The Funk

I don't now when I first noticed the pattern, but most of my favorite things for a long time have been those that are less than perfect. No one would ever say that Tom Waits has a beautiful voice, or that Goya was a perfectionist as a painter. But to some people, the more raw and rough, the more flawed and jagged a thing, the more appealing.

I find this to be especially true in the things I eat and drink. I love the barn-y animal taste of certain funky sheep cheeses. I get excited to eat things that are described on menus as "musty" or in one exceptional case "like a dirty horse blanket."

When I'm offered scotch, I'll usually skip right over the smooth blended Macallan and choose a briny Oban, or a super peaty Laphroaig, which tastes like someone replaced the coffee in my French press with campfire ashes and the water with gasoline. In the best possible way.

If I am grabbing a quick beverage at a deli, I'd never take a cola if there's a sour bubbling fermented kombucha. If I'm ordering a beer I'll pass on the Guinness with its upwardly mobile bubbles in favor of an unblended Lambic with its wild, uncultivated yeasts.

There's a philosophy in art that basically says that beauty can't really exist without imperfection to compare it to. (There's also that particular type of semi-attractive person who's always surrounding themselves with less attractive people for the same reason...) Well maybe the imperfection is whats also the most fascinating. Maybe deep down, we all need a little funk.

-SdJ