Sometimes, outside the James Bond scenario, «shaken, not stirred» is used to mean «having had a shock but not suffering lasting mental effects from it». Yeah, right.
Dear Auntie SAM: What do you think surprised you the most about living in Basel?
Despite drinking a seemingly excessive supply of bourbon & other warming whiskeys while in Basel, I am & have always been a gin girl.
The aromatics seduce me.
From crisp citruses, through cucumber, to herbals and toasted nuts. Each blend offers complexities not found in other drinks. And, yet, also, a simplicity allowing for myriads of quirky & queer couplings.
Sorta like my 20th birthday party.
It gets a bad rap. Perhaps deservingly.
But, the way I see things: gin is vodka’s sassy cousin. It can easily go where vodka goes. Yet vodka needs a disco nap & a line or two of something snappy before it earns any credibility calling gin its cousin.
And of all the gin drinks, in all the fabulous, burned out gin joints throughout this fantastic seedy world, my favorite is an old-fashioned loner: the confident, stoic Martini … with four olives, please, because I’m greedy.
Chilled. No bubbles, no ice, no adornments. Just vermouth & gin intermingling, interweaving, interbreeding like a Kunst inside a svelte, streamlined glass molded with a mouth rising from its stem opening wide as if to howl «YES, YES, YES. Drink Me (you know you want to).»
And you do.
Even though you see, hanging defeatedly yet deliciously, it’s already consumed four skewered olives … because I’m greedy.
Before we came to Basel, for fourteen years, our friends knew Fridays were sacrosanct. Friday Night Date Night happened every week, regardless of whether my husband & I wanted it.
Every Friday, we dated. Dinner, theater, rollerderby, burlesque, movies, concerts … even a bookstore reading in separate chairs counted. So long as we spent time together, just the two of us, it was a date.
Perhaps because my husband arrived a few months before I did & had already settled into his routine. Perhaps because the cost of going out for one evening far exceeded our monthly budget back in the States. Perhaps because we didn’t know the local language &, therefore, had limited options to theater & other forms of entertainment we enjoyed. Perhaps because the entertainment we enjoyed became my work. Perhaps because his work has a life of its own as well. Perhaps. Perhaps. Perhaps …
We’ll never know what really happened.
But the end result’s the same: we no longer celebrate Friday Night Date Night.
We no longer honor us.
The first time I ordered a Martini in Basel, the waitress looked at me as if I was off my rocker then asked, «Red or White?»
«Um … white … I guess?»
«And you want that with gin?»
«Uh, yeah … actually, I want mostly gin. And four olives, please.»
What arrived ranks among the most beautiful pieces of philosophy I have ever witnessed: a bourbon glass; filled with sweet, white vermouth & cubed ice; topped with a heady shot of gin. And a side of four non-pitted black & green olives.
Absolutely accurate.
Brava.
The thing that surprises me the most about living in Basel is how so many people here get exactly what they want – exactly what they asked for – & yet, remain unblissful, unimpressed, unsatisfied.
As we age, we all learn there are so many ways in which things can go wrong.
To not find pleasure in that is foolhardy.
Here in Wonderland, we’re always choosing between red & white. Red vermouth or white vermouth? Red Queen or White Queen? A blood-red flag or lily-white confederated troops?
There’s no middle ground here. No safe routines.
«It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,» says the White Queen to Alice.
Harrumph.
And, as for me?
I think I’ll have a Martini. In the tall glass; or in the short. With too much vermouth or not enough gin (same same): ist allés égal für mich.
Except one thing, my darling … this time, bitte schön et merci: keep the olives 😉
XO
AS
___
For all the cool kids you knew or once were: THE HISTORY OF B-BOYING is coming to BASEL ART CENTER 18-19 & 24-26 APRIL. Art, Music, Graffitti, Hooliganism. All the GOOD STUFF. FREE.
ALSO FREE: Talk COSPLAY, FANTASY, CREATIVITY, STEAMPUNK, & MORE at STAMMTISCH FORUM FÜR KOSTÜM BASEL at PAT’S UNIFORM & KOSTÜM (Schützenmattstrasse 37). FRIDAY, 7-10PM. FREE, but call for RESERVATIONS: participation is LIMITED to 35: 079 315 29 41.