Ask Alfred Soto

The Shins are, er, ok, I guess.

But seriously, the McLennan and Forster write incredible lyrics.

http://stylusmagazine.com/review.php?ID=2510

What instrumental acts or albums do you like? You can include classical or jazz, but I'm mostly wondering if there's any instrumental rock/electronic music that appeals to you.

Cheers,

jaymc

Since you're asking, jaymc, at home I've got Miles Davis' Live-Evil on the carousel. Instrumental stuff I like that's not jazz: Reich, Eno, Hassell, not much else that's not vaguely trance-y.

go-betweens stuff to look out for: acoustic 16 lovers lane demos and acoustic munich radio show.

CLAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSIC!

just played "R[E]SCREEN" in scrabble for a bingo, thanking u.

Alfred, I'm sorry for judging you so harshly. Perhaps you didn't notice.

Anyway, you're fine by me now. Also, I like Miami. I have cousins there.

miami is awesome.

Alfred's a good dude

It's raining buckets at the moment. I'm listening to Funkadelic's "I'll Stay" and am thinking of cooking a couple of pork chops. I cringe when I remember I have federal jury duty tomorrow.

just say "they're all guilty," and you'll walk out of jury duty -- without being selected -- in just a few short hours.

actually, federal jury duty is interesting. federal district court judges are whipsmart. it's interesting to watch them judge cases.

lol Daniel

I could of course refuse to give my address except "in chambers" -- a line Mom used last year when she was getting screened to serve on a federal murder trial. She was excused.

"being distracted by pressing work commitments" also works well.

Racial slurs help too ("Sorry, counsel, but he's black so he probably did it").

sing all yr answers instead of speaking them and would at least slightly increase the chances of yr procuring a record deal before sunset tomorrow

*that would

oh, markers -- I finally deleted The Suburbs from my hard drive. My computers will dream of electric sleep more soundly.

re jury duty: just crack open a bottle of banyuls rimage les clos de paulilles dessert wine tonight, then wing it tomorrow.

Well, "no jury duty selection at this time," according to the hotline. Now I can relax.

Someone ask me a question. I got a nice tanline today!

justin bieber is terrible and his popularlity is the result of him being forced on the public, right?

did you mean George W. Bush?

him too.

RIP The Suburbs

i'm actually surprised you weren't looking forward to federal jury duty even a little, al. i've also wondered if pretending to be racist or something would work - what if they found out you did it on purpose?

i dunno how they could, racists aren't registered in any database

yeah obv but i would probably give myself away somehow

i doubt anybody seriously tries it IRL because of similar fears. just gotta keep it consistent. if you say you hate all Mexicans because a mexican killed your family, you better kill your family in case they check up on u

i got a summons letter for local court recently (got out of it via MY TOTALLY LEGIT EXCUSE SUP GOVERNMENT) so i'd been wondering about this

i'm actually surprised you weren't looking forward to federal jury duty even a little, al.

ha -- why?

idk you like reading about law/supreme court stuff so much. i guess this wouldn't be as exciting tho

jury duty is like giving a handjob to a turtle

Turtles are at least horny.

hey al have you ever listened to francis and the lights? super good 80s phil collins/prince/p gabriel thing, basically all his music streaming here:

http://francisandthelights.muxtape.com/

i love this dude. seems like something up your alley.

so do you do pr for this band or

alfred, are you on the twitterz?

Nah. Like Gretta Scacci said in The Player: "Life's too short."

I do have a blog: http://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/

max, thanks for the suggestion! I'll check it out. All my favorite referents, etc.

so do you do pr for this band or

― plax (ico), Sunday, August 15, 2010 7:06 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haha i mean i think everyone should listen to em! but i keep thinking its like made for al soto, its all 80s r&b w/ computer sheen

jury duty is like giving a handjob to a turtle

but it's oh so exciting for the lawyers involved.

Dear Soto, What are your ten fave singles and albums of the Aughties please? A perfunctory search on your blog yielded the expected nothing.

xoxokjb

Here's twenty albums. Don't take the order too seriously:

1. M.I.A. – Kala
2. Bob Dylan – “Love and Theft”
3. DJ Shadow – The Private Press
4. Ghostface – Fishscale
5. Kylie Minogue – Fever
6. The Mekons – OOOH!
7. The Go-Betweens – Oceans Apart
8. Miranda Lambert – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
9. Erykah Badu – New Amerykah Part One
10. Aaliyah – Aaliyah
11. Jay Z – The Blueprint
12. Bjork – Vespertine
13. Lee Ann Womack – There’s More Where That Came From
14. The Mountain Goats – We Shall All Be Healed
15. Roisin Murphy – Overpowered
16. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
17. Arctic Monkeys – Favorite Worst Nightmare
18. Sleater Kinney – One Beat
19. Missy Elliott – This is Not a Test!
20. Drive-By Truckers – Brighter Than Creation’s Dark

20. Drive-By Truckers – Brighter Than Creation’s Dark

sometimes you surprise me.

well, i guess nos. 2 and 6 surprise me, too.

no taylor swift no credibility

haha. YEAH. taylor swift is the super-duper awesome voice of a new generation.

Love a couple of her singles.

Lee Ann Womack – There’s More Where That Came From

Just read an interview with her today! She's a friends of the gays. But I hadn't thought about her since "I Hope You Dance" which was (eek!) 2000. Will check this out.

Now singles please (they're more important).

I may even have overrated that one, considering how the highs of her 2008 album really get me, well, high. Like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKTr9pKw-5I&feature=av2e

haha i mean i think everyone should listen to em! but i keep thinking its like made for al soto, its all 80s r&b w/ computer sheen

Really? That descrip sounds awesome, but I listened to a few minutes of it and my gf said it sounded like Blues Traveler.

it sounded like Blues Traveler

harsher words have never been uttered.

never figured out what troll started this thread, but I'm grateful.

Really? That descrip sounds awesome, but I listened to a few minutes of it and my gf said it sounded like Blues Traveler.

― jaymc, Sunday, August 15, 2010 9:11 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

first track on the new album?

I just went to the Muxtape link you posted. Listened to a few tracks, but I wasn't really paying attention that much.

Right now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkM5MiPjaf4&p=325F569B393E8D21&playnext=1&index=38

xp I will give it another chance, tho!

Alfred, do you like Elton John's "Island Girl"?

I love that whole album! Prefer "Hard Luck Stories" and "I Feel Like a Bullet..."

first track on the new one is kind of "blues traveler-y" but i cant really think of anything else that sounds like blues traveler at all

Alfred, are you down w/ metal? any new stuff?

do you like dubstep, funky house, related sub-genres?

these are the things i wonder.

I like to say I'm a dilettante with genres but devoted to artists. I'm still trying to understand chillwave and dubstep. I'll always pledge allegiance to house, even when a couple of recent high profile attempts at house have left me cold (e.g. Kelis).

That descrip sounds awesome, but I listened to a few minutes of it and my gf said it sounded like Blues Traveler.

^ New board description?

lol

OK, max, I am listening to F&tL again, and am liking it now! Also: I really like the track he produced for Drake.

yeah, though the drake rap sucks

poor drake

http://i40.tinypic.com/2s78ikz.jpg

btw

I like rap but don't always care about rapping.

OK, "Tap the Phone" is a little DMB-ish.

Sometimes I wonder if I might not like DMB if I just sat down and listened to some of it instead of being all kneejerk.

there are some decent DMB songs for sure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnXeZclbO68

always liked this song from when i first heard it back when i was around eleven

I mean ... I liked "What Would You Say" when it first came out in '95.

I will not allow DMB to taint this thread.

Alfred, if you had to be reincarnated as either Dave Matthews or the guy from Owl City, which option would you choose?

(i predict he says "death")

Dave Matthews was dorky-cute in the "What Would You Say" era, but he probably tastes of Mountain Dew and falafel.

do you have his number?

Dave Matthews was dorky-cute in the "What Would You Say" era, but he probably tastes of Mountain Dew and falafel.

nobody's asking you to eat him

what would you say?

alfred, i think i remember a mojito thread where you scold the concept of simple syrup in a mojito. do u have a favored mojito recipe? if so could you describe?

yr friend,

cad

Use two teaspoons of sugar in a tall thin glass, three or four mint sprigs, and two shots of rum. Crush the sugar and mint into the rum until there's barely anything left of them (use a spoon or thin garlic press). Then pour your choice of club soda into the glass. Garnish with more mint sprigs.

the most important thing about the mojito is to take your time crushing the ingredients.

ok, some detailed q's:

1) ice - before or after club soda?

2) when to stir?

3) favored rum brand?

1) Before. It's also important to keep stirring the cocktail while drinking it.
2) Bacardi is the best. The others are too strong.

A good mojito will take two to three minutes to prepare. My dad, the mojito fuckin' master, will walk around talking to people as he's crushing the ingredients.

whoa--did we never talk about lime juice?

Only reviving to say I'm ready to discard my mojito recipe.

And replace it with...?

go gimlet or go home imo

^^ real talk

Alfred, I had a dream about you last night in which you were using the TV show Roseanne as a sort of critical shorthand for sober didacticism. Which I'm not sure makes much sense, but it wasn't too far removed from how Frank Kogan uses PBS, for instance. Also the dream was almost undoubtedly triggered by the thread Girls To The Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on the TV show Roseanne?

I halfheartedly watched the first two years.

Who writes your dreams?

Alfred, name me a power-pop album as good as Elastica's first.

Don't know about characterizing it as such, but Imperial Teen's Seasick is one of my favorite pop-punk records; in fact they've never made a bad one.

a bartender actually served me a vodka coke -- god.

was it because today's your... ?

A drink mix-up. But I do wonder if there are any disgusting savages who drink this concoction.

yo.

http://i.chzbgr.com/completestore/2009/3/12/128813973389848754.jpg

there needs to be a "john justen and fluffy bear will drink it"-style thread where people name strange alcoholic beverages and strongo confirms that, yes, he has already drunken it at some point in the past

i mean vodka and coke isn't exactly on the level of pureed goat meat and tequila or whatever but i can't understand why it isn't the discerning man's tipple of choice.

should be i "*can* understand why..." clearly i had too many goat-a-ritas last night.

http://www.tumyeto.com/images/uploaded/___vodka-coke_opt.jpg

Andrew WK's smallest gig yet.

are you giving out more A's in your classes too???

Big college-administered grammar test next Wednesday. They're doing well distinguishing intransitive from transitive verbs!

lol

glad you're impacting them positively

It's got synergistic possibilities.

giving them great life experiences i trust

If you could ask Bryan Ferry one question, Lord Soto, what would it be?

"would you swoon as i croon your serenade?"

How have the New Romantics affected you sartorially?

I bought spectacular red pants at Target today for $15.

What's your favorite brad paisley album?

hey, so i've been reading a bunch of biographies, one of which was mccullough's "truman." i know you read a lot about presidents, so i wanted to ask who you think wrote the best fdr biography

A few!

H.R. Brands's A Traitor to His Class is the best recent conventional bio.

Last year's Fear Itself details how the reactionary and racist Solid South made possible the progressivism of the New Deal.

The New Deal: A Modern History is a good recent account of the first Hundred Days, including details on how much Hoover's outgoing administration helped.

And JFK bootlicker Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s Age of Roosevelt] has some beautiful portraiture.

Hey Alfy-poo, big starry-eyed question but if you could name THREE grammar/writing skills that your college estudiantes came prepped with, what would they be? Signed, humble public schooling human.

1. Writing more than five paragraphs is okay.

2. Thinking about how sentences look. Students forget 96 percent of what high schools teach them yet they remember that You Can't Start Sentences with Conjunctions.

3. A sense of humor.

I am stealing a lot of my writing and grammar lessons from Kelly Gallagher, who says "show me a five paragraph essay in a real publication and I'll buy you lunch."
Not sure if #2 you are saying teach the rule or know that it's a breakable rule?
Here's the experiment I'm doing this year (also stolen from Gallagher): having them reverse engineer sentence rules and structures from model sentences. (Really brief summary as a PDF here – http://teachwritingsecschools.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/sentence-of-the-week-assignment.pdf)
Number 3 can't be taught but it can certainly be encouraged and modeled, to use some teacherese. It certainly makes GRADING a lot nicer!!

A breakable rule. I had no idea it was a rule! I wasn't taught this.

Oh yeah – I was taught it growing up, and my little superego freaked out a little whenever I saw an author doing it in a book. My fifth grade teacher had the good sense to explain it was a breakable rule.
It's true; they have some weird ideas of "writing rules" but I think they're the ones their teachers marked them down for. Like my kids are gospel convinced a paragraph is exactly five sentences, because the teacher will say "write a paragraph to answer this question" and I guess – same structure – main idea, 3 supporting details, concluding sentence (that is like lukewarm microwave leftovers of the topic sentence). So my kids freak out a little when I show them real authors break that rule, too.

My kids also think you can't start a sentence with "because." ?!?!?

Students forget 96 percent of what high schools teach them yet they remember that You Can't Start Sentences with Conjunctions.

you'd think it's from high school, but lots of college professors (maybe less so in the english dept; i hope so) still enforce this demented bullshit.

well, the trend in net lingo is to use 'because' to introduce a phrase ("I can't see this guy because problems") instead of a clause ("I can't start a sentence with a conjunction because teachers hate it").

The science teachers explained that is a 'rule' in their classes because students tend to just use the dependent clause as a sentence: "Because of condensation."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWlLPJG9Cvg

OTOH I remember thinking as a student that "always answer as a complete sentence" was just a waste of time:

Q. Why does your water bottle get covered with sweaty beads of water in the heat?
A. A water bottle gets covered with sweaty beads of water in the heat because of condensation.

So much pointless writing! Could they not read the question themselves??

oh god it reminds me: one of my pet peeves is improper or promiscuous use of "due to," which theoretically you use only with a linking verb ("I was absent due to a cold"). Even worse: "due to the fact that."

i like that use of because (xxp) as long as it's in the service of melodrama. "But the evaporated water can never remain free; it is doomed always to be recaptured by gravity. Why? Because of condensation."

after blaming college professors for no-opening-conjunctions i should say that it was my experience in college that professors were constantly frustrated (and sorta blindsided) by the elementary-school paragraph recipes you guys are talking about tho. that isn't their fault. cuz man yeah it's beaten in deep, young. i still remember the posters: The Writing Process.

In the halcyon early eighties, I too was taught "You must restate the question in your answer." None of my teachers were pedants though! This was how they were taught -- ugh

i meant "you guys" in its rather spurious gender-neutral sense btw. i should have used "y'all". only being so detailed about this cuz the conversation's abt words.

btw I haven't see this Great Wave of Broken Sentences as a result of social media use; the sentences were pedantic and useless already.

i appreciate all the recs, and i'm going to go look into them now. thank you for taking the time to write that out

I hope these recs were impactful.

Came real close to making a "now that's what I call humanizing the vacuum" tweet after that last post, but thought better of it.

Flippant, but I would've meant well.

read any good books about lobbying / lobbyists? i'm RAing for a game theorist who studies political access and proves all these counterintuitive results about lobbying and it's cool and all but I'm kinda like hmm

This classic account is worth the read but it's about the nineteenth century. Matt Taibbi's Smells Like Dead Elephant examine the influence of money on the GOP Congress of the 2000s. I'd like recs too!

thx. 19th century definitely relevant

this is a brand new book on the topic that i will prob read: http://www.amazon.com/The-Business-America-Lobbying-Corporations/dp/0190215518

when i asked the prof this question he told me to watch tv series 'house of cards' and movie 'thank you for smoking' lol

one of the things these game theorists study is how politicians interact strategically with lobbyists, to extract the most $$$ out of them with the least political favours granted, so it's not obvious how effective a lot of the money thrown at politicians is. i'd love to read some first-hand accounts to see how the theory lines up

Alfred, would you recommend a biog of FDR?

Sure!

H.W. Brands' wrote a solid conventional one in 2008 called Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt; it's where I tell the curious to go. If you liked it, go to:

Ira Katnelson's Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time documents the lengths to which the New Deal and the Solid South, with its poverty and racism, remained wedded together.

The Coming of the New Deal, the second part of Arthur Schlesinger's battleship cruiser of a bio, deals with the nuts and bolts of the legislation. I think it's surpassed by Michael Hiltzik's The New Deal: A Modern History.

All of those except the first would be great mixtape titles.

I bought Traitor to His Class on Alfred's recommendation and yeah it's good. Oddly, I still did not entirely understand *why* he was such a staunch traitor to his class, that aspect of his character is still a bit of a mystery to me. The ending is also a bit abrupt, it's basically "and then he died. The End", with no real conclusion or summation or anything. Minor quibbles both, granted.

Hiltzik was a regular patron at UCI's library where I worked for years -- very personable fellow.

Thanks Alfred!

my pleasure!

jaymc had asked upthread for mixology tips. I wrote the following a few months ago and updated it yesterday.

You will know me by my hatred of bad drinks.

Each of those drinks has their place, (except the LI Iced tea)

Actually lemon drops are gross too and moscow mules are for ex girlfriends. Mimosas are the lifeblood of the economy.

Of the brunch economy.

Some of those cocktails are more defensible than others, but few are irredeemable. Even the Long Island Iced Tea, my fave bar in Chicago does a classy version of that, along with a classy Pink Squirrel and a classy White Russian (with fresh coffee in it). However, I am so not a fan of beer-based cocktails, which taste like someone had been drinking a beer out of the glass, dumped out the dregs, then filled the glass again with a cocktail without washing out the glass first.

I can't really defend any of those, although perhaps a skilled mixologist could make decent versions

Do you know that your Buñuel roundup may be your best one yet?

Oh, I see you already posted on other thread

ha -- thank you!

Summer's here, the time is right for Negronis.

I recently had an excellent negroni with capoelletti (which I don't think I had ever heard of) and cochi torino (same).

See, that's what I hoped for – suggestions.

Spanish vermouth with a slice of orange on ice is a great summer drink!

I was just trying to remember that Italicus bottle this weekend during some spirits shopping! I could not recall it.

Beefeater seems out of place to me in that selection of good quality spirits.

love this local gin, well worth a try if you ever see it (the Small batch one with the yellow label)

http://swallowtailspirits.com/our-vodkas-gins-and-whiskeys

My lovely wife sometimes makes a fantastic negroni using Antica formula, Gran Classico bitter and then a decent clean gin (often Plymouth or Martin Millar's, that kind of thing).

I may have mentioned it elsewhere on here but my current favourite Friday night just-got-home-from-work drink is a thing we copied off a bar in Santander last autumn, that they called a "gin vermutonic" - single shot of gin (usually Plymouth or Hendricks, I think) double shot of vermut negra or other sweet vermouth, topped up with decent tonic water, all over ice, slice of orange, cherry if you can be bothered, absurdly refreshing.

Beefeater seems out of place to me in that selection of good quality spirits.

― Tim, Thursday, June 20, 2019 11:47 AM

A solid martini gin when done well.

As I read this I am sipping a Blood Orange Beefeater gin (which I didn’t know existed) negroni. I heartily approve.

I like Beefeater because it's a straightforward gin at that pricepoint.

I'm so glad my 36-year-long revulsion for gin has passed. Also that I discovered Bristow (made by the Cathead vodka people).

The St. George's recommendation is of course choice, signed, someone who lives across the bay from where it's made, so.

I like gin as a cocktail ingredient, and I do notice variations in gin, but it's nothing I can ever get excited about the way I like (and enjoy) bourbons, tequilas/mezcals and rums. But then, I don't like martinis, and that seems to be the drink most beholden to gin.

*waves away vodka 'martinis'*

1:1:1 ratio is what makes a Negroni a Negroni, though everyone has their own taste and I would gladly accept your variation if you were making one for me.

Try a Bijou: Gin, Green Chartreuse, and sweet vermouth in equal parts. Stir with ice and strain. Garnish with cherry. One of my favorites.

I think ingredients make recipes not ratios. Agree w this ratio too fwiw.

"this" = Alfred's negroni

Negroni, like the corpse reviver #2 (more or less), is awesome for being an equal ratio cocktail. Easy to remember!

I avoid vodka entirely. I'm a total snob in that regard. I once heard vodka described as an elaborate prank played on Americans by Europeans.

xps I prefer 1.25 gin. 1 vermouth, and .75 Campari but ymmv and it depends on the gin

thought that said "yummy"

it is!

as far as highball riffs go, I've been mixing campari and topo chico lately.

Vodka is for people who don't like anything about alcohol besides getting trashed.

It's....irritating living in a city where Tito's is the official drink.

a shot of vodka in topo chico with a couple nuun hydration tablets over ice is good when the heat index is 110.

a shot of vodka in topo chico with a couple nuun hydration tablets over ice is good when the heat index is 110.

Another vote for St. George, I particularly like their Terroir gin. I visit my uncle in Alameda every year, but still haven't made it inside the distillery.

Summer's here, the time is right for Negronis.

― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, June 20, 2019 2:28 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm surprised you describe a negroni as tart... that's not a flavour i associate with it

I see tarts everywhere.

lol

Bitter tarts.

#%&@ tarts, let’s dance!

"Ask Alfred Soto to Link to His Blog"

should link to my Ginmo account.

*waiting for Alfred Soto to write about Scott Miller & Game Theory*

*mixes Negroni*

TS: Soto Linking To His Blog vs. Morbs Linking Perrin Tweets.

Vodka is for people who don't like anything about alcohol besides getting trashed.

Eastern Europe simultaneously concurs and begs to differ.

Vodka is for people who don't like anything about alcohol besides getting trashed.

― Yerac

there's a very good russian restaurant where i live that offers vodka flights; vodka is certainly strong drink but based on my experience there i would definitely have to say they have more to offer than that

vodka is certainly strong drink

Read this with a muzhik accent.

I like some of the russian infused vodka rooms but vodka is a characterless, neutral, neutral spirit. It's not interesting besides the high abv and using it as a vehicle to get wasted (or I guess to keep warm).

It's literally called 'little water', so it's supposed to be as neutral as possible. I happen to like that, but I get where you're coming from.

People resent vodka for exposing the underlying trashiness of all cocktails.

Des Esseintes would like to have a word with you.

They make alcohol free vodka now, which I have not tried but seriously, I can see how the alcohol free gins and whiskey have a point but with vodka...?

I don't think cocktails are innately trashy, but I think vodka is kinda trashy.

How so?

Drinking makeshift screwdrivers with bottom shelf vodka & orange crush gave me an enduring aversion to the little water, despite a few good times with it since in classy russian restos.

I feel that way about tequila and rum. It's Pavlovian.

I'd rather channel my resentment to the execrable mimosa.

How so?

It's all a matter of perception, I guess, but I associate vodka primarily with either joyless hard drinkers or college kids who just dump a gallon into whatever juice or sweet beverage they have on hand. There's no nuance to it, imo, just a neutral strong spirit that pairs well with aggressively stupid marketing at both the luxury end and at the silly My First Drink end. Tequila and rum (and bourbon) are imo really complex spirits with a lot of variety and craft to them, and I've found that people with bad memories of those spirits base them mostly on drinking too much of the worst quality stuff at the worst time (usually college). I would never drink straight gin, but I know plenty of people who claim a gin aversion who probably had a similarly wrong/bad experience (perhaps by drinking straight gin?). But vodka is always vodka, and doesn't really add anything to drinks beyond alcohol, imo, which again, lends itself to getting drunk in the sloppiest way possible. So yeah, when I think vodka, I either think Siberia or Kappa Kappa Trash Juice.

Fair enough. I resent that Eastern European drinks are systematically associated with alcoholism, but if the WHO's data is anything to go by, there's more than a grain of truth to it. That said, I genuinely enjoy the flavourlessness of vodka – there's a certain minimalistic purity to it, especially when it's served chilled.

Yeah, there is definite diminishing returns with vodka re price. At least you can get a premium whiskey, rum, mezcal even mimosa cocktail that would be really great because of source ingredients, labor, aging. Premium vodka is like, here is quadruple distilled super pure ethanol!

Although if I had to sterilize a wound I would choose the vodka over the mimosa.

it rubs the vodka on its skin

more than a grain of truth to it.

Nice

I like vodka cream sauce.

If vodka gets associated with degenerate Russians, surely gin should have the same reputation except with Britishers?

As far as I'm concerned, it already does.

Oh and don't forget the Poles.

But really, wine and beer are wholesome table beverages. Cocktails are refined expressions of drunkenness; they aim to remove the trashiness from getting trashed. Otherwise we'd be drinking smoothies. It's OK to want to get trashed; we need some degree of familiarity with oblivion.

I would never drink straight gin

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 21 June 2019 15:45 (fifty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You're missing out on a whole world of fun. Depends on the gin of course, but given a slightly more complex one (Pickerings and Nordes are my current two go tos) I rather enjoy sipping my way through a few measures. I find a tonic, or even cocktails, can too easily overpower the lovely differences between them.

And yes, prior to the recent craft explosion, gin certainly had the reputation in Britain of being primarily for depressed housewives (being known as "Mother's Ruin") or for your man on the street.

Gin, like vodka, can be made with pretty common ingredients, pretty much anywhere, and is. From distilleries to bathtubs, hence (probably) their bad historic reputations. There's no "bathtub bourbon" or "bathtub tequila."

there's a very good russian restaurant where i live that offers vodka flights

Of course, I read this as 'vodka fights.'

Gin is basically vodka but macerated with or distilled again with juniper/botanicals. I'm a little curious to try those no alcohol gins, but I can also just drink flavored water.

When it comes to bad reputations, nothing beats Hogarth and his 'Beer Street' (industriousness, good company, etc) and 'Gin Lane' (everything going to shit all at once) two print combo. Sorry not sorry for the huge image but the details are what make it:

https://girlvsglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/hogarth-beer-gin-a3.jpg

There's no "bathtub bourbon" or "bathtub tequila."

Sure there is, they're just not allowed to call it that on printed labels.

No there's not, not really. Bourbon by definition has to be aged for a couple of years in a virgin barrel, among other hoops to jump through. And tequila has to be made from agave plants, which only grow in a couple of places and take 7 years to mature. So yeah, while in theory both can be DIY, they take a lot of D-ing. Years.

Rum can be made anywhere, too, and is, but needs sugar cane (that was the impetus of the sugar tax pre-Revolutionary War! There used to be dozens of rum distilleries in New England, with cane imported from the French West Indies, irking the Brits).

Trivia from the wiki entry on "bathtub gin:" "Many gin cocktails owe their existence to bathtub gin, as they were also created in order to mask the unpleasant taste." Hmm, didn't really occur to me, but I guess this makes sense! "Prohibition era"=drink whatever you can get your mitts on era.

Josh, google sotol or pulque. Tequila is just one of dozens of agave liquors except it has the twin forces of law and marketing behind it. Same's true of bourbon, which is just a special kind of whiskey, which is pretty much any liquor made from cereal grains and aged in wooden barrels. Only reason there isn't more homemade whiskey in the US is because it's illegal. And it's only illegal because there's no good way to tax it, and currently licensed distilleries don't have any motivation to create more competition for themselves.

it's not just taxes and marketing it's also protectionism of the name and any regulatory standards that go into the process or origin of an alcohol. Most other countries are stricter than the US in how they label products.

The US is all messed up. FFS the same tax bureau that oversees firearms and explosives deals with alcohol.

I actually have a couple of bottles of sotol (which afaict is one of about 6 types of agave spirits, including tequila, mezcal, raicilla, etc.). I like it! My point was that agave is a relatively rarified ingredient, and while people have traditionally been making spirits from it for ages, it's not something the vast majority of the world has access to; I've always thought the concept of "bathtub (x)" was something that can be whipped up by anyone, from moonshiners to the dudes in M*A*S*H. And while anyone can make whiskey, yeah, at least of some sort, bourbon specifically, by law, requires a handful of "special" attributes (most notably aging it for a couple of years in a virgin oak barrel) that make it hard for people to simply whip up it on demand over a couple of weeks, like they can gin or vodka or moonshine or even I guess rum. Now, you can argue those rules/restrictions are arbitrary, or just hoops to tax, and maybe they are, but those special/unique characteristics of tequila etc. and bourbon are what imo make those spirits so remarkable and full of character in a way that gin or vodka lacks. Rum is pretty diverse, too, depending on where it is made, how long it has aged, etc. But there's a reason no one ages vodka, and few age gin; what you make is more or less what you've got.

I should market a bottle of sotoa

What will you call it?

US Bureau of Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things

Sotoa Pop

Sotol Le Bon

Alfred, Lord Sotoa

I bought a bottle of Italicus and find it very nice. The orangey-floral-bitter combination works for me. Tried it with just club soda = good. Tried it with Prosecco and some lemon juice = also good, though instead of the 1:1 ratio suggested on the Italicus bottle I did it 3:1 Prosecco. I suppose now it's onward to the Negroni flavored with Italicus.

ooh I like the idea of mixing with prosecco + lemon juice

you really love "posture" as a verb don'tcha?

you do plenty of it too

You answered your own question!

what are your other Categories beyond Big British Summer Crossover Album and #PoppyBushInterzone?

Cute Dudes Who Love Campari.

https://cinemasips.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/steve-zissou-campari.jpg

otm

what day is it today Alfred?

you really love "posture" as a verb don'tcha?

you do plenty of it too

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Sunday, November 17, 2019 1:47 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

You answered your own question!

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, November 17, 2019 1:48 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

Aw, I miss Morbz.

what day is it today Alfred?

― calzino,

The day I mix a cocktail at 4:45 p.m. instead of 5:15!

excellent, i hope it's good one and add some ribena! Hb Alf!

Thanks!

Happy Birthday!

http://cdn02.cdn.justjared.com/wp-content/uploads/headlines/2020/05/jake-gyllenhaal-across-the-way-song.jpg

"...happy birthday dear Soto..."

busted jake gyllenhal jpg^

Jake as Jeffrey Hunter.

I miss Morbs too :/

happy birthday!

well, yeah

Happy birthday Alfred. Raising a Negroni in your honor tonight.

Tonight?! Now, you scalawag.

Thanks, jon!

https://c.tenor.com/D4XGY0CrbusAAAAd/bette-davis-all-about-eve.gif

Let me ask you a hypothermical question.

HB Alfred!

https://i.imgur.com/I0x2x5G.gif HAPPY https://i.imgur.com/I0x2x5G.gif BIRTHDAY !!!

sorry about the spilled ice cube and hope your smoke alarm doesn't go off

Happy birthday Prince Alfred!!

happy birthday alfred!!!

happy birthday so to
happy birthday so to
happy birthday your lordship

Etc

Omigod those Negronis

Thanks, all! You've made the last few years endurable.

don't know you at all alfred, but definitely enjoy your presence here. hope it's a great day for you. i will drink an effervescent nonalcoholic beverage in your honor. cheers.

happy birthday, may the cocktails be adundant

don't know you at all alfred, but definitely enjoy your presence here. hope it's a great day for you. i will drink an effervescent nonalcoholic beverage in your honor. cheers.

― the beginning of the end of discourse. (Austin), v

More importantly: listen to an effervescent Everything But the Girl album from 1990. Thanks!

Happy Birthday Alfred - just one question, cocktail-related: a couple of years ago you were touting the aperitif Italicus, which comes in a beautiful aquamarine bottle; do you still use it on a regular basis, or are you over it? If the latter, have you discovered any other aperitifs since then?

I do, yeah. Tonight. I use it in martinis and Negronis.

and thanks!

How much of it goes into a martini?

Cheers and happy birthday to you good sir!

I moisten the glass at most, Josefa.

You know that great, great Polish actor, Joseph Tura?

Happy birthday! I enjoy your writing/Twitter posts!

Happy birthday Alfred!

alfred, how many negronis today. let's hear it. i'm near the end of my bottle of wine, a pinot noir, which i drank in your honor. in your honor!

I, I'm a one way motorway
I'm the one that drives away, follows you back home
I, I'm a street light shining
I'm a white light blinding bright, burning off and on
Uh-huh

It's times like these you learn to live again
It's times like these you give and give again
It's times like these you learn to love again
It's times like these time and time again

I, I'm a new day rising
I'm a brand new sky to hang the stars upon tonight
But I, I'm a little divided
Do I stay or run away and leave it all behind?
Uh-huh

It's times like these you learn to live again
It's times like these you give and give again
It's times like these you learn to love again
It's times like these time and time again

It's times like these you learn to live again
It's times like these you give and give again
It's times like these you learn to love again
It's times like these time and time again
It's times like these you learn to live again
It's times like these you give and give again
It's times like these you learn to love again
It's times like these time and time again

It's times like these you learn to live again
It's times like these you give and give again
It's times like these you learn to love again
It's times like these time and time again

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/foofighters/timeslikethese.html

i really love these lines, especially:

It's times like these you learn to live again
It's times like these you give and give again

happy muthafuckin birrrrrrrrrthday, Soto!

alfred, how many negronis today. let's hear it.

happy bday Alfred

My top number of negronis is two.

Happy bday alfred!

I had one at my favorite Argentine restaurant -- on the house! These people never do those gestures.

I only have one Negroni. Two and I start ogling women.

happy birfday!

Belated birthday wishes!

Besos for everyone!

so you're a scorpio

Magnetic and bottomless charming

:)

your birthday is the same as my folks anniversary and 4 days after mine. Scorpio pals!

thanks!

A well-known negroni connoisseur put it like this:
“Confine your drinking to a recommended dosage of 2 of these maximum. Because around number 3, it’s where did my pants go and who the hell are you.”-Glenn Frey

well, yeah

Tequila isn't bad.

Hey Alfred if I was visiting you and you offered me a negroni and I told you I didn’t drink alcohol, what would you make me instead?

I've had more than a few mocktails, so I'd improvise something.

Not Alfred but I really like the Ritual gin alternative. Prefer it to Seedlip and Monday.

Some recipes recommend Ghia as a Campari alternative but I haven't tried it.

answer: he would make you leave

jk jk

I've hung out with fgti and I would never walk out on him

We had negronis iirc

<3

We had negronis iirc

― meaner stinks meat bake it cone (flamboyant goon tie included),

ten years ago!

a simpler time

happy birthday alfred. party's in full swing:

https://i.imgur.com/3K2gF7s.jpeg

charlie has overnegronied

I like men who dress like Negronis.

Having a white Negroni right now, I’ll toast yr birthday.

Wow, I didn't know Charlie had grown out the stubble, which I guess is no surprise given his condition at the time.

Happy birthday Alfred, hope it's a great one!

Just came across this old reference that made me smile:

i pulled this thread up cuz i'm spending tonight in self loathing mode and listening t oPet Sounds and Smiley Smile era Beach Boys (just saw Mike Love and the band he calls the Beach Boys live a few weeks ago and they were pretty awesome)....

and this thread is clearly the biggest challopser I've ever read. Pet Sounds might be 'overrated' to some degree but there's little doubt in my mind that it's filled with fantastic songs. Hell, the first four tracks are pretty much flawless!

― Phoenix in Flight (Cattle Grind), Friday, April 9, 2010 11:59 PM (thirteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

basically old-ILM was just a bunch of trolls who hated to get trolled and eventually got older, fatter, grayer in their safe haven corner of the blogosphere.

― ✌.✰|ʘ‿ʘ|✰.✌ (Steve Shasta), Saturday, April 10, 2010 12:08 AM (thirteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

so presumably there's a thread from 2003 proclaiming Coda to be Led Zeppelin's best album.....

― Phoenix in Flight (Cattle Grind), Saturday, April 10, 2010 12:14 AM (thirteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

hmm when did Lord Soto Challops show up on ILM?

― ✌.✰|ʘ‿ʘ|✰.✌ (Steve Shasta), Saturday, April 10, 2010 12:24 AM (thirteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Love ya, Alfred. Keep us on our toes.

Ha! I'm part of Ye Olde ILM, eh?

I think it was more the early recognition of your love for an imperial artist's late career album.

No, it's about Alfred being really old.

I wasn't around when those acts released many of those albums, hence my (what I thought) fresh approach.