I Go Among Trees

Faithful readers,

In the spirit of New Content Monday (although I'm sure for some of our readers with a keenly developed sense of danger, it's always New Content Monday), I have decided to share a favorite poem of mine: I Go Among Trees by Wendell Berry.  

I go among trees and sit still.

All my stirring becomes quiet

around me like circles on water.

My tasks lie in their places

where I left them, asleep like cattle.

Then what is afraid of me comes

and lives a while in my sight.

What it fears in me leaves me,

and the fear of me leaves it.

It sings, and I hear its song.

Then what I am afraid of comes.

I live for a while in its sight.

What I fear in it leaves it,

and the fear of it leaves me.

It sings, and I hear its song.

After days of labor,

mute in my consternations,

I hear my song at last,

and I sing it. As we sing,

the day turns, the trees move.

I won't bore you with a long explication, but I've always loved this particular poem.  The wilderness has always been a source of renewal and vitality, and I don't think anyone understands this quite as well as Wendell Berry (the agrarian of agrarians--look him up!).  Only after listening to the song of the wilderness is the speaker able to understand and know himself.  

Zach's and my college fraternity brothers often adventure into the great outdoors, and this poem strikes a sentimental chord for me.  Being connected to nature is extraordinarily important, for reasons I don't even completely understand yet.  So... after signing up for Whiskey Before Breakfast email updates... get out there!  

"One impulse from a vernal wood/ Can teach you more of man,/ of moral evil and of good,/ Then all the sages can."  

~Spence 

New Content Mondays

Well folks, here it is! The day and content you've all been waiting for. I've entitled this post 'New Content Mondays' for a couple reasons. The first is I feel like Monday gets a bad rap compared to all the other days of the week. Friday, the King of Days, is usually at the forefront of the average work-a-day citizen and is viewed as something close to a godsend. It was as if the Romans (or whoever made our calendar. Don't look at us, we just follow the structure not the history) decided that Friday would always be seen as the Michael Jordan of days, while Monday would sit wallowing in hate-filled pity as people loathed and dreaded its very existence. Heck, there's even a disease out there that employees fall back on when they are lacking in productivity (ever hear of "a case of the Mondays"?). That's not fair Monday and we know that. We like you and appreciate the time and effort you put in every week on the calendar.

The second reason was that I simply decided to upload the new content today. We still like Monday, but come on, Friday is clearly a better day (don't tell Monday we said that). So, as promised, here is your new content. I'll give a brief description and then let you take care of the rest.

This video was shown to me by a friend not too long ago and made me laugh enough that I decided to watch it during my free time. I'm not a huge YouTuber, but this stuff really cracks me up and if you appreciate literature or writing or words, then you should enjoy this as well. It's called "Your Grammar Sucks" and is a video series on all the horrendously awful YouTube comments posted by people who either haven't cracked open a book or spoken normal English in a while. We may not have the most consistent grammar here at Whiskey Before Breakfast, but we still don't suck this bad (at least, that's what we tell ourselves). Basically, if you don't do this in your writing I guarantee you will see an improvement in both your writing quality and social stigma. Hope ya'll enjoy!

-- Zach

Scar Tissue

Drugs. What comes to mind when you read or hear the word "drugs"? Some of you may think of the slightly megalomaniacal med-student with the lazy eye that sits behind that big counter at your local Rite Aid. He fills your prescriptions and gives you the goods, but what is he really doing back there behind all those shelves and boxes (and what's in those boxes, asks Brad Pitt)? Or, some of you may think of what I'm actually referring to and that's illegal substances (unless you live in Colorado or Washington, I guess). These are the ones that are all hopped up on dopamine and serotonin in order to give you all those  good feels and that depressing and abysmal crash later. This, and a little bit of the making of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, is what Scar Tissue is all about.

I'll be upfront and honest with you, I picked up Scar Tissue because I wanted to know how messed up Anthony Kiedis', the lead singer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, life was. And boy was it incredible! We here at Whiskey Before Breakfast often talk about the mountaintops we've reached with the various virtues and vices that we've attempted. These are mostly metaphorical and we try to use some discrepancy when considering which one to conquer next. Kiedis, on the other hand, literally has made it to these mountaintops, saw that he wasn't quite high enough (pun intended) and then proceeded to construct a psychedelic stairway to Pluto, just to ask it how it feels about not being a planet anymore. Oh, and this stairway was made out of drugs. And sex.

I've read reviews on how this book describes the darker side of rock and roll and how rock and roll really does destroy a musician's moral spirit if they are not careful. To that I say: bull crap! Kiedis wasn't duped or swindled by a "bad side" of rock and roll, he was completely consumed by drugs and having a good time. The book is a really great read and takes you through the life of the RHCP's lead singer and how he formed friendships and bonds along the way.Obviously, it's a biography, but in the same way, it's much more than that. It's a story of a man who recognizes his own destructive ways, but is having too good of a time to stop until it's too late.

Never have I been one to really love the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but I can honestly say that this book has helped me appreciate their music more. Kiedis reveals the stories and thought processes behind the writing of their songs as well as the struggles that the band faced throughout their existence. For the music lovers out there, you should pick this up just to see if any of your band members might be showing signs of drug addiction similar to that of Kiedis. For those who just want to be entertained, pick it up because your jaw will be bruised by the end of it for how many times it will hit the floor.

Some highlights of the book are as follows. None of these are really spoilers, but if you are one of those who likes to preserve the magic and integrity of a new read, then just skip ahead to the conclusion.

         -- Kiedis, at the age of 11, had sex for the very first time with his dad's "girlfriend". It was in his bedroom at his dad's house.

         -- At the ripe old age of 12, Kiedis smoked pot and dropped acid. He said that the acid trip was one of the best experiences he's ever had.

        -- In high school, Kiedis attempted to jump off a building into a swimming pool with his friend. He missed the pool and broke his back. Six weeks later, his friend busted him out of the hospital despite the doctor's best wishes.

        -- While spending time in Michigan with his mom, Kiedis got belligerently drunk one night after having a dry spell of coke. Attempting to get in his car and drive home, he smash into a tree just miles down the road and completely broke his face. He sang on tour a week later.

This man took Life by the gonads and told it to give him all its Skittles. I couldn't believe what I was reading at times, and what was more, I couldn't believe it was all true! Kiedis created his own mountaintop out of drugs and partying and yet was a complete success by all standards of the definition. Pick up Scar Tissue today and settle back with your acid strips and bongs for a great summer read!

-- Zach

The Summer Update (You'll Want to Read This)

Welcome back friends, lovers and everything in between! It's been a while. How are you? That's great to hear. Now that we've gotten the formalities out of the way I've decided to write a little something while Spence is out of the office getting us coffee and new candles (we haven't paid the bills in a while). We realize that while summer has graced us with beautiful weather and suspicious ice cream truck drivers with the word "HATER" tattooed on their necks, we here at Whiskey Before Breakfast have not been delivering reviews as consistently as we would like to. Don't get us wrong, we've been reading a lot of great stuff, we're just having trouble finding the time finishing that great stuff. This partially our fault and more partially not. We don't know what the "partially not" is, but we feel good about it so we'll go with it.

This post wasn't written to ask if we're doing our jobs or not. No, instead it was written to involve you, our beloved fans and fellow readers, in all the great things this blog allows us to do. Besides bringing you eye-melting, mind-incinerating, awesome reviews of the books we've been reading, we've also extended the invitation for you to converse with us in our comments section (which, as we see, you've all taken full advantage of *sarcasm*). That's all well and good, but I still feel like there's something lacking in this blog. It's that feeling you get while listening to a Ke$ha song or when talking about Lance Armstrong's biking career. Okay, maybe not that, but there's still something missing from this blog that we have only recently come to a conclusion on.

Starting this upcoming week (or roughly around that time...it's us after all) we are going start writing posts that include tips, books, videos, letters, speeches, telegrams, smoke signals and any other mediums of communication that have to do with anything literature related or writing related. In other words: NEW CONTENT!

 Now, you may think this all sounds pretty vague, and quite honestly, it probably is. But, isn't there a saying out there that says "vagueness breeds creativity"? Well, there should be. In order to bring a little more "BAM" to this blog like Emeril Lagasse's tater tots, we want to start providing resources and exciting content on how to both improve your literary awareness as well as your writing skills so you can finally finish that eulogy for your dead hamster. This, like what was stated above, can include books on writing or videos or even tips from the backwaters of our own sleep deprived and slightly insane minds. It also gives you a chance to apply some of our nonsense to your own repertoire and see what comes of it. We're not saying we're always right (we are), but maybe somewhere amidst the smoldering pile of ash that were once our ideas you may find something to dust off and take home to put on your shelf. The sky's the limit here.

Hopefully you're as excited about the new content as we are. There should be a new section link in the upcoming days that will be strictly devoted to the new content in order to make it easier to find. I hear Spence coming up the stairs now and he won't like it that I'm not wearing pants in his favorite chair. Until next time.

-- Zach