Hello, bloggers!
We had a wonderful time in the Napa Valley/St. Helena area in California. We had 3 great dinners where people came and looked at the art. We had hours to discuss the whole project, and the people who came had been thoroughly versed in the Umbrella Project and how that related to the visual art. One of the dinners was hosted by David and Susan Sabin, and it was a magical, amazing setting. David made sure that every day we went out to a different restaurant, where we met lots of wonderful local people for lunch and dinner.
Michael Chiarello from the Food Channel—who is one of Rose’s favorite cooks on television—came to the show on Monday. Later on they invited all of us over to their home, where we had one of the most delightful group of people, about 20 of us. Chef Chiarello cooked a meal with all of his comments about how it was cooked and what the ingredients were... It was the most amazing meal I’ve ever had.
Also, during all the dinners, the people who grew the wine were there to talk about their wine and what it meant, what the vintage was, and all of those things. I dutifuly drank my ice water and listened to what they had to say. We met with some people who do documentaries on world projects, people who work with people like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Robert Redford... And there was some discussion of doing a worldwide program about the Umbrellas for Peace, in many different languages, for public television. So that was very exciting.
I also met a very interesting man who had developed and is now producing an electric motorcycle, and who had also designed a new bicycle. I told them that, looking ahead to the celebration of my 80th birthday, I’m going to do 3 things: I’m going to pierce my ear and put a diamond stud in it. I’d like to have a rose tattooed on my forearm. And I want to buy a motorcycle. So we talked at length about that. He said he’d be happy to make me a motorcycle with a sidecar, so I can either have Rose in the sidecar, or a chauffeur can drive us around. You always have to have long-term plans. I now have to think about what I want to do when I’m 90. I don’t think I’m going to be jumping out of airplanes. Maybe I’ll settle for getting out of a bathtub unassisted.
Matt