On Dec. 4, my first e-book will be released.
UPDATE: Here’s where to buy it:
iTunes
Kobo
Amazon
Google
Barnes & Noble
OverDrive
Drink Different: A Refreshing Guide to Home Mixology is based on my columns in the National Post, but I rewrote stuff and added to it so that it functions as a primer on making cocktails at home. That’s fun and easier than you might think.
As a teaser, you can read the first chapter here.
Anyway, if you have a thirst, a thirst for knowledge, and an e-reader …
Have you ever noticed how many microbreweries and wineries there seem to be in Nova Scotia these days? Not to mention a couple of small distilleries. Back in October, I went to the province to check out the booze scene, with an eye to writing a travel piece about drinking one’s way through Nova Scotia. Fun to do, fun to write.
Cool water seeps into my boots as Ben Swetnam guides me through the fine mist that lingers over the vineyard. It is an October morning, the height of harvest season at Avondale Sky Winery. Ben plucks a cluster of L’Acadie blanc grapes off the vine and hands them to me for a nibble.
[UPDATE] … and about Ironworks Distillery here.
(Both photos by yours truly.)
Glenfiddich Distillery Malt 15 Years Old
In today’s National Post I relate the story of the most wonderfully strange junket I’ve ever been on. It involved three days in Scotland, two in Denmark, a lot of whisky and plenty of insight into what makes Scotch whisky the beloved spirit it is.
To wit, one nugget I had to cut from the story for length: Male distillery workers will sometimes wear women’s grooming products. When you’re nosing 300 casks a day, explained Glenfiddich’s affable malt master Brian Kinsman, “You have to buy ladies’ deodorant. Unscented men’s doesn’t exist — or at least I haven’t found it.”
The principal lesson, however, was that marketing Scotch means being up for new ideas and adventures: trying venison with sticks, holding meetings in Malaysia and maintaining ties to quiet little whisky festivals in Denmark. Continue reading
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford as Humpty Dumpty. Ford as Godzilla. Ford as a plain garden variety fat blob.
Has it ever occurred to you that Ford gets caricatured a heck of a lot? Like, for example, here, here and oh yeah, here ? I was sort of turning this over in my head, trying to figure out whether this is just plain, old-fashioned mean lampooning of a fat man. Or are Ford’s physical flaws fair game in the age-old game of political caricature? I couldn’t decide, and being in debate with oneself typically leads to a good story, especially an essay-style one.
Good or not, I got to speak with some very thoughtful and persuasive people along the way and this is what I came up with for the Saturday, Jan. 7 edition of the National Post.
From a story in today’s National Post about an adorable new business in Parkdale:
While the bourbon and Mexican food of Grand Electric may be the neighbourhood’s hottest spot for the 25-to-40 set, among under-19s The Hot N’ Dog is the place to be. Open since Dec. 5, the wiener slinger has become an institution for the young scholars of Close Avenue faster than you can say “give me the works.”
Click here for the full story and a much better photo, by the Post‘s talented Tyler Anderson.
This story was a rare example of shoe-leather journalism in the 21st century. I was simply walking through Parkdale in search of something to eat when I saw the “grand opening” sign outside the Hot N’ Dog and decided to check it out. It’s nice when a piece originates with a real-life discovery as opposed to a web one.
Happy New Year, everyone.
Illustration by Steve Murray
One of my favourite annual traditions in the National Post‘s Arts & Life universe is the end-of-year Cultural Lessons. They’re essays in which the writers meditate on what they learned from popular (and I guess not popular) culture over the year. I suppose it’s our chance to tell you what we really think.
Anyway, published Tuesday, here’s my one and only for 2011, about how fortysomethings made a lot of the year’s interesting music — meanwhile, the young folk not so much.
Illustration of an aged-looking PJ Harvey and Jay-Z by the talented, nice-smelling Steve Murray.
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