Edward Garcia's Blog

Chopping block

2007-10-01T18:03:00.000-04:00

This seems to be the year of giving up for me. Not in the negative sense but in the positive way. I am not sure that it started with a grand purpose in mind but it has become a way of aligning my life with what I believe, which is so hard to do sometimes. I started off the year giving up eating fish. I had already given up eating red meat (grazing animals) and white meat (poultry) a few years before but fish and seafood was particularly difficult for me to give up. I love the flavor and the experience of eating it, Sushi is one of my favorite cuisines and it cheered me up to eat it. Recently though the ecological and Health problems have become too big for me to ignore. So many fish are near extinction because of over fishing, not to mention the terrible health effects of all of the Mercury and other harmful substances that have been getting increasingly higher in fish and seafood. There was a recent article about the Japanese trying to save Blue fin Tuna from Extinction by having other fish give birth to Tuna. I don’t want to be part of the problem so I gave fish and seafood up in the beginning of the year and I feel a lot better for it. It has been hard but if you have a solid reason for giving it up it doesn’t linger or feel like a sacrifice.
The second thing I gave up this year was Pepsi and Coke products, all of them. I have known for a long time about the bad social and ecological business practices that they both participate in but it was very difficult for me to give up something that had become such a part of my daily life. I wrote a while ago about how much Coke I would drink a day and I was not exaggerating. I decided that I needed to stop supporting companies that I knew were doing terrible things in third world countries. It was very hard in the beginning to overcome the habit but it has become a lot easier lately and I feel so much better for it.
The latest thing has also been really difficult. I gave up cable TV! I always knew that I spent too much time watching Television but I never wanted to do anything about it, not really anyway. I wanted to stay informed and current on things and so I would rationalize my way into keeping it and rationalize my way into watching it from the time I got home from work until the time I went to sleep unless I had somewhere to go or something specific to do. This meant I spent a lot of time watching shows I had no particular interest in but were watchable enough to keep me on the couch or to keep me from shutting it off. If one channel didn’t have something to watch some other channel surely would. This meant a lot of channel surfing and a lot of hours but not a lot of enjoyment. In August I wanted to cut off the cable at the end of the month. Jeannie was fine with it as she never really watched that much TV anyway so I cancelled it. I thought that I should get an antenna for Broadcast TV so we could watch the handful of shows that we actually enjoy so as not to go cut off all TV and probably not be able to stick to it. We only watch Heroes, The Office, My name is Earl, 30 Rock and Medium so I thought that I would just get some rabbit ears and watch Broadcast TV. The problem was that I could not get a picture. I thought I would have to break down and get cable again but instead the solution has been that we have just been watching them online. NBC is no longer offering them on I-Tunes but they have been showing them on their own site so we can watch them when we have time and not have to worry about being home for it or recording it. It also means that we only watch what we consciously want to watch. This cuts down on my TV time dramatically and so far it has worked out really well. I’ll keep you posted if I relapse on any of the things I have given up so far or if I give up anything else. I don’t plan on anything right now but I don’t know how I will feel next week.

Year in Review

2007-08-28T18:26:00.000-04:00

We have almost been in Philadelphia a full year. Our anniversary is September 3rd and I have a lot to say about this city. When we first the first thing that caught our attention was all of the great food choices in the city. We could walk to almost all of them and they were definitely better than average.
We started out going to get coffee and use the internet at an independent coffee house a few blocks away called, “The Last drop”. It is a little art college coffee house that is pretty nice to surf and people watch in; for reading or relaxing we can go to “Chapter House” a chill lounge type coffee house where no one is cramped and the atmosphere is almost meditative. But these are only two of the many choices, there are so many independent coffee houses near us, there are probably fifteen within a half a mile of us, that we could go really go crazy on coffee. I really like the intactness of the small business culture in Philadelphia. Philadelphians take pride in supporting local and small businesses.
Another place that we went to early on is “Naked Chocolate Café” It is more of a chocolate shop than a café but it has a great vibe and it is always filled with people. They actually make the chocolate themselves not just a melt and repackage job like some other places. We went there a lot in the fall of last year to get drinking chocolate and pieces by the pound but then not so much after we learned to make chocolate bark ourselves, and Jeannie loaded up on Marie Belle. I would still recommend it to anyone who wants some good artisan chocolate.
We are also lucky to be just a few blocks from whole foods and a regular supermarket and we get a lot of our produce from the reading terminal Market which has some really great food stands in addition to having some really cheap produce markets. I love the Carrot, cucumber ginger juice from the “Four Seasons juice bar” and we also get some great bruchetta at Mezze. For some really great Indian/Pakistani food try Nanee’s kitchen, their Mango lassis are delicious.
Last fall was also a time of discovering neighborhoods and walking everywhere. On average we were walking more than three and probably closer to four miles a day. We are fortunate that there are so many picturesque and historic neighborhoods within walking distance. One of my favorites is the small street from South street to Walnut on Camac street. The street narrows to just a few feet across in parts and the houses are all historic and you feel like you are in another time and another country. They are mostly old brick row homes and many that are ivy covered with thickly painted shutters and old worn marble steps. Another nice walk is on Spruce between 15th and 22nd. It is lined with beautiful old Brownstones and actually looks a lot like some of the beautiful blocks in Brooklyn sans the hipsters and the strollers.
Come to think of it there were probably twenty restaurants that were critical to having us feel at home in Philadelphia. I will just list them here out of order and write about some of them later: Pico De Gallo – Mexican, Govindas- American Vegetarian, Morimoto- Sushi, Tiffin- Indian, Mixto-Latin, Pad Thai-Thai, Su Xing House- Chinese Vegetarian, Continental- Classic American, Tamarind- Thai, Horizons- Gourmet Vegan, Maoz- Falafel, Bitar’s-Falafel, Rustica- Pizza, Marathon Grill- American, Slice- Pizza, Shiao Lan Kung- Chinese, Rita’s -water ice, Capogiro- Gelato, Café Nhu Y- Banh Mi, Sabrina’s- Brunch, Morning Glory-Diner, Geechee Girl Café-Southern, Sarcone’s- Bakery, Grocery- Sandwhiches, Isgro’s- Bakery.
This may seem like a lot of places but I have only listed the places we thought were great to excellent. We have been to a lot more restaurants that were good or at least ok but the ones I listed have really helped take the sting off being away from New York.
On the home front the past year has gone by brutally fast and although we have done a lot to our house there is still so much more that we want to do. This year we put up a fence ourselves with the help of my Mom and Dad early on and then Omar and my sister as well on the second phase. We also started a garden which was a great experience. The garden was a huge success in the spring but the summer heat waves cut short the growing season of many of our lettuces and tomatoes. This week looks like it will be the last harvest of our tomatoes. In the spring we were having salads from the yard almost every night and harvesting mint, cilantro, rosemary and sage for many of our meals. It was a really great feeling to grow your own food and we definitely going to plant a fall crop this week. We hope to learn from all our previous mistakes. Inside we have done some decorating and furniture buying but we are still woefully behind with what we had hoped to have done by this time of the year. We did manage to redo the downstairs bathroom and we are happy about that. There are a lot of decisions to make when you decorate and it’s all a little overwhelming but I think our biggest obstacle is parting with furniture and stuff that is still perfectly good but we are not going to use anymore. Hopefully we can get better at that this year.
Another thing that has helped temper the home sickness for New York is all of the arts events that happen here. From the very beginning we have gone to the first Friday’s event that is sort of a monthly art crawl that coordinates many of the gallery show premiers of both local and famous artist. This event is one of my favorite things to do in Philly and it happens every first Friday of the month without fail. We get lots of free food and drink (the best being at the Old City Jewish Arts Center) while going from gallery to gallery and we go as often as we can. The theater scene is really strong here too and although we have not really taken advantage of it yet, now that Omar is living in Philly I am sure that will change. Our neighborhood is crawling with artists and art students so it’s really good not be around stuffy suit types or suburban blahs all the time. The art scene here is getting better every day too as more artists flee the high rents of DC and New York, to say nothing of the booming indy music scene so I have high hopes for Philly in the coming years.
It has really been a year of adjustment for us: Getting used to not taking the subway everyday, getting used to a less busy metropolis, getting used to having an upstairs and a downstairs, getting used to having a yard, getting used to being so close to everything cool, getting used to most things being closed on Sundays, getting used to having most of our friends two hours away, getting used to being two hours away from New York. Getting used to a lot of things, but also getting used to not worrying about our future so much.
Overall though I would say our transplantation to Philly was a success. We are happy and living in a beautiful house that we can actually afford and finding new things to love about this sorely underrated city every day.

BYOB

2007-07-16T18:07:00.000-04:00

My quest to avoid everything made by Coke and Pepsi ended last Friday. Jeannie and I went to see Order of the Phoenix (HP5) at the IMAX theater in King of Prussia. We went there because the last twenty minutes of the movie were being shown in 3-D there and it was the only theater in the area to do it. We spent most of the morning packing and making sure everything was ready for the trip to Northern Virginia that we were to take later that day. So in all of the preparation of the snacks and drinks for the bus ride I forgot to pack a drink and snacks for the movie. We arrived there at noon for a 1240 show to find that all of the showings till 1AM had been sold out. Luckily I had already bought tickets so that was no problem. The problem though was that all of the drink options were Coca Cola products, even the water was Dasani (Coke owned) I was going to forgo drinking anything but we had gotten a free popcorn from our frequent customer card and it was really hot outside so I broke down and bought a Minute maid fruit drink. I had successfully avoided Coke and Pepsi products from the time I wrote until then and truthfully I had not craved it at all after the first week or so. I am not giving up on not eating or drinking products by those two companies all together. As with any conscious food decision a lot of fore though and planning is necessary so next time I will have to bring my own drinks. I will let you know how it goes.

Watermelon stories

2007-06-27T18:13:00.000-04:00

We are currently growing two kinds of watermelon in our garden and I must tell you I have never been so impatient. It is my own fault that they aren't further along. The first set of watermelon seeds rotted in the ground because I over watered and I didn't notice because there was a sprout of something growing in the spot where the seeds were planted. I didn't know that it was crabgrass and not a watermelon so it was several weeks before I searched on line and pulled it out. I replanted and got both of them to send out shoots. One of the sets of shoots got fried when there was a particularly hot day that dried them out. So I had to reseed that one a second time. So one of the watermelons is about a month old and doing fine and the other one is about a week out of the ground and is doing ok so far. They are both so small. I have trouble imagining how those little plants, the largest of which is only 5 inches tall, is going to produce a three or four pound watermelon, much less one of those 20 pounders you find in the supermarket. I am so disappointed every morning when I go outside and there hasn't been monstrous growth on the vines. At this rate I won't have watermelons until September and I think that might be too long for me. I might have to breakdown and buy one for the July 4th week or maybe even today.
I love watermelon on hot days like today. Watermelon has always been my favorite artificially flavor in candy. In Blowpops, Jolly ranchers or whatever it is always my first choice. Not that it reminds me of real watermelon, but it's always been a mental crutch so I can hold off until they are available and cheap in the summer time. Mostly I love the red varieties. I have had the yellow and the orange kinds but I like the sugary sweet drip of the big red ones.
About two years ago I bought two giant watermelons at the Pathmark near our house on sale for $3 each. I juiced half of one and got a gallon of deliciousness. I had it in the fridge at the height of the summer heat. When I came home from work that night something smelled wrong as I opened the door to the apartment. The rancid smell of something was coming from the kitchen. The fridge had failed sometime that morning and everything had gone bad in the sweltering heat. The watermelon juice had gone bad. It was the saddest food related thing that had ever happened to me. I have had ice cream cones fall on the sidewalk and pizza slices plop to the floor but the giant gallon of un-drunk watermelon juice, that had now separated and swollen the jug, was so emotionally destructive that I still feel a pang of sorrow now. I made another gallon later that summer but it wasn't as sweet or ripe as that lost batch.
One time when I was young we had a watermelon that had partially frozen in the fridge. It must have been set too cold because as my dad cut through the rind you could hear the ice crystals cracking. Those slices were so delicious like having a Froz-fruit pop only better. As I was eating my slice I noticed a white nugget stick in the frozen watermelon part near one of the bite marks. I thought it was an extra thick seed, but when I picked it out I realized that it was a tooth! I passed my tongue over my teeth looking for a gap and sure enough I found it two spaces to the left of my front teeth. It had already been loose and it was a baby tooth but it was still unexpected to lose it in such a way. I told my mom and went to look in the mirror at the bloody gum and the white crest of the tooth coming out underneath, but instead of being all freaked out and mad at the watermelon for pulling out my tooth I was grateful that it was such a pleasant and painless experience, as well as allowing me to keep the tooth for easy pillow payments later that night. I sat back down and happily chomped on two more icy pieces.

Berg-alar

2007-06-19T17:43:00.000-04:00

The following article was in the local news today:

Jun 19, 2007 9:48 am US/Eastern
Police Searching For Salad Burglar
(AP) SOMERSET, Pa.
Someone kicked in the door of a man's apartment, stuck a knife in the door and took a chilled salad from his refrigerator.
Somerset police said the man reported the bizarre burglary on Monday. He told investigators someone broke into his apartment while he went to a nearby tavern. Nothing but the salad was missing, police said.
Police said they have a suspect and expect to file charges once they finish their investigation.

I think this is really indicative of a larger trend in crime.
Just the other day I saw an old lady get robbed of her Centrum Silver vitamins. It was shocking. The robber was an older man with a lone ranger type mask on and one of those portable oxygen tanks on his back. He pulled a knife on the old woman and asked for the Centrum Silver vitamins she had just bought at CVS. He must have been watching her for a while. There was a struggle as the woman refused to give but was quickly overpowered by the guy who might have been high on Viagra or something. He got away on one of those medical mobility scooters. It must have had turbo boost or maybe it was tricked out with Nitro because a few of us bystanders chased the guy but he left us in the dust.
This has all made me a little worried about our own home security. We are growing Organic vegetables in our yard and have very few security measures around it. Perhaps I am leaking too much information but as it is right now we have several tomato plants and other delicious and tempting treasures sitting in out yard. I have a six foot fence and motion sensor light but I don’t think it’s enough. I am thinking that maybe a well concealed electric fence or some sort of tranquilizer dart device with some trip wires is probably the way I should go. Maybe I can set up some sort of crow’s nest outside where I can keep watch from above. For now I guess I will sleep lightly and keep the best produce in the bedroom where I can keep a watchful eye on it. Everybody be safe out there you never know when someone is gonna go after your green.

scratch and sniff

2007-06-18T22:34:00.000-04:00

When I was a kid I loved stickers. It was yet another thing that was seen as a girl thing that I enjoyed. So what! I never understood why stickers were for girls and not boys. They made gijoe stickers and spaceship stickers yet like most things that could at all be construed to be cute or little, they were not for boys. I didn’t pay attention to that at all and kept a Kennedy Space Center Binder full of stickers. It was filled with those sticky photopages that were probably a bad idea for keeping stickers in, but they were in use in the 80’s, so I had a ton of pages with stickers on both sides. It was filled with all kinds of stickers. The ones from school with good job or whatever uplifting thing was on it, the gijoe ones I mentioned previously and lots and lots of other ones. I used to buy stickers too. I had hundreds of stickers, maybe thousands I’m not sure. Of course this fed into my collecting personality and so I was probably a little obsessed. It wasn’t so bad though. I never really had much money to spend on them and so it never became a problem. Mostly I got them for free from stores or from stores or trading with other people, mostly girls. The ones I liked the most were my scratch and sniff and my fuzzy stickers, doubly so if they were fuzzy scratch and sniff. I used to love scratching and smelling the fruit ones and all the food ones and then when they came out with the ones that smelled bad like foot and skunk, I smelled those too. Those were crazy! I didn’t keep any of those because I thought they would contaminate my book. Recently we were in whole foods and they had a sheet of scratch and sniff stickers as a give away. It was awesome there was hotdog and popcorn and strawberry and some others.
It is well known that smell is one of the strongest connections to memory and those scratch and sniff stickers triggered memories not just of the food chemicals they emulated but also the years and years of scratching stickers till they were all worn out. I am glad scratch and sniff is making a come back or at least in the whole foods by my house. I wonder where my sticker book is. I should look for it the next time I go home. I will make sure to post pictures if I do find it.

been thinkin'

2007-06-15T22:29:00.000-04:00

Recently I have been reevaluating my need to have and buy stuff. I have always been a collector of things. Jennie attributes this to my Taurusness. She is probably right. I always feel like items are precious and they are somehow going to go out of existence. Everything seems so fleeting sometimes. The yellowing of old school notebooks or newspapers always makes me feel a little sad, as though they are slipping out of existence, out of memory. Perhaps my Taurus earthiness translates to a stillness of time and memory that is in direct opposition to the transient and ever changing nature of our reality. Nostalgia and history always takes a back seat to progress and novelty. There was an article online about how the Brooklyn shoreline is an endangered Historical site. All of the changes in my native New York and the changes that are happening everywhere seem to be out of capriciousness rather than thoughtfulness. There is no care taken in these changes to preserve the good things of the past and make changes for the positive. It just seems to be change for possibilities sake, change because it’s allowed or easier than preservation or rehabilitation rather than out of need. Even when something comes back into style it always seems to me to be a shadow of the original, whether it’s fashion or music or whatever. It fuels an urge for the original rather than satisfies it through the new iteration. In College I studied Heraclitus’s views about the nature of reality. He believed that the nature of the universe is change. “You can never step into the same river twice.” He was quoted because everything in the universe was moving and changing, everything was like fire in his view. A contemporary of his, Parmenides held the opposite view. Everything is stillness and permanence. Any change is purely illusion and everything stays the same at its core. I side with Heraclitus and that adds to my collector-ness. If everything is change and nothing is ever the same then what happens to all of the things that I loved as a child? What happens to my cherished memories? These have always been my concerns, even before Heraclitus. The world has always seemed to forget. This lead me to keep notebooks from school even when I was in first grade I thought about looking back at my work with nostalgia, even though I didn’t know what it meant I knew how it felt. I had nostalgia about our old apartment when we moved into the house, and every house I have lived in subsequently. It is not about being able to go back as much as it is not wanting to be faithful to those memories. I still have all of my GiJoe toys in the basement of my parent’s house for that reason. I still have all of the stuffed animals I have ever had. I collect music and movies and so many things as though I will be the last repository of cinema or music or whatever memory I want to retain. Lately I have fought against this feeling. Data has become a cheap thing to hold onto. The internet and computers are creating a record of almost everything and everyone. Every email that is written, every picture that is taken, every video, every moment it seems is being held online for some future to look back on. It seems that the trend is just going to get more inclusive with Google maps documenting the world as it appears and the library project planning to put in all of the books in the national archives. This has led me to conclude that I can let go of some of my “stuff”. I will begin to unload things this year and fight against owning more and more. I will document what I let go of, and hopefully I can actually stick to it. Like a lot of the things that I try to change about myself, I try a lot and succeed only sometimes. I’ll let you know how it goes. Also in that vein I still have yet to have a Coca Cola or Pepsi product, even though the bottle sits in the office kitchen taunting me

really coke zero

2007-06-11T18:54:00.000-04:00

Last week I made a decision that I have tried to stick to many, many times before. I am giving up drinking Coca Cola. I’m not sure why I was never able to commit to quitting. At the height of my addiction I was drinking more than a 2 liter a day!! Every day!! I was living with room mates that were just as addicted as me if not more. We used to buy between ten and twenty two liter bottles every week. But it didn’t start there; I have been drinking it since I was little. The romantic notions of summer and world peace in their commercials always got to me. Around Christmas time I would always get the cans with Santa on them and watch with a sigh as the polar bears drank from their bottles. It was all such a nostalgic notion of an America that I really wanted to belong to as a child. I wanted the life they were associating themselves with and although I did not drink it because of the images, I think I stayed loyal to them because of it. During the Cola wars of the 80’s I always chose the side of Coke. Pepsi commercials always made it look like Pepsi was the choice of the cool kids with money or the sporty kids. I hated those kids and so I hated Pepsi. I could always tell Coke from Pepsi. I know Pepsi beat Coke in the taste tests but I was never fooled. I could always tell it was Pepsi because it lacked the acidity that I liked, and it was sweeter, which is why most people chose it. It wasn’t just the drinks either I was one of those people that began collecting all things Coca Cola. I have Cans from all over the world, and whenever they change the can. I have a polar bear that plays Christmas songs on a Saxophone. I even visited the Coca Cola museum when I was in Atlanta . I used to fantasize about buying a pool table covered in red felt with the Coca Cola logo emblazoned on it. Yeah, I was truly brainwashed.
I always found it difficult to disassociate the good times that I had while enjoying Coke floats or Frozen Coke or even enjoying Pizza with a Coca Cola from the tap with the sugary soft drink. This is why I have tried so many times before to quit but always go back to it. Even right now as I write this I was trying to rationalize making exceptions for certain circumstances because of nostalgia, but I won’t. I have been getting better at it; a few months ago I decided to stop buying Coke for the house. I could only drink it when we ate out. That made it a lot easier. In addition to not having it around I substituted Limeade for Coke. I bought lots of limes and made fresh limeade whenever I was really thirsty. It was so good that I didn’t feel like I was giving anything up. There is little that compares to fresh limeade for refreshment.
It might get hard to not have a coke when the temperatures climb but I have lots of ideas for substitute thirst quenchers that I hope will do the trick. But still there are some temptations. The kitchen at work is 15 feet from my desk and a two liter of Coke has been sitting on the counter since Thursday. It is there available for anyone to drink. I haven’t so much as twisted the cap, although I do look at it when I pass the kitchen. Addiction is a weird thing for me. I don’t like to consider myself addicted to anything and that is part of the reason that I am giving it up. But of course that is not the only reason. The things that the company has done to harm the environment, to labor and to independent businesses are pretty well known and its health effects are also pretty well documented. But if you need a reason to quit yourself, here is a quick and incomplete list of some of the ones that I know:
Coca Cola has been linked to bad labor practices and union busting even killings in Latin America
They have been linked to bad labor practices and water privatization in India
They have been sued for racial discrimination
Coca cola has been linked to low bone density and many other health detriments, but you should do your own research.
I should also note that I am quitting Pepsi as well for the same reason and I am quitting all of their subsidiary products. It might be hard but I have a strong feeling that this time I can do it. Man, so much of this language sounds like I am a two pack a day smoker. UGGHHH! I should have done this a long time ago. Wish me luck! I will let you know if I fall off the wagon. Oh and by the way they just recently bought Glaceau so Vitamin Water is now a Coca Cola product.

Lychee love

2007-06-07T18:57:00.000-04:00

In the late nineties I lived in Miami . One of the things I loved the most about hat city is how I gathered Lychee fruits from the front sidewalks of houses that grew them but did not know how good they were. The trees would droop over the sides of fences and drop their fruit on the hard concrete without anyone taking notice. I had certain neighborhoods where I knew there would be dozens of the juicy red fruit laying on the sidewalk. No one was fighting for them; no one was waking up early to get the choicest selection. They would all just lay there, only the ants taking notice. Some of them were crushed by foot traffic, but not many since Miami is such a driving city that few neighborhoods have sidewalks. The Lychees were so good, fresh and sun warmed; the sweet juice bursting as you puncture the bumpy red husks.
Sometimes if I wanted more than just a few dozen I would go to this older Cuban lady that sold them in the front of her house off a table like lemonade. She sold them for a dollar a pound, and she used the term loosely, really it was a huge sack weighing three or more pounds for $2.00. It was such a good deal. This is before they exploded in popularity and before they were so well known. At that time nobody in Miami was using them in Martinis or really in anything else. This is when you could really only find them canned. There was no large Asian or Asian American population to take advantage of the bounty so the old Cuban lady always had plenty. The Coco Frio guys and the people selling mangoes were much more popular and would always sell out in the summer months. I miss having such incredible access to fresh Lychees. They are so hard to find and so expensive when you do find them. Now that Lychees are so well known and popular I wonder if the Cuban lady is still there. I wonder how much she is charging for those overstuffed bags. I think no matter what she is charging I would seriously consider paying it.
I was reminded of my Lychee love because an odd and disconcerting thing happened to me yesterday. I was in Capogiro ordering Lychee Gelato at the 20th street location. Jeannie had alerted me to the fact they would have it there. It was very urgent that I try it and order a pint if it was good. I asked for a taste and pronounced it LYE- CHEE as in lye or dye. These two women were there deciding what to order and one of them asks the other “what is that LYE- CHEE thing he is asking for?” “It’s a fruit from Asia that is very delicious, but actually it is pronounced LEE-CHEE”, She said. She pronounced as in fee or me. At this point I looked over, I saw that the woman who was saying this loud enough so anyone within twenty feet could hear was East Asian-American. I was mortified. I started to question myself about whether I was pronouncing like a jerk. I felt like everyone in the place thought I just picked it up the pronunciation at some white imperialist conference or something. I know that I had heard other people Asian, Asian-American and others pronounce it LYE-CHEE. My mother in law who is Cantonese from Hong Kong pronounces it LYE-CHEE. But this woman spoke with authority on the subject like some sort of cultural tour guide correcting the ignorant tongues of foreigners. So what was I going to say? Was I going to argue the point about a part of her culture as though I was some expert? Was I going to question her cultural knowledge based on my unclear recollection? Was I imagining my memories of the pronunciation to back up my own mis-pronouncement? I remained quiet, trying to shrink inside my clothes. My friend who was with me ordered Lychee and pronounced it LEE-CHEE, just as this woman had done. The woman behind the counter also said LEE-CHEE afterwards. I was so dumbstruck that when I was ordering a second cone of Lychee for myself, I just pointed to the flavor ashamed to say the name. “The same flavor, Lychee?” the woman behind the counter asked. I nodded sheepishly, worried that I would be forced to pronounce it again and choose a pronunciation. I felt awful the whole way home.
When I related the story to Jeannie, subsequently did research online. She called her Mom to see how it was pronounced. It was LYE-CHEE. The fruit originates in South China, in the Guangdong, where Cantonese is the dominant language. In Cantonese Lychee is pronounced LYE-CHEE. In Mandarin however it is pronounced LEE-CHEE. I am not saying that I was more right than she was. I think both pronunciations are right in context, but I didn’t like feeling like a heel because she wanted to assert her cultural knowledge on an outsider even though in this case her knowledge was incomplete.
So for the record if you want to pronounce Lychee in its language of origin- Cantonese, you would pronounce it LYE-CHEE, if you want to pronounce it in Mandarin and possibly other languages, it would be LEE-CHEE, and if you want to switch back and forth depending on your mood then they are both right.

I love Capogiro

2007-06-06T16:50:00.000-04:00

Lately I have not just blogged here on my own page. Because of the deliciousness and outright addictiveness of gelatos and sorbettos at Capogiro Gelato Artisans, here in Philadelphia , Omar, Jeannie and I have started a blog devoted to our shared passion for this frozen treat; soon there will be others as well. The blog is called Ilovecapogiro.com We write about the flavors we try, our favorites, our pairings of flavors and recipes for using the gelatos and sorbettos in other foods. It’s a lot of fun to write and hopefully to read. It will make you really hungry and want to visit if not move to Philadelphia. FYI: We live within walking distance of both Capogiro locations, just in case anyone of our friends from out want to try it for themselves.

race realizations

2007-06-05T18:32:00.000-04:00

Right now at work we are trying to tackle the very thorny subject of racially categorizing Hispanics/Latins. As part of this work I had to study some of the findings of the 2000 census. The way they organized the racial categories took me by surprise because they were different than I thought they would be. Here are the definitions according to the 2000 census bureau:

How are the race categories used in Census 2000 defined?
“White” refers to people having origins in any of the original peoples
of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa . It includes people who
indicated their race or races as “White” or wrote in entries such as
Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Near Easterner, Arab, or Polish.

“Black or African American” refers to people having origins in any of the
Black racial groups of Africa . It includes people who indicated their race
or races as “Black, African Am., or Negro,” or wrote in entries such as
African American, Afro American, Nigerian, or Haitian.

“American Indian and Alaska Native” refers to people having origins in
any of the original peoples of North and South America (including
Central America), and who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment.
It includes people who indicated their race or races by marking
this category or writing in their principal or enrolled tribe, such as
Rosebud Sioux, Chippewa, or Navajo.

“Asian” refers to people having origins in any of the original peoples of
the Far East, Southeast Asia , or the Indian subcontinent. It includes
people who indicated their race or races as “Asian Indian,” “Chinese,”
“Filipino,” “Korean,” “Japanese,” “Vietnamese,” or “Other Asian,” or wrote
in entries such as Burmese, Hmong, Pakistani, or Thai.

“Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander” refers to people having
origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii , Guam, Samoa , or
other Pacific Islands . It includes people who indicated their race or
races as “Native Hawaiian,” “Guamanian or Chamorro,” “Samoan,” or
“Other Pacific Islander,” or wrote in entries such as Tahitian, Mariana
Islander, or Chuukese.

“Some other race” was included in Census 2000 for respondents
who were unable to identify with the five Office of Management and
Budget race categories. Respondents who provided write-in entries
such as Moroccan, South African, Belizean, or a Hispanic origin (for
example, Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Cuban) are included in the Some
other race category.

The census found 12.5 percent of the US population was Hispanic but only 2.4 percent of the US population could trace their origins to two or more races. This doesn’t make any sense to me. Most people that are Hispanic/ Latin are a mix of at least two races. Genetically speaking we are what happened at the crossroads of several racial groups. The indigenous peoples were colonized by the Spaniards and Portuguese as well as other European groups. They mixed and interbred with the indigenous populations, athose they didn’t decimate anyway. Then also brought hundreds of thousands of Africans as slaves who interbred and mixed with the indigenous and mixed European and Native populations. Then add to all of that the numerous but largely uncounted immigrants from South Asia, Japan and China that came to South America and the Caribbean as well as the Filipinos that are just as Hispanic as anyone. All of this has lead to a very genetically mixed and very aware and enlightened population amongst Hispanics or at least it should have. According to the 2000 census of those that answered that they were of Hispanic/Latin origin only 6.3 percent put that their origins were in two or more races. It’s strange when you see what they did answer about their race. 47% answered that they were white only. I can sort of understand this because of the terrible racism in Latin America that sees white skin as a sign of class status and beauty and devalues indigenous mixes or other origins as being inferior and low class, but 47% is high for self delusion. Another surprising statistic amongst those that answered Hispanic/Latin was that only 2% saw themselves as being Black or African-American. I know that it’s higher than that, way higher. My only thought as to how this happened is that some Hispanics of African origin wanted to highlight their mixed race heritage instead of only Black because of the same racial problems that lead so many others to put white only.
The Native American category must have gone unnoticed by many of the Hispanic/Latins as well because anyone with origins in the indigenous groups of Central or South America is also considered part native American/ Alaskan according to the definition. Despite this fact and the fact that there are tons of indigenous people in Latin America only 1.2% of respondents answered Native American only.
The other oddity is more than 42% of the respondents to the Hispanic question said they were some other race altogether. Could we really be our own race? I am not sure that would apply. It’s been too short a time since the first Hispanic/Latin might have been born in the 15th Century to have become a distinct race in the way the other four are defined. I think it is true that as an ethnic group we are very distinct culturally and in other ways but the census puts those of Arabic decent into the same category as White Europeans, very ironic considering the way they have been ostracized as of late, but it shows that cultural difference was not part of the considerations of race. We may speak the same language but most people in China speak mandarin, and they are not their own race despite being 12% of the world population. I have gone through this problem a lot. I know that race is a largely social construct that is so flawed as to be useless outside of very specific and non-universal applications. But I can’t help reexamining it constantly. I would probably change my entry on the census in light of studying the new definitions. I think I chose white and black last time. I think I would mark four if not all five of the racial categories if I had to do it over again. I am pretty sure that I have White, Black, Native American and Asian heritage in my family and I couldn’t rule out having Pacific Islander heritage as well. That would put me in the .6% of the population that chose 4 Races or the .1% that chose 5 percent. I truly don’t think that I am nearly that rare. I think that a lot of factors have lead to a check one box mentality among Americans. I think that if the census got to the truth and people had access to their ancestry, probably 80% of the US would be mulit-racial. Definitely the 13% that are now identified as Hispanic/Latin would be. Then I wouldn’t feel so all alone in my .6% which works out to 38,408 people.

basements

2007-06-04T19:51:00.001-04:00

In the Philadelphia Inquirer today there was an article about the recent storms causing a lot of basement flooding. Our house here in Philadelphia doesn’t have a basement. We didn’t have a choice about the matter, as the homes that were being built by the Philadelphia Housing Authority did not come with basements. We bought the house without being able to pick the colors of the wall or the stucco on the outside or what kind of hardware the doors came with. For what we paid though we got a great deal, so I am no complaining I just probably would have chosen to have a nice basement that spanned the footprint of our house if I could have.

Growing up I always had a basement. In Astoria , the basement was our playroom. My dad worked in TV and appliance repair at the time and so we had a big screen TV (all of 24 inches diagonally) in the basement that he salvaged from the trash, replaced a few burned out tubes, replaced the cloth that covered the speakers and brought it back to life. It was color and it was great. He always had several Betamax cassette players in various states or repair that we could watch or record videos on and we had an HBO antennae on the roof that got pay TV long before cable. The antennae was two feet long and had a metal circle every half inch so it looked kind of like a ray gun from My Favorite Martian. It pointed at something in the sky, a satellite I suppose, and beamed Premium movies down to our basement in the shadow of the Triborough Bridge. We would invite school friends over and watch Beastmaster, Star Wars and Bill Cosby Himself which always seemed to be on. The floor was covered in multi sized rugs that overlapped and made little seats in the hills and valleys. The basement was the size of the whole first floor except there were no real walls or rooms to make it small. Only the boiler room which no one ever went in except my dad and which always breathed ominously behind a ply board wall that my dad had put up and the laundry room which was near the back and had a door that lead to the back yard. There was a big record player and radio the size of a sofa that we listened to records and eight track tapes on. It doubled as a drink and cake table during all of the birthday parties. That all changed when the basement was rented out as an apartment but we got a basement back when we moved out of Astoria and further into Queens.
In Douglaston, the basement was set up as a party room by the previous owners. The walls were covered in orange plastic wallpaper and wood paneling with an off white drop down ceiling and closets built into the wood paneling under the stairs. There were long benches with white vinyl seat cushions that extended fifteen feet long on two walls, with a permanent plastic flower arrangement where they joined the corner. The benches had built in storage that we could fit in lying down like Dracula coffins. We never did that though out of fear that someone would sit down on the lid and we would be trapped and run out of air or be trapped forever. Every big party and major event of those years was held in that basement. After one or two years my dad built a full bar with a mirrored front in one side of the basement and the following year I helped him build a half bathroom. There was a door that opened onto to the driveway and the backyard so there was never a need to go upstairs during the festivities.
The basement in my parent’s house now does not resemble either one of the previous two. It’s a place to hold stuff they haven’t figured out how to throw out yet. The things they keep putting off looking at. Some of the things don’t even belong to them. They inherited them from the previous owners as I am sure the next owners will inherit items from my parents. In that basement right now there are several commodore 64s, several dining room sets and dozens of boxes of old papers and clothes as well as a beautiful pool table that is loaded down with my sister’s old dolls and a lot of school books. I have inherited their propensity for hoarding meaningless mementos, things that one hopes will be worth a lot of money one day but never will and things that need only a few pieces to be operational. Not having a basement or an attic for that matter has made me more selective about what I keep and although I still have way too much stuff for our small house as Jeannie keeps reminding me, I don’t have something which acts too much like a black hole to be beneficial to a Taurus like me. So the slab may be the way a lot of people find their end but it’s the saving grace for me.

Merry Melodies

2007-06-01T17:35:00.000-04:00

A few years ago I became very disillusioned with music and the types of albums that were being offered. It seemed to me that all the artists at the time were bad commercial pop or bad commercial rap creations. I felt that there was no new music that I could get into and even my old favorites were producing albums that were awful attempts at breaking into bad pop or bad rap. I would say this period lasted from 1998 until 2004. While I acknowledge that there were groups and individuals that were very talented and created great albums during that time most notably, in my estimation:, Lauryn Hill- Miseducation of Lauren Hill, Dido-No Angel, Black Star-Black Star, Mos Def- Black on Both Sides, Outcast- Aquemini, Roots-Things fall apart, Moby-Play, Fiona Apple- When the Pawn…, Portishead- Portishead, D’Angelo- Voodoo, Radiohead-, kid-A-Amnesiac, u2- All that you can’t leave behind, Gorillaz- Gorillaz, Alicia Keyes- Songs in A minor, Yeah Yeah Yeahs-Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Is this it- The strokes, Norah Jones- Come away with me, Evanesence- Fallen and a scant few others, overall music sucked. There are obviously some very prominent names missing from the list that were very popular during those six years, and remain popular today. I am aware of who I left off that list and do so purposefully. They were either part of the destruction of good music or unremarkable musicians from album to album in my opinion. An argument can be made to save some of them from scorn but I probably couldn’t be convinced easily. I chose 1998 even though I would say that the problem with music had started a few years before then but it became most pronounced for me during those years. The offerings became much thinner and there were fewer and fewer albums that I was excited about buying or listening to more than once. I worked at a major music retail chain (the one that became FYE) from 1993 until 1998 and then again from 1999 until 2001 so it wasn’t because I did not have access or I was not informed about what was going on. It just seemed that the music well had dried up. Those years were dominated by boy bands (N’sync, Back street boys, Hansen, Etc.) and Pop princesses (Brittney, Cristina, Mandy Moore etc.) as well as the adult contemporary bands that were so horribly bland (Matchbox twenty, Third eye blind, Sugar ray etc.) During these years I retreated to the asylum of the music of my youth. I indulged in great 80’s and early 90’s rock bands and Hip Hop groups that felt like comfort foods next to the acrid or bland dishes of the day. There was so much during those years growing up, dozens of interesting groups every year doing fun music while pushing it in new directions and paying homage to great sounds from the past. Hip Hop was buzzing with experimentation and alive with style; New Wave and Alternative took punk and post punk into so many directions that you could find undiscovered musical ground everywhere. During those bad music in the late nineties and early millennium years I scoured used record and CD stores for stuff that I didn’t get the first time around, or I used my discount and almost my full paycheck to beef up my back catalog. I discovered or rediscovered a lot of really powerful and honest music. I found what it was that I really enjoyed about the music of my childhood the emotion and sincerity and the fun. I had thought at that point that I had become one of those old people that would never get past liking the bands they heard in high school. Then offhandedly around 2004 I started noticing that every now and then a new group would catch my attention and make me feel good in a way that I had not felt in a while. It would be a song on the radio or at a party or a group that someone would tell me about and I would download and listen to incessantly. It seemed that the frequency of such occurrences was increasing and it seemed to snowball as one group would lead to the discovery of another. There have been so many interesting albums and groups coming out since then. Although Pop and Rap have continued down their path to destruction unabated spurred by the ridiculousness of American Idol and Tween marketing, perhaps as a reaction to the insipidness of the top selling albums there were artists that returned to a simpler more pared back sound or earlier sources of inspiration . There have been a lot of punk inspired or post-punk or just straight up garage bands that are really infectious- The Killers, The Bravery, The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Vines, Franz Ferdinand, The Kaiser Chiefs, the Cinematics and Red Romance and lots more. In addition to rock bands musicians have emerged to shake things up in other categories - Amy Winehouse, Frou Frou, Jem, Postal Service, Lily Allen, Gym Class Heroes, Plastic Little, Regina Spektor, Josh Stone, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Feist, Frost, GoldFrapp, Muse, Pink Martini, KT Tunstall, Amy Lavere, Gnarls Barkley, The Shins and so many others that I am practically falling in love with an artist every other day. And it’s not just the newbies that are finding their muse. I am really getting into the new Bjork album in a way that I haven’t since Selma Songs. Morrissey continues to make good music- I keep hoping that The Smiths will take cues from The Police and get back together, but for now I am happy that Morrissey keeps his voice in top form. Delores O’Riordan, lead singer of the Cranberries has a great album out. Thom Yorke’s album is edgy and hypnotic in the best way and Tracey Thorne of Everything But The Girl has a fantastic album that just came out. So all in all it’s a good time to be a music fan.

Feelin fine in Philly

2007-05-29T17:51:00.000-04:00

Being in Philadelphia these last few months has been very good for me creatively. I left New York with a broken spirit largely because of the energy that I had put into my work only to be disappointed by the awfulness with how it ended, but also because of my disillusionment with the slam scene. Philadelphia offered me not only a chance to start over personally but also it seems that the city itself is starting from a cleaner place artistically. They don’t have the same pressures to compete for attention and resources in the same way as New York . You can pursue things without thinking about their commercial viability or how the performance you are giving affects your overall goal of “making it”. This is not to say that my everyday artistic life often involved those concerns but I knew people were hyper-aware of their prospects and who in the room could do something for their career. The expectation is different here in Philadelphia . From my limited exposure to the artistic community here in both the poetic and theatre arenas, people are more concerned with how other artists and activist see them and their work rather than jockeying for the attention of critics or agents. That is the kind of attention I am comfortable with. Perhaps this is my naivety or my inexperience in the Philly scene but I feel the possibilities are more open here. I don’t know if I am falling into a big fish small pond mindset but I would doubt it. For one I am no big fish and second Philly is more of a lake that seems to have tributaries feeding it from New York and Washington , especially since the cost of rent is continuing to rise. There have been so many people moving here from other cities especially ones on the east coast.
My friends meanwhile have had a lot of great things happen to them in their artistic lives. Cristin has a book coming out that she has been toiling over for a long time. It’s almost in its final form and I am so happy for her. I think it will be an important book and I’m not just saying that because I helped transcribe some of the interviews. It’s not my place to say more right now but as soon as it has a publication date I will post all about it.
Omar also has had a great project come into being with the “Edge of the World” theatre project. It will be featured in the Asian American Theatre fest in New York this June. I was able to see the show in its initial form here in Philly (that still sounds weird) and it was fantastic. The show is truly powerful work that will affect all who see it, in a good way of course, not in a Queen of the Damned way. I will post details as soon as I have them. There is also some stuff that I am working on for the fall, that I will sketch out in my next post. Thanks.

Jumping back in

2007-05-28T11:16:00.000-04:00

I guess I should start by saying hello again to anyone who still might be checking. It seems that I go through a lot of these restarts, and I can't really explain why. I won't make excuses or promises this time. I just want to say I feel like writing again. I am living in Philadelphia now. Jeannie and I bought a home and are really happy exploring Philly and all of it's great restaurants. There is so much to do with a new home and we are regularly overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of all of the design, cost and work that it takes to get a house to become a home. In the past few months we have built raised garden beds according to the Square foot gardening method, two deep garden boxes for blueberry bushes and a floating countertop for the half bathroom as well as a ton of furniture purchasing and general organizing. There are still so many projects left to do but we are just taking them one at a time. I'll write more about my writing and the poetry prospects this year on my next post. There are a lot of good things going on for many of my poetry friends and I'll tell you all about them next time. Thanks for reading.

Narnia

2005-12-10T20:51:00.000-05:00

Jeannie and I went to go see "Chronicles of Narnia" on Friday afternoon. I reread the book about two months ago, to see how well the movie was adapted. I loved the book as a child so I wasn't sure how it was going to go over. I must say that the movie was very well done. They were able to expand on the characters, add backstory and bring the story together without losing the original feeling of the book. It was really great cinematography, great pacing, the CGI was fantastic, and the costuming for the queen was very sublime. There were some things that were changed from the book to the movie, but I was ok with them as they did a lot of things right. Another thing was that they added several scenes to the movie that were not in the book, or were barely mentioned in the book, which were really well done. I have no qualms about recommending this movie, and I hope it makes a ton of money and they make the rest of the series. All of that being said I do have one problem. Not with the movie, but with the marketing. Disney hired the same company that did "The Passion of the Christ" to do the marketing for "Narnia." They offered special marketing materials and previews to churches in order to get the viewership up. The preachers would then talk about the Christian allegory blah blah blah Aslan = Jesus. This is my problem. There are so many things that do not fit neatly or otherwise if you promote "Narnia" as a Christian story. If you put this story up as a Christian allegory then you must also take the congregation to go seeThe Matrix," lots of messianic stuff happening there, and you have to go and rent every "King Arthur" movie as well. As a matter of fact the self sacrifice part that the reverends like to talk about can be found in every War or Sci-fi film: "Go on without me, I'll hold them off..." There is a book that talks about all of the Biblical tie-ins in the "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe;" they actually write that one of the tie-ins is about how not every thing is as it appears. Another good movie that shows this biblical notion is "X-MEN," especially with the Mystique character - a great choice for the whole parish.
I know it may seem that I am protesting the use of the movie by religion even though its author C.S Lewis wrote about how Aslan represented Jesus. I don't mind the representation, C.S. Lewis may have been a Christian but he was also a big believer in fairy tales and the imagination. He loved J. R. R. Tolkien and Lewis Carroll. The Christian right groups that are flocking to see this movie are the same groups that protested the "Harry Potter" books because of their occult subject matter. The "Chronicles of Narnia" never even mentions God. The over arching force in that world is called the "Deep Magic." Magic, not God, not deity, not even intelligent designer. The sense that witches, giants and minotaurs could exist is as harmless in "Narnia" as it is in "Harry Potter," or "Lord of the Rings," or "Dungeons and Dragons," or "Charmed," or "Buffy," or Stephen King novels or whatever. AlI of these besides Narnia received scorn from churches in one form or another. It is this hypocrisy that I cannot stand, and I think C.S. Lewis himself would have been a reader or watcher of all of the above. I also think he would have been uncomfortable with the religious zealots that have tried to exert their power in recent years. The reason that "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" works as a story is not this stuffed down your throat idea of a religion that the Churches would like, instead it is the universal truth of family and forgiveness and sacrifice that anyone can relate to. So it is with that in mind that I recommend the movie and the books as well.

pen event

2005-11-16T15:46:00.000-05:00

The pen event last Tuesday was really moving. It had an amazing list of literary figures coming together to reflect on the American policy towards torture. The line up included: With Edward Albee, Paul Auster, Sandra Cisneros, Don DeLillo, Dave Eggers, Martín Espada, Philip Gourevitch, Jessica Hagedorn, Heidi Julavits, Nicole Krauss, Rick Moody, Emma Reverter, Salman Rushdie, Martha Southgate, and Colson Whitehead.
It was a very powerful reading that made me feel that I need to do more to prevent what is happening in this country. To be completely honest I felt as though we were living through something that we will be ashamed of later. We will have to individually excuse ourselves from what is happening. One day my grandchildren may come to me and ask what I did to try and stop the torture and the kidnapping, the anti immigrant madness. I feel as though we will shun talking about it one day just as aging Germans probably do, just as southern whites during Jim Crow would have to explain themselves whenever the subject turns to the past. This may seem very extreme but I can't help but feel as if this is going to appear much more horrific through the lens of history. I feel so very complacent, so bought. The reading has spurned me into action, I haven't yet decided on the best strategies to adopt to try and stop these terrible policies. I have some ideas and am formulating others. If anyone out here has any good and successful methods letters they are involved in, not just internet chain mail, I would love to hear about them.

hectic and weird

2005-11-08T11:43:00.000-05:00

So this blog keeps getting away from me. Its been six days since my last post. I promised to post the poem I read at the last event and I will. It will be at the end of this post.
This past week has been a very strange experience for me. I am still not sure how my job situation is going to turn out. Jeannie and my friends have been incredibly supportive. Luckily I didn't have too much time to dwell on things because of all of the events I attended this week. On Wednesday I went to Jessica and Rich's feature as I mentioned before, then Thursday was the awards ceremony for Barbara Jane Reyes at the Academy of American Poets. This was really a great night, Barbara was a great reader and I got to hear Gerald Stern who was hilarious. I bought his book at the reading and I love it from cover to cover. I am going to have to get his entire works, some now, some for Christmas. Time to go to the strand.
On Friday I went to a Birthday party for Rich and Jessica and some people I didn't know. Happy Birthday to them all. It was a lot of fun. The synonymous crew was dynamite as the band, with the documentary Rise playing in the background. The costume designs and makeup were incredible too. It was Blastin!
On Saturday I went to two parties. One at Lynne's house in Carroll Gardens, for which I made pupusas and frijoles colados. It was a packed party with loads of people and loads of food. A crew of singers crooning 80's soft rock hits with Patrick Rosal on the guitar. From there I went to Sidd's Birthday/ going away party. It was at Blue and Gold in the east village. This place was packed with NYU students, but the drinks were so incredibly cheap I would be tempted to go back. They had double shots of Grey Goose for $4 dollars, and that's their regular price!! It was a good time. I had good talks with Omar, Reggie and Jason. I hope Sidd has a really successful trip in India and he gets all of the footage needed for his documentary.
Sunday was a home day, but then on Monday I went to the Alliance of New York State Arts Organizations awards dinner at the Copacabana as they awarded Quang, from the Asian American Writer's Workshop, the Distinguished Service Award. It was a pretty poorly run event that was filled with old politicians and ancient arts benefactors but Quang's speech was at least lively and touching, and the food was decent. Kitty Carlisle-Hart was there presenting an award. She just turned 800 years old. Happy birthday to her. She was in "A night a the Opera" with Groucho Marx, as well as being a fixture on Broadway. She sang "Always", and can still sing pretty well. I hope when I am 800 I can sing like that. No that I can sing now, but I have 770 years to take it up.
That brings me to today. I voted at the local public school. I know Bloomberg is going to win , so I threw my support behind the Green party candidate. I also voted yes on Proposition 2 because I really would like to see more subway service without having to pay more for a metro card, as well as wanting to see the 2nd Avenue line. A 10th Avenue line would be nice too, like in the old days. Anyways, I have so much to do.

Here is the poem I promised almost a week ago, it doesn't have a title. I am also not sure about the last three stanzas. Let me know what you think:

These are cold times
The mountains shake with grief
Dusty limbs quiver in the
Growing wind
The fading light does little to obscure the wails of
Young Mothers and old sons
Their knuckles bloodied from
Incessantly digging
Incessantly praying

These re dark times
The coastlines are flooded with tears
The patience for inequality
Slides like shoes on wet tile. All of the
Tuesdays have grown thin. All of the
Wednesdays have turned to ash
There is no shelter from poverty

These are selfish times
The waves crash overhead like tourists
Searching for an exotic paradise
Shock of loss caked on brown faces
TV images rush in over torn piles of
Wrapping paper inundating
Living rooms with guilt

These are pompous times
Warmongers pound fists on desks
There is no more money for aid
There is no more money for AIDS
No more money for wheezing children
The bombs are growing stale in hangars
Planes are becoming obsolete
Helicopters have no time for rescue
When they are shooting at your feet

These are surreal times
The news is filled with Katie's belly
With World Series dreams
The images of disaster brief
or crawling along the bottom of newscasts so as not to
Disturb the pleasant American mood

These are greedy times
Well groomed nails of the upper crust
Finger expensive Cashmere cloth, Kashmir Cloth
Careful not to catch their privilege on the sharp irony
Fatigue they banter
How much do they expect us to give
Perhaps I'll buy a toys for tots at Christmas. As if a
Family having lost two children
Would not mourn the loss of a third
Not tear as much skin
Not prepare the tomb
Not wring their hands raw

These are strange times
Times of fear and outrage
Troubles and doubt
We either open our hearts or
Harden them forever more

These could be hopeful times
To ignore borders, history
Religion, class

At these times there should be
One common rhythm in our chests
One common song in our throats
One common thought in our minds
Let us help until there is no-one that needs it

downtown bronx Cafe

2005-11-03T00:59:00.000-05:00

Today I went to the downtown Bronx Cafe to catch Jessica Torres and Rich Villar feature as part of the first Wednesdays reading series from the Bronx Council on the arts. Jessica and Rich maybe you shouldn't read this.

Its been a few years since I first saw each of them read but probably no more than three years. I was really impressed today by what I heard from them. Perhaps it is because everything is so surreal in my life right now that I am able to look at things more clearly than before. Jessica's voice on stage was so confident and brave. She really has become comfortable on stage and her use of language and layering of imagery was really alluring. Rich was the second feature and he just continues to wow me. All of the pieces that he reads about culture or history seem to be so honed, so carefully assembled. It really is a pleasure to hear him read.
It actually seemed that everyone on the open mic was so notable. Oscar, Fish, Eliel, and Xelo. It really struck me tonight how far everyones writing and artistic identity had evolved. Oscar read a beautiful pantoom, Fish read a really moving piece about prison, Elilel read some really great short pieces ( I really liked the one about solitude, although I didn't care for the narcissist one), and Xelo read a fantastic piece about her family that I think has been building up in her for several years.

I read a piece about the strange times this year with all of the natural disasters and such, I have read it at a few other readings lately. I wrote it for a benefit for the Pakistan earthquake. I will post it tomorrow.

life on fast forward

2005-11-01T18:24:00.000-05:00

So looking at my last post it was more than a months and a half ago, but based on how much has happened it feels like a year ago. I participated in a benefit for the the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and then a few weeks later I was part of a benefit for the victims of the earthquake in Pakistan. I also have friends that I still can't get in touch with living in Miami.

At work things have been moving at a pace that seems hyper accelerated. In the middle of September my direct supervisor gave his two weeks notice under some circumstances I can't go into. I assumed most of his responsibilities as well as trying to fight the bad policies and the ineptitude of the supervisor who was brought in to assume some of his responsibilities. I got the 21 after school Programs through the difficult start up period in late September and October. Then last week I was wrongfully terminated in a situation that I can't talk about either. I have a lawyer that is helping me with the matter and there is so much that I can't mention because of the crazy legal battles that are going to come out of this. Its a very strange time for me, but at least it means I have more time to blog. There were some other things that weren't so gloomy that happened in the past six weeks including a really good acentos reading, a halloween party, and a memoir writing class but I'll write about those in a separate blog. This one has probably said enough.

Irony and sushi

2005-09-11T13:21:00.001-04:00

So Thursday I did something I had not done in nearly two years, participate in an open slam. I knew that Omar and Cristin were also going to slam so it eased the transition back for me a bit. I was in it just for fun so I thought I'd try something new. I wrote the piece the same day and finished it as the person before me was on. It was a great night although I think the crowd was a bit confused.

Cristin did a very cute poem about her high school science teacher but since she went first it didn't go over with high scores. I was on fifth and the four poets before me did funny poems, including one about an abusive racist bunsen burner and hemorrhoids. They were hilarious, but pushed the boundaries and were punished for it. Then I did my poem. I went too far. I probably should have gone much further with it to expose the sarcasm or delivered it more sarcastically to give the audience a clue as to the irony in the content. Although I thought it was obvious, Omar and everyone else later told me that I didn't give any clues as to my sarcastic intentions, so I just came off as an ass. My poem was about being pro- global warming and pro destruction of the planet, and as an example of being pro-planetary annihilation I said that hurricanes are great because they make for great surfing. I even went so far as to say, and this is where the audience turned, that Hurricane Katrina was a good thing because it will make more room for new Walmarts andTrent Lott's new Porch. Of course I meant it as sarcastic but it didn't translate. The entire audience was silent except for an occasional laugh from Cristin who knew what I was trying to do. I must say that that kind of disquiet in an audience is powerful, although I did not enjoy that kind of power, I do recognize it as being power. I did not change my tactic once I realized what was going on, I wanted to see what would happen if I saw it through to the end without letting on that it was supposed to be sarcasm. I didn't apologize or explain to the audience, I just got off and waited.

I knew it was going to be bad, but the scores were even better than I thought. I got a .2, 1, 1, 1, 4.2, giving me a total cumulative score of 3. I was laughing so much. I totally ruined the stage for Omar. He had to go after me but he couldn't overcome the confused mess I had left behind. I had such a blast doing something totally different than what I usually do. I will probably try to slam every week if I can.

Afterwards Jeannie, Omar, Oscar and I went to Sushi Park for half-price sushi and argued about what I could have done differently. I agree with them now, although of course I didn't then.

Mayoral Blues

2005-09-08T16:13:00.000-04:00

I saw the last of the Democratic Primary debates last night and I wanted to talk about the upcoming mayoral election. Besides yesterday's debate I have also been paying close attention to the ads and coverage. My opinion on the candidates are as follows, and I'll start with the front runner:

Freddie Ferrer, former Bronx Borough president is a career politician that doesn't seem to me to have any desire to make a change. He is a politico who is going to tow the line and keep on politicking. When he talks everything seems like he had someone write it for him and has been coached on just the right way to inflect to reach the target demographic. I don't think he should be the first Latino Mayor. Someone better will come along to be the first. He didn't do much as Bronx Borough President and I don't think he'll do much as Mayor.

Gifford Miller: I think he is too middle of the road. He talks a good game and has done some good stuff but I don't believe him. Plus he is so eager to do stuff that he cuts corners. He is also embroiled in a financing scandal over some staff salaries.

Anthony Weiner: I'm not going to say anything about his name because there is no need. He looked like the poster child for eating disorders. I'm thin but he looked like a third olsen twin. I also think that he is a secret Republican. He loves the cops, can't stop talking about the middle class, keeps saying tax cut, and got tons of money all of the sudden. I don't believe that he will do any of what he says about the schools. So what his mom was a teacher for 31 years. The first lady Laura Bush was a teacher and librarian and look what George did to education. Weiner likes to say what people like to hear but after election day all bets will be off.

C. Virginia Fields: I like her. I would vote for her as Mayor. She is elegant and stately, she doesn't seem as phony as the other three guys in the race. As Manhattan borough President she has done a lot for the arts and has worked with a lot of CBOs and Non-Profit Organizations. The thing that keeps coming back at her is that she is a woman and so will not be aggressive. I don't believe that, being a woman is a plus in her column not a minus. She has gotten the least amount of money and support of all of the candidates, but she is the most likeable and trust worthy in my opinion.

That being said I think Bloomberg will probably be reelected because there really haven't been any catastrophes lately. People are complacent. The whole RNC thing is something I can't forgive him for, but Fiscally NY is doing well, plus I like the No smoking thing he did. I wish he was a democrat cause I would vote for him, but because of his supporting the Republican Party I can't bring myself to do it.

Labor Day weekend

2005-09-05T14:43:00.000-04:00

So today is labor day. I have not done much. Yaay!! Yesterday I got to spend some time with the dynamic duo of Astoria, Cristin and Shappy. Their blogs are on my links; visit them if you like funny comics and long little dogs. We went to Pizzeria Uno's and had long conversations about the President's screw up in the aftermath of Katrina, and shared some free pizza. There was so much to criticize. I think the math part is throwing the President off. Maybe if it was called afternap or aftergolf he would feel more comfortable. I have heard that many people are shunning him when he shows up at the shelters and relocation locations to get photo-ops with victims. Too many people have died for a handshake and a hug from a callous oil baron to make me feel that everything is going to be ok. It's all a terrible shame. I don't know what the fallout is going to be. I know that it took him only one day to decide to put John Roberts in the Chief Justice role but four days to decide that national aid should be sent to the disaster areas. They're still evacuating people a week later. What kind of low budget B-movie rescue operation are we witnessing here? Then the head of FEMA was an Arabian Horse Judge before he became the assistant head of FEMA, and even then only because his college roommate was the Head of FEMA at the time. This kind of crap cannot be allowed to continue. People have to write to their representatives in Congress and their Senators and sdmand this President be impeached. There is no other way. If John Roberts gets confirned as Chief Justice, he will preside for at least fifty years as life expectancy goes up - maybe even more than that! We can't have the Supreme Court headed up by a conservative for that long. No way. Impeach Bush!!

Rss Feed

2005-09-02T10:52:00.000-04:00

So I thought I had set up an rss feed before but I had not. Here are the two places you can get a site feed for my blog:

http://www.garciapoet.com/atom.xml
or
http://feeds.feedburner.com/EdwardGarciasBlog

I'm really not sure of the difference as I have shamefully not kept up with Rss or podcasting technology. Let me know if I need to set up some other kind of feed if you can't use these two. Also let me know if its redundant to have these two set up for as I told you I'm dumb about rss.

"our Tsunami"

2005-08-31T15:32:00.000-04:00

There is a New York Post headline for today that says "our Tsunami." I heard it several times on the news yesterday as well. I don't understand why it's being used. This tragedy is unique and very different than a tsunami event, especially the Tsunami from December that killed over 300,000 people.

Hurricane Katrina was a horrific thing in its own right. I don't get the attempt to garner sympathy by comparing it to the Southeast Asian Tsunami, when there should be enough sympathy from it being a devastating hurricane. I think this might all point to a need to compete somehow. In a very messed up sense it seems like a morose competition. I have seen it before in other situations where people compare personal tragedy as though there was some sort of prize awaiting the person with the worst life. I am not saying this is what is happening; I just really don't like the use of the Tsunami in that case. A tidal wave caused by an earthquake and storm surges caused by a hurricane are totally different. The only things they have in common are that they both involve water and destruction. Following that logic, a skiing accident and an iceberg disaster are equitable. They could have said this was "our 9-11" but that would have caused an uproar, even though both were great tragedies and caused the loss of many lives. It is because the US hates being outdone even when it comes to disasters. But I do not hold it against the people who said it, it is their way of coping. I blame the newspapers and TV for running with that headline. Even an event like this means nothing if it’s not catchy.

All of that being said, I think the destruction in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama is terrible. All of the loss of life and the loss of property in places that were already amongst the poorest in the nation are heartbreaking. I was in Miami during Hurricane Andrew which was terrible, but it did not have the flooding like Katrina. It also hit the trailer homes and the poor communities the hardest. I remember all of the debris and destruction, the martial law and the inconvenience of being without phone and electricity. I knew a lot of people who lost their homes and all of their belongings, but the death toll from that was low; it seems that the toll from Katrina may be in the thousands. I hope this is the last hurricane for this year, but somehow I doubt it. The season ends in November and September is usually the worst. That is all I have to say about that. I hope the dead find peace and the living find safety.