The Bar Towel

Courtesy of the good people at the Art of Drink site, I am sure you will all find this article interesting....
http://www.theartofdrink.com


What’s New in the Cocktail Blogsphere
The world of cocktails and spirits is growing nicely on the Internet. More sites are covering the release of new spirits and others are documenting the creation of new and interesting cocktails. There are even blogs that report on the humour associated with the consumption of alcohol. It all makes for good, and interesting, reading. Since the last time I posted about the cocktail blogsphere, there are a number of new additions that everyone should check out.


Booze News
This is a new blog that reports on events and happening in the alcohol related categories. So far it looks like a good read and covers some areas that other blogs are not, so that is a good thing.
http://www.boozenews.ca

The Spirit World
Here’s a blog that takes a serious look at spirits, not the ghostly kind though. Everything is covered including books, spirits, cocktails and historical stuff. Robert Hess (aka Drinkboy) is a regular contributor to this blog.
http://thespiritworld.net/

Jimmy’s Cocktail Hour
Another good blog dealing mostly with cocktails. Right now Jimmy seems to be on a tiki and rum kick, but that’s a good thing.
http://lightguild.blogspot.com/

Republic of Rum
A new blog being authored by Wayne Curtis who recently released his book titled: “And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in 10 Cocktails.” As you may have guessed, this blog deals mostly with rum.
http://www.republicofrum.com/

Cocktail Jen
Jen is an self described amateur mixologist, but her cocktail creations are very professional looking and she is definitely a student of the classic cocktail.
Http://cocktailjen.blogspot.com

On the House
This is a blog created by the trade magazine Cheers! The topcis are very diverse and interesting and some of the luminaries who post there include Gary Regan (Joy of Mixology fame) and Stephen Beaumont (The Beer Guy) who is also a knowledgeable cocktail enthusiast.
http://onthehouse.typepad.com/

A Dash of Bitters
Another new blog dealing with cocktails. This is a recent addition to my browsing list. A lot of good pictures and a regular contributor to Mixology Monday.
http://www.adashofbitters.com/

So there we have it, a lot more reading for everyone. Eventually I’ll get a comprehensive page of links up, including other sites. Today’s honourable mention site goes to Cheryl Charming’s excellent bartending site.


We can all help support our fellow enthusiasts by checking out their sites and clicking on a few links....
Thanks,
Alex K. Holik
www.boozenews.ca

I just checked out the boozenews.ca link, and the "News as blurry as your vision" tagline certainly applies nicely to the last couple of posts in the blog.

What made you decide to start posting your articles as blurry, busy-looking images rather than nice, plain text? Not only are they hard to read, but they'll make if difficult for people to use the RSS feed to follow your blog, as many aggregators create summary displays using the text from the subscribed feeds.

(Note that I'm assuming you are the person behind this blog since you include it in your signature in the post above, along with the "cute" psuedonym. If you're not the one responsible, then never mind...)

Not to mention that they won't be indexed by Google, making it hard for casual surfers/searchers to find them.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions, they really help.... I would like to use a combination of dropped in graphic articles and all-text articles, plus a wide variety of original content which I am working on. The text articles work better for web purposes but the limitations of the CMS system I am using was frustrating me from an aesthetic point of view. While I design the blog anew using either PHPWebsite or Joomla (right now I am using Nucleus), I want to drop in a few pieces completely graphically designed just for visual impact.
The first of the two is a little blurry and small since I was testing the sizing, but that has all been figured out. With a larger font, I will have a little more freedom to play with the visuals.
Anyway, keep checking back and pass it along to others and hopefully it will be a nice local addition to all the other great sites out there (but with a twisted sense of humour)....
Thanks!
aka Alex