#you would not know this from spotify though considering that beast says i only listen to SAD MELANCHOLY HEARTBREAK ANGER SORROW MIX

[dragonomatopoeia]

what are your favorite songs you’ve listened to recently?

*ok to post publically

Recently I've been listening to Fly in My Room by Kerrin Connolly a lot. I've also enjoyed 2​è​me Gymnop​é​die 1888 by Satsuki Shibano. That said, I've really just been listening to a LOT of motown and 70's and 80's pop recently.

[writerkenna]

The Light of the Stars and The Glitter in Your Eyes Chapter 2

In order to pay honor to MY god of lesbians, this was written listening mostly to Tegan and Sara.

Also lemme know if y'all want my GammaHammer spotify playlist, I'll post it with the next chp.

Please excuse any errors, this is un-betaed since I was just so excited to publish another chapter! (lol sorry @get-lostsquidward I’ll send you chp 3)

The sight of the mess hall, which was filled to the brim with Asgardians, was heartening for Thor to see. There was a bustle of noise passing through the room, bits of conversations that mingled into one sound that washed over him. The corners of his lips stretched out wide.

“These, Bruce, are my people!” he said, his arm waving out across the room. Bruce looked up at Thor through half-lidded eyes. He was tired but more himself now, right-leaning smiles and soft wrinkles in his cheeks abound.

“They’re great,” Bruce patted Thor’s arm and Thor felt a light tingle rush the spot, “I’m gonna find myself some food, okay?”

Bruce made his way to the start of the food line. They had been able to use a combination of the food stored on the ship and what they had managed to get while rushing off their planet to make an approximation of Asgardian dishes. It was close enough, Thor hoped, to what Bruce ate normally. Thor was finding that since their time on Sakaar, he had developed a compulsive need to keep Bruce from having a freak out, maybe out of some lingering guilt for asking for the Hulk over Banner, maybe a naturally ingrained sympathy for someone who needed it so much as Bruce.

“Hey, Thor. Me and Meek were just looking for you, buddy.” Korg and Meek were in front of him suddenly and Thor took his eyes off Bruce. Meek issued a squeak of a hello and waved a blade at him. Thor took one pace back.

“I’m doing well, large worm, thank you,” Thor said to Meek with a nod. He caught a glint of black and the sheen of leather, and began to change course, “We will continue this later.”

“Okay. Let’s talk soon. We’ve got some big, uh, military ideas for you Asgardians, alright?”

Thor halted himself. Political strategy had been absent from his head for a long time, dispelled with trips through the galaxy and banged out through raging battles with monsters and fire demons and trolls. He hadn’t considered needing it again for a long time, hoping for centuries more of Odin’s rule. He never had understood those who chose politics.

“Can’t wait!” Thor says as he pushed out an over the top grin. Korg gave him a thumbs up and Thor turned away as he suppressed a wince.

“Those fools,” Loki muttered under his breath once Thor had settled into the bench seating, “from the Grandmaster’s trash pile approached me wanting to work on the defense council. That is ridiculous, and I hope you will not be allowing it.”

“They are not fools. Korg is a friend. And, as for the council. . .” Thor trailed off, and then diverted, quick, “By the way, were you and the Grandmaster, like, a . . . ?”  

Loki looked down and pushed at the food on his plate. His lips shifted against each other.

“I did what I needed to do to move up the ranks. The Grandmaster had very specific requirements for those ranks.”

Thor smiled to himself, which faded into slight horror as his head formed an image of Loki and the Grandmaster together. He was developing a taunt for Loki to expel the idea from his mind as Loki spoke again.

“Do you think it’s very wise to have him on the ship with us?” Loki asked and Thor tracked his eyeline. It was focused on Bruce.

“Banner? Um, yes? Is that a trick question, brother?”

“I’m not so worried about the doctor. It’s the beast part that I’m concerned about.” Loki was still staring at Bruce and Thor swore he saw the small wisps of fear passing under his eyes. Thor let a hint of a smirk loose. He looked at Bruce again, who was half way through the food line and talking to Valkyrie over the meats section. His shirt was dwarfing him, Thor had overestimated the size, and he didn’t believe it was possible to fear any part of this curly haired, droopy eyed man.

“He won’t be a problem,” Thor grinned at Loki.

“I just . . . I’m not sure about all these foreigners with us. Humans, rock-things, all of them,” Loki grumbled into his palm.

“Well, you are, in a loose definition of the word, a ‘foreigner’ as well,” Thor added, but regretted it as soon as he saw Loki’s eyes narrow into disquieted, aghast slits and the side of his mouth flatten out against his face, “Sorry, you are . . . I didn’t mean . . . you’re my brother, Loki, and an Asgardian, of course, and I-”

Thor was thankful to be cut off from his ramblings by Bruce’s arrival with a hefty plate that fell heavy against the table.

“Uh, hey there, Loki,” Bruce said, voice half there. The two eyed each other back and forth, a conversation of mutual fright and distrust, before Loki stood up, turned, his greasy hair tossing with him, and was running off. Bruce looked to Thor with puffed out cheeks.

“Jeez, I didn’t mean to . . .”

Thor shook his head at Bruce’s words, giving him a light smile, then looked over his plate, which was coming over its edges with food. Bruce blushed and released a laugh from high in his lungs, one of his main repertoire of laughs. This one always made Thor laugh too, in a short burst that he just couldn’t keep in.

“I . . . after I go all Hulk-y and stuff, I’m really hungry, alright?”

Thor nodded, smirking, and small breeze of a chuckle passed out of his lips. Bruce responded back with a push of a laugh. The laughing started to feel like a conversation, a puff of something around Bruce’s bite of ambiguous meat, a groan of a giggle as Thor dipped his fork into the pile of Bruce’s food.

“A warrior’s meal,” Thor said, eyes on Bruce, after they had devoured the plate as a team. Bruce shrugged, but he was smiling.

Bruce went back to the room after their monumental meal, and as much as Thor would have liked to as well, he got caught in a mix of questions by his citizens the second he stood.

Hemidhall pulled him from the swarm of mothers asking about education and beefy men and women wanting to reestablish the warrior force. Thor was glad for the rescue, but only briefly, for he was less than happy when Hemidhall spoke.

“Tomorrow morning, early, meeting with the councils of defense and diplomacy. We need to get a handle on this before we land.”

Thor agreed, against his heart and his happiness, on the meeting, and snuck out the side of the hall to his room.

When he entered, Bruce was standing in front of the bed with three holographic, torso-sized screens spread out around him.

“The ship-it has, like, Earth internet! Like academic databases and stuff! I think it might have non-Earth internet, too, or the equivalent of internet, I guess.”

Thor came up behind Bruce. The screen glow shrouded them both of a blanket of light.

“Show me,” Thor said, his voice restrained as the idea of council meetings fuzzed out his focus. Bruce enacted some flicks of his fingers and one screen showed a page titled The Five Greatest Mysteries of Antimatter .

“I was actually writing a paper on this before I was the big guy for, ah, two years, so I’d thought I’d pick it up again. I don’t really remember what my thesis was, but, uh, I’m trying.” Bruce tried to focus back on the screen, his eyes going into tight slits as he pressed a bit closer to it.

“Are your eyes alright, Bruce?” Thor asked.

“Uh, yeah, I just don’t have my glasses.”

“I’ll get you some.” Thor had no idea how he would get glasses on this ship if he couldn’t manage Midgardian clothes, but the authority of telling Bruce he would was a boost to his ego he needed to have. Bruce mumbled an ‘m’kay thanks’ and turned back to his screen. Thor took the hint and started on his way to the bed, catching himself in the mirror.

Loki was correct, Thor looked exactly like a young shadow of father. A shadow, though, who had failed to leech off any of its owner’s wisdom. He furrowed his brow and brought his palm up to cover the patch. He sighed and dropped the palm, falling heavy onto the bed.

They were silent for a while, outside of Bruce muttering things to himself in excited hushes, and Thor fell into the vacuum of his head.

It felt like it had last time, his return to Asgard after Ultron when Odin had once again offered him the throne. He had ran then, and he wanted to run again, one more time, just deny a bit longer so he can soul search and wander and sleep around and be unplaced. Thor had never been particularly interested in the ‘king’ title once he had delved into what it entailed. ‘Prince’ was nice, it was royal, but vague on the responsibility, freedom and respect in a balance that fit his sensibilities. ‘King’ was too heavy on his shoulders, like a cloak he could never remove, cursed by heredity.

Thor sighed rougher than he had meant to and Bruce turned to him.

“Thor?”

Thor snapped back to the voices that existed outside of his head, “Huh?”

“You doing alright over there?” Bruce asked, stepping to the bed. Thor jolted up and fixed his spine to a ridgid straight line. He snapped his face into something neutral.

“Yep,” he said through tight lips. The bed dipped behind him and he turned to see Bruce next to him.

“You sure?”

Thor paused, then huffed and tossed his legs back up on to bed. Bruce echoed him and then they were close enough to touch shoulders, a head on each of the two pillows and four feet at the foot of the bed.

“I have a meeting with my councils tomorrow. As king.”

“That’s cool,” Bruce offered but Thor shook his head at the suggestion, “Oh.”

“I don’t know what I’ll say. They will have questions about our ‘future’ as a people and Earth’s systems, surely, and-and what am I supposed to say to that?” Thor said in a long chain, a release. He glanced over at Bruce, who was taking the wave of it with a smile.

“Well, what are your policies? Education? Defense?” Bruce was leaning into Thor, and Thor felt a warmth sprinkle across his cheeks. He turned his face down.

“Uh, teach good people, punch bad people?” Bruce gave him a wide-eyed look, on the brink of either a laugh or gasp, “One of your Peee-H-Dees isn’t in Asgardian government, is it?”

“Can’t say Penn State offers that one,” Bruce laughed lightly. Thor slammed a fist onto the bed, head swimming.

“Damn politics!” The words bellowed out of him, bursting tension that had been too compressed, and he felt a shift next to him. Bruce was pulling a knee up to his chest, face tucked behind it. Thor winced, “Sorry, I, Bruce-”

“Fine, it’s fine,” Bruce tossed his hands up about himself as his knee lowered. Thor’s shoulders slumped, “I can look some stuff up, if you’re, ah, that upset about it.”

“I’d thought I’d have longer, that Odin would be around longer, and I wouldn’t have to . . .”

Thor’s heart thump-thumped against his ribs as Odin, oppressive and all-knowing, took over his head. Odin the fighter, Odin the stoic, Odin the bold, Odin the gone.

“We can talk about your dad, if you want?” Bruce said. Thor had to think. Odin wasn’t ‘dad’, he was father, allfather, king. He tried to think about Odin in that context, ‘dad’, which felt foreign and dissociated to what his childhood had been.

“Father was a very good king. Powerful warrior, good with policy, good with the people, and . . .” Thor halted. There was something pushing at the front of his mouth, desperately, something fighting to be voiced. He realized, quite abruptly, what he meant to say, “and, he taught Loki and I none of this. He was this cold, confusing man, because everything was for the kingdom. Kingdom this, kingdom that! It was ridiculous. To him, we were the issue of my mother, and my mother, she was . . .”

Thor could see Frigga exactly in his mind’s eye. He felt the blonde curls she had been kind enough to pass down to him as they rested upon his shoulders. She was with him at all times, she had kissed his head before every battle, escorted him to every diplomatic dinner and grand ball. When he thought of Asgard, rather than the people or the place or the palace, it was her he saw. He wanted to cry, but blinked that away with more anger.

“My mother was a perfect woman, and I want so, so much to thank her, every day, but-but she did that without help. Father never helped. He was busy, with meetings, and that fucking, damned Odinsleep. He gave up us for Asgard, but I-I can’t! I won’t do that, I can’t be that king, I-I . . .”

Thor’s supply of bitter fuel died out and his words went with it. He was sure he must look spent after that, haggard deep in his soul after such a centuries old cleansing of thought. He whipped his head over his shoulder to check on Bruce. Thor found him with his head dipped down to the sheets, hands picking up clutches of it. Thor paled.

Thor had ruined it. He had scared off his only real Midgardian friend. He was a raging, screaming, rambling God that had terrified this fragile mortal. Thor scrambled on his feet for some grand apology, but stopped when Bruce lifted his head up.

“You-you don’t have to be your dad, okay? To rule, you don’t have to be him,” Bruce said, up on his feet by the end and coming closer to Thor. All Thor could do was nod as the silent, shaky force approached him.

“You’re gonna be a different a different king than Odin. My dad w-was awful, really awful, and I-I’m not him, right? I’m not awful, right? So you don’t have to be your dad,” Bruce barreled. Thor and him were staring at each other, brown burrowing into Thor’s blue with all its might. Then, Bruce faltered, and Thor was lost, “Sorry, I-this was about Odin and, ah, politics and Asgard. I made it about me again, didn’t I?”

Thor ducked in towards Bruce and placed a hand on his shoulder, quick to counter that.

“No! No, no, no, my friend,” Thor rushed.

“My dad-he . . . he did some really bad things,” Bruce whispered. Thor didn’t press past that. He knew he shouldn’t, not then. He was surging with an overpowering need to shelter Bruce from this, and his instincts told him that shutting up and letting Bruce say what he wanted to, if he wanted to, was the way to do that.

Thor felt something in his hand and glanced down to find Bruce’s palm in his own. Thor shared a quick exchange with Bruce, whom was equally shocked by the development, they both countered back and their hands were wrenched apart. They both laughed once they are seperated, like a balancer to their biting anger, and jumped to speak.

“I have research that-”

“I should go check on-”

Thor cut off first, smiling and giving Bruce a small nod, and head for the door. He didn’t know where he was going to go, but he did know he needed to keep Bruce to see just how much he was blushing.

[stinkyweasley]

Ungovernable. Chapter Two. // Sweetpea x OC.

Pairing: Sweet Pea x Eleanor Fenn

Genre: Gang, future smut, angst, slow burn

Word count: 1.2k lol

Rating: PG-13 future parts may be rated R or NC-17

Warnings: swearing, underaged drinking, underaged drug use, abuse, stalking, harassment.

A/N: sry for posting late and lol pissed that i had to upload this twice.

School is bullshit no matter where you live, my first day at Southside High was a huge blow. I definitely befriended some younger serpents though, and thankfully I was "protected" by the serpents.

Apparently there's another gang but they're considered the Ghoulies, and they're all drug heads and really fucked up. I knew about more gangs, but according to Fangs and Sweet pea, these guys are insane.

I'm not surprised though, Riverdale is not an exception. Every place has the crew with some fucked up people.

On my second day, I got some back talk from this outsider who goes to the school, saying they know I wasn't a real serpent and how I shouldn't be sitting and hanging out with the Serpents, let alone be wearing one of the jackets.

Toni said to ignore it, outcasts try and pick on everyone but back out when they get shit on for being a dickhead.

The teachers here are stupid, not as bad as the last place I was, at least these ones can get a word out in the class. My mother may be an uptight bitch but she used all her money on herself, so I ended up going to trash schools anyways.

Southside High is a bit of an upgrade since my last school you couldn't even hang out anywhere besides outside or in the classrooms during school hours.

A lot of pregnant teens ran around the school, stupid guys with no brains would knock up chicks in the bathrooms, janitor closets. No one really went to the lunch room either considering someone was probably getting fingered under the table.

I had a few friends, I usually hung out with the stoners, or the kids that skipped everyday.

It was currently 5am in the morning on Friday, I was taking The Beast for a morning walk, I seen him at the Wyrm and he was so cute I needed him. My dad says he's the first task when becoming a serpent, to take care of Hotdog. Which is really rude because he's a cute pup, if you don't smell his breathe.

The moon was very much still shining and I was wearing some black sweatpants with a cropped t-shirt with a thin sweater overtop.

Clearing my head is probably the hardest thing for me to do, so Hotdog and I usually walk to a park and sit at it and play with a ball together and then walk home. The first real joy in my life for the longest time.

I've always had a soft spot for dogs growing up, never being allowed to have one when living with my mother because she couldn't stand the dogs being on the furniture. Why get a dog if they can't sit with you? I tried to even convince her to let me get a cat, but she told me she was allergic. Allergies? You can take a allergy pill for that. No use explaining that to her though.

I'm not surprised my mother suddenly turned on me, her new husband has always been talking badly about me, suspecting that I am going to get into trouble and end up in jail or worse dead. In his eyes you could do anything and you were a danger. Fucking dickhead. When you got home you let Hotdog in and grabbed your phone and a pack of cigs off the kitchen table and sat on the front steps.

Turning on your phone while taking a drag from your cigarette you checked your emails and texts, seeing a text from a random number, you didn't bother to look at the message you decided to check your emails. Clicking through them you noticed an email from an old flame, it read "I miss you sweetheart." Quickly deleting the email and blocking the email address you looked at your Instagram notifications. Didn't realize a picture of that local restaurant in Riverdale would receive so many likes?

Taking a long drag and blowing it out you finally looked at the unknown number, the numbers area code wasn't Riverdale so the message confused you. "I see you." You were never one to be spooked often, but the fact that you had only given your number out to your new friends disturbed you.

Putting your cig out you ran into the trailer seeing you had an hour to get ready for school. It was Friday but you told Toni you'd meet her at Pops and get coffee before classes.

Rushing out of the house, avoiding a hug from your dad and running over to hotdog to give him a kiss on the head, yelling goodbye and walking in the direction to Pops, put your ear buds in your ears and clicking shuffle in your music.

Your boots shuffle down the road while you lightly bob your head to the tunes playing in your ears. You could see down the road that Toni had just pulled into the parking lot, with Fangs and Sweetpea next to her, Fangs ended up turning around and yelling your name, causing you to pause your music and shoving your earbuds and phone into your the pocket of your jacket.

"Hey Dracula," you smiled ruffling Fang's hair and shoving Pea's side, causing him to turn at you and scowl. Toni looked in your direction and grabbed your hand pulling you away from the boys and dragging you into the building and shoving you into the window seat.

"El, your fit is so cute," Toni said while Fangs and Pea joined you guys at the table. "Yeah El, so so cute," Fangs said mimicking Toni.

"Fangs, shove it." Toni said while glaring at him. When the waiter came over to the table we all ordered. Having about 20 minutes before we needed to be at the school, Toni and Fangs were usually on time and I usually stayed back with Pea since I dont give a fuck about school.

Basically chugging my coffee, I listened to the conversation that was happening in front of me. Feeling a vibration in my pocket I pulled out my phone and seen that it was the same number from earlier, but the message said "Bitch." Shaking my head and putting my phone back in my pocket I downed the rest of the hot liquid. Toni and Fangs announced they were gonna head to the school and I should catch a ride with Pea, which I have done before which isn't anything new.

After they pulled out of the lot, it was usually awkward with me and Pea, ever since yesterday during lunch he's been acting weird with me. "What were you listening to?" he asked me which brought me out of my daze. "I seen you walking and you looked like the song was really good." He said.

Pulling out my phone I looked at my Spotify, "uhh, you probably wouldn't like it, honestly." I told him, but before I could even finish my sentence, he moved from across from me and sat next to me in the booth.

"Lemme listen, I wont judge." He admitted. Rolling my eyes I pulled my headphones out of my pocket and handed him one ear and put the other one in my ear before I played Dancer in the Dark by Chase Atlantic. He looked at me with skeptical eyes before turning away and listening to the song.

"Dancing with the devil?" he repeated from the song when it ended. I nodded before looking at the time and insisted that it was Friday and we shouldn't be an hour late again. He nodded his head and pulled out his wallet and putting down a 10 before we left and hopped on his bike before heading to the school. 

[heartcravings]

50 Questions Tag!

@jongin-be-my-jagi​ tagged me for this a while ago, but I took my sweet time to answer. Here is my secret intel if you want to know me a little bit more!! Check hers as well, she’s an amazing writer and friend. 1. What takes up too much of your time? Tumblr, my stupid procrastination prone brain and my thesis. 

2. What makes your day better? Friends and loved ones, music and these absolute dorks (Channie especially) 

3. What’s the best thing that happened to you today? I hopped on the mat today in the early hours of the morning, rain on my window and the neighbours cat peeking at me from his window across the street.

4. What fictional place would you like to go to? Wonderland, bacause it’s “curiouser and curiouser!”

'Who are you?' said the Caterpillar.  Alice replied, rather shyly, 'I — I hardly know, sir, just at present — at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.'

5. Are you good at giving advice? I think so. Not so good at following my own advice though.  I do always consider where the other is standing and if I don’t know how to proceed then I’ll just be honest and say I can’t help. But i’ll always listen with my heart. 

 6. Do you have any mental illnesses? Not diagnosed. I do think i might be going through something now. 

7. Have you ever experienced sleep paralysis? No, but i have a recurring nightmare: the world is made of black and white paper thin layers. I am a paper thin person walking along a street surrounded by paper thin buildings. I walk for a long time, looking up at the white sky. Until the street ends, there is no more building and i fall into the abyss of a blank page.  I have had this dream since the age of 8 or 9 years old. Fear of not being good enough, you say?! Ding, ding, ding!! We got a winner in the back!  8. What musician inspired you the most? I get inspired by music all the time!! One of my all time favourite songs is Spanish Sahara by Foals. Its sublime!

So I’d say I’m mainly inspired by these artists: Queen, Arctic Monkeys, Foals, Radiohead, Bowie, Daughter, Bob Dylan, Beirut, Yeah yeah yeahs, Arcade Fire, The National, Joy Division, Blur, Warpaint, Gorillaz, Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver, Chet Baker, The Cure, Courtney Barnett, The Maccabees, Car Seat Headrest, Florence + The Machine, Editors, Kasabian, Crystal Fighters, Death Cab for a cutie, The Doors, Efterklang, Explosions in the Sky, Franz Ferdinand, The Horrors, James Blake, José Gonzalez, Los Campesinos!,  Metronomy, Nick Cave, Nina Simone, Patrick Watson,  Phoenix, Sharon Van Etten, The Shins, Simon & Garfunkel, The Smiths, St.Vincent, The Strokes, Toro y Moi, tricot, Tune-Yards, TV on the radio, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, The Vaccines, Vampire Weekend, The Velvet Underground, The War on Drugs, Wild Beasts and Yo La Tengo.

And the electro, pop and hip-hop groves of my heart: EXO, 2NE1, Janelle Monáe, Big Bang, Kris Wu,LCD soundsystem, SBTRKT, Childish Gambino, Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar and Daft Punk. 

And special mentions to the portuguese ones (learning from yixing and promoting when i can :P): Capicua, Joana Espadinha, The Legendary Tigerman, Linda Martini, Mayra Andrade, Noiserv, Ornatos Violeta, Paus, Samuel Uria, You Can’t Win Charlie Brown and The Silence 4. I know, tldr right? Sorry folks! 9. Have you ever fallen in love? Yes I have. I have mistaken a crush for love too. But i have definitely been very deeply in love. A wrecked kintsugi heart over here people! 10. What’s your dream date? I don’t think I have one. I’d love to do something unique with that someone special, something special for the two of us. It could be as simple as riding the subway while sharing earphones & listening to our playlist or walking the dogs out! Idk, I’m easy to please. But right now it would have to be with this handsome man :D pretty please?!

11. What do others notice about you? I am very kind and warm hearted, so I think that’s what people first notice when meeting me. Although I maintain good eye contact, I am also timid and will be quieter if there are very energetic people in the group. When alone, I usually take the first step and try to meet people, but only if i really must.  12. What’s an annoying habit you have? It’s really hard for me to ask for help. I also like to tell detailed descriptions of everything... Couldn’t you tell? 13. Do you still talk to your first love? I’ll text him on his birthday and he does the same to me. We met when we were 10 years old and that childhood friendship remains. But regarding my one and truly deep relationship, no we do not talk, unless we randomly meet.

14. How many exes do you have? I have three exes. The first love who was just an idealized crush on my childhood friend: we dated for 2 weeks during summer break xD Then my first real boyfriend, we met in my first year at university, dated for quite some time, he really loved me and made me love myself a little more. Finally the one i loved too much. I mended his wounds and made him love himself as much as I did. I always say all the love we feel makes our hearts grow bigger. I do not regret loving any of them, I am me now due to them and I would not change it if I could. 15. How many songs are in your playlist? I have way too many playlists for each and every mood... But my favourite songs list on spotify has about 1500 songs! uwu!  16. What instruments can you play? Triangles and flute?! I had mandatory music classes in school... so in reality I can’t really play a instrument...

17. Who do you have the most pictures of? Probably my cat, Sushi. With a second close of my doodles and sketches. 

18. Where would you like to go before you die? EVERY WHERE!!! But I really want to go to Japan and Scotland and Iceland and South Korea and New Zealand and i’ll shut up. 19. What’s your zodiac? Capricorn. 20. Do you relate to it? Sort of.

21. What is happiness to you? You know when it’s really cold outside in the winter and you manage to find a sheltered place where no wind can hit you and you still get to feel the warm rays of the winter suns on your skin? You hear the birds outside and you are contempt in that moment, at peace. That is happiness to me.   22. Are you going through anything right now? Yes, I am a bit lost. Trying to finish my thesis and trying to find what I want to do after. It’s liberating but also pretty scary. 23. What’s the worst decision you ever made? It’s a series of small decisions really. It started with going for a phd with the same people i worked in my msc. Should have gone to a different place. Then deciding to come home after a traumatic loss in the family. Should have kept my life going but I stalled it then. (I don’t regret helping my loved ones though).

24. What’s your favourite store? Probably Wishtrend for beauty stuff. Other than that I don’t have any favourite brands/stores. 25. (HALFWAY!) What’s your opinion on abortion? I think everyone is free to decide what they want or need to do. I couldn’t possible judge. If I would it? Probably not.

27. Do you have a favourite album? I don’t think so, I have favourite tunes for different moods and moments in my life. But if threatened with my life, I’d maybe say Total Life Forever from Foals.

28. What do you want for your birthday? It’s such a long time until my birthday comes! But maybe a real EXO ot9 reunion as a goodbye to Minseok?

29. What is most people’s first impression of you? Friendly and easy to open up to, i think.

30. What age do you seem according to most people? In real life, people usually think I am way younger than I am.  31. Where do you keep your phone when you’re sleeping? In the crook of my bed, between the mattress and the bed frame.

32. What word do you say the most? No idea really! 33. What’s the oldest age you’d date? 40s? I don’t think too much about age actually. 

34. What’s the youngest age you’d date? 20s? Again not very important to me. Love is love, whomever, whenever and wherever <3

35. What job / career do most people say would suit you? I don’t know! People always say i don’t totally fit in anything... so there’s that. If you have an idea please let me know! 36. What’s your favourite music genre? Go back to question 8. I listen to everything! :D 37. If you could live in any country in the world where would it be? I’d like to live around the world, every few months a different place and get to know different cultures.

38. What is your current favourite song? I’ve been obsessed with RM’s intro/teaser song, Map of the Soul: Persona. (I’m not even a bts fan, but this music and lyrics just touched me a lot.)

39. How long have you had this blog for? I think for about 6 years? It’s my personal space, where I dump all my obsessions.  

40. What are you excited for? I’m visiting some friends in Granada in a couple of weeks. Yay, tapas!

41. Are you a better talker or listener? Normally I am a better listener. But there are a few people to whom i open like a book. Either words flow right out of me without even thinking or they see throw me. Those truly are my people.

42. What is the last productive thing you did? Prepped meals and cleaned the kitchen. Open the folder and file of my thesis. Read the latest chapter I wrote.  43. What do you want for Christmas? Well, just like for my birthday, there is still such a long time to it! But let’s say i want to have already finish this part of my life and want to find my next adventure.

44. What class do you get the best grades in? No more exams! Ehehe! But I used to have good grades at everything. Physical Education was my lowest mark i think.

45. On a scale of 1-10 how do you feel right now? Right now, a 4? I have a headache.

46. What can you see yourself doing in 10 years? Smiling? :D I want to be happy in my own skin. To feel contempt in my life, doing something that gives me a sense of purpose and having time to share and enjoy with my friends and family. 47. When did you get your first heartbreak? Oh my kintsugi heart has been broken quiet a lot. By friends and lovers and even by myself. I keep patching it up with gold dreams though.  48. At what age do you wanna be married? I will only want to be married if i find the one. So until then I guess. 

49. What career did you want to have as a child? I wanted to be an astronaut and a ballerina. Preferably both!

50. What do you crave right now? Just sitting somewhere and listening to Yeol play the guitar.

Well i finished it! :D I’ll tag @thedeviousdo @ohsenhun @hongseok and @paepsi. I’d love to read yours! Feel free to dismiss it though, it is quite a lot.  Lots of love everyone!! <3 <3 <3

[chippedcupanddustybooks]

Get to know me - tag I was tagged by @anotherplumbob so here you go! I tried to update my simself a bit. Even though my hair is way longer right now :D 1. What is your full name? Celine 2. What is your nickname? Chip 3. Birthday? june 22nd 4. What is your favorite book series? Definitely Harry Potter :D 5. Do you believe in aliens or ghosts? Not in the scary horror movie kind of way. I guess there’s probably some kind of life somewhere out there in the universe. And on the matter of ghosts: Sometimes I want to believe our loved ones aren’t gone completely and still watching over us in some kind but not in a spooky haunting houses kind of way :P 6. Who is your favorite author? J.K. Rowling  7. What is your favorite radio station? I only listen to my local radio station on my way to work in my car   8. What is your favorite flavor of anything? Lime 9. What word would you use often to describe something great or wonderful? awesome I guess 10. What is your current favorite song?  Writing down favorites is always so hard because mine change so much :D But I like the song “Odds of Being Alone” by Trent Dabbs & Amy Stroup a lot at the moment

Putting the rest under the cut for not spamming your dash!

11. What is your favorite word? mhm not really favorite word but my best friend is always saying I use the word amusing a lot even though no one really uses it anymore . Also nostalgic 12. What was the last song you listened to? see favorite song   13. What TV show would you recommend for everybody to watch? Everything on this list  14. What is your favorite movie to watch when you’re feeling down? One of the old Disney movies! I have almost every movie on DVD 15. Do you play video games? yes 16. What is your biggest fear? Losing loved ones 17. What is your best quality, in your opinion? I think I’m quit empathic and people say I’m good at giving advice and cheering them up. 18. What is your worst quality, in your opinion? I talk too much and am being sarcastic to protect myself way too much 19. Do you like cats or dogs better? dogs! 20. What is your favorite season? spring but autumn being very close second 21. Are you in a relationship? no 22. What is something you miss from your childhood? not having to worry about so much  23. Who is your best friend? I have a male best friend I met back in high school 24. What is your eye color? Dark blue with a partial heterochromia in my left eye 25. What is your hair color? dark rown 26. Who is someone you love? My family, friends and pets 27. Who is someone you trust? The persons I trust most are my mother and my best friend 28. Who is someone you think about often? Everyone I know that is struggling with something and people I lost 29. Are you currently excited about/for something? Hopefully celebrating christmas with my whole family again this year! Also having some days off around the end of december! 30. What is your biggest obsession? Constantly changing between my hobbys and interests - currently I’m back at obsessing about everything Harry Potter related 31. What was your favorite TV show as a child? As small child I loved House of mouse and Bear in the big blue house 32. Who of the opposite gender can you tell anything to, if anyone? my best friend 33. Are you superstitious? no 34. Do you have any unusual phobias? I absolutely terrified of diving and being pulled under water - especially after a teacher in school nearly drowned me when I was 11yrs old 35. Do you prefer to be in front of the camera or behind it? I’m working in video post production and as a photographer so definitely BEHIND the camera! 36. What is your favorite hobby? ballroom dancing, sims, reading & photography 37. What was the last book you read? Currently rereading the Harry Potter series so right now I’m at chamber of secrets!

38. What was the last movie you watched? I saw phantastic beasts 2 last monday

39. What musical instruments do you play, if any? sadly I can’t play any instruments even though I would love to be able to play the piano 40. What is your favorite animal?  dogs 41. What are your top 5 favorite Tumblr blogs that you follow? That’s way too hard to decide :D 42. What superpower do you wish you had? going back in time   43. When and where do you feel most at peace?  cuddling with my dogs at home 44. What makes you smile? happy animals, seing my friends & family 45. What sports do you play, if any? I’m not a sports person at all - if you don’t count ballroom dancing 46. What is your favorite drink? coffee 47. When was the last time you wrote a hand-written letter or note to somebody? A long while ago back in school   48. Are you afraid of heights? no 49. What is your biggest pet peeve? narcissim and impoliteness 50. Have you ever been to a concert? no 51. Are you vegan/vegetarian? no 52. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up? I always wanted to work with pets but I couldn’t bear seeing all the awful things at a vet or shelter so I decided to go for something different. I still volunteer at the shelter though! 53. What fictional world would you like to live in? The Harry Potter universe 54. What is something you worry about? I’m constantly worrying about everyone around me 55. Are you scared of the dark? no  56. Do you like to sing? in the car to myself yes but in front of others no way 57. Have you ever skipped school? yes I skipped a few useless classes sometimes 58. What is your favorite place on the planet? My favorite city is London. Favorite place is sitting on my window sill with the window open at summer nights! 59. Where would you like to live? London or somewhere in switzerland even though I love my home town 60. Do you have any pets? two silver labradors 61. Are you more of an early bird or a night owl? night owl 62. Do you like sunrises or sunsets better? sunsets 63. Do you know how to drive? Yes  64. Do you prefer earbuds or headphones? For working or at home headphones but for travelling earbuds 65. Have you ever had braces? yes from age 11-14yrs 66. What is your favorite genre of music? I don’t have a favorite genre it’s a wild mix of everything from calm alternative music to Rock’n’Roll from the 50s 67. Who is your hero? My mother  68. Do you read comic books? no but I read some Disney comics when I was younger 69. What makes you the most angry? people lying to my face, someone hurting my loved ones 70. Do you prefer to read on an electronic device or with a real book? I tried to like E-books but I just can’t get used to them and I love the smell of new books! 71. What is your favorite subject in school? Geography 72. Do you have any siblings? 1 half-sister but we don’t have much contact 73. What was the last thing you bought? a christmas present for my grandma and a Winnie Pooh notebook  74. How tall are you? 165cm / 5,4 feet 75. Can you cook? A few things 76. What are three things that you love? cuddling with pets, sitting on my window sill on a rainy day, sleeping 77. What are three things that you hate? having to wake up early, annoying people & animal abuse 78. Do you have more female friends or more male friends? female but it used to be the other way around for a long time 79. What is your sexual orientation? straight  80. Where do you currently live? Germany 81. Who was the last person you texted? a friend of mine 82. When was the last time you cried? two weeks ago on my way back from work after a real shitty week 83. Who is your favorite YouTuber? I don’t watch YouTube a lot so I don’t have one 84. Do you like to take selfies? not at all - my phone is basically 80% dog photos 85. What is your favorite app? the apps I use the most are Whatsapp, discord, tumblr & spotify 86. What is your relationship with your parent(s) like? My mom and I are very close/ my father and I have a very complicated relationship 87. What is your favorite foreign accent? I love the british accent 88. What is a place that you’ve never been to, but you want to visit? I would love to visit canada and ireland one day 89. What is your favorite number? 4 90. Can you juggle? no 91. Are you religious? no 92. Do you find outer space or the deep ocean to be more interesting? The deep ocean even though I’m totally scared of being under water 93. Do you consider yourself to be a daredevil? No not really more of the opposite 94. Are you allergic to anything? kiwis and most pain killers 95. Can you curl your tongue? no 96. Can you wiggle your ears? no 97. How often do you admit that you were wrong about something? I’m always open to admitting I’ve done something wrong in argument because it’s never jsut one person that did something wrong 98. Do you prefer the forest or the beach? forest 99. What is your favorite piece of advice that anyone has ever given you?  Not really an advice but a lesson I learned. Sometimes you can’t save everyone from themselves. So sometimes you just have to let go. 100. Are you a good liar? depends on who I’m lying to. I hate lying to people that mean a lot to me so those often notice something is wrong.  101. What is your Hogwarts House? Ravenclaw 102. Do you talk to yourself? yes sometimes 103. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? A mix of both. More of an introvert I guess but once I get to know people I can also be an extrovert 104. Do you keep a journal/diary? I used to a few years ago but not anymore 105. Do you believe in second chances? yes but I give way too many to people I like 106. If you found a wallet full of money on the ground, what would you do?return it or hand it to the police 107. Do you believe that people are capable of change? yes but sometimes people are wa better in changing for the worse 108. Are you ticklish? no 109. Have you ever been on a plane? yes 110. Do you have any piercings? no not even ear holes 111. What fictional character do you wish was real? Dobby!  112. Do you have any tattoos? no 113. What is the best decision that you’ve made in your life so far? applaing for my current job 114. Do you believe in karma? Yes 115. Do you wear glasses or contacts? no  116. Do you want children? I’m not sure if it’s going to change but at the moment I would say I don’t think so 117. Who is the smartest person you know? my mother 118. What is your most embarrassing memory? I’m so clumsy I’m getting myself into embarassing situations every day. But on the top of the list would be a mistake on my graduation that caused ALL my photos from my external drive ending up in the slideshow that was shown on stage... 119. Have you ever pulled an all-nighter? yes 120. What color are most of you clothes? all shades of blue, dark red, grey and brown 121. Do you like adventures? I’m a control freak so it’s hard for me to enjoy situations that I don’t know the end of 122. Have you ever been on TV? yes, I worked as a photgrapher on a pet adoption show and was seen in the background  123. How old are you? 21 124. What is your favorite quote? Sometimes the best book has the dustiest jacket and the best tea cup is chipped ;) 125. Do you prefer sweet or savory foods? Savory    I’m tagging @saurussims @simblrbreezycakes & @mlyssimblr (Feel free to ignore this if you don’t want to do it!)

[aion-rsa]

What If…? Episode 6 Review: Killmonger to the Rescue

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This review contains spoilers for Marvel’s What If…? episode 6.

Episode 6 of Marvel’s What If…?, entitled “What If… Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?”, might be the flattest episode to come out of the series so far, but it at least works in the way the other Disney+ Marvel shows work. It takes a character from the Marvel Cinematic Universe who didn’t get quite enough time in the spotlight and gives us more. In this case, it’s the charismatic Black Panther villain Erik “Killmonger” Stevens.

As he was only relevant to the Black Panther movie, we get to see the character step out of that bubble and interact with some other MCU mainstays. His connection with Tony Stark cheats the world out of Iron Man, but there’s the question of whether the situation might have a positive effect on Killmonger’s soul, like how his cousin T’Challa inspired Thanos and Yondu to be better people in a different alternate reality. Once that question is answered, the episode meanders until abruptly ending.

If you regularly read our weekly What If…? reviews (try saying that three times fast) you may already know that these pieces have their own unique format. It’s more of a breakdown that we hope will satisfy die-hard Marvel fans but help bring those less familiar with the MCU up to speed.

Alright, let’s get into “What If… Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?”…

Required viewing

The two main movies you need to see are Iron Man and Black Panther. The whole nexus event of the episode revolves around Tony Stark’s superhero origin, but you don’t need to check out his sequels (even if the Stark drones resemble Whiplash’s handiwork from Iron Man 2). The scene where we meet Ulysses Klaue is an alternate take on his introduction in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but watching that movie is not a necessity for this story.

Voice cast

As always, Uatu the Watcher is Jeffrey Wright. In the Black Panther corner, we get plenty of returning voices like Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger, the late Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther, Angela Bassett as Queen Ramonda, John Kani as King T’Chaka, Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue, and Danai Gurira as Okoye. On the Iron Man side, Don Cheadle is James Rhodes, Jon Favreau is Happy Hogan, Paul Bettany is JARVIS, and Leslie Bibb is Christine Everhart.

For those replacing the original actors, Mick Wingert is Tony Stark, Beth Hoyt is Pepper Potts, Ozioma Akagha is Shuri, Mike McGuill is General Thaddeus Ross, and Kiff Vandenheuvel is Obadiah Stane. I mean, I guess Don Cheadle as James Rhodes also sort of counts here, but that’s just splitting hairs.

What’s different?

The military career of Navy Seal Erik Stevens, codename Killmonger, brings him to infiltrating the Ten Rings and uncovering a plan to capture Tony Stark and use him to arm the terrorist organization. Acting on this information, Killmonger appears during the Ten Rings’ violent attempt to grab Stark. When the Stark-branded bomb lands near its creator, Stark is saved at the last second by Killmonger, who throws the bomb into the distance and outguns the would-be kidnappers.

In this reality, Stark’s heart is never pierced with shrapnel and he never finds himself having to build a robot suit…in a CAVE! With a BOX OF SCRAPS! He also doesn’t learn his lesson as he chooses to continue making weapons and even doubles down on it. Killmonger earns his trust further by exposing Obadiah Stane as being part of the kidnapping plot. Stark chooses to promote Killmonger to Stane’s old position (fitting, since Stane’s villain name is Warmonger) and he invests in an old idea of Killmonger’s to create mech-like drones.

Pepper Potts is uneasy with all of this, feeling that Killmonger is hiding his true intentions.

The drones can’t be completed due to the lack of a viable power source. Stark considers Arc Reactor technology, but discards the idea as a pipe dream. Killmonger talks up how vibranium could do it and sacrifices his necklace heirloom to make it work. Inspired, Stark decides to set up a meeting with Ulysses Klaue to buy more vibranium off the black market. James Rhodes acts on Stark’s behalf and that’s when things break down.

Black Panther interrupts the meeting to take back his country’s vibranium. Killmonger appears, subdues both Black Panther and Rhodes, and kills them both. Though not before he chastises Rhodey for working for a broken system that oppresses people like them. He makes it appear that the two killed each other, visits Stark (who is aware of the truth), kills him, and spells it out that the two never truly shared the same vision. As Stark dies from a vibranium spear, the Dora Milaje is blamed and war begins to brew between the United States and Wakanda.

Killmonger kills Klaue and uses his corpse to enter Wakanda and earn the trust of his estranged royal family. He sets up a battle against the Stark drones and leads the Wakandans to victory.

How does it work out?

It’s very open-ended, but it’s a dour situation. King T’Chaka makes Killmonger the new Black Panther. It’s only a matter of time before Killmonger betrays his uncle and gets his long-awaited revenge, showing that even in this reality, Tony Stark inadvertently sets things in motion for T’Chaka getting assassinated. T’Challa confronts Killmonger in the Panther spirit realm and warns him that his actions will have dire consequences.

Meanwhile, Shuri is not fooled by Killmonger’s charms and works with Pepper Potts in hoping to expose Killmonger and prevent the war from escalating.

Standout moments

One of the absolute highlights is the moment of Stark looking over Killmonger’s schematics for his drone idea, which look very Gundam-like. Killmonger sheepishly admits that he likes anime, which is a subtle, in-universe way for the character to admit that his blue, armored uniform is absolutely him trying to steal Vegeta’s look.

The press conference is incredibly satisfying, just in the sense that Killmonger shuts down Stane’s schemes with receipts and confidence, easily nipping that problem in the bud. Happy punching Stane out cold is the icing on the cake. It makes me think about how the plot of Iron Man is incredibly obvious for those who speak Urdu as the Ten Rings terrorists straight-up tell the viewer that Obadiah Stane is behind the kidnapping.

Speaking of the Ten Rings, their involvement certainly feels like it has more weight to it after Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. How fitting that Killmonger would make such a strong foil to the Ten Rings’ leader Wenwu, who is also obsessed with a secretive and fantastic utopian society that considers him an outsider despite a familial connection.

We get our third Chadwick Boseman performance in this series and once again, it hits hard in its own way. The Star-Lord episode was like a celebration of T’Challa that talked up his potential to make the universe a better place. The zombie episode had him give a meaningful speech about remembering the dead and keeping their memories in your heart. Now we see T’Challa’s casket and see him appear as a spirit.

Also, man, for someone who is the key to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man has not been doing so good on this show. He’s made three appearances so far and he’s died each time. The comic version of What If…? was never too kind to the likes of Magneto, Loki, Kingpin, or Beast, and now it looks like Stark is their television counterpart.

I think there’s supposed to be an episode coming up about him ending up on Sakaar, so let’s hope he does better that time around.

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See you next week! Same Watcher time! Same Watcher streaming service! In the meantime, if you want to dig deeper into What If…?, subscribe to Marvel Standom on the Den of Geek YouTube channel, where we dish out weekly episodes on all the new Marvel TV series, trailers and movie releases. Can’t stand our faces? That’s fair! You can listen to Marvel Standom on Spotify and Apple, too.

The post What If…? Episode 6 Review: Killmonger to the Rescue appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3EjfW8O

[miphastudies]

17 Questions for 17 People

Thanks @its-bianca​ for tagging me in this! Sorry it’s taken so long, we’re in a third lockdown and I’m pretty sure my body thinks that time no longer exists.

Nicknames: Kim, Kimbo, Kimberlim, Kimothy, Kimberley Dibberley (For some reason my family thought that a nickname based off Cat’s other personality from Red Dwarf, Dwayne Dibberley, was funny and it’s stuck with me my whole life), as well as KIIII (shouted by my sister when she was about 2 and couldn’t pronounce my name, my best friend now yells it when she wants my attention) and Kim-Kim by my Dad who refuses to believe I’ve grown up (beats Kimberley Dibberley any day) 

Height: 5'9 - towering over most men is fun, I suggest it to all of you, I’d rather round it up to six foot, but I probs stopped growing at 20.

Hogwarts House: Well I got Gryffindor when I first went on that site, but being my goth self I had to take the test again until I got Slytherin - as far as I remember I had unicorn hair (or horn?) or something of the like in my wand but I’m not gonna fuel JK’s anti-trans pockets by visiting Pottermore ever again. 

Last thing I googled: The soundtrack for Futurama’s Luck of the Fryrish episode, I knew Simple Minds were on it but I could’ve sworn Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty was on it, but apparently not. I spent a good half hour trying to sing it into google with their new song-analysis thing to no avail, so I ended up siphoning through all the songs Lisa Simpson has ever played on her Sax to find out what it was (I should be doing my dissertation proposal but my tutors haven’t got back to me yet so what can ye do).

Song stuck in my head: yknow wha I’m just gonna list the songs that have been stuck in my head so far today because it’s too many to be just one as I keep cycling through them (also gonna link them so you can see how garbo weird my music taste is)

Run - Joji Alive - Pearl Jam Clinging On For Life - The Hoosiers Tension - Avenged Sevenfold  Boots of Spanish Leather - Bob Dylan Nutshell - Alice in Chains Jaded - Aerosmith  The Sea of Tragic Beasts - Fit For an Autopsy 

I’ll add my current favourite at the bottom too for good measure (Honestly I spend way too much time listening to music and I regret nothing)

Number of followers: Currently 85. I’ve got about 2k on my main blog but I’ve not touched that since July 2017.

Amount of sleep: Good lord, so I aim for 8 hours, sometimes I only get 5.5 or something along those lines, other times I depression nap during the day and can’t sleep at all, sometimes (like this morning) I’ll go to get up at a normal person time such as 9am when my body naturally wakes me up, but it’s so dark and gloomy outside and cold in my room that I just stay in bed and end up accidentally falling back asleep. 12pm gang rise up xo 

Lucky number: 7

Dream Job: Hopefully I get somewhat successful in monetising my hobbies, I’m working on it all atm (I don’t know why but I really hate telling people about my plans because I’m deathly afraid they’ll mock me or do whatever they can to ensure it doesn’t happen, I’ve got this list of things I need to do for my own mental health sellotaped to my laptop stand that had things like when to clean the house, do my laundry, shower, exercise etc, and my old flatmate/friend saw it the other week and mocked me, so I haven’t followed it since and need to find some sort of other way of organising my life instead). But yeah, hopefully hobby based, I don’t want to be stuck in an office job all my life, and I want to leave the UK (although I don’t want to leave my family) so hopefully I’ll be successful enough to bring em all with me.

Wearing: Well I was gonna wear jeans and my Unus Annus longsleeve but I decided to go full kitchen witch and wear this black milkmaid looking dress with long sleeves that I’d bought for work when I got my thigh tattoo started (all the old men appreciated the legs but I didn’t make any more tips, oops)

Favourite song: My favourite song of all time would be The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony , the band formed at my college, has great meaning and has resonated with me since I first saw the music video after it was played at my Stepdad’s funeral in 2002. Weirdly enough on my last day of college, right after my last exam, I went to get the bus home - put my Spotify on shuffle (bearing in mind I’ve got 805 songs on this playlist) and this came on straight away. That’s probably not important to most people, but being pagan, I like to think that small things like these are signs from loved ones that have since passed. Not too happy that it’s used as the England Rugby theme because it gives me anxiety every time as though I feel like everyone hearing it doesn’t have the same emotional connection with the song as I do, but idk. I saw Richard Ashcroft live and he played this and I legit bawled my eyes out in public, safe to say I’ll try and hold it in next time. I suggest you all have a listen to the song or even watch the music video for it, it’s the most simple but most meaningful music video to me. 

Favourite Instrument: I’m left handed and I had this Yamaha acoustic guitar that my stepdad gave me - and taught me to play when I was about 5, a few months before he died (it’s still weird to me that I had no idea he had cancer at that point and instead spent his last few months teaching me his favourite hobbies) all he had was right handed guitars, so he taught me to play Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters upside down on this 20 odd year old right handed acoustic. He hadn’t played upside down himself before but did it so I could see what he was doing. I remember sitting in our green living room on the couch with him moving my hands to the right position (I don’t know where my mum was in this scenario, probably in the kitchen). He’d brought this guitar with him the first day I met him, it was probably like 11pm but I was 4 and thought it was 3am or something, but I heard voices coming from the living room and had gone to investigate - there sat my mum and my stepdad having Chinese on the living room floor, laughing together, my stepdad saw me and had brought sweets for me and my brother for when we woke up, but he beckoned me over, gave me a lollipop, stuck a two litre bottle of tizer in front of me and told me to dip the lollipop in the drink and lick it (not a good idea as I would’ve been bouncing off the walls, but I think I must’ve had a sugar crash and fallen asleep). My mum had no idea he was coming as he’d sneakily been texting her, asking what her favourite drink was, her favourite food and flowers etc, after they met in a pub when my mum was at a hostel with my brother after my Dad had taken me. My mum told him that the council had given her a place and he decided to show up and surprise her with all her favourite things and play guitar for her after my brother and I had gone to bed, I don’t remember much time passing before we’d moved into his house (where my mum and her new husband live to this day), but they got married a few months later and I still can’t play that Metallica song (I did try to teach myself more of it though). I also had this black left handed Ibanez prestige that my Dad got me for Christmas about 9 years ago, I could play quite a lot on it but eventually just stopped. Very good at piano though. 

Aesthetic: I’m not sure what this entails but I’m a sucker for neon/RGB/cityscapes and that type of malarkey. Also space. Love da space.  Also whatever Cornwall would be considered as. Cottagecore? I think that’s only an animal crossing related aesthetic but I’m claiming it nonetheless. 

Favourite Author: I’m a big goth so it has to be Stephen King by default. I’ve got copious first editions of his books from the 70′s and 80′s that my Mum bought when she was a teen. At my flat I’ve got Carrie, Christine, Salem’s Lot, Misery and The Shining first editions and the others are in my room at my Mum’s house. I don’t tend to read for joy like I used to, or write for fun either but I’m hoping I do more in 2021. Currently reading The Outsider by King, it sounds eerily familiar to a novel I wrote for coursework in college in 2014 and I’m half pressed to think he’s stole my brain ideas. I’m watching you Stephen. Always watching. Always. 

Favourite animal sounds: I don’t have favourite sounds, but my husky Nanook is my favourite animal because he’s dumb and I love him. Also Kookaburra sounds are terrifying and you all should go listen to what a koala sounds like. When I go to Adelaide (hopefully this year, if not next) I am NOT stepping foot in a nature reserve unless I’ve got an anti-kookaburra noise suit on. They obviously don’t exist so I’m gonna have to make one.

Random: I’m part of a viking reenactment group where they use actual swords and fight each other, and we have to basically sign our lives away when we join, to say that if we die, it’s not the groups fault. I don’t actually do the fighting though, I’m part of the villager group, so I do all the crafting and food making and most of the teaching when we do shows. I’ve not yet been to a show as I’ve had uni to go to, but my parents, sister and brother do - They stayed within Whitby Abbey last year during the Viking festival where everyone did the show and the adults got drunk round campfires in the castle grounds. Zacky Vengeance once complimented my shirt if that’s something. I’m also colourblind, got glared at by Liam Gallagher in the Liverpool Echo Arena parking lot and have too accurate a sense of smell.

Sorry this was so long, obviously I felt like word-dumping and my brain has a lot to say as I find too much meaning in these things.  Thanks again for tagging me! I’ve not got 17 people to tag as I don’t interact with anyone at the moment but I’ll come back to this and add people as the week progresses :) 

[howveryheather]

pandemic songs + self discovery

My Spotify Unwrapped for 2020 looked remarkably similar to every other year of my life recorded on the platform. The number one song, for what has to be at least four years running, is an ambient track from a video game that I listen to while I’m working. Most of my top musicians are a mix of film and television composers and Enya. This is true even in a pandemic. So many of my existing musical influences are still here to weather the many storms of life that are ahead — whether I am ready for them or not.

In every moment where I was not working, I was listening to a lot of music. Pouring over my Spotify, I’m able to see so many different moods and feelings. I have always kept one enormous playlist that lets me go back and know exactly what music I was listening at various moments in my life. Moments in time where the world felt like it had lost its balance, but music kept me grounded. Kept me thinking about the past, present, and future. The way I see it, the best is still yet to come for everyone. Better times are on their way. People I don’t yet know are coming into my life. Places I haven’t lived in yet will be here soon. And there will be even more songs that will define those moments in time for me. 

I didn’t know the songs I’d be listening to during the pandemic and yet, here we are... with the music that defined this uncertain time in my corner of the world.

“Say So” — Doja Cat

In the aftermath of getting knocked out with one of the worst flus of my life for a week this year, I spent the remainder of February desperately trying to regain my strength and sense of self. Little did I know that in March the entire world would change because of the coronavirus. This song feels like the last music video of our “normal” time. Nostalgic for roller skating rinks and hanging out with friends.

“Geyser” — Mitski

Have you ever heard a song that emotionally rocked you to the core so badly that you had to get into the fetal position and think afterwards? This one did it. Screaming while crawling and rolling around in the dirt is a real 2020 mood.

“Too Late” — The Weeknd

The entire After Hours album, and the red suit character, is a real quarantine/lockdown mood if there ever was one. Abel can’t miss.

“The Chain” — Fleetwood Mac

Everyone else might have been on a Dreams kick, courtesy of the Ocean Spray skateboarder but I was all about The Chain. 

“Me And You” — NERO

In the movie montage of your life, this is the song that plays to emphasize you’re a boss who can do anything. I stopped drinking for the better part of this year, which is pretty cool. Then I attempted the keto diet. That lasted for... less than 48 hours. The message is simple: I will just exercise instead of giving up carbs!

“Ocean of Mine” — Kennedy One

Before I started paying for Spotify Premium, I was trapped in a world of endless commercials. Once in a great while, the streaming service would recommend music that I might like. Kennedy One’s Ocean of Mine was one of those recommendations. I listened to this while I had my first crown put on at the dentist. You know I love anything that sounds like the wind, the water, and the promise of the shore.

“Joan of Arc on the Dance Floor” — Aly & AJ

These sisters came through so many times in 2020! The Up All Night event on YouTube and the Viper Room streaming show made it feel like concerts had, in a slow but sure way, been able to make a return. Just in time to kiss 2020 goodbye we have an explicit version of Potential Breakup Song... MVPs!

“Moscow Invitational 1968″ — Carlos Rafael Rivera

Many hours spent writing require a specific kind of soundtrack for staying in the zone. The moment I heard this score play during The Queen’s Gambit, I knew it was going to be part of my background noise whenever I’m working from this moment moving forward. It’s inspiring to listen to and helps me stay even more concentrated on the task at hand. Whatever challenges are ahead, I know I can reach them and keep leaping onward to the next hurdle and beyond.

“forget me too” — Machine Gun Kelly feat. Halsey

This is why we need concerts again: recreating a mosh pit feeling alone in your bedroom is simply not possible.

“Shine Ibiza Anthem 2019” — Paul van Dyk, Alex M.O.R.P.H.

In a pre-COVID world, I had plans to see Ultra 2020 in Miami. In a post-COVID, vaccinated world, I still have these plans for the future! I so look forward to the return of music festivals again, particularly those of the eat, sleep, rave, repeat variety. 

“Violence” — Grimes & i_o

This is my December song that will carry into January and beyond. I love, love, love it! (RIP Garrett Lockhart.)

As 2020 comes to a close, I have discovered some things about myself. 

There were three times I cried, and I mean sobbed my eyes out, during this pandemic. The first was during the news of the initial lockdown. That was pure fear and confusion and chaos. The second was when I started to see news footage of miles-long lines of people waiting for food to feed their families. That was an aching sadness that I felt deep in my bones because a lot of people lost their jobs and had nowhere else to turn for food. And the third was when I heard Governor Newsom ordered 5,000 body bags for California. Hearing news like that makes it impossible to never un-hear it again. It’s the reality of how badly this virus has rampaged our country.

It really bothers me when I see people saying that they want normal again. I get the root of the desire which is that you’d like to enjoy a drink at the bar or have a dinner out or spend time with friends, etc. But there were a lot of problems with our normal world. Too many. To me, it feels like signaling that you’re okay with continuing to live in a society where so many people have to work multiple jobs to survive, the healthcare infrastructure is buckling, and the education system is completely fractured (among many other issues!). 

What it seems, at least to me, is that people only want the aspects of normal that they were fortunate enough to receive but come at the expense of others. I suppose the best analogy is to consider the super rich. Once they exit their bunkers, they will want someone, likely paid on barely liveable wages, to make and serve them brunch. One can only hope this time has changed enough people to do and be better, but human nature is a fairly predictable beast. A number of people failed what I consider to be a basic human experiment and revealed seriously selfish true colors. I could rant about this topic for awhile — and believe me, I have THOUGHTS — but it’s too easy to dwell on bad news and opinions. 

There was a lot of good, just news in the mix. Some of it made the news, some went under the radar, but it was still there and it’s still happening. Here’s a few links:

There has been an animal discovered by scientists (a jellyfish-like parasite) that does not need oxygen to survive.

CRISPR was injected into a live patient’s eyeball this year, to treat genetically-caused blindness.

PG&E plead guilty to 85 counts in the 2018 Camp Fire, the same fire that wiped out Paradise, California. 

A Michigan jeweler named Johnny Perri buried $1 million of gold, silver, and diamonds for a real-life treasure hunt this summer.

Princess Beatrice and Edo Mapelli Mozzi had one of the prettiest, socially distanced weddings I’ve ever seen.

American Girl launched a new doll, Courtney, born in 1986. (They’re catching up to my age now!)

And the 2021 Super Bowl is inviting healthcare workers to attend the big game.

In the post-coronavirus “new normal” when I have been vaccinated, I know some aspects of my life will go back to their bubble. A lot will change though. 

What I really want is to do is get involved, hands on, in the community again. I want to volunteer at local food banks, soup kitchens, and/or churches for a few hours each week, when possible. (I also have a thought surrounding the idea of making a whole bunch of travel-size feminine product care kits for women in need if this isn’t already happening...) And if I can’t physically be there, then I want to donate and offer support in other ways. I am not helpless. I am a helper, as Mr. Rogers would say, and I would like to be able to help out more and contribute to the well-being of others once it is safe to do so.

I hope people will find it inside of them to want to work together again and come together as a community. It means a lot of hard work and energy and time, but it’s gonna make our world a lot better — far beyond the normal one we left behind.

[wineanddinosaur]

VinePair Podcast: Hard Seltzer Is Rapidly Evolving — Here’s What You Need to Know

Last summer, a.k.a. the summer of hard seltzer, starred the juggernaut that is White Claw. While White Claw Summer turned out to be a massive success that transcends seasons, summer 2020 has seen an explosion of newcomers to the seltzer category.

There’s no denying the hard seltzer category is rapidly evolving beyond the initial flavored malt beverage base. The big players in the category are still big, but new versions of the basic formula of alcoholic seltzer abound, from spirits brands creating canned versions of their products mixed with seltzer, to a range of wine-based hard seltzers, to the many small breweries releasing new takes on the phenomenon.

This week on the VinePair Podcast, Adam Teeter, Erica Duecy, and Zach Geballe discuss some of these new innovations, as well as how some brands are choosing to affiliate themselves with a particular lifestyle or even subculture. Also, why hard seltzer is a must for many major alcohol brands.

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

Erica: From Connecticut, I’m Erica Duecy.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the VinePair Podcast. Before we get into today’s banter, a word from this week’s sponsor. Cognac USA, Speed Rack, and us, VinePair, are thrilled to offer 10 $1,000 scholarship prizes exclusively for professional bartenders. To enter to win these prizes, all you have to do is create an original Cognac cocktail and join virtual events in the next few months. I mean, dude, I love Cognac cocktails so I think I would, I mean if I was a professional bartender I would totally enter. To enter though, you just visit cognacconnection.com for details. The deadline to enter is Aug. 31. That’s cognacconnection.com. Also, some legal stuff, the campaign’s financed with aid from the European Union.

Z: And if you don’t know how to spell Cognac its C-O-G-N-A-C.

A: I love that you’re coming in hot with the help on the ad just to tell you how to spell Cognac.

Z: I’m just saying, you’d be surprised how many people misspell it.

A: That’s true. I think, I mean it’s going to be a dope competition. And like, look, if you’re entering don’t just make a Sazerac.

Z: That is decidedly not an original creation.

A: Exactly. Or like a riff on a Sazerac, I mean to say. Anyway, guys, you know lots of really great feedback from last week’s clean wine episode. More clean wine bullshit out there, too.

E: Oh my god, it just keeps going.

Z: I feel like we opened Pandora’s box by doing a podcast about it because now everyone is sending me every last article they find and I’m, like “Ugh, the scourge upon the earth that has been unleashed.”

A: I mean, I do think like it’s all coming to a head, right? It’s the beast that won’t stop. And it’s kind of taking all of these sort of unregulated terms along with it. I think it’s making a lot of people look at the industry and be like, “Wow, yeah, there are a lot of ways we used to label this beverage that basically had zero meaning.” And maybe we should look at that regulation. But now, you even have people that are taking things that you actually can regulate and redefining them. I mean, I know Erica’s aware of this because we were discussing on the Slack channel today, maybe, Zach, you saw it, too, but that company Clean Wines, or whatever the hell they’re called, they’re like actually using DOC certification stuff as like a reason to say that they’ve done the research on these wines, that they’re clean. And I’m like, “That’s not what these certifications are for.” But they’re just bamboozling consumers. “Oh, well there’s a certification on it so like it’s definitely better for you because it says DOCG.”

E: Yeah, it says, so it was Good Clean Wine, and they said, “Each of our wines carries certifications to be classified as either an IGT DOC or IGP wine.” Yeah, no. That has nothing to do with this splatter. Sorry. Like, where are you coming up with this?

Z: I think it just speaks to what we talked about last week, which is there is this incredible vacuum of public understanding of wine and especially when it comes to European wine. What any of those acronyms even mean and what they do and do not indicate about a wine and it’s a real easy vacuum for people to fill with just endless mountains of bullshit and that’s what’s happening.

E: That’s exactly what’s happening.

A: So you know what this reminds me of, Zach you may recall this as well, growing up as a Jewish kid in Alabama, my family wasn’t kosher but anything that I saw that was kosher I’d be like, “Yeah, that’s ours!” And so do you remember the campaign that was Hebrew National Hot Dogs and they’re like, “We answer to a higher authority”?

Z: I do.

A: And they basically we’re just like, “Yeah, we’re certified kosher.” They never said that they meant the hot dogs were better for you or cleaner but that’s basically what they were saying and the hot dogs exploded across the American market. Tons of people bought them because they thought they were cleaner and better. I don’t know, maybe that slaughterhouse did a better job, although it’s a hot dog at the end of the day, right? Like how much cleaner is it than other hot dogs? But this is exactly what this campaign reminded me of, it’s like we have a certification that actually has nothing to do with how we’re going to use that certification. But because we have our certification we’re going to make you think that that matters more than the other wines that don’t. It’s just hilarious, they should’ve just been like, “Clean Wines, we answer to the Italian bureaucracy with DOCG certification.”

Z: “We answer to a higher authority that Italians themselves don’t pay attention to half the time.”

A: Anyways, yeah that’s been fun to continue to watch this thing spiral out of control. Anyways, that’s not today’s topic, today’s topic is instead the continued, I know we’ve talked about it a good bit over the past few months, but the continued runaway train expansion of the hard seltzer category with so many brands jumping in. It seems like now no matter where you are in the classic wine, beer, or spirits space you are paying attention to this category, right? We have wineries jumping in within wine-based hard seltzers, we have beer, even craft beer, producers with their own versions of flavored malt beverages, and then you have spirits companies jumping in and then today, Thursday, July 30, you had Coca-Cola announce that they’re releasing a hard seltzer under their brand Topo Chico, which is just unbelievable, right? So everyone’s jumping in and I think it’s just insane. So, Erica, we’re actually publishing a story tomorrow about this, correct?

E: Yeah, definitely. So, Courtney Schiessl, who is an amazing writer who I love working with, she and I have been chatting about this on and off for months and the article that’s going to be coming out is looking at the massive evolution of this category. This is something that went from last year the entire category was worth $500 million, this year if you just look at the past 52 weeks it has already hit $2.7 billion in off-premise sales. And I saw a report this morning saying that hard seltzer sales are now predicted to $14.5 billion by 2027. So the compound growth rate of this segment of the beverage alcohol industry is stunning. I think they’re saying like 16.2 percent growth compound annual growth rate from 2020 to 2027. That is stunning considering that everything else is essentially flat or down. So this is the runaway train that we are going to see quickly evolving and going in new directions and those are the things that we’re going to be exploring.

A: Well, look, there’s a reason Anthony von Mandl, the owner of Mark Anthony brands who owns White Claw, is now the 40th richest man in the world.

E: Wow.

Z: You’re saying it wasn’t all Mike’s Hard Lemonade that did that?

A: No. Although you know that that’s also actually a billion-dollar brand. Which I never, never thought about that. Like I always thought, “Oh, who drinks Mike’s Hard Lemonade?” And then I was talking to Josh recently about it and he was like, “Did you know that it’s actually a billion-dollar brand?” I looked it up and it is, and I was like, whoa, I never would have thought that.

Z: Yeah, you would think, I guess teenagers have a lot of money.

A: Yeah, I mean, teenagers and yeah, I guess, who else is drinking Mike’s. Although I’ve started paying attention to Tik Tok, I’m Tok-ing, and there’s a lot of Mike’s Hard Lemonade on Tik Tok. So this is why I think it’s interesting, there’s only three really alcohols you see on Tik Tok all the time. You see White Claw as a brand, you see all other hard seltzers, mostly I would say it leans into Truly, and then you see 1942 Don Julio. That’s really all you see. I mean you see some wine but it’s not the same, usually it’s just someone holding a glass, they’re not really showing you the brand in the same way, I guess. Do you know what I mean? I mean if someone is saying they’re drinking wine, you just see wine in a glass; they’re not usually pouring that brand and showing you what the brand is. But when it comes to hard seltzer they’re very much showing. I think it’s amazing the amount of loyalty to both the category consumers feel right now and loyalty to the brand they’re choosing is something we’ve never seen before. And it’s happened this fast, you know? I think you had like the beer wars between Miller Lite, Coors Light, and Bud Light evolved over a decade or decades of them really going to war and telling you to do these taste tests and pick one over the other. The war over what it means to choose a Truly compared to what it means to choose a White Claw — Truly has positioned themselves as anti-bro, White claw has positioned themselves to be super bros — is really interesting that it happened that fast.

E: Yeah. Definitely.

A: So I think the innovation that you’re talking about, Erica, is interesting because there’s innovation that’s happening both on the liquid side, lots of liquid innovation, and there’s massive marketing innovation. And the way that people are talking about these beverages and the way they’re playing around to get these beverages in front of consumers and doing creative marketing campaigns and influencer outreach and videos and songs and stuff like that is something that we also haven’t seen before at this speed. And the amount of money, usually when there’s a new category of alcohol or even just an emerging brand of alcohol, usually what you hear from the producer is that they’re not going to really spend very heavily against it, right? So they’re just going to see what happens in the market. Do we gain a little bit of foothold just organically and then maybe we’ll slowly grow. Especially in the way of craft beer, right? Most of these bigger craft breweries never spent on marketing, it was all about word of mouth. But in this category you have people launching brands and committing to six- and seven-figure spends on marketing almost immediately upon launch of the brand because they realize that’s what it’s going to take now and because there are so many brands in the space. But that’s not stopping anyone from launching new stuff, which I just think is amazing.

E: Yeah. Definitely.

Z: So a thought that occurred to me: I was talking to my stepfather the other day who doesn’t drink and he was asking me, “Do you guys ever talk about cider?” And I was like, “No, we talk about hard seltzer instead.” And this is what was supposed to happen to cider but on every kind of steroid you can imagine, where it was this sort of new category, it was going to capture a different segment of the drinking public that had maybe been ignored or at least not fully catered to. But I think the fascinating thing — and I want to get your thoughts on a couple of these specific ones because I’m really curious — as the category radiates out from what I think we would have defined a year ago as what is hard seltzer, meaning very low cal, some sort of fruit flavor and alcohol and now we’re getting into the sort of cocktail seltzers, wine seltzers, all this other stuff, do we think that what is the selling point for it at this point is the connection to this now-established category, or is it really about more the ease of use? Because I think this is the theme that’s fascinating to me, is it really the can, or is it the category that matters?

E: For me, I think convenience is definitely one of the drivers but then I think it’s also that “better for you” trend, right? So we know millennials are not drinking as much as those of us who came before but they’re drinking better. And when you’re looking at the trends of health and wellness and also the variety-seeking behavior and also some level of premiumization, it supports that there’s this growth of the hard seltzer category that is going to go so much further than where we are now and we’re already starting to see that. So for example, one of the breakout hits of the summer has been High Noon, which is a vodka-based hard seltzer. We’re starting to see other vodka seltzers like Keel Sparkling, tequila-based hard seltzers like Volley Spiked seltzer, those RTDs I think are kind of the next evolution. So we have this initial burst of brands that are really going out with this malt beverage but doing the very clever marketing around the calories and the carb counts. But then I think people, millennials especially, will wise up and say, “Malt beverage, I don’t know if that’s for me, what’s the healthier alternative?” And that’s when they’re going to start going down the road of the High Noons and the Volley Spiked Seltzer. Not because it is, by virtue of anything, better for you but because they feel like it’s better for you.

A: And you can see, Zach, which I think is interesting, in this hard seltzer category let’s say we say hard seltzer as its own, right, and then let’s break it down into three. Let’s say that one is spirits-based, so that’s the High Noons Erica’s talking about, and then one is FMB — that’s what is really leading the charge. Truly and White Claw together have over 60 percent of the market, maybe it’s even 70, they have a lot of the market,which is why Boston Beer’s stock right now is valued at $1,000 a share, and then you have now the wine-based seltzers, right? And each one of them are also kind of following this marketing playbook that I alluded to, or mentioned not even alluded to, earlier with how Truly and White Claw are facing off, right? And so you see that as well in spirits-based. So High Noon has really leaned into a brand many people would say is extremely toxic, Barstool Sports. But that has become the brand they have aligned themselves with and it’s a very heavily bro-based brand. And then you have other spirits-based spiked seltzers like Two Chicks and some of the brands that Erica’s mentioned that are going for the higher-end audience and saying they’re for the non-bros, for people that are just interested in that purity that Erica’s talking about. And I think that hasn’t happened yet in wine but I think you’ll see that as well. I’m curious to see which wine brand will create kind of like the bro-tastic, let’s not even say bro, what we really mean is frat-tastic party brand and which one will then be sort of the foil to that brand. It’s interesting that that’s how it’s playing out, it’s like Sharks and Jets among seltzers and what you drink kind of defines who you are. And I think that’s interesting to the brands who are willing to do that because they realize these audiences are so big. Because usually you wouldn’t align yourself with a brand like Barstool because you would assume it would turn off so much of the population who is sick of the misogyny and their racist behavior but there’s such an audience who is still there that High Noon says, “We’ll just take this audience and that’ll be ours and we don’t care if we lose anyone else.” And someone else turns around and says, “Cool, we’ll take everyone else.” That’s what’s happening sort of in these seltzer wars which is really crazy. I mean we had the cola wars in the ’90s and we’re literally going to have the seltzer wars.

Z: I wonder if, you know, you talked about sort of what’s happening with this sort of face-off mentality, the sort of, you know, you’re going to align yourself with a particular brand. Do you think what we saw happen — you were talking about not just the cola wars in the ’90s, which for those of you who are too young to remember it was Pepsi and Coke, you might have heard of them.

A: Coke won.

Z: Yes, well yeah. And we talked about the sort of light beer three battle between Miller, Coors, and Bud Light, but I wonder if this category and just the mentality of the public at this time, do we think that what’s happening now is what’s going to continue to happen? Which is that there’s going to always be newcomers on the scene. I wonder if a year ago we were talking about, “Wow, is White Claw going to rule everything?” And I think they still do. As you pointed out, Adam, they control, or they and Truly control, a huge share of the market at the moment. But I do think that the thing that’s different about the public now as opposed to 25 years ago, is I think a lot of people don’t necessarily want to identify themselves with what feels like a behemoth of a brand. There’s always going to be a segment of the population that wants to try not just something new but sort of the underdog, I guess is how I would put it, and does that kind of mesh with how you guys see the landscape shaking out, that there’s going to be room for smaller producers? Because I know when we last talked about hard seltzer, one of my questions was, is there ever going to be space for quote-unquote craft in this category? And I don’t know if we know that yet but maybe we’re starting to find that out.

E: Oh yeah. I definitely think so. I mean look at what we’re already seeing. You know, Ramona, which is owned by Jordan Salcito, she was a somm who came from Momofuku and then started this spritz brand that is very focused on quality, they’re very transparent about their practices. And then we have Hoxie, another wine-based spritz, Valerie Masten who was previously at Skurnik, she’s at the helm. These people are super focused on quality and transparency and making a really awesome product. But the interesting thing that I’ve seen these brands do, particularly Ramona, is that they didn’t used to market the calorie counts and carb counts and all that but now they are, and I think they are saying, “OK, hey hard seltzer drinkers who do not want to identify with these bigger brands, we’re here for you. We are a 90-calorie product. And we are organic and sustainable.” And like all of these types of messages that they are giving, I think that’s just the beginning. So we’re going to keep going down that path where the amount of complexity and differentiation we’re going to see in this category is going to be huge. I think two years from now, four years from now, it’s going to look entirely different and it’s going to be just as big as the craft brewing explosion that we saw in previous decades.

A: Yeah and I think the reason for that is because, to make a hard seltzer isn’t that difficult now for any of these brands, right? So craft brewers can really easily add seltzer to their repertoire. Like who knows, maybe we’ll start seeing like hazy hard seltzers, wouldn’t that be crazy? But like they could easily add that kind of stuff. And then in the wine brands too … a lot of them were slow to move to cans but now most of them are, so now they’ve kind of realized what it means to have a canning apparatus, add now a beverage where you’re just putting some of your wine and mixing it with seltzer water and adding some sugar and flavoring, it is a lot easier for them to get in. And then yes, people will start to diversify. Pretty recently, I think it was yesterday, the Wine Economist tweeted basically a chart that shows who the largest wine companies in the world are. And it said the largest four suppliers, which are Gallo, Constellation, The Wine Group, and Trinchero, control 60 percent of the market. Which is pretty normal, I mean, that’s not as bad as beer, actually. Only two really control 60 percent of the market. So I think in every space of alcohol you’ll see two, three, four brands or companies that will control a large share of the market and they’ll have lots of offerings in that share of the market, and then you’ll have everyone behind them who have a very good business and a decent amount of people who are buying from them and some of them will be other less craft-focused brands and some will be more focused crafts brands. And I think as this category continues to explode, as Erica’s saying, that definitely is a continued possibility because I think what people are attracted to about the category is that it is light, refreshing, etc., and it reminds them of things that came before. Like I think, you know, the Aperol Spritz, we’ve talked about this before, but the Aperol Spritz has a lot to do with the explosion of this category. Just regular seltzer in general has a lot do with the explosion of this category in general. Like consumers were kind of primed to find something like this, for something like this to be given to them, and then like fully embrace it.

E: Yeah and Aperol right now is way down because of on-premise not being around. Why doesn’t Aperol have an RTD? Why haven’t they done that yet?

A: Campari, if you’re listening, you should have an RTD fast.

E: Dude, you need an RTD way fast because people would drink it, there’s great brand recognition. After all the Aperol Spritz that we’ve been drinking over the past probably five years, that would crush.

A: Crush.

Z: And I think the other part of this is, and it feeds into another piece of this, which is we are living in an off-premise world and I think we are going to be living in an off-premise world for a while still, and if you are a brand, whether it’s Aperol or many others, that has relied traditionally on a lot of on-premise sales and just that driving the identity of your brand, I don’t know if you can afford to wait around another year before that starts coming back. Because, spoiler warning, that’s my projection on how long it’s going to take at a minimum. And I think you have to capitalize on your recognition and your name ID now and get yourself in front of people in the format that they’re most comfortable with. And the honest truth is a lot of people in this country, even if it’s really simple to put Aperol in a glass and put sparkling wine in there, are much more likely to drink your product if it’s in a can and all they have to do is open it.

A: Totally.

Z: Especially, if it’s in a mixed case with a Negroni spritz and something else that you whip up.

A: I mean, I completely agree with you. And look, I think this is a little bit of a segue here but you brought it up in terms of the next year, which I think you’re right, Zach, if not longer. But you know I was very angered by this interview, but I heard an interview with Mark Cuban two or three days ago and he was being interviewed.

Z: You’re not getting your Shark Tank interview anytime soon.

A: No, that’s fine or my court-side seats to the Mavericks, but that’s cool, too. But basically he was talking about the way he looks at investments and the way people change preferences, so he’s like, “Look, like it’s really shitty that all these restaurants are about to go under or that all these bars are suffering but because they’re about to go under or bar’s suffering, doesn’t mean people aren’t drinking or aren’t eating, they’re finding new ways to drink and new ways to eat.” And we’ve talked about this before, it takes six to eight weeks for things like that to become a habit so you know how much longer might it take for bars and restaurants to fully come back because people have just like started to realize, “Man, I make really good bread at home, why was I buying this out?” Or, “I figured out that I can make a really good steak,” or “I can bring really good wine or really good cocktails, or things like that.” And so I think while it’s a year, for sure, until it even feels like we feel comfortable going and sitting at all, it could be five to 10 years before we’re back to any level like we were at six months ago. And in all that time seltzers are just going to become more and more and more dominant. Or this RTD category that Erica’s really talking about, is going to become more and more dominant because it’s going to be about being out with your friends, the convenience of those products, the ability to go to the park. You know, it’s really nuts here, I’m curious for you, Zach, what Seattle feels like. Erica, I’m not going to ask you because you’re in Connecticut. But like New York City feels like Europe right now. The weekends it feels like Europe, it’s really crazy. You go to the parks and they are crowded with people, whether that’s a good or a bad thing, but they’re all picnicking and bringing drinks and every time I look at what people are drinking and I see a ton of seltzer because it’s easy. That portability is really easy and I think if you’re seeing that, too, in Seattle or people are seeing that in D.C. or Atlanta or wherever else they live who listen to the podcast, I think you’re going to see that continue because people are realizing what’s so beautiful about that and what people in Europe have liked about that for decades, and may have gotten used to that and saying, “Well, you know, maybe I don’t want to go and do this at a bar or restaurant every weekend anymore. Maybe that’s my splurge once a month instead of every Friday and Saturday night.” Do you know what I mean?

Z: Absolutely. I mean, yes, I am definitely seeing that in Seattle. I think the thing you see is a combination of people in parks and other public spaces and then you also sort of see just, you know, where I live, you definitely have lots of people who have some outdoor space of their own, a backyard or front yard or something like that, and people are in those or even a rooftop. And it’s just, most things are in cans because you know there’s a reason why it’s been the dominant thing for a lot of beer brands, because it’s easy, it keeps cold pretty well, and you can keep it in your fridge pretty easily. You know a bottle of wine is cumbersome and if it’s got a cork in it and you don’t have a corkscrew with you you’re kind of stuck and certainly bottles of spirits you have to mix together are not something someone’s going to. I might take them on a picnic but most people won’t.

A: Yeah, I won’t.

Z: I would pre-batch, let’s be honest. But yeah, the point is for a lot of people that want those flavors, the can is really the only way they’re going to be willing to go in on it if they’re not willing to have someone else make it for them. So yeah, if you’re out there and you’ve got a brand and you’re not thinking long and hard about how to get your product in a can I feel like you’re missing the boat.

E: Absolutely.

A: It’s like the people in the music industry who were like, “We don’t need to do MP3s, we’re still doing CDs.” You know what I mean, it’s just like this coming faster than we’ve ever seen it come before and if you’re not thinking long and hard about how you’re putting your wine in cans or your just RTD product or whatever, or your, like, Aperol and your listening to the podcast right now and you don’t have Aperol Spritz in development right now to roll out very soon in a can, you’re missing something because no one’s going to bring a bottle of Aperol, a bottle of Prosecco, and a bottle of sparkling water to the park. I don’t see it. And I think that’s why we’ve also seen much less of that consumption this summer because it’s great to drink it when it’s at the bar and you don’t have to worry about having those three simple ingredients, as Zach says, but it’s much different when you’re like, “OK, how would I batch this?” Because first of all, that means I have to pop the bottle of Prosecco, so is it going to get flat on its way to me taking it to the park? If I don’t, then I’m bringing three things, so what happens when, obviously, the sparkling water and the Prosecco run out before the Aperol or vice versa, how does that work? It becomes too much for people.

Z: Yeah and then you grab a White Claw.

A: Exactly. Because you’re like I’m just looking for flavored bubbles.

E: Exactly. And just think about as soon as it gets cold out people will have spent this entire summer experimenting with different brands seeing what they like, they will have found a couple of things that they really like and we’ve seen this massive rise of at-home cocktails but that will continue on. But to be honest, a lot of people are just lazy and just want a drink at the end of the day and those White Claws, Truly’s, etc. are just going to be popped open. And the cocktail may become more of a special thing that you are maybe not making every day. Who knows? But I think that people will have spent this entire summer testing and trying out the different brands that are in their marketplace. Like literally when I’ve gone into liquor stores that’s where people are gathered. They’re trying them all and at the end of the day, that’s going to be the go-to probably in a lot of cases instead of like a beer or a glass of wine.

A: Yeah, it is. It’s crazy. It’s really crazy. And like look for me I still haven’t found my hard seltzer that I love, it’s just really not my thing as much.

E: I’ll tell you mine.

A: What’s yours?

E: OK, so I like the Ramona Dry Grapefruit, which is like the driest version that they’re making. And then I also am super excited, like my at-home drink is ranch water, which we are now all drinking, which is just a tequila soda with a bunch of lime. Now there are three new ranch waters out on the market that I’ve just read about that I’m going to try. Super excited to try them. But I think that that type of thing where it’s just like an easy thing that you can pop open, they’re just getting better and better.

A: Yeah, I haven’t had a lot. Have you had any, Zach, that you like or that you would reach for?

Z: I actually, it’s funny that Erica said the Ramona Dry Grapefruit because that’s actually the one I’ve had most recently that I’ve really liked as well. It’s definitely an area that I will freely admit I need to explore more. Those of you listening that want to send me some samples, do it. I will give them a try. But yeah, I think what Erica said is a really good point, which is that we are at this phase of expansion that is really exciting where some really interesting ideas are taking hold, where really quality producers who are, not to say anything about the quality of some of the existing products but a lot of it is aimed at a mass market, but some of the more niche products are starting to hit the market, I would be interested in trying more of those. And just in general getting a sense for, I like sparkling things, I like bubbly things, so it’s definitely a category I have interest in and I think as you get more quality and more diversity in there I am sure that I will find a few that I will like. I’ve even sort of convinced my wife that we can buy them, it’s OK. She drinks so much sparkling water and sparkling wine, I’m just like, this is just a nice midpoint for the two of us. Because sometimes I don’t want to drink wine, as hard as that is to believe.

A: See for me, again yes, if you listen to the podcast, if you have some hard seltzer let us know. Email us at podcasts@vinepair.com, we’ll give it a try and we’ll let you know what we think at a later date. I am curious. I have yet to find one that I completely love. I’ve had Willy’s Superbrew. I’ve liked it but I think what’s also been really crazy to watch over the summer is the way just the term seltzer has completely morphed. We went to the park recently and met up with my cousin and his fiancée and we were sitting down, it was like the middle of the day on like a Sunday, and like my wife and I day drink but we weren’t in the mood and they asked us if we wanted seltzer and both of us were like “no, no, no we don’t want seltzer right now,” and they were like no, it’s seltzer seltzer. We’re like, “Oh, yeah, thanks.” The fact that like, to us, that’s what seltzer meant at this point is like yeah, its alcoholic is just absolutely insane and speaks to how much this category has taken over just in the last year.

Z: Yeah it’s a behemoth.

E: Just going to get bigger and bigger.

A: Just going to get bigger and bigger. We’ll check in about this again as time goes on. Maybe this fall when someone’s released a pumpkin spice seltzer.

Z: You predicted this last year and I was horrified.

A: It’s going to happen, I promise you it’s going to happen. You’re going to get a pumpkin spice seltzer and some sort of peppermint latte spice, you know what I mean? You know like some peppermint seltzer, I promise you. Like it’s for sure coming, there’s no way someone’s not trying or someone hasn’t already tried it and just has it ready to launch at the end of August, I’m convinced.

Z: Just as long as we don’t get a turkey and gravy one, I’m good.

A: That would be so gross. So anyway, if you have thoughts about this podcast hit us up at podcasts@vinepair.com, we’d love to hear what you think. If you have any other questions let us know as well and as always it really helps if you can leave a review, a rating, etc., and tell your friends, family, people you’d not even know walking on the sidewalk about the show. It really helps us get the word out there and more people discover what we’re up to. And Zach, Erica, before I say goodbye, let’s hit them with one more ad. Alright, bartenders, enter the Cognac Connection challenge to win a $1,000 scholarship. We’re giving away 10 of them. The deadline is Aug. 31, go to cognacconnection.com as Zach said, you spell that C-O-G-N-A-C-C-O-N-N-E-C-T-I-O-N.com to enter and for all the details. Thanks so much. See you guys next week.

Z: Sounds great.

E: Bye.

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. 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.

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

The article VinePair Podcast: Hard Seltzer Is Rapidly Evolving — Here’s What You Need to Know appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/hard-seltzer-is-rapidly-evolving/

[johnboothus]

VinePair Podcast: Hard Seltzer Is Rapidly Evolving Heres What You Need to Know

Last summer, a.k.a. the summer of hard seltzer, starred the juggernaut that is White Claw. While White Claw Summer turned out to be a massive success that transcends seasons, summer 2020 has seen an explosion of newcomers to the seltzer category.

There’s no denying the hard seltzer category is rapidly evolving beyond the initial flavored malt beverage base. The big players in the category are still big, but new versions of the basic formula of alcoholic seltzer abound, from spirits brands creating canned versions of their products mixed with seltzer, to a range of wine-based hard seltzers, to the many small breweries releasing new takes on the phenomenon.

This week on the VinePair Podcast, Adam Teeter, Erica Duecy, and Zach Geballe discuss some of these new innovations, as well as how some brands are choosing to affiliate themselves with a particular lifestyle or even subculture. Also, why hard seltzer is a must for many major alcohol brands.

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

Erica: From Connecticut, I’m Erica Duecy.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the VinePair Podcast. Before we get into today’s banter, a word from this week’s sponsor. Cognac USA, Speed Rack, and us, VinePair, are thrilled to offer 10 $1,000 scholarship prizes exclusively for professional bartenders. To enter to win these prizes, all you have to do is create an original Cognac cocktail and join virtual events in the next few months. I mean, dude, I love Cognac cocktails so I think I would, I mean if I was a professional bartender I would totally enter. To enter though, you just visit cognacconnection.com for details. The deadline to enter is Aug. 31. That’s cognacconnection.com. Also, some legal stuff, the campaign’s financed with aid from the European Union.

Z: And if you don’t know how to spell Cognac its C-O-G-N-A-C.

A: I love that you’re coming in hot with the help on the ad just to tell you how to spell Cognac.

Z: I’m just saying, you’d be surprised how many people misspell it.

A: That’s true. I think, I mean it’s going to be a dope competition. And like, look, if you’re entering don’t just make a Sazerac.

Z: That is decidedly not an original creation.

A: Exactly. Or like a riff on a Sazerac, I mean to say. Anyway, guys, you know lots of really great feedback from last week’s clean wine episode. More clean wine bullshit out there, too.

E: Oh my god, it just keeps going.

Z: I feel like we opened Pandora’s box by doing a podcast about it because now everyone is sending me every last article they find and I’m, like “Ugh, the scourge upon the earth that has been unleashed.”

A: I mean, I do think like it’s all coming to a head, right? It’s the beast that won’t stop. And it’s kind of taking all of these sort of unregulated terms along with it. I think it’s making a lot of people look at the industry and be like, “Wow, yeah, there are a lot of ways we used to label this beverage that basically had zero meaning.” And maybe we should look at that regulation. But now, you even have people that are taking things that you actually can regulate and redefining them. I mean, I know Erica’s aware of this because we were discussing on the Slack channel today, maybe, Zach, you saw it, too, but that company Clean Wines, or whatever the hell they’re called, they’re like actually using DOC certification stuff as like a reason to say that they’ve done the research on these wines, that they’re clean. And I’m like, “That’s not what these certifications are for.” But they’re just bamboozling consumers. “Oh, well there’s a certification on it so like it’s definitely better for you because it says DOCG.”

E: Yeah, it says, so it was Good Clean Wine, and they said, “Each of our wines carries certifications to be classified as either an IGT DOC or IGP wine.” Yeah, no. That has nothing to do with this splatter. Sorry. Like, where are you coming up with this?

Z: I think it just speaks to what we talked about last week, which is there is this incredible vacuum of public understanding of wine and especially when it comes to European wine. What any of those acronyms even mean and what they do and do not indicate about a wine and it’s a real easy vacuum for people to fill with just endless mountains of bullshit and that’s what’s happening.

E: That’s exactly what’s happening.

A: So you know what this reminds me of, Zach you may recall this as well, growing up as a Jewish kid in Alabama, my family wasn’t kosher but anything that I saw that was kosher I’d be like, “Yeah, that’s ours!” And so do you remember the campaign that was Hebrew National Hot Dogs and they’re like, “We answer to a higher authority”?

Z: I do.

A: And they basically we’re just like, “Yeah, we’re certified kosher.” They never said that they meant the hot dogs were better for you or cleaner but that’s basically what they were saying and the hot dogs exploded across the American market. Tons of people bought them because they thought they were cleaner and better. I don’t know, maybe that slaughterhouse did a better job, although it’s a hot dog at the end of the day, right? Like how much cleaner is it than other hot dogs? But this is exactly what this campaign reminded me of, it’s like we have a certification that actually has nothing to do with how we’re going to use that certification. But because we have our certification we’re going to make you think that that matters more than the other wines that don’t. It’s just hilarious, they should’ve just been like, “Clean Wines, we answer to the Italian bureaucracy with DOCG certification.”

Z: “We answer to a higher authority that Italians themselves don’t pay attention to half the time.”

A: Anyways, yeah that’s been fun to continue to watch this thing spiral out of control. Anyways, that’s not today’s topic, today’s topic is instead the continued, I know we’ve talked about it a good bit over the past few months, but the continued runaway train expansion of the hard seltzer category with so many brands jumping in. It seems like now no matter where you are in the classic wine, beer, or spirits space you are paying attention to this category, right? We have wineries jumping in within wine-based hard seltzers, we have beer, even craft beer, producers with their own versions of flavored malt beverages, and then you have spirits companies jumping in and then today, Thursday, July 30, you had Coca-Cola announce that they’re releasing a hard seltzer under their brand Topo Chico, which is just unbelievable, right? So everyone’s jumping in and I think it’s just insane. So, Erica, we’re actually publishing a story tomorrow about this, correct?

E: Yeah, definitely. So, Courtney Schiessl, who is an amazing writer who I love working with, she and I have been chatting about this on and off for months and the article that’s going to be coming out is looking at the massive evolution of this category. This is something that went from last year the entire category was worth $500 million, this year if you just look at the past 52 weeks it has already hit $2.7 billion in off-premise sales. And I saw a report this morning saying that hard seltzer sales are now predicted to $14.5 billion by 2027. So the compound growth rate of this segment of the beverage alcohol industry is stunning. I think they’re saying like 16.2 percent growth compound annual growth rate from 2020 to 2027. That is stunning considering that everything else is essentially flat or down. So this is the runaway train that we are going to see quickly evolving and going in new directions and those are the things that we’re going to be exploring.

A: Well, look, there’s a reason Anthony von Mandl, the owner of Mark Anthony brands who owns White Claw, is now the 40th richest man in the world.

E: Wow.

Z: You’re saying it wasn’t all Mike’s Hard Lemonade that did that?

A: No. Although you know that that’s also actually a billion-dollar brand. Which I never, never thought about that. Like I always thought, “Oh, who drinks Mike’s Hard Lemonade?” And then I was talking to Josh recently about it and he was like, “Did you know that it’s actually a billion-dollar brand?” I looked it up and it is, and I was like, whoa, I never would have thought that.

Z: Yeah, you would think, I guess teenagers have a lot of money.

A: Yeah, I mean, teenagers and yeah, I guess, who else is drinking Mike’s. Although I’ve started paying attention to Tik Tok, I’m Tok-ing, and there’s a lot of Mike’s Hard Lemonade on Tik Tok. So this is why I think it’s interesting, there’s only three really alcohols you see on Tik Tok all the time. You see White Claw as a brand, you see all other hard seltzers, mostly I would say it leans into Truly, and then you see 1942 Don Julio. That’s really all you see. I mean you see some wine but it’s not the same, usually it’s just someone holding a glass, they’re not really showing you the brand in the same way, I guess. Do you know what I mean? I mean if someone is saying they’re drinking wine, you just see wine in a glass; they’re not usually pouring that brand and showing you what the brand is. But when it comes to hard seltzer they’re very much showing. I think it’s amazing the amount of loyalty to both the category consumers feel right now and loyalty to the brand they’re choosing is something we’ve never seen before. And it’s happened this fast, you know? I think you had like the beer wars between Miller Lite, Coors Light, and Bud Light evolved over a decade or decades of them really going to war and telling you to do these taste tests and pick one over the other. The war over what it means to choose a Truly compared to what it means to choose a White Claw — Truly has positioned themselves as anti-bro, White claw has positioned themselves to be super bros — is really interesting that it happened that fast.

E: Yeah. Definitely.

A: So I think the innovation that you’re talking about, Erica, is interesting because there’s innovation that’s happening both on the liquid side, lots of liquid innovation, and there’s massive marketing innovation. And the way that people are talking about these beverages and the way they’re playing around to get these beverages in front of consumers and doing creative marketing campaigns and influencer outreach and videos and songs and stuff like that is something that we also haven’t seen before at this speed. And the amount of money, usually when there’s a new category of alcohol or even just an emerging brand of alcohol, usually what you hear from the producer is that they’re not going to really spend very heavily against it, right? So they’re just going to see what happens in the market. Do we gain a little bit of foothold just organically and then maybe we’ll slowly grow. Especially in the way of craft beer, right? Most of these bigger craft breweries never spent on marketing, it was all about word of mouth. But in this category you have people launching brands and committing to six- and seven-figure spends on marketing almost immediately upon launch of the brand because they realize that’s what it’s going to take now and because there are so many brands in the space. But that’s not stopping anyone from launching new stuff, which I just think is amazing.

E: Yeah. Definitely.

Z: So a thought that occurred to me: I was talking to my stepfather the other day who doesn’t drink and he was asking me, “Do you guys ever talk about cider?” And I was like, “No, we talk about hard seltzer instead.” And this is what was supposed to happen to cider but on every kind of steroid you can imagine, where it was this sort of new category, it was going to capture a different segment of the drinking public that had maybe been ignored or at least not fully catered to. But I think the fascinating thing — and I want to get your thoughts on a couple of these specific ones because I’m really curious — as the category radiates out from what I think we would have defined a year ago as what is hard seltzer, meaning very low cal, some sort of fruit flavor and alcohol and now we’re getting into the sort of cocktail seltzers, wine seltzers, all this other stuff, do we think that what is the selling point for it at this point is the connection to this now-established category, or is it really about more the ease of use? Because I think this is the theme that’s fascinating to me, is it really the can, or is it the category that matters?

E: For me, I think convenience is definitely one of the drivers but then I think it’s also that “better for you” trend, right? So we know millennials are not drinking as much as those of us who came before but they’re drinking better. And when you’re looking at the trends of health and wellness and also the variety-seeking behavior and also some level of premiumization, it supports that there’s this growth of the hard seltzer category that is going to go so much further than where we are now and we’re already starting to see that. So for example, one of the breakout hits of the summer has been High Noon, which is a vodka-based hard seltzer. We’re starting to see other vodka seltzers like Keel Sparkling, tequila-based hard seltzers like Volley Spiked seltzer, those RTDs I think are kind of the next evolution. So we have this initial burst of brands that are really going out with this malt beverage but doing the very clever marketing around the calories and the carb counts. But then I think people, millennials especially, will wise up and say, “Malt beverage, I don’t know if that’s for me, what’s the healthier alternative?” And that’s when they’re going to start going down the road of the High Noons and the Volley Spiked Seltzer. Not because it is, by virtue of anything, better for you but because they feel like it’s better for you.

A: And you can see, Zach, which I think is interesting, in this hard seltzer category let’s say we say hard seltzer as its own, right, and then let’s break it down into three. Let’s say that one is spirits-based, so that’s the High Noons Erica’s talking about, and then one is FMB — that’s what is really leading the charge. Truly and White Claw together have over 60 percent of the market, maybe it’s even 70, they have a lot of the market,which is why Boston Beer’s stock right now is valued at $1,000 a share, and then you have now the wine-based seltzers, right? And each one of them are also kind of following this marketing playbook that I alluded to, or mentioned not even alluded to, earlier with how Truly and White Claw are facing off, right? And so you see that as well in spirits-based. So High Noon has really leaned into a brand many people would say is extremely toxic, Barstool Sports. But that has become the brand they have aligned themselves with and it’s a very heavily bro-based brand. And then you have other spirits-based spiked seltzers like Two Chicks and some of the brands that Erica’s mentioned that are going for the higher-end audience and saying they’re for the non-bros, for people that are just interested in that purity that Erica’s talking about. And I think that hasn’t happened yet in wine but I think you’ll see that as well. I’m curious to see which wine brand will create kind of like the bro-tastic, let’s not even say bro, what we really mean is frat-tastic party brand and which one will then be sort of the foil to that brand. It’s interesting that that’s how it’s playing out, it’s like Sharks and Jets among seltzers and what you drink kind of defines who you are. And I think that’s interesting to the brands who are willing to do that because they realize these audiences are so big. Because usually you wouldn’t align yourself with a brand like Barstool because you would assume it would turn off so much of the population who is sick of the misogyny and their racist behavior but there’s such an audience who is still there that High Noon says, “We’ll just take this audience and that’ll be ours and we don’t care if we lose anyone else.” And someone else turns around and says, “Cool, we’ll take everyone else.” That’s what’s happening sort of in these seltzer wars which is really crazy. I mean we had the cola wars in the ’90s and we’re literally going to have the seltzer wars.

Z: I wonder if, you know, you talked about sort of what’s happening with this sort of face-off mentality, the sort of, you know, you’re going to align yourself with a particular brand. Do you think what we saw happen — you were talking about not just the cola wars in the ’90s, which for those of you who are too young to remember it was Pepsi and Coke, you might have heard of them.

A: Coke won.

Z: Yes, well yeah. And we talked about the sort of light beer three battle between Miller, Coors, and Bud Light, but I wonder if this category and just the mentality of the public at this time, do we think that what’s happening now is what’s going to continue to happen? Which is that there’s going to always be newcomers on the scene. I wonder if a year ago we were talking about, “Wow, is White Claw going to rule everything?” And I think they still do. As you pointed out, Adam, they control, or they and Truly control, a huge share of the market at the moment. But I do think that the thing that’s different about the public now as opposed to 25 years ago, is I think a lot of people don’t necessarily want to identify themselves with what feels like a behemoth of a brand. There’s always going to be a segment of the population that wants to try not just something new but sort of the underdog, I guess is how I would put it, and does that kind of mesh with how you guys see the landscape shaking out, that there’s going to be room for smaller producers? Because I know when we last talked about hard seltzer, one of my questions was, is there ever going to be space for quote-unquote craft in this category? And I don’t know if we know that yet but maybe we’re starting to find that out.

E: Oh yeah. I definitely think so. I mean look at what we’re already seeing. You know, Ramona, which is owned by Jordan Salcito, she was a somm who came from Momofuku and then started this spritz brand that is very focused on quality, they’re very transparent about their practices. And then we have Hoxie, another wine-based spritz, Valerie Masten who was previously at Skurnik, she’s at the helm. These people are super focused on quality and transparency and making a really awesome product. But the interesting thing that I’ve seen these brands do, particularly Ramona, is that they didn’t used to market the calorie counts and carb counts and all that but now they are, and I think they are saying, “OK, hey hard seltzer drinkers who do not want to identify with these bigger brands, we’re here for you. We are a 90-calorie product. And we are organic and sustainable.” And like all of these types of messages that they are giving, I think that’s just the beginning. So we’re going to keep going down that path where the amount of complexity and differentiation we’re going to see in this category is going to be huge. I think two years from now, four years from now, it’s going to look entirely different and it’s going to be just as big as the craft brewing explosion that we saw in previous decades.

A: Yeah and I think the reason for that is because, to make a hard seltzer isn’t that difficult now for any of these brands, right? So craft brewers can really easily add seltzer to their repertoire. Like who knows, maybe we’ll start seeing like hazy hard seltzers, wouldn’t that be crazy? But like they could easily add that kind of stuff. And then in the wine brands too … a lot of them were slow to move to cans but now most of them are, so now they’ve kind of realized what it means to have a canning apparatus, add now a beverage where you’re just putting some of your wine and mixing it with seltzer water and adding some sugar and flavoring, it is a lot easier for them to get in. And then yes, people will start to diversify. Pretty recently, I think it was yesterday, the Wine Economist tweeted basically a chart that shows who the largest wine companies in the world are. And it said the largest four suppliers, which are Gallo, Constellation, The Wine Group, and Trinchero, control 60 percent of the market. Which is pretty normal, I mean, that’s not as bad as beer, actually. Only two really control 60 percent of the market. So I think in every space of alcohol you’ll see two, three, four brands or companies that will control a large share of the market and they’ll have lots of offerings in that share of the market, and then you’ll have everyone behind them who have a very good business and a decent amount of people who are buying from them and some of them will be other less craft-focused brands and some will be more focused crafts brands. And I think as this category continues to explode, as Erica’s saying, that definitely is a continued possibility because I think what people are attracted to about the category is that it is light, refreshing, etc., and it reminds them of things that came before. Like I think, you know, the Aperol Spritz, we’ve talked about this before, but the Aperol Spritz has a lot to do with the explosion of this category. Just regular seltzer in general has a lot do with the explosion of this category in general. Like consumers were kind of primed to find something like this, for something like this to be given to them, and then like fully embrace it.

E: Yeah and Aperol right now is way down because of on-premise not being around. Why doesn’t Aperol have an RTD? Why haven’t they done that yet?

A: Campari, if you’re listening, you should have an RTD fast.

E: Dude, you need an RTD way fast because people would drink it, there’s great brand recognition. After all the Aperol Spritz that we’ve been drinking over the past probably five years, that would crush.

A: Crush.

Z: And I think the other part of this is, and it feeds into another piece of this, which is we are living in an off-premise world and I think we are going to be living in an off-premise world for a while still, and if you are a brand, whether it’s Aperol or many others, that has relied traditionally on a lot of on-premise sales and just that driving the identity of your brand, I don’t know if you can afford to wait around another year before that starts coming back. Because, spoiler warning, that’s my projection on how long it’s going to take at a minimum. And I think you have to capitalize on your recognition and your name ID now and get yourself in front of people in the format that they’re most comfortable with. And the honest truth is a lot of people in this country, even if it’s really simple to put Aperol in a glass and put sparkling wine in there, are much more likely to drink your product if it’s in a can and all they have to do is open it.

A: Totally.

Z: Especially, if it’s in a mixed case with a Negroni spritz and something else that you whip up.

A: I mean, I completely agree with you. And look, I think this is a little bit of a segue here but you brought it up in terms of the next year, which I think you’re right, Zach, if not longer. But you know I was very angered by this interview, but I heard an interview with Mark Cuban two or three days ago and he was being interviewed.

Z: You’re not getting your Shark Tank interview anytime soon.

A: No, that’s fine or my court-side seats to the Mavericks, but that’s cool, too. But basically he was talking about the way he looks at investments and the way people change preferences, so he’s like, “Look, like it’s really shitty that all these restaurants are about to go under or that all these bars are suffering but because they’re about to go under or bar’s suffering, doesn’t mean people aren’t drinking or aren’t eating, they’re finding new ways to drink and new ways to eat.” And we’ve talked about this before, it takes six to eight weeks for things like that to become a habit so you know how much longer might it take for bars and restaurants to fully come back because people have just like started to realize, “Man, I make really good bread at home, why was I buying this out?” Or, “I figured out that I can make a really good steak,” or “I can bring really good wine or really good cocktails, or things like that.” And so I think while it’s a year, for sure, until it even feels like we feel comfortable going and sitting at all, it could be five to 10 years before we’re back to any level like we were at six months ago. And in all that time seltzers are just going to become more and more and more dominant. Or this RTD category that Erica’s really talking about, is going to become more and more dominant because it’s going to be about being out with your friends, the convenience of those products, the ability to go to the park. You know, it’s really nuts here, I’m curious for you, Zach, what Seattle feels like. Erica, I’m not going to ask you because you’re in Connecticut. But like New York City feels like Europe right now. The weekends it feels like Europe, it’s really crazy. You go to the parks and they are crowded with people, whether that’s a good or a bad thing, but they’re all picnicking and bringing drinks and every time I look at what people are drinking and I see a ton of seltzer because it’s easy. That portability is really easy and I think if you’re seeing that, too, in Seattle or people are seeing that in D.C. or Atlanta or wherever else they live who listen to the podcast, I think you’re going to see that continue because people are realizing what’s so beautiful about that and what people in Europe have liked about that for decades, and may have gotten used to that and saying, “Well, you know, maybe I don’t want to go and do this at a bar or restaurant every weekend anymore. Maybe that’s my splurge once a month instead of every Friday and Saturday night.” Do you know what I mean?

Z: Absolutely. I mean, yes, I am definitely seeing that in Seattle. I think the thing you see is a combination of people in parks and other public spaces and then you also sort of see just, you know, where I live, you definitely have lots of people who have some outdoor space of their own, a backyard or front yard or something like that, and people are in those or even a rooftop. And it’s just, most things are in cans because you know there’s a reason why it’s been the dominant thing for a lot of beer brands, because it’s easy, it keeps cold pretty well, and you can keep it in your fridge pretty easily. You know a bottle of wine is cumbersome and if it’s got a cork in it and you don’t have a corkscrew with you you’re kind of stuck and certainly bottles of spirits you have to mix together are not something someone’s going to. I might take them on a picnic but most people won’t.

A: Yeah, I won’t.

Z: I would pre-batch, let’s be honest. But yeah, the point is for a lot of people that want those flavors, the can is really the only way they’re going to be willing to go in on it if they’re not willing to have someone else make it for them. So yeah, if you’re out there and you’ve got a brand and you’re not thinking long and hard about how to get your product in a can I feel like you’re missing the boat.

E: Absolutely.

A: It’s like the people in the music industry who were like, “We don’t need to do MP3s, we’re still doing CDs.” You know what I mean, it’s just like this coming faster than we’ve ever seen it come before and if you’re not thinking long and hard about how you’re putting your wine in cans or your just RTD product or whatever, or your, like, Aperol and your listening to the podcast right now and you don’t have Aperol Spritz in development right now to roll out very soon in a can, you’re missing something because no one’s going to bring a bottle of Aperol, a bottle of Prosecco, and a bottle of sparkling water to the park. I don’t see it. And I think that’s why we’ve also seen much less of that consumption this summer because it’s great to drink it when it’s at the bar and you don’t have to worry about having those three simple ingredients, as Zach says, but it’s much different when you’re like, “OK, how would I batch this?” Because first of all, that means I have to pop the bottle of Prosecco, so is it going to get flat on its way to me taking it to the park? If I don’t, then I’m bringing three things, so what happens when, obviously, the sparkling water and the Prosecco run out before the Aperol or vice versa, how does that work? It becomes too much for people.

Z: Yeah and then you grab a White Claw.

A: Exactly. Because you’re like I’m just looking for flavored bubbles.

E: Exactly. And just think about as soon as it gets cold out people will have spent this entire summer experimenting with different brands seeing what they like, they will have found a couple of things that they really like and we’ve seen this massive rise of at-home cocktails but that will continue on. But to be honest, a lot of people are just lazy and just want a drink at the end of the day and those White Claws, Truly’s, etc. are just going to be popped open. And the cocktail may become more of a special thing that you are maybe not making every day. Who knows? But I think that people will have spent this entire summer testing and trying out the different brands that are in their marketplace. Like literally when I’ve gone into liquor stores that’s where people are gathered. They’re trying them all and at the end of the day, that’s going to be the go-to probably in a lot of cases instead of like a beer or a glass of wine.

A: Yeah, it is. It’s crazy. It’s really crazy. And like look for me I still haven’t found my hard seltzer that I love, it’s just really not my thing as much.

E: I’ll tell you mine.

A: What’s yours?

E: OK, so I like the Ramona Dry Grapefruit, which is like the driest version that they’re making. And then I also am super excited, like my at-home drink is ranch water, which we are now all drinking, which is just a tequila soda with a bunch of lime. Now there are three new ranch waters out on the market that I’ve just read about that I’m going to try. Super excited to try them. But I think that that type of thing where it’s just like an easy thing that you can pop open, they’re just getting better and better.

A: Yeah, I haven’t had a lot. Have you had any, Zach, that you like or that you would reach for?

Z: I actually, it’s funny that Erica said the Ramona Dry Grapefruit because that’s actually the one I’ve had most recently that I’ve really liked as well. It’s definitely an area that I will freely admit I need to explore more. Those of you listening that want to send me some samples, do it. I will give them a try. But yeah, I think what Erica said is a really good point, which is that we are at this phase of expansion that is really exciting where some really interesting ideas are taking hold, where really quality producers who are, not to say anything about the quality of some of the existing products but a lot of it is aimed at a mass market, but some of the more niche products are starting to hit the market, I would be interested in trying more of those. And just in general getting a sense for, I like sparkling things, I like bubbly things, so it’s definitely a category I have interest in and I think as you get more quality and more diversity in there I am sure that I will find a few that I will like. I’ve even sort of convinced my wife that we can buy them, it’s OK. She drinks so much sparkling water and sparkling wine, I’m just like, this is just a nice midpoint for the two of us. Because sometimes I don’t want to drink wine, as hard as that is to believe.

A: See for me, again yes, if you listen to the podcast, if you have some hard seltzer let us know. Email us at podcasts@vinepair.com, we’ll give it a try and we’ll let you know what we think at a later date. I am curious. I have yet to find one that I completely love. I’ve had Willy’s Superbrew. I’ve liked it but I think what’s also been really crazy to watch over the summer is the way just the term seltzer has completely morphed. We went to the park recently and met up with my cousin and his fiancée and we were sitting down, it was like the middle of the day on like a Sunday, and like my wife and I day drink but we weren’t in the mood and they asked us if we wanted seltzer and both of us were like “no, no, no we don’t want seltzer right now,” and they were like no, it’s seltzer seltzer. We’re like, “Oh, yeah, thanks.” The fact that like, to us, that’s what seltzer meant at this point is like yeah, its alcoholic is just absolutely insane and speaks to how much this category has taken over just in the last year.

Z: Yeah it’s a behemoth.

E: Just going to get bigger and bigger.

A: Just going to get bigger and bigger. We’ll check in about this again as time goes on. Maybe this fall when someone’s released a pumpkin spice seltzer.

Z: You predicted this last year and I was horrified.

A: It’s going to happen, I promise you it’s going to happen. You’re going to get a pumpkin spice seltzer and some sort of peppermint latte spice, you know what I mean? You know like some peppermint seltzer, I promise you. Like it’s for sure coming, there’s no way someone’s not trying or someone hasn’t already tried it and just has it ready to launch at the end of August, I’m convinced.

Z: Just as long as we don’t get a turkey and gravy one, I’m good.

A: That would be so gross. So anyway, if you have thoughts about this podcast hit us up at podcasts@vinepair.com, we’d love to hear what you think. If you have any other questions let us know as well and as always it really helps if you can leave a review, a rating, etc., and tell your friends, family, people you’d not even know walking on the sidewalk about the show. It really helps us get the word out there and more people discover what we’re up to. And Zach, Erica, before I say goodbye, let’s hit them with one more ad. Alright, bartenders, enter the Cognac Connection challenge to win a $1,000 scholarship. We’re giving away 10 of them. The deadline is Aug. 31, go to cognacconnection.com as Zach said, you spell that C-O-G-N-A-C-C-O-N-N-E-C-T-I-O-N.com to enter and for all the details. Thanks so much. See you guys next week.

Z: Sounds great.

E: Bye.

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. 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.

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

The article VinePair Podcast: Hard Seltzer Is Rapidly Evolving — Here’s What You Need to Know appeared first on VinePair.

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[isaiahrippinus]

VinePair Podcast: Hard Seltzer Is Rapidly Evolving — Here’s What You Need to Know

Last summer, a.k.a. the summer of hard seltzer, starred the juggernaut that is White Claw. While White Claw Summer turned out to be a massive success that transcends seasons, summer 2020 has seen an explosion of newcomers to the seltzer category.

There’s no denying the hard seltzer category is rapidly evolving beyond the initial flavored malt beverage base. The big players in the category are still big, but new versions of the basic formula of alcoholic seltzer abound, from spirits brands creating canned versions of their products mixed with seltzer, to a range of wine-based hard seltzers, to the many small breweries releasing new takes on the phenomenon.

This week on the VinePair Podcast, Adam Teeter, Erica Duecy, and Zach Geballe discuss some of these new innovations, as well as how some brands are choosing to affiliate themselves with a particular lifestyle or even subculture. Also, why hard seltzer is a must for many major alcohol brands.

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

Erica: From Connecticut, I’m Erica Duecy.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the VinePair Podcast. Before we get into today’s banter, a word from this week’s sponsor. Cognac USA, Speed Rack, and us, VinePair, are thrilled to offer 10 $1,000 scholarship prizes exclusively for professional bartenders. To enter to win these prizes, all you have to do is create an original Cognac cocktail and join virtual events in the next few months. I mean, dude, I love Cognac cocktails so I think I would, I mean if I was a professional bartender I would totally enter. To enter though, you just visit cognacconnection.com for details. The deadline to enter is Aug. 31. That’s cognacconnection.com. Also, some legal stuff, the campaign’s financed with aid from the European Union.

Z: And if you don’t know how to spell Cognac its C-O-G-N-A-C.

A: I love that you’re coming in hot with the help on the ad just to tell you how to spell Cognac.

Z: I’m just saying, you’d be surprised how many people misspell it.

A: That’s true. I think, I mean it’s going to be a dope competition. And like, look, if you’re entering don’t just make a Sazerac.

Z: That is decidedly not an original creation.

A: Exactly. Or like a riff on a Sazerac, I mean to say. Anyway, guys, you know lots of really great feedback from last week’s clean wine episode. More clean wine bullshit out there, too.

E: Oh my god, it just keeps going.

Z: I feel like we opened Pandora’s box by doing a podcast about it because now everyone is sending me every last article they find and I’m, like “Ugh, the scourge upon the earth that has been unleashed.”

A: I mean, I do think like it’s all coming to a head, right? It’s the beast that won’t stop. And it’s kind of taking all of these sort of unregulated terms along with it. I think it’s making a lot of people look at the industry and be like, “Wow, yeah, there are a lot of ways we used to label this beverage that basically had zero meaning.” And maybe we should look at that regulation. But now, you even have people that are taking things that you actually can regulate and redefining them. I mean, I know Erica’s aware of this because we were discussing on the Slack channel today, maybe, Zach, you saw it, too, but that company Clean Wines, or whatever the hell they’re called, they’re like actually using DOC certification stuff as like a reason to say that they’ve done the research on these wines, that they’re clean. And I’m like, “That’s not what these certifications are for.” But they’re just bamboozling consumers. “Oh, well there’s a certification on it so like it’s definitely better for you because it says DOCG.”

E: Yeah, it says, so it was Good Clean Wine, and they said, “Each of our wines carries certifications to be classified as either an IGT DOC or IGP wine.” Yeah, no. That has nothing to do with this splatter. Sorry. Like, where are you coming up with this?

Z: I think it just speaks to what we talked about last week, which is there is this incredible vacuum of public understanding of wine and especially when it comes to European wine. What any of those acronyms even mean and what they do and do not indicate about a wine and it’s a real easy vacuum for people to fill with just endless mountains of bullshit and that’s what’s happening.

E: That’s exactly what’s happening.

A: So you know what this reminds me of, Zach you may recall this as well, growing up as a Jewish kid in Alabama, my family wasn’t kosher but anything that I saw that was kosher I’d be like, “Yeah, that’s ours!” And so do you remember the campaign that was Hebrew National Hot Dogs and they’re like, “We answer to a higher authority”?

Z: I do.

A: And they basically we’re just like, “Yeah, we’re certified kosher.” They never said that they meant the hot dogs were better for you or cleaner but that’s basically what they were saying and the hot dogs exploded across the American market. Tons of people bought them because they thought they were cleaner and better. I don’t know, maybe that slaughterhouse did a better job, although it’s a hot dog at the end of the day, right? Like how much cleaner is it than other hot dogs? But this is exactly what this campaign reminded me of, it’s like we have a certification that actually has nothing to do with how we’re going to use that certification. But because we have our certification we’re going to make you think that that matters more than the other wines that don’t. It’s just hilarious, they should’ve just been like, “Clean Wines, we answer to the Italian bureaucracy with DOCG certification.”

Z: “We answer to a higher authority that Italians themselves don’t pay attention to half the time.”

A: Anyways, yeah that’s been fun to continue to watch this thing spiral out of control. Anyways, that’s not today’s topic, today’s topic is instead the continued, I know we’ve talked about it a good bit over the past few months, but the continued runaway train expansion of the hard seltzer category with so many brands jumping in. It seems like now no matter where you are in the classic wine, beer, or spirits space you are paying attention to this category, right? We have wineries jumping in within wine-based hard seltzers, we have beer, even craft beer, producers with their own versions of flavored malt beverages, and then you have spirits companies jumping in and then today, Thursday, July 30, you had Coca-Cola announce that they’re releasing a hard seltzer under their brand Topo Chico, which is just unbelievable, right? So everyone’s jumping in and I think it’s just insane. So, Erica, we’re actually publishing a story tomorrow about this, correct?

E: Yeah, definitely. So, Courtney Schiessl, who is an amazing writer who I love working with, she and I have been chatting about this on and off for months and the article that’s going to be coming out is looking at the massive evolution of this category. This is something that went from last year the entire category was worth $500 million, this year if you just look at the past 52 weeks it has already hit $2.7 billion in off-premise sales. And I saw a report this morning saying that hard seltzer sales are now predicted to $14.5 billion by 2027. So the compound growth rate of this segment of the beverage alcohol industry is stunning. I think they’re saying like 16.2 percent growth compound annual growth rate from 2020 to 2027. That is stunning considering that everything else is essentially flat or down. So this is the runaway train that we are going to see quickly evolving and going in new directions and those are the things that we’re going to be exploring.

A: Well, look, there’s a reason Anthony von Mandl, the owner of Mark Anthony brands who owns White Claw, is now the 40th richest man in the world.

E: Wow.

Z: You’re saying it wasn’t all Mike’s Hard Lemonade that did that?

A: No. Although you know that that’s also actually a billion-dollar brand. Which I never, never thought about that. Like I always thought, “Oh, who drinks Mike’s Hard Lemonade?” And then I was talking to Josh recently about it and he was like, “Did you know that it’s actually a billion-dollar brand?” I looked it up and it is, and I was like, whoa, I never would have thought that.

Z: Yeah, you would think, I guess teenagers have a lot of money.

A: Yeah, I mean, teenagers and yeah, I guess, who else is drinking Mike’s. Although I’ve started paying attention to Tik Tok, I’m Tok-ing, and there’s a lot of Mike’s Hard Lemonade on Tik Tok. So this is why I think it’s interesting, there’s only three really alcohols you see on Tik Tok all the time. You see White Claw as a brand, you see all other hard seltzers, mostly I would say it leans into Truly, and then you see 1942 Don Julio. That’s really all you see. I mean you see some wine but it’s not the same, usually it’s just someone holding a glass, they’re not really showing you the brand in the same way, I guess. Do you know what I mean? I mean if someone is saying they’re drinking wine, you just see wine in a glass; they’re not usually pouring that brand and showing you what the brand is. But when it comes to hard seltzer they’re very much showing. I think it’s amazing the amount of loyalty to both the category consumers feel right now and loyalty to the brand they’re choosing is something we’ve never seen before. And it’s happened this fast, you know? I think you had like the beer wars between Miller Lite, Coors Light, and Bud Light evolved over a decade or decades of them really going to war and telling you to do these taste tests and pick one over the other. The war over what it means to choose a Truly compared to what it means to choose a White Claw — Truly has positioned themselves as anti-bro, White claw has positioned themselves to be super bros — is really interesting that it happened that fast.

E: Yeah. Definitely.

A: So I think the innovation that you’re talking about, Erica, is interesting because there’s innovation that’s happening both on the liquid side, lots of liquid innovation, and there’s massive marketing innovation. And the way that people are talking about these beverages and the way they’re playing around to get these beverages in front of consumers and doing creative marketing campaigns and influencer outreach and videos and songs and stuff like that is something that we also haven’t seen before at this speed. And the amount of money, usually when there’s a new category of alcohol or even just an emerging brand of alcohol, usually what you hear from the producer is that they’re not going to really spend very heavily against it, right? So they’re just going to see what happens in the market. Do we gain a little bit of foothold just organically and then maybe we’ll slowly grow. Especially in the way of craft beer, right? Most of these bigger craft breweries never spent on marketing, it was all about word of mouth. But in this category you have people launching brands and committing to six- and seven-figure spends on marketing almost immediately upon launch of the brand because they realize that’s what it’s going to take now and because there are so many brands in the space. But that’s not stopping anyone from launching new stuff, which I just think is amazing.

E: Yeah. Definitely.

Z: So a thought that occurred to me: I was talking to my stepfather the other day who doesn’t drink and he was asking me, “Do you guys ever talk about cider?” And I was like, “No, we talk about hard seltzer instead.” And this is what was supposed to happen to cider but on every kind of steroid you can imagine, where it was this sort of new category, it was going to capture a different segment of the drinking public that had maybe been ignored or at least not fully catered to. But I think the fascinating thing — and I want to get your thoughts on a couple of these specific ones because I’m really curious — as the category radiates out from what I think we would have defined a year ago as what is hard seltzer, meaning very low cal, some sort of fruit flavor and alcohol and now we’re getting into the sort of cocktail seltzers, wine seltzers, all this other stuff, do we think that what is the selling point for it at this point is the connection to this now-established category, or is it really about more the ease of use? Because I think this is the theme that’s fascinating to me, is it really the can, or is it the category that matters?

E: For me, I think convenience is definitely one of the drivers but then I think it’s also that “better for you” trend, right? So we know millennials are not drinking as much as those of us who came before but they’re drinking better. And when you’re looking at the trends of health and wellness and also the variety-seeking behavior and also some level of premiumization, it supports that there’s this growth of the hard seltzer category that is going to go so much further than where we are now and we’re already starting to see that. So for example, one of the breakout hits of the summer has been High Noon, which is a vodka-based hard seltzer. We’re starting to see other vodka seltzers like Keel Sparkling, tequila-based hard seltzers like Volley Spiked seltzer, those RTDs I think are kind of the next evolution. So we have this initial burst of brands that are really going out with this malt beverage but doing the very clever marketing around the calories and the carb counts. But then I think people, millennials especially, will wise up and say, “Malt beverage, I don’t know if that’s for me, what’s the healthier alternative?” And that’s when they’re going to start going down the road of the High Noons and the Volley Spiked Seltzer. Not because it is, by virtue of anything, better for you but because they feel like it’s better for you.

A: And you can see, Zach, which I think is interesting, in this hard seltzer category let’s say we say hard seltzer as its own, right, and then let’s break it down into three. Let’s say that one is spirits-based, so that’s the High Noons Erica’s talking about, and then one is FMB — that’s what is really leading the charge. Truly and White Claw together have over 60 percent of the market, maybe it’s even 70, they have a lot of the market,which is why Boston Beer’s stock right now is valued at $1,000 a share, and then you have now the wine-based seltzers, right? And each one of them are also kind of following this marketing playbook that I alluded to, or mentioned not even alluded to, earlier with how Truly and White Claw are facing off, right? And so you see that as well in spirits-based. So High Noon has really leaned into a brand many people would say is extremely toxic, Barstool Sports. But that has become the brand they have aligned themselves with and it’s a very heavily bro-based brand. And then you have other spirits-based spiked seltzers like Two Chicks and some of the brands that Erica’s mentioned that are going for the higher-end audience and saying they’re for the non-bros, for people that are just interested in that purity that Erica’s talking about. And I think that hasn’t happened yet in wine but I think you’ll see that as well. I’m curious to see which wine brand will create kind of like the bro-tastic, let’s not even say bro, what we really mean is frat-tastic party brand and which one will then be sort of the foil to that brand. It’s interesting that that’s how it’s playing out, it’s like Sharks and Jets among seltzers and what you drink kind of defines who you are. And I think that’s interesting to the brands who are willing to do that because they realize these audiences are so big. Because usually you wouldn’t align yourself with a brand like Barstool because you would assume it would turn off so much of the population who is sick of the misogyny and their racist behavior but there’s such an audience who is still there that High Noon says, “We’ll just take this audience and that’ll be ours and we don’t care if we lose anyone else.” And someone else turns around and says, “Cool, we’ll take everyone else.” That’s what’s happening sort of in these seltzer wars which is really crazy. I mean we had the cola wars in the ’90s and we’re literally going to have the seltzer wars.

Z: I wonder if, you know, you talked about sort of what’s happening with this sort of face-off mentality, the sort of, you know, you’re going to align yourself with a particular brand. Do you think what we saw happen — you were talking about not just the cola wars in the ’90s, which for those of you who are too young to remember it was Pepsi and Coke, you might have heard of them.

A: Coke won.

Z: Yes, well yeah. And we talked about the sort of light beer three battle between Miller, Coors, and Bud Light, but I wonder if this category and just the mentality of the public at this time, do we think that what’s happening now is what’s going to continue to happen? Which is that there’s going to always be newcomers on the scene. I wonder if a year ago we were talking about, “Wow, is White Claw going to rule everything?” And I think they still do. As you pointed out, Adam, they control, or they and Truly control, a huge share of the market at the moment. But I do think that the thing that’s different about the public now as opposed to 25 years ago, is I think a lot of people don’t necessarily want to identify themselves with what feels like a behemoth of a brand. There’s always going to be a segment of the population that wants to try not just something new but sort of the underdog, I guess is how I would put it, and does that kind of mesh with how you guys see the landscape shaking out, that there’s going to be room for smaller producers? Because I know when we last talked about hard seltzer, one of my questions was, is there ever going to be space for quote-unquote craft in this category? And I don’t know if we know that yet but maybe we’re starting to find that out.

E: Oh yeah. I definitely think so. I mean look at what we’re already seeing. You know, Ramona, which is owned by Jordan Salcito, she was a somm who came from Momofuku and then started this spritz brand that is very focused on quality, they’re very transparent about their practices. And then we have Hoxie, another wine-based spritz, Valerie Masten who was previously at Skurnik, she’s at the helm. These people are super focused on quality and transparency and making a really awesome product. But the interesting thing that I’ve seen these brands do, particularly Ramona, is that they didn’t used to market the calorie counts and carb counts and all that but now they are, and I think they are saying, “OK, hey hard seltzer drinkers who do not want to identify with these bigger brands, we’re here for you. We are a 90-calorie product. And we are organic and sustainable.” And like all of these types of messages that they are giving, I think that’s just the beginning. So we’re going to keep going down that path where the amount of complexity and differentiation we’re going to see in this category is going to be huge. I think two years from now, four years from now, it’s going to look entirely different and it’s going to be just as big as the craft brewing explosion that we saw in previous decades.

A: Yeah and I think the reason for that is because, to make a hard seltzer isn’t that difficult now for any of these brands, right? So craft brewers can really easily add seltzer to their repertoire. Like who knows, maybe we’ll start seeing like hazy hard seltzers, wouldn’t that be crazy? But like they could easily add that kind of stuff. And then in the wine brands too … a lot of them were slow to move to cans but now most of them are, so now they’ve kind of realized what it means to have a canning apparatus, add now a beverage where you’re just putting some of your wine and mixing it with seltzer water and adding some sugar and flavoring, it is a lot easier for them to get in. And then yes, people will start to diversify. Pretty recently, I think it was yesterday, the Wine Economist tweeted basically a chart that shows who the largest wine companies in the world are. And it said the largest four suppliers, which are Gallo, Constellation, The Wine Group, and Trinchero, control 60 percent of the market. Which is pretty normal, I mean, that’s not as bad as beer, actually. Only two really control 60 percent of the market. So I think in every space of alcohol you’ll see two, three, four brands or companies that will control a large share of the market and they’ll have lots of offerings in that share of the market, and then you’ll have everyone behind them who have a very good business and a decent amount of people who are buying from them and some of them will be other less craft-focused brands and some will be more focused crafts brands. And I think as this category continues to explode, as Erica’s saying, that definitely is a continued possibility because I think what people are attracted to about the category is that it is light, refreshing, etc., and it reminds them of things that came before. Like I think, you know, the Aperol Spritz, we’ve talked about this before, but the Aperol Spritz has a lot to do with the explosion of this category. Just regular seltzer in general has a lot do with the explosion of this category in general. Like consumers were kind of primed to find something like this, for something like this to be given to them, and then like fully embrace it.

E: Yeah and Aperol right now is way down because of on-premise not being around. Why doesn’t Aperol have an RTD? Why haven’t they done that yet?

A: Campari, if you’re listening, you should have an RTD fast.

E: Dude, you need an RTD way fast because people would drink it, there’s great brand recognition. After all the Aperol Spritz that we’ve been drinking over the past probably five years, that would crush.

A: Crush.

Z: And I think the other part of this is, and it feeds into another piece of this, which is we are living in an off-premise world and I think we are going to be living in an off-premise world for a while still, and if you are a brand, whether it’s Aperol or many others, that has relied traditionally on a lot of on-premise sales and just that driving the identity of your brand, I don’t know if you can afford to wait around another year before that starts coming back. Because, spoiler warning, that’s my projection on how long it’s going to take at a minimum. And I think you have to capitalize on your recognition and your name ID now and get yourself in front of people in the format that they’re most comfortable with. And the honest truth is a lot of people in this country, even if it’s really simple to put Aperol in a glass and put sparkling wine in there, are much more likely to drink your product if it’s in a can and all they have to do is open it.

A: Totally.

Z: Especially, if it’s in a mixed case with a Negroni spritz and something else that you whip up.

A: I mean, I completely agree with you. And look, I think this is a little bit of a segue here but you brought it up in terms of the next year, which I think you’re right, Zach, if not longer. But you know I was very angered by this interview, but I heard an interview with Mark Cuban two or three days ago and he was being interviewed.

Z: You’re not getting your Shark Tank interview anytime soon.

A: No, that’s fine or my court-side seats to the Mavericks, but that’s cool, too. But basically he was talking about the way he looks at investments and the way people change preferences, so he’s like, “Look, like it’s really shitty that all these restaurants are about to go under or that all these bars are suffering but because they’re about to go under or bar’s suffering, doesn’t mean people aren’t drinking or aren’t eating, they’re finding new ways to drink and new ways to eat.” And we’ve talked about this before, it takes six to eight weeks for things like that to become a habit so you know how much longer might it take for bars and restaurants to fully come back because people have just like started to realize, “Man, I make really good bread at home, why was I buying this out?” Or, “I figured out that I can make a really good steak,” or “I can bring really good wine or really good cocktails, or things like that.” And so I think while it’s a year, for sure, until it even feels like we feel comfortable going and sitting at all, it could be five to 10 years before we’re back to any level like we were at six months ago. And in all that time seltzers are just going to become more and more and more dominant. Or this RTD category that Erica’s really talking about, is going to become more and more dominant because it’s going to be about being out with your friends, the convenience of those products, the ability to go to the park. You know, it’s really nuts here, I’m curious for you, Zach, what Seattle feels like. Erica, I’m not going to ask you because you’re in Connecticut. But like New York City feels like Europe right now. The weekends it feels like Europe, it’s really crazy. You go to the parks and they are crowded with people, whether that’s a good or a bad thing, but they’re all picnicking and bringing drinks and every time I look at what people are drinking and I see a ton of seltzer because it’s easy. That portability is really easy and I think if you’re seeing that, too, in Seattle or people are seeing that in D.C. or Atlanta or wherever else they live who listen to the podcast, I think you’re going to see that continue because people are realizing what’s so beautiful about that and what people in Europe have liked about that for decades, and may have gotten used to that and saying, “Well, you know, maybe I don’t want to go and do this at a bar or restaurant every weekend anymore. Maybe that’s my splurge once a month instead of every Friday and Saturday night.” Do you know what I mean?

Z: Absolutely. I mean, yes, I am definitely seeing that in Seattle. I think the thing you see is a combination of people in parks and other public spaces and then you also sort of see just, you know, where I live, you definitely have lots of people who have some outdoor space of their own, a backyard or front yard or something like that, and people are in those or even a rooftop. And it’s just, most things are in cans because you know there’s a reason why it’s been the dominant thing for a lot of beer brands, because it’s easy, it keeps cold pretty well, and you can keep it in your fridge pretty easily. You know a bottle of wine is cumbersome and if it’s got a cork in it and you don’t have a corkscrew with you you’re kind of stuck and certainly bottles of spirits you have to mix together are not something someone’s going to. I might take them on a picnic but most people won’t.

A: Yeah, I won’t.

Z: I would pre-batch, let’s be honest. But yeah, the point is for a lot of people that want those flavors, the can is really the only way they’re going to be willing to go in on it if they’re not willing to have someone else make it for them. So yeah, if you’re out there and you’ve got a brand and you’re not thinking long and hard about how to get your product in a can I feel like you’re missing the boat.

E: Absolutely.

A: It’s like the people in the music industry who were like, “We don’t need to do MP3s, we’re still doing CDs.” You know what I mean, it’s just like this coming faster than we’ve ever seen it come before and if you’re not thinking long and hard about how you’re putting your wine in cans or your just RTD product or whatever, or your, like, Aperol and your listening to the podcast right now and you don’t have Aperol Spritz in development right now to roll out very soon in a can, you’re missing something because no one’s going to bring a bottle of Aperol, a bottle of Prosecco, and a bottle of sparkling water to the park. I don’t see it. And I think that’s why we’ve also seen much less of that consumption this summer because it’s great to drink it when it’s at the bar and you don’t have to worry about having those three simple ingredients, as Zach says, but it’s much different when you’re like, “OK, how would I batch this?” Because first of all, that means I have to pop the bottle of Prosecco, so is it going to get flat on its way to me taking it to the park? If I don’t, then I’m bringing three things, so what happens when, obviously, the sparkling water and the Prosecco run out before the Aperol or vice versa, how does that work? It becomes too much for people.

Z: Yeah and then you grab a White Claw.

A: Exactly. Because you’re like I’m just looking for flavored bubbles.

E: Exactly. And just think about as soon as it gets cold out people will have spent this entire summer experimenting with different brands seeing what they like, they will have found a couple of things that they really like and we’ve seen this massive rise of at-home cocktails but that will continue on. But to be honest, a lot of people are just lazy and just want a drink at the end of the day and those White Claws, Truly’s, etc. are just going to be popped open. And the cocktail may become more of a special thing that you are maybe not making every day. Who knows? But I think that people will have spent this entire summer testing and trying out the different brands that are in their marketplace. Like literally when I’ve gone into liquor stores that’s where people are gathered. They’re trying them all and at the end of the day, that’s going to be the go-to probably in a lot of cases instead of like a beer or a glass of wine.

A: Yeah, it is. It’s crazy. It’s really crazy. And like look for me I still haven’t found my hard seltzer that I love, it’s just really not my thing as much.

E: I’ll tell you mine.

A: What’s yours?

E: OK, so I like the Ramona Dry Grapefruit, which is like the driest version that they’re making. And then I also am super excited, like my at-home drink is ranch water, which we are now all drinking, which is just a tequila soda with a bunch of lime. Now there are three new ranch waters out on the market that I’ve just read about that I’m going to try. Super excited to try them. But I think that that type of thing where it’s just like an easy thing that you can pop open, they’re just getting better and better.

A: Yeah, I haven’t had a lot. Have you had any, Zach, that you like or that you would reach for?

Z: I actually, it’s funny that Erica said the Ramona Dry Grapefruit because that’s actually the one I’ve had most recently that I’ve really liked as well. It’s definitely an area that I will freely admit I need to explore more. Those of you listening that want to send me some samples, do it. I will give them a try. But yeah, I think what Erica said is a really good point, which is that we are at this phase of expansion that is really exciting where some really interesting ideas are taking hold, where really quality producers who are, not to say anything about the quality of some of the existing products but a lot of it is aimed at a mass market, but some of the more niche products are starting to hit the market, I would be interested in trying more of those. And just in general getting a sense for, I like sparkling things, I like bubbly things, so it’s definitely a category I have interest in and I think as you get more quality and more diversity in there I am sure that I will find a few that I will like. I’ve even sort of convinced my wife that we can buy them, it’s OK. She drinks so much sparkling water and sparkling wine, I’m just like, this is just a nice midpoint for the two of us. Because sometimes I don’t want to drink wine, as hard as that is to believe.

A: See for me, again yes, if you listen to the podcast, if you have some hard seltzer let us know. Email us at podcasts@vinepair.com, we’ll give it a try and we’ll let you know what we think at a later date. I am curious. I have yet to find one that I completely love. I’ve had Willy’s Superbrew. I’ve liked it but I think what’s also been really crazy to watch over the summer is the way just the term seltzer has completely morphed. We went to the park recently and met up with my cousin and his fiancée and we were sitting down, it was like the middle of the day on like a Sunday, and like my wife and I day drink but we weren’t in the mood and they asked us if we wanted seltzer and both of us were like “no, no, no we don’t want seltzer right now,” and they were like no, it’s seltzer seltzer. We’re like, “Oh, yeah, thanks.” The fact that like, to us, that’s what seltzer meant at this point is like yeah, its alcoholic is just absolutely insane and speaks to how much this category has taken over just in the last year.

Z: Yeah it’s a behemoth.

E: Just going to get bigger and bigger.

A: Just going to get bigger and bigger. We’ll check in about this again as time goes on. Maybe this fall when someone’s released a pumpkin spice seltzer.

Z: You predicted this last year and I was horrified.

A: It’s going to happen, I promise you it’s going to happen. You’re going to get a pumpkin spice seltzer and some sort of peppermint latte spice, you know what I mean? You know like some peppermint seltzer, I promise you. Like it’s for sure coming, there’s no way someone’s not trying or someone hasn’t already tried it and just has it ready to launch at the end of August, I’m convinced.

Z: Just as long as we don’t get a turkey and gravy one, I’m good.

A: That would be so gross. So anyway, if you have thoughts about this podcast hit us up at podcasts@vinepair.com, we’d love to hear what you think. If you have any other questions let us know as well and as always it really helps if you can leave a review, a rating, etc., and tell your friends, family, people you’d not even know walking on the sidewalk about the show. It really helps us get the word out there and more people discover what we’re up to. And Zach, Erica, before I say goodbye, let’s hit them with one more ad. Alright, bartenders, enter the Cognac Connection challenge to win a $1,000 scholarship. We’re giving away 10 of them. The deadline is Aug. 31, go to cognacconnection.com as Zach said, you spell that C-O-G-N-A-C-C-O-N-N-E-C-T-I-O-N.com to enter and for all the details. Thanks so much. See you guys next week.

Z: Sounds great.

E: Bye.

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. 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.

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

The article VinePair Podcast: Hard Seltzer Is Rapidly Evolving — Here’s What You Need to Know appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/hard-seltzer-is-rapidly-evolving/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/625526803126222848

[dailymusingsofamedic]

24th May 2020 - Neruda

Johann Baptist Georg Neruda (1708-1780 – maybe)

Trumpet Concerto in Eb (who knows) https://open.spotify.com/album/4wL0H6UyrYeyRk4Sg9kARN?si=u5r6jokRSaq3ZqczzhL3QQ Tracks 7-9

So ‘N’ is a difficult one, not much choice and I finished with Nielsen last time. That does mean I’ve made it as far as I did the last time I tried to do this blog though. So, I only have to do one more day and I’ve surpassed myself. Great. I was sure that there was a thing that existed called the Neruda trumpet concerto. So, I deftly googled ‘Neruda’ and was met with a wealth of information about Pablo Neruda, the late Chilean poet-diplomat who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1971. My first thought was, “Oh wow, and this guy wrote a trumpet concerto as well!” before I realised that I was looking at the wrong ‘Neruda’. Oh dear. The correct ‘Neruda’ is Czech, about 200 years older, and much less interesting. Let’s see if his music redeems him from his boring Wikipedia page.

Above - “Look at your trumpet, but make it sexy”

1.       Allegro – Sounds like Mozart. It’s nice, nothing too exciting in the opening though. Perfectly pleasant. The trumpet comes in, played by Tine Thing (pronounced Tina Ting, and not Tiny Thing) Helseth. The first trumpet entry is nice, refined, accurate, bit dull. Then another big, long orchestral interlude. Ooh 2:36 borders on jazzy. Her sound throughout is very clear, but not piercing. It’s a stretch calling this a trumpet concerto I think…there’s not a whole lot of trumpet. There’s a nice, but subtle contrast of tongued ascending sequence at 3:30, and then a similar one but this time slurred afterwards. It shows her skill off well without being too showy or brash. I mean this was written in 170something to be fair. Ooh is this a cadenza? I don’t know if this is a written cadenza or if Helseth is just jammin’, it’s very good though. Again, not showy, but clearly skilful. Nice decisive end.

2.       Largo – Here we go. Nice interplay between the two melodic lines leaving some suspensions hanging around which resolve nicely when the melodic lines continue. Gosh I’m sure that was utter bullshit musically speaking but I know what I mean. The trumpet line is nice. I am aware I keep saying nice, but it’s the right word in this context. It’s not that interesting (with some exceptions: 2:00 for example) but it’s played well and is, sort of, ‘charming’ to listen to. What’s this? Another cadenza in the middle? It’s short and boring. I must praise Helselth’s use of vibrato. I think it could be easy in this exposed setting to make the vibrato brass-bandy and brash, but it’s very considered here, and often warms the sound just the right amount. The end of this movement is maybe meant to be attaca because it certainly doesn’t sound finished. Maybe Spotify have just wanged a huge gap in there.

Above - Trumpet Virtuoso: Pablo Neruda

3.       Vivace – Let’s get going, I’m excited, is this going to be the triumphant finale? Hmm, still pretty twee to start with, but actually the violin parts are quite cool. The trumpet sounds very slightly rushed in the first phrase. Coming up to 2 minutes, it feels like Helseth wants to ‘unleash the beast’ as it were, but it’s a little plinky plonky classical concerto sadly. I must find a more modern trumpet concerto to review. All the runs before 3:00 are very accurate again. Cadenza no.333: This is a real demonstration of how to show skill whilst staying within the context of the piece. I think the last phrase is quite funny. Unison soloist and orchestra...just what you want in a concerto.

Overall – 4/10. As with a few of these pieces I’m reviewing, the playing is great, but the music is boring. Don’t try to tell me it’s not. Helselth is one of my favourite trumpeters, and I’d listen to her over the likes of the more famous Balsom any day, but this isn’t something I’d be rushing to listen to again, nor see in concert. I wonder if a dramatic reading of the real Neruda’s poetry would be better. Probably.

Below is a video of Tine Thing Helseth bringing diversity to the world of brass playing: They’re all female and some of them have brown hair. Do give it a listen, there are some great players in there despite all of the random walking around.

[lovemesomesurveys]

How many people signed your latest yearbook? *shrug* I don’t remember. That was almost ten years ago, my friend. I have been wanting to find the box with my high school yearbooks, though. My brother is graduating soon, and it’s making me more nostalgic.

Can you name five adjectives describing you? Depressed, anxious, tired, shy, worrisome.

How is your mom today? It’s 4:15AM and she’s asleep.

Do you prefer long or short hair on the opposite sex? Short.

Would you swap your first name for your middle? Nah.

Would you rather have 10 siblings or be an only? I suppose an only child in that case. That’s a lot of people, ha. A lot of different personalities and whatnot. I imagine things would be hectic. I need my space, man. My mom is 1 of 10, though. She says that things got crazy sometimes.

What is your favorite soda? Dr. Pepper, Coke, and Pepsi.

Who is your hero? My mom and grandma.

What is your opinion on legalizing drugs? I’m cool with marijuana be legalized.

Do you drink coffee on a regular basis? Yepppp.

Do you like country music? Yes.

Even or odd numbers? Even. My favorite number is an even number, it’s 8.

What did you want to be when you were five? I don’t know at that age. I know when I was older, like around 10 or so, I wanted to be a teacher.

What country has your heart? Mine.

Do you attend school dances? I went to a couple in middle school, and I went to formal and prom my senior year.

What is your favorite carnival attraction? The fried food.

Is there a radio station you’re partial to? I rarely listen to the radio anymore. My mom listens to her Spotify playlists in the car. My brother listens to the radio sometimes in his car, but I’m not in his car very often.

Are you afraid of black cats? No.

What is your favorite color? Yellow, teal, mint green, and pastels.

Do YoU hAtE iT wHeN pEoPlE tYpE lIkE tHiS? Y e s.

Have you ever done something illegal more than once? Sure.

If you could marry any celebrity, who would it be? Alexander Skarsgård. Duh.

What is your opinion of Finland? I don’t know a lot about it.

Can you swim? No.

What are your fears? Death of my loved ones and myself, health related things, things never getting better/things getting worse, never amounting to anything.... and things like insects, heights, closed spaces, deep water, killer whales, needles....

Do you watch the lightning during storms? Sometimes.

Who did you sit with during lunch period when you were in eighth grade? Sometimes with Jessica and Morn, sometimes with Kyle and David, and sometimes with all of them. It varied.

Do you like House? I only saw bits of it from time to time cause my mom watched it. I probably would have liked it if I gave it a real shot.

Do you ever save up shopping bags or just throw them away after? We saved plastic bags to use as trash bags and whatnot, but earlier this year we had a law that passed that would charge for bags, and most are made to be reused. So, now we save them for that reason.

Are you one of those people who are never satisfied with a haircut after you get it? No, I haven’t had a bad experience with a haircut. Thankfully.

What is the weirdest thing you have ever done with a crush or significant other? Nothing I would consider “weird” that I can think of...

Do you shave your arms even though it supposedly grows back thick? No.

Can you take a number two in a public bathroom and/or another person’s house? I don’t like to use public restrooms.

If you’re still in grade school, what summer reading book(s) are you going to read? Aw, wow. I wish I were that young.

What was the stupidest trend you followed? Who knowsss.

Any interesting encounters with a celebrity? If so, share the best one! Meeting Drake Bell was pretty cool. I also met Jamie Lee Curtis at a book signing that was held at the bookstore my mom worked at at the time.

Do you ever get too lazy to clean up your pet’s pee and leave it for your parents to do it? It was hard for me to do so, so I didn’t do it.

Do you go to Barnes and Noble to actually read books or just magazines? I go to look at books and chill in the cafe.

Do you have any Polaroid pictures lying around? No.

Did your last 11:11 wish come true or not? I haven’t wished on 11:11 in a long time, but I imagine it did not come true. I’d only do it for fun if I happened to catch it at that time. I didn’t really believe in it.

What’s the first channel you turn to when you open your TV? E!, usually. Then I scroll down the guide from there if there isn’t something on that I want to watch on that channel.

Does it take you at least five minutes to decide what you want to eat in a food shop? No. I get the same things.

What insects or bugs do you fear most? I’m afraid of all bugs and insects.

Did you ever get scared by someone and drop something important? Not that I can think of, but maybe.

Do you think weed is just as bad as cigarettes? Not at all.

What number is most common in your phone number? 4.

Don’t you just love free samples? Free samples of foooood. ha.

Do you think American Idol is totally rigged? I heard a lot of it was scripted.

What do you think about music shuffle surveys? I skip those.

Do you hate it when people think they “own” a band, store, object, etc or are you guilty? it can be kind of annoying.

If you found out your ex died today, how would you react? I’d be in shock, disbelief, and sad.

If YOU died today and had to let your ex know ONE secret, what would it be? It doesn’t even matter anymore. I don’t have anything left to say to him. No hard feelings or anything. I wish him the best, honestly.

What were you doing at 8 am this morning? I’ll be asleep.

What is the last thing you said aloud? "Goodnight.”

What are you wearing right now? Leggings and a long-sleeved shirt.

What was the last thing you ate? A Peep flavored Oreo.

Have you bought any new clothing items this week? Nope.

When was the last time you ran? Uhhhhh....

Ever go camping? Once, when I was five. I’m not interested in camping. I don’t like being outdoors much. I don’t like the heat and I especially don’t like the bugs. It just wouldn’t be a pleasant time for me.

What is a song you hate? I don’t know.

Do you drink your soda from a straw? If it comes from a restaurant or fast food place, yeah.

What did your last text message say? “Hugs”

Are you someone’s best friend? I doubt it.

What are you doing tomorrow? I don’t have any plans.

Where is your mom right now? She’s asleep.

Look to your left, what do you see? My TV.

What color is your watch? I don’t have a watch. I mostly use my phone for the time. Or my laptop. Or some other device with the time.

Do you have a dog? Not anymore. :(

Last person you talked to on the phone? My dad.

Any plans tonight? Just the usual.

Are you happy? No.

Last song you listened to? I’m blanking at the moment.

Last movie you saw? On TV it was Bridesmaids yesterday. In theaters it was Beauty and the Beast.

Biggest annoyance in your life right now? Health related things.

Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time? My black and white Converse.

Where is your significant other at the moment? I’m single.

What was the last beverage you spilled on yourself? Probably water. Or coffee.

Miss someone? Yes. A few someones.

The last text you received on your cell was from? My aunt.

Has anyone ever told you they love you? Yes. My family tells me so.

Do you believe in true love? I believe in love, yes.

Have you ever stolen a sign from a street? No.

What is something you’d like to have right now? Good health, a sense of normalcy, some adventure.

Who taught you to drive, and were you happy with their approach? I don’t drive.

Can you remember the first song you learned the words to? No.

Do you get seasick or carsick? Yes.

What was the worst hotel you ever stayed at? Thankfully, I haven’t had a bad hotel experience.

Who is the most positive person you have ever known? I don’t know.

What do you worry about the most? My health and my life.

Have you ever used alternative medicine or old-fashioned remedies? Just teas to help me sleep, relax, to try and help for anti-inflammatory purposes, or a sore throat. Sleepy Time tea with chamomile and this other ingredient that I can’t think of at the moment really does make me sleepy. Oh, and a cold washcloth on my forehead for a fever or headache, if that counts. There may be others, but that’s all I can think of.

[lanasitra]

tswtms is over (and here’s why)

Did I get you with the clickbait title? I did? Damn right. Bangarang.

In short, I made a mistake.

I goofed.

I made a miscalculation.

I did not make a good prediction.

I anticipated something that did not happen.

I made an error in judgment.

I screwed the pooch.

I shamed the cat.

I faked my death but returned just after the halizah was carried out and now it’s super awkward between me, my ex-wife and my brother.

 I fucked up.

 (This essay will sometimes sound high-and-mighty, sometimes accusatory, sometimes selfish, and sometimes all-business-no-pleasure. In previous essays, I’ve detailed that my passion for music is not driven by money or fame, BUT I have also argued that I can want those things without undercutting my true passion. For that reason, I will not apologize, but I will acknowledge in advance that I may come off as slightly salty and overly businesslike over the next few paragraphs)

For all intent and purpose, tswtms has proven to be a failure. Since Honeymoon became available on major digital platforms in July 2016, I’ve only sold two copies (I’m just now seeing that I got 226 streams on Spotify, etc., which I am pleasantly surprised by and grateful for, but, in the scheme of things, that’s nothing – and only equates to 97 cents in my pocket, might I add). While it hasn’t been long enough for me to get a sales report back for In Between, I have a feeling it will have done marginally better, but still won’t be the kind of break I’m looking for.

There are three potential reasons why I believe tswtms has had a sub-par performance, and I’d like to go through all of them here and now (there is purpose to this, and I imagine the smartest of you cookies will have probably already guessed what it is):

-       The music is bad

-       The advertising is bad

-       The name is bad

(The Music) 

I will concede that tswtms is not everyone’s cup of tea. I am exceptionally proud of every piece I’ve written, but, of the ones I currently have on offer: “Canadian Summer” is six minutes long and meanders during the intro and outro, “Honeymoon” lacks a chorus, “Hate” lacks a chorus, “The North Wood” lacks a chorus, “I Am Not Afraid” lacks a chorus, “SRND” has a meandering intro and lacks a chorus, and all my interludes, intros and outros are “weird” and “artsy” in some way or another. In brief, I have tended so far to not write “accessible” pop songs. “Dreams,” “What’s It Like” and “For You” are what I consider to be my three most accessible, “poppy” songs that are currently available (there’s also “Heavy Crush,” available on my SoundCloud, which I rank among the most “accessible,” but it currently only exists in a place that is not really on anyone’s radar). Having my oeuvre be only ~16% accessible, singalong-able music is perhaps a worry, but, considering how many times someone ensures themselves a comfortable life and diehard audience as a one- or two-hit wonder, I’m not really concerned in that regard.

Such talk of “accessibility,” musical forms and choruses drives me nuts. I enjoy the music I make, and I think that serves as a good enough indication that other people would like it if given the right listening context. Though I go through peaks and valleys of enjoyment with my catalogue, I go through similar phases with any music, regardless of the writer or performer (even Ariana Grande! F***ing crazy, right?). I sometimes get hung up and blame my every failure on the vocal tuning in my pieces, but I realize that I’m only so critical because it’s my own stuff; I listen to other artists’ songs that have some vocal imperfections, and these imperfections rarely diminish my enjoyment of a piece. I like to think that an imperfection here or there on my part will fly similarly under the radar for audience members.

All this has been to say that the music is not the problem. I write a variety of things that appeal to me, and I believe that, while it won’t all appeal to everyone all the time, there is, indeed, something for everyone with tswtms.

 (The Advertising)

With In Between, I attempted to do some online promotion leading up to the album’s release. I feel the campaign (if you can even call it that, given its size) did well to get the word out in my close circles. On release day, I got critique back from people I had never even dreamed would be listening. On top of that, I am very proud of the visual media I created.

However, after observing my local contemporaries, I’m aware of better ways to advertise my music, including buying plays (which, at the time of writing, I think is a pretty slimy thing to do, but I can understand why it would be a necessary evil). I have friends who boast about how many Spotify plays they have, but, when comparing their day-to-day / week-to-week growth on Spotify vs Youtube vs Facebook vs Soundcloud, I can plainly see that they are buying listens. It’s pedantic and petty of me to go about comparing all this data, and I will admit this little search was initially born out of bitterness concerning my contemporaries’ seemingly inexplicable, magnificent successes. I have learned, though, that buying plays is just another way to make your product seem enticing. I hate to imagine that a prospective audience member or booking agent would think differently of my music or my project because it wasn’t “popular,” but I guess that must be the case if buying listens is actually proven to help a startup artist. For the sake of my integrity and transparency (which I like to think I hold above all else), I will make it public knowledge if I ever buy views, listens, followers, etc., and I will include where I got them, the number I bought, and for how much money.

If we’re thinking about an album as a product, let’s think about live performances as advertising that product (though, ideally, I would like to be at a spot where the album is being pirated and people are just paying to come to the shows, but that’s not how it is for me just yet). I haven’t performed live in about a year, and I believe I have a good reason for this: in my opinion, I don’t have a satisfactory live set worth paying any amount of cover charge or ticket price for. As a precursor to the next section, I’ll also point out that, with a name like tswtms or The Sunlit Woods, the Moonlit Sea, open mics are a bit of a difficult beast to grapple with, as it’s likely that people in attendance are just interested enough to go looking for you online, but not interested enough to ask you for your name if they don’t catch it during your performance (as you might expect, people do not catch my name during performances). In short, I don’t believe the returns would yet justify the work required to put on a live show.

Again, all this is to say that I don’t think advertising is the problem. I recognize that I could advertise better, but I don’t even think that’s a relevant conversation yet. My Soundcloud only has 51 followers after having it since high school, and the tswtms Facebook page only has 57 likes after 4 years. For comparison, my friends just started a Facebook page for their new Harry Potter podcast, Flipendo, and amassed more than 100 likes in less than 24 hours (yes, both pages invited people, but I will concede that Flipendo has the benefit of pooling three admins’ social circles). I was in a f***ing high school rock band that DIDN’T DO ANYTHING, and we were still sittin’ pretty above 300 likes when we deleted the page (pour one out for My Autumn Distraction, y’all). Before I even consider buying more ad space or any listens, I need a project that can organically grow in a satisfactory manner.

(BONUS POTENTIAL REASON: People hate me because I was a piece of shit in high school / early university who was annoying on social media and not a very good musician, and these people are deliberately ignoring and avoiding everything I do)

Maybe? Probably a little bit. This is a real insecurity of mine, but I think any effect this deliberate ignorance may be having is inconsequential.

(The Name Is S***)

Surprise, y’all.

It’s the name.

Of course it’s the name.

It was never not the name.

I’m finally changing the name.

No matter which way you say it – The Sunlit Woods, the Moonlit Sea, tswtms (tee ess doube-u tee em ess), tuhswuhtuhmuss –, the name does not roll off the tongue, nor does it stick in the mind. I wanted to take a few moments, though, to explain why I’ve stubbornly gone along with this dumpster fire of a name for four years and two albums:

There are already George Deans making music. George Dean and the Gospel Four. George Dean from the UK (We’rebothfromtheUKbutwhateverweallknowbynowthatIhaveaUSpassportandwishIwasCanadian).

I wanted a name that captured a dichotomy. For the better part of two hours, I brainstormed names that would capture the geographic dichotomy I see in Vancouver. We have mountains and lush forests, but we also have the sea. We can go on brightly lit, magnificent hikes during the day, but stare up at the stars as their lights dance across the waters of the Georgia Strait. For anyone who has listened to my piece “Tarot,” you know that there’s a metaphysical dichotomy that can be gleaned from this as well. As it happens, it proved quite hard to capture that imagery in anything less than “The Sunlit Woods, the Moonlit Sea.”

I wanted to take myself out of it. You’ll notice I tend not to post any performance photos on social media, and that my physical appearance is not part of any tswtms promotion. Other than in the music videos I’m planning, I want to remain ethereal and mysterious; I don’t want to be George Dean, but a purer distillation of my mind. I hate that One Direction’s and similar artists’ successes are so inextricably linked to the audience’s physical attraction to the performing artists, and I want so badly to be an artist that minimizes that as much as possible (short of wearing a mask to perform). Maybe, one day, if I’m ripped af – not if I keep living the way I am, I’ll tell ya! – and Vogue wants to do a shoot with me, I’ll bare all for the world, but I need that s*** to not be the reason I’m selling albums or concert tickets; the music comes first and foremost, and I will fiercely argue against the modern assumption that image is as important as the art itself.

I wanted to leave room for a band. Even on my FIRST album, I already had help from my friends: Janine on trombone, Jaelem on drums, Sean on lead guitar, and Are Been on piano. This continues on In Between, where Sean’s playing guitar on “For You.” This project clearly isn’t just George Dean, and it would be a disservice to my fellow musicians and artists if I called it George Dean. Sure, I write the music and lyrics, and I make almost all creative decisions, but, whenever another musician gets involved, they’re going to give their two cents and reshape a piece (no matter how minutely). Furthermore, I’m rarely going to give a solo performance of most of these songs, because they deserve to be played by a full band. I don’t want to go on stage with my friends and essentially say “Hey! I’m the guy you all came for and these five dunces can all f*** off!” Consequently, I have struggled with choosing any derivative of “George Dean and the ________” because, in my head, it may as well be the same thing in terms of dictating superiority. In live performance, I don’t want the audience to see me in front of a backing band – I want the audience to see tswtms.

SBTRKT, Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance all exist. All three of these projects exist and have achieved a level of success that I’d be happy with. Despite it being pronounced “Subrtract,” I definitely had an acquaintance in high school who liked SBTRKT enough to go to their concert, but still called them “ess bee tee are kay tee.” Long names clearly work for some people, but I suppose mine was just too out there (and I am aware that Odd Future’s name has been organically shortened over time by the audience and the artists, and I was hoping that would happen eventually for tswtms).

I arrogantly wanted to create a barrier to entry concerning intelligence. In my mind, neither The Sunlit Woods, the Moonlit Sea nor tswtms are hard to remember, and I have always assumed that this feat of memory was a mark of intelligence. I realize now that the names aren’t hard to remember for anyone else either; it’s just that other people have other s*** going on that’s filling their heads, and I should be respectful of that. tswtms has been the primary thing on my mind for four years now, so no s*** I’d be well acquainted with the names. Even as I type this, I’m supposed to be working on projects for other people, but there’s so much on my mind that the minutia (or what I consider to be the minutia) is falling out. It would be hypocritical of me to expect someone to memorize cumbersome sets of words or letters that aren’t of the utmost importance to them if I’m not willing to do the same. Furthermore, I shouldn’t get salty about people choosing not to fill their mental hard drives with such nonsense.

Something I’ve often thought in the past – especially when I’m feeling bitter – is that, if someone couldn’t remember the name or wasn’t willing to put in a little bit of legwork to memorize it, then I wouldn’t want them listening to my music anyway. That’s a really arrogant, elitist, hurtful, b***s*** and insensitive way of thinking, and I apologize that I ever felt that way. As my buddy Sean Dales said to me, “You don’t choose your audience, your audience chooses you.”

I thought I was centuries ahead of the curve with the name tswtms. It’s arrogant to say, but I do actually believe this still. For the most part, you’ve got artists going by their actual names, but, when that’s not available, people are using whatever’s left to allow them to stand out against the incessant din of the modern world. Broadly speaking, you have artists throwing darts at walls, you have snappy mononyms, you have some variation on “X and the Y,” you’ve got “The ______,” you definitely have “______ the ______,” and NOW, with the rise of Chvrches, you’ve got people taking a snappy mononym and replacing letters with other letters. If this trend continues (and I’m sure it will as the digitally available library of art grows and grows with – hopefully – very little of it ever being deleted), I think it’s within reason to predict that, in 200 years’ time, people will be listening to popular bands whose names are just random assortments of letters. For the time being, though, I don’t think society is ready for this jelly. 

The iconography is gorgeous. The thing that really sold me on going with the acronym tswtms as opposed to The Sunlit Woods, the Moonlit Sea (other than Soundcloud not allowing a name that long -.-) was the iconography I developed. In fact, the iconography for tswtms is impacting what the new name will be, because I want to keep the new iconography as similar to the old as possible.

I maintained a monopoly on search results. Google “George Dean” and tell me how many results pertain to me (you can get closer by searching “George TB Dean,” but NOT CLOSE ENOUGH). Google “Sean Dales” and tell me how many are related to either his music or his blog. Do the same with Kyle Cardigan. Now google “tswtms,” and you can bet your neck, back, p**** and crack that every result on the first page has something to do with me.

 Banga-f***ing-rang.

It’s a little thing, but it was nice knowing that I wasn’t competing with anyone else.

I think that’s it for why I chose and stuck with tswtms. I felt that, if I pushed it for long enough, the music would persevere and people would come around to understanding and accepting the name. An anecdote that I believe accurately suggests how badly the name has failed is this: when explaining to a co-worker that I had “come up with a bad band name,” I opted to write down “tswtms” and “The Sunlit Woods, the Moonlit Sea” on a piece of paper and show it to them rather than just say the names, because I have not once said either name out loud and had it be understood without eventually writing it down.

I believe I’ve found a name that is more manageable, yet still allows me to remove my physical self, retain some air of mystery and avoid direct competition with similarly titled projects. Maybe I’ll use this name; maybe I’ll change my mind within minutes of posting this essay to Tumblr. Only time will tell. Anyway, I’ll soon be pulling the tswtms stuff off of iTunes and Spotify in order to re-upload it all under a new name, so, if you want that OG kush, get it while you can. The Tumblr, Facebook, Soundcloud and (hopefully) YouTube page will all just be swapped over to the new name when the time comes, but I’ll be sure to update you all with the social media links when they’re ready.

Namaste

t s w t m s

[2016-05-16 Edit: As of right now, the tswtms catalogue is no longer available on iTunes or Spotify]

[tweetermixtapeclub]

Greetings! Matt here! After doing some thinking on how to structure my first playlist for the group, I thought it’d be fun to provide a sort of snapshot of my musical tastes. An introduction! Me in song form? Not exactly, but close.

The mix is titled THE MEAN because it shows where I’ve seemed to settle as a music fan - everything that’s been exciting me most in the last few years is reflected here in some way even if not all my favorite songs made the cut. But like I can’t use up all my fav songs in the first go-round, ya know?

Los Campesinos! - “By Your Hand”

I think the world would be better off if every mixtape opened with a Los Campesinos! song (they mean a lot to me, just like that Phonogram comic said). Choosing one for this here mixtape wasn’t super easy, but “By Your Hand” made the cut because it was my semi-reintroduction to the band after they kinda dissolved into the musical ether while I was transitioning from torrenting/purchasing to streaming. I hadn’t checked in on them in a while, and this track - which opens their fourth record - blew me away.

By the way, they just put out their new record and it’s really, really good.

WHY? - “Fatalist Palmistry”

WHY’s lead singer Yoni Wolf, like Gareth Campesinos!, has a way with words that affects me at a core level. The way they frame simple relationship issues as world-imploding, body-disfiguring incidences like cats clawing out eyeballs. This is one of Why’s more straightforward, melodic tunes, but I first gravitated towards them because of how well they mix genres. If you like this one, try some more!

Pompeii - “Numbers”

Next up is a really gorgeous song about eating disorders. This sort of melodic rock music was especially important when I lived at home and attended my religious alma mater, because it was easy to digest by those around me. Limited opposition by parents and less complaints by roommates, that sort of thing. This is from Pompeii’s first album, Assembly, which is one of the more underrated / underexposed records I’ve latched onto. Beautiful compositions, some great string work, strong lyrics.

Dear And The Headlights - “Run In The Front”

Dear And The Headlights’ “Run In The Front” is a fun, explosive shift from Pompeii’s somberness. This is my favorite of their songs, but if you hear this you’ll understand their schtick immediately - shouty vocals over acoustic guitars that explode into VERY GOOD CHORUSES THAT ARE MADE FOR SCREAMING ALONG TO WHILE DRIVING. They only ever put out two records (‘07 & ‘08) which is a damn shame.

Bad Bad Hats - “Psychic Reader”

WHOAH who woulda thought that Bad Bad Hats would be the first band to be featured twice on this blog? This is off of their debut full length (I believe they’re still offering it for free) which was one of my favorite albums of 2015. There’s a simplicity to their song structure that still manages to feel full and propulsive.

Frou Frou - “Must Be Dreaming”

Quick jump back in time here to 2002 when Imogen Heap joined with Guy Sigsworth for the short lived group Frou Frou. GARDEN STATE introduced the world to “Let Go,” but “Must Be Dreaming” was always my favorite track from the record. One of my fondest memories is blasting this album on a particularly rainy day while driving around my home town.

The Blue Nile - “Tinseltown In The Rain”

Despite being the oldest song on this mix, “Tinseltown” is actually the song that’s newest to me. The lead singer of Los Campesinos! put out a playlist the featured this track and it’s been present on nearly every mix I’ve made since. It’s an absolutely gorgeous Bowie-esque soundscape that fits any situation.

Carly Rae Jepsen - “Your Type”

I honestly could have pulled tracks from Carly Rae’s E•MO•TION (and the album’s Side B) out of a hat to see which one to include here, but “Your Type” wins the day...for no other reason than it’s the track I’ve listened to the most this week. I’ve always loved pop music, and Carly is producing the best around right now. Excellent collaborators, the voice of an angel, a fascination with the cycles of Love...can’t get enough.

Destroyer - “Downtown”

I’ll never forget the first time I heard a Destroyer song. The disconnect between what I was hearing and the actual artist name totally blew me away, and I love introducing people to Dan Bejar’s work to see if it shocks them as much. This track is off Destroyer’s excellent album KAPUTT which came out the year I got married and provided the soundtrack to that entire wonderful and stressful time. Sick bass lines, an emphasis on saxophones...it’s absolutely stunning, and that’s not just the nostalgia speaking.

Motion City Soundtrack - “LG FUAD”

I grew up in a religious household and one of my first personal vices was putting in headphones and listening to music that wasn’t shy about using curse words. So naturally this is the Motion City Soundtrack that ends up here. It’s playful, crass, and taps into an emotional insecurity that I find to be pretty universal.

Wild Beasts - “Reach A Bit Further”

Wild Beasts (another of my favorite bands) are consistently putting out strange, esoteric albums. I first encountered them when I was making the shift from more traditional pop-punk to what I guess would be categorized as the indie-rock, Pitchfork-y crowd and they really puzzled me. The awkwardness of their vocals. The emotional honesty. This track prominently features their two vocalists and I find it suuuuuper romantic.

Broken Social Scene - “7/4 Shoreline”

Following up Wild Beasts with another of my all time favorite bands, Broken Social Scene. Here’s a great example of one of their more straightforward, rockin tracks that still highlights their perfect blend of catchy melody and lo-fi, cluttered approach. It’s an awesome wall of sound.

Bloc Party - “This Modern Love”

Is this the best song ever written? I guess I’ll let you be the judge, but it’s definitely up there.

Say Anything - “Alive With The Glory of Love”

I considered Max Bemis my personal Jesus for a not insignificant portion of my life, and I’ve continued to follow him as he maneuvers the Say Anything brand towards stranger and more independent destinations. This song was their breakout single, and it still holds up as a perfect example of Max’s signature vocal delivery and the amazing musicianship that was part of a band at their prime.

As a sidenote, why does Spotify only have the edited version of the album????????

Frightened Rabbit - “My Backwards Walk”

This song ends with the immortal refrain “You’re the shit and I’m knee deep in it” which I once said to an ex girlfriend assuming she’d find it endearing. My love of this sentiment encapsulates my attachment to Frightened Rabbit - even though I’m happily married, I’ve always reveled in their broad, often heartbreaking romantic themes. This song in particular is able to portray emotion in such a specific, truthful way - not wanting to leave a physical space because it means leaving a person.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - “In This Home On Ice”

I first heard Clap Your Hands Say Yeah in a beachy book store while on my first real day trip with a new group of friends. Similar to Wild Beasts there’s an abrasiveness to the vocals that fascinated me and remains a huge part of the appeal. This was always my favorite track off this, their first and most popular album.

Twin Shadow - “Run My Heart”

Every mix needs to end with a piano outro (I guess), and what better way to go out than this strange, fiercely independent track from Twin Shadow. The dude has put out three fantastic records that posture the singer-songwriter as a guy who is both too cool for love and absolutely obsessed with it. I can’t help but think that this particular track summarizes the contradictory, posturing attitude I see in his music - no one who isn’t emotionally vulnerable could craft so many songs about emotional vulnerability. Plus, it features another fantastically explosive chorus.

[colourmyliving]

Global pandemic or not, there are entire movements out there advocating living slowly and being gentle with one’s self all the time. According to Therapy Changes, being gentle with yourself means accepting where you are and what you are doing, and allowing yourself to just do the best you can, right now. 

Now, since the pandemic began, we are all stuck in situations significantly different from what we’re used to. We suddenly find ourselves with a lot of free time on our hands, and it can put us under a lot of pressure to accomplish all the things we “just never had time for.” All those “motivational” posts about Shakespeare writing King Lear and Newton developing calculus while in quarantine can’t be helping your stress levels at the moment either.

While it’s good to strive to make the most of the time we’re spending at home, we must remember that the CDC has also pointed out that we’re all in the middle of something traumatic and anxiety-inducing. So actually, this is not the time to obsess about productivity. All you have to do is hold on to your sanity while waiting for life to get back to what we know.

Having said that, we do have a lot of time to fill and a lot of boredom to chase away. So here are some gentle things you can try at home – now that you’ve got a golden opportunity to slow down:

1. Listen to audiobooks

Audible has launched Audible Stories a platform where kids and kids-at-heart can stream audiobooks for the duration of the pandemic– all for free.

Their promise is reassuring: “For as long as schools are closed, we’re open.”

You can listen to classics like Moby Dick, Anne of Green Gables, Winnie the Pooh, and Harry Potter, among others– in 6 languages.

If you can’t find a title you like, you can also check out Loyal Books where thousands of public domain audiobooks are accessible for free.

Listening to audiobooks is one of the most gentle things you can do to fill your time. For a few minutes – or hours – each day, close your eyes and tag along on different adventures, and visiting new realms without ever having to take even a single step.

[themify_button bgcolor=”orange” size=”large” link=”https://www.amazon.com/hz/audible/gift-membership-detail?ref_=assoc_tag_ph_1524210806852&_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=pf4&tag=colmylea-20&linkId=84a982f0069e9768c5d4b0ba083e0519&#8243; target=”_blank” style=”flat”]Visit Audible[/themify_button]

2. Read e-books

We understand though, that some of us can only enjoy a book when we get to flip the pages and actually read the words on paper. But since going to the bookstore is not considered essential travel, e-books are the second best right now.

Kindle Oasis

Not to worry though, e-book readers like Kindle and Kobo have been working hard to give users a more ‘authentic feel’ while reading on a screen. Whenever you turn a page, it will even produce that satisfying crisp that’s music to the ears of bookworms everywhere.

An amazing companion when going through tough times is Paulo Coelho, and his gift of therapeutic writing. Lucky for us, the Brazilian author has put up some of his titles as free e-books on his official site.

Kindle Paperwhite

Kobo Clara HD

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3. Listen to podcasts

At a time like this, it’s important to realize that you’re not going through any of this alone. Listening to other people’s experiences can help you process all these foreign emotions, and podcasts are a great way to source this kind of material. You could also look for podcasts that focus on well-being and self-care for some more insight in to how to take better care of yourself.

Recently, the New York Times has been compiling compelling and inspiring self-recorded voice memos for its Modern Love podcast, and it has resulted in an equally beautiful and haunting collection of experiences from around the world.

How to start, if you are on an iOS or MacOS device head over to the Podcasts app. If you on an Android device, use these free podcast apps; Anchor and Google Podcasts. Other free podcast apps with optional subscription includes TuneIn, Spotify, Podcast Go, Podcast Addict, Podbean, Pocket Casts, Castbox and Doggcatcher.

4. Socialize virtually

If you’re familiar with Let’s Day Out, then it might delight you to know that they’ve rolled out a new feature called Let’s Day In.

So instead of signing up for physical cooking classes, parties, or workout sessions, you may now attend live cooking demonstrations, art classes, and even themed parties while at home. For those in self-isolation, this is a great way to socialize and meet new people online.

Here’s the best part: all events are free to join. You do have the option to donate a small amount to the World Health Organization – to help them find a cure for COVID-19.

5. Watch the beach live

Few things in life are more calming and gentle for the soul than a nice old trip to the beach. There’s something incredibly relaxing about watching the sunset with sand under your feet, and hearing the waves crash on the shore.

But when it’s not advisable to head out, you can recreate the whole beachside experience right at home. One of America’s best-known Victorian resorts, Hotel del Coronado, or simply “The Del,” offers a 24/7 livestream of the beachfront, as seen from the hotel’s veranda.

All it takes is a few moments of introspection each day to calm the body and mind, and a breathtaking view of the beach can definitely help with that. For more live beach webcams see:

50 Best Beach Cams in the U.S. – our favourite is the Waikiki Beach Cam in Hawaii

Skyline Webcams Live Top Sea Destinations

6. Spend quality time with your pet

Your pet, if you have one, is probably completely thrilled to have you around at the moment. The extra walks, the time for games, playing and learning new tricks. All these have been know to contribute significantly to your own better health and overall well-being. The Mental Health Foundation says spending time with animals is one of the best ways to ease anxiety and stress.

But what you don’t have a pet? Well, the next best thing is to perhaps check out some of the web cams from around the world that have been sharing live views of animals. Explore has an amazing online archive of photographs and live cams of wildlife from around the world. At any given time, you can watch the cute Giant Pandas in China, stately lions at the African Savanna, or even ospreys in Chesapeake, along with almost any animal you could possibly think of.

Even when the quarantine period is over, watching animals like this in their natural habitat is still better and less cruel than supporting zoos and safaris who keep these gentle beasts in an enclosure.

7. Learn a new craft

We have been conditioned to believe that the only skills worth learning are those that we can monetize. Some people are not wrong when they say it’s a modern-day trap to feel obligated to turn your hobbies into hustles. However that’s precisely not what slow living is all about.

Allow yourself to learn a new craft for nothing but your own enjoyment. You don’t even have to be particularly good at it, as long as you have fun. Not sure what kind of craft to make? Well, that’s what sites like Pinterest and Youtube are for!

I would personally recommend a DIY coaster or a homemade bath bomb that you yourself can enjoy using after you’ve created some.

If you’re cooped up with kids and other relatives, there are also a lot of home projects you can enjoy as a family.

8. Learn a new language

Studies by both linguists and neuroscientists point to a common thing: learning a new language is very good exercise for the brain. Whenever you feel like your brain is slowing down or “rusting,” you could start learning a few words or phrases of a foreign language everyday to keep your brain stimulated.

We don’t recommend intensive studying that might cause too much stress, too. Aside from fun apps like Duolingo or Memrise, you can simply read children’s books or watch cartoons in the foreign language you want to learn. Media that’s meant to be consumed by kids are likely to use simple words and simple sentences that even foreigners can start learning.

RELATED: Best Free Apps to Learn a Language

9. Feed your inner Potterhead

If you remember how quickly morning turned to night whenever you read Harry Potter as a kid, Hogwarts is Here can recreate the same sensation now. It’s a social networking site created by Harry Potter fans– for fellow Harry Potter fans. Once you’ve set up an account, you can enroll in classes like Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Astronomy, among others. Accomplishing tasks can also earn you house points.

Alternatively, you can take a virtual tour of all the Harry Potter landmarks around London. See Your City tour guides will bring you along, but not without sorting you into your Hogwarts house first! J.K. Rowling has also just released a new website called Harry Potter At Home, a new platform to keep kids entertained.

10. Go on virtual museum tours

Not such a big Harry Potter fan? No worries. There are a lot of essential art galleries that have opened up virtual tours for you to enjoy from the safety of your home. Not just that, Google’s Arts and Culture has a list of more than 2000 museums and galleries to browse through and some to visit virtually.

Here are our top picks:

The Uffizi Gallery

Located in Florence, Italy, the Uffizi is home to some of the best works of Botticelli and da Vinci, housed inside its impeccable neoclassical interior.

The Guggenheim, New York

The iconic spiral staircase designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is a must-visit for anyone visiting New York, but we also have this opportunity to go around and see Catherine Opie’s self-portraits from anywhere in the world. Visit the Guggenehim Museum virtually.

Van Gogh Museum

If you agree that the world was never meant for one as beautiful as Vincent Van Gogh, a virtual tour around the VGM in Amsterdam is the way to go.

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul

If you’re a fan of Korean art, Google can take you through all six storeys of Seoul’s most visited museum.

Google’s Arts And Culture

11. Revisit your bucket list

Finally, you can take out your old bucket list and update it. Chances are, you’d be surprised to find out how much you’ve accomplished so far. At the same time, a new bucket list can help you come up with things to look forward to when this is all over. List all the cities you’d like to visit, food you’d like to taste (or make), and adventures you want to seek out. After all, all of us need a little something to look forward to right now.

Again, it’s never good to over-think or worry at a time like this. Hopefully, these gentle things can help you commit to living a slow life. After all, slow living is soulful living. And global crisis or not, self-care is always a good idea.

11 Gentle Things You Can Try at Home to Fill Your Time  Global pandemic or not, there are entire movements out there advocating living slowly and being gentle with one’s self all the time.