kimio

i haven't blogged recently.

i had a friend pass away a week ago today. he died suddenly of a heart attack. he was a very sweet guy. i used to work with him. not being very old or sickly, it is very much a shock to everyone that he is gone.

kimio was a badass cook. he made me bitchin' cheese fondue for my birthday. everybody at the company we worked for gets to choose something for their birthday. most people choose cake, or wine and cheese. i felt like being a prima donna pain in the ass and asked for fondue. kimio came through and did an excellent job.

he used to make an incredible sculpture out of a pineapple. apparently his was a unique technique because i can't find an image of it anywhere on the web. picture a pineapple on its side like a boat with little oars made of the fruit.

i'm thinking of making a hawaiian feast on saturday, with an extra place set at the table, followed by a fire and a prayer to Kanaloa. maybe i'll see if there's some of kimio's favorite greenery around i can burn as an offering....

Sleepyime is almost here

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum is next Wednesday at the Middle East in Cambridge, MA.  I am going.  If you can spare the time and the 12 dollars, I suggest you go too.  They are a weird, uncategorizable group of artists that defy labels.  They are difficult to get into just by listening to a CD.  However, through their live performances they have gained many fans, including me.

I truly believe Sleepytime Gorilla Museum are one of the greatest bands in the world working today.  They are my favorite thing about Oakland, California.  And they play home-made instruments!

The first time I saw them live in San Francisco their performance was even more theatrical than it usually is.  I felt briefly like I was back at Mass Art watching a multimedia performance.  It involved a candlelit procession to the stage, some audience participation via handed out pamphlets, and perhaps the best of all, traditional Japanese Butoh dancers.  Butoh is a style of dance that evolved in post-Hiroshima Japan. 

More on Butoh here.

I'm not guaranteeing it is going to be like that.  But it will be awesome.  And how about a side-dish of some ex-Mr. Bungle Middle Eastern Psychedelic Grindcore with the Secret Cheifs 3 opening?

I, the perennial hermit, am briefly leaving my hovel in Cow Hampshire for this.  It MUST be worth it.

BBC reports WTC building collapse before it happens.

I always thoguht the BBC was good at news gathering but I did not know they were psychic. How did they know WTC building 7 collapsed at 4:57 EST when it didn't even happen until 5:20 EST?

What is even stranger, is that the reporter is telling the world that the building had collapsed when you can see it in the background over her left shoulder.

Then at 5:15pm EST, just five minutes before the building did actually collapse, her live connection from New York to London mysteriously fails.

Here is the live BBC stream from that day.

Oh Gods, the cute, it is killing me!

stolen from http://catmas.com/

CHICKENS!!!!!

i just ordered a dozen CHICKENS!!!!!!!!!! they will arrive as confused and peeping day old chicks.

i can't wait i can't wait i can't wait i can't wait i can't wait

peep peep cheep cheep peep peep cheep peep cheep cheep peep

the hatchery will be shipping them on the 21st, the spring equinox, how apropos......

i ordered black sumatras, black australorps, partridge plymouth rocks, and americaunas.

i can't wait i can't wait i can't wait i can't wait i can't wait

cat funnies

i-are-dunecat.jpg (JPEG Image, 500x500 pixels)

And so it Begins....

From www.thecompletepatient.com

NAIS Has Its First Official Resister--Michigan Responds with a Farm Quarantine and Threat of Jail

by David Gumpert, of Business Week

It's been only a few hours since the National Animal Identification System
(NAIS) made its voluntary-to-required debut in Michigan, and already a
farmer is challenging its underpinnings. The Michigan Department of
Agriculture (MDA) quickly responded by quarantining his farm.

Here is what happened: Greg Niewendorp, owner of a 160-acre farm in East
Jordan in the upper peninsula, made good on his pledge, stated in my
"Farmers Say No to Animal Tags" BusinessWeek.com article in December, to
resist all MDA orders related to NAIS. So when MDA reps came around a few
weeks back to test his 19 cows for bovine tuberculosis, he refused to allow
the testing.

Since MDA has justified its requirement that all cattle wear radio frequency
identification (RFID) tags to comply with NAIS on the basis of using the
national program to fully eradicate bovine TB, Niewendorp decided that the
time had come to make his stand. "Michigan is being used as a model to
implement NAIS," he told me.

"I have been under a whole-herd (TB) test program for six years," he said.
"This year I refused it."

Why this year? "I made a decision I was going to refuse to comply, and bring
this to a focal point and show that there are those of us who are not going
to go along with" the government's agenda. The quarantine doesn't have a
practical effect on Niewendorp's farm business, since he doesn't trade
cattle and thus doesn't have animals leaving and arriving. He breeds his own
cattle, and sells meat directly to consumers.

But the quarantine could have a huge legal impact on him, since
non-compliance with the bovine TB test can lead to a felony charge, with
conviction resulting in a jail sentence of up to five years and a fine up to
$50,000.

Niewendorp responded to the MDA's action with a five-page letter in which he
demands that the MDA provide evidence that bovine TB is contagious, and that
his particular farm is at risk.

He also warns MDA "that your department is not to enter onto my farm without
a properly executed search warrant since any entry by your department would
be to obtain criminal evidence which mandates a search warrant."

He expresses concern that his cattle could be placed at risk by the bovine
TB test for actually contracting the disease. "I require clear scientific
evidence showing that there is no risk to any of my cattle of such
experimental injections and an agreement by the state to indemnify and hold
me harmless from any unseen or unintended consequences arising from such
injection…"

Niewendorp is clearly a man of his word. One question: Will other farmers
take a similar stand?

Posted on Thursday, March 1, 2007 at 10:22PM

thoughts on food.

Amazon.com: The Untold Story of Milk: Green Pastures, Contented Cows and Raw Dairy Products: Books: Ron Schmid

that's what i've been reading lately.

"your food is your medicine, and your medicine is your food." ~hippocrates

so i am just exiting the fog induced by last weekend. what, partying, you say? nay, says i. i was holed up in a hotel for 3 days with co-workers for the annual company meeting. bored bored bored siily. it was tough being around a bunch of drinkers having only been completely sober since new year's, but not as hard as i thought it would be. i mostly wanted a glass of red wine with dinner, but was afraid that would lead to more as dinner ended and everyone moved over to the hotel bar. i had many sparkling waters and cranberry and sodas.

ah yes, dinner. the food. we grazed all weekend. it seemed they were afraid we would fall asleep if there was not caffeine and snackage a-plenty. who said snacks were the proud invention of the american? anyhoo, of course it was all conventional food, and though i made smart choices when i could (salad bar instead of sandwiches) i definitely noticed some effects on my body.

i have been striving to eat as much organic food as i can for several years now. but since january i took it even further, doing a juice fast to detoxify, and staying on a mostly raw foods diet with some meat and raw dairy added. that combined with sobriety and the yoga has made me more aware of what's going on with my vessel.

so what i noticed about myself when i returned home:

-incredibly tired all the time, could have been jetlagged a little, but this was more pronounced than after the flight to germany last summer, so i don't know....
-cranky. probably goes with being tired.
-uncomfortable gut noisiness. interpret this as you will.
-skin problems. i haven't had acne in years. all of a sudden i had zits popping out everywhere, including my shoulders and back. i did not change any cleansing regimen while out there.
-hair listlessness
-eczema
-water retention, feeling large for my body.
-crankiness.
-inability to concentrate.

i guess i felt generally toxic. i had not expected a weekend of the SAD (Standard American Diet) to make such a marked difference in my general well-being. i know most of you may refute the above with the retort that is how one feels in general after traveling, but i must say i fly great distances often and the above symptoms go beyond the usual travel blahs.

so without using health nut propaganda, and instead, personal experience, i can say for certain that organic food makes a difference.

i can only imagine the difference in cost will be made up for with less hospital bills later.

crocodile

a little death
for you little girl
and for you
you sweet sad thing
farewell to your tears
and dysfunctional ways
put down your glass of wine
and i'll kindly escort you out
you see the party has shifted
the atmosphere has morphed
and you don't quite fit in here
anymore
a little death...
there are wire hangers a-plenty
for you to wail about
somewhere else
better yet, a nap even?
shall i wrap you tidy
in a soft cloth
o little doll
and place you gently
in the bottom drawer?
your sarcophagus for now~
the others, i am sure
shall be grateful for thine company
a little death

homeland security

there must be a t-shirt of this somewhere.

i, for one, would really like one.