The Wine Access 2009 International Value Wine Awards are upon us. Though my responsibilities at this competition are much more lenient and modest than in years past, I am still taking part by way of helping set up the 3,500 bottles that our office has received over the last month, which includes sorting them according to their grape and stickering every bottle, sometimes twice.

Contributing this blog post has been tumultuous; I always want to use a new photo, or at least one taken with my new camera. Alas, I haven’t made the time to sit at my computer and process any recent pictures. The one above is from last year, taken with my Canon G9, which has since been relegated to very secondary use. I think we’ll buy a waterproof case for it and take it diving and snorkeling the next time we’re on holidays.

My wife took me out on the town on Wednesday night, to Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, which is a Calgary-based jazz dance company. They were celebrating their 25th anniversary, and the group of 9 or so dancers performed a retrospective of their tenure, including pieces by older choreographers. The show also featured performances by some of their original and since-retired dancers. I enjoyed the whole thing; some parts more than others. One part was truly captivating (albeit short): an improv routine by a long-time dancer done to an impassioned, gritty and genuinely southern a-cappella vocal performance of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine.”

Staying in the music theme for the time being, it’s being rumored by the artist himself, that Moby is in the midst of setting up a live concert tour (ie: not a DJ tour) for North America in September and October. This evidently includes Canada. The tour is undoubtedly in time to promote his new album “Wait For Me,” coming out June 30. Interestingly enough, “Wait For Me” was the title of my free web download set for my now-expired DJBedlam.com website back in 2001. Many folks who enjoyed my DJ sets said that was the most engrossing and fluid one that I recorded (though the production quality left plenty to be desired, as I inadvertently had the bass cranked way up high on my receiver). I think I agree with them.

Moby is one performer I would absolutely love to see live, and my wife and I have agreed to see him if he ends up in Calgary or Vancouver. We bought Moby’s “18 B-Sides” CD when it came out in 2003, and it includes a DVD with his live performance at Glastonbury in England that same year. Very entertaining, and we both like his songs.