Lit City Blues

A late-breaking Sunday edition of This Week In Vexillology- and we're sticking around central Asia, this time to take a look at the flag of another former Soviet Republic- Azerbaijan! Balanced on the frontier between Iran and Russia, it's not that surprising that Azerbaijan has changed hands a few times down the centuries as various dynasties and kingdoms rose and fell, but it wasn't until The Qajar Dynasty lost the Russo-Persian War in the early 19th Century (you know the one, right?) that the area came under the control of the Russian Empire. That last about a century or so until the Russian Empire collapsed at the tail end of World War I and the ever so brief union of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan took place- the- wait for it- Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. Needless to say, that didn't last long and Azerbaijan declared the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in May of 1918. Lots of impressive milestones were set by the ADR right off the bat: it was ...

Look, I'm not going to bother to link to all the cool trailers that dropped at Comic-Con. If you're reading this, I'm going to assume that you know how to work the internet and can look shit up for yourselves. (Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, Doctor Strange all looked amazing- in addition to, Season 2 of The Expanse- gotta finish Season 1 at some point, and Season 3 of The Flash.) But let's talk the highlights of the week: Wonder Woman Just take my damn money already. There's absolutely nothing that I don't like about this trailer. I love, love, love that it's a period piece- and a World War I period piece no less. I don't really have a lot of knowledge about the source material for Wonder Woman (I know she's an Amazon, I know she comes from Thermiscyra?? I know her name is Diana- that's about it.) but it seems to draw heavily on Greek Mythology, and as a long time lover of Greek mythology, I'm a huge fan of that. As for Wonder W...

I see both sides are already gearing up to tear into people that don't want to fall in line with either of their less than awesome candidates. On the right,  Ace of Spades weighed in by telling the #NeverTrump crowd firmly: Yes, #NeverTrumpers, You Are In Fact Morally Responsible for the Hillary Clinton Presidency You're Agitating For In other words, shut your ass up and get in line. Ace at least acknowledges that Trump has shortcomings but views Hillary Clinton the way most people on the right do, as evil personified. Now, personally, I don't think Hillary Clinton as president will be THE END OF ALL THINGS as many on the right are predicting. Is she corrupt? Probably. Is she an Establishment politician through and through? Absolutely. If she getting my vote? Not at all. And you have to consider that with the Republican advantage built-in at the state level plus a likely Republican Congress, how much is a Democratic President going to get done? Not enough to cause Arma...

The Republicans:  Well, the dumpster fire continues, as Donald Trump has selected Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate, resurrecting some kind of hellish pre-decimalization coin from the UK- the horror of Trumppence descending upon us all now looms. On the face of it, who cares? I mean, I'm not voting for him, so why cares who he picks? But Mike Pence was a particularly uninspiring choice that makes it seem like he's bending to political consultants instead of thinking outside the box. I thought hell would have frozen over before I typed these words, but I agree with Ann Coulter. Pence was his first mistake . Leaving aside his odious record on reproductive rights (because pretty much any Republican Governor will probably hew close to pro-life- or rather, pro-birth orthodoxy) he pushed this religious liberty crap* that makes me not want to vote Republican ever (which, hint hint Republicans should be considered a major problem if you want to you know, matter, or win...

Well, I was hoping I could embed this, but for some reason I can't, but who cares? (Great movie and this clip makes me laugh every single time.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXj8qt9S60U While we're not taking the road to Dushanbe This Week In Vexillology, we are taking the Road to Tashkent with one of the Asian Stans that we haven't (for some reason) gotten around to yet. If you were wondering just which Stan, well, it's the Uzbeki one: The flag of Uzbekistan was adopted on November 18th, 1991 for civil and state usage following the collapse of the Soviet Union- they were the first of the Asian Stans to lock-in a new flag, declaring independence on September 1, 1991 and getting a new flag by mid-November. Happily, there's lots of symbolism for us to break down here: The white stands for peace and unity, while the blue represents the water and the sky- and is also alluding to the flag of Timur, who ruled over the area in the 14th Century. Green officially...

With the end of the Euros, we're officially two-thirds of the way through the grandiosely titled 'SUMMER OF SOCCER' and it's been interesting so far. I'll be the first to admit that I didn't get to watch as much of either the Copa or the Euros as I would have liked, but there's been a lot of interesting things going down out there in the sport, so here's what I've learned so far: 1. Chile might be my new favorite South American team. While the first half of the Copa America Final might have resembled a UFC Match, the second half, Chile (and Argentina) calmed things down and Chile pulled out a gritty performance that eventually forced penalty kicks- and like in 2015, they managed to pull out the win in the shootout. Consider me a fan of La Roja. 2. Portugal was dreadful to watch throughout the tournament, but losing Cristiano Ronaldo early in the final seemed to liberate them somewhat. The French never pressed their advantage and I think the more ...

I'm a whiskey guy, but there's only so much whiskey in the world and I'm trying desperately to work my way through an excess of whiskey crowding my own liquor cabinet- so with no new whiskies around to dig into, that left me with a dearth of Boozehound choices. Happily, the Madre supplied a topic- and it's perfect for the height of summer. Behold, the inside of the Parentals Liquor Cabinet: If you're counting the gins, then you're not alone. I'm pretty sure the Madre is up to about nine gins now- since the gin and tonic has long been a family go-to cocktail- I decided to take a sharp left turn and plunge headlong into the world of gin. Yes, I'm starting The Ginquest- Part 1 with Magellan's Gin: But, before we get to that, we've got to answer the basic question. Just what the hell is gin ? As always, I began the Ginquest with a stop at the Font of All Knowledge, Wikipedia and the extensive wiki-page for gin, which includes an extensive h...