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I swear, the unrelenting cold has had my keyboard frozen shut, hence my absence. Believe me?
Oh, food. Sometimes you are delightful, sometimes I use the wrong horchata recipe and end up with a vaguely rice-flavored beverage with a texture reminiscent of... hmm. Ok, you know how, if you put a dairy product in an acidic liquid, it ends up with a bunch of little curds? Like that, but the curds are made of cooked rice and almond. That shit is lo-fi, man.
Not to say I can't cook recently. I've got a custard for Maritime Mist ice cream in the fridge, which I'll freeze tomorrow; it looks to be lovely. Maritime Mist is a tea blend from the Great Lakes Tea and Spice Company, with an Earl Grey base combined with creme and vanilla flavors, and mallow blossoms. I know, right? Full of nummies. I only fear it might be TOO sweet -- tomorrow will tell. Also recently made, a lovely vegetarian shepherd's pie for a veggie potluck that people in Kevin's program do. The 'meat' was mushrooms and lentils, a wine reduction, and the requisite carrots and celery. In hindsight, some balsamic would have gone well, and I forgot to add any bloody garlic (which borders on the unthinkable), but it was still an unconditional success. Oh, and just to prove I still have meat cred, I made some savory oatmeal with a bacon base for dinner this evening (I used the recommended 'heart-healthy' serving size of oatmeal for extra irony).
Life has been good in the two weeks since last we spoke. I've been getting my reading done in a timely fashion, I've managed to do a little bit of pleasure reading (this never happens), and I've even gotten to hang with some friends and family. Saw Pan's Labyrinth with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bustysinclare and some of that crew. It was absolutely brutal, but stunning. Seriously, it's a gorgeous, fairy-tale film, but also not for the squeamish. [As a side note: the title translation is horrible. I mean, not that El Laberinto del Fáuno is a superb title to begin with, but the translator's actually went further down the rabbithole. I can just see the meeting: "Well, I mean, who knows what a faun is anyway? Do we know any by name?" "Well, there's Pan, he was a... well, a satyr or something." "Sounds good, let's do it." "But... Pan's not in this movie." "Eh."] When my Cincy relatives were in town on Friday (Julie was playing with the All-State Orchestra, in a very enjoyable performance), I went and saw Babel with them. I know, I know, it looks like a Brad-Pitt-pretty-boy Oscar nom vehicle, but it's so much more! It was really very good. The multilingual work was done naturally and unapologetically, in a way I really respected. Gotta love subtitles. Also, by the way, a brutal move, though in a different way.
Kevin has officially hooked me on Veronica Mars. This has been an ongoing process for a while now, but I'm only just now mentioning it. We finished watching season 1 this weekend, and I must say to all the VM-lovers who've told me I should be watching: OK, you're right. As I've told you, I just needed to see it from the beginning. Also, the revelation about the murder? Whoa. As I recall, my reaction was "<name deleted>?! Fucking <name deleted%gt;?!!!? Holy craps!"
Um, yes. So. Good times. I feel like there was more I've meant to post about, but I can't say as I recall what exactly. Hmm. Poetry... it's been weird lately. I've been winging wildly about among styles, and it's all feeling a little crazy right now. I know this is the expected (and, perhaps, necessary) behavior in the first year of a 3-year program, and it's good to try on new hats, so to speak, but it's also a little disorienting. I feel ungrounded. I had a talk with Andrew after class on Wednesday, and he said to me the strangest thing I've ever had a prof say to me: "Stop thinking." Apparently the intelligence of my poems, recently, has been overshadowing their melody. [This shouldn't be taken as self-vaunting of my intelligence, by the way. It's a comment from within an analytical system that contrasts the intelligence (read, very roughly: content) of a poem with its melody (i.e. sounds).] So yeah. He's also said more than once this quarter "Mike is writing beyond his intelligence," which is meant as a compliment, i.e. that I'm pushing myself beyond my comfort zone. This is good, since it's the only way to grow, but it does sound, at a more gut level, sort of like I'm not smart enough to write what I'm trying to write. Grr arg. Ah, growth.
I can't think of anything else I particularly need to mention now... Oh! You have to read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. You may have heard the hype, and I can but say to you: believe it. It's a really wonderful examination of where our food comes from. Pollan follows three (or four, depending on how you look at it) food-paths: industrial (that is to say, mainstream mass food production), organic (both 'industrial organic', as in nationwide brands are stores like Whole Foods, and 'local organic'), and hunting and gathering. It's definitely already made an impact on how I'm eating. People have shown me videos and things of feedlot conditions, that sort of thing, but in the end I'm a man of words, and it takes words to affect me. Admittedly, I'd already drunk the kool-aid as far as ducking out of the industrial foodstream goes, but it's hard, and I certainly don't even really try, earnestly, to take myself off the grid, as it were. After reading the book, however, I don't think I've eaten any beef, since I don't have a place I can get the kind I want yet. I'm looking into sourcing grass-fed beef, for environmental and taste reasons. Maybe someday I'll be able to be all crazy organic, but it's just not easy, especially on a budget. Heh. I'm an economic vegetarian half the time nowadays. But seriously, even if you're not a crazy guy like me, it's a tremendous read. Not only is it informative, it's also well-written and engaging, and it really drives home its main point well. What is the main point? It's one I think we can all agree on: food is important. Food is something that brings people together. Food is more than metabolic fuel. Food is a sacrament. Eat good food, and eat it well. And thus have I brought this entry full circle.
Not to say I can't cook recently. I've got a custard for Maritime Mist ice cream in the fridge, which I'll freeze tomorrow; it looks to be lovely. Maritime Mist is a tea blend from the Great Lakes Tea and Spice Company, with an Earl Grey base combined with creme and vanilla flavors, and mallow blossoms. I know, right? Full of nummies. I only fear it might be TOO sweet -- tomorrow will tell. Also recently made, a lovely vegetarian shepherd's pie for a veggie potluck that people in Kevin's program do. The 'meat' was mushrooms and lentils, a wine reduction, and the requisite carrots and celery. In hindsight, some balsamic would have gone well, and I forgot to add any bloody garlic (which borders on the unthinkable), but it was still an unconditional success. Oh, and just to prove I still have meat cred, I made some savory oatmeal with a bacon base for dinner this evening (I used the recommended 'heart-healthy' serving size of oatmeal for extra irony).
Life has been good in the two weeks since last we spoke. I've been getting my reading done in a timely fashion, I've managed to do a little bit of pleasure reading (this never happens), and I've even gotten to hang with some friends and family. Saw Pan's Labyrinth with
bustysinclare and some of that crew. It was absolutely brutal, but stunning. Seriously, it's a gorgeous, fairy-tale film, but also not for the squeamish. [As a side note: the title translation is horrible. I mean, not that El Laberinto del Fáuno is a superb title to begin with, but the translator's actually went further down the rabbithole. I can just see the meeting: "Well, I mean, who knows what a faun is anyway? Do we know any by name?" "Well, there's Pan, he was a... well, a satyr or something." "Sounds good, let's do it." "But... Pan's not in this movie." "Eh."] When my Cincy relatives were in town on Friday (Julie was playing with the All-State Orchestra, in a very enjoyable performance), I went and saw Babel with them. I know, I know, it looks like a Brad-Pitt-pretty-boy Oscar nom vehicle, but it's so much more! It was really very good. The multilingual work was done naturally and unapologetically, in a way I really respected. Gotta love subtitles. Also, by the way, a brutal move, though in a different way.Kevin has officially hooked me on Veronica Mars. This has been an ongoing process for a while now, but I'm only just now mentioning it. We finished watching season 1 this weekend, and I must say to all the VM-lovers who've told me I should be watching: OK, you're right. As I've told you, I just needed to see it from the beginning. Also, the revelation about the murder? Whoa. As I recall, my reaction was "<name deleted>?! Fucking <name deleted%gt;?!!!? Holy craps!"
Um, yes. So. Good times. I feel like there was more I've meant to post about, but I can't say as I recall what exactly. Hmm. Poetry... it's been weird lately. I've been winging wildly about among styles, and it's all feeling a little crazy right now. I know this is the expected (and, perhaps, necessary) behavior in the first year of a 3-year program, and it's good to try on new hats, so to speak, but it's also a little disorienting. I feel ungrounded. I had a talk with Andrew after class on Wednesday, and he said to me the strangest thing I've ever had a prof say to me: "Stop thinking." Apparently the intelligence of my poems, recently, has been overshadowing their melody. [This shouldn't be taken as self-vaunting of my intelligence, by the way. It's a comment from within an analytical system that contrasts the intelligence (read, very roughly: content) of a poem with its melody (i.e. sounds).] So yeah. He's also said more than once this quarter "Mike is writing beyond his intelligence," which is meant as a compliment, i.e. that I'm pushing myself beyond my comfort zone. This is good, since it's the only way to grow, but it does sound, at a more gut level, sort of like I'm not smart enough to write what I'm trying to write. Grr arg. Ah, growth.
I can't think of anything else I particularly need to mention now... Oh! You have to read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. You may have heard the hype, and I can but say to you: believe it. It's a really wonderful examination of where our food comes from. Pollan follows three (or four, depending on how you look at it) food-paths: industrial (that is to say, mainstream mass food production), organic (both 'industrial organic', as in nationwide brands are stores like Whole Foods, and 'local organic'), and hunting and gathering. It's definitely already made an impact on how I'm eating. People have shown me videos and things of feedlot conditions, that sort of thing, but in the end I'm a man of words, and it takes words to affect me. Admittedly, I'd already drunk the kool-aid as far as ducking out of the industrial foodstream goes, but it's hard, and I certainly don't even really try, earnestly, to take myself off the grid, as it were. After reading the book, however, I don't think I've eaten any beef, since I don't have a place I can get the kind I want yet. I'm looking into sourcing grass-fed beef, for environmental and taste reasons. Maybe someday I'll be able to be all crazy organic, but it's just not easy, especially on a budget. Heh. I'm an economic vegetarian half the time nowadays. But seriously, even if you're not a crazy guy like me, it's a tremendous read. Not only is it informative, it's also well-written and engaging, and it really drives home its main point well. What is the main point? It's one I think we can all agree on: food is important. Food is something that brings people together. Food is more than metabolic fuel. Food is a sacrament. Eat good food, and eat it well. And thus have I brought this entry full circle.
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Yes I saw pan's as well...awesome but not what I expected.
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Hehehe, another VM conversion. I am happy. I need to rewatch Season 1, but I seem to remember my reaction to the murderer was about the same.
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I'm not sure I want to read this book. Although local organic is a LOT easier here than in Ohio.
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Veronica Mars is indeed fun. I am about halfway through the second season. I am pretty sure my reaction to the murder was the same as yours.
I want to say something about writing beyond your intelligence, but exhaustion is preventing me from formulating a decent response.