Reading meme and other things..

1. So, I've had a day. Which wasn't helped by being soaked by the deluge on the way home. It was pouring so hard, that after two blocks, having an umbrella didn't appear to matter. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

2. Currently reading..(I'll look it up for you) The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African-American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty

It's basically a memoir by an gay African-American chef -- who explores his African-American ancestory and heritage through cooking. So part cookbook, part memoir.

I'm about 20% in -- or 50 pages.

Reading it has made me think about my own cooking or culinary heritage such as it is. Mainly the writer makes the assumption that we all have one, or all African-Americans can trace theirs through it. (I beg to differ, I happen to know a lot of African-Americans who do not cook nor want to. What is about human beings that we have a tendency to think everyone shares our views, perspective, and skill or tastes? )
( Read more... )

It's strange but in my fifties, I'm beginning to see myself and others more clearly somehow. And I'm less concerned that others share or even understand my skills or tastes. It's as if I no longer feel the need for approval or validation. Or care.
It's weirdly freeing.

For instance, I realized recently that I don't enjoy cooking that much. ( Read more... )

3. Finished Powers of X #2 by Jonathan Hickman and RB Silva. The art, once again, is quite good. But there is an awful lot of expository world-building and hard science fiction detail in this book. It feels at times like reading Doris Lessing's Sci-Fi Opus.. Canopus in Argos which I couldn't get through. This is just a comic and breaks things up a bit. Canopus in Argos was a huge book...and pages and pages of it.

There's a nifty pair of quotes at the end of the comic -

Stan Lee - February 1969 - " Where do you nuts get your ideas?" " That question is asked of Yours Truly at lectures, interviews, and bull sessions more often than any other..... The point is, ideas are no problem. Here in the Bullpen, we can't talk to each other for five minutes without coming up with a zillion new thoughts and angles. The big hangup is getting the time to develop the ideas...to polish them and refine them until we feel they'll have maximum impact -- until we know they'll be an integral part of the ubiquuitous Marvel universe! Everyone has ideas -- you, I, the gang in the mail room- even our competitors, bless-em. What really counts is what you DO with them. We believe that almost any idea can be worthwhile if it's presented with integrity, taste, and imagination. For, an idea is like a guitar -- it doesn't mean a thing unless you know how to use it!"

This is followed by the quote: " You must see by now,there is no you and I, there is only us. We are together, or we are nothing." - Xavier


I had to read several bits twice. ( Read more... )