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.// “Perhaps you really are fated to live where and when you do, surrounded by secret heroes and villains. Perhaps you really were meant to have fallen in love with that person and to have had him cleaved from you on the exact date that he was. Hazzard’s plots give us permission to imbue our own lives with great significance.” If there’s one author I wish everyone would read, it’s Shirley Hazzard. As Alice Gregory writes in The New Yorker, Hazzard was one of the 20th century’s great literary geniuses, but remains criminally underrated today. Start with her masterpiece, The Transit of Venus, and marvel at the way she renders ordinary lives in an epic scale.
LOOK.// Petrified wood—or wood that has been rendered into fossilized minerals by time—has long seemed like a marvel to me, and I’ve wanted to visit Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park for years. But as this amusing article and photo series points out, any visitors should be careful to look and not touch, lest they awaken the forest’s curse.
DRINK.// Augustiner Oktoberfest Bier
We’re edging past Festbier season now, but I figured better late than never when I spotted the last bottle of Augustiner Oktoberfest Bier in my beer fridge. God, this beer is on point: so crisp, so biscuity, and boasting just a touch of sweetness, it transported me back to last year’s Oktoberfest in Munich, where I spent hours in the Augustiner tent. This time, I enjoyed it on the sofa alongside a plate of latkes my boyfriend had made for dinner. It might’ve been less festive, but it certainly was no less enjoyable.
READ.// “Oldenburg’s third places are first of all social centers, distinguished by an emphasis on conversation and playfulness, regular attendees who set the tone for newcomers, the freedom to come and go as you please, a lack of formal membership requirements, and a warm, unpretentious feeling of a home away from home.” This is linguist Gretchen McCulloch describing sociologist Ray Oldenburg's concept of “third places” (usually pubs, coffee shops, etc.) that act as an additional space between home and work. But McCulloch says this is also the role social media plays for many people, especially if we're there to discuss a hobby like beer or Buffy fanfic. Her explanation of social media as a third place rang true for me, and is just one of the many interesting points she makes in her book about language in the digital age called Because Internet.
LOOK.// McDonald's with chandeliers and colonial-style pillars. McDonald's with stained glass windows. McDonald's with retro-style neon. They're all collected and shared by Twitter account @nonstandardmcds, which I consider an essential follow.
DRINK.// Pure Project’s Fingers Of Gold IPA
Fellow GBH contributor Beth Demmon tipped me off to Pure Project's “murky IPAs,” which I was then desperate to taste for myself. The latest in the brewery's quarterly series is this melon- and tangerine-ripe IPA hopped with Cashmere, Citra, El Dorado, Motueka, and Mandarina Bavaria. If I close my eyes, I can almost pretend I'm drinking a beachside smoothie.
READ.// “Trebek took the game seriously, giving us permission to, without embarrassment, find pride in procuring, while yelling on the couch, our little trinkets, our factoids.” This touching tribute by Doreen St. Félix in The New Yorker honors the beloved “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek, who passed away this past Sunday. Who could have taken an honestly mundane premise and given it the energy and panache that Trebek did? I think no one—and during an already emotional weekend, news of Alex Trebek's passing made my inner nerd misty-eyed.
LOOK.// Look at this absolutely unreal hole-in-one from pro golfer Jon Rahm during practice rounds prior to the Masters golf tourney. Just look at it! Not only was Rahm's shot outlandish, it was one of TWO hole-in-ones he had during practice rounds this week.
DRINK.// Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen
Apparently some people around here don't understand the magic that is Schlenkerla’s Rauchbier. Too bad—I just got a four-pack of this beer for $6 (not telling where). This Märzen from the traditional Bamberg brewery is equal parts malty, crisp, and smoky like a ham-bone. Excuse me while I slip into my, ahem, smoking jacket and crack upon another one.
Curated by The GBH Collective
