101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die

From Benromach to Yoichi, a definitive guide to whisky by one of the industry’s more illustrious tipplers
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In his new book “101 Whiskies to Try Before you Die” whisky expert Ian Buxton poses the fun challenge of learning about whisky by drinking a lot of whisky. Having the enviable job of working in the whisky industry for over two decades, as a consultant, Marketing Director of a world-famous single malt, and builder of several distillery visitor centers, he learned the ins and outs of whisky and the people who make it. In this book, he shares his wisdom and some entertaining details along the way.

Over a golden dram of Highland Park 50 at its Harrods launch in London earlier this year, we talked scotch with the book’s illustrious author.

Buxton’s love of whisky led him to write this book not as “an awards list,” but rather as the definitive “guide to 101 whiskies that enthusiasts should try” to complete their education. He focuses generally on bottles that are neither obscure nor prohibitively expensive. Buxton’s love of whisky jumps off of the page with each story he has to tell about the geography of Scotland, the history of distilleries, the stories behind some of the unique companies that create award-winning blends. Of the whiskies included in the book, 72 are from Scotland while the rest hail from Ireland, England, Japan, Sweden, Canada, India and the U.S.

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From insider details about distilleries he visited on his honeymoon to honest disclosures about companies he worked for, 101 Whiskies is full of anecdotes that make what could otherwise be a dry who’s-who into a page-turner. From three types of the brown tipple created in small batches by Compass Box to impressions of the impossibly hip Monkey Shoulder site, he covers it all with wit and a balanced perspective.

While some brands are accessible like the Macallan 10 and Makers Mark, more exclusive labels make the cut when Buxton feels they’re worth the money, which includes Johnny Walker’s Blue Label George V Edition and the surprisingly delicate Highland Park 40. All of this variety turns the book into a whisky-fueled journey through tasting these 101 whiskies into both a inspiring travel guide and an education in scotch, whisky, whiskey, bourbon, rye and new make spirit (whisky before it’s been aged).

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Buxton always makes sure to prioritize the actual liquor itself, adding his own DIY suggestions for some of the packaging, such as the posh wooden box for the Dewar’s Signature that could become “a handy coffin for a pet hamster or gerbil.” Though he’s similarly skeptical about Basil Hayden’s copper belt, he likes the contents.

Buxton does have a few preferred places for drinking whisky, including Edinburgh’s Bramble Bar, The Pot Still in Gasgow, the Highlander in Craigellachie, NYC’s The Brandy Library and in London, The Athenaeum Hotel or Albannach and Salt. And if there was to be a 102nd bottle? “Probably some moonshine from the hills, but we don’t want everyone to know and the cops to visit the guy.”

“101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die” sells online from Amazon and will be available December 2010 from Powells . Sláinte!


Unclutterer giving away two Wi-Fi Amazon Kindles

Unclutterer readers are the most amazing readers on the internet — at least in our (unabashedly biased) opinions. As a result, those of us on the Unclutterer staff will be purchasing two of the latest generation Wi-Fi Amazon Kindles to give away to two of our lucky readers.

Books can take up a lot of storage space in our homes and offices, and having a digital e-book reader certainly helps keep bookshelves from lining every inch of our spaces. The two units we’re giving away are the latest generation Kindle Wireless Reading Device, which are Wi-Fi only, with a 6″ display, in Graphite. It’s the same device I have and love with a passion. (I especially appreciate that I can read silly mystery novels and no one else is the wiser.)

How to enter to win: Entering to win is simple. All you need to do is follow us on Twitter. If you aren’t already on Twitter, create an account and then follow us @Unclutterer.

Next Tuesday and Thursday (October 26 and 28, 2010) at 10:00 a.m. EDT, I will use twitRand() the Random Integer Generator at random.org and select that day’s one winner. You only need to follow us once (and please, only once), to participate in the giveaway. If you already follow us on Twitter, then you are already participating and need not do anything more. Winners of the giveaway will have 24 hours to respond to a direct message from @Unclutterer to claim their new Kindle. Failure to respond within 24 hours will disqualify you from the giveaway.

I know that some of you aren’t interested in social media and will want to complain about having to sign up for Twitter to participate in the giveaway — however, this is the easiest way for us to manage the giveaway and it ensures that many of our readers are already entered to win with no additional effort on their part. Also, if you’re an avid Wired magazine reader, you know that social networking sites can help increase worker productivity if used efficiently.

I am so exited about this reader appreciation event and cannot wait to give away two Kindle Wireless Reading Devices. Remember, you have until 10:00 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, October 26, 2010, to follow us on Twitter for the first Kindle giveaway.

NOTE: twitRand() appears to be offline, so we’ve had to change the manner by which the winners will be randomly selected.

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.


Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People

Kill time creatively with Amy Sedaris’ clever new book on crafting

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If Carrie Bradshaw embodied the modern woman of the early 2000s, then Amy Sedaris (who made a few cameos on the show) might be just the clever lady to lead us out of the Great Recession and into the next decade. Along with her crack team of outfits and misfits, Sedaris’ new book on crafting assembles a host of DIY projects for “anybody who’s looking for a simple, creative way to kill a lot of time.” From crafting for Jesus to knowing your knack for knick-knacks, “Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People” details how, with just a few pennies, well-adjusted adults and those “hampered by a defective brain” alike can construct a fake candle or coconut bikini.

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Fifteen chapters cover curious crafts like crab-claw roach clips and crepe-paper moccasins, along with practical insight like which kind of glue to use with different materials and how to avoid disasters like feather asphyxia. Amy Sedaris for president 2012.

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Available November 2010, “Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People” pre-sells from Amazon.


Competition: five copies of Spam Jam to be won

Spam Jam

Dezeen have got together with Croatian design and communication agency Bruketa&Zinic OM to give away five copies of their limited-edition picture book Spam Jam.

Spam Jam

Bruketa&Zinic OM trawled the contents of their spam folders to create this illustrated book based on the bizarre offers, requests and proposals that the emails contained.

Spam Jam

Split into three sections – Spam Data, Spam Messages and Spam Future – the book is printed with a range of different paper stocks and inks.

Spam Jam

To enter this competition email your name, age, gender, occupation, and delivery address and telephone number to competitions@dezeen.com with “Spam Jam” in the subject line. We won’t pass your information on to anyone else; we just want to know a little about our readers.

Read our privacy policy here.

Spam Jam

Competition closes 8 November 2010. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeenmail newsletter and at the bottom of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.

Subscribe to our newsletter, get our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter for details of future competitions.

Spam Jam

Here’s more from Bruketa&Zinic OM:


Spam Jam

A new book from Bruketa&Zinic OM, a limited edition designers’ picture book published by Igepa

You could easily have a big winkie, a girl from Kentucky who loves you and 10 million bucks from a friendly banker from Nigeria – if only your computer wouldn’t classify such lifetime offers as junk mail.

Spam Jam

What do we really expect from life? How do we imagine the world? Every day, in existential endeavors and unrestrained by moral boundaries of their local community, millions of spammers send messages to unknown people all around the world, containing offers they believe will inspire their most hidden desires. Does junk folder hide a real image of human race? Who are we, really, stripped bare of moral categories?

Spam Jam

Bruketa&Zinic OM Agency peeked into a forgotten junk mail folder and created a limited edition designers’ picture book titled Spam Jam for Igepa, picturing a world we secretly yearn for. The book has 52 pages and it contains original illustrations. It is printed on Igepa paper and divided thematically into three parts: Spam Data, Spam Messages and Spam Future. Spam Data abounds with various, more or less well-known facts about what spam is and what it most often promotes, and it also includes some spam statistics. Spam Messages contains various representative spam messages and Spam Future wraps up the story with a futurist vision of spam seen by the authors of the book.

Spam Jam

Nebojsa Cvetkovic, art director and illustrator in Bruketa&Zinic OM said: “In a Spam Jam world you could be in top form in less than a month, with a perfectly chiseled body, a large penis and a pile of gold that you would buy at a terrific bargain. Surely you would live to be a hundred because of all the fantastic products that are offered. And all of that from the comfort of your armchair. All you need is an email address. No wonder that the term “spam” comes from one of the Monty Python’s Flying Circus sketches. It is totally appropriate.”

Spam Jam

The Bruketa&Zinic OM Agency deals with branding, design, advertising and digital communications, and for their work they have been rewarded with more than 300 international awards including the Art Directors Club New York, Cresta, Clio, London International Awards, Epica, European Design Awards, and many others. To the general public they are known for a cookbook that must be baked before use and the annual report that glows in the dark.

Spam Jam

D’espresso by Nemaworkshop

D'espresso by Nemaworkshop

This espresso bar to be located near Grand Central Station in New York was designed by New York studio Nemaworkshop to resemble a library turned on its side.

D'espresso by Nemaworkshop

Called D’espresso, the interior has been rotated 90 degrees so that one wall features herringbone-pattern wooden flooring while the opposite wall will have pendent lights protruding horizontally.

D'espresso by Nemaworkshop

A photograph of bookshelves printed on custom tiles will line the floor, end wall and ceiling.

D'espresso by Nemaworkshop

Images are by David Joseph.

The information below is from Nemaworkshop:


Located on Madison Avenue, the espresso bar conceptually and literally turns a normal room sideways, creating a striking identity for the emerging brand.

D'espresso by Nemaworkshop

The client approached nemaworkshop with an ambition to build a unique espresso brand and to develop a creative environment that connects to its location on Madison Avenue near Grand Central Station. Inspired by the nearby Bryant Park Library, nemaworkshop designed a store that is straightforward in a simple twisted way – Take a library and turn it SIDEWAYS.

D'espresso by Nemaworkshop

The book-lined shelves become the floor and ceilings and wood floor ends up on the walls meanwhile the pendants protrude sideways from the wall. To achieve the books shelves on the floor, the space is lined with sepia-toned full size photograph of books printed on custom tiles.

D'espresso by Nemaworkshop

The custom tiles run along the floor, up the 15’ foot wall and across the ceiling. The frosted glass wall behind the service counter illuminates the space and the wall directly opposite is clad in dark brown herringbone. The thrust of this concept finds expression in the lighting and materiality, and ultimately the space gives definition to the emerging brand. The concept itself is bold and receptive to future locations.

D'espresso by Nemaworkshop


See also:

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Living with Books and Art
by UNStudio
Mushroom garden
made of books
More interiors
stories

Visual Editions: Tristram Shandy

For their first book, Visual Editions tackled one of literature’s most ambitious novels: Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. It’s also one that, fittingly, is ripe for a visual reimagining…

“At our last count, there have been more than 120 different editions of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. If we’re counting right, ours is the 123rd,” say Visual Editions.

“Of the many editions, our contemporary favourites – after this one – are American artist John Baldessari’s 1988 edition (which came out in a severe 400 copy edition) and Martin Rowson’s 1997 illustrated version [a new edition of which was published earlier this year by Self Made Hero]. We also like British film-maker Michael Winterbottom’s irreverent 2005 film all about Shandy’s unfilmableness: A Cock and Bull Story.

“The visual elements in this edition highlight and exaggerate what Laurence Sterne intended when he first wrote Shandy,” they explain. “We like to think that the designers at A Practice for Everyday Life (APFEL) put Laurence Sterne’s jacket on and went for a little walk with it.”

The new edition of Tristram Shandy also boasts an introduction by Will Self. More information on the book is on a special VE microsite here, and to buy a copy right this minute, go here.

Visual Editions are also set to release Jonathan Safran Foer’s Tree of Codes, a die-cut reinterpretation of the text of Bruno Schulz’s book, The Street of Crocodiles, later this year.

VE will be profiled in the December issue of CR.

Pack rats illustrated in comic books

The website Comics Alliance, as its name suggests, covers comic books and all things related to the comic book industry. Reader Haley called our attention to the site to check out the post “Super-Hero Hoarders. The 7 Biggest Pack-Rats In Comics.”

Art often mimics life, so it’s not surprising that fictional characters struggle with clutter the same as everyone else. I really liked #4, Rick Jones’ illustrated mess. From the article:

At first glance, it’s pretty easy to call Rick Jones out for hoarding super-hero contacts. Over the course of his existence in the Marvel Universe, he’s sidekicked for the Hulk, Captain Marvel, Captain America, ROM: Spaceknight and the entire Avengers team, and been singled out as the bearer of the Destiny Force, which was so complicated that even Curt and Chris won’t touch it.

In reality, though — or at least, in one reality — Rick’s a straight up legitimate hoarder: In the alternate universe of “Future Imperfect,” the Hulk ends up killing all of the other super-heroes and super-villains, leaving Rick to amass a pretty hefty collection of memorabilia

Check out the full article to learn who took the top spot.

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.


Cardi Black Box Vol. 1

A new publication richly documents one of Milan’s most progressive young galleries
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Keeping with the family business, Nicolò Cardi and his partners chose to develop a museum-like approach to his Galleria Cardi by supporting artists in the creation of new projects and collaborating with innovative international museums and cultural institutions. An extension of the contemporary art space and the brainchild of Cardi, Cardi Black Box catalogs the young gallery’s successes.

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The hugely dense book takes a look at exhibitions, special projects and conversations with the artists. With accurate descriptions of each initiative, details and images of every single work of art ever displayed, as well as its signature type and graphic design, there’s plenty to pore over in this first edition.

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Some of the most compelling works are the intense still-life photographs of Shirana Shahbazi, the hyper-detailed paintings of Scott Short (which copies by hand the details of photocopies), the portraits of mafia killings by Sicilian photojournalist Letizia Battaglia and the obsessive and colorful graphics of Thomas Bayrle.

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Printed by Tar Siz Publishing (known for their art-enthused publication Tar Magazine), Cardi Black Box Vol. 1 was designed and produced entirely by the gallery staff.

The book hits museums and concept shops 18 October 2010, and currently pre-sells from Colette. See more images from Cardi Black Box Vol. 1 in the gallery below.


Bob & Roberta Smith designs the new D&AD Annual

The new D&AD Annual launches this week, featuring design from artist Bob & Roberta Smith.

 

Smith was chosen by outgoing D&AD President Paul Brazier to perform the task of designing the annual for 2010, alongside Keith Sargent from Immprint. Writing in the introduction, Brazier comments: “One of the many good things about being President of D&AD is you get to choose who designs the annual. I’ve always had a bit of a secret ambition to do it myself. But I put the megalomania on hold and asked one of my favourite artists instead: Bob & Roberta Smith.”

Subject divider pages from the D&AD Annual 2010

Smith follows British artists Peter Blake and Allen Jones, who have designed the book in the past. Despite being best known for his fine art work, his graphic style and pithy way with words make him an ideal candidate for D&AD. He introduces a central theme, ‘Everything is Made’, to this year’s book, a slogan that appears on its cover in a script typical to the artist. “I love that sentiment,” continues Brazier in the intro. “To me, it sums up what being a creative is all about. It’s not just coming up with an original idea, it’s about crafting it, nurturing it, doing it justice.”

Alongside the cover and intro pages, Smith’s main contribution is the divider pages, which feature a mixture of found imagery and artworks by Smith, as well as witty anagrams of each category title. The rest of the design is, by contrast, clean and functional, with the emphasis placed on the winning work. One quirky extra addition by Smith is an audio intro – a la annoying greeting cards – that is housed in the front flap of the book, and states ‘Hello, I’m Bob & Roberta Smith, welcome to the D&AD Annual. Everything Is Made.’ The first time you hear it it’s fun, but by the 20th it will undoubtedly induce howls of irritation. Perhaps the battery can be removed.

This year’s D&AD Annual is a little lighter than in recent years, with just over 550 works making it in. Forty-two Yellow Pencils were awarded, and five Black Pencils, for Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s High Line in New York, TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg’s Trillion Dollar Flyer for The Zimbabwean, the Apple website, and SapientNitro’s integrated campaign for Tourism Queensland. The book includes commentary from jury members on why the work won.

More divider pages

The D&AD Annual is published by Taschen and will be available for general release from mid-November, priced £34.99. To preorder a copy, visit taschen.com.

Organize your writing, J.K. Rowling style

The website /Film reported on Friday about author J.K. Rowling’s method for organizing her books. Using pen, notebook paper, and a simple grid, she plotted out the direction of her stories. Pictured here is the chart for chapters 13-24 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

(Note: /Film includes a larger version on their site for detailed reading.)

The grid outlines the chapter, month, chapter title, explanation of how that chapter relates to the over-arching plot of the book, and then columns for each of the book’s six subplots (prophecies, Harry’s romantic interests, Dumbledore’s Army, Order of the Phoenix, Snape and crew, and Hagrid and Grawp). Like the /Film post’s author, I believe that Rowling likely used more organizing tools in her story preparation. However, I think it’s wonderful to see how an author planned out her story before writing it.

When constructing memos, documents, short stories, novels, or whatever it is you’re writing, do you map out where you’re going and all that you want to include? Could adopting a method like Rowling’s help you to be a better organized writer? I’m certainly taking a few tips from her method and applying it to my own work. I’m thoroughly impressed.

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.