Morning Comrades! Welcome back to the resource heavy Friday edition of this newsletter. After a few days of opinions from this end I do try and end our week resources for you all to dig into over the weekend. First up though is this weekends drop that is now available to you all.
Initially, I was going to carry on with the brandalism FW bonanza but after receiving one too many angry corporate legalese emails I felt like lying low for a minute or so would be better for me and my legal insurance. Rest assured, I still have a couple of them in the pipeline and I will keep you all updated in our telegram group about those.
Most importantly, this jacket is limited to 10 pieces and it is on a first come first served basis. Other than that, it is a damn fine black nylon coach jacket, with an embroidered artwork on the left chest and across the back. Entirely lined with brushed jersey, water-resistant, black push buttons, two outside pockets, elastic cuffs - and is slightly oversized, to the point where if you would normally wear a large, get a large but know full well that wearing a hoodie underneath it isn’t going to be problem.
An older piece for all the Fall Feels. You know how it is.
This new book by Derecka Purnell is already being hailed as an absolute milestone in abolitionist theory and more importantly praxis by people infinitely smarter than myself. Verso is publishing this in a few days and they are offering a nice fat discount for anyone pre-ordering this before release.
In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder and the ensuing uprising, police abolition became a central demand for the black lives matter movement.
Derecka Purnell’s story starts in St. Louis, where calling 911 was often the solitary and dangerous resort for any number of challenges in a deprived neighbourhood. Her political awakening follows the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the murder of Trayvon Martin and the protests and riots in her hometown, Ferguson, after the death of Michael Brown. Meeting organizers from all over the world, including Europe and South Africa, she is pushed to realize that the solution required is not better policing but the end of the policing itself.
Purnell’s life history and arguments make a powerful, passionate case for a society in which there is no place for state violence and racial repression. She confronts the history of policing as a means to capture runaway slaves and uphold white supremacy, a practice persisting today in the policing and murder of Black people, poor people, and disabled people on modern city streets. She argues that the worst of policing is the purpose of policing and that we need new systems to address the root causes of violence.
Becoming Abolitionists will inspire readers to create new communities where safety, equality, and real justice for all can thrive.
Feminism and Critical Masculinity.
Initially, I was going to offer a profile on Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai and her contributions to Feminist Marxism today, however, we are skipping a century for today and will continue on from last week with Feminist Economics, a immensely important and fascinating field considering, well, capitalism and its exploitative nature that regards anything and predominately non-male read individuals as raw material.
Feminist economics is a school of economic thought and political action that gained important visibility during the 1990s, although its origins can be dated back to the mid-19th century. Since then, feminist economics has developed its own concepts, analytical frameworks, and methodologies. With gender as a central category, it seeks a more integral and humane comprehension of the economy and of the processes of inclusion and exclusion taking place in it. In addition, feminist economics has grown into a political practice that aims at improving the functioning of the economic system so that all people can have access to a dignified life on the basis of equality.
Now watch this.
Here are two more documentaries for your weekend infotainment that come highly recommended.
Fuck yeah, I do love this part of the week - as I am sure you have guessed by now I love eating, cooking, drinking and it is such an honour to have both Ana and Tatjana bestow us with their talent and knowledge in their respective fields - a big thank you from me at this stage.
Plov is the the ultimate Russian comfort food - who got it from the Uzbekistanis who in turn got it from the Persians and so on. Like all good food, it’s origin can be found in Central Asia. This here is a vegan version as the “traditional” one usually has chicken, but let’s do this differently.
Ingredients: 450g of rice. Water or Vegetable Stock, 2 onions cut into rings and then half those, 2 carrots cut into thin-ish sticks, 5-6 table spools of olive oil, a handful of chickpeas, a handful of berberis or barberry, one teaspoon of caraway, one teaspoon of coriander seeds, 1 teaspoon of cardamon seeds, 1 teaspoon crushed red chili or Aleppo pepper, ideally an entire Garlic head but if that’s too much, at least 5-6 cloves, 1 dried red chili, salt - and parsley if you like it as garnish.
Step 1
Peel and cut onions into thin rings, cut your carrots into sticks.
Step 2
Heat up your oil in a deep pan, sweat the onions and then add the carrot sticks for around 5-10 minutes on a medium heat.
Step 3
Add all herbs, spices, chickpeas and the garlic for another 5-10 minutes on a medium heat.
Step 4
Wash the damn rice in the meantime!
Step 5
Add the washed rice on top of the vegetables and spices and make holes with your finger into the rice, 5-8cm apart into which you add the water or vegetable stock until everything is covered with water/stock by about 1-2cm.
Step 6
Put a lid on it and let simmer at a medium heat for 40 minutes. Only lift up your lid once halfway through to move the rice around.
Step 7
After those 40 minutes, turn off your stove and let simmer for another 10minutes with the lid on. Then, lift lid, stir and throw some fresh parsley over it all.
This week we're doing a cocktail that didn't get its deserved spotlight until it became a star lead in the reviving of cocktails in the early 2000's. I present: THE LAST WORD.
This drink can trace it's origins back to the American pre-prohibition times (1920-1933) – more specifically to 1915, where vaudevillian Frank Fogarty visited the Detroit Athletics Club and made the drink. Ted Saucier's book Bottom's Up (1951) features a recipe of an earlier version of THE LAST WORD, but it wasn't really until 2002 it became a well known classic cocktail. At this point the Seattle bartender Murray Stenson unearthed the recipe from Bottom's Up and revived the drink. Quickly after it started becoming a staple of cocktails bars, first in the US and later in Europe. By now it's considered a classic globally and is a part of every bartender's must-know classics. (Almost) Every cocktail bar will carry the ingredients needed to make this cocktail. In a very simplified version, cocktails went into a slump, because of the two massively devastating world wars. I'm not saying cocktails we not served or made at all, or that people didn't go out to drink (because they really did – and a lot), but because of shortage both in produce, money and manpower fancy drinks were not really a big priority. Other more immediate and important things were kinda happening. Any sort of aged alcohol became extremely hard to get and expensive if you did manage to do so. What was produced during the wars we're very limited and aged alcohol like whiskey, well.. it needs time to age. Years. Europe especially turned to Eastern Europe and vodka – faster and cheaper than making whiskey. A couple of decades later all those bright blue drinks with over the top garnish (you all know exactly what I'm talking about) starts and rum is kinda back as the popular kid, but in the 90's vodka is again taking the lead. Now around the early-mid 2000's a string of insanely talented bartenders starts making waves in the drinks industry and not long after we have a fully formed second/new golden age of cocktails – as we call it. How ice cream shops, the American prohibition and the tiki-style fits together, we can deal with another time. We're in the 00's and cocktails are back in full force, and one of the drinks leading that was THE LAST WORD brought back by Murray Stenson. That eerily creepy Tom Cruise might also have had a little say in that whole 'bartending is cool'-thing that made people interested in cocktails again.. so thanks I guess?
Traditionally THE LAST WORD is done with equal parts gin, green Chartreuse, Luxardo maraschino liqueur and lime juice. It's a delicious little fucker. The original version was most likely done on a quite horrible gin (to modern senses and compared to our current products), so the green Chartreuse could kinda mask some of the bad taste with its powerful flavour. Think a bathtub gin situation. Yummy yummy.
WHAT YOU NEED:
- Gin
- Green Chartreuse
- Luxardo maraschino liqueur
- Lime juice (fresh and with no pulp) - Jigger
- Shaker (I work with Boston, glass on tin) - Hawthorne strainer
- Fine mesh strainer
- Coupe glass
HOW YOU DO IT:
- Put you glass in the fridge/freezer and let it cool down.
- Pour 2 cl gin, 2 cl green Chartreuse, 2 cl Luxardo marschino liqueur, 2 cl lime juice into your shaker.
- Take out your glass.
- Optional: take a luxardo cherry, give it a little wash and put it in the bottom of the glass.
- Put your shaker together and shake for 7-10 seconds.
- Put your Hawthorne strainer on the shaker, hold your fine mesh strainer under the shaker and pour through it into the glass – this is called double straining (I'm gonna soon start using this term alone soon).
- Drink!
ON A PERSONAL SIDENOTE:
Today is a short one – I promise!
Booze choices first. There really is no substitute for Chartreuse and its intensity. It is a must, if you wanna make this drink. On the gin part, a good, bold one is the wise choice. If you do go for a slightly more neutral or weaker gin, you can always up the amount of gin and take the amount of green Chartreuse down. Somewhere between 0,5 cl to a full 1 cl should the trick – but remember a little goes a long way. 0,5 cl can change the flavour profile more than you'd think. Luxardo maraschino liqueur is a cherry liqueur and should be easy enough to get a hold of. It's not just any cherry liqueur and nothing like Cherry Heering, so this specific one is also a must to make the drink.
Traditionally this drink is served with no garnish, but if you want to use a garnish, I'd recommend going with a Luxardo cherry as a snack at end. If you do go with the cherry option, be aware that they're swimming in syrup. If you don't rinse a cherry picked from the jar before using it, the cherry will 'stain' your drink, which might impact the taste. I personally like to give the cherry a quick wash for this drink. It'll look like a dark pearl lying on the bottom in hiding, waiting for you it finish.
For the lime juice it's as always: either buy freshly pressed or press it yourself. Regardless of which option you choose, do sieve out the pulp before using it. Do not buy that horrible plastic, lime/lemon shaped bottle with juice in. Nope nope nope. Don't you fucking dare. 1-2 limes should be plenty for making this drink, so no excuses.
For any shaking technique, look up it up in video online. Much easier for everyone. Maybe ask your local cocktail bartender. And practice. As soon as you have the general motion down, practice, practice, practice. Both making your shake good, but also hard. Maintaining power, speed and accuracy simultaneously is the difficult part.
Now for a little twist here or if you're just not a 'gin person', both rum and mezcal works as wonderful a substitutes. You might have to slightly adjust a teeny-tiny bit on the recipe depending on the rum/mezcal you choose, but it shouldn't be anything crazy. As I said earlier: a little goes a long way.
Contrary to the amazing name of this drink, it will hopefully not be the case here. So until next week, enjoy the wonderful lead of the cocktail revival, but also a revived one itself: THE LAST WORD.
That’s all for this week comrades. I have a bucket load of hot shots to share that I will drop into your Telegram Channel and possibly of whats left of IG.
Until then,
Yours, without compromise,
V.