GRAVEYARD PARTY!

DON'T YOU DARE FORGET, the Graveyard Party is tonight, 5-7 p.m., downtown at the store! Come one, come all and remember to dress up as your favorite character! (And I get to be Bod!)

See you there!

PS

AND PS, for a little bit more OKBEEROK inebriation, check out our recent video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJZXrvU-xNs. (And sorry, I wish I could just post it here but don't have the slightest idea how to do that)

UNTIL NEXT TIME: Maholo! Mazel Tov! Nostroevyna! Salud! XOXO

OKBEEROK!-FEST?

OKBEEROK-(FEST)!

A bit late but here it is!:

Harlen Coben’s Tell No One and Fat Tire’s Hoptoberfest (Fort Collins, CO)

I like this match because it’s really a free for all, full of thrills and wit and suspense and mystery and of course, hops. Neither is new or any of that so to speak, but really, what’s the fun in having to figure everything out all the time? Isn’t a little of the commonplace perfected just as you like it just the thing sometimes? If that’s what you’re looking for, and I think we all are a lot of the time, this is a really good match for you. I can honestly say that Tell No One is a pretty perfect thriller that’s a ton of fun to read (and definitely packed with the twists and turns and the magic of a great pulp book), just as Hoptober is a pretty perfect beer (and equally crafted to excellence, with balanced malts, a rich nose, and the magic of hops!). I’d call this one safe, fun, and, well, pretty perfect, especially when dealing with the October doldrums!

(And ps, here's a clip from the excellent French film adaptation which among others stars Kristin Scott Thomas. Winner of 4 Cesar's (French Oscars))

Roberto Bolano’s Savage Detectives and Del Maguey Chichicapa Mezcal (Rancho de Taos, New Mexico)

I had such a hard time finding a beer for Bolano’s masterpiece that – yup, you guessed it – it came to the unthinkable. (And in October, no less!) And so Beerok is no longer just Beerok, it’s Beer-and-liquor-ok! And we say, what exceptional heresy! What delicious rule breaking! And what a good book and what a tasty mezcal! Anyways, The Savage Detectives is a lot of fun – pretty ludic, pretty gamey, which is cool – and seems like something Nabokov would’ve written if he’d been born a charming Spanish lover, sipping sangria under the sun all day long. Or tequila. At least that’s my take. Anyways, it’s good. Really really really good. So, try it, but beware, she’s a feisty one! And let me know how you find and it)

Dave Eggers’ You Shall Know Our Velocity! and Pabst Blue Ribbon (Milwaukee, WI)

Don’t laugh. I read this book a long time ago and sort of stumbled into it just the other day while drinking a Peeber… and you know what: I think it fit! it really did! Eggers’ mild and always entertaining brand of intellectual hijinks is ripe with questions of the sentimental -- perfect for that hipster-beer (don't deny it) which makes us so so emo when we want it most. At least for me anyways. Maybe this is a bit of a reach and maybe not. Try it!

xoxo

CHILDREN'S BOOKS!

With everyone (or what seems like everyone) buzzing about the upcoming release of Spike Jonze's film adaptation of Where the
Wild Things Are (October 16: see the trailer once more here), it's fair to say that kids books are a little en vogue at the moment, and we say rightfully so. Because really (and it's forgotten all too often), who would we be without the characters, the plots, the people, the very pictures of our youths?

And of course, of course, we cannot say, and wouldn't want to even if we could. Those books are the best books, the bookiest of books, and live in that part of our souls where all the wild -- and best -- things are.

Oh, and if you needed any convincing about seeing the film adaptation, here's a really funny clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnLPlf9nVDg) from a skateboard film by the same director (called Yeah Right). And PS, Owen Wilson is in it. See, everything does make sense in the world. Right? Right?

Anyways, for old time's sake, here are a few the books that defined my childhood (AND PLEASE, PLEASE GET BACK TO US WITH BOOKS FROM YOUR OWN, OR FOR THAT MATTER, YOUR CHILD'S!:

(Any) Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson -- Not that anything needs to be said about the best series of books ever, still: Calvin and Hobbes remains to be one of the smartest, warmest, cutest, funniest, most realistic books ever written under the banner of children's comic-ry. The pinnacle of 20th century literature just after Finnegan's Wake.

The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer -- I do not know why but there's something really, truly, perfect about this book in which a boy transforms his world for the sake of a salamander...

Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel -- The sweetness at work in this story of two old and, at times, grumpy friends, is the stuff of true genius and still as good a story as it was when I first read it. Quiet, sober, and still funny as well, it makes me think about what it would be like if Mr. Rogers and Woody Allen were to be amphibians in future lives.

UPCOMING: OKTOBERFEST GETS LITERARY...!

xoxo