THE UNDERGROUND — ISSUE #54
Everything you need to know about in this weekly series: 2 guys improv some serious piano wizardry in Paris, how aging works, the droids of the Star Wars universe, Craig Ferguson explains why wanting to be young all the time is stupid, and holiday drinks to numb the pain of the holidays.
At Social Underground we go beyond the mainstream stuff and see what’s underneath the surface. What should we get into, listen to, read, eat or watch? If there is something in our culture that needs attention that’s our job: Show you the underground things that you need to know about: Books, music, television, movies, comedians, art, and whatever else we can find to get you into something you never knew about. That’s The Underground.
1. Piano improv at the train station in Paris. Paris has to deal with some serious hell in recent weeks, but this video of two complete strangers taking over a train station piano is something to behold. It starts with one man playing piano and no one really paying that much attention. Another man takes notice and joins him. They soon begin to play together like pros that have been doing so for years. They noticed each others signals to change it up and it soon caught the attention of everyone at the station. It’s a pretty nice thing to see 2 people randomly make the wait at a train station something memorable.
2. How long will you live? Thousands of years ago, people only lived for a little over 30 years. That’s why you hear women having children as soon as they are able to. If you’re 20, you practically an old person. Since we live in the developed world (unfortunately not so for many people) our ability to live longer because of medical breakthroughs, clean water, and other things that lead us to live longer.
This video explains aging and how we are aging at the microscopic level. Sure, most of us think we’ll live forever, but the sad truth that everyone must understand is that we are all mortal, we will all die, and that is the 100% guarantee in your life. I know that’s depressing, but you can live a better life knowing that we all have a clicking clock.
Check out the video and get angry that you weren’t born a Lobster.
3. Here are all the droids in the Star Wars universe. In case you were living on another planet, in a cave with fingers in your ears, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has finally come out in theaters (check out our review). But, when you’re not sitting back and watching all the lightsaber or space battles, you may have forgotten about the droids that litter the screen.
Sure we know the main ones, but there are a few on here that I completely forgot about. Thankfully, Futurism has provided us with a spectacular infographic that will make us appreciate all the droids on the screen
4. Craig Ferguson explains why young people are advertised to and why older people get ignored. If you know anything about advertising and marketing today, you’ll notice that everything is directed toward youth. People buy creams and ointment to look younger. All television ads go toward the youth. It used to be about viewership, but now it’s about the youth demographic. A show with 7 million viewers is considered more of a success than a show that gets 13 million viewers because the 7 million viewer show hit the key 18-35 demographics.
Seriously, of you look up all the popular websites, you’ll see they are described as something like “A male directed website for the 18-35 demographic.” It’s nuts. You can see it in Hollywood. You can especially see it happening to women in Hollywood. The moment an actress hits 34, her career switches to playing the mother roles in movies. Jennifer Lawrence is only 25 and is now playing a mother in a new movie.
Craig Ferguson explains why all of that is bullsh*t. It’s amazing.
5. Christmas is coming up, so here are the best drinks you can booze to while putting up with your racist family. I’ll be honest, I’m skipping Christmas this year. I want nothing to do with it because I want to see what it’s like to completely skip a holiday that is celebrated from the beginning of November until the first few days of January. The only thing that made Christmas even more annoying this year was that everything on television was sponsored by Christmas or Star Wars. There’s no escape from Christmas. There is no “war on Christmas.” Can’t I just walk into a store to buy some milk and eggs without seeing everything covered in Christmas stuff, or before getting into the store have a lady ringing a bell that shames me into giving her money. No.
So, to put up with it, there’s alcohol! Here are some Christmas drinks you can make to numb yourself from the holiday cheer.
Chocolate Peppermint Stick Recipe
1 1/2 ounce white creme de cacao
1 ounce cream
1 ounce peppermint schnapps
Skake well with ice. Strain ingredients into chilled martini glasses. Garnish with a small peppermint candy cane (or, optionally, crush the candy cane and sprinkle it on top) and serve.
Santa Shot Recipe
1 part grenadine syrup
1 part green creme de menthe
1 part peppermint schnapps
Pour grenadine to about 1/3 of your shot glass. Carefully layer equal parts of the creme de menthe, then the peppermint schnapps. Don’t worry if the schnapps and creme de menthe blend together, as mine did. You can garnish it with crushed candy canes, if you want.
Chocolate Raspberry Martini
1 1/2 ounces raspberry vodka
1 ounce white creme de cacao
Chill your ingredients beforehand. Pour them into a chilled martini glass and stir.
Red Hot Santa Tini Recipe
2 ounces chili-infused vodka
2 ounces Godiva chocolate liqueur
Cocoa powder
Cayenne pepper
Sweetened whipping cream
One small Thai chili pepper
Make the chili-infused vodka first: put a handful of Thai chili peppers into a bottle of vodka and let it sit for 3 days. Taste it to test the heat level. If you’re happy, you’re done. If you want it spicier, let it continue to infuse for up to 5 days. If it’s too hot now, take the peppers out, transfer to another container, and add more vodka.
Mix some cocoa powder together with a pinch of cayenne pepper, and rim a chilled martini glass with it. Shake the vodka up with the chocolate liqueur and pour the mixture into the glass. Top it off with the whipping cream and garnish by floating the chili pepper on top of the cream.
Red Rudolph Cocktail Recipe
1/2 ounce orange curacao
3/4 ounce cinnamon schnapps
1/2 ounce vodka
6 ounces cranberry juice
Heat the cranberry juice until it’s hot. Pour everything else into an Irish coffee mug and then slowly add the hot juice. The temperature of the drink will be warm. Top it with whipped cream and garnish with sugar sprinkles on top.
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Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post,UPROXX,BGR and by just looking up his name.
Contact: jeff@socialunderground.com