It's Always Grilling Weather!

Hundreds of thousands more people without power tonight as a wild storm with over 70 mph winds raging around me tonight, and yet I lounged on the back porch overlooking the woods, grilling sirloin steakburgers, working online with the laptop, and ducking huge flying branches and debris.

Winds were so strong at one point I felt like I was going to get blown away myself, and had to hold on tight. Now that I've come back indoors, it's all calm and mellow out there. Crazy fuckin' planet.

- - JSH

Shepard Stirs the Shit Storm

As previously reported on JSHNYC, Shepard Fairey has been busted by the Boston police (you remember, the same geniuses who brought us the Aqua Teen Hunger Force lightbox hysteria?) over two instances of Andre/Obey graffiti. What somebody down at the precinct doesn't seem to realize is that thousands of people out there are using his stickers and stencils.

Fairey pleaded not guilty today in court.

As if that wasn't bad enough, now he's having to sue the Associated Press to get them to stop harassing him over his Obama poster that used a stock news photo as its basis. Althought Fairey admits having used the news image as a starting point, he altered the image considerably - to the degree that it is now quite another image entirely.

There's no such thing as bad press, though, and I'm sure he's having a ball. All this notoriety comes at the same time as a major retrospective of his work in a Boston gallery, and nothing can take away the glory of having created the iconic "Hope" image. Shepard's long since passed the point of needing to give a fuck.

- - JSH

Happy Birthday to the Mortal and Those Out There Beyond the Coil

Like Walt Whitman or Antonin Artaud before me, allow me to toot my own horn. Yes, sir, today is my birthday. My special day. That's how I know I'm special. Not like you think I mean, I mean I'm mentally handicapped.

Beyond all medical diagnosis, let it be said that it's not only my birthday, today marks the birthday of the deceased writer canonized by Cheeseburger & Fries, Mr. William Seward Burroughs. Dead, maybe. But his words live on.

I thought of Burroughs recently, with his preference for a walking cane as part of a complete gentleman's attire. I've used a cane before, due to the rare form of arthritis that started coming over me when I was a wee lad, 20 years young. Just in the past two days, I've been back on a cane due to my left leg having apparently gone south for the winter. As I said when I was younger, "If you're going to feel bad, might as well look sharp," and the right cane can make for one hep accessory.

The point of this random, rambling report is to say, thinking of Lux's passing, and the anniversary of Burroughs's birth, as well as my own date of birth, despite feeling bad, one should live every day as if it were his or her last. Certainly Lux Interior performed in such a manner. Burroughs seemed to bet his life with his writing; he trusted those writers who did not bet with such high stakes little in the commerce of the soul.

So, kids, eat, drink, be merry. Work hard, play hard. Live slow. Eat a lot. Die on the toilet. This I impart on my birthday, here in the 2009th year of our Lord. And as our Lord, Louis Jordan, once sang, "When I'm coppin' that eternal nod/I'll be the happiest cat in the graveyard."

--JTD

Lux, RIP

Lux Interior has left the building. Dead at 62, he was rockin' to the end. Whether it was Cheeseburger & Fries covering "All Women Are Bad," among others, or simply that most of us in the Creeps Universe have coveted and taken influence from the Cramps (Miss Kitty Twister & her Hot Dogs have covered Cramps songs as well, and Brian Manley's on stage chic owes more than a little to Lux's precedent), it's a sad day. And a heckuva pre-birthday present for me (b-day being tomorrow). Anyway, I find myself somber. I'll leave it at that. Remember, kids: stay sick.

--JTD

Four Roses Single Barrel

Traditionally, when it comes to Bourbon, I've always been primarily a Woodford Reserve man. Past that, I go to Bulleit when I want to go down just a notch or Pappy's when I want to splurge and go up ten notches. (Pappy's is so great and so prohibitively expensive that it almost doesn't even count when one tallies up the gradient scale of Bourbon.)

But recently, I've found myself sneaking around and cheating on Woodford Reserve, and having a mad passionate affair with Four Roses Single Barrel 100 Proof that's quickly developing into a serious love relationship.

Just as I don't do winespeak or cigarspeak (pretending to be tasting "notes" of lavender, charcoal, bismuth, dirty diapers or armadillo sweat), neither do I do bourbonspeak. Let it suffice to say that this is the first Bourbon I've ever found myself not just sipping from shots, but swigging from the bottle like soda pop. It's that great.

The reason my feelings about Woodford Reserve are drifting may not be entirely in my head: while hyperlinking the Bourbons mentioned here to bourbonenthusiast.com, I just read one user's comments about how Woodford Reserve really has changed its formula somewhat:

Taste: There has been some drift in the flavor profile as Woodford Reserve transmorgrified from a single malt variant of Old Forester to the vatted malt of copper pot stilled and the column stilled whiskey. There is an astringent metalic taste on the sides of the tongue now that wasn't there before, but it is not unpleasent - just different. Gone is the ultra candy of batch #40 (my favorite) and in it's place is the tart fruitiness of the 'brass section' that tastes like a mixed fruit jam of some kind which is a very unique and unexpected delight. Yes it's different now. More like a variation on a theme rather than a whole new tune.

Finish: A cooler finish prevails. Not softer, but not the spicey heat of the Old Forester single malt. Again there is some metalic tartness of the copper stilled element. Along with a pleasent, but a decidedly different and intriguing finish of respectable length.

Overall: OK it's different now. Accept it or don't drink it. The Woodford Reserve of old is gone with it's do-wop sweet melody line and hot soulful finish, but you can still enjoy this in Old Forrester 100 proof.

Since Four Roses is based out of Lawrenceburg, KY, which is just a short drive from me, I'll be dropping in there to pay my respects to my latest liquorly obsession (and hopefully get some free samples!) very, very soon. Expect a report on it either here or on Unusual Kentucky.

- - JSH