I got an email yesterday from Jerry Murray – winemaker at Oregon’s Patton Valley – informing me that I’ve been “tagged”. I have since come to find out that this is apparently the modern cyber-version of being “it”. You can check out his blog and see what it’s all about here.
In the meantime I’m supposed to reveal six things about myself that most people don’t know. Considering the bizarre multiple lives I’ve led, that should not be a problem, Here we go -
1. I once lived on a tour bus with the hair-metal band Poison. (Bret Michaels remains a good friend – he was in our wedding, and we bought our first house in LA from him back in the mid-90s.) Oh the stories I could tell. Whatever you imagine, probably happened.
2. Many people know that I was once the disc-jockey known as Shadow Stevens or Shadow Steele – few know that I also once used the radio names Jeff “Mother” Robins, “The Rocketman”, and Jeff Hooker.
3. I am a couple of classes away from being a certified yoga instructor. I never finished the course – because there were always a couple of required classes and seminars that fell right during harvest!
4. I was once a professional diver – as in diving from the 10-meter platform – when I was 11 and 12 years old growing up in Chicago. A group of professional divers ran a pool in my neighborhood, and they took me under their wing and taught me when I was about 9 or 10. We peformed shows every Saturday and Sunday at the “50th on the Lake” hotel on summer weekends.
5. I am a French cinema freak. I especially love the films of Truffaut and the rest of the Nouvelle Vague from the late 50s into the 60s. I love anything with Juliette Binoche in it, and will watch just about any French film ever made – I simply love them. The Blue/White/Red trilogy by Kieslowski (Ok – he’s Polish, but the films were mostly in French) are individually and collectively in my all time Top 10.
6. My celebrity crush is on Sarah Silverman (my wife’s is on John Stewart). I also have the hots for French actress Julie Delpy, although if she’s anything like the characters she writes for herself in her movies, I’d probably find her really annoying…
So there you go – that should be enough useless information for now. The one piece of useful information I can offer today is that this blog is now set up for an RSS feed – meaning you just need to click on the “Subscribe” button up top and you’ll be instantly notified every time we publish another post.
And here’s a shot of Pirrie in Burgundy this summer (and who will hopefully never live on a tour bus with Poison!)
Pirrie in the cellar at Aleth Girardin
