EchoBlog

I recently spent a week in Singapore - a place that was home to me for thirteen years, seeing me through my elementary, pre-teen and young-adult years. I didn’t realise until after I had left for College how much the little country meant to me and how much I would miss the local foods. Nearly seven years later, I travelled back to visit some places that are core memories for me.

2 She went on to give birth to his brother Abel. וַתֹּ֣סֶף לָלֶ֔דֶת אֶת־אָחִ֖יו אֶת־הָ֑בֶל We saw last time that what we’re reading is not a story about two brothers. Instead, it is a story about Cain. As soon as Abel is born, he is identified as “his [Cain’s] brother.” These boys might possibly be fraternal twins, but there’s nothing fraternal about the story. Another somewhat literary clue that this is a story about Cain requires a bit of explanation.

For this issue of The Fizz, I spoke with winemaker Alice Jun at Hana Makgeolli in Brooklyn, New York. Alice focuses on brewing different kinds of sool—that’s alcohol in Korean—and specializes in makgeolli and yakju, sedimented and clarified rice wines. The incredibly diverse world of Korean rice wines is new to me, so I’m thrilled to have been able to learn about these historic and modern wines with Alice. In this issue, we talk about the different categories of Korean rice wine, the unique fermentation practices that give the wine its expressiveness, how Alice uses floral and botanical components in her brewing process, and her inspiration and joy in the work she does.

John Travolta is the poster child for the up-and-down swings a Hollywood career can take. A huge star at a very young age, he’s been written off numerous times as the quality of his movies dipped — then made just as many comebacks with boffo box office and Oscar nominations. But it’s now been 15 years since he had a certified hit and probably 10 since he made anything you’ve even heard of, with the possible exception of “Gotti,” mostly starring in low-budget straight-to-video schlock.

Resident blog artist and ragga jungle aficionado Isaac Sparks hipped me to this mindblowing Instagram Drumfluencer. When @Starpowerdrummer (aka Russell Holzman) isn’t touring with Caroline Polachek, he’s recording drum and bass covers for the gram. They are all ridiculous. Here’s one of my favorites, conveniently posted to youtube: A+ for perfectly capturing the snare drum pitch shifting using two snares.  I also love that most of the songs he covers are less than 5 years old.

Lidey and her new book are a delight. No wonder Ina Garten and Erin French took her into their kitchens, where she learned from the best. Her career is one we dream about in culinary school, to work beside the greats. It was not the stove that brought her on this path, she was originally hired to sit behind a desk, but as is true for so many of us, food became her obsession.

While I am regularly amazed by how well so many Christian women love their husbands and families, some husbands are married to women who are spiritually immature or addicted. It’s a rock-solid biblical truth that even the best of us, on our best days, still “stumble in many ways” (James 3:2). In the course of my travels and correspondence, I’ve been app… ncG1vNJzZmifkafGtbTOppismp%2BkuLR60q6ZrKyRmLhvr86mZqlnnKTDqrrGZphmnJmbs6qv1KWrZq%2BZm7I%3D

As I've gotten older, I've found that I have more appreciation for movies that are not necessarily driven by a story. "Monte Walsh" is an excellent example; I think a twentysomething me would've found it a bit slow and uneventful, especially for a Western. Yes, there are a few shootouts in this 1970 minor gem based on the novel by Jack Shaefer, who also wrote "Shane." But it's more a contemplation on the end days of cowboys, getting old and letting go of the way things have always been.

Hello everyone, Today Sam Shepard would have turned 80 years old. So strange to think of him gone, so strange to reconcile the passing of time. I was in my early twenties when I met Sam. Our relationship was like the moon with it’s many phases. In fact we both got tattoos together at the Chelsea Hotel in 1971. Mine was a lightening bolt, his was a crescent moon. When Sam passed away on July 27, 2017 I was on the road.