The Feng Shui Guy, A.J. Towne
Thursday 24th September, A.J. Towne hosted a night of wine & chocolate pairings - and Feng Shui. ‘Chocolate, Wine and 'Shway'’ is a series he hosted this summer, in both New York City and Los Angeles. 'Shway' is his word for Feng Shui. In a sense, 'shway' not just his approach to Feng Shui, but his whole approach to life. He might look like a wet-behind-the-ears kid, but looks, as they say, can be deceiving. He's in his early thirties and he's smarter and more observant than just about anyone you'll ever meet. Thursday’s event began at seven o’clock in the evening, in a cozy theatre space - Stage Left Studio, on Manhattan’s west-side. It is run by Cheryl King. While a lovely couple who own a shop in Brooklyn called NuNu’s Chocolates, are Ariel’s veteran chocolatiers. The aim of the evening as A.J. put it was this: “My intention was to bring together elements in a new way…things that are delicious and supposed to be fun and that have more depth than what appears on the surface.”
Feng Shui Map
A.J. was dressed in just a well-worn t-shirt and a pair of jeans. He sat on the floor cross-legged (yoga style) stage-front, keeping close to the audience. And from there he elucidated on 'shway'. As he spoke, he questioned the audience too, probing them for what they knew (or thought they knew) about Feng Shui. In most cases, people’s instincts were dead-on. As he said, most of us are doing a bit of 'shway' with our lives already. “When we enter a new space we often have an immediate feeling. Some spaces feel homey, others give us heebie-jeebies.” The way that we act while in these spaces, either harmonizing with them or finding ways to counter-balance with them, is a very basic way of practicing the 'shway'. As the audience followed his jocular info-bytes and anecdotes, A.J. introduced short breaks, so that people could start sampling chocolates. There was a selection of four distinct milk chocolates, which obviously made wine pairing difficult. Some believe that chocolate (particularly milk chocolate) and wine cannot be paired effectively, au contraire! He’d come prepared with an arsenal of good, inexpensive wine from White Horse Spirits & Wine Ltd.
Is this you at home?
For the peanut-butter and caramel chocolate and the espresso and brandy infused chocolate, he offered a Spanish Granache and a Californian Zinfandel, which are rich, full-bodied fruit-bomb type red wines. For the sea-salt and caramel chocolate he offered a sweet German Riesling (white) and for the Earl Grey infused chocolate he offered a delicate, peachy Californian Viognier (white). He also offered, afterward, a light-bodied Italian Pinot Noir (red) and a Californian Moscato, a white dessert wine. With these last two, he invited audience members to find their own pairings. For instance, the Viognier went even better with the sea-salt and caramel chocolate and the Pinot Noir nicely complimented the espresso and brandy infused chocolate.
As the audience sipped wine and indulged in chocolate, A.J. would wait for them all to sit again and then he'd launch back into the precepts of Feng Shui.
Feng Shui, according to him, is a great way to get yourself out of the mysterious rut that you’ve been stuck in ever so long. There are several basic principles involved, such as mapping the living space to know its directional orientation (i.e. north, south, east and west) and revealing their active/latent properties. What’s more, many different ways exist for enhancing the different points of the living space, optimising it for your life and those things that you wish to bring into it. While, A.J. did veer into the esoteric, addressing the concepts of 'chi' and 'dharma', he confined the discourse to the 'brass tacks' of Feng Shui, so as not to shut-out or overwhelm his rapt neophytes. A.J.'s influences are eclectic; no single school of thought over-rides another. He draws equally from the Hawaiian, Tibetan and Chinese approaches, even embracing the apparent contradictions. This is not unprecedented but it is a rarity, as Einathan Batoon, Ariel’s first mentor, also utilises this approach. Ariel has gone on to study Feng Shui under other mentors, such as Karen Roach Carter, David Michael Kennedy and His Holiness Grand Master Lin Yun (founder of the Black Hat style of Feng Shui). In this manner, he eventually discovered his own way; thereby, sustaining himself and his interest in helping others re-imagine their lives. "I do what I love," he says. And this is partly what makes this humble guy so 'shway'.
When asked about why he includes wine and food pairings with his presentation, A.J. laughed. He replied that it was about: “Exploring the delicious and discovering the active balance in contrasts.” Then with a wink he asked, “How’s that?”
Comments