Sun May 31, 2009
New York Drinks
Probably my favorite movie right now. And it is for everyone everywhere I think. Maybe especially Detroit.
Wed May 27, 2009
Muscadet Monday
Beginning June 1st, this Monday, Slows hosts a weekly wine 'happy hour' called Muscadet Monday - in Motown (MMM). Chef Mike will prepare a special soup (have you tried his soups?). Most drinks from the bar, including cold glasses of Muscadet, are $1 off from 4 - 7pm.
Everyone is invited, and we especially hope to see our colleagues in the restaurant trade; many of us take Monday off and would benefit from sharing the company of peers in a relaxing setting outdoors, all while being served healthy refreshments at affordable prices.
Muscadet (say "moose-ka-day") is a dry white wine from the land where the Loire River meets the Atlantic Ocean in western France. Muscadet epitomizes unpretentious wine drinking pleasure. It makes a fitting symbol for Slows and its carefully selected wine list.
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Mon May 25, 2009
Pif
Eating blue Obama Administration sheeps cheese from chalk caves. A pint glass full of 2006 Pif. Recovering from two days of redeeming weeping. Duck carcass is boiling on stove. People are all good.
Tue May 19, 2009
cannabis, sex, poetry and gardens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=CA&hl=en&v=QeCra-sn0dI#t=4m56s
0 comments (274 views) | Posted by: putnam | May 19, 09 | 10:09 pmHow About Dat?
2 comments (238 views) | Posted by: putnam | May 19, 09 | 8:47 pm
Mon May 18, 2009
Don't be Mean
Even if you think you have to be.
It's a lesson for life.
Sun May 17, 2009
mmm
"We add a dash of X, and a pinch of Z, and for flavor and taste we add Y-9D!"
Bacon Vodka
What else is there to say?
Fri May 15, 2009
soup kitchen snobbery
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/food-snobs-in-the-soup-kitchen.php
throughout the piece she runs together the idea of soup kitchens being too “snobbish” about what food they serve with the idea of soup kitchens being health-conscious about the food they serve. This is an important distinction to make, however. When people can’t get enough to eat, they become malnourished. The point of charitable food assistance is to help people avoid that fate. That means, however, that it’s foolish to ignore the nutritional content of what you’re serving.
Mon May 11, 2009
i refuse to believe
4 comments (246 views) | Posted by: putnam | May 11, 09 | 9:55 pm
friends
I don't know why, but of all the human beings, some people, family and friends have been incredibly persistent and true.
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Sun May 10, 2009
we are all invaders
0 comments (197 views) | Posted by: putnam | May 10, 09 | 11:36 pm
Bikeride to Eastern Market Yesterday
From the intersection of Steve Yzerman Drive and the current western end of Riverwalk Detroit.
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Thu May 07, 2009
Rain Day?
today was supposed to be my first scheduled day working the patio at Slows BBQ. But it's raining. Does that mean I'm cut?
(photo courtesy of college candy)
Wed May 06, 2009
Wine Attack!
So I'm trying to make sense of the ruins of my personal life and I return again to the minor excuse of my peculiar specialization, which I chose - fine wine salesman.
there are no wine advocates, only wine adversaries. Pundits and tradespeople routinely snipe at each other, bearing grudges and generally taking their work too seriously. And why not? taste is not only personal, it is a metaphor for all things personally judged. It's hard to separate one's taste from one's identity, and in social settings egos usually have the last say.
(Gary Vaynerchuck and Kevin Zraly manage to avoid the mud pit, but they do this as cartoons of wine guys. they are incapable of joining their audience or the subject in more than one of its dimensions, which is the only way wine is more than a simple alcohol product.)
Some random examples:
1) Mark Ellenbogen attacked in the media for not chosing enough California wine
2) team Robert Parker attacked for eating dinner in public with wine trade personalities
3) Jonathan Nossiter attacked by Parker
4) tom Wark attacked by Joe Dressner (comment #1)
My wife, soon to be ex wife, works at a food bank. She is a communications expert. She trains volunteer speakers, plans media campaigns and answers calls from the press. I asked her if she ever felt her work was under attack. No. It isn't. the worst thing she could say is that one single local institution in the non-profit scene seems to harbor some sort of scepticism of the food bank mission.
by contrast I can't remember a time in the past 12 years when I haven't felt - often with good reason - like numerous people were sitting in judgment on every decision I make, in bad faith, determined to knock down my efforts.
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Mon May 04, 2009
I love Rootbeer
What an exotic drink, rootbeer. More...
0 comments (232 views) | Posted by: putnam | May 04, 09 | 9:54 pmPatio Open!
there are various "signs of summer." the ice cream man with a jacket on, wheeling by in March. Equinox day. Oberon release day, now April 1.
But the day that always mattered to me most was May 15, the day when old almanacs allowed us to plant our annual seedlings outdoors. Now I expect that date has moved forward slightly ...
And then there's the open patio at Slows. May 4.
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travel narrows the mind
"I think it was Larkin who said that travel narrows the mind. It was a mischievously provocative statement, but at its core is something true. The world is a mystery; one place is amazement enough. To live well and deeply in one place, to commit to it, to protect and cherish and understand it: this is a great and difficult and rewarding thing." - Andrew Sullivan
"that `travel narrows the mind' is particularly true of architects. The arts and crafts designer, C. F. A. Voysey, once said that no architect should go abroad under the age of 40 as it is more important first to understand the local climate and local conditions. Travel can make architects into mere trainspotters, collecting fashionable buildings to copy instead of thinking about what is most appropriate, or, as in past centuries, measuring up the monuments of Antiquity -- again for copying purposes." - Gavin Stamp
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Sun May 03, 2009
Possible New List 9 comments (343 views) | Posted by: putnam | May 03, 09 | 5:15 pm
