Martinis have now become synonymous with “cocktail.” There are many aspects of my personality that might be “girly” or [slightly] effeminate, but not in my drink of choice: a gin martini.

I love the new trend of going to trendy restaurants and being given a two page martini list. There are the children martinis, those that taste like chocolate syrup or egg nog or peppermint or some warm and fuzzy sweet drink that you gulp back not knowing how drunk you are about to be and what a horrible hangover you will have tomorrow from all the sugar and alcohol you didn’t realize was there. Then there are the almost martinis, like the pomegranate or apple or cosmopolitan martinis that complement the alcohol with a thinner sweetener. Then there are the old style martinis where the gin was so bad that you had to gag it back with a sweetener like vermouth, and so the old proportion was 1/3 vermouth and 2/3 gin (sic). As time went on, and gin got better, the proportion of vermouth has drastically dropped. The most recent incarnation is the dry martini which means little or no vermouth, whose techniques include Winston Churchill’s famous “glance across the room at the vermouth” statement, to “whisper the word ‘vermouth’ over the glass,” to swilling vermouth in the glass and then tossing it out, and my favorite, the spray dispenser that deposits a fine mist either on the glass before you pour in the gin, or on top of freshly poured out gin so that it rests on the surface, improving the nose. There is the dirty martini for those cowards afraid of tasting real gin or vodka and have to have syrupy, salty olive water put in to ruin the taste, er, make it “dirty.” (As if “dirty” meant sexually frisky: ha! Wusses, all wusses.)

Oh yes, there are those of you who like vodka martinis. Wusses. Vodka just doesn’t have the flavor that a good gin does. Ok, you have to become friends with the juniper berry. All the vodka makers have now flooded the market with infused vodkas to cover up, as it were, the fact that vodka really has very little flavor. Yes, the more expensive vodkas do have fine flavors, but they are extremely subtle and are lost the minute you put anything in it. So as far as I’m concerned, vodka, like all alcohol, is an alcohol delivery system, without the distinctive flavor of gin. Flavored vodka drinks are little more than spiked kool-aid. Sorry, it’s true.

You’re saying, alright Mr. Alky, what the hell is the best drink? Obviously, everyone has their own tastes. I love gin. It started for me when we were camping in Joshua Tree and Charlie picked some Juniper berries, scrunched them up with his fingers, and put them over our steaks that grilled in the hot desert air. That smell of juniper is one I’ll never forget. (Try it btw, putting juniper on anything. Grind it up so you can really smell it.) After that, it was Angus Whyte who first taught me to love gin and its ritual. Now, my favorite gin is Hendricks, violently shaken with a thin wedge of cucumber floating in an open martini glass. It seems that San Francisco is the most gin smart city, followed by New York and Boston. There is hope for LA, and I imagine that Portland and Seattle have a good gin following. Of the readily available bar gins, I prefer Tanqueray to Bombay, to Bombay Sapphire. Tanqueray 10 tastes like gin Kool-Aid, but isn’t bad if you want to begin experimenting with sipping gin. And since when is Tanqueray pronounced with a “G”?? I realize the “q” can be an ambiguous letter, but it is a “q” and not a “g.” Does anyone have any insight to the correct pronunciation?

Olive? Twist? Onion? An olive or twist makes it a martini, but add an onion and you have a gibson. I have read that you should NOT eat the vegetable inside your drink because it soaks up the icky chemicals from the distilling process. People say the darndest things. Maybe it’s true, maybe not.

Gin and tonic. I stopped drinking them years ago as 1) they were too acidic, and 2) quinine, in the tonic, causes tinitus (ringing in the ears) and in that I already have potential genetic hearing loss through my Dad and his Dad, as well as rock band experience, I don’t need any thing to hasten the process.

For a light, not so alky, gin-light experience, have some quality gin with sparkling water and ice. That way you can taste the gin without it being such a alcoholic taste sensation.

I am perfectly aware that most people on the planet would find the taste of a gin martini awful, medicinal, “tastes like Vitalis.” I am not encouraging the world to take up gin martinis. I just had to vent to someone.

Oh yeah, I found this article in the NY Times. I was incredulous so I scanned it. Gin has more antioxidants than any other spirit. I felt sanctified. Read it. I’ve learned all media have to be taken with a grain of salt (not dirty). So, maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not.

Speaking of which, I am obsessed with martini glasses and have probably 100 of them. My favorites are the small ones from the 1930s. I don’t like the large glasses as by the time you finish your drink, the drink is warm, and warm gin is no good. It is always best to chill your glass with ice and water before you put the martini in it. In our house, I make our drinkers chug the water in the chilling glass so as to ward off a little bit of dehydration. If you don’t, the temperature of the martini plummets, as does the quality of the drink.

“Shaken” means that there are lots of ice crystals floating around, making the gin less bitter. “Stirred” is a stronger drink with less water in it, and only slightly chilled. I prefer violently shaken.

By the way, the biggest ripoff today are margaritas. You get 99% sugar/lime juice or whatever the hell flavor you ordered, with the teensiest amount of tequila. Sorry gang, you DON’T taste the tequila, so don’t waste your money on good tequila unless you are trying to impress someone or you love blowing your money. If you want to get to know tequila, sip it slowly, straight. This whole silly ritual of putting salt on your hand, biting into a wedge of lime, and shooting the tequila, might have been fine for rotgut booze, but for quality tequila, this is an insult. This technique of imbibing alcohol is only to “gag it back” and to get drunk, or be an alcohol delivery system.

If you don’t believe that it is the nature of living things that move, to get intoxicated from time to time, read INTOXICATION by Ronald K. Siegel (Dutton).

Here it is, the encore piece for string quartet, banjo and bass called “Emily” after “Emily Dickinson.” This was of course the encore to FOUR POETS for string quartet which the Ives Quartet has just finished performing five times around the country. It was recorded on the fly by Daniel Shiplacoff with his trusty MacBookPro’s built-in microphone, whose opening is the size of a pinhead. You may recall that there was no bass player at this particular concert, so I added it. The banjo was acoustically and personally shy in the concert, so I rerecorded the banjo part later as well. Although the recording and performance (mostly my bad) are not perfect, you get the idea. I like this piece as did the players and audience. All the string players confessed to never having played with a banjo before. I’m just a beginner and would love to hear it done by a real banjo player. [click below to hear EMILY]

This piece was commissioned by and dedicated to my aunt, Ardis Bourland.

My oh my. Google [I can't imagine MGM is thrilled about this] video has a realization of the coincidental line up of the first 48 minutes of “The Wizard of Oz” with Pink Floyd’s landmark album, “Dark Side of the Moon.” If you’ve never seen it, and have 48 minutes to spare, click below and decide for yourself: was it intentional? or coincidental? Before you decide, go to your music library and pick out four random CDs or songs/pieces. Turn on your television and begin playing one of the songs on the first CD, it doesn’t matter which one. Then start surfing the channels with the volume turned down. Continue this for the next three selections. You’ll likely find a channel that fits what you’re listening to really well, if not perfectly. Music can be forgiving in this way. After this experiment, watch this video.

For the record, this post was created on July 30, 2006 and the video is available. I imagine in the not so distant future this link will be dead. Until then, enjoy the wild, wild west of FREE VIDEO.

Here is the entire list, but to sate your curiosity I’ve listed the top ten here. Judging by the first ten, I’d guess that the people who made or responded to this list were baby boomers.

The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

1. Like a Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan

2. Satisfaction, The Rolling Stones

3. Imagine, John Lennon

4. What’s Going On, Marvin Gaye

5. Respect, Aretha Franklin

6. Good Vibrations, The Beach Boys

7. Johnny B. Goode, Chuck Berry

8. Hey Jude, The Beatles

9. Smells Like Teen Spirit, Nirvana

10. What’d I Say, Ray Charles

11. My Generation, The Who

Alistair McCartney and Tim Miller.

We first met Tim Miller and Alistair McCartney at a resort in Palm Springs in 1994. Tim and I had both met new and younger lovers. We visited and made plans to get together in LA at some point in the future. Twelve years later we finally had them over for dinner with a few other friends. I have been a huge fan of Tim Miller ever since I started going to his “gay performance art.” His writing comes from a rib in Joni Mitchell in that his work is confessional. Obsessively and entertainingly confessional. People like to hear people talk about their lives. I love hearing Tim articulating what it is and has been to be a gay white male from Southern California in the past three decades.

The dramatic pacing in his one man shows is thrilling. His performances jab you with dramatic contrast: hysteria to calm; fast paced jabbering to slow recitation; flailing around the stage to focused quiet; good boy to bad boy; shocking to confessional. If you have never seen his work, there are DVDs and videos available, otherwise be sure to see his next show. He tours extensively and blogs occasionally.

Alistair is a writer, journalist, teacher and performer. His website has samples of his work. He teaches in the Creative Writing program at Antioch University and his completing his first novel.

Having that as background, we didn’t talk about Tim’s work, we got to just visit, although I hogged a half hour at the beginning and end of the evening playing music from the film I’m working on, CAGES. The film’s director, Graham Streeter, was here with his partner Alex Lebosq, and gave me permission to play my music in progress which I did. I was relieved that Graham liked the music, and everyone else seemed to as well.

We resolved to get together with more frequency. They are a great couple and I am happy to know such wonderful people.

From the Spectrum Series (2005) by Thomas Briggs.

One of Daniel’s clients is a body worker, Sean. He uses an amazing technique he calls the “Fijian technique, where he lies on the floor next to you or stands above you and works on your muscles with his feet. He is also starting a new business where he coordinates other body workers and new age artisans. Last night Sean and his roommate Briana (also a body worker) had a house warming party. The people were interesting and beautiful.

There were many [single] gorgeous women there. One thing many of them seemed to have in common was stunning racial mixes. Black and Latin. Latin and Japanese. Russian and Mexican. Wow! It was a shame that these vivacious gals had slim pickings with all the gay men there, and the only straight men there seemed to be with their wives. Daniel and I couldn’t help but notice how many of the couples in our lives as well as at this party are one Asian and one Caucasian. Birds of a feather still flock together.

One other amusing thing happened. Sean is gay. Or at least he used to be gay. He is in his mid-40s, had a penchant for Latinos. Recently, while holding a workshop in New Mexico, Sean met and fell in love with Briana. Yes, Briana is a woman. Well, we got to see it in person at the party. There they were, sneaking off to corners or quiet rooms to make out like teenagers. This kinda stuff doesn’t happen all that often. Stay tuned.

I had one bisexual period in my life. And based upon that, I tend to think bisexuality, for men, is a transition to being gay. I used to have a pie-in-the-sky notion that everyone is bisexual. This is potentially true, but I don’t believe it these days. Sexual preference is likely on a spectrum, but I bet that the spectrum is lumpy, and is heavily populated on the opposite ends.

You may remember what I wrote the other day about my own history with early erotic imagery and praying, well, it seemed I was the only person on the planet not watching the World Cup. But since I’ve seen THIS participant, I could imagine a whole new interest in sports!

Violist, Scott Woolweaver (L) and Roger Bourland. Photo by Daniel Shiplacoff.

I was nervous about ripping myself away from my work to get down to San Diego to attend a performance of my FOUR POETS by the Ives Quartet for an annual gathering of [non-professional?] chamber musicians called the San Diego Chamber Music Workshop, and in this case, mostlly string players. It is a full week of intense music of chamber music overseen by a staff of 10 professionals from around the country. I pored over the Amtrak schedule preferring to take a train down there rather than drive. I looked at the email from Ron Goldman, the coordinator of the event, and puzzled over the strangest directions which, if I would have followed, would have ended me up in Claremont. Duhh. The event was held on the Scripps College campus and thank God I hadn’t bought the ticket to San Diego.

Daniel brought his computer along [surprise] and recorded the performance. The expert recording in San Jose was ruined because the damned bass player was practicing offstage during the James Merrill movement. This time, only a pair of glasses falling to the floor marred that movement. Their performance was excellent. They really know the piece and played the hell out of it. The audience seemed genuinely to love the piece, and 1/3 stood to say so. I pulled out the banjo to do EMILY but sadly there was no bass, so it sounded just WEIRD. I figure I’ll add the bass in my studio and it should be just fine. [I'll post it if it is.]

I was asked questions, and a lot of them, by the audience afterwards. My favorite question was: “has your career suffered by your decision to stay with melody oriented music?” to which I responded “Yes, and I don’t give a shit.” [Roger! How crass. You DID care, you just got over it.]

The Ives Quartet was marvelous and I am fortunate to have worked with them and to have received such a great set of performances. I am especially appreciative of my long time friend and colleague, Scott Woolweaver, who was there back in the early 1980s playing viola on the COMPOSERS IN RED SNEAKERS concerts whenever any of my pieces needed one. This was Scott’s last season with the Ives Quartet. He has now assumed more teaching responsibilities in Massachusetts and looks forward to less intercontinental flights but will miss the group. Thanks Scott!

k. d. lost a lot of fans in the US red states with this advertisement. Although I am not a vegetarian, call me blue.

Here is a song I have listened to a thousand times. Not this performance, the one made by the Pat Metheny Group with Lyle Mays. This is one of those pieces that will lift you up into the clouds if you let it. In the original performance, it was a Latino (male) singer who sang in the same key. This gave the tessitura a tremendous energy. The woman singing here sings well, but it is low in her voice and doesn’t come off the same at all. And the words. Sheesh. Ee yi ee yi oh. Sounds like old macdonald. In the original it sounds like indiscernible Portuguese. In THIS amazing performance, we have a German orchestra playing the work. And they do it admirably. If you like this music, get the album called FIRST CIRCLE. The won a Grammy for it.