Mighty prolific last two weeks with articles, podcasts, and other projects. It’s also three consecutive weeks of me publishing an article at this website, and I have another one queued up this Wednesday. Feeling good!
Buzzworthy Book Review
I have a new book review up at my website. I return to the world of Jennifer Croll’s homage cocktails. Previously I did a review of her Art Boozel.
Croll’s newest book, Buzzworthy, was published earlier this month, and holy smokes in a rare instance of me being timely, I had a review of it written up and posted. Not to brag, (but I will), I think one of the things I do when I review cocktail books that other websites don’t do is actually make some of the cocktails inside. Anywho, my review of Buzzworthy is online, check it out and consider plucking up Croll’s newest release.
Claus Larsen Interview
Next up I return to my roots of music journalism! I have not really written about/interview anyone since my Heathen Harvest days, so I thought it would be fun to dip back into penning an article on something industrial.
Claus Larsen’s EBM act, Leæther Strip, recently released a new album and I enjoyed it throughly. I reached out to Larsen to ask if I could ask him some questions about it and he said sure! So, here is my mini-interview with Larsen about his newest album, Last Station.
New H. P. Lovecast Podcast
Happy three year anniversary to the resurrected H. P. Lovecast Podcast! Back in 2020 when the pandemic had really started, Michele and I brought the podcast back and have done quite a bit since: read some good (and bad) works, interviewed lots of cool people.
On this episode we discuss the 1970 AIP adaptation of The Dunwich Horror. Arrow Video did a restored release of the film on Blu-ray this past January and we had hoped to do an episode then, but house stuff and other projects got in the way. So, a little late but here is our episode. It can be steamed at the HP Lovecast Buzzsprout page, via the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference.
Princeton University Press recently published the book, Helen of Troy in Hollywood, by Ruby Blondell (a super expert on classics and Helen of Troy canon).
Very flattered to see essays from The New Peplum cited in this tome! Unfortunately I don’t have a copy of the book so I am using preview pages from Google Books to deduce what has been cited. From what I can tell:
Steven Sears’ afterword
My introduction
Haydee Smith’s “Queering the Quest: Neo-peplum and the Neo-femme in Xena: Warrior Princess“
Valerie Estelle Frankel’s “Hercules, Xena, and Genre: The Methodology Behind the Mashup”
Paul Johnson’s “Adapting to New Spaces: Swords and Planets and the Neo-peplum”
I love to see The New Peplum continued to be cited and used in new scholarship. More information about Helen of Troy in Hollywood can be read at the Princeton University Press’ product page for the book.
Fan2Fan Podcast Appearances
The cool kids at the Fan2Fan Podcast are doing a series of episodes about folk’s favorite theme songs from TV shows.
Michele and I are on an episode talking about ours which can be heard at the Fan2Fan Libsysn, on your podcast app, or via the embedded player below. Sincere thanks to Bernie and Pete for having us on.
A side note, one of the shows I mention is the theme song to Mission Hill, which is an edited version of Cake’s “Italian Leather Sofa.” It’s one of my favorite cartoons ever and I talk about why on the episode.
But, for fun, here is my autographed copy of the Mission Hill DVD signed by Brian Posehn. I met him at an Emerald City Comic Con way back in the late 2000s.
Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open until the end of this month (April 30th).
Emmanuelle the Private Collection Soundtrack.
The CFP can found on this page. If you know other scholars who would be interested in this project, please share! I’d be super appreciative to get the word out.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2023.
Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”
With Free the Tipple (2018), Art Boozel (2021), and Dressed to Swill (2022), Jennifer Croll has established herself as the de facto master of the homage cocktail. Diving deep into each subject, Croll susses out each person’s passions, what they stand for, their worldly contributions, what makes them iconic, and distills (pun intended) all their elements into a representative cocktail.
Cover for Buzzworthy.
Continuing in the same vein as Free the Tipple which showcased cocktails inspired by women across a variety of disciplines, Croll’s newest book, Buzzworthy, focuses on fifty female authors, both old guard (such as Jane Austin, Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf) and new school (such as Sally Rooney, Amanda Gorman, Rupi Kaur). Buzzworthy doesn’t just focus on literary fiction authors (though they do comprise the majority of the book), but highlights women authors who write poetry, genre fiction, graphic novels, (which is extremely appreciated), and non-fiction.
Croll uses an introductory approach to not only present authors to readers, but to the art of mixology as well. The beginning of Buzzworthy gives a run down on equipment, ingredients, and measurements, providing all the key instructional components for readers regardless of mixology skill level to consult in order to realize all the cocktails presented in the book.
Each recipe in Buzzworthy contains an ingredient and measurement list, instructions, and also a short biography about each writer along with the rationale behind the recipe. For example, Terese Marie Mailhot’s cocktail is berry-centric, using a berry syrup with strawberries and blueberries for garnish, which corresponds to her memoir’s title, Heart Berries. Her cocktail is actually a mocktail, using Lyre’s American Malt faux-bourbon as its base spirit. Creating a non-alcoholic drink aligns with Mailhot’s biography that mentions her alcoholic father.
The Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Glass from Strong Water in Anaheim. Photo taken by Michele Brittany.
There’s a total of fifty cocktail recipes to explore in Buzzworthy that run the gamut of simple to complex in difficulty, using a variety of spirits, but also plenty of mocktail and low ABV options as well. An example can be found in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s cocktail which calls for grenadine, lime, lemon, and orange juices, bitters, club soda, and a shot of Campari. This is a fizzy and fresh drink with the bitterness normally found in Campari-forward drinks being greatly subdued. With so little alcohol there’s no burn, making a pleasant, long-sipping experience.
The Amy Tan. Photo taken by Michele Brittany.
The Amy Tan is another Campari cocktail that takes a hint of inspiration from a daiquiri by using white rum, simple syrup, lime juice, and muddled raspberries. The ruby red colour gives this drink an elegant appearance while its fruity aroma projects a candy smell, like a liquid Jolly Rancher. The white rum (Flor de Cana used for this article) muddled with the raspberries are a perfect combination.
The Shelia Heti. Photo by Michele Brittany.
Aside from the Pisco Sour, there’s not too many pisco-centric cocktails out there, so it is a treat to see Shelia Heti’s homage cocktail that uses pisco, muddled basil, lime juice, and simple syrup. In essence a gin-basil smash, this libation comes through extremely crisp, the basil almost straying into mint territory. Another smooth cocktail with a wine-like aroma notes from the pisco.
Buzzworthy concludes with a reading list suggesting one to a handful of publications of each author along with a one sentence overview and/or synopsis.
The illustrations by Rachelle Baker that correspond to each author and cocktail are fun to look at and perhaps on the chic side. Each author is represented accurately but in a stylized fashion while each cocktail illustration provides an end result for experimenting readers to shoot for. The beginning of Buzzworthy has a piece that features an orange cat with a white blaze that is adorable to look at and it’s a shame the feline didn’t make an appearance at the end of the book to, well, bookend it.
Cropped image of the cheers illustration in Buzzworthy by Rachelle Baker. This piece rules so much.
While the illustrations depicting each author are fantastic in their own right, the best art piece in Buzzworthy is the second cat piece that shows two fashionable ladies toasting with cocktails they just made. This illustration is so fun with a few hidden gems in it, such as the aforementioned orange/white blaze kitty peering at an open copy of Buzzworthy which was no doubt consulted by the two women to make their libations. This piece sums up the entirety of Buzzworthy: creating cocktails, honoring (author) women, and having a fabulous time doing so.
In the decades since the dark ages of the 70s and 80s, cocktail culture has made giant strides into the greater pop culture arena. Nowhere is this more evident than the proliferation of themed cocktail books. Popular television shows and movies, such as Game of Thrones (Game of Thrones Cocktail Recipes by Dan Babel), Downton Abby (The Official Downton Abby Cocktail Book published by Weldon Owen), and Star Wars (The Unofficial Star Wars-Inspired Book of Cocktails by Rhiannon Lee) capitalize on both fan and cocktail enthusiast interest. Cocktail books that homage the literary world, such as Tim Federle’s Tequila Mockingbird and Mike Slater’s Lovecraft Cocktails, are also readily available.
Personal copy of Art Boozel
Jennifer Croll’s Art Boozel is a themed cocktail book, but it differentiates itself from the crowd by focusing not on artistic end products, but on the creators of art: painters, photographers, film directors, and so on. The recipes in Art Boozel are not of cocktails favoured/created by artists, but instead are brand new, unique creations that pay homage to their personalities, crafts, and legacies.
What Art Boozel accomplishes can be best exemplified by its entry on Banksy. The base cocktail recipe is fairly simple: Campari, lemon juice, Cherry Heering, and egg white. How it honours Banksy is that after the drink is poured/strained and has developed a nice egg foam on top, the next step is to place a stencil over the cocktail and mist bitters through it, mimicking Banksy’s distinctive street art style. Paired with this interactive libation is a rendition of Banksy, hooded and completely silhouetted in black. This isn’t just a cocktail, it is an experience, an act of creating and consuming art.
There are fifty-eight other cocktail recipes in Art Boozel, all celebrating different visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers from the past century. Some choice recipes include the Gerhard Richter, a drink that balances a few unusual pairings – blue curacao, apple brandy, gin and green chartreuse – into a rather smooth, robust libation that conceals a maraschino cherry.
Gerhard Richter
The Jeff Wall goes all in on orange with mandarin juice (and garnish), orange blossom water with gin and honey. The end result is a Tom Collins variant that is tangy and refreshing.
Jeff Wall
The Miranda July follows a similar path with gin, orange juice, orange Fanta soda, and Campari. The bitterness of the Campari is tempered down from the sweetness of the one-two orange combo.
Miranda July
A final example, the Roy Lichtenstein, challenges conventions with its vodka-margarita riff: vodka, simple syrup, Cointreau, lime and lemon juices. The formula works, the vodka allows the Cointreau to be the star of this show, and it is a must see.
Roy Lichtenstein
Each recipe is accompanied by a portrait created by Kelly Shami whose style is perfect at representing each artist in a fun, unique way. Every portrait also contains a rendition of the cocktail, which is extremely helpful and a huge step above cocktail books that lack photos to help guide folks along.
The majority of cocktails in Art Boozel are not aimed at beginners, as some have fairly esoteric or unusual ingredients. This is by design as Art Boozel aims to experiment and advance mixology while at the same time appreciating and honouring a variety of influential artists – some household names, others underground. With this in mind, Art Boozel is a stand out tome in a sea of themed cocktail books, inviting readers to check out interesting artists via inventive cocktails.
If you’re interested in checking out Art Boozel, the book can be found for purchase in the below links:
This past week we published not one, but two episodes of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast (due to timing: 4th Sunday and last day of the month).
Episode thumbnail by Michele Brittany
For the Fragments episode we took a look at the 1997 Guillermo del Toro’s film, Mimic. This episode can be heard on our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast application of preference.
Episode thumbnail by Michele Brittany
Next, our Transmissions episode also went up. This is our interview episode, and we talked to three folks, all three who are alumni of the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference:
Farah Rose Smith on their short story collections Of One Pure Will
Rahel Sixta Schmitz on their debut non-fiction book The Supernatural Media Virus
Kevin Wetmore on their newest book, Eaters of the Dead: Myths and Realities of Cannibal Monsters
This episode can also be streamed at our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast app of preference.
Exotica Moderne Cover Reveal
Issue 13 of Exotica Moderne will be released soon! House of Tabu has done a cover reveal:
This issue will contain my review of the book Cuban Cocktails. The pre-order page for this issue can be found at the House of Tabu website.
Of note, my article for issue 14 is in the can! It will be an interview with pinup model Miss Corsair Debonair. The interview is done and sent in, just waiting on photos to go with the article. That issue will be released in early 2022.
Issue 15 I hope to finally do my write up on Caltiki: The Immortal Monster.
Academic CV
Updated the About Me page to include a link to the newest version of my academic CV.
General Neo-Peplum News
Aegean RPG
Stoo Goff has a Kickstarter going for an interesting neo-peplum table top RPG called Aegean RPG.
The Kickstarter description is as follows:
Aegean is a tabletop role-playing game about a group of mythic heroes building a new, free city on the shores of the Aegean Sea. There are neighbouring cities to trade or war with, monsters to kill, gods to appease, deceptions, negotiations and bloody skirmishes.
The world of Aegean is an ancient Greece that never existed – a mix of mythology and classical history. The gods visit the earth and converse with mortals, granting gifts of magic and life to some and fear and terror to others. Fearsome monsters roam the lands and seas making every journey an adventure. Strange creatures, some mortal, others half-divine, can be found in the wilderness. These centaurs, nymphs and tritons teach, harass or ignore humans as their whim takes them.
The polis—the city and its surrounding lands—is your home and where your loyalties lie. Your polis is a recently founded colony on the coasts of the Aegean Sea. The leader is called an arkhon, a democratically elected ruler after the Athenian fashion, rather than the hereditary king that many cities still use. The polis sits in a precarious position, between many similar neighbouring states who may wish to trade, ally or make war.
Your character fits somewhere in this world, between the capricious force of the gods, the wilderness and the structure of the polis and its ambitions.
Gladiator 2 Being Written
An article at IndieWire says that Gladiator 2 is current being written and will be ready to hit production after Ridley Scott’s Napoleon movie is made.
Afterlives Podcast
Egyptologist Kara Cooney has started a new podcast in September called Afterlives.
It can be streamed on Spotify or your podcast application of preference. Newest episode talks about being an academia, so extremely helpful!
Recent Aquisitions
Figure I would jazz up my news my showcasing any new neo-peplum texts I pluck up. While at a Zia’s Records last week I happened upon two metal releases: Warkings’ Revolution and Ex Deo’s The Thirteen Years of Nero.
I’m enjoying both, especially the adventure metal sound of Warkings. That album is interesting in that in a true neo-peplum fashion, it’s blending genres/histories together: Vikings, Spartans, Templars, etc.
The CFP for the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference (year 4!) for the 2021 StokerCon is live at the StokerCon website. Please consider submitting!
HP Lovecast Fragments
The next episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast will be a fragments episode. We will be interviewing author Kathleen Kaufman, whom we had the honour to interview last year on the Scholars from the Edge of Time show.
Exotica Moderne
Issue 9 of Exotica Moderne will be published next month. This issue will have my write up of the Severin Films release of Horrors of Spider Island. The cover art of the new issue looks like this:
General Neo-Peplum News
Netflix is releasing an anime-styled animated series called Blood of Zeus. Release date is October 27. The trailer is on YouTube, or you can see it embedded here:
In 2020, boutique publisher Apollo Publishers released the small-sized hardback How to Drink Like a Writer: Recipes for the Cocktails and Libations that Inspired 100 Literary Greats. Within its pages is a chronological listing of famous writers, (such as Edgar Allan Poe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Agatha Christie, Maya Angelou, and others) coupled with a cocktail recipe and a paragraph or two that contextualizes the drink to that particular author.
Edgar Rice Burroughs, father of the sword and planet genre and creator of the transmedia icon Tarzan, is counted as one of the many luminaries represented in the tiny tome. Burroughs’ entry is for a cocktail appropriately named the Tarzan Cocktail. The recipe for this libation from How to Drink Like a Writer is as follows:
1 oz rum 1 tsp Cointreau .5 oz lime juice .5 oz simple syrup
The directions are to shake all ingredients with ice, strain into a chilled coup glass and garnish with a lime wheel.1
Unlike other entries in the book, the contextualizing paragraphs for Burroughs’ cocktail are scant: it simply reads that Burroughs “designed this cocktail with the tropics in mind.”2 There is a foot note that indicates that the Tarzan Cocktail was lifted from an earlier publication, the long out of print 1935 book So Red the Nose or Breath in the Afternoon, which is similar to How to Drink like a Writer in that it also pairs cocktails with famous writers. The incarnation of the Tarzan Cocktail in this older book is slightly different:
1 oz Bacardi
1 tsp Cointreau
Juice of a half of a lime
1/3 tsp of Sugar
As with How to Drink Like a Writer, there are a few flavor text paragraphs for the cocktail, mostly focusing on anecdotes from Johnny Weismuller who portrayed Tarzan in around a dozen films and not much detail about the genesis of the drink proper from Burroughs.3
The question becomes, was this a cocktail that Burroughs created? Scott Tracy Griffin, a Burroughs expert and author of Tarzan on Film (2016) deduces that the legendary writer probably did: “As far as anyone knows, ERB created the cocktail. It’s possible someone else did it under his name (fully approved), but he loved his libations, so I would imagine that he did provide it.”4
Authorship of the Tarzan Cocktail established, the next question would be, in the same vein as to folks attempting to re-create James Bond’s iconic Vesper Martini, can one re-create the Tarzan Cocktail as Burroughs would have enjoyed it? The answer, sadly, is no. However, one can come fairly close.
Conceptually, the Tarzan Cocktail itself looks to be a mix of a traditional daiquiri (rum/lime/sugar) and the Cuban Sidecar (rum/lime/Cointreau). Comparing and contrasting the 1935 and the 2020 versions of the cocktail, the drink can be deconstructed and then reconstructed into a modern drink that would be in the same ballpark as Burroughs’ original, maybe even perhaps improved upon.
Lime: The alteration of using the juice of a half of a lime to half of an ounce of lime is a suitable change. A normal, whole lime can hold anywhere from .75 oz to over an ounce of a lime. The newer version standardizes the quantity and makes for a consistent beverage.
Simple Syrup: As with the lime, the updating of adding sugar directly to using simple syrup is an appropriate change. The practice of adding sugars to a drink has long been superseded by using simple syrups which is a mixture of sugar dissolved in water. Different ratios of water to sugar control how sweet the simply syrup is. The modern version calls for 1 part sugar dissolved in 1 part water which is standard. Different sugars can also be used in simple syrups, such as Demerara sugar. However, as will be shown below, since the end result of this cocktail is going to be on a clear side, one will want to use a white granulated sugar to create a colorless simple syrup to use.
Cointreau: No change here for this orange liqueur.
Rum: This is where the recipe hits a stumbling block: what rum to use? The modern version of the recipe simply calls for “rum” which of course can mean any rum. In the world of rums, this is a huge net to cast as rums differ from the country they are produced in (Jamaican compared to a Puerto Rican), if they are aged or not, what they are aged in, any spices added, and so on and so forth.
The original 1935 version from So Red the Nose narrows the rum selection down considerably to simply “Bacardi.” However, during the 1920s/1930s there were actually a plethora of different Bacardi rums in production:
Bacardi Carta Blanca Bacardi Carta de Oro Bacardi Añejo Bacardi Elixir Bacardi Anis5
Of these five rums which one was Burroughs most likely to use? A reasonable, educated guess can be surmised by looking at another cocktail book of the era, The Savoy Cocktail Book from 1930. This foundational cocktail book lists two recipes that overtly call for “Bacardi”: the Bacardi Cocktail (Bacardi rum/grenadine/lime) and the Bacardi Special Cocktail (Bacardi rum/gin/grenadine/lime).6 In an article for the Wall Street Journal called “Grenadine, True and False” Eric Felten writes about both the Bacardi Cocktail and the Bacardi Special Cocktail. He describes the Bacardi Cocktail as such: “In the years just after Prohibition, the Bacardi Cocktail — white rum, fresh lime juice and grenadine — threatened to unseat the king of cocktails.”7 This additional description clarifies (literally and figuratively) that the Bacardi rum used in these cocktails was white (clear), and therefore it rules out the Bacardi Carta de Oro and Bacardi Añejo which were gold, darker rums. The Bacardi Elixir was a plum-based spirit while the Bacardi Anis was licorice-flavored rum,8 so those can be ruled out as those flavors would not compliment these drinks. That leaves the Bacardi Carta Blanca being the Bacardi rum used in these drinks, and thus it can be reasonably deduced from The Savoy Cocktail Book that if a drink called for Bacardi, it was calling for Bacardi Carta Blanca. Thus, the Tarzan Cocktail would have called for the Bacardi Carta Blanca as well.
A clarified version of the Tarzan cocktail would read as follows:
1 oz Bacardi Carta Blanca
1 tsp Cointreau
.5 oz lime juice
.5 oz simple syrup
This is where a second and more critical snag is encountered: Bacardi Carta Blanca does not exist anymore as it was superseded by the Bacardi Superior. The original proof of Bacardi Carta Blanca was 89 proof while the modern day Bacardi Superior is 80 proof and thus a lower alcohol by volume. This problem is also further compounded by the fact that the original Bacardi rums were made in Cuba, but because of the Cuba Embargo, they are now produced in Puerto Rico. This means that the Bacardi Superior of today not only has less alcohol than the original, but it has a slightly different flavor profile due to the shift in country of production.
There’s a few options to go from here.
The first is to use a Cuban-style rum. For non-Americans this should be easy by simply procuring a bottle of Havana Club 3 years. This is probably the best solution as it will provide the closest taste to Burroughs’ original cocktail, though at 80 proof, it will have a lower alcohol content.
In the late 2000s, Bacardi released their Bacardi Heritage rum as a throwback to their original Bacardi Carta Blanc. Produced at 89 proof, the Bacardi Heritage has both the branding and the alcohol content of Burroughs’ original, though not quite the same flavor. However, the Bacardi Heritage has been out of production for a few years now and much more difficult to procure.
The third alternative is to use Bacardi Superior. This rum is readily available and contains the same branding as Burroughs’ original cocktail, though the taste and the alcohol content will be off. However, this is as close to being in the same ballpark as possible. Using Bacardi Superior makes an excellent drink however, though a little on the sharp side.
The final alternative, especially for Americans, is to suss out a non-Bacardi, non-Cuban rum that would work well as a successor, and perhaps even elevate the cocktail from its original incarnation. A rum that fits this bill perfectly is the Hamilton 87 White ‘Stache. A clear rum with an 87 proof, this rum ups the alcohol content to the level Burroughs preferred while offering a smoother, richer taste as compared to the Bacardi Superior.
Photo by Michele Brittany
If one wanted to be bold and go past the 89 proof, other quality white rums that could be used would be the Diplomatico Planas and Probitas both at 94 proof.9 Burroughs would be quite impressed with the Hamilton.
Photo by Michele Brittany
Revised Tarzan Cocktail
1 oz Hamilton 87 White ‘Stache
1 tsp Cointreau
.5 oz lime juice
.5 oz simple syrup
End Notes
1. Margaret Kaplan, How to Drink Like a Writer: Recipes for the Cocktails and Libations that Inspired 100 Literary Greats (New York City, NY: Apollo Publishers, 2020), 64-65.
2. Ibid., 64.
3. Sterling North and Carl Kroch, So Red the Nose or Breath in the Afternoon (New York City, NY: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1935), 27. https://euvs-vintage-cocktail-books.cld.bz/1935-So-Red-the-Nose-or-Breath-in-the-Afternoon/VI/.
4. Scott Tracy Griffin, email message to author, September 7, 2020.
5. Michelle Sugrue (Bacardi help desk), email message to author, September 9, 2020.
6. Harry Craddock, The Savoy Cocktail Book (Mansfield Centre, CT: Martino Publishing, 2015), 25.
Kaplan, Margaret. How to Drink Like a Writer: Recipes for the Cocktails and Libations that Inspired 100 Literary Greats. New York City, NY. Apollo Publishers, 2020.
