Author Archives: Do Bianchi

Deborah Parker Wong, new Slow Wine USA editor, discusses 2021 guide (VIDEO).

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Last week, leading California wine educator Deborah Parker Wong — and the new editor for the Slow Wine Guide to the Wines of North America — talked to me on Zoom about the guide and how she and her team of editors are putting the 2021 edition together even as they face the challenges of the pandemic era.

See the video of our Zoom chat below.

Deborah, above, served as a senior editor for the guide for the 2020 and 2019 editions (you can download a free e-book version of the 2020 guide here). And this year, as the new coordinating editor, she’s also overseeing an expansion of the book to include Washington and New York states.

It seems like a lifetime ago that my friend Giancarlo Gariglio, the guide’s editor-in-chief, asked me to help him launch a U.S. version. It was one of the most rewarding experiences in my career as a wine writer and I couldn’t be more happy that Deborah, one of the best technical tasters I’ve ever worked with and a true California wine insider, has stepped up to lead the team of contributors in these challenging times. Slow Wine USA couldn’t be in better hands.

Of course, Deborah and I weren’t going to waste an opportunity to taste some great wine together. Thanks to the generosity of the folks at Scarpa in Monferrato (for whom I do media consulting), we each had a bottle of Scarpa 2013 to taste. It was a thrill to get to open that bottle — however virtually — with one of my favorite people in the wine world.

What a wonderful wine, from a fantastic vintage!

Tracie and I paired it with her homemade focaccia (a Parzen family favorite) that night for dinner. Deborah checked in later in the day and said she poured with a salmon and spinach frittata. The wine, a current release, is showing beautifully right now.

Houston removes Confederate statues in time for Juneteenth.

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By the time a Houston-based activist arrived on the scene yesterday, all that was left of a United Daughters of the Confederacy statue of Confederate commander Dick Dowling was a broken, jackhammered pedestal (above) and a desecrated dedication stone (below).

The Dowling statue was one of two monuments that were removed in Houston this week.

After gatherings at the site of the Robert E. Lee monument in Charlottesville, Virginia turned violent in 2017, Houston mayor Sylvester Turner formed a commission to study the repurposing of the city’s Confederate monuments. Earlier that year, he had already announced that the name of Dowling St., the main artery of one of Houston’s historically black neighborhoods, would be changed to Emancipation Ave.

But after sweeping public outcry in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis and Virginia governor Ralph Northam’s announcement that the Lee statue in Richmond would be removed, mayor Turner decided that the time was right to remove these hateful and offensive tributes to the men who defended racist violence and genocide. (While mayor Turner was able to move forward with the removal this week, yesterday a judge barred Governor Northam from removing the Lee statue indefinitely.)

Today, Houston residents will be able to observe Emancipation Day — Juneteenth — without the long dark shadow of these monuments cast over their celebration.

Unfortunately, due to the ongoing global health crisis, there will be no public gathering today at Houston’s Emancipation Park (below).

The park, established by black business leaders who purchased the land in 1872, was the site of some of the earliest celebrations of Juneteenth.

Thanks to the heightened interest in the holiday this year, many Americans have learned for the first time that Juneteenth can trace its origins to Galveston and Houston, the last cities in America to receive news of the Confederacy’s demise and black Americans’ newfound liberation from bondage.

Given the current public discourse on racism in this country, Juneteenth observances have particular significance and urgency this year.

May we all take this day to reflect on how we can become better American ancestors.

Happy Juneteenth from the Parzen family in Houston, Texas.

Please consider donating to and/or sharing our GoFundMe campaign to repurpose a newly built Confederate memorial in Orange, Texas where Tracie grew up and where half the population is black.

About the guy screaming racist epithets at us on NowThis (please help us raise an MLK billboard over the Confederate memorial in Orange, Texas).

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On Saturday, NowThis Politics reposted a video entitled “Conflict Over Confederate Monument in Texas” which it had originally published in November 2018.

It was produced using video that Tracie shot at one of our protests of the newly built Confederate memorial in Orange, Texas where she grew up.

You can view the Facebook repost (June 2020) here. And the original NowThis tweet (November 2018) here.

We’re not sure if NowThis was aware that we were protesting the memorial on Saturday, part of our ongoing campaign to repurpose the memorial which stands on Martin Luther King Dr. in a community that’s half black.
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No violence but tensions high at our Saturday protest of the Confederate memorial in Orange, Texas. Thank you Orange PD for keeping us safe.

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Above: Tracie and her friend LaToya at the Saturday, June 13 protest of the Confederate memorial in Orange, Texas where Tracie and LaToya both grew up and attended high school together.

Despite threats of violence and rumors that “Antifa” would be at our Saturday protest of the Confederate memorial in Orange, Texas, our demonstration was peaceful and without incident.

You can watch footage of the event, including interviews, here on the local Fox affiliate.
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Threats of violence and fear mongering will not stop us from protesting the Confederate monument in Orange, Texas today.

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Threats of violence and fear mongering will not deter our protest of the Confederate monument in Orange, Texas today (see protest details here).
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Please join our protest of the Confederate memorial in Orange, Texas tomorrow. Please donate to our campaign to raise an MLK billboard across from the site.

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Tracie and I were already planning tomorrow’s protest of the newly built Confederate memorial in Orange, Texas where she grew up when we were contacted a couple of young women, sisters, who live there. They wanted to organize their own protest, they told us, and they were asking for our help.

The flyer below was designed by the older of the two, a recent college grad on her way to medical school.

If two young people like them have the courage to stand up against racist iconography like the “Confederate Memorial of the Wind,” then I truly believe there’s hope for our cause.

They’ll be there with us tomorrow, from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m., as we protest Confederate flags planted along Martin Luther King, Dr. — one of the city’s main arteries — in 2017.
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What does the Confederate flag mean in Texas? Racism! Join us in protest of the newly built Confederate memorial in Orange, Texas this Saturday.

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“NASCAR bans Confederate flag from all its events, including races,” reported the venerable news agency Fox News yesterday. News of the ban was also published by leftwing lamestream media outlets.

Here’s an excerpt of the statement issued by NASCAR, as published by Fox: “The presence of the confederate flag at NASCAR events runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry… Bringing people together around a love for racing and the community that it creates is what makes our fans and sport special. The display of the confederate flag will be prohibited from all NASCAR events and properties.”

NASCAR has banned all displays of Confederate flag. The U.S. Marine Corps also just banned all displays of the Confederate flag.

Is there any question in anyone’s mind at this point as to whether or not the Confederate flag is an offensive and divisive symbol of racism?

In case you’re wondering what the Confederate flag means in Texas, I’d like to share another statement with you, one that was published by the state of Texas in 1861.
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These are not men. They are racist cowards. Help us raise an MLK billboard over their newly built Confederate memorial in Orange, Texas

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On Friday, June 5, the U.S. Marine Corps posted the following statement on its Twitter:

    The Confederate battle flag has all too often been co-opted by violent extremist and racist groups whose divisive beliefs have no place in our Corps. Our history as a nation, and events like the violence in Charlottesville in 2017, highlight the divisiveness the use of the Confederate battle flag has had on our society. This presents a threat to our core values, unit cohesion, security, and good order and discipline. This must be addressed.

On that same day, the commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. David H. Berger, banned public displays of the Confederate battle flag in any form in “an order that extended to such items as mugs, posters and bumper stickers.”

Not long after the violence in Charlottesville, Granvel Block and Hank Van Slyke began displaying the Confederate flag on Martin Luther King, Dr. in Orange, Texas where Tracie grew up, where her family still lives, where we visit often with our children — and where half the population is black. The flag is featured prominently, within view of Interstate 10, on their “Confederate Memorial of the Wind.”

See their flyer, below, which they used to raise funds for the construction of the “memorial.”
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G-d bless George Floyd and his family. May he give us the strength to “remain awake through a great revolution.”

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Photo by Lorie Schaull (via Flickr Creative Commons).

Today, less than three miles from our home in Houston, Texas, George Floyd will be remembered by family, friends, and dignitaries at the Fountain of Praise Church.

Early this morning, Manny Fernandez, the New York Times Houston bureau chief, published this biography of Mr. Floyd. I highly recommend it.

I can’t stop thinking this morning about how George Floyd is a Christlike figure. Reading the story of his life, I learned that he had lost his way in his own desert before he decided to devote himself to helping others escape the chains of growing up poor and disenfranchised. Like Christ, he became a true martyr for social change when he was killed by those police officers. And his name, like that of Jesus, is today spoken by people across the world as a synecdoche for failed justice.

In June, 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a commencement speech at Oberlin College in Ohio. The title was “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution.” Dr. King’s words resonate as deeply today as they did on a June day 55 years ago:

    Let nobody give you the impression that the problem of racial injustice will work itself out. Let nobody give you the impression that only time will solve the problem. That is a myth, and it is a myth because time is neutral. It can be used either constructively or destructively. And I’m absolutely convinced that the people of ill will in our nation — the extreme rightists — the forces committed to negative ends — have used time much more effectively than the people of good will. It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation, not merely for the vitriolic works and violent actions of the bad people who bomb a church in Birmingham, Alabama, or shoot down a civil rights worker in Selma, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, “Wait on time.” Somewhere we must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals. Without this hard work, time becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation. So we must help time and realize that the time is always right to do right.

G-d bless George Floyd and his family. May G-d give us the strength to “stay awake.”

PROTEST: Sons of Confederate Veterans “Memorial of the Wind” SATURDAY JUNE 13 in Orange, Texas.

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Please join us in PROTEST of the Confederate memorial in Orange, Texas (at Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. and Interstate 10, north access road):

Saturday, June 13
location:
Confederate Memorial of the Wind
(Google map)
time:
10 a.m. – 12 p.m.

WE ARE ASKING ALL PROTESTERS TO WEAR A MASK
AND MAINTAIN SOCIAL DISTANCE.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE REPURPOSE EMAIL NEWSLETTER
to receive event details and updates

CLICK HERE TO LEARN ABOUT
THE REPURPOSE MEMORIAL CAMPAIGN

Tracie and I were already planning a protest of the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ “Memorial of the Wind” in Orange, Texas when some young people from the city contacted us yesterday asking how they could help.

Initially, we had planned to stand up by ourselves. But after our call yesterday, we’ve decided to publicize the event and try to get as many people out as we can.

Thanks to our Martin Luther King Day 2020 GoFundMe, we also have enough money to raise another billboard across the street from the memorial which stands on MLK Dr. in eye’s view of I-10 — the eastern gateway to Texas.

We plan to have a new billboard up in time for the June 13 protest and Juneteenth (June 19).

The protest is focused on the newly erected Confederate memorial but we welcome Black Lives Matter and George Floyd justice protesters as well. Please join us. Any and all are welcome. We just ask that you wear a mask and social distance.

Not long after our MLK Day protest (January 20) but before the pandemic brought life in the U.S. to a halt, Granvel Block, one of the chief organizers of the memorial, appeared in my father-in-law’s church at Sunday services. He claimed that he wanted to change churches and that he was attending different services in his search for a new place to worship. Reverend Branch (Randy, Tracie’s dad) gave him the benefit of the doubt and welcomed him. But we all know what’s going on.

Like a pedophile testing the waters, Granvel was clearly gauging whether Randy would be a pressure point that he could use to make us stop protesting their insidious racist iconography.

We believe that Granvel was the author of an anonymous defamatory letter sent to Tracie’s then 97-year-old grandmother (you can read it here; be advised that it contains sexually graphic content). It gives you a sense of just how sick and cowardly Granvel and his partner Hank Van Slyke are.

I’ve only spoken to Granvel once by phone when he threatened to “kick my ass.”

BRING IT ON, GRANVEL! BRING IT ON, HANK!

Across our nation, Confederate memorials are being removed. Your days are numbered.