Episode 116: Peter Watts's Blindsight

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The Two Mikes burst out of their pods and shake themselves out of their vampiricly-influenced hibernation to take on Blindsight by Peter Watts.   Are they really conscious or just enacting a poor imitation of it?  Is their any Kung Pao Chicken in the Chinese Room or will they just have to settle for cocktails and Goldfish Crackers?

It's Cocktail Time!

The Devils Baklava

1 shot Nocino

1 shot Barenjäger

2 shots black rum

2 scoops crappy vanilla ice cream

1 pinch of salt

Run through a blender and decant into a glass. Garnish with a Pirouette cookie.

Episode 115: F. G. Cottam's The Colony

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The Two Mikes and a Linda join a group tour to the Hebrides for one more haunted vacation and, after a wee bit of tooth-pulling, have a fine time with our last Cottam book.

It's Cocktail Time!

Spite Made Flesh

Take two rocks glasses. Fill one with ice and water to chill. In another glass pour two shots cognac and add a few cubes of ice.

Pour out ice water from chilled glass. In bottom place some raw sugar, several generous shakes of a rum-based tropical bitters, and rub rim of glass with fresh lemon peel. Strain cold cognac from other glass into spiced glass and enjoy! 

Special closing Music: "The Recruited Collier" by Anne Briggs

Episode 114: F.G. Cottam's Brodmaw Bay

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The Two Mikes take a classic English vacation at the seaside with F.G. Cottam in Brodmaw Bay.  Come for the scenery, stay for the little girl ghosts, ancient hungry sea beings, infidelity, racism, coked-out authors, white flight, sassy children, creepy sexy villagers and desecrated churches!  Don't eat the seafood though, it might back up on you.  The town's motto: Fresh Blood!  Fresh Blood!

There are no places without troubles.


It's Cocktail Time!

The Shadow Over Brodmaw

One bottle of light nitro ale like Harp
One bottle of hard cider, low carbonation
One bottle of dark beer like Guinness or Murphy's Stout

Get a pint glass. You need all your pouring skills. Tilt the glass and pour the beers over the spoon to reduce splash. Do it in the order listed above. You are creating a layered drink with each layer taking up a third of the glass.  Chin Chin!

Episode 113: F. G. Cottam's The Waiting Room

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The Mikes hit the road with the mysterious Linda, and listen to the first of the three F. G. Cottam books on the table. Discussing the book in a hotel room in the savage beating outskirts of Rapid City, South Dakota, we parse the plot and subtleties of the novel and ultimately find it to be quite spooky.

It's Cocktail Time!

I Can't Abide the Stench of It!

In a cocktail shaker with ice, pour:

• 2 shots of gin
• liquor of 1 oyster
• a couple shots of your favorite hot sauce

Shake vigorously and strain into martini glass. Garnish with lemon or lime or, better, the oyster.

Chin chin!

special closing music: "The Roses of Picardy" by John McCormack

Episode 112: Willam Sloane's Three Short Plays

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The Two Mikes pay their penance for delayed podcasting by reading Three Short Plays written by William Sloane.  There is not much to recommend, but if you blow your wig for 1930s gangster talk then we're jake with that.

It Is Cocktail Time!

Bells Won’t Be Ringing

1 bottle of Bells Oberon Beer, very cold

4 shots of watermelon purée, very cold

1/2  shot of Domaine de Canton

Chill a pilsner glass.  Pour the watermelon purée into glass and slowly top with beer (it will fizz).  Top that with the Domaine de Canton and garnish with mint.

Episode 111: William Sloane's The Edge of Running Water

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The Mikes buy a ticket to Maine to find out what's happening with an old professor and learn all about sinister mediums, plucky debutants, hostile downeasters, and the importance of knowing where the fuse box is. And then they get sucked into another dimension.

It's Cocktail Time:

The River's Edge

• In a pint glass put a clump of fresh and cleaned lemon basil or lemon verbena.
• Task a stalk of lemon grass, and bend about 1 inch of the bottom 90 degrees. Muddle the bent end of the lemon grass with the herbs.
• Pour in 1 shot simple syrup, 1 shot aquavit, and 2 shots cointreau. Stir.
• Fill glass with ice and seltzer. Stir again, and enjoy.

Closing music: Down to the River by Buck Owens 

Episode 110, William Sloane's To Walk The Night

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The Two Mike's put on their gym shoes, stay up late, and sneak out of the basement window with William Sloane to Walk the Night. They encounter a beautiful woman in mismatched clothes and bad hair. And you know what that means? MAKE OVER!!!! So watch for the Pretty Woman montage.

It's Cocktail Time!

The Scotch Bonnet

Roast a hot pepper (i.e.. a Ghost, Scotch Bonnet, or Thai pepper) over a flame until blackened. Set aside.

Fill a rocks glass with ice

Rim the glass with the pepper and put in glass

Fill with a medium-OK Scotch (for the love of god, don't use the good stuff; Sean Connery would kill you.)

Drink.




Good article about Sloane: http://wwwbillblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-kind-of-face-you-slash-thinking.html

Episode 109: Charles Stross's The Atrocity Archives

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Finishing our Lovecrafian trilogy with Charles Stross's Lovecraftian espionage thriller, the Mikes explore the eldritch horror of office bureaucracy, the limits of fictionalizing the holocaust, and whether Lovecraftian things are even scary anymore.

It's Cocktail Time!

The Hand of Glory

• In 5 (or more) shot glasses pour yellow Chartreuse almost to the top
• Then into a teaspoon pour 151 proof rum and float a bit onto the shot
• Carefully ignite the rum (keep hair away from the flame!)
• Turn off lights and enjoy the glow for a bit.
• BLOW OUT THE FLAME (VERY IMPORTANT)
• Drink and enjoy.

closing music: "Hand of Glory" by Jimmie Silva and the Empty Set

Episode 108: Move Under Ground by Nick Mamatas

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The Two Mikes jump into their beat-up convertible and hit the road with Nick Mamatas and his book Move Under Ground.   They find out the Old Ones are horrible driving companions and those Beat dudes are a bit ripe so ya got to leave the top down.

IT'S COCKTAIL TIME!

The Exterminator 

1 1/2 shots of green Chartreuse

1 1/2 shots of white rum, high proof

Place in shaker with ice, shake, strain in martini glass, garnish with a green cherry

Chin Chin

Music: Ants on Parade by The Homosexuals

Episode 107: Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October

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The first in our series of three books that might have been written by H. P. Lovecraft, if he were not long dead and these three other authors were not already their own persons. First up, Roger Zelazny's last novel and a light introduction to contemporary Lovecraftian fiction.

It's Cocktail Time!

A Spice in the Lonesome October

In a cocktail shaker combine

• 2 shots brandy
• 1/2 shot each of nutmeg liqueur (St. Elizabeth); clove liqueur (Becherovka); ginger liqueur (Domaine de Canton); cinnamon liqueur (Goldschläger); vanilla liqueur (Frangelico)
• 1 shot cream
• 1 pasteurized egg white
• crushed ice

Shake vigorously and strain into two chilled martini glasses. 

Closing music: "I'm a Doggy" by Marvin Pontiac