Nationwide, liquor sales have increased by 7-8% this year. This is probably a good thing. This is not to say that booze is a good thing, or that boozing is. The Buddha says all things in moderation, but I’ve never been able to not fuck that one up. Outside any Sri Lankan school they paint murals and a classic one is booze destroying families. So why is increasing liquor sales a good thing?

Booze doesn’t necessarily make people violent or promiscuous. That concept of drunkness is actually a cultural one, it’s not inherent in ethanol. As social anthropologist Kate Fox says, “the experiments show that when people think they are drinking alcohol, they behave according to their cultural beliefs about the behavioural effects of alcohol.”

Sri Lanka’s Institute For Policy Studies blog has an interesting post on booze consumption. One especially salient factoid was the jump in hard liquor consumption and the relative flatness of beer (graphed above). It’s also notable that the statistics are skewed because more people drink illicit liquor, which isn’t counted.

Bangalore is a developed, wealthy city with beautiful people. Yet there is no nightlife. Everything closes at 11:30 and most people are in bed around then. I have gone out with friends and the bars really do close. People sometimes go to house parties, but the energy tends to dissipate and the cops break them up if you play too much music.

The idiots at Zanzibar just look at your feet when you walk into a club. Bata, no Bata. I sorta understand pretentious nightclubs, but there’s usually a metric beyond your footwear. I mean, if you look at UNVOGUE or something modern fashion extends beyond the foot. Plus wearing shoes at all in this heat is, IMHO, the worst vestige of colonialism. I mean, the President doesn’t wear shoes, wtf. Plus girls wear slippy sandals all the time, and that’s totally kosher. I guess there’s the whole bathroom slipper thing, but Urban Thongs are urban. More to the point, pretentious clubs have something worth hearing and seeing inside, whereas here they just slap a new name on the same generational shite and maybe change the curtains. Regardless, they always have to toe tag and penis tax you at the door.

Every now and then you get adult prom moments, where you get dressed up and party in a civilized fashion. Be they weddings, graduations, associations or company functions. This weekend was the Chillies, and it was fucking great. Great cause the company was good, but also cause it’s an advertising event, and advertisers basically party professionally. I had a ticket to a table with my whole department from Dialog, but tons of my friends were there as well. There were bottles on the table, a decent buffet and you could smoke in the convention center. Not that I could especially sauced, just enough to get through the slightly dull awards to the point where people are dancing on chairs and taking ridiculous photographs. And not to grate, but Colombo does and will go on. Sri Lanka does keep going, and it’s still a fun place to live. Maththa Thitha is kind of taking a shitter on the scene, but business, art, life and love will go on.

Is difficult. I do drink, but much much more moderately than, say, this summer. Vesak and Poya are also holidays, so one presumes to have a beer with friends. Alas, under Mahinda’s Maththa Thitha, Sri Lanka goes legally dry for a long while on Vesak. Of course, more than 50% of alcohol consumption here is homebrewed Kasippu, but the statement is made for politics sake. This is just the way it is, but there are a few ways to get around the temporary prohibition. There is, of course, Kasippu which is constantly available if you know where to go. Which I don’t. Then there is ones own liquor cabinets, as in Pakistan or Bangladesh. This I do not have, but I have raided my parents pretty thoroughly if only to supply a suddenly dry birthday party and trip (sorry, will replace). Then there are hotels which have mini-bars and often show Fashion TV to boot. Finally, there are a few places which pay off the cops and will always serve.

I’ve been drinking red wine lately cause it makes me feel healthy, though deep in my heart I know the connection is bumpkis. According to the Times article, you’d have to drink 750 bottles per day to see a real benefit. In effect, drinking red wine has only moderate benefits and still gives you hangovers the next day. In refined pill doses, however, the red wine substance resveratrol seems to have great promise for both extending life and quality of life. Not only are mice on the pills better able to deal with fatty foods liver and heart wise, they also have more energy and muscle. Of course, this wonder drug isn’t be prescribed to humans in those quantities (though the authors of the study do take it). Regardless, it seems quite promising.

The National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol act takes effect December 1st, so El Paraiso will effectively be the last sponsored party. It’s another Offshore, this time on an actual beach (Mount Lavinia Private Beach). As I’ve mentioned multiple times, Offshore parties are good cause the music doesn’t suck. This party is also notable because, after the NATA bill comes into effect, sponsored parties like this won’t be possible (or at least more difficult). This in particular is sponsored by Smirnoff, which will have to take its budget elsewhere. Regardless, Offshore nights are pretty much always good, and the beach setting is a nice escape from the constricts of a typical club. It’s this Saturday, the 25th. After that, get thee to a nunnery.