Christa’s Friends and Family

The Book Pile: 1 Dead In Attic

nobody@vox.com(Kyle) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:11:00 -0700

Chris Rose

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?

Chris Rose is a columnist for the Times-Picayune. His book 1 Dead in Attic is a collection of his post-Katrina columns.

The city he describes in this book is a battered, broken city, but we all knew that. What Rose wants his readers to know is that the city is getting better, but it still hurts. The destruction wasn't just in the Lower Ninth Ward as it appears in the media, but everywhere. Some parts of the city fared better than others, but nothing went unharmed. That includes its people.

Chief among those scarred by Katrina is Rose himself. While this book is a chronicle of a ruined city crawling back to life it is also the story of one man's descent into depression.

The book begins bleakly--The title is taken from graffiti scrawled on the wall of a house Rose drove past nearly everyday for a year--and never really lets up. There are bright moments, and Rose definitely wants his reader to experience these moments, but he also wishes that what happened (is happening) not be forgotten.

I do know what it means to miss New Orleans. I never lived there, but I grew up in South Louisiana, and visited the city fairly often. I do miss it, even more so after reading this powerful book.

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Giraffe is proclaimed Hero of the Animal Kingdom

nobody@vox.com(Befanee) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:12:34 -0700

Mon Jun 30, 4:06 PM ET

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Amsterdam police say 15 camels, two zebras and an undetermined number of llamas and potbellied swine briefly escaped from a traveling Dutch circus after a giraffe kicked a hole in their cage.
ADVERTISEMENT

Police spokesman Arnout Aben says the animals wandered in a group through a nearby neighborhood for several hours after their 5:30 a.m. breakout.

The animals were back at the circus later Monday after being rounded up by police and circus workers with the assistance of dogs. Aben says neighbors fed some of the animals — which he said was a bad idea — but they were tame and nobody was hurt.

Says Aben: "You have to imagine somebody rubbing his eyes first thing in the morning and saying, 'Am I seeing things or is that 15 camels walking past?'"

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10 in 6: The Best Music of 2008(So Far)

nobody@vox.com(Kyle) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:39:20 -0700

Brighter Than Creation's Dark -- Drive-By Truckers
The Midnight Organ Fight -- Frightened Rabbit
The Odd Couple -- Gnarls Barkley
For Emma, Forever Ago -- Bon Iver
Parc Avenue -- Plants and Animals
Real Emotional Trash -- Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks
Santogold -- Santogold
Feed The Animals -- Girl Talk
Evil Urges -- My Morning Jacket
Narrow Stairs -- Death Cab for Cutie

Something that strikes me about this list is the number of albums purchased from eMusic. Seven of the albums on the list are from the site. I don't know if this means the music selection on the site is getting better, or if my taste is being skewed by the site. I do know I would not have discovered Frightened Rabbit or Plants and Animals without the site.

The last two albums on the list are positioned so because of their relative newness. I can say without a doubt that by year's end the My Morning Jacket album will rank much higher. Narrow Stairs may climb, but I can't be sure yet. We'll just have to see.

Speaking of year's end, I also see Brighter Than Creation's Dark sticking at the top for the entire year.

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My Mother is going to be Imported

nobody@vox.com(Befanee) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:25:58 -0700

I got a text message from my sister today...several text messages actually...

It seems that our mother is being investigated by US Immigration.

...

Yes, that's right, you read correctly. Read on...

She was at her friend Mardi's house working on the porch. I'm sure she was either cleaning or painting something lovely on the porch. Mardi's neighbor saw her and thought she looked suspicious, like an illegal Mexican immigrant because she has dark hair and her minivan was parked in the driveway.

Here is a picture of my mother (with her Daddy):

Christmas 017

She is simply dripping with suspicious-lookingness! Plus she looks extraordinarily Hispanic....you know, with skin quite possibly paler than that of her redhead daughter.

Her reaction, and I quote, "We're gonna be imported!"

My reaction, and I quote, "What are they gonna do -- deport her to Kentucky??"*

This is most definitely the best story of my life, surpassing the previous best story of my life which has held it's place since November 1998 (which also is not quite as grand of a story if you were not in my circle of friends and theatre compadres at the time). Obviously there is absolutely nothing to worry about since my mother is definitley not an immigrant -- illegal or otherwise -- and our family has been on this continent since the 1630s.

What a psycho neighbor!

*We're originally from the big K-Y

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Sniffles

nobody@vox.com(Befanee) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:26:12 -0700

I get a lot of interesting smells wafting into my open windows throughout the summer. Most often it's tacos/Mexican food from the 3 (count em one two three) restaurants across the street and cigarette smoke (gag). Lately, however, I have been graced with the presence of a very potent lavender-y old lady (in a good way) smell which makes me almost hyperventilate because, like the people with their faces on the floor and in the curtains on Febreeze commercials, I just can't get enough of the sweet smell. ooo there it is again! Then earlier this evening it smelled like, I want to say water, but you know water doesn't really have a smell. It's like...water from a hose...which does sorta have a smell.

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Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

nobody@vox.com(Kyle) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 07:27:21 -0700

The idea of a grass-based farm has intrigued me ever since reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. A large portion of the book covers Pollan's experience at Joe Salatin's Polyface Farm in Virginia. I knew moving to Minnesota would place me in the center of farm country, and a quick Google search led me to Hidden Stream Farm, another grass-based farm. This weekend at the Rochester Farmer's Market I purchased a whole chicken as well as a pound of bacon from Hidden Stream. The resulting meals were delicious.

What Salatin is doing is beyond organic. Instead he follows Nature's template, which according to the farm's website means "Mimicking natural patterns on a commercial domestic scale [to insure] moral and ethical boundaries to human cleverness." What this basically means is a natural cycle is used for feeding the cows, chickens, pigs and rabbits at Polyface. The cows eat grass from the pasture, the chickens are sent in after to eat the remaining grass as well as larvae and flies from the cow patties. This sanitizes the pasture far more efficiently than a pesticide while at the same time the chicken droppings fertilize the next growth of grass. The entire farm operates on this principle, nothing is wasted. Every animal benefits another.

Hidden Stream Farm follows many of the same practices, calling themselves "proud producers of happy, healthy chicken, beef, and pork." They too are a family-owned farm practicing sustainable, grass-based farming. Their meats are drug and hormone free.

This Saturday we went to the Rochester Downtown Farmer's Market, not knowing what to expect. Our experiences with the market in Lexington, led us to believe that attendance by farmers would be low this early in the season. Many of the more popular fruits and vegetables aren't naturally available this time of year. As expected a lot of farms were selling flowers and seedlings, but we were happily surprised by the number of stalls. There were lots of turnips, cabbages and greens. And meats.

I spotted the Hidden Stream stall immediately and knew I wanted to at least purchase one of their chickens. At $2.99 a pound, a farm-raised chicken far outcosts a industrial chicken. The weekly ad from a local grocery is advertising whole chickens at ¢.69 a pound. I'll just say you get what you pay for, and that price is being subsidized by our national health and environment, and leave at that. Food costs are another post entirely.

In addition to the chicken we bought a pound of bacon. The next morning we cooked a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon. We cooked the bacon by placing it on a cooling rack over a baking sheet in the oven. If you haven't cooked bacon this way I recommend it. This bacon was the best bacon I've ever eaten, and it tasted like no other bacon has. The flavor was rich, slightly buttery, and very much "porky." I've bought high-end organic bacon before, and even that doesn't compare. This was bacon as bacon should be.

The next evening I prepared a classic roasted chicken. I made a rub of fresh rosemary and thyme, salt and garlic. The herbs were also purchased at the farmer's market. I rubbed the skin with butter and salt, and the flesh beneath the skin with the herb rub. The chicken wasn't as much a departure from store-bought chicken as the bacon was, but there was a difference. The meat was definitely leaner due to the grass diet, versus corn, and it tasted cleaner in a way that I can't really explain.

Grass-fed meats aren't affordable for everyone, especially as our dollar buys less and less. However if you get the opportunity to buy or eat grass-fed meat do so without hesitation. Your palate and your conscience will be pleased.

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Me and Flickr are tight

nobody@vox.com(Befanee) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:01:27 -0700

The Instructions:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Pics

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A Book Pile Two-Fer: The Omnivore's Dilemma and Run

nobody@vox.com(Kyle) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:00:06 -0700

I've finished two books since my last update. Ann Patchett's Run and The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

Run

Ann Patchett

The premise of Run is simple. One evening the former white mayor of Boston is leaving a political rally with hs two adopted black sons in tow. As one son steps of the curb into the path of an oncoming car, another woman, Tennessee Moser, pushes the boy out of the way, while she herself is hit by the car. The woman is taken to the hospital while the Mayor (Patchett refers to him as only Doyle) and his sons are left in custody of Tennessee's daughter, Kenya, who was also at the rally.

The rest of the book takes place in the hours that evening and the following morning weaving together the two families in secret and wonderful ways.

This is a story of family most of all. Their secrets, their desires, their closeness are all captured here, skillfully so.

The book reads like a fairytale and in fact resolves like one, a little to neatly, but Patchett is a wonderful writer, and as such I didn't mind her fairytale at all. Rather I was transfixed by it.

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Michael Pollan

I was also transfixed by The Omnivore's Dilemma. I have been meaning to read this book for quite some time. I'm glad I did.

It is a masterwork of nonfiction first and foremost. Pollan's prose is highly readable, not at all dry or boring. He brings the people he meets and the places he goes to life as well as the top fiction writers.

The subject matter is as powerful if not more so. Pollan's attempt with this book is to follow four types of meals from beginning to end: Industrial, Industrial-Organic, Organic and Hunted/Gathered. What we are presented with is an unabashed look at food in America and the secret lives and cost we don't see by simply looking at our plates.

This is required reading for anyone who eats food in America.

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Clipped: Bill Gross

nobody@vox.com(Kyle) — Sat, 24 May 2008 06:44:31 -0700

Jon Taplin pointed his readers to Bill Gross's June 2008 Investment Outlook. This quote calls out the American people and our presidential contenders for fooling ourselves.

What this country needs is either a good 5¢ cigar or the reincarnation of an Illinois “rail-splitter” willing to tell the American people “what up” – “what really up.” We have for so long now been willing to be entertained rather than informed, that we more or less accept majority opinion, perpetually shaped by ratings obsessed media, at face value. After 12 months of an endless primary campaign barrage, for instance, most of us believe that a candidate’s preacher – Democrat orRepublican – should be a significant factor in how we vote. We care more about who’s going to be eliminated from this week’s American Idol than the deteriorating quality of our healthcare system. Alternative energy discussion takes a bleacher’s seat to the latest foibles of Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears and then we wonder why gas is four bucks a gallon. We care as much as we always have – we just care about the wrong things: entertainment, as opposed to informed choices; trivia vs. hardcore ideological debate.
It’s Sunday afternoon at the Coliseum folks, and all good fun, but the hordes are crossing the Alps and headed for modern day Rome – better educated, harder working, and willing to sacrifice today for a better tomorrow. Can it be any wonder that an estimated 1% of America’s wealth migrates into foreign hands every year? We, as a people, are overweight, poorly educated, overindulged, and imbued with such a sense of self importance on a geopolitical scale, that our allies are dropping like flies. “Yes we can?” Well, if so, then the “we” is the critical element, not the leader that will be chosen in November. Let’s get off the couch and shape up – physically, intellectually, and institutionally – and begin to make some informed choices about our future. Lincoln didn’t say it, but might have agreed, that the worst part about being fooled is fooling yourself, and as a nation, we’ve been doing a pretty good job of that for a long time now.

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Electricity

nobody@vox.com(Befanee) — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:57:16 -0700

Monday night when I got home I found a mysterious piece of paper on the stairs saying that an electrician needed to get into "your" apartment for rewiring or something and to please move all furniture away from the walls, May 20 and 21. 8:30am-5:30 pm. It wasn't addressed to anyone...and it was sorta floating on the stairs on the floor like someone had dropped it. It also said to call the landlord if you have any questions so I debated forever about calling and seeing what it was about if it applied to everyone and such since normally things are taped to the wall by the entry like when they are going to put the stuff under the sinks for roaches and when they put the fence in back.

As of 11am Tuesday no one had showed up to invade my apartment so I continued to hope it was the guy across the hall from me or something because me moving all my stuff away from the walls is next to impossible...if not actual impossible. So I decided if someone does show up I would play dumb because a piece of paper on the floor is nowhere near sufficient notice for this sort of thing.

I heard hammering and sawing noises all day coming from downstairs. Then I went out to get a snack and there was a sign taped to the front door of the building (on notebook paper and taped with electrical tape...) that the electricity would be turned off in the building for 4-5 hours on Wednesday. That reassured me that no one would be invading my apartment, but still annoying they didn't mention WHICH hours that would be. And of course I half-joked to Travis that the electricity would probably go off in the middle of my shower because I am deathly terrified of dark bathrooms and then I would cry.

(Oh, by the way, in case you missed it, I have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off instead of Saturdays and Sundays.)

I woke up around 9:30 this morning and the electricity was still on. I hopped in the shower and, yes, I live in annoying stupid Chicago where it is May and still only 50 degrees, so I closed my bathroom door to keep the warmth in the room for when I get out of the shower.

In mid-shampoo the lights went out.

It was as dark as a cave.

I didn't cry, but I wanted to scream...but I was too afraid to scream. It was horrible. I want to cry now thinking about it. Some people are terrified of clowns, heights, needles....I am terrified of dark bathrooms...for reasons I made up in my head when I was a wee tot.

I managed to rinse my hair and step out of the shower to open the door to let the sunshine from the other rooms in...and I had to continue to shower because my hair would die without conditioner and what is the point of a shower without soap? haha it wasn't so bad after I opened the door but until I did I was freaking out on the inside. And I was rather upset because I really wanted a bagel but no power for the toaster oven! booo.

So then I decided to leave early because I was having lunch with Annie and wanted to look for shoes and needed some groceries, so I got shoes first which took no time at all (love when that happens...good ol Payless had exactly what I wanted) and then went to the post office and then to visit Annie. She had to finished up something before we ate so I hung out there. Then we ate and sat and chatted a bit. Then I headed home by way of the grocery. When I got home around 3:30 I still had no electricity! I was upset mainly because I am afraid my refrigerated goods could have been not cold enough during this time and are no longer good. Also I was anxious to do laundry AND do everything that required electricity.

Of course all other things were unappealing like reading and playing DS and washing dishes...I was sorta wiped and my eyes wanted to close so I half-napped on the couch with Hobbes for a while and FINALLY heard my refrigerator kick on! It was like angels singing!

So it ended up being off for around 6 hours, which is really annoying, but I'm glad it's back now! I would suck at being Amish.

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