WhiskyCast: A Podcast That Goes Down Smooth
"You don't know what you don't know." That phrase has gained in popularity after uttered by then U.S. Secretary Of Defense Donald Rumsfeld during the W. Bush Administration.
It also pertains to me due to a recent situation. I was on a cruise and my package included a free tasting of the best bourbon whiskeys at the lounge. Now, I know nothing about whiskey at all. Any light beer or a Pinot Noir red wine is my entire regiment of drinking alcohol.
The invitation said 7:00 PM. My partner Linda advised that we go right at seven, since "hardly anyone would show up to such an event."
Because of my fastidiousness about being early or on time, I talked her into arriving at 6:50. The lounge was packed. Clearly, we had underestimated the interest with bourbon whiskey. When the bartender, a Serbian man named Goran, talked about the history of whiskey and bourbon specifically, I, along with everyone else, was fascinated.
When I returned from the cruise, I wondered if there was a podcast about whiskey, which is a dumb question, because there is a podcast for almost every activity or interest.
That's when I discovered the WhiskyCast podcast.
To my delight and surprise, WhiskeyCast is one of the oldest podcasts in the industry. It's a podcast that began in 2005 and is still delighting its listeners today. WhiskeyCast has released over 1,000 episodes!
The podcast's subtitle is Cask Strength Conversation since 2005. Now, I don't even know what that means, but after listening to several episodes of WhiskyCast, I want to know more.
Let's define what whiskey is.
Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whiskey is typically aged in wooden casks, which are typically made of charred white oak.
People are passionate about whiskey. They're like wine drinkers, only less obnoxious.
Here's what retired psychologist and whiskey drinker Gary Beaufait says:"I'm into bourbon because it's a type of whiskey that's an American invention with certain criteria needed to be met to be an official, legitimate Bourbon."
Beaufait continues: "The process produces a smooth, palatable, and drinkable liquor of varying proofs - ranging from 80 upwards to 120+, but typically 90s. For me, the proofs in the high 80s and 90s are just right if the product is blended nicely. The different types and brands can be rather nuanced, so people have preferences. The most sought after are very hard to find, and a secondary market exists w rather high dollar amount-hundreds to thousands for a prized bottle."
Listening to WhiskyCast is like hearing a well-oiled machine hum along with seamless efficiency. Each week, veteran journalist Mark Gillespie brings listeners the latest whiskey news, in-depth interviews, tasting notes, and much more. Each podcast features brand-new content, and unless there’s a special occasion, and they do “best of” shows.
Gillespie is a terrific host. His voice is as smooth as some of the whiskeys they taste, and his delivery is effortless and pure. Gillespie is the winner of the International Wine & Spirits Competition’s 2023 Spirits Communicator Trophy, which seems to be quite an honor in the field. From the episodes I've listened to, the host deserves such an accolade. In his 18th year as host, Gillespie sounds as if he has the verve of his first episode.
The podcast has a standard and successful formula. Each episode begins with whiskey news, and I underestimated how much such news there is. For example, the news covered the dominance of Jameson in the global and U.S. markets. Reportedly, Jameson accounts for 70 percent of U.S. whiskey sales and 40 percent of whiskey sales around the world.
In another episode, the news included a story about Jack Daniel’s being ordered to stop work on one of its new barrel houses after a neighbor sued over whiskey fungus problems, while Kentucky distillers are hoping a bill pending in the state legislature could mean the end of the “barrel tax.”
After the news, there is a main story like the one called "Choosing passion" on the March 5th episode. The episode details how Melissa Rift’s career path is anything but traditional for a whiskey maker. She started out as a family therapist before discovering her passion for Bourbon, and it’s led her to become the new master taster for Old Forester.
On the December 4th episode, during the What You're Tasting segment of the show, host Mark Gillespie reviewed a Waterford, a peated Irish single malt, which is apparently a relative rarity, that had notes of peat smoke, heather, honey and a nice maltiness.
In the news segment of the show, Gillespie reported that American whiskey is still subject to tariffs into EU nations because of tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration.
The main segment of the show dealt with luxury single-malt whiskeys as an alternative investment. In the interview with Duncan McFadzean, listeners learn that whiskey sales have increased by 11 percent in the last year, yet the investment value of luxury whiskey has dropped by seven percent, largely due to what McFadzean calls "flipping," which is the practice of buying whiskey and selling it for a profit on the secondary markets.
Other segments include a report on upcoming whiskey events. In the December 4th episode, listeners hear about whiskey tasting in Vermont and in London.
On the February 27th episode, the main story was about whiskey clubs. Unbeknownst to the whiskey obtuse such as myself, there are literally hundreds of whiskey clubs around the world, with more being formed all the time. On the episode, listeners hear from some club founders on how they started their clubs, along with advice for those thinking about forming a whiskey club.
In that same episode, WhiskyCast announced the launch of the new WhiskyCast Community mobile app, which is a smart monetization, brand loyalty, and brand extension move.
If you are a whiskey drinker and haven't heard of this podcast, I highly suggest listening to at least one episode. There, you'll find like-minded people who enjoy the social aspects of whiskey, its unique color and taste, and the artistic skill needed to make whiskey.
Check out WhiskyCast. I'll end by toasting you, dear listeners, with a glass of Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey.
Raise your glass and listen to this podcast.
(NOTE: Photo by Terrick Noahs)
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☕️ poetry as like, a medium
I want to preface this with the fact that I really love poetry and I think it's genuinely one of the most incredibly potent mediums out there. There's this common refrain that "poetry gets such a bad rap, people don't give it enough of a chance!!!" but like, quite honestly I kinda understand where that bad rap comes from. Like, I go to the poetry section at most libraries, check out a handful of books, and almost without fail a lot of them seem to have been written by a bunch of people huffing their own farts out of a paper bag. A lot of the people I've met who make a big deal about liking poetry, the ones who tell everyone to give it a chance? Same farts, same bag. It's exhausting. I don't think this is a failure of the artform, though, or even the people who love it.
Rather, I think that poetry operates in its own distinct different way, just like any other medium. Because much of our cultural idea of poetry is centered on stuff written by bourgeois fucks two hundred years ago, it's easy to feel like there's nothing in it for you. For it to be powerful and engaging, you have to have a sense for how to engage with it, and, like any other medium, find the pieces within it that speak to something within you.
See, I think poetry is fundamentally really similar to short stories, short films, comics, of course, but also individual illustrations, because their limitations really magnify whatever the artist is doing. So if they're trying really hard to show off some virtuoso technical shit and don't actually know how to use it effectively to evoke something meaningful, it's going to look even sloppier than if they had more space to work with, just because it can't be hidden behind anything else. If they're trying to build a mood or evoke a feeling or just SAY something and can't figure out a way to deliver it to you in the space given, they probably haven't actually got it figured out very well.
See, like, when people look at art, they often mistake having a lot of details for having meaning. I mean how many times have you been looking at concept art or reading a comic and seeing like, for example, a fuckin' enormous sci-fi cityscape--every window is individually hand drawn, light reflects perfectly off the puddles on the ground, there's flying cars, there's ominous corporate infrastructure, there's a guy on a bike with a visor and a robot arm with every bolt and wire meticulously detailed and a leather jacket covered in patches and pins that you can even read the text of if you zoom in far enough--and you turn the page and have already forgotten about it because despite all that effort, nothing about that drawing really communicated anything. It doesn't tell you anything about this world, or this city, or the people in it, or the author, or what kind of stories this is meant to go with.
Like, let's make a comparison. Here's like a glossy jpeg of your standard cyberpunk city. If you've been on any art site you've seen a billion of these. Do you get anything out of this? Like it looks fine, but does it make you feel anything? Does it tell you anything? I don't wanna put words in your mouth but I'm guessing no.
And then let's compare it to resident favorite Tsukumizu, this page from Shimeji Simulation:
Despite being much much simpler, it's PACKED with compelling information. If you showed this single page to someone, they might not be able to guess what Shimeji Simulation is about necessarily, but they'd already have a pretty good idea of what kind of a story it is, what feelings it invokes, what ideas or concepts it's drawing from.
A lot of poetry is like the first image, where no matter how pretty it looks and how much effort went in, it's hard for a lot of people to find something in it to be gripped by. But the best stuff is like the second. And I think what poetry does best is capture intensely concentrated feelings and thoughts and experiences and inject it straight into your heart and skull cause it bypasses any kind of sensory judgement about how it looks.
Like, we've all seen this little gem:
And as funny as it is, I think it's a great example of what poetry can do as a medium!
The tiger - Full stop, line break, we don't need to spend time faffing around telling you what kind or what it looks like, this is just the platonic ideal of TIGER with all the feelings and associations you have with it.
He destroyed his cage - Full stop, line break, the action has begun, we don't need to tell you how he did it, that's up to your imagination, but already you can picture it, right? We've set the scene with everything you need to know. He was in a cage. Doesn't matter what kind, doesn't matter what context. He was in a cage. And he didn't just escape, he didn't wriggle through the bars, he destroyed his cage. How does a tiger do that? Doesn't matter. That statement fills the mind with ideas already.
Yes
YES - Triumph, exaltation, ecstasy, again, what more needs to be said? We aren't just happy, this isn't a sigh of relief, this is unrestrained excitement. That communicates a lot! A tiger breaking out of its cage can mean many things, after all. It might be exotic danger to be faced down if we're in a Rudyard Kipling poem, it might be terror if this were Edgar Allen Poe, and so on. But in two words we have established that no, in this case, the tiger getting out fucking owns.
The tiger is out - Full stop, conclusion. It's a sentence brimming with energy about what could possibly come next, and ending there leaves that mark on our brain. Because that's the thing--this poem is telling a story, definitely, but more than that it is evoking the feeling of this specific moment. If this moment took place in a full length book and a whole chapter were dedicated to it, we'd have a lot more detail, totally, we might get all kinds of themes and symbols and a rich characterization of the situation and the tiger and so on and so forth, but the raw impact of this moment would be lost in all of that. Here, in twelve bare words, we can encapsulate that feeling of that moment in a way that is more potent and memorable than if it were told any other way.
Another of my favorite poems, Little Viennese Waltz by Federico Garcia Lorca, translated and put to music by Leonard Cohen, opens like this:
Now in Vienna there’s ten pretty women
There’s a shoulder where death comes to cry
There’s a lobby with nine hundred windows
There’s a tree
where the doves go to die
There’s a piece that was torn from the morning
And it hangs in the gallery of frost
Ay, ay, ay, ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take this waltz with the clamp on its jaws
I've been going really long so I'll keep this brief, but this is another great example of just pulling these incredible images to mind, that fill the mind with really potent emotional meaning that wouldn't translate to an image or a longer piece of text without having their effect drastically reduced. It creates this image of a dreamy, almost fantastical place, marked by incredible heartache and beauty. It's difficult to imagine in practical terms what it would mean to tear a piece from the morning, or what it would mean for a waltz to have a clamp on its jaws, but reading them, hearing them, you can feel what it means very clearly.
A lot of this comes through especially well when we start talking about translating poetry--because you are forced to contend with, well, what was the author DOING here? 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei is a great starting point on this, and it's pretty short, pdf can be found here and there's also a personal favorite of mine, which is In Praise of the Music of Language, which contains 88 translations of the same french poem done by everyone ranging from professionals to just regular people. Each of them end up evoking very different pictures and feelings despite all working from the exact same template. Really incredible stuff that speaks to what can be done with so few words!
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Interview
BB: welcome back everyone! So good to see you all here today! We're back for a 3rd time here on BB Channel! Like before we're joined by the lil cuties of Ed and Mari. But this time their parents have come to join!
Rex: hello...
Quetz: Hola!
BB: that wasn't a very strong greeting Rex!
Rex: I'm tired right now. Can't this wait?
BB: time waits for no one and neither does BB!
Mari: already this is super annoying! *sigh* so why'd you decide to bring them into this anyways?
BB: the people who follow this blog need to see how they're doing so long after Chaldea too! You two have had the spotlight for a while, so now you should share.
Ed: I mean... guess that's fair.
Mari: should anyone be dealing with this?
Rex: I'd rather not be here either.
BB: aaaww, don't be like that! This will be fun!
Quetz: that's a very hard sell BB.
BB: just humor me at least.
Rex: ...fine
Quetz: what are we even doing anyways?
BB: some of your interdimensional buds have sent in questions about how you guys are doing, and I'm here to get those answers for them!
Quetz: that actually sounds nice...
BB: what'd I tell ya!?
Rex: yeah yeah, pls get started.
BB: fine. First few are from my precious bombardier beetle! First one she asks: do you have any pets?
Mari: oof! Do we!
Rex: currently we have four dogs: 1 German Shepherd named King, a Pitbull named Sparks, a Dogo Argentino named Duke, and a Corgi named Marshmallow.
Quetz: but also we have a habit of adopting older dogs who aren't likely to get a home because of their age or rescues to give them a nice place to stay.
BB: aaawww, well ain't that wholesome?
Mari: we also have mom's bigass pterosaur!
BB: less wholesome. Next one from my dear yellowjacket: favorite foods?
Rex: PIZZA!
Mari: CAKE!
BB: whoa! Pump the brakes you two! No need to get too excited!
Quetz: ...honestly? I don't really have a favorite food. Just a bunch I like to eat and some I don't. If I had to choose, I'd say chocolate.
Ed: I'm a steak man myself.
BB: 2 sweets, and 2 savories. Next up! Who wakes up earliest?
Rex: Quetz
Ed and Mari: Mom
Quetz: ...I guess it's me... hehehe.
BB: honestly I'm not surprised. She's so damn athletic and even used to be a professional.
BB: next! Where do you all like to go for vacations and such?
Ed: mom and dad have a vacation home in Alaska.
BB: Alaska?! Why?
Mari: when warm weather is the norm for you it's nice to go to the cold to change things up.
Rex: yeah, it's actually very nice. Not too many people and beautiful nature sights.
BB: well to each their own. Another from my dear antlion: how long does it take to pick a movie or TV show to watch?
Quetz: hehehe, we're all so indecisive it takes ages to pick. It's not uncommon for us to give up after taking so long.
BB: you should work on that. This next one's interesting. My precious army ant also suggests a round of common household jobs and the like from each member.
Rex: hmmm
BB: she gave an example of like, who does the cooking?
Quetz: well it's both me and mi amor in that case. The kids aren't very creative.
Ed: hey! We're plenty creative!
Mari: no we're not, don't lie.
Rex: we only really ask that the kids clean their rooms and any messes they make. We handle most everything else.
BB: they should really show some independence tho. Can't coddle them forever.
BB: in the next one, Cadence asks about a house tour and if there's a jacuzzi.
Quetz: a house tour feels like it should be it's own thing.
Rex: yeah, but we do have a jacuzzi dude, so don't worry.
BB: next one's from Reen: she asks what would life be if you weren't in chaldea,
Rex: y'mean like now? I mean... it's a relatively normalish domestic life? With less work tho.
Quetz: si, I've made plenty from my lucha career before retirement we don't have to worry about money much. But mi amof still makes money just in case.
BB: well after that she asks: how was your life before and after meeting each other?
Rex: ...kinda sad. Aside from chaldea and saving the world, I was kinda just... stagnant. Go to work, go home and so on. Not much to my life before then.
Quetz: ...honestly, for me it was the same. After the age of Gods ended we didn't do much of anything. We mostly watched over humanity, I've been summoned in modern day before but that was rare and infrequent.
Rex: ...after I met Quetz tho... I dunno things felt... better? She kinda forced her way into my life after I summoned her and... I was more then ok to accept her... before long we had something beautiful...
Quetz: aww, mi amor! I'm so happy to hear that!
BB: ain't that sweet? Like me and my dear centipede. Final one from Reen: if you could build a dream home then where? (Can be in fantasy)
Rex: I mean... where we are now is good.
Mari: yeah, right at the border of a huge rainforest in the Yucatan sounds fine.
Ed: but what about the fantasy bit?
Quetz: hmmm... we don't really look at fantasy much. But maybe a castle of some kind?
Rex: or a Mayan temple? But with electricity and Wi-Fi.
BB: that's fair. Need those memes in your life. Now some from Kaz! First she asks: what kind of gifts do you give each other?
Rex: uuhh, well I like getting mi corazon custom things. Like some personal clothes, or even a portrait of the two of us.
Quetz: ehehehe, I like to spoil mi amor with extravagant things! Golden treasure and the like!
Mari: concerning...
BB: next, how would you spend the day if it's raining outside?
Rex: I actually enjoy rainy weather, so I like to chill near a window or even on the porch listening to the rain.
Mari: it's very soothing.
BB: how quaint. Last one from Kaz: whose good at cooking and baking?
Quetz: hehehe, that'd be me. Tho it might be considered cheating since I use my goddess power to help.
Mari: well no one else is the greatest normally so it's fine.
BB: a good 'ol better then nothing kinda attitude! Now we're back to Cadence but with more relaxed questions: what's the current house look like?
Rex: ....big.
Mari: like three stories tall with a DEEP basement.
Ed: like... 5 rooms too many.
Quetz: we also have an indoor pool.
Rex: the outside looks almost gothic, but partially taken over by nature.
BB: all this near a rainforest?
Quetz: si! Despite the size, all the nearby trees still tower over it.
BB: nature can get scary. I've seen worse and have been worse but still. Another one: how do family events function? Any specific holidays?
Quetz: ...most family events are just us... going somewhere nice to eat nice food...
Rex: do they mean bringing extended family? My family lives too far to visit often
Quetz: ...and I'd rather not speak of mine... things have gotten rocky as of late.
Mari: right, well for holidays we celebrate most standard one, like Easter and valentine's and such. For October we kinda try to combine Halloween and Day of the dead.
Ed: but Christmas is the most important for us! Mom and Dad always make the biggest celebrations for Christmas!
BB: gotta love the holidays! Especially when your mom is santa... still weird to say that. Next one! Any plans for the future?
Rex: eh... not really? I mean I want to prepare Maria to continue the family magecraft, since Ed has no interest.
Mari: someone has to continue on this lost practice.
BB: good to know it won't be lost to time like we thought. Next one! Daily life?
Rex: I wake up, eat, work on magecraft, spend family time, spend time with Quetz, go to bed.
Quetz: I wake up, workout, eat, workout, spend time with mi familia, lovely time with mi amor and then I sleep.
Ed: I wake up, take a walk, eat, practice soccer, spend family time, sleep.
Mari: sleep, sleep again, dragged to breakfast by mom, eat, eat again, mess with magecraft, eat, sit with everyone else, scroll thru my phone for hours, sleep.
Quetz: *sigh* mija, you need to change your priorities.
Mari: mmmmm... No.
BB: bad habits there Mari. Next they'd like to know if your in contact with anyone from chaldea? Other then me!
Rex: here's a real quick list: Marie, Mash, Kiara, Penth, Astraea, Martha, Ishtar, Gorgon, Jalter, The twins, your kids BB, etc etc.
Quetz: too many to list...
BB: nice you haven't lost contact! Next! About that Wedding?
Rex: well... it was eventful to say the least. Not long after completing the china LB. Most of the servants were invited, and most of Quetz's family showed up.
Quetz: si, Martha officiated it for us. Most of my family were so nice at the time... too bad that hasn't lasted.
Rex: let's not mention that...
BB: it was such a nice wedding! You two were so "nervous" you had trouble with your vows! How adorable!
Mari: why the quotes?
BB: no reason... now we're at the home stretch! Good 'ol Ash has some for stuff that technically hasn't happened yet, but you should still be able to answer! What responsibilities will Rex take on when he joins the pantheon?
Quetz: ...well he'll be largely a guardian of life on earth. Authority over things like the jungle itself, volcanos, and even snow... for some reason.
Rex: well it still snows in mexico... occasionally.
Quetz: and we'll be sharing authority over Venus! I wanted to share it with mi amor!
BB: cute! Hmmm, not sure if you cananswer this one just yet? Adjusting to God hood?
Rex: well I got to try it out a bit. Summoning lava and snow is... interesting. But also... my mind felt... odd... but also clearer? Not sure how to put it...
BB: I'm sure when you get there you'll get it... took me a bit after servant fest. And how did the other divinities react?
BB: actually I have some recordings of that to answer, so play the clip!
A screen appears showing recordings of some servants, one at a time.
Ishtar: eh! She's turning you into a god!? ...I guess you've earned it master...
Eresh: what!? Can you do that?! ...guess I won't see you in Kur... then again I don't think you have any link to Kur anyways.
Kama: do you really think your cut out for it? I mean... if it's just for you two to be together then I guess it's fine.
Astraea: godhood is a very big responsibility master. Are you certain you're up to it? Saving humanity is also a big task but at least that has an end point. This is... eternal.
Qin: oh! So you have decided to go for immortality after all?! Tho not the same as my methods, it is still good to see you two will be happy together!
Scathach: immortality? I've strived for death for so long... to see you go for immortality... Hopefully you'll find happiness, where I couldn't...
The screen turns off.
BB: very interesting! Most seem hesitant of it all... I for one think it's cute! Imagine in a thousand years you guys have a double date with me and my dear stag beetle!
Rex: ...a thousand years...
Quetz: still having trouble processing it all?
Rex: yeah... maybe when I get there... it'll be easier.
BB: now for today's final one! A scenario! One of you two goes berserk! What does the other do to calm them down?
Rex: well that has happened before... usually a nice hug is more then good enough.
Quetz: si! I've almost destroyed a few servants a few times until mi amor caught me in a hug! I can't bring myself to harm him... so I stop!
BB: sounds too easy... but I've seen that before so... I'll let it slide.
BB: well that's all the time we have for now! Hopefully you all are satisfied by the answers! We'll be doing this again, seeya!
Screen cuts out, the show's over.
Questions provided by: @hasbbdoneanythingwrong @havetheavengersdoneanythingwrong @has-gilgamesh-doneanythingwrong @renmeo @kazmetic @grievouslyxorvia
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