Dinner

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Tonight, this is my dinner: one beer (Double Take IPA), a salad consisting of green romaine lettuce, spinach, beet greens, radish, onion, tomato, carrot, cucumber and home-made croutons (all organic, save for the bread). The dressing was complex but has notes of mustard, jalapeno, truffle, lemon, onion, garlic, olive and includes chia and flax seeds. It is really good. Secondly, there is one regular hot dog bun encasing one apple-sage Field Roast sausage, with home-pickled peppers, mustard and ketchup. How about that?

Colbert on Queer

I must say that I haven't been paying the closest attention to the It Gets Better project. But, I know what it is and I know what the videos are saying. They aren't aimed at me. I am to be inspired by them, as a person of the world. And, knowing what they are, videos of people (celebrity and not) empowering gay, lesbian, transgendered and otherwise to not be ashamed of themselves, they give me hope for a world less barbaric, less thoughtlessly ideological. People are people, as Depeche Mode says, and if one happens to be born (yes, born, you thoughtlessly ideological among us) sexually attracted to another of the same sex, or possibly (the horror!) a color other than white, it doesn't fucking matter. We are one species among many and we won't be here forever. Live this life like it is the only one. If you think there is a heaven, act like there isn't. The Golden Rule and all that. Anyway, here is Stephen Colbert on the It Gets Better project:



And I am happy to say that this project was founded by Seattle native Dan Savage, of Savage Love fame. Enjoy!

Solstice Celebration in the Rain

Today, moist and gray, was the Solstice Parade in Seattle. Not a parade of tired old men driving SUVs with lazy designs plastered on the sides. No engines at all actually. All floats are required to be powered only by the petroleum-free machinations of the human form. Pushed or pedaled, brilliantly designed, the floats are a celebration of the sun, the day during which we see the most of it (which is actually the 21st). But today that sun didn't come out to be praised. We did it anyway. Further, people get naked. And ride bikes (which I will add after the jump).




Naked bikers after the jump...

Seattle's Got A Superhero!

Up in the Northwest, along with the comic book nerds comes heroic vigilantism. I love it.



Yep.

Read GO SEE ART Post!

I just posted on the GO SEE ART blog about Banned Books Week. Go read it!

Here is the poster for it, with robots!

Island Wilderness Camping

Recently, we went on a camping trip. On the Island of Whidbey, just North and West of Seattle. Half a mile from a beach that looks out on the Puget Sound and behind that, the great Pacific Ocean. Accompanying us on this sleeping-in-the-out-of-doors expedition were two other couples, whose celebrity mash-up names would be Zamie and Aargan (pronounced air-gun). Here are shameless plugs of their websites: Zack, Jamie, Aaron, and I don't know if Meagan has a website. Anne's is on the sidebar.

We camped, specifically at South Whidbey State Park. It was fun though there was little in the way of hiking, unlike the massive forests of the Olympic Peninsula, still my favorite place to camp. We set up camp, each couple with our own four-person tent, and set to making food before the sun fell too far down over the horizon. Then we drank around the fire. The weather was nice, though a little cool at night, and the beach was beautiful, full of various beached life-forms ready to have their pictures taken. We, the boys, threw rocks at inanimate objects until we were tired and wanted beer. We, the boys, played with the clay that made up the cliff abutting the beach, and formed it into unidentifiable nothings until our hands were covered in clay and we were wearing stupid smiles. We, all, took pictures of the oddities of the beach (including ourselves) as the tide was at its lowest. Then we walked back up the hill to our camp, in order to sate our desires for food, booze and the mesmerizing behavior of flames. We slept in between eating and playing and drinking, such an insignificant detail though.

I felt like life should be like that more than it is. Void of bank statements and the forty-hour-a-week deal. Just throwing rocks at things and making food. Simple and wonderful. But, I must say, the shower was amazing when I got home, as well the warm bed and the laying about in front of a movie. The camping was fun, for awhile. And it didn't rain. I have sloppily explained the whole thing but the following pictures will help.

The Tent!

More After The Jump

Local Food and Good Beer

This is a good mantra, I think. Anne and I patronize the services of a local farm (Full Circle Farm) that delivers digestibles to us weekly (actually to the community center a block away from us). It is one of many CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture) that Western Washington has to offer. Every week, for thirty one dollars a week, we are provided with a bounty of fruits and vegetables, about 12 to 14 different food items per box, which is more than enough. Plus, it is all organic. This is what I do every Thursday upon getting the box to our kitchen:

Many cities enjoy these programs. It feels good to know you are supporting your local economy and also eating damn good organic produce. The average American meal travels thousands of miles to get to one's plate. A lot of calories to bring a few. It is uneven. Local economies suffer for global markets. Much of the viable land in the Midwest is being used for inedible corn, #2 corn they call it, for use in thousands of super-processed foods. Anyone who gives a damn should look up CSA's in their area, or farmer's markets. They are your neighbors. Even in the very rural Barnard, MO, where much of my family lives, and where much of the farmland is #2 corn, they are putting together a farmer's market where people can sell their own garden's produce, and to their neighbors nonetheless. It is important. To further explain my point, I would suggest watching the movie Food, Inc, and reading books by Michael Pollan. Also, a very funny and food-smart guy, Mark Bittman. Here is a good, funny and important video by Bittman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YkNkscBEp0



Second to food, beer is also important. Drink good beer. I drank a good beer the other day. I often do. But a certain beer stood out. It wasn't local, but oh, well. It is a Polish beer. Find it and drink it and tell me what you think. Tell me what you think about any of this. It is easy.