food
ALL HALLOWS EVE & BROOKLYN & BIKES
Halloween is almost upon us in the city, and spirit (and decorations) abound. I took the F train to the land of Brooklyn a couple of days ago, just so I could wear my hipster apparel and use my trendy messenger bag, and when I stepped out at the Carrol Gardens stop, the world had changed. In place of Manhattan’s impressive buildings, wide bustling streets and frenetic horn-honking-people scurrying-cars swerving vibe, a human sized environment had emerged: narrow shady streets with families out for walks, couples with their hands in each-others pockets, dog walkers and stroller pushers galore. If I ever needed a family vibe to set me right, I should come here. Most of the brownstones (2-3 story connected houses built out of brown sandstone) had tons of decorations. No. I mean TONS. I couldn’t even see facade of one entire house it was so loaded with skulls and fake spiderwebs and scythes and pumpkins and plastic tombstones and whew, I could go on. This happens to be a post of run on sentences, but it fits my vibe right now, so hang tight.
I kept wandering and found these things:
Forty-three carved pumpkins, numerous spider webs (hard to count for obvious reasons), 2 children who decided to dress up early (1 michael jackson and 1 sesame street bigbird, related?), 20 cozy coffee cafes, many hipsters, 1 Trader Joes, 1 3rd floor balcony with a giant ladder leading to the ground (break-in? bored tenants? fire!?) and 40 people on bikes.
Thousands of golden orange leaves dotted the asphalt, with most trees in that lazy stage of half-dress, where thousands of the leaves are gone but many still remain. So many people whizzed by on bicycles that I though I might be back in Colorado or even the NW. Here, though, people do the craziest things on bikes. They shoot through intersections, don’t wear helmets, wear helmets from the 1960’s (did they even have helmets back then?), and lock their bikes with the thickest chains I’ve ever seen. Crazy stuff. At least they ride their bikes and the subway, though. One of the ads on the F train states that NYC residents use 75% less energy than the majority of Americans, simply because they use public transportation. It’s one of the things only things I hate about Colorado- public transportation sucks. To get into the mountains takes more gas than I care to admit and though CC’s ski union does offer a ski-bus, it only goes to a couple resorts and fills up fast. That said, if you have a friend with a car, you’re set for 4 years of POWDDEEERRRR and great company. Long story short, I wish Amtrak was as reliable and widespread in the West as it is here in the Eastern Corridor.
To conclude this conglomeration of random thoughts, I shall orate on the celebration of this coming weekend. NYC has, no not the world’s largest ball of twine (1,475 miles long, Cawker City, Kansas), not the world’s largest rocking chair (Cuba, MO), nope, not even the world’s largest yogic circle (unknowable because yogis don’t care about such things). NYC does have the biggest baddest Halloween parade, fo sho. It’s in the west village, near where I live and it’s been an institution for 36 years. Needless to say:
I AM STOKED for this weekend.
More Halloween NYC news at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-peyronnin/eek–its-halloween_b_338233.html
POST SCRIPT: If you don’t read the HUFFINGTON POST, you should. While it sounds like a bad dream from the 241th Harry Potter movie, the Huff is actually a very well respected news organization, second (in my book) only to the behemoth of the New York Times. The great thing about the former company, is that it is strictly online- and free. (Question of the day: how are newspapers like the NYTimes staying afloat?)
PEACE
-Claire
A Thanksgiving Dilemma…
It’s been a little while, but my life has been strangely calm. Usually by the second week of the block I’m already stressed out… Maybe it’s the inverted block and having just come back from a break. My Thanksgiving was just lovely, thanks. I, like many people I know, did not go home.
This year, my sister went to her fiancee’s house, my parents stayed home (as they were just out here for my show a few weeks ago) and I went up to Littleton to my friend’s house and spent it with her family and a few other friends. I made the pumpkin pie and hand whipped the whipped cream. (It was delicious, if I may say so myself.)
The ironic part of this break, is that my homework for class (’Environmental Inquiry’) was to read Michael Pollan’s book “An Omnivore’s Dilemma” which follows four different meals providing detail on what goes into the food, (material, work, resources, etc.) It’s a really simple connection, but not many people really think about what such a large effect the foods we (as a modernized world) eat has on the environment. So, after consuming a weeks worth of food in under two hours, I sat down to read the first part of Pollan’s book which can be summed up in the following sentence: Everything we eat comes from corn. Because of this, corn is grown in ridiculous amounts, sells for more than its worth, while farmers get subsidies giving them more profit than they’ve worked for. I switched from feeling like I had gained 10 pounds in foodweight to feeling like I had gained 10 pounds solely in corn.
The latter is not a good feeling – physically or morally.
I would definitely recommend reading one of Michael Pollan’s books – if you’re interested in any aspect of food. For example: eating it. He’s an interesting writer and is very passionate about the topic. If you’re not one for buying books without a sample, here is a talk he gave last year, entitled The Omnivore’s Next Dilemma, in which he covers some of the points made in his book. He also writes for the New York Times Magazine every now and then. I found this article pretty interesting: Unhappy Meals. His books also make great gifts… You know, just something to think about.
I guess that’s it for me – time for sleep? I think yes.
