In the days before Facebook, if you wanted to keep in touch with friends and relatives but couldn’t think of much to say to them, you sent them a postcard. The brilliance of the postcard is the side opposite where you are supposed to write has been decorated for you. Most postcards illustrate a location and are intended to be used by travelers to keep in touch with their loved ones back home. These were also frequently used to let others know when they’d be arriving (“Got a flat tire here and will have to wait until Monday to get it fixed. Hopefully, we can get there by Thursday...”). I quite enjoy looking through written on postcards at antique shops. Most of the scribblings are barely legible and mundane, but contemplating why a particular postcard was chosen by the sender and why it was kept by the recipient can be titillating. Two days ago I couldn’t resist spending a dollar on a head-scratcher of a postcard. The front is not a picture but a poem:
The Cynic’s Toast
Here’s to the glass we so love to sip,
It dries many a pensive tear;
‘Tis not so sweet as a woman’s lip,
But a d— sight more sincere.
Underneath has been handwritten “aint (sic) it the truth” replete with quotes. I turned the postcard over expecting a consoling note to a guy who’d just been dumped, but instead it is addressed to “Miss Bess Sanders,” and reads, “Have always known this but didn’t know how to express myself, not being verry (sic) poetical.” For a moment I thought someone must have been sending the equivalent of a raised middle finger to an ex, until I noticed the postmark date: Feb 14, 1910. The fact that this postcard was pristinely kept instead of immediately torn into a hundred pieces leads me to believe this was an incredibly ill-considered and, as the postcard was headed from Pocatello, Idaho to Springfield, Missouri, late arriving Valentine!
Last year I took the train up to Seattle to see an art installation designed and built by my close friend Jake and his girlfriend Ellen. Two artists who start dating and then start collaborating on projects run a good chance of producing nauseating results, especially when their collaboration is for an erotic art exhibit. I was very impressed when their entry turned out to be the cleverest thing there, which honestly wasn’t that huge a feat considering most of the artwork involved naked people being tortured. Their piece, entitled “Love Notes,” was a huge bed covered with over a dozen unique pillows. The idea was to select a pillow (not dissimilar to picking out a postcard) in which you both left a note for the next random person who chose that same pillow and took the note left by the random person prior. I guess you were supposed to keep the note, but then I guess the person before you was expected to write something worth keeping.
The exhibit inspired me to send a postcard featuring a different Yoshitomo Nara artwork to my long distance girlfriend every day for a month. This turned into a very nice ritual of getting home from work, writing a sentence or two and walking two blocks to the post office, during which I found myself passing the same lady walking with two kids and headed to the southern food joint that I never did try.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Buck/Rickey
Ginger ale and ginger beer is the same thing. Ale is beer, as I’ve had to explain to a bartender at a bar in Cedar Rapids. Neither ginger ale nor ginger beer contains alcohol. These days, the ginger ale you get in the soda aisle is sweet and artificial, and companies call it ginger beer when they want to distance themselves from that variety. Most of it, including the somewhat popular Reed's brand, doesn’t taste much better. If you want a spicy carbonated beverage that burns up your nose when you drink it (and you do), buy an authentic Jamaican-style ginger beer. The brand most easily found is Goya; look for it in the Asian section next to the coconut drinks or in the Mexican section with the Jarritos. Once you find Goya Jamaican-style ginger beer or something similar, you can make a proper Buck, a classic British highball popular in the 20’s.
One peeve I’ve become sensitive to from reading too many ill-researched cocktail books is those who think lemons and limes are interchangeable. Absolutely untrue. In my ample drink mixing experience, I’ve had better luck substituting lemon juice for grapefruit juice than for lime juice. A buck must be made with a half a LIME. Adding lime juice to Jamaican-style ginger beer cuts the intense spice yet adds a zest that makes it delicious. Lemon juice essentially waters it down a bit. Many buck recipes incorrectly call for lemon, and the only excusable reason for this is that they're using weak ginger beer.
Another peeve I have is when recipes ask for half a fruit or vegetable without telling you whose garden they are using to determine the size of their fruits and vegetables. I need precision. An average-sized lime contains 1.5 ounces (1 jigger) of juice. A buck uses ¾ ounces of lime juice.
When purchasing citrus, look for smooth, round fruit that is slightly tender. Most store-bought citrus gets covered with a coat of wax. Because the lime shell is included in the drink, be sure to wash off the wax. Next, roll the lime between the counter and your palm to help separate the juice from the skin. Cut the lime in half, juice the half and pour the juice into an empty (10 ounce) old-fashioned aka rocks glass. Add the spent shell and 3 ice cubes. Proper ice cubes, not those worthless little things my brother’s refrigerator spits out.
If you want a virgin drink, simply fill the glass with the ginger beer and you’re done. If you want it spiked, first add a jigger of London dry gin and swish the glass around once or twice before adding the ginger beer. Resist the temptation to stir anything carbonated- it makes it goes flat. Instead, trust the fizzing-action of the bubbles to do the stirring for you. Tangueray perfectly compliments carbonated highballs, but it is generally over-priced, so I buy Boodles, which is smoother, cheaper and preferable to Tangueray in uncarbonated cocktails.
A rickey is exactly the same as a buck except you use soda water instead of ginger beer, which makes it boring; like a wanna-be gin and tonic. However, you can amp the drink up by making a Royal Rickey- a very refreshing, summery drink. All you do is add a ½ ounce each of sweet vermouth (Vya, Noilly Pratt or Dolin) and real grenadine (recipe below) and stirring before topping with soda. Or, top with Jamaican-style ginger beer to make a Royal Buck.
Buck/Rickey
1.5 oz London dry gin
¾ oz lime juice
Stir briefly w/ spent lime shell, 3 ice cubes in old fashioned glass
Top w/ ginger ale (for buck) or soda (for rickey)
Royal Buck/Rickey
1.5 oz London dry gin
¾ oz lime juice
½ oz sweet vermouth
½ oz grenadine
Stir briefly w/ spent lime shell, 3 ice cubes in old fashioned glass
Top w/ ginger ale (for buck) or soda (for rickey)
Grenadine
Combine 1.25 cups granulated sugar and 1 cup POM pomegranate juice in saucepan. Stir while bringing to just under boiling. Lightly simmer 7 minutes or until thick enough to coat back of spoon. Allow to cool and keep refrigerated.
One peeve I’ve become sensitive to from reading too many ill-researched cocktail books is those who think lemons and limes are interchangeable. Absolutely untrue. In my ample drink mixing experience, I’ve had better luck substituting lemon juice for grapefruit juice than for lime juice. A buck must be made with a half a LIME. Adding lime juice to Jamaican-style ginger beer cuts the intense spice yet adds a zest that makes it delicious. Lemon juice essentially waters it down a bit. Many buck recipes incorrectly call for lemon, and the only excusable reason for this is that they're using weak ginger beer.
Another peeve I have is when recipes ask for half a fruit or vegetable without telling you whose garden they are using to determine the size of their fruits and vegetables. I need precision. An average-sized lime contains 1.5 ounces (1 jigger) of juice. A buck uses ¾ ounces of lime juice.
When purchasing citrus, look for smooth, round fruit that is slightly tender. Most store-bought citrus gets covered with a coat of wax. Because the lime shell is included in the drink, be sure to wash off the wax. Next, roll the lime between the counter and your palm to help separate the juice from the skin. Cut the lime in half, juice the half and pour the juice into an empty (10 ounce) old-fashioned aka rocks glass. Add the spent shell and 3 ice cubes. Proper ice cubes, not those worthless little things my brother’s refrigerator spits out.
If you want a virgin drink, simply fill the glass with the ginger beer and you’re done. If you want it spiked, first add a jigger of London dry gin and swish the glass around once or twice before adding the ginger beer. Resist the temptation to stir anything carbonated- it makes it goes flat. Instead, trust the fizzing-action of the bubbles to do the stirring for you. Tangueray perfectly compliments carbonated highballs, but it is generally over-priced, so I buy Boodles, which is smoother, cheaper and preferable to Tangueray in uncarbonated cocktails.
A rickey is exactly the same as a buck except you use soda water instead of ginger beer, which makes it boring; like a wanna-be gin and tonic. However, you can amp the drink up by making a Royal Rickey- a very refreshing, summery drink. All you do is add a ½ ounce each of sweet vermouth (Vya, Noilly Pratt or Dolin) and real grenadine (recipe below) and stirring before topping with soda. Or, top with Jamaican-style ginger beer to make a Royal Buck.
Buck/Rickey
1.5 oz London dry gin
¾ oz lime juice
Stir briefly w/ spent lime shell, 3 ice cubes in old fashioned glass
Top w/ ginger ale (for buck) or soda (for rickey)
Royal Buck/Rickey
1.5 oz London dry gin
¾ oz lime juice
½ oz sweet vermouth
½ oz grenadine
Stir briefly w/ spent lime shell, 3 ice cubes in old fashioned glass
Top w/ ginger ale (for buck) or soda (for rickey)
Grenadine
Combine 1.25 cups granulated sugar and 1 cup POM pomegranate juice in saucepan. Stir while bringing to just under boiling. Lightly simmer 7 minutes or until thick enough to coat back of spoon. Allow to cool and keep refrigerated.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Flatworms
Last night I dreamt I was with an unknown girl hiking in a forest looking for an area to use my camp stove and Bialetti to make coffee and we came upon a couple who invited us into their home which was absolutely covered with parasitic flatworms and my cats were there and I was worried for them and the couple didn’t mind the worms at all and they had pets also so I felt perhaps I was overreacting but my clothes were covered with them so I was shopping at a thrift store for new ones but every time I saw a shirt on a rack that I liked when I moved the hangers it was no longer there and I wondered whether things were actually disappearing or if I was going crazy….
Friday, March 4, 2011
Eighteen Percent
How to figure an 18% tip in your head (using $30.00 as final bill):
1. Add comped food or drinks to bill. (30.00 + free $5 dessert= 35.00)
2. Find 10% by moving the decimal point to the left one digit. (3.50)
3. Find 20% by multiplying 10% by 2. (3.50 x 2 = 7.00)
4. Find 2% by moving the decimal point of 20% to the left one digit. (0.70)
5. Subtract 2% from 20% to get 18%. (7.00 - 0.70 = 6.30)
How to do the same thing using a calculator:
1. Multiply total times .18. (35.00 x .18 = 6.30)
1. Add comped food or drinks to bill. (30.00 + free $5 dessert= 35.00)
2. Find 10% by moving the decimal point to the left one digit. (3.50)
3. Find 20% by multiplying 10% by 2. (3.50 x 2 = 7.00)
4. Find 2% by moving the decimal point of 20% to the left one digit. (0.70)
5. Subtract 2% from 20% to get 18%. (7.00 - 0.70 = 6.30)
How to do the same thing using a calculator:
1. Multiply total times .18. (35.00 x .18 = 6.30)
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The Human Condition
The Human Condition (1959-1961) is a cinematic masterpiece, based on a novel by Jumpei Gomikawa, written and directed by Masaki Kobayashi. Over the course of three movies, each broken into two 90 minutes halves, this epic follows the life of Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai), a Japanese man toiling through World War II.
Beautiful and shocking, hopeful and depressing, there is no description which can do anything but detract from the experience of watching these films. The storyline manages to remain compelling and unpredictable throughout, and the ending…. The acting is stellar. The cinematography, by Yoshio Miyajima, gives Kazuo Miyagawa a run for his money, which is the biggest compliment that can possibly be given. Stanley Kubrick stole the first half of the second movie almost scene for scene in making the first half of Full Metal Jacket (1987). Individually, each of these movies could be considered among the best ever made. Collectively, this trilogy is among the greatest achievements humankind has ever produced. Seriously.
Unfortunately the bulk of Americans don’t have nearly ten hours to waste on black-and-white and subtitled perfection.
Beautiful and shocking, hopeful and depressing, there is no description which can do anything but detract from the experience of watching these films. The storyline manages to remain compelling and unpredictable throughout, and the ending…. The acting is stellar. The cinematography, by Yoshio Miyajima, gives Kazuo Miyagawa a run for his money, which is the biggest compliment that can possibly be given. Stanley Kubrick stole the first half of the second movie almost scene for scene in making the first half of Full Metal Jacket (1987). Individually, each of these movies could be considered among the best ever made. Collectively, this trilogy is among the greatest achievements humankind has ever produced. Seriously.
Unfortunately the bulk of Americans don’t have nearly ten hours to waste on black-and-white and subtitled perfection.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
How It Goes
“I didn’t know you played the drums.”
“I used to but not anymore.”
“What kind of music do you play?”
“I played mostly jazz and experimental stuff.”
“Wow, jazz drumming is really hard, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know how to make sense of that question. It’s like anything else- whether it’s easy or difficult depends on how deep you go into it, I guess.”
“So why did you quit?”
“I got tired of starving to death a found a real job.”
“Well I play guitar in a blues band with some friends, and we perform at a bar downtown on open mic night about once a month or so. We’re actually looking for a drummer right now. We would love to have you play with us!”
“No, thanks.”
“Are you sure? We’re not very good but it’s a lot of fun!”
“I spent around eight hours a day for something like ten years practicing and hauling my drums around to do something that nobody will pay you for because everyone thinks it’s fun. In my experience if you’re having fun, it’s because you don’t know that you don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Oh, well we just practice on Sundays.”
“Anyway, I haven’t played in like three or four years now.”
“Oh wow, why not?”
“There’s no reason for me to play. I can just listen to Milford Graves or Jo Jones or Alla Rakha, et cetera.”
“But don’t you miss playing?”
“No.”
“Well, I hope you get back into it someday.”
“I used to but not anymore.”
“What kind of music do you play?”
“I played mostly jazz and experimental stuff.”
“Wow, jazz drumming is really hard, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know how to make sense of that question. It’s like anything else- whether it’s easy or difficult depends on how deep you go into it, I guess.”
“So why did you quit?”
“I got tired of starving to death a found a real job.”
“Well I play guitar in a blues band with some friends, and we perform at a bar downtown on open mic night about once a month or so. We’re actually looking for a drummer right now. We would love to have you play with us!”
“No, thanks.”
“Are you sure? We’re not very good but it’s a lot of fun!”
“I spent around eight hours a day for something like ten years practicing and hauling my drums around to do something that nobody will pay you for because everyone thinks it’s fun. In my experience if you’re having fun, it’s because you don’t know that you don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Oh, well we just practice on Sundays.”
“Anyway, I haven’t played in like three or four years now.”
“Oh wow, why not?”
“There’s no reason for me to play. I can just listen to Milford Graves or Jo Jones or Alla Rakha, et cetera.”
“But don’t you miss playing?”
“No.”
“Well, I hope you get back into it someday.”
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Faith and Hope
In medicine, there is a well-established phenomenon known as “the placebo effect.” The health of a person suffering from almost any ailment, including cancers and psychoses, can be measurably improved 33% of the time and even healed completely merely by convincing a patient that they are being cured. This demonstrates the very real and potent effectiveness of both faith and hope. Reinforcing an optimistic belief increases its intensity, which will actually increase its effectiveness. Increasing its effectiveness in turn increases its intensity even more! Simply believing something will happen to you will heavily increase the odds that it actually will happen to you, and believing it more will make it more likely to happen. Similarly, hoping for something to happen will inspire you to bring it about, in what is called a “self-fulfilling prophecy.” Inspirational speakers make billions of dollars every year exploiting these realities by telling audiences about these realities.
Thinking something is true will make it appear true from your perspective. This is known as bias. Our senses are designed predicatively, so that we often actually see, hear, taste, etc. what we believe we are seeing, hearing, tasting, etc. This is why reliable experiments can only be done using “blind” testing and control groups. This is why it is so difficult for any human justice system to be impartial. Our lives are defined by our prejudices. What we experience today affects how we experience tomorrow.
Faith has its limits. Believing in something doesn’t make it objectively true. One’s convictions only affect and are affected by one’s own (mental and physical) realities and experiences. Another’s belief that I will be healed, for example, only affects my health insofar as they are able to convince me that their opinion has validity.
The previous sentence will have acted as a red flag to many. The power of faith is so profound, the object of that faith will be adhered to no matter how absurd it is. I am of the minority that doesn’t believe in supernatural phenomena. Harry Houdini spent the latter part of his life offering a huge reward to anyone who could perform a supernatural act, to no avail. Things perceived by us as miracles are occurrences with likelihoods which can be calculated by laws of probability. It is not only possible but inevitable that eventually someone will, for example, win the lottery. Your chances of doing so will remain the same whether you are a psychic, a prophet or an atheist. People have a lot of misconceptions regarding odds. Did you know, for example, the 5 year survival rate for prostate cancer is 98%? That means 98 of every 100 people who had gotten prostate cancer in the past five years are blathering on about how it’s a miracle they’re still alive.
A Muslim friend recently claimed we don’t believe in magic in America because the government keeps its powers hidden. He didn’t provide any evidence to support this claim, and I find it a bit ridiculous. If magic existed, our government would be stockpiling voodoo dolls instead of nuclear arms. I defy anybody who believes in miracles to actually perform one.
Several blind tests have demonstrated remote prayer to have no effect whatsoever. While believers will insist this is incorrect, you won’t see any of them performing objective experiments on their own. The truth is they don’t want to know the truth. Humans are generally more comfortable believing what they want to hear than going to the trouble of researching claims for authenticity. This is in part because the powers of faith and hope are not based at all on what is believed or hoped in, but instead on how strongly any belief or hope is held. The major gripe I have with religion is that instead of encouraging others to have faith and hope, they insist others have faith in hope in the same things they have faith and hope in.
Thinking something is true will make it appear true from your perspective. This is known as bias. Our senses are designed predicatively, so that we often actually see, hear, taste, etc. what we believe we are seeing, hearing, tasting, etc. This is why reliable experiments can only be done using “blind” testing and control groups. This is why it is so difficult for any human justice system to be impartial. Our lives are defined by our prejudices. What we experience today affects how we experience tomorrow.
Faith has its limits. Believing in something doesn’t make it objectively true. One’s convictions only affect and are affected by one’s own (mental and physical) realities and experiences. Another’s belief that I will be healed, for example, only affects my health insofar as they are able to convince me that their opinion has validity.
The previous sentence will have acted as a red flag to many. The power of faith is so profound, the object of that faith will be adhered to no matter how absurd it is. I am of the minority that doesn’t believe in supernatural phenomena. Harry Houdini spent the latter part of his life offering a huge reward to anyone who could perform a supernatural act, to no avail. Things perceived by us as miracles are occurrences with likelihoods which can be calculated by laws of probability. It is not only possible but inevitable that eventually someone will, for example, win the lottery. Your chances of doing so will remain the same whether you are a psychic, a prophet or an atheist. People have a lot of misconceptions regarding odds. Did you know, for example, the 5 year survival rate for prostate cancer is 98%? That means 98 of every 100 people who had gotten prostate cancer in the past five years are blathering on about how it’s a miracle they’re still alive.
A Muslim friend recently claimed we don’t believe in magic in America because the government keeps its powers hidden. He didn’t provide any evidence to support this claim, and I find it a bit ridiculous. If magic existed, our government would be stockpiling voodoo dolls instead of nuclear arms. I defy anybody who believes in miracles to actually perform one.
Several blind tests have demonstrated remote prayer to have no effect whatsoever. While believers will insist this is incorrect, you won’t see any of them performing objective experiments on their own. The truth is they don’t want to know the truth. Humans are generally more comfortable believing what they want to hear than going to the trouble of researching claims for authenticity. This is in part because the powers of faith and hope are not based at all on what is believed or hoped in, but instead on how strongly any belief or hope is held. The major gripe I have with religion is that instead of encouraging others to have faith and hope, they insist others have faith in hope in the same things they have faith and hope in.
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