For newcomers, please read this post
for an explanation of Scary Movie Month, which also includes the movies
from the first three years. Those interested can find the fourth year's
post here.
I'd like to play a little Scary Movie Month catchup today, sharing the last two years of scary movies to get you revved up for this, the spooky seventh annual month of terror.
October 2011:
Godzilla
The original Godzilla turned out to be an unexpected pleasure. I'd never thought of the Godzilla franchise as anything but B movies, but it turns out that the original is as reputable of a franchise kick-off as the best of them. By modern standards it may favor story too much over terror, but it's a good story and a fascinating peek into the post-nuclear Japanese zeitgeist.
The Dead Zone
Christopher Walken stars in this psychological thriller about a school teacher with psychic powers that allow him to foresee the future of the people he touches. It's a solid movie, and the election theme that wraps it up makes it particularly seasonally-appropriate.
Creepshow
From the first few minutes it is clear that this movie is absolutely essential-- four scary Halloween stories told well. What more could you ask for? This is a perfect movie for October.
Fright Night
This is a solid 80's family horror movie. It's fun and charming and interesting. In a way, it's a send-up of classic Halloween season television programming just like Creepshow.
The Return to Oz
This is a remarkably dark Disney fable. It isn't going to give you nightmares quite the way Alice in Wonderland did, but it succeeds in feeling like the cracked, corrupted successor of The Wizard of Oz. The fact that this Dorothy is so much younger makes it more real. I found myself wondering at the fucked-up-ness of the very premise-- that a little girl keeps being transported to this alternate world to solve its problems. This doesn't strike the rich chords that the first movie did, but it's an imaginative, symbolically rich children's coming of age story that will go toe-to-toe with anything this side of Disney's golden age or Miazaki.
The Blair Witch Project
This was not an especially pleasant movie to watch, though that could be said of many excellent horror films. Unfortunately, this is also one of those movies whose influence dwarfed the movie itself. It's a good movie to be sure, but what made it revolutionary is no longer revolutionary and that takes something important away. Yet, it is a good movie and worth watching for the enormous influence it had on American film-- big and small screen both.
The Night of the Hunter
This is one of those movies that doesn't fit into any set of expectations, but which would blow any expectations I could have had. It was made in the 50's and is set during the Great Depression. The story is about a preacher who marries a woman with kids for her money, kills her and hunts the children. The themes of good and evil are black and white, but delivered with delicacy and thought.
Labyrinth
A classic coming-of-age fable, complete with puzzles, faith trials, new friends and being whisked back to real life at the end, this movie is of course enhanced by Jim Henson and David Bowie's presence. Honestly, the only thing I found genuinely exciting was all the goblins in the movie. Too few movies feature goblins.
Dracula
Like most dramatic movies of the era, the original Dracula has the feel of a play-- there is a sense of dramatic staging. The movie is excellent, and I can't find much to say about it that hasn't already been said, including that it suffers slightly when compared against the first two Frankensteins.
October 2012:
Gremlins
Gremlins is a perverse premise for a horror film perversely set amidst the backdrop of a classic down-and-out Christmas tale. They start out so cute! There's some goofy filler sequences with the gremlins trashing a bar, but this is undeniably a classic.
Army of Darkness
It may have been watching this with Sarah, who "gets" camp and B movie appeal, but this final installment was the most fun I had with the Evil Dead trilogy. Bruce Campbell is a pip as always, delivering some profoundly stupid lines with enough earnest enthusiasm to make you double take-- was that actually a cool thing to say? I think I should probably re-watch the first two of the trilogy, as I may appreciate what I didn't the first time in.
The Devil's Backbone
This Guillermo del Toro bears a strong resemblance to his Pan's Labyrinth. It's a ghost story, and an investigation of what a ghost is. Like Labyrinth, it's set during the Spanish Civil War and also strikes the theme
of an adolescent-- this time a boy-- first encountering the harsh realities of the adult
world. Unlike it, there is none of the fairy tale imagery or tones of familial love. This is a darker, more desolate movie. As with Pan's Labyrinth, it was a movie I more respected than enjoyed.
Hellboy
I chose this partly because Guillermo del Toro directed it, even though it wasn't a perfect fit for Scary Movie Month. The script was pretty terrible-- any "serious" dialogue or monologue was pure nonsense and there's no explanation why they're eventually able to kill the resurrecting hellhound. Ironically, this is the only movie that gave me a nightmare. Karl Ruprecht Kroenen was fantastically creepy in conception (a conception entirely of del Toro's by the way) and the ineffable Jeffrey Tambor's brief presence added a lot.
Something Wicked This Way Comes
This was based on a Ray Bradbury novel, and it bears certain similarities to the one Bradbury novel I've read through-- Dandelion Wine. It's a story set in a small town about strange things happening. It ends up being a reflection on life and on hope's dark side-- how it can eat people from the inside out and the only way to confront this danger is to come to terms with who we are. The movie is just as windswept and wonderful as the October imagery that pervades it.
Re-Animator
I guess I wasn't sure whether to expect more Frankenstein or Night of the Living Dead, but this movie is absolutely original. A med student has developed a "reagent" that can bring the dead back to life-- imperfectly. The only thing more disturbing than the evident agony of the newly-undead is the magnetic temptation to use the reagent. The movie is tempered by plenty of dry, pitch-perfect humor that leavens the mood but only intensifies the philosophical themes lurking beneath.
An American Werewolf in London
In a similar vein of fun, kind of bizarre 80's horror movies to Re-Animator, this one is more explicitly colorful and goofy. The black humor is great, the American-in-England angle is done tastefully and you genuinely care about the characters.
The Bird With the Crystal Plumage
This Dario Argento film is supposedly a quintessential Italian Giallo-- a mix of film noir-style detectives and stalking, bloody horror, with some European sexiness to top it off. The movie was all of those things and gorgeously, flawlessly executed.
Jaws
This classic has been in my scary movie month queue for a while now, and it more than lived up to the hype. The first half of the movie is thoughtful, subtly creative and genuinely scary. Without every coming across as "artsy" or "serious" there are reflections on responsibility, parenthood, and insider/outsider mentalities. The second half is more balls-to-the-walls terror, but the entire movie is remarkably well crafted and executed. I'm sure the shark they used looks ridiculous in person, but the movie's special effects were well-done. This is my pick of the month.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Playlists: Jack 1
Jack is a person of discerning tastes, but for reasons that he will happily explain to you, he mostly just listens to radio pop and neoclassical shred metal. For all of Jack's intimate understanding of SciFi, he has no schooling in punk. This has put me in the strange position of explaining punk to him. This series tackles punk in the very broadest sense-- one sure to ruffle the feathers of any "actual" punks out there.
The "punk vs. metal" dichotomy dates to the 80's, when the two camps were at each other's throats, no matter how similar thrash and hardcore began to sound. That false dichotomy died its final death with Pearl Jam, but I've resurrected it as a lense through which to view rock. Metal and punk represent two illustrious rock traditions-- the former grounded in virtuosity and artistic ambition and the latter grounded in anti-beauty and self-conscious simplicity. Much of the rock canon can be casually divided down these lines. For this reason I've subtitled the Jack series "Phooey on your Metal... let's listen to some Punk!"
The Jack series was composed as a single five hour ride through various manifestations of "punk" that was subsequently cut into four CD-length playlists, each with their own distinctive character. This the first of these is the most abrasive, most coherent, and the least representative. It tackles the complex between noise rock, math rock and emo that forms the core of post-hardcore (punk), with an emphasis on emo. Emo deserves a post and a playlist of its own a la my old radio show The Odyssey, but for now please rest assured that this playlist hardly constitutes what most people think of as "emo". This is a playlist of intricate, furious, guitar rock.
Playable playlist
http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Jack+Punk+1/81909679
Official tracklist
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ye5seas58jtk0on/Jack1playlist.xls
The "punk vs. metal" dichotomy dates to the 80's, when the two camps were at each other's throats, no matter how similar thrash and hardcore began to sound. That false dichotomy died its final death with Pearl Jam, but I've resurrected it as a lense through which to view rock. Metal and punk represent two illustrious rock traditions-- the former grounded in virtuosity and artistic ambition and the latter grounded in anti-beauty and self-conscious simplicity. Much of the rock canon can be casually divided down these lines. For this reason I've subtitled the Jack series "Phooey on your Metal... let's listen to some Punk!"
The Jack series was composed as a single five hour ride through various manifestations of "punk" that was subsequently cut into four CD-length playlists, each with their own distinctive character. This the first of these is the most abrasive, most coherent, and the least representative. It tackles the complex between noise rock, math rock and emo that forms the core of post-hardcore (punk), with an emphasis on emo. Emo deserves a post and a playlist of its own a la my old radio show The Odyssey, but for now please rest assured that this playlist hardly constitutes what most people think of as "emo". This is a playlist of intricate, furious, guitar rock.
Playable playlist
http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Jack+Punk+1/81909679
Official tracklist
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ye5seas58jtk0on/Jack1playlist.xls
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Playlists: Sarah 2
In the intervening couple of months between when I gave her the first playlist and when, with her encouragement, I presented her with the second, Sarah had listened to the first playlist all of once-- and even that time only incompletely. She said the feelings were too strong and when she got to the "sad song" (Sweet Avenue) she had to stop listening to keep from being overcome.
This second playlist is more relaxed than the first, as heralded by the opening salvo, "Congratulations". Gone is the anguish of Jill's presence in the tracklisting and the wistfulness of the previous has solidified into a sort of hypnotic romanticism, perhaps best embodied by "Back To Your Heart". Sure, there is a consciousness of vulnerability, as with "When the Levee Breaks", and there is the poignancy of "Across the Sea", but at its core this playlist is about reveling in that surreal moment of love, without expectation or fear.
Playable playlist
http://grooveshark.com/playlist/For+Sarah+2/81911055
I'd like to note that the Grooveshark playlists have some minor differences with the original, because not quite every song is available on Grooveshark. You can find the official tracklist here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yhdqadjt4bag6ht/Sarah2playlist.xls
This second playlist is more relaxed than the first, as heralded by the opening salvo, "Congratulations". Gone is the anguish of Jill's presence in the tracklisting and the wistfulness of the previous has solidified into a sort of hypnotic romanticism, perhaps best embodied by "Back To Your Heart". Sure, there is a consciousness of vulnerability, as with "When the Levee Breaks", and there is the poignancy of "Across the Sea", but at its core this playlist is about reveling in that surreal moment of love, without expectation or fear.
Playable playlist
http://grooveshark.com/playlist/For+Sarah+2/81911055
I'd like to note that the Grooveshark playlists have some minor differences with the original, because not quite every song is available on Grooveshark. You can find the official tracklist here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yhdqadjt4bag6ht/Sarah2playlist.xls
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Playlists: Sarah 1
It wasn't until the beginning of this year that I learned that you could
make publicly sharable playlists on Grooveshark. Once that had happened,
it was just a matter of time before I began to post playlists here. I
intend to make a series of posts with my old archived playlists, with a
brief depiction of the rationale that went into making each, and this
will be the first.
I've decided to start this series with the first mix-cd playlist I made for Sarah, back on Valentine's day 2011, aka "Sarah 1". The making of this happened to coincide with when I got my first mp3 player, which meant a minor explosion of musical exploration for me at the time. This mix makes a pretty good spread of my musical tastes, with the exception of my most abrasive ones. As such, I feel it is a nice starting point for the series.
The mix is wistful throughout. Sarah's taste in older music helped inform the two most retro songs in the mix ("32 20" and "Our Car Club"), but the songs certainly also convey an ebullience of complex feelings that continues through the mix. A number of the songs were actually chosen with Jill in mind and are either serious love songs our outright breakup songs. "Sick of Goodbyes", "Outtasite" and especially "Weird Fishes" best represent this strain. Sarah knows this, which is why I am comfortable saying it here. Of course, the greater share of songs, when they are wistful, are utterly swept up in the moment, like "Ocean", "Sweet Avenue", "Strange Ones" and, of course, "Just Like Heaven". I spent many a wee hour of the morning walking home from Sarah's house, mp3 player plugged in, savoring happy thoughts. Frankly, this mix cd was composed in a state of new love's swirling bliss, and I think it shows. The rhythms are irrepressibly upbeat, and the singing is fervent. Even a seeming breakup song like "Fire for Awhile" practically drips with the seductive tender haze of new love.
Playable playlist
http://grooveshark.com/playlist/For+Sarah+1/81910856
Official tracklist
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r0u7rvh5l1qt2vt/Sarah1playlist.xls
If this all sounds pretty personal, that's because it is. Please enjoy this little piece of my life.
I've decided to start this series with the first mix-cd playlist I made for Sarah, back on Valentine's day 2011, aka "Sarah 1". The making of this happened to coincide with when I got my first mp3 player, which meant a minor explosion of musical exploration for me at the time. This mix makes a pretty good spread of my musical tastes, with the exception of my most abrasive ones. As such, I feel it is a nice starting point for the series.
The mix is wistful throughout. Sarah's taste in older music helped inform the two most retro songs in the mix ("32 20" and "Our Car Club"), but the songs certainly also convey an ebullience of complex feelings that continues through the mix. A number of the songs were actually chosen with Jill in mind and are either serious love songs our outright breakup songs. "Sick of Goodbyes", "Outtasite" and especially "Weird Fishes" best represent this strain. Sarah knows this, which is why I am comfortable saying it here. Of course, the greater share of songs, when they are wistful, are utterly swept up in the moment, like "Ocean", "Sweet Avenue", "Strange Ones" and, of course, "Just Like Heaven". I spent many a wee hour of the morning walking home from Sarah's house, mp3 player plugged in, savoring happy thoughts. Frankly, this mix cd was composed in a state of new love's swirling bliss, and I think it shows. The rhythms are irrepressibly upbeat, and the singing is fervent. Even a seeming breakup song like "Fire for Awhile" practically drips with the seductive tender haze of new love.
Playable playlist
http://grooveshark.com/playlist/For+Sarah+1/81910856
Official tracklist
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r0u7rvh5l1qt2vt/Sarah1playlist.xls
If this all sounds pretty personal, that's because it is. Please enjoy this little piece of my life.
Monday, May 27, 2013
The Ramen Project
On my first trip to the Manila Oriental Market in Excelsior last year, I discovered something wonderful-- an entire store aisle devoted to instant noodles. The store offered an impenetrably diverse array of ramens, with flavors I'd never run across, like "cuttlefish" and "pickled cabbage fish". Sarah and I first just tried the ones that sounded best to us and tried to keep mental track of our favorites. It wasn't until I was on my own that I decided to take a more systematic approach to dealing with the intimidating breadth of options. By then it had become apparent that memory alone would not be sufficient to map out the best and worst of instant noodles. At the suggestion of a coworker (Laura Ray), The Ramen Project was born. This post is its ultimate fruit. I bought one of each of about two-thirds of the aisle's offered instant noodle varieties (the poor girl at the checkout looked ready to kill me) and began to work my way through the pile one lunch at a time at work, saving the packaging with brief post-it reviews affixed. After months of careful study, the results are in.
The survey covers 39 flavors of instant noodles, all single-serving with one exception. Prices mostly ranged from 39 cents to 79 cents, with a couple of standouts costing over a dollar. Ramen noodles are generally fried in saturated vegetable fat like palm oil and the broth typically includes flavor-enhancers MSG, Disodium 5'-Inosylate, and Disodium 5'-Guanylate (which is actually a component of DNA/RNA, interestingly). The artificial meat flavor is non-vegetarian, which means it includes animal products and isn't fully "artificial" in the classic sense, but only a couple of brands included such luxuries as straight-up crab meat or beef extract and forwent synthetic flavor enhancers. There's nothing really dangerous or unhealthy about synthetic flavor enhancers, but as a rule I tried not to consume ramen more than once per 48-hour period, as the calories are pretty genuinely empty and it would have made me feel "off". Noodle packages typically included 2-3 packets inside them in addition to the bare noodles, usually powdered broth, garlic or soy-infused palm oil, and freeze dried garnish. The survey includes "glass" noodles, rice noodles and noodles intended to be served without broth, in addition to the more classic ramen noodles.
I've condensed this to the "discoveries" or "best-of", but you can find the complete unedited reviews here. Below are the highlights:
Both Thai brands (ZoZo/Wai Wai and MAMA) were consistently excellent, and the general sour/tom yum genre is pretty solid.
-ZoZo/Wai Wai Sour Soup Flavour Instant Noodles- Good. Spicy, delicious and simple.
-MAMA Shrimp Creamy Tom Yum Flavour- Creamy, delicious, appropriately spicy, and with good texture. This is probably my favorite Tom Yum of the lot. Note that my coworker Jeri's favorite ramen is the non-creamy variant, but I prefered this by a slight margin.
Vietnamese company Vina Acecook has a few brand name titles, including Hao Hao, which was uniformly mediocre, and Daily, which had its moments (see below). Vietnamese brand Vifon was ok, but I wasn't especially fond of the mealy texture of their rice noodles and they didn't quite rise above "good" anyways.
-Daily Beef Ball Flavour- Surprisingly delicious, with complex spicy herbal seasoning.
Both soup type ramens from Filipino brand Lucky Me! were excellent, but the chow meins (served without broth) tended to be rancid for whatever reason. It wasn't the only brand for which I ran across a rancid one, but these were pretty consistently rancid. Otherwise the chow meins were quite good, but I'm only featuring the soups.
-Lucky Me! La Paz Batchoy (La Paz Style)- Fancy! Four packets, including one with little balls of textured soy protein. Rich and garlicky broth.
-Lucky Me! Bulalo (Bone Marrow Soup)- Smells fantastically savory. Great flavor, salty.
Indonesian brand IndoMie's chow meins were excellent and it is the brand I'd recommend for the chow mein style. The process of straining the water from them was a bit tricky to do at work with nothing but a microwave, a fork, and long sweater sleeves to insulate my hands, but the results were great. Note that these and the Lucky Me! chow meins are Sarah's favorite instant noodles.
-Mi Goreng BBQ Chicken- Absolutely delicious.
-Mi Goreng- Excellent, sweet and peppery.
-Soto Mie Flavour- Sesame and chili flavor. Delicious as always.
Unif is a pretty gigantic brand out of Taiwan, with a lot of different packaging configurations. It's offerings range from outright "meh" to quite good.
-Unif Tung-I Chah Chiang Flavor- I believe this is seaweed flavor. Dark, savory and surprisingly unsalty (relatively speaking) soy sauce-derived broth. Would pair well with Californian hops, esp Simcoe or Citra.
-Unif Tung-I Instant Bean Vermicelli Mushroom Flavor (Bean Thread)- Good, interesting nutty mushroom flavor.
As I am sure will surprise no one, the Japanese brands were the most expensive, nutritionally substantial and reliably delicious. I decided that udon took a bit too long to cook to be practical for work.
-Tonkotsu Artificial Pork Flavor- The "nondaily creamer" milk solids make it pretty chill. Nice and garlicky and sesame-y.
-Shin Ramyun Noodle Soup "Gourmet Spicy"- Totally excellent in flavor and texture. Pleasantly spicy, but otherwise fairly normal.
Honestly, the most promising (and as-yet unexplored) frontier in ramen at this point for me is the multi-serving packages. These tend be on the higher end of the price range per serving, include some of the most unusual flavors and the quality has so far been remarkable. Only one multi-serving noodle was included in this survey, and it certainly makes the list. The brand is unclear but it was manufactured by Sichuan Baijia Food Co., Ltd.
-Artificial Pickled Cabbage Fish Flavor Instant Sweet Potato Thread- Unique and utterly delicious. Cabbage and beans and sour and spicy oh my! Note this is vegan and rather oily, with chewy clear noodles
Below is the full array of recommended noodles. Hopefully this will prove useful to everyone who has access to an asian grocery store. It's a great way to keep your lunches at work cheap and interesting.
The survey covers 39 flavors of instant noodles, all single-serving with one exception. Prices mostly ranged from 39 cents to 79 cents, with a couple of standouts costing over a dollar. Ramen noodles are generally fried in saturated vegetable fat like palm oil and the broth typically includes flavor-enhancers MSG, Disodium 5'-Inosylate, and Disodium 5'-Guanylate (which is actually a component of DNA/RNA, interestingly). The artificial meat flavor is non-vegetarian, which means it includes animal products and isn't fully "artificial" in the classic sense, but only a couple of brands included such luxuries as straight-up crab meat or beef extract and forwent synthetic flavor enhancers. There's nothing really dangerous or unhealthy about synthetic flavor enhancers, but as a rule I tried not to consume ramen more than once per 48-hour period, as the calories are pretty genuinely empty and it would have made me feel "off". Noodle packages typically included 2-3 packets inside them in addition to the bare noodles, usually powdered broth, garlic or soy-infused palm oil, and freeze dried garnish. The survey includes "glass" noodles, rice noodles and noodles intended to be served without broth, in addition to the more classic ramen noodles.
I've condensed this to the "discoveries" or "best-of", but you can find the complete unedited reviews here. Below are the highlights:
Both Thai brands (ZoZo/Wai Wai and MAMA) were consistently excellent, and the general sour/tom yum genre is pretty solid.
-ZoZo/Wai Wai Sour Soup Flavour Instant Noodles- Good. Spicy, delicious and simple.
-MAMA Shrimp Creamy Tom Yum Flavour- Creamy, delicious, appropriately spicy, and with good texture. This is probably my favorite Tom Yum of the lot. Note that my coworker Jeri's favorite ramen is the non-creamy variant, but I prefered this by a slight margin.
Vietnamese company Vina Acecook has a few brand name titles, including Hao Hao, which was uniformly mediocre, and Daily, which had its moments (see below). Vietnamese brand Vifon was ok, but I wasn't especially fond of the mealy texture of their rice noodles and they didn't quite rise above "good" anyways.
-Daily Beef Ball Flavour- Surprisingly delicious, with complex spicy herbal seasoning.
Both soup type ramens from Filipino brand Lucky Me! were excellent, but the chow meins (served without broth) tended to be rancid for whatever reason. It wasn't the only brand for which I ran across a rancid one, but these were pretty consistently rancid. Otherwise the chow meins were quite good, but I'm only featuring the soups.
-Lucky Me! La Paz Batchoy (La Paz Style)- Fancy! Four packets, including one with little balls of textured soy protein. Rich and garlicky broth.
-Lucky Me! Bulalo (Bone Marrow Soup)- Smells fantastically savory. Great flavor, salty.
Indonesian brand IndoMie's chow meins were excellent and it is the brand I'd recommend for the chow mein style. The process of straining the water from them was a bit tricky to do at work with nothing but a microwave, a fork, and long sweater sleeves to insulate my hands, but the results were great. Note that these and the Lucky Me! chow meins are Sarah's favorite instant noodles.
-Mi Goreng BBQ Chicken- Absolutely delicious.
-Mi Goreng- Excellent, sweet and peppery.
-Soto Mie Flavour- Sesame and chili flavor. Delicious as always.
Unif is a pretty gigantic brand out of Taiwan, with a lot of different packaging configurations. It's offerings range from outright "meh" to quite good.
-Unif Tung-I Chah Chiang Flavor- I believe this is seaweed flavor. Dark, savory and surprisingly unsalty (relatively speaking) soy sauce-derived broth. Would pair well with Californian hops, esp Simcoe or Citra.
-Unif Tung-I Instant Bean Vermicelli Mushroom Flavor (Bean Thread)- Good, interesting nutty mushroom flavor.
As I am sure will surprise no one, the Japanese brands were the most expensive, nutritionally substantial and reliably delicious. I decided that udon took a bit too long to cook to be practical for work.
-Tonkotsu Artificial Pork Flavor- The "nondaily creamer" milk solids make it pretty chill. Nice and garlicky and sesame-y.
-Shin Ramyun Noodle Soup "Gourmet Spicy"- Totally excellent in flavor and texture. Pleasantly spicy, but otherwise fairly normal.
Honestly, the most promising (and as-yet unexplored) frontier in ramen at this point for me is the multi-serving packages. These tend be on the higher end of the price range per serving, include some of the most unusual flavors and the quality has so far been remarkable. Only one multi-serving noodle was included in this survey, and it certainly makes the list. The brand is unclear but it was manufactured by Sichuan Baijia Food Co., Ltd.
-Artificial Pickled Cabbage Fish Flavor Instant Sweet Potato Thread- Unique and utterly delicious. Cabbage and beans and sour and spicy oh my! Note this is vegan and rather oily, with chewy clear noodles
Below is the full array of recommended noodles. Hopefully this will prove useful to everyone who has access to an asian grocery store. It's a great way to keep your lunches at work cheap and interesting.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Advertisements and Feminism
This post is a response to the below video, promoted by Upworthy here. While Upworthy's take on it was pretty obnoxious, the video itself is charming:
Ketchup Bottle Ad
This ad is actually still funny-- though it was probably a lot more true at the time than it is now since opening ketchup bottles has as much to do with force of will as it does with physical strength. The ad would also never appear in modern advertisement, and this is a testament to the cultural changes wrought by second wave feminism. A modern counterpart to the ad might be the "strong enough for a man, but made for a woman" deodorant campaign-- once again they are playing off the fact that men are generally stronger and bigger (and consequently stinkier) than women. Of course, the fun part is that the deodorant campaign's trick plays into the "ra ra" of feminism. Appeals to feminism are not at all uncommon in modern advertising. I'm sure plenty will gripe that it's a cartoonish kind of feminism, to which I say if you're going to complain that media is obnoxiously cartoonish, then you're consuming the wrong media. Vote with your feet.
Sexualization and Objectification
Regarding the sexualization and objectification of women-- this is true and this is long-standing and this is near and dear to advertising, which seeks to seduce. As women make an increasingly significant proportion of the national income (projected to make more than men for my generation), you can also witness the increasing objectification and sexualization of men in the exact same mediums. That trend will undoubtedly continue.
There is a lot of hand-wringing about this trend, seeing it as "making men more effeminate". I think calling it that is missing a lot. This issue touches on a question at the heart of a lot of feminist debate-- how much should equality involve women becoming more like men or men becoming more like women? The other big question of course being "How far is far enough?" I think the end result of feminism will be terribly nuanced, and that in some ways men and women cannot but help to retain distinct identities, and that there's nothing intrinsically wrong with people associating one gender more with some things than others.
To those who feel that objectification itself is inherently masculine, I say that while this is an essentially sexist sentiment, it probably has some merit. You'll note the brief portion where the video discussed the presentation of men as strong, dominant and aggressive-- this is an objectification of character, which may perhaps be an oxymoron, but as the video points out it is certainly an idealization that impacts men's aspirations and expectations, and not necessarily positively.
Mock Rape and Debasement in Fashion Magazines
First of all, its worth noting these are advertisements that are meant to appeal to women. Now you can't take that at face value because they are also self-consciously high art, and the intention is to provoke/confront rather than to please the audience persay. These ads are are playing off feminist ideals. They aren't going up against them as much as they are forcing the audience to think about sexuality and submission/dominance. To treat these ads as merely anti-feminist propaganda is to give the ads' makers and their audience too little credit-- this is part of the modern conversation about sex relations, and it is excruciatingly self-aware.
Role Reversal
The role-reversal is hilarious and perhaps the most educational part of the video, because it inspires reflection on a couple of interesting points.
First, the pictures (for sake of humor, I'm sure) mostly illustrate fat not-especially-attractive men, which is demeaning in its own right and obviously inverts more than just the subject of objectification's gender. It's an unwitting commentary on the too-close relationship between feminism and what I'll call male slobbism (it could less charitably be described as female chauvinism, though it is by no means specific to women).
Second, with the more attractive men playing the role of women, I was struck by how closely they mirrored many fashion ads for men's clothing and accessories (Ambercrombie comes to mind). This comes back to the point that equality in advertising seems to be following right along with growing equality in broader culture, driven of course by the desire to sell things. Advertisements must work within the cultural norms of the time and often, if it is to catch the audience's attention, play off of them. In my humble opinion, the influence of culture on ads and ads on culture constitutes a feedback loop, but a fairly benign one in which the former influence acts as primary driver.
Ketchup Bottle Ad
This ad is actually still funny-- though it was probably a lot more true at the time than it is now since opening ketchup bottles has as much to do with force of will as it does with physical strength. The ad would also never appear in modern advertisement, and this is a testament to the cultural changes wrought by second wave feminism. A modern counterpart to the ad might be the "strong enough for a man, but made for a woman" deodorant campaign-- once again they are playing off the fact that men are generally stronger and bigger (and consequently stinkier) than women. Of course, the fun part is that the deodorant campaign's trick plays into the "ra ra" of feminism. Appeals to feminism are not at all uncommon in modern advertising. I'm sure plenty will gripe that it's a cartoonish kind of feminism, to which I say if you're going to complain that media is obnoxiously cartoonish, then you're consuming the wrong media. Vote with your feet.
Sexualization and Objectification
Regarding the sexualization and objectification of women-- this is true and this is long-standing and this is near and dear to advertising, which seeks to seduce. As women make an increasingly significant proportion of the national income (projected to make more than men for my generation), you can also witness the increasing objectification and sexualization of men in the exact same mediums. That trend will undoubtedly continue.
There is a lot of hand-wringing about this trend, seeing it as "making men more effeminate". I think calling it that is missing a lot. This issue touches on a question at the heart of a lot of feminist debate-- how much should equality involve women becoming more like men or men becoming more like women? The other big question of course being "How far is far enough?" I think the end result of feminism will be terribly nuanced, and that in some ways men and women cannot but help to retain distinct identities, and that there's nothing intrinsically wrong with people associating one gender more with some things than others.
To those who feel that objectification itself is inherently masculine, I say that while this is an essentially sexist sentiment, it probably has some merit. You'll note the brief portion where the video discussed the presentation of men as strong, dominant and aggressive-- this is an objectification of character, which may perhaps be an oxymoron, but as the video points out it is certainly an idealization that impacts men's aspirations and expectations, and not necessarily positively.
Mock Rape and Debasement in Fashion Magazines
First of all, its worth noting these are advertisements that are meant to appeal to women. Now you can't take that at face value because they are also self-consciously high art, and the intention is to provoke/confront rather than to please the audience persay. These ads are are playing off feminist ideals. They aren't going up against them as much as they are forcing the audience to think about sexuality and submission/dominance. To treat these ads as merely anti-feminist propaganda is to give the ads' makers and their audience too little credit-- this is part of the modern conversation about sex relations, and it is excruciatingly self-aware.
Role Reversal
The role-reversal is hilarious and perhaps the most educational part of the video, because it inspires reflection on a couple of interesting points.
First, the pictures (for sake of humor, I'm sure) mostly illustrate fat not-especially-attractive men, which is demeaning in its own right and obviously inverts more than just the subject of objectification's gender. It's an unwitting commentary on the too-close relationship between feminism and what I'll call male slobbism (it could less charitably be described as female chauvinism, though it is by no means specific to women).
Second, with the more attractive men playing the role of women, I was struck by how closely they mirrored many fashion ads for men's clothing and accessories (Ambercrombie comes to mind). This comes back to the point that equality in advertising seems to be following right along with growing equality in broader culture, driven of course by the desire to sell things. Advertisements must work within the cultural norms of the time and often, if it is to catch the audience's attention, play off of them. In my humble opinion, the influence of culture on ads and ads on culture constitutes a feedback loop, but a fairly benign one in which the former influence acts as primary driver.
Friday, April 19, 2013
The Mr. Toad
My roommate's wonderful girlfriend gave me a bottle of Fernet Branca, because she realized she couldn't stand it. I set about to find a use for it other than the classic Fernet and Coke (which, incidentally, is huge in Argentina).
1/8th shot Fernet Branca (or thereabouts)
1 shot rye whiskey
shaken with ice
garnish with a twist of lime peel
1/8th shot Fernet Branca (or thereabouts)
1 shot rye whiskey
shaken with ice
garnish with a twist of lime peel
It smells like a musky man's man just brushed his teeth and put on deodorant. The whiskey fills out the flavor, softening it with oak and warm grain flavors while the sharp, complex, herbal Fernet plays off of the spicy rye notes and, importantly, off the aroma of the lime peel. The woody incense qualities in Fernet's taste play nicely with the oak. This drink is not for the faint of heart, as Fernet is pretty intense and there's no real sweetness in there and peppery rye is a heck of a grounding ingredient, but I frankly think it's the best Fernet drink I've ever had, and Fernet is pretty fascinating.
Sarah suggested the name, as a shortening of the Disneyland feature "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride", because *faces camera with a plastic grin* "It's a wild ride!" So, oddly enough, credits go to the Excelsior House Tasting Team, even if I left Excelsior a year ago. I dedicate this drink to Aileen and her hatred of Fernet.
Sarah suggested the name, as a shortening of the Disneyland feature "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride", because *faces camera with a plastic grin* "It's a wild ride!" So, oddly enough, credits go to the Excelsior House Tasting Team, even if I left Excelsior a year ago. I dedicate this drink to Aileen and her hatred of Fernet.
Friday, April 5, 2013
San Franciscan Morality
Since before the 1906 earthquake, San Francisco has been reviled by conservative Christians as a place of hedonism. Back then it was nicknamed Frisky City, and not a few religious figures of the time interpreted the great fires that burned the city to the ground as God's retribution against the city's sinfulness, likening it to Sodom and Gomorrah.
Not a whole lot has changed. There continues to be some truth to the characterization of San Franciscans as hedonistic-- we believe in enjoying ourselves and we do. The best word I've found to describe San Franciscans is gay-- in the classic sense (in addition, of course, to the newer sense). On sunny weekend days, San Franciscans dress lightly, fashionably, and in bright colors. They eat brunch with mimosas or seek out the best bakery in town for pastries. They bring their dogs to the park or picnic with friends. San Francisco is truly a gay, happy city. It's also, truly, the most moral city I've ever called home.
San Francisco is a bastion of "radical humanism", as my friend so aptly put it. That lends itself to investing in social programs, ethically produced food and bike lanes. More personally, San Franciscans believe in doing what they enjoy and encouraging others to do the same, whether that be drinking blow-your-mind-good coffee or wearing red pants and a brilliant paisley scarf or having gay sex or smoking weed in the park or getting a sex change or... I think you get the idea.
That may sound dangerously unbounded to people from more religious parts of the country, but it is actually very simply and rigidly bounded by a second principle: not infringing on or diminishing others' happiness. The minute the crazy homeless guy shoves someone is the moment when tolerance turns to intolerance. The minute a public discussion invokes racial epithets is when the eyes of every bystander's eyes darken.
As extensive as San Franciscan acceptance is, the rules of humanism follow right along. Humanism is, after all, a moral tradition at least as venerable as Christianity, predating it by a fair margin. There is no slippery slope here. For example, orgies do happen in San Francisco. They're not commonplace but everyone knows someone who's been to an orgy. However, there is none of the Bacchanalian destructive abandon associated with Roman orgies. Real San Franciscan orgies, by every account I have heard so far, are extremely structured environments. That everyone be safe and comfortable is of primary importance. The implicit assumption is that such a thing is not worth doing if it causes harm. San Franciscan morality is outlined in black and white, just along different lines than conservative Christian morality.
San Francisco's combination of hedonism and moralism is also embodied by the kink community. The Society of Janus describes itself on its website thusly: "SOJ is a not-for-profit, all volunteer, San Francisco-based education and support organization devoted to the art of safe, consensual and non-exploitative BDSM." The society's mission is to teach people about BDSM, to share what they enjoy and likely have enjoyed for a long time. My experience reading dating profiles of people so inclined reinforces the impression that people in the kink community treat BDSM with strict sobriety and a careful eye for ethical pitfalls. Bestiality (which conservatives are so fond of mentioning in the same breath as homosexuality) is not remotely ethical, because an animal cannot give consent.
The BDSM community is only a small part of the city, but that emphasis on ethical behavior characterizes San Franciscans more broadly. Since I have moved here, many things that I have done thoughtlessly have been questioned by people around me, and discussed reasonably. The extreme moral conscientiousness of this city is remarkable, and the only people I've met of comparable moral conscientiousness are truly devout Christians. The difference is that instead of citing verses to explain why doing a given thing is wrong, San Franciscans will tell you exactly how it hurts people (or animals). Frankly, I find the moral intensity of both church groups and San Franciscans to sometimes be oppressive, but I appreciate the commitment.
San Franciscans are very familiar with how difficult it is to come out of the closet as gay. Every gay person has to deal with a feeling of non-acceptance from society at large, even those who were born and raised by accepting parents in the city itself. Being gay is far more difficult and alienating if someone comes from a conservative Christian family. Gay sons or daughters coming out of the closet to a conservative family risk disownment, but the reality for most gays is more subtle. There will be a certain distance created by the revelation and a certain sustained discomfort for both parties, because neither side can truly accept the other's viewpoint without giving up their own. Religious families are inclined to attempt to persuade their wayward sheep away from "the gay lifestyle". Even if a family resists this impulse, a certain level of frustration is an inevitable product of the rub between religious convictions and gay realities. It is a softer estrangement, but it still leaves lingering damage, damage that any gay person can tell you about (if they're comfortable doing so). Gays who grew up with strong religious convictions are forced into a crisis of faith, as they try to reconcile the teachings etched into them with their own nature, and must grapple with religiously-derived guilt. Gays, and San Franciscans more broadly, see firsthand the damage that religion can and does cause. This damage piques our San Franciscan sense of morality. When it comes to gays versus conservative Christianity, there is no question with which side this morality sides.
I think there's an unvoiced sentiment among conservative Christians that true love can only exist in a heterosexual relationship, or that romantic love in a heterosexual relationship is somehow different from romantic love in a gay relationship. We here in Frisky City know differently from experience. Of course, it's not rocket science. For every vocally happy recovering gay who has returned to the fold, there are a million vocally happy practicing gays. San Franciscans know that decisions have consequences, and further they know what decisions have what consequences, because they've tried out the options in true rational humanist fashion. We know that the only way for a gay person to find true romantic love is in a gay relationship, and that finding such love is among the most gratifying and fulfilling things in life. From the perspective of humanism, the truly immoral thing is trying to dissuade people from finding that love.
San Franciscans also know quite well what innocent fun is. This brings me, finally, to Hunky Jesus. The Hunky Jesus Competition, put on by the in-drag charity organization Nuns of Perpetual Indulgence, is innocent fun. The competition may be irreverent, but in San Francisco this is an integral part of its moral appeal. There is a need, particularly in gay San Francisco, to dance on Jesus' grave a little bit, to poke fun, to make light of the force of conservative Christianity, clearly discernible despite the distance (media carries it to us), that presses in on our little bastion of humanism with at best disapproval and at worst unabashed hostility.
That irreverence is entirely harmless unless, say, some idiot would deliberately troll and upset his conservative Catholic uncle by sending him an article about the event. Like I said, I'm not entirely in agreement with San Francisco's intense moralism, but I think I at least understand it. I hope you understand it better now too. San Francisco is a very different world from middle America, but despite both regions' best intentions, they are still one America.
If you visit me on a sunny weekend, I will suggest we get brunch in the Castro and order mimosas and eggs benedict. We can watch people go by, living their lives gaily. I promise you will enjoy it.
Not a whole lot has changed. There continues to be some truth to the characterization of San Franciscans as hedonistic-- we believe in enjoying ourselves and we do. The best word I've found to describe San Franciscans is gay-- in the classic sense (in addition, of course, to the newer sense). On sunny weekend days, San Franciscans dress lightly, fashionably, and in bright colors. They eat brunch with mimosas or seek out the best bakery in town for pastries. They bring their dogs to the park or picnic with friends. San Francisco is truly a gay, happy city. It's also, truly, the most moral city I've ever called home.
San Francisco is a bastion of "radical humanism", as my friend so aptly put it. That lends itself to investing in social programs, ethically produced food and bike lanes. More personally, San Franciscans believe in doing what they enjoy and encouraging others to do the same, whether that be drinking blow-your-mind-good coffee or wearing red pants and a brilliant paisley scarf or having gay sex or smoking weed in the park or getting a sex change or... I think you get the idea.
That may sound dangerously unbounded to people from more religious parts of the country, but it is actually very simply and rigidly bounded by a second principle: not infringing on or diminishing others' happiness. The minute the crazy homeless guy shoves someone is the moment when tolerance turns to intolerance. The minute a public discussion invokes racial epithets is when the eyes of every bystander's eyes darken.
As extensive as San Franciscan acceptance is, the rules of humanism follow right along. Humanism is, after all, a moral tradition at least as venerable as Christianity, predating it by a fair margin. There is no slippery slope here. For example, orgies do happen in San Francisco. They're not commonplace but everyone knows someone who's been to an orgy. However, there is none of the Bacchanalian destructive abandon associated with Roman orgies. Real San Franciscan orgies, by every account I have heard so far, are extremely structured environments. That everyone be safe and comfortable is of primary importance. The implicit assumption is that such a thing is not worth doing if it causes harm. San Franciscan morality is outlined in black and white, just along different lines than conservative Christian morality.
San Francisco's combination of hedonism and moralism is also embodied by the kink community. The Society of Janus describes itself on its website thusly: "SOJ is a not-for-profit, all volunteer, San Francisco-based education and support organization devoted to the art of safe, consensual and non-exploitative BDSM." The society's mission is to teach people about BDSM, to share what they enjoy and likely have enjoyed for a long time. My experience reading dating profiles of people so inclined reinforces the impression that people in the kink community treat BDSM with strict sobriety and a careful eye for ethical pitfalls. Bestiality (which conservatives are so fond of mentioning in the same breath as homosexuality) is not remotely ethical, because an animal cannot give consent.
The BDSM community is only a small part of the city, but that emphasis on ethical behavior characterizes San Franciscans more broadly. Since I have moved here, many things that I have done thoughtlessly have been questioned by people around me, and discussed reasonably. The extreme moral conscientiousness of this city is remarkable, and the only people I've met of comparable moral conscientiousness are truly devout Christians. The difference is that instead of citing verses to explain why doing a given thing is wrong, San Franciscans will tell you exactly how it hurts people (or animals). Frankly, I find the moral intensity of both church groups and San Franciscans to sometimes be oppressive, but I appreciate the commitment.
San Franciscans are very familiar with how difficult it is to come out of the closet as gay. Every gay person has to deal with a feeling of non-acceptance from society at large, even those who were born and raised by accepting parents in the city itself. Being gay is far more difficult and alienating if someone comes from a conservative Christian family. Gay sons or daughters coming out of the closet to a conservative family risk disownment, but the reality for most gays is more subtle. There will be a certain distance created by the revelation and a certain sustained discomfort for both parties, because neither side can truly accept the other's viewpoint without giving up their own. Religious families are inclined to attempt to persuade their wayward sheep away from "the gay lifestyle". Even if a family resists this impulse, a certain level of frustration is an inevitable product of the rub between religious convictions and gay realities. It is a softer estrangement, but it still leaves lingering damage, damage that any gay person can tell you about (if they're comfortable doing so). Gays who grew up with strong religious convictions are forced into a crisis of faith, as they try to reconcile the teachings etched into them with their own nature, and must grapple with religiously-derived guilt. Gays, and San Franciscans more broadly, see firsthand the damage that religion can and does cause. This damage piques our San Franciscan sense of morality. When it comes to gays versus conservative Christianity, there is no question with which side this morality sides.
I think there's an unvoiced sentiment among conservative Christians that true love can only exist in a heterosexual relationship, or that romantic love in a heterosexual relationship is somehow different from romantic love in a gay relationship. We here in Frisky City know differently from experience. Of course, it's not rocket science. For every vocally happy recovering gay who has returned to the fold, there are a million vocally happy practicing gays. San Franciscans know that decisions have consequences, and further they know what decisions have what consequences, because they've tried out the options in true rational humanist fashion. We know that the only way for a gay person to find true romantic love is in a gay relationship, and that finding such love is among the most gratifying and fulfilling things in life. From the perspective of humanism, the truly immoral thing is trying to dissuade people from finding that love.
San Franciscans also know quite well what innocent fun is. This brings me, finally, to Hunky Jesus. The Hunky Jesus Competition, put on by the in-drag charity organization Nuns of Perpetual Indulgence, is innocent fun. The competition may be irreverent, but in San Francisco this is an integral part of its moral appeal. There is a need, particularly in gay San Francisco, to dance on Jesus' grave a little bit, to poke fun, to make light of the force of conservative Christianity, clearly discernible despite the distance (media carries it to us), that presses in on our little bastion of humanism with at best disapproval and at worst unabashed hostility.
That irreverence is entirely harmless unless, say, some idiot would deliberately troll and upset his conservative Catholic uncle by sending him an article about the event. Like I said, I'm not entirely in agreement with San Francisco's intense moralism, but I think I at least understand it. I hope you understand it better now too. San Francisco is a very different world from middle America, but despite both regions' best intentions, they are still one America.
If you visit me on a sunny weekend, I will suggest we get brunch in the Castro and order mimosas and eggs benedict. We can watch people go by, living their lives gaily. I promise you will enjoy it.
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Not Ends 2
The basic rub between relative and universal morality is that relative morality is true, but universal morality is actually useful.
San Francisco hosts a hell of a tea party.
I'm convinced that bars never make drinks with headspace not because it's a bad idea, but because they always want to illustrate how generous of pours they give. If I spill my drink (as I have done many times sober) I am going to blame the bar from now on.
People who say analyzing poetry robs it of its soul are either reading shitty poetry or are doing a shitty job of reading it.
San Francisco hosts a hell of a tea party.
I'm convinced that bars never make drinks with headspace not because it's a bad idea, but because they always want to illustrate how generous of pours they give. If I spill my drink (as I have done many times sober) I am going to blame the bar from now on.
People who say analyzing poetry robs it of its soul are either reading shitty poetry or are doing a shitty job of reading it.
If in my mental hierarchy I've demoted religion to the level of great art/literature, religion can content itself that I hold art in very high esteem.
It is one of the great tragedies and ironies of modern society that smart, educated people so often take their understanding of religion from idiots, and in so doing succumb to ignorant, destructive zealotry.
The best thing about making playlists for other people is that afterwards I get to listen to the playlist too.
The only real difference between recorded music and live music is that with live music the audience is holding onto every note like it will be lost forever.
Sexuality isn't nearly so tidy as we wish, which is why we spend so much time sweeping it under the rug.
Every person in every culture spends a lot of time sweeping-- make no mistake, it differentiates us from the dogs and truly free love is a damnable lie.
Generalization is fundamental to all thought.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
California Cajun Gumbo
My dad left Louisiana long ago, never turning back after he left for college. Except for pronouncing the word "cord" as "card" he has lost his accent, but he has carried his Cajun heritage with him in the form of his gumbo. He doesn't make it very often and, as I will explain later, his gumbo is not precisely by-the-book. Rather, it is a subtly innovative and rather excellent version of that famous, heavy, and piquant soup. When I say "California Cajun Gumbo", I mean the gumbo style that my dad, my sister and I make. My sister and I's gumbo has begun to deviate from our dad's, but it is just a lazy/embellished take on his model. More on that later. Here is how to make his gumbo:
3 large yellow onions, diced "the size of a nickel"
3 green bell peppers, diced
4 stalks of celery, diced
1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
2-3 cups (1 bunch or less) parsley, finely chopped
2/3 jar (~1 1/2 cups) Kary's dry roux
1 lb/link of double-smoked Cajun sausage, chopped (half-inch slices)
3-5 lbs chicken thighs
paprika, cayenne, black pepper, salt, flour and vegetable oil
Serve with rice
Fill a stock pot ("gumbo pot") with roughly 2 gallons of water and bring to a boil. Foist vegetable chopping on an underling. While the water is heating, pan fry the onions in a bit of oil until they are golden brown. Add them to the pot. Brown the bell peppers the same way. Once the pot is properly boiling, turn off the heat and mix in the roux. Spend 10 minutes vigorously stirring roux, smushing clumps with the spoon and scraping the bottom of the pot (ideally, using a long metal spoon with a flat tip, or "gumbo spoon"). Turn heat back on and add the peppers and celery to the pot. Boil for 40 minutes, stirring every 5-10 minutes.
While vegetables are boiling, get out the chicken. In a large bowl, pour equal parts salt, paprika (with cayenne to taste) and black pepper (roughly 2-3 Tbsps). Eyeball three parts flour and mix ingredients together. Dredge chicken thighs in this mixture and pan fry once again in oil at high temperature. Pull them out when browned on the outside, they needn't be cooked through.
Add sausages after the vegetables have boiled for 40 minutes. Boil for another 30 minutes. Add browned chicken to the pot and boil for another 30 minutes. Pull out the chicken into a large serving bowl. Skim off fat and season to taste with red pepper, black pepper and salt. Boil the pot for another few minutes and then turn off the heat, immediately stirring in the parsley and green onions at flame out.
Serve in broad bowls, putting the rice and a piece of chicken in first, then pouring the gumbo over. Add pepper vinegar (vinegar soaked in hot peppers), tobasco, and gumbo file to taste. Enjoy!
There are many types of gumbo. The "chicken and sausage gumbo" my father makes is a subtype of the broader meat-and-roux type and is perhaps the most iconic of all Cajun dishes. My dad's version deviates from the most common Louisiana version in the following ways:
-There isn't usually any browning-- none. Dad says it's done for special occasions, like a Christmas gumbo. Frankly, Uncle Pierre seemed pretty baffled by the idea of browning everything-- it's a pain in the ass. He said some Cajuns do it, but it tends to be a family taste thing, not something done on special occasions.
-Sausage is not double-smoked, but rather single-smoked (leaving it more tender and less intense).
-Gumbo is primarily a winter dish-- a hearty soup for cold weather-- so, as my grandmother pointed out, including bell peppers isn't especially authentic to gumbo of 50 years ago, when bell peppers were only available in the summer. Bell peppers are used in Louisiana gumbos sometimes and especially in summer gumbos, but they are not considered characteristic of gumbo.
-Paprika is not used, but rather a local ground red pepper blend. The term "red pepper" is used as shorthand for both sweet and cayenne pepper.
Classic Cajun meat-and-roux gumbo, as it is made in my dad's hometown, is made with: onions, celery-and/or-parsley, smoked pork of some kind (often tasso in addition to smoked sausage), meat from bird or small game (rabbit, for instance), wet or dry roux, often garlic, definitely red pepper, black pepper and salt. It's really a pretty simple, flexible dish, and without the browning step it's not too difficult to make.
Let me return to my dad's recipe-- onions, celery and green bell peppers are the holy trinity of Cajun cuisine and are fundamental to many classic Cajun dishes-- just not gumbo. Bell peppers may be "inessential", but they've always been my favorite part of dad's gumbos, and I can't imagine a Cali gumbo without fresh peppers. The browning step really is a pain in the ass. Though it contributes to a richer and more complex flavor, gumbo made without browning is still excellent. The roux likely contributes the lion's share of browned "Maillard Reaction" flavor in either case. Paprika contributes a certain characteristic bitterness that distinguishes it from Cajun red pepper, it's bitterness complementing the relatively brittle dry roux flavor. My Louisiana family thought the idea of using paprika to be quite interesting, and I think it's an improvement. Dad uses dry roux and double-smoked sausage for ease of transport back to Cali. In Louisiana, wet roux is more authentic (dry roux must be made in an oven, which Cajuns traditionally didn't have) and it is esteemed for its richer flavor, while dry roux is considered to be the "healthy option". I actually prefer dry roux's lighter and perhaps more toasted flavor. It's also easier to make. While Cajuns love tasso and often use it in gumbo, I think we Californians generally think of tasso as second fiddle to sausage and just don't make space for it in our suitcases (after all, it's called "chicken and sausage gumbo", not "chicken and tasso").
Bri and I have been tinkering with our dad's recipe. I've found that single-smoked sausage transports just fine, though I need to use more of it to achieve the same smokiness. I've mostly dispensed with browning, though I've still been browning the onions (browned onions=drool). I'll still dredge the chicken, but I'll be substituting roux for flour so that I'm not skimping on Maillard Reaction goodness (frying breaded chicken essentially makes roux of the flour in Dad's version). I've also started to think about the trinity as a plant-family thing:
Onions- allium genus (garlic, green onions, shallots, leeks, chives)
Peppers- note that even classicist gumbo has a blend of multiple dried red peppers
Celery- umbellifer family (parsley, carrots, parsnips, cilantro, dill, fennel, cumin, lovage, angelica)
Once I thought of the Cajun holy trinity as having multiple participants on each of three "teams", it presented an opportunity to play around. I've switched in poblano (my favorite) and jalapeño peppers for bell peppers in my gumbos. Poblanos have great flavor, but I'm going to add the green bells back for their texture. It also just occurred to me that gumbo would be a great outlet for that smoked paprika I never know what to do with, and for all the interesting dried peppers available in Mexican markets. I've added parsnips to mixed effect-- two large parsnips added fantastic flavor, but introduced a perhaps inappropriate starchy sweetness. I'm going to scale back to just one parsnip. I very tentatively tried adding cilantro. There's a sweet/fenugreek quality to cilantro that worked surprisingly well. It made the gumbo taste vaguely exotic, but still discernibly Cajun. If I run across some lovage or angelica I'll try them for the same reason. They would probably work even better, but are difficult to find. I'll keep my eyes peeled-- I should be able to find dried angelica root in Chinatown. Dill or coriander sound like bad ideas, but caraway or chervil might be interesting. In all, filling out the trinity with Mexican and "northerner" ingredients has been quite rewarding and I hope my Louisiana relatives have some interest in appropriating these experiments or at least find the trinity-as-teamwork paradigm illuminating.
My gumbo has become much more vegetable-forward than Louisianan gumbo (as is only appropriate in this great state). This perhaps, in a bizarre twist of fate, moving it closer towards the "meat to give it flavoring" gumbo of the first half of the 20th century, when meat was considered a luxury.
For fellow Californians looking to make some gumbo, I have some relevant information. Any smoked sausage will work (though obviously it will add its own seasoning to the flavor, so sage-y smoked Italian sausage might be a better idea than cumin-y Mexican). Smoked paprika might also decrease your reliance on foreign sausage for that smoked flavor (who knows, possibly substituting the decreased amount of pork with bacon-grease roux). Wet roux can be made at home, by just pan cooking equal parts oil and flour until milk chocolate brown, all the while stirring like crazy to prevent it from burning (even slight burnage will ruin it). Dry roux can be made in the oven.
Remember, while this may be the most iconic, it is just one of many amazing dishes in the Cajun pantheon. I encourage everyone to check out my distant cousin Paul Prudhomme's most excellent cookbooks as a jumping off point into Cajun cuisine.
3 large yellow onions, diced "the size of a nickel"
3 green bell peppers, diced
4 stalks of celery, diced
1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
2-3 cups (1 bunch or less) parsley, finely chopped
2/3 jar (~1 1/2 cups) Kary's dry roux
1 lb/link of double-smoked Cajun sausage, chopped (half-inch slices)
3-5 lbs chicken thighs
paprika, cayenne, black pepper, salt, flour and vegetable oil
Serve with rice
Fill a stock pot ("gumbo pot") with roughly 2 gallons of water and bring to a boil. Foist vegetable chopping on an underling. While the water is heating, pan fry the onions in a bit of oil until they are golden brown. Add them to the pot. Brown the bell peppers the same way. Once the pot is properly boiling, turn off the heat and mix in the roux. Spend 10 minutes vigorously stirring roux, smushing clumps with the spoon and scraping the bottom of the pot (ideally, using a long metal spoon with a flat tip, or "gumbo spoon"). Turn heat back on and add the peppers and celery to the pot. Boil for 40 minutes, stirring every 5-10 minutes.
While vegetables are boiling, get out the chicken. In a large bowl, pour equal parts salt, paprika (with cayenne to taste) and black pepper (roughly 2-3 Tbsps). Eyeball three parts flour and mix ingredients together. Dredge chicken thighs in this mixture and pan fry once again in oil at high temperature. Pull them out when browned on the outside, they needn't be cooked through.
Add sausages after the vegetables have boiled for 40 minutes. Boil for another 30 minutes. Add browned chicken to the pot and boil for another 30 minutes. Pull out the chicken into a large serving bowl. Skim off fat and season to taste with red pepper, black pepper and salt. Boil the pot for another few minutes and then turn off the heat, immediately stirring in the parsley and green onions at flame out.
Serve in broad bowls, putting the rice and a piece of chicken in first, then pouring the gumbo over. Add pepper vinegar (vinegar soaked in hot peppers), tobasco, and gumbo file to taste. Enjoy!
There are many types of gumbo. The "chicken and sausage gumbo" my father makes is a subtype of the broader meat-and-roux type and is perhaps the most iconic of all Cajun dishes. My dad's version deviates from the most common Louisiana version in the following ways:
-There isn't usually any browning-- none. Dad says it's done for special occasions, like a Christmas gumbo. Frankly, Uncle Pierre seemed pretty baffled by the idea of browning everything-- it's a pain in the ass. He said some Cajuns do it, but it tends to be a family taste thing, not something done on special occasions.
-Sausage is not double-smoked, but rather single-smoked (leaving it more tender and less intense).
-Gumbo is primarily a winter dish-- a hearty soup for cold weather-- so, as my grandmother pointed out, including bell peppers isn't especially authentic to gumbo of 50 years ago, when bell peppers were only available in the summer. Bell peppers are used in Louisiana gumbos sometimes and especially in summer gumbos, but they are not considered characteristic of gumbo.
-Paprika is not used, but rather a local ground red pepper blend. The term "red pepper" is used as shorthand for both sweet and cayenne pepper.
Classic Cajun meat-and-roux gumbo, as it is made in my dad's hometown, is made with: onions, celery-and/or-parsley, smoked pork of some kind (often tasso in addition to smoked sausage), meat from bird or small game (rabbit, for instance), wet or dry roux, often garlic, definitely red pepper, black pepper and salt. It's really a pretty simple, flexible dish, and without the browning step it's not too difficult to make.
Let me return to my dad's recipe-- onions, celery and green bell peppers are the holy trinity of Cajun cuisine and are fundamental to many classic Cajun dishes-- just not gumbo. Bell peppers may be "inessential", but they've always been my favorite part of dad's gumbos, and I can't imagine a Cali gumbo without fresh peppers. The browning step really is a pain in the ass. Though it contributes to a richer and more complex flavor, gumbo made without browning is still excellent. The roux likely contributes the lion's share of browned "Maillard Reaction" flavor in either case. Paprika contributes a certain characteristic bitterness that distinguishes it from Cajun red pepper, it's bitterness complementing the relatively brittle dry roux flavor. My Louisiana family thought the idea of using paprika to be quite interesting, and I think it's an improvement. Dad uses dry roux and double-smoked sausage for ease of transport back to Cali. In Louisiana, wet roux is more authentic (dry roux must be made in an oven, which Cajuns traditionally didn't have) and it is esteemed for its richer flavor, while dry roux is considered to be the "healthy option". I actually prefer dry roux's lighter and perhaps more toasted flavor. It's also easier to make. While Cajuns love tasso and often use it in gumbo, I think we Californians generally think of tasso as second fiddle to sausage and just don't make space for it in our suitcases (after all, it's called "chicken and sausage gumbo", not "chicken and tasso").
Bri and I have been tinkering with our dad's recipe. I've found that single-smoked sausage transports just fine, though I need to use more of it to achieve the same smokiness. I've mostly dispensed with browning, though I've still been browning the onions (browned onions=drool). I'll still dredge the chicken, but I'll be substituting roux for flour so that I'm not skimping on Maillard Reaction goodness (frying breaded chicken essentially makes roux of the flour in Dad's version). I've also started to think about the trinity as a plant-family thing:
Onions- allium genus (garlic, green onions, shallots, leeks, chives)
Peppers- note that even classicist gumbo has a blend of multiple dried red peppers
Celery- umbellifer family (parsley, carrots, parsnips, cilantro, dill, fennel, cumin, lovage, angelica)
Once I thought of the Cajun holy trinity as having multiple participants on each of three "teams", it presented an opportunity to play around. I've switched in poblano (my favorite) and jalapeño peppers for bell peppers in my gumbos. Poblanos have great flavor, but I'm going to add the green bells back for their texture. It also just occurred to me that gumbo would be a great outlet for that smoked paprika I never know what to do with, and for all the interesting dried peppers available in Mexican markets. I've added parsnips to mixed effect-- two large parsnips added fantastic flavor, but introduced a perhaps inappropriate starchy sweetness. I'm going to scale back to just one parsnip. I very tentatively tried adding cilantro. There's a sweet/fenugreek quality to cilantro that worked surprisingly well. It made the gumbo taste vaguely exotic, but still discernibly Cajun. If I run across some lovage or angelica I'll try them for the same reason. They would probably work even better, but are difficult to find. I'll keep my eyes peeled-- I should be able to find dried angelica root in Chinatown. Dill or coriander sound like bad ideas, but caraway or chervil might be interesting. In all, filling out the trinity with Mexican and "northerner" ingredients has been quite rewarding and I hope my Louisiana relatives have some interest in appropriating these experiments or at least find the trinity-as-teamwork paradigm illuminating.
My gumbo has become much more vegetable-forward than Louisianan gumbo (as is only appropriate in this great state). This perhaps, in a bizarre twist of fate, moving it closer towards the "meat to give it flavoring" gumbo of the first half of the 20th century, when meat was considered a luxury.
For fellow Californians looking to make some gumbo, I have some relevant information. Any smoked sausage will work (though obviously it will add its own seasoning to the flavor, so sage-y smoked Italian sausage might be a better idea than cumin-y Mexican). Smoked paprika might also decrease your reliance on foreign sausage for that smoked flavor (who knows, possibly substituting the decreased amount of pork with bacon-grease roux). Wet roux can be made at home, by just pan cooking equal parts oil and flour until milk chocolate brown, all the while stirring like crazy to prevent it from burning (even slight burnage will ruin it). Dry roux can be made in the oven.
Remember, while this may be the most iconic, it is just one of many amazing dishes in the Cajun pantheon. I encourage everyone to check out my distant cousin Paul Prudhomme's most excellent cookbooks as a jumping off point into Cajun cuisine.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Television in the Twenty-First Century
It didn't come out of a vacuum, of course. The nineties can boast some absolutely stellar television, especially The Simpsons and Seinfeld. However, there is no denying that American television has blossomed in the twenty-first century into true art. It's no longer just a couple of shows or just the comedies that are totally leveling any conception of what could be done on the small screen anymore. American television has gone nuclear. There are shows running right now that stand up to the best of the big screen in terms of brilliance of conception and narrative, and they aren't stopping after a 90-minute run time and they're not running out of ideas. Many of them are hard to watch, but that hasn't stopped at least the dramas from receiving great ratings. Just as with the 60's when the Beatles were able to challenge their audience and still succeed commercially, the American public is keeping right up with the increasingly challenging and complex television being put in front of them.
Before you sicken from my effusive optimism, let me put some names to faces, that I might justify my premise:
Arrested Development
It may not have the overflowing genius of The Simpsons or the gentle extremism of Seinfeld, but Arrested Development stands shoulder-to-shoulder with them on its own terms. It's among the finest dramedies ever made, and certainly the funniest, and that is saying something, because the dramedy is a beautiful invention. Unlike those other two eminent comedies, Arrested Development has a cohesion of purpose and a synergy of interlocking parts that is extremely gratifying-- jokes are carried over entire seasons without dulling or misstepping. Storylines weave in and out and always complement each other. It's also just wickedly, unrelentingly funny. Oh, and something about the image of the show-house on the desolate hillside really resonates with me.
The Wire
This show epitomizes, perhaps better than any other, the extraordinary change that has occurred in television. The show is grim, demanding, proceeds at a glacial pace without ever making an explicit point, and our nation was absolutely enthralled by it. I can't think of any show from the previous century that could compare to its intricacy, subtlety and symbolic depth. It is, quite simply, a show that redefined what was possible in the medium of television. I love how McNulty sometimes comes across as, not quite two-dimensional, but flat in a way that is somehow more genuine than if he were rounded. Real people are simple at the same time they are complex. And of course Omar rocks my socks.
Mad Men
It started with a gimmick, executed with unanticipated commitment-- setting a show in history and letting the characters act culturally backwards in ways the writers knew would bother the audience, but doing so with such a light brushstroke that it felt subversively natural. The rest of the shows I discuss did things that had never been done in television before, but I'm not sure this particular twist has precedent in any medium. Of course, the show is a heck of a lot more than a gimmick. It has this uncanny way of presenting people in single moments. Just as people make all kinds of decisions in real life, Mad Men's characters can be characterized, but not anticipated. Further, their actions don't always have consequences. There isn't really any poetic justice, which turns out to be jarring as fuck. The loose treatment of character makes it nearly impossible to make moral judgements and gives a certain starkness to characters-- when they repeat a bad decision it feels excruciating. It's an intriguing approach to narrative-- almost abdicating narrative. Of course, that is more sensation than reality, as the show is tightly controlled and threads play off one another with worthy synergy. Episodes have themes, but it feels like ambiguity could swallow up anything so simple as a theme at every turn, and there is something thrilling in that. Also Joan. Sometimes I just watch for Joan.
Breaking Bad
Moral ambiguity has been the order of the day for contemporary storytelling. We are no longer content with anti-heroes. We want to see ourselves at our worst. We want to find ourselves doing genuine, unalloyed evil. Breaking Bad takes that farther than any show by following the evolution of Walter White from sympathetic victim to villain, without ever losing the thread of his humanity. The show bears an obvious resemblance to Weeds, but like the drug it's about, it is light-years more intense and dangerous. Where Weeds equivocated or intentionally delayed character progression, Breaking Bad never flinches. If anything, Breaking Bad moves faster than the audience is ready for, giving them the emotional bludgeoning they didn't even know they craved. Of course, it would be disingenuous to describe the show as being about one man's descent. Jesse and his relationship with Walt is fundamental to the show. I've heard people call Jesse the heart of the show and the moral center, and he is, but that is perhaps the most terrifying thing, because in his own way Jesse is also a monster, and unlike Walt we love him without reservations.
There are other shows that probably deserve to be among the ranks of these shows-- West Wing and the Sopranos get a lot of lip service, and in some ways Firefly was the perfect dramedy. There are also a lot of shows that could have never existed ten or fifteen years ago and betray inspiration without the same consistent brilliance as the first tier, like Dexter or Game of Thrones. I've always thought Malcom in the Middle was under-appreciated and I can't pretend to discuss the wonders of modern television without at least name dropping the TV micro-revolution that was Adult Swim. Louie has a breathtaking sincerity that is uncomfortably, unflinchingly real. There is also the holy trinity of cult comedies-- Community, Parks and Rec and 30 Rock-- whose era is finally coming to a close.
I've thought about why television experienced such a revolution around the millenium. I think some credit can be given to reality TV, whose success influenced scripted television-- most notably oh-so-influential The Office. Probably even more important, I suspect, is that DVD sales changed how TV-makers thought about television. Cohesive, broad narratives with long story arcs began to make more sense once people began watching multiple episodes in a sitting, and writers could demand greater attention and devotion from their audience. This made room for the soaring ambitions of shows like The Wire.
I'd like to end this meditation on modern TV's awesomeness by bringing it back to my friend and favorite TV blogger, Myranda, whose tireless championing of and sincere respect for television continues to inspire me. Keep fighting the good fight, Myranda.
Before you sicken from my effusive optimism, let me put some names to faces, that I might justify my premise:
Arrested Development
It may not have the overflowing genius of The Simpsons or the gentle extremism of Seinfeld, but Arrested Development stands shoulder-to-shoulder with them on its own terms. It's among the finest dramedies ever made, and certainly the funniest, and that is saying something, because the dramedy is a beautiful invention. Unlike those other two eminent comedies, Arrested Development has a cohesion of purpose and a synergy of interlocking parts that is extremely gratifying-- jokes are carried over entire seasons without dulling or misstepping. Storylines weave in and out and always complement each other. It's also just wickedly, unrelentingly funny. Oh, and something about the image of the show-house on the desolate hillside really resonates with me.
The Wire
This show epitomizes, perhaps better than any other, the extraordinary change that has occurred in television. The show is grim, demanding, proceeds at a glacial pace without ever making an explicit point, and our nation was absolutely enthralled by it. I can't think of any show from the previous century that could compare to its intricacy, subtlety and symbolic depth. It is, quite simply, a show that redefined what was possible in the medium of television. I love how McNulty sometimes comes across as, not quite two-dimensional, but flat in a way that is somehow more genuine than if he were rounded. Real people are simple at the same time they are complex. And of course Omar rocks my socks.
Mad Men
It started with a gimmick, executed with unanticipated commitment-- setting a show in history and letting the characters act culturally backwards in ways the writers knew would bother the audience, but doing so with such a light brushstroke that it felt subversively natural. The rest of the shows I discuss did things that had never been done in television before, but I'm not sure this particular twist has precedent in any medium. Of course, the show is a heck of a lot more than a gimmick. It has this uncanny way of presenting people in single moments. Just as people make all kinds of decisions in real life, Mad Men's characters can be characterized, but not anticipated. Further, their actions don't always have consequences. There isn't really any poetic justice, which turns out to be jarring as fuck. The loose treatment of character makes it nearly impossible to make moral judgements and gives a certain starkness to characters-- when they repeat a bad decision it feels excruciating. It's an intriguing approach to narrative-- almost abdicating narrative. Of course, that is more sensation than reality, as the show is tightly controlled and threads play off one another with worthy synergy. Episodes have themes, but it feels like ambiguity could swallow up anything so simple as a theme at every turn, and there is something thrilling in that. Also Joan. Sometimes I just watch for Joan.
Breaking Bad
Moral ambiguity has been the order of the day for contemporary storytelling. We are no longer content with anti-heroes. We want to see ourselves at our worst. We want to find ourselves doing genuine, unalloyed evil. Breaking Bad takes that farther than any show by following the evolution of Walter White from sympathetic victim to villain, without ever losing the thread of his humanity. The show bears an obvious resemblance to Weeds, but like the drug it's about, it is light-years more intense and dangerous. Where Weeds equivocated or intentionally delayed character progression, Breaking Bad never flinches. If anything, Breaking Bad moves faster than the audience is ready for, giving them the emotional bludgeoning they didn't even know they craved. Of course, it would be disingenuous to describe the show as being about one man's descent. Jesse and his relationship with Walt is fundamental to the show. I've heard people call Jesse the heart of the show and the moral center, and he is, but that is perhaps the most terrifying thing, because in his own way Jesse is also a monster, and unlike Walt we love him without reservations.
There are other shows that probably deserve to be among the ranks of these shows-- West Wing and the Sopranos get a lot of lip service, and in some ways Firefly was the perfect dramedy. There are also a lot of shows that could have never existed ten or fifteen years ago and betray inspiration without the same consistent brilliance as the first tier, like Dexter or Game of Thrones. I've always thought Malcom in the Middle was under-appreciated and I can't pretend to discuss the wonders of modern television without at least name dropping the TV micro-revolution that was Adult Swim. Louie has a breathtaking sincerity that is uncomfortably, unflinchingly real. There is also the holy trinity of cult comedies-- Community, Parks and Rec and 30 Rock-- whose era is finally coming to a close.
I've thought about why television experienced such a revolution around the millenium. I think some credit can be given to reality TV, whose success influenced scripted television-- most notably oh-so-influential The Office. Probably even more important, I suspect, is that DVD sales changed how TV-makers thought about television. Cohesive, broad narratives with long story arcs began to make more sense once people began watching multiple episodes in a sitting, and writers could demand greater attention and devotion from their audience. This made room for the soaring ambitions of shows like The Wire.
I'd like to end this meditation on modern TV's awesomeness by bringing it back to my friend and favorite TV blogger, Myranda, whose tireless championing of and sincere respect for television continues to inspire me. Keep fighting the good fight, Myranda.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Humans: just incredibly awesome Animals
Reading a post by my friend Rob, I couldn't help but be struck at the unwitting revelation of a sentence of his: "The paths of insensitivity and self-delusion this conceit [that humans aren't animals] has led to are so enormous, a comprehensive study of the subject would be all the human history one would need to read."
The indication being, of course, that anything about human history
worth knowing has involved humans acting like we weren't animals. Think
about that for a minute.
I actually really love the aspiration of humans to transcend animal nature. I realize that it is an aspiration rather than a reality and that it could be viewed as a quaint ambition, but it's only quaint when you exclude from consideration all the incredible things that we have done as animals, aided by a philosophy that we are different. We are, of course, very different. No other animal has even approached our impact, our control over our surroundings, or our understanding of ourselves. We've driven more species to extinction than anything short of a natural catastrophe. I also can't think of a single species on whom so many other species are dependent-- we are the most crucial of all keystone species in this modern ecology.
There is no species more altruistic than us or more cooperative. It boggles my mind that we continue to expand our population logarithmically (for the last 15,000 years at least), drastically change our means of living, habitation and social organization and somehow we don't all kill each other like rats. In spite of these pressures, not to mention the availability of incredibly lethal weapons, we instead continue kill each other less, year after year, decade after decade, century after century. In spite of our incredible population density we're also getting sick less and in spite of the incredible resource load we represent on the world we're permitting relatively fewer and fewer of our fellow humans to go hungry.
"Denial of our animal nature" is just an ungenerous rewording of "aspiring higher than the rest of the animal kingdom". We don't think of ourselves as animals, not because we're not animals, but because we have found that it is in what distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom that makes us wonderful, that makes us worth reading about.
I actually really love the aspiration of humans to transcend animal nature. I realize that it is an aspiration rather than a reality and that it could be viewed as a quaint ambition, but it's only quaint when you exclude from consideration all the incredible things that we have done as animals, aided by a philosophy that we are different. We are, of course, very different. No other animal has even approached our impact, our control over our surroundings, or our understanding of ourselves. We've driven more species to extinction than anything short of a natural catastrophe. I also can't think of a single species on whom so many other species are dependent-- we are the most crucial of all keystone species in this modern ecology.
There is no species more altruistic than us or more cooperative. It boggles my mind that we continue to expand our population logarithmically (for the last 15,000 years at least), drastically change our means of living, habitation and social organization and somehow we don't all kill each other like rats. In spite of these pressures, not to mention the availability of incredibly lethal weapons, we instead continue kill each other less, year after year, decade after decade, century after century. In spite of our incredible population density we're also getting sick less and in spite of the incredible resource load we represent on the world we're permitting relatively fewer and fewer of our fellow humans to go hungry.
"Denial of our animal nature" is just an ungenerous rewording of "aspiring higher than the rest of the animal kingdom". We don't think of ourselves as animals, not because we're not animals, but because we have found that it is in what distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom that makes us wonderful, that makes us worth reading about.
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