Drinking Soundtrack of the Week

In another tribute to the 2012 Apocalypse (occurring in less than a month), 

Jolie Holland performs "Old Fashioned Morphine" because as the
song goes..."the world is almost done."

What better way to honor the end of the world than with a flaming shot cause, I say the world will end by fire.


Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Robert Frost

The Historical Inebriant: The Morphine Drip Shot

http://www.drinksmixer.com/drinks1r4534.html

Ingredients:

1/2 oz amaretto almond liqueur
1/2 oz butterscotch schnapps
1 splash Bacardi® 151 rum

Pour 1/2 shot butterscotch schnapps into shot glass. Top with 1/2 shot of amaretto, splash with 151 rum and light on fire. Put out fire and drink.

 

To view all Drinking Soundtrack of the Week posts, click here and scroll down.

Thespis Does Dionysus - One Night Only!, Milton says up your Areopagitica, and Louis T. Glass - the Jukebox Hero

On this day in 534 BC, Thespis of Greece became the first recorded actor to portray a character onstage. While I am sure that late at night, bored caveman would perform in front of the fire, acting out how they killed that saber toothed tiger with their bare hands (to impress the cave women no doubt), but this was different.

While there was theater in Greece at that time, it was staged primarily as way to honor the gods.  It was a live documentary, a historical retelling of the great deeds done by the gods on stage with a musical background or chorus.  The performers simply acted out the scenes with no dialog. 

Thespis changed all that. Perhaps, the first method actor, Thespis would put on a Dionysus (the Greek god of wine and fertility) mask (they really had cool gods back then) and he would act as Dionysus himself, and speak lines that Dionysus himself might have said to the crowd. True acting had been invented and the word thespian (still used today for one who acts) was born.  It has a bit of a negative connotation now, reminding us of those we knew as Drama Majors at school.  I think the word Drama has a negative bent now as well, I always think it will be immediately followed by the word "Queen" but I digress.

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On this date in 1644, at the very height of the English Civil War, John Milton - the author of Paradise Lost - would self publish Areopagitica, protesting censorship in England, specifically the need to get government approval prior to publishing any work.  In an obvious oversight, Milton failed to get approval first.

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties. J. Milton

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On this day in 1889, Louis T. Glass's invention, the jukebox, played it's first song at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco. A very, very, very, distant relative of Spotify, it played songs off wax cylinders...and the cylinder was only changed one a day.
There is an interesting article if you want to check it out:
http://www.sfweekly.com/1999-12-01/music/riff-raff/


I mentioned Drinkify once before on the blog and will mention it again (since I don't feel like searching out a drink for today).  It's simple, fun and free.  Type in what music you are listening to and it gives you a drink suggestion. 

The Historical Inebriant:

http://www.drinkify.org

and for all my Scotch drinking Indian friends....

As always, have a great and safe weekend, and remember -
the next big holiday is December 5th!

Happy Thanksgiving from THI

THI would like to wish all it's readers a very happy Thanksgiving Day

Celebrated today by all Americans regardless of race, religion or sex, it is a time for families, no matter how spread out over this country, to gather around the dinner table -  whether that table is large and bountiful or be it small and sparse - to give thanks.  We hope that you have much to be thankful for this year and are enjoying this day with surrounded by friends and family.

The Phonograph, The Final Countdown Begins, and The Purple Haze Cocktail

On this day in 1877, Thomas Edison announced his invention of the phonograph. The device enabled sounds to be recorded onto wax cylinders for play back later. Derived from the Greek words meaning "sound" and "writing" the phonograph would rapidly be improved to play more durable vinyl discs. High quality sound reproduction in the comfort of your own home was just around the corner.  If he only knew what was soon to be recorded.

The Historical Inebriant: The Purple Haze Cocktail

http://www.absolutdrinks.com/en/drinks/purple-haze/

Ingredients:

6 Parts ABSOLUT VODKA
2 Parts Lime Juice
1 Part Simple Syrup
1 Part Black Raspberry Liqueur

Fill a shaker with ice cubes. Add all ingredients. Shake and strain into a chilled shot glass.

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Today is the 21st of November 2012.

Yes, the final countdown begins for The Mayan Meltdown.

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance and the culmination of Transgender Awareness Week. First organized in 1998 by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, it began as a candlelight vigil to memorialize Rita Hester, a transgender who was murdered, and to raise awareness of crimes of hate against the transgender community.  Exact numbers are hard to come by but it is estimated that over 800 transgendered people worldwide have lost their lives to violence since 2008.

Once on the fringes of society, Transgenderism is becoming more and more mainstream in the US.  Both male to female transgenders such as Candis Coyne, and female to male such as Chaz Bono are frequently seen on TV and in magazines, and a vibrant transgender community exists on both coasts.  

Help stop the hate, help stop the killing.

For More information:
http://www.glaad.org/tdor

http://www.transgenderdor.org/about-2

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/transgender-day-of-remembrance-2012-icons_n_2159754.html

The Historical Inebriant: The Girls Night Out Cocktail
http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink7732.html

Ingredients:

1 oz Archers® peach schnapps
1 oz Archers® cranberry schnapps
1 oz Archers® lime schnapps
8 oz lemonade
1 oz grenadine syrup
The recipe comes from England hence the Archers brand references.

Pour each of the Archers flavors into a highball glass. Fill with lemonade, add a shot of grenadine, and serve.

...we can not hallow this ground.

On the days of July 1st, July 2nd and July 3rd, of 1863, the Northern's Army of the Potomac lead by General George Meade would engage the Confederate's Army of Northern Virginia led by General Robert E. Lee at the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Mead would defeat Lee to halt the advance of the Confederate Army into the North but the cost in human life was staggering. In one of the bloodiest battles in United States history, over 50,000 soldiers were killed or wounded in the three days of fighting and names like Little Round Top, Devil's Den, and Pickett's Charge would be chiseled into the history books as the specific locations where so many lost their lives.

While we recently celebrated Veterans Day to honor those who have served, and the many who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country - that day was perhaps first celebrated in 1863.

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On this day in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln would deliver what was to become known as the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Soldier's National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  Written on the train on the way to the cemetery, Lincoln would define our country's belief's, the great cost of defending those beliefs and the long road that lay ahead - all in a speech that would last two minutes.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The Historical Inebriant: 

Drink what you feel honors those who served, and the writer of those words, but:

It should be strong - to burn our lips and tongues to remind us of the pain of war,

and it should be bitter, very bitter - to remind us of it's taste. 

Drinking Soundtrack of the Week

I try not to get in people's business.  Partly because I don't like people getting into my business and partly because I believe people will do what they want, no matter what advice you give them.  It's one of those difficult lines in a friendship that both parties have to respect (until one of them does something so stupid that all that shit flies out the window!)

Relationships are hard.  Even the best ones require nurturing, honest communication and a true appreciation of the other person to grow.  And then there are the other kinds, which seem to foster the exact opposite, and when one of your friends is in an unhealthy relationship, it can sometimes take all of your will not to pick up that cue stick - go up the side of their head and just scream "It's over - Move On!".

How did I become so wise on this subject you ask.  Six years ago, I was standing in that exact spot - I never even saw the pool cue coming.  Sometimes it just takes what it takes.

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Two videos this week about the timeless subjects of drinking and relationships.  They say the first step to conquering an addiction is to admit to it and David Ball admits to having a "Thinkin' Problem" and being somewhat powerless to overcome it.  John Michael Montgomery shows what can happen when the addiction takes over... you just become "Beer and Bones".

To view all Drinking Soundtrack of the Week posts, click here and scroll down.