Ben Harper

Last night I managed to score tickets to Ben Harper's sold out show at the Highline Ballroom. I would guess that the place holds 500-700 people. I've seen a lot of shows there (including my brothers band Rebelution) but Ben is by far the biggest name I've seen there.
He put together a new band call Relentless7. They were great. The sound had more of a blues and rock n' roll sound. It was great, and even thought I've been in the front row for a couple of Ben's shows, I was the closest I think I've ever been to the stage!

I think the Relentless7 album drops this spring!

Valentine's Day Weekend

My sister was in town for the long Valentine's day weekend. We had a great time exploring the city. Shawn and I are not big on celebrating Valentines day, so we decided to just spend the day together. We went to Brooklyn for lunch and went down to the East River to look at the NYC Skyline. I made dinner and we had some wine and watched the NBA Dunk Competition. As you can tell it was a very romantic night! :) I want to give a quick shout out to Nate Robinson of the NY Knicks for winning the dunk competition!!

Busy Basketball Week

Shawn has had a super busy week at work. The Knicks played the Lakers on Monday (Kobe had 61, ouch) The Cavs on Wed. (LeBron had a 52 point triple double....triple ouch) and tonight they play the Celtics.
Shawn also had to work a Rangers game this week. They were retiring a guys number, so the Stanley Cup was there.On top of three basketball games and work, I also went to see James Morrison at the Highline Ballroom. He put on a great show. For those of you who don't know his music it's worth checking out!Oh yeah, we also hosted a Super Bowl Party.

Vienna and Obama

I though I should write a little about my day in Vienna. It was inauguration day, and I thought it was really interesting to be in Austria for President Obama's inauguration. We had a tasting and a presentation prior to our dinner at a great restaurant in Vienna. We were able to make it to the restaurant by 6 p.m. (noon on the East Coast 1/20/09.)

As soon as we arrived at the restaurant everyone on our trip, along with some locals, gathered around the small TV to watch our 44th president be sworn in. There was a silence in the air as we watched history take place. Every Austrian we ran into keep say "Yes We Can." I figured if there are three words that people know in English, it seemed to be those! Everyone was so excited for our country, it seemed like there were only Obama supporters in Austria. I though that was a great sign that not only the US, but the world seem to be excited about the change of power in Washington!

When the swearing in was over, we got many toasts from all of the locals. It was a pretty cool moment!

Here are a few Vienna pictures. We were only there for a little over a day, and I was feeling sick, but I had to stick it out and see the sights.

Mat in Manhattan

Our good friend Mat was in town this weekend. Him and I hit the streets of NYC til he couldn't walk anymore!! We had a great time with him in town, but we really wished his wife Bridget could have been here too! They are really great friends from Memphis, and we miss them big time!! Hopefully they'll be back to visit soon!

Austria Pics

Martin Mittelbach (Tegernseerhof) makes GREAT white wines

Leo Hillinger.........Hill wines, as you can imagine we hit it off!

Anton Bauer, the reason I started to drink white wines. Try his Rosenberg

Hillinger Cellar

Hill and Hill Wines!

"Ice Wine"

Red wine aging in concrete eggs....so good! Bio dynamic Organic Demeter Wines. Weingut Michlits

"un-kept" vines on the left..."kept" vines on the right (Michlits)

Austria was amazing. The wine, food and people made for a great trip. We tasted hundreds of wines, and I am still trying to make a top 10 list!

Austria

I just got back from 5 days in Austria for my new wine sales job. It was so amazing. More stories and pictures to come soon!

Happy New Year

We spent NYE at Chinatown Brassarie in downtown NYC.


Here's to a happy and healthy 2009!!