Today’s featured artwork is by a Canadian artist known only as Rufus. She works in mixed media and the piece is entitled Northern Breweries, Sudbury, a brewery in Ontario. Northern Breweries was founded in 1907, but closed around five years ago. The work was created in 2008, and is Mixed Media on canvas, 8 x 10 inches.
Rufus is an art teacher in Newmarket, Ontario. Her art can be seen at a variety of blogs, such as Industrial Arts and Little Black Sketchbook.
Our 35th Guinness poster by John Gilroy features a kangaroo who’s taken the zookeeper’s Guinness and put it in her pouch, replacing it with her Joey in his apron. The tagline is “My Goodness, My Guinness.”
And here’s a second version of the ad in blue. The kangaroo is more detailed and looks friendlier, and there are a few other small differences, but it’s otherwise the same.
The results are in, the winners for the 2010 Great American Beer Festival have been announced. I’ll post the full list here as soon as I get a chance, along with breakdowns of the medals. For now, you can see the full list here. One quick cool stat for California; 4 out of the 6 big awards for brewery of the year in different size categories were won by California breweries.
Friday’s ad is for Carling Black Label from 1962. “People Like It” appears to be part of a campaign from the time period, using similar layouts. The first has a bowl of corn chips.
The second has a similar layout, but has a bowl of peanuts instead. And both still reference the iconic “mabel, Black Label.”
Thursday’s ad is for Ballantine Ales from 1953. It’s set on a rooftop bowling alley. It reminds me of the book from a few years ago, Bowling Alone, about how society’s more fractured now and has lost its sense of community. The bowlers in the ad certainly look like they’re having a good time.
Biblical Archeology Review has an interesting article in their September/October issue entitled Did the Ancient Israelites Drink Beer?. The author makes some of the same points I’ve often made — but with more authority — that because of mistranslations and bias, beer is mostly absent from the Bible despite the fact that it’s everywhere else in mankind’s early history. The article’s takeaway is a resounding yes, they did drink beer, and lots of it. Not surprising, but great to see that fact getting more scholarly attention.
Wednesday’s ad is for Redhook, when they were still brewing in Seattle, Washington. I’ve always loved the old-time postcard art showing the original brewery on Phinney Avenue. The building now houses a chocolate company and is across the street from Brouwer’s Belgian Cafe.
Tuesday’s ad is for Barclay’s London Lager. I love the simplicity of the ad, with few colors and using a lot of white negative space to great effect.
To no one’s surprise, the proposed ordinance to impose a new tax on alcohol sold in San Francisco passed today in a city supervisors’ meeting. The next step (before last week’s postponed meeting) was that it would be voted on a second time at another board meeting on September 14, so now I presume any second vote will be at a later meeting.
It will then go to mayor Gavin Newsom, who has ten days to either sign or veto it. The mayor is on the record saying he’ll veto it, at which point it will be sent back to the Board of Supervisors who can override Newsom’s veto with eight votes. That would most likely be in early to mid-October.
As an aside, I’ve noticed every news report lately, even NPR, that mentions Newsom’s intention to veto the ordinance also brings up the fact that he used to be in the alcohol business, as if that means he’s incapable of deciding anything impartially. It’s more likely he understands the arguments of the small brewers, vintners, distillers, bar owners, retailers, etc. who oppose it. But it’s sure nice to see that unbiased reporting by our local media, way to not take sides.
During the hearing supervisor Chris Daly called those who disagreed with the proposed ordinance “whiners” … excuse, me “f___ing whiners.” Very classy. You can see the stream in the Marin Institute’s twitter feed of the meeting. NOTE: I initially said it was the Marin Institute who was tweeting that, not realizing it was Daly who said it. I apologize for the mistake.
Monday’s ad is unusual insofar as its for a beer brewed in a village that no longer exists. Adelshoffen used to be in the Lower Rhine region of Germany. The most famous beer they made was Adelscott, which was launched in 1982. Heineken acquired the brewery through Fischer in 1996 and closed the brewery in 2000.
