Tag: 241031

Psychedelic throwback

Moon Walker comes to Concord

Cirque du Soleil’s The Beatles Love, which closed last July after 18 years in Las Vegas, was both a musical revue and a hallucinatory spectacle. It was also the introduction to the Fab Four for a young Harry Springer, and it left a lasting impression. When he returned from the show, Springer convinced his parents to buy him a guitar.

Though it didn’t come up in a recent phone interview, it’s a safe bet Springer, who performs as Moon Walker, was partial to John Lennon. His music is a heady hybrid of glam rock and dreamy pop, which is appropriate for a guy who also cites Marc Bolan as a guiding light. He’s also fond of psychedelia stalwarts like Jellyfish and Supergrass.

In Lennon-esque fashion, Springer uses music as a platform for his politics. On TikTok, he stitches his songs to examples of hypocrisy, such as videos that tout tough parenting, parochial thinking and petty prejudices. It’s a winning formula, as his posts have garnered 16 million likes, and his @moonwalkerband account currently has nearly 400,000 followers.

“Give the People What They Want,” from 2023’s Apocalypticism, casts a wary eye at consumerism, “We want … houses we can’t pay for, jobs we can’t stay awake for,” Springer sings. Lately, he’s lambasting religion, on songs like “Regular People” and his latest, “New God,” a bracing track punctuated by shredding guitar and spacey, layered vocals.

Like the Beatle who wrote, “God is a concept by which we measure our pain,” Springer is sharp in his critiques, but it’s not in response to the way he was raised. It’s just the way he sees the world. “A lot of the things that get me worked up politically boil down almost exclusively to religion,” he said. “Sometimes, I don’t recognize that it’s going to bother people … until it does; and it always bothers the right people.”

Springer puts his faith in music, and he’s a relentless student. A conversation on influences veers from prog industrialists Can to Curtis Mayfield, who wrote “Superfly” and “People Get Ready,” to the proto-nerdcore Modern Lovers, a Boston group that included a future member of Talking Heads, a band he positively reveres.

“The funny thing is I discovered all three of those at the same time, so in my mind they’re strangely linked,” he said. This was during the beginning of the pandemic, a time when Springer had moved from Colorado to Los Angeles with his band Midnight Club to make a name for itself on the club circuit, only to end up in quarantine.

With no gigs to play and time on his hands, Springer began writing songs for Moon Walker and in October 2021 released Truth To Power, collaborating in the studio with drummer Sean McCarthy. A second album, The Attack of Mirrors, came a year later, followed by Apocalypticism last October.

This year he’s released several singles, including the antiwar “Genocide Money” in July. Considering his studio prowess, it wouldn’t be surprising if Moon Walker hit the road as a duo; Springer, McCarthy, and a looping machine packed with samples. That’s not what’s happening, however.

For a Concord show with fellow indie rockers Moon City Masters opening, Moon Walker will perform as a trio. Springer will work with a different drummer; McCarthy will be back in SoCal, but will rejoin Nov. 13 for a tour that will hit California, Oregon and Washington.

Like the many musicians Springer admires, most of whom had their heyday before MTV hit the airwaves, Moon Walker is old-school onstage.

“We don’t do tracks, so there are certain songs we can’t really play, but it’s kind of freeing — there’s no pressure to match the record because it’s physically not possible,” he said, adding, “I love the energy of a live show. There’s something that moves you when a band is in the moment and playing well together. I think it makes for a relatively unique experience. It’s going to be entirely different every night.”

Moon Walker w/ Moon City Masters
When: Friday, Nov. 1, 8 p.m.
Where: BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $19 and $31 at ccanh.com

Featured photo: Moon Walker. Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 24/10/31

Local music news & events

• Scary folk: Few bring a genuine spirit to All Hallows’ Eve like Doctor Gasp & the Eeks, the seasonal band led by Dan Blakeslee. The masked singer/guitarist is a one-man Hitchcock movie, channeling his personal guiding light Bobby Boris Pickett and others through favorites like “Monster Mash” and wacky originals. Soul Church and DJ Clinton will open the show. Thursday, Oct. 31, 9 p.m., The Press Room, 77 Daniel St., Portsmouth, $15 at eventbrite.com or $18 at the door, 21+.

• Tuneful duo: Enjoy an after-work set from musical romantics Rebecca Turmel and Brendan Gill, performing as B&B. Turmel has spent a lot of time in Nashville, making records like “The Road Song” with Val McCallum sitting in, while Gill recently released his first solo effort, the bluesy gem “R U Here.” Friday, Nov. 1, 6 p.m., Par28, 23 S. Broadway, Unit 10, Salem; more at rebeccaturmel.com.

• Among friends: The First Wednesday open mic celebrates a few favorites at RangerZone Showcase, bringing together past performers for what’s hoped to be an annual gathering. Joining Andrew North & the Rangers are Concord native Joe Messineo, the duo Morris Code, D James, a rapper from Boscawen, original rockers Stand Up Audio and Superbug, both with new albums. Saturday, Nov. 2, 7 p.m., BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord, $24 at ccanh.com.

• Mood dance: From its beginnings as a basement party in a Williamsburg bar, Emo Night Brooklyn has grown into a nationally touring pop-up mosh pit, approximating a good night at the Warped Tour. Two DJs lead a rocked up rave with occasional special guests showing up to spin or play the best emo and pop punk from the ’90s and beyond. Put on your best scowl and join in. Saturday, Nov. 2, 8 p.m., Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua, $21 and up at etix.com.

• Picking party: Now an end-of-daylight-saving-time tradition, the High Range Band takes the stage at the Nippo Lake Bluegrass Series’ weekly bash. Consisting of six outstanding musicians, the New Hampshire-based group formed in the late ’80s, doing covers and originals on fiddle, guitar, mandolin, banjo, upright bass and drums. They released four albums in the 2000s. Sunday, Nov. 3, 6 p.m., Nippo Lake Restaurant, 88 Stagecoach Road, Barrington, nippolake.com.

Blink Twice (R)

Two women visit a tech billionare’s luxury private island retreat but worry there might be something sinister beneath all the gourmet meals and free-flowing Champagne in Blink Twice.

Even if you didn’t know this is a horror movie, isn’t “tech billionaire” the giveaway that something sinister is afoot?

Frida (Naomi Ackie) and her roommate Jess (Alia Shawkat) work as waiters at a high-end function thrown by Slater King (Channing Tatum), the billionaire, who we see Frida Googling earlier, watching a video of him apologizing for unspecified bad behavior. After their work is done at the event, Frida and Jess change into fancy attire and sneak in, posing as guests. They meet Slater himself when he helps Frida up after she takes a tumble in her high heels and Frida and Jess end up hanging out with Slater’s crew. Eventually, this starstruck duo joins Slater’s group on a trip to Slater’s island, where he has chickens and lives simply or some billionaire nonsense.

When they get there, along with other women Sarah (Adria Arjona), Camilla (Liz Caribel) and Heather (Trew Mullen), Frida and Jess discover that nicely appointed rooms featuring white bikinis and flowy white beach wear have been prepared for them. There is also a group of dudes who are part of the proceedings, including Haley Joel Osment playing a bitter divorcee and Christian Slater playing what I can only call “the Christian Slater character” a.k.a. the other tell that this island has sinister elements.

The most spoiler-y thing I’ll say about how this story unfolds is that it features characters (women, naturally) being reminded several times to smile. Even in circumstances that are not strictly “horror”-y, this reminder isn’t exactly benign. In this way, Blink Twice could be part of a super depressing double feature with Woman of the Hour in the way it comments on how women use smiles and giggles in a not-always-successful attempt to not get murdered.

Blink Twice is a truly disturbing horror movie — worth a watch but not a spooky Halloween fun entry in the genre. With a thankful swirl of dark comedy, it sets up an extreme situation that gets to some very (unfortunately) relatable fears about dynamics between men and women and between the owns-an-island rich and everyone else. Solid performances all around — Channing Tatum, already well-documented as good at serving up goofballness — does a good job giving something much darker. Ackie and Arjona make their characters believable and believably skilled (and not) when it counts. And then there’s Geena Davis, who at some level is the personification of Gen Z-and-younger views of second and third wave feminism I think? The disturbing implications about her character are just one of many of this movie’s smart choices. B

Rated R for strong violent content, sexual assault, drug use and language throughout, and some sexual references, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Zoë Kravitz and written by Zoë Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum, Blink Twice is an hour and 42 minutes long, distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and available for rent or purchase.

Girl Haunts Boy (PG)

A 1920s adventure-seeking girl haunts a grief-enmeshed 2020s boy in the light-touch ghost-rom-com Girl Haunts Boy.

Teenager Bea (Peyton List, tough girl Tory of Cobra Kai) is hit by a car — and teaches us all the origins of the phrase “it’s a doozy” — after pocketing half of an ancient Egyptian ring-set she sees at a museum on a school trip in the 1920s. A hundred years later, teenager Cole (Michael Cimino, the Victor of Love, Victor) moves into Bea’s house with his recently widowed mother (Andrea Navedo) and finds Bea’s half of the ring. He puts it on and suddenly he can see and hear her and she has someone to talk to after decades alone.

Bea and Cole become friends with a side of Maybe Something More even though she can’t make physical contact with humans or leave the general vicinity of the ring. And bringing some extra helpings of com to this rom-com is Lydia (Phoebe Holden), also a high schooler, who has a YouTube channel about the supernatural and senses that Cole has something spooky happening with him.

Girl Haunts Boy feels very middle-of-the-road streaming-Christmas-movie in both its quality (of writing, of ghosty special effects) and its emotional depth — but that isn’t really a dig. This feels perfectly serviceable as teen romance programming and didn’t pain me, as a grown-up, to watch it either. This might be the best possible programming to watch with your young teen as it only requires maybe 30 percent tops of your attention to get the gist. You can goof around on your phone, they can goof around on their phone and technically you’re still doing an activity together. C

Rated PG for mild thematic elements and language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Emily Ting with a story by Dustin Ellis, based on the book by Cesar Vitale, Girl Haunts Boy is an hour and 40 minutes long and is streaming on Netflix.

Wolfs (R)

George Clooney and Brad Pitt have delightful irritated-buddy chemistry that feels like the whole reason for being for Wolfs, a lightweight crime comedy thing.

When a man — legally speaking, but more of a boy really — jumps off the bed, crashes into a bar cart and lies in a puddle of blood in the swank hotel room of the district attorney (Amy Ryan), she calls for help. An unnamed man, listed as [ ] in her phone, calls her back. George Clooney, as [ ], arrives all leather jacket and deep reassuring voice, ready to make it so she was never in the hotel room and the kid (Austin Abrams) had nothing to do with her. He is about to start his work when there is a knock at the door and another cool, reassuring man walks in — Brad Pitt — ready to help the district attorney out of her situation, which was viewed by hotel security cameras in the room by Pam (Frances McDormand). Eventually, Pam calls and tells the two men to work together to clean up the situation, and with deep annoyance and distrust, they begin to do so — cleaning out the hotel, giving the district attorney an alibi and a change of clothes, loading up the body.

Except, about that body, some mix of the drugs he’s on and the chaos of the situation meant they never really did a complete check of his pulse and the body is still a living, if unwell, person. And he is in possession of four large bricks of some kind of drug that these reluctant partners realize somebody is going to come looking for. Eventually these two are driving the kid around the city, with various underworld stops as they try to clean up the original mess without creating bigger problems with criminal types such as “The Albanians,” “The Croatian” and whoever the kid’s friend Diego is working for.

But really, this movie is about Clooney and Pitt, affectionately bickering and lightly picking on either other. Pitt’s character ribs Clooney’s for being old, Clooney’s treats Pitt’s as kind of a know-nothing. It’s cute, occasionally fun and very light. I don’t understand the economics of this kind of movie — big-deal stars in a big-deal-seeming movie that is released on a streamer most people probably have because it came with their phone — but the home viewing element does do this movie the favor that the hangout nature of things is enough. Their nitpick-y banter is charming, or at least charming enough, and if you like either or both of these actors this movie is a fine venue to hang out with them. B

Rate R for language throughout and some violent content, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Written and directed by Jon Watts, Wolfs is a breezy hour and 48 minutes long and is available on AppleTV+.

Caddo Lake (PG-13)

A swampy lake on the Texas-Louisiana border becomes a nexus of mystery in the twisty thriller Caddo Lake.

During drought, the Caddo Lake recedes to reveal more of the muddy marshy woods that surround it. Teenager Ellie (Eliza Scanlen) can still use the family’s motorboot to get around their small, lake-centered town, using it to get to a friend’s house to stay in the days after a fight with her mother (Lauren Ambrose). Though she and her mom aren’t on great terms, she still hangs out with Anna (Caroline Falk), her 8-year-old stepsister and the daughter of Ellie’s mom’s husband (Eric Lange), the family peacemaker.

Twenty-something Paris (Dylan O’Brien) works construction around the lake and seems to be a constant worry to his father (Sam Hemmings). Paris’ mother died in a car accident near the lake a few years earlier and Paris is obsessed with a mysterious medical condition she had that may have had something to do with the accident.

After a family gathering and another fight between Ellie and her mother, Ellie once again storms out of the family home. What she doesn’t realize is that Anna has followed her, taking a skiff, and the next day can’t be found anywhere. Meanwhile Paris is seeing and hearing odd things near the lake. Do the strange things he’s encountering have something to do with Anna’s disappearance?

The “what” of the “what’s going on” here isn’t terribly surprising but the movie unfolds its story with enough skill that I held on to the action. Paris and Ellie (and Scanlen and O’Brien) and their twin obsessive searches for the mystery of the lake make for compelling enough action. B-

Rated PG-13 for some disturbing/bloody images, thematic elements and brief strong language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Written and directed by Logan George and Celine Held, Caddo Lake is an hour and 39 minutes long and distributed by New Line Cinema. It is streaming on Max.

Playground, by Richard Powers

Playground, by Richard Powers (381 pages, W. W. Norton & Co.)

Richard Powers is one of America’s most distinguished novelists, and also one of the most daunting. His 2018 novel The Overstory won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, despite a complicated narrative entwining nine characters. By comparison, his latest, Playground, gives us just four. It still gives the reader a mental workout.

While The Overstory was about trees, Playground is about the ocean and, surprisingly, AI. Its multiple narratives are linked through four lives intricately knit together.

Evie Beaulieu has been obsessed with water since, when she was 12, her father tossed her in a pool of water to test a device that allows people to breathe underwater. She emerged “another kind of creature,” becoming an expert diver with experience far beyond her years, a woman who would rather be on water than on land. She goes on to write a book called “Clearly It Is Ocean” — the title taken from the real-life quote of the science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, who said, “How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is clearly ocean.”

That book was read in childhood by a boy named Todd Keane, who was born the first child of the new year and carried with him for the rest of his life the pressure to always be first at everything. The marriage of Todd’s parents was a train wreck — “My father: the strength of mania. My mother: the cunning of the downtrodden.”

The manic father, who always needed to be doing something resembling work, drilled his son in games, from Chutes and Ladders to backgammon to chess, even though, like Evie, Todd had a deep connection to water, because Lake Michigan was the place he escaped to in his mind when the household got too chaotic: “When my mind raced and the future rushed at me with knives, the only thing that helped was looking out from the castle and seeing myself walking across the bottom of the lake.”

It is an obsession with games that later connects Todd to the brilliant Rafi Young, a bibliomaniac who has been reading light-years beyond his peers since preschool because of an abusive father who was determined that his children have a better education than he did. Todd and Rafi meet in school and bond by playing chess and Go throughout high school and college, becoming so close that it seems that “our brains are synchronized.” But later they suffer a rift that takes them on vastly different paths.

Todd invents a world-changing online platform called Playground and becomes a billionaire diagnosed with Lewy body dementia at age 57. Meanwhile, Rafi goes on to work for an NGO and to marry Ina Aroita, a native of Hawaii whose life comprises the fourth narrative in this story.

Rafi and Ina make their home on Makatea, an island in French Polynesia. For decades the island had been plundered for its copious phosphate, which helped supply the world with fertilizer and thus food. Once the phosphate mines closed, Makatea’s role in the world shrunk and it was just occasionally visited by wealthy tourists looking for a couple of days of climbing adventure.

But it was now faced with a seemingly existential decision: whether to allow an American company to use it as a port for “seasteading” — the launch of modular floating cities. Aided by artificial intelligence called Profunda, the residents of Makatea are preparing to take a vote on whether to allow this venture to begin.

All of this is just the set-up to the deeper complexity of the novel, which wants us to to think deeply about the unintended consequences of the development of AI and human dominance of the planet as we wade through the events of each character’s life, laid out in constantly changing points of view.

It also wants us to love the ocean like Evie does. It succeeds, with sparkling prose and the insistence that the reader become attached to the characters, who make the case for the ocean through their observations, experiences and passion.

In the opening pages of the book, for example, Ina and her daughter, while beachcombing, come across the carcass of a young albatross whose chest cavity was stuffed with small pieces of plastic: “bottle caps, a squirt top, the bottom of a black film canister at least fifteen years old, a disposable cigarette lighter, a few meters of tangled-up monofilament line and a button in the shape of a daisy.”

Toward the end of the book Powers gets in a dig at everyone who has ever dismissed his writing as too cerebral or complex, writing of Evie’s editor, “The editor knew that no one had ever lost a sale by underestimating the desire of the reading public to read at a simpler level.”

Despite that, Powers effectively applies a technique that is coming dangerously close to overuse in more populist fare: the plot twist, the sort that makes you want to read the book again, despite its heft.

Powers may limit his audience, and thus his influence, by refusing to write for the masses, but for those willing to rise to the challenge Playground is a wholly immersive experience. It offers a refuge from reality much like the ocean offers.

As Todd reflects, when one’s attention is fixed on a hidden world throbbing with primordial life, “Chicago was nothing. Illinois and even the U.S. were a joke. There were insanely different ways of being alive, behaviors from another galaxy dreamed up by an alien God. The world was bigger, stranger, richer, and wilder than I had a right to ask for.” A

Album Reviews 24/10/31

Janet Devlin, Emotional Rodeo (Ok!Good Records)

Regardless of genre, it’s not often that I encounter an artist who actually seems to be having fun with what they’re doing. I realize that modern country-pop stars, particularly female ones, are basically required to exhibit positivity and all that stuff (see Pickler, Kellie), but this girl does have her some fun, tabling neo-honky-tonk stompers like the newest single “Red Flag” (whose lyrics argue that people shouldn’t be hypervigilant for warning signs in new relationships, at least up to a point, which I’m on board with, given that I personally never dated anyone for whom I didn’t have a few dozen pointed questions within 10 minutes of meeting them; it’s really basic stuff) and Walmart-radio face-punchers like the title track. OK, at least the vibe here isn’t pseudo-heavy metal, and the bluegrass-dobro parts do seem genuine enough. This will be a big one if you’re into ladies in cowboy hats, folks, don’t miss out. Lots of non-annoying fun. Oh, before I forget, she’s Irish by the way. A+

Haujobb, The Machine In The Ghost (Dependent Records)

Bit of a surprising one, this. Last time I checked in with this German electro-goth duo — jeez, 2011’s New World March — they’d abandoned their hope of becoming the next Skinny Puppy or Front Line Assembly in favor of chasing a more danceable sound. That more or less sent them to the back of the bus as far as the black leather vampire crowd was concerned; obviously joy isn’t part of the equation. However, this marks a return to their darkwave-loving roots, with somewhat mixed results, not that it’s all that bad really: Here they’ve embraced the goth-club trend of throwing movie samples, stompy industrial lines and borderline cheesy synths into a Cuisinart and barely checking the results, or so it seems at first listen. The riffing does get infectious, but first you have to get past the overuse of post-apocalyptic atmospherics that seem to introduce every song. That stuff’s been done to death, but sure, it’s nice to hear it done by these guys, who obviously do have an interest in keeping bodies on the dance floor. A

PLAYLIST

A seriously abridged compendium of recent and future CD releases

• This can’t be, homies, it’s November already, the next new-album-Friday is Nov. 1, please stop and let me get to the beach just one more time before hopelessness descends upon the land! You know, people love to get on my Facebook and grill me about stuff like “Is there anything that you actually like?” but it’s really hard for me to say on social media, given that it’s so impersonal. Why bother? If I express an opinion, like, say, “I never need to hear another song from Bowie or Queen ever again,” these people act like I kicked their dog, so usually I try to — no, actually I won’t lie to you guys, yes, I do say things just to cause trouble, especially on Facebook. See, to me, the only reason to use social media in the first place is to see what you can get away with. For instance, I don’t actively hate The Beatles, I’m just sick of them after listening to them for half a century (I loved Abbey Road when I was the only kid on my block who was actually listening to the whole thing) (I do hate Queen, though; aside from the opera stuff, their song structures are hilariously awful). In short, my real strategy is to get my invisible friends on social media to go listen to music that wasn’t released back when every car had a cigarette lighter. Like everyone else I’m selectively hypocritical about it, of course, take for example my positive regard for edgy-ish ’80s bands like The Cure, whose new album, Songs Of A Lost World, is on the way to the “record stores” or the 7-Elevens or wherever people buy physical albums these days. Cure singer Robert Smith is of course a sad insane clown these days (did you see his performance at the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame a couple of years ago, how does stuff like that even happen), and yes, there was his “All I Want” period, when he’d obviously decided to write nothing but bad songs for whatever reason. But no, it’s still The Cure, and I am now listening to the new single, “Alone!” And so much for that, it’s pretty disappointing, sort of a Las Vegas-ready ballad that drags on. Maybe the album’s other songs are fine, I don’t know!

• Peter Perrett is the singer for British new wave band the Only Ones, who’ve been around since 1976! His new solo album, The Cleansing, features a single titled “Disinfectant,” a mid-tempo old-school-punk tune that recalls Sex Pistols and all that sort of stuff. It’s decently annoying, go check it out if you have nothing else to do!

• Autre Ne Veut is the stage name of one Arthur Ashin, from New York City, U.S.A.! Perhaps you are one of the 9,000 people who hit Like on his most popular YouTube tune, the borderline boyband single “Age of Transparency,” an epic, listenable-enough joint when he puts away the trap drum sample and the bad singer and shoots for the rooftops. His new LP, Love Guess Who, will feature contributions from Micah Jasper (ELIO, Rebecca Black), Kris Yute and Spencer Zahn; it is his first album in seven years! The test-run single is “About To Lose,” a chill-pop number that combines Bruno Mars with Tangerine Dream in an effort that actually reads a lot better than I just made it sound; it’s fine.

• And finally, it’s English singer Beth Jeans Houghton, who makes psychedelic/garage albums under the pseudonym Du Blonde, including their forthcoming new one, Sniff More Gritty! “TV Star” showcases this person’s talents for making their hair into 1970s punk-spikes, singing like Sixpence None The Richer half the time and writing passable no-wave noise-guitar lines. It’s usable enough.

Celery Sour

So, let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you’ve got a recipe for something that sounds really delicious and intriguing, but it’s been written by a chef, or in this case a bartender, who has access to special equipment and ingredients that a typical home enthusiast doesn’t. Because they are experts, it is likely that their version of a recipe will be excellent. The question is, will it be so much better than a DIY enthusiast’s work-around that it is worth going to the extra time and effort to make as written?

In this case, yes. Yes, it will.

As originally conceived of, this recipe supposes that the cocktail maker has access to a sous vide, a piece of laboratory or commercial kitchen equipment that keeps a water bath at a consistent temperature.

I’ve run this recipe two ways, once with sous vide-infused pineapple gin, and once with regular gin and pineapple juice. The work-around is very good; don’t get me wrong. But the version with shmancy lab-equipment-infused pineapple gin is about 75 percent better. It is simply outstanding.

Think of this as a project.

Ingredients

  • 2 ounces pineapple-infused gin (see below) – alternatively, 1½ ounces gin and 1 ounce pineapple juice
  • 1 teaspoon Licor 43
  • ¾ ounce celery syrup (see below)
  • ¾ ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon Greek yogurt
  • 2 dashes celery bitters

Combine all ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake enthusiastically. Strain into a coupé glass.

Sip, while listening to the Bangles’ 1987 cover of “Hazy Shade of Winter.”

This cocktail tastes of gin and pineapple, and yogurt (a tiny bit), and sunshine.

Pineapple-Infused Gin

Combine equal amounts of London dry gin — Gordon’s is a good choice for this — and fresh pineapple in an air-tight container. This could be a lidded jar or a zip-close plastic bag. Soak in a 155°F water bath for two hours. If you own a sous vide, you probably used it once or maybe twice when you first got it, then put it away and haven’t touched it in several months. This will be a good opportunity to reintroduce yourself to it, and tentatively become friends.

If you don’t own a sous vide — and really, unless you are an actual chef, or desperately obsessed with cooking competition shows, why would you? — this won’t be difficult, per se, but it will be a fiddly couple of hours.

Take a small plastic or Styrofoam cooler and fill it about halfway with very hot water. Use a frying/candy thermometer to find out what the temperature of the water is. If it is above 160°F, wait until the temperature comes down to around there to insert your container of gin and pineapple into the water bath. If it is below 150°F, pour a little bit of boiling water from a kettle into the cooler, and stir, until it reaches 160°F, then put your container in the water bath.

Get a chair from the dining or living room, and sit near the water bath, checking on the temperature every five minutes or so. Each time the water drops below 150°F, nudge it back to 160°F with some more boiling water. Keep this going for two hours.

Regardless of which method you used to infuse your gin, at the end of two hours strain it with a fine-mesh strainer and run it through a coffee filter. Seal tightly and use within a week or so.

Celery Syrup

  • ¾ cup (148 g) white sugar
  • ¾ cup (179 g) water
  • 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
  • 1 teaspoon celery seeds

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for five minutes, then set aside, covered, for several hours. Strain with a fine-mesh strainer, and again with a coffee filter. Surprisingly, it will be a beautiful golden color. Refrigerate and keep for two to three weeks.

Featured Photo: Two celery sours. Original recipe on left, in smaller glass. Workaround recipe on right made with regular gin and pineapple juice. Photo by John Fladd.

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