In complete agreement with Lord Bloch

I agree wholeheartedly with Lord Bloch on this issue. We must restore this blog to the fullness of its original nature, especially after such a fall. To that end, I suggest that we use this website as a formal cause for our blog's movement to a fullness of its actuality.

House Keeping

Dear Friends,

In my most cordial way, I commend me to you.

I would like to point out a few new items on A Draught of Vintage, and I would like to speak about the direction in which I am going to be taking the blog and how the blog has been used up to this point.

You may have perhaps noticed a few new items on the blog recently. The most obvious is the background and Masthead image. I have put up a small blurb about them at the bottom of the blog, and I encourage y'all to take a look at that for more information.

You may also have noticed that this blog has been nominated for the "Bloggers Choice Awards" both for 'Best Blog about Stuff' and 'Best Blog Design.' If you are so inclined, you may vote for this blog; however, it is not important to me whether or not you do - I just thought it might be something fun to do. If you want to vote, simply click on the badge saying what the nomination is. This will link you to the BCA website on which you may sign up and vote.

Finally, I would like to highlight a link to The Saint Nicholas Guild, which is in the "Worthier Blogs" section. The Saint Nicholas Guild is a group of St. Gregory's Academy Alumni who work together to secure both the good of the alumni and the Alma Mater from which they came. If you are interested in donating money to St. Gregory's Academy, you may use this link to do so. I must say, this year St. Greg's has experienced (more than any other year) a financial crisis. They were forced to raise tuition, which has threatened a few boys with the prospect of not being able to return to finish up their senior year. All the money goes to deserving students to offset tuition costs for deserving families. If you can spare a few bucks, I'm sure that the school would greatly appreciate it, and they will also pray for you (I remember that we prayed daily for our benefactors at St. Greg's).

Now I would like to speak to the direction in which I would like to take this blog. Up to now A Draught of Vintage hasn't had any real concrete identity. I am interested in creating something of a purpose within an identity. I have not yet conceived completely what that will be like, but I am going to begin to forge that over the next few weeks. I do know that I want to keep a number of things which have been done well.

Which brings me to my final point. What has been contributed? I am, more than anyone to be held accountable for this. I have a tendency to post a lot of goofy things: part of that is my personality, but I am at this time going to say that I want to strive to post more rigorous, intellectual, interesting, broader-reaching things. I do not want to stamp out our personal idiosyncratic dialogue amongst ourselves, but rather to elevate the conversation. I must commend a few that have done that already.

The first to come to my mind is Mr. Horan, who has posted humorous, thoughtful, and interesting pieces.

Mr. Kane has also contributed a number of thought provoking and intellectually rigorous posts.

Mr. Mahan's recent contribution of photos from Morocco were absolutely the kind of thing that I would like to see more of.

There are many more that could be named for their excellence, but you get the idea. The reason behind my intention to elevate the conversation and take it in a different direction is twofold: one, that I have been reflecting on Facebook a lot and I wish to distinguish this as a place different from Facebook; second, by elevating the conversation we can strive to be less idle and more fruitful in speech and in the quality of what we share, which is what Plato asks for in the Meno when he exhorts Meno to be keen on the search for knowledge--knowledge of the way that reality is. Furthermore, in my reflection on the nature of Facebook I decided that while Facebook is not inherently evil, it seeks to create the illusion of meaningful and true relationships, although it is through an artificial medium (I believe, however that the Facebook and Myspace culture does not actually build lasting or true friendships--perhaps at best it allows those friendships already in place to persist). Therefore, A Draught of Vintage, seeks to recognize that it is, by nature, an artificial medium through which correspondence may be had between pre-existing true friends. By elevating the conversation and understanding that this blog is merely a tool for communication, I believe that we can still have meaningful interaction (as in letter writing), and moreover, that our friendship may be preserved, and indeed strengthened.

Farewell, my comrades,

Peter Bloch

Fresh from the Grapevine

Attention: Recent Graduates (the marginalized, the mangled, the exiled, the unloved, the unemployed, the disenfranchised, the debubbled)

It is rumored to be that Brittany Cameron will not be returning.

Thus, it seems that there may be an opening position at UD (mind you that I have heard this via Grapevine, and as such this information is capable of being spurious).

Therefore rejoice all ye nations!

It is not unfitting that on this day in history (July 27):

1689 - Glorious Revolution: Battle of Killiecrankie
1794 - French Revolution: Robespierre is arrested and tried for the murder of 17,000 via guillotine
1870 - Birth of Hilaire Belloc (Happy Birthday!)
1946 - Death of Gertrude Stein (RIP)

Pictures from Morocco

Hey everyone. I just got back from Morocco and here are some of my pictures. You don't have to have facebook to use the link. Enjoy!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2021082&id=61900889&l=ebe6085b8a
-josh

Guacamole Dip

This summer I have been investigating the possibility of becoming more domestic. With that possible telos in mind, I have designed a recipe (this is, they say, I vital step in becoming domesticated). Fear not, this recipe involves a plethora of manly things: knives, peppers, eating, squeezing limes, etc. And I don't give a damn what the pixies think.

Bloch-o-mole Dip

3 Avocados - Cut open Avocados (Jerry recommends listening to Slipknot). Scoop out the guts and put in a bowl. Smile your work to see.

1 Tomato -Dice this tomato and put it into the bowl. (Remember, shorter on the sides and put everything in the bowl hereafter)

2 cloves of Garlic - Dice this garlic. (Vampires? No, you need it to keep those cougars away!)

1/4 Onion - Dice this quarter onion (If you're Misko, or just that way, use whole onion)

1 Jalapeno - Dice this Ja-lap-in-o. (Just do it)

1 Scoop (small) of sour cream - (optional)

Add salt, squeeze juice of 1/2 a lime, and I feel like I'm missing something...

Mix it up and enjoy with tortilla chips.

If you have things that you like in your guac, I'd like to hear about it.

Jerry and Mother Teresa

An excerpt from a letter in Come Be My Light, the Private Writings of the "Saint of Calcutta" (I highly recommend it to all):

"Three days ago we picked up two people eaten alive with worms. The agony of the Cross was on their faces. How terrible poverty is, if unloved. After we made them comfortable you should have seen the change. The old man asked for a cigarette and how beautiful of God--in my bag there were two packets of the best cigarettes. A rich man gave them to me that morning in the street. God thought of this old man's longing."

Putting Chris Brown to Shame

I leave ambiguous, of course, of what Mr. Brown might be ashamed.

Simply Amusing

Roland sounds his horn for amusement too.

Ode: Intimations of Immortality Recollected From a Recent Trip to the Dallas Aquarium

Of late I was privy to that scummy hovel,
that breeding ground of licentiousness,
the Dallas Aquarium.
Yeah, so I saw the bottom of some sharks,
and a three-toed sloth (The very name is a sin!),
and some jellyfish.
I can find no argument against warming the globe
if it means wiping these inane things off the planet.

Finding my system, and, to a degree,
my disposition, restored by an admittedly decent lunch
served by the purveyors of the establishment,
I was again downcast upon exiting the room
to find a bunch of children staring at a manatee.
A manatee! A cow-eyed nothing with whiskers!
Mother mammalia, who gave us the lion,
the cheetah, the opossum, and the chimpanzee,
how far you have fallen.

Now get out of my way, you slavish yahoo.
You're blocking my view, and they're going
to feed the sea otters in a couple of minutes.

I may be rough shod, but here I go

So, I'm going to be starting off for Phoenix on Thursday. It's going to be an interesting trip, featuring places such as Phoenix, Dallas, maybe Georgia. This is it, I guess, so long D.C.

Weird, Nirvana's All Apologies just started playing, does Pandora know your soul too!?

Anyway. Say a prayer that I make it okay in Benjy Compson (my car). I might call you late at night (James Mackenzie) to help me stay awake. You may receive a gratuitous text message when I head due south out of Roanoke VA (Sercer), pass through the Cumberland Gap (Rivs), cross the James River [blues] (Brandon Misko), cross over the Mississippi from Memphis (Paul Spring), pass Mayhill New Mexico (whatever Quest we were on that year...Spring Break Oh Eight!!), or when I'm baking biscuits on my dashboard in Arizona (Anne). In any case, it will be a road trip...all alone. A few cigs, an energy drink, and some gas.

"Marley was dead: to begin with." Charles Dickens

Tally Ho!

Peter Bloch

p.s. - I have the madlib from Spring Break, and it's pretty hilarious. Chris, I'll get that up and out as soon as I get settled in Phoenix.

It was Jerry's Idea

Thanks to Marypat for showing this to me.

Jerry and the Crushers

A Draught of Novelty

One of my various dream projects for the summer, inspired by Dr. Cowan in some ways (what isn't these days?), and forcing me to publication on this blog in view of the danger of intellectual stagnation of my friends, is to discover the new voice for the new myth that is emerging from the dregs of Modernity. No simple task. My basic strategy is to explore modernity (high modernity and low), then contemporary art, and finally societal expression (via politics and culture) as a window to understanding the new emerging voice. No simple strategy. This involves several manageable and down-to-earth tasks, such as continuing to read, visiting museums, paying attention to politics (with an artist's view), and doing fun things such as listening to Pandora a lot and reading up on the bands.
I am writing this to you in hopes that I may incite some sort of collective inquiry into where art--in particular poetry--stands in terms of its form--and nothing is (completely) formless--and current direction. What separates high art from, say, certain popular artforms. For instance, does certain music that I listen to for pleasure attain a respected status as "real art" as opposed to pop "trash?" If so, what's the difference?
So, really just two questions,
1) Is this overall inquiry warranted, worthwhile, already answered?
2) Is there "real" art in any of the popular forms of music? If so, what's the standard?

Also, as an update on our outpost in Irving. Michael has brought home several large posters from UD archives that have since been pinned on our living room walls, including one of Dr. Cowan and one of Dr. Olenick. Kind of weird, but great.

An Update of John Philip (Jerry) Sercer's Life, Since he would not do this himself.

Today at around 10:00am Jerry rose from the carpeted floor right next to the front door, walked upstairs and said "bye," collected his blue alarm clock, sneakers, a butterfly kite, gym shorts, velcro shoes, threw out a tecate, drum can, and an old razor, and walked out. I followed. He has a mound of clothes in his back seat, a People magazine in his passenger seat, and two boxes of books in his trunk. On telling him to take care of himself, Jerry responded, "I don't like those kinds of restrictions."
He is driving to Fort Scott to stay for an unspecified time. He seemed alive when he left.