The Aging Bartender

My Strawberry Romance

Yesterday I missed a post…Again. The resistance got me. Writing at home is a constant battle against the powers that rail against art. If you’re the type of person that wants to complete some sort of project, whatever it is, and you’ve never had the gumption, motivation, discipline, whatever to get it off the ground,…

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  • My Strawberry Romance

    Yesterday I missed a post…Again. The resistance got me. Writing at home is a constant battle against the powers that rail against art. If you’re the type of person that wants to complete some sort of project, whatever it is, and you’ve never had the gumption, motivation, discipline, whatever to get it off the ground,…

  • Movie Review: Rambo III

    The gist here is “The call to action,” a term known mostly to screenwriters. It means at some point in almost any movie the main character will be invited by an outside force to go on his or her particular journey. What usually happens is they end up “refusing the call,” because they’re still not…

  • Introduction to The Seasonal Bar

    I’ve got to write a better forward/introduction for my cocktail book, so figured I’d work on it and put it here. That way I can kill two birds with one stone. The blog is fun but it takes time, precious time, away from other writing endeavors in the morning. I give myself two hours from…

  • The Holy Trinity

    Apologies if I’ve posted this already, I can’t remember, but I’m pretty sure I haven’t. Oh, and pre-apologies to any religious nuts that will take offense…Actually, no, I take it back, be offended. It’s your choice. Listen now, I’m not talking about the father, son, and holy spirit of ancient myths, nor am I speaking…

  • Awkward Situations

    Behind the bar, I’ve been privy to many awkward situations, including being threatened with death, having three guys waiting outside to beat the shit out of me, and I’ve even been mooned. Aside from the occasional viewing of butt cheeks, and potential violence, however, there’s usually only one or two general scenarios that occur: 1.…

  • Show Me Your Junk Drawer

    For the first time in several years, I’m feeling a bit blocked and need a break. Writing this blog everyday ain’t easy, freaks. In the past several years, since June of 2020, I’ve exclusively worked on novels, so this is all new. Also, I missed a post yesterday. Ugh. Mother’s Day was hectic. I’ve got…

  • N.E.C.I. Commons: Part Three

    Read Part Two here. I ended up meeting a girl. K was a blonde with short hair and big brown eyes. One of those eyes, the left one, had a mind of its own. Behind my back, my friends called her “Tangle Eye,” but I thought the quirk was beautiful. She also had a birthmark…

  • N.E.C.I. Commons: Part Two

    Read Part One here. Word spread like wildfire after the pastry class incident. Nope, I wasn’t a “real chef” just some hired schlub. Within one day, the students stopped calling me chef, and also stopped asking permission to “borrow” items from my station, the pizza oven. This was a gas powered job, not as nice…

  • N.E.C.I. Commons: Part One

    When I returned from Florida, I moved in with my father and stepmother. Back in my old childhood room, my childhood bed. The first night sleeping there, I gazed up at the ceiling and felt the dual twinge of depression and comfort. Opposing emotions battling for dominance over my psyche. On the one hand, it…

  • New Cocktail: Sherry Garcia

    Sometimes I experience delusions of grandeur. The psychologists call this “positive fantasy.” I like to also call it “Destined for Greatness” where I think about something to such a degree that it seems real before any of the actual work is complete. This used to happen to me in the early days when I first…

  • Does Eating and Drinking Seasonally Really Matter?

    This has been in my thoughts a whole lot lately, the seasonal bar ethos…Using as much of the ingredients as possible, remaining organic despite the cost, trying not to throw out the scraps (sorry to those who call it trim, don’t like that term), going to the farmer’s market, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah. What…

  • Heat and Really Awesome Chicken

    “Don’t let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner.” They don’t make ’em like that anymore. The really good cops and robbers movies are pretty few and far between these days. Heat is almost 30 years old.…