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 people tell me they want to be an actor, they should fucking see this. Freezing my balls off, I’m exhausted, I’m about to throw up from running up a hill in the snow four times.” There is probably no piece of television more unpredictable and iconic than the 2001 “Sopranos” episode “Pine Barrens.” The Ringer went deep on the oddly artistic chapter in the show, including off-the-wall anecdotes about Steve Buscemi singing “I Wanna Be Sedated” and Tony Sirico (a.k.a. Paulie Walnuts) refusing to roll down a hill.
LOOK.// Once or twice a year, I develop a full-scale obsession with a YouTube channel, but nothing has compelled me like the work that In Praise of Shadows does, chronicling everything horror—from pulp comics to, in a recent video, the “Underworld” franchise. IPOS’s work is academically researched, exploring how human psychology intersects with horror media and all those ways our primate brains program us to fear, but it’s presented through a pop-culture lens. I am now intimately familiar with the canon of H.P. Lovecraft and also all the ways he was a racist creep.
DRINK.// Reverie Brewing Company’s Banana Stand
In Reverie Brewing’s Banana Stand, the stoicism of Hefeweizen meets the madcap playfulness of “Arrested Development.” Now, it’s debatable how much money is in Hefes these days, but Reverie shakes up the normal formula by dosing the beer with Lemondrop hops, kicking the brightness way up. As the name suggests, the yeast is the focal point, giving the beer a banana bread aroma, but it don’t drink like bread, Mr. Manager.
READ.// “The implications for mountaineering are massive. Or maybe they do not matter at all.” New research indicates that many of the 44 mountain climbers who claim to have reached all of the world’s 14 highest peaks likely haven’t. Now, the mountaineering community is asking itself what defines a summit, and whether “close enough” is ever good enough.
LOOK.// Eduardo Minte Hess has, to me, perhaps the best job in the world. He was a former guide in Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park, who now lives in Patagonia’s Pumalin Park and works as a photographer for a nature conservancy. His Instagram is a mix of wildlife shots and sweeping landscapes—moody, evocative, remote, imposing.
DRINK.// Human Robot Brewery’s Burgenstraße
Fully vaccinated and visiting family in Philadelphia, I took a solo trip to the Lager specialists at Human Robot Brewery for a mug of Burgenstraße, their light-amber-ish-colored Zwickelbier, inspired by those of Germany’s Franconia region. Vienna malt and Hallertau hops combine for a textbook Vienna Lager flavor with easy-drinking body and a velvety texture.
READ.// “At the H Mart on Broadway at 110th Street in Manhattan, the lights are bright on the singo pears, round as apples and kept snug in white mesh, so their skin won’t bruise. Here are radishes in hot pink and winter white, gnarled ginseng grown in Wisconsin, broad perilla leaves with notched edges, and almost every kind of Asian green: yu choy, bok choy, ong choy, hon choy, aa choy, wawa choy, gai lan, sook got.” In a lovely new piece for the New York Times, Ligaya Mishan explores the role that H Mart—and other Asian-American groceries—has played in the lives of immigrants in the U.S., as well as the growing lure they offer to non-Asian shoppers.
LOOK.// Food writer Yasmin Khan’s new cookbook, Ripe Figs: Recipes and Stories from the Eastern Mediterranean, is a trove of beautiful-looking recipes—but it’s also a chronicle of foodways and stories that stretch from the Ottoman empire to contemporary refugee communities in the region. It’s a must-read—and her Instagram includes more such stories that are worth your time.
DRINK.// Domaine du Petit Oratoire’s Babar Is The Colour 2020
This wine was behind one of my first true hangovers of 2021, but I won’t hold that against it. A blend of Viognier, Syrah, and Merlot from the Côtes du Rhone, it’s light on its feet rather than somber, juicily expressive rather than forbidding. I tasted crunchy cherries and poppy strawberries, as well as a good whiff of wildflowers. It tasted even better on my friend’s roof terrace after long months of isolation.
Curated by The GBH Collective
