Author: Monkeybrad (Page 13 of 56)

Death By Morning

June 24, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

If you don’t start anything, you’ll never have to finish it. That sounds a bit pithy and wise, does it not? I could probably drop a dash after that and make up a name and folks would think I was educated for quoting someone clever. Sadly, that’s not the case, they are just some words I wrote down while trying to figure out how to start writing. Some days it is harder than others. Like most of my life it is feast or famine. Either I have million things to say and I am having to edit ideas out to keep things on track or I live in an inspirational wasteland. It’s not quite that bad, but I do want things to be good and somedays, well, you can just tell that the good stuff is going to hang there like Aesop’s grapes, just out of reach. So, in the spirit of doing the work, even when you don’t feel like you have it in you, won’t you join me now as we stand and make Death By Morning.

Japanese Slipper

June 22, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

One of the best parts of getting older is learning just how ignorant you truly were back when you thought you knew it all. That seems to be a recurring theme with me, learning humility, mostly at the hand of my old, cocky self. I miswrote that as old, cocky elf and I really wanted to keep it. To go off on a tangent about that clever little fellow with the pointy ears and prodigious memory who would pop up from time to time, dispensing wisdom, while showing me the follies of the ghosts of former me’s long gone, but not forgotten. There is a great deal of fun to be had there, but I am not feeling up to it narratively today. So, ponder that and mourn the tale that might have been as we stand and make the Japanese Slipper.

Jubilee Punch

June 19, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

I’m a big fan of the song “A Change is Gonna Come”, whether you go with the Sam Cooke original, Great Van Fleet or one of the other many covers, the words ring true, perhaps now more than ever. We know this. We hear it all the time “The only constant is change.” For all our talk of change, it sure does seem like those wheels turn slowly sometimes. I am reminded of the old proverb, “Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly fine.” Maybe that is as things must be, as long as we continue on that moral arc we will eventually find justice. I just wish the road to true equity and equality ran a smoother path. So, in honor of that struggle and the need for change, won’t you join me now as we stand and make Jubilee Juice.

Bananas Foster Manhattan

June 17, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 1 Comment

It’s all about change. A lot of folks talk about “survival of the fittest” but what Darwin was really getting at was the ability to change. Those who are most “fit”
to adapt are the ones who not only survive but excel and prosper when conditions around them change. Think of the world you were born into. How much our ideas of what is right, fair and equitable have changed. How technology has created a new universe of jobs and opportunities while leaving entire industries and mindsets obsolete in its wake. Time is a river and it keeps moving. The truth is, either we adapt to the place and time we live in or we find ourselves stagnating, losing relevance, contact and context, stuck in a backwater as that river moves on without us. Change can be painful, but it is the key that unlocks our future selves. Won’t you please join me now and pass through the crucible as we stand and make the Bananas Foster Manhattan.

Monte Carlo

June 16, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 2 Comments

“You can’t just jump in to the middle,” she said, the exasperation palatable in the air. “These things take time, you have to build a world before you can live in it.” I knew she was right, of course. It was careless of me to have let this happen in the first place. I should have stopped right then, but I figured I would get away with it. No one was getting hurt after all. That’s what I told myself, but with every incident I found myself falling further down the well of denial. I knew what had to happen. I had to fix things, but how could I do that now? I could always go back and pretend it never happened in the first place, create evidence, obscure the trail, but that did not seem right. Better to just own up to the facts and make things as right as I could. So, in the spirit of correcting dead ends and restoring the sacred narrative throughline, won’t you join me now as we stand and make the Monte Carlo.

Yardbird

June 15, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

There are moments that touch your heart. You never know when they are going to come, when something is going to slip through our carefully constructed armor to find home. I am often struck by poetry. The way you can read a few lines and be forever changed by their message. I remember having to memorize Longfellow’s “The Tide Rises and the Tide Falls” in school. How those few simple words on a page encapsulated the permanence of nature and our short journey through it. How wonderful to be so fleeting. A moment in time, never to exist again. I kind of love that. How our true beauty as individuals and a species lies in the fact that we are both ephemeral and eternal. Not only that, but we are acutely aware of how small our place in the grand scheme of things may be, how we strut and fret our poor hour upon the stage, knowing that we are only a moment in the larger story of humankind. Yet we strive to make things better, to take the music further, if just for a little while. So, with that in mind, won’t you please join me as we stand and make, the Yardbird.

Leche de Pantera

June 14, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

Over the weekend, we passed a pleasant afternoon with friends reminiscing about great days of travel. It was a blast reliving moments on the road and hearing their stories of those amazing little bars or restaurants they stumbled across, the things they saw and, most importantly, the people they met. It seems like every adventure shared a common theme, whenever things got off track, when they left the prescribed schedule or plan, that is when the best stories occur. That has certainly been our experience. Every trip has its own special memories and the more we talked, the more nearly forgotten details came back to us. It was in the middle of an entirely different story that we remembered sampling a staple of the Barcelona drinking scene, a drink so ubiquitous that you don’t even have to find a bar to enjoy it. So, won’t you please join me now as we stand and make Leche de Pantera, the historic, Panther’s Milk.

The Eternal Optimist

June 11, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 1 Comment

I’ve got to admit, I don’t have high hopes for this one. Funny that I would approach this drink with such pessimism. It must be my natural contrarian streak. I like to think of myself as a pragmatist, which, to be fair, often presents as pessimism. I tend to approach things first from a “what obstacles are in our way” viewpoint. Which is also ironic, don’t you think? You see, I am also, paradoxically, usually the one out front trying to get people excited. Reminding them that we can do anything we set our minds to, if we only believe in ourselves and each other. What can I say? It’s complicated being me, just like it is complicated being you. That’s alright, as Walt Whitman said, “Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes.” So, in the spirit of keeping your chin up even when you know you are going to fail, won’t you join me now as we stand and make The Eternal Optimist.

Earl Grey Sour

June 10, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

You never know how things are going to turn out. That’s just the truth. No matter how much you learn and analyze, there is just no accounting for that element of chance. That’s why we play the game, as they say. Last night, my son’s baseball team went from worst to first as they beat the number one seed in the first round of the championship. No one saw that coming, well, no one except a group of boys who believed in themselves. Tonight, they advance in the winner’s bracket, two games from winning it all. Maybe they will win, maybe they will lose, maybe it will rain. It doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, but it was nice to see the world turned upside down as the sun shined on them for a moment. I like that. I’m a big fan of unexpected wins. So, tonight we honor those who take a chance, and go against the odds as we stand and make the Earl Grey Sour.

Parasol

June 9, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

Summer is definitely here. It is stifling outside, when it is not raining, so the humidity is through the roof. This is just the kind of day that Mr. Carrier was thinking about when he decided we needed to get this air into some kind of condition. It seems like it is all rain showers followed by moments of intense sunshine. Pretty sure there is a metaphor in there somewhere, but it is obscured by the steam rising from the pavement. The point is, this is the kind of day when you need some shelter and something to help keep you cool, so why not have both, as we stand and make the Parasol.