This video is a compilation of my harvests in the agroturismos of Italy, the desert of Argentina, and the sunshine of northern California. The music is one of my favorite songs of all time, it’s called Voyageur by Enigma. I moved out to California a year ago with a bottle of GrapeThinking, a bottle of ideas I guess you could say, that started filling up 5 years ago with conversation between myself, Jacob Bohall, Ruarri Rogan, Meghan O’Malley, and many others. Over the past year, those ideas have delightfully fermented, and the time has finally come for us to have a taste…

~circuit to cell, web to water, mind to vine~

The basis is an engine… a thinking engine that drives sustainable development, and more specifically, the health of the world. How do you create something in which the consumption heals the body and the production heals the earth?

Think about it

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They bought a car with another girl (the rock star of the group), and were planning to head way north to work on a farm for a little bit. They invited me to go, so I left my suitcase with a friend in San Francisco and hit the road with them. The following few weeks were beyond amazing… so many serendipities. My favorite was running into one of the winemakers I worked with everyday for 2 months in Argentina earlier this year in a small grocery store parking lot in Napa, and I just so happened to have a bottle of the organic wine we worked on in my backpack. Our car turned into a sustainable circus. We worked on the farm we set out for, did a little harvest work at a winery, but mainly stayed on the road visiting sustainable farms all around northern Cali. We touched Humboldt, Mendocino, Sonoma, Napa, and Marin.

A couple of our favorites were Filigreen Farm in Anderson Valley, where Chris Tebbutt has built an amazing mixed biodynamic agriculture setup of vines and fruit orchards, it was incredible. He also had huge solar arrays setup that produce 100% of the farm’s energy… a true thinking farm. We also visited Paul Dolan at his biodynamic Dark Horse Farming Ranch in Ukiah, which was powerful. He has an “energy center” with his flow form, preparations, and a stunning “bug strip” of crazy flowers and vegetation that generates the biodiversity and balance in his vineyard. On our way south, we made a stop at Solar City somewhere on 101 south of Ukiah, which is a sustainable building/living community. We slept in a teepee and talked about what it takes to build sustainable communities.

Somewhere along the way we got tipped off about the Bioneers conference down in San Rafael so we trekked down there and crashed the conference for the weekend. I talked to Rebecca of the Biodynamics Association about heading up their booth for a day in exchange for a free pass, and she graciously accepted my offer. We got to see some amazing speakers and share even more amazing ideas, and I was able to pitch biodynamics all day Sunday at the trade show.

We just kept going, drinking, laughing, breathing, seeing how these amazing farms are changing the environment, all while staying break even along the way. We went crazy and then sane and then crazy again. It was a ride. Now, I’m back in San Francisco to soak in what this place is all about, and make some magical elixirs along the way…

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Today, I found this video by Ilana Yahav demonstrating her work – “Let’s Get Together”.   This is a dynamic “painting” using sand as a medium.  Reminds me of my creative “struggles” with the etch-a-sketch when I was a kid.  The coolest thing about this, is that unlike painting, or drawing, this is a very eco-friendly / sustainable art form.

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This is an update to a post I wrote last year after first discovering Zemanta, a blog tool/firefox add-on that makes intelligent real time contextual recommendations based on the content you’re writing. These recommendations come in the form of pictures, links, tags, and related articles. I’ve been using it for about 8 months now, and have to say, it’s probably the most useful Firefox add-on, let alone web tool in general, that I’ve found. The pictures and link recommendations are becoming more relevant over time, showing the creators’ legit semantic engine skillz, and the tag generation is a priceless feature for annotating posts with meta information. They’ve recently enhanced the magic by integrating the tool into Gmail and Yahoo mail!

This is very exciting because now I can add great media content to my emails, making them more interactive and engaging. It blows me away how the tool so seamlessly integrates with different platform user interfaces. I still don’t quite understand how they make it work. I’ve tried all the top Firefox add-ons, Delicious, StumbleUpon, and Firebug being a few other winners, but those are just buttons or toolbars on top of the browser, whereas the Zemanta app exists dynamically within the actual webpage. These guys are doing something very special and I’m excited to see where they take it. Still waiting on them to hook it up with affiliate links!

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I was doing some research on why left brain, masculine dominance has evolved in our world, and came across Leonard Shlain, who I found to be one of the most fascinating people I’ve ever discovered. Leonard took my depth of understanding of our world to a whole new level. I highly recommend watching these lectures if you have a chance, especially The Alphabet vs. The Goddess and Sex, Time, and Power.
 
Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light

 
The Alphabet vs. The Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image

 
Sex, Time, and Power: How Women’s Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution

In the first talk, Leonard proposes that the visionary artist is the first member of a culture to see the world in a new way. Then, nearly simultaneously, a revolutionary physicist discovers a new way to think about the world. He makes fascinating comparisons between greats such Picasso and Einstein. In the second talk, Leonard contrasts the feminine right-brained oral teachings of Socrates, Buddha, and Jesus with the masculine left-brained creeds that evolved when their spoken words were committed to writing, and discusses how language and the written word have contributed to an imbalance in human brain function and male/female power. The third talk discusses female sexuality as the driving force of evolution, and how it in essence taught men about time due to a menstrus sexual cycle governed by the moon, which ultimately led to a realization of mortality and the creation of religion.

This is very intense stuff that combines a lot of different areas of human study. I find it mind blowing as it gives a holistic picture of where we come from, where we are, and where we’re going by synergizing art and science and focusing on a cultivation of harmony and equilibrium among the two hemispheres of the mind.

The 3 lectures are based on Shlain’s 3 bestselling books. He’s currently finishing up his fourth and seemingly final book called Leonardo’s Mind, a take on the brilliant mind of quite possibly the greatest combination artist/scientist in human history, Leonardo Da Vinci. Ironically, Leonard is currently recovering from brain surgery to remove a tumor in the very place of the stroke that killed Da Vinci. Heavy stuff!

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January 14th, 2008

Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Steve

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There’s an interesting phenomenon happening in apartments and homes of young millennial students and professionals, as well as other generations alike. People are keeping empty wine bottles and displaying them on counters, cabinets, and shelves in their homes. You pay $10-15 for a bottle, enjoy the juice, and then display the bottles you like as an addition to your ever evolving home artistry. In this sense the value becomes much more than what you paid. Wine bottles and liquor bottles are the norm because their labels and packaging tend to have unique designs and artistic expression. Most people I see line the bottles on top of their kitchen cabinets, while others put them on a bookshelf or something similar in the living room. The picture above is a Christmas decoration that someone created using old wine bottles. Here’s some other ideas.

Ever think about using an enclume pot rack? May seem a little out there, but I thought it would be cool to walk into a kitchen and see a variety of bottles on a hanging display. Other items at that website, like the sideboard, could be a nice substitute to the enclume pot racks. Another idea is the obvious wine rack… love the Regatta. Yet that may be more for your unopened fine wine collection.

Whichever method you choose, use wine as a subjective expression of your taste. Hopefully, this trend will continue to grow as wine products differentiate themselves more and more in taste and packaging, and people continue trying new things and putting bottles they like up for show.

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They’re already pioneers in the practical use of renewable energy and organic growing. Couldn’t they become the model for sustainability that spreads to the cities?… nature to the grid. Producing healthy food and renewable solar, wind, and bio-energy that power the earth. These places could become some of the most spiritual, environmental, and profitable organizations in the world.

Biodynamic wine gets into the holistic approach to agriculture, which is a step beyond organic. It’s built on the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner known as anthroposophy, which includes understanding “the ecological, the energetic, and the spiritual in nature.” Sometimes I feel insanely ideological about this type of stuff, especially bc I was into renewable energy before I ever even thought about wine, but for some reason I see the worlds merging together. There’s something real to this… something tangible that people can touch.

Image via Wikipedia

We know that the crises facing our world are calling for a transcendence in consciousness, but what does that mean? How do people touch that… how do they feel it? I believe wineries that incorporate these philosophies into their practice will create environments that inspire people. International winery tourism is already an astounding figure as is. What if they grew into biodynamic environments that help people feel enlightenment rather than just contemplate it as an intellectual idea. They taste the organic food that’s grown, they see the renewable energy that’s generated, they feel how they’re a part of a greater living system.

I’m still not feelin the word ‘wine’ tho… there’s just too much whining goin on in the world. I do like Elixir. Also, here’s something practical that a friend shared with me. It’s called Outstanding in the Field.

Read More: Our Sustainable Future

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For those of you who’ve been reading our blog for awhile, you know we’ve focused on wine as a unifier in the sustainable development of our lives. We’ve woven it into the core values of economic, social, and environmental health in an effort to exemplify its unifying power. The GrapeThinking passion has always been to create a sustainable world, and we feel the time is now to grow from our wine roots.

Wine, water, organic food, holistic medicine, and other natural supplements that create healthy bodies and minds. Renewable energy, green building, and recyclables that grow a vibrant environment. Information technology to ensure the establishment of a smart energy grid and a deep social connectedness among community. And most importantly, a rich understanding of the intense economic times we face ahead and the pragmatic ways by which we will turn our ideals into profit and pay it forward.

Book cover via Amazon

I remember conversations between Ruarri, Jake, and myself back in the summer of ’06 about starting our company. We talked in depth about the sustainability movement and how it’s going to change the world in our lifetime… usher in a new golden age if you will. This got us thinking heavily about the ancient philosophers of our past… Plato, Socrates, Aristotle. The greats that helped us gain a better understanding of life. In Plato’s well known work, Symposium, he attributes the rise of the golden age of Greece to the symposia, better known to them as drinking parties. Where society’s elite would gather and drink wine together. The magic started when everyone became equally inebriated on their elixir and the eros or arete as they called it would start to flow. Everyone would share ideas clearly and with intellectual humility and grace. They started feeling the connectedness of everything and each other beyond the realm of space and time, realizing it’s all energy. We share one life together and everything we do as individuals affects the whole. This collective awareness spread throughout society and created their golden age.

We found this fascinating and started believing in a mystical significance to wine. Something that inspires us and brings us together. That can help cultivate the tranquility and enlightenment that we need to build a sustainable world. We still haven’t quite figured out what it is and may never find the answer, but we do feel it has something to do with how wine is alive. How it ages and matures and becomes better with time.

These types of ideals and feelings are what drive the grapethinkers to their core, and we feel that as an organization, it is time to grow. We must address the sustainability movement and become a better way of living… a better way of thinking.

I just spent a week in Chicago in the wake of Obama’s historic Presidential acceptance speech and had a chance to attend the Midwest Alternative Energy Venture Forum. It felt great to represent Grape Thinking and promote it not just as a liquid but as a way of thinking. A better way to live and a better way to think.

To Ruarri and Jake, we’ve come a long way over the past few years since talking about how wine can save the world, and I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have such amazing partners and friends. What we’ve built is something that binds our deepest passions for life and I look forward to the road ahead.

Cheers guys

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