The amber nectar
This is a drink I was put on earth to covet – French pastis.
Now, as the UK heatwave protracts, I’m drinking this – one of my most favourite drinks – a lot. I adore the fact you don’t need mixers for this. You just need cold water (from the tap!) and preferably ice (I don’t even have that, but it’s still divine).
Les Anglais hardly drink this. The British just have no clue. It’s terribly French, terribly Continental. That is not why I drink it. I’m the son of Francophiles who’ve been drinking this for generations. Such things rub off.
For those who haven’t had it, it’s a 45% premium French spirit that is a combination of liquorice and aniseed. Please. Don’t give me the philistinic excuse that you “don’t like ouzo or pernot”. Neither do I. Both are vile.
This, however, is divinity incarnate. Especially in high summer.
Pastis is normally diluted with water before drinking, generally five volumes of water for one volume of pastis, but often raw pastis is served together with a jug of water for the drinker to blend together according to preference. The resulting decrease in alcohol percentage causes some of the constituents to become insoluble, which changes the liqueur’s appearance from dark transparent yellow to milky soft yellow, a phenomenon also present with absinthe. The drink is consumed cold, with ice, and is considered a refreshment for hot days. Ice cubes can be added after the water to avoid crystallization of the anethole in the pastis. However, many pastis drinkers refuse to add ice, preferring to drink the beverage with cool spring water.
Although it is consumed throughout France, especially in the summer, pastis is generally associated with southeastern France, especially with the city of Marseille where it is nicknamed Pastaga, and with the clichés of the Provençal lifestyle, like pétanque. Pastis is also consumed in Senegal.
Pastis is probably one of the most popular beverages in France where 130 million liters are sold each year (more than 2 liters per inhabitant).
(Source: Wikipedia)
The Drowned World by JG Ballard
The Drowned World is a 1962 science fiction novel by J. G. Ballard. In contrast to much post-apocalyptic fiction, the novel features a central character who, rather than being disturbed by the end of the old world, is enraptured by the chaotic reality that has come to replace it. The novel is an expansion of a novella with the same title published in Science Fiction Adventures magazine in January 1962, Vol 4 No. 24. (Nova Publications.) This novella as referred to above is now out of print.
(Source: Wikipedia)
My enduring love of all things Ballardian is well known. I’m now starting to read some of his earlier science fiction work which I hadn’t read before.
I don’t read a lot of sci-fi but this was good. Set in the future in a ‘drowned world’, it focuses on three main characters who – rather than escape the blistering heat and floods that sweep the world – seek to embrace them. One of the key concepts (which Ballard also believes, I read in an essay at the back) is that our brains carry ‘archaic memories’ of primeval times. As the ‘de-evolution’ begins, those memories come back to haunt us.
When you start to get into reading Ballard you will quickly begin to pick up the key motifs which are apparent in everything he writes. Start with Empire of the Sun and you’ll know what I mean. He was brought up in a kind of ‘post apocalyptic world’ of his own (in his case an internment camp outside Shanghai) having lived a very privileged expatriate life before the war. Everything that happened to him during this time informs everything he would go on to write. Rather than hate that time of his life – he sees it as utterly visceral, real, colourful, alive. All that is the opposite of grey, anodyne, dull, lifeless, controlled, conventional.
I am totally attuned to his way of thinking, for many reasons.
A good read, doubly so if you like sci-fi.
And if you’re interested in Ballard and want to know more about him and his motifs, read this article in The Independent which is good.
Adam and Steve through the ages
Close relationships with those of our own sex, regardless of intensity or on which part of the spectrum they exist, are special.
I came across these pictures on Flickr which I liked. They are vintage photos, ostensibly of gay couples from the last couple of hundred years.
100+ photos in slideshow here:
To see them in higher quality, view the screenshow directly from flickr.
Keep Britain Tidy
(via Tom Eckersley, Keep Britain Tidy on Flickr)
Tom studied commercial art at Salford School of Art. During the 1930’s he was amongst the foremost poster artists of the period, producing much work for Shell-Mex and London Transport. His relationship with London Transport lasted over 50 years.
During WW2 he drew maps for the RAF and after the war continued to design posters, in 1954 he joined the teaching staff at the London College of Printing, later to become Head of Department. He helped to establish the first undergraduate courses in graphic design in Britain. Tom Eckersely was elected Royal Designer to Industry in 1961.
More from Tom Eckerlsey.
