The Crowhill Journal

According to Idris Elba, that is. Idris Elba Suggests Coronavirus Is Earth ‘Reacting’ to Human ‘Infection’

I don’t mean to pick on Mr. Elba. (Well, maybe a little.) But this idea that the universe is alive in some way, that there are consequences to actions — something like karma, or justice, or retribution, or whatever you want to call it — seems to be deeply ingrained in the human psyche.

Paraphrasing Chesterton, “When men cease to believe in God, they don’t believe nothing, they believe anything.”

In this quick episode, P&C compare the 2017 and 2019 editions of the classic bourbon county stouts.

A “vertical” is a comparison of the same beer across several years. Pigweed and Crowhill compare the 2019 and 2017 versions of Goose Island Bourbon County Stout to see if there’s any point to cellaring a beer. Then they compare these beers to a homebrew version.

Here’s a video version of the conversation.

The boys drink and review Haze for Days Pale Ale from Crooked Crab Brewery, then discuss postmodernism.

First, they give a quick review of modernism. What it is, and why some people want to get past it.

Postmodernist thinking is characterized by skepticism and the rejection of grand narratives. It questions the idea of objective reality, morality, truth, human nature, reason, science, or social progress.

Postmodernism calls particular attention to the contingent or socially-conditioned nature of knowledge, and says that our knowledge claims and value systems are a product of historical or cultural discourse, or societal hierarchies. The individual isn’t free, but enslaved to an oppressive system that defines his language, his morals and his truth.

A lot of “modern” ideas (in the chronological sense) are derived from postmodernism.

Pigweed and Crowhill drink and compare two heavy-hitting beers, then discuss coronavirus — again.

Coronavirus has become much more serious than the boys thought just a couple of weeks ago. But how do we evaluate this? What constitutes an over-reaction, and what is an under-reaction? How would we know in either event? Can we draw lessons from how the virus behaved in South Korea and Italy? They’re very different cultures, with very different populations.

There are a lot of things we still don’t know about this virus and how to respond, but it seems there may be some lessons and some lasting effects from this crisis.

I went into a bar on St. Patrick’s Day to get some beer for the Pigweed and Crowhill show, and the bar was empty. On St. Patrick’s Day. It was surreal.

In this episode, P&C drink Guinness and reflect on the classical Irish beer, and the day.