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If you haven’t heard of Reggie Watts before, check this out.  He does it all with a digital looper.  Usually his stuff is really out there, but this one in particular has a calming effect.  Check out more of him here.

Last night we did the Notaviva wine & music pairing that I mentioned earlier.  First of all the building that we did the tasting in was awesome.  Set at the end of a gravel road, almost the entire building was exposed wood.  There were three levels to the building, and the top level was a recording/production studio.  As I mentioned before, they played 10 clips of songs for each wine and we rated them based on a 1-10 scale.  There was a wide range of music genres from organ music, to Metallica, to country and so on.  It was much harder than I thought it was going to be.  I ended up trying to think of the wine I was drinking, and what kind of music I would like to be hearing when I was drinking it.  Others tried to think of the subtleties of the wine (bitter, long finish, etc.) and if that went with the wine.  I would say by the 3rd or 4th wine (out of 5) – we trailed off and were just feeling good to be drinking wine.  Notaviva said that they were going to release the results of the ratings and also the raw data to us, so I’m wondering what that will look like.  Either way, a fun way to spend some time with friends.

With the winemaker from Notaviva

Update, check out the picture set on Flickr: Notaviva Music & Wine Pairing

Continuing posts about wine – this weekend we will be going to the Notaviva Vineyards One Year Anniversary wine tasting.  This isn’t just a normal tasting, it’s the “World’s First Wine & Music Pairing“.  Here’s some information straight from the site about the tasting:

For the first time, a select group of wine and music enthusiasts can participate in a live experiment based on experiential sensory pairings. The event has been designed to ensure an unbiased forum for the consideration of the complex ways in which auditory stimuli can influence the perception of wines. The event shall proceed as follows:

- Five wines will be individually presented (4 oz blind tasting)
- Each wine will be accompanied by ten 30-second clips of music from widely varying genres with a 5-second silent pause between clips
- The clips will then be repeated
- Tasters will have evaluation materials available to rate each clip according to the current wine being tasted
- Evaluation materials will be collected at the end of the evening and loaded into a research database for graphical presentation on the Web

This definitely sounds interesting.  I’m not sure if different music will affect what I’m tasting or the perception of how a wine tastes, but I’m willing to try!  I’ll let you know how it goes.

One of my favorite bands of all time keep coming back better than ever – The Rentals.   They’re going to be releasing . Following in the footsteps of NIN & Radiohead, they will be releasing a digital download of a mini album every quarter in 2009 with 3-4 songs on it.   The price is fair for $4, but they’re also offering pretty enticing packages beyond the standard download. Check out the tracks at therentals.com, and youtube videos here. I won’t say that I’m not thinking about investing in the Limited Deluxe Edition for $275:

• Hardcover coffee table photo book of exclusive images, photographed by Matt Sharp in connection with Songs About Time
• Four-LP set of Songs About Time on 180 gram vinyl with unreleased exclusive bonus tracks. This vinyl set will ONLY be available in the Limited Edition Package!
• Three CD-set of all 3 Songs About Time Mini Albums
• CD of Films About Weeks original soundtrack scores
• High-Def DVD of Films About Weeks Video Collection
• Two all-access VIP backstage passes to a future Rentals show of your choice (tickets must be purchased separately).
• One undeveloped roll of black and white 35mm film shot by Matt Sharp during a single day in 2009
• Exclusive access to online photo gallery to post and share the images from your personal 35mm roll of film.
• Immediate Free download of all Songs About Time Premium Digital Mini Albums as they becomes available including the exclusive “A Thousand Seasons Past” music video. Your download includes 100% DRM free, high quality FLAC files, 320kbps MP3 audio and Mp4 video files, a 35-page PDF booklet and wallpapers. The files will arrive as zip archives.
• Each Limited Edition is numbered and signed by The Rentals and personalized per request (you will receive an email prior to the shipping date to choose your dedication)