Like a Sunday afternoon drive in late Spring with windows down, radio on, and absolutely no place to be. That's how I felt after finishing the remarkable book The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, last night at 10:32 p.m. Here is an absolutely pleasant, entertaining read. That I would post about it wasn't even an issue, but now that the time has come I'm perplexed about what to say. My purpose is not to review the book, per se, for that's done admirably by a host of other more talented writers. As a matter of fact, it was a line by Pamela Kaufman, editor of Food & Wine Magazine, that proved to be the final motivator in getting me to get out and pick up a copy. Her spiel is the first under the heading "Editorial Reviews" at the book's Amazon.com page, and after deftly offering a bird's-eye-view of the book she makes this simple statement: "This may sound earnest, but Pollan isn't preachy...". Pollan's research, tactics & involvement with his subject matter and sources are earnest, intense even, but after wrapping up I would have to echo the sentiment of his ability to write without seeming "preachy". As a matter of fact, thinking back on the last two weeks of poring over the pages, I don't recall a single time feeling like he was even remotely telling me what to do with my food. No, he just masterfully has taught me to consider more deeply what exactly it is I'm eating, and where it comes from. As Jabel so wisely quoted in his review of the NYT article written by Pollan "Unhappy Meals", the author suggests that we "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Michael Pollan is a skilled researcher, a talented writer, & seems to be as humorous as he is erudite. I'm definitely adding his works to my "must read" category.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History Of Four Meals
Like a Sunday afternoon drive in late Spring with windows down, radio on, and absolutely no place to be. That's how I felt after finishing the remarkable book The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, last night at 10:32 p.m. Here is an absolutely pleasant, entertaining read. That I would post about it wasn't even an issue, but now that the time has come I'm perplexed about what to say. My purpose is not to review the book, per se, for that's done admirably by a host of other more talented writers. As a matter of fact, it was a line by Pamela Kaufman, editor of Food & Wine Magazine, that proved to be the final motivator in getting me to get out and pick up a copy. Her spiel is the first under the heading "Editorial Reviews" at the book's Amazon.com page, and after deftly offering a bird's-eye-view of the book she makes this simple statement: "This may sound earnest, but Pollan isn't preachy...". Pollan's research, tactics & involvement with his subject matter and sources are earnest, intense even, but after wrapping up I would have to echo the sentiment of his ability to write without seeming "preachy". As a matter of fact, thinking back on the last two weeks of poring over the pages, I don't recall a single time feeling like he was even remotely telling me what to do with my food. No, he just masterfully has taught me to consider more deeply what exactly it is I'm eating, and where it comes from. As Jabel so wisely quoted in his review of the NYT article written by Pollan "Unhappy Meals", the author suggests that we "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Michael Pollan is a skilled researcher, a talented writer, & seems to be as humorous as he is erudite. I'm definitely adding his works to my "must read" category.
Monday, February 26, 2007
The Library In Leaves
I read today Michael Pollan's article in the New York Times from 16 1/2 years ago entitled Autumn, It's No Garden Party. As the title suggests it is a treatise concerning the transformations of the Fall season, both of the natural state of plants and the work required to gather the current harvest and plan for the season to come a few months down the road. I found especially enlightening the following quote concerning the evolutionary flirting of plants with animals:
"Autumn color in the woods signals the abdication of chlorophyll; in the garden, among the annuals, it means something else. With their ripe, tinted fruits the plants aim to flag down passing animals, offering them food in exchange for giving their seeds a lift out of here. By late September the plants are concentrating all their energies on this process—on writing down their secrets on tiny seed tablets and then encouraging someone, anyone, to take them out into the world. Recipes, instruction manuals, last testaments: by making seeds the plant condenses itself, or at least everything it knows, into a form compact and durable enough to survive winter, a tightly sealed bottle of genetic memory dropped onto the ocean of the future."
I was also inspired by his illustration drawn from a historical study in describing how earth is not a closed system in which we are to be fearful of using up all its resources:
"The first person to verify that indeed this (natures incredible ROI) is a miracle was a 17th-century scientist by the name of Van Helmont. He planted a willow sapling in a container that held 200 pounds of soil and, for five years, gave it nothing but water. At the end of that time, the tree was found to weigh 169 pounds, and the soil 199 pounds, 14 ounces—from just two ounces of soil had come 169 pounds of tree. Rich increase, indeed."
Perhaps the best was saved for the proverbial last, though, when he quoted from Thoreau's Autumnal Tints concerning how the crunch of fallen leaves instructs us how to die gracefully, sweetly and with honor:
"How beautifully they go to their graves! how gently lay themselves down and turn to mould!...They teach us how to die. One wonders if the time will ever come when men, with their boasted faith in immortality, will lie down as gracefully and as ripe,—with such an Indian-summer serenity will shed their bodies, as they do their hair and nails."
"Autumn color in the woods signals the abdication of chlorophyll; in the garden, among the annuals, it means something else. With their ripe, tinted fruits the plants aim to flag down passing animals, offering them food in exchange for giving their seeds a lift out of here. By late September the plants are concentrating all their energies on this process—on writing down their secrets on tiny seed tablets and then encouraging someone, anyone, to take them out into the world. Recipes, instruction manuals, last testaments: by making seeds the plant condenses itself, or at least everything it knows, into a form compact and durable enough to survive winter, a tightly sealed bottle of genetic memory dropped onto the ocean of the future."
I was also inspired by his illustration drawn from a historical study in describing how earth is not a closed system in which we are to be fearful of using up all its resources:
"The first person to verify that indeed this (natures incredible ROI) is a miracle was a 17th-century scientist by the name of Van Helmont. He planted a willow sapling in a container that held 200 pounds of soil and, for five years, gave it nothing but water. At the end of that time, the tree was found to weigh 169 pounds, and the soil 199 pounds, 14 ounces—from just two ounces of soil had come 169 pounds of tree. Rich increase, indeed."
Perhaps the best was saved for the proverbial last, though, when he quoted from Thoreau's Autumnal Tints concerning how the crunch of fallen leaves instructs us how to die gracefully, sweetly and with honor:
"How beautifully they go to their graves! how gently lay themselves down and turn to mould!...They teach us how to die. One wonders if the time will ever come when men, with their boasted faith in immortality, will lie down as gracefully and as ripe,—with such an Indian-summer serenity will shed their bodies, as they do their hair and nails."
Candyman
The new Christina Aguilera video for Candyman is now available, and is as hot as all get-out. The above link is for the MTV site, while this one is for the youtube post and is larger but at a lower resolution. The throw-back sound she's created her most recent album in really shines in this tune, and the video matches up alarmingly well. Fire-alarmingly, that is, if that's even an allowable phrase. To say it's hot seems like such an understatement, but I'll not ramble, so just go watch it already. Then, if you're interested, check this out for a live performance of the song from this years NBA All-Star game halftime show. Finally, the lyrics can be found behind the damn in the next sentence. DAMN!***UPDATE 3/1/07***
Click here for the Musicbox version of the video.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
A Handful Of Seeds & A Bunch Of Impatiens
Okay, I'm starting to get obsessed, I think. Michael Pollan is a terrific writer, and though few will pick up on the following statement, I'm gonna make it anyway. I'm thinking Pollan is to the man-earth connection what Boreham was to the man-God companionship. I'm still reading his The Omnivore's Dilemma and am just as fascinated as the hour I started, and I'm working my way through the articles on his website. Concerning these last pieces, here's a tidbit of the ones I've read, with a link to each in case you're in the mood for what you get from the snippit...
Gardening Means War
A hilarious account of the author's battle with critters who would destroy his garden. Here's a bit written after he tried to burn a woodchuck out of his hole nearby: "MY BRUSH WITH CONFLAGRATION among the vegetables shocked me out of my Vietnam approach to garden pests before I had a chance to defoliate the neighborhood. I also began to think that there might be more going on here than a cartoonish war between me and a woodchuck."
Why Mow? The Case Against Lawns
A pleasant read concerning all things yard. It'll be time to mow 'em before long, so maybe this one'll help us get through the season with a few laughs. Check out this quote about what happened when the neighborhood attempted to get the author's dad to mow a much-too-tall lawn: "My father's reply could not have been more eloquent. Without a word he strode out to the garage and cranked up the rusty old Toro for the first time since fall; it's a miracle the thing started. He pushed it out to the curb and then started back across the lawn to the house, but not in a straight line: he swerved right, then left, then right again. He had cut an ''S'' in the high grass. Then he made an ''M,'' and finally a ''P.'' These are his initials, and as soon as he finished writing them he wheeled the lawn mower back to the garage, never to start it up again."
Weeds Are Us
I really enjoyed this one, and mentioned it actually in a previous post. This article is a terrific picture of what happens when you let weeds get away. Here's an interesting quote: "If I seem to have wandered far afield of my topic, consider what weeding is: the process by which we make informed choices in nature, discriminate between good and bad, apply our intelligence and sweat to the earth. To weed is to apply culture to nature—which is why we say, when we are weeding, that we are cultivating the soil. Weeding, in this sense, is not a nuisance that follows from gardening, but its very essence."
Putting Down Roots
Read this if you feel like it should be Arbor Day every day, or if you just like hugging trees, or if you've ever considered venturing out to pick up a tree and plant one just for the hell of it. Witness the deep psychology involved with deciding where, exactly, to plant that next tree: "It's a sobering responsibility, picking the site for a big tree; get it wrong, plant it too close to the house or a power line, and you will someday force a terrible decision on someone. I spent half a day walking around the property, straining mentally to add something the size of a brownstone to the empty scene before me. I traced one 50-foot circle after another in the grass, trying to picture the eventual footprint of shade. Shadows you can see are elusive enough; to plan for shadows decades hence is to deal in the shadows of shadows."
Gardening Means War
A hilarious account of the author's battle with critters who would destroy his garden. Here's a bit written after he tried to burn a woodchuck out of his hole nearby: "MY BRUSH WITH CONFLAGRATION among the vegetables shocked me out of my Vietnam approach to garden pests before I had a chance to defoliate the neighborhood. I also began to think that there might be more going on here than a cartoonish war between me and a woodchuck."
Why Mow? The Case Against Lawns
A pleasant read concerning all things yard. It'll be time to mow 'em before long, so maybe this one'll help us get through the season with a few laughs. Check out this quote about what happened when the neighborhood attempted to get the author's dad to mow a much-too-tall lawn: "My father's reply could not have been more eloquent. Without a word he strode out to the garage and cranked up the rusty old Toro for the first time since fall; it's a miracle the thing started. He pushed it out to the curb and then started back across the lawn to the house, but not in a straight line: he swerved right, then left, then right again. He had cut an ''S'' in the high grass. Then he made an ''M,'' and finally a ''P.'' These are his initials, and as soon as he finished writing them he wheeled the lawn mower back to the garage, never to start it up again."
Weeds Are Us
I really enjoyed this one, and mentioned it actually in a previous post. This article is a terrific picture of what happens when you let weeds get away. Here's an interesting quote: "If I seem to have wandered far afield of my topic, consider what weeding is: the process by which we make informed choices in nature, discriminate between good and bad, apply our intelligence and sweat to the earth. To weed is to apply culture to nature—which is why we say, when we are weeding, that we are cultivating the soil. Weeding, in this sense, is not a nuisance that follows from gardening, but its very essence."
Putting Down Roots
Read this if you feel like it should be Arbor Day every day, or if you just like hugging trees, or if you've ever considered venturing out to pick up a tree and plant one just for the hell of it. Witness the deep psychology involved with deciding where, exactly, to plant that next tree: "It's a sobering responsibility, picking the site for a big tree; get it wrong, plant it too close to the house or a power line, and you will someday force a terrible decision on someone. I spent half a day walking around the property, straining mentally to add something the size of a brownstone to the empty scene before me. I traced one 50-foot circle after another in the grass, trying to picture the eventual footprint of shade. Shadows you can see are elusive enough; to plan for shadows decades hence is to deal in the shadows of shadows."
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
The Dilbert Blog
I probably owe this discovery to Jabel as well, though I really can't recall. Over on my Frogroll I've just added a link to The Dilbert Blog. Although I've had an average liking of the Dilbert cartoon strip, I've loved the blog from my first encounter with it just last August. Someone, again it was probably Jabel, sent me a link to a hilarious post about the author's familymoon and the trouble he ran into during the trip with his, er, stuff. It's a man's post, for sure, but even the gals may get a little enjoyment, if not a lot of explanation, out of the post. It's called Undergarment Dysfunction, and you can read it here.Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Christina On Musicbox
I found a great site that shows Christina's videos in a much higher resolution than the youtube postings. Click the pic of the adorable one above for the link.Pollan's Link To Emerson
.jpg)
As I've recently revealed I've been reading Michael Pollan's fascinating book The Omnivore's Dilemma. It is my first real experience of reading a contemporary writer on the subject of nature, as up to this point my focus has been on what I've come across in the Harvard Classics, therefore only up to the early 20th century. One of my favorite sources has been a few of the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Specifically his essays on Nature and Land got me to think how pleasant it would be to have a well-cultivated piece of ground, replete with flowers, plants, trees and grasses of the rarest beauty and usefulness.Last night I was reading some more of this thrilling book by Pollan when I came across the following Emerson quote: "You have just dined, and, however scrupulously the slaughter-house is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity..." Pollan was talking, of course, about his dinner of chicken and how that most of us never look back to all that was involved in getting the bird to the table. The quote is from Emerson's essay entitled Fate, and was a poignant reminder of how important it is to consider from whence our meals come.
Okay, this is a bit of a jumbled-post, but I'm just ecstatic over the connection, albeit a small one, between Pollan & Emerson.
***UPDATE***
In reading through Pollan's articles on his website, I came across the following piece that further shows he's an avid reader of Emerson. Click here for a wonderful essay on weeds in which one very small, interesting bit of information concerns Tumbleweed, that icon of the west, and that it wasn't even introduced to America until 1870. He also suggests that when it comes to weeds, "to do nothing, is tantamount to letting (others) plant (our) gardens".
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Michael Pollan
I have added a new link to my "Surfin' The Pond?" section in the right hand column, a simple passageway to all things Michael Pollan. Pollan is a brilliant writer who covers a wide range of topics related to the human-earth connection, and also teaches journalism at UC-Berkeley. I have just recently discovered his body of work via a recommendation by my good friend Jabel, who posted to his blog on February 1 a little snippet about one of Pollans articles in the New York Times entitled Unhappy Meals. After reading the article I reserved and picked up a copy of his latest book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma". As of this post I'm nearly halfway through, and have already recommended it to several people because I'm fascinated beyond expectation. I'll reserve commenting on the actual book itself until I finish reading it, though I've already come across many quotable, practical, eye-opening and poetic lines that I'd love to commit to memory. The link I've created is to Pollan's website, and behind it is a series of articles and bits of information that I definitely intend to browse in the coming weeks & months. Jabel may inspire me to an agrarian focus after all...
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Michael Crichton: Next
I finished the latest novel by Michael Crichton yesterday (which I quoted in a previous post), and must say that I'm impressed. The book description is as follows:"Is a loved one missing some body parts? Are blondes becoming extinct? Is everyone at your dinner table of the same species? Humans and chimpanzees differ in only 400 genes; is that why a chimp fetus resembles a human being? And should that worry us? There's a new genetic cure for drug addiction--is it worse than the disease?
We live in a time of momentous scientific leaps, a time when it's possible to sell our eggs and sperm online for thousands of dollars and to test our spouses for genetic maladies.
We live in a time when one fifth of all our genes are owned by someone else, and an unsuspecting person and his family can be pursued cross-country because they happen to have certain valuable genes within their chromosomes...
Devilishly clever, Next blends fact and fiction into a breathless tale of a new world where nothing is what it seems and a set of new possibilities can open at every turn.
Next challenges our sense of reality and notions of morality. Balancing the comic and the bizarre with the genuinely frightening and disturbing, Next shatters our assumptions and reveals shocking new choices where we least expect.
The future is closer than you think."
I read that the science here is "a lot less far-fetched than creating dinosaurs from DNA" (referring, of course, to his works in the Jurassic Park series), and if that is the case then this is certainly a troubling read, or at least I should say unnerving.
I've made it a point to read all of Crichton's books in order of release, so I am always on the look-out for the publication dates of his next thriller. I had to wait a few weeks for this one since a few people were ahead of me on the libraries list, but it was worth the wait. I still think Jurassic Park & The Lost World are my favs, but this one is certainly a deserving thief of the readers hours. Give it a part of your soul and see what you think...
My Fav Chappelle's Show Clip (Wayne Brady)
Click the pic at left and watch the clip of the episode of Chappelle's show featuring a hilarious Wayne Brady skit. Wayne Brady is often ridiculed by fellow black folks as being too "white" b/c of his choice of television roles and his good standing in society, being accepted by whites more than any other black entertainer in America, it seems. Well, this skit is intended to silence the critics of Wayne Brady by showing he really does have street cred. When I watched this a few months ago I was in an uproar...ch-check it out, bitches!
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Which Is Stranger: Truth Or Fiction?
Interesting clip from Psychology News entitled Adults Don't Grow Up Anymore: British Researcher Blames Formal Education; Professors, Scientists "Strikingly Immature"...
"If you believe the adults around you are acting like children, you're probably right. In technical terms, it is called "psychological neotony", the persistance of childhood behavior into adulthood. And it's on the rise.
According to Dr. Bruce Charlton, evolutionary psychiatrist at Newcastle upon Tyne, human beings now take longer to reach mental maturity-and many never do at all.
Charlton believes this is an accidental by-product of formal education that lasts well into the twenties. 'Formal education requires a child-like stance of receptivity', which 'counteracts the attainment of psychological maturity' that would normally occur in the late teens or early twenties.
He notes that 'academics, teachers, scientists and many other professionals are often strikingly immature.' He calls them unpredictable, unbalanced in priorities, and tending to overreact.'
Earlier human societies, such as hunter-gatherers, were more stable and thus adulthood was attained in the teen years..."
Alright, this is not in fact, well, fact. It is a page from Micheal Crichton's fascinating new novel titled Next. Perhaps I'll post more on the book later (I picked it up yesterday and am halfway through as I take a break to publish this post), but when I read this I instantly thought of Lisa Nowak, the diapered astronaut who drove hundreds of miles to confront a rival for the love and affection of her man. I heard one brush-off this week that simply stated she need not be punished too harshly for what was obviously "a crime of passion", as if that makes it all justifiable. Hmmm, perhaps her legal team can call the intelligent Crichton as an expert and suggest she just hasn't grown up, therefore she need only be grounded...no pun intended.
"If you believe the adults around you are acting like children, you're probably right. In technical terms, it is called "psychological neotony", the persistance of childhood behavior into adulthood. And it's on the rise.
According to Dr. Bruce Charlton, evolutionary psychiatrist at Newcastle upon Tyne, human beings now take longer to reach mental maturity-and many never do at all.
Charlton believes this is an accidental by-product of formal education that lasts well into the twenties. 'Formal education requires a child-like stance of receptivity', which 'counteracts the attainment of psychological maturity' that would normally occur in the late teens or early twenties.
He notes that 'academics, teachers, scientists and many other professionals are often strikingly immature.' He calls them unpredictable, unbalanced in priorities, and tending to overreact.'
Earlier human societies, such as hunter-gatherers, were more stable and thus adulthood was attained in the teen years..."
Alright, this is not in fact, well, fact. It is a page from Micheal Crichton's fascinating new novel titled Next. Perhaps I'll post more on the book later (I picked it up yesterday and am halfway through as I take a break to publish this post), but when I read this I instantly thought of Lisa Nowak, the diapered astronaut who drove hundreds of miles to confront a rival for the love and affection of her man. I heard one brush-off this week that simply stated she need not be punished too harshly for what was obviously "a crime of passion", as if that makes it all justifiable. Hmmm, perhaps her legal team can call the intelligent Crichton as an expert and suggest she just hasn't grown up, therefore she need only be grounded...no pun intended.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
My Fav Wonder Showzen Clip
Be forewarned, if you can't take sacrilegious humor then this clip is not for you. Otherwise, it is quite funny... Just click the picture to view the short video from the hit MTV "muppets on crack" adult cartoon Wonder Showzen.
The Voice Within
Christina Aguilera has successfully pulled off a myriad of incredible looks in her career, all of which are fascinating in their own right. I had forgotten about the raven hair she wore in her The Voice Within video. It's a very stripped down, voice and lyrics driven song that did well on the charts, and is one of her big hits. I remember being fascinated by the video itself a couple of years ago, especially the simple-sexy getup she donned for the production. I've been a sucker for a chick with a nose jewel for quite some time, and hers is clearly visible in the video (and the single-cover photo above). Beatiful song, terrific video, gorgeous girl...what more could we ask for? Lyrics here.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Gentlemen, Quarterly Is Not Enough...
...time reserved to see Miss Aguilera...it needs to be daily.
QG ran Christina on the cover in June of last year and I ran across the article today. Behind the link is an area to read a well written piece, AND catch a slide show of the pics, AND even watch a short video of the photo shoot by Michael Thompson. Damn!
The cover shot above is quite classy and adorable, while the sultry shot to the right is downright sexy. Damn sexy, I must say.
I'm enthralled by the many shots available of xtina with those luscious red lips, and I noticed in this shoot she abandoned the bright red nails. Of course, it looks like she's abandoned nearly everything else, too...though I'm not complaining.
I guess I'm a sucker for girlie-girls, as I've mentioned before, but apparently this is a type of shoot she really enjoys doing. In the short video of the photo shoot there are a few lines of an interview she gave in which she comments about how a woman needs to be able to feel comfortable in her own skin, and to be able to show that sexy side of womanhood. I'm simply transfixed by the beauty of the female form as art, but I'm very picky, and am no longer interested in seeing skin for the sake of seeing skin (hell, I'm not 13 anymore!). The old-fashioned glam vibe Christina has going on right now is spectacular. Mwuahhh...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)