The SOUSED PODCAST PROJECT

NEWSFLASH!

SOUSED has been on an unanounced hiatus for some time, as I'm sure you can tell, but we have been working recently towards reviving this old corpse in the form of NEW MEDIA!

In recent weeks we have been working on bringing SOUSED to you aurally, and through a partnership with The Podcast Network SOUSED will very soon be delivering an audio show devoted to cocktails through the medium of Podcasting.

Be sure to head on over to http://soused.thepodcastnetwork.com to subscribe to SOUSED Weekly - The Podcast For Cocktails, Bars, and the men and women who love them.

Betrayal!

Steady yourself readers, for I bring dire news!

The Powers-That-Be at Der Raum, the very cradle of SOUSEDs existence, have been spying on our little group and have cunningly appropriated our modus operandi for their own secret, cocktail-oriented society!

It came to the attention of members of SOUSED last night, that Der Raum will be holding a monthly "meeting" for a "society" comprising of a group of Melbourne's most talented and knowledgable bartenders in direct competition with SOUSED! (On a different day of course). Contemptably, this new group will call themselves the "Melbourne Temperance Society". (A sly reference to the movement responsible for Prohibition in the states)

We will not stand for this blatant elitism! We demand that good cocktails should be available and accessible to all and sundry! That was the whole raison d'être for SOUSED! Why else would we create a semi-secret cocktail drinking fraternity with an obscure website!? Why else would our updates be filled with alienating and snobbish language if not to bring our message to the people?

Thankfully, some SOUSED members have recently attended a secret lecture on secret societies by the devilishly entertaining duo of Andrew McClelland and Lawrence Leung as a part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. This is not especially "Cocktail related", but it is Secret Society related, and therefore worth a mention here. We have been exposed to many ideas for facing the menace that is the Melbourne Temperance Society.

Dear readers, we of SOUSED stand in benevolent opposition to this insular and cancerous bartending threat to the ideals that we uphold. We plan on infiltrating this new sect, and waging a "secret cocktail society" war in the Bars of Melbourne.

Remember Brothers to raise your swizzle sticks and fight the good fight!

Cheers,
Cocktail Kev

(Please note: The Melbourne Temperance Society most likely do not know of our existance, nor would they otherwise care. The revolution shall be spoken in whispers!)

Barring Injury, Death or Incarceration, SOUSED will next meet on April 13th at around 7 pm. If you're interested in dropping in, feel free to fire off an e-mail to cocktail.kev@gmail.com.

A Guide to Joining SOUSED

It has come to my attention that a number of people may be remotely interested in attending one of our meetings, but don't know what to expect from a SOUSED meeting.

First of all, you must understand that we're all sophisticated in a very similar way to the Rat Pack. In fact, I have personally been compared to a young Frank Sinatra, only I curse more. Karsten even bears a strong resemblance to Sammy Davis Jnr.


(Not) Cocktail Kev

The group as it stands at the moment is small and in its infancy. There's no real formal structure that we follow apart from turning up at the bar, buying cocktails, and discussing them, analysing them, and maybe even drinking them. The focus is on the cocktails and bars in general.

A new member can expect to be asked a rigorous series of questions carefully crafted to determine their level of commitment to the cause. Those found wanting are promptly ejected from the group, and shunned by the group for the rest of their lives (depending on your point of view, this can be a blessing or a curse).

For those playing at home, the interrogation would consist of questions such as:-

Should an Old Fashioned be made with or without fruit?


Would a drink like this get you kicked out of SOUSED?

What cocktail was the grandfather of the Martini as we know it today?

And a real tough question,

What is the difference between an El Floridita Daiquiri , a Floridita Cocktail, a La Florida Cocktail, and a Florida Daiquiri?


This guy would know the answer!

Of course, rest assured that we don't really bite, we're more likely to sip, and we're a reasonably decent bunch of boozers to hang out with.

Meetings are currently being held on a Wednesday every two weeks at Der Raum in Church Street, Richmond (Note that the staff are unaware that we are trying to slowly infiltrate their bar patronage bit by bit as our numbers grow. We will stop at nothing but complete domination of the bar!). If you plan on dropping in, please let us know so we can prepare an appropriate welcome. You can E-mail me at: cocktail.kev@gmail.com.

Cheers!

Tiki Fever!

Aloha!

In keeping with our theme for the meeting tonight, I thought I'd offer some appropriate inspiration in the form of some links.

For those of you joining us tonight, you are forbidden to leave without sampling at least one Mai Tai. If you have any difficulty in finding the perfect Mai Tai, maybe the Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai will help.

Those wanting an authentic Tiki experience cannot go without the correct glassware and parephenalia.

Someone who understands the cool of a Tiki Night is SHAG. SHAG is easily one of the coolest artists on the planet, and I offer the following as proof :


This is exactly what a SOUSED meeting is like*.

For those attending this evening, we cannot promise that there will be Trained Monkey Waiters, nor can we promise a Fez for all attendees. We can only promise cocktails and good company.

If you are setting up a Tiki Bar, you will need the correct decoration. To put one in a primitive mood, one needs the carving talents of Bosko.

Aloha all! See you tonight over a Daiquiri!

*May not actually be anywhere near accurate.

Hot Spots On The Trot

I'm not too sure what that topic title meant, really.

WorldsBestBars.com lists a selection of hot lounges and cocktail bars around Melbourne. I'm not too sure how current it is, but I suspect the link is worth checking out nonetheless.

Venues that I personally like the look of include but are not limited to the following:

Arthur's has a very swanky vibe, mixing eras from the 30s through to the 50s. It's hot like my CPU.
Bond Bar makes me want to climb the ceiling and ski down the walls.
Kanela is great just because I love latin girls.
MOO has a gorgeous old world charm that is so suited to the consumption of spirits.

Now, I had more in mind, but I've just stumbled across a gallery of gorgeous women and really, I can't possibly devote any time to this when there is admiring to be done.

Till next time, I love youse all.

Themes!

For our next meeting we have decided in our wisdom to start "drinking to a theme". This basically involves our members doing a little bit of research into whatever the theme may be leading up to the session, and then hassling the bartender with obscure cocktail recipes. Luckily our bar of choice at the moment has an extensive collection of spirits and liqueurs, so we have a good chance of being able to find most ingredients.

These themes will focus on a distinctive aspect of drinking; be it a "style" of drinks (like sours, muddled drinks, highballs, etc), an Era (Prohibition, Disco, etc), a place (Eastern Bloc Europe, France, South America, New Orleans, etc), or a particular spirit base.

For our next meeting, One of our wiser and more intelligent members has decided that the first "theme" that we should drink to is .... Tiki Era drinks!
We are bringing some references in a misguided attempt to "help" (iritate) the bartender, and will be awarding points to the best Tiki clothing!


One of our reference books

Meetings are going well, and we have many plans for the future... Stay tuned!

"Cocktail" Kev

It's all about the swizzlestick...

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a logo on the site!

Our talented, handsome, and let's face it, downright sexy and attractive designer has been hard at work adapting his SOUSED logo to be used on the website, and here it is in all its glory!

Personally, I think this logo is just fantastic, and it absolutely captures the sleek sophistication of everything that SOUSED stands for and you couldn't possibly live up to.


Behold, For I am SOUSED! (An earlier manifestation of the logo)

Van, our designer, will soon be launching a T-Shirt company called "Primitive" which will of course be available in all the places that you aren't cool enough to know about... however, hang around with SOUSED for long enough, and we might throw you a bone or two about where you can buy his sexy designs.

One of our many other plans for the future of SOUSED is to introduce "Calling cards" to be handed out only to individuals that we feel worthy of knowing about our highly secretive and "cult-ish" Society. Who knows? One day a shady character may wordlessly hand you one of our cards, your key to a whole new world of cocktailian delights!

"Cocktail" Kev