Not Another Whisky Blog

Why We’re Here

A year ago I decided to write a book. This wasn’t a spontaneous, impulsive idea. I had been contemplating, dreaming, starting, dabbling, giving up, restarting, failing, and giving up again on writing for years. But last year it seemed that at just the right moment in life, I had received just the right advice. Material I was reading, advice from some close friends, and a podcast episode all came together to give me the kick in the ass I needed to write earnestly and with intention.

Like many things in life – fitness, business, school, sports, investing, relationships – it just comes down to discipline. There is no hidden secret. No magical routine. There is no untapped reservoir of motivation and inspiration inside of you. You just need to show up and work, no matter how much you don’t want to, day after day. I started with small goals: just twenty minutes a day, five or six days a week. After a couple of months, the blank page began to fill up. I was under no illusion that I was writing the next great American novel, but I was finally learning to find enjoyment in the process. I was genuinely excited to see the fruits of my labor. There were dozens and dozens of pages that I knew to be mostly a shit first draft, but after much polishing and rewriting, COULD be work I’d proudly show the world.

Then in January of this year, my car was broken into. One evening while in the gym, some dick face smashed out my car window and made off with my briefcase and laptop. Nothing was backed up, nothing saved to the cloud, nothing even shared with a friend via email. It was all gone. It hit me harder than I ever could have imagined, and I took it as a sign from the universe that maybe what I had produced was not meant to see the light of day.

I’ll briefly mention what I was working on only because it’s relevant to why we’re here now. It was actually two projects simultaneously. The first, less relevant, was a series of short stories based on the fictional dystopian world built around the Nine Inch Nails album: Year Zero.

The second project was a series of essays (that sounds pretentious, I know, bear with me) about fictional and non-fictional peoples’ alcohol consumption. The working title was Legendary Drinkers. Thinking on it now, that title likely wouldn’t have lasted. The concept was fun though. I would research, read, or watch material on people famous for their level of booze drinking, and write a semi-serious-sometimes-humorous article about that person. At the start of each piece would be an infographic depicting how many beverages, what type, and what brand (if available), this person consumed on a daily basis. Characters and people I had brainstormed for the project included: James Bond, Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemmingway, Andre the Giant, Sterling Archer from FX’s Archer (2009), Bender from Futurama (1999), Don Draper from Madmen (2007), and many more.

The goal was to put a humorous, entertaining spin on the stories, while delicately acknowledging the fact that many of these people had legitimate problems with alcoholism – a razor thin line to walk.

This forsaken project was revived when I recently watched the series Sugar (2024) on Apple TV. Colin Farrell’s character, John Sugar, is a private investigator in modern day Los Angeles. He works his way through an A-list lineup of luxury whiskies – initiated within the first few minutes of the pilot when he utilizes a bottle of Yamazaki 18yr to clean a knife wound. The spirits used throughout the show are deeply romanticized. Some are even announced with short dialogue expressing their cost or rarity, before being poured enticingly into a glass, and with satisfying finality, being sipped on by the dashing John Sugar in his impeccably tailored suit. And as if it didn’t already feel like the showrunners were living in my head, Sugar occasionally even reminisces on old films depicting famous drinking scenes before he himself knocks back the dram.

Sexy. I know. You should check it out.

You might be wondering: If Sugar spurred the revival of this project that the world never knew it needed, what was the original inspiration for its inception? Great question.

If you’ve followed my Instagram for longer than a week, you might have noticed that the thing I post most often after whiskey, is movies. I fucking LOVE movies. I’ve been captivated by the magic of the silver screen since I was a kid. And in a rare display of self-awareness, known I’ve always been susceptible to the romance, imagery, and messages depicted through this form of art. Does my awareness help me to stave off acting on the effects of all the subliminal messaging? No chance. In fact, I can trace a mental line to the exact moment (in film) that planted the seeds leading to my desire to join the military. But that’s a story for another time. Let’s talk about spirits in movies instead.

In film, alcohol can be portrayed in many different lights for many different purposes. It could be a dreadful catalyst of devastation in the hands of a drunk abusive spouse or parent. It could be an unassuming prop – an anonymous glass of wine enjoyed with a meal. It could be the focus of youthful joy and celebration – think the objective of our heroes’ quest in Superbad (2007). At times it could be a flagrant display of product placement with minor impact to you personally – doesn’t matter how good that actress looks drinking a Coors Lite, not doin it. But sometimes… sometimes a beverage can be staged in just the right scene at just the right moment with just the right character; when, if done right, will make that drink the most enticing object on the planet. The influence of this type of imagery is what I’m most susceptible to.

No other form of film, literature, or public persona has created in me such a ravenous desire to drink as the movie Atomic Blonde (2017). At the time of its theatrical release, I was in the Army and deployed on a month-long training operation in the deserts of southern California. We had plenty of free time on our hands, but we were given strict orders not to travel outside of the base or to consume any alcohol for the duration of the rotation. That left us with few options for entertainment, the best of which was seeing every single movie released in the on-post theater that month. Atomic Blonde – a noir-stylized espionage action thriller set in Cold War era Berlin – is jam packed with scenes of Charlize Theron and James McAvoy consuming titanic amounts of booze, particularly vodka. One scene in particular: Theron’s character emerges from an ice bath nursing her wounds. Sitting on the side of the tub, she reaches back into the water for a handful of ice, drops the cubes into a glass, and fills it with vodka. Me, captivated by the story, the style, and the strikingly attractive stars stylishly swigging Russian vodka straight from the bottle (coupled with the fact that I hadn’t had a drop of alcohol in weeks) left that theater with an insatiable thirst for a drink. Of course, I still wasn’t allowed to get that drink, and I reluctantly obeyed the order for the remainder of my time there. But you can safely bet that my first stop once home was the liquor store. (I did not buy Russian vodka).

There were a few other sources of inspiration for putting these words on the blank page, but those will come in time. For now, I think this suffices as a first entry. What kinda person starts a blog in 2024? The same guy who started a brick-and-mortar whiskey shop in 2021.