Absinthe

[Behemoth]

And I'm gonna put on powdered wig and dress up as Thomas Jefferson whenever I drink Bordeaux?

 

This is food (and drink) we're talking about, not some cult object.

 

To me (my own personal opinion, nonbinding on anyone else), that stuff is all Amateur Night.

 

If you can appreciate absinthe, then fine. If you have to go through some masquerade where you're pretending to be Arthur Rimbaud "to get the experience", then I can't help but wonder if you can really appreciate it.

 

All that's fine for "ordinary" people, but we're (I hate this word) foodies! We're supposed to like food for food.

 

I'm with you. I like ritual as long as there is a good reason behind it. In this case it's just a bunch of clutter.

[omnivorette]

How about just because it's fun?

[Wilfrid1]

There is a substantial cultural history attached to absinthe. It doesn't make the "clutter" compulsory, but it's very interesting clutter.

 

 

[Behemoth]

How about just because it's fun?

 

I prefer my fun streamlined.

[monkeymay]

And I'm gonna put on powdered wig and dress up as Thomas Jefferson whenever I drink Bordeaux?

 

This is food (and drink) we're talking about, not some cult object.

 

To me (my own personal opinion, nonbinding on anyone else), that stuff is all Amateur Night.

 

If you can appreciate absinthe, then fine. If you have to go through some masquerade where you're pretending to be Arthur Rimbaud "to get the experience", then I can't help but wonder if you can really appreciate it.

 

All that's fine for "ordinary" people, but we're (I hate this word) foodies! We're supposed to like food for food.

 

I would if I could. I'd be fucking Marie Antoinette everyday given the chance. I appreciate a sense of cultural reference. I love accoutrements. And while I don't read Verlaine everytime I drink absinthe, I like to think of the images it inspired while I do. I dig the process and the mystique. Is it necessary? Obviously not. But as Wilde said "Illusion is the first of all pleasures". So it is for me.

 

Sake has ritual.

Martinis have ritual. There is nothing more beautiful than the process of a well made Martini.

 

Ritual is sexy. Green faries kissing my lips and the illusion of my mind bending is what I'm looking for.

Or I can just drink Bourbon all day. Which I tend to do anyway.

 

And nobody likes food for just food. That's for tourists.

[Behemoth]

Sake has ritual.

Martinis have ritual. There is nothing more beautiful than the process of a well made Martini.

 

The difference is that ritual in the examples you give are structurally integral parts of the process, or else an issue of social politeness, not a mere extraneous physical add-on. Absinthe spoons are, if you will, the Hummel figurines of liquor consumption.

[monkeymay]

Sake has ritual.

Martinis have ritual. There is nothing more beautiful than the process of a well made Martini.

 

The difference is that ritual in the examples you give are structurally integral parts of the process, or else an issue of social politeness, not a mere extraneous physical add-on. Absinthe spoons are, if you will, the Hummel figurines of liquor consumption.

 

So art and beauty can't enter into the process? We should all be drinking out of jelly jars and stiring with coffee spoons? Yes, not necessary to the function, but the form baby, the form...

[Max]

we have to demystify absinthe. If you want get rid of Fear Of Thujone, you have to get rid of all the other mumbo-jumbo, too.

I favor demystification too. The young and dumb are free to get walleyed, or people to sit on floor cushions with their feet in their laps and sip absinthe through lumps of sugar and talk from the backs of their throats or just squeak, as Raymond Chandler wrote around 1939 (reproduced in Conrad's 1988 book, slightly misattributed). There's no harm in still using absinthe spoons and glasses -- that's just customary, like Martinis in cone stemware. That's not the problem.

 

If you're going to demystify, demystify! Don't dispel other mumbo-jumbo, but retain archaic thujone notions that are the core of the mystification. Don't claim to know more than anyone did a few years ago, yet omit what was public 50 or 70 years ago. Why do new explanations lag behind the demystification level of Conrad's 20-year-old book? Why does Ted Breaux (of Jade Liqueurs), in the New Yorker 13 March 2006, cite a reference book on absinthe's "toxicity" from thujone without mentioning coffee's greater "toxicity" or the far stronger "toxicity" of alcohol, all in the same book?

 

Anyone is free to fish or cut bait, that's not the problem at all.

[Sneakeater]

How about just because it's fun?

 

I hate fun.

[Sneakeater]

Sake has ritual.

Martinis have ritual. There is nothing more beautiful than the process of a well made Martini.

 

The difference is that ritual in the examples you give are structurally integral parts of the process, or else an issue of social politeness, not a mere extraneous physical add-on. Absinthe spoons are, if you will, the Hummel figurines of liquor consumption.

 

I completely agree with this, for the little it adds to this discussion.

[Ampelman]

So art and beauty can't enter into the process? We should all be drinking out of jelly jars and stiring with coffee spoons? Yes, not necessary to the function, but the form baby, the form...

I'm with you. Next time it's absinthe time, I'm gonna put on the late great Gérard Souzay -- Cinq Melodies de Venise, Op. 58 (Verlaine) -- cue up "Green", and sip as his warm baritone fills the room... "Voici des fruits, des fleurs, des feuilles et des branches. Et puis voici mon coeur qui ne bat que pour vous..."

[monkeymay]

How about just because it's fun?

 

I hate fun.

 

Good. More for me.

[Lauren]

And I'm gonna put on powdered wig and dress up as Thomas Jefferson whenever I drink Bordeaux?

 

This is food (and drink) we're talking about, not some cult object.

 

To me (my own personal opinion, nonbinding on anyone else), that stuff is all Amateur Night.

 

If you can appreciate absinthe, then fine. If you have to go through some masquerade where you're pretending to be Arthur Rimbaud "to get the experience", then I can't help but wonder if you can really appreciate it.

 

All that's fine for "ordinary" people, but we're (I hate this word) foodies! We're supposed to like food for food.

 

I would if I could. I'd be fucking Marie Antoinette everyday given the chance. I appreciate a sense of cultural reference. I love accoutrements. And while I don't read Verlaine everytime I drink absinthe, I like to think of the images it inspired while I do. I dig the process and the mystique. Is it necessary? Obviously not. But as Wilde said "Illusion is the first of all pleasures". So it is for me.

 

Sake has ritual.

Martinis have ritual. There is nothing more beautiful than the process of a well made Martini.

 

Ritual is sexy. Green faries kissing my lips and the illusion of my mind bending is what I'm looking for.

Or I can just drink Bourbon all day. Which I tend to do anyway.

 

And nobody likes food for just food. That's for tourists.

 

I think I'll choose to party with monkeymay. May I steal your tourists quote for my tag line? I love it!

[Behemoth]

So art and beauty can't enter into the process? We should all be drinking out of jelly jars and stiring with coffee spoons? Yes, not necessary to the function, but the form baby, the form...

 

You've surely come across the relevant Louis Sullivan quote?

 

I may be in the minority on this board, but I don't consider food to be an art. Craft can (in fact should) be beautiful, but its beauty doesn't come from hanging a bunch of bric-a-brac off its ends.

 

To each his own, I guess.

[omnivorette]

I think I'll choose to party with monkeymay.

 

Oh yes indeed.