News

Paramount to release Joe Bonamassa documentary ‘Guitar Man’ on Dec 8

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – Discover the extraordinary story of legendary bluesman Joe Bonamassa in the inspirational documentary GUITAR MAN, arriving on Video-On-Demand and for Digital purchase December 8, 2020 from Paramount Home Entertainment. From average Joe by day to guitar hero at night, GUITAR MAN tells the incredible rise of blues-rocker Joe Bonamassa, whose hard work and determination have made him one …

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio’s New Single is Stone Cold Jam: “Call Your Mom” So She Can Groove Too

Seattle-based soul-jazz groovemonsters Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio announced I Told You So, their sophomore studio album will be out January 29th via Colemine Records. The announcement comes with the first single “Call Your Mom,” which Under the Radar praised saying “the jazzy guitar and shots of organ bring a swaggering style to the track as …

Architecture of the Cocktail: Time to Celebrate, the History of Champagne, by Bill Stott

As we turn the corner from Fall to Winter, the Holiday season rushes toward us. Whether you are celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, the Election, a wedding, the Super Bowl, or even the launching a new battleship, one spirit fits the bill. Champagne. Sipped from a crystal coupe glass or sprayed all over your World Series teammates, the sparkling wine …

Architecture of the Cocktail: HAPPY ELECTION DAY . . . LET’S HAVE A DRINK! By Bill Stott

Drinking and Voting  Throughout most of early US history there was a strong relationship between elections and alcohol. It’s amusing in a way to read about the ‘election fraud’ going on now. We have nothing on the past. Our forefathers – George Washington even! – bought votes with alcohol. When Washington was 24, he ran for a seat in the Virginia House of Burgesses. He thought it was …

“The Chimes Rung and They are Still Ringin'” – Two Lifelong Republicans Abandon Trump, by Mark Erickson

Twenty-four days ago my Dad died after a grueling three-year stay in a nursing home that he called his “jail cell.”  Dad succumbed to a rare, progressive and irreversible neurological disease of unknown origin that is not hereditary.  I wrote his obituary, and wanted to include Dad’s humble origins, which is why I wrote “born in a …

Architecture of the Cocktail: National Breast Cancer Awareness Month – The Sexy History of the Coupe Glass, by Bill Stott

Ancient Greek Mastos cup, ca. 500 BCE  In October of 2008, my wife finished chemotherapy for Breast Cancer. She was diagnosed in April and started radiation therapy in June, finishing the Friday before the October Race for the Cure in Omaha. She was determined to walk the one-mile route to poke her finger in cancer’s eye, and I decided that if she could walk the mile, I could …

Architecture of the Cocktail: Happy National Vodka Day (yesterday) by Bill Stott

 White Russian – recipe below  When I was a senior in college, I spent my last semester studying architecture in London, and happen to have lucked into joining a group of fellow students from Fresno State in a week-long trip to the Soviet Union. Not Russia – this was an actual behind the iron curtain trip in 1985. We spent the first four days in Moscow, and one night we smuggled a group of Soviet kids our age into the International Hotel we were staying in. Citizens were not …

Architecture of the Cocktail: The Real Johnny Appleseed, by Bill Stott

Photo of John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed   The temperatures at night are falling, this week we see the transition to Fall, and here in Nebraska it is time for the annual Applejack Festival in Nebraska City. As all you arborists out there know, Nebraska City is the home to Arbor Day, the brainchild of J. Sterling Morton, one of Nebraska’s most famous citizens. But the season – …

Architecture of the Cocktail: Horses and Cocktails – The Mint Julep, by Bill Stott

The Mint Julep – recipe below.  Horse racing and drinking have had a symbiotic relationship – likely since someone was drunk enough to try to jump on the back of a wild horse. There is some irony in this, considering the term cocktail (cock-tail) comes from the 17th and 18th century (illegal) practice of shoving a peeled ginger root up an …

Architecture of the Cocktail: Shaken, not stirred – when to shake a cocktail, by Bill Stott

There are very few rules in the bartending world. Since the cocktail was invented in 1803, bartenders and drinkers have been on a 200-year search for the best cocktail. Men and women have been mixing alcohol with virtually everything (there is an entire series of drinks that mix alcohol with beef broth!) and experimenting with any crazy technique they can think …

Architecture of the Cocktail: Yo, ho, ho, and a Bottle of Rum – Part II, by Bill Stott

Pearl Diver – recipe below.  During the early 1970s I lived in Salt Lake City for several years in my late grade school/junior high years. As a gentile living in the land of LDS, we would occasionally visit an iconic restaurant in SLC called Johnny Quong’s The Hawaiian. The crazy Polynesian themed Tiki restaurant had lightning storms every 20 minutes where lights would flash, thunder would …

Bola Wrap: Non-Lethal Police Tool For Use in Mental Health Crisis Interventions, by Mark Erickson

This past weekend, three months after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, which sparked national protests, and protests which are continuing in Portland, a white police officer in Kenosha , WI overreacted and shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back multiple times as he walked from the officer to get into his car with his children inside.  …