It's That Time Of Year Again!

Early July means it's time for the annual Tales of the Cocktail bacchanal down in New Orleans. It means a whole lotta hooch, fattening and deliriously good food, music until all hours and balmy weather. It also is the greatest gathering of spirit and cocktail professionals and enthusiasts, a chance to shake sweaty hands with and learn from the luminaries of our field, a chance to network and better your business and a chance to make new friends over yet another round of ill-advised drinks.

Crap. I love this.

If you can't make it this year, there is a simple way to keep up with the action; the Tales Blog. Run by Paul Clarke, with contributions from a long list of noted internet cocktail writers (and, um, me too), the Tales Blog promises to dig deeper than just covering the events this year. The bloggers team will no doubt report back with who made-out with who, who got a little too drunk, who got arrested and who managed to be talked out of taking off their clothes on Bourbon Street. Okay maybe not. In any case, make a note, too, of the individual blog sites from the contributers, as they will no doubt be filing reports on their own brilliant websites.

And mom, you might see video, you might see pictures, of your one and only son being weird and wild-eyed in The Big Easy. Don't trust your eyes. One word, mom, one word; Photoshop