These are the words, images, and beers that inspired the GBH Collective this week. Drinking alone just got better, because now you're drinking with all of us.
READ.// "The 2010s were different, somehow more disorienting, full of molten anxiety, racism, and moral horror shows. Maybe this is a reason for the disorientation: Life had run on a certain rhythm of time and logic, and then at a hundred different entry points, that rhythm and that logic shifted a little, sped up, slowed down, or disappeared, until you could barely remember what time it was." Katherine Miller published her Buzzfeed piece about how the algorithms, binge-able shows, and politics of the past decade broke our sense of time back in October, but I've found myself returning to it several times since then.
LOOK.// @Pomological is a Twitter bot that shares random images from the USDA National Agricultural Library's pomological watercolor collection. Who doesn't need more beautiful vintage apple paintings in their timeline?
DRINK.// Dovetail Brewery's Czech Dark Lager
Dovetail Brewery is a must-visit on my trips to Chicago. On a recent blustery, icy Saturday, my friend and I battled frigid headwinds on our way to the brewery and were handsomely rewarded with .3L dimpled mugs of its Czech Dark Lager. They were cozy, inviting, somehow familiar—the perfect remedy.
READ.// “The best way I can describe it is that it just felt like my brain was only music, and that everything anybody said to me became musical. All of my thoughts became musical. Every street sign became musical. I couldn’t get my mind into any other mode.” Did you know that Mary Steenburgen was a songwriter—and that she became a songwriter after a minor surgery left her hearing in music? Did you know that she co-wrote “Glasgow,” a song from the film “Wild Rose,” which tied for this year’s Critics’ Choice Award and was on the Oscar shortlist? She also happens to star in a new show, “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” which is coincidentally, about a young woman who can hear the innermost thoughts of other people—in song.
LOOK.// My Instagram feed is full of interior design accounts, including Sarah Sherman Samuel’s. Samuel used to live in LA, and owned vacation homes at various times in Palm Springs, California, and South Haven, Michigan. A native Michigander, she recently relocated her family to Grand Rapids, Michigan (my hometown), where she renovated a beautiful 4,300-square-foot home in the woods. The 1970s-inspired design has a California-cool vibe, and it’s the cover story for the Winter 2019 issue of Domino.
DRINK.// Domaine des Grottes’ l'Antidote
We had a few friends over for dinner on New Year’s Eve and our buddy Collin brought over this non-alcoholic “juice” (along with some real bottles of wine). It’s a sparkling soft drink made from Gamay grape juice, apple, ginger, lemon and 15 herbs from Romain des Grottes’ vineyard. The drink is light, fruity, and spicy, and a fun alternative to wine when one doesn’t feel like drinking.
READ.// “‘You know how when you were little, you would use a magnifying glass to gather the sunlight into one point and burn a piece of paper?’ he explains by way of metaphor. ‘Parasite was like taking a camera lens and gathering all of my concentration and focusing it in on one spot.’” I recently watched “Parasite” on an airplane, which is almost certainly not how director Bong Joon-ho intended for his Best Picture-nominated film to be viewed, but even the tiny screen and my distracting seatmates did nothing to diminish its power. As a follow-up to the movie, I loved learning more about Joon-ho’s approach, intentions, and powerful ways with social satire in this recent New York Magazine profile—not to mention his puckish, wicked sense of humor.
LOOK.// The Taal Volcano in the Philippines—just 40 miles south of the capital of Manila—is currently on high-alert for eruption. In the meantime, it has spewed thick layers of toxic ash around the neighboring land and villages. The photos that have since emerged are mind-bending: the relentless gray looks like a Photoshop color-isolation effect rather than real life.
DRINK.// Allagash White
In early January, I made my first pilgrimage to Portland, Maine—and my first trip to Allagash Brewing Company. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a better time visiting a brewery (shout-out to Lindsay Bohanske, who was such a gracious host). We tasted through many special releases, from bottles in the brewery’s Coolship series to Sixteen Counties, a Golden Ale made with 100% Maine-grown grain. But the beer that will remain forever etched in my memory of the day is, simply, Allagash White. I’ve enjoyed Allagash White for years, but I’ve never had it so fresh, and in its native home. I ordered one glass, then another, then another, as the sun began to set over the snowy city. The experience was borderline transcendent, and reminded me that this beer is a singular masterpiece.
Curated by The GBH Collective
