@martymccabe

Just because you’re offended doesn’t make you right.

—Ricky Gervais (via gq)

(via gq)

Navy-strength gins must be 57 percent alcohol, or 114 proof, the same requirement that the Royal British Navy had for gins beginning in the early 1800s. The reason given back then was: Gunpowder could still be fired if 114 proof gin was accidentally spilled on it.

—Per @boozecolumnist, “Navy-strength gins are perfect for cocktails”

nprmusic:

1. Societies are powered by three engines: politics, economics and culture. A vibrant society exists when all three engines are firing and intersecting, resulting in a populace that is energized, engaged and fulfilled.

2. Our collective work in the arts is not just relevant, but essential to strengthening our culture and positively influencing society. Thus: “Art for Life’s Sake.”

3. The arts are the way to foster the four critical skills necessary for our children to succeed in the 21st-century workforce: collaboration, flexibility, imagination, innovation

Watch the full video.

(via robdelaney)

As soon as you crack your knuckles and open up a comments page, you just canceled your subscription to being a good person.

—Louis C. K. (yes, again), in an interview with Dave Itzkoff for The New York Times. (via parislemon)

parislemon:

Alexander Huls for The Atlantic on the CGI advances in Jurassic Park:

Jurassic Park’s revolution was technological, but more importantly, it was popular. If Spielberg and Lucas saw the future of cinema in those shots, it was the public who made that future a reality. Sam Neill and Laura Dern’s stunned awe upon seeing a real-looking brachiosaur on its hind legs eating from a tree was a perfect mirror of our own. Audiences believed. When that dinosaur’s feet came down with a thud, the reverberations rippled past dumbstruck viewers and into moviemaking itself.

I remember seeing that very shot in a movie theater and being completely and utterly amazed.

I remember sitting front row for JURASSIC PARK and feeling the first dinosaur’s steps.

bookofbourbon:

Co.Design has this article up with “master mixologist” Gabriella Mlynarczyk, a bartender at Ink, up. It’s a good read, so you should, but here are our tl;dr notes: 

1. Stay true to a formula: The ratio for developing a drink is 2:1:1 - 2 ounces liquor, 1 ounce tart, one ounce sweet. 

2. Choose a base note that will complement your liquor. (In her case, a variation on corn: popcorn & unaged white corn whiskey!) 

3. Whiskey’s more diverse than, say, vodka. 

4. Add bitters. “Technically, in the classic cocktail world, a cocktail is not a cocktail unless it contains bitters.”

5. Or add complexity through rinsing the glass — a la the absinthe in a Sazerac, or with something like rose water. 

6. Five ingredients is probably a good max. 

7. “Attentuate potency.” What the hell does that mean? Water it down. Dilute the drink down with infused soda water, or champagne (bonus absurdity points for calling it “effervescents.”) 

8. “Attentuate mouthfeel.” And what the hell does that mean? Make it interesting. Alter the texture with egg white, or gomme syrup. 

9. Measure. Don’t be insulted when you’re bartender is pouring your ingredients for jiggers; it’s to your benefit. “Cocktail making is very much like baking in that you need to measure every little ingredient or your balance is going to get completely thrown off.” 

10. Always remember: stir spirits, shake juices. 

11. The massive ice cubes are for more than aesthetics: they melt slower, watering down your drink less. 

12. Try mezcal. It’s worthwhile. 

Would that more bartenders held to this…

(via Instapaper)

anthonybourdain:

“I don’t know karate—but I know ka-razy” –James Brown

For the past eight years, I’ve been making a television show called NO RESERVATIONS. I wrote it. I executive produced it. And I appeared in it. My partners and I always tried hard to make it good.

During that time, I understood the way…

Why Doesn’t MTV Play Music Videos Anymore?

Okay, I know this had been everywhere, but as someone who grew up on MTV actually playing music videos, this is priceless…

“ If a church participates or interferes, directly or indirectly, in any political campaign for or against any candidate for public office by publishing and distributing certain written material or making oral statements regarding the candidate, then a church can lose its tax-exempt status for violating the campaigning ban.”