Time off for reinvention.

It's all somewhat hazy at this point, but I suppose there was a time when it seemed to me that my viewpoints about beer might be separated from those pertaining to the wider world, and as such, it seemed reasonable to put the beer thoughts all in one place -- namely, this blog.

Perhaps I can see more clearly now.

The target keeps moving, and the pendulum always swings. In recent years, I've come right back to where I started: Beer doesn't exist in a hedonistic vacuum. This point has been reinforced so many times that an exhaustive list of references is impossible. In part, this may be because the craft/better/good beer business has gotten so much larger, and as it has grown, so has my own company's activities. Now, as before, it strikes me that overlap is the rule, and it all bleeds together: Beer, healthcare, beer, bureaucrats, beer, bridge tolls, beer, Middle East, beer, travel, beer, religion, beer and food ... and on, and on.

At the same time, what were once priorities are now irrelevancies. The search for a perfect pint was supposed to last a lifetime, except that the modern culture of beer narcissism doesn't play a long game. With thousands of self-identified experts rating, arranging and pontificating beer, expertise naturally has gone the way of the Model T's hand crank. There us none. As much as 90% of what passes as beer writing (or videos, or audio, or commentary) is repetitious gibberish ... and rubbish is the positive part. The shining city on a hill is beset with one-upmanship, garish end zone celebrations and counter-productive snobbery.

It's probably time to start all over, and if such a cleansing and beginning anew cannot embrace all of us who want to lay claim to a stake, at least it can happen in my own world, right now. It will, and it is.

Consequently, lately when the urge to write about beer has struck me, I've generally paused and hoped it would pass. Sometimes a gin & tonic or a bottle of red wine (local works just fine) has soothed the wait. Make no mistake: Beer is my life as much as it ever was; it's just that taking occasional breaks from a jaded milieu that has become insufferably inane become a necessary self-defense mechanism -- rather like drinking itself. As the reinvention has proceeded, or at least as a new pattern has started taking shape in my brain, the notion of "beer snobbery as usual" has become steadily, and I believe inexorably, alien to me.

But I'm not depressed. I'm relieved, and it feels quite good, actually. I enjoy the rejuvenating idea of reclaiming my heritage, diving back into broader education (the "classics" always appeal to me), speaking truth to megaswill's power, and working other sides of the corn and different aisles. In what little spare time I have, a new narrative is coming together. When the narcissistic clatter subsides and the self-indulgent morons finally are weeded out, I'll still be standing. Bob Dylan's never-ending tour, as adapted to better beer, begins right here.

When I feel like blogging about real beer, I've been publishing the results at NA Confidential, and this will continue to be the case. I've often referred to NAC as my personal blog, emphasizing politics, civic affairs and the world as I view them. As such, why arbitrarily separate beer from life? To do so merely reinforces the dull predictability of those who know exactly which variety of hops are used in the highest rated beer, but couldn't name five state capitals with a waterboard pointed at their palates.

For a while at least, there won't be very much new here at PC. I'll still be doing twice-monthly columns at LouisvilleBeer.com, and quarterly columns for Food and Dining. Otherwise, you'll find me at NAC. Let's see where the pathway leads.