Kedar meets postmodern museum…

So, were I a scholar in medieval or renaissance Europe, this experience would have been nearly sublime, or beautiful, or something of that significance.  My father’s visiting from Atlanta, and knowing that the SD museum’s are the greatest, for reasons entirely having to do with our city’s short history, I’ve been taking him to do other things–kayaking, hiking, camping, and other outdoorsy things.

However, I remembered, whilst attending the free organ concerts at Spreckels Organ Pavilion, whilst listening to “A church service interrupted by a thunderstorm” (which is, apparently a real piece of music), that certain museums are free each Tuesday at Balboa park.  And lo! the very museum I had been intending to visit, the San Diego Museum of Man, was free today.  So we went over there, wandered around for an inordinate amount of time–at least compared to the other museum enthusiasts…

And here’s the part of the medieval scholarliness:  the whole museum, pretty much is about Peru, and recalling that several of my friends are Peruvian Archaeologists, I was even more astonished when I was looking at this religious art form called retablo which is like a triptych, except in Peru, and more popular than the stuffy boring versions in medieval Europe, that one of the revolutionary leaders depicted shared a name with none other than one of my Archaeologist friends.

Now, I am sure that several of those imaginary readers out there are shaking their heads (which really just means that somewhere, inside me, I’m shaking my head at myself, right?), but this goes even further.  Then, an exhibit just across the main hall was about several civilizations in Central America and western Latin America–about 30 feet dedicated to the entire history and archaeology of the Olmec, the Aztecs, the Mayans, the Moche, the Incans and all that, except, in the time line of things for western Latin America, there was a noticeable absence in their history of the years between 750CE and 1200CE.  Give or take fifty years.

This seemingly inconsequential ommission on their part may have gone unnoticed were it not for some wise, know-it all graduate student, like myself.  Well, owing to that self-same graduate student’s friend who has, on occassion ventured so far as to politely inform him that that is the time period in which her work is based, and the civilization of Peru, the middle Chimú period, is the same civilization that had been omitted.

So, as with every great blog post, things must end with how the order of things would come to call this medieval, a la Foucault.  Well, so the story goes that things were really based on resemblance back then, and upon coincidence as well.  So I am supposed to draw some sort of metaphorical insight out of this neat little coincidence–that the museum I wanted to visit has many Peru exhibits, albeit anachronistic; that a certain revolutionary leader depicted in a retablo shares the name of my friend, and finally that the Chimu culture of the time period she studies was only noticeable as an absence on the stage of…well, cultural anthropology and archaeology.

Oh, one final note–why postmodern? Well I suppose that’s the nature of museums, to give the curiosities and oddities of elsewhere.  So, after a day of trephanning, shrinking heads, mummies in Egypt, Peru, and in Northern Europe, several civilizations, some popular folk art, the Kumeyaay Indians of San Diego, and a couple of exhibits on the evolutions of humans and apes, I went and saw a photography exhibit of works by Richard Avedon–portraits mostly…

BBC coverage of debates…

I have a confession to make: I am a person who goes to other news sources for news than the most common ones in the US.  That’s not to say that many in the US don’t get at least some news from the BBC, I’m sure many do.

What struck me as remarkable was that the BBC has a few articles that cover the hoopla over the presidential debates that we are currently about to see between McCain and Obama.  But the BBC goes further and has clippings from past presidential debates as well–just for common knowledge and for readers to get a better sense of how the debates can be revealing of the idiocy, tactlessness, or snobbery or some other unpleasing characteristic of the debator.

How come American media doesn’t do this?  Should Americans know about their own country too–and it’s past?  Why can’t CNN or Fox have something similar, so as to not assume that Americans are idiots?

Anyhow, the clips are short, but here’s the link for anyone who’s interested in taking a peek:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7633083.stm

Has ANYONE done the math?

Once again, forgive me, but my cynicism is marked: regular voters a few months ago got an “economic stimulus” package that never paid more than $1200 for couples, and that was for a very few.  But this $ 700,000,000,000 that the banks are getting is monumental!  That’s right, just in case we had all forgotten, the figure has 11 zeros after the 7.

I divided that up by the number of citizens in the country–approximately 300,000,000 three hundred million, and the number I got was $2333.33!  Why don’t we get that much money and a measly, maybe $600 per head?  Perhaps the government could be even smarter and at least give us $2333.33 worth of stock in the companies we are investing in by taking on their FAILURES in our taxes.

And let’s be honest.  This bailout won’t be paid off by the one-foot-in-the-grave politicians writing the laws, but by ordinary people, and we’ll be paying it off for a long, long time.  In fact, I’m confident that my children will pay it off too (I’m 24).

The basic idea is this: if we’re helping out the largest financial insitutions in this country and also in the world, shouldn’t we become shareholders and make them at least partially answerable to us?

what happened to the good old days of stock-broker suicides?

You know, I am not very well versed with the stock market.  My money is mostly in mutual funds, and I hardly have the time to check the market on a regular basis-and them mutual funds make it unneccessary to do so.

But what I do know, is that these days, stock brokers certainly aren’t what they used to be, which is perhaps a bad thing for natural selection.  Yes, those brokers who would perhaps be the most social darwinist of all in our society are in fact undermining their own system.

Back in the good old days of stock market crashes–”black tuesday” for example, at least losers and those who lost heavily in speculation, market manipulation and so on had the good sense to rid the world of their genes by committing suicide out of shame.  What happened to those days?

Today even failed CEOs get compensation packages above and beyond what most Americans could hope to make in a lifetime.  If I had failed college, and then got kicked out of grad school for utter incompetence, and then my parents had made me heir to a vast fortune–perhaps that would be the equivalent of these CEOs, being rewarded for failure–and perhaps, in a sense, the managers of the failing investment banks too–what is it, something like only two American investment banks left?

So, before the waters settle, let’s hope at least a few of these infidels who have so thoroughly screwed up have the good sense to abide by their own rules of social darwinism and let the world off the hook by not passing on their genes any more than they already have.

PS. and what’s the deal with the government using my tax money to bail out poorly run investment firms?  I wish I could be bailed out whenever I made a stupid purchase on my credit card.  Looks like my generation will be paying a lot more taxes–the war and now all these bailouts.  Whatever happened to offering them long-term loans instead?

In the devil’s snare: how to be doubly sinful at dinner

So, some of you may be aware that I went to Brandeis, historically a non-sectarian university sponsored by the American Jewish community.  I was raised Hindu, in a pretty orthodox manner, and know my gayatri mantra, know the Ganesh pujas pretty well, and can read and write Hindi and Marathi as well as speak them fluently.

While attending brandeis, I was branded a Hin-Jew, by some, much to my ire and I invented a doubly delicious and sinful dinner recipe using Matzo ball soup and standard toast.

Really any kind of Matzo ball soup mix will do-but I’m used to using the Manischewitz.  And you’ll also need some corned beef and bacon.

Prepare the Matzo balls as usual, but perhaps you can add some Chili powder to give them a much needed addendum of flavor.  Use chopped up veggies in the soup, and make sure you add some fresh, uncooked bacon strips as well (perhaps 5-6) for the Manischewitz box should be fine.

Then, on toasted rye, add some corned beef that has been pan-fried with some dhania-jeera powder!

Make a toast to the devil.  Eat and drink up, and be happy!

Rainy day spells chicken soup and rice.

I think I take a lot of pride in coming up with boring titles for my blog. I suppose I am probably shooting myself in the foot, for all those exciting people who would otherwise be reading what I have to say…ahem…

Nor am I unaware that “Rainy day” is not spelled “c-h-i-c-k-e-n-space-s-o-u-p-….” you get the idea. Three negatives in one sentence…just goes to say what rain does to you in southern CA.

So to all you rainy day enthusiasts, here’s the simple, down to earth recipe of the day: Chicken soup with wild rice.

ingredients: some boneless chicken, diced into 1″ cubes at largest, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, wild rice or any rice really. No broth necessary, that’s for loser who can’t cook.

preparation: soak the chicken in warm salt water for about 30 minutes. In the meantime make sure you dice the celery–diagonally if you want to be fancy. And the carrots. And dice the onions thinly, but make the pieces long. and you can mash or dice the garlic. Mashing obviously brings out the flavor.

Make sure you have rice going at the very beginning.

Heat some olive oil, and toss the onions into it, along with the garlic. Make sure things are on a medium-low burner so as to not burn the onions and the garlic. Toss the chicken in now–without the salt water–You don’t need to rinse the chicken off, it needs the salt.

When the sides start turning white, add the carrots and the celery. Add water. Once the water is boiling, things should be ready in about 15-20 minutes.

Serve over the rice. You may need to add more salt and pepper.

Prep time: 45 minutes (but very easy to make)

**Photos of merriment and soup may be added late–will most likely be contrasted with shitty outdoor weather.

Paradise Lost resonates with Bush, Cheney…

The proposition: that Bush and his minions are well…minions of another kind as well. So there I was in class…and reading book two of Milton’s epic. Just before Satan actually decides to pursue Adam and Eve in paradise, he plants a suggestion with Beelzebub, who, in conference suggests invading, albeit deceitfully, paradise. The fallen angels sit silent for a while, and then Satan, preeminent among them, volunteers for this search.

Anyways, not that these issues came up in my class…but think about it: Paradise was somewhere in the middle east, near the Tigris and the Euphrates, both of which are in modern day Iraq. So we don’t have to take Paradise literally, but what with all the rhetoric surrounding Israel, with Iran, Iraq, Opec, and all those other places, I think we can quite confidently say that Bush and Cheney were in hot pursuit of another paradise…one with lots of oil.

Mwah hahaha!

PS. not that this hasn’t been said before, but most likely not in the terms I said it…

consider the mimesis of literature thus:

Consider the following:

“…literature would be incomprehensible if it did not give a configuration to what was already a figure in human action.”

So what does this say of our world? That action, any action, in order to be accomplished, must already have an aim, an object to it. I write in order to be read. I dance in order to enjoy myself, raise my heartbeat, get exercise…etc…

BUT, in this prefiguring of an object to one’s action, there is the element of a proto-narrative, an evolving story in miniature that were our action non-existent, so too would be the story. So, literature is only conceivable within a social context, ok, but also, literature forecloses the possibility of understanding life that hasn’t happened–that is, of actions never committed. So there is no literature that is not already in the past tense.

thinking of food moves me in Marathi…

We’ve all heard of the simple, the complex and the enlightened person.  The Simple person comes home from work asking, “what’s for dinner?”  Meanwhile, the complex person comes home pondering the imponderables of fate.  The exact nature of that one’s thoughts are to unwieldly to display here–indeed Shakespeare based his longest play on the complex person, fraught as he was with…to simply put it…inaction.  Finally, the englightened person comes home from work asking, “what’s for dinner?”

And so it was in that spirit–the latter, palliative spirit–that I came home today.  I thought to myself, “Ah, I wonder what food I’ll be eating tonight!” and immediately as I had thought it, my mind, from images and smells, moved into language: Waran bhaat, loncha, aani salad.  Yes, that last word’s self-explanatory.  But as if regressing, or hyper-gressing into some alternate world, there it was, the food of the simple/enlightened person.

Not caviar with sprigs of parsely and covered with truffle sauce–no that would be spiritually sparse, and trifling in the grand scheme of things.  I thought of rice and lentils, beans and rice, salt, pickle perhaps to taste and the generous spoonful of ghee to lather it down my throat.  And in Marathi I dreamt on my ride home from…work… 

Nobody for the Man of Law’s Tale? surprising…

So here I am, taking a class in which we read some Chaucer–but why the Man of Law’s Tale? Who cares about a medieval woman who placed all her faith in jesus and the story, oh the story could have put me to sleep, eternal sleep until at last my lorde awakest mee. Really though, perhaps Chaucer needed an editor to tell him what not to write, or at least what not to send to the scribe.

Wife’s tale: Okay! Miller’s tale: also ok; Man of Law’s Tale: way way–so far away from being acceptable as a part of the English canon.