Found: One Cat.

Last Friday, a friendly but burr-encrusted cat wandered in our door and has been hanging out here since. We temporarily dubbed her Madame Fuzzybottoms Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, or Fuzzybottoms for short; pictures of her enjoying herself here are below.

She seems very domesticated, so I'm making this post in the off-chance this is a lost pet of one of our customers--if so, come by to pick her up. Otherwise, we're in the process of getting her vet-ized and finding her a good home. (We can't keep her here for health code reasons, plus our dog patrons seem to have acquired a keen interest in consuming Madame Fuzzybottoms.) She's sweet as sunshine and very pettable; those of you who don't know her already might see her if you come by in the next day or two.

Poetry on May 8.

Chin Music: The Pacific Standard Poetry Reading Series
Featuring Jeffrey McDaniel, Meghan O'Rourke, and Carey McHugh
Thursday, May 8th @ 8:00PM

Pacific Standard Bar
82 Fourth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY

http://www.pacificstandardbrooklyn.com

Please join us for our next installment of Chin Music, Brooklyn's new
poetry reading series at Pacific Standard bar in Park Slope.
Established and rising poets and writers from near and far are
featured during each of our seasons. Our May 8th reading will feature
three fine poets: Jeffrey McDaniel, Meghan O'Rourke and Carey McHugh.
Our last reading of the season, on May 22nd, will feature Eamon
Grennan, Patrick Phillips, and Ciaran Berry. Series curated by Colin
Cheney.

Located on Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn, near the Atlantic/Pacific
station, Pacific Standard is a literary bar serving up over a dozen
West Coast microbrews on tap (as well as choice selections from small
and local breweries), a fine collection of wines, and tasty cheeses
and meats.

--
Featured Poets:

Jeffrey McDaniel's fourth book, THE ENDARKENMENT, is forthcoming this
month from the University of Pittsburgh Press. A recipient of an NEA
fellowship, his poems have appeared in Best American Poetry and
Ploughshares and are forthcoming from American Poetry Review. He
teaches at Sarah Lawrence and is the author of three previous books:
THE SPLINTER FACTORY, THE FORGIVENESS PARADE, and ALIBI SCHOOL.

Meghan O'Rourke's first book, HALFLIFE, was published by W.W. Norton in
2007. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic,
Poetry, and other venues. A widely published critic, she contributes
frequently to the New York Times Book Review and Slate, where she is
also culture editor. She is a poetry editor at The Paris Review and
was the recipient of the 2005 Union League Civic and Arts Foundation
Award for poetry.

Carey McHugh's chapbook, ORIGINAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PERFECT
PRESERVATION OF BIRDS &c., was selected by Rae Armantrout for the
Poetry Society of America's New York Chapbook Fellowship. Her poems
have appeared in Smartish Pace, Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, and
elsewhere. She currently lives in Manhattan and teaches writing in the
Bronx.

--
Directions:

Pacific Standard is located at 82 Fourth Avenue in Park Slope,
Brooklyn, between St. Marks and Bergen Streets. It's a short walk from
a dizzying array of subway and commuter rail lines at the
Atlantic/Pacific station, namely, the 2, 3, 4, 5, D, N, Q, and R, as
well as the Long Island Railroad. New York subway map. After you exit
the Atlantic/Pacific station, just walk four blocks south on Fourth
Avenue to get to our bar. We're not too much longer a walk from the F
and G stop at Bergen Street, and are also close to the B61, B63, and
B65 bus lines.

Finnegans Wake Reading Group Wednesday

Here's the agenda for the Finnegans Wake reading/discussion group this Wednesday. Last Wednesday was an enlightening and beery affair, we have heard, so y'all should check it out this time around:

"This week's Wake reading group will be doing the first chapter (pgs 3-26) of the book, after last week's preparation/introduction meeting. Even if you did not attend last weeks, you can still join. (In fact, anyone can join at any point, due to the circular nature of the book. But I think its probably better to join in now)."

Beer and Cheese Night III Moves to May 20

A slight change: Beer and Cheese Night III will now take place Tuesday, May 20. So re-save the date, and as promised, more details will come later.

Frequent Drinker All-Night Happy Hours Moving

Previously, Frequent Drinkers have enjoyed happy hours and double points from Sunday-Tuesday. We're switching that period to Monday-Wednesday, to encourage you to come in during our Wednesdays, which are actually our favorite days, but are, as yet, sparsely populated. (And with our pub quiz's glorious success, it doesn't seem that Sundays need any help.) So avoid the weekend crowds and come in and enjoy a leisurely pint with us on the new Friday.

Reminder: Fiction Night on Tuesday.

Pacific Standard Fiction Series: Art, Politics, and Murder
featuring Francisco Goldman, Anne Landsman, and Ceridwen Dovey

Tuesday, April 29th, 7:00 p.m.
82 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn, New York (between St. Marks and Bergen)
hosted by Garth Risk Hallberg

Books available on-site!
Drink specials to be chosen by dartboard!
Come see why New York Magazine named us "Best New Literary Event of 2008!"

*

Francisco Goldman's novels, THE LONG NIGHT OF WHITE CHICKENS, THE
ORDINARY SEAMAN, and THE DIVINE HUSBAND, have been finalists for
honors including the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the
PEN/Faulkner Award. His latest book, THE ART OF POLITICAL MURDER,
extends the themes of his fiction as it explores the real-life
assassination of Bishop Juan Gerardi, the Guatemalan human rights
leader. The Washington Post called it "a passionate cry of outrage
that should be read and passed on by anyone who believes, as Goldman
proves here, that truth is always more improbable than fiction."
Truth; fiction...tonight, he will read a little of both.

"Goldman, a highly artistic writer of conscience, delves more deeply
into the injustices and paradoxes of Central American society with
each book.... Ultimately, he not only dramatizes the fate of one lush
but unlucky Central American country but also conjures the very spirit
of humankind in all its perfidy and splendor." -Booklist

South African-born Anne Landsman's new novel, THE ROWING LESSON, was a
recent New York Times Editor's Choice. "[Its] beauty, wrote O
Magazine, "is in its fluid metaphors, its urgent storytelling laced
with fragments of Afrikaans, and [its] lyric desperation." Landsman's
first novel, THE DEVIL'S CHIMNEY, was nominated for the PEN/Hemingway
Award and the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize. She has contributed
regularly to The Believer Magazine.

"Nothing about this curriculum vitae conveys the visceral appeal of
Anne Landsman's second novel...a book that puts readers as deep into
[its protagonist] as if he had been opened up on the table before us.
Landsman is a gambler, and here she risks everything." -The New York
Times

Ceridwen Dovey's debut novel, BLOOD KIN, will be published in 14
countries, and has been shortlisted for the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize
and the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best First Book. Nobel Prize
winner J. M. Coetzee described it as "a fable of the arrogance of
power, beneath whose dreamlike surface swirl currents of complex
sensuality." Dovey earned her Masters in Creative Writing at the
University of Cape Town in her native South Africa, and is currently
pursuing a Ph. D. in Social Anthropology here in the States.

"Dovey's precise and terrifying debut novel [feels] like the earliest,
exhilarating days under a new administration, when a pliant populace
is eager and willing to follow wherever a confident leader directs
us." -The New York Times Book Review

Host Garth Risk Hallberg is the author of A FIELD GUIDE TO THE NORTH
AMERICAN FAMILY. The Pacific Standard Fiction Series aims to showcase
the intense and varied literary energies of Brooklyn by pairing
writers from the borough and beyond. We offer fine stories and
appealing beverages in a civilized setting. For more information,
please visit www.pacificstandardbrooklyn.com.

Slodeth, Pacific Standard Pub Quiz Champions.

Behold, the mighty Slodeth, our first season pub quiz champions and the team everyone is gunning for in the second season. They had their championship party yesterday, with a Maytag of Miller High Life and Schaefer, as well as food, courtesy of the Standard. Look how happy they are! You could be them! Study!

The Pennsylvania primary on April 22.

For those of you who have been hinting querulously about our bar's showing of the purportedly earth-shattering Pennsylvania primary next Tuesday:

yes.

We will show it.

So come by to watch the results in the back room. We'll have the big projection screen going. And yes, with sound, e.g., all the amplified Wolf Blitzer you can take.

Fiction Reading May 13th.

Pacific Standard Fiction Series: Victorian Night
featuring Arthur Phillips and Douglas A. Martin

Tuesday, May 13th, 7:00 p.m.
82 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn, New York (betw. St. Marks and Bergen)
hosted by Garth Risk Hallberg

Books available on-site!
Drink specials to be chosen by dartboard!
The Spring Season Finale for New York Magazine's "Best New Literary Event!"

Arthur Phillips' third novel, ANGELICA, was, like PRAGUE and THE
EGYPTOLOGIST, a national bestseller. The Washington Post, which named
it one of the best novels of 2007, wrote, "[ANGELICA] cements this
young novelist's reputation as one of the best writers in America, a
storyteller who combines Nabokovian wit and subtlety with a narrative
urgency that rivals Stephen King's." Phillips, a five-time Jeopardy!
champion and winner of the Los Angeles Times/Art Seidenbaum Award for
best first novel, has been translated into 25 languages.

"ANGELICA impresses first as a clever send-up of the late Victorian
novel, and then becomes its own very original thing. It is engrossing,
deeply moving, and - precisely because it is moving - very
frightening." -Stephen King

Douglas A. Martin's second novel, BRANWELL, was hailed as "a cohesive
and convincing portrait of the lost, forgotten Brontë" by The Austin
Chronicle. "Stylistically complex and emotionally evocative," Darcy
Steinke wrote. "Branwell Brontë emerges as ...both muse and devil to
his sisters' passions, giving us a new dimension to this ever
fascinating family." Martin's first novel, OUTLINE OF MY LOVER, was
named an International Book of the Year in the Times Literary
Supplement, and was adapted for the Forsythe Company's multimedia
production "Kammer/Kammer." Martin, an award-winning poet and critic,
is also the author of THEY CHANGE THE SUBJECT and, with Michael Stipe,
Grant Lee Phillips, and others, THE HAIKU YEAR.

"[BRANWELL's] beautiful declarative sentences are perfectly fitted to
this famously imaginative, headstrong family; they bring Branwell
Brontë's world to light." -Publishers Weekly

Host Garth Risk Hallberg is the author of A FIELD GUIDE TO THE NORTH
AMERICAN FAMILY. The Pacific Standard Fiction Series aims to showcase
the intense and varied literary energies of Brooklyn by pairing
writers from the borough and beyond. We offer fine stories and
appealing beverages in a civilized setting. For more information,
please visit www.pacificstandardbrooklyn.com.

Poetry night a week from today.

Chin Music: The Pacific Standard Poetry Reading Series
Featuring Brenda Shaughnessy, Craig Morgan Teicher and Jennifer Kronovet

Thursday, April 24th @ 8:00PM

Pacific Standard Bar
82 Fourth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY

http://www.pacificstandardbrooklyn.com

Please join us for our next installment of Chin Music, Brooklyn's new poetry reading series at Pacific Standard bar in Park Slope. Established and rising poets and writers from near and far are featured during each of our seasons. Our April 10th reading will feature three poets: Brenda Shaughnessy, Craig Morgan Teicher and Jennifer Kronovet . Future readers this season include Eamon Grennan, Ciaran Berry, and Jeffrey McDaniel. Series curated by Colin Cheney.

Located on Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn, near the Atlantic/Pacific station, Pacific Standard is a literary bar serving up over a dozen West Coast microbrews on tap (as well as choice selections from small and local breweries), a fine collection of wines, and tasty cheeses and meats.

--
Featured Poets:

Brenda Shaughnessy is the author of HUMAN DARK WITH SUGAR (Copper Canyon Press, 2008), winner of the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, and INTERIOR WITH SUDDEN JOY (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999), which was nominated for the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry, a Lambda Literary Award, and the Norma Farber First Book Award.

Craig Morgan Teicher's first book, BRENDA IS IN THE ROOM AND OTHER POEMS, was chosen by Paul Hoover for the 2007 Colorado Prize for Poetry. His next book, a collection of fables called CRADLE BOOK, will be published by BOA Editions in 2010.

Jennifer Kronovet is the author of the poetry collection AWAYWARD, which is forthcoming in 2009 from BOA Editions. Kronovet is the co-founder and co-editor of CIRCUMFERENCE, a journal of poetry in translation. Her poems have appeared in The Colorado Review, Crowd, Harp & Altar, Pleiades, Ploughshares, and other journals.

Our first import on tap.

We just put Young's Double Chocolate Stout on tap, one of our favorite English beers and the first foreign beer we've ever tapped here. Doesn't having an English tap beer compromise your US microbrew theme? you ask. No, sir; we resist--nay--defy! categorization of our tap list. (Wittgenstein would call our tap array a fuzzy category.) Sure, we like to focus on local beers, as well as the great beers of the West Coast, but we reserve the right to bring in anything that floats our palette, like Two Brothers Hop Juice from Indiana, or Harviestoun Ola Dubh from Scotland. Good beer trumps all.

So come by and try the Young's soon. It may be warmer outside, but there's always room for a great English stout.

Finnegans Wake Reading Group. (Yes, We Are That Nerdy).

Every Wednesday at 8 pm, starting the 23rd of April, David Kirkpatrick will be hosting an informal Finnegans Wake reading group here at the Standard. Here's a short description:

Come and enjoy one of the most important, least-read modern novels! Finnegans Wake has long been notorious for the inscrutable nature of its language. In the reading group, we'll try to make it more accessible for each other. No prior knowledge is required to participate; all you will need is a copy of the book (we recommend the edition that includes the John Bishop introduction).

The initial reading is the first chapter of the novel. At the first meeting, there'll be a general introduction to the reading group, and a history and outline of the book, touching on important themes, characters, and events. Then we'll discuss the first chapter, with accompanying readings from the book. Subsequent evenings will be split into a discussion of the previous week's reading and an introduction to the next week's reading.

Beer and Cheese Night III

Just a save-the-date announcement for now, with more details later: we'll be having our third beer and cheese night on Wednesday, May 14. With the coming of spring and summer, I'm sure we'll have a very different and interesting selection of cheeses and beers available. It should work the way it did for Cheese Night II, which seemed to be a satisfactory set-up, with everyone able to lay claim to vast landscapes of cheese and deep lakes of ale. Any suggestions, however, are welcome. See you there.

Time Out New York Nomination

Jon and I went into the terrifying jungle of Manhattan today to attend the 2008 Time Out Eat Out Awards. We were nominated for Best Beer Bar, which was a nice compliment, but we fully expected that Blind Tiger would hand our asses to us. We may have an amazing tap and cask system, but they've got a ridiculous array of microbrews. They did so (congratulations to them--I've loved them for years), but John and I got a bunch of little hors d'oeuvres and some vodka tonics out of the affair. Plus we happened to be at the same table as the dude who won the Best New Restaurant award (Neil Ferguson from Allen & Delancey), so we had some glory incidentally spilled on us.

Thanks to those of you who voted for us. Oh, and congratulations too to Alchemy, a restaurant a block away from us that won Best New Brooklyn Restaurant.

Next Fiction Night

The Pacific Standard Fiction Series: Invention Night
featuring Samantha Hunt and Alex Rose

Tuesday, April 15th, 7:00 p.m.
82 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn, New York (betw. St. Marks and Bergen)
hosted by Garth Risk Hallberg

Books available on-site!
Drink specials to be chosen by dartboard!

Samantha Hunt's second novel, THE INVENTION OF EVERYTHING ELSE (Houghton Mifflin), reimagines the story of inventor Nikola Tesla. Her previous book, THE SEAS, was voted one of the Village Voice Literary Supplement's Favorite Books of 2004, and was a National Book Foundation "5 Under 35 Selection." Hunt's stories have appeared in The
New Yorker, McSweeney's, and on This American Life, among other venues. A play, THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE, was produced by the Theater of the Two-Headed Calf. She lives in Brooklyn.

"Hunt has so gracefully mingled outlandish fact with outlandish fiction that it's difficult to know where one begins and the other ends, but it's a delightful homage to [Nikola Tesla,] who tells Louisa, 'I want to be believed.' For a moment, in these pages, everything seems possible." -The Washington Post

Alex Rose's debut story collection, THE MUSICAL ILLUSIONIST AND OTHER TALES, concerns cities without shadows, a language spoken entirely in rhythms, and a man deaf solely to the waltzes of Chopin, among other oddities. It's out now from Brooklyn-based Hotel St. George Press, an imprint of Akashic Books. Rose has published stories in McSweeney's, The North American Review, and DIAGRAM, among others. He has also directed a number of short films, videos and animations that have appeared on HBO, MTV, and Comedy Central, as well as in over two dozen festivals worldwide.

"Rose vividly and ingeniously rewrites history, like a cartographer redrawing the lines of a city--and imbuing it with the force of his imagination." -The Brooklyn Rail

Host Garth Risk Hallberg is the author of A FIELD GUIDE TO THE NORTH AMERICAN FAMILY. The Pacific Standard Fiction Series aims to showcase the intense and varied literary energies of Brooklyn by pairing writers from the borough and beyond. We offer fine stories and appealing beverages in a civilized setting. For more information, please visit www.pacificstandardbrooklyn.com.

Frequent Drinker Yards Now Available Online

For the time being, as our programmer Josh slaves away valiantly on what will doubtless be the champagne of interactive Web drinking loyalty program interfaces, I've come up with a simple way to post yards balances online. I've assigned every frequent drinker a random ID number, and am posting that ID number with that drinker's current number of yards earned at the following site:

www.pacificstandardbrooklyn.com/frequentdrinkeryards.htm

I'll update the yards once a week-ish. You'll also be able to see the status of your card on the site--"In Use" means you currently have your card and are using it, while other notations ("here for pickup", "no picture", etc.) are pretty self-explanatory. You should contact us at fiatlux@pacificstandardbrooklyn.com or come by if your status is anything but "In Use"--those without a picture, for instance, should come in to get one taken.

How do I know which ID number is mine? you naturally ask. Well, you can either come by the bar in person, or e-mail us, and we'll tell you what your number is. (We can't just post a list of numbers and names on the Web, for security and privacy's sake.)

Finally, if, after observing your yards balance, you think something is off, by all means shoot us an e-mail. We're still only a couple months in to the program, and there are bound to be glitches.

Custom growlers; slight and felicitous change in growler pricing.

First of all, we've just received samples of the official Pacific Standard logo growlers, and they look glorious. We'll have 144 more of them in a week or so. Come by to pick yours up!

In a related matter, we've decided to add another small perk to our Frequent Drinker Program. A fill of a growler normally sells for the cost of four 16 oz. pints of that beer here at the Standard. But we decided we'd reward our Frequent Drinking Program members by discounting each pint in their growlers $1--essentially a happy hour special. So a growler of most beers here will be $4 off for a frequent drinker (a growler of a 12 oz. pour beer will be $5 off). I hope that pleases you loyal and sturdy customers. See you soon.

A link to more pictures of the 30th birthday revelry.

http://tinyurl.com/3v2s6q

Pictures from John R's 30th Birthday

A couple potentially awesome ideas.

#1: We've been thinking about getting a pinball machine and putting it in a pretty much unused corner of the bar. Does that sound like a good idea to you folks? Any suggestions for what game?

#2: Cal is playing Maryland in College Park on September 13, which will be the closest Cal has been to New York since the 2001 Rutgers game. We're thinking of renting a Pacific Standard Cal game party bus and driving down to the Baltimore/DC area as a group. We'll see the sights, enjoy some great beer bars we know in the area, and microbrew-tailgate at the Maryland stadium. We're trying to get a sense of how many people would be down for that. Eh?

Poetry reading a week from Thursday.

Chin Music: The Pacific Standard Poetry Reading Series
Featuring Evan Eisman, Richard Levine, and Mark Nickels

Thursday, April 10th @ 8:00PM

Pacific Standard Bar
82 Fourth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY

http://www.pacificstandardbrooklyn.com

Please join us for our next installment of Chin Music, Brooklyn's new poetry reading series at Pacific Standard bar in Park Slope. Established and rising poets and writers from near and far are featured during each of our seasons. Our April 10th reading will feature three great Brooklyn poets: Evan Eisman, Richard Levine, and Mark Nickels. Future readers this season include Brenda Shaughnessy, Craig Morgan Teicher, Ciaran Berry, and Jeffrey McDaniel. Series curated by Colin Cheney.

Located on Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn, near the Atlantic/Pacific station, Pacific Standard is a literary bar serving up over a dozen West Coast microbrews on tap (as well as choice selections from small and local breweries), a fine collection of wines, and tasty cheeses and meats.

--
Featured Poets:

Evan Eisman's poems have appeared in Rattapallax and Big City Lit. He was selected as a semi-finalist in the Discovery/The Nation contest and was a finalist in the first Lyric Recovery Festival at Carnegie Hall. He holds a BFA in painting. Evan lives and works as a craftsman in Brooklyn.

Richard Levine is a Brooklyn-based poet. His two chapbooks are A LANGUAGE FULL OF WARS AND SONGS and SNAPSHOTS FROM A BATTLE. His book, WHAT LIGHT WILL BRING, was a finalist for the Ohio State Press/The Journal Poetry Book Award. He's also been a finalist for the North American Review's James Hearst Poetry Prize. He teaches Junior High School and wonders if you can list finalist as a profession on a tax return.

Mark Nickels lives in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. His book CICADA was published by Rattapallax Press in 2000. He has won the Milton Dorfman Prize(1996), the Ann Stafford Prize from USC (2002)and been a finalist and semi-finalist at Lyric Recovery Festival (Carnegie Hall). He is a 2006 New York State Arts Foundation Fellow in fiction.

Brand-new Pacific Standard homebrewed beer!

Check out the description, and come on down to get some:

Pacific Standard Panacea Pale (Brooklyn, NY; $8/12 oz). This beer, Pacific Standard’s first proprietary brew, is made with a secret recipe involving guinea pig vomit, rabbit ennui, and hipster ashings. It’s been proven to produce “a high better than heroin” (Beer Advocate), “actually burn calories” (American Medical Association study, 3/14/08), and “solve the subprime mortgage crisis” (The Economist). 14.9% ABV.