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Beer In Art #102: More Vincent Van Gogh’s Wheat Fields

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Last week’s artworks were all paintings of wheat fields by Vincent Van Gogh for the most recent Session on wheat beers. Since wheat fields were a favorite subject for Van Gogh — throughout his life he painted at least 40 artworks that included a wheat field — I couldn’t help but feature several more again this week.

Wheat field, painted in 1889.

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Green Wheat Field, also painted in 1889.

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Wheat Field with Reaper, from 1888.

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Sheaves of What in a Field, from 1885.

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Sunset Wheat Fields Near Arles, from 1888.

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Wheat Field Behind Saint Paul Hospital with a Reaper, from 1889.

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Wheat Field with Cypresses at the Haute Galline Near Eygalieres, from 1889.

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Sunset Wheat Field with Sheafs, from 1888.

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For more about Vincent Van Gogh, Wikipedia is a good place to start, though there’s even more at the Vincent Van Gogh Gallery, which has a complete list of his works. There are also tons of links at the ArtCyclopedia and another biography at the Web Museum.

Guinness Ad #43: Knocking Down Columns

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Our 43rd Guinness poster depicts a man leaning against an ancient Greek column and accidentally knocking it down, just because he’s recently enjoyed a pint of Guinness. That’s, as the slogan suggests, “Guinness for Strength.”

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And here’s another version of the ad with a lot more text than usually seen in Guinness advertising at that time.

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ABI Suing Baseball Over Exclusive Beer Rights

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Today in U.S. District Court, for the Southern District of New York, Anheuser-Busch InBev filed a lawsuit asking for a declaratory judgment against Major League Baseball. In “Anheuser-Busch, Inc. v. Major League Baseball Properties, Inc.,” ABI alleges that MLB “reneged on a renewal of its beer sponsorship rights this year and demanded ‘exponentially higher’ fees.” Back in April of this year, ABI believed it had reached a deal to renew its long-standing status (over 30 years) as the “official beer of baseball,” but apparently the baseball league tried to renegotiate the deal “due to ‘a change in marketplace dynamics,’ according to the lawsuit.” Naturally, MLB was seeking to increase the amount of money they would receive from ABI and also wanted to negotiate with rival beer companies for the same rights. The lawsuit asks the court to enforce the April deal and further prevent “MLBP from negotiating with any other brewers for sponsorship rights. The lawsuit doesn’t request money damages.” Baseball’s position is that the April deal was not binding and that they could “offer sponsorship rights to Anheuser[-Busch]’s competitors.” In addition to sponsoring the league as a whole, Anheuser-Busch also sponsors 26 of the total of thirty individual baseball teams in MLB.

The story has already been picked up by Bloomberg, Reuters, the St. Louis Business Journal and the Wall Street Journal.

St. Luke’s Bottle Band

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Believe it or not, since 1979, St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Illinois has had a musical group, the St. Luke’s Bottle Band. According to their website, the band was “founded by Professor Paul Phillips. Over the past few years the St. Luke’s Bottle Band has been featured on National Public Radio, the NBC Nightly News, Wild Chicago and the Jenny Jones Show. The band has traveled to Atlanta Georgia to perform for the American Lutheran Church Musicians Conference, as well as Door County, Wisconsin, to present a concert at the Fish Creek Auditorium. The Bottle Band has appeared on An American Moment with James Earl Jones and twice on the Late Show with David Letterman.” (Thanks to Tom D. for sending me the link.) In addition to Scott Joplin’s Peacherine Rag below, there are a number of additional videos of the bottle band performing, including a rousing kazoo version of John Philip Sousa’s Washington Post March. The also have a Facebook page. Enjoy.

Zythophile Examines 40 Years Of CAMRA

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With the 40th anniversary of the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA) just around the corner, one of my favorite beer historians, Martyn Cornell, takes a close look at some mistakes they’ve made along the way and some things they might have done better. He writes Maybe They Should Have Kept to ‘Revitalisation’. And Dropped the ‘Ale’at his wonderful blog Zythophile. Full disclosure, like Martyn, I’m also a CAMRA member.

Wild Goose To Close

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Wild Goose Brewing, which was purchased a few years ago, in 2006, by Flying Dog Brewery, will be closing down and no longer will be produced as a beer brand. In the same purchase, Flying Dog also acquired the Frederick Brewery, where they moved their headquarters to, which had purchased Wild Goose in the mid-1990s. A few more batches of Wild Goose IPA and that will be it for the 21-year old brand. Beer in Baltimore has the full story.

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Beer In Ads #241: Schlitz Famo Soldier

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Thursday’s ad is for Schlitz Famo, from around 1918. Famo was their non-alcohol beer during Prohibition, or as they referred to it, “a pure non-intoxicating beverage.” I’m not sure what the tie-in was with the man in uniform, though it was during World War I, and since today is Veteran’s Day — originally Armistice Day for that war’s end.

Most of the beer companies scrambled to come up with a N/A brand in the years just before Prohibition as they finally started to see the writing on the wall. For an interesting overview of the names they came up with, check out Prohibition and Near-Beer Names.

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During the early part of Prohibition, brewers at the time were emphasizing cleanliness by saying that “Schlitz Famo goes through a pulp filter–then through a sterilized pipe line to glass-lined tanks in a cool cellar for aging. A sterilized line carries it to automatic filling machines containing sterilized bottles, thence to Pasteurization” They further stressed the nutritional values of their products. The company boasted that Schlitz Famo is more than a drink. It is a food. Every time you take a glass of Schlitz Famo you are taking something to eat. Every compound essential to the human body is present in Schlitz Famo–protein, carbohydrates, mineral matter and water–the only factor absent being fats, and they are formed in the body from the carbohydrates. These elements repair and build up broken-down tissues and impart to the body heat and muscular energy. That’s why we say Schlitz Famo is a worth-while cereal beverage. It is non-intoxicating. It is healthful, refreshing and satisfying. It has the wonderful hop aroma.

Beer In Ads #239: Bud Beach Sipping

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Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser from 1958. It’s from the “Where There’s Life … There’s Bud” series and features a couple at the beach. The man is pouring beer from a can to overflowing — tilt the glass, dude! — while the woman tries to sip it up before it spills over the side, while holding a partially-eaten sandwich. Is it just me, or is there something vaguely odd about the ad?

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