AnimaMundi

Mirror, Mirror...

Imagine you are standing in front of a bathroom mirror; how big do you think the image of your face is on the surface? And what would happen to the size of that image if you were to step steadily backward, away from the glass?

The Politics of Politics

"They've got a set of Republican waiters on one side and a set of Democratic waiters on the other side, but no matter which set of waiters brings you the dish, the legislative grub is all prepared in the same Wall Street kitchen." --Huey Long

I became essentially apolitical in 1972. That was the year George McGovern was swamped in the presidential election and we got the infamous tricky Dick. I have voted since, in 2000 and 2004 elections. K. had never voted in her life until a friend and I persuaded her to register and vote in the 2004 presidential election. So while at DMV, she thought she would register to vote at the same time. Come election day, she went to the local Methodist church to vote. Faith-based voting, I called it. When the people at the church looked for her name, she was told that she was not registered to vote. She told them that she has registered at the dreaded DMV. Your name is not on the list. You have to go to the county courthouse and get a signed affidavit from a judge. Along with 1,567 other people. Not about to go around and around the jacaranda tree, K. voiced her anger and left, never to vote again. As we later learned this happened all over the land of the free to vote. I'm sure the Suffragettes would have appreciated this whole planned fiasco.

When I Die, I'm Going To Sicily (not the one in Louisiana)

It’s 94 degrees in Manhattan on Sunday, June 8, and my friend Ray Ray drags me to Macy’s to go shoe shopping.

On the way home, on the downtown Seventh Avenue train platform, I spy a group of tourists (19 of them, as their tour guide keeps repeating), several holding Bibles. Once on the train, one of them wanders off from her group, Bible in hand, directly toward me.

“Where are you going?” she asks. “Where are you going when you die: heaven or hell?” I wave her off, telling her that it’s too hot to answer questions and that I don’t talk religion on trains.

Undeterred, she turns to Ray Ray. “Where are you going when you die?” Ray Ray turns and smiles and, in a deadpan voice, tells her:

“Brooklyn. I’m going to Brooklyn.”

Retractable Jagged Fangs

Adam Roberts of the always electrifying Food TV interviews that feared lady Regina Schrambling of Gastropoda and Gastriques. I must admit that I would not want to be in her way if her fangs were meant for my flesh. I also must admit, since I am not privy to certain insider information, that sometimes I don't know what the hell she is talking about. She is however very helpful in translating some of the code, monikers and gilded lexicon for me. I have to forgive her since she lives on the UWS and you know what they say about OWLS up in that part of Manhattan. Only joking, Regina. Really.

The Measure of America

The Columbia University Press blog notes the release of the study "The Measure of America: American Human Development Report 2008-2009". Here are a few findings.

• The U.S. ranks #24 among the 30 most affluent countries in life expectancy - yet spends more on health care than any other nation.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households possesses a full third of America’s wealth.
• Nearly one in five American children lives in poverty, with more than one in thirteen living in extreme poverty.
• The U.S. has 5 percent of the world’s people - but 24 percent of the world’s prisoners.
• The U.S. ranks forty-second in global life expectancy and first among the world’s twenty-five richest countries in the percentage of children living in poverty.

Via Maud Newton

The Greening of America

The American front lawn : a symbol of prestige, cleanliness, efficiency, pride and...useless consumption. Most Americans don't use their front lawns for anything. It's just there for admiration and advertisement. When a friend of mine built a home in Boerne, TX, he told me that the town discouraged him from cultivating a lawn. Now one would think that with the jump in fuel costs, Americans would try to eliminate some lawn and plant other things that don't require mowing. Like stone and ornamental grasses, flowering perennials. Stone doesn't require a lot of care. You don't have to fertilize them with petrochemically concocted mixes. You don't have to mow them with $4+ a gallon gas. The same with ornamental grasses. The grasses also provide some privacy when they take off and begin to flower.

From "Why Mow?" by Michael Pollan

“Lawns are nature purged of sex and death. No wonder Americans like them so much.”

A lawn may be pleasing to look at, or provide the children with a place to play, or offer the dog room to relieve himself, but it has no productive value. The only work it does is cultural. In Downing’s day, the servant-mowed lawn stood, eloquently, for the power structure that made it possible: who but the very rich could afford such a pointless luxury? As mechanical mowers enabled middle-class suburbanites to cut their own grass, this meaning was lost and a different one took hold. A lawn came to signal its owner’s commitment to a communitarian project: the upkeep of the greensward that linked one yard to the next.

 

Summer Quaffs

Since the summer here in the great Northeast has been so damn hot, we have been drinking more rose and white wine. These are some of our favorites to date.

WHITES

2006 Vesevo Greco Di Tufo ($17): ancient name for Vesuvio, excellent minerality and acidity coupled with depth and an elegant finish. The 2006 Vinosia Greco Di Tufo ($25ish) did not have the acidic edge that the Vesevo had. I found it to be a little lackluster.

2007  Le Petit Chambord Cheverny Loire ($15): edgey tangy acidity, bright, clean, vibrant

2007 Le Fournier Sauvignon ($10): very good value, crisp, good acidity, fresh

2004 Pazo de Monterrey ($14): excellent QPR Spanish wine with good acidity, clean, sharp lines, rounded fruit

ROSE

2007 Chateau du Rouet Cotes de Provence ($14): dry, crisp accented acidity, balanced

2007 Les Lauzeraies Tavel ($11): full, dry, good acidity, good QPR

As for sparklers, I'll try to list some later. Peter Laurent Rose Champagne ($30) is the standout so far.

Black Bull Sarcophagus

Last Tuesday, on the island of Bali, the head of the royal family of Ubud named Agung Suyasa was laid to rest in a rare, spectacular Royal Funeral - the largest in decades. Suyasa, two other members the royal family, and 68 commoners were cremated in a large Hindu ceremony - their bodies having been previously preserved, awaiting cremation, which is traditionally believed to free their souls for future reincarnation.

Barack Bhangra

Just when you thought that politics couldn't become any more boring, along comes Barack Obollywood! Bhangra, baby.

I Was Told There Would Be Cake or Money Ain't Getting Any Cheaper

When I mentioned the cost of living to my next door neighbor the other day he replied, "Oh, it's not as bad they make it out to be." There are four people in his family and they own five cars including one brand new Honda truck, a six cylinder that gets about 15 miles a gallon. He just downsized from an 8 cylinder truck that guzzled 15 gallons per mile.

Hummers, bummers, summers, gas fillups,

oil bills, AC bills, groceries, outrageously expensive super-duper cult wines 

and just about everything else. On a brighter note, we have a gift certificate to John Andrews on Saturday night. Santa paid for the gift certificate. K. has been in high intensity knee pain for a while and she needs it, badly. We will drive to New Lebanon first to meet up with friends and admire their gardens. They have expended lots of money and sweat tilling the earth. I'll take pictures. I promise. Their gardens make our yard look like desolation row. In driving there and back, we'll probably spend more money on gasoline than on the meal. From New Lebanon to South Egremont we'll ride in their new Mini Cooper club car.

Things have changed dramatically, but the average American does not want to admit it. They have been accustomed to a certain standard of living that they refuse to concede. This attitude is part of the reason that we are where we are today. It's a persistently arrogant image and I don't particularly like it.

"To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight of the blood."
  - George Santayna

Paging pathology, please. It's not all gloom and doom. But remember those Sunday afternoon drives in the country?

Up a similar avenue, my friend Alfonso has some car and consumption images for you and his thoughts on the situation as it affects vino Italiano.

How about an Italian wine that doesn’t suck all the spare change out of the glove compartment, something we can drive around our dining rooms and still be able to put pasta and salad on the table as well?

This 5 year old Spanish red, one year in oak, from Don Quixote land is one of those wines that reaffirm my faith in decent wine at a fair price. A great wine, no. A good QPR wine @ ten bux before case discount, yes.

After all, it is a dog's life.