What that means is that me, my rad co-leader Getzel, and 24 CUNY undergrads went to New Orleans and rebuilt some houses. We heard from speakers, took tours, wandered the city, held reflection sessions, and learned to use power saws and what “fireblocking” is.
I’m going back this week. New group of participants, new building project, same city. Same issues.
I’m reading Hell or High Water this week to get ready. It’s unpacking what we mean when we say that Hurricane Katrina was a racial disaster. The chapter I’m on now is about the history of disaster management and why FEMA was so unable to really respond. It will feel good to have more answers, and more things to discuss on this upcoming trip.
I have a new favourite: the Smitten Kitchen’s Broccoli Slaw. It’s a salad of broccoli and cranberries and almonds and red onions, with a dressing made out of buttermilk. As a devoted mayonnaise avoider I love the idea of slaw that is mayo-free. I’ve used the dressing on other things too, most recently quinoa salad (made while Zach was making chicken salad–we used all the same additional ingredients: celery, apples, pecans, cranberries, but diverged in our paths when it came to dressing. He opted for mayo and I balked and grabbed the buttermilk).
But buttermilk comes in one-litre containers and I don’t really need that much. So I’ve been making other things with buttermilk, including Lemon Poppyseed cake (taken from the Smitten Kitchen again, her lemon cake but with poppyseeds added–why would you ever make lemon cake WITHOUT poppyseeds?), and this morning, buttermilk pancakes from the joy of cooking.
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So while we’re talking about food, I want to highlight just how fascinated I am with Fed Up With School Lunch, the blog of an elementary school teacher who is eating the school lunches everyday. It’s very simple, usually a photo and a short reaction, and the constant reassurance that this is not some big political statement from someone’s who’s been doing food and nutrition campaigning for a long time. It’s a simple project–the blog’s description is “Eating school lunch just like the kids every day in 2010″–and the author is very clear that she’s no expert in nutrition. The’s a naive aspect to this that makes the project have a lot of impact.
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Also, on monday I’m taking a cooking class at the Brooklyn Kitchen Labs! It’s the chinese takeout class, taught by Cathy Erway who writes Not Eating Out in New York, and I’m very excited about it.
I live on a busy street, and when I have the windows open I really hear bits of Empire State Of Mind coming from outside. It’s kind of magical.
I’m back in New York for the semester after a lot of bouncing around (Pearlstone, Vancouver, St Louis, Farrar, New Orleans, and the shortest trip to Toronto ever), and my first day back was a sunny day. I biked into Manhattan and back again, stopping to buy veggies and fish in Chinatown. I love the smell of chinatown(s)! It’s such a familiar constant, despite the city it’s in.
Okay, semester: full speed ahead.
The other day, I suggested that you could talk around Olympic trademark rules: “the year between 2009 and 2011 models now in store!”
And then today I read that Lululemon is doing just that, with their line of clothes called the “Cool sporting event that takes place in British Columbia between 2009 and 2011 edition.”
Of course, this isn’t enough for VANOC! They claim that lululemon has “broken the spirit of Olympic trademark regulations.”
Their commerical rights management dude says:
“We expected better sportsmanship from a local Canadian company than to produce a clothing line that attempts to profit from the Games but doesn’t support the Games or the success of the Canadian Olympic team.”
It just totally makes me crazy to hear them use words like “spirit” and “sportsmanship”–like they’re pretending this is about anything other than money.
If trademark people really believed in the “spirit of trademark regulations” rather than the letter of the law of trademark regulations then we wouldn’t have events like when Starbucks made Puddleduck, a kids clothing store, take away the sign that said “starducks” on the table where they offered free coffee to customers. There are a million other examples.
This is great: The BC Civil Liberties Association is keeping a map gallery of Olympics-based censorship in Vancouver.
Also apparently the International Olympic Committee has trademarked the word “winter” and the number “2010,” so if you use either of those to promote or sell anything between now and the end of the olympics you’re breaking the law. (Via BoingBoing)
“By these boots! They are for the season between fall and spring that is cold and snowy! The year between 2009 and 2011 models now in store!”
This really is monolithic totalitarian greed.
I can’t believed that I missed this! From the BikeSnobNYC blog, (scroll down, scroll way down):
New York City is striving to become more bicycle friendly, and to this end you may recall that Transportation Alternatives recently held a PSA contest (in which I served as a juror) in order to promote smugness in the streets. Well, the winners have finally been announced, and I’m pleased to report that I didn’t vote for any of them.
I don’t know why I didn’t think to use the word “smugness”–it pretty aptly describes how I feel about the whole thing.
The Bike Snob details, scene-by-scene one of the videos (dude pushes his car into the river, turns around to reveal a “one less car” t-shirt), hating on it all the way. What bugs me most about that is that the shirt doesn’t say “one FEWER car.”
Also, he points out that the word “livability” doesn’t really mean anything. (”And what is a “livability revolution?” It sounds like forcing people at gunpoint to make their living rooms more comfortable.”). I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels that way.
All of my work these days, for my final papers and such, is about New York and Food. So I sit in piles of photocopied printed and stapled articles and reports and draft legislation about food and agriculture and farm-to-cafeteria initiatives and maps of food deserts and on and on.
It is wonderful. It makes me happy to read these things.
The American Journal of Public Health Research and the Journal of Planning Research and Education do not have pretty pictures though.
But this week there is new Maira Kalman in the New York Times! And it is about thanksgiving and food and bounty and cities. It is lovely, twee & smart at the same time.
These murals are beautiful! Meant to be viewed from the elevated train. Way to be, Philadelphia.
I had a super time at the Transportation Alternatives Biking Rules PSA festival the other night. It’s really nice to see people put in work and make neat videos and have a ton of awesome Brooklyn bike people in a room together. But then, when we were drinking beer and schmoozing at the reception, I got a little bit full of hate. The focus on bicycle safety as something cyclists need to preach to each other really bugs me! Again and again I hear that the thing that makes cycling safer is not more helmets and more lights, but more cyclists! Having people on bikes on the road makes drivers aware, makes cycling more “normal” and more accepted and more safe. I get that TA wants to have cyclists seem like a respectable bunch of eco-friendly, law-abiding citizens that are worth building bike lanes and creating policy for, but it makes me crazy that the focus isn’t on drivers!
At least, the message going to cyclists should be “don’t be an asshole.” I think it’s generally FINE to run red lights and go the wrong way on one-way-streets as long as you’re aware of what’s going on around you, and you don’t get in people’s way. A cyclist running a red light does way less harm that fucking cars parked in bike lanes, or not signaling, or opening their doors into oncoming bike traffic without looking. Fuck the laws about bells and helmets–I can take care of my personal safety. I want more policing of system-wide safety!
Thanks muchly to Ms Laurie for the think to this guardian article today about how “antisocial cycling” is annoying, but not a real threat unlike bad driving, which is.
All that said, the videos were pretty rad. My super planner pal Inbar’s “Cycloptopus” video is totally worth watching.
Also, I’m really digging the Fake MTA twitter updates. “From Nov. 19-Dec. 31, the 59th St./Columbus Circle station will be closed due to the construction of Mayor Bloomberg’s underground lair.”
A lot of the things I look at regularly on the internet are about dresses. Some of it is about making dresses and some is unabashedly fashion. Yeah. I read fashion blogs!
Mostly it’s that journal articles are in black and white and badly photocopied and I need to look at pretty things every now and then, or I’ll wilt. It’s like the poster or print up on the wall at Kat’s house, “girls need cute things or they’ll DIE.”
Dresess like this one! (which is from mociun) And Built By Wendy stuff. And all the vintage patterns over at A Dress A Day. I have a few patterns and some washed and pressed fabric that’s meant to be magically transformed into dresses, but I’m not actually working on that at the moment.
I will say, though, that I am bored bored bored of all the Japanese dress books and the adoration of them on many of the dress and craft blogs. The dresses are all so shapeless and boring (and no doubt would look terrible on anyone with boobs), and the books all seem so samey-same, with models standing in front of white or grey-ish walls, holding on to some inane object. It’s better than the overcutseyness of the amigurumi japanese craft stuff that I’ve never been a fan of, but I have no desire to look at any more shifts or tunics. Urgh.
For those of you that love the japanese dresses (or just don’t know what I’m talking about), Karyn has a quite a collection of them that you can see here.
Oh wow, this dress is amazing!
From etsy, of course.
I saw a bottle of Canada Dry Ginger Ale in the store, with a big “made with real ginger!” front-of-package claim. The ingredient list, though, did not have ginger listed! Just high-fructose corn syrup and “natural flavours.” WTF, Canada Dry?
(photo from coreyu)
No matter, because my ginger beer is almost ready! It’s easy to make–just start with some ginger bug, which is grated ginger and sugar in a jar on the counter, fed every other day until it gets all ferment-y. Then make some tea/syrup, boiling ginger with sugar (exact measurements available upon request), then pour that into an empty pop bottle with strained gingerbug. Put a lid on and let sit somewhere warmish for 2 weeks. Then refrigerate and enjoy!
In the opening scene of the season finale of Mad Men last night, Betty Draper goes to visit Roger Sterling in a freshly mowed hay field wearing a huge white wedding dress and gets shot in the head with a rifle by an off-screen Jane. She was aiming for Roger, but the first bullet missed and he hit the deck like a good soldier. As the second bullet entered the back of Betty’s head, the camera swung around 180-degrees in a Matrix-like way and we see the bullet exit her neck about two inches below the ear. A ray of light shines through the hole as the bullet exits, as if Betty is made of pure light. (not really)
But seriously, folks, it was a good episode, no?
Dear Kat,
I remember that frustration indeed, but looking at those photos (plus the fact that my sewing skills have developed over time) makes me think that I could make some structural mittens now, without even reading the pattern/recipe.
Thanks!
Love,
Dory
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