Grandpa Booze decorates

By now you know that old man Booze likes to keep it old school with many things...



Whale pants



Shoe horns

But I also advocate in theory on behalf of wallpapering your room instead of painting.  Hey we're old and we aren't afraid of the grandkids tearing up the wallpaper.  Just lock those little brats in the basement for the weekend.

Trouble is I can't find any good ones for you young folks looking to wallpaper your den.  Everything today is either pastel or kitsch.  Nothing classy that will go well with your leather chair, your mahogany table, your bookshelf, your smoking jacket, your pool table, and your chess table (merely decorative, you of course do not play).



Not crazy about the carpeting but nobody's perfect















Though the wood paneling is nice if you can swing it, wallpaper makes a nice border if you do have wood paneling.

I think you get the picture. Just please no pastels. How about navy blue, maroon, or hunter green?  Well I am looking for some good ones to share with you folks.  Just like I share good cheap whiskeys for you.  The money you save on whiskey you can spend on wallpaper.  And of course a painting of a ship.



I once had a dream of a ship painting.  The ship was emerald green and cutting through a storm.  It was called the Chartreuse, though of course chartreuse isn't emerald green.  But that is another story.

Talkin' Jazz

In my more youthful and vigorous days I hated jazz.  It was old and tired.  Filled with a poisonous rage, I thirsted for vengeful music.  Now I myself and old and tired.  I find myself downloading those old Blue Note records from the Cosmic Hearse.  My weary body shudders at the thought of lifting weights whilst listening to Danzig.  Instead I crave a dark corner with a glass of whiskey and some music to fit the mood:  soft, slow, and as fragile as Dennis Dixon's knee.  Let me sit and rest awhile.  What has become of me?

Am I am becoming more than nothing?

The pursuit of knowledge comes with a heavy price.  What new liquor is there to try?  What news songs are there to hear?  What have I to say anymore?  Nothing.



File photo of Mr. Booze feeling defeated

The first time and the last time

For many years I greatly enjoyed the Autumn Leaves album As Night Conquers Day.  I've finally tired of it, and the thought occurred to me to find other Autumn Leaves albums.  It turns out they had another album called Embraced by the Absolute.  It is a beast.



There is one small problem.  It is out of print.  I can't buy a CD anywhere.  The only place I found it was iTunes.  My old blog searching has been crushed by the powers that be.  So fine.  I bought it on iTunes.  Now understand, the idea of paying for an mp3 is against my religion.  But I committed that sin.  I spent 9.99 and now I have the music.

Herein lies the problem:  3 of the mp3s are broken.  The songs Embraced by the Absolute, Blood, and Serpent are incomplete.  They have the run time listed on iTunes but the end cuts off abruptly.  So that is that.  Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.

The worst part is I don't even have a CD booklet.  What are the lyrics about?  Fuck if I know.  What do these bros look like?  What gear do they use?  Bueller?  Bueller?  Ah fuck it.

I know some people are going to use this as an excuse to jock spotify or something.  But guess what?  I do most of my music listening on my phone or in my car.  Doesn't exactly help me.  And where I spend most of my time is downtown, and downtown I get no signal at all.  So I can't stream spotify to my phone.  Thanks AT&T!  So don't even make any comments here swinging from spotify's nuts.  I agree that it is the future of music distribution.  But the future ain't now.

Ok enough whining.  This album is a beast and it is a shame that Autumn Leaves aren't recognized more and that this album is out of print.  Maybe it is because of the band name?  Sounds like some sort of lesbian band or something.  They shoulda called themselves Autumn Decay.  Maybe it loses something in translation; they are Euros after all.  No surprise, as I said before European culture is superior to American culture and that includes all genres of music.

The whiskey keeps rolling along

The last I heard from India was in 2010 when Officer's Choice whisky was supposed to emerge in US markets.  So far as I know, nothing came of it.  But now there is news of a second Indian whisky brand coming to America.  United Breweries is said to be launching two brands in America:  Royal Challenge whisky and Antiquity whisky.  So far no sight of them, but this time it looks more promising.  If I catch a bottle I will have a full report.

And in other whiskey news...

Previously I extolled the virtues of whiskey as medicine, but now you don't have to take my word for it.  The oldest woman in Scotland, Janet Roberts, was 110.  And?  And she was the matriarch of one of the largest whisky families in the world.  The graddaughter of the founder of Glenfiddich.

And?  And a 105 year old woman drinks a sip of whisky a day for heath.  And a 102 year old man has a glass of whiskey a day.

Hey, I'm not saying whiskey will make you live longer.  Or that you should even drink whiskey.  But we'll see who lives longer.

Music Review and a contest

So old Mr. Booze won himself a contest a while back, and I received a package with 3 compact discs today.  These albums are so new that I'd never heard of these bands before except Angel Witch.  So first, fill up your tumbler and sit back and enjoy a music review:

Angel Witch - As Above, So Below

I ain't gonna lie, I wasn't the biggest fan of Angel Witch's classic material.  I'm not a big fan of the new stuff either.



Good old T Pain.  Don't be hatin'.

Here's the thing; metal bands have already used the title as above, so below.  So you are already giving listeners an impression of either this:



Or this:



Both pretty solid in my book!  Sorry Angel Witch.

Astra - The Black Chord

I figured that with the name Astra they would be spacey and trippy.  They were, but they have terrible synths.  They sound like they listen to bands from the 70s and play through Orange Amps.  Geddy Lee vocals.  Not my thing.

Osi - Fire and Thunder

I can't figure out if it is O.S.I. or Osi and if the latter if it is pronounced Oh-see or Ahs-ee or what.  I don't like this music.  The guitar riffs sound really modern in a bad way.  I opened up the booklet and was disappointed to see Jim Matheos' name in it.  Really?



Where did the pirate shirts go?  Son I am disappoint!

So this brings me to the second part, which is a contest.  That's right, I give the greatest gift of all; regifting.  You dear reader can win all three of these Compact Discs.  All you have to do is write the best caption to the picture below in the comments.  I will announce the winner when I feel like it.