- Fingers
- Posts
- It's like bartender's choice but all the drinks make you sad
It's like bartender's choice but all the drinks make you sad
I hereby convene the first-ever Friends of Fingers Commentariat Congress
Welcome to Fingers, a newsletter by me, Dave Infante, about drinking culture, being online, and beyond. If you haven’t already, please sign up for future dispatches, OK?
Follow @dinfontay on Twitter & @its.fingers on Instagram. Send tips, praise, and pictures of barroom graffiti to [email protected], thank you very much.
A big warm Fingers welcome to all the new subscribers who have joined up since my piece on the plight of the workers at Minneapolis’ Surly Brewing Co. ran on Welcome to Hell World last week. I hope I don’t immediately let you down, but in case I do, please feel free to tell me about it… in our very-first Fingers open comment thread!!!
Or you could always email your criticism to [email protected], I suppose. But about that comment section!
Friends of Fingers Commentariat Congress
I recently wrote about how Bud Light Seltzer’s Chief Meme Officer gimmick devalues creative labor, and people seemed to like that. Then I wrote about a union-busting campaign at Surly, a craft brewery in Minneapolis, in collaboration with Welcome To Hell World, a fantastic and depressing newsletter that has been a big influence on both me and on Fingers. People seemed to like that too, which is tight.
I’d like to know more about what you’d like to read as this little project barrels (booze joke!) forward. So I hereby convene the first-ever Friends of Fingers Commentariat Congress. Please share with me your hopes, dreams, and fears (also, requests/suggestions for coverage) and I will respond with joy and vigor, or disgust if you say something weird:
Would you enjoy:
Reporting on the hypocrisy of craft beverage brands that claim to care about their communities but won’t give their own workers healthcare benefits?
Long-form interviews with the people who are changing The Way We Drink (not in a gross buzzword-y way but like actually)?
Shitposts about White Claw and snippets from my failed book proposals?
All of this? None of it? Something else entirely?
It’s like bartender’s choice but all the drinks just make you sad and also they’re not drinks at all, they’re stories. I don’t know, just tell me what you want (what you really really want):
I’ll be somewhat-actively monitoring this comment section this morning (Thursday 9/10). Hope to see some of you there.
Nostalgia interlude
Remember a shot and a beer? I loved a shot and a beer.
— Will Gordon (@WillGordonAgain)
11:57 PM • Sep 6, 2020
What was your favorite shot and a beer? I think mine was Jim Beam and a Coors Banquet back, but honestly who can even remember what happened more than five minutes ago.
Speaking of reflecting on the past with rose-colored glasses, here is a bit I wrote about the late Senator John McCain in a book proposal I wrote that no one seems to want:
You know those nostalgia-trap special-editions that formerly proud magazine franchises sell to old people in supermarket checkout aisles? You’ll find Time’s recently published, impossibly glossy special report on the world of craft beer right next to such riveting and forward-looking reads as “John McCain: The Life of A Patriot” and “Iconic Photojournalism of The Love Generation.”
(No offense to Arizonans or people pining for the bygone era of congressional bipartisanship, but it actually makes a grim bit of sense that Time did a retrospective on both beer and the late senator. One is dead, the other will be soon.)
I even made this professional split-screen image for the proposal, just in case anyone didn’t know what I was talking about. Wow damn, Photoshop whomst?
Anyway I’ve been trying to find an agent who wants to help me sell this book about how capitalism (et al, lol) strangled the ever-loving shit out of the once-maybe-extraordinary American craft beer revolution. If you are a high-powered and visionary book agent who enjoys run-on sentences, please email me at [email protected], thanks so much.
State of the boozeletter
Thanks to you and you alone, Fingers is growing at a healthy clip:
A sincere thank you to all 854 of you sickos who just can’t quit me. I love you each individually and unconditionally (until you unsubscribe, at which point I will never forgive you, ever.)
Please continue to encourage people to sign up for Fingers. I stupidly set a goal for myself to reach 1,000 subscribers by the end of the year and the only way I will reach it is if you continue to lie to your friends and say Fingers is a “must-read.” Shout it from the digital rooftops:
1,000 by 2021 is the number, anything short is failure. Sorry, I don’t make the rules (well I did in this case, but it’s a turn of phrase, please just go with it.)
The bottom shelf
Disclosure: If you subscribe to Popular Information (Judd Legum’s newsletter) via the link above, I might get some promo merch from him. I think I get a free tote if 20 of you sign up, so uh…. now you know. For what it’s worth I’ve been a paying subscriber since before he launched, and I highly recommend it. Get to it!
Speaking of promo merch, I’m working on some for Fingers, to sweeten the deal for if/when I turn on paid subscriptions. Been getting some samples in here at Fingers HQ, and they’re really cool. Get a sneak peak on Instagram now—follow @its.fingers.
Big congratulations to the workers of Fair State Co-op, who went public with their union drive and quickly won voluntary recognition from the company. Wow, imagine that! Statement, right this way.
I put together a little web-only piece highlighting some recent news items that make me want to drink lately, including a local South Carolina tale called “Our Man, The Cheese Mayor.” Intriguing! You can read it here if you want.
I’ve already sent out a bunch of anti-racist beer stickers to Friends of Fingers across the country, and will be tallying up the donation totals soon. If you want me to mail you one of these beauties, get yours today, here’s how.