Ingredients
4.5 oz Hudson Corn Whiskey
.75 oz Dry Vermouth
.75 oz Sweet Vermouth
1 Dash Woodford Reserve Bourbon Barrel Aged Bitters
2 Olives stuffed with bleu cheese
Whiskey and olives don't usually go together but I have an abundance of both in the house and I mean to rectify that. I used my Hudson un-aged corn whiskey to make a bastard child of a Manhattan and a Martini. The corn whiskey has a sweeter, less astringent taste than Vodka and is far less floral and spicy than Gin so simply using Dry Vermouth was out of question. It also doesn't have the woody, nutty, smokey characteristics as aged grain whiskey so using only Sweet Vermouth wouldn't work by itself. I decided to split the difference and use both in half the amount I would use in one of the standard cocktails. When you use both types of Vermouth it is neither sweet nor dry somyou call it "perfect", if you thought I was being cocky before that simply isn't the case. I also gave it one dash of Woodford Reserve barrel aged bitters to give it a slightly more Manhattan feel. Pour all ingredients in a tumbler with ice, shake well to chill and strain into a martini glass. I served mine with two bleu cheese stuffed olives on a spike. What you end up with is a sweet and tangy swirl with a slightly chewier mouthfeel than you would get from a Vodka Martini. The bitters and the Corn Whisky bite the tongue but what's left at the end is a a sweet and sour medley that leaves you warm not burning.
Now that the cocktail is made I had to decide what I was going to read. I decided to pull something older off the shelf for this one. "Preludes & Nocturns", the first volume in Neil Gaiman's classic Sandman series seemed appropriate. The characters are all larger than life, even the
human ones like John Constantine, and the scenarios and landscapes are straight out of a bad acid trip or deep seated psychosis. Sam Keith, Mike Dringenberg and Malcom Jones, do a brilliant job of portraying these images on the page using plenty of black lines and stark block color backgrounds that force your attention to the characters and their motion without muddying up the panels. This is not to say that the art is in any way bright and clear however. There is possibly only two or three panels in the entire collection that are colored brightly. Even the yellows are dingy and seem to be covered by a layer of grime. If you take these dark and jagged characters and throw them into an indepth landscape you would end up with a mess. Not to mention the fact that too much detail while characters are in the bowels of hell or the vast expanses of a dream world could be frightening and cumbersome. The story reflects back these dark twisted images well, focusing on The Sandman's (aka Dream, aka Morpheus) capture by a cult, escape from said cult and hunting down of his possessions, which the cult sold, in hell, dreams and London. I simplify it this much because I don't know how to adiquately explain something as in depth and philosophically stymying as Sandman ain 3 sentences. You could write a college thesis on this volume alone. There is mythology, legend, religion and magic all seething beneath the streets of the real world and any of those things by themselves would make for a good read. Gaiman takes those topics wraps them together in one big burrito in which you can taste every ingredient of individually but still the favors also blend well. If you have not read this yet you really should. Ignore the silly goth kids and their worship of all things dark and Gaimanesque and really allow yourself to dig into Sandman. You'll be glad that you did.
What do you listen to when you're drinking an untested cocktail and reading a graphic novel that takes you on a tour through the depths of your imagination? Aphex Twin, of course! Seriously though, Selected Ambient Works Vol. II is pretty much soundtrack material as it is. These are not as much "songs" as they are minimalist electronic noisescapes. Some of the songs come with a steadyish bass drum thump but they're few and far between. As a whole the record will make you feel like there is a killer around the corner but then it'll let you off the hook for a few minutes an allow you to breath again. Though it includes some of your standard electronic bleeps and bloops there is a constant texture and underpinning of white noise throughout SAW Vol. II that most electronic music doesn't have. It's also got some creepy human voice samples to tweak you out even farther. There are 2 very drastic ways of listening to an album like this and as far as I'm concerned neither is more valid than the other. This album makes great, although slightly unnerving background music, or you can listen to the layers unfold in your brain and then collapse back in on themselves all the while trying to imagine what it is the artist was picturing as they programmed these "songs". Seriously, either way, dealers choice.
