OVERCUP BLOG — featured

It appears that June 11th is the time to drink your Gin. National Gin Day falls on June 11th this year, as does World Gin Day. Gin conjures up all sorts of reactions from people and has a long and very English-tinged history. Being that we were a British colony, that history was imported with the gin. Despite the strong association with Britain and colonization, gin is mostly acknowledged as having first been distilled in Holland in the early 17th century. Thus the term “Dutch Courage.” Most people order their gin in one of two ways: as a Gin and...

Today (June 7th) is one of the greatest days on the calendar each summer - National Chocolate Ice Cream Day.  When you publish a book about a human/hybrid ice cream cone man, it’s important to embrace a day like this with gusto. We’re celebrating by focusing on three separate topics. 1. Three Questions for Naoshi - A Woman Who Finds Ispiration in Ice Cream! We thought we’d start off by asking the author of Ice Cream Work, Naoshi, three questions about ice cream. Muses take many forms. For Naoshi, ice cream serves as a flavorful jolt to her imagination. We...

We at Overcup Press get (understandably) attached to the books we put out. Since publishing Matt Wagner’s Tall Trees of Portland, a luxurious art book showcasing dozens of artists living and working in Portland, Oregon, we started thinking: just how were these artists faring in the biggish city since the book’s publication in 2014? I had the great pleasure recently to answer this question with fine artist and tattooer Bradley Delay, one of the featured artists and an all-around great person. We talked about painting, tattoos, and everything in between. The interview has been shortened and edited for brevity. Keely:...

You may have thought today was an ordinary day. Little did you know, something extraordinary happened 57 years ago: a man with a dream took steps to make that dream a reality. The man? Buckminster Fuller. That dream? To make an underwater island. That’s right—on June 8, 1959, Buckminster Fuller filed his patent for his “Submarisle,” or “underwater island.” While this idea might seem outlandish, Fuller actually developed the idea for purely practical reasons: he wanted to develop a less expensive way to conduct offshore drilling. This “island” would be floating and fully submersible, attached to a fixed rig dug into...

On June 2nd, 1855 the working class residents of Portland, Maine discovered their teetotaling mayor Neal Dow was storing $1600 worth of rum inside City Hall. Citizens gathered outside the building that evening expecting to see the arrest of Mayor Dow. What they got instead was a riot that left one man dead, seven others wounded, permanently damaged Dow’s political career, and ultimately led to the end of Maine’s first experiment with temperance in 1856. Perhaps these early entries in the temperance movement are why 21st century Mainers have swung so far to the other side of the aisle. Distiller...