KOVAL, Chicago's first craft distillery since prohibition, produces handmade, organic, grain-forward whiskies and spirits from scratch. Followers must be of legal drinking age. Please enjoy KOVAL responsibly.
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.”
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
“Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.”
“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
“The only real valuable thing is intuition.”
“A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.”
“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”
“I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.”
“The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.”
“Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.”
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
“Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds.”
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”
“Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one’s living at it.”
“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”
“The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.”
“Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.”
“Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.”
“The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.”
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
“Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.”
“Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.”
“If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.”
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the the universe.”
“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”
“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.”
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
“In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.”
“The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there’s no risk of accident for someone who’s dead.”
“Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.”
“Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism — how passionately I hate them!”
“No, this trick won’t work…How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?”
“My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.”
“Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.”
“The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking…the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.”
“Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.”
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”
“Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
“You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.”
“One had to cram all this stuff into one’s mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year.”
“…one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one’s own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought.”
“He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”
“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”
We already have weekend brunch cocktails on our minds.
“Bloody Masha” 2 oz KOVAL White Rye Whiskey 4 oz tomato juice ¼ oz fresh lemon juice ¼ oz fresh lime juice ¼ oz Sriracha 3-4 dashes Worcestershire sauce Season to taste with the following: Celery salt, paprika, coriander, black pepper, dill
Build on the rocks in a highball glass. Garnish with vegetables such as celery and olives.
The goal of Vinyl Me, Please is not just to find great albums, but to discover artists that are consistently pushing the boundaries of their respective genres. When the team at VMP told us that their December artist would be Nils Frahm, an innovative pianist known for his unique combination of classical and electronic music, we knew a classic whiskey sour with a familiar comforting flavor—earl grey tea—would be the perfect companion to his 2013 album Spaces.
The “Ivory Sour:”
2 oz KOVAL Four Grain ¼ oz Lightly Peated Scotch ½ oz Zucca Amaro ½ oz Lime Juice ½ Earl Grey Syrup
Combine all ingredients in shaking tins, add ice, and shake for 12-15 seconds. Double strain over fresh ice in an old-fashioned glass.
Earl Grey Syrup: Boiler water and slightly over-steep one cup of earl grey tea. While hot, add one cup of light sugar and stir until fully dissolved. Store cold in sealable container. Will keep for 2-3 weeks, or more with an ounce or two of a white, high-proof rum).
Exclusive VMP-edition features:
2LP, die-cut jacket, new inverse color scheme Two 12″ inserts w/ download code + artist notes Original 12″ x 12″ art print courtesy of creative director, art and photography editor, designer, brand strategist, writer and illustrator Michael Salu Custom cocktail pairing recipe courtesy of KOVAL Distillery
We’ve officially arrived in London, and we’re celebrating with the Savile Rye, a perfectly tailored whiskey cocktail topped with English-style dry cider.
“I think for me, as a craftsman, that’s the interesting part of ‘Made In America.’ People have become so removed from manufacturing that they don’t even logically understand how it happens anymore. Being able to point out the sewing machine we used or to show someone what their bag looked like before it was made is a really nice thing.” - Chris Tag, Founder of defybags
The Chicago Tribune wrote a story on Katie Lauffenburger (MFA 2007) and her husband Phil Thomson’s company, Cape Horn Illustration. The company, which they run from their home in Ravenswood, began with a vintage-style illustrated map of the couple’s favorite beer bars in 2010. Their endeavors continue to be fueled by inspiration from the city as seen in their interpretations of Chicago’s architecture
