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queridopascal · 3 years ago

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The new job (Din Djarin x F!Reader)

Part 1 of the “Ad Astra” series

Summary: as your eyes scanned the page, the words “spatial coordinates” and the phrase “writings and symbols no one has been able to decipher” made your eyes widen and your interest spike... (word count: 1.7k)

Warning: mention of food and drinks

A/N: my first ever Mando fic/series (even though we don't get to meet him in this first chapter)! Huge thanks to @hnt-escape for beta reading, and I hope you guys enjoy it ✨

Reblogs and comments are highly appreciated ❤️

NEXT | SERIES MASTERLIST

Sitting alone in your home office with a mug of coffee in your hand, you shuffled through the heap of unopened mail you found upon your return from your last expedition: advertising brochures, leaflets, bills and, at the bottom of the stack, a cream-coloured paper envelope with slightly torn edges.

Prompted by curiosity, you put down the mug and opened the letter with an old knife you kept in the first drawer: it was typewritten, dated 25th of September and signed at the bottom by a certain Elizabeth Williams.

As your eyes scanned the page, the words “spatial coordinates” and the phrase “writings and symbols no one has been able to decipher” made your eyes widen and your interest spike. Your work as an archaeologist had given you the opportunity to travel the world, discover different types of artifacts and ruins, get closer to cultures and their ancient origins; but something inside of you, a feeling in your gut, was telling you that what was described in the letter was unique and, possibly, something you had never seen before.

Without giving it a second thought, you dialed the phone number scribbled underneath the signature and waited with bated breath as you began fidgeting with a pen, clicking it open with every beeping sound coming from the other side.

“Hello?” a calm tone greeted you.

“Mrs. Williams?” you asked, clearing your throat.

“Yes, it’s me.”

“Hi, I’m-”

“I know who you are, I’ve been waiting for your call.” the woman said with a smile in her voice.

“Oh,” you gasped, “I... received your letter and I would love to hear more about this artifact you mention.”

“Great. I’ll have someone pick you up tomorrow morning at 9 sharp.”

“Thanks, Mrs Williams,” you nodded, “do I… have to bring anything?”

“Your knowledge will be sufficient, my dear.”

Once you both ended the call, you took a deep breath and closed your eyes, feeling anxious and impatient for what was about to come and reliving the exact same sensations you had experienced the day of your very first excavation.

After a sleepless night, you were awakened by the furious pitter patter of heavy rain against the windows. The dark grey of the sky made every room of your house incredibly cold and humid, and you put on your favorite cardigan as you dragged your feet into the kitchen to prepare something for breakfast.

When you finished eating, you took a quick shower and got dressed in your favorite black pencil skirt and a white blouse, a matching blazer and a pair of heels completed the look. You took a seat on the couch in your living room and waited for the driver.

At 9AM there was a knock at your front door, and you immediately grabbed your blazer and your purse and walked over to it.

“Good morning, Miss,” the driver bowed his head a little and extended his gloved hand to you while opening a black umbrella with the other. “Please, follow me. Mrs. Williams and her colleagues are waiting for you.”

You put your hand in his as he walked you over to the sedan; he opened the car door and waited for you to get in, shutting it swiftly once you got comfortable in the cream leather back seat.

After a two hours drive, the car stopped in front of a wired mesh and barbed wire fence, lined with several “Military Zone” signs. A couple of seconds later, the guarded gates opened with a screech, letting the car enter what looked like a tunnel carved inside of a mountain.

The driver pulled up in front of a large white door with soldiers on either side, where an elderly woman waited with crossed arms.

“Goodmorning my dear,” the woman stepped towards you. “I’m Elizabeth. Welcome to the Falls Hill military installation.”

She hugged you tightly and you stiffened at first, looking at the two soldiers, whose eyes were fixed on a point in front of them.

“Come, I’ll show you around.”

One of the guards stepped to the side and held the door open for you and Mrs. Williams. The large corridor that extended in front of you reminded you of a war bunker: it was grey and cold, illuminated by pale neon lights, and it had the same distinctive smell you would find in the subway.

You followed her obediently, and when she reached the end of the corridor, she slowly opened a set of double doors bearing an "Authorized Personnel Only" sign; taking a step forward, your mouth dropped open in wonder as soon as you laid eyes on what looked like a giant stone ring covered with strange inscriptions.

“I've never seen anything like this,” you gulped, keeping your eyes fixed on the object.

Mrs. Williams chuckled, pleased at your reaction. “No one has, my dear.”

“Can I…?” you asked in a trembling voice as you pointed at the artifact.

Elizabeth nodded and you walked over to it, placing your hand on the rough surface of the stone to feel the engraved characters under your fingers.

“These inscriptions,” you started, turning to her, “might be hieratic or maybe cuneiform, I think I've seen some of those symbols before.”

“Perhaps you could help us with the interpretation?” she moved to stand beside you and tilted her head to the side, looking at you expectantly.

“Yeah, of course. I'll get to work right away.”

The hours passed quickly, and between one cup of coffee and another, it was already evening. The succession of symbols and characters engraved in the stone kept repeating in your mind, a mix of infinite combinations and interpretations, from the most logical to the least plausible.

Wrinkling your eyes for tiredness, you looked up from all your papers and notes, finding a new possible interpretation of the second row that made your heart race.

“Mrs. Williams, was anything else found in the proximity of this object?”

“I was hoping you'd ask me,” she smiled and motioned you to follow her.

Elizabeth led you through a hallway and stopped in front of another door, resting both hands on the opening handle.

“You are not to speak of this to anyone, understand?”

You simply nodded, your breath catching in your throat at her request.

“Mrs. Williams, I haven't issued any new authorization papers for this lady.” a baritone voice captured your attention, and you turned around only to find a soldier in uniform staring back at you.

“Colonel Shaw, it's nice to see you again,” Elizabeth greeted him with a gentle smile, but the man looked at her with a serious and impenetrable gaze.

“Mrs. Williams, I don't think I'll have to remind you that what's inside this room is classified.” he walked over to the both of you, his expression unfazed.

“She's the new addition to my team, Colonel,” she said, looking him straight into his icy blue eyes, “a world-renowned archaeologist who is going to help us decipher the inscriptions on the stone ring.”

“Exactly. Then why are you here?” he glanced at you out of the corner of his eye.

“Because,” you cleared your throat “the second row of inscriptions refers to another object, described as the portal.”

The Colonel raised an eyebrow at you and sighed, then looked at Elizabeth.

“Permission denied.”

“Excuse me, Colonel Shaw. I was told you would have given me carte blanche, especially since the government authorized this project,” she stepped towards him with her usual calm tone.

“Not for long,” he retorted, “you have one more week Mrs. Williams, the clock is ticking. And since she doesn't have any authorization at the moment, I won't grant her access into this room.”

“Then I guess I'll have to ask Captain Gallo,” she crossed her arms. “See, he was the one who helped us get started with this project and I'm sure he would authorize this young lady in a heartbeat.”

The Colonel exhaled angrily, his jaw was clenched in frustration and you smiled to yourself.

“Fine,” he said through gritted teeth “You have my permission.”

6 days later

Staring at the portal, the inscripted characters on dark metal and stone looked so similar to something you had seen before, but also so different. You felt intimidated by that object, almost in awe, it was as if it gave off vibrations within the room, as if it wanted to give you clues to solve that riddle that had been keeping you and the rest of the team awake for days.

“Morning guys,” Elizabeth walked into the research lab with a box of donuts, “I brought something to eat.”

“Thanks,” you beamed at her as you took a glazed donut from the container. “I really needed something with sugar.”

“How is the research going?”

“Bad,” Linda, one of the members of the team, shook her head, “no matches whatsoever.”

“Is that so?” Elizabeth turned to you, her expression somber.

“Yeah,” you sighed, “even if the inscriptions look familiar to us, when comparing them to all the material we have available, we found no similarities. We’re missing something and tomorrow is the last day.”

“I’m gonna ask for a permit extension, I'm sure they'll grant it to me,” she stroked your back, comforting you.

“I found another reference!” Linda squealed with excitement “Shall we start with the comparison?”

“Absolutely,” you rushed to her side and took a seat on the corner of her desk, looking at the monitor of her computer.

The documents she had just found showed incredible similarities, and referred to an engraved metal fragment found a few months earlier in the Atacama Desert.

“These three symbols are exactly the same ones of the central row!” you exclaimed, not believing your eyes.

Linda nodded, then gulped, “They also say here that they found out some symbols represent a stylized version of constellations, and that this type of metal is not…”

“Terrestrial,” you added as you kept on reading the description under one of the pictures.

Mrs. Williams looked at the both of you with a proud smile, then she walked over to the other desk and dialed a number on the phone.

“Captain, we finally found a match for the inscriptions.”

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lady-wallace · 3 years ago

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Whumptober Day 27: JJBA

Fugo angst today! This is a pre-series fic when it was just Bruno and Fugo.

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Day 27: I’m Fine. I Prom...

Prompts Used: passing out | vertigo | collapse

Fandom: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 5

Character: Fugo

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Read on Ao3

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You can also find me on:

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Fugo shuffled through the last of the documents, making notes, and stacking them neatly to the side for Bucciarati to sign tomorrow—well, actually in about an hour, Fugo realized. He had been working all night long, trying to keep himself distracted. He never slept well—too many nightmares, but there was more to worry about now that he had people counting on him.

While Fugo may have passed Polpo's lighter test, the fact that his Stand was practically unusable had left him feeling somewhat obsolete and useless. Even though Bucciarati assured him that he would eventually get to know his Stand and be better equipped to use it, Fugo could hardly bear to look at the horrific creature, let alone try to figure out what to do with it. Purple Haze reminded him too much of what he felt like, what he truly was on the inside. This horrible, toxic disappointment who ruined everything he touched. He'd warned Bucciarati of that too, but the young man seemed insistent in taking Fugo on despite that.

Which was why Fugo was determined to be useful in some way. He knew Bucciarati had a huge workload, too much for one person, really, and today he'd come back so late from the meeting with Polpo and looked so tired that Fugo had decided to stay up and do the paperwork for him so he wouldn't have to deal with that tomorrow and nothing would be late.

He hadn't realized it would take all night, but it didn't really matter. He actually enjoyed it. It was better this, keeping his mind busy, than lying in bed plagued by nightmares that made him feel like he wanted to claw his skin off.

So, when Bucciarati stumbled out of bed, rubbing his eyes to try and pretend to be awake, Fugo had already made tea and coffee for them, figuring he might as well stay up the rest of the time.

"You finished all of this?" Bucciarati asked, bewildered as he looked at the considerable stack of papers on his desk.

"Yes," Fugo replied. "They are only awaiting your signature. I took notes on everything and I'll share that with you over breakfast if you would like so you don't have to read through them yourself."

Bucciarati looked completely shocked, but he gave Fugo a grateful smile. "You have no idea how helpful this is, Fugo. Thank you."

Fugo ducked his head but felt a warm, unfamiliar something shifting in his chest. Praise. For something he did purposefully to help someone. Someone that he genuinely looked up to. This was new. And Fugo decided he didn't mind the feeling.

However, he wasn't so stupid as to think it would last. He was sure that Bucciarati would only start to expect more and more of him until eventually nothing would be good enough. That was how it always went. But that was okay. Fugo was used to that and until that time, he would enjoy the feeling while it lasted.

XXX

"Fugo, could you please run an errand for me?" Bucciarati asked.

Fugo looked up, slightly groggy from a terrible night's sleep. Well, 'sleep' was perhaps inaccurate as he hadn't done much of that, getting up to work in the office halfway through the night after only horrid nightmares plagued him.

But he was always willing to do something when Bucciarati asked.

"Of course," he said.

"Thank you, I need you to take these to Signore Gallo. You know where his business is?"

Fugo nodded, and took the letters. He would have to go to the other side of town for this, but it was fine. These days, he was looking for anything to distract him—and distract Bucciarati from getting him to train with his Stand. Just the thought of looking at it made him want to vomit.

He delivered the letters and by that time it was around noon. His stomach growled sickly. He realized then that he had missed breakfast, having only a cup of tea, and he hadn't actually eaten that much the night before either. Fugo couldn't recall how many meals he'd missed within the last couple weeks. Certainly, with all the things he and Bucciarati had to do, it was rare they got to sit down for three meals a day, but Fugo had missed more considering his eagerness to work, or, on his worse days, his hiding away in his room at night when everything was done. On those nights, Bucciarati always left him a plate of food, but he always forgot about it the next day.

In the back of his mind, he knew this wasn't sustainable behavior, but he didn't know how to correct it, and, frankly, he didn't have time.

He promised himself he would eat something when he got back to the apartment.

Unfortunately, the second he was back, Bucciarati was already heading out the door, looking grim.

"What happened?" Fugo asked.

"There's a couple people who didn't pay protection this month. Polpo asked me to go make sure they do."

Fugo swallowed hard, knowing well enough what that meant. He'd gone on one of these missions before, and had been somewhat shocked at the cold interior Bucciarati possessed when he needed it, seeming far more seasoned than his young age would imply.

"You don't have to come," Bucciarati told him then, more quietly.

But Fugo blanched. "No! You'll need backup. This is part of the job, right?"

Bucciarati gave him a look Fugo couldn't quite read, but he nodded and the two of them left without a word, climbing into the car they were using currently.

The first one thankfully went without a hitch, the man simply handing over the money, claiming he had forgotten what time of the month it was. The second one though, did not take as kindly to them showing up, or to Bucciarati's threats.

"If Polpo thinks he can send a whelp and an actual child here to shake me down, he can climb his fat ass over here himself," the man growled.

Fugo bristled, but Bucciarati stepped into the man's personal space, eyes dark.

"Signore, I would suggest you do not insult my capo. Moreover, I am here in his place, and because of that I carry his authority. You should be grateful that he allows you to pay protection. I don't think you would like to find out what would happen if you didn't."

"I don't have the damn money," the man snarled. "Come back next week."

"I'm afraid I cannot do that," Bucciarati said. "Pay now, or lose Polpo's business."

"Good riddance," the man spat.

"I will pass on your message then. Enjoy your business for as long as it lasts."

They turned and left, but Fugo heard a shift behind them.

"Hold on a second."

Something grabbed for him, a hand snagging the back of his coat, and Fugo froze, horrid memories surfacing, ones he tried so, so hard to push down.

Purple Haze burst out with a wretched scream and Fugo watched Bucciarati stagger back from reaching out to help Fugo, eyes wide with shock.

The man screamed, the sound soon becoming garbled as Purple Haze grabbed him around the throat and infected him with the toxin. Fugo could only watch as the man melted before his eyes into a horrid puddle.

Fugo was breathing heavily, trying to even fathom what he did.

"Fugo," he heard Bucciarati's calm voice through the pounding in his ears.

He took another shuddering breath, dizziness suddenly assaulting him as he swayed on his feet.

Purple Haze thankfully vanished, and Fugo felt like something had released its hold on him. If it wasn't for the fact that he knew it had just been his own Stand, he probably would have thought he was possessed.

"Fugo? Let's get outside," Bucciarati said, still calm, opening the door.

Fugo took another deep breath and turned, slowly moving toward the door as if he were under water.

Bucciarati had already pulled out his phone and was calling someone, probably for a clean-up. Fugo just stood there, still not knowing what to do, his hands were shaking, he felt sick and light-headed.

"Thank you," Bucciarati said and slipped his phone back into his pocket. "Fugo, we need to go report this to Polpo before he hears it from someone else. You understand?"

Fugo felt the nausea cramp his stomach as he realized exactly what he had done. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"No, he attacked you first. You did what was expected," Bucciarati assured him.

But Fugo was shaking his head, still trying to figure out where he was. Bucciarati didn't approach him, but he did duck his head slightly to get a better look at his face. "Are you okay? Fugo?"

"I—I'm fine," Fugo said, but his voice was weak and he was feeling light-headed again. Another wave of dizziness crashed over him and he swayed.

"Fugo!"

Bucciarati's worried voice was the last thing he had heard before he felt himself falling, a hard impact slamming him into the darkness completely.

XXX

Fugo woke to someone pressing something to his forehead and then felt fingers removing his tie and loosening his collar.

Terror spiked through him and he reached up, grabbing the wrist attached to the hand, eyes flying open.

"It's all right, it's just me, just Bruno," Bucciarati's voice filtered in, despite the fact that Fugo's sight was swimming until he blinked and got a breath in. "I'm just making sure you can breathe."

Fugo took a shuddering breath and finally his eyes cleared, seeing they were back in the apartment. He was lying on the couch and Bucciarati was kneeling beside it, a wet cloth held in one hand.

"What…?" he murmured, trying to recall what happened.

"You passed out after Purple Haze took out that man," Bucciarati told him, reaching out to lay the cloth over Fugo's forehead again, the cool feeling helping to ease some of the headache pounding behind his eyes. "Was it very overwhelming to summon your Stand or, was it…everything else?"

"I…I don't know," Fugo swallowed hard, not wanting to talk about it.

Bucciarati reached for a glass of water and helped prop Fugo's head up to drink. He gulped down the water, realizing then just how thirsty he was.

"Easy," Bucciarati said. "You might make yourself sick."

Fugo's stomach gurgled and he flushed in embarrassment, pressing a hand over his belly, hoping to quell the nausea.

"Are you hungry?" Bucciarati asked with his eyebrows pinched. "You didn't eat anything today, did you?"

Fugo glanced away, but shook his head.

"Did you eat last night?"

"A little," Fugo murmured.

Bucciarati sat back on his heels. "I have noticed that sometimes you don't eat the food I leave for you. Are you eating much at all, Fugo? Because, if I'm being honest, you're looking a little thin. I couldn't help but notice that when I carried you in here."

Fugo didn't know what to say. This was such a stupid conversation that they really shouldn't've had to have. He should know that he needs to eat.

And yet…he had been neglecting that. As well as sleep. It's no wonder a little adrenaline had sent him over the edge.

Bucciarati silently got up and returned a few moments later with a bowl of heated up soup and crackers.

"You might not feel up to eating, but you need to try to get something into your stomach," he insisted.

Fugo pushed himself into a sitting position, mostly not dizzy anymore. He carefully wrapped his hands around the bowl and drank some of the broth. It was hard at first, but after a few sips, his stomach got used to having food in it and by the time he was done, he was warm and felt better.

Bucciarati sat on the coffee table. "I know I forget sometimes too. I have a bad habit of getting busy, not sleeping—I think we're both a lot like that." He smiled wryly. "But just because we have a lot of work, doesn't mean we need to run ourselves into the ground. While it's still only the two of us, let's share the work equally. That means no more working through the night. For either of us."

"I know, I just…I want to be useful," Fugo admitted tiredly.

"Fugo," Bucciarati told him firmly. "You do not have to earn your keep here with me. I value your intelligence above all else. You help me every day just by being here. Take your time to learn about your Stand and if anyone pushes you to do differently, I will have a word with them personally."

Fugo felt that swell of warm gratitude wash through him again and this time, he didn't allow himself to be jaded about it. Bucciarati was not like his parents. Not like everyone else who expected everything from him and when he gave it, only wanted more. He had never had a real friend before, but he thought he could call Bucciarati that. He had a feeling that Bucciarati would never expect more from him than he knew he could give. There was a reason he was the only person in the world who made Fugo feel safe.

"Thank you," he found himself saying sincerely.

"Of course, Pannacotta," Bucciarati said softly, using his given name.

Fugo promised himself then that he would do better. Better by himself, and in that way, he would also be able to do better by Bucciarati.

#whumptober2021 #no.27 #i'm fine i prom...#passing out #vertigo #collapse #jojo's bizarre adventure #jjba part 5 #vento aureo #fanfiction #pannacotta fugo #bruno bucciarati #poor sleeping and eating habits #angst #hurt/comfort #fugo whump #parental bucciarati

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thehungrykat1 · 3 years ago

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Chili’s Philippines Celebrates 25 Years With New Menu and Promotions

Chili’s Philippines is celebrating its 25th anniversary in the country with a series of exciting promotions and a new menu that promises an even more flavorful dining experience. Get ready to taste five new items that will surely entice you to keep coming back for more.

Chili’s is of the country’s most well-loved restaurants and I always enjoy eating here with my friends, especially when they have their unlimited Margarita offers. They will be releasing new promos and giveaways every month for the entire 2022 so it will be a whole-year celebration. I visited Chili’s Greenbelt last week with my friends to check out these new items and to see how the restaurant has thrived even during the pandemic.

Chili’s continues to offer its distinct mix of Southwestern-inspired and classic American and international flavors. With more than 1600 locations in over 32 countries and 14 branches in the Philippines, Chili’s continues to be a popular hangout spot for families, friends, and anyone looking for good food and a relaxing venue.

The Greenbelt 5 branch is one of the most popular Chili’s locations in the city, especially with its big al fresco dining area overlooking the busy Greenbelt shopping and dining areas. Those who are still not fully confident dining out can choose a more secure spot with their spacious outdoor seating.

The last time I dined here at Chili’s Greenbelt was three years ago before the pandemic, so I was really happy to see how everything is almost getting back to normal.

To celebrate their 25th anniversary, we ordered a few cocktails to liven up the afternoon. The Strawberry Vodka Margarita (P340) comes with Absolut Blue Vodka, Cointreau Orange Liqueur, house-made fresh lime sour, and strawberry purée. I also tried the Tequila Red Sangria (P320) with its Red wine and 1800 Tequila shaken with organic agave nectar, triple sec, and fresh lime juice then topped with 7UP.

One of their ongoing promotions this year is Tipsy Nights. Guests can enjoy a Buy One, Take One deal on Chili’s Pomegranate Margarita available all day, everyday.

We started our lunch with some Classic Nachos (P450). These crispy nachos are topped with melted cheese blend, jalapeños, beans, queso and a hint of seasoned beef. They are served with house-made pico de gallo and sour cream.

The Triple Dipper (P625) is also a good appetizer for the entire table. You can choose any three items from among Original Chicken Crispers, Signature Wings, Southwestern Eggrolls, Onion Rings, or Calamari.

Now here are the five new items on the menu at Chili’s Philippines. First is the Salsa Bacon Pasta (P450) with its penne pasta tossed in spice tomato and cream sauce. This tasty treat is then topped with bacon, cheese blend, southwest Cajun spice, and house-made pico and cilantro.

The Green Chile Chicken Enchilada (P520) is another interesting new item. It comes with shredded chicken, green chile sauce, cheese, corn salsa, cilantro, house-made pico, black beans and Chili’s rice. This one has a more tex-mex cuisine feel to it and should offer diners some new flavors to explore.

One of my favorites that afternoon was the Ancho Chile Salmon (P740) with its seared chile-rubbed salmon, spicy citrus-chile sauce, cilantro, and white queso. It is served with Chili’s rice and steamed fresh veggies to complete the healthy and refreshing meal.

Burger lovers will surely enjoy Alex’s Santa Fe Burger (P520). This is the creation of their own Chef Alex who crafted this beautiful burger with avocado, Swiss cheese, red onion, roasted jalapeños, tomato, pickles, cilantro & spicy Sante Fe sauce. It comes with french fries on the side.

They saved the best for last because the Beef Tenderloin Steak (P895) is definitely my favorite among the new items. I am a certified steak lover so I obviously enjoyed this 8 oz. US Tenderloin steak served with chimichurri garlic potato and steamed fresh veggies. Chili’s steak and chimichurri sauce is also served on the side.

The new items are great additions to the already jam-packed lineup of flavorful dishes at Chili’s. You can still order your favorites like the Country Fried Steak (P595) with its hand-battered beef steak, mashed potatoes and black pepper gravy served with sweet corn on the cob.

I also love ordering the Beef Salpicao (P825) with its grilled marinated tender steak tips sprinkled with garlic flakes. This is also served with Chili’s rice and steamed fresh veggies.

Then there’s the Cherry Cola Baby Back Ribs (P725-Half Rack). These tender baby back ribs are slow-smoked over pecan wood and basted with a sweet cherry cola glaze. They are served with homestyle fries and grilled corn on the cob.

To cap off our meaty afternoon, we had the High and Mighty Pie (P330) for our dessert. This huge plate has vanilla ice cream piled high over a crushed Oreo cookie crust and drizzled with caramel and hot fudge.

Dexter’s birthday week was made more special when the Chili’s crew offered him his own Molten Chocolate Cake (P395) accompanied with a birthday greeting. This warm chocolate cake comes with chocolate fudge filling and is topped with a big scoop of Vanilla ice cream covered in a crunchy chocolate shell.

Here’s another exciting giveaway from Chili’s! Get a chance to win P2,500 worth of gift certificates by simply posting a photo of you and your go-to Chili's dessert or drink this summer from April 15 - 25, 2022. There will be new giveaways each month so follow their Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok accounts (@chilis_philippines) so you can join. Congratulations Chili’s Philippines for 25 delicious years and here’s to another 25 exciting years ahead.

Chili’s Philippines

2/F Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center, Makati

www.chilisphilippines.com

www.facebook.com/ChilisPhilippines

#ChilisPhilippines #Chilisph #Chilis #NewMenu #Tenderloin #Steak #Salmon #ChilisGreenbelt #Chilisphat25

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wine-porn · 3 years ago

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Elected

Here’s a wine that stumps a lot of people. Flagship cab or BDX-blend from a well-marketed producer, relatively inexpensive, and yet you almost NEVER see it. There’s a few others which come to mind… Clos Du Bois Marlstone, Kenwood Artist Series, Chateau Souverain Signature, J. Lohr Cuvee Series, the late Villa Mt. Eden Grand Reserve, Gallo Signature, Ferrari-Carano Tresor, and on and on.…

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#2005 #Artist Series #Élu #Bordeaux Blend #Cabernet Sauvignon #Meritage #Napa Valley #Napa Valley Wine #Red blend #Red Wine #Saint Supery #St. Supery #St. Supery Elu #Stephen McConnell Wine Blog #Steve McConnell Wine Blog #wine1percent

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treehuggersanonymous · 6 years ago

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Tig Notaro: Ask a Grown Woman

One of our favorite women graciously agreed to let you know what she's really thinking.

BY ESQUIRE EDITORS AND TIG NOTARO APR 17, 2015

GROWN-WOMAN QUALIFICATIONS:

Sarah Silverman's favorite comedian and the woman who gave what Louis C. K. calls "one of the greatest stand-up performances I ever saw" appears on the Amazon series Transparent and stars in Knock, Knock It's Tig Notaro on Showtime (premiering April 17) and the weekly podcast "Professor Blastoff." The forty-four-year-old Grammy nominee's album Live is available on iTunes.

Are there more experiences unique to being a woman than to being a man? Is that why men don't seem to want to watch movies about women?

To be shut off to an entire demographic based on different genitalia and different experiences seems a tad archaic to me. I don't have men in my life who are like, I can't watch a movie about a woman. For the love of Pete, step outside of yourself for one second and watch Mary Poppins.

What happens if we're dating and you realize you look like my mother?

It makes sense that people are drawn to features that are similar to their parents'. But it also is understandable if that is repulsive to you. If you are dating your mother's doppelganger and you're ruled by your mother's existence, you're probably not headed down the sexiest path in life with your partner. And I am apparently your partner.

Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Warren?

Why do we have to choose between two amazing women in business skirts? But the more I listen to speeches by Elizabeth Warren, the more I believe that someone in politics is actually for the greater good.

How do bra sizes work?

My mother bought my first few bras, and I wore them until they looked like rodents nested in them, which, honestly, might have been the case. As I got older, my girlfriends would buy bras for me. I still, to this day, cannot tell you my bra size. I don't know what it ever was, other than tiny. Now, having had breast cancer and a double mastectomy, my chest is that of a seven-year-old's, so I officially made it through life never knowing how bra sizes work, yet have managed to live a very happy and fulfilling life.

Why do we have to pretend not to be interested in you at first?

If you're old enough to afford a subscription to Esquire, you should probably reevaluate your tactics. If somebody was being withholding or pretending not to be into me—which is nearly impossible—I'd think that they were insecure and silly.

Is it enough to be able to cook one signature dish?

If you can only do one thing, make it interesting. And if you don't have anything, here's mine: a plate full of raw spinach and a plain baked potato filled with pico de gallo—not salsa, pico de gallo. Cut up avocados and place those around the dish, then put balsamic vinaigrette on there as well. And make sure you get a little piece of everything in each bite.

What is the ideal length of time for sex to last?

The entire relationship, breaking only for snacks.

What can we do better?

I can say with all confidence that the guys in my life are really nailing it. But everybody, male or female, needs to possess qualities that they expect others to uphold. Being aware of yourself and your actions allows you to assess your shortcomings in an honest way. Because aside from myself, everyone can always do a little better.

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/interviews/a34457/tig-notaro-ask-a-grown-woman/

#tig notaro #esquire #ask a grown woman #found this while looking for her spinach baked potato recipe lol

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senszio · 7 years ago

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Pitto Uomo: New gentlemen’s style for 2018

Fashion’s hippest convention, The Pitti Imagine Uomo, was the most successful and exhilarating one to date. Held in the dreamy city of Florence, Pitti Uomo attracts outliers and innovators of the fashion world to showcase the new modern look for 2018. This 4 day festival of course includes many fresh ideas and sharp fabrics for Men’s Wear.

Gentlemen’s Suits

Men’s wear took a sigh of relief in Pitti Uomo 93. Suits had a nomad feel to them, with relaxed silhouettes. A reflection of the bustling world we work in, designer’s have all decided we needed a holiday. Gabriele Pasini introduced a series of Flannel suits, trying to revive the Safari Cloak to stalk your way through busy streets. PT Pantaloni Torino has also opted for the slow road with vintage brushed wool and Japanese textured cotton. Merino wool still dominated the suits at Pitti Uomo, with Gallo going as far as a tailored set of Merino wool socks. In line with the holiday vibe, the colours have gotten muter, tans and greys are back but with more style than ever before.

Athleisure

The growing trend of Athleisure had made its mark on Pitti Uomo 93. The usual thin and monochrome design was persistent, but some designers took the concept of athlifestyle as the literal future of clothing. Christopher Bevans of dyne has taken technology to clothes with what he calls ‘ultra-contemporary dynamism’ pushing fabric, fit and function to a veritable super suit. Men’s backpacks have sleeked up and have taken on a new aura of classiness and dignity. Examples from Gear3 and Descente Allterrain would make any leather briefcase look stuffy and outdated.

Finland - Pitti Uomo 93

Finland was the guest country for Pitti Uomo this year bringing the best Scandinavian designers to display their Nordic style. One of Finland’s most critically acclaimed designers, Julia Männistö, showcased her signature powerful silk screen printing and innovative surface designs. Others in this vibrant renaissance of Nordic fashion include Saint Vacant’s pop coloured men’s shoes and CHPO Brand’s watches. While classic interpretations of the bleak wintery Nordic look like the men’s trench coat from Nomen Nescio, purveyors of Finnish minimalism, still reared it’s stoic head.

The January Pitti Uomo is always a precursor to what we will be seeing in the years to come. The next event will be held in June and we will see what styles have stuck. However, the overall sense of relaxation, minimalism and spiritfulness has a clear message, 2018 is a time to relax and unwind.

#senszio #bespoke #customtailoring #modern style

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wineanddinosaur · 4 years ago

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Clarete: The Most Fascinating Pink Wine You’ve Never Heard of — and How to Get It

In the Spain of the Middle Ages, centuries before the country’s boom of barrel-aged reds, there was a pink wine drunk in copious amounts called clarete. Over time, it fell to obscurity and those who aren’t Spaniards or scholars of obscure wine may not have heard of this historic style. And yet, while this sounds like the start of a vinous fairy tale, there’s a surprise twist: These are wines you can buy today for around $20 — and you’ll be thrilled that you did.

I recently tried my first clarete, the Finca Torremilanos Ojo de Gallo from Ribera del Duero. It had ripe red cherry aromas with orange peel and a touch of lime. It was fresh and juicy with tart acidity and a subtle tannic grip. I was completely enamored. My fellow American, James Dillman, sommelier at Michelin-starred Spanish restaurant Casa Mono in New York City, is also new to this elusive juice. For him, tasting the wine for the first time brought a “complexity that I’ve never experienced before.”

Native to northern Spain, primarily Ribero del Duero and Cigales, clarete is a wine that exists within its own distinct category. It’s not a red, a white, or a rosé — it is clarete.

While the wine resembles a light red or dark rosé, it’s made in a way that’s not quite either. Clarete is a blend of red and white grapes. The grapes tend to be grown on old vines, and the juice is co-fermented on its skins like a traditional red wine. Typical clarete varietals are Tempranillo and Viura, but Garnacha, Bobal, Albillo, Malvasia, and other grapes can also be part of the concoction.

To those not versed in clarete, it presents an intriguing — even exotic — style that many wine drinkers can appreciate, especially fans of rosé, chillable reds, skin-contact whites, and glou glou styles. But the thing about clarete is it’s not just another quaffable rosé-like field blend. It’s treated like a more serious wine, carefully fermented for structure and aged in barrel or on its lees for complexity.

“You get some texture from it as well, you get a little of those tannins sometimes, too, from it depending on how long it macerates, which is really cool to see on a rosé,” Dillman says.

Elizabeth Gabay, MW, author of “Rosé: Understanding the Pink Wine Revolution,” elaborates on the many appealing dimensions of clarete. “It has weight, it has a little bit of tannin that you could hold together with a little bit of oak,” she says. “With Ribero del Duero and Cigales being high-altitude vineyards, they often have that lovely fresh acidity.”

Gabay also emphasizes the unique character of the white and red grape blend. In addition to the tart red berry notes from the red grapes, “one thing that makes them quite interesting is because they often use Albillo that gives it a little bit of floral character, which is rather nice,” Gabay says. “The range of grapes is enormous that they can use, so there are a lot of different styles.”

Clarete’s Deep Roots

Clarete is widely speculated to be the original pink wine, long before the term rosé was thrown in the mix. “There’s no way of absolutely proving which style was first,” Gabay says. “It is open for interpretation and it’s my interpretation that clarete was the original.”

While the exact origins of clarete are unknown, early history points to a peasant wine made in small, underground wineries dating back to more than 1,000 years. Its lore is largely a word-of-mouth legacy surrounding this style of wine that used to be ubiquitous in northern Spain and parts of France.

Whether or not it was clarete’s place of origin, clarete is the original wine of Spain’s Ribero del Duero, says Vicente Peñalba, an owner of Finca Torremilanos, Ribera del Duero’s second-oldest winery, founded in 1903. “People didn’t use to produce red wines in this region,” he explains. “They used to blend red and white varieties in order to make light red wines for people to drink.”

Dating back to the 12th century, there are some 10 miles of underground wineries that have been documented in Aranda de Duero, the Ribero del Duero province where Finca Torremilanos is located, Peñalba says. Each underground cellar, or lagar, was where winemaking families would press, blend, ferment, and age all the red and white grapes they had co-fermented in large 1,000- to 2,000-liter barrels. These were easy-drinking, fresh, and light wines meant to be consumed all within their current vintage to make way for the next year’s harvest.

Clarete wines are also interesting from a viticultural perspective. Each family made a signature wine from a specific blend of grapes. These grapes didn’t just get fermented together; they were actually co-planted together, which was a common growing practice before the Industrial Revolution.

Clarete in the Modern Day

Clarete wines languished in the mid-20th century as Spanish wine regions looked to capitalize on market trends, focusing on big reds. In the early 1980s when the Ribero del Duero appellation was officially established, the push for big red wines was so strong that white wine production wasn’t even allowed under the appellation’s regulations. This sparked the removal of a lot of old white grape vines. “They took out some that were 80, 90 years old, and they were great vines, but they took them away to plant Tempranillo,” Peñalba says.

These days, clarete is enjoying a small comeback, with spectacular examples produced across northern Spain, including Ribero del Duero, Rioja, Navarra, and with the most concentration in Cigales. “I think more winemakers right now are taking that risk of making what they actually want; making something that they want to drink,” Dillman says. A perfect example of this is Peñalba’s family’s Finca Torremilanos Ojo de Gallo. “My brother created this wine because it was an opportunity to bring us back to our origins,” says Peñalba. After all, clarete was the first and only wine made by Finca Torremilanos in its early days. And after all these years, it continues to surprise and delight.

5 CLARETE WINES TO TRY

Finca Torremilanos, Ojo de Gallo, Ribero del Duero

This biodynamic winery’s clarete is a blend of Tempranillo, Viura, Albillo, Garnacha, Bobal, Cariñena, Monastrel, and Malvasía from three different 100-year-old vineyards in Ribero del Duero. The grapes are co-fermented in concrete with natural yeasts and the wine is aged in used barrels for 8 to 9 months. No sulphites are added. The Ojo de Gallo has ripe juicy red cherry aromas with red apple, orange peel, and a touch of lime. It’s super fresh with tart acidity and a subtle tannic grip. Average price: $21

Dominio del Aguila, Picaro, Ribera del Duero

Casa Mono sommelier Dillman says “the Picaro is probably my favorite one right now. I think it’s super complex.” This field blend of Tempranillo, Albillo, Garnacha, and Bobal ferments whole-cluster in oak vats with indigenous yeasts, then ages in used French and American oak for 16 months. Its pairing possibilities are expansive and Dillman recommends trying it with crudo, grilled pork, steak tartare, and salmon. Average price: $30

Bodegas Honorio, Lias Finas Clarete, Cordovin, Rioja

Clarete is the flagship style wine of Bodegas Honorio in Rioja and what defines the family winery. Clarete has a long tradition in the Cordovin province of Rioja and winemaker Honorio Rubio celebrates and preserves its legacy. There are three tiers of Honorio wine collections, and the Lias Finas Clarete, made of 60 percent Viura and 40 percent Garnacha, is part of the limited- edition, small-production series made biodynamically. Average Price: $16

Bodegas Hiriart, Elite Rosado, Cigales

Clarete was produced in the first iteration of this historic winery 250 years ago in an underground cellar. Today, the original cave remains restored underneath the new Bodegas Hiriart winery, led by winemaker Patricia Práganos. The Elite Rosado is a blend of Tempranillo and Verdejo from the property’s oldest vineyard, which is 92 years old. Average price: $13

Sortevera, Clarete, Canary Islands

Proof that clarete survives outside of northern Spain, this bottle is a blend of native Canary Islands red and white grapes. Sortevera is practicing organic, uses indigenous yeasts, and their wines have a trademark volcanic minerality and salinity. Average price: $17

The article Clarete: The Most Fascinating Pink Wine You’ve Never Heard of — and How to Get It appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/clarete-spanish-wine-guide/

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johnboothus · 4 years ago

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Clarete: The Most Fascinating Pink Wine Youve Never Heard of and How to Get It

Native to northern Spain, primarily Ribero del Duero and Cigales, clarete is a wine that exists within its own distinct category. It’s not a red, a white, or a rosé — it is clarete.

“You get some texture from it as well, you get a little of those tannins sometimes, too, from it depending on how long it macerates, which is really cool to see on a rosé,” Dillman says.

Clarete’s Deep Roots

Clarete in the Modern Day

5 CLARETE WINES TO TRY

Finca Torremilanos, Ojo de Gallo, Ribero del Duero

Dominio del Aguila, Picaro, Ribera del Duero

Bodegas Honorio, Lias Finas Clarete, Cordovin, Rioja

Bodegas Hiriart, Elite Rosado, Cigales

Sortevera, Clarete, Canary Islands

The article Clarete: The Most Fascinating Pink Wine You’ve Never Heard of — and How to Get It appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/clarete-spanish-wine-guide/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/clarete-the-most-fascinating-pink-wine-youve-never-heard-of-and-how-to-get-it

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caveartfair · 6 years ago

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How Graciela Iturbide Became One of Mexico’s Greatest Photographers

Autorretrato en mi casa, México D.F., México, 1974. Graciela Iturbide Ruiz-Healy Art

“I’m not magical realism, Surrealism, nothing like that. I’m Graciela Iturbide,” the photographer stated in a 2017 video. Considered one of the greatest contemporary photographers of Mexico, her home country, and of all of Latin America, Iturbide rejects the label of magical realism for her work. “No, magical realism you invented for García Márquez, Vargas Llosa, for the ‘boom’ of literature, and to be able to better sell books,” she continued. As an artist, she hopes to be defined simply as herself.

In a career spanning over 50 years, and with photographs from her beloved Mexico, as well as India, Argentina, Cuba, and the United States, Iturbide became known for black-and-white images that raise documentary photography to a poetic plane. Her images are only magical realism in that they capture the magic of what exists in front of us, or in places we have not yet seen. A new exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, entitled “Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico,” features 125 of Iturbide’s images from her five decades in photography.

Lagarto (Alligator), Juchitan, Oaxaca, 1986. Graciela Iturbide Etherton Gallery

El Gallo (The Rooster), Juchitán, Oaxaca, 1986. Graciela Iturbide Etherton Gallery

Iturbide grew up as the oldest of 13 children in a Roman Catholic family, and she was first exposed to photography by her father, who photographed her and her siblings. Iturbide had hoped to be a writer, but due to her family’s conservatism, she wasn’t allowed. That desire for lyricism appears in her pictures instead. “What I essentially look for everywhere is poetry,” she once said.

Iturbide married at 19, and in three years, she had three children; her second child, Claudia, passed away at just six years old. Shortly after, she and her husband divorced, and a distraught Iturbide returned to school at Mexico’s Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos. She studied cinematography, hoping to become a film director, but her family did not approve. “They are bishops and archbishops and you can imagine what I am to them: the crazy one who studies film and gets divorced,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 2017. But soon, Iturbide met professor Manuel Álvarez Bravo, one of the defining photographers of both modernism and 20th-century Latin America. “He was not just a photography teacher. He was a teacher of life,” she said in a video for MFA Boston. “Above all, he taught me that I had to have time.” From 1970 to ’71, Iturbide was his achichincle, his work assistant, and with him, she began to explore more parts of Mexico.

Mujer Ángel, Desierto de Sonora (Angel of the Desert), Mexico, 1979. Graciela Iturbide Etherton Gallery

Towards the end of the decade, Iturbide began photographing the indigenous communities of Mexico, commissioned by the Ethnographic Archive of the National Indigenous Institute of Mexico in 1978. She met the Seri people of the Sonoran desert, forming a rapport with their community. It was there that she made one of her most famous images, Mujer Ángel (1979), or “Angel Woman.” In the photograph, a Seri woman walks near the area’s caves, long dark hair at her back and a boombox at her side, her skirts frozen in motion. “For me, this photograph represents the transition between their traditional way of life, and the way capitalism has changed it,” Iturbide told The Guardian in 2012. “I liked the fact that they were autonomous and hadn’t lost their traditions, but had taken what they needed from American culture.” Iturbide has acknowledged the image as one of her best photographs. It also later became the cover of rock band Rage Against the Machine’s single “Vietnow” in 1996.

In 1979, Mexican painter Francisco Toledo invited her to photograph the people of Juchitán, a city in southeast Oaxaca. Artists like Sergei Eisenstein, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Diego Rivera, and Tina Modotti had traveled to the city for inspiration in the 1930s, and Toledo was trying to revive the the city as an artists’ destination. Iturbide accepted, and the city eventually became like a second home to her; she would live there for weeks at a time making images. It was in Juchitán that Iturbide met the Zapotec women, who ran the local community and economy. Inspired by their independence, Iturbide photographed in Juchitán on and off between 1979 and 1988, releasing a monograph entitled Juchitán de las Mujeres in 1989.

Nuestra Señora de las Iguanas. Juchitán, México, 1979. Graciela Iturbide Rafael Ortiz

Perhaps Iturbide’s most famous image, Nuestra Señora de las Iguanas (1979), or “Our Lady of the Iguanas,” is a portrait of a Juchitán woman wearing a crown of iguanas on her head. The image became one of the town’s most famous identifiers, inspired a statue there, and eventually became one of the country’s most iconic images. The photograph is also placed on road signs in the city, as well as on bottles of Mezcal (without Iturbide’s permission), and has been the subject of murals in Los Angeles.

Flatlands, Highway 82: From Abbeyville to Intracostal City, Louisiana, 1997. Graciela Iturbide ROSEGALLERY

Cristina tomando fotos en Los Angeles, 1986. Graciela Iturbide ROSEGALLERY

Halcón, territorio de los seminoles, Florida, USA,, 1999. Graciela Iturbide ROSEGALLERY

Sin Titulo, White Fence, East LA, 1986. Graciela Iturbide ROSEGALLERY

Untitled, Delhi, India, 1998. Graciela Iturbide ROSEGALLERY

During this time, Iturbide established a style for herself: Her signature high-contrast, black-and-white images brought a sense of the extraordinary to the mundane. She gave a voice to communities that were often ignored, but moved beyond reportage, sharing the richness of their cultures. This led to more commissioned work around the world. “As an artist you need to move on, you need to try new things,” she once said. “I can’t take pictures of Juchitán and Juchitán over and over again. And in the end, photography for me is just an excuse to get to know the world.” Iturbide had her first international solo exhibition at Centre Pompidou in Paris in 1982; since then, her work has been exhibited in solo shows at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the J. Paul Getty Museum, among others.

El baño de Frida (corset en el estante), Coyoacán, México, 2006. Graciela Iturbide Ruiz-Healy Art

Iturbide’s MFA Boston show will be run concurrently with the museum’s “Frida Kahlo and Arte Popular” exhibition beginning on February 27th. It’s fitting that the two women will exhibit alongside each other, not just because they are among Mexico’s most important artists, but because Iturbide was allowed to photograph Kahlo’s bathroom in Casa Azul after it had been locked for over 50 years at the order of Diego Rivera, following Kahlo’s death. In a 2009 book called El baño de Frida Kahlo (“Frida Kahlo’s Bathroom”), Iturbide chronicled what Kahlo, who lived with chronic pain, left behind: containers of Demerol, a series of elegant yet confining back braces, a leg brace, a hot water bottle, a stained hospital smock. And yet, as with all of Iturbide’s work, the objects take on haunting austerity, saluting the life of another great Mexican artist in all of its vibrancy and pain. Much like Kahlo, Iturbide has spent a life finding the fantastical amongst the ordinary.

from Artsy News

#Artsy News

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juanrepublic · 8 years ago

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Myosotidium

“What are your hobbies?”, she asked me.

“I write”, I told her with my signature smirk, “I watch movies and TV series, I play the piano, guitar, ukulele, and drums. But I write most of the time”

“I would be happy to read some of your works one of these days.” She smiled as we bump two bottles of ale, while I Wrote My Out from the Hamilton Mixtape plays on the background.

______

Yes, I write. Or I used to. It has been years now since I last wrote a decent entry in my blog. Most of the entries in my blog were copy pasted from Facebook, usually long statuses and my two cents on the movies that I have seen. I may have some articles written and saved on MS Word but most of them are unfinished and I can’t seem to find my mojo to finish them.

I even doubt that my students and colleagues know that I write and I used to be active in my blog, Juan Republic, with more than 35,000 followers.

Perhaps my work as a teacher has taken its toll in my old, er, writer-self.

Earlier this morning, out of boredom, I grabbed my copy of Gerry Alanguilan’s critically-acclaimed graphic novel Elmer. Even though I have repeatedly read and finished that seminal comic book, I still browse and admire its way of telling a story. Perhaps to get an inspiration from chickens.

Yes, chickens. Rational chickens.

And then it came to me. On one part of the story, Elmer Gallo wrote in his diary that one should write because it is important not to forget. That message inspired his son, Jake Gallo, to write a book about the story of his father and the story of how chickens fought for their rights and equality.

It is important not to forget. Back when I was still in School, I used to keep a journal. I wrote there my reflections, dreams, and even those one-paragraph ideas that would eventually be the basis of my full-length article, short story, and other things that are worth writing and publishing (for our school publication, at least).

I had ideas, great ideas. Or to borrow Jake Gallo’s lines, “great ideas that would make great movies.” But they eventually lost just because I forgot it. Because I did not write it. Because I just let them slip past my consciousness.

Sayang naman.

I don’t want to make a promise to myself, or to my blog, or to you, whoever you are who stumbled upon this note, that I would start writing more regularly. I believe that is a slow process of recovery, of getting used to it, of making it a habit.

But for now, write. Write even the smallest things. Write even the craziest one-liners. Write on any medium - on a piece of paper, at the back of the receipt, or at the calendar hanging on your wall.

Write as if no one will read your work. Write for yourself. Write for the universe. Screw your readers. You don’t owe them anything yet.

Write.

Because it is important not to forget.

_________

I look forward to the last days of March (not just because of the sought-after summer vacation, but it is a factor) because it gives me another excuse to oil my rusted gear, wear my writer’s hat, and write about what I learned from the past academic year.

Yes, a deadline and a necessary requirement is enough motivation for me to write – just like the old days of my blog when I hurriedly write a political and social opinion on a hot, current issue before everybody else does.

Enough with the excuses. Here are some of the things I learned from the past year:

1. This is a confession. I admit that when I was at school, when I was the age of my students, I used to despise some of my teachers – especially those who do not teach well. And now that I am a teacher for almost five years, I see my old self with some of my students. And I find it amusing, entertaining, and inspiring. I think that is the secret on understanding our students – by putting ourselves in their shoes. Empathy, if you may call it. Or metaphysical and psycho-emotional transcendence.

I love students who challenge their teachers, who are not afraid to speak up and ask questions. And I am thankful that this school year, I already found some and they are also the reasons why I won’t leave this institution after this school year. I love challenges. And I love to speak with intelligent and brave students.

2. Fight for what you think is right, not for yourself, but for the future generation and the younger ones who look up to you. Even before I became a teacher, I consider myself as a Political Animal. Or a Political Junkie. My conversation with close friends (outside the school, unfortunately) usually ranges from pop culture to politics. But mostly politics. When Ferdinand Marcos was secretly and hurriedly buried at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani, I, together with thousands who know their history, made a statement on social media and made our presence felt.

I even related my examination in Religion about the sacrament of confession and forgiveness in the issue of Martial Law and the Marcos Burial. That’s what I call inclusive learning. Education is being dynamic, being social, being involved.

I may not be a Social Studies teacher (though how I wish I was, given my passion for History and Political Science) but I think it is my responsibility as a teacher – regardless of the subject that I teach – to teach my students proper history, justice, and patriotism based on facts and not idolatry of a particular leader.

And I will continue to do it as long as I teach and inspire the younger generation.

3. Rest, if you must, but don’t quit. Being a teacher is exhausting – from teaching for 8 straight hours inside the classroom plus paperworks and other stuff. We are even called the modern-day martyrs. And sometimes, the thought of leaving this profession for good or just being a Patama teacher who doesn’t even go inside the classroom and teach crossed my mind.

But then I thought of my students, I thought of the young ones who are looking up to me as their teacher and their inspiration. So I decided to carry on. I think the secret of this craft is to use our time wisely (which, I am glad my 8-year stint in the Seminary has taught me), to balance work and other stuff, and to look at the students as an inspiration on everything that we do. At the end of the day, all things will zero in to our students. I vowed to teach them, to be an inspiration, to share my knowledge, talents and skills, to be of service. And that is one hell of a big responsibility.

Who am I to give up and leave the future of the Patria Adorada hanging in mid-air?

4. Pursue your passion. When the Priests asked me to undergo the regency program, I told myself that I will continue to do the thing that I always like – to write, to talk, and to inspire young people. This profession, or shall I say, this vocation is not financially rewarding. I may not get rich by teaching but this dictum has been my mantra for some time now: Choose the job that you want and you don’t have to work for the rest of your life. If I work just for the money, I have long abandoned this institution (sa liit ba naman ng suweldo ko dito). But life is all about happiness, and as long as I am happy with what I am doing, I will still stay on the same ship.

5. The Philosopher Heraclitus once said, “You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.”. Change is inevitable. It is constant. And we must learn to adapt to it.

Life is a constant flux. We welcomed this school year with a new Principal who brought radical change to this Institution. He proposed a 360-degree turn on the usual ways and means of this school. I admit, I was the first who opposed his Gender Section act but then, as I have repeatedly say in the past months, I see the wisdom and improvement in the performance of our students.

If that is what change is all about, if all of them will be to save and uplift this once-respected but slowly-dying Institution, count me in. I am more than willing to give everything.

6. Thank God for everything. This school year has been a blessing for me in all aspects. And I thank the Lord for giving me an opportunity to stay on the institution and to continue to be of service to the young generation.

________________

These are just some of the stories, some of the things that happened this past year that are worth telling. Why write anyway?

Someday, all of these would be replaced with new memories, with new challenges, with new stories that are equally worth telling. We write things to preserve memories. We write things for the future.

But sometimes, just like this, we write just to express ourselves.

And because I do not want to forget.

#personal #LDLB Diaries #reflection #philosophy

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lifestylist · 5 years ago

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Mothers Day Weekend Wines: Gina Gallo Signature Series

What a difference a year makes. Over a year ago I went to Napa Valley for the first time to do the art curating for the new Signature Kitchen Suite Experience and Design Center. I met a charming Frenchman named Jean-Charles Boisset who is the vision behind the Boisset Collection. Since then I have been fortunate enough to get to know him and his incredible wines which has been a real treat.

When I met him he told me about his talented, wife, and twins - “The Ladies.” Gina his wife is also in the wine business and has her own brands. I still haven’t met her, but I was fortunate enough to taste and learn about her wines at TEXSOM including this very special Gallo Signature Series Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. It was love at first taste, and the thought of these two dynamic individuals making wine together would change the wine world. No sign of that happening yet, but today Jean-Charles did one of his Facebook Happy Hours in his own kitchen with Gina and The Ladies. What amazing parents and role models. It was so fun to see the girls in the kitchen with their parents, and they have inherited their parents love of food and the earth.

It seemed only appropriate to share this special wine made by a woman winemaker that is also a mother for Mothers Day.

The Gallo Signature Series “Cherish our traditions and look forward to the future.”The grapes come from their estate vineyards, and third-generation winemaker Gina Gallo truly makes a lasting impression with these. Gallo describes this wine as “A vivid and complex wine, our Gallo Signature Series Cabernet Sauvignon is a beautifully fragrant, penetrating wine. Its rich, vivid fruit flavors include raspberry bramble and concentrated blackberry, which weave through dried herbs and a touch of melted licorice. The assertive tannins melt smoothly into a long, toasty oak finish streaked with Tahitian vanilla. Gina blended the Cabernet grapes with a bit of Petit Verdot and Petit Sirah to enhance the overall structure and add a deep richness to the mouthfeel.

Happy Mothers Day to all of the Moms out there - here’s hoping that you are celebrated and showered with love and great wine!

#mothers day #wines #Napa Valley #Napa Valley Wines #Gallo Wines #Gina Gallo #Family time

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travelonlinetips-blog · 6 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://travelonlinetips.com/regional-queenslands-best-restaurants-worth-the-detour/

Regional Queensland’s best restaurants worth the detour

If you’ve been there, done that, eaten at these legendary restaurants, it’s time to take your taste buds on tour; regional Queensland is calling.

Beyond the capital, you’ll find world-class restaurants hiding among palm-fringed beaches, tropical islands and scenic mountain tops – combining scenery with scrumptious food.

If you’re epicurious about what we’re on about, pack your appetite and seek Queensland’s most awarded restaurants worth driving for.

Wasabi, Noosa

Say ‘konnichiwa’ to Good Food Guide’s (2019) highest ranked regional Queensland restaurant, Wasabi which claimed two hats this year. Two was the lucky number for Wasabi in 2019 as it also been awarded two stars in the Gourmet Traveller‘s Australian Restaurant Guide.

Food miles are sliced down around here much like their sashimi, with this Noosa restaurant growing much of its produce on its own farm on the Sunshine Coast.

The Japanese experience starts with traditional Tatami-style seating and finishes with a seven or nine-course Omakase menu, featuring a series of plates so far from the kind you’d pile up at your local sushi train.

From wild Mooloolaba king prawns cured with house-made mirin and cedar barrel aged soy, blonde miso carrot and asparagus, to Bincho-tan charcoal roasted Banyard quail, with hijiki, burnt lime sato imo and corn, this is the kind of menu that needs a bold flavour warning.

Looking for more places to eat in Noosa? We’ve got you covered with this food and wine lover’s guide to Noosa.

Spirit House, Yandina

We’re not sure if the tropical gates of Spirit House have a Harry Potter-esq magical power, but you won’t be the first person to feel like you’ve apparated from Yandina and into Thailand the second you cross the threshold.

What was once a swamp in Yandina has cemented its place into TripAdvisor’s Top 10 restaurants you must try in Australia – no mean feat for a restaurant 20km from the nearest beach in a destination renowned for its coastline.

If its TripAdvisor pole-position isn’t convincing enough for you, the fact you have to book (often) months in advance shows Spirit House is not just a foodie-favourite among the critics, but us muggles as well. Lending weight to the wait is the coveted one hat from the Good Food Guide (2019).

There’s a special focus on group dining here, and the banquet menu encourages passing your bowl around the table for moreish meals like the hot salmon coconut soup and whole crispy baked fish.

The Fish House, Burleigh Heads

There’s nothing fishy about this seafood saloon, which wears crowns for both its wining and dining with a 2017’s Open Table Diner’s Choice Award and 2015 Gourmet Traveller Australian Wine List of the Year Award. The Fish House is proving it’s not just a flash in the pan taking a single hat and star in the Good Food Guide (2019) and the Gourment Traveller Australian Restaurant Guide (2019).

With water views as good as the menu itself, The Fish House has been savoured by Gold Coast foodies since it opened its bifold doors in 2013.

It’s no surprise though, The Fish House is cut from Simon Gloftis’ cloth, the restaurateur who brought Nobby Beach’s famed Hellenika (and now James Street’s too), which you might have seen in this list of best Gold Coast restaurants. (Simon has since sold The Fish House.)

Whole-cooked fillets make up the bulk of the menu, with everything from Patagonian Toothfish to Petuna Ocean Trout in the lineup – all prepared with the same trawler-to-table philosophy.

Staying on the GC and want more regional flavours? Check out this list for the restaurants and cafes you can’t miss.

Tamarind, Cairns

Not many menus come with a glossary of terms but Tamarind’s encyclopedic menu is one that will require your reading glasses if you want to thoroughly examine what’s on your plate.

Thai food is the main event here, delivered in a low-lit dining room that gives nothing away about the casino (Pullman Reef Hotel Casino) just outside its doors.

From organic Tablelands pork sustainably farmed in a sow stall-free environment to desserts concocted using dairy products by the Italian Gallo family who emigrated here in the 1920’s, the ancestry of every ingredient is traced on Tamarind’s menu.

The pièce de résistance is the Penang Duck Curry, defined by its sweet and spicy sauce of caramelised pumpkin, peanuts, chilli, coriander best poured over scented rice.

Looking for more foodie finds in Cairns? Put your taste buds in transit around Cairns, Port Douglas and the Atherton Tablelands with these guides.

Pebble Beach, Hamilton Island

Just like Olympians, some restaurants are overachievers and Pebble Beach (of qualia fame) could easily be the Michael Phelps of the dining world.

Set inside the award-winning qualia (the 2017 Luxury Travel Magazine Best Australian Romantic Property and Australian Traveller People’s Choice Awards Best Luxury Resort, just to name two of its accolades), the food at Pebble Beach has the same attention to detail as the resort’s interior design.

It’s not just us who think it, Chef Doug Innes-Will has taken out a 2018 Chef’s Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide for his dishes, which could be confused for works of art.

Can’t decide what to have? Let chef decide with a signature six-course tasting menu that plays out across four-hours, showcasing the best of North Queensland’s produce (including plenty grown in the Whitsunday region itself).

With an inevitable food coma served with each sitting, you’ll have plenty of cause for activities from our 48 Hours on Hamilton Island guide. That, or more cocktails by qualia’s infinity edge pool. We’ll let you decide.

Jam, Townsville

Jam has made its mark on the restaurant scene in Queensland’s third-biggest city, Townsville, in the same way its namesake condiment sticks to your fingers (read: this restaurant has a reputation that’s not going anywhere).

It’s so good in fact, that Jam has been awarded an Australian Good Food Guide Chef’s Hat Award four years running.

Start the day in Queensland’s sunniest city on the sweet side with a batch of apple crumble pancakes with warm caramel sauce, white chocolate and walnut crumb, and cinnamon ice-cream. Or simply stick to tradition and order the dish that’s been on the menu for eight years straight – the Asian chicken omelette, made with Saddle Mountain eggs and loaded with snow pea, bean shoot, fried shallots and chilli jam.

More than just serving Townsvillians their most important meal of the day, you’ll also find this foodie-favourite packed Tuesday – Saturday for both lunch and dinner.

Dinner comes a la carte or degustation style, but the real surprise is the vegetarian menu which has no resemblance to rabbit food – gnocchi with shimiji, pickled eggplant, torched goats chevre, cured egg, anyone?

Want more? Get familiar with some of Townsville’s other hero menus by checking out this list.

Zev’s Bistro, Toowoomba

Collecting an Australian Good Food Guide Chef’s Hat Award for every year it’s been in business (that’s two for anyone playing at home), Zev’s Bistro proves Toowoomba ain’t no small country town when it comes to its culinary game.

Delivering modern cuisine that’s both on-trend and tasty, the Zev’s kitchen serves up a mixture of hearty and homely dishes.

The lamb neck is the jewel in Zev’s crown, cooked to perfection so chewing is almost optional as you devour it along with onion puree, julienne turnip and enoki mushrooms.

If you’re thinking about trying these meals at home, there’s no need to deconstruct your meal – you’ll find recipe-book pages adorning the restaurant’s walls, overlaid with art.

Hemingway’s, Airlie Beach

This Airlie Beach haunt wasted no time in winning big, receiving a 2018 Australian Good Food Guide Chef’s Hat Award just seven months after opening its tropical doors.

While it might be named after a certain literary genius (thank you Ernest), it’s this restaurant’s food that will punctuate your Whitsundays adventure.

The must-try for dinner is their duck with mushrooms, foie gras, huancaina and Bunya Nut quinoa. The dessert menu reinvents itself daily, so finish your dining experience with a sweet surprise.

Looking for more eats during your time in Airlie? We’ve got you covered with this list.

Chapter One Restaurant and Bar, Port Douglas

Set in the Balinese-inspired Niramaya Villas and Spa in Port Douglas, Chapter One’s story starts with the 2018 Australian Good Food Guide Chef’s Hat.

The plotline hits a high around lunchtime when the restaurant serves up its main character, a 45-day dry aged saltbush mutton.

Local ingredients are the protagonists, which pair traditional and modern cooking styles in an exciting fusion of menu-page turning techniques.

We look forward to seeing what’s next for this Port Douglas hot spot. Perhaps, Chapter Two?

Coast Restaurant and Bar, Hervey Bay

The equation for a good time at Coast Restaurant and Bar in Hervey Bay is simple:

Good food + fine wine – the fuss x by feast = Coast Restaurant and Bar and the folk at Coast Restaurant and Bar have clearly done their maths correctly.

Everything on the menu is designed to be shared, from small bites to tasting plates to larger, meaty servings.

While you might like a few friends to go halfsies on the roast peanut and chilli chicken, you won’t be blamed for going solo on the signature dessert – a banana cake with chocolate mousse, caramel peanuts and candied corn ice-cream on the side.

Still hungry? We’ve got all your foodie needs covered in this 48-hour guide to eating in Hervey-Bay.

The Peak Restaurant at Spicers Peak Lodge, Maryvale

Even though you’ll find The Peak at Spicers Peak Lodge 1100m above sea level, this regional favourite hasn’t let the altitude or its 13 cumulative Australian Good Food Guide Chef’s Hats go to its head.

The dining space makes the most of its Scenic Rim location with an open stone fireplace, cosy seating and outdoor terrace.

Chef Minh Le’s Moreton Bay Bug with cucumber, radish and miso broth creation, takes centre stage and is in good company with dishes like the hay farm rabbit, young vegetables, brick pastry and plum jus.

Looking for a romantic getaway? Here’s some ideas on how to spend your Scenic Rim rendezvous.

The Cottage Restaurant, Ipswich

Winner, winner, Ipswich dinner!

The Cottage Restaurant took home the Australian Good Food Guide’s Reader’s Choice Awards in 2017 and 2018, putting Queensland’s most underrated city, ‘the Switch’, front and centre on the regional food map.

Set inside a heritage home that screams ‘Queenslander’ louder than Suncorp Stadium on State of Origin night, you can expect to dine in old-world bedrooms which have been transformed into intimate dining spaces.

The double cutlet and belly of lamb with truffled potato puree and beat hotpot is mouth-wateringly good and makes damn sure your first time to The Cottage will not be your last.

Looking for more? Read a local’s guide to Ipswich’s food scene.

Have you tried any of these regional restaurants? What did you think?

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jorgemiroslavjarasalas · 6 years ago

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Jorge Miroslav Jara Salas: Deeply Rooted in California Wine History: Winemaker Gina Gallo (Video)

Our guest this evening is a third-generation winegrower from one of America’s most historic winemaking families.

At just 10 years old, she tended the gardens with her father and grandfather, and spent her high school summers working alongside her brothers and sisters at the Gallo Family Vineyards.

After studying winemaking at the University of California at Davis, she became an apprentice winemaker under the careful guidance of her grandfather Julio Gallo.

And she joins me live now from her home in Napa Valley: Welcome to the Sunday Sipper Club Gina Gallo!

Note: YouTube has the audio and video out of sync. So either close your eyes and listen, or you can watch it on Facebook here.

On a personal level, you’ve mentioned that finding balance is your most difficult challenge: how do you do it? Is it harder as a woman in the wine industry, than for a man? Why?

You’ve also mentioned that you’re a breast cancer survivor: what was essential to you during that time when you were fighting the disease?

Why are food banks a special interest for you?

What were the most important lessons that your grandfather, Julio Gallo, taught you?

What was the exact moment when you realized that you wanted to make wine? Tell us exactly where you were? What triggered the thought? How did you feel? What was the next step you took to get going on the path to winemaking?

What’s your favorite failure? Where were you? What happened? How did you feel? What did you do to recover? What did you learn from this experience that made you stronger or better in some regard?

On a related note of adversity, in your opinion, what changed for the California wine industry with the wild fires?

Now take us to the best moment of your wine career: what happened? Where were you? What happened? How did you feel?

What’s the most memorable thing someone has ever said about your wines?

What’s the biggest misconception about Gallo wines?

What was something you were wrong about as it relates to making wine?

Describe the downright weirdest wine pairing you’ve ever had? Where were you? Describe the food in detail and the flavors? Which wine? Did it work or not as a pairing?

Let’s Taste!

Want to know when we go live with our next guest?

Click on “Get Reminder” on the page below:

www.nataliemaclean.com/live

Click on “Get Notified” at the link above to know when we go live.

You can also click on “Follow” and “Like” buttons to know when we make updates.

Watch previous episodes of the Sunday Sipper Club (SSC) and to find out who’s coming up next.

Gina Gallo developed a deep respect for the land early on. At just 10 years old, she tended the gardens with her father and grandfather, picking fruits and vegetables that her mother and grandmother would turn into family meals. She spent her high school summers working alongside her brothers and sisters at our family winery.

After studying winemaking at the University of California at Davis, Gina became an apprentice winemaker at E. & J. Gallo Winery, under the careful guidance of her grandfather Julio. Soon, she completed her first full harvest in Sonoma County, working side by side with her brother Matt, who has grown the grapes for Gina’s wines for more than two decades.

Today, as the winemaker behind our Gallo Signature Series, Gina carves out specific blocks on our most sought-after vineyards to hand craft limited batches of wine.

Louis M. Martini Winery

MacMurray Estate Vineyards Signature Series Pinot Noir 2014 Santa Lucia Highlands, California, United States

Julio and Ernest Gallo

William Hill Chardonnay 2016 North Coast, California, United States

Louis M. Martini Cellar

Louis M. Martini Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 Sonoma County, California, United States

Louis P and Louis M

Olson Ranch

Gallo Family

Julio Gallo

Ernest & Julio with Awards c. 1965

Gina Gallo: Artisan Winemaker Inspired by Family, History and Community

Deeply passionate about honoring the history of her family and the craft of winemaking, Gina Gallo is a third-generation winegrower from one of America’s most historic winemaking families. As the Senior Director of Winemaking, Gina is dedicated to bringing to life her singular vision of wine as a creative expression of the land demonstrating the unique qualities of that vintage.

A Winemaker’s Journey

Gina’s journey as a winemaker began when she was just 10 years old, tending the gardens with her father and grandfather and picking fruits and vegetables that her mother and grandmother would use for fresh, seasonal family meals. One of eight brothers and sisters, Gina has fond memories of how her family’s shared passion for food and flavor brought the generations together. “It was not just about the food, but the people at the table,” said Gina. “We were always there with my mother’s parents and my father’s parents. We learned so much about our history and their history through these meals.”

Gina spent her high school summers working at the Gallo family’s winery, later joining the Gallo sales team after earning her bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame de Namur University. Following in her grandfather’s footsteps, she found her true calling as a winemaker. In 1990, she became an apprentice winemaker at the Gallo family’s experimental micro-winery in Modesto, CA while she also studied winemaking at the University of California at Davis. Under the tutelage of Julio Gallo and Marcello Monticelli, a 30-year veteran of the Gallo team, Gina flourished in the cellar. Three years later, she completed her first full harvest in Sonoma County, working side by side with her brother, Matt. He grew the grapes and she made the wine, in a partnership that has thrived for more than two decades.

Today, as the winemaker behind Gallo Signature Series, Gina is intimately engaged with the Gallo family’s premier estate vineyards in Napa, Sonoma and Monterey Counties. As winemaker, she values the entrepreneurial history of her family, using her experience and creative vision to craft luxury wines from these exceptional vines.

Giving Back to the Community

Now as a mother of two and living with her husband, Jean-Charles Boisset, in the Napa Valley, Gina is committed to her community, particularly organizations that support her passion for healthy, nourishing food. Gina is a board member of the American Farmland Trust, which works to preserve agricultural land, and Taste of the NFL, which raises funds and awareness for food banks and anti-hunger initiatives.

Gina has also been honored with several awards and accolades. She was a 2016 inductee to the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America. Additionally, she was named one of the Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink by Fortune magazine, as well as being named #17 on Decanter magazine’s “Power List” of the most important men and women in wine. Gina also received an honorary Doctorate in Oenology from Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island in 2008.

Handcrafted, Signature Wines

What makes a wine truly special? The most memorable wines hint at the nuances of the vineyard. The most elegant wines reveal the craft of the winemaker. But a wine is much more than grapes and barrels. In many ways, a bottle of wine is a story. A story of words and years and people, woven into every glass.

The Gallo Signature Series honors an extraordinary story that began in 1933. It celebrates the Gallo family’s estate vineyards in Sonoma, Napa and Monterey Counties, and it showcases the personal passion of third-generation winemaker Gina Gallo.

The Journey

The history of the Gallo family is inextricably linked to the history of winemaking in California. What began as a simple idea – to make quality wine accessible to American households – has evolved over decades to encompass premier vineyards and wineries in some of California’s most renowned wine regions.

In the early days of the California wine industry, the Gallo family brought fortified wines to dinner tables across the country. As consumer tastes evolved toward drier, more robust wines, Gallo shifted its winemaking focus to grow side-by-side with America’s interest in wine.

Over time, the Gallo family grew deep roots in Sonoma County, and later expanded its presence into Napa Valley and the Central Coast. Bringing together a truly unique collection of vineyards, Gallo is one of only a few wine producers that can tap into such a diverse range of growing regions and hand-select specific blocks within that wide array of properties. The Gallo Signature Series was born of this unique access.

The Wines

With some of California’s best grapes at her fingertips, Gina Gallo has created three distinct wines from the Gallo family’s unique combination of vineyards. For Gina, the Gallo Signature Series expresses her family’s passion for great vineyards and great wine, and it reflects the best the Gallo Winery has to offer. The Gallo Signature Series marks a return to hands-on, artisanal winemaking for Gina, and it brings to life the enduring legacy of Ernest and Julio Gallo.

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allaboutd2 · 8 years ago

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“It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not“. Andre Gide

Although not always possible beyond reasonable doubt, it is often relatively easy to spot a Dsquared2 piece or outfit. But how? It is because the brand uses a series of codes, quirks, that make it recognisable as an entity. In other words it has its own DNA.

In this post we have tried to deconstruct the elements that constitute the Dsquared2 identity. Note that we will focus on menswear, without excluding a similar post related to women ready to wear later.

The Caten twins have said themselves that the Dsquared2 style was “accidental and personal”; another time they spoke of “sportswear meets the catwalk”. We decided to look even closer by putting the brand’s DNA under the microscope. Here we go, by alphabetical order.

The D2 DNA

-Back tab on pants: you will notice that on jeans, as on the majority of pants, including tuxedo pants, there is a small tab sticking out upwards in the middle of the back. This is a typical signature detail, and one that we also find on most swimwear and boxer shorts.

–Bibs: borrowed from formal dress shirts, they appear on casual shirts too, as well as on jackets or t-shirts.

-Bling: flashy doesn’t scare off the twins. Their experience as drags years ago in Milan has left its mark. Gold, neon, leopard prints, necklaces, chains, broches, Swarowsky…and all in the same pot. Often, “More is more” at D2.

-Bright colours: some collections might use ‘black, white and (blue) jeans’ a lot, yet every year, especially in the summer, the brand proposes a range of items in the brightest shades of yellow, red, pink, green, orange… often with contrasting prints.

–Canada: having grown up in Toronto, the twins never forgot their native country. From their first collection ‘Homesick Canada’ to the 20 years anniversary ‘ICON’ collection, from references to their national sport in the ‘Hockey horror Dsquared show’ to the hommage to first nation peoples in the infamous #Dsquaw show, from the maple leaf on t-shirts, underwear, sneakers…to the use of real fur, from the prints about cabins, logs, the wild, to lumberjack checked shirts…the list goes on and on.

-Cryptic prints: the prints we just mentionned range from the classic logo to unfathomable references that probably only the twins can understand. Why ‘Hues of Hockney’? What is ‘marchetting’?

–Cult of personality: not uncommon, a massive ‘Dean’, or a ‘Dan’, or a ‘Dean and Dan’ or a ‘Caten’s’, a ‘Twins’… or their own faces, sometimes morphed into some famous person’s photo, like Dean into Marilyn (who became ‘Marildean’, see “play on words” below).

–Denim: because when they grew up, Dean and Dan were not allowed to wear jeans at home, they made up for this frustration later in life by wearing and producing a wide range of denim items, in particular their iconic jeans, often distressed, torn, bleached…with the aforementionned red tab. To our knowledge D2 is the only brand that produces various cuts (‘Clement’, ‘Cool guy’, ‘Kenny twist’…) of the same wash (by wash we mean colour, place and size of various holes, stains…). Note that the brothers worked at Diesel before founding their own label. Who influenced whom? Hard to tell.

-Distressed style: full of holes, speckled, stained, ripped…the distressed style is not reserved to jeans, but t-shirts, sweatshirts, shirts, even boxer shorts are subject to intentional battering.

-Formalwear mixed with streetwear: copied by many since, Dsquared2 is still the best at that. Tuxedo jackets worn with jeans, even with sweatpants, are a coined style which made us fall for the brand.

–High gorge: The gorge is this break in the lapel of a suit jacket. The higher it is placed, the taller the wearer will appear. this is a similar trick as the “short jackets” one explained further down. Just compare a D2 suit with any classic Italian tailoring and you will really see the difference.

–Higher heels: mens shoes, whether formal or streetwear, tend to have higher heels than average, from 3 to 5cm, which is an advantage for the non-giants.

-Hybrid pieces: is this a bomber? Or a leather jacket? Or a blazer? Or a cardigan? Well, it’s a bit of all the above really. D2 key pieces often combine sleeves from a type of jacket, collar from another, pockets from something entirely different…Some aficionados go crazy for these. Personally I don’t as I would get sick of a piece quite quickly, which doesn’t happen for more classic items, but I do admit that they look good on the runway, or on my friend Frederic.

–Layering: think Joey Tribbiani in friends: “Could I BE wearing any more clothes?”. That’s often what a DSQ runway show looks like.

–Leather: not exclusive to D2, but it is a fabric used in nearly every collection for jackets and pants. The biker style is always an option at D2.

–Logos: very appealing to disadvantaged urban youths in quest of social status, the ‘brand’ is everywhere. Logo here, logo there…To the untrained eye it makes little difference whether your t-shirt says Dsquared2 or Jack&Jones. To us, for some insane reason, it does.

–Matching what can not be matched: who else can blend oppressor and oppressed like 19th century aristocracy and first nation peoples? Who else could make trousers that include the Y front of men’s briefs? Who would have thought of having skinheads wear disco boots?…

–Play on words: these are the kind kids come up with. Just one example which will illustrate the point. In the Pop art collection, Andy Wharrol and J.M. Basquiat became Andean and Dansquiat. Far fetched to say the least, but classic Caten twins humour.

-Political incorrectness: not many would get away with a ‘homeless collection’, an ‘asylum’ collection (which included the ‘asylum sneakers’, which is as offensive but to another group)…Runway models smoking cigarettes…Sometimes they don’t get away with it and we know that the brothers have had to apologise in the past (e.g the already mentionned Dsquaw hashtag).

Homeless collection

-Pre-tied bow-ties: blasphemy for the purists, Dean and Dan have made laziness cool. Personally I prefer the imperfection of the self-tied items, and I love the ceremonial of tying one’s papillon, but as the Southern Spaniards say: “hay gente pa’ to‘”…(there is people for everything, phrase uttered by the colourful torero Fernando “El Gallo” a century ago).

-Red tab: not a D2 invention, but probably (as we discussed in a previous post about trademarks) a Levi’s one, however the Caten brothers strategically changed its position, giving it a whole new identity, by moving it from the back right pocket to the fly of the jeans. Mirroring the style on denim shirts and jackets, the same tab was moved from the left breast pocket to the hem, beside the buttons.

–Sex: there is no lack of sexual elements in D2 clothes. First of all because the clothes themselves are often sexy. Of course this is a subjective concept: a Milanese woman and a New-York ‘bear’ will have different opinions of what sexy means, but the Caten twins actually manage to provide for all tastes in that regard. Secondly because some of the details on the clothes can have a sexual connotation. The aforementionned red tab on my crotch being an example, the visible private bits of the hare (yes it is a hare!) on the ‘horny rabbit’ t-shirt being another one.

–Skinny ties: black, with a tiny symbol linked to the collection, or the classic maple leaf.

–Short jackets: Dean and Dan are quite short…and so is the author of these lines. Smaller men have a few tricks to appear taller, or at least to minimise the impact of their clothes on the perceived height. Shortening the jacket is one such trick. D2 suits, blazers, down jackets, duffle coats, pea coats…are often extremely short, to the point of leaving the whole ass area uncovered (and we’re back to ‘sex’ as previously discussed).

-Street style: Sneakers, jeans, bare chested youths, improvised and unexpected layering, near DIY jewlery…D2 shows at times are closer to college kids hanging out than to typical Milan runways.

Surf collection

–Tailoring: with a capsule collection of nearly a dozen styles, the twins have proven to be exceptionally good at fine suits. There is one for every bodily shape, one for every season, one for every latitude. And with working cuffs!

–Tuxedos: not just an extension of the above, as über-cool odd dinner jackets were commonplace even before the suit collection was launched. Still there, in a range of interesting variations in terms of lapel coverings, colours and fabrics, alongside now the classic full evening suits named Beverley hills, Tokyo, London, Napoli…

–Urban tribes: from mods to rockers, punks and skins, preppies and glam boys…nearly every style has been explored, sometimes even on several occasions.

Mod inspired outfit

That’s it folks. If you’ve noticed any recurring elements of the D2 DNA that we forgot to mention…let us know!

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DEAN, DAN, DNA. Part I (menswear) "It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not".

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