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 when it gets to Sinatra it can plunge him into a state of anguish, deep depression, panic, even rage. Frank Sinatra had a cold." It's #FlagshipFebruary, so let's all return to the classics. Including one of the best and most influential magazine stories ever written.
LOOK.// The New York Times goes to Florida, where Erik Freeland's photos are as striking as the story of the shrinking Everglades.
DRINK.// Monday Night Brewing’s Lay Low IPA
Trends are converging in 2020, when America's favorite craft beer style (IPA) gets the "better-for-you" treatment. Dozens of low-calorie IPAs are hitting the market, and this is easily the best I've had. At 90 calories and 3.2% ABV, it's the first Session IPA I’ve encountered that actually tastes like the real thing. It's a treat for your taste buds and your calorie count.
READ.// “The longer Calment lived, the more famous she became. On Grandmother’s Day, a well-known television presenter offered her a kilo of chocolate. ‘I want a ton!’ Calment replied. Several weeks later, two trucks showed up.” It’s hard to explain how engrossing—and how entirely nuts—this New Yorker long-form by Lauren Collins is. It centers on Jeanne Calment, whose death in 1997 at the age of 122 made her the oldest human to have ever lived. But does that record stand up to scrutiny? This piece has it all: Russian hijinks, meetings with Van Gogh, potential fraud, and one powerhouse of a vieille dame.
LOOK.// This weekend, I’m going to a “Lates” event at the Royal Academy—an art museum here in London—whose theme is “Modernist Barcelona.” Attendees are encouraged to wear their gaudiest gear, and as a dress-code guide, the museum has put together a Pinterest page of aspirational outfits, including Picasso paintings come to life. I’m excited to go all out, but I’m even more excited to pull a Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
DRINK.// Burnt Mill x Donzoko’s Dark Second Dark Lager
If I have learned anything about myself over the last few months, it is that I cannot get enough of Dark Lager. Of any description! It may be all I want to drink for the rest of time. The latest to win my heart is this collaboration between Burnt Mill Brewery and Donzoko Brewing Company, which is made with a touch of smoked malt and some cocoa husks and is as roasty-toasty-chocolaty as you like. But somehow it’s still refreshing, and ends with a snappily bitter finish. I’m tempted to order a case.
READ.// This may just be me trolling my studio-mate Araña, but I just finished Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation and I absolutely loved it (he felt differently). I’ve always appreciated Moshfegh’s work because it centers women who aren’t trying to fall in love or play some weird trope—the women in her stories are flawed and weird and make fun of all the things we value about women. I get why this story isn’t for everyone: the characters all suck. But, if you want something off-the-wall—and if you want to feel accomplished, because it’s a fast read—pick this book up.
LOOK.// Is it too expected to write about “Little Women”? Who cares, I’m doing it anyway. I went to the Music Box, a classic movie house on the North Side of Chicago, to sit in the front row of a packed theater to watch probably one of my greatest childhood memories realized on screen. Every performance is wonderful, and the way Greta Gerwig, the movie’s director, chooses to tell the story—out of order and with some lingering ambiguities at the end—gives it a totally new life. I could watch this movie every day.
DRINK.// Hopewell Brewing Co.’s Off Black
I love a Black Pils because they feel like a rare treat—I don’t often see them on menus or on tap. I was walking up and down the aisles of Binny’s before my improv class (it’s right around the corner so it’s not that weird) and when I saw this offering, I grabbed it immediately. It’s both heavy and refreshing—it feels like a warm-your-bones beer for the winter without the wildly high ABV.
Curated by The GBH Collective
