Absinthe: Nectar Of The Gods: Yahweh, Or No Way?

So on Friday, I was playing the Velvet Underground tribute show, Waiting For The Man, with new and old musician friends - and we had a blast. Most of the people there seemed to have a lot of fun as well, except maybe for the Alternate Lady Of The House, who doesn't like that style of music.

More importantly, though, was the fact that it was played at L'Absynthe, the bar named after the infamous drink 'absinthe', banned - under false pretense - in many countries between 1912 and 1915, usually because it cut into wine sales, and the wine distributors invented bullshit stories about absinthe giving epilepsy and tuberculosis when, in fact, it was used as a cure for malaria for a while by French soldiers in the 1840s, who brought their taste for it back home and inspired its popularity. The closest it got to the symptoms of epilepsy is that it has thujone in it from the wormwood, which can give spasms and lead to seizures in too high a quantity, but usually absinthe bottles contained far less of it than was first thought - although some modern brands have a relatively high 100mg of it.

In any event, it's legal nowadays, but barely imported and extremely expensive (think $12 for a small glass of a cheap brand) - and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to try it in the place that is named after it...

It tastes like black licorice, from the anise in it. That means it tastes kind of like Jägermeister, and pretty much like Ricard Pastis, both of which can be had at a third of the price, if you like that sort of thing. If you're ambivalent, it's too expensive for what it is. And if you hate it, you've just been punked out of enough money for 3 beers.

For my money, if you want to get fancy with a hint of anise, go the the Golden Elf - also  known as Liquid Cocaine, Nazi Zombie, Sledgehammer, Gestapo, Iron Curtain, TG Black & Gold, or, simply, Jägerschläger - half Jägermeister, half Goldschläger. That's heavenly.

Absinthe? Not quite. Come to think of it, not at all.

French Soccer Players And Poor Taste

This story is all kinds of wrong.

First, the (alleged) facts: three soccer players  from France's national team (Franck Ribéry, Karim Benzema, and Sidney Govou) have supposedly had the ''services'' of the same high-priced prostitute, and it turns out she was underage (17) at the time.

She says she had told them she was 18, and judging by the pictures, fine, I'll let that one slide.

Now, the reason why a man will use a ''professional'' for sex rather than, say, a groupie or their wife's sister, is that there is the implicit (and explicit) understanding that being paid for her services includes discretion and silence. Clearly, of late, some professionals are steping way over the boundaries of client/serviceperson privilege.

Then there's the issue of taste. You'd think that someone making upwards of $30,000 a month for sex would be hotter than Carmen Electra; in the  case of Zahia Dehar (the underage hooker in question), although she tries her best to look like Pamela Anderson, she fails miserably.

Case in point:

She looks like a used-up 40-year old skank who may have been a crack whore at some point.

And thus, a tasteless story becomes even more so, but in a different direction.

For that kind of money, seriously... Megan Fox...

Video Of the Week: Flairs

His name is Lionel Flairs - or so he claims. He's French (the real deal, the 'from France' type), but seems to work in England.

He's clever, and ballsy; he's released a 7'' titled Better Than Prince.

Now, he asked Jérémie Perin to direct a video for his song 'Truckers Delight'... in 8-bit Nintendo style.

Pretty damn entertaining, if somewhat 'wtf' and graphic and totally un-PC.

Oh, and not to be confused with the NYC-by-way-of-Vancouver band The Flairs...

Poor Bono

Fucking paparazzi. There is nowhere left to hide for celebs who just want to relax a little... damn modern technology.

I agree the pictures look bad (for his reputation as a model family man, not that he or the barely legal teens look anything less than great). But if there were any that were worse, they'd be there, in that article, too. The paparazzi have no morals or limits, so if he had participated in an orgy of young flesh - or even just taken one - they would have pics. But they don't.

So the dude partied, drank, and took pictures in warm weather with bikini-clad 19-year-olds. Last time I checked, it wasn't a crime in either France (where he was), Ireland, or the rest of the UK (where he's from and lives mostly). His bases are covered.

Leave Bono ALOOOONE!!!!!