Note to self: Visit when in Melbourne

Cocktail revival night mixes fun and work

Next time I'm in Melbourne, I'll do my best to check this place out. As a trend, cocktails have lasted bit longer than I expected. Gotta be a good 7 years in my books. But one must remain vigilant against the evil scourge of the Ready to Drink (RTD).

People buy this shit?

Ripped from wired.com's furthermore column:

Porn With a Purpose
   Two European eco-crusaders are taking
 their love of nature to the extreme by running
 a porn site to raise money for the cause.
"Everyone must try to create something good using what
 they have," said Tommy Hol Ellingsen, half of the
 provocative pair. "We had nothing, just our bodies."
 The site features hard-core videos of the eco-hippies
 (and their crunchy companions) getting nasty in a Norwegian
 clear-cut and other locales. But it also dishes out raw facts
 about environmental destruction. And talk about going green
 -- the couple has raised almost $100,000 by selling
 site memberships. Now the problem is finding nonprofit groups
 who aren't spooked by the money's illicit provenance.
"What is morality when people are destroying the
 world?" asks Ellingsen, who calls some green groups "too boring."

I mean seriously, good on them, but it sounds pretty icky to me. ewww... crusty hardcore hippies.

...and speaking of which

I'm posting this one for the great gods of google to preserve. God only knows I'm going to rot in hell for this, but it's not like le-monkey hasn't had a good 6 days to come clean with the gossip. From the cellphone:
-------
Sender: Holly
Sent: 10:35:10
09.04.2005
Guess what?! Our
boy left the party
with kerry-anne.
And he's not home
yet!
-------
Sender: Holly
Sent: 12:27:39
09.04.2005
He's STILL not
here!
--------

mb1, monkeyindustries, beacon, bacon, call him what you will, but let's assume the best and figure that he got some.

About the Absinthe Martini

Waiting to uncover for the so-called haluciagentic properties of Absinthe I thought I would play everyone's favourite game: Martini of the Month.

You see, the very dry Martini has been all the rage since the 50s, and to tell you the truth, as much as I'd like to enjoy them, I'm not really a bit Vermouth fan. In fact, of the classic cocktails that contain vermouth, the only one I remotely enjoy is Satan's Whiskers. For some reason my stomach doesn't seem to agree with Martini & Rossi.

So here's the most rediculous drink. I can say I'd suggest having more than one but you might be able to handle your spirits better than me.

Throw the gin, absinthe, shaker, and cocktail all into the freezer. Make sure they are really fucking cold (a good couple of hours).
Make a classic Martini but use absinthe instead.
3 oz of gin (Tanquery for sweetness in this case)
1/2 oz of absinthe (Diddo - some over priced 72% stuff)
Shake over ice. Shake the hell out of it you want to get this really really cold.
Strain into the cocktail class.
Garnish? I think it's a bit beside the point don't you. Debauchery at the minimalist level.

Enjoy knowing that you've got the equivilant of 4 oz of spirits in your hands. The good news is that it's so strong that it's not likely to every be popular with teenage girls. Or infact with anybody but those who like to drink straight spirits...

I found this photo lying around on my hard drive at work. Way back when I did the five minute photoshop effects to make the original digital photo approximate an old black and white. I always wanted to go back and do some tearing at the edges and adding some fold lines to make it look like it had been floating around in some soldiers back pocket. Strangely enough there's no filter to correct my dorky posture....

Black Tie Joys

I'm not ashamed to admit it. I like dressing up. Fortunately this is pretty easy for a guy. Got the dinner suit. I was stoked when I got a descent formal shirt too. Being a tall and a bit long in sleeve finally having something that was the full 37 inches (and just peeking out a bit of white) made me far happier than it it should. It came from here(Brooks Brothers). Sadly this means I'm on their mailing list forever and a day. You would have thought it wouldn't have been worth their while sending me out their catalogues. Sure conservative dress is in (again), but I doubt I'll ever buy their preppy bullshit. It's like nothing has changed in American fashion since the 1950s.

Sitting in my quick link menu bar is the tie a bow tie link. No more pre-tied bow ties for me, thank you very much. The reason to suffer through the topological problem is so to untie later in the evening and let it hang loose in a jauntily debauched, devil-may-care, sort of a way.