Hoegaarten Beer - End of Summer

Written 2010

Beer is better than good in Belgium.

Back in the 80s when traveling to Brussels I drank in a small working-class bar behind the Gallerie des Reines. No one of consequences frequented the back street establishment. Seating for ten. Draft beer. Le Mort Subite and Hoegaarten. One great for winter. The other superb for summer.

The tradition survived to this day.

Temperature in New York is over 80.

The warm side of the summer equinox. Hoegaarten. My landlord AP had returned from a dinner. Thre empty beer bottles rested on my writing table. The window overlooking a dark alley. He criticized my relocation of older writing onto present logs. I told him that they had been re-written. AP reads me a lot. THe architect knows the truth. Writing and Art is not a speed game. They require thought.

Hoegaarten prevents thought.

At least constructive thought, unless the thinker considered setting his house on fire constructive.

Not really, so it is good spirited drinking for the autumnal equinox.

The pagans called it Mabon, a harvest holiday seeking to thank Mother Earth. The fridge had more beer. AP, my landlord, and I drank two Hoegaarten. Each. The Brooklyn sky was clear of stars.

The future was clear.

More beer until Beermas.

Pagan Winter Solstice

2008

Today will be the winter solstice.

The shortest day of the year.

On December 21th I will wake at dawn and climb onto the roof of the Fort Green Observatory to bathe in the distant sun's light. The frost on my skin will the only human sacrifice within sight. After 30 seconds I will retreated to my bed and shivered myself to sleep for another half-hour before heading into Manhattan to work in the Diamond District.

Few people in the modern age and even fewer Christian realize that Christmas was lifted from the ancient pagans celebration of the winter solstice as the rebirth of the sun. This last chance to feast before the months of winter starvation coincided with the final stages of fermentation of wine and beer.

My friend the ex-model from Paris abhors Christmas as an orgy festival. Brigitte is a devout fundamentalist. The Bible is fact and she recently wrote on Facebook.

"Christmas is a disgusting pagan holiday that comes from Roman orgies where they would choose a scapegoat torture them by forcing them to eat and indulge in all sorts of excess and then brutally murder them."

She later added, "Some of the most depraved customs of the Saturnalia carnival were intentionally revived by the Catholic Church in 1466 when Pope Paul II, for the amusement of his Roman citizens, forced Jews to race naked through the streets of the city. An eyewitness account reported before they were to run, the Jews were richly fed, so as to make the race more difficult for them and at the same time more amusing for spectators."

Sounds like a good time had by all.

So happy solstice one and all.

I'll be drinking me some beer and not a little either.