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 most heartening aspect of holding O’Keeffe’s recipes in my hands was seeing how tattered and softened, by oily fingers, they were. I liked knowing she cooked as she painted: vigorously, fascinated with the bounty of the earth.” Georgia O’Keeffe is one of my favorite painters, and visiting her ranch in Abiquiu is still one of my highlight childhood memories. And so this short-and-sweet piece in the New Yorker about her recipe archives feels like it was written just for me. I like learning about her rustic tastes, as well as the small indulgences she allowed herself.
LOOK.// I’ve had escapism on the brain lately, and in lieu of planning any long-haul trips, I’ve taken to admiring photographer Colin Dodgson’s images from “Deeper Green,” his series shot in Belize. Promise they’ll help lower your blood pressure.
DRINK.// Berocca Blackcurrant
The thing is, I’ve been sick for the last week with what looks to be the dreaded virus—and can’t even smell or taste coffee—so enjoying a nice Lager or Pinot Noir or whatever hasn’t exactly been top of mind. You know what’s been quenching my thirst? Tablets of vitamin-packed, effervescent Berocca, which, when dropped in a glass, turns it bright red. That’s about all the enjoyment I get out of it, but at least it’s something.
READ.// “It’s not just that I believe in food that is global. I believe there’s a door that opens from inside any great kitchen, a door that opens out and gives us the world.” Chef Marcus Samuelsson's novel should be on every hospitality industry employee's required reading. “Yes, Chef” relays Samuelsson's life as an Ethiopian-born and Swedish-raised chef, and talks about making a home in New York City, the complexities of finding oneself, and the values underlying his award-winning food.
LOOK.// A Better View (ABV) is an agency and gallery based in Atlanta, Georgia. Its March exhibition, “Carbon Copy” by artist Charlie Edmiston, got derailed due to COVID-19, but the team quickly set up and posted an impressive 360° virtual tour.
DRINK.// New Belgium Brewing’s Sour IPA
Travel mishaps led Andrew Emerton to miss out on Uppers & Downers in Chicago this past February, but this beer—his “child”— made it. A project that he'd been working on for quite some time and that has recently gone into distribution, it’s a golden wood-aged sour blended with a Hazy IPA. On a rather down day, I answered to doorbell to a postal worker asking me to sign for a parcel. I smiled. Thank you postal workers, and thank you Andwoo for the care package.
READ.// "How many times in a day, week, or month are we saved by the invisibles?” Jonathan Carroll—author of “Kissing the Beehive” and a bunch of short stories that actually melted my brain—is a goddamn national treasure. He also tweets regularly and puts random shorts, essays, and longer fiction up on Medium. All of it is worth reading. None of it is about epidemics, as far as I remember, though it’s sometimes terrifying in other ways. This snapshot observation is maybe an atypical piece, but if you don’t know his work, start here, peek through the other stuff on Medium, and then dig into the short-story collection “The Woman Who Married a Cloud.” What a writer.
LOOK.// Like a good, open-stack library or a great secondhand shop, the internet can sometimes bump you into stuff you never knew you needed to find. Today I came across the works of the amazing contemporary British painter Crimson Boner: weirdly poetic compositions in muted colors that are often contrastive and always impressive. Faves: "Looking back at me,” “A hole in the boat” and “I can’t sleep.” Who can?
DRINK.// Lobkowicz's Flying Cloud IPA
The Czech Republic is a traditional Lager country, not a cutting-edge craft powerhouse. Sometimes that’s an advantage. Not hazy, not fruity, not brut-dry, not super-strong, this old-school Czech IPA is piney, semi-dry and bitter in the way they used to be 20-plus years ago. Because it’s just 5.5%, you might insist on calling it a Pale Ale or an ESB. I’m going to call it this week’s daily drinker.
Curated by The GBH Collective
