43: Smoking and New Leaves
I have wanted to smoke every day since lockdown began. Smoking is something I gave up because I knew I should, but I never gave up on being a smoker. It's a disgusting habit, but I loved it. I still smoke occasionally -- I'm allowed a single packet at Christmas, if I feel like it, but for the past two years I've not bothered. The thought has become more satisfying than the nicotine rush now. I steal a one from a friend on a night out maybe once a year. I don't miss the rush of nicotine. I miss standing in glittery velvet clothes, darkly linered eyelids lowered as my cigarette is lit by a friend's slender chipped-nailpolish hands, warm, happy bodies standing close together, a moment of surreptitious bad behaviour away from the busy bar. Or sat on a wall like kids, sharing one rollie back and forth, comfy in similar jackets and old stories we don't even have to tell.
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The leaves have sprung out suddenly and my house is surrounded by colour. The black jagged shapes of trees reaching up to white winter skies changed while I was indoors and on Monday before dusk I was shocked by soft green on branches I had remembered as austere and foreboding. Spring comes every year, but every year I'm surprised by the effect is has on me, and how grateful I am for it. I'm not about to say it's making The Situation better but I'm finding it helpful to remember that spring reminds me that I've made it through winter again. And that's always reason to celebrate.
Other Stuff
Patti LuPone on sparkling form in this New Yorker interview talking sex scenes, how stunning she looks in new series "Hollywood" and being known as "that roaring bitch", (plus a weird bit about aliens starting the virus????)
A sad but vital and interesting piece on British farmhouse cheesemakers and how The Current Situation is affecting them. We're ordering local beers and supporting local offies, but can we support local dairies and cheesemakers too?
The internet isn't just a place to scroll through. It can be your only safe space. It can be connection. It can be lifesaving. Lily Waite has written these very true and important things in her recent piece for Good Beer Hunting, and you should read it.
A stunning thread on the history of Bradley's Spanish Bar in Fitzrovia/Soho depending on whom you speak to. Greek wrestlers! Flamenco guitarists! Dr Death! Skiffle! It's a ride.
Matthew Curtis had a very busy week this week, and two of his articles published this week were on malt. Fascinating, vital, highly overlooked malt. Here's his manifesto on why us, the drinkers, should care more about malt. And here is something much more complex but very interesting -- the ongoing development of malting technology that's happening right under our noses to continue making beer better than ever. Malt is cool!
A beautiful meditation on the little freedoms we all have if we look up, and getting to know the daily routines of the birds that pass the window by Richard Smyth, who you might know as the nature writer who writes The Guardian's monthly Country Diary.
Rack & Return are doing a daily wine quiz in their Instagram stories and they are a lot of fun (and difficult).
Are you interested in the chemicals that make things smell the way they do? Check out this Smithsonian article on the various chemical compounds that make durians smell as... interesting as they do.
I've been listening to a lot of Bill Withers since his sad passing the other week. This piece from Rolling Stone is a soft, caring portrait of a man that enjoyed his time in the spotlight and has no regrets in choosing to leave that part of his life behind him.
Two Easters ago Vogue published a piece on agnelli -- traditional Sicilian marzipan artworks -- and how the number of artisans creating them are shrinking, they're still around in New York if you know where to look.
A poignant but ever-so-sad look at Brussels during lockdown from Brussels Beer City. "We do not know when they will open again, and some of them never will. But for now, they are in stasis, neither living nor dead. They just wait. And the waiting is the hardest part." That noise was my heart breaking like a Jupiler glass hitting a tiled floor.
My Stuff
As you're probably aware, I've not been achieving much lately. I have a few pieces that should be published in the May edition of Ferment mag, and I'm working on some other things, just very, very, very slowly. I feel like I'm at about 30% efficiency at the moment, and the rest of my brain is powered down, working away dealing with stress and routine change. I've never been good with routine change.
I should have been at a Libero tap takeover at Altrincham FC today, so instead please read this piece I wrote on craft beer and local football bringing communities together and maybe buy some local beer and send some support to your local club too.
Fancy reading even more about malt? I wrote this back in Jan 2019 about heritage malts, and it features one of my fave ever beers, Govinda Chevallier by Cheshire Brewhouse.
Villabate Alba, Bensonhurst by Nikki Krecicki