I'm sick of the cold. I need something to remind me there are warm days on the way. I'm chasing the grey away cranking the heat in my apartment and pretending it's July.
Jack Daniels Sweet Tea Cocktail
5 Oz Jack Daniels
1 Oz Triple Sec
6 Oz Sweet Tea with Lemon
3 Mint Leaves
1 Dash Bitters
Some things taste like summer to me. Jack Daniels with sweet tea is one of those things. I didn't grow up in the south but I do love whiskey and let's be honest, who doesn't love iced tea. This is not the quickest cocktail to make if you don't have any sweet tea around. I make mine from black tea bags and sweeten it to taste with raw sugar and honey. If you're going along with this, make the tea plenty strong so the taste isn't killed by the sugar and honey. I also wait for the tea to cool naturally rather than using ice, which will water it down, and because you'll be adding ice to keep the drink cold later - you don't want to water down your ingredients. I also use a shot or 2 of lemon juice to balance the tea out a bit more. Once you've got the tea made to your liking grab some fresh mint leaves, a slice of lemon, a dash of bitters, put them into the bottom of a pint glass and muddle them up. Once you've got that all good and mashed, add ice then your Jack and Triple Sec. I then add enough tea to fill the glass and give the whole thing a liberal stir... a shake is even better if you've got a tumbler. This is one of the absolute easiest to make, easiest to drink - sunshine cocktails there is. The sweetness of the tea evens out the bitterness of the mint and burn of the alcohol. The citrus taste of the lemon cuts the tea and also works well with the herbal notes of the tea and mint. Plenty of ice will keep it thin and easy to drink while also helping to spread out the flavors. The mint leaves usually rise to the top and gives the whole thing a great nose, the fresh scent is a fantastic way to start enjoying the drink. A great way to enjoy a sunny day or at least help you remember they exist.
Wooden Shjips: Return to Land
(Thrill Jockey)
(Thrill Jockey)
Summer music means different things to different people. I think warm, airy, mid tempo with good easy melodies. Wooden Ships newest outing Back to Land is all of those things. A perfect blend of Austin style psych ala the Black Angels, Jesus and Mary Chain style UK shoegaze, and 60's hippy pop; somewhere between the Zombies and Moby Grape.
The rhythm guitars are vessels for flanger and reverb more than they are instruments. They're not so much moving the changes of the song as they are adding to atmosphere. The ever present keyboard is what marks most of the chord changes throughout the album. The bass is also more felt than heard. It rounds the sound out and gives it depth and also some movement. On some of the bluesier/riffier numbers, the bass is the main component of movement in the song and gives it all the punch but it is still more rumble than anything else. Vocals are soft and unobtrusive throughout the album. As with most bands associated with shoegaze the vocals are low in the mix, slathered with delay and reverb and never sung with a whole lot of change in inflection. The vocals are melodious for sure but they are more like another instrument than they are vocals. My favorite parts of the record is the guitar leads. They are the cleanest thing on the record and that allows them to cut through the mist of the other instrumentation. There are never too many notes played in these solo's; they are in some ways even more "lyrical" than some of the vocals. The guitar is almost soothing in a way, it keeps you awake and makes you sway a bit. It's that psychadelic blues sound that grabs a hold of your brain and wakes it up without ever being jarring or startling.
This record would be good for road trips with the top down, for lazy days in the sun or just in your apartment with the heat cranked up pretending it's warm. There is a great deal more pop sensibility going in this record than some of the psych and shoegaze which will make it much easier to breeze through 2 or 3 times without even thinking about it. There is no abrasive bits to worry about coming around again... this is all in all a totally rewarding and relaxing record.
Bone: Out from Boneville
(Cartoon Books)
Writer & Artist: Jeff Smith
(Cartoon Books)
Writer & Artist: Jeff Smith
There is an art to writing a story that both children, (and I mean children, not teenagers), and adults can both enjoy, (and I mean truly enjoy - not that kids enjoy and parents can tolerate). The secret might be adult humor thinly veiled as kids stuff. Or maybe it's being able to make the characters and places nostalgic enough for the adults to be pulled in and a storyline sophisticated enough to keep their attention while making the characters relate-able to children while never going over their head in a way that makes them lose interest or going to adult with the content. This a thin line that many people will try and walk and few people will make it from one end to the other. Jeff Smith (Bone's artist and author) built a house on this line. He can give you directions on which way to go if you get lost along the line. Bone hits upon everything that both children and adults want in a work of fiction. There is adventure, a love story, good vs evil and a giant cast of unlikely characters that are all different and interesting and important. The themes are all generally simple and child friendly, (family being important, be a good person, be true to yourself, that kinda thing), but they're also classic and leave a lot of room for different stories to be told that will enforce them.
Bone is a story about a funny little creature that is run out of his home town, (along with 2 of his cousins who are also funny little creatures), because of the actions of the rich conniving cousin. They get separated, reunited and then begin the journey to find their way back home before getting caught up in an ancient battle of epic proportions. I don't want to spoil it but there is a great deal of mythology and human nature seen from the eyes of a few funny little creatures. The funny little creatures are called "Bones" - they are not any race or species of thing that I'm aware of and I imagine Smith keeps them purposefully vague in order to keep them cute and recognizable while also human enough for kids to put themselves in their shoes. There are also regular humans, rat creatures, dragons, anthropomorphic animals and racing cows mixed in the first book. All of these different types of characters are drawn quite uniquely. The humans are much more detailed and true to life than the bones, the rat creatures are somewhere in the middle but they are cuter and dumber looking when they're being made to look the fool and then they are quite hulking and menacing when in action. Somehow all of these different styles are not unbelievable next to one another. You get the sense that the Bones and the Humans don't come from the same place and are not the same type of creature but neither is freaked out by seeing the other. The humans, animals and bones all speak English and can understand each other as well. This is something that isn't spelled out too much, which allows Smith to move things along faster.
The first book is really mostly set up as introductions to the long running characters in the series. There are 9 graphic novels in total, so there is a lot of that to do. Along with all the introduction though, Smith also gets the story going and setting up the plot of the series and the relationships between characters. There are no slow spots in Out From Boneville and the scale of the world will keep you wondering where they will go and what will happen. You get a good sense of your good guys, bad guys and guys that are going along for the ride in this first installment. Out From Boneville makes for great summer reading. Nothing too serious to weigh down your brain while sitting in the sun, sipping a cocktail and listening to music. Come on already warm weather...
