Espolón Tequila

Tequila: the Drink of Champions

Happy post Thanksgiving, everyone! I know it's been far too long since my last post, but I got hit with a crazy flu right after Hurricane Sandy, and it knocked the wind out of my sales. I've never been more appreciative of Thanksgiving and the restorative days off it provided.

I was even looking forward to the three flight transfers it takes me to get to my parents place in New Mexico, because it meant additional acceptable resting time. Still, by the time I was on the last leg, waiting in O'hare airport in the interim between my second and third flight transfer, I lost my patience.

Did you know that O'hare is the world's second busiest airport? Did you also know it is the world's most difficult airport in which to find electrical outlets to charge your phone? (This last statement is hyperbole).

Since I had a four hour layover and then a three hour flight before I landed in New Mexico, this outlet situation was not good. I used my last few minute of charge to google electrical outlet locations in O'hare —turns out I'm not alone in my frustration— and I ended up two terminals away with no success. As I turned, ready to give up in dispair, I saw my salvation. Like rain in a desert, there in front of me was a bar, making margaritas on the rocks with my favorite, obsession worthy Tequila: Espolón.

 And get this. Not only was there this oasis of fantastic alcohol, but underneath the lip of the bar were outlets —tons of them.

It ended up being a fantastic layover and I boarded my next flight buzzing with the after-effects of my margarita.

If you haven't yet tried Espolón tequila, Let me tell you why I like it so much.

First of all, this bottle wins on aesthetics alone.

This is cool looking.

The labels, illustrated by Steven Nobel, use traditional Mexican imagery to tell the story of Mexico's independence. Inspired by Jose Gaudalupe Pesado's 19th century engravings of skeleton people often associated with Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) imagery, each bottle's label depicts a different scene telling the story of Mexico's independence using the characters of Guadalupe, Rosarita and the proud rooster, Ramón (The Mexican national symbol of pride). On the Blanco label we see Guadalupe and Rosarita fighting for Mexican independence from Spain, and on the Reposado label we see them trying to infuse traditional elements of Aztec culture throughout Mexico City marketplaces.

Aside from the awesome design, there's the fact that it taste really good, for a fraction of the price of comparable tasting tequilas.  The blanco, my drink of choice, has a smooth feel with peppery notes. Espolón roasts the agave for 18-20  hours versus the standard 12, and also distills the alcohol for longer, which creates a rich, smooth flavor. At $25 a bottle it's a huge steal.

I'm not a reposado drinker, but do know that Espolón ages theirs six months in barrels, almost twice the industry standard, which should lead to a really rich flavor. Drinkhacker says: "Definitely a kissing cousin of the blanco, this expression is smoothed out, and has the agave knocked down a few pegs, letting vanilla and some caramel notes come to the surface. Nice, easy finish. An incredible bargain."

If I haven't made it clear, I highly recommend this tequila, and I highly recommend you drink it in margarita form.

My favorite way to make a margarita is:

Salt to rim the glass (essential)
1 ounce fresh lime juice
1.5 ounces Espolón tequila blanco
1/2 ounce Cointreau

Pour over ice, stir till chilled.

I recommend this drink all year round. It's traditionally a summertime kind of beverage, but I sipped it  at an airport bar in mid-November and loved ever minute of it. 

Check out Espolón's website here.
Read about the creative process behind the bottle at Landor (the creative team behind it) here.

Tig Notaro's "Cancer" Set

Wow. New York, huh? Needless to say, it's been a surreal week. I have been so lucky to be minimally affected by Hurricane Sandy. Both my apartment and studio were unharmed, we didn't lose power or heat, and I don't drive, so I have not personally dealt with the gas shortage. At the same time, so many people around me are suffering and it's impossible not to feel for everyone around me. It's especially frustrating as a fellow New Yorker, because none of us are able to get to the places that need the most help with the trains down and no gas to get our cars to the places that need us. If anyone is looking for a good place to donate money, these guys have been doing lots of good things, getting to Staten Island and the Rockaways when even FEMA wasn't able to mobilize in time.  It's exciting and moving when a grassroots effort can have such an impact, and Occupy Sandy is proving an inspiration  This post isn't going to be all about the hurricane, but I wanted to make mention of it before moving on to lighter things, because while I sit in my warm apartment writing this, there are so many people in the outer boroughs, and of course, the projects of Brooklyn and Manhattan that are cold and hungry, and need our help.

Ok! Enough of that bummer stuff. Or actually, maybe in total keeping with it, I have become absolutely obsessed this week with listening and re-listening to Tig Notaro's thirty minute Largo "Cancer" set. This set is exactly as it sounds; the incredible comedian Tig Notaro recently got onstage at Largo, and did a thirty minute comedy routine about receiving, that afternoon, a diagnosis of breast cancer.

Maybe one of the best people ever?

Louis C.K explains it very well on his website. A few months ago, he was also doing a set at Largo and ran into Tig getting ready to go onstage. He asked her how she'd been, and she said that, well, she'd just that day been diagnosed with breast cancer. He was of course deeply upset by that news,  and asked her if she had anyone that could take care of her during this time. She said, well, yeah, she'd had her mom, but she'd just died a few weeks ago after falling down the stairs. Then she pointed to a scribbled on paper in her hands and said, basically, "well, now I'm gonna go talk about all this onstage."

I can't say this next bit better than Louis C.K. can (and honestly, who could?), so here is what he says:

"I stood in the wings behind a leg of curtain, about 8 feet from her, and watched her tell a stunned audience "hi. I have cancer. Just found out today. I'm going to die soon". What followed was one of the greatest standup performances I ever saw. I can't really describe it but I was crying and laughing and listening like never in my life. Here was this small woman standing alone against death and simply reporting where her mind had been and what had happened and employing her gorgeously acute standup voice to her own death.

The show was an amazing example of what comedy can be. A way to visit your worst fears and laugh at them. Tig took us to a scary place and made us laugh there. Not by distracting us from the terror but by looking right at it and just turning to us and saying "wow. Right?". She proved that everything is funny. And has to be. And she could only do this by giving us her own death as an example. So generous."

This set is everything Louis says it is. Tig has such a succinct way of saying things that feel incredibly complex, and she's had quite a year to prove this. For some time I've been a fan of her podcast Professor Blastoff, which is a fun, round table discussion with fellow comedians Kyle Dunnigan (Sarah Silverman's Boyfriend...oooh, sexyyy) and David Huntsberger about sciency kinds of things with a funny spin.  But in the past six months the podcast has gotten increasingly personal as first Tig's mother passed away unexpectedly, Tig then came down with a sever intestinal disease called C. diff, then got broken up with by her girlfriend, and was then diagnosed with breast cancer. FUNNY, right!? Yet somehow, it was, and it is. As Louie said, it has to be.

As Tig says, "It's OK."

As an innate brooder, I so easily go to woe-is-me mode about the littlest things, and this set Tig did is so important to come back to. Everything, especially death, is funny, because it's all so inherently absurd.

I highly, so highly, recommend you download this set for a measly $5.00 here. A bunch of the money is going to cancer research, and besides that, we should all get paid a fare wage for the work we create, am I right ya'll? I promise you it will be a worthwhile $5.00 because this set is mood/mind altering.

Check out Tig's website here.

Also, while you're at it, check out the inimitable Louis C.K.'s website here.

Chris Kluwe

I'm not a big organized sports fan but I have very strong feelings for the Minnesota Vikings' punter Chris Kluwe.

Dreamy.

Hopefully someone who reads this blog is not a direct descendant from my bloodline, and maybe doesn't know that it is unusual for me to have these feelings for a sports player. Aside from Michael Jordan and Scotty Pippin, part of my Chicago youth, I can't typically name sports dudes by name. But Chris Kluwe and his epic letter to Deadspin changed that.

For those who don't know the story, I'll summarize it here.

The whole thing started a few months ago when the Maryland State delegate Emmett C. Burns Jr. wrote a letter to Steve Bisciotti, the owner of the Baltimore Ravens, essentially ordering him to shut up his linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo's vocal support of gay marriage. I encourage you to read the letter if you think I'm exaggerating. It's two short paragraphs of pure bigotry.

Here is an actual quote from the letter, where Burns tells Bisciotti to: “inhibit such expressions from your employee and that he be ordered to cease and desist such injurious actions.”

A few days later, Chris Kluwe read it, and he couldn't sleep that night. So he wrote an open letter on Deadspin to Burns Jr. It's an incredible letter and I recommend you read it here. Here's a choice excerpt:

"This is more a personal quibble of mine, but why do you hate freedom? Why do you hate the fact that other people want a chance to live their lives and be happy, even though they may believe in something different than you, or act different than you? How does gay marriage, in any way shape or form, affect your life? If gay marriage becomes legal, are you worried that all of a sudden you'll start thinking about penis? "Oh shit. Gay marriage just passed. Gotta get me some of that hot dong action!" Will all of your friends suddenly turn gay and refuse to come to your Sunday Ticket grill-outs? (Unlikely, since gay people enjoy watching football too.)

I can assure you that gay people getting married will have zero effect on your life. They won't come into your house and steal your children. They won't magically turn you into a lustful cockmonster. They won't even overthrow the government in an orgy of hedonistic debauchery because all of a sudden they have the same legal rights as the other 90 percent of our population—rights like Social Security benefits, child care tax credits, Family and Medical Leave to take care of loved ones, and COBRA healthcare for spouses and children. You know what having these rights will make gays? Full-fledged American citizens just like everyone else, with the freedom to pursue happiness and all that entails. Do the civil-rights struggles of the past 200 years mean absolutely nothing to you?"

Some people get literally all the good genes there are to get.

That is a well written letter.

Here's some things about Chris Kluwe:

He grew up in California as a child prodigy at the violin. He chose U.C.LA. over Harvard and graduated with a double major in political science and history. He is currently the punter for the Minnesota Vikings, blogs for the Pioneer Press a few times a week, is a guitarist in a four piece math rock band, had a perfect verbal score on the SAT, and is the physical incarnation of Nietzsche's Übermensch.

Just kidding about that last one, but this is a near perfect person. He's also very handsome! If I were his parents, I would be so overwhelmed by his ability to do one of the things listed above, and he does ALL of them.

At this point I feel like the media is just taunting me. We get it! He's perfect! He does it all!

Right now, I can't get enough of him. Sadly, rumor has it he's very happily married with a lovely wife and two kids, and who can hate on that?

If you are feeling this obsession, and want to read two way better written articles about him, check out his New York Times profile from last week, and Out Magazine's recent interview, with pretty pictures, too.

Until next time.

The Mental Illness Happy Hour

Oh boy! Is that Lexapro for me?!

As I mentioned in my last post, I am loving the podcasts. I don't know why it took me so long to get on board, because I have always been a fan of listening to people talk more than listening to music. Back when I was a little kid, maybe nine or ten, I was obsessed with the TV show Friends, which was still current, though I mostly watched it in syndication on whatever channel it was playing for an hour every day after school. My parents had a rule that we couldn't have TV or computers in our rooms, an idea that now seems archaic, especially with regards to computers, but made sense in the 90s. Even if I had had a computer  this was years before podcasts or streaming existed, and I wasn't a little Einstein, ready to tune into NPR. So what I did was take my tape recorder and set it by the TV, and tape ten or eleven episodes of Friends, stopping it during commercials and hitting play soon as it came back on. Then, I would listen to an audio only episode of Friends as I cleaned my room. I haven't listened to those tapes for about 16 years, but I can still recite ten random episodes of Friends by heart if they ever come on when I'm watching bad TV in a hotel room.

You guys, is Jennifer Aniston a vampire? She does not age.

It's exactly this type of odd childhood behavior that makes the Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast resonate with me so much. 

Created and hosted by comedian Paul Gilmartin, it is a "weekly, hour-long audio podcast consisting of interviews with artists, friends and the occasional doctor. The show is geared towards anyone interested in or affected by depression, addiction and other mental challenges which are so prevalent in the creative arts."

Gilmartin is best known for his years hosting TBS's Dinner and a Movie, and is also a stand up comedian with a lot of famous, funny, creative friends, who he invites on the podcast where they discuss their various mental illnesses, how they grew up, and how they've dealt with their issues as they've gotten older. 

Sometimes the show can be a little off-putting at first. I fully embrace total honesty, and I was still a little bit taken aback with how frank Gilmartin is about his mother sexually abusing him, or the various listener emails he reads about sexual perversions, sometimes dealing with zoophilia, or pedophilia, or lots of other taboo, illegal philias.

However, that's usually only the first ten or so minutes, and then Gilmartin really starts exploring the life and mind of his guest, and that tends to be fascinating, especially, for me, when the guests are women whom I greatly admire and respect, such as comedians Jamie Denbo, Morgan Murphy, or Jen Kirkman.

Jen Kirkman is a funny, beautiful lady. She should talk to Jennifer Aniston to ensure this doesn't change!

In each of their episodes, all three hilarious women talk very insightfully about their various issues—

for the first two depression, and for Jen Kirkman, anxiety—and how these problems have affected and in a way, created, their lives.

It's no surprise creative, driven people often have a lot of mental illness to deal with. One way to deal with the feeling that you are going crazy and there is nothing you can do about it is to make jokes-the kind of cutting, honest humor that is the funniest kind. At the same time, and I speak from experience, that level of emotional or mental pain tends to make someone highly perceptive to the people and world around them, which seems to be a shared trait of a lot of creative people.

And on top of all that, these are also successful people. Creative people already tend to have tons of mental shit to deal with, but top that off with a butt load of drive, and you have a recipe for crazy.

I deal with anxiety, and I find it very comforting to hear so many people I admire and look up to talk so openly about it. It also leaves me feeling very lucky; all of my anxiety come from within. I was never sexually, verbally, or physically abused, and listening to the stories of so many people who have gives me the utmost respect for how they've dealt with that. At the same time, it's also nice to listen to the episodes of people more like me, people like Jen Kirkman, who's had a relatively pleasant life but was just born with a weird chemical imbalance which makes her "crazy" just because!

If you've read all this and are still interested rather than put off,  you can listen to The Mental Illness Happy Hour here or download episodes on itunes.

See you next time with a slightly less depressing obsession, I swear it!

"Adelaide," Meg Myers

This is an attractive person. Her name is Meg Myers.

Sometimes I get a little sad at how far off the music wagon I’ve fallen. Back when I was in high school I prided myself on my encyclopedic knowledge of every cool new band coming up in at least seven different obscure made up genres. But it does kind of seem like the older you get the fewer your hobbies become, or at least that’s the case in your twenties. The other day Steph asked me if I had any hobbies, because she couldn’t really think of anything for her list. We figured that at this age, it’s hard enough to do the thing you want to one day make money for doing, simultaneously do the thing that is currently making you money that you can’t wait to quit, have a social life, and occasionally work out, so screw the extracurriculars. That hobby stuff isn’t going to happen till our mid thirties at the rate we’re going.

That being said, the one thing I have more than enough time for is comedy podcasts. During the Alder New York work cycle, we usually get a month and a half every season of straight up making things. (That’s another job I can’t wait to quit. I'm so ready for the day when all I do in my design job is design). The process of making something is a quiet process; once the design part is over and it becomes technical, there's a lot of sewing and math and thinking, and not a whole lot of talking. This month I'm spending upwards of eight hours a day doing studio work that leaves me stuck in my own head, so I listen to funny podcasts as I work. I've gotten so into them that I often leave work listening and continue straight thought my bedtime routine until I get under my sheets. SEE, you guys, I'm obsessed!

I first started my comedy podcast journey with Marc Maron's WTF, which led me to Comedy Bang Bang, which, created by the Earwolf production team, led me to their other podcasts, Professor Blastoff, Who Charted, and my current fave: Totally Laime.

Totally Laime is the creation of Elizabeth Laime and her Husband Psychic Andy (originally Sidekick Andy but her speech impediment has given his title a special spin). As they say, they focus on "asking the most important people the least important questions," and they usually spend an hour having the kind of conversation you would have with a friend, if that friend was someone very funny and also famous.

The couple that podcasts together stays together

I swear we're circling back to the music lead in. Because, during his real life, Psychic Andy is a music producer, and often they end the podcast with a song that relates to the episode; maybe they'll play a comedy song by the funny person they just interviewed or a song they mentioned during the course of the episode. Usually I turn it off once the music starts, because I AM OBSESSED ONLY WITH COMEDY PODCASTS AND WON'T HAVE MUSIC INTERRUPT. But on a recent episode they ended with this song that was so good I had to turn off my electric toothbrush to pay special attention.

The song is called "Adelaid" by Meg Myers, one of the musicians Andy produces. It has kind of a Fiona Apple sound at her most poppy, which I think is her at her best. I could try to describe it more, but it seems redundant when you can just play it for yourself and see how good it is. Personally, I can play it in a continuous loop and still not get enough the third play in. It's just one of those near-perfect pop songs. I'm not trying to say this is the best song ever created; it's not. But that's also not important with a great pop song. I'm not comparing it to anything, I just like listening to it over and over again as it is.

Meg Myers is also gorgeous, which never hurts a singer

Here is the song: play it so many times!

And here is her website

And just for good measure here is the Totally Laime podcast

Bacon Grease

The other day I made a corn risotto and the recipe I used called for bacon, so I had a few uncooked pieces left over. I almost never buy bacon because of how much I love it. It's a classic obsession; bacon never goes out of style. Unless you're a vegan or vegetarian but I'm not.

I cannot buy bacon because if I cook it there is only the slimmest chance it'll make it into the designated recipe. Usually it goes straight from the pan to my mouth. I think I got the risotto done by chewing gum during the bacon cooking process but that left me with six uncooked pieces that stayed in my fridge until yesterday when I remembered I should cook them before they go bad.

See, to me this is an acceptable meal.

David, my business/ best friend partner suggested I cook it up and then refrigerate it for later use sprinkled on salads in pasta, etc. which I thought was a great idea. But yesterday evening, with both roommates out of town and two episodes of Thirty Rock in the que, I ate all the bacon pieces. Pan to mouth. It's ok, I don't feel too bad; it's a protein so I'm gonna call it dinner.

Nevertheless I still had an actual dinner to go to and since I didn't have any roommates to be civilized for, I figured I'd clean up when i got home.

Upon entering my apartment later that evening I saw that the grease had hardened into a buttery solid fat.

This is a photo I stole from Simply Recipes, but I swear, my bacon fat looks exactly like this

So today I made a bacon vinaigrette and had an avocado, egg, arugula salad. People, it was awesome. Straight from the internetz via Alton brown, I did 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 tbs bacon grease, I tbs brown sugar, 1 tbs mustard, whisked till it emulsified.

I particularly recommend waiting until your grease hardens before collecting it versus the other acceptable method of pouring it hot into the container. Let me tell you why! Because then you get all these tiny delicious bacon pieces left over from the fry up and, oh dear god, it is so good.

So that's that I guess. I've still got three salads worth of greens and vinaigrette left so this obsession will last me at least another week. I'm not a big baked goods fan so probably won't be using the bacon grease in the now passe maple-bacon-cookie type genre. But used on some roasted veggies.

Until the next obsession,

Nina

P.S Here's the recipe. I think you could skip the sugar and it might be even better.

Carole Radziwill

Here's the thing. I'm smart, ok? I read a legitimate news source every day or at least every other day, I have opinions about politics, I know all about global warming. However, I absolutely love the Real Housewives, particularly the New York and Beverly Hills variety.

I feel like Ramona needs to fire her stylist this season. Things have gone so wrong.

I have tried to analyze why I love this reality show so very much, while I have limited patience for other mindless reality drivel like the Bachelor/Bachelorette (shout out to my girl Steph-she's smart too, you guys). Sadly I haven't been able to distinguish why I'd so much rather watch a group of forty year old women behaving badly then watch some attractive people fall fake-in-love, but I'm ok with my obsession. You know who else love the Real Housewives? Tina Fey.

This season, the Bravo producers decided to MIX THINGS UP, and they fired a buncha ladies from the original cast, and brought in three new questionably sane women to revive the show. Enter my newest obsession, Carol Radziwill.

I'm not totally sure how she ended up on the show. She's the kind of person that is actually respected in real life, and her refusal to engage in petty drama is both charming and frustrating on a show that is about women engaging in petty drama. Carol is a former ABC news producer, from back when that meant something. Her show got an Emmy for a piece they did on Cambodia, and she has spent time in Afghanistan and Vietnam doing real, serious news stuff (which I read: see above).

I think this is her in Thailand. Loving the look, Carole!

In Afganistan. See, this is why I wish I had naturally straight hair. When you find yourself in a war zone, you can still look put together.

In her mid twenties, she met Anthony Radziwill, a work colleague, and they fell in love. Around that time, she found out that he was a prince, of Poland, and that he was first cousins with John F. Kennedy Jr., and later, his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. Very glamorous so far, yes?

Then, and this is all detailed in her book What Remains, Anthony was diagnosed with testicular cancer. She married him shortly after this, well aware of his illness but also optimistic. He died five years later, three weeks after her best friends JFK Jr. and Carolyn died in a plane crash. Unbelievable.

I fell in love with her on the show before I read her book and fully knew her background. What I quickly found out from watching the show is that she is funny, laid-back, has an incredible sense of style, and is able to hit on a man twenty years younger than her at a vintage store, get rejected, and STILL seem like the winner in that exchange. Then, once I knew her whole story, I also admired her for surviving losing the three people closest to her, and writing about it so eloquently.

Well, this picture maybe bugs me a little bit. It's kind of smug.

I also like that the first time you see her, she's a bit scary looking, a little crypt creeper. But after watching her be herself for a few minutes she become so attractive. I always like when less conventionally attractive women are acknowledged as attractive, 'cus we can't all have Grace Kelly style bone structure, y'know?

If you can't tell, this obsession has occasionally veered into borderline unhealthy, but I got it a bit under control by listening to her read her own audio book through Audible.

I think the obsession may wane as we head into the Real Housewives reunion specials-that's the three part episode where the ladies have all finally seen the season and are now aware of all the shit being talked behind backs. The first one just aired and Carole is really getting called to task for that one. Also, she has a new fiction book out called The Widow's Guide to Dating, and I'm sorry, but that I just can't get behind. Still, it's been fun while it's lasted.

You can check out Carole's website here.