Going into this newsletter earlier this week I had this whole screed planned about how I am a proud and dedicated NYC Board of Elections Election Day Worker even though I have no faith that electoral politics will save us and how we’re 3-5 years away from total societal and ecological collapse but even so it’s important to vote in all elections, especially the “small” ones because a lot of times the decisions made by city and state electeds are way more impactful on our lives than federal ones and those elections are decided by way fewer votes so we as voters have way more leverage that we think plus even though there are overlapping looming disasters on the horizon and diligent voting as at best a marginal intervention, it still makes sense to try to improve our material conditions however possible and for me I have the ability to serve the public interest by handing over 14 hours of my life on election day due to the various privileges afforded to me,

BUT

yesterday was my birthday and i spent last night first visting Grand Central Oyster Bar, then drinking obscenely overpriced sparkling wine at the top of One Vanderbilt and finally drinking more wine at the Feeling Asian Live Show and dressing up as a Squid Game VIP and exchanging furtive glances with Asa Akira on stage while eating a Solid Wiggles Eyeball Cake, so today i am tired and my propensity for prose is diminished, so this is all you’re going to get.

Go vote.

And now, some classic newsletter material: ANNOUNCEMENTS

Good Drinks author and JdB BFF Julia Bainbridge and I are doing book signings at Boisson’s Upper East Side and West Village locations:

November 6, Upper East Side, 1025 Lexington Avenue from 5pm-7pm https://boisson.eventcalendarapp.com/u/30709/138032
November 20, West Village, 330 Bleecker Street from 5pm-7pm https://boisson.eventcalendarapp.com/u/30709/138034

And I’m also doing a Proteau tasting event at Minus Moonshine, 433 Sterling Place **November 13, 1-4pm**

I feel like each newsletter should have at least some nominal drinks content, right?

I love absinthe. And I love that i got to write about it, and even got to go on the Martinis and Murder podcast to talk about the horrifically gruesome and fascinating “Absinthe Murders.”

This incident was actually one of the events that triggered the ban of absinthe that persisted in the US until 2007. I got to write a piece for Bon Appetit’s Basically that tried to disentangle the many absinthe myths from the fascinating true facts about this botanical concoction. (Fun fact! This is one of the first pieces I wrote where I got something really wrong. I originally stated that the Pernod distillery was in Switzerland, but it is indeed in France, although very close to the Swiss border…)

Now please familiarize yourself with these music videos:

J. Balvin, Dua Lipa, Bad Bunny, Tainy - UN DIA (ONE DAY) }{ There is something super futuristic about this song and video that I can’t quite put my finger on.
Charli XCX - Good Ones }{ Love the video, hate the trend of sub-three minute pop songs
The Knocks & MUNA - Bodies }{ Obliquely gut-wrenching. I sent this to my brother and he said it brought him to tears.

All of my news links this week are about how bad Facebook is:

...except for this one from 2018 that I found on tumblr (of course) about how an adult human man had to get “married” to an endangered crane ~for work~ (WATCH THE VIDEO)

Thanks for reading. Forward this to someone you think will like me.

Love,

-JdB