#also on another note this fest was probably the most safe and organized fest i have ever been to and i'm very grateful they did that

[feversxmirrors]

unorganized thoughts on yesterday as i drink my black coffee and sit with all the memories:

- alex g is just.. he's fucking incredible. he was side stage most of the time before his set and i couldn't stop glancing over at him and the band and he had this stupid lil bucket hat on and they all chugged a bottle of wine together and talked to tv girl a lot and it was just so cute. i cried during gretel, i think he noticed lol. i really hope he plays in a regular venue here soon bc i need the full experience sooo soso bad

- tv girl was so fucking good!! pantyhose and cigarettes out the window were probably my favorites they played, but i would absolutely kill to see not allowed. regret chugging an agua fresca (that i paid mfing $15 for smfh) and hard seltzers beforehand though bc i had to leave 2/3rds in to run to the bathroom or i would have pissed myself before alex came on but i kinda wish i just pissed myself haha

- speaking of that i'm glad i was buzzed when huddy was playing bc.. yeah self explanatory

- i adore we the kings live, that was probably one of the most fun sets and i felt like i was back at warped tour when they were on

- anthony mfing greeeeeen <3 i don't know much saosin (more a circa and tsoaf and solo listener) but goddamn they were great. makes me mad that they were so early in the day on the main stages bc i would have replaced their set time w taking back sunday's set time fr, they deserved it w how hard they went

- i was so happy we caught adtr's set, we weren't planning to but it was a huge nostalgia bomb and they know how to fucking work a crowd, and they played all my old favorites

- okay.. major thing. major. i of course was so fucking elated to see bright eyes live for the first time when i've been waiting to see conor my whole life pretty much. i cried mad during their set, i felt the biggest part of my heart soar when they played easy/lucky/free. but i fucking hate that it was in this setting. i felt so fucking bad for him, for the festival people treating him like shit, for the crowd treating him like shit. he was so fucked up during the set that it was majorly concerning. i've never seen him in an angry kind of drunk. it broke my heart to see him look like that, to see him forget the words and slurring his speech so bad and for being so self deprecating and mad. the whole time during and after i just really fucking hoped he was okay. it makes me feel selfish to hope that i can see them again in a different setting but like.. i can't think of that being my bright eyes experience at the same time yanno.

- on a brighter note, FUCKING BMTH!!! i want to kiss oli sykes holy shit they were so cool their set slapped so haaard (even though nitpicky but i wish they played more older jams). i think jacs and i pretty much held the energy of 100 ppl bc no one moved around us or jammed at all and it was disappointing we got stuck around ppl waiting for paramore and mcr but i didn't even care bc i was having the Time of my Life jamming to shadow moses. this is sempiternal!!!

- ohhhh paramore, beloveds, babies, angels, precious souls. i have so many things to say but i can't even comprehend how great they are. everything about them. hayley and zac just know that you are a huge reason i am the person i am today and i am forever grateful for that <3

- lastlyyy THE GARDEN!!! i'm so sad we didn't see the first half of their set but i went full on bonkers when we got to them. the pit was so fucking good and i love them all so so much thank you for ending the night on the perfect note!!!

[darnedchild]

Molly Hooper - (Assistant) Reanimator : Part Six

Also on FFdotnet and Ao3

With apologies to H.P. Lovecraft - A modern retelling of Herbert West - Reanimator.  Written for the 2017 Sherlolly Halloween fest.

Part Six - The Horror From the Shadows

“That was years ago.  The more time passed, the easier it was to pretend it had all been a nightmare.  But always, always in the back of my mind was the memory of what he’d done.  What we had done.  Like a mouldering pile of leaves that hid a festering corpse, just waiting to be discovered by some innocent child in the forest.”

That was oddly poetic, in a macabre sort of way, Sherlock thought.

“So much had changed since Louth, I’d practically become another person.  For the first time since before my father got sick, I thought I actually belonged somewhere.  I made friends, I excelled at my job, I . . . met you.”  Molly closed her eyes and looked away, visibly embarrassed at her last admission.

He couldn’t let her continue to think her feelings were strictly one-sided, but now was not the time to get into declarations of feelings and intentions and the nonsense that most couples felt the need to define before they could be together.  He tucked his fingers under her chin and drew her face back toward him.  “No more of that, there’s no need to hide from me anymore.”

Her features softened and he saw the barest tilt of her lips as she almost smiled, then her eyes cut to the box on the desk and the fear returned to her face. As cold dread washed over him, he knew that her story wasn’t over.

இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—

The day Sherlock jumped off the roof of Barts was one of the most nerve-wracking and, frankly, terrifying days of Molly’s life.  Even the usually infallible Mycroft Holmes had been disturbingly pale when he’d pulled her aside to confirm (for the third time) that she knew what was expected from her.

She had two jobs.  

The first was the easiest of the two.  She’d done most of her work during the long night before.  Mycroft’s people would have tracked down the correct John Doe eventually; but time was of the essence and Molly was far more familiar with the ends and outs of the various hospital and morgue databases.  She’d located the right file, Mycroft had dispatched a small team to liberate the corpse from where it had been tucked away in another hospital’s cold storage.  Molly didn’t know how they did it, and she didn’t care to ask.

Once the double was smuggled in through the loading bay, she’d taken charge.  Someone delivered a duplicate of Sherlock’s suit and coat.  By the time she was done with the corpse, it would have fooled Sherlock himself . . . from a distance.

The second assignment had been much more distressing.  Neither Sherlock nor Mycroft wanted her to be seen anywhere near the location of Sherlock’s probable ‘suicide’.  They wanted no one to notice her, to even consider that she might have been involved.  Which meant once events were set in motion, she had to wait and lurk in the basement morgue, as if she had no clue about the confrontation that was brewing on the roof.

Because of that, she didn’t hear about Jim’s death until Mycroft mentioned it in passing; telling her that the body recovered from the roof would be transported to another location that evening, and until then it would be in everyone’s best interest if no one else were to become aware of the ‘unplanned for complication’.

It was late afternoon before she felt it was safe enough to leave the faux-Sherlock alone and unguarded.  Rather than heading toward the breakroom to get a cup of coffee to help keep her awake and functioning after her long and stressful night, she slipped down an empty hall toward the room where Jim’s body was stored.

Molly paused and steady herself with her hand against the cool metal door.  

Jim Moriarty had been a horrible man, but he’d also spent a few hours cuddled up with her cat and Toby had liked him.  He’d listened to her talk, really listened.  In retrospect, he’d probably been gathering ammunition against Sherlock; but at the time, he had made her feel important and interesting.  

Was she really ready to see him laying out on a slab?

The door was already swinging inward when she realized it should have been locked. There was no way Mycroft would have been distracted enough to let a detail like that slide.  She quickly wrapped her fingers around the edge of the door and stopped its progress.

The normally bright overhead fluorescent flickered and cast shadows along the walls, making it even harder to see any of the room through the thumb’s width opening she had made.

Coming from inside was a trio of voices.  One she did not recognize, but the other two?  They made her heart stutter in paralyzing fear.

“What. Did.  You do.  To me?” Even with the stilted, unnatural speech pattern, Molly would have recognized Jim’s deceptively soft voice anywhere.  

She wasn’t the only one who was scared, judging from the audible tremble coming from the unknown man.  “Exactly what you told us to do, boss.  You said that if anything went south, West should use his zombie juice and bring you back.”

Even before Jim could reply, she heard Herbert speak up.  “I really wish you would stop calling it that.”

“Yeah, well I really wish you would fu-“

“ENOUGH!” That was most definitely Jim Moriarty. “I obviously. Changed my mind.” The earlier choppiness of his speech had begun to smooth out, as if he were becoming used to operating his voice and vocal cords again.  

She could hear movement from inside the room.  Suddenly Herbert came into her field of vision as he headed toward the worn leather bag sitting on a wheeled tray near the wall.  Molly recognized the bag, she’d given it to him ages ago. Back when they were both still in Arkham, Massachusetts.  He called over his shoulder as he began to pack up the things he’d had spread around the tray.  “Then you should have thought to text that information to us before you got your brains scrambled.  We’re not mind readers.”  

She gasped. While she’d only seen the nicer, fake side of Jim in person, she had heard enough from Sherlock, John, and Greg to know that Herbert was treading on thin ground.  

“Watch your mouth, West.  You’re not as indispensable as you think you are,” from the unknown man again.

“I’m . . . hungry.”  The other two men may not have heard Jim mutter to himself, but Molly did.  The hairs on the back of her neck prickled and the urge to run and hide was nearly overpowering.  

Herbert turned with a sneer on his lips.  The way his eyes tracked something, Molly knew that at least one of the other men was on the move.  “What is that supposed to mean?”

“We know you didn’t come up with that shit on your own.  You had help.”

Molly gasped. She saw Herbert stiffen, then his gaze darted toward the door she was hiding behind for just a split second before he purposely stared straight ahead.  

The third man continued to talk.  “When—not if—when you stop being useful, we’ll just have to track down your helper and give him your notes.  I’m sure he’ll be able to figure it out from there.”

“You’ll never find him, Moran.”  Herbert stressed the last word, and she knew that he was fully aware of who was lurking in the hall.  He knew she was there and he was leading Jim and the other man as far away from her identity as he could.  “He’s probably long dead.  You know how the earlier trials ended.  Halsey has been heavily restrained in Arkham Asylum, and he’s still managed to add a nurse or four to his body count over the years.”  

“Now, now, Seb.  Don’t rile up Dr West.  However, you do make a good point about the replaceability of people.”

“Boss?” Seb asked.  His angry tone had morphed back into fear.

“I’ve invested a lot of time and money into the Doctor’s research.  He’s come a long way, but the process isn’t perfect yet. Wouldn’t you agree, Doctor?”

Herbert silently nodded.

“I’m here,” Jim continued.  “I’m walking and talking, and clearly articulate even with a gaping hole in the back of my head.  What can we do about that, West?”

“Unfortunately, some of the brain tissue is gone, but you seem to be functioning well enough without it.  As you said, walking and talking.”  Herbert quickly tossed out some options.  “We could cover it, though.  Adhere a plate or even part of another skull over the exit wound.  A skin graft, perhaps.  Add a hair piece.”

“See, Seb? He’s still useful.  And so are you,” Jim purred.  Even without seeing him, Molly knew something bad was coming.

“Thanks?” It seemed Seb was also aware that something was wrong.

“Useful, but replaceable.  There are so many waiting in the wings, just itching to step up into your place at my side, dear Sebastian.  And right now, I am so very, very hungry.”

Sebastian’s scream was cut off before it had a chance to really begin.  Molly could hear the wet, horrifically obscene noises of something organic being ripped apart just on the other side of the door.  

Herbert met her eyes and shook his head.  A nonverbal warning not to interfere.  He jerked his chin, indicating that she should leave, but she couldn’t seem to make her feet work.  Something rolled across the floor to come to a rest at his feet.

The decapitated head of Sebastian Moran stared up at Herbert, eyes and mouth still open wide in shock.

“Give him some of your serum, Doctor.  When I’m done with my meal, you can have this half, too.  Let’s see what happens, shall we?”

இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—

“I tried to tell Mycroft, but I couldn’t get a hold of him for hours.  And I didn’t-I didn’t know what to say.  I’ve never told anyone about Herbert and the experiments before.”  Molly stood up and began to pace.  “But I was going to do it.  Jim had to be stopped, and that wouldn’t happen if Mycroft’s people didn’t understand what they were up against.”

Sherlock watched her, tempted to reach out for her every time she came within touching distance.

“In the end, it didn’t matter.  When I finally got him on the phone, he cut me off.  Said he was already aware that Moriarty was missing.  He’d seen the security footage, seen what I’d witnessed.  I could tell that he didn’t, couldn’t really believe his own eyes.  I think he thought it might have been a trick, but they were already gathering information on Herbert.  He didn’t seem to realize how much of a part I’d played in all of it.”

Molly looked down at him and worried her lower lip between her teeth for a moment.  “He figured it out soon enough, though.”  

[rajucla-blog]

Documentary Observations (including fundraising)

One of the documentaries I’m producing is the upcoming The Reunited States, based on Mark Gerzon’s book of the same name. Working closely with the talented director Ben Rekhi (whose killer film, WATCH LIST opens at the Seattle International Film Festival, or SIFF, in competition this Friday - tickets here, Deadline article here), we’ve been mapping out some of the ways to make the story as emotionally and socially impactful as possible (especially because the subject matter relates directly to civic engagement). As a result, I’ve been ploughing through a bunch of material on fundraising, the social impact potential for documentaries, as well as watching a bunch of award-winning documentaries as well. The below is a summary of my findings in case it is useful for any other budding filmmakers who may be as equally out of their depth as I am right now.

Creating a Social Impact

To begin with, I was led by this LA times article (’Leonardo DiCaprio, Don Cheadle praise the power of social impact entertainment’) to the Doc Society’s Impact Field Guide & Toolkit, a rich set of resources including a template that can be filled out for your own documentary that will help you postulate exactly what kinds of goals you want to set for your doc (and the metrics you’ll want to track in order to ensure progress), a well as a rich database of case studies on documentaries that have successfully made an impact. I found a couple of resources to be particularly helpful:

- Strategic Plan template - filling this out, especially aided by example case studies of well known documentaries (Blackfish & No Fire Zone, amongst others) helped crystallize exactly what the goals were that we were trying to achieve

- The Safe & Secure Checklist, also developed by the Doc Society - outlines some basic legal and insurance hygiene practices that any documentary filmmaker should keep in mind 

Using the strategic plan template, we’ve now crafted a draft of our social impact plan, including a list of more than 100+ NGOs and civic organizations that we’ve been reaching out to in order to create a foundation for the people and tools that we’ll be able to leverage to help us, as well as a list of places we’ll be able to hold screenings

Fundraising

The IDA’s fundraising table is a pretty comprehensive list of all of the grants available globally to filmmakers, and you can filter by region, type of doc, etc. We used this to create a Google spreadsheet of 50+ foundations / grants / film funds that we then began applying to. Having a spreadsheet made it easy to track as we could note down the status, our login details for any apps, and also link to another Google doc that held our Documentary Core Application Checklist materials, a standard that many of these grant-making organizations use in building their applications. A couple of other links that we used as well to create our full fundraising list:

https://www.docsinprogress.org/funding_documentary

http://www.filmdaily.tv/grants/documentary

https://blog.storyhunter.com/25-documentary-filmmaking-grants-you-need-to-apply-for-this-year-6000cfba2600

http://edn.network/nc/resources/docalendar/showevent/rogers-documentary-fund/

https://www.amdoc.org/create/filmmaker-resources/#.Uz8IHqhX-uZ

http://www.impactpartnersfilm.com/sites/impactpartnersfilm/files/SOURCES%20OF%20FINANCING%20FOR%20DOCUMENTARY%20FILM%20--%20FINANCING%20101%20-%20Dan%20Cogan_0.pdf

Once we finish our full fundraising cycle, I’ll post our spreadsheet here so that readers can see the exact mechanics we used to keep on track (frankly, I’m surprised there isn’t a technology product that helps people with this). If you need it sooner or would like to have a conversation about how to optimize this process for our own project, don’t hesitate to reach out at raj@california-films.com. Fundraising can be difficult, and we want to help. 

Festivals

It’s still early in our festival strategy, but we’ve started to build a list of the festivals we’ll be going out to in the fall and the spring. I’ll post more information here as this strategy becomes solidified, but the biggest ones on our radar right now are the prestige circuit (e.g. TIFF, Sundance, Berlindale, SXSW), the doc-centric ones (IDFA, Doc NYC, Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, and DOXA Doc FF in Canada), and especially the doc festivals that also have a market where you could meet potential buyers (Sheffield Doc Fest has MeetMarket, Visions Du Reel in Switzerland has the Doc Outlook International Market, and Hot Docs in Canada has The Doc Shop). Some resources below that we used to build our list, including the list of festivals where your documentary can potentially be nominated for an Oscar (surprisingly, there weren’t any in the US):

https://filmdaily.co/craft/best-documentary-film-festivals-2019/

https://www.oscars.org/sites/oscars/files/92aa_doc_feature_festivals.pdf

http://www.documentaryfilms.net/festivals.htm

The Films

The journey into the depths of the documentary world led me to watch a number of recent classics, especially the ones focused around creating some kind of a social impact. I caught BEFORE THE FLOOD, CHASING ICE, and CHASING CORAL on the streaming platforms, and I caught FRAMING JOHN DeLOREAN at the Roxie Theatre as a part of the SF Indie Documentary festival. Finally, I also managed to watch the wonderful SKID ROW MARATHON at a recent CAAW (Camera as a Witness) event at Stanford, where the movie was screened in association with the United Nations Association Film Festival (another prestigious documentary-centric film festival, which takes place in Palo Alto in October 2019). 

There were some interesting similarities and differences in styles and techniques that I observed, including:

- Central characters -  Every film had a strong, empathetic central character that goes on a transformative journey which allows the audience to better relate to the unfolding events. CHASING ICE and CHASING CORAL were particularly interesting in that their main characters were not necessarily well known celebrities like Leonardo Dicaprio or John DeLorean, but highly specialized scientists who are building specialized equipment in order to be able to capture the time-lapse photography to show the decline of the world’s glaciers or mass coral bleaching events. Fisher Stevens, the Director of BEFORE THE FLOOD, summarizes the impact of having the story track a main character in this State of Impact Entertainment (SIE) report:

Having Leo as our main character meant that he became our tour guide for the issue, and he  was able to take the audience through the narrative as it unfolded, allowing the audience to learn in tandem with him. That made everything far more compelling. It also made it feel less like the film was preaching — and with films like this you can’t preach or you’ll lose people. As a result, we were very careful and if we ever thought that the material was veering in that direction, we’d cut it.

I also believe that you have to make films like this personal. I tried to draw that aspect out of Leo in Before the Flood because that’s what really makes these films resonate. A good example of this is An Inconvenient Truth because Al Gore was going through a period of turmoil and change in his life and was so open about that in the film. It revealed so much about who he is as a person and the audience was able to connect with him and the film because of it.

Judge Mitchell in SKID ROW MARATHON is another compelling example; stoic, hard-working, and an extremely accomplished Los Angeles Superior Court judge, the camera tracks his unflinching style as he both dishes out justice in the court but goes to extreme lengths to try to inspire positive social change in the homeless and ex-cons by building an inspiring running movement.

- Climatic presentation - In CHASING ICE, CHASING CORAL and BEFORE THE FLOOD, all the main characters deliver a climactic, powerful presentation summarizing the findings of their journey in front of a large audience. What was obviously impactful here were the reaction shots of the audience, many of whom wept; you would think a coral bleaching event would be a pretty dry, academic affair, but seeing the emotional reactions of scientists and viewers at the end made the world’s mass bleaching events made it feel like you were losing something close to you 

The most “out there” documentary was probably FRAMING JOHN DeLOREAN. It was shocking to learn about the history behind the pop culture icon of the DeLOREAN car, made famous by the BACK TO THE FUTURE movies. But the directors also used a hilarious, unconventional storytelling narrative in that they combined a traditional journalist re-telling (relying extensively on audio and video footage, including the infamous FBI takedown footage) with re-enactments (with the famous star Alec Baldwin playing DeLOREAN). However, there was a third element I found to be the most irreverent and also illuminating in terms of really understanding the psyche of the subjects - the actors analysis of the characters they were playing, as the actors themselves, while they were on set or in the makeup room getting ready to play the characters themselves. It was hugely beneficial in understanding the complexity of a man like John DeLorean to hear the actor’s assessment of how he would feel on different days based on the events being portrayed, and how he saw the state of mind of the subject even when he may have engaged in nefarious activity. I thought it was a fascinating look behind the curtain of a psyche of a complex person that we rarely get to see, displayed by the experienced actors playing them. 

[whiskeyandwing-blog]

How to Drink Like the Founding Fathers this 4th of July

It should be well-known that the Founding Fathers, as well as most early Americans, were fond of a drink.  It wasn’t uncommon for citizens to start their day with a quart of hard cider and Benjamin Franklin himself noted some of his employees would take a pint in between each meal.  He would later record more than 200 synonyms for “drunk.”  Judging from the bar tab for a 1787 farewell party held for George Washington, those synonyms were used frequently.  Adjusted for inflation and converted to US dollars, the party cost roughly $15,400, which is a shit-ton of money to spend on alcohol. With that, here’s how to drink just like the Founding Fathers this Fourth of July: Beer Currently, we’re in the middle of what feels like a craft beer renaissance, with breweries popping up on both coasts of the country and everywhere in between.  But what seems like uncharted territory is really just us returning to the 18th century and, in some respects, even earlier.  We think we like beer now, but consider this.  It’s currently illegal to stop a road trip and pick up more beer because you drank it all on the drive.  In 1620, that’s why the Pilgrims didn’t make it to Virginia.  The Mayflower was packed with more beer than water and it still wasn’t enough.  It may have been the single greatest booze cruise in the history of man and the Pilgrims, of all people, were so hardcore they founded a colony just to resupply for the trip back to England. Not that long after, beer was produced locally almost down to the household.  Families in rural America brewed their own beer in small amounts for home consumption while larger breweries supplied individual cities, rarely expanding.  It was, along with cider, served to everyone eating breakfast, including children.  And if you were traveling, tradition dictated you stop in for a drink at each tavern you passed, making every trip a bar crawl. George Washington produced beer for the common people as well.  In a notebook he kept during the French and Indian War, George Washington included a recipe for small beer, a lower-quality, low-alcohol brew.  It’s not a complicated recipe and was meant for paid servants and possibly soldiers in the British Army.  The notebook includes details about Washington’s daily life in the Virginia militia, suggesting brewing was as commonplace to the guy on the one-dollar bill as a one-dollar bill is to us. There was a tasting of a limited run of Washington’s brew done in midtown Manhattan this time last year.  Pete Taylor helped decipher the recipe and actually brewed the beer, which apparently turned out well and leaned toward the sweet side.  If you’re looking to get some for your July 4th, your best bet might be brewing your own, but Yards Brewing does make General Washington’s Tavern Porter, which was inspired by the writings of the General. Thomas Jefferson was even more active in the brewing life.  Jefferson and his wife, as newly-weds, brewed fifteen-gallon batches of small beer every two weeks.  Eventually, Jefferson expanded his brewing and by 1814 there was a brewhouse in Monticello and Jefferson was malting his own grain.  Not long after, friends and neighbors were asking for Jefferson’s recipe and sending servants to train in his methods, so something right was happening at the Virginia estate.  If you want to sample something similar, Yards makes Thomas Jefferson’s Tavern Ale, based on when they worked with City Tavern in Philadelphia to recreate Jefferson’s recipe.  City Tavern’s been around in one form or another since before the Revolution and they’ve staked their reputation on being authentic to the time, so they’re a safe bet for drinking like a revolutionary. If you’re indecisive or can’t pick a favorite president, Yards offers an Ales of the Revolution 12-pack.  You get the porter, the ale, and Poor Richard’s Tavern Spruce, based on Benjamin Franklin’s recipe.  Each beer has been around for a little while, with Poor Richard’s being the most recent addition in 2005, but it’s always worth calling attention to a good bit of alcoholic historical preservation. Whiskey Jefferson may have dominated the Founding Father beer market at Monticello, but Mount Vernon was the whiskey juggernaut.  In February of 1797, Washington’s first eighty gallons were produced and by June he was expanding.  Though, surprisingly, the man behind the success of the whiskey wasn’t Washington.  It was the Scotch-Irish John Anderson.  His recipe first called for only wheat, but eventually he moved to a mixture of rye, corn, and a little barley. In fact, Anderson was so successful Washington trusted him to run the distillery, saying “Distillery is a business I am entirely unacquainted with,” and that it was Anderson’s confidence that even convinced Washington to go into the business in the first place.  Good thing he did too, because what started as a small batch distillation turned into the most successful commercial distillery in Virginia. Mount Vernon is still distilling.  While the spirits aren’t cheap, they’re not the most expensive whiskies we’ve ever seen either.  If that’s not an option, American whiskey is a well-established practice by now, despite the interruption of the Temperance Movement.  Everyone has their favorites and the best practice for celebrating an American spirit is finding a batch that fits your tastes.  Luckily, we have a few articles to help you out there. Cider Cider’s going to be a hard one to nail down, especially if we’re adhering to what was available to the Founding Fathers.  This means toss out that Woodchuck and Angry Orchard, because the ciders available to, and often made by, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were dry, fruity ciders rather than the fizzing sugar-fests mass-produced today. There are a few reasons for the difficulty in finding an authentic cider.  Even though its popularity has exploded lately, cider’s still not as popular as beer and, like we said before, a lot of the most popular ciders are super-sweet and don’t hold true to those early, dry ciders.  A lot of availability depends on region.  So if you’re reading this in California, it’s probably going to be harder for you to find a faithful bottle than, say, a guy in New England. Plus, a lot of the apple varieties and methods used by colonists and early patriots were lost, killed by German immigration and Prohibition. It’s only just starting to re-emerge, although not always in pure strains and verbatim recipes.  Cross-breeding and reinterpretation are common, as well as the experimentation craft brewers are so fond of, so cider’s recovery is less like a recovery and more like a rebirth. It also seems like a good rule of thumb, and this is just us making an educated guess, but more traditional ciders are packaged like wine, in big 750 mL bottles, instead of six packs. All that being said, it’s not impossible to find an authentic American cider, or at least an homage to it.  Ablemarle Cider Works have a cider called the Royal Pippin, made from Jefferson’s favorite apple, the Ablemarle Pippin.  They also have the 1817, based on a recipe found in A View of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees and the Management of Orchards and Cider by William Coxe, published in 1817.  It looks like it’s sold out for this year, but it’s worth mentioning, as it’s the most authentic variety we’ve been able to find. Wine It says something about the United States when, at a party thrown only days before the framers signed off on the Constitution, everyone drank two bottles of wine and that wasn’t the end of the night.  John Adams was so enthusiastic about wine he once attempted to smuggle 500 bottles of French Bordeaux into the country so he didn’t have to pay import taxes.  When he failed, he made Thomas Jefferson do it for him.  By God, John Adams was going to do two things.  He was going to break off from the tyranny of England and then was going to get blitzed out of his mind. The Adamses once shocked a French dignitary by hosting a dinner where everyone drank so much they, by the sounds of it, puked in night tables and vases for the sole purpose of being able to “hold a greater amount of liquor.”  There’s a puke-and-rally joke to be made here, but we’re too preoccupied by the image of patriot-vomit-filled end tables to think of a good one. Luckily, wine similar to what they drank in the 18th century might be the easiest thing on this list to find.  Madeira and claret wines are still being made in the same regions they were back then, so finding a good bottle is going to be as simple as heading to your local liquor store.  Although, for added authenticity, you could always pull a John Adams. Alcoholic Punch This one is hard to make more specific.  The tab doesn’t go deeper into detail, so all we can do is guess at what they drank.  We have a few punch recipes and from the looks of them when the Founding Fathers asked for punch, really what they meant was “all that stuff you’ve got on the middle shelf, plus a couples lemons or whatever.” Our first punch is Philadelphia Fish House Punch, first made by rebellious colonists in the Schuylkill Fishing Company of Pennsylvania.  They may have taken the spirit of the Revolution a little far and declared the organization itself a sovereign state, which may or may not be treason, we have to check.  Although, the reason they haven’t been tried for treason may be that the punch decimates anyone’s desire to do anything other than lay down face first on 18th century floorboards. Stone Fence is another that sounds promising and summery.  We haven’t talked too much about rum, but rest assured, the colonists, especially Ethan Allen, leader of The Green Mountain Boys, loved it.  Stories about Allen being carted away after nights of hard drinking are common.  It’s a simple drink, taking two ounces of rum and topping it off with hard cider.  It also heavily suggests The Green Mountain Boys were thoroughly stitched for their climb up to Fort Ticonderoga. Our last one has been destroying livers presumably since people have had access to rum, porter, and the idea of mixing.  The ominously but strangely encouragingly named Rattle-Skull hits a lot of the autumnal tastes the mid-September party would have wanted, but we don’t like to think of skull-rattling as a seasonal activity.  More of a patriotic one.  In this drink in particular, measurements vary, so feel free to play with the amount of rum and brandy you want to include. Obviously, we have a lot to live up to when it comes to the signers of the Declaration but we can take some direction from this John Adams quote: “If the ancients drank as our people drink rum and cider, it is no wonder we hear of so many possessed with devils.”  In other words, “Greeks and Romans were either satanic or drunk, and I’m going with drunk.”  So, this Fourth of July, get out there and make your forefathers proud. Read the full article