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. // “A satirical Facebook event titled ‘Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us’ is asking people to gather at the US Air Force base in Lincoln County, Nevada, to overtake the building and reveal the ‘secrets’ it keeps.” Every day we stray further from God's light.
LOOK. // Quentin Monge's sun-bleached illustrations pair well with these hazy summer days.
DRINK. // 3 Floyd’s Yum Yum Session Ale
This weekend I picked up some Thai Food, bought a six-pack of 3 Floyd's Yum Yum Session Ale, and rode my bike to the beach. To be honest, I think I just decided on the beer based on the packaging design alone. I also think that the spicy udon pad thai wasn't technically the most appropriate pairing—but when you add the 90 degree heat, a quick dip in the lake, a few (hundred) grains of accidental sand toppings, and a cute summer date...it was probably the mot refreshing beer I've had in a long time.
READ. // “Walking through Mountain Dale for the first time, she had the same feeling she had experienced in two other ‘kind of dead’ towns where she eventually opened her restaurants. ‘I felt that energy, that promise that this town would work,’ she said.” Two weeks ago I visited Mountain Dale, New York, eager to try Nhi Mundy’s Vietnamese restaurant, Bà & Me (delicious!). Featured in last year's New York Times piece, "Can You Curate a Town?," Mountain Dale is one example of a growing trend where developers buy vacant buildings in rundown towns, then court trendy businesses to populate the storefronts. The concept can been seen as a win for revitalization or an "affront to locals who are dealing with serious socioeconomic decline."
LOOK. // While authorities continue to determine the source of the April fire at Notre-Dame in Paris, the New York Times has created a detailed simulation showing how the fire spread and the response to the blaze. Even more chilling is the timeline of social media photos and videos, showing the progress of the devastating fire. It seems unbelievable, even now.
DRINK. // Cisco Brewers’ Grey Lady Ale
What pairs well with fishing off the coast of Nantucket? Cisco's Grey Lady. A cooler full of the crisp Wheat Beer accompanied us on a recent summer excursion. We ended up catching three bluefish, grilled them, and seasoned them with a little lemon, mayo, and dill, which worked beautifully.
READ. // "With a couple of other kids, I would go across 110th to the Park and walk among the hundreds of people, singles and families, who slept on the grass, next to their big alarm clocks, which set up a mild cacophony of the seconds passing, one clock’s ticks syncopating with another’s." In “Before Air Conditioning,” a piece from the New Yorker's archives, Arthur Miller reminisces about sweltering summers in Manhattan. Before window units became part of the urban architecture, there was little recourse for cooling off, beyond dragging mattresses onto fire escapes and tailing ice-delivery trucks. As London—still largely absent air conditioning—recovers from recent record-breaking heat, I'll be thinking about heading to Hampstead Heath for the night, blanket and pillow in hand.
LOOK. // Andrew Bird's new music video for "Olympians" is...different. It could have been made by a high-school film student aspiring to the cinematic language of Wes Anderson, and Andrew Bird looks uncannily like a Schwartzman sibling as he hurtles through space in a bad wig and a silver lamé suit. It looks like it cost five bucks, and it's wonderful.
DRINK. // Firestone Walker's Rosalie
Boy oh boy is this beer gonna get me in trouble. Technically, actually, it's not *just* beer—Rosalie is co-fermented with chardonnay and a selection of other California-grown grape varietals, and dyed rosé-pink with hibiscus. It might sound like it's got a lot going on—too much for a high-90s summer beer—but au contraire, mon ami: Rosalie is quenchingly tart, delicately floral and vinous, and, like wine that has rested on its lees, ends with a subtle breadiness. I'm going back to buy a six-pack tomorrow, and I don't even buy six-packs.
Curated by The GBH Collective
