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.// “'When something is so abundant in your environment, and it tastes so darn good that it becomes a part of your everyday diet, and all of a sudden it’s gone or priced really high — people are in shock.'" Oysters have always been a part of my life—I was probably six years old when I first donned an oyster glove to shuck an Apalachicola hot off the grill at one of my family's post-Thanksgiving oyster roasts—and I have a hard time imagining a world in which a cheap dozen on the half-shell is hard to come by. This report from the New York Times underscores the urgency of the oyster shortage in Louisiana, in large part linked to climate change.
LOOK.// This is more a “Listen” than a “Look,” but Christina Lee and Dr. Regina N. Bradley are two brilliant women who share a veritable treasure trove of knowledge about hip-hop and its far-reaching cultural impacts on their podcast, Bottom of the Map. I am consistently stunned by how much research, scholarship, and intellectual curiosity they manage to pack into every single episode, and I can't wait for their second season.
DRINK.// Poor Richard Cocktail
I genuinely love hosting my family at Thanksgiving, but don't love playing bartender while juggling multiple dishes on the stove. A few years ago I found this batchable cocktail from the guys at Ticonderoga Club here in Atlanta, and it's become my go-to Thanksgiving drink ever since: beyond being totally delicious, it's easy to whip up in a large format and let guests dole out themselves.
READ.// “There are child actors, and then there are Christmas-movie child actors. A seasonal subset known for their twinkly-eyed, scene-stealing work, they occupy a perennially nostalgic place in cinema history. But what happens when they grow up?” Alright, I love Christmas movies—even the really shitty, excessively cheesy, excruciatingly predictable ones—so it’s a fun trip to catch up with the young stars of some of the best ones from my childhood.
LOOK.// There are those sweeping, fantastic, unreal images of animals in the wild in far-off Africa and South America—and then there’s @tbfrost’s Instagram. This photographer documents the real hazards of living near these wild habitats, as vibrant and dangerous as they really are.
DRINK.// Anchor Brewing’s Our Special Ale
I can’t tell you what’s in this year's Anchor Christmas. I don’t know, and they aren’t telling. But 2019's version—the 45th annual!—might be the best I’ve had yet, with a little pine, a bit of chocolate and the right amount of spice. Tastes like holiday tradition.
READ.// “'Every time I swim in cold water, I feel I’m getting that shock of air in my lungs,' she says. 'It feels like I’m actually being in the place that I’m in. There’s a feeling of incredible brightness after a swim. It always cuts through. It sharpens everything.'” Writer and academic Jessica J. Lee spent a year taking wild swims in Berlin's lakes, a process that she later documented in her memoir, "Turning." In this lovely, beautifully photographed piece in Friends of Friends, interviewer Vanessa Oberin visits Lee in her home, accompanies her on a frosty excursion, and learns why winter wild swimming is something more people should consider.
LOOK.// Speaking of swimming: Peter Rock's new piece in the New York Times Style Magazine, about swimming the perimeter of the Greek island of Milos as a response to grief, is accompanied by some of the most striking landscape photos I can recall seeing. Each combines a dual perspective: craggy coastal topography juxtaposed against underwater scenery. "It is all so beautiful, this life, so dislocating I feel like a thief, that I have more than I deserve," he writes.
DRINK.// Veuve Clicquot's La Grande Dame 2008
I am not normally inclined towards drinking Champagne in the middle of the day—particularly not rare, eye-wateringly expensive Champagne—but I'd do almost anything for Annie Clark. This past weekend in London, Clark (better known by her musical alias, St. Vincent) partnered with Veuve Clicquot for a two-day pop-up bar. It was a strange experience—one part canny branding exercise, one part genuinely interesting oddity: a statue depicting a giant turd comprised of flattened disco balls stood in pride of place at the entryway, a trompe-l'oeil walkway was heavily indebted to Yayoi Kusama's Instagram-baiting Infinity Rooms, and snacks were served by white-gloved human hands that poked through holes in the wall. I stayed, and spent far more money than I meant to on Champagne, and never saw Clark once. She got me, and I liked every minute of it.
Curated by The GBH Collective
