The Drink Tank 060 (2005).pdf

The Drink Tank Issue Sixty

At Year-End Close-Out Prices!

Featuring:

M Lloyd on The Year

in Sex

SaBean MoreL on

The Year in Drugs

Jay Crasdan on The

Year in Rock ‘n Roll

Frank Wu on The

Suckfest that was

Two-Thousand and

Five

and

Christopher J.

Garcia on Stuff

Welcome to the final issue of The Drink Tank for the busy year passed. It wasn’t

an easy year, and frank ly I missed most of it while I was slaving away over putting out

far more issues than anyone could ever read! There was a war on, supposedly. The

Forty-Niners and the Raiders sucked, but so did the Packers, so I’m OK. Hockey was on

Strike, and then it wasn’t.

Some folks passed away, like Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Chalker, FM Busby,

Robert Sheckley, Richard Pryor, Fay Wray and Frank Kelly Freas. Other traditions

passed to, like teh San Francisco Sourdough Bread factory that had been turning out

loaves for more than a Century and a Half.

This issue is dedicated at all those members of the Drink Tank Cahootery (or

maybe We should call ourselves the Constabulary) and Thanks for all the great work you

guys have sent my way to supplement the crap that I put out! To M, Jay, SaBean, Frank,

Kelly, Lloyd, Eric, John, Pops, Evelyn, Mike, Manny and Jusith: This one’s for you!

The Year in Sex

by M Lloyd

As always, there was sex in 2005 that

rivalled anything that had been seen in the

history of the world. Some of it was amazing-

ly good, like the last date I had in Geelong

before Jay and I got back together, and some

of it was bad, like the last date Jay had be-

fore he and I got back together. It happens,

but on a grander scale, sexual thinking and

appreciation changed a fair bit.

The irst thing is the Guys have inally

taken back Popular Culture from the Lesbi-

ans. After nearly ive years of utter domina-

tion, the Great American Dyke-Out is over

and Gay Males, that oh-so-overlooked group

since the explosion of Anne & Ellen, are

back in style.

Why?

Well, perhaps it’s just that real life

Ellen & Portia don’t have the same steam

that Those gorgeous ictional gay cowboys in

Brokeback Mountain do. Maybe it’s the way

that Six Feet Under ended the year and just

plain blew The L-Word out of the water. My

thought is that it’s the fall of the Metrosexu-

al. No longer are hets, that dastardly bunch,

wearing light make-up and exfoliating. Gay

culture been returned like 40 acres and a

mule to the rightful owners.

Or maybe it had something to do with

Graham Norton, I’m not sure.

That’s not to say there wasn’t some

world-class lesbionics. Sheryl Swoopes came

out, which was big, and Tina Fey and Amy

Poehler played up some really funny girls

dating bits on Weekend Update. Cynthia

Nixon was shot with her highly unattractive

girlfriend all year long, and I’d say that Cyn

was a big get for the Other Team.

As far as Heterosexualism goes, there

was plenty of it. The Sex Tape phenomena

kept going. So did athletes getting popped

for date rape. There was an increase in the

amount of sex on free television, though far

less of an increase over 2004 than 2004 was

over 2003.

In porn, there’s the best-selling video

Pirates, which is worth seeking out for a

combination of production values and just

plain hotness. I did terrible things to myself

the thirty or so times that I watched it. Jesse

Jane, the lead, is probably the most perfect

woman ever assembled. She’s just so damn

HAWT!!! Sweet Jesus Christ, she’s a babe!

The ilm also has a story and I understand

that it was the most expensive porn ilm

ever! Adam & Eve, the production company

and distributors, had a sure-i re winner.

GOD, is Jesse Jane Hot!

So, that’s the year in Sex. I could go

on, talk most in depth about the people

who’ve been more in-depth, but frankly, I’m

off to watch Pirates again.

time, but only recently has it become a big

deal that folks have started to address. It

really started with Ecstacy in the 1980s,

but that would usually start at a club and

progress from there. The Sex User will set up

a date and save the drugs for the moment

when they’ll make their fuck. X is still prob-

ably the most valuable drug for that use,

though Meth, Coke, and even H are all up

there. I recently saw a PSA about not taking

someone home to nail them while tweaking.

It was actually very specii c and pretty pow-

erful. I actually thought twice about taking a

guy home to fuck his brains out while hit-

ting Brain Canyon.

The Year In Drugs

by SaBean MoreL

I gave up drugs years ago. Well, that’s

not true. I gave living on drugs a long time

ago. I still indulge a bit, but there’s no more

needles and almost 0 nights where I wake

up in a place I don’t recognise. Like any

good ex-Junky, I’ve kept up on the happen-

ings in the world of illegal pharmaceuticals.

Heroin is out! Meth is in! Meth really

came to the top in the 2001-2002 timeframe.

Heroin hasn’t really been the big drug of

choice for the intelligentsia in years (after a

short reign following the X years). College

kids love Friday night Meth moments. You

can usually tell the hot drug of the year by

going to a club where the hustlers work.

They’ll spot the ones who are using the drug

of choice and work them, which is exactly

what’s happening to methheads nowadays.

What’s funny is that Crank used to be

the low man on the Totem Pole. When Coke

was the big deal, Crank (or Clear or Rock or

Ice) was the domain of Truckers

trying to make it from Coast to

Coast without sleep. Now, it’s at

every high school party.

The other thing in drugs

is the ‘Sex User’. The Sex User

has been around for a long

The Year In Rock ‘n Roll

by Jay Crasdan

I’ve suffered. It’s been years since I’ve

had good rock ‘n roll to deal with. Every so

often I’ll i nd a fun little piece of business.

like a new Frank Black album or, even bet-

ter, a re-issue of Crime or The Avengers or

Black Flag. This year had some highlights.

I’m not a big fan of The Killers, but

at least they put rock back on track. While

groups like Matchbox 20 made it impossi-

ble for me to believe that real rock was still

alive, groups like The Shins, The Killers, and

The Hives all were making OK rock that felt

at least somewhat true. They opened the

door for Franz Ferdinand to come and re-

lease us all.

Frankly, the best rock of 2005 wasn’t

rock at all. The Dresden Dolls were making

music that really felt new and different...but

it wasn’t Rock. No way even I could make

that leap. Sadly, the same can be said of

Richard Cheese, who once Chris turned me

onto him, I couldn’t stop listening to. FF

went straight ahead, even making depend-

able groups like Audioslave and Modest

Mouse to shame.

Speaking of The Mouse, they had a big

year. They really stepped up, even playing

SNL. They had a big year, and though their

recent album wasn’t as good as any of the

ones they released in the 1990s, it was still

a worthy addition in a time when we needed

them.

Franz Ferdinand really popped, ex-

ploding onto the scene and taking no prison-

ers. They’re straight-ahead and tough. When

I irst heard the album, I thought it was

going to suck, but it came forward in a really

aggresive way.

M also turned me on to The Veronicas.

They’re an Australian group that will ex-

plode in 2006. Good girl pop, that’s what it

is, and the album, released in Oz in October,

is the second or third best of the year.

Sadly, there was also Coldplay, who

took a riff from Datadate by Kraftwerk and

turned it into a song that just made me

grind my teeth at night.

No Elvis Costello. No Joe Jackson. No

Elliott Smith. Those three were responsi-

ble for most the albums that saved terrible

years in the 1990s, but not anymore.

2006 looks good. If Franz & co put out

a good tour, we might see them rise to the

level where Coldplay and Aging tour-freaks

(like Paul McCartney, who does put on a

good show) tend to live.

So long, 2005 - You Really Sucked!

By Frank Wu

O Fortuna velut luna

statu variabilis,

semper crescis aut decrescis;

vita detestabilis

nunc obdurat et tunc curat

ludo mentis aciem,

egestatem, potestatem

dissolvit ut glaciem.

An adage in English history is that

bad kings must alternate with good. The

frivolous and incompetent reign of Edward

II is interposed between those of the

lionhearted Edwards I and III. English kings

are thus like “Star Trek” ilms, but with the

numbering scheme reversed.

Fortune spins like a wheel, turning

them - and us - as on a rotisserie.

Sometimes we face the lame, sometimes

we face away, but then it all changes back

again.

“Is this my beginning - or is this

the end?”

For me, last year was an annus

mirabilis. I got married in whirlwind

romance and won a Hugo award. But a pal

cautioned that I’d have to pay up with one

bad year. He won’t admit that he cursed

me, but... this year, I proceeded to lose a

Hugo and get divorced in a hailstorm of

physical and verbal abuse. (Random note:

If you stab someone with their own words,

be sure to twist them so the wound won’t

close.)

Saint Paul - blessed with many

insights and visions - wrote that he was

troubled by a “thorn in his lesh.” What

he meant exactly, we don’t know; whether

his thorn was physical (cancer? a sore that

wouldn’t heal?) or symbolically emotional or

spiritual, we don’t know. But he wrote: “To

keep me from becoming conceited because

of these surpassingly great revelations,

there was given me a thorn in my lesh, a

messenger of Satan, to torment me.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take

it away from me. But He said to me, ‘My

grace is suficient for you, for My power is

made perfect in weakness.’ “

Similarly, in this life there are things which

God says I can have and things which are

denied me. Sure, I can have money, health,

artistic fulillment, hair, a minimum of

allergies - things many people long for.

But, Everlasting Love, well, nope, not

for me apparently. Perhaps I should

learn Paul’s lesson. If we were allowed to

the good must alternate by holy writ with

the bad, some big plans are on my schedule

for 2006.

One is going to Nicaragua to dig

wells in October (between Worldcon and

World Fantasy). Many years ago, I heard

about this organization called Living Waters

International, which goes around the world

not just telling people about God’s love, but

actually showing it - by building wells and

water puriication systems in Latin America

and Africa. Every 20 seconds, someone

somewhere dies from drinking contaminated

water illed with all sorts of hideous viruses,

bacteria and worms. People are starving

to death, but all they need is water. Most

plants will grow in just about anything,

even among rocks, if given enough care

and water. So I’ll be going, Lord willing, to

a couple training camps in how to run and

repair drilling equipment, and then I’m off

to Nicaragua for a week. It’d be great if,

later some time, I can go there every year, or

perhaps go for a longer trip to Tanzania.

I wrote an article in Pete Young’s

fanzine Zoo Nation #6 about the future

of science iction art. I pondered what

the meaning of art was - if we could

keep mindlessly painting cutesy dragons

and winged kittens while the world was

systematically destroying itself with famine,

war, disease and death? I still haven’t

igured out how my art can help change the

have everything

we wanted, we

would become

self-centered,

insufferable brats.

I certainly don’t

want to be that. So

perhaps this is all by

Design.

world, but perhaps

this is how my life

can.

The other

big thing I want

to do involves

art. The Licensing

International Show

occurs in New York

every June. There

people show off

their projects, while

toy-makers and

folks from other

companies appear to

buy up projects.

I’ve got two. One

“Is this to end

or just begin?”

Well, Lord

willing, and keeping

in mind the idea that

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: