#also it turns out brooklyn institute courses are fun so now this is probably something I'll keep doing :/ but if you email them and ask | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

morgemuffel · 6 years ago

Text

MALEC. ➰ THE BRAVEST PERSON I KNOW.

Hello everyone, this story takes place after the training scene in season 3Bx12.

This is my first fanfiction ever and my native language is not English so don't be too hard on me :) Critics are always welcome though, I would like to improve my "English" writing skills.

Sooo have fun with my story. :)

"Alec, you're such an idiot," the Shadowhunter mumbles. "Why do you always put yourself in such stupid and embarrassing situations? Yeah you're a fearless Shadowhunter and head of the New York Institute but why couldn't you listen to your gut instinct? You don't start running right away just because you've learned how to walk."

Alexander Lightwood is tied to a massive pole behind his back. There was not the slightest possibility to get out of this uncomfortable position over time. Unfortunately it was dark that's why he identified his attacker too late. He feels the warm hairy and long legs that felt along his stomach. "Damn it Lightwood, don't let your fear get the upper hand." he muttered. But it was too late. Alec had no chance the panic came over him. His heart was racing and he could literally feel how the air was getting thinner.

"Jace?" Clary asks for the fifth time now. The couple was lying relaxed and satisfied in Jace's bed at the New York Institute. Well at least until a minute ago when Jace suddenly fell into a kind of trance. She reaches for her stele to activate the healing iratzerune, cause her psycho brother had to tell her in the most macabre way that he misses her. After the rescue of Clary from the clutches of her crazy murderous brother Jonathan, the right time for her first time with Jace had finally come today. All the dramas of the last few weeks felt so surreal and far away. She didn't want these dramas to start all over again and destroy this wonderful moment. Thankfully Jace didn't noticed the carved words: -I MISS YOU- on her arm which where slowly fading away, as he was still stepped away and staring into the air.

- It is an anxious and at the same time overwhelming feeling. Dull, barely noticeable and yet completely present. Concern mixed with mild panic. Like that unpleasant feeling in school before an exam you haven't prepared for. A racing heartbeat, nervousness and then the fear that gradually became noticeable. Jace immediately recognized the symptoms that slowly spread like a ghastly fog in his body and demanded his attention. -

Clary sits in an upright position, as she is now getting a bit unsure. "Where was her boyfriend with his thoughts, hadn't he liked it? No, Clary stop drive yourself crazy, you don't need that, Jace loves you and you could see it in his eyes, he definitely liked it." She quickly pushed the thought aside and nudged Jace slightly. He flinches as if he had just awakened from a dream. It's Alec he informed her in a worried tone and got up. There was something wrong with his Parabatei. "I feel his fear, we have to go!"

Magnus was lost in thought standing in front of his 18th-century oak cabinet looking for a whip. He had no idea that Alec was facing his greatest fear right now. Lost in thought and humming to himself, Magnus rummaged in his closet. On some days he could hardly believe his luck. How was it possible that he Magnus Bane the High Warlock of Brooklyn was blessed with the most wonderful and yet best-looking Shadowhunter in the world? Yes, it took Alec some time to finally regain his sexuality and confess his love for Magnus. But honestly Alec was worth the wait and besides that, he had made his love for Magnus very clear in front of everyone at his *near-wedding* with Lydia. He belongs to Magnus and Magnus belongs to him. Since then, they had gone through a lot together. From fighting dangerous and overly evil demons like Lilith up to tricky dinners with Alec's mother Maryse and a nightmare bringing stew. Magnus knew that he had hit the jackpot with having Alec as his boyfriend and that they were able to master every hurdle and challenges. Alec didn't judge Magnus for who he was. Even when he admitted that his father was no one less than the Greater Demon Asmodeus also known as the Prince of Hell, he was unimpressed. Alec gave Magnus the love he had been waiting for all these centuries, for his whole life, and even much more. Magnus vowed to show his Shadowhunter every day how grateful he was and thanked the universe for the love it had brought to him. He would show Alec his love as often as he could in any possible way.

Although Magnus was more experienced in relationships than his partner. Alec never ceased to surprise him over and over again. Just like today as the couple was about to freshen up the rusty fighting techniques of the Warlock in the training room of the Institute. Now that Magnus had traded his powers as well as his immortality to Asmodeus, he wanted to be able to defend himself without his innate powers. Of course, Alec didn't know that Magnus was personally trained several years ago by Grand Master Mitsuyo Maeda. And of course, Magnus enjoyed bringing his astonished Alexander into the most unlikely positions, provoking him, flirting with him and keeping him confused whenever he could. He didn't expect Alec, who was so uptight and uncertain in the past, to seize the opportunity and push him against the cold pillar, kiss him passionately and wildly in this public area. “That was way out of his comfort zone wasn't it?“ So far, they've only had exchanged gentle kisses and even during sex, they remained on the flower-vanillia-level. Not that Magnus would complain. The sex with Alec was despite his lack of experience, to describe it in just one word: absolutely fantastic, incredibly hot and mind-blowing sex. Ok... it couldn’t be described with one word. So when he then pantingly suggested to hold his thought and move the whole action into his bedroom, Magnus could hardly hide his astonishment. And he was even more surprised by his demanding and dominant way Alec let him feel in bed. Even though Magnus was topping as he mostly did, and setting the pace of the thrusts, Alec grabbed his hips and pulled him harder and faster towards him. At the thought of their sexual activities earlier this day, Magnus went through a comforting shudder.

"MA..GNUUUS..!" he suddenly heard Alec yelling his name in panic. "I'm not ready to... Oh god MAAAAG... NUUS, where are you why do you need so long?!"

Magnus reached for the whip he finally spotted in the back of the cupboard and rolls his eyes. “Why was Alec all at once so impatient?“ At the Slouvaki truck in Queens an hour ago, he told Magnus they should slow down and savor such unique moments, otherwise they would not even remember them in the future. And after Clary finally got back safely to the institute, Alec became even bolder and made as suggest to Magnus in the presence of everyone, whispering in his sexy seductive voice, he would like to heat up their pillow talk with these whip-games like in that one vampire movie. When, according to this statement, Magnus only stared at him incredulously and unable to move. Alec added mischievously and sweet, "Unless you dare to spank a Shadowhunter's ass." The realization that Alec dared to share such lascivious thoughts in public with him at the institute turned him on so badly. Magnus only grinned promising and denied himself to point out that Alec probably mistook the film and meant 50 Shades of Gray and not Twilight. The portal to Magnus' Loft was open in seconds. Magnus wouldn't miss the opportunity to indulge his Alexander with sensuous blows and taut pats, with his slender leather whip.

MAAAAAGNUUUS! “I swear by the angels if you don't move your sexy ass into this room right now it was the last time we tried something like this!”

"So authoritative, Alexander." Magnus chuckles as he heads for the bedroom. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed how the door handle of the loft was pushed down and Jace and Clary stuck their heads into the living room. "Where is he?" Jace yelled completely out of breath. "Izzy said you left the institute together, Clary adds with a gasp." Magnus stopped as if rooted to the spot, caught red-handed only wearing his black silk boxer shorts, gave Jace an annoyed and questioning look. At the same time he tried to hide the whip unobtrusively behind his back. It was clear that Alec's annoying brother managed once again to destroy an intimate moment. For that he was Alec's Parabatei, he was clearly missing the sensitivity to find an appropriate time whenever he wanted to talk to Alec. "Knocking is not your strength isn't it?" Magnus replied frustrated. Clary, who starts to understand the situation, blushes and tries to pull back Jace on his arm towards the exit. "Jace I think there's a mistake here, she grins sheepishly." Jace shakes his head timidly, "Naah, No, No... I'm feeling it he is scared, he's full of fear and panic," Jace contradicts. "Are you forcing him to do something he doesn't want to? " At that moment, a fearful scream echoes throughout the loft.

AAAAAH! MAAAGNUS! PLEASE!

Alec wind under the touch of his archenemy. Why does Magnus need so long and with whom is he speaking out there? Sure, this whole tie him to the bed thing was his idea. He thought trying something new doesn't hurt right? He always wanted to know if the rumors about pleasure and pain were true. Besides Magnus was only too pleased to use his old whip again after so many years. But who could have known that one of Magnus' ingredients for his potions would break out of his office, which funnily enough had to be a hairy, disgusting spider and find his way to their bedroom. Alec's greatest fear was now walking up and down on his stomach with relish, and in that position he couldn't possibly reach for his Stele to at least activate the fearless rune. He felt so helpless and ashamed that such a small creature could intimidate him so much.

Finally Magnus stormed into the room with Jace and Clary in tow. "Oh, shit I was prepared for everything except this!" Jace blurted out, he could only suspect how Alec was feeling right now. Not only did he have a huge spider on his belly, but also the fact that he was tied half naked to Magnus' bed and knew that Jace would withhold this moment forever. Magnus made a graceful gesture to let his magic play, then paused as it occurred to him that he no longer had those powers. Unexpectedly Clary spoke. "Alec... do not move now," she said in a low monotone voice as she walked towards him. She took a jewelry box from Magnus' dressing table and tore off a page from the GQ magazine that lay next to it. She sneaked quietly toward the spider, then slowly placed the box over the spider so that the animal sat roughly in the middle. Then she gently pushed the sheet of paper under the box. With a triumphant smile, she lifted the jewelry box up in the air and handed over the animal to Magnus. Alec let out a relieved sigh. "That's not how I've imagined this new experience" he mumbled embarrassed and blushed. Jace refused to comment the whole situation this time because he felt how much his parabatei was ashamed. Instead, he took Clary by the hand. Let's give these two lovebirds a bit privacy, after all, we were pretty busy too. Clary grinned contentedly and said "hmm.. I guess I deserve a new sketchbook, what do you think?"

After the two had left the loft, Magnus relieved Alec from his chains, well in this case from his bathrobe belt. They sat there for a moment, just in silence until Magnus spoke up, ashamed. "I'm so sorry Alexander, I should have known something was wrong." Alec looked at him stunned. "You don't have to apologize for anything Magnus, I'm the one to apologize, I'm so sorry, I'm such a wimp that I'm scared of this little crawly animals, I hope you're not too ashamed of me being your boyfriend. " he said subdued. It's exactly these moments that showed Magnus how great his boyfriend really was. Even after being confronted with his greatest anxiety, he is convinced he had failed. How could it be that he didn't see how great he is? And it was this kind of innocent ignorance which made him so pure and amiable "Alexander..." Magnus began in a gentle firm voice. Believe me when I tell you that you didn't do anything wrong and you could never disappoint me. You are the bravest and most fearless person I know and I could not be more proud of calling you my boyfriend." Alec still smiled a little uncertainly as he asked. "So maybe we can stay a little longer on this flower-vanillia-level?" Magnus giggled in amusement as he nodded affirmatively. Alec visibly relaxed again and pulled Magnus into a passionate and heartfelt kiss. "I love you, Magnus" he said. And I love you Alexander, "Magnus replied.

#malec shadowhunters tv what scares you? fanfiction magnus bane alec lightwood magnus x alec so authoritative parabatei jace herondale clary

4 notes · View notes

trifeca · 4 years ago

Text

HUF RIP - “California Gold Push” (2013)

Skating the Brooklyn Banks in his hometown NYC, then bombing hills in San Francisco, sporting that “helmet hair”, representing the Real crew (and Metropolitan!), and popping bigger Ollies than anyone else – Keith Hufnagel was easily one of the most impressive skaters of the nineties, and yet, he hasn’t slowed down since the dawn of the new millennium: What began with a series of Huf retail stores in SF soon turned into a streetwear empire, then into a proper footwear brand with its own distribution network, and just recently he added one of the sickest teams in the game (Austyn, Dylan etc.). We caught up with the LA-based brand owner and Real pro when the Huf x Thrasher Stoops Euro tour came to Berlin and found out what we should’ve known all along (watching his Ollie skills): He loves it when everything’s under control.

I’ve always wondered how it must have felt to come to the West Coast in the nineties, especially since the whole approach and style seemed to be so different from what was happening back East?

Yeah, I mean for us it was just about being able to skate new terrain, so we were excited about it. Coming from a different place, I had a different style of skating and I had a different style of clothing. We were just more driven from the music and the art that we were looking at, so we were taking that and bringing that out to the West Coast. I mean, there was no internet; there were only the magazines and VHS tapes. There was also MTV, where we probably got a lot of our stuff from, but that was it.

So for the first years, did you still feel like an East Coast skater – now doing stuff on hills, for a change?

Yeah, we were extremely excited to skate hills, and to skate Embarcadero – it’s kind of like letting a kid go into a candy store: you’re just like “holy fuckin’ shit, this is amazing!” Pushed into this different kind of culture, we started picking up the styles that were happening over there, too, you know? Just seeing people like Mike Carroll and Rick Howard, all these people skating…

Wasn’t Sheffey one of your heroes before that?

Yeah, Sheffey, man. He was huge. I used to see him in New York as a kid. He was just out on the street, in front of a skateshop, doing Ollies and stuff, and I was always like that’s what I want to do. He was sick.

What happened to him?

He’s in San Diego. Actually he still skates, and he has a kid. I don’t know what he does, but he’s still, like, around.

But so you didn’t miss the Brooklyn Banks, for example?

Not at that point, no. There were so many things to explore, and then I also did go back for a while.

For two years.

I basically went to SF in 1992 to go to school.

To study what exactly?

I did art. And that’s about it. I just…

Did you graduate?

No, I didn’t. I turned pro six months into college, and they were like, “You have to start traveling,” so… well, actually I went back to New York for six months, to go to night school at The Fashion Institute, and then I just started not going to classes again, so I just was like: fuck it. Then I moved back, and that was also when I fully moved into SF. That was probably in 1993, and then I was there for the next three or four years.

So nowadays you never go back to SF? Only LA?

Yeah, we just go visit friends up there, but it’s not that I have to go up there all the time. There’s no business there for me, except visiting Deluxe and saying what’s up to everyone.

How involved are you with Real these days? You’ve been on that team for such a long time!

Yeah, this is my 20-year anniversary. 20 years of having a board on Real. I talk to them a lot because I sponsor riders from Deluxe, and I just really want to see Deluxe do well. It’s really about helping each other out, basically. They somehow want to keep my board on there for a while, so that’s fine with me.

Why “somehow”?

Well, my skateboarding is not what it used to be, but I have no pressure. I say I’m retired so I’m just skating for myself, for fun…

Having a board is not exactly retired, though.

Yeah, but I don’t have to perform at that level. I can do what I do, and I’m not trying to kickflip into a grind and kickflip out or whatever. I just want to do Ollies and Lipslides and things that feel natural and easy – and push myself a little bit, but not try to kill myself.

So doing those huge Ollies is still the most fun for you?

Pretty much. Just going fast and doing some controlled tricks. And because I live in Downtown LA I still actually skate street, although I do have the privileges of going to places like The Berrics or going to peoples’ skateparks sometimes, which I also do.

Let’s talk about business: What made you decide to open the first store – and why in SF?

Well, I had been in LA before that, and things had turned pretty bad, like, Keenan had passed away, and so we were like, “Let’s get the fuck out of LA”. I think I was sort of getting bored with skating, the repetitiveness of it, I mean I was just looking for something different to do.

At that point you were in your late twenties, right?

Yeah, late twenties, so we were looking at everything, and I was married to this girl Anne at the time, and she wanted to open up a women’s clothing boutique. Eventually I was like, “There’s too many of those in SF,” and since I saw this culture in other places I was traveling to, LA, Tokyo, New York, and I said: “We should really look into this. It’s cool, and it exists in SF, but it doesn’t all exist under one roof.” So that was the point when we knew what we were going to do. Although I pretty much knew nothing, getting into it.

That was going to be my next question: Who taught you the ropes?

It was all asking people, and not being cocky.

Asking skateboard retail people?

Lots of different people. The guy from Stüssy, Frank Sinatra, he helped me out, although he was the one who actually told me not to do retail. He said that because of how much work it is. And I totally agree with him on that, but the vision was set at that point, and someone telling you not to do it is not going to stop you.

Any major mishaps during the first years? Financial disasters?

We actually did pretty well for the first couple of years.

The first three shops opened in quick succession.

Yeah, a shop a year, and they were all fine; everything was doing well. It was really just the 2008-2011 time when no one had money, so no one was spending any. We were still in a groove, especially with the big boys, they want you to buy-buy-buy-buy-buy, and when things slow down on the other end… that’s when you start restructuring your business. At that point we were also opening our own wholesale business, and we were putting a lot of our own money into this brand, making this clothing and doing all these things.

What about the step from doing that to what’s happening now? Expanding your brand, with more products, for example, and with that awesome team?

It feels good, it feels more controlled. It’s more hectic for sure, but I think I personally like the back-end building better than running the store. In the end it’s a true business, and it’s getting to the size that it will have problems, but it will be around forever after this point. Of course you always have to be prepared for all the little disasters that happen…

And yet, this whole development was never your master plan, right?

No, it was not planned out like that. There was no business plan outlining it all. It was just something that kept on changing with what was going on.

Do you believe, like a lot of people seem to do, that in order to survive, things need to grow constantly? Because your brand’s story looks like that, but then again: don’t you think it might have been possible to just have those three stores going and to otherwise take it easy?

Yes, you could totally do that. If you control it, and if you’ve found a pattern that you’re really happy with, you could totally make it work and that’s it. Problem is, of course, that you’re in a “trendy business”, so things change quite a lot.

Don’t you ever get tired of this business, this world, this whole thing that is skateboarding and streetwear and everything around it?

I not tired of it; I love it. For me, I love skateboarding so much that I just want to be part of this culture. I don’t want to go and sell stocks on the stock market. I am in a culture that I love, and all my friends are part of this culture. That’s awesome. I don’t go to work and hate it. Or, for example, look at what I’m doing right now: I am traveling with 13 dudes that are awesome, and I’m getting so much enjoyment just watching them skate. I sit back and I’m like, “Holy shit.”

Yeah, they are incredible… how are your feelings about the other big players that have recently entered the skate footwear world?

Well, the big guys have taken everything, but with the Huf company I really want to give back, and we really, really want to support skateboarding. We’re making shoes for skateboarding, from skateboarders, but we also want to be in fashion – so basically we don’t want to get stuck in being too core, but these are our roots. And we don’t want to stray from our roots either. For us, competing with Nike, I think it’s rad: It makes us step up our game, and the thing is: we can do it, and we are doing it. They are going to always have a bigger share of the market, but we just need a little bit – and we’re good. We’re also able to do things faster. And it’s just rad to make shoes for someone like Dylan. He came to me, wanting something totally different, and I’m like, “Yeah.” Of course we have to invest a lot of money to make that happen, but a lot of other companies wouldn’t give him what he wants.

Yeah.

It’s about what he wants. Not what I want.

These other players, they must have been talking to a guy like him as well.

They did, they did, but he’s just not into the whole corporate thing. He doesn’t want to wear a big logo on his chest, he doesn’t want to do these things. He wants to be him, and does not want to be branded. He can be branded on the foot, but that’s his design that’s branded, and that’s what I’m giving him. Why not give skaters the option to be who they are?

Yeah, I see. How important is this kind of self-expression in your life these days? Are you making any kind of art on the side?

Not really, but I mess around a little bit sometimes. We have this creative zone in our warehouse where we drink beer and just do whatever, tag and stuff, but I think my main creative outlet right now is the direction of the brand. We have these brainstorming sessions where we all just go nuts, and this crazy shit comes out; and that’s me being creative.

So those art studies where just something you picked because you needed an excuse?

Yeah, my folks expected me to go to college.

But then they probably weren’t so happy to see you bail out so early?

Oh, not at all. I mean I was so addicted to skateboarding, that was all I wanted to do. I could’ve lived on the street, it didn’t matter, I just wanted to skate and live that life. They told me that going to school and working hard pays off. For them it’s like this: you go to school, you finish college, you go and do your Master’s, and then you go and get a good job, because the only way you’re going to have a good job in life is if you have all this paper work to back it up.

And then you proved them wrong.

Yeah, they loved it. They just didn’t know that these things existed.

Funny. How about your family situation?

All good, I just had a kid four and half months ago.

Congratulations. So less traveling for you then, except from some big ones like this tour?

Yeah, I also do some little things, trade shows…

Cool, let’s wrap this up: what’s on the horizon for Huf?

We have this Wu-Tang collaboration coming up later this fall, with the Wu-Tang brand. It’s cool, it’s the 20-year anniversary of their album this year, and so we just did the Snoop collaboration and now this one. Just think back, 20 years, 1993, that was the shit that I was listening to, and now, 20 years later, I’m able to do two collaborations with this shit that I was listening to.

So you were totally into hip-hop back then?

Oh yeah. Heavily.

I see, maybe “Uptown Top Ranking” didn’t make it so obvious.

I mean I have always listened to everything. I used to listen to so much reggae at one point; I was just digging the craziest stuff, trying to find all these one-hit wonders from Jamaica. There’s just so much good music. I mean I love it all. I grew up in a household where my dad would be playing Metallica, but also The Beatles – he would just buy random shit. And soon I was going out, buying Tribe Called Quest and Ice Cube.

Interesting, and coming back to the coasts: So you were into rap from both the East and the West Coast?

I think in the beginning I was very much into De La and Tribe, but I was also playing Ice Cube on my tape player too. I remember going to school, listening to him and thinking, “this shit’s cool.” I don’t know how I even picked it up, but it was there. And then we were listening to LL Cool J and punk as well, listening to what was in the skate videos.

Sure. That’s how I came across “Uptown Top Ranking”, thanks to your part.

Yeah, and I always wanted to have a hip-hop part, but I never found a song that I thought would qualify for a part.

An instrumental?

I think Gino had the best one, or maybe it was just Gino’s style with the music. It was fuckin’ proper.

Are you guys working on a proper video?

No. We are talking about it, but it’s different: in 2013, you can’t hold back your footage for such a long time, so the question is, can your skater do both? Do a rad commercial for your company, maybe even a 1-minute part, AND do an amazing 3-minute part. And do a tour, and do Street League. And do, fuckin’, some demo that they don’t want to do. And do something else.

So, no video then.

We’re doing a video for this tour, which is going to be rad, and I think I’m going to do solo parts with some of the guys. And I think Dylan and Austyn, even though they’re in Street League, they’re such street rats that they much rather go out and film an amazing part – and that’s where I come in.

1 note · View note

johnboothus · 4 years ago

Text

VinePair Podcast: What VinePairs Data Says About Current Drinks Trends

We’re far enough into July 2020 to get a handle on what drinking trends are defining this most unusual of summers. What’s even better than knowing what trends are big right now is whether they’re going to last — and if not, what will replace them.

That’s what Adam Teeter and Zach Geballe are digging into on this week’s episode of the VinePair Podcast, using VinePair’s proprietary Insights platform to help explain which trends will stick around, and why.

For example, were you aware that the No. 1 cocktail in American right now is the Margarita? And that tequila sales are spiking? What’s the reason for that? Can we expect to see some of that excitement carry over into adjacent spirit and cocktail categories, such as light rum and the Daiquiri?

Or maybe you’ve heard that Champagne is taking a beating right now. Is there any hope for the iconic wine region and its eponymous bubbly? Tune in for answers to these questions and more.

Listen Online

Listen on iTunes

Listen on Spotify

Or Check Out Our Conversation Here

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Zach: In Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

A: This is the VinePair Podcast. Zach before we get into today’s podcast, let’s talk a little bit about our favorite rum, Goslings, who is bringing you this podcast. It’s a secret blend of three different distillates, each aged separately in once-used charred oak bourbon barrels. Goslings Black Seal Rum is the key ingredient in Bermuda’s national drink, which you and I spoke about a little bit early, about a month ago, the Dark ‘n Stormy. It was originally offered in Champagne bottles sealed with black wax, from whence comes its name.

Z: Spoiler alert for upcoming episodes, it’s good that they no longer need to use empty Champagne bottles because there’s a lack of them on the market right now.

A: There is. It’s a dark rum that still possesses the same, smooth, rich, intricate flavor as the original flavor from the 1850s. It’s still slowly aged in small batches, and it was awarded the highest award, the Platinum Medal, in the Beverage Tasting Institute. For a limited time, you can use code VinePair at checkout at Reservebar.com and you’ll get $15 off your Goslings rum order. I’m definitely going to have to make a Dark ‘n Stormy later.

Z: Oh, man. I might need one too after this podcast.

A: Zach, Erica is out on vacation this week. So, it is just you and me, like old times.

Z: Oh my gosh. Vacation? What is that? I forget.

A: I know. She went to a home that she’s rented in previous years in the Catskills, which is a very lovely place in upstate New York, so she’s having a good time.

Z: I’m pretty sure she’s not missing us at all if her Instagram feed is to be believed.

A: Exactly. It looks like she’s had some nice meals. She saw bear cubs. She’s had a good time.

Z: Yeah! So, here’s a question for you that this prompts. Let’s say you are in possession of a very specific kind of magic where you can safely travel wherever you want and be reasonably safe. Where would you most want to be in the U.S.?

A: In the U.S.? I was hoping you’d ask that. If you said the world it would be hard. Geez.

Z: I mean right now. Not any time of year.

A: Are restaurants open or not?

Z: You can dine outside. It’s not fully back to normal. You’ve got to fold into that that you don’t necessarily want to go somewhere that’s known for its many great, crowded nightclubs if that would be your choice. You can have a nice meal that would be presumably outside or something like that at least.

A: Honestly, I think I would go to the Outer Banks, in North Carolina, because I like to be at the beach. Although everything happening in the South right now scares me in terms of the levels. If we’re still saying we’re in Covid times, I don’t know if that’s where I would go. Or, the area of the country where Erica has gone. The Catskills area is very cool. There’s a lot of really amazing restaurants and things happening. There is some outdoor dining happening. There’s still water. For me, I want to have access to water. That’s summer for me. I would hope that whatever house I rented had a pool. The only reason I wouldn’t say the western coast of the U.S. is that I’m assuming I still have to drive there.

Z: Oof.

A: That’s too long of a drive. I am thinking about a vacation potentially in August, going down to either Virginia or Maryland. Something like the wine country area of Virginia. I’ve talked to a couple of producers about visiting them. I’ve been looking at rental properties for a week with Naomi. I don’t know if that’s something that I’ll end up feeling comfortable doing. Right now, I’m at least thinking about it. I would meet my parents. They would come up halfway. Who knows? What about you?

Z: The place that’s near that I would want to go to is the Oregon coast, especially a little bit further south, not all the way down to California, but closer to the border. It’s really beautiful there. It’s a little bit warmer than the Washington coast, which can also be lovely this time of year. It feels far enough away that it’s special. There are also some amazing golf courses out there, which is one of the few things that I will be doing this summer to have some outdoor enjoyment. That was my trip. It’s also the kind of place where you can find places to rent that have full kitchens. With a kid, it’s hard to think about dining out as being anything other than incredibly stressful. It already is with a child, and then when you add Covid on top of it, it’s just not worth it to me.

A: Is that area of the Oregon coast, it is “Goonies” land, like we discussed with Dan?

Z: Not far from there.

A: Interesting. I think the idea of being close to water or near something, a place where you can get fresh stuff, that’s also the appeal of places like the Catskills. They have all this fresh trout. Where my wife is from in Lancaster, Pa., is also a pretty cool place to get away for a little while because it’s a nice town with really good restaurants. We wrote an article about Lancaster being this big foodie destination for chefs and spirits writers recently. They have the country’s oldest farmers’ market.

Z: Oh!

A: It’s really cool. It’s right in the center of town. It’s in an actual food hall. It’s the oldest and longest operating market in the country.

Z: Interesting.

A: I never realized this. It’s actually the country’s breadbasket, they say, east of the Mississippi. There’s all this fertile land. There’s tons of farms. If you’re a New Yorker listening to this podcast, you probably wonder why you see, “These tomatoes were from Lancaster County. This chicken is from Lancaster County. This meat is from Lancaster County.” It’s a really fertile area. It’s really cool. There’s a lot of things to do outdoors. You could go to some restaurants, but if you were looking for just access to really great food supplies so that you could cook yourself, you’d have that access, which makes it great.

Z: I’m just fond of Lancaster, Pa., because that’s where I was from on my fake Pennsylvania ID that I used in college.

A: That’s hilarious.

Z: I don’t remember my exact address. For years I had it memorized, in case someone asked. Yes, I was from Lancaster, PA, according to my ID.

A: Speaking of fake IDs, have you seen all these news reports that this is a hot time for people to be buying underage alcohol because they’re wearing masks? People can’t tell if they’re actually the face on the ID or not.

Z: These are the things that do give me hope for the future. Right? You know what, take this opportunity to make yourself look 70 years old, wear a mask, and yeah, go buy your $11 bottle of vodka. Have fun.

A: It’s hilarious. I’ve seen it. Look, I don’t support underage drinking, although I did partake in it. It’s just very funny. You always find a way. Let’s get into today’s topic which is talking a lot about the trends we’ve been seeing. I know you know this, and some of our listeners might be aware: Nine months ago, we launched this product as a part of the VinePair platform called VinePair Insights. If you’re more interested in learning about it, you can email [email protected] or [email protected]. We’re more than happy to tell you more about it. The way the product works is that it pulls in 225,000 data points a day, in addition to 800 million data points from Google every year. It’s well over a billion data points that we’re looking at every year to predict trends in the alcohol beverage market. Looking at 65 different categories of wine, beer, and spirits, we look at where demand will be. We knew that we had this larger readership, so we thought we could use that to help understand what’s happening in the industry. Right now, all the industry really has is sales data. We don’t really have a lot of demand data. As we’ve discussed previously, if there’s a demand for a product, when a product is in the market, you would never see that reflected in Nielsen data. If the product wasn’t there for people to buy then you would never know that it’s something that people want. This data shows you what people want, which is cool. There’s a lot of things we’ve been noticing since Covid, and I thought it would be fun to take this time to talk about some of the biggest trends we’re seeing, and try to understand why those trends are.

Z: It’s like back to the really old days, before Erica came in with all her facts and sourced data. We just talked about whatever we wanted to. This is just us shooting the sh*t. I like it.

A: Exactly. I figured it would be interesting to go through some of the things that we’re seeing and talk about where the opportunities are based on those things, what the causes are, and if we think they’re turning around. The biggest thing, which is interesting, is that the Margarita has become the cocktail of the year. It’s always been one of the most popular cocktails in America. Tequila, as a spirit, has become far and away the No. 1 spirit in America in terms of demand. We’ve seen double-digit growth since April. It’s continuing. It doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. This would be the time of year when you’d start to slowly see a shift into the brown spirits, at least into the next month. We don’t see that happening, at least based on the data. That’s really interesting. I’ve always known that tequila is something that’s very popular in America. It’s crazy to see that it’s taken this much of a boost from the fact that Covid has existed. I’m curious. What do you think is this reason for that? I think back to an episode of this podcast we did almost two months ago at this point, talking about what we expected to see in the summer. All of us were on board with the idea of some combination of fruit, blended drinks, and spirits like tequila, and I would’ve thought lighter rums would’ve been in this category in particular, things that people associate with summer and with escapism. So much of what we’re seeing in everything, is that most of us are house-bound or nearly house-bound. If we’re traveling, we’re traveling locally. We’re not getting on a plane and going to the Caribbean. We’re not getting on a plane and going to the Pacific Islands. We’re not going to Hawaii. All these things that people in our minds we associate with tropical, summary exoticism. It makes total sense to me that those things are booming. The other part of this is something we’ll see continue through all of these trends in some sense, is the Margarita at its core, a pretty easy drink to make. It’s pretty hard to mess up too badly. Even if you don’t get your ratios right, it’s a pretty forgiving cocktail. That’s a huge deal when you’ve got people who are suddenly facing their cocktail consumption being largely at home. I can’t say it surprises me when I think back on it, but I don’t know that I would’ve expected tequila and the Margarita to be the clear winner in this category.

A: Another point from the data is that we didn’t see rum start to grow until June. In those early months when tequila was still exploding, so April and May especially, rum was actually down year-over-year. Demand for rum started to grow in June. Now we’re seeing it up 15 percent year-over-year. It continues to expand. I think that will continue to grow as well, predictively. It is interesting that tequila came earlier and has sustained that growth longer and continues to see growth trends. You’re right. A lot of it has to do with escapism. For me, it also can’t just be about the beach. I, like you, think a lot of people do think of rum cocktails when it comes to the beach. I think that may also be reinforced when we discuss what we also thought about when we discussed frozen cocktails a few months ago, which is that they are difficult to make. They are intimidating to a lot of people. I’ve tried to make frozen cocktails a few times this summer, and I feel like every time I haven’t nailed it. I just want to be back at a bar where they have an actual slushy machine, and they can make it with the proper consistency, so that it’s still delicious. Sometimes my ice is too chunky. Sometimes it’s too watery. As you’ve said, the Margarita is a fairly simple cocktail to make. There’s a lot of variations. That’s what’s very interesting to people about the Margarita. It can be spicy. It can be heavier on the triple sec or the Cointreau. You can go super high and use Grand Marnier. You can add different fruits to it. You can have a Watermelon Margarita, a Peach Margarita, a Blueberry Margarita, or a Blackberry Margarita. There’s so much to it that I think that’s what’s allowed it to explode in the way that it has. I think there are certain recipes of the Margarita where the tequila is extremely important. A Tommy’s Margarita is one of those. That’s why I’ve been drawn to it so much over the last few months. There’s a little bit of agave. It’s really about the quality of the tequila and lime juice. That’s it. It’s much more in its pure form in the same way you can tell if it’s a good rum or a bad rum in a perfect Daiquiri. A lot of these Margaritas that we’re talking about, these super-spicy Margaritas, where you’re taking three jalapeños to the face, or some of these crazy blueberry-watermelon Margarita versions, the tequila doesn’t matter as much. There’s less intimidation of buying the right brands. There’s less pressure of buying the right brand or style. You just take the tequila on hand, find a recipe, and done. That’s what makes it so appealing to so many different people.

Z: There’s also this other factor going on. If you are at the grocery store, a liquor store, or shopping online, there’s this thing that happens with people where they see that they need to get liquor. Maybe they like vodka, gin, a brand of whiskey or a specific kind. Tequila is the kind of thing you see and you think, “Should we get a bottle of tequila?” Someone inevitably goes, “Well, I like Margaritas.” The reason that tequila has had that and rum hasn’t is that it doesn’t have the drink that immediately jumps out. I love a Daiquiri. In some ways I prefer a Daiquiri to a Margarita. I’m definitely not the average drinker. For me, I can think of a lot of applications for a bottle of rum. A Rum and Coke, that’s not something everyone wants to drink. As we’ve heard from lots of people we’ve had come on the podcast and talk about rum, that’s really not the optimal way to enjoy it. The question for people is, it’s harder to make that transition. Maybe what we’re seeing now is people have gotten more comfortable and interested in trying new things. Rum is the next logical stepping stone. That’s why it took until June and July for sales to pick up. Whereas tequila, you have the Margarita. If you ask people to name cocktails, it’s going to be one of the first ones that almost everyone names. That makes sense to me that that’s been where the average person has been comfortable branching out or continuing to buy.

A: Another point of data that has been really interesting to watch is what’s happened to Champagne. This is not just reflected in demand data. It’s also being reflected in sales data. Although, I think our demand data is showing that this isn’t going to be let up any time soon. Champagne continues to plummet. There’s very little demand whatsoever out there for Champagne. It’s depressing for a lot of people, especially people who work in that side of the business. It’s been hard on some companies that rely on Champagne for a good portion of their revenue. It’s sad that it doesn’t seem to be turning around any time soon, and it may not until the holidays. It just all depends on where we are as a country when it comes to Covid and whether we feel like celebrating at all this year or not.

Z: I was going to say, it may be Nov. 3 for some of us.

A: Oh, right! Exactly. Exactly. Although, I’m not going to make that mistake again this year because my wife still blames me. She says I jinxed the election.

Z: That makes sense. That’s definitely within your power.

A: I did get bottles of Champagne, and I had them ready to go. I was so excited that we were going to elect her, and it didn’t happen. My wife said we never should’ve had the Champagne. We got ahead of ourselves.

Z: Is Naomi a sports fan? Man, she sounds too much like me as a sports fan.

A: She said, “We should’ve done it. I knew we should’ve done it. We were so excited.” We looked at the polling data! Who knows if it’ll turn around? We’ve used a few theories before on the podcast. We talked about the lack of celebration. Do you think that’s really why it’s not turning around still? Is it just that people still don’t want to celebrate? At the end of the day, there are some decently affordable Champagnes, especially given a price point that people are still paying for other things that we still see them willing to pay for. Why is Champagne not rebounding at all?

Z: There’s a couple of reasons here. The first one I’m going to throw out is just making sh*t up. I apologize if I’m totally wrong. It’s just a hunch. One part of the challenge for Champagne, is that people are scared to open bottles of Champagne. The actually sparkling wine bottles. Maybe this isn’t backed up because they’re still going through the same amount of Prosecco, Cava, and all of that. There’s something a little intimidating about opening a sparkling wine bottle at home if you’re not used to doing it. It feels explosive, literally. That may be something that makes people uncomfortable, in a small enough way that when they’re at the store, and they’re deciding what they want to buy, or they’re about to check out online, they may go, “Well, maybe I don’t want that bottle of sparkling wine. I’ll buy a bottle of Cabernet instead, or two bottles of rosé. The other part to this comes back to the celebratory aspect. The other part is, you open a bottle of Champagne, and this is true for all sparkling wines, but I think that unless you have a sparkling wine stopper, it’s harder to re-cork. You can’t re-cork a bottle of Champagne with a Champagne cork. You have to put another cork in it, preferably an actual stopper that’s designed for sparkling wine to keep it around if you’re not going to drink it all. While you and I can probably go through a bottle of wine with our families, no problem, in a given evening, for a lot of people, that’s not what they’re doing on a weekday basis. Again, a sparkling wine bottle, especially an expensive sparkling wine bottle, like Champagne, feels like, “Am I really going to drink that?” It’s a wine that I want to share with eight other people, not a bottle I want to have by myself or with my significant other.

A: I do actually think as I’ve looked at this data, that it really is all tied to this amazing branding and marketing that Champagne has done over this last, you know, multi-decades century, that has connected it to being this premium brand that is for good times and celebrations. Prosecco is growing. I think this is an opportunity for Prosecco to get in front of people even more aggressively than it has before. Prosecco is a product that can be consumed on its own but it’s also a product that works really well in a lot of these refreshing summer cocktails that make you feel like you’re escaping. I do think that a lot of people don’t really associate Champagne with escape as much as some sort of monumental occurrence in their lives. I have memories of drinking a spritz in Italy. I have memories of having a glass of Prosecco sitting outside somewhere. I don’t really with Champagne. With Champagne, it’s always been because of an anniversary, or someone graduated from a doctoral program or masters program.

Z: Or you’re stuck going out with a bunch of sommeliers.

A: Well, I don’t do that very often. That doesn’t happen. Also, Champagne is expensive. The reason I brought that up is because there are a lot of sections of the wine business and the alcohol business in general that, even during Covid, are growing and doing fine. You look at the two sectors of wine that are still continuing to expand in the off-premise, and it’s wines that are $20 or $25, and wines that are $25 plus. Maybe some people would be willing to trade up once in a while for Champagne, but I think it really does boil down to the fact that you only trade up for that when it feels like the good times are rolling. Right now the good times really aren’t rolling. What would be the reason to open that wine? Besides, yes, you being out with sommeliers who are saying it’s the greatest wine ever to exist in the world and we should drink lots of it. Besides that, you’re really not seeing it. I’m sure that means that there are a lot of people getting really great deals on Champagne right now, or there’s probably allocations that used to exist that probably don’t right now. There’s just so much of it not being consumed. It’s very interesting. It’s one of these products that’s done such an amazing job of positioning itself in a way that should always be a strength. This is one of those times when we’ve never seen a global pandemic before. You just couldn’t plan for it. There’s no one that thinks that there’s good times happening. Maybe a few people, but not a lot.

Z: Definitely not here in the U.S. Maybe Champagne sales are doing OK in Europe at this point.

A: Right, exactly. Another thing that I think has been interesting to look at is the continued growth. You know what I’m going to say, of hard seltzer. It just isn’t stopping. I also find that to be really interesting. I have a few theories on that as well that I think are reinforced by things we’ve already seen. It’s propping up the entire beer category at this point. It’s hard seltzer’s growth that’s continuing to allow for a lot of these breweries to be OK in a Covid world. It’s crazy, and something I think no one thought was going to be possible a year ago. Even in the fall, people were saying, “This can’t last.” Our data showed that it was going to last, but you had a lot of people writing pieces in publications that are not ours saying, oh, it was going to die, be a phase, or go quiet in the winter. And it never did. I think that now there’s certain things happening in our world that are reinforcing why people are choosing seltzer instead of other things. I’m curious. Have you drunk any seltzer in quarantine? Or are you a seltzer person at all at this point?

Z: Not the hard seltzer. I just finished a can of LaCroix as we were recording here, as I muted my mic. For a lot of people, there’s just a lot of emphasis on comfort and on ease when it comes to alcohol at this time. Again, one of hard seltzer’s greatest strengths is that literally all you have to do is open the can and drink it. It’s something that you could drink at 2 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon. You can drink it at 9 o’clock on a Wednesday night. You can probably drink it on a Zoom all if you pour it into a glass. It looks like you’re having a regular seltzer.

A: Totally.

Z: It’s the anti-Champagne. It doesn’t have any one specific use case. You can drink it any time. For people shopping right now, that’s really important. I did an interview with Jake Kirsch, the guy who’s the VP of innovation at Anheuser-Busch.

A: Yeah, that was a good interview.

Z: Thank you! It ran last week. We were talking about a lot of things that his job involves. One of the things that he was talking about was that even more than before, they’re seeing a ton of demand for variety packs when it comes to hard seltzer. It’s no surprise. It’s the same thing with non-alcoholic seltzer. People want to be able to have things on hand that are really easy. You just have it on hand and pull it out of the fridge and pull it out a couple of hours later. It gives a few options. They’re super simple, predictable, and safe. For most of us, if we’re going to do drinking outdoors, whether it normally would have been at a restaurant or bar or patio, or in the outdoors more generally, that’s seltzer’s sweet spot, even if it does well year-round. It’s going to be in those outdoor settings. People are still hiking around here at least. This is the prime use case for this drink. People are definitely still trying to do those things as much as they can, when it’s permitted and where it’s possible. I’m not surprised. Is there anything in the data you find that’s surprising?

A: Not surprising. I’m not surprised that seltzer is surging. I think there’s other reasons besides the ones you mentioned, which are good and valid. It’s also worth mentioning that the variety pack seltzer is the No. 1 SKU for almost every seltzer producer, which most people wouldn’t realize. It’s interesting that most consumers aren’t going out and saying, “Oh, I love Black Cherry, and I want a full Black Cherry pack.” Most people want that variety, which is really interesting. I actually think a lot of it has to do with calories. The people that I’ve talked to that have become really avid seltzer drinkers, and it almost always comes down to calories, especially in Covid, where a lot of us are less active than we used to be. For me, my daily commute was walking a little over a half mile to get to a subway to get on, then walking a little over a half mile from that subway stop to my office was a mile walk in the morning, a mile walk home. I usually ran errands. I was probably walking two-and-a-half or three miles every day, just getting to work and doing stuff. I was carrying bags. Other people were running more. You also have a lot of people in certain places of the country, especially where mask-wearing is mandatory as it should be, who aren’t running as much because they don’t want to wear a mask when they run. It’s uncomfortable. Then you’re watching increases for these apps like Peloton, and people bring that into their home, thinking about trying to exercise in whatever way they can. People are drinking more regularly. They’re not just drinking two nights a week, or four nights a weeks, they’re drinking seven nights a week. Some of those nights, people are wanting to watch the calories going into their bodies. People are going for hard seltzer instead. I do think that’s playing a huge part in a lot of people’s decision to look at that. Again, it’s one of these benefits that seltzer always knew that that was going to be one of its sort of key selling factors when it came on the market, was this calorie count. Again, a benefit that they’re now seeing, it’s why they’re selling more than a lot of other products. It’s very clear that it is this low-calorie product that gets you just buzzed enough to take the edge off, but not too buzzed. It doesn’t make you feel as guilty as if you pounded a double IPA, or finished a bottle of wine. It doesn’t make you feel that way in a lot of ways. People are really paying attention to it, which is interesting. You’re going to see more. Watch. You’re going to see a lot more calorie-conscious drinks products come out in the next year or so because this is proving a huge point, that a lot of this country cares about that.

Z: As you pointed out, that was the case even pre-Covid. Now, for so many of us with our routines around fitness, around dining and eating, all of those things being so disrupted, it’s definitely the case that that’s something that’s higher on everyone’s mind, or more everyone’s mind. Given what the scale said this morning, I might need to start incorporating some of this hard seltzer.

A: Think about it! Even if you don’t live in a place where you walk to work like we do here in New York, you probably had a gym routine or something that’s been completely changed because most gyms are closed.

Z: I used to spend my work nights on the floor or a restaurant walking around. I definitely have noticed the lack of that amount of activity affecting my health in various ways.

A: This is our last data point for the conversation. That’s why I think it’s really exploded, on top of all the other things. It’s tasty, there’s a variety there. It speaks of summer and being outdoors. It’s easy. You can hide it during Zoom calls. All of that. I really think that this idea of health when all of us are also making sourdough bread is why people are really embracing it the way they have. Well, Zach, this has been really interesting again. I think in three months we can revisit this. With Erica back from vacation we can visit some other data points. If this is data that’s interesting to you, feel free to email us at [email protected] or [email protected] if you’re really interested in the data and getting more access to it. There’s a lot of stuff that we’re seeing that’s really instructive as to what people could be doing to take advantage of a market that’s very volatile at this point in time.

Z: Absolutely.

A: Alright, man! I will talk to you next week when Erica is back. Until then, be well. Have a great weekend. For those listening to this on Monday, I hope you had a great weekend. We will see you again next week!

Z: Sounds great.

A: Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair Podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. Now for the credits: Now, for the credits. VinePair is produced and hosted by Zach Geballe, Erica Duecy, and me: Adam Teeter. Our engineer is Nick Patri and Keith Beavers. I’d also like to give a special shout out to my VinePair co-founder Josh Malin and the rest of the VinePair team for their support. Thanks so much for listening and we’ll see you again right here next week. The VinePair Podcast this week was sponsored by Goslings Rum. A secret blend of three different distillates, each aged separately in once-used, charred oak bourbon barrels, Goslings is the key ingredient for Bermuda’s national drink, the Dark ‘n Stormy. Originally offered in Champagne bottles sealed with black wax, from whence comes its name, this deep, dark rum still possesses the same, smooth, rich, intricate flavor as the original recipe from the 1850s. It’s still slowly aged in small batches, and Black Seal Rum was awarded the highest honor, the Platinum Medal, from the Beverage Tastings Institute. For a limited time, you can use code VinePair at checkout on Reservebar.com for $15 off your Goslings rum order.

Ed. note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: What VinePair’s Data Says About Current Drinks Trends appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/vinepair-data-current-drinks-trends/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/vinepair-podcast-what-vinepairs-data-says-about-current-drinks-trends

0 notes

isaiahrippinus · 4 years ago

Text

VinePair Podcast: What VinePair’s Data Says About Current Drinks Trends

Or maybe you’ve heard that Champagne is taking a beating right now. Is there any hope for the iconic wine region and its eponymous bubbly? Tune in for answers to these questions and more.

Listen Online

Listen on iTunes

Listen on Spotify

Or Check Out Our Conversation Here

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Zach: In Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

Z: Spoiler alert for upcoming episodes, it’s good that they no longer need to use empty Champagne bottles because there’s a lack of them on the market right now.

Z: Oh, man. I might need one too after this podcast.

A: Zach, Erica is out on vacation this week. So, it is just you and me, like old times.

Z: Oh my gosh. Vacation? What is that? I forget.

A: I know. She went to a home that she’s rented in previous years in the Catskills, which is a very lovely place in upstate New York, so she’s having a good time.

Z: I’m pretty sure she’s not missing us at all if her Instagram feed is to be believed.

A: Exactly. It looks like she’s had some nice meals. She saw bear cubs. She’s had a good time.

A: In the U.S.? I was hoping you’d ask that. If you said the world it would be hard. Geez.

Z: I mean right now. Not any time of year.

A: Are restaurants open or not?

Z: Oof.

A: Is that area of the Oregon coast, it is “Goonies” land, like we discussed with Dan?

Z: Not far from there.

Z: Oh!

A: It’s really cool. It’s right in the center of town. It’s in an actual food hall. It’s the oldest and longest operating market in the country.

Z: Interesting.

Z: I’m just fond of Lancaster, Pa., because that’s where I was from on my fake Pennsylvania ID that I used in college.

A: That’s hilarious.

Z: I don’t remember my exact address. For years I had it memorized, in case someone asked. Yes, I was from Lancaster, PA, according to my ID.

Z: It’s like back to the really old days, before Erica came in with all her facts and sourced data. We just talked about whatever we wanted to. This is just us shooting the sh*t. I like it.

Z: I was going to say, it may be Nov. 3 for some of us.

A: Oh, right! Exactly. Exactly. Although, I’m not going to make that mistake again this year because my wife still blames me. She says I jinxed the election.

Z: That makes sense. That’s definitely within your power.

Z: Is Naomi a sports fan? Man, she sounds too much like me as a sports fan.

Z: Or you’re stuck going out with a bunch of sommeliers.

Z: Definitely not here in the U.S. Maybe Champagne sales are doing OK in Europe at this point.

A: Totally.

A: Yeah, that was a good interview.

Z: I used to spend my work nights on the floor or a restaurant walking around. I definitely have noticed the lack of that amount of activity affecting my health in various ways.

Z: Absolutely.

Z: Sounds great.

Ed. note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: What VinePair’s Data Says About Current Drinks Trends appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/vinepair-data-current-drinks-trends/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/624265996179472384

0 notes

wineanddinosaur · 4 years ago

Text

VinePair Podcast: What VinePair’s Data Says About Current Drinks Trends

Or maybe you’ve heard that Champagne is taking a beating right now. Is there any hope for the iconic wine region and its eponymous bubbly? Tune in for answers to these questions and more.

Listen Online

Listen on iTunes

Listen on Spotify

Or Check Out Our Conversation Here

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Zach: In Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

Z: Spoiler alert for upcoming episodes, it’s good that they no longer need to use empty Champagne bottles because there’s a lack of them on the market right now.

Z: Oh, man. I might need one too after this podcast.

A: Zach, Erica is out on vacation this week. So, it is just you and me, like old times.

Z: Oh my gosh. Vacation? What is that? I forget.

A: I know. She went to a home that she’s rented in previous years in the Catskills, which is a very lovely place in upstate New York, so she’s having a good time.

Z: I’m pretty sure she’s not missing us at all if her Instagram feed is to be believed.

A: Exactly. It looks like she’s had some nice meals. She saw bear cubs. She’s had a good time.

A: In the U.S.? I was hoping you’d ask that. If you said the world it would be hard. Geez.

Z: I mean right now. Not any time of year.

A: Are restaurants open or not?

Z: Oof.

A: Is that area of the Oregon coast, it is “Goonies” land, like we discussed with Dan?

Z: Not far from there.

Z: Oh!

A: It’s really cool. It’s right in the center of town. It’s in an actual food hall. It’s the oldest and longest operating market in the country.

Z: Interesting.

Z: I’m just fond of Lancaster, Pa., because that’s where I was from on my fake Pennsylvania ID that I used in college.

A: That’s hilarious.

Z: I don’t remember my exact address. For years I had it memorized, in case someone asked. Yes, I was from Lancaster, PA, according to my ID.

Z: It’s like back to the really old days, before Erica came in with all her facts and sourced data. We just talked about whatever we wanted to. This is just us shooting the sh*t. I like it.

Z: I was going to say, it may be Nov. 3 for some of us.

A: Oh, right! Exactly. Exactly. Although, I’m not going to make that mistake again this year because my wife still blames me. She says I jinxed the election.

Z: That makes sense. That’s definitely within your power.

Z: Is Naomi a sports fan? Man, she sounds too much like me as a sports fan.

Z: Or you’re stuck going out with a bunch of sommeliers.

Z: Definitely not here in the U.S. Maybe Champagne sales are doing OK in Europe at this point.

A: Totally.

A: Yeah, that was a good interview.

Z: I used to spend my work nights on the floor or a restaurant walking around. I definitely have noticed the lack of that amount of activity affecting my health in various ways.

Z: Absolutely.

Z: Sounds great.

Ed. note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: What VinePair’s Data Says About Current Drinks Trends appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/vinepair-data-current-drinks-trends/

0 notes

katwriting · 8 years ago

Text

Fic: When in Paris

Magnus takes Alec on that first date. (2695 words)

Just some fluff I wrote before we can watch the actual Malec first date tonight.

Author’s note: I know the Malec first date takes place in a bar, but I started writing this fic a couple of weeks ago when we didn’t know that yet. So I went for something different. Also, this is the first fanfic I published in years and English is not my first language, so sorry in advance if there are any weird grammar/syntax mistakes :)

Magnus blamed it all on Alec. Stupid shadowhunter. Stupid dark hair, stupid brown eyes, stupid cute smile. If it weren’t for all of those things, Magnus would never have been daydreaming and therefore distracted enough to completely mess up his eyeliner.

Stupid shadowhunter, he thought again as he grabbed a make-up wipe to remove the smudged black liner from his face and immediately sighed. Now he had to start all over again.

Sure, he could use his magic to get his make-up done. But if Magnus Bane enjoyed one thing, it was getting ready. And for his first date with Alec, he had to make sure he looked amazing. So his magic just did not quite cut it today. Besides, he’d probably have to use his magic later on anyway - redoing his make-up would take up a significant amount of time he’d calculated in for doing his hair. And Alec would be here within the next half hour.

“Trust me, you’re going to look good in this.”

“You sure?

“Alec, just because I picked this out doesn’t mean it’s totally unwearable. If this were black, you would have picked it yourself out without a second thought. You’ll be fine. Now get over here and let me have a look.”

Alec’s bathroom door squeaked annoyingly when it opened, so Izzy didn’t exactly understand what Alec was grumbling when he came out of his bathroom. But that was probably for the best anyway – she highly doubted it had been something nice.

Granted, Alec had every reason to be annoyed with her. Izzy had been bugging him about what he would wear for his date with Magnus all day. And maybe insulted his preference for plain black clothing a few times along the way.

Nevertheless, Isabelle Lightwood was not someone to be sorry for making outfit recommendations. Not even the slightest bit. By the angel, her brother was going out with the probably best-dressed downworlder in entire New York, it was practically her duty to make sure Alec looked good for that. And if that required dragging her brother out of the Institute and into a shopping mall to get a nice outfit for him, then so be it.

Speaking of her brother, Alec looked pretty uncomfortable and also still a bit grumpy as he was standing in front of her. And he was constantly pulling at the collar of his new sweater. Izzy swatted his hands away and smoothed the fabric down.

“Stop that! You look great!”

“Well I definitely don’t feel like that”, Alec admitted and avoided Izzy’s gaze when she looked up at him.

Izzy’s stern impression immediately turned soft and she pulled her brother into a hug. “Aww, no need to be nervous, big bro. It’s going to be fine.”

Alec sighed and wrapped his arms around his sister. “I hope so.” He looked down at her, looking not too sure of himself. “Do I really have to wear this? Couldn’t I just put on my black –“

Izzy didn’t let him finish the sentence. She just huffed, grabbed Alec’s leather jacket from where it had been laying on his bed, shoved it into his hands and unceremoniously pushed her brother towards the door. “Alec Lightwood, stop doubting my outfit choices. You may be older, but I certainly have the better taste in fashion. You look great. Now go pick up that warlock before I kick you out the door!”

Alec rolled his eyes, but did as he was told. Arguing with Izzy about fashion-related stuff was pointless anyway.

Magnus put on the last bit of hairspray exactly the moment the doorbell rang. He put the can back into the cabinet, shooed Chairman Meow out of the bathroom and closed the door behind him. As he walked over to his front door, he quickly ran his gaze over his living room, removing his forgotten coffee cup and the slightly chaotic pile of magazines from the coffee table with a snap of his fingers. With a deep breath, he opened the door.

“Alexander. Please, come in.”, he said and smiled when he took in Alec’s appearance. Alex wore a dark red sweater that brought out his broad shoulders beautifully. The V-neck collar emphasized his neck and his deflect rune. Also, the sleeves were rolled up, giving Magnus an excellent view of Alec’s arms. To complete the look, the shadowhunter wore his usual black jeans and black boots. “Well aren’t you a sight for my sore eyes”

“Uh…thanks, I guess”, Alec said and then smiled shyly. “Shall we?”

“Sure, let me just grab my jacket”, Magnus said, snapping his fingers again and making a purple jacket appear over his shoulder that suited his black button-down shirt perfectly . “Let’s go. I hope you don’t mind if we use a portal. Traffic in this city has been a nightmare since they invented cars, and I refuse to use this disgusting thing they call public transport system.”

Alec shrugged and then started grinning as he imagined Magnus Bane, high warlock of Brooklyn, on a packed subway train with busy lawyers, crying babies and annoying teenagers. Definitely nothing that fitted together.

He then stepped aside so Magnus could close his apartment door and curiously watched as the warlock drew open a portal and gestured him to walk through. “Come on, our reservation is in ten minutes.”

When Alec had agreed to grabbing dinner at this “lovely French place” Magnus suggested, he had expected some fancy place. Because, honestly, it was Magnus. He would not go for something below the extraordinary if he could avoid it.

What Alec had not been expecting was that “portaling to the restaurant” actually meant portaling to another country.

Needless to say he was pretty surprised when he stepped out of the portal and did not recognize a single building around him. Alec had grown up in New York and been on missions all over the city over the years, so he’d gotten to know his city pretty well. Well enough that he could tell when he was not in New York. Like right now.

“Welcome to Paris”, Magnus said and smiled at Alec’s confused, but curious expression. They were standing in a narrow alley outlined by pretty, old-looking apartment buildings. Although he could hear TV noises and people talking through a few open windows, nobody was on the street. Good, Alec thought. If nobody saw them, nobody could start wondering how exactly the two of them could show up out of nowhere.

Judging from what Alec could see from his point of view, the alley went out onto a much busier street, the sidewalks packed with people and a sheer endless row of parked cars lining up next to the sidewalks. But before Alec could take a closer look, the warlock took his hand and pulled him into the other direction. They walked down the alley, over a bridge and then on a sidewalk along a river until Magnus stopped in front of a small restaurant. Although it was already evening, the sun was still shining, tinting the street and the buildings into a pretty glow and making the surface of the river glisten in the rays of the setting sun.

Magnus looked up to Alec and chuckled at his stunned expression. Describing the shadowhunter as impressed would be the understatement of the year. “Beautiful, isn’t it? Not as beautiful as my date, though.”

The downworlder bit back a laugh as Alec immediately started blushing. Instead, he continued talking: “I found this place when I lived in Paris in the early 1920s. And I kind of fell in love with it. Of course, the owners have changed several times since then, but the place remained the same and I love to come here when I’m in town. Although I haven’t been here a lot recently. I missed it.”

“Why didn’t you just come here, then?”, Alec asked curiously. “As far as I know, warlocks can portal anywhere as long as they have already been there, right?”

Magnus smiled. “I’ve been busy, Alexander”, he said, meeting Alec’s gaze. “Also, there’s this really cute shadowhunter who has been taking up a lot of my spare time recently.”

Magnus’s smile got even bigger when he saw Alec trying to hide his slightly embarrassed but definitely flattered smile.

Alec had never been much of a talkative person when it came to topics that didn’t involve demon hunting. He usually kept his thoughts and opinions to himself, only opening up to a very small circle of people. But talking to Magnus over dinner in this tiny little French restaurant was one of the easiest things he’d ever done.

The conversation kept flowing easily, they never seemed to run out of topics to talk about. And even when there were a few moments of silence Alec enjoyed them more than feeling awkward about. There weren’t many of those silent moments, though – most of the time they were laughing about Alec’s memories of Jace or Izzy (or both of them) getting them into trouble or one of warlock’s stories about London in the 1800s and how he met his dear friend Ragnor there. (“Who by the way you have to meet someday, Alexander. He’s a bit much sometimes, but I think you’ll like him.”)

Talking to Magnus was also fun. And definitely a treat for Alec’s eyes. The longer they kept chatting, Alec realized more and more how attractive Magnus was. Not only in the obvious, visual way – there were a lot of little things Alec had never noticed before that made Magnus so handsome. Like the way his eyes lightened up when he told Alec the story about the time he got almost run over by a carriage in the late 1800s. Or the way his gaze turned soft when he explained why he cared so much about a bunch of downworlders. Or the vivid gestures he used when he told a particularly funny story, making the jewelry around his wrist jingle. And of course, the intense, curious look in his eyes when he listened to Alec talking. That look was probably his favourite one, since it made Alec feel so special, like he was he only person Magnus wanted to be with right now. At this thought, Alec realized he felt just the same way about Magnus. It was a weird feeling, something different than he felt for Izzy and entirely different from his parabatai bond – but he liked it. And it made him smile.

Magnus, who had just been vividly describing how the driver of that damn carriage had yelled at him, “even though it was his fault, and he knew that!”, stopped talking mid-sentence and looked curiously at his date. “What’s wrong?”

One thing Alec really didn’t like about Magnus, though, was the way the warlock’s company often turned him into a stuttering, babbling mess. Just like right now.

“I – uh – nothing, it’s just-”Alec shook his head slightly, pretty embarrassed with himself and then looked back at Magnus. “You just look really good tonight. Actually, not only tonight.”

Now it was the warlock’s turn to blush. “Why thank you, Alexander. You don’t look too bad yourself, if I may say so.”

When they were done with dinner, neither Alec nor Magnus felt like going home, so they opted for taking a walk along the Seine. After a while, Magnus led them over to a bridge and stopped in the middle of it, leaning onto the railing. By now, it was already night and the city had calmed down for the day. They were the only people on the bridge, save for the occasional car or bike passing by.

They stood on the sidewalk next to each other, looking out onto the river and the lights of the city, when Magnus broke the silence. “This used to be one of my favorite places when I lived here. I usually came here when I needed to think. Or just get away from everything”. Immediately after he’d said that, he felt a bit of guilt hitting him along with the reason why exactly he had to this place so often.

Alec did not reply, just kept looking onto the reflections of the street lights on the water. He sensed that something was up, but didn’t want to push Magnus to tell him. So he just kept quiet. If he had learn one thing about Magnus Bane in the few months he’d known him, then that pushing Magnus to do anything would only backfire. So he just waited, trusting that Magnus would come forward with whatever was on his mind. And he was right.

Magnus took a deep breath before he started talking. “Alexander, I haven’t been entirely honest with you earlier. There’s more to why I’ve been avoiding Paris than just me being busy.”

“I figured as much”, Alec answered, looking over to the warlock. “You don’t have to tell me what happened”, he added quickly, after he saw the pained expression on Magnus’s face.

But Magnus quickly shook his head and continued talking. “No, I want to tell you. I want to start this”, he motioned to the small space between him and the shadowhunter, “on honesty, not on secrets. Besides, it’s been decades. This shouldn’t matter to me anymore.”

By now, Alec definitely knew where this conversation was going. And he was pretty sure it had something to do with an annoying, super-bitchy vampire lady. But he didn’t say anything, just took Magnus’s hand in his and kept looking over the river.

Magnus interlocked their fingers and smiled shyly at Alec before he started to explain. “The reason why I haven’t been to Paris is not because I’ve been too busy to come here. I just tried to avoid the city. And a few other ones, to be honest. Paris, Prague, London…all of those are places I have lived together with Camille. But most of the time we spent here, in Paris.”

Magnus paused and tried to ignore the memories that immediately came up in his head. He may have a lot of history with Camille, but when he thought of his future, he thought of Alec. And he did not want to screw this up. So instead of giving in to the memories creeping up on him, he shrugged them off. “Long story short, I have a lot of memories of this city – unfortunately, a lot more bad than good ones. And they tend to come up every time I’m here. So I tried to avoid the city to get rid of them.” Magnus sighed, glancing over to where Alec was still quietly looking out onto the river. “Does that sound weird?”

The shadowhunter shook his head “No, not at all. I guess we all have parts of our past we’re not proud of. You just have to make sure they don’t define you.” Then, Alec smirked. “And about those bad memories – you can’t erase them from your memory. But - ” He stepped closer and put his arms around the warlock’s waist, pulling him against his chest. He put one hand under Magnus’s chin and gently made him look up at him. “But, you know, you could try to overwrite them with good ones.”

Magnus looked into Alec’s soft brown eyes and started smiling. . “Sounds like a plan”, he said and put his arms around the shadowhunter’s shoulders. “And I think I know just the guy who could help me with that.”

And when Alec leaned down for a gentle kiss that made Magnus’s entire body tingle with butterflies, he was pretty sure overwriting those bad memories would be much easier than he’d thought. Especially as he’d just made the first of many good ones.

Omg, I totally forgot how weird it feels to publish something you wrote yourself. Soo weird. But kinda good, though. Hope you enjoyed reading as much as I did writing it. Let me know what you think :)

#malec fic #malec #shadowhunters fic #malec fanfiction #shadowhunters fanfiction #writing #katwriting

16 notes · View notes

pitz182 · 6 years ago

Text

It's Never Too Late to Change: New Books by Writers in Recovery

Your nerves shot? Mine, too. Winter is a slog and I can’t wait for spring. When I can’t stand one more minute of worrying about the planet, polar bears, politics and hate, I still choose escape. But… instead of rum and cocaine, my go-to is a good book. So, if stress has been dogging you and your bandwidth is low, it’s okay to turn off your gadgets so you can refuel. Breaks from YouTube and the 24/7 news cycle can do wondrous things for the mind. I went radical this week and even turned off my cell. Twitter can consume me if I let it.This month I made time to curl up on the couch with my dog and disappeared into these gems:Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addictionby Judith Grisel (Doubleday, Feb. 19, 2019)“My response to being overwhelmed by the deep void was to leap into it.” — Judith GriselJudith Grisel writes about the grizzly years of self-destruction. Stories show the author at her messiest. In a decade, she’d consumed a cornucopia of substances; by age 23, she was a self-loathing mess.The strength of Grisel’s bestseller is her intimate knowledge about the nervous system and addiction. Grisel peppers the pages with unsettling anecdotes, but she does it sans self-pity. Like a journalist, she reports embarrassing and creepy things.“I ripped off stores and stole credit cards when the opportunity presented itself, I was still able to maintain, at least to myself, that I was basically a good person. To an extent, for instance, I could count on my companions, and they could count on me. I say to an extent, because we also knew and expected that we would lie, cheat, or steal from each other if something really important were at stake (that is, drugs).”I never tire of drunken-drugalogues, and Grisel doesn’t disappoint on that front. But telling these stories is not to shock or manipulate readers, nor is Grisel trying to prove she was “a bona fide addict.” Her purpose is to illustrate the bleak existence of those who cannot stop drinking and drugging.When Grisel “finally reached the dead end” where she felt she was “incapable of living either with or without mind-altering substances,” she sought help. After a 28-day rehab and months in a halfway house, she managed to pull her life together. After seven years of study, she earned a PhD in behavioral neuroscience and became an expert in neurobiology, chemistry, and the genetics of addictive behavior.This book doesn't brag about having the answers, but shows what a sober neuroscientist has learned after 20 years of studying how an addicted brain works. She makes it easy to understand why it's so difficult to get sober and maybe even harder to stay that way. It irks me when people say they never think about drugs or alcohol anymore. My first feeling is rage—probably because I’ve never experienced anything like that, despite working hard on myself during 30 years in recovery. Grisel refreshingly writes about the temptation that’s always there.Grisel’s writing communicates succinctly: “A plaque I later saw posted behind a bar described my first experience [with alcohol] precisely: Alcohol makes you feel like you’re supposed to feel when you’re not drinking alcohol.” In another passage, she quotes George Koob, chief of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: “There are two ways of becoming an alcoholic: either being born one or drinking a lot.” Grisel is careful to explain so you don’t get the wrong idea. “Dr. Koob is not trying to be flip, and the high likelihood that one or the other of these applies to each of us helps explain why the disease is so prevalent.”When she writes about her experiences, it’s candid and clear, and it feels like she’s a friend and we’re chatting in a café. I found myself frequently nodding with identification—like a bobblehead on a car dashboard. It’s a fascinating, absorbing, satisfying book about addiction.Widows-in-Lawby Michele W. Miller (Blackstone Publishing, Feb. 26, 2019)There was a huge turnout at The Mysterious Bookshop in downtown Manhattan on February 26. The event was the book launch of Michele W. Miller’s second novel, Widows-in-Law. Lawrence Block, the wildly successful, sober crime novelist, sat beside Miller in the role of interviewer, and he was as entertaining as ever.See Also: Lawrence Block: One Case at a TimeMiller, a high-level attorney for New York City, said, “Widows-in-Law is about an attorney who dies suddenly in a fire, leaving behind a first wife who’s a streetwise child abuse prosecutor.” She then jokingly added, “who might resemble me a little bit.” That got a big laugh because many attendees knew that Miller had previously worked as a child abuse prosecutor.In a thick and endearing Brooklyn-Queens accent, Miller described the deceased’s second bride. “You know, legs up to the eyeballs…[a] gawgeous trophy wife.” Block jumped in with praise: “That’s the one that resembles you.” Miller blushed and said, “See? That’s why we keep him around for a hundred books. Another big laugh, another inside joke: throughout Block’s astounding career, the well-loved crime writer has churned out 100 books.Miller quickly regained her composure and got back to the novel’s setup: Emily is a 16-year-old from Brian’s first marriage, to Lauren. Shortly before Brian died in the fire, Emily moved in with Brian (and his new wife). Lauren hoped they could reel in the out-of-control teen.The Miller thriller works well. It’s a fast read with dramatic and believable scenes and dialogue. I wanted to dig deeper and find out how much of the novel was fictional. Many novelists write about the worlds they know. Miller agreed to one-on-one time to discuss the three badass women at the center of the story.“Emily’s mom Lauren is my main character. Her backstory includes being a homeless teenager during the 1980s and ‘90s,” Miller said. “Her parents were whacked on drugs so Lauren left. She stayed at a shelter on St. Marks. It’s an iconic recovery building in the East Village.”When I asked which parts of the novel are autobiographical, Miller paused, sucked in a deep breath, then let it out slowly.“Okay,” she said. “Here goes. I’m in my 30th year clean. I was a low-bottom heroin addict.” Miller’s past included a felony arrest for cocaine possession. She was facing 15 to life. To avoid spoilers, suffice it to say that explained why some of the scenes seemed so thoroughly researched.“The book touches on my experiences with jail, illegal after-hours spots, and the complete chaos of addiction,” said Miller, who is now the director of enforcement for the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board. “Basically, that means I’m the chief ethics prosecutor for the city.” She’s aware of the irony. Before getting clean, Miller ran in the same circles as hitmen, such as the infamous Tommy Pitera.“Yeah, we got high together,” said Miller. “People knew him as Tommy Karate because he was into martial arts. But it wasn’t until a book that I found out he was a brutal killer who cut people into little pieces. I was traumatized. We hung out, getting high. I don’t know why he didn’t kill me. I guess he liked me. Maybe because I was an accomplished martial artist?”Miller is proof of how much your life can change when you get sober. She's lucky to have survived her druggy past that included hanging out with murderers. Lawrence Block said, “Michele Miller has had more lives than a cat, and they’ve made her a writer of passion and substance.”After you read Widows-in-Law, check out Miller’s first novel, The Thirteenth Step: Zombie Recovery (HOW Club Press, November 4, 2013). It’s another fast-paced doozy and a finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. Kirkus Reviews wrote, “A humorous and surprising satire of both the zombie apocalypse and the culture of addiction... wholly original... satisfying.... The care taken in both characterization and prose earns the reader’s time. A well-written, thoughtful treatment not just of a popular literary trope but of a nagging social issue.”The Addiction Spectrum: A Compassionate Approach to Recovery by Paul Thomas, MD, and Jennifer Margulis, PhD. (HarperOne, Sept. 4. 2018)Paul Thomas, MD, is board certified in integrative and holistic medicine and addiction medicine—he’s also in recovery.“Addiction isn’t about willpower or blame,” he said. “It’s a disease that, like many other conditions, exists on a spectrum.” The spectrum is about how severely you crave your substance of choice when you don’t have it. It’s about how serious your health consequences are. Death, of course, is the worst end of the spectrum.The Addiction Spectrum offers a system that bases the individual’s needs on where they are on the spectrum. Thomas offers seven key methods for healing, whether you’re active in addiction or already in recovery. “Doctors need a new approach to treating pain,” said Thomas. He mentioned the hazards of painkillers within the medical community, “My wife is a nurse and recovering opiate addict,” he said. The book is about any addiction—alcohol, marijuana, opioids, meth, technology. Co-author Jennifer Margulis, PhD, is an award-winning science journalist who’s been writing books about children’s health for over 10 years.“Making love, eating delicious food,” said Margulis, “these activities release dopamine and make you feel good. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to feel good. But using heroin or abusing prescription opioids or even excessive computer gaming or binge eating will harm your brain. Too many young people think, ‘Hey, I’m just having fun.’ But there is nothing fun about dying from an overdose.”But what is it about right now that can explain the drug epidemic?“We’re animals, wired to avoid danger and seek pleasure,” Thomas said. “We scan for threats and have an immediate fight, flight or freeze reaction. We’re talking about dopamine and epinephrine (adrenaline) responses.”Margulis agreed: “with cell phone alerts, video games, 24/7 news and high stress from work or school, we are overloaded. We can become addicted to food, social media, cigarettes, and a bunch of other substances and behaviors.”Both Thomas and Margulis agree it is time to start looking at the root causes. Why is there an increase in mood disorders, fatigue, and addiction? The book answers so many questions and I learned a lot about how to treat my body and mind better. The writing style makes it easy reading—nothing too tough to get through and very practical.The most anticipated book on my list isn’t out yet, but I’ve been lucky enough to read a sample chapter.Strung Outby Erin Khar (HarperCollins|Park Row Books, Feb. 2020)Erin Khar’s much-anticipated memoir will hit the shelves in early 2020. It’s the story of Khar’s decade-long battle with opioids, but it goes even further by searching for answers. Why is it that some people can do drugs and stop, while others become addicted? She explores possible reasons for America’s current drug crisis and its soaring death toll. The CDC statistics are staggering. From 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 people died from drug overdoses, and 400,000 of those died from an opioid overdose. This epidemic is devouring our nation.Khar’s writing beat includes addiction, recovery, mental health, relationships, and self-care. She also writes the “Ask Erin” column for Ravishly.For a decade, beginning at age 13, she kept her heroin use a secret from friends and family. When she was caught by her then-fiancé, she went to rehab and her book describes her harrowing withdrawal. Three years later, at age 26, she relapsed. Four months later, her using had dragged her to the bottom.Khar, who has written for The Fix, told me, “I’ve been clean from opiates for 15 years!” That’s an enormous achievement for any addict, and in that decade and a half, she’s completely changed her life.From Khar’s essay in Self magazine:“If you had told me 15 years ago that I would be a happily married mother, living in New York City, doing what she loves for a living… I would have laughed.”She hopes that her book will help shatter the stigma; stop the shaming. She describes its genesis: “I wrote the short story 'David' for Cosmonauts Avenue. Agents contacted me about writing a memoir.” After reading her essays, and following her writing career, I’m eager to read a book by this heroine about heroin.Every one of these books is written by a sober writer. They are living proof that people’s lives can change at any time.Mine sure did.Do you have favorite sober authors? Please share them with us in the comments!

0 notes

emlydunstan · 6 years ago

Text

It's Never Too Late to Change: New Books by Writers in Recovery

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8241841 https://www.thefix.com/its-never-too-late-change-new-books-writers-recovery

0 notes

alexdmorgan30 · 6 years ago

Text

It's Never Too Late to Change: New Books by Writers in Recovery

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8241841 https://ift.tt/2UEuCbv

0 notes

nofomoartworld · 8 years ago

Text

Art F City: This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Patriarchy-Smashing in Full Force

Pelenakeke Brown’s eerie self-portraits open Wednesday night at ORA Gallery.

So far, 2017 might be one of the shittiest years in recent decades for the women of America, but New York’s art world is making sure this will be a Women’s History Month to remember. On Thursday, the New Museum is even hosting a talk on Feminist topics we haven’t even heard of: A.K. Burns will be leading a discussion on “Quantum Feminism”. That same night, Van DebEd is hosting Women’s History Month Invitational in Long Island City.

Kick the weekend off playing artist-designed Feminist games at Bushwick’s SOHO20 Gallery Friday night. Saturday, Laurie Simmons and Carroll Dunham will discuss feminist icon Marilyn Minter’s show at the Brooklyn Museum. After a week of edifying female-empowering events, head to Interference Archive’s Sunday afternoon Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon to make sure it all goes down in herstory.

Tue

AC Institute

16 East 48th Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Tra Bouscaren & John Schlesinger: Dear Volunteers

It’s usually a turn-off when artwork claims it “implicates the viewer back into what they have arrived to judge.” Tra Bouscaren and John Schlesinger’s multi-media installation, however, sounds so seductively post-apocalyptic that can be overlooked. The duo use video mapping, laboratory detritus, construction rubble and more to form environments that I’m imagining will look a bit like the surface of “the desert of the real” from The Matrix. Timely.

Wed

ORA Gallery

51 7th Ave New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Pelenakeke Brown: Reasoning On Paper; The Myth Of Herself

For this series, Pelenakeke Brown drew daily self portraits as she grew out her hair. They’re a little creepy, as she’s left out any other signifiers of identity (facial features, etc…). As the exercise grew, the series took on new meaning as a meditation on gender and self-representation. Her attention to (and omission) of details makes these memorable and slightly uncanny.

Thu

New Museum

235 Bowery New York, NY 7:00 p.m.Website

The Question of Quantum Feminism

“Quantum Feminism” is a concept that’s so new and/or obscure it doesn’t have it’s own Wikipedia page (take note, those participating in this week’s edit-a-thon!) Confession: I know this because I just had to Google it.

This talk’s organizers describe a discussion about “an understanding of bodies as sensory systems can be a starting point for discussions around ethics and ‘entangled relations of difference’.” I’m sure we’ll all have a better understanding of QF after this roundtable discussion, which includes A.K. Burns, Harry Dodge, Carolyn Lazard, Anicka Yi, and Constantina Zavitsano.

VanDeb Ed

37-18 Northern Blvd. Long Island City, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Women’s History Month Invitational

For this year’s Women’s History Month Invitational, curators Marjorie Van Dyke and Deborah Freedman have taken an unexpected route: most of the artists here make cheery abstract paintings. That’s nothing new, of course, but it’s refreshingly outside the usual (bizarrely illogical) narrative that abstraction is a man’s game. And importantly, these paintings are good.

Artists: Marina Adams, Nancy Azara, Andea Belag, Joanne Freeman, Claire Seidl and Dee Shapiro

Fri

Printed Matter

231 Eleventh Ave. New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Website

The Schizophrenic Bomb: Richard Tyler and the Uranian Press

Founded in the 1970s, the LES’s Uranian Phalanstery represented a sorta-New-Age-y art collective with its own singular culture. Founded be veteran Richard Tyler, his wife Dorothea Tyler, and some neighbors/friends, the Uranians produced a hell of a lot of printed material.

This includes prints from woodblock to xerox, letters, editioned art books, and so much more. Expect to lose hours digging through one very weird archive.

SOHO20 Gallery

56 Bogart Street Brooklyn, NY 6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.Website

Game Night #6: Feminist Politics

What exactly is a feminist game night? Probably more fun than most would expect. The night features games designed by Rebecca Goyette, Desiree Des, and Željka Blakšić.

I’m hoping it’s something like the board game “Don’t Wake Daddy!” but more along the lines of “Get Woke! The Patriarchy!”

Sat

Brooklyn Museum

Brooklyn Museum 200 Eastern Parkway 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.Website

Artist's Eye: Laurie Simmons and Carroll Dunham on Marilyn Minter

We can’t gush enough about Marilyn Minter’s show Pretty/Dirty at the Brooklyn Museum. (Actually, Paddy got to check it out in Denver before the show traveled to NYC.) Now, we get to hear two other greats gush about Marilyn Minter. Laurie Simmons and Carroll Dunham will have a conversation in response to the show. This is definitely one of the week’s highlights.

Smack Mellon

92 Plymouth Street Brooklyn, NY 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Linda Herritt: Grease Rust Soot Sweat

Linda Herritt’s room-spanning, text-based, mixed-media installations are often the products of researching “lists” of things. Here, she’s turned her attention to Buckminster Fuller’s 1981 “Chronology of Scientific Discoveries and Artifacts.” The publication was a litany of important innovations, spanning centuries of advancements in chemistry and inventions.

Inventions such as steel skyscrapers and the discovery of germ-based medicine will be included alongside guns and hydroelectricity. We’re not sure exactly what this will look like, but we’re told it will “undulate” off the walls of Smack Mellon’s old coal-fired steam furnace.

Sun

Interference Archive

131 8th Street Brooklyn, NY 2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.Website

Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

For whatever reason. only 8.5-16% of Wikipedia editors are women. This means topics related to women’s concerns—from feminist art history to films by female directors—can be overlooked. This Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, happening roughly concurrently with dozens worldwide, hopes to close the gender gap a bit.

Bring a laptop, and even a kid (childcare will be provided, but an RSVP is necessary).

Pioneer Works

159 Pioneer Street Brooklyn, NY 4:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Website

Second Sundays

Conveniently, Red Hook’s Pioneer Works is walking distance from Interference Archive, and their monthly Second Saturdays party is the perfect way to reward yourself after a few hours of performing netizen civic duty. The event features DJs, a performance from Underground System, a CRISPR workshop and more. All for a $10 suggested donation.

Open Studios:

Angel Nevarez/Valerie Tevere Jes Fan Pascual Sisto Evelyn Donnelly SKOTE (Jill Pangallo & Alex P. White)

This is also a prime opportunity to check out E.S.P TV’s epic installation “WORK”, which has reinstalled Pioneer Works’ offices as a functioning television set.

from Art F City http://ift.tt/2lVcesT via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Art F City

0 notes

alexdmorgan30 · 6 years ago

Text

It's Never Too Late to Change: New Books by Writers in Recovery

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8241841 https://ift.tt/2UEuCbv

0 notes

pitz182 · 6 years ago

Text

It's Never Too Late to Change: New Books by Writers in Recovery

0 notes

emlydunstan · 6 years ago

Text

It's Never Too Late to Change: New Books by Writers in Recovery

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8241841 https://www.thefix.com/its-never-too-late-change-new-books-writers-recovery

0 notes