CITY IS Y'ALL'S CHURCH Y'ALL. I THOUGHT I TOOK A BUNCH OF GREAT -- woops caps lock stuck for a minute -- I thought I took a bunch of great pictures that really captured what it was like to experience M83 live in concert at their live concert, but the only one I cared about in the end was this backlit shot of the keyboard player's bum. That's music blogging at its finest.
These are my homeboys Clay and Evan. This is at Zuzu, one of my favorite bars, in what I like to call the old guy's timeout corner where you can stand and not be in the way of all the damn wiener kids dancing to their rock music and/or punk rock musics.
I got a new 'piece' you guys.
It looks much more meaningful/emo when it's bleeding. That's not right after I got it, it just bleeds from time to time on some stigmata shit. I'm the Jesus fucking Christ of questionable 'body art' decisions. LIKE A BILLION MORE PICTURES -->
I am going to commence posting lots of pictures of cocktails I drank. I went to NYC for the Manhattan Cocktail Classic last week. It's like an industry conference for the bar world, basically the SXSW of drinking. Lots of panels and lectures and learning and trying new brands etc etc. This was one of the best drinks I had all week. It was the Repossession at the Bar at the Nomad Hotel, a newly opened bar that everyone has a boner for. Jim Meehan of PDT, who I interviewed a while back about his great The PDT Cocktail Book, told me to go there, so I went there. Pretty simple. It's made with tequila, Amotillado sherry, apricot brandy, mezcal, cane sugar, and lemon. I drank it down faster than I would have normally because the wasted chick seated next to me would not stop talking to me about this guy she knew and that guy and the other guy. I was contorting my body language so hard to get away from her I thought I was going to pop my hips out of the sockets. Meanwhile her boyfriend sat there and watched the whole thing. I kept trying to give him eye rolls, like, dude, please don't think I'm encouraging this. But that's kind of a tricky move to pull off, because you can't be, like, yo, yr girl is fucking annoying. Anyway, I ended up showing them both my dick. Long story.
This is the library room at the Nomad. Kind of really quiet in there. Yo it's not a real library people, you can talk.
One of the big parts of conferences like this is the corporate brands have total things that you go to and you drink their things and then, I guess, the bartenders go back to their home bars and are like "I remember that thing I drank at the thing, maybe I'll sell it to other people!" This was for Mandarine Napoleon. It was pretty good, but nothing to lose your tits over. The cocktail on the left was mixed with bourbon infused with cocoa puffs, Mandarin Napoleon cognac, and something else. It was pretty late at this point, so who even knows any more what's in anything. Cereal + bourbon sounds better in theory than it actually is. Cereal + anything or bourbon + anything usually work out fine in the end though.
#metaphor.
#drunkdouche
#racist.
#nojokeavailable
One of the things you do at these cocktail conferences is listen to lectures about, for example, ice. This one was really pretty fascinating actually. I was reminded that, like everything else worthwhile in the world, ice (for drinking) was basically invented in Boston. It was conducted by Wayne Curtis, of the Atlantic, among others, who I rather admire, and Camper English of the great Alcademics.
This is "ice with pedigree, ice with a story," Curtis explained of the glacier ice we were drinking. "People take ice for granted, it's nice to remind ourselves when it was a luxury and harder to harvest...Now people think of ice as hostile, as chunks out of machine..." The stuff we were drinking was ancient ice. Ice before the hand of man. When we poured rum over the ice, and you could hear popping, it was compressed air from being under a glacier for thousands of years.
Frederic Tudor is the guy who invented ice as we know it around 1806 or so in Boston. Fresh Pond, the place where I run around nearby my house, was a big place for harvesting ice, which I'm happy to know because now every time I go on a run I'm going to be thinking about drinking even more than I already am. Everyone thought Tudor was a dumbass at the time. "What're you going to do, ship ice to India? they said. Yup. That's what he did. People were resistant to the idea of ice for a long time. They thought that if you drank something that was too cold when it was hot out you would die. Die of ice.
Anyway he'd have teams of horse-drawn sleds harvesting the ice, then he had railroads built to the ports in Boston, and later Maine, so they could ship the ice to New Orleans and the Brits in India. Having that ice available in New Orleans in the early and mid 19th century helped the cocktail as we know it develop immensely.
Lectures are lot easier to sit through when they served drinks. This Improved Vodka Old Fashioned was made with Cocchi Americano, Wormwood bitters, Maraschino, and Ketel One.
This was a thing where the main Tanqueray guy, Angus Winchester, the most British-ly named dude ever, was evaluating bartenders on their skills. Everyone was nervous. Rightfully so.
The thing was at the Andaz Hotel in NYC. This was like a nice courtyard where I assumed it was ok to smoke and smash the cigarettes out on the sand. I misjudged that.
A picture of a bottle and a glass of liquid.
Boston was representing well down there. Bumped into what's his name from On the Bar, and what's their names from Citizen, a really good bar up here.
This was some shit made with gin, Mercy, which is like some new hangover cure drink that probably definitely works 100%, and white grape juice.
A lot of the pop up bars were on these suite balconies that had a pretty amazing view, I'm not afraid to tell you that much.
High West is good. Drink it. They have a new one coming out called Campfire, which is a blend 6 year old bourbon, 16 old rye, and 8 year old scotch.
I'm not sure looking at pictures of slides is that interesting, but I was surprised to learn that the third most consumed spirit in the world was Soju, a Korean distilled beverage. Way down on the bottom is gin. So I guess my assumption that everyone is drinking gin cocktails all the time now is off by a few million idiot points.
You know where they do drink the fuck out of some gin though? The Philipines.
It costs liquor companies more to make the bottles than the stuff they put in them.
This was probably obvious, but in case you didn't know, you are getting ripped off at bars. Drink at home!
OK, this has nothing to do with anything, but I thought "Special Hot Food" was the best thing I'd ever heard of.
Do these petrified displays of food dinosaur bones actually bring people in? It's like, oh, I remember what food looks like now, I better go have some.
This was the Barmuda Triangle at the aforemention PDT, winners of the recent first ever James Beard award for outstanding bar program. I forgot to write down what was in it which is stupid because I want it inside of me right now.
PDT, as you might know, is hidden behind a phone booth inside this little hot dog shop on St Mark's Place. It's super dark and small inside, but it's probably the biggest must-visit for cocktails next time you're in the city.
This was some tequila cucumber something or other at Death + Company, another super boner cocktail nerd bar. I kind of lost the ability to think in words by this point so I had to let me shitty camera do make my words for me. No flash photography in here, they scolded me. Woops.
Tracy Bonham autograph.
Felt like I should be video-gaming the eff out of this scene. FPS n shit.
Back at home. I dropped the ice cream on the floor :(
Charlie's Kitchen bathroom, aka beta-Yahoo message boards.
My friend Dylan came back to visit. No idea we were getting photo-bombed.
I WENT TO SEE A BAND I LIKE AND TWEETED THE WHOLE TIME YOU GUYS -SOME INSECURE BLOGGER
I PUT MY FAKE EYELASHES ON FOR THE EMO SHOW YOU GUYS - SOME GIRL
'Sang my heart out.' All the parts of these songs that I can't sing are the same parts the singer can't sing either. Samesies!
Show law: The dude who starts the mosh pit always has a sick sunburn.
It was refreshing to get back to real bartending, honest bartending, blue collar stuff. Like, the House of Blues in Boston was a reminder that a good bartender cuts to the chase efficient-like and yells the number of monies the thing you asked for costs after you yell your order and then you never talk again.
God this thing is too long. I judged some cocktail contest sponsored by Domaine de Canton yesterday. Here's my friends from Temple Bar. James competed. His cocktail was good.
Bartender guy from KO Prime wearing a thing.
Vik from Island Creek Oyster Bar's thing. Super spicy, thai chili infused Pisco. Yikes. Was good though.
Domingo from Market's. His cocktails are always super pretty.
This was the winner. Chartreuse, mezcal, Canton, and lime. Erik something from Mezcal Cantina in Worcester. NICE JOB DUDE I LIKED YR DRINK.
Went to a bbq after. People stood around and ate and drank.
There was a dunk tank.
I know how you feel.
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10 comments:
That was long, but good. Liked the blue collar bar tending bit. I always feel like a pro in those situations.. 'Hey asshole! give me that thing and I'll give you these things and then I'll leave you alone for like the next 30 minutes!'
Die of ice.
I hope I never die of ice honestly.
That guy at the end looks like this guy I went to college with I think it is him. He was always really weird around me I think he hated my guts. Also sometimes I can't tell if you are poking fun at yourself or other people like all the "emo" references and your new tattoo (Which looks cool). Looks like fun though. I like how you appreciate cocktails so much.
If you can't poke fun at yourself who can you poke fun at? Besides everyone else, all the time on your complaining blog ?
Thanks for liking it though you guys.
That dude's name is Colin, he works at Temple Bar. Hi Colin!
Nice mirror photo bro.
THANKS I TOOK IT MYSELF>
Ha that is the kid from my college.
I think it's funny how you poke the fun though. It's like you are making fun of yourself and other people at the same time if that makes sense.
yr sweet.
What racial slur are you going to put over the "Please" tat?
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