Posted by League Commissioner on November 24, 2011 0 Comments
This week we posted an article on our blog pairing books and beers. Dogfish Head's brewmaster Sam Calagione was kind enough to give some suggestions, and we asked around the web for suggestions. We're pleased to tell you about three of our favorite pairings, and we're awarding each of the three suggesters a free Novel-T:
#1: Posted by Jeff Stern
Fullsteam’s Carver Sweet Potato Lager with Raymond Carver’s short fiction, Abita Turbo Dog with John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale with David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King and Rogue Dead Guy with Doug Dorst’s Alive in Necropolis.
I went for actual style/feel pairings rather than strictly going for the best pun.
#2: Posted and Tweeted by Va_YetiFan (@RVABrewspaper)
@dogfishbeer @Novel_Tshirts Hunter Thompson's The Rum Diary & @AveryBrewingCo Rumpkin. Both get weird and seductive.
#3 Tweeted by Jay Paul Daly (@sub3marathon)
How about Bell's Two Hearted and Poe's A Tell Tale Heart? @Novel_Tshirts: beer/book pairings prizes for gr8 answersbit.ly/tm0Rp0
Winners should send us an email at info(AT)novel-t.com and we'll be pleased to reward you with your prize!
Read More
Posted by League Commissioner on November 22, 2011 10 Comments
Yesterday we posted about sharing a page of New York magazine with Woody Harrelson and Marilyn Monroe, and picturing Vonnegut pulled up to the bar with Woody and Marilyn.
So what better topic to write about today than the wonderful kinship of beer and books?
We'll start with a poem called "Lines on Ale" by the third baseman for the American Canons, Edgar Allan Poe.
"Lines on Ale"
Fill with mingled cream and amber
I will drain that glass again.
Such hilarious visions clamber
Through the chamber of my brain -
Quaintest thoughts - queerest fancies
Come to life and fade away;
What care I how time advances?
I am drinking ale today.
But for a delve a little deeper into this keg of kinship, Dogfish Head's generous and ingenious brewmaster Sam Calagione has done us the solid of throwing together a wonderful list of great pairs of novels and bottles.
So pull up a stool and crack open a classic with these recommendations of Sam's:
Moby Dick – Leviathan Series Stout from Harpoon Brewery – deep, dark, and bold…call me Ishm-Ale.
The Encyclopedia of Herbs – Saison du Buff – a collaboration between Dogfish Head, Victory, and Stone breweries that is made with parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.
The Book of Genesis as illustrated by R. Crumb – A little more off-centered than the King James version – R. Crumb’s illustrations bring the good book to life – I recommend pairing this with a vintage Sierra Nevada Bigfoot barley – I like to think Jesus actually turned water into BARLEY wine.
Lolita – a Belgian White Beer or German hefe - something enjoyed really young and fresh by the half-gallon jug from your most local brewpub. “Oh Wheat beer, light of my life, fire of my loins.”
Brave New World – Sam Adams' Utopias
The Heart of Darkness - Heart of Darkness Stout, Bell’s Brewery.
The Call of the Wild – Cantillion Kriek – a Belgian ale made with cherries and spontaneously fermented with wild yeast.
And let's add one pairing of our own: Sam's own book
Brewing Up a Business with his own
60 minute IPA. Quoth the poet, "What care I how time advances?/I am drinking ale today."
Thanks, Sam, and cheers!
Read More
Posted by League Commissioner on November 12, 2011 0 Comments
Novel-T is crazy about Walt Whitman. We're so crazy for Whitman, in fact, that we offer two Walt Whitman t-shirts: our standard Walt Whitman jersey and our Walt's With Me special edition tee shirt.
Whitman is taught less and less in high schools, so fewer readers are encountering him these days. If you don't know where to start, consider "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" and "Song of Myself." No matter how many times we've done it, reading those poems always puts us in a good mood.
We're also put in a good mood when we discover other folks that are ecstatic about Walt Whitman. Memorably, about a year ago we were tuned in to the first episode of the Discovery Channel's "Brewmasters" show and were delighted to see Dogfish Head's Sam Calagione sporting a Whitman jersey. Cheers, Sam. And cheers to you, too, Walt!
Read More
Posted by League Commissioner on November 12, 2011 0 Comments
At Novel-T, we like to think of our shirts as "literary t-shirts" or "literary t-shirt jerseys" or "literary jerseys." But there are many who prefer a simpler a name: "book t-shirts"--or even the super-succinct "book shirts."
The appellation "book t-shirts" has its merits. It's simple in just the way that the best writing is: straightforward and succinct. There's no haughtiness there.
But some of our shirts are not "about books" so much as they're about authors. Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn each appear in two books each. Still, we suppose they are book t-shirts. But our Poe shirts are about a poem and short-story. And our William Blake t-shirt features artwork by Blake himself that's not closely connected with a specific book.
Maybe they're "author t-shirts" or "poet t-shirts" or just "writer t-shirts." Ehh, not quite the clear, clarion ring to those phrases that we're looking for...
So we think we're going to stick with literary t-shirts for now. But feel free to call them book t-shirts, or book shirts, or book-lovers t-shirts, or t-shirts for book-lovers. Because a Novel-T by any other name would still feel as soft.
Read More
Moby Dick – Leviathan Series Stout from Harpoon Brewery – deep, dark, and bold…call me Ishm-Ale.
