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. // "But his presence is like oxygen, not the sun. His power is essential, yet invisible; stimulating, not scorching." SNL's longest-tenured cast member, Kenan Thompson, is a comedic genius who used to have me rolling on the floor as Baggin' Saggin' Barry on All That, and is still killing it weekly on SNL. This Washington Post profile gives insight into his consistency and process, and also what's next for the star.
LOOK. // Galettes rule everything around me. I think that's the saying? Anyways go feast your eyes on this beautifully captured strawberry galette from Bon Appétit. Just try not to drool on your phone.
DRINK. // Shacksbury Shorts
Crisp, fun, botanical goodness. Shorts contain a "hard cider seltzer" from those rascals at Shacksbury up in Vermont, and boy have they been great summer pals. Drink them on their own, put them in a porrón, make a cocktail with them (gin, Shorts, agave, lime, bitters — trust). Whatever you do, make sure you're having fun and staying cool with a pair of Shorts.
READ. // "The findings, the team say, provide support for the idea of an ‘oxygen overshoot’—a theory that says photosynthesis and weathering produced a massive amount of oxygen that spurred the development of life on Earth. However, the oxygen-emitting organisms on Earth were then so abundant they exhausted their nutrient supply and numbers fell." Scientists have published a new study showing that nearly all life on planet Earth was killed off ~2 billion years ago by a sudden reduction in oxygen called the Great Oxidation Event (GOE); they learned all that by studying some old rocks in Canada. IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU.
LOOK. // An intelligent, amateur botanist who teaches you about the natural world in a way that's exciting, funny, and totally misanthropic? Sign me up, bud (he’s also where I heard about the GOE).
DRINK. // Raphaël Monnier’s Avis de Tempête Cuvée 1 2017
TBH I am an unsophisticated wine drinker, but this natural, orange wine from Raphaël Monnier was tasty enough to order two bottles of at dinner a few weeks back.
READ. // "I was a bit of an outsider to the field, and I think in general people like that sort of thing in any profession, but you also have to be able to deliver." Here's a great AIGA interview with the incredible David Carson, former art director of Ray Gun. He speaks at length about his unorthodox, handmade approach to design and collage, which is equal parts refreshing and difficult to read as I sit here hunched over my iMac. David Carson, Chris Ashworth, Robert Rauschenberg, and Richard Hamilton are the four horsemen of my art-and-design-fantasy-apocalypse mashup, and I still draw inspiration from them daily.
LOOK. // This past weekend I watched nasty sludge lords Eyehategod play a set here in Chicago. Pretty much everything about this band is incredibly over the top—"edgy" nihilism in 2019 is pretty boring—but they occupy an important space in heavy music history, and the show was great. Luggage, one of the openers, played an entirely different flavor of post-punk misery and that was the highlight of the evening; I recommend checking them out.
DRINK. // Lone Star Beer
Did you know that Lone Star has branded, stuffed armadillo bar decorations? I'm not sure if that is appalling or endearing, but here is a reminder that Lone Star exists and that it is a lovely, delicious beverage. I recommend that everyone go responsibly crush seven Lone Stars and enjoy the rest of summer.
Curated by The GBH Collective
