In 11/2011, Charles Cheung and I formed a company that aspired to express our love of music, art, and food in a liquid form, a spirituous Gin more specifically. Thus, Genius Gin was born. We worked with close friends and confidants to develop the flavors, the right proof, and I remember Jeret Pena saying that the lab sample at 57% was “Flavor Country”. I remember that early tasting with Jessica Sanders where I was nervous and riddled with anxiety. That first Genius martini, as Bill Norris opened up Midnight Cowboy early for us to talk about the gin. It was a riveting time. A tough time. One in which no…

I miss Hank Moody. I’m not sure why. He was a failure as a father, or at least a less than stellar father figure. He sought out and idealized a woman he met in his formative years as a drunken creative auteur. So after 7 seasons, why am I left with this feeling of loss and absence? I know the show ended in 2014, but I hobbled along like many others through the last season to see how our heroic drunk resolved his lifelong romantic ailments. As it turns out, things worked out comfortably. He secured the love of his life of which he had the rockiest of ups and…