More GTL for the last gasp of summer: Crowbar

This September we've had an Indian Summer.  And it feels like August when I was in high school in the 90s.  I'm lifting weights and in the best shape I've been in over a decade.  I feel young again.  And for GTL I'm listening to some old Crowbar.


They don't make albums that sound like this anymore.

Crowbar is a band I never listened to as a teen, but I should have.  I spent too much money on crap albums back in the pre-internet era and didn't want to gamble on an album based on one Beavis and Butthead clip and Phil Anselmo's name on the back as producer.


Yeah what a fool I was.

This album is great for lifting weights.  Slow and angry.  And it takes me back and feels nostalgic, even though I didn't listen to it back in the day.  Just the sound of those drums without triggers, the fat guitars with scooped mids, the yelling vocals that don't growl, hiss, or scream. It feels like back before air conditioning was ubiquitous and summers felt hot.  Back before everything became extreme and the Scandanavian invasion and Death Metal rising.  Back in the day.  Summer.  Uncomfortably hot; t-shirt sticking to skin and beads of sweat on brow.  Even the air smells different when it isn't cooled, condensed, and filtered.  The smell of summer.

Summer's quickly fading.  The cool crisp in the evening feels like autumn.  The start of school.  Of days less hazy and halcyon.  Days of the rote monotony.

Orange Creamsicle

I have a dog and when it gets hot I soak a bandana and tie it around his neck.  It is an old dog trick.  This summer is taking shape as the grasp of winter slackens and spring begins anew.  Spring is either cold and grey or hot and bright.  And old man booze is ready for hot and bright.  I am already soaking my bandana of delight in a well of intoxication in preparation for the heat of the summer to come.

I have already prepared a theme for this summer.  Orange Creamsicle.  The color orange will be the color of 2013.



Yes.  Come join me on a journey of intoxication from various substances that will result in tremens delirium.  We may even leave this earthly realm and have an odyssey of epic proportion with the help of some wonderful alkaloids.  If you put up with my music the drinks are on me.  My treat.

What are your plans for summer?  Summer requires planning, really.  You need to set the mood.  The theme.  The feeling.  The soundtrack will fall into place and everything just might go right.


Have you decided what booze and drugs to stockpile for the long hot summer sure to come?



Somehow right now the dream of summer feels like a fevered hallucination brought on by too much benedryl.

Some people don't like the heat.  I understand not liking the heat once it crosses 90.  That shit's unbearable.  Otherwise I don't mind it and I don't really understand the animosity.  People seem to have an aversion to feeling like they are alive.  They don't want to be too hot that they sweat or too cold that they need to wear long pants.  They seem to want a boring stasis of stale 70 degree grey.  But the bright sun is mercilessly hot.  And feeling that bead of sweat trickle down the side of your face is what it feels like to be alive in the summertime.  Doesn't anyone like feeling alive anymore?  Has the whole world gone crazy?


So what are your plans for the summer?  Have you picked a theme yet?  Don't wait too long because it will be hot before you know it.  Unless you live in San Francisco in which case it will not be hot and you will be wearing a hoodie in July and I will feel sorry for you.

Phases

As May lumbers on, the Northlands heats up. Today is an exception; it is cold and rainy, but mostly warmer days are ahead. Now some people like to resist the seasons. Some people listen to tropical music during the cold dark days of winter and listen to some arctic music to cool down during the dog days of summ- no, they just turn on the air conditioner. Still, I can't abide tropical music in the winter, and I prefer to avoid outright cold music during the summer. Sorry Darkthrone and Ulver, you'll have to leave the ipod.

So what then? Heitor Villa-Lobos.



Now you have a few choices for what to drink with Villa-Lobos. Obviously, he knew how to live like a man. Shooting pool, smoking cigars, living large. You might immediately think rum, and for that I suggest you start with Rhum Barbancourt. Distilled in a pot still, aged in oak for 4 years, and still in the Captain Morgan pricerange. No cartoon character on the bottle, but very drinkable on its own. There are older vintages should you find yourself with the means and the thirst.

Now fine brandies are a delight, and if you can find it in a liquor store stateside, Osborne's Veterano is a very good brandy for the price. Quite frankly I have yet to find a New World brandy that is its equal and even remotely in the same price range.

I still can't recommend a true tropical whisky yet, as I have not yet had the pleasure of sampling. But I can tell you that Kentucky gets quite hot in the summer and stays fairly mild in the winter, and I'll stand by OGD against many premium brands.

Yes, I stay with the brown liquors. Honestly if you've ever smoked a good cigar you'll know why.

As for the music, I'll recommend all the Bachianas Brazilieras. They are a delight, even if some of them are less Bach than others. The string quartets are a mixed bag for me. Some of the later quartets are quite cerebral, a few seem to borrow melodies from each other, but I still give them a thumbs up overall.



Perhaps it is colored by my experience reading Old Man and the Sea with this playing, but I tend to see blue waters with this



It seems carefree, like a summer afternoon, but thick like the air in July.

As a tangential anecdote, I had a transcendental experience on a hot August night drinking Boonesfarm. I've never been so comfortable with the heat and humidity as with a refreshing drink and wearing a loose fitting rayon shirt. With this recipe I have learned to avoid the air conditioner all summer long. Maybe you'll find it beneficial as well?

Changing seasons

This summer was supposed to be a summer of wine. I imagined I would drink a steady quantity of red wine instead of the whiskey punch that got me through half of winter and spring. That was partially true. I did continue with punch, and I stopped with wine about a month or so ago. The last jug of Paisano skunked into vinegar prematurely and I haven't gotten wine since. I tried for rum, but it didn't work out that way. I thought about going Bourbon, but I didn't want to gamble. My one foray into American whiskey - Kessler - was a bust.

Now normally I don't drink beer. It has about double the calories of whiskey. It has sugar and carbs, and whiskey does not. It will make you fat. After all, they don't call it a whiskey gut do they?

However, it has been a chilly August. It is already getting cold at night. School is starting next week and the shadows are getting longer. Autumn is fast approaching, and one thing I like in chilly months is a good Pilzner and some hot soft pretzels. I have a feeling that if the weather continues to chill, I'll have to truck up to the store for some good pilzner (New Glarus Edel Pilz is a winner in my book) and a box of super pretzels.

Those halcyon days of summer

Summer is in full swing here, but it hasn't really felt that way. It has been mild. Highs have been, for much of July, below 70 or low 70s. I was expecting it to be dog days of summer, but it is raining and high sixties.

Enough bitching about the weather, though. The butterflies are hatching at the botanical gardens.





The beer is still refreshing and delightful, the seldom times I drink beer that is





More saliently, the wine is cool and refreshing.



Yeah, I need to take a new and better picture of that.

I am getting out and biking around town. Really, it is the best way to see the town.





Boo Bradley is out again. Someone has upped his game quite a bit. I'm talking pussy magnet.




I'm reading a lot these days. Raymond Chandler and Hemingway. I'm listening to a lot of Type O Negative.

*sigh*

Good times indeed.

Revelation

I finally figured out what sort of summer this is. I've been listening to Type O Negative a lot. Especially October Rust. I started listening to the Cure a little bit. Siouxsie and the Banshees too. You know what that means?



Its in the 50s, its cloudy, and apparently I'm having a goth summer. This is no good. I'd rather have a pirate summer and listen to lame-ass "fun loving" metal like swashbuckle or alestorm. Oh man...

Summertime Nostalgia

I remember being young and, one summer, drinking SoCo with my buddy Howard in A2. I remember listening to this song:



He was into that symphonic stuff, like Arcturus and Dimmu Borgir long before the kids got their grubby hands on it and ran it into the ground. Man I'm old...

Anyways, those were good times. I don't know if I'll drink SoCo again. I'm not saying its bad. I dunno, it feels like Greasy Kid's Stuff, you know?

Old man booze

I can't really afford whale pants, but I'm thinking that this summer I should try dressing like an old man. That means tucking my sleeveless button down shirts into my slacks, keeping them hitched up with suspenders, and wearing a wide brimmed fedora. I wonder if people would think that I am a senior? That would be great, because I would get the senior prices at Denny's. Take that, whippersnapper!