Senses Takers at Toy Fair

When UnderWoman ran into Pretty Ugly towards the end of Toy Fair, she asked:

“Are we having fun yet?”

“Lady! Does it look like I’m having fun?”

In fact, UnderWoman was being facetious…and knows that the life of a walkabout character is not always easy.

Things can get "pretty steamy” in those suits.

"Back in the day,” UnderWoman had received a memo alerting her to the dangers of walkabout Barneys.

Apparently Barney imposters – many of whom had drinking problems and other problems – were investing in purple faux fur and renting themselves out for “kids' parties.”

Lyons Group (now HiT Entertainment) issued a memorandum pleading with parents not to let Barneys through the "front door" if they had alcohol on their breaths and/or anything less than regulation cooling fans in their heads. (You were supposed to request that walkabout Barneys remove their "big heads" and submit to "inspection" before granting them entry, just to be sure....)

But back to Toy Fair 2010!!!!

Pretty Ugly was a little tired by the end....

But WOW, did WE have FUN!!!

Among other things:

UnderWoman’s person, Wendy Dubit (aka Wendy Do-It), at last connected with Dubit World – planetary leaders in virtual reality platforms. For years, Dubit (pronounced doo-bit) and Dubit (pronounced dub-it) had been showing up on each other’s Google searches. Now that they have met face to face, stay tuned: There may be “further “relations” between them soon!

In fact, UnderWoman and Wendy were at Toy Fair, at least in part, in search of new looks and worlds!

Some had critiqued UnderWoman's "first look" as being "very old" indeed.

But what did they expect?

UnderWoman's "proof-of-concept" character had cost her all of $0!

She had simply taken a picture of a caricature of herself at age 16, cut it out with an Exacto® knife, and voila!

Who wouldn't want to look like themselves at 16? But detractors claimed that UnderWoman's big eyes and thin thighs were of no service to Wendy or humanity. So Wendy bulked UnderWoman up a bit with Sharpie®, created some Colorforms-type styles and seasons for her, and was willing to leave it at that.

Now UnderWoman and Wendy were together at Toy Fair, scouting new products for The Senses Bureau and wanting to "ink" and "cut" deals with companies.

But Wendy and UnderWoman felt about as static as Indonesian shadow puppets in a one-dimensioanal world when they sat in on an Enagage! Circle1Network focus group with kids...and learned that most of the young participants have avatars that change their clothes and hairstyles at least a dozen times a day.

Where and how would they (UnderWoman and Wendy) begin?

At the BEGINNING, that's where!

Fortunately, the "clocks were turned back" during a dynamic “Engaging through Narration” panel moderated by Warren Buckleitner.

Afterwards, a heartened Wendy Dubit approached him: “I feel like I know you SO WELL for someone I’ve never met!”

Warren was quick on the uptake and generous with hugs: "It’s CD-MOM! I’ve always wanted to meet CD-MOM!" (Long before she was UnderWoman, Wendy published the first-ever parenting CD-ROM, which linked religiously to Warren’s Children’s Technology Review).

It was like old timer's day in a new-fangled universe. It was proof that, beyond all bells and whistles, the power of story will prevail!

Empowered, UnderWoman and Wendy went on to meet some amazing new multi-faceted and multi-sensory friends, among them:

Eye Can Art
HugMeez
Oum Sensory Awakening Courses
Blamtastic
Thames & Cosmos
Shidonni
Small World Toys

Sadly, old friends like Sea Monkeys, Easy-Bake Ovens and Mr. Potato Heads were not to be found on the Toy Fair floor.

But Wendy and UnderWoman will track them down with a persistence that would make T.S. Eliot proud:

We shall not cease from our exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.

Perhaps a trip to Hasbro headquarters is in the offing?!

Meantime, we keep circling back to Dubit World, where we are very happy, very much at home....

Senses Enumerators on the Wine Trail

The Senses Bureau and friends have been hard and fast at work on the wine trails of this world...all of which seem to find their way to New York at some point.

First, a shout out to MMM Miguel Martin of Palmer Vineyards for getting us going last Spring.

We've been promising to write about he and his wines ever since....

Greetings...From the Verge!

Peace! Love! Et Le Beaujolais Est Arivée!

Hooray!

November 19th heralded one of my happiest, hippiest Beaujolais Days, THANKS to the families Duboeuf and Deutsch, the brilliance of M. Young Communications, a gathering of great friends, Bistro Bagatelle's fabulous food, and one of the finest Beaujolais vintages in 50 years.

I am one of thousands who eagerly await and thoroughly celebrate the Third Thursday of November -- the day on which Beaujolais Nouveau is released from its homeland at 12:01 a.m., and is jetted around the world so as to be fêted in ways that are fresh, vibrant, fun.

This year's release was especially exuberant:

The celebration sported a '60s-style Love / Peace / RootStock theme in homage to Woodstock's 40th Anniversary. And it kicked off a week-long program of nationwide tastings that coincide with food drives...all of which are listed at DuBoeuf Nouveau.

It also marked nearly 30 years of Beaujolais education and celebration for me.

Twenty-seven year ago, while at Friends of WINE magazine, I had stayed with the Duboeuf family in Romaneche-Thorins, and had written Profiles of Beaujolais from their premises.

This was WINE the way I loved it most -- earthy, alive, fruity...and, most importantly, linked to family.

I spent every spare moment with Fabienne and Franck DuBoeuf, who are my age -- comparing notes on work and life, cooking, running through fields and vineyards with assorted dogs, looking at stars. But there weren't that many spare moments.

By 7:30 a.m., when Georges claimed that our palates were at their most awake and astute, we would taste our way through Beaujolais -- visiting small family growers in the evocatively named villages of Saint-Amour, Juliènas, Chenas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Régnié, Brouilly, and Côte de Brouilly. By midnight, we would wind down from delicious dinners with the likes of Paul Bocuse and others.

Of course, it was incumbent upon us to spit if we were to make it to breakfast okay. And Georges remains my best spitting mentor to this day.

And while intervening years and careers took me temporarily away from the wine world, Beaujolais remained close to my heart always.

I just didn't know how to put my hands on the articles I'd written back in the day....

But Voila! A recent trip to the familial storage unit yielded a treasure trove that included Profiles in Beaujolais, the tastevin I had used for tasting, and assignment letters to young wine writers like Terry Theise and Robert Parker, who were then just getting started, if you can believe....

Anyhow, I hope you will join me in refreshing these memories...and in raising a toast to Peace, Love, Flower Power and the fact that Le Beaujolais Nouveau est Arivée!!

Warmly and looking forward,

Wendy Dubit, The Senses Bureau

Linked to Linden:A Fragrance Takes Heart

In Central Park, on Mother's Day, after a solid week of rain, the lindens and lilacs are leafing and flowering out, and I am in a special state of Spring Giddiness reserved especially for this time of year.

Several Springs ago, after a particularly strenuous set of meetings, I emerged, exhausted, from the nearest subway to a scent reminiscent of....

Reminiscent of something I could not quite account for, but that was powerful and profound beyond words.

Without thinking, I followed my nose across the street and into the park, where I stood under the trees in question and reeled with joy and relief. Stress dissolved while waves of well-being and wonder washed over me. It was as if an abacus-of-the-emotions began recounting -- or rather, reliving -- every encounter with this fragrance from pre-verbal to most recent. Clearly, this was the tree that bloomed behind an old boyfriend’s country house. But it was also so much more.

Determined to know what and why, I returned to the park with my Smithsonian Handbook of Trees guide...and identified…American Linden! Aha! The French use linden flowers (also known as lime blossoms) to make tilleul, a soothing tea that, accompanied by a madeleine, launched Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past.

Being less prolific and more consumer-oriented, I proceeded directly to Whole Foods to purchase linden leaf tea and Provence Sante’s pure linden perfume. Subsequently, a fragrance counter sniff test at Saks yielded the info I sought: Linden is an active ingredient in Evyan's White Shoulders, a perfume my mother and grandmother had worn from my earliest days.

And an olfactory lesson that this winetaster had always known was driven deeper home: No sense travels more quickly or directly to our memories and emotions than smell, which bypasses the reasoning part of the brain and heads straight to the limbic system.

Much more on the sense of smell, how it works, and why it’s key to happiness, health, learning and love can be found at Coming to Your Senses, in upcoming Senses Report posts, and in an olfaction chapter I co-authored with Kevin Zraly for The Complete Wine Course, to be released by Sterling this September.

For now, the linden trees are in bloom! I encourage you to stand beneath them and BREATHE. And I hope you will fill your days and nights with aromas that keep your memories and desires alive.

Warmly and looking forward,

Wendy Dubit and The Senses Bureau

Spring Giddiness

Spring Giddiness

By Rumi, as translated by Coleman Barks

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don't open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

The Wine Workout:Tastings to Train Senses & Brain

It’s a great time to be drinking wine! Never has the quality been higher, the selection greater, the prices more reasonable.

And it’s good for us, too. Among wine’s ever-growing attributes, studies show that moderate consumption can prevent heart attacks and strokes, aid digestion, lower blood pressure and cholesterol and reduce the risks of certain cancers and degenerative diseases.

Now, The Senses Bureau adds to these benefits through The Wine Workout, wherein tasting wine becomes a training ground for the senses, memory and mind.

Through a series of enjoyable experiences and exercises, savoring wine becomes the practice that:

• Deepens curiosity and elevates learning
• Strengthens the senses, singly and in concert
• Builds a vocabulary with which to express impressions and perceptions
• Enhances the way memories are made, stored and retrieved
• Clarifies personal preferences and style
• Promotes relaxation, conversation, stimulation, realization

While The Wine Workout elucidates the multi-faceted magnificence that resides in each well-made bottle of wine -- the embodiment of time and place, vines and grapes, soil and weather, nature and art -- it also acknowledges that that’s just where the beauty starts! Of equal wonder is what takes place within us when we experience wine -- from anticipation to articulation, from awakened and enlivened senses to the creation, integration and consolidation of memories.

Right and left brain, and numerous other parts of the body and mind, collaborate and communicate in making memories and keeping them alive. But there are few places that they work together as powerfully or as pleasurably as in tasting, describing, and remembering wine.

We hope you will join us for upcoming Wine Workouts that will feature some of our favorite tasters and tastings…and that you’ll invite us to organize a Wine Workout for you and your group.

For details, please e-mail wendy@thesensesbureau.com .

Meantime, happy tastings to you. And please check out Coming to Your Senses, about enjoying wine in and with every sense, and WineSmelling 101, a chapter that Kevin Zraly and I co-authored for his 2009 Complete Wine Course.

Lights Out for Earth Hour

Friends,

Because I was powered down earlier for Earth Hour, and so as to conserve resources and share a truly great experience again, I am repurposing from last year's post:

I seriously need reading glasses. Somehow, I misread the time on Earth Hour's excellent website about when we were supposed to turn the lights out and experience the difference that even an hour of darkness can make.

I invited friends over for the occasion, but none could come.

And so, alone at the appointed hour, I powered down all appliances, lit candles, turned my rocking chair towards twilight, and experienced realizations, revelations, and rewards that I could never have imagined.

Realization: Quiet and calm accompany darkness to a great degree. Nature seems closer when you are calm and quiet.

Revelation: More is less. Soon, I was economizing even candles. And what I could see, hear, feel in the deepening of dusk and descent of night asounded me.

Reward: A raccoon traversed my windowsill and scampered up the netted scaffolding next door.

WOW!!! Did this happen often, I wondered, and I was too busy, noisy, bustling to see?

Was this some kind of sign -- an enticement to spend more time in silence, stillness, observation, contemplation?

Or was I CRAZY?

Later, walking to dinner, I took the park path to see who else was lighting up or powering down. At the gate, I quizzed the local police: Had they been aware of Earth Hour? No. If they had been aware, would they have taken action or encouraged others to do so? Questionable. Could they notice a difference in the city lights from where they stood? Not really. And finally: Could I have been hallucinating? Though I was admittedly alone and drinking in the dark, I could swear I saw a raccoon....

Absolutely affirmative! The police were as excited as I was: They had seen a hefty critter amble out of Central Park at the time in question, in no particular hurry, headed west....

Increasingly, it seems, 'coons leave Central Park to stake out new territories, run errands and the like. One neighbor reported that a raccoon accompanied her to Duane Reade the other day. And I've since been told not to invite them in for lunch, lest they never leave.

Anyhow, I arrived at dinner EXCITED to share my tales of calmness, wildness and wonder with friends...only to learn that Earth Hour was the next night. And I'd get to do it all again....