protests

i happened upon a protest today. well, that may make it seem a bit more nonchalant than it really was. i had a friend come in from out fo town last night and her and her boyfriend came all the way from out of town to be in new york for the protest. i have never really gone to a protest. that isnt true either - but not a big one. so they were talking about it and we were talking about all the issues going on with the country and bla bla bla but we were having a really good time and it seemed nice by the end of the night after having such a good time and having heard so much about the protest and having talked so much about the protest and having seen their committment to come all the way from another state (not new jersey) to this one in order to be at this protest that to go to the protest wouldnt be the most difficult or meaningless thing in the world to do. in the course of having talked about the protest and havig agreed with the various issues involved: yes, women should be able to have abortions if they want. yes, the war in iraq is wrong. yes, everyone should have healthcare. yes, the tailor law is an unfair law. yes, immigration is good. yes, a war against iran is not a good idea, etc. so then why not protest?

sure, protests have their downsides - to be grouped along with a bunch of people who you may not want to be grouped with - the fact that 60s style resistance may not be totally relevant in 2006, though it may, etc. but certainly doing nothing has no upside and despite all the complaining and pointing out of things that i tend to do, nothing is certainly what i do.

but in the end, i wasnt really even going to go. when i woke up i had some writing to do so i did it and anna as usual was dying to go to breakfast or brunch and to drink coffee outside. since i was doing work we decided that i would do work and then when i got hungry we would go out to brunch. it was past breakfast time. since it was past breakfast time and we hadnt eaten, anna was getting restless and then wanted to go walk around outside and said she was going to get coffee and offerred to get me coffee too. i accepted and kept writing and she came back before i knew it talking of how nice a day it was outside. "it's cold, but its sunny and it's like you can smell the water. it's one of those days in new york that makes you think you are somewhere else." implied was that a) it was not dank and disgusting and b) that she wanted to go out to eat. its understandable. we only get but so many nice days here in new york.

i didnt rush my writing like i would in a blog entry or anything like that, but i did finish soon and when i said, "lets go out" anna was already halfway out the door. that isnt true, but it works as an idiom in this case. the key was that i was feeling good about my writing and anna was feeling good about going to eat and we were both happy to be able to enjoy a nice day. people find motivation to action in different things and mine can as often be a good morning of writing as it can be being challeneged to a game of basketball. though rarely am i motivated to action by my political beliefs. and this was not different. the protest passsed by my house about two blocks away and we joined.

the world needs people to be motivated by their political beliefs. however, if peoples political beliefs are shaped by the politics of the time, then what good is it all? this is not to propose some kind of played out 90s style cynicism, but it is only to point out the fact that with all these protests and issues going on these days, about wars about immigration and all the things i mentioned above, and with all the other action i know is going on concerning poverty and imprisonment and unemployment specifically among the black population - why arent these issues combined? why arent these issues together at the same general protest? just a question. but i wouldnt have been able to ask it if i wasnt at the protest with teh rest of the good people i was there with today. being able to ask different questions is a product of having done different things. thats true.





...anna as usual was dying to go to breakfast or brunch or to drink coffee outside...

the nothings, pt 1

i had begun another post a while back and it was turning out not to be good so i stopped writing it and decided to come back to it later when i would be perhaps a changed person and more readily capable of writing a large and undirected piece without giving second though to trifles such as making a point, following any logical pattern, allowing my mind to be constrained by such tricks and conviniences of writing at the expense of the never-ending sperad of my expression. i was imagining a buffet table that extends around the world and that the cook can cook faster than the eaters can eat. thats how i wanted my blog to be. i was going for the effect of having an entire lifelong experience contained within two or three paragraphs. paragraphs that could be returned to by a reader at any time of their life as they were wondering any odd thing and then at parting, they would have found what they were looking for. an all-encompassing blog entry, really. the perfect one.

what i ended up with was a description about how i was drunk one night and then came home to find that there was a dead mouse in my living room. so, in the moment of greatest need - in the time when i was calling upon all of my authorial powers of mind and vision, i resorted to rodentia. this phenomenon, i am sure, is to be attributed to the reptilian portion of my mind. such a portion of my inner brain is the one responsible for my latent need to eat rodents, and my need to eat rodents, smothered by all of my human dos and donts comes forth only in my writing. this, of course, is purely a cultural thing as i would be more than happy to eat rodents were they not grey and shifty and in my apartment and seen most clearly with their necks smashed by a metal bar, or, as the mouse i was going to write about was - struggling against glue for its freedom. they pull and try to drag themselves out of the sticky traps but rarely does it work and usually they just figure out a way to get themselves more stuck and more desperate and squealing and trying without success to separate their flesh from their bones.


on the other hand, the mountain goat is the noblest of animals. note its true contemplative nature. note its supreme balance. note its coloring, purposely so for adaptation to a snowy, harsh environment. it is of no surprise that the mountain goat has no natural predator since there is no natural predator that is willing to spit in the face of gravity as is the mountain goat. their meat is most likely tasty, and they are not aggressive, yet they avoid predation through superpowers. quite admirable.


as a comarison, we see here that while contempatice, the subject is clearly feeling quite satisfied with its attainment of height, and if chased by simple animal, aven a rodent, this subject may be more inclined to jump down than to face the ferocity of spiky teeth and aggressive mastication.






clearly i have nothing to write about today.

stew-art

This is all assuming that we know what we are talking about. Part 1.
After he placed the bag down the chute, he slid backwards and fell into a pose...
But really:
i had an idea of what i wanted to cook ever since saturday. i wanted to make the stew with the sage and the chicken. i wanted to have it ready to be eaten monday night and then available for lunch on tuesday and perhaps even dinner on tuesday. i wanted each meal to be equally robust and nutritious. and i wanted the scent of cooked tomatoes to find its way into the cracks of the walls and through the emerging holes in the wooden floors - down to the mouse family hide out - drawing them out of obscurity into my awaiting glue trap. but that was a secondary concern.

on sunday, i walked outside to get the necessary ingredients. i did not want to spend much money, always a pitfall in my proper execution of plans, and did not want to walk too far in search of a good, inexpensive supermarket. i had been able to enjoy the weather earlier in the day because i was playing basketball and warm from action. in the evening, the breeze became a bit harsh and i had already hung up my jacket. it was not so bad out that i could not walk outside with a t-shirt, but only so bad that i could not walk far without a jacket. trader joes might have been helpful, but the spector of waiting on line to get in helped me along to option 2. fine fare would have been perfect, but was too far a walk for the time of day and for my specific purposes. in all the places ive lived, ive always been just far enough from a fine fare supermarket that it is not my local supermarket. but on a nice enough day when ive been able to save up enough money that i can go outside without fear of spending it all, a healthy walk will usually land me in the vicinity of fine fare, and it is always very pleasing to return from such a walk with a couple bags full of well priced meat and other storeable foods. such a gesture denotes my diligence in planning for the future and makes me feel good about all i have done throughout the day.

key food would have been worth walking to, but it is always a risk of wasting your time since their vegetables are so often wilted. their chicken would have been cheap and abundant, but i would almost certainly not have found the vegetables i would have needed. though generally a well priced store that i am happy to be in the neighborhood of, key food suffers from two very specific things concerning their supply of vegetables: the first is that the variety is very random. they will often have more basil than youve ever seen in your life, but yet lacking in potatoes. also, the pricing of the vegetables is very uneven. you may be able to find a good head of cabbage for $.59 per pound and be happy and wish to continue chopping at key food. however, you will then find that the okra, packaged in cellophane and styrofoam, and lacking in abundance, costs $3.00. this incongruity leaves the shopper inevitably in either one of two positions: the first being that you have, in the end, overpaid for as many items as you got good deals on. the second being that you have to make two separate shopping trips for vegetables: one for what you could get cheap at key food, and one for what you could not get cheap at key food. you will have to carry your key food bag into another store, as the plastic handles dig into your fingers. another thing about key food is that their baskets full of fresh herbs are always near empty. this can be explained either by their being very rarely restocked, or by a community-wide dietary longing for green herbs that leaves late shoppers such as my self with the last of the choices, every time. either way, they are always unappetizing and produce shopping at key food is never a sure thing.

the met supermarket suffers from the same negative qualities as does key food, plus some, and without any other distinctive features that would make it worthwhile in any way whatsoever. like key food, the pricing and quality of the vegetables are very uneven. unlike key food, the meat section is very basic. the met supermarket is only good if you want to buy very basic things, such as apples, lettuce and chicken, or hamburger meat. there is no seasoning meat other than bacon. in fact, the seasoning meat and strange parts of animal section at fine fare, replete with hearts, livers, feet and intestines of chickens, pigs and cows is larger than the entire meat section of met. however, met is closer to where i live, and considering the chill in the air, it was certainly a consideration. the problem is, there is almost no chance whatsoever that i would have been able to find the vegetables i needed for my stew. plus with the uneven pricing, i may have felt that i was getting a deal on onions, but since i would have been getting a bad deal on tomatoes, i would inevitably have spent more money than i would have thought i was going to spend and have been upset about it. as well, the met supermarket is one of those places that does not accept american express. and since i am currently trying to accrue vast amounts of points on my american express card, i have been considering less and less shopping at met. all in all, the met supermarket is goog for those times when you happen to be walking by and want to buy something that you know for a fact they will have, and that is very cheap. so cheap that the use of any credit card would seem embarrasing and tacky.

closer to me than any of these other markets is the st marks market. the st marks market is where i usually go to buy things. you can be sure that they will have, in substantial stock, every bit of produce that you could want. it may not be cheaper than everywhere else you could find things, but enough of it is cheap enough and all of it is there. the colors burst out at you and the vegetables are moist and crisp looking - colors that you want inside your body. powerful ones that are not wilted. there is really no element of chance or surprise in shopping at st marks market. never will they have $.50 bags of carrots, but then again, never will they have wilted collard greens that you cannot buy no matter how much rationalization and have to go home empty handed. yet still, me being cheap, i have found all of the cheaper foods at st marks market and have adjusted my diet to accomodate my wallet. for instance, in my morning smoothie, i put a banana, yogurt, juice and a good sized chunk of melon. ever since i started shopping at st marks market, this melon has been canteloupe. canteloupe costs $1.99 at st marks market, which is cheaper than i might find it elsewhere. if it is not cheaper, then it is certainly not more expensive, and if other places have canteloupe at that price it is usually because of a special deal or because they are becoming soft. these canteloupes are not soft and they are alwyas the same price. however, honeydew, which i like better than canteloupe, costs $3.99. though i would like to put honeydew in my smoothie i do not because the honeydew at st marks market is more expensive than i could expect to find it at other venues. however, the cheaper honeydew i do find elsewhere is also more likely to be bruised and soft than is the canteloupe at st marks market (we are assuming that it is an instance where i dont have the time nor inclination to trapse up to fairway for an overall high quality shopping experience in every way imaignable). i have therefore told myself that i am better off drinking canteloupe during the winter and waiting until the summer to buy my papayas and pineapples and honeydews and watermelons from the vendors with their carts that sell fruit on the street for much cheaper than at any store and where a bruise on the rind that does not affect the quality of the overall melon that would mark a supermarket as inferior only instigates cause for haggling. so i usually wind up at st marks market. the problem, as it relates to my stew is that the meat section is meager at best. st marks market is clearly built for selling produce and prepared foods, however, there is a tiny meat sectioon in the back that will sometimes have chicken legs and sometimes not and when they do, they are usually organic and sold 4 at a time for the same price that fine fare would sell 12. if you are going to st marks market to buy meat, then you are simply lazy, or you have disposable income, or you do not really relish i nshopping for good meat. in shopping at st marks market i had prepared myself mentally for the fact that i may not be able to get chicken, but since i was prepared, and since i knew that they would have available for me everything else i wanted, and at a high quality, i knew i would not be dissappointed. i would have to make slight, but joyful alterations to my recipe. in the end, it was more worth it to me to be able to buy all of the vegetables i needed with the possibility of not being able to get meat than it was to definitely get the meat i wanted while most likely having to compromise the inntegrity of the vegetable portion of my stew.