Houston Gadfly

Paper for my Anthro of Wine Course, for the first exams.

1. Origin and development of wine from earliest to modern form. Dendrochronology indicates vineyards existed in forests along the southern shore of the Caspian sea as early as the Pleistocene era and continued through the Neolithic in farming communities.

Despite the wild proliferation of Vitis Vinifera Sylvestris, for true domestication, one must look to the transcaucus in 5,000 BC.

Early evidence for larger scale winemaking is tartaric acid residue from a series of large jars in Godin Tepe, a small village in the transcaucus, situated along one of the tributaries of the Tigris in the Zagros Mountains in what is present-day Iran.

Excavation of the Neolithic village of Hajji Firuz Tepe (also in Iran) yielded potsherds which also were laced with tartaric acid, dating nearly 2,000 years earlier.

Domestication can be determined from archaeobotanical remains of pips, wood and skins, the residual bits of the plant after wine production.

Although Vitis Vinifera is responsible for all winemaking grapes, clonal selection has been used to cull less desirable traits and select for those that best serve quality wine production. Early domestication moved from a selection of more fruitful vines in the natural habitat, through planting of male and female vines to encourage rates of fertilization, as early vines were gendered and needed both male and female plants present to fertilize and yield fruit.

Farmers noticed that some plants became hermaphroditic, that both sexes were present on the same plant. As male plants did not produce fruit, hermaphroditic plants were more productive and desirable than mixed discrete genders, and male plants became redundant.

Eventually female plants too became less desirable, giving way to the exclusive planting of hermaphroditic vines.

Examination of carbonized grape pips shows the elongated neck and scaled down body of the pip, result of a larger non-reproducing berry cultivated by humans, versus the shorter necked, plumper pip required for reproductive capacity in the non-cultivated grape.

Cultivated vines also had thicker bark and canes, to support more grapes; larger diameter of canes, an elliptical cross section, and plumper dormant buds to support and produce larger clusters of fruit; large shallowly sinused leaves with more surface area for photosynthesis; a thicker joint at the stem where it meets the fruit; and thicker clusters of larger fruit.

Domestication theories include the well-known Noah tale, which dovetails with the antediluvian Gilgamesh legend to sketch out an account of a vineyard planted on Ararat by survivors of a great flood, and found by an ancient Mesopotamian king.

The subsequent cultivation of grapevines in the area bears out the likely truth of the Noah hypothesis.

Cultivation and wine development by the ancient Egyptians is well documented, but the spread of viticulture to Europe is largely due to the Greeks.

Grape cultivation spread through the Aegean, Mesopotamia, Syria and Egypt, and by 1,000 BC had spread to central and northern Italy, Provence, North Africa and Spain, driven by the Greek empire.

Mt. Vesuvius’ plinian explosion in 79 AD and the fallout that resulted, as well as the lava flows and satellite destruction, crushed wine production near the Aegean and Mediterranean driving grape cultivation outward and upward.Fortunately, climate in Europe had warmed, and external wine production in the Greek empire was feasible.

However, the empire never fully recovered from the economic damage done by Vesuvius and waned, making way for the rise of the Roman Empire. The Romans’ fondness for the grape is legendary, and Dionysus gave way only to Bacchus in celebrating wine.

In 0-100 AD, Rome ruled Canaan and the Levant, where Judaism was prevalent. This loose provincial rule did not interfere with religious observance, and the use of wine was linked to the Seder rite.

When the capitol of Rome was moved to Constantinople at the time of the Pax Romana in 300 AD, Christianity had begun to spread, and quickly adopted the Seder into Mass, further cementing the use of wine in religion and tying it to imperial wealth.

Roman Catholicism continued the preservation of wine, and also provided motivation to increase the effective cultivation for taste and prestige, by strengthening ties to religion and by linking parallel institutions of church and state.

When Islam outlawed intoxication by 650 AD, Roman influence on outlying areas of the empire was already waning. As the Persian Empire converted to Islam, the grape and the Roman Catholic Church were chased to Europe and out of Mesopotamia.

Enter Charlemagne, and his profound influence on winemaking and viticulture. He was the first ruler to take an active hand in viticulture, and passed laws regulating the production methods of wine, including prohibitions against treading grapes with the feet and storage of wine in animal skins. His law on winemakers selling as much of their own product for consumption as they wish is still respected today.

The advent of the Crusades further fueled the expansion of the Roman Catholic Church, by streamlining land acquisition, and placing that land in the hands of the Benedictine monks, who sought a more artisanal aspect of winemaking. Benedictine monasteries still hold some of the best terroir in Europe.

The crusaders also spread European cultivars, and introduced Levantine cultivars into European viticulture, such as the syrah.

The Benedictine adherence to monastic principles waned, ironically due to the excellence of their wine and the prices it commanded. In 1098, there was a schism, and a small number of monks separated from the Benedictines, to seek a more austere and studious way of life.

The Cistercian order, now known as the Trappists, is almost solely responsible for the refinement of wine and winemaking in Europe. Identification of wine strains, creation of clos’ and the understanding of terroir may also be laid at their door.

Cistercian influence also propelled wine into modernity with the use of oak barrels to age it.

As winemaking grew in excellence and prestige through France and Germany, nobles in the north also got into the game, birthing the feudal system in their need to acquire and cultivate more of the Cote d’Or, Loire valley and Burgundy.

Question #3 Discussion of the three components of good wine.

There are eight recognized noble grape varieties, of grapes which stand alone to make good wine without adulteration by blending, and which are cultivated around the world. Nevertheless, thousands of other recognized cultivars are grown and some excellent wines are made from them.

The hunt for a burgundy-like wine is the hunt to merge terroir and grape variety, and ripen the fruit before harvesting.

Terroir is a hotly contested quality, mostly between those who have access to good terroir and those who don’t.

The physical components of terroir are complex all by themselves. Latitude determines the amount of sun during the growing season. Elevation affects the temperature and oxygen exposure of the area, exposure is used to modify the effects of climate and temperature, climatic patterns affect the growth and dormancy periods as well as best growth behavior of the vines, slope affects drainage and exposure, geology determines the root access of the vines and the soil lends its mineral content to the flavor characteristics.

Terroir also has a mystical quality, the poetry of the earth and the story behind it, that somehow influences the wine, and certainly the vignerons.

Grape ripeness determines how much fermentation occurs in winemaking. When grapes ripen, natural sugars are stored in the fruit as energy products of photosynthesis.

After harvest, when yeasts are introduced to the macerated fruit, these sugars are the food for the yeast, determining the full percentage of alcohol in the finished wine.

Without the full ripeness of the grape, the raw materials for proper development during maturation and fermentation are insufficient, and the final product will show the difference.

The noble grapes are incredibly versatile, but in the alchemical mix of terroir and variety, the trick is pairing the right grape for the right terroir.

For the wine to be great, the vine has to suffer, the saying goes, and the mix of grape and soil determines the degree of suffering.

The roots must go down deeply, so there must not be too much water, or too high a water table.  The vine must get enough sun for ripeness, but not too much to trigger explosive growth. The flavor of the grape must mix with the minerals of the earth so as not to conflict.

Finding cultivars that work well in some areas and not in others requires experimentation, and is fairly unpredictable.

Latitude helps, as is seen in the cultivation of pinot noir in Burgundy and Oregon, but doesn’t determine the absolute best producer.

In the end, the trick is to get the magic right.

There is no perfect formula, but oddly enough the basis for experimentation is the same as the Cistercians perfected centuries ago. Examine the soil, check for agreement between the grape and its suitability for the terroir, and make sure to get the chemistry right on the agricultural side.

President Obama marked the first 100 days of his tenure at the helm of the country on Wednesday.
The road has been rocky, both from the legacy of partisanship and economic malfeasance of the last administration as well as various new unfolding crises.
Yet the new president has met the challenge with relative honesty, and still trying to maintain most of his objectives.

The first 100 days has become an important benchmark for any new administration in the U.S.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt first established the 100 days benchmark by passing massive amounts of legislature upon inheriting the problems of the Great Depression.
He slowed down after the first flurry, but the first hundred days were crucial to stemming the hemorrage of the U.S. economy and the dire straits of the populace.
Obama’s legislative behaviour has been compared to FDR’s since his taking office.  He was hailed as the “Green FDR” by Joseph Romm in Tuesday’s Huffington Post, and on November 11, 2008, NBC New York’s Gabe Pressman outlined similarities in situation and personality between the two.
Pressman also questioned whether Obama would continue to mirror FDR past taking office.
“Is Obama, the man who ran with a promise of change, intending to introduce a series of major changes in his first 100 days?” Pressman speculated in his November piece.
Roosevelt introduced 15 sweeping pieces of legislature in his first 100 days.  As much as his reforms are decried by the right wing now, Roosevelt worked not for them, but for the middle class — to which most of us will belong.
Obama’s first hundred days has seen frenetic change and massive spending. The stimulus bills, bailouts, healthcare and educational reforms are overwhelming when looked at together.
The Wall Street Journal published a series of interviews Wednesday with the Chiefs of staff for the four previous presidents, commemorating Obama’s hundred day mark.
They all remarked on Obama’s taking on many different issues at once, and either intimated or were clearly concerned as to the efficacy of so much change at once.
Change was an Obama campaign watchword, and Pressman’s question has been answered.  Obama’s audacity has held firm, for good or ill.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/elections/national/Will-FDR-Inspire-Obama.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-romm/the-green-fdr-obamas-firs_b_192709.html

Ah, balance. My calves’ liver was perfectly balanced on top of a mound of mashed potatoes, with a few rashers of bacon on top, awash in a warm brown sea of gravy.
Feast bills its cuisine as “rustic European fare,” a tradition involving “nose to tail” use of proteins. This restaurant, while amazing, is not for the faint hearted.
Hailed by both the Houston Chronicle and Houston Post as “Best New Restaurant of 2008,” Feast opened its doors in late March of 2008. The décor is warm, rustic and inviting, and the dress code ranges from tidy but casual to formal.
Richard Knight and James Silk are the two chefs at Feast, and Megan Silk, wife to James, runs the front of house.
Where a typical Texas steakhouse uses large cuts of beef, a churrasceria tends toward more exotic parts of the animal, including roasted chicken hearts on skewers, if you’re lucky. Tail to hoof eating goes further off the beaten path, using offal and specialty meats not as accents, but as bold ingredients to be treated with respect and given center stage on a plate.
Feast’s fare includes black pudding, cow testicles and tongue, deviled kidneys and other little-used cuts of meat. Selections vary daily, depending on freshness and availability, but for a few Feast Favorites now perennially on the menu.
The menu can be intimidating to conservative diners, but if you’re interested in more than  standard fare, there are some wonderful culinary revelations.
Choices are organized into Feast favorites, a menu which changes daily, and lunch specials at either $12.95 for two courses or $15.95 for three.
There is also a tasting menu available Sunday through Thursday for $49. This gets a continuous series of favorite dishes and a few creative endeavors from the kitchen.
The starter choices include soups, salads and pickles, some of which are also available as extras.
The shallots in balsamic vinegar were plump, large and tasted of licorice. The deviled kidneys are traditional English fare, and the whiskey prunes are plump and sweet.
The cullen skink is a traditional scottish soup with a mild, milky base featuring a firmly fleshed whitefish and sliced potatoes. The flavors developed smoothly on the palate, the fishiness of the whitefish yeilding pleasantly to the starchy nuttiness of the potato, rounded out by the milky smooth broth.
The menu does not only pander to standard British sensibilities, however. There is also a rich, Middle East-inspired lamb stew with dates that is impeccable. Topped with fresh cilantro and mint, the dish features chunks of lamb in a mixed lentil stew, perfectly set off by the sweet dates.
The intensely meaty lentil base was punctuated by the sweetness of the dates, and a few perfectly treated mustard seeds, which popped on the tongue like roe, added an almost effervescent texture to the dish.
The liver and potatoes were also amazing. Liver haters beware— that gamy flavor in cow liver was largely absent from the calf liver, and the texture was soft, with a creamy mouthfeel — you may become converts yet.
Dessert is no less an experience in texture and richness, with the vanilla seed-laden panna cotta and whiskey prunes. The candied orange tart is almost cloying on its own, but offset with the accompanying yogurt and blackberries, is a dizzying mix of crispy orange peel and tart creaminess.
There are many high priced restaurants in Houston, which has burgeoned as a foodie city. The thing that defines Feast as extraordinary is not only the adventurous menu, but the way the ingredients are treated.
When a stew as complex and dense as the lamb with dates can feature perfection even in the details of tiny mustard seeds, with the same precision in their classic British comfort food, it indicates an awareness of how ingredients work best together and individually.

Feast’s James Silk spent time butchering and waiting at St. John in London, which is the nose-to-tail equivalent to El Bulli for molecular gastronomy.
Feast is located on Westheimer between Bagby and Montrose, and accepts reservations for lunch and dinner, as well as walk-ins.

Normally food of this caliber is prohibitively expensive on a college student budget, but the lunch specials render the sublime fairly affordable. And don’t forget the bonus— there are going to be leftovers.

Verdict: Impressing foodies sans foam.

Texas Representative Betty Brown(R, Terrell) thinks Asians should change their names for ease of pronunciation, she suggested while talking with Organization of Chinese Americans representative Ramey Ko.

On the same day in Oklahoma, Representative Randy Terrell (R-Moore) sponsored a bill designating English as the state language of Oklahoma.

It may be these English-speaking isolationist legislators simply don’t have the exposure to identify their own myopia.

Brown’s ignorance of culture beyond her narrow world showed most clearly in another portion of the hearing on pending Texas Voter ID law, where she seemingly forgot that China is a communist country.

“Is there a proof of any kind of identification in China in order to participate in an election?” Brown asked, in the April 6 hearing.

“Well, there’s not a lot of elections in China,” Ko responded.

“Touché,” Brown said.

For a conservative politician who lived through McCarthyism to forget details about China’s differences in government are unusual at best, and egregious at worst.
Terrill’s HJR 1042 largely addressed such issues as designation of Oklahoma’s official dinosaur and official vegetable in addition to the designation of English as Oklahoma’s official language.

Both Terrill and Brown cite bureaucratic overhead and accuracy as reasons to curtail the rights of naturalized citizens and residents to express their own culture.

New citizens of the U.S. are no longer the poor and oppressed of other countries as imagined by Emma Lazarus.  They can’t afford to be.
With the price of a green card renewal at $370 and the cost of naturalization application at $380, the so-called natural rights of U.S. social freedoms are at a premium.

Yet, when immigrants get here, they realize naturalization does not automatically confer the right of self-expression on a new citizen when it comes to culture.

In some alarming parallels to European Jews in early 1800s, naturalization as practiced by Brown merely serves to homogenize the population and separate them from their communities and traditional ways of tracking and communicating culturally important information.

Prior to the Prussian emancipation laws of 1812, the Berlin Jewish community’s records had been kept in Hebrew, a language understood by the community.  When the 1812 law passed, these records were kept instead in German, a language less accessible to the community.

If, in a bureaucracy, the individual cannot access and respond of their own volition to a communication, can they really be said to be responsible for the information transmitted?

A language barrier causes the basic sniff test of personal responsibility to fail.

Bureaucracy is an organizational tool to assist in the governance of the masses.  It is a poor reason to disenfranchise citizens in a representational government.

In Cherokee Nation v, Georgia, missionaries argued special licensing was used to separate them working with Native American tribes they served.  The missionaries were at the time working against the Indian Removal act, which led to the Trail of Tears.

The American system of checks and balances offers us the opportunity to have a government that evolves with culture.

Alienating people from the system removes their ability to work within it, and all too often ends up contributing to massive human rights abuses.

Given long-standing racial tensions in the South, any cavalier dismissal of the rights of a minority group to maintain its culture seems either ignorant or arrogant.

Either way it comes down, alienating the Asian community — or any other with different languages and traditions — Brown and Terrill is hardly likely to advance their state or national agenda.

Dinosaurs, official or otherwise, have little place in an evolving political process.  It is hoped Brown and Terrill will learn from history, even if they cannot look forward.

Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise crazy, and Jonathan Coulton tells us all about it.

Coulton’s brand of music is part folk, part soft rock, with a little nerdcore thrown in. If you enjoy getting your geek on, this is the act for you.

His set at the relatively new House of Blues Friday March 13 included favorites such as “Skullcrusher Mountain,” “I Crush Everything,” and a few numbers with Paul and Storm as backup singers including “Soft Rocked by me,” about the dangers of listening to too much Dan Fogelberg and James Taylor in the formative years.

He also spoke to the unspoken difficulties of geek life, recalling his troubles and frustrations as a software programmer in “Code Monkey,” as well as exploring old influences in a cover of Billy Joel’s “Pressure.”

It was a true Friday the 13th performance, as Coulton had to stop before the first song to swap his set list to the correct side of the mike stand, and again during the first song, when his guitar snapped a “g” string.

What could have derailed another performer became a source of humor and conversation throughout the set for Coulton, as he simply borrowed Storm’s guitar while his was restrung backstage. Many and varied also were the g-string comments.

It is impossible to talk about Coulton without also mentioning Paul and Storm, his tour buddies and opening act.

“We don’t got a whole lot of fans, nobody asks for our autograph, and, sad to say, as of today, no panties have been thrown” they sing in “We are the opening band,” a ferociously witty paen to the oft-forgotten opening performance.

Paul and Storm’s wit and singer songwriter delivery is funny, entertaining and full of inside jokes.
Geeks tend to have a thing for pirates, consumer culture mockery and filk, all of which they capitalize on throughout the set with songs like “Nugget Man,” eulogizing the inventor of chicken nuggets and “The Captain’s Wife’s Lament” a slightly ribald discussion of the troubles of pirates wives.

They even have a tribute to other well known musicians with “If James Taylor were on Fire,” and “If Aaron Neville Were Waiting for a Parking Spot at the Mall, But Someone Else Snagged It,” complete with explicit lyrics.

Coulton knows his audience, going so far as to rickroll the House of Blues during “Mr Fancypants,” a sample driven short song.

While this isn’t hard rock with fireworks and AC/DC’s stripping schoolboy Angus, there’s a lot of entertainment in their choreography. Paul’s pointed use of the tambourine and Storm’s structured shaker dancing during “Soft Rocked” induced as many giggles from the audience as the lyrics.

The song cleverly mixes different soft rock songs, mashing together the Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” the Eagles’ “Tequila Sunrise,” and Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sundown” among various others to illustrate the similarity in chord progression and structure.

Coulton and Paul and Storm are technophiles who speak to their own, and cleave to the viral marketing aspects of the internet by offering most of their music for free on their Web sites, www.jonathancoulton.com and www.paulandstorm.com respectively.

Paul and Storm and Coulton haven’t been in Houston for a year and a half, and  last played at McGonigal’s Mucky Duck to a packed house.
Still, their brand of humor, geek jokes, subject matter and insight is always welcome among those who know.

Parking, jobs and the ever-rising fee-bill are only a few challenges facing students in their coming semesters.
Student candidates for today and tomorrow’s SGA elections are focusing on these concerns to get students to polls.
Students graduating in May are going to be scrambling for jobs. According to CNN, they will be job hunting in an economy whose job loss stands at 3.3 million in the last six months, bringing unemployment to a 25-year high with up to 12.5 million unemployed workers. No matter how motivated and prepared a new graduate is, there is likely an experienced person hungry for the job who will be considered for hire before them.
As a side effect, underemployment, or the number of people working part time jobs plus those who have gotten too discouraged to job seek, stands at an all time high at 14.8 percent.
As of 2000, a Upromise study found more than 50 percent of students held down jobs while in school, 10 percent of which were full time hours of more than 35 hours a week.
In addition to earning, students are also concerned with getting more bang for their hard-won bucks.
Average UH course fees increased about 107 percent between deregulation in 2003 and 2007 according to a Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board study.
Student government has a vital role to play in regulating student fees at UH, through the Student Fee Advisory Committee. Four of the nine student members of SFAC are slated to be members of SGA, according to SFAC bylaws.
The committee, with five SGA members serving, kept suggested no fee additions for 2009 when they met in February of 2008, instead allocating 8 one -time disbursements earmarked for specific expenses according to the recommendations approval.
SFAC fee recommendations from fiscal year 2005-2009 are available for viewing at their Web site.
One of the more debated fees at UH is the optional slew of parking options.
UH parking and Transportation’s Web site lists the descriptions of various parking permits. The rates are only listed in a separate downloadable .pdf document, adding a seemingly unnecessary layer to the process of comparing rates and finding the right permit.
Annual parking rates range from a garage option of $214 to an economy plus at $80.  Parking and Transportation services issues tickets to parking offenders, ranging from $10 to $250 dollars depending on the offense.
Given the difficulty of finding a parking spot on campus, which leaves students lurking in the parking lots for up to an hour and shadowing departing students to their cars, addressing parking options is a priority for several candidates.
Finding a candidate who speaks to your needs and priorities takes a little research.
Downloadable lists of candidates, available positions and even a Youtube commercial are available on the SGA election Web site.
Effective student government can help alleviate parking, rising fees, and college-specific issues.
The time to act is now, to help your own future as a citizen of the UH community. Familiarize yourself with the issues and candidates, and vote either today or tomorrow.