Sunday

Sunday stories range from crafty new non-alcoholic cocktails to nature photos with a splash and a made-up disagreement between Nick Cave and me. Before all that, how about a good laugh, and don’t forget - Here it comes again.

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🤘We are here every day, and every minute you spend with us sends ripples of gratitude through our souls! 🤘

If you have ever known someone who makes you feel better about yourself in a room with them and makes you laugh at ordinary things explained in a silly way, then you know Nate Bargatze. He is a standup comedian, and as easy as it is to make comparisons to the type of comedian he is, it's challenging to describe what makes him so good. Bargatze is a clean comedian, but not by conscious decision; he is more comfortable, and he writes and performs without it, making the content better, and I doubt his audiences miss it. Comedians often fall back to the line "Is it funny?" when they describe what they do. If you tell stories, if you curse, if you talk about taboo subjects, if you insult, all the things various comedians do in their acts. All come back to "Is it funny?" In all those characteristics I described, Bargatze only uses the tell stories, and he is always funny, and funny without gimmicks is another mountain you must climb if you want to be funny.

Another term often associated with Bargatze, which goes to the large number of comics that use more gimmicks, and the ones that use them while remaining funny and smart are few and far between. Dave Chappell and Ricky Gervais are masters of this trade, and it also doesn't mean every comedian has to be Richard Prior or George Carlin, the same way every band doesn't need to be The Beatles or U2 for me to enjoy them. Instead of refreshing, I like challenging, smart, silly, and craftsmen. Refreshing says we were waiting for something like this, and if we were, there would be more comedians in that business, and in my personal experience, there are as many Bargatze’s as there are Chappell’’s.

Bargatze was the host of SNL this weekend, and both Bargatze and SNL did a great job of putting together skits that worked with Bargatze's type of humor. A George Washington sketch about weights and measures and an airplane sketch about the best number two job were fantastic. Esther Zuckerman wrote a more articulate piece for The Atlantic than my 15-second reflection above. However, that last line also goes to the heart of Bargatze's humor; it is always self-effacing, which is why we all love a little Bargatze.

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One of our favorite Friday highlights is PUNCH, and on a Sunday, they sent us a recap of interesting drinks. The spotlight today is on the landscape of alcoholic drinks. In summary, the discussion goes to N/A cocktails (non-alcoholic), and a new twist to the N/A drink list is a craft version that you can turn into a hybrid, meaning you can add booze, and both the N/A and A versions are both tasty. Before we got creative with craft cocktails, an N/A drink was either a terrible beer, a trusty soda water with a lime, the best drink to get at a bar if you are not drinking, or a Bloody Mary. If you make a Bloody Mary with celery stalks, pickle spears, horseradish, and several other tasty ingredients, it's hard to taste the booze.

Companies are also expanding into other cocktails, whether lighter on the alcohol content or moving into infused drinks with THC products; the space is set for expansion.

Another weekend favorite, MOSS AND FOG – who we think is at the apex of art and photography, brings more photos of nature. The photos alone are beautiful, but these photos add a splash of contrast by including a human in them somewhere. Thanks to the artist Karl Shakur for the work!

In my recent love affair with Nick Cave and his website, The Red Hand Files, I have now found myself in my first wavers of disagreement. Until now, Cave's words have read to me as Gospel. After all, like Cave, I am a practicing Catholic, musician, and writer. The differentiation between us is vast – Cave is a professional writer, singer, musician, and performer. In one of his recent answers to a young fan about how he feels about ChatGPT and based on his response, anything that removes the soul from the words is HELL.

Where I agree with Cave is on how to write a song. For some of us, a song starts in our hearts, and only after we pick up a guitar, sit at the piano or drum kit, and start to put the words together with a base rhythm is there no need for anything else. Until we get that done or at least started, there is little need to enhance a computer or technology.

Here is where I start to veer off from Cave, and it's also possible I'm addressing something different than he was in his post response. Once the song's bones are done, and a songwriter feels it's time to add instruments and maybe even plug a few of those in, then technology can be useful. This is different than typing a prompt into a computer saying write me a song but allows for a little sugar that might make a song with good bones sound a little sweeter.

I imagine Cave’s response to look like the picture from the post of HELL…

Days Move Slow - Bully.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

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🤘We are here every day, and every minute you spend with us sends ripples of gratitude through our souls! 🤘

With A Shout newsletter is written by Johnny Christian with the support of a thousand idea bits and the help of many people.

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