

Passport, check. Airline ticket [Business Class], check.  Perfect hotel researched, found and booked, check.  Pull out battered copy of Liebling's "Between Meals" and carry it with you everywhere you go, check.  Deep restaurant, cafe and locale reading, underway.  Preparation for the life of the flaneur.

Seven months to go.  I am beside myself with excitement. 

Friday, September 16, 2011

A Few Good Reds




I love wine but I know little about it.  My Epic wine philosophy comes from the great cajun chef Justin Wilson who famously said "You drink what you like, you".

I do have this odd sense of humor though.  Some years ago, I was at table with a good pal who is a real wine man.  An oenophile.  Along with several other people. One of whom, in a sort of didactic manner, was going on and on about "wine".  At one point, the didactic fellow glanced down the table my way and asked in what I thought was rather an arched manner what I thought of the really great wine we were drinking.  Everyone else at the table had been making smart sounding comments about the wine while I was primarily occupied with consuming it. 

At a loss and on the spot, everyone looking at me, I ventured

"It has a subtle dryness which is at the same time rather wet."

Silence.  Emboldened I pressed on...

"A near flavor which is somehow distant".

A few chuckles including thankfully one from my pal the host who was stifling a howl.  I went for the trifecta...

"The taste of this bottle has a strong undertone of...grapes."

The D.M. returned to his more worthy audience.  I returned to drinking the wine.

Perhaps I am not the fellow to invite to your next wine tasting.  Or perhaps I am.  Either way, I always enjoy looking for cheap [read sub-$10] bottles of wine that I love to drink.  The two bottles shown above fit the bill nicely.  Both have great flavor and can be purchased almost everywhere.  I find them both to have bold grapiness which is near yet somehow far away.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Fuzzy Photos From Great Bars

AZ88, Scottsdale, Arizona. April, 2011
Martinis that defy gravity. Have a couple and you will too.