The New York Times discusses some of the nation's most atrocious bands in the context of the Vans Warped Tour. We've seen some of these bands on the blue before, but never before has there been this much atrocity in one place. [more inside]
posted by LSK on Jul 20, 2009 - 170 comments

On 200 mg a day of baclofen, in an important meeting with several associate deans of my college and three new department chairs (I was made chair of my philosophy department just a few weeks before I tried to commit suicide), I fell asleep with my head on the conference room table and, for 40 minutes, everyone was too embarrassed to wake me. Somnolence is the most obvious and inconvenient side effect of baclofen. I reduced my dosage to 100 mg a day, and started taking it only at bedtime. A few days later, a colleague asked if I had changed my medicine. ‘Yes,’ I told her. ‘Why do you ask?’ She is German, an analytic philosopher, and therefore very direct: ‘You are drooling less than you were.’

It's no secret that classic cocktails are back. Fresh fruit and house-made bitters and infusions are de rigueur, but no less important is the quality of the ice. Good ice and the right shake ensure that spirits are properly chilled and diluted and improve the cocktail's flavor profile.
posted by HumuloneRanger on Jun 12, 2009 - 70 comments

The 'Zion Curtain' has fallen. [more inside]
posted by mudpuppie on May 15, 2009 - 114 comments

Malt Madness. Malt Maniacs. Whisky Fun.
posted by Joe Beese on Apr 9, 2009 - 22 comments

How to make prison wine out of oranges, sugar and ketchup. [more inside]
posted by sveskemus on Dec 11, 2008 - 31 comments

On 5 December 1933, 75 years ago today, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the Twenty-First Amendment of the United States Constitution, signalling the end of the Prohibition era.
posted by HaloMan on Dec 5, 2008 - 32 comments

How many calories did you drink last night? Alcohol intake, rendered in food equivalents. [more inside]
posted by jbickers on Dec 3, 2008 - 76 comments

NASCAR as little as they like it, has it's roots in Moonshine. Junior Johnson, one of the early heroes who is considered the greatest to never win a championship, has even gone legal with it after getting his start running Moonshine for his father. He was even the subject of a 1965 Tom Wolfe Essay as the Last American Hero. The latest cheating scandal to hit NASCAR? Junior just says they were doing their job, being creative, and just got caught.
posted by Eekacat on Aug 23, 2008 - 27 comments

Save Budweiser! – An American beer titan may be bought up by evil Europeans, only you can save it!
posted by Artw on Jun 12, 2008 - 134 comments

How to make the worst White Russian ever. That's what you get for asking for cocktail at some super square looking business hotel adjacent to an exhibition center. Ok, ok, here's how to make a nice one. Ooh it looks like Jupiter. Try one hot. Teeny tiny Kahlua drinks. Do NOT cook pork in it. Oh, okay, go ahead. Make you own kahlua. It won't be as pretty as this. While we're adding coffee to booze why not add booze to coffee.
posted by Artw on May 29, 2008 - 58 comments

I know what you're thinking: "What if I attached a faucet to a watermelon and filled it with spiked watermelon juice so party guests could serve themselves right from the melon?"
posted by mr_crash_davis on May 28, 2008 - 65 comments

Europeans Get Drunk to Have Sex. The UK has one of the worst reputations for binge drinking and underage sex but there are striking similarities between countries, a study found. A third of 16 to 35-year-old men and 23% of women questioned said they drank to increase their chance of sex. The study - of 1,341 young people in nine countries including the UK - is published in BMC Public Health. PDF available here. [more inside]
posted by psmealey on May 9, 2008 - 130 comments

The Southern Foodways Alliance is one weighed-down church-supper table, full of oral history/blog projects like The Tamale Trail, the Boudin Trail, interviews and recipes from the Bartenders of New Orleans, photo essay/interviews from Birmingham's Greek-Americans, a mess o'homemade films, and a passel of event and BBQ-shack photos on Flickr, all smothered in the tangy-sweet academic goodness of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at Ole Miss. These folks get my vote for most flavorful, funkiest food-loving folklorists in the lower forty-eight. [more inside]
posted by Miko on Apr 28, 2008 - 15 comments

Cantaloupe, garlic, ginger, habenero, kiwi, nutmeg, pineapple, spearmint, watermelon and many other vodka infusion experiments by the crack alconomics team of Waylan and Brendan.
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Apr 12, 2008 - 25 comments

ALLDEAD by Christopher Keeley. Photos of and commentary about the many friends he has made and lost during his years in the intervention business. (Some NSFW artsy nudity.) [more inside]
posted by snsranch on Mar 25, 2008 - 12 comments

What Would Jesus Drink? -- “A rabbi, a priest and a minister walk into a bar. The bartender looks at them and says, ‘What is this, a joke?’ In one Pennsylvania bar, it's no laughing matter. On the last Friday of every month, teams of chaplains...set up camp in the Market Cross Pub in Carlisle, Penn. for a few hours to lend a sympathetic, non-judgmental ear to patrons looking for someone to listen to their tales of woe.” [more inside]
posted by ericb on Feb 19, 2008 - 42 comments

"In the U.S., they're mixing drinks with herbs and other weird ingredients, but in Ginza the best guys just polish their cocktails like jewels." And perhaps no Japanese mixology master has contributed more than Kauzo Ueda, who has perfected the art of the hard shake, a refinement over more traditional shake styles. He has a disciple in NYC's Eben Freeman, who now imparts the secrets of the hard shake via a video tutorial. [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive on Feb 1, 2008 - 49 comments

"It is binge drinking. We don't see people who've had just two drinks. People have had 20 shots of vodka." In central London, "Alternative Response Vehicle - or Booze Bus, as it's more commonly known - draw on their reserves of composure, ingenuity and stoicism to treat more than 20 dazed drunks," over the course of a 12-hour shift. [more inside]
posted by geoff. on Dec 18, 2007 - 48 comments

"Significantly, the percentage of monkeys and humans who avoid alcohol is the same." [YouTube]
posted by finite on Dec 10, 2007 - 28 comments

Meet St. George Absinthe Verte, "the first American-made absinthe on the market in almost a century." Since Absinthe was legalized earlier this year, various brewers have moved into the market--but is is really the same thujone-enhanced drink that drove many-an-artist to madness?
posted by dead_ on Dec 5, 2007 - 65 comments

What is the best tasting Jell-O shot?
posted by nervousfritz on Oct 21, 2007 - 23 comments

Multicultural toasting as an accoutrement for Gunther Anderson's guide to making liqueurs at home [ Principles | Science | Materials | Example recipe | and more... ]
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Sep 19, 2007 - 10 comments

Bitters. This sharp-flavored, slightly medicinal liqueur, originally used as an aperitif, remains one of the defining ingredients in many classic cocktails, including the Manhattan, the Pink Gin, the Champagne Cocktail, and the Sazerac. Some popular herbal liqueurs, such as Campari and Jägermeister, are essentially just big bottles of bitters. But bitters had fallen on hard times, with most bars stocking only one brand, Angostura, or, if they were particularly sophisticated (or Southern), a second option, Peychaud's. Orange bitters, once an essential ingredient in the Martini, were forgotten and impossible to purchase. Times have changed, with companies such as Fee Brothers, Regan's, the Bitter Truth, and even Angostura, releasing their own versions of the orange stuff. In fact, bitters in enjoying something of a renaissance, with bars experimenting with making their own. Hobbyists, in the meanwhile, are reviving lost recipes.
posted by Astro Zombie on Aug 1, 2007 - 74 comments

NASA has a rule requiring that astronauts go at least 12 hours between "bottle and throttle." Reports say not everyone followed it, and they went up anyway.
posted by djlynch on Jul 26, 2007 - 40 comments

Alcoholics Anonymous Comics, circa 1968-74 Via the unspeakably awesome Ectomo.
posted by jonson on Jul 12, 2007 - 46 comments

The Heiligendamm G8 summit just ended. While some stuck to alcohol-free beer, fresh French President Nicolas Sarkozy clearly had something a bit stronger before his press conference.
posted by Skeptic on Jun 9, 2007 - 49 comments

Alcohol at Son's 16th Gets 27-Month Sentence.
posted by anitanita on Jun 8, 2007 - 158 comments

Lushybakingfilter: why bother with that whole pesky drinking thing when you can try your favorite cocktail in dessert form? Mojitos, margaritas, screwdrivers, martinis, black russians, daiquiris, gin & tonics, piña coladas, mai tais and mint juleps. Mmmm.
posted by miss lynnster on Jun 3, 2007 - 18 comments

Horses are not always good role models. Just in case you thought the craziness was limited to this one book, the authors proudly present a "true crime" glimpse into a shadowy world of... okay, I actually have no idea what they're talking about. Ah, the joys of vanity publishing.
posted by OverlappingElvis on May 16, 2007 - 51 comments

"Troy is only 8, but he knows the words to Yanguna, an Arnhem Land song celebrating kava. He sings in tune with Saltwater Band's anthem to the drug as the car bumps along the dirt track. Kava came to Arnhem Land 20 years ago as a ray of hope. Aboriginal community leaders believed the calming drink from the Pacific could be a peaceful alternative to alcohol, then raging through Aboriginal communities like a cyclone. But kava became just another abused substance.”
posted by jason's_planet on May 1, 2007 - 43 comments

[Joe] Namath learned to drink as a youngster, back home in Beaver Falls. You could say he developed a taste for hooch as an infant— when he got fussy while teething his mother rubbed his gums with a rag soaked in grain alcohol. (via SpoFi, another story of a great athlete/drunkard)
posted by mr_crash_davis on Apr 20, 2007 - 29 comments

Some say alcohol prohibition was a failure. Some say it worked. Alcohol abuse costs society billions. Groups seek to add a new flavor to regulation. Citizens are even taking up the cause.
posted by Gnostic Novelist on Mar 20, 2007 - 115 comments

What is the air-speed velocity of the unladen golden plover? My goodness, my Guinness! Happy St. Patrick's Day, Metafilter.
posted by Miko on Mar 16, 2007 - 25 comments

A war on alcohol in the US Military. This is supposed to be a dry war.
posted by Gnostic Novelist on Mar 13, 2007 - 31 comments

Pocketshot. For when you really need to slug some rum on a long bike ride.
posted by pieoverdone on Jan 25, 2007 - 48 comments

Andre the Giant, Greatest Drunkard of all Time The key to Andre the Giant is this — even as a youth he knew that his disease would dramatically shorten his life. He knew there was no cure, and lived every day with the understanding that death could shamble around the very next corner. Knowledge of this sort can darken a life. It did not darken Andre’s. He chose instead to pack his days with as much insane, drunken fun as they could hold. Instead of languishing in the darkness, he chose to walk in the sun.
posted by ColdChef on Jan 23, 2007 - 96 comments

The most inspirational film ever has an underexamined dark side, including a 1947 FBI memo that branded the film as subversive and "a rather obvious attempt to discredit bankers." The film's script was influenced by the liberal populism of the 1930s, used suicide as a plot point, and was criticized by a Christian Right website for "lax attitudes on alcohol and drunkenness." The film also inspired a feminist art project on "bad girl" Violet Bick and a dead-on parody of a right-wing Christian movie review. Meanwhile, Jimmy Stewart paid back Frank Capra for reviving his post-WWII career by spying on him for the FBI. The hidden backstory behind It's A Wonderful Life.
posted by jonp72 on Dec 15, 2006 - 66 comments

Withnail & I on the YouTube:

Drinking the Lighter Fluid
In the tearoom
Withnail and Danny argue about drugs
Withnail and the Telephone Box
Monty and I
Withnail's monologue in the rain

MADD has an interesting new ad campaign out that uses something a lot of designers tend to forget about when putting together a poster: the paper it's printed on.
posted by dead_ on Oct 12, 2006 - 63 comments

How Not To Get Drunk is a newish blog that takes a quasi-scientific approach to the fine art of imbibing without embarassment. Maybe Ben Affleck (YouTube) should take some lessons.
posted by beaucoupkevin on Oct 12, 2006 - 60 comments

Black Vodka. Perfect for Halloween! (A separate search yielded direct links to mixing and drink tips.) The coloring is from the Indian/Burmese catechu, a wood extract, but it won't stain. After doing a little research, it seems UK company Blavod merged with US Extreme Beverages, maker of Red Bull. So... is it a novelty, or niche filler? Reviews seem pretty favorable. I'll be picking up a botle for my Halloween party.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan on Oct 3, 2006 - 37 comments

Poitin, Hjemmebrent, and Slivovitz are all vying to be the next Absinthe. Though Poitin gets extra points for being banned by a 17th century monarch, they are all part of the very trendy, very quaffable moonshine revival.
posted by huckhound on Sep 21, 2006 - 38 comments

I'm Just Drinking is Paul Kahn's attempt at making a bartending guide to webcomics. Here you'll learn how to make any one of several Penny Arcade themes drinks, a Diesel Sweetie, a VG_Cats and my personal favorite, a Something Positive (whose latest comic is how I came across this project).
posted by Effigy2000 on Jul 19, 2006 - 11 comments

Free Lecture On The Wonders Of Social Democracy And The Evils Of Alcohol With Every Bottle Of Booze: Outside sunny Islam, are there are worse places to get a drink than Sweden?
posted by MiguelCardoso on Jul 12, 2006 - 74 comments

Grandiose Survey of Chinese Alcoholic Drinks and Beverages. Includes a section on the Chinese culture of drinking etiquette. Also available in Chinese.
posted by monju_bosatsu on Jun 9, 2006 - 18 comments

Hungover this morning? Here's why.
posted by Mean Mr. Bucket on May 30, 2006 - 13 comments

Is Cinco De Mayo For Sale By the Alcohol Industry? In the 1960s, Chicano activists in Colorado promoted a boycott of Coors beer in response to employment discrimination against Latinos at Coors breweries. Coors had two problems. They had to fix their image with Latino consumers, and they had to figure out some way to get college students to drink more beer in May. The solution: start sponsoring Cinco de Mayo! Thus, even though Mexicans in Mexico celebrate their independence day on September 15th and 16th, Mexican-Americans are more likely to celebrate the May 5th anniversary of the Battle of the Puebla, which is not even commemorated with a national holiday in Mexico. In fact, the Battle of the Puebla was a skirmish in the Pastry War, a French intervention in Mexico that began because a French chef demanded several thousand pesos to compensate him for Mexican military officers looting his pastry supply.
posted by jonp72 on May 5, 2006 - 44 comments

Fox pussies out. Recently a bill passed in mexico legalizing all drugs under certain specified quantities. The bill was promoted By Vincente Fox's party, and came from his offices. However he decided not to sign it under U.S. pressure.

There go my vacation plans.
posted by Paris Hilton on May 4, 2006 - 57 comments

Today, April 7, is the 73rd anniversary of the end of Prohibition, marking the day in 1933 when FDR signed emergency legislation to allow the sale of beer (and reportedly had the first public delivery of beer sent to the White House). Breweries all over America are celebrating Brew Year's Eve. In other news, marijuana prohibition has continued in the US for almost 70 years. There's a Nevada initiative on the ballot this November to end it -- by allowing the legal cultivation and sale of marijuana.
posted by crazymonk on Apr 7, 2006 - 59 comments