Devotees of ye Green Fairy

[Ligeia]

A remarkable absinthe "Devil" bell, probably produced
in Switzerland to promote the prohibitionist cause.

[Ligeia]

"I sit at my door, smoking a cigarette and sipping my absinthe, and I enjoy every day without a care in the world."

Paul Gauguin

[Ligeia]

For me my glory is an
Humble ephemeral Absinthe
Drunk on the sly, with fear of treason
and if I drink it no longer,
it is for a good reason.

Verlaine

[The New Nonsense]

From Sonnets from the Patagonian by American decadent Donald Evans (1884-1921)

BUVEUSE D"ABSINTHE
Rue d'Aphrodite


Her voice was fleet-limbed and immaculate,
And like peach blossoms blown across the wind
Her white words made the hour seem cool and kind,
Hung with soft dawns that danced a shadow fete.
A silken silence crept up from the South,
The flutes were hushed that mimed the orange moon,
And down the willow stream my sighs were strewn,
While I knelt to the corners of her mouth.

Lead me afar from clamorous dissonance,
For I am sick of empty trumpetings,
Choking the highways with a dusty noise.
Here I have found her sweet sheer utterance,
And now I seek the garden of the wings
Where I may bathe in sounds that life destroys.

[Daisy]

“Wormwood” (1906), by Maximilian Voloshin, trans. Constantine Rusanov

My bonfire on the shore was burning down.
I heard the rustling sound of streaming glass.
The acrid soul of wistful wormwood wound
Through languid darkness, swayed, and flowed past.

The granite crags resemble fractured wings.
The weight of hills bends down a spinal cord.
The no-man’s land is stiff and suffering.
The mouth of Earth has been denied the word!

A child of the inquisitive dark nights,
I am your eyes, wide-open to invite
The gaze of ancient stars, those lonesome lights
Whose prying rays reach out into the night.

I am your mouth of stone, your voiceless lyre!
By silence fettered, I have grown as mute
As extinct suns. I am the frozen fire
Of words. I am the sightless, wingless you.

O captive mother! How at night I bend
To feel your bosom—only you can see
The bitter smoke, the wormwood's bitter scent,
The bitterness of waves—will stay in me.

[Cyril Tourneur]

Ossian Brown is very pleased to announce that a remarkable and haunting pastel work from his collection of Austin Osman Spare art (Astral Body and Ghost, 1946) has been chosen to accompany a unique distillation of Absinthe prepared by Oliver Matter for the Swiss company Absinthe-Brevans. The edition, entitled Absinthe Brevans A.O. Spare, will be released on Ossian's birthday, the 3rd of April 2009.
Absinthe Brevans A.O. Spare is the second Absinthe in the Brevans series, and is dedicated to the English painter and visionary Austin Osman Spare, who died in 1956. The first batch was distilled on Spare's birthday (Dec. 30). The basis for the formula was taken from the 1897 book La fabrication des liqueurs by J. De Brevans. The formula has been slightly modified to gain a nicely balanced distillate. Oliver Matter uses locally sourced botanicals cultivated to eco-standards, or equally high-quality herbs such as Anise. No sugar or any other artificial substances are used. Matter uses herbs such as small wormwood, hyssop and others for colouring Absinthe. Absinthe-Brevans press release states: "The result is a pretty complex yet smooth, harmonic and mellow Absinthe. We’re sure Austin Osman Spare would have been proud of it and most likely enjoyed the Absinthe himself a lot. We would like to thank Ossian Brown for letting us use one of Spare's most important paintings Astral Body and Ghost for this Absinthe!"

Both Ossian and Stephen feel that the picture is the perfect image to accompany this unique distillation. Raise a glass to ZOS!

Absinthe Brevans A.O.Spare , Brevans, A.O. Spare by ABSINTHE.DE - Absinth Import & Vertrieb, shop, online, order, buy, mail-order

[hopfrog]

"EVEN WHEN SHE WALKS...'
Charles-Pierre Baudelaire

Even when she walks she seems to dance!
Her garments writhe and glisten like long snakes
obedient to the rhythm of the wands
by which a fakir wakens them to grace.
Like both the desert and the desert sky
insensible to human suffering,
and like the ocean's endless labyrinth
she shows her body with indifference.
Precious minerals are her polished eyes,
and in her strange symbolic nature
angel and sphinx unite,
where diamonds, gold, and steel dissolve into one light,
shining forever, useless as a star,
the sterile woman's icy majesty.

[hopfrog]

I will free you first from burning thirst
That is born of a night of the bowl,
Like a sun 'twill rise through the inky skies
That so heavily hang o'er your souls.
At the first cool sip on your fevered lip
You determine to live through the day,
Life's again worth while as with a dawning smile
You imbibe your absinthe frappe.
--Glenn MacDonough

[hopfrog]

They were serving cool cocktails at the cafe/bar where we partied every evening after the theatre closed at ye Lovecraft Film Festival -- and I had my first sip of Absinthe! It was called "De Vermis Mysteriis": "All of the mystery, none of the worm! Absinthe, sugar, lemon juice with a twist." They also had "Traditional Azathoth": "Slowly the ice water drips upon the sugar cube falling bit by bit into the absinthe below until the anticipation drives you insane." And "The Yog-Sothoth": "This is not your father's outer god! Absinthe and orange with a hint of lime."

The drink I did order was the "Grand Ligotti": "A delightful Frolic! Van Gough Pomegranate Vodka & Pama Liquour set the stage for Grand Marnier's entrance." It was such a bitter drink.....