My name is JoyOfDrinking (aka Michael W) and I am an artist, a drunk, and a drunk artist. When I drink, I drink true. I come to this forum to share in my love of all things alcohol, and also to build a community of friends, allies, and supporters in my latest drunken pursuit, The Joy of Drinking, a YouTube series where I follow along with TV oil painter Bob Ross and get drunk while doing it. I am not here to spamvertise. I am here to be a productive (by drunk standards) member of the community. The Joy of Drinking is currently my drunken passion as it combines 3 things I love: Art, Comedy and Getting Drunk. It is an integral part of who I am and a sincere expression of my drunkest self. And now, a bit of history…
My Tippling Ties to Modern Drunkard
In 2008 I attended a local drinking and writing event at the Hopleaf bar in Chicago, and even found what I think is the relevant post on this very forum here:
I may very well have met Frank there and had a conversation with him, if he's the one who gave a speech about Hunter S. Thompson. I even faked smoking a cigarette with him (for which I am ashamed) as a young aspiring writer wishing to bend the ear of this magazine mogul. I may have even submitted a piece to The Modern Drunkard… or perhaps not. Memory doesn’t serve. In any case, that is where my tangential ties to the Modern Drunkard began, and why it occurs to me now to join this forum as I embark on new drunken pursuits.Modern Drunkard wrote:I've been invited to give a speech of sorts at the Drinking and Writing Festival (at The Hopleaf Bar in Chicago) on Saturday. I'll be arriving Friday night, the festival chaps are giving me a dive bar tour, and if you'd like to join in for a number of rounds PM me and we'll exchange numbers. Should be a hoot.
Frank
Festival Link: http://www.drinkingandwriting.com/
My Drunk History
Apart from the occasional Barmitzvah wine, my first proper drink was a gin and tonic in Greece in 2004, though I was still underage for the U.S. at the time. Leinenkugel’s Honey Weiss broke me into beer, though it wasn’t long before I was enjoying Three Floyd’s Alpha King (before the hop craze got out of control) and even the coveted Dark Lord. My college culmination? I followed in my father’s footsteps by brewing beer in a trashcan in my dorm room. For a year I worked as a bartender at the Old Saint Andrews Inn in Chicago, serving my time as a purveyor of booze, and for a semester at a beer supply distributor, packaging hops and malts for all the DIY fermenters. My boss at the time offered me and my friends some Absinth, before it was legal in the U.S., which he claimed was smuggled in across borders in the nose of a propeller plane. These days I enjoy the persnickety flavors of those top shelf liquors or local offerings, but I am not above drinking from a jug of Carlo Rossi or a shot of Popov. While I may vehemently disagree with those who would champion the macro brew, in my liver of livers I say “vive la difference!” For me it’s all about the diversity of drunk and the drinking experience. Campari and tonic? Yes please. And did you know that if you mix Jägermeister with Coke it tastes like hard root beer? I like making margaritas with top-shelf tequila, or premium rum piña coladas because I figure if you’re going to ruin something it might as well be something good. I’ve been known to pick up a bottle of Serbian Plum Brandy, or Hungarian Zwack at the international supermarket, for as abrasive as those flavors may be, I desire to know how all our international brothers and sisters beg for the bottle. Having lived in Niigata Japan, the prefecture that produces the nation’s most premium rice (and therefore the most premium rice-based liquor), Sake holds a special place in my cup as well as the tart taste of umeshu. If you’ve never gotten drunk, eaten fried octopus, and sung karaoke with a Buddhist priest, I highly recommend it. If you’re ever traveling in Kyoto, let me share with you the best sake bar in the world, where the owner unorthodoxly ages rare sakes brewed once a year in mountain monasteries. While pursuing a Masters Degree in international relations at Johns Hopkins SAIS, many of my Chinese cohorts introduced me to that zinger known as Baiju. Lately I had a lick of Everclear, just because I never had. I’m currently getting into fruit ciders, and enjoy sharing my budding scotch collection, where tried-and-true Lagavulin 16 is my go-to, and Ardbeg Supernova is always good for a smack in the face.
I enjoy getting wasted in wine country, a meal and mead, a tour of Coor’s, a pub and pale ale, a biergarten and doppelbock, a shot in the dark, and most of all, a drink with friends. My passion for drink is here, for you to see, on full display. With fellow modern drunkards I have nothing to hide.
