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Dear Reader, The big news is that I've completed The Beer Hall Guide to Long Island. Denise and I were working hard on the corrections so it would be done before the Stony Brook Film Festival, but unfortunately the festival started a day before we received the proof copy. But the drama of finding and fixing typos is over despite the distractions of real life and we have sent an error free (hopefully) file to the printer. We've ordered 100 copies and they arrived last night, just in time for the North Fork Craft Beer Festival. In addition to selling them at the festival, I'm going to have a launch party for the book at some excellent Long Island beer bar or brewery. My beer writing, in general, is going pretty well. This fall (probably October) I should have stories appearing in VOX Hampton and Edible East End. I also contributed a news item to BeerAdvocate Magazine. In the Long Island beer news is the new brewery in Greenport. Richard Vandenburgh, a Riverhead-based lawyer and homebrewer, and John Liegey, are launching Star Hose Brewery sometime next summer. I talked with Richard this last week and got a nice interview. I'll keep track of his and John's progress. Despite the fact that July was mostly taken up with getting The Beer Hall Guide to Long Island ready for the printer. I did manage to get a few other things done. I've added a few new stories to The Angler, my literary magazine: "Where Water Flows" by Andrew Reilly and "The Three Fishermen" by Tom Sheehan. I've also put out a special call for stories about ordinary life -- "a literature of the ordinary" -- to celebrate the beauty of everyday life. The first print edition of The Angler will be mailed out by the end of the month, so if you want to subscribe, let me know and I'll get you on the list. I'm always trying to make my web site more useable for people. I've made a couple of changes that I hope will help you navigate the ever growing collection of text on donavanhall.net. Now when you go to the main page of my website (donavanhall.net) you'll see what I'm calling "The Daily Catch". It's basically a "what's new" page with a listing on the right hand column of the latest stuff that I've posted. If you check that regularly, then you won't miss anything. Another change is that I've brought back Catch & Release. Long time readers of my site will recall the title. That was the original title of my blog. Catch & Release is now the editorial section of The Angler. I'll be writing more frequently about ideas such as the idling life, permaculture, and holism. I've created a new main page for the magazine. I've also been thinking about what I can do with Donavan's Brain that is more interesting than just mailing out a periodic update about what's on the site. I'd like to start putting into practice some of the ideas I've been reading about in various books on a way of life that is less damaging to the environment. I've made some steps in this direction with two essays, one called "Good Work" and another called "Local versus the Imports." The latter essay is specifically focused on applying "local culture theory" to the practical area of beer economics. The essential idea is that we shape the world through the choices we make. Choosing to buy an imported beer as opposed to a locally brewed beer has some consequences for the environment and our community. Becoming aware of what those consequences are will help us make better choices. So in the coming months, I'll try to start pulling together the various essays scattered across my web site and put them into some order for release on Donavan's Brain in a more organized form. Last month, I mentioned that I was working on the corrections for The Italians, a new novel about a guy who confronts his anxiety about creativity with a trip to the Museum of Modern Art. I did manage to finish The Italians and began working on putting into some final form Forty Days, a novel about an aspiring filmmaker and his girlfriend who is organizing a naked protest against the war in Iraq. I should have finished Forty Days four of five years ago; although I hope it's still relevant today. Cheers, |
radio beer hall: small is beautifulposted Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 by donavan This show features a recap of the North Fork Craft Beer Fest and some reasons why buying locally brewed beer is the better choice. |