Seven and a Half
There's seven and a half acres for every man, woman,Despite the fact that I might see only a score or so movies this year in the theaters, it's something I really do enjoy doing. In lieu of actually watching movies, however, I like to surf rottentomatoes. Because the majority of movies reviewed every week are rotten or barely fresh, I can fool myself into thinking that I'm not missing much. But I know it's not really true. The majority consensus doesn't always reflect my opinion. And besides that, bad or mediocre movies are not always pointless to watch.
One of the funny things about my childhood is that I can't recall ever eating a fresh peach. I was an unfortunately picky eater and watching my mom ingest slimy peach slices from a can, covered in cottage cheese was enough to make me avoid peaches where possible. It wasn't until I was a freshman in college, browsing the nearby farmer's market with L., that I had my first fresh peach. It was if a dam had broken. I started to wonder about all the foods that I had avoided. In the following years, I discovered that I was wrong about almost all of them (except cilantro). And since that moment, peaches have been my favorite fruit.
Over the last month or so, we've been moving furniture around downstairs. The big change is that the TV is now in the great room, instead of the family room. Now moving the TV, meant moving the home theater equipment. And that meant clearing the cobwebs from the interconnects. This gave me a chance to connect up C.'s bookshelf sized B&W speakers which have been with her from San Francisco, to New York, and now to our home. When I first bought the house I decided I wanted a proper home theater. I had nothing to start with so I sought out some decent low end gear. In the end, I couldn't really decided on speaker though and eventually I ended up with these lovely, but inexpensive Fluance speakers. I bought the set of five speakers for roughly $350 shipped. The two main channels are floorstanding speakers that look ever inch like a quality loudspeaker. And until this past Sunday, I thought they sounded the part too.
We listened to two U2 songs, "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "With or Without You," first on my Fluances and then with her B&Ws. At first I thought they were roughly equal. Hers were a little more lively, mine had a little more bass ... or something like that. But then I switched back to my speakers. Midway through the first song, I started laughing. My speakers were boring, plain and simple. After hearing how the song could sound, why would I want to listen to it this way? And I assure you, it's not something that you need a fine ear to experience. Just the same it's not something that you'd necessarily notice if you had never done a comparison. Unfortunately, like opening Pandora's Box, it's not something that I'll be able undo.
The new ED (Executive Director, for those perverted amongst you), has a habit of inserting successories-style quotes, printed full page, in packets handed out in meetings. These quotes make their way down the food chain here in Pokeland and land square on my desk. Now I'm a big fan of quotes; I like to collect the ones that give me a moment of clarity. But I'm not particularly fond of foisting them on to others, especially as some sort of motivational tool. Today, however, I got a gem of one, which stood out because it was not motivational or inspirational and because it spoke to me and told me something of the human condition. I pass it on to you for your rumination:
"People don't come to work to be No.1 or No.2 or to get a 20 percent net return on assets ... They come to work to get meaning from their lives." - Christopher Bartlett, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.
I should probably post before I'm unable to count the days since my last post on my fingers. Ten days ago, we found out that our favorite Japanese restaurant in the East Bay ceased to exist. Probably for the best really, they flew their fish in from Japan, who knows what that does to my food miles. Nine days ago we went into the City to meet with an officiant for the wedding. We stayed to have dinner at our friends' place on Union Street. Eight days ago I went golfing in Tilden with R. It was brutal day for allergies.
Seven days ago we celebrated S's birthday. I ended up meeting some foodies living in New York; oh how I miss it. Six days ago we found a new Japanese Restaurant in Oakland. It was good except for the blood in the fish -- where does the blood normally go? Five days ago we worked, watched tv, and slept. That's all. Four days ago we saw Vienna Teng at the Palace of Fine Arts. I completed my side of the wedding party.
Three, we went to see Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin were magnificent. Two, I played bridge for several hours with good friends. My father would have been very happy. Yesterday, we picked C's uncle up from the airport. We fetched groceries, organized files and dreaded the end of another gorgeous weekend.
Melamine. Unless you've been following the news pretty closely or are an industrial chemist, you probably don't know the word. In mid-April, Melamine was found in pet food here in the United States. This pet food was link to the deaths of a number of animals. By late April, the Melamine had been tracked back to feed being imported from China and it was acknowledged that some of this had been consumed by pork and poultry. The jury's still out on what this means for the average person, but I think the story's got legs and room to run. You might miss it though if you aren't watching, seeing how it's lost in amongst the news of the Iraq War Bill, the recent report on climate change and a host of other things.
Earlier I came across this report on the food industry in America. I've often looked at the organic fruits and vegetables at my local Trader Joe's and thought to myself, it's just too expensive. For me, there's an idea stuck in my head that more expensive food is more extravagant and that it's better to be frugal. It's the way of capitalism really, the cheaper product, so long as it's deemed equivalent, is better. But really, there are some products: corn, rice, soy and wheat, that are cheap; not because of efficiency, demand, or value to the consumer; but because they are subsidized. It's hard enough figuring out what to eat on a day to day basis, do I really need the government telling me to eat more high fructose corn syrup? It's sort of like having my tax money shoved down my throat.
All this week I've been hearing the following phrase on the morning radio, food miles. Like the phrase, carbon footprint, it's an idea that's really taken hold with the growing concern about global warming. In theory, buying locally should be a no-brainer, local food ought to be cheaper. Unfortunately, with all the various subsidies, tariffs and whatnot, it isn't always the case. Sometimes that food that originated in China cost less than the Avocados being grown a few miles away. But I do understand it, it's about protecting the status quo. Sometimes that ain't so bad, like in the case of the climate, I think the status quo climate is pretty good. I'd prefer to keep it if I could. As for the stuff that I buy and consume. I'd like to pay just what it actually costs to grow/make and ship, thank you very much.
This past weekend California Democrats held their convention in San Diego. At it, Presidential Candidate John Edwards pledged that his first act as President would be to close the Detention Facility at Guantanamo Bay. With all the problems in the world: Iraq, global climate change, nuclear proliferation; one might think that the detention facility at Gitmo is something that could wait. I think though it's the best place to start. Of the many problems that we have, it's one that is fully under our control. Of all the problems we have, it probably symbolizes best what's wrong with America today, fear.
By now, most Americans have probably heard of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Most Americans have a vague idea that dangerous people are being held there. This past week, a radio program known as This American Life, aired their Peabody award winning commentary on Habeas Corpus. If you can spare an hour to listen to the program, I highly recommend it. A transcript of the program is also available at the link above.
Lastly, yesterday morning, driving into work, listening once again to NPR, I caught what is often my favorite program of the day: a short clip entitled, "Perspectives". Once again, if you have a minute to spare, have a listen.