The Readers Blogs

During my customary morning tea-drinking and Google News perusing this morning, I found yet another reason to roll my eyes at Jonathan Safran Foer. I'd mentioned a few times around the holidays that I was reviewing his book Eating Animals. The review grew more and more lengthy and then my issues with it became so numerous that I decided to hold off on blogging it and to instead turn it into a paper for school. Once I'm finished with it, I may share it on the blog in installments (if it turns out half-decent). But back to this morning...

The British trade website Farmers Weekly Interactive ran a short article by a guy called Adam Bedford today ("My pint with a vegan") that calls for a shrugging off of the "meat vs. no meat" approach to considerations of raising animals for human consumption. Bedford's piece has all of the typical elements of pro-animal industry and anti-veganism articles that show up in this sort of context. First, there is a reference to a real or fictional encounter with some token and/or stereotypical vegan(s). Bedford describes his encounter with unfettered derision as a "vegan love-in" where he claims to have shared "a pint" with a couple he admits are "generally nice people" albeit "militant vegans". What exactly he mans by "militant", the reader is left to fill in himself / herself depending on his or her preconceptions of vegans. I figure that it was merely a trite attempt to reinforce a stereotype , since he describes the most "scary" and "uncomfortable" thing about them that they held a "deep-seated and fundamental opposition to the farming of livestock".

The next typical element in such articles is the token unapologetic (and very often exaggerated and sensationalistic or even sexualized) reference to the tastiness of (or to the vital act of devouring) this or that animal body part or secretion. In this case, Bedford counsels his domestic partner to help him muster up the wherewithal to get through a newspaper excerpt of Foer's Eating Animals he coincidentally comes across the morning after his outing with the "militant vegans": "'Best chuck a couple of extra rashers in there love,' I cried wearily, 'and 3 kilos of beef dripping. I need some psyching up.'"

The next typical element in such articles is where I often mention that the author has completely missed the point or has engaged in something akin to speaking in tongues. Often, it's merely the author's indulgence in using a straw man fallacy. In Bedford's case, he goes on to cite Foer extensively to make his point that when considering the use of nonhuman animals, we must move away from (he quotes Foer) an '"all or nothing framework on food choices"', going on to say that he agrees with Foer that doing so could " help the industry to engage in a better, more sensible debate", but tipping the scales in adding that it would be "very useful for British farmers". Bedford calls this "[s]ubverting an ethical argument used as a justification for not eating meat". (I choose to call it regurgitating Foer honestly, instead of pretending that Foer is not actually condoning the consumption of animals, but I digress.)

Bedford, you see, views Foer's watered down rendition of the ethics of using and consuming animals as a great opportunity for farmers to grab to promote--the use and consumption of animals! Bedford doesn't acknowledge that the use of animals is an issue. He is no promoter of humane choices or of "happy meat". He makes it very clear that enslaving and slaughtering nonhuman animals for human consumption is perfectly legitimate. He does, however, give the slightest token nod to Foer's mention of "factory farming" as presenting a potentially valid ethical quandary worthy of being weighed. However, clarifies his stance by saying:

"Factory farming" aside, I personally don't think eating meat or not eating meat is an ethical decision, it's a food choice. One's views on capital punishment, supporting Manchester United and kicking a cat are an ethical decision. I have no issue with someone who doesn't eat meat, as that is a personal decision for them to make. I personally choose to eat meat because I believe that that is what farmed animals are for.

No, Bedford views Foer's "arguments" and assertions as great stepping stones to talk to consumers about "the system in which UK meat is produced, the environmental credentials of livestock farming in the uplands, and the provenance and localised nature of livestock production". What's particularly noteworthy is that he seems quite fond of the fact that he found fodder for those in agriculture to promote the cycle of enslaving and slaughtering nonhuman animals for human consumption in what he calls "the arguments used by the 'anti-livestock' lobby". Go, Foer, go!

As depressing as the title of this entry sounds, I am doing well. I am wearing a pair of boy jeans (nice and loose and cozy), which reminds me of a certain friend of mine. This particular friend of mine reminded me of a Cougar Town episode, with the same title as my post.
In this episode, the main character, Jules, talks about how her neighbor, Grayson, is her "someday guy". The someday guy (or gal) is the person that you can see yourself with in five, ten, fifteen years. The person that you look at and think "I could really see myself making a life with you". I was really pleased to see that I was not the first person to have that feeling, and as silly as my guilty pleasure tv show is, it is great that they bring in great thoughts like this one. It made me smile. So think about your someday guy or gal and I hope it makes you smile.

Call Carnival Bakery and a lady with a sweet voice is the one who's likely to answer the phone. After you ask her if their baked goods have eggs or dairy, she calmly assures you that she knows what Vegan means and politely waits while you first gasp and then recover from this delightful news. Then she proceeds to spring upon you the information that they have a separate special Vegan menu!! I'm guessing that by now she's well enough trained to immediately move the receiver away from her to protect her ear drums from the high pitched screech which emanates from your mouth.

It was K, my sister in Veganism, who stumbled upon this rare pearl (let me clarify that I'm referring to a Vegan Swarovski glass pearl here) while on a hunt for the perfect bagels. When she called me to share this news, I nearly did the Nakka Mukka. I vaguely recall registering the life-changingness of this information while my head swam with innumerable possibilities.

Sure, I'm quite capable of whipping up some fabulous Vegan desserts of my own at anytime. But now, when the craving hits me and I'm feeling lazy, the delicious treats are just a phone call away. And the BEST part is that I don't have to bake my own Birthday cake ever again! :D

My first order with them was a Black Forest Cake. No surprises there because that was my favorite gateau from my evil pre-Vegan days. It had been 7 years since I'd had a bite of the perfect Black Forest. Well I must admit that this wasn't the perfect Black Forest, but it sure was a delightful sight and pretty yummy too! Particularly after soaking in the fridge for a day (I've seen that cakes always need ripening time of at least 24 hours, ideally 48, before they reach their peak). The sponge didn't seem to have any cocoa so I did ask them why the weren't doing the traditional chocolate cake base. They said that they do use cocoa powder but in a limited quantity and that's why the chocolate cake wasn't of a chocolate color. Plus they claim that other bakeries use brown food coloring to enhance the look of the chocolate cake but they don't. That is definitely a good thing!

Then last week I succumbed to temptation once again and ordered a Rum Ganache Cake and some Doughnuts with various frostings (sorry no pics of the doughnuts). OMG the Rum Ganache was amazing!!! I was totally blown away by the presentation as well as the pure decadent taste! And the middle layer was soaked and moist to perfection!



THIS is what I recommend as your very first order from Carnival Bakery! Then you can follow it up by ordering the delightfully soft, moist and creamy 7 Fruit Cake (the birthday cake featured above which K ordered for her DH).

Carnival Bakery offers home delivery. Within a 2 kilometer radius of their premises the minimum order is Rs. 200 and the delivery is free. But hey, it's likely that you, like me, live no where near Sarjapur Road. And so for kindly traveling through the horrible Bangalore traffic in the sweltering heat, it is only fair that your order makes it worth their while. The minimum order in this case starts at Rs. 1000 and the delivery charges would depend on your order. Rs. 50, Rs. 100 and so on.

I must mention here that the person who delivers is a polite, professional guy called Karthik. And judging by my last order, where he was really nice after I made him wait for about 10 minutes, he seems to be quite patient too.

So here are the details of Carnival Bakery for you. Enjoy! :)

Carnival Cakes

Manager: Mr Sadhish Kumar

No.65/3, Nr Shoba Onyx,

Agara Post, Sarjapur Main Rd,

Sarjapur Road,

Bangalore – 560034

Tel. (80)-25723148 / 9916754689

Email: cakecarnival@gmail.com

They will e-mail you their Vegan Menu or if you'd like to see it online you can find it on the Vegan Bengaluru Blog.


Apple Crumble Pie (a tad sweet for my liking but nice enough).

As abolitionist vegans and feminists, we oppose the use of sexist tactics in the animal advocacy movement. Ethical animal rights veganism is part of the logical conclusion of opposition to the exploitation of all sentient beings -- both human animals and non-human animals. Opposing speciesism is incompatible with engaging in sexism or any other form of discrimination, such as racism, heterosexism, classism, and other forms of oppression.

Unfortunately, we have witnessed many female activists saying that there is nothing wrong with using "sex" as a tool to get our message across, using various arguments to try to justify this view. Further, other advocates have been unfairly attacked for "sexism" because they are openly critical of sexism and sexist choices in the movement. Neither should be acceptable to advocates who take anti-oppression work seriously.

Some advocates defend the use of sex by accusing us of being "anti-sex" or prudish. Abolitionist vegans are not prudes by any means, however, we see that the way sex is used to sell things in our patriarchal society reinforces a view of women as commodities. For example, just take a look at the way in which PETA uses sex in its campaigns - they reinforce harmful Western beauty standards by using only thin, large-breasted women, who tend to be posed to appear vulnerable and alluring to the (heterosexual male) intended viewer, as well as using only men who are muscular and trim and posed to look powerful and self-assured. When sexism is being used to try to "sell" justice for non-human animals, at the expense of reinforcing harmful attitudes towards human women, the irony is clear. The seriousness of the injustices committed against both non-human animals and human women in this world are cheapened by the use of tactics based on inane and harmful stereotypes; far from challenging the issue of animal exploitation, this kind of approach reinforces the very stereotypes that have harmed human women and non-human animals alike.

Some of the activists defending the use of sex believe that showing our sexuality will call the attention of potential vegans by appealing to their own self image, implying that when they see how sexy being vegan makes us, they will want to become vegan too. This notion is not only misguided but also detrimental to the actual message we should be getting across. Veganism is about animal rights, not about feeling sexy, or having better sex (characteristics we all know have little to do with being vegan or not, but with each individual's lifestyle and well-being) and it is most certainly not about "looking better" than people who eat meat.

Promoting veganism as a way to become "sexy", which unfortunately is almost always equated with "losing weight" in our society (for example, the book "Skinny Bitch" comes to mind), further reinforces prejudices against larger or overweight people, which harms both women and men in our society, but particularly women. Not to mention that veganism is not some magic bullet to lose weight - there exist plenty of vegans who are far from "skinny", who are essentially being given the message that they are failures by these sorts of campaigns that imply or flat-out promote veganism as a way to achieve western beauty standards. Appealing to these harmful standards not only reinforces them, but draws attention away from the true reason people should go vegan, which is to acknowledge the moral personhood of non-human animals.

Many of these activists defending sexist tactics claim that they are not, in fact, sexist tactics, that they "empower" the women who choose to participate in them, and so that criticizing these campaigns is disrespectful to these women - some even claim that to criticize them is itself sexist. These arguments are false for a number of reasons. First of all, these claims are usually made to male activists when they criticize such campaigns. But one's gender does not in and of itself make one more or less qualified to speak about sexism or feminism.

There is a real "men should shut up and listen to women" attitude in these claims that seeks to replace the egalitarianism that feminism demands with a hollow and biologically-based authoritarianism. As bell hooks suggests, while sisterhood is powerful, feminism is for everybody. As abolitionist vegan women, we are extremely glad to have as allies men such as Gary L. Francione, among others, who has been denouncing sexism in the animal advocacy movement and consistently speaking up for feminism for years. While we do of course believe that women should be listened to and taken seriously, listening does not equate to agreeing with or accepting someone's arguments simply because that person is female; disagreeing with those arguments and presenting logical counter-arguments does not equate to being sexist. It is unfortunate, but sexism is so pervasive in our society that some women do not even believe that it's still an issue, do not see how sexism has an impact on their lives, and do not feel that feminism is relevant to them. Some male feminist allies have spent years studying feminist theory; just because they're male doesn't invalidate this expertise.

Furthermore, the view that anything a woman chooses to do "empowers" her is simplistic in that it ignores the patriarchal context in which those choices are made. Yes, the women who participate in the campaigns we are criticizing have chosen to do so voluntarily, and some may feel liberated, or feel as if their choices are themselves a challenge to female objectification, and we do recognize that they feel this way. We are simply asking them to seriously consider that these campaigns are both harmful to women as well as ineffective in challenging the exploitation of non-human animals, and that, in view of this, women should no longer support or participate in them.

As stated above, the view that women are "empowered" or "liberated" by choosing to commodify themselves ignores the structural dimension of sexism in our patriarchal society. Whether we like it or not, our choices to try to "take back" patriarchy's commodification of women by participating in it voluntarily affect the lives of other women, especially women with less power. In a culture that still views and presents women as sex objects on a daily basis, the "taking back" or "reclaiming control" intent of these choices is entirely lost to the greater public, and the objectification and commodification is simply reinforced. When this sexism is reinforced as being acceptable or no big deal, the overall effect is to reinforce the attitudes that allow the trafficking, abuse, and other forms of exploitation and violence that are inflicted on women in poverty and of lower socio-economic status around the world every day.

Some claim that these campaigns are necessary to get the attention of the public. As we mentioned above, this draws attention away from the real reasons behind veganism: the rights of sentient beings not to be considered property. Getting attention at all costs is not the way to promote a serious issue such as violence against animals; in a world where this violence is already not taken seriously, attention-at-all-costs tactics only serve to further trivialize the issue. PETA's sexist campaigns do get attention, but overall it is attention for PETA, not for the real issues. It's a guerrilla marketing tactic designed to get people talking about PETA so that the donations keep flowing. (And look, it's working, since here we are talking about PETA, but we felt we couldn't discuss this issue without mentioning the largest and worst offender, unfortunately.)

Even more disturbing are the video campaigns that juxtapose sex and explicit, gory images of violence to animals, purportedly to grab the attention of young heterosexual men and then to inform them about the treatment of non-human animals. For example, PETA's "State of the Union Undress 2010" features a woman stripping "for the animals", after which a second video automatically begins playing, depicting graphic violence inflicted on nonhumans. How exactly is getting men to associate these sexually arousing images with gory images of violence going to help anything?

The campaigns that blatantly use sex and Western beauty standards are not the only sexist tactics used in the animal advocacy movement. For example, the longstanding campaigns against fur have a distinctly sexist element. By singling out fur, advocates are not only implying that there is some moral difference between fur and leather or other types of animal-derived clothing, which there is not, but they are also singling out those humans who wear fur while ignoring or minimizing the actions of those who wear other types of animals. Most fur in our society is worn by women. Effectively, these campaigns single out as morally wrong a particular use of non-humans mainly by women, while minimizing other equally morally wrong uses by all genders. Does pointing out that a little old lady in a fur coat is wrong to use animals while ignoring a biker in a leather jacket really help anything?

Also worth mentioning are the gender issues involved in animal exploitation. The animals exploited specifically for their milk and eggs are, it should be obvious, females being exploited for their reproductive cycles. They are repeatedly forcefully impregnated in the case of cows and other mammals used for their milk, i.e. raped, then their babies are taken from them, which causes extreme distress to mother and baby. Both mammals and birds are killed once they reach an age such that their reproductive cycle slows down or stops, and they are no longer profitable to their owners. Similarly, female animals of most of the species exploited by humans are used as "breeding" animals, forced to have litter after litter of young, and discarded when their usefulness for this purpose wanes.

While, as is to be expected in our speciesist society that considers non-humans property, feminism and sexism have always referred to humans, when looking at it from a perspective that is both abolitionist vegan and feminist, this exploitation of female animals' "femaleness" could be seen to fall into the intersection of these two struggles. It is odd that some people claim to be vegetarian (but not vegan) for "feminist reasons" - one would think that if someone believes the eating of animal flesh to be connected with the treatment of women "like meat", that they would also see the use of animal products that come specifically from female animals' reproductive cycles as being connected. Feminism is not merely a matter of having a vagina and a monologue; it is a daily lived practice, a dynamic force for change and liberation, a dialogue, a community, and a social transformation embodied in words and actions every turning moment of our lives.

If feminism is for everybody, that includes nonhuman animals. As animal rights advocates, whether we are male or female or genderqueer, it is our responsibility to oppose the exploitation and oppression of all sentient beings. This will be achieved by educating others in a creative and objective manner. How can we presume to end the exploitation of non-humans while encouraging or accepting the exploitation of our fellow human beings?

The bottom line is: commodifying ourselves does not truly "empower us". We can't use sexist methods to further a social justice issue. All exploitation of sentient beings is related; we're not going to end speciesism, the oppression of non-human animals simply because they are not human, without a firm commitment to ending sexism as well, and certainly not with the kind of attention-at-all-costs opportunism engaged in by certain activists at the expense of other oppressed groups.


Ana María Aboglio
Paola Aldana de Meoño
Jo Charlebois
Elizabeth Collins
Vera Cristofani
Karin Hilpisch
Mylène Ouellet
Trisha Roberts
Kerry Wyler

Steve Best's latest offering at Thomas Paine’s Corner is entitled “The Loss of a Halo: Francione and the Mask of Jainism.” Reading it was an experience that moved me to nothing but derision in that it is difficult to imagine someone being so hard up for something to do as to write such an insipidly verbose diatribe devoid of comprehension. This diatribe, one of many on the same subject,

Well its that time of year again, my beautiful wife’s birthday! Everybody  feel free to wish her a goood one (oh and I did not make the cake heh)

–Shane

Welcome to another episode of "ask Dino, because this darn recipe makes no sense".

I have a vague memory of Aloo Matar, from long in my past that was awesome, and I had it at a restaurant somewhere. I've made a few versions at home but they have fallen a little flat (not so flat that I wasn't willing to eat them, but you get the idea).

Recipe: 8 potatoes sliced
1/2 cup veg oil
Small onion, chopped
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tomatoes, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb peas
(made a half recipe each time)
Basically it called for sweating the onions, frying the potatoes for 10 min, adding everything else and cooking another 10-15 min. Very easy. I gave it a try, but as above a little bland. I also coarsely cubed the taters, never just sliced them.
My recipe called for tossing in cumin seeds halfway through the cooking, so I tried to Dino-ize it a little and pop them at the beginning. They never popped, but they sizzled and smelled good. No heat in the original, so I chopped a serano pepper and added it with the tomatoes and peas. Better, but still seemed to be missing a little.

Questions: 1) Should my cumin seeds pop or do they just sizzle?
2) What other spices and when to add them?
3) What sort of potatoes would you recommend (bakers?, gold?).

Thanks!

You can cut back on that fat big time, because it's not necessary in the beginning like that. Start with a tablespoon or two, and work forward from there. You can always add more fat, but removing it is not so easy. Also, when you start with a small amount of fat, the pot and the fat get hot extremely quickly, and maintain that heat, so that the spices will pop properly.

Start with a pot that's larger than you think you'll need. Add just enough oil to coat the bottom of it. Let the oil get so hot that it smokes a little. Add in your cumin seeds, and boost the flavour with a bit of coriander seeds for good measure. Let them pop. They MUST pop for the flavour to be worth anything. When the seeds have stopped popping, pitch in the onions. Cook it over very high heat, and let those suckers get softened, then browned around the edges. You don't have the fully get them caramelised, but it won't hurt anything if you let them go to full brown.

All these steps take a tiny bit of extra effort, but they're worth it in the end.

Then, you add your cubed potatoes. If you just slice them, they don't tend to cook so evenly, and they're harder to stir around in your pot. You also tend to miscalculate the amount of fat you need, because the sliced potatoes tend to stack up, and not allow a crust to form.

Here's the trick to getting them to taste like the restaurant. Boil the potatoes first, let them get cold, THEN cube them up. It'll make the potatoes fry off so much more nicely.

As you continue to fry the potatoes in the fat and spices, you'll notice that they take up the fat nicely. THIS is the point at which you can add extra fat, about a teaspoon or so at a time, should the potatoes start sticking to your pot. If you're working with nonstick cookware, you really won't have to worry about this so much.

The next point is a matter of personal taste. Being from the south, I tend to throw in 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric, but this is strictly your own call. I like the colour and taste, but not everyone does.

After about five minutes of cooking over furiously high heat, turn down the heat to medium-low, and cover the lid of the pot, so that they can roast slowly.

SHORTCUT: If you are comfortable with it, lay the potoatoes out onto a baking sheet, and throw them under the broiler of your oven for 2 minutes at a time, until they get brown and crusty and lovely. Then, when the potatoes are brown, toss through the peas, and let it sit under the broiler for another minute or two, to heat the peas up through and through. This method also prevents you from mashing the potatoes as you stir them through. Even my mother, who's been doing this for the better part of 40 years tends to end up with half the potatoes mashed.

At the end, adjust your seasoning with salt, chili, or any other such flavouring you like.

If you do the boiling step, you can use any potato you like, because they tend to all get that lovely texture like the classic dish does. If you don't, just use any good waxy potato, like a yukon gold, or red bliss, or new potato. If you want to add some more north-indian-y spices, like cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, or cardamom, do so in the last five minutes of cooking, so that they stay strong. Just add a few hefty pinches of cinnamon, a pinch or two of clove, a scrape of nutmeg, and a pinch of cardamom powder, and you'll be golden.

If your cumin doesn't want to pop in the fat, or you've forgotten to do so and are adding it halfway through, just dry toast the cumin in a separate skillet, and toss it in. Without properly cooking the cumin, the flavour will fall flat.

Hope this helps a bit!

Tumeric and coriander, excellent. I don't mind if they get a little mashed up. I probably should cube the potatoes a little smaller and I'll have to try the pre-cooking method.

Would you recommend a chili powder or fresh green chilis or what? Thanks again for your time!

Well. There's a couple of routes to go with /that/ as well. Depending on how much you want to control the heat, and what kind of chili powder/fresh chili you're talking, it can change things. The chiles used in India are the Thai Bird chiles. It'll give you the most authentic flavour, and will be sufficiently hot to peel off the roofing tiles if you add enough of them. If you remove some of the seeds, you can scale back on the heat. If you fry the seeds with the onions, you can seriously make the heat a hell load more sneaky.

Here's how it works. You pop your cumin seeds, bla bla bla. Everything is screaming hot in that pot, and it's smelling fantastic. You add in a very big handful of chopped up finely Thai Bird chiles once the spices stop popping, instead of the onion. THEN you add the onion, and let the whole mess get softened, bla bla bla. The heat will dissipate into the fat, and sneak up on you much more slowly.

The chili powder can be ground red chili, cayenne pepper, or hot paprika, depending on your level of heat needs. Add it at the very end in the last minute of cooking, or else your kitchen will fill with lung-searing, painful smoke that you will be coughing up for the next hour.

Personally, when I make something hot, I like to go for a one-two punch. Start with the chiles in fat, and then finish with the powder. That way, when you're eating, you get the immediate jolt of hot hot fire. Then, as you chew and savour the flavour, the sneaky heat that's hiding in the fat comes skulking out and gives you another tingly stabby heat. It's lovely.

Thanks for the answer (and for the question)! Could you substitute plantains for the potatoes? I know it would be non-traditional and all that, but I made the curried plantains out of your book recently and loved them. So I bought more plantains. Thanks!

Yes yes yes yes YES. Yes, definitely. There are a variety of things that you can use in place of potatoes for recipes in the book: plantains (just peel them first), yucca (peel and core first), sweet potatoes, taro (also called ñame in Latin American stores), yautia, or pretty much any other starchy vegetable. In fact, when you're making soup, using yucca would make the flavour superior, because it's got a sort of fragrance about it that works ever so well in soups and stews. Plantains are absolutely a wonderful substitute for potatoes. They work for bajji, curry, soup, stew, or anything else you can dream up.

Oooh, with plaintains! I would assume not completely ripe?

Yes, exactly. Green plantains. I think I put up a youtube video on how to peel them easily.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I6ZU_LB-aE

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Suffice it to say, it was a bit of back-and-forth, but it was lots of fun to discuss food with people who are into it.

Wadia’s best friend’s youngest sister was denied a proper burial because for two days they couldn’t douse the flames the allied planes had showered on her tiny body. And all the paper trails that lead to all the roads that lead to all these Basras make it seem like we’re all just “collateral damage” waiting to be happened in some unforeseen Pentagon budget-drill. Today’s Ba’ath regime is just the Red Scare of yesteryear. And I drink myself to sleep because I’m losing faith that any of us will ever amount to anything more than reluctant human subsidies, the moving parts in a death-machine, protesting their complicity, but waiting for somebody else to throw their body on the churning gears. I drink myself to sleep because I’m losing faith that we, here in the Cradle of Affluence can cease this sickening drive for individual strength through state-powers’ swinging fists or that we’ll ever look back and laugh at the irony that is: an atomic murderer is enshrined in Independence, USA while 8000 miles from here (back in the Cradle of Democracy) it’s another banner year for a cottage industry ? a ritual at the corner of George and Constantine – as foundries scramble to recast his decapitated monument.

This Star-Tribune story on “dealing” with vacant homes is truly infuriating:

“[Vacant home registration fees have] become more popular as cities are contending with larger inventories of vacant properties,” said Jennifer Leonard, director of advocacy and outreach for the nonprofit Center for Community Progress in Washington, D.C. Vacant building registration “has become an incredible tool in the past few years,” she said. ” … Cities have to figure how to manage their inventory by doing inspections and seeing that they are boarded up and safe and the property is maintained.”

There are plenty of empty homes to register. In Minnesota, almost 5 percent of all residential properties have been foreclosed in the past five years, according to county sheriffs’ sales data. Last year, the state had 23,019 foreclosures, with one of every four in Hennepin County.

From start to finish, the only concerns reflected here are those of property — why there has been such a dramatic rise in foreclosures, what happens to the folks who have been forced out of their homes, why it is that homes are allowed to sit empty (indeed, made “transient-proof”) while shelters swell to capacity … none of this registers. It’s just not relevant to public discourse, I guess.

For a plus-sized gal who is into vintage, it can get disheartening to see all the lovely smaller patterns and actual vintage garments.  The commonly held belief that everyone was thin “back then” is a myth.  Today’s leader in plus-sized fashion, Lane Bryant, has been around for a long time.  I love looking at old Lane Bryant catalogs because them give me inspiration for sewing, as well as an idea of which patterns might work for my figure.  My latest Lane Bryant catalog is the Spring/Summer 1935 Stylebook.

I have a ton of lovely pictures from this catalog in my flickr stream! http://www.flickr.com/photos/12275674@N08/sets/72157623467391873/

Well, my Appalachian Trail hike isn't going to happen this year. Time and money come and go faster than I anticipate sometimes, and this is one of those times. With less than a week until I was planning to leave, I have to call this off for now. Strangely enough though, I am not as bummed out about this setback as I thought I would be. It just is what it is, and I have another year to prepare and further hone my trekking skills. Since I originally posted my plans, quite a bit has changed in my life. I have moved back to my old stomping grounds in the Appalachian mountains, adopted a dog that was near death, hiked some of the Mountain To Sea trail, reconnected with a lot of great folks from my past, and started working on some long-term plans beyond my hiking goals. Hopefully I will be able to post a bit more now and chronicle my year of preparation for a 2011 thru-hike. Stay... Read more

I’ve been wanting to talk a little bit about my cleanse experience here for a while, so even though I am far, far away in London and basically doing the opposite of a cleanse, I’m sharing some thoughts on what it means to give up the sweeter thing in life. First off, I do seriously heart wine and cocktails and, contrary to popular belief, beer too! That’s part of the reason I started this blog, coupled with my deep love affair with veggie food. However, it was really refreshing to socialize sans the alcohol for three weeks. My boyfriend and I threw parties, went to social events and even bars and felt totally fine sipping tonic water with a lime wedge (note, this is a great drink for a night off the booze, since no one will offer to get you a drink if you already have something that looks like a drink in hand, plus it’s yummy). So, lesson learned, it’s possible and even pleasant to go out to events involving alcohol and abstain.

The second lesson I learned was much, much more difficult but well worth it. That’s right, my other great love, caffeine! For some it may be completely difficult to believe, but I gave up coffee, tea and soda for the full three weeks (OK, had a little white tea to curtail the massive headache that came upon me the second night). Cleansing my body of caffeine was an intense experience. The second night, I felt that my head was caving in and was oddly emotional (I was nearly in tears when my boyfriend offered to get me tea and tried to take care of me). After my evening from hell, it wasn’t so difficult and I found myself able to get up and about without my usual caffeine boost. It felt nice to actually detox my body of these chemicals that I had been so dependent upon. It’s also allowed me to drop my usual intake down to a small pot of chai or a single latte per day (down from a double latte plus soda or tea). It was like pressing the reset button on my body.

The last difficult task was eliminating refined carbs from my diet (the rest was cake, no pun intended, since I clearly have experience eating vegan food). I have a hardcore addiction to baguettes, udon noodles, capellini, white jasmine rice, brown sugar and so many other refined carbs, and I had to let them go. It’s not so difficult to replace rices and pastas at home, but going out became a challenge. Luckily there are a few places in SF that offer brown rice and whole wheat bread. I found myself visiting Gracias Madre and Herbivore more than once. While I will never fully give up an occasional sour baguette with earth balance and hummus slathered on it, this definitely showed me I could go for long stretches without them.

In case you’re wondering what sorts of things I ate, here are some of the yummy foods I made at home. Most are foods I’ve already mentioned here with whole grains substituted for any refined grains.

http://www.norelpref.com/media/slack4/sexAndthingsLikethat.mp3

http://www.norelpref.com/media/slack4/changefortheBetter.mp3

http://www.norelpref.com/media/slack4/alwaysWearCleanUnderwear.mp3

http://www.norelpref.com/media/slack4/loveYourButtWell.mp3

http://www.norelpref.com/media/slack4/iHaventTheSlightestIdea.mp3

http://www.norelpref.com/media/slack4/churchOfTheGoldenShower.mp3

I promised to let some of the BWI ladies know where I get my little wooden folk and my wonderful kunin felt, and I also promised to update my blog, so here I am doing both at once, multi-tasker that I am!

The wee folk: I get the Man one and the Little Boy one from Casey’s Wood Supplies. My usual gnomes are the Man-sized ones, and the mama gnome keychains are funnily enough made from the Little Boy size.

The felt: In my modest opinion Kunin ecofelt is the only felt worth buying (I don’t use wool felt, but I imagine that is also good) ! I buy big boxes of Kunin felt online from SpinBlessing in the US, you can buy all the colours by the sheet and even including the shipping cost it is much better value than my local fabric store. You can see the shipping cost as you add felt to the order which is handy as you can squish in a couple of extra sheets before the shipping cost goes up

Now, in return for that very useful information… I had to leave the LLL conference early and missed Mike Brady from Baby Milk Action’s talk on the Sunday afternoon, did anyone catch it? Grumble, grumble, it was the one talk of the weekend that I really wanted to attend but DD had different ideas, and we left the conference much earlier than intended! So, if anyone got to the talk, was it good?

Loved catching up with you all

I have been invited to ARZone’s Live Guest Chat this weekend, Saturday, March 13, at 3pm Pacific Time to answer questions about welfare reform, abolition, animal rights, and veganism.

Participants must pre-register to ask questions. You can find more details, including time zone information, here.

I would like to make a few points with regard to the claim that animal welfare is a "step in the right direction" because it convinces people to go vegan.First, the sentimental "every little helps" approach is the expression of a model of animal advocacy whose central idea is that we should support any welfarist measure that will reduce animal suffering. But it would be difficult if not

The weather is not ready for spring yet. We visited a friend in Heidelberg this weekend and exactly Saturday morning it started snowing again. Heidelberg was beautiful but cold.

Evidence Nr. 1:

Evidence Nr. 2:

It was freezing cold and a bit windy. Walking around wasn’t much fun although it may look like it:

Since we were invited to a party, I wanted to bring some cake. In the end I didn’t even take it and we had these wonderful bars all to ourselves. They have a wonderful intense and tender chocolate shortbread bottom and a soft, buttery caramel topping, which is filled with hazelnuts and drizzled with chocolate. I cut them into bite-sized pieces because they are very rich and addictive. They are also soy-free, if you are able to find soy-free chocolate.

Chocolate-Caramel Bars with Hazelnuts (makes 25 small bars or 9 large):

For the shortbread (I used this recipe):

Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F) and line a 20 x 20 com (8 x 8 inch) baking dish with parchment paper)

227 g (1 cup) margarine, cut into small pieces
100 g (1/2 cup) sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground vanilla (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
1/4 teaspoon salt
180 g (1 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
45 g (1/2 cup) Dutch processed cocoa powder
3 tablespoons cornstarch

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until a dough forms. Press into prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes. Set aside and let cool.

For the caramel topping (I used this recipe):

125 g (1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon) coconut oil
200 ml (4/5 cup) full fat coconut milk
200 ml (4/5 cup) oat cream (such as oatly)
2 tablespoons golden syrup (corn syrup or agave syrup will work fine)
75 g (1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
200 g (1.5 cups) toasted hazelnuts
100 g (3.5 oz) bittersweet chocolate

Melt coconut oil in a medium-size saucepan. Add coconut milk, oat cream, syrup, sugar, and salt. Cook over medium heat for 30 minutes, stirring from time to time.. The mixture should have been reduced by less than half with  a slightly gooey consistency. Stir in cinnamon and hazelnuts and pour over shortbread. Transfer to fridge and let cool until set. (about 1 hour).

Cut into squares of desired size. melt chocolate and drizzle over squares. They will keep refrigerated for 4-5 days.

Filed under: bars, cake, candy, chocolate, recipes, vegan

Today, I wanted a meal I would normally make with couscous. I have all of sod in the house of a couscous-y nature. It was 6pm on a Sunday, when shops tend to be shut, and I had very little energy to actually go out and hunt down grains that might not fill me up so well anyway. What I do have is pearl barley. And, amazingly, it worked out pretty well.

Pearl barley, I have to admit, takes a while to cook - basically you cover it with cold water, bring it to boil and simmer it for an hour. On the other hand, I've found it freezes pretty well (in terms of being edible afterwards), which means it is always worth doing double quantities and freezing some for another time.

So, today I did that - I used one of my smaller coffee mugs full of dry barley, simmered it for an hour, then took about half out to cool down ready for freezing. Then, to go with my stir-fried veg, I flavoured what was left in the pan:
-1 tablespoon olive oil
-1 teaspoon each of cinnamon and nutmeg
-a pinch of salt

Turned out ok and probably filled me up better than couscous would have!

COMPENDIUM 87 YOU KNOW THE DRILL

I came across a delightful little recipe for a super simple tomato sauce that made its way around the internet some time ago: Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter by Marcella Hazan. I was intrigued that it only has 3 main ingredients (tomatoes, onion and butter) and received rave reviews from everyone. So of course I had to make a vegan version.

You'll find the original recipe in the link above. Basically you take 1 large 28 oz tin of good tomatoes (don't settle for crappy cheap tomatoes*) smooshed up with the juice along with about 5 tbsp of your favourite vegan margarine (Earth Balance) and an onion** cut in half and throw that in a sauce pan. You can use unsalted vegan margarine and then salt to taste but I found that the salted margarine wasn't too salty for this. Anyway, bring the mixture to a simmer and cook uncovered for about 45 mins, stirring occasionally. Then you take out the onion and serve over pasta.

Sounds too simple to be that good right? Wrong. It's incredible. Really! The combination of margarine, slowly cooked onion and tomatoes works so well that I wanted to just eat the sauce as is. I did deviate from the original in that I did throw in some roughly minced garlic. I also cut the onion into 8 wedges and left that in the final sauce. Next time I'll try it like the original — no garlic and take out the onion.

I served the sauce over thick homemade wheat pasta with basil since I was out of packaged pasta (and no semolina flour). Just 2 cups white flour with 1/4 cup soy flour, salt, basil, olive oil and about 3/4 cup boiling water. Mix and knead until smooth, cover and let sit for 30 mins. Then simply roll out, cut and let dry for a few minutes and then cook in boiling salted water until done. It's super easy and yummy, but it is a bit time consuming. Sometimes it's worth it though and the homemade pasta was awesome with this sauce.

And there you have it. A 3 ingredient sauce that folks all over rave about. I think that this sauce is going to become my go-to sauce around here since I always have those ingredients on hand. Now, this is NOT a low-fat sauce by any means but it's really good, and for me, worth the calories and fat. Give it a try!


* If all you have are cheaper mediocre canned tomatoes, you might want to add a sprinkle of sugar to the sauce when simmering.

** I was reading that quite a few chefs swear by not sauteeing onion or garlic in tomato sauces and letting it cook in the sauce itself for the best flavour. I think they're on to something because this tasted way better than any tomato sauce I've made with sauteed onions and garlic.

This is my first, completely finished 1930’s dress.  There is no date, but the full skirt and puffed sleeves suggest late 30’s.  I don’t know 30’s fashion enough to narrow it down further than that.  The only alteration needed, beside the straight grade up to my size, was a 1in FBA.  This is the same amount I need for modern patterns.  Other than that, it fits like a dream.  The waist hits at my high waist, the armscye is nice and high.  If I make more, I will take in the waist a touch more and do a slight narrow shoulder adjustment.  What surprised me about this pattern was just how full the skirt is.  The hem circumference is the same as some of my 50’s patterns.  I bought the last of this fabric on the bolt, so I had to use some creative cutting.  There might be enough scraps to make a belt, but I’m not sure.

What I like most about this dress is the rick rack and the cherries on the collar

So I took a month off to get some work done on various side projects, but never fear I have new episodes in the works, including the episode of Ask Science Dude that went up earlier today. And I will be putting together another ep of the Angry Hippie before the end of next week.

Among my accomplishments in my time off I finished my third DJ Mydnyt album, and am redesigning the website for launch TBA. In the meantime, I have uploaded the album cover that I made and the tracks to my account at Behance if you want to check out the full album. Here is a look at the front cover:

Also during the month I put together my first ever zine, and will be getting that printed and available as the summer approaches, with future issues to follow soon. Angry Hippie Unplugged is the name of this project and the first issue is called Digger’s Dream. So look for more about that to come soon. Anyway, it was a busy month ‘off’, but I am excited about everything that I was able to get done. Thanks for sticking around, and I will see you on the flipside.

[German version here ~ Deutsche Version hier]

When it comes to fast food in Germany, currywurst aka sausage with curry sauce is always on top of the list. The sausage used for currywurst is usually a bratwurst (“fry sausage”) which is cut up and smothered with a curry-ketchup mixture. Yes, that’s right: curry-ketchup mixture is what we call curry sauce here in Germany.

I probably had one currywurst in my whole life and never missed it. But when I was a kid, I really loved curry ketchup. Me and my sister refused to eat regular ketchup, so my father always had to buy a large bottle of curry ketchup when he went grocery shopping. It was probably only because of the curry sauce/ketchup that I wanted to veganize currywurst. I know, I could just have grabbed a bottle of curry ketchup. For those, who are not familiar with the whole bratwurst/currywurst/currysauce obsession, here’s a recipe.

Bratwurst (makes 4 sausages)

144 g (1 cup) gluten powder (vital wheat gluten)
10 g (2 tablespoons) chickpea flour
25 g (4 tablespoons) yeast flakes
2 teaspoons dried marjoram
1 teaspoon granulated onion
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
65 g (2.3 oz) smoked tofu
2 cloves garlic, minced
240 ml (1 cup) cold water

Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F). In a bowl, combine gluten, chickpea flour, yeast flakes, marjoram, granulated onion, black pepper, and salt. Mix well.

Mash tofu as finely as possible (or process into a paste using a food processor).

Add mashed tofu, garlic,and water to gluten mixture and knead until everything is well combined. Let rest for five minutes and knead again for 30 seconds.

Divide dough into four equal parts, form into logs (about 30 cm or 12 inches long) and tightly wrap in aluminium foil. Seal the edges by twisting the foil and bake for 25 minutes. Let cool completely before unwrapping.

Currywurst (serves 4)

Heat a large pan and add 1 teaspoon of oil. Fry the sausages until brown and crispy. Meanwhile prepare the sauce in a small saucepan:

For the sauce:
250 g (1 cup) ketchup (use a sweet version)
60 ml (1/4 cup) water
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons mild curry powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

In a small saucepan, mix all the ingredients and cook sauce for 1 minute. Cut the sausages into bite size pieces and add to sauce. Stir and divide between four plates. Sprinkle with curry powder and serve with fries.

Filed under: German recipes, recipes, seitan, vegan

Supply-side Versus Demand-side Advocacy

We live in a market economy made up of two major factors – supply and demand. These two factors determine what is bought and sold and for how much. Qualitatively, demand represents the wants and needs of buyers in an economy. Supply represents the efforts of firms to profit from existing demand. The stronger the demand for a given product, the more potential profit and resulting competition among suppliers there will be in attempting to satisfy demand for the product. If there is no demand for a given product, there will be no supply for the product because firms will not be able to profit.

The most important conclusion to draw from the simple qualitative economic facts above is that demand drives supply. Marketing firms may help a product realize its potential demand, but they cannot create demand. [1]

Since demand drives supply, if we focus on changing demand, we can change supply. But the reverse is not true: we cannot change demand by focusing on supply.

For example, Hellmann’s® Mayonnaise recently announced that it has switched to “cage-free eggs” in its Light Mayonnaise. In a discussion with advocates about this switch, I suggested that if large animal welfare organizations insisted on engaging in single-issue campaigns (because such campaigns are good fundraisers), then instead of “cage-free egg” campaigns, they would at least be engaging in legitimate animal advocacy to campaign for vegan alternatives in restaurants and brand-name products.

However, the problem with such vegan-oriented single issue campaigns is that they are supply-side advocacy. To use the example above, let’s assume that Hellmann’s® developed a vegan mayonnaise to compete with Vegenaise® and Nayonaise®. Only if there is sufficient demand will it be sufficiently profitable for Hellmann’s® to keep the product on the market and develop it further. If there is not sufficient demand, the vegan product will not be sufficiently profitable and Hellmann’s® will discontinue the vegan product. The marketing and chief executives and stockholders don’t care what sells (e.g. vegan products or animal products), they only care that a product or service sells, i.e. that there is a demand for the product.

So what does this imply for animal advocacy? It obviously implies that we must focus virtually 100% of our time and energy on increasing demand for vegan alternatives to replace animal products. The only way to do that is through vegan education; that is, informing people why they ought to go vegan and how to go vegan. As we create more demand for vegan products through vegan education, suppliers will respond by catering to the new demand.

There can never be enough vegan education. New vegan products can be taken off the shelf for a lack of demand; but people, once genuinely convinced that animals are persons to be fully included in the moral community, and once educated on how to be a vegan, will stay vegan for a lifetime and influence others, thereby increasing demand.

Welfare Activities Versus Vegan Advocacy

It is illegitimate to call welfare reform activities animal “advocacy” because such a paradigm and the resulting activities encourage people to continue consuming animal products. The welfare paradigm and activities are not merely neutral and unproductive; they are harmful and counterproductive. On the surface, welfare activities appear to reduce violence and suffering in their temporary focus on the symptoms of speciesism. But below the surface, welfarist thinking is the very problem of exploitation itself. All animal exploiters, virtually without exception, “take animal welfare very seriously.” This is because the philosophy of animal welfare accepts, as a most basic and dogmatic premise, that nonhuman animals are here for us to exploit.

Welfare activity, because of its inherent ineffectiveness and support of animal exploitation and killing, as both a theoretical and practical matter, is the active promotion of violence.

Vegan advocacy inherently rejects all animal exploitation and the promotion of violence. Such rejection is the essence of vegan advocacy, and is the only advocacy for nonhuman animals.

Four Types of Activities

Below are four types of activities distinguished by whether they address supply or demand, and whether they are vegan or welfare activities.

Type 4 activities are supply-side welfare activities. They generate most of the revenues for the large corporate animal welfare groups like PETA and HSUS, which is one reason they are so common and popular from the standpoint of the welfare groups. They are counterproductive because they indirectly encourage animal product consumption. They also drain resources from demand-side vegan activities.

Examples of Type 4 activities are welfare single-issue campaigns, welfare law campaigns (e.g. Prop 2 in California), welfare reform campaigns, controlled atmosphere killing and cage-free campaigns, gestation crate campaigns, and foie gras prohibition campaigns.

Type 3 activities are demand-side welfare activities. They are counterproductive because they directly encourage animal product consumption, increase demand for animal products, decrease demand for vegan products, and drain resources from demand-side vegan activities.

Examples of Type 3 activities are encouraging or condoning “happy meat” and “cage-free egg” consumption. A typical Type 3 statement is, "If you're going to insist on eating that anyway, at least buy free-range." If we would not say, "If you're going to kill or rape anyway, at least don't beat the victim as many times as you normally do", then we should not say similar things about animal product consumption. Silence is far better than Type 3 statements.

Type 2 activities are supply-side vegan activities. With the exception of owning a vegan business, these activities do little or nothing to decrease demand for animal products or increase demand for vegan products. Owning a vegan business is an excellent advocacy activity. All other supply-side vegan activities, while not necessarily counterproductive, drain resources away from demand-side vegan activities, and in many cases (such as anti-fur campaigns), are counterproductive as they encourage speciesism by their narrow focus.

Examples of Type 2 activities are requesting vegan products from grocers and restaurants (as an advocacy tool; not because you simply want a certain vegan product available); vegan product campaign (e.g. campaigning for Hellmann’s® to develop and market a vegan mayonnaise); owning and operating a vegan restaurant (again, a great form of advocacy, largely because it incorporates Type 1 activities); vegan product development; elimination single-issue campaigns (speciesist and utterly useless unless we've eliminated demand).

Type 1 activities are demand-side vegan activities. They decrease demand for animal products while simultaneously increasing demand for vegan products. Because of their focus on demand and vegan education, demand-side vegan activities are the only activities capable of eventually abolishing animal exploitation.

Examples of Type 1 activities are vegan education (explaining why and how to go vegan through various media and opportunities); abolitionist education (explaining the legal and many other similarities between human chattel slavery and modern nonhuman slavery); vegan food blogs and cooking classes; educating fellow advocates and others about the problems with welfarism and single-issue campaigns.

Important: Unless we are operating a vegan business (which is mostly a supply-side activity), we should spend between 97% and 100% of our animal advocacy time doing Type 1, demand-side vegan activities and the remaining time, if any, doing Type 2 supply-side vegan activities. We should always stay entirely away from harmful Type 3 and 4 welfare activities.

Welfare activities are popular because they accept our society’s violent and speciesist belief that nonhuman animals are here for us to exploit and kill, but they are counterproductive because by such acceptance, they also promote and strengthen the violent and speciesist notion that animals are here for us to exploit and kill. Welfare activities are part of a vicious circle.

_________________
Note:

[1] Marketing firms are in the business of realizing the potential demand for products, but the realization they are able to generate consists in making consumers aware of a given product or service along with various psychological methods of stimulating potential consumers’ interest in the product. Marketing a product can only fulfill a product’s potential demand; it cannot create demand. We can market a highly undesirable product or service all we want, but if the product has no inherent demand, the product will not sell.

In honour of National Vegetarian Week, the lovely Ms Vanilla Rose provides a list of ways to help animals, some of which translate beyond the Barbie arena!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

So amazingly delicious:

It may not look super pretty in pictures, but this pie was to die for.  The recipe is from the book 500 Vegan Recipes and the only change I made was to use pink lemonade concentrate instead of regular.  The recipe is actually called Lemon Icebox Pie and it has such a wonderful texture and would be even more amazing as a cool treat in the summer.  Seriously, I think this one recipe is worth buying the book for, it’s that good and that easy to make!

-Kala

Yea OK, I haven't made any new posts - and the ones I already have are mostly garbage, and full of spelling errors which is very unlike me, especially homo-phonic ones. I blame whatever spellchecker google uses.

To get back to the less sad parts of the story, as I mentioned previously, I got Azrael spayed when her kittens were weaned. Since she was only an occasional visitor at my window at that time, what I did was to wait until she came inside on the windowsill to eat, and then I closed the window to trap her inside, before calling the vet to make the appointment. For this reason, I had to keep her in for one week beforehand, to make sure that she would actually be there at the time of the appointment. During that week, she was so bored and listless that it unfortunately reinforced my misguided notion that I couldn't keep her indoors without her getting very depressed, and so I let her back outside a few days after the spay surgery. For several months after that, she didn't trust me and didn't come to my window as much, staying on the outside windowsill when she did.

Eventually she forgave me though, and we became very good friends. I would open my window and call out "AAAZ-REEE-ELLLLLLLL" and if she was within earshot, she would come running, even meowing as she bounded up the spiral stairs. She would come inside, and I would pet her and give her some food. I put a collar on her on two occasions (she lost the first one, which I had put on even before she was spayed, if I recall correctly), mainly because as a long haired cat who was nervous enough about getting petted, never mind getting brushed, she would get matted all along her sides, and eventually the mats would fall off, exposing her skinniness to observers in the street. On the off-chance that someone who saw her like that might think she was a diseased, mangy, starving stray and call animal control to take her away, I put a collar on her to indicate that she had a home. She wasn't too thrilled about getting the collar put on, but by wedging her up against the window I was able to quickly get it on and secured before she could run away.

She began staying in for longer and longer periods of time, venturing into other parts of the apartment or sleeping on the armchair near the window. By this time EssPee (whose story comes next in the series) was living with us, and the two of them got along fairly well. Sometimes they could be found sleeping on the armchair next to each other.

EssPee was an indoor cat from the beginning, and so we would no longer leave the window partially open to let Azrael come and go as she pleased. We would often leave it open a couple of inches though, and on a few occasions realized that skinny Azrael had been able to squeeze out through a two or three inch gap. Not having grown up with humans, she hadn't learned to meow at us to ask for what she wanted, and so would sooner squeeze out the tiny opening, or, to my horror, leap a good six feet from our balcony railing over to the fire escape railing when the window was closed but the door to the balcony open so that EssPee could go out there if he wanted to (he was always a very good boy safety-wise on the balcony).

We did take EssPee out into the yard to walk on a leash when the weather was nice though, and during most of these excursions, Azrael would show up and follow the three of us around the yard, which was quite heartwarming - nice family walks!

The decision to keep her indoors came that summer after a scare where I was afraid she had been killed. My ex and I had gone out of town for a week, with my mom staying at our place to take care of EssPee and Azrael. But Azrael, as mentioned, mostly just likes me as far as humans are concerned, so after four or so days of coming around to find a stranger there instead of me, she stopped coming to the window. When I got home and learned that Azrael hadn't been seen for three days, I feared the worst, that she had been killed by a car like so many other cats in the neighbourhood. I felt responsible and extremely guilty. I *was* responsible; she was a member of my family, one of my dependents, and I had let her continue roaming around a dangerous neighbourhood. I certainly should have known better, but my fear that she wouldn't psychologically adapt well to indoor life had made me decide to wait until we moved out of town (less than two months away at this point) before trying to keep her indoors.

Thinking that she must be dead and it was my fault, I prepared lost cat posters and put them up around the neighbourhood, and visited the lost cat ward at the SPCA to look for her just in case, although it was extremely unlikely that anyone would have been able to catch her without a specific effort involving a trap, and I don't think many people paid that much attention to cats roaming around their yards anyway - it wasn't exactly unusual. I told myself that on the off chance that she was alive and I found her, I would keep her indoors from then on.

I almost couldn't believe it on Monday afternoon when my downstairs neighbour called to say that Azrael had been at her window a few minutes earlier, alive and well. She had just stopped coming around after I hadn't been home for so many days. The pit in my stomach from the past few days turned into a nervous hopeful excitement, as I waited for her to come upstairs so that I could see with my own eyes and truly believe that she was okay.

A few hours later she showed up at my window. I finally felt some relief as I opened the window to let her in. She hesitated partway through, starting to back up a bit, no doubt sensing my excitement. I quickly grabbed her, plopped her onto the floor, and slammed the window shut. I was going to keep my word to myself about no longer risking her life due to my own foolishness.

The transition to suddenly being an indoor cat wasn't easy on her at first. It must have been confusing and it must have felt confining. She wasn't accustomed to using a litterbox, and at the beginning would hold her urine for literally 48 hours, which worried me. A couple of times when she finally did pee she didn't do it in the litterbox. But after a few weeks, this gradually stopped and she was at least going once a day, in the litterbox.

She didn't actually become listless and bored like she had when I kept her in to get spayed a year and a half earlier. (Although there were some very hot days that summer where she and EssPee were both very listless, but that's different!) In retrospect I really needn't have worried about that at all. Mainly she was nervous and had to get used to the new routine. When we adopted Possum, about 10 months old, she and Azrael were not too thrilled with each other, but all that happened between them was growling and hissing and then staying out of each other's way. Not long afterwards we adopted several kittens, with whom Azrael was fine - if they got a little too rambunctious near her, she would just bat them on the head to remind them who was in charge.

Several years and several apartment moves later, she's still mainly the top cat, except that as I mentioned in a previous entry Fred has been bullying her, since the cats' hierarchy is in a bit of a state of flux. The photo on the left shows evidence of when they used to get along! She likes to spend her time sleeping in sunny and/or comfy spots, especially in our solarium and on the top platform of one of the floor-to-ceiling cat trees, and also enjoys sniffing the air at the window screens during warmer weather as well as watching squirrels in the park the apartment looks out onto. She's mainly a very quiet cat who doesn't meow, but every once in a rare while she'll roam up and down the hall at night meowing loudly in a way that I can only describe as otherworldly. It's been quite a while since the last time she's done this; it used to be more frequent back in Montreal not long after we started keeping her inside. I always wonder what's going on in her mind at the time... More recently, she used to love coming into the bedroom at night and sleeping on top of me, but unfortunately she hasn't been able to the last few months since we moved Hanna Harriet into the bedroom - the door is now usually kept closed to keep Fred from fighting with Hanna Harriet, who isn't fond of other cats at the best of times.

So, now you know a little about my sweet yet neurotic Azrael. She's been my dear friend for nearly seven years, and hopefully will be for many more. As an individual with likes and dislikes, preferences and interests, habits and personality traits, her personhood is clear. But there's no difference in terms of sentience between her and each of the billions of nonhuman animals that humans use and kill every year. If you aren't already vegan, take the personhood of nonhumans seriously and go vegan today!

Another tea post coming soon... Dxo

Everyone already knows that calcium is key to strong bones and teeth. It's a little less known that it's required for nerve and muscle function as well as blood clotting. Ninety-nine percent of the calcium in the human body is stored in the bones and teeth while the remaining one percent is stored in the blood and other tissues. Calcium moves about in our bodies in two ways, from consuming it and pulling it from our bones. Extracting it from bones happens when blood levels of calcium drop too low, usually when it's been awhile since having eaten a meal containing calcium. Ideally, the mooched calcium will be replaced later on, but this doesn't always happen and replacing the borrowed calcium can't be accomplished simply by eating more calcium.

One of the most common questions a vegan will hear is "Where/how do you get enough calcium?" If we don't consume dairy then we must struggle to get this vital nutrient no? We listen to our televisions, schools, parents, governments tell us our whole lives that not only do we need calcium but we need to get it from milk, cheese, yogurt and all things dairy. It certainly seems like you need dairy to get to the amounts of calcium recommended. While we do indeed need calcium there are many ways in which to get it. Chances are good that we do not need quite as much as the US RDA suggests and there are other healthier ways to get it than the dairy overload diet more and more people are led to eat.

To look at the issue simply, milk from other animals is nutritionally too much for us. The milk produced by each mammal is especially formulated to fuel their infant's extremely high growth rate during those first weeks/months/years (depending on which mammal we are looking at). Cow's milk has more than four times the calcium content as human breast milk. We do not need this amount of calcium during our greatest growth cycle. Why would such a concentration of calcium, ideal for a baby not even of our species, be required when we stop growing bones as adults? Just look at the size of cows. Their bones are much larger than human bones . Comparatively we humans are tiny. Not once during our entire life span do we need to grow to the size of a cow.

Most mammals are weaned after this first big growth stage because they are able to finish growing and thriving on the diets of their parents and others of their kind. We drink milk as babies and normally by the time we reach the age of about 5 we stop producing the enzyme to digest milk, lactase. The ability to truly digest lactose (people who continue to produce lactase in sufficient quantities) occurs in only about one third of the world's population, mostly Caucasians. Which brings us to another issue, lactose intolerance. It is portrayed as an illness or a defect but it is in fact part of our natural maturation. We're supposed to grow out of milk. Our mommies don't need to provide us with milk anymore because we are big kids and can eat big kid foods and our bodies know this.

The consumption of cow's milk also means a big shot of saturated fat and protein at the same time. The jury is still out about protein and calcium but there seems to be some evidence of increased calcium loss through urine while also consuming lots of protein. So you might be dumping most of that calcium from that glass of milk or hunk of cheese literally down the toilet. Sodium also increases calcium loss, 5-10mg of calcium for each gram of salt. Depending on how the rest of your diet looks, again, all that calcium might be going right down the drain.

There are few studies on vegans and calcium. However we don't need lab results to find the evidence we need. The world picture fails to support benefits claimed by the dairy industry. Countries that have the highest traditional consumption of dairy products (United States, Sweden, Israel, Finland, and the United Kingdom) also have the highest rates of osteoporosis-related hip fractures. Places in the world with a traditionally low intake of dairy such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and countries in rural Africa have the lowest incidence of osteoporosis. Worldwide, the incidence of osteoporosis correlates directly and strongly with animal protein intake. The highly acidic nature of animal protein could be the major cause of bone loss in these animal intensive regions. We must also take into account that the calcium in cow's milk is supposed to come from the grass but most cows never see grass, never mind eat any of it. Their feed is supplemented with calcium. Since the cows are being fed supplements couldn't we not just supplement our own feed? The closer we look, whole idea that we need to drink milk becomes more and more unnatural.

So how much calcium do we need? A good question as the authorities cannot seem to agree. The US RDA states that we need 800-1000 mg of calcium per day. The World Health Organization puts it at 400-500 mg and Japan's recommendation is 600 mg and in the UK it's 700 mg. In the end I don't think exact figures are important. It is only recently, when humans started over engineering their food, that we have started worrying about specific levels of nutrients. Osteoporosis is also a recent problem. Coincidence? Couple that with companies and industries wanting to sell as much of their product as possible and it is clear that we are over complicating the matter. We have allowed ourselves to play mother nature thinking we could make food better. It is no coincidence that we have so many diseases (such as osteoporosis) that simply were not an issue before our over engineered consumer driven society emerged . You can get all the calcium you need without suckling at the teats of other animals.

While the amounts of absorbable calcium from vegetarian sources varies, it is clear that a diet containing a wide variety of foods (and if you are worried, a supplement – from vegetarian sources of course) will get you to any of the recommended calcium levels you subscribe to. To help you actually get the calcium where you need it keep in mind that vitamin D, and likely K, aid in the absorption of calcium. When blood levels of calcium begin to drop, the body responds in several ways. It promotes the conversion of vitamin D into its active form, which then travels to the intestines (to encourage greater calcium absorption into the blood) and to the kidneys (to minimize calcium loss in the urine). Get your vitamin D primarily from the sun just like most of the other animals. Animal products that claim high vitamin D collect it mostly through enriched feed or sun exposure, both of which we can do directly to ourselves. There is also the third option of eatting foods that contain some vitamin D. Essentially vegans are at no more of a disadvantage than omnivores to get enough vitamin D. If you do start taking a vitamin D supplement make sure it is D2 (ergocalciferol) which is vegan (usually derived from yeast), D3 (cholecalciferol) is animal derived (usually sheep's wool or fish oil). Vitamin K, which is found mainly in green leafy vegetables, likely plays an important role in calcium regulation and bone formation.

I'll give you a little reference so we have somewhere to start on this "we don't need no stinkin' dairy" journey but remember that these are not the only foods with these nutrients and ultimately you should be eating a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and grains. In this way you can be sure to hit all your nutritional needs. In addition there are several vegan multi or specific vitamins available on the market to be found in your local coop, natural food store, mail order, or maybe even in your local chain supermarket.

Souces of Calcium in common veggie friendly foods:
Collards (1 cup) 357mg
Spinach (1cup) 291mg
Blackeyed Peas (1cup) 211mg
Calcium set tofu (3oz) 163mg
Canned Baked Beans (1cup) 154mg
Broccoli (280g – 1 stalk) 112mg
Green Peas (1cup) 94mg
Fortified Soymilk (1 cup) 93mg
Kale (1 cup) 93mg
Oranges (1 cup) 72mg
Almonds (1 oz - 24 almonds) 70mg

Sources of Vitamin K (mcg per 100g)
Cauliflower 3600
Brussels sprouts 800
Broccoli 800
Lettuce 700
Spinach 600
Tomatoes 400
Cabbage 400
String beans 290

What we hear coming at us from such trustworthy sources as our schools and our government is actually advertising from the dairy industry. They wish to continue selling as much of their product as they can. Yes, humans are omnivores. We can eat just about anything and get energy and nutrients from it. We're lucky like that. However, ethics aside (because this is primarily a post about nutrition and health), humans were not built to handle, over the long term, many of the things we feed ourselves, including dairy. Pay attention to who is doing the latest study claiming the latest breakthrough, a business studying it's own product is probably not the best source of reliable information on that product. When a popular yogurt brand tells you that "calcium helps you lose weight and yogurt is a good source of calcium!" remember that it's just a commercial meant to sell you yogurt.

When I think about the best foods I've ever had, it's rarely something time consuming or complicated (aside from the Leek and Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits in Veganomicon.) More often than not the best things are simple, have only a few ingredients, or... are constructed almost entirely of leftovers.

You heard me. Leftovers.

Rice and other grains, beans, odds and ends of veggies, a dollop of baba ganoush from when you broke down and ordered Indian, that handful of salad you couldn't bring yourself to throw away, they can all be reincarnated in so many ways, but my obsession of the moment it wraps. Maybe it's the portability thing again? Or maybe it's because I hate putting dirty silverware in my lunchbox, I don't really know, but they're quick to throw together (very important for lunches, since I'm usually already running late by the time I decide I should make a lunch to bring with me,) and can serve as a base for all kinds of flavors, limited only by your culinary imagination.

The wrap that inspired this post did take a little more work, I had a bell pepper that wasn't going to be usable much longer, so I just sliced it up and sautéed it with olive oil and some red onion (leftover from another recipe, for the record.) It probably took me less than ten minutes, and I actually sautéed way more than I needed, providing me leftovers to do other things with later.




After I was done cooking the peppers, I used the same pan to heat up leftover quinoa-chickpea pilaf, enough so that some of it browned for a little added flavor. Throw those with some leftover salad on a tortilla that's been warmed up in the oven for a minute and slathered with some hummus and eggplant garlic spread (basically baba ganoush in a jar.)



See? Ridiculously easy, tasty wrap that uses up the things that needed to be used before they went bad/ I was sick of eating/ there wasn't enough of to eat on it's own.

So here's a question for you guys, what's your favorite food? If you're feeling super motivated, I would also love to hear why.

Until next time,
Courtney

Härom året blev jag intervjuad i en radiokanal i Göteborg. Programmet gjordes av journaliststudenter och temat var ungefär "frågorna som försvann ur medierna". I mitt fall ville programledarna veta vad som hände med djurrättsrörelsen efter 1990-talet. Jag svarade att djurrättsrörelsen inte alls har försvunnit – den har nämligen inte ens börjat.

Naturligtvis finns det mängder av individer, grupper och organisationer som på något sätt arbetar "för djuren", och det är snart 200 år sedan den första djurskyddsorganisationen bildades. Men dessa organisationer har sällan fokuserat på djurens rättigheter, utan har lagt det mesta av sina resurser på välfärdsreformer (human slakt, miljöberikade burar) och enfrågekampanjer (stoppa säljakten, stäng pälsfarmerna, lagstifta mot svanskupering, förbjud kastrering utan bedövning).

En djurrättsrörelse i strikt bemärkelse – en rörelse som sätter arbetet för upplysning om djurs rättigheter i centrum – har först nyligen börjat skymta fram. Nick Pendergrast skriver bra om denna nya utveckling i artikeln "Animal Rights Enters the Mainstream" på Newmatilda.com:

The title of this article may confuse some people. You may be thinking "but animal rights is an issue that is in the mainstream all the time — when I walk through the city I see billboards campaigning for an end to live animal export to the Middle East. Same thing when I turn on my television — I see Jamie Oliver exposing the treatment of chickens in factory farms, or when I walk through the supermarket there are RSPCA ads telling me to choose cage-free eggs". These, however, are not about animal rights at all. They are about promoting animal welfare, which certainly is a mainstream issue.

The distinction between the two approaches is critical to understanding why the rights focus is finally gaining traction. Animal welfare involves promoting better treatment of animals by humans, whereas an animal rights ideology means striving for the abolition of humans’ use of animals, regardless of their treatment. While animal welfare campaigns try to improve the treatment of animals raised for food, clothing and so on, animal rights campaigns push to abolish the use of animals for all of these purposes.

The inescapable objective of this animal rights ideology therefore is the adoption and promotion of a lifestyle that avoids the use of animal-derived products — in a word, veganism.

Det är just det sista ordet här – veganism – som idag är det skavande sandkornet i de traditionella djurrörelsernas badbrallor. Respekt för ickemänskliga djurs intressen kan helt inte förenas med att de reduceras till varor och produktionsenheter. Respekt för andra djur kräver veganism.

Men att konsekvent driva den linjen är problematiskt för de redan etablerade djurorganisationerna. Det skrämmer nämligen bort gamla (speciesistiska, köttätande) medlemmar. Och med medlemmarna försvinner förstås också medlemsavgifter, gåvor och arv.

Reformkrav och enfrågekampanjer däremot, har den mobiliserande fördelen att människor inte behöver köpa "hela paketet", vilket gör det tilltalande för de stora organisationerna att välja den vägen för att locka och behålla medlemmar.

Nackdelen med enfrågefokuset är dock att det tenderar att förvirra djurrättsbudskapet. Enfrågekampanjer pekar ut vissa företeelser som särskilt djurplågande och oacceptabla, med följden att det vardagliga djurförtrycket ofta undslipper kritik. Som Gary L. Francione skriver på sin blogg Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach, innebär enfrågekampanjer att vissa former av förtryck ges en moralisk särställning:

Most people think that eating meat, dairy, and all other animal products, or wearing or using animal products, is as natural as drinking water or breathing air. So when we single out one form of animal exploitation, we necessarily distinguish it for moral purposes.

That is, if most people think that eating meat and dairy and eggs is “natural” and raises no moral problem, focusing on meat necessarily conveys the idea that dairy and eggs are different and that their use is morally acceptable or, at least, morally distinguishable.

In sum, if X, Y, and Z are all viewed as morally acceptable and you single out X as morally problematic, you implicitly say to the public that Y and Z are different from X and that they are not morally unacceptable, or are at least morally distinguishable from X.

We see this problem every day: people think that fur is morally different from leather, wool, or silk; they think that meat is morally different from other animal products.

Djurrörelserna har med andra ord ägnat årtionden – snart århundraden – åt att sprida ett budskap som närmast försäkrar att människor aldrig kommer att se skogen för alla träd. Och som dessutom får arbete för veganism och djurrätt att framstå som något "överdrivet" eller "extremt". För vad ska den genomsnittliga speciesistiskt fostrade medborgaren tro när en stor djurorganisation står utanför matbutiken och säger att man inte bör köpa ägg från hönor i burar, medan en annan liten grupp står i ett hörn och säger att man inte bör köpa ägg alls? Enfrågefokuset får den praktiska konsekvensen att olika aktivister motarbetar varandra, trots att de flesta av dem egentligen vill säga samma sak.

Men samtidigt finns i detta dilemma ett frö till den där djurrättsrörelsen som inte riktigt har börjat än. Det finns idag miljoner veganer som inget hellre skulle vilja än att arbeta för sina djurrättsliga idéers spridning. Men de etablerade organisationerna erbjuder sällan några möjligheter att kanalisera denna vilja. I det läget är det glädjande med den självaktiverande trend som Pendergrast menar att vi nu kan iaktta:

Interestingly, apart from challenging the welfarism of the large animal advocacy organisations, the animal rights movement is questioning the need for organisations at all. Animal rights activists are using the internet to cheaply distribute their own leaflets, video presentations, blogs, articles, podcasts and much more, without needing help from organisational structures.

Den uppenbara invändningen mot en sådan ny abolitionistisk gräsrotsrörelse – att djurrätt och veganism inte nås över en natt och att det är orealistiskt och idealistiskt att ägna sig åt sådan aktivism – kan bemötas på tre sätt.

För det första med att det är betydligt mer orealistiskt att tro att djurskydd + djurskydd + djurskydd = djurrätt. Vi har idag mer djurskyddsregler än någonsin, men ändå utnyttjas fler djur mer intensivt än någonsin. Reformer och enfrågekampanjer skymmer i praktiken sikten för det systematiska speciesistiska förtrycket och ger människor gott samvete utan någon väsentlig förändring.

Sådan aktivism räddar heller inga djur "här och nu" – lagstiftning på djurskyddsområdet tar årtionden att genomdriva, och även då finns det ofta kryphål för djurindustrierna (tänk till exempel på förbudet mot att hålla hönor i burar eller EU:s direktiv om ett stopp för kosmetikatester på djur).

För det andra är det helt omöjligt att tänka sig en djurrättslig framtid utan en rörelse som här, nu, idag tar djurrätt och veganism på allvar och sätter dessa frågor i centrum. Om vi inte tar tag i den frågan så lämnar vi bara över den till en kommande generation som måste göra jobbet. Och de kommer inte att vara nådiga i sin dom över oss som borde ha vetat bättre – och som dessutom hade alla förutsättningar för att göra bättre.

För det tredje – hur vet vi att det inte fungerar när vi inte har försökt? Faktum är ju att ytterst lite av "djurrättsrörelsens" tid, energi och pengar, hittills har ägnats åt abolitionistiskt arbete. Som sociologen och djurrättsförespråkaren Roger Yates skriver verkar många djuretiskt engagerade ha tagit ut förlusten i förskott:

Why, since the modern animal protection movement has rarely if ever pursued an abolitionist agenda for any prolonged period, are many advocates apparently and unequivocally so sure that it is doomed to failure? Why are they so convinced that it will take hundreds of years? Why, moreover, that a philosophical grounding in widely accepted ideas of rights undoubtedly represent demands that unrealistically call for ‘too much’?

Den abolitionistiska rörelse som vi nu börjar skönja har insett detta, och resonerar istället som Joan Dunayer i hennes kritik av de etablerade djurorganisationernas "nyspeciesistiska" strategi:

"Welfarists" who call themselves animal rights weaken the concept of nonhuman rights. They confuse the public into believing that imprisonment, slaughter and other abuse of nonhumans can be compatible with rights. Someone who doesn’t possess a right to life and liberty possesses no rights at all. ‘Welfarists’ shrink nonhuman rights down to the right to move, the right to be fed by one’s captors and the right to be murdered less cruelly.

"Welfarist" guidelines and laws perpetuate speciesist exploitation by re-legitimizing it, giving the exploiters positive publicity, make critics appear unreasonable, keep abolitionism marginalized, encourage humans who care about nonhumans to continue to buy animal derived products, and leave nonhumans in the power of their abusers. (Joan Dunayer, Speciesism, 2004:72)

Djurrättsaktivism – som all annan aktivism – är ett nollsummespel. När vi väljer att göra något så väljer vi samtidigt bort allt annat vi skulle kunnat göra istället. Frågorna som alla djurrättsaktivister måste ställa sig är därför: Gör vi verkligen det vi borde göra? Säger vi verkligen det vi vill säga? Är vårt budskap reformistiskt och enfrågeinriktat där det istället kunde vara djurrättsligt och abolitionistiskt?

Jag håller nog fast vid påståendet att djurrättsrörelsen inte har börjat än. Men det är i dessa frågor den en dag kommer att börja. Och frågorna ställs nu av allt fler.

Live cooking action photos by Jay!

You will need...

8oz vegan digestive biscuits(I use Morrisons' Value ones)
4oz vegan margarine
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
1 heaped tbsp syrup
2 bars of plain chocolate
dried fruits and nuts of your choice(optional)

Crush the biscuits into crumbsMelt the marge, sugar, cocoa and syrup in a pan. Now add the biscuits to the melted mixture
Now press into a sandwich tin then put into fridge to set (should only take 20 mins)
Melt the chocolate bar over a bain marie(or a makeshift bain marie using a pan and a pyrex dish like I did!)Spread melted chocolate with optional added fruit or nuts (I used almonds and dried cherries) over the biscuit mixtureNow press more nuts, like these walnuts, on to to garnish if desired, then ut back in fridge to set

...Voila, you have a fridge cake! Slice into pieces and serve!

I received the ideeli.com French Connection order yesterday. Today's mail brought two packages from sellers on etsy.com.

I wore the Tim boatneck top yesterday & it was perfect. My new necklace, with the combined birthstones of Mark's & my own, is lovely. I'm wearing it right now. Oh, and same thing with the new earrings. I <3 new things.


french connection tops from ideeli.com

I would post a link but ideeli only runs these deals for a day or two. These shirts are no longer available.

amethyst & peridot "lil treasure' necklace by shijewels on etsy.com

from etsy.com/shijewels

sterling silver double beaded hoop earrings by irisjewelry on etsy.com

etsy.com/irisjewelry

When Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar showed up on my doorstep I was absolutely ecstatic. Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World is one of my favorite dessert cookbook’s and is always great in a pinch and I was hoping for the same go-to quality from Isa and Terry’s new adventure. I started with the classic cookies and worked my way up to the more adventurous. The Chocoalte Chip Cookies were

Greetings this solo vegan has been a busy one. With moving in to my new digs and attempting to manage an active social life, I have found little time to stop and reflect on all the changes. This is my first stab at living all on my lonesome. I don't miss my roommate. It was a pairing that I allowed to persist for far to long. I have no hard feelings we simply are very,very different people. I don't know I just never admitted to myself how lively my persona is/was in contrast to her. Damn my need to accept and understand. I suppose if it is a flaw that is one worth having. I'm happy to write that I've made several new mates since my debut on the Dallas queer scene. Some say good friends are hard to come by but my faith and love for humanity is constantly renewed by the positive connections I've made.

Peace and love from OneVegan.

Att hjälpa genom att döda

Jag har många gånger påpekat att ett av de största problemen med djurskyddsideologin – speciesismens hegemoniska form i vår tid – är att den förvandlar våld och dödande till en sorts "aktivism" för ickemänskliga djur.

Ett typiskt exempel är papperskassen från Coop som säger "Genom att du valde ekologiskt förra året fick 12 800 kor, grisar och lamm leva ett naturligare liv. Det tackar de för." (Observara det lilla grammatiska förbehållet: "ett naturligare liv" – inte "ett naturligt liv".)

Budskapet är här att konsumenten hjälper djuren genom att betala för deras fortsatta utnyttjande. Det tycks vara en framgångsrik ideologisk manöver för att skjuta verkliga förhållanden åt sidan. För egentligen borde det ju stå så här på kassen: "Genom att du åt kött, mjölk och ägg förra året tvingades 80 000 000 djur lida och dö i onödan."



Det är med hjälp av sådana här budskap som djurskyddsideologin får djurförtrycket att framstå som något normalt och okontroversiellt. Den historia som berättas handlar om att det finns en sfär inom vilken djuranvändandet är fullt acceptabelt. I den zonen bor alla vanliga konsumenter av djurprodukter. Och så finns det ett område utanför den zonen, ett obehagligt landskap där det bor "djurplågare" av olika slag: rötäggen bland grisfarmare, bönder som låter sina djur svälta, zoofiler, och asiater i allmänhet.

För att denna historia ska fungera måste zongränserna upprätthållas. Vi kan inte vara "normala" om Dom inte är "onormala". Vår vardagliga svenska djurvänlighet är med andra ord på ett perverst sätt beroende av de Andras djurplågeri – om de Andra inte fanns så skulle vi inte ha något att kontrastera vår egen behandling av ickemänskliga djur emot.

"Ät kött från lyckliga djur"

En annan sådan zongräns handlar om naturligheten. Den framkommer tydligt i Tommy Hammarströms ledarkolumn i Expressen (15/2 -10) med titeln "Ät kött från lyckliga djur". Hammarström uppmärksammar det grundläggande hyckleriet bakom konsumtionen av industriuppfödda djur, och han kritiserar moralpaniken kring tv-programmet "Landet Brunsås" där en av programledarna skulle äta upp ett marsvin. Men trots dessa kritiska synpunkter upprätthåller Hammarström en speciesistisk zonindelning mellan acceptabelt och oacceptabelt djurutnyttjande.

Enligt Hammarström har "djurens industrialisering ... en naturlig gräns och när den överskrids uppstår detta systematiska djurplågeri som då och då avslöjas i svinfabriker och kycklinghangarer". När han däremot kör förbi några fritt gående kor i Värmland ser han bara produkter som kan ätas med "gott samvete".

För Hammarström är det"industrialisering" och "rationalisering", tillsammans med "det gap som uppstått mellan matproducenter och matätare", som står för problemen i djur-människa-relationen. Om bara industrialiseringen kan rullas tillbaka och gapet mellan producent och konsument kan slutas, så är problemet löst och harmonin återställd. Därför konkluderar han att "de lugnt idisslande kossorna i snön går en naturligare väg, och det känns ändå som ett slags hopp".

Men vad gäller detta hopp egentligen? Som jag ser det återberättar Hammarströms kolumn bara speciesismens mest grundläggande ideologiska illusion – drömmen om det konfliktfria, moraliskt okontroversiella djurutnuttjandet. Detta tillstånd kanske inte finns just nu när industrialisering och rationalisering härskar inom lantbruket, men Hammarströms resonemang syftar ändå till att hålla drömmen om ett framtida harmoniskt tillstånd vid liv.

Hammarströms analys slutar med andra ord precis där allt djurrättsligt tänkande tar sin början. Inga frågor ställs om huruvida det är berättigat att döda andra medvetna varelser utan trängande skäl. Inte heller ställs några frågor om de sociala orsakerna till att djurutnyttjandet uppfattas som okontroversiellt.

"Stå för matkulturen"

Lite mer kritisk är Fredrik Lindström i sin kolumn i Aftonbladet (8/2 -10) med titeln "Ta bort skygglapparna – stå för matkulturen!". Där argumenterar han bland annat för att SVT borde ha sänt det numera välkända marsvinsinslaget, just för att det skulle ha varit "en riktig brandfackla i en oerhört viktig etisk debatt".

Lindström bidrar själv till den debatten genom att uttryckligen lyfta upp de kulturella och sociala faktorerna bakom djurutnyttjandet:

Vi lever på invanda traditioner, och kan göra det så länge vi inte behöver ta konsekvenserna. Lek med tanken på att vi skulle börja från noll i dag. Ingenting var givet, allt omprövas från grunden. Vi började från början med allt. De som ville ha kött fick slakta och stycka det själva.

Hur många av oss skulle fortsätta med köttbullar här i det rika västerlandet, där det inte är några problem att få näring och proteiner utan slakt? Handlar det kanske om 10 procent av befolkningen? Och då huvudsakligen de redan jakt- och slaktvana. Bara att tvingas se slakten skulle skrämma bort mer än hälften.

...

Basen i vår matkultur är, åtminstone för den stora majoriteten som äter industrislaktad föda, inte etik eller konsekventa ställningstaganden – utan fusk.

Det är förvisso ett par viktiga poänger. Ändå tycker jag att Lindström förblir olovligt okritisk mot speciesismens normer när han drar sina slutsatser:

Jag säger inte att man inte ska äta djur. Men ska man göra det får det inte bygga på blundande. Det måste ske på ett sätt man kan stå för och ta konsekvenserna av.

Här finns det mycket att undra över. För det första är det omöjligt att hitta ett argument i texten som berättigar den första slutsatsen. Men det var kanske inte heller Lindströms ambition i just den här texten, så det kan väl vara förlåtet. Han kanske skriver om det en annan vecka.

Mer problematisk är slutklämmen som handlar om det är okej att utnyttja djur så länge det inte bygger på "blundande" och man "står för" och "tar konsekvenserna" av det man gör. Vad innebär egentligen detta? Ska vi läsa detta som att de "kanske 10 procent" av befolkningen som fortfarande anser sig kunna "stå för" sitt djurutnyttjande inte behöver presentera några skäl för detta ställningstagande? Men det kan väl knappast vara så att Lindström anser att kallhamrad känslolöshet inför andra kännande varelser kan ersätta etiskt rättfärdigande?

I vilket annat sammanhang skulle en sådan argumentationslinje anses godtagbar? Är det till exempel okej för mig att utöva dödligt våld med rasistiska eller sexistiska motiv, om jag bara "står för" det och inte "blundar" för vad jag gör? Naturligtvis inte. Och det tycker så klart inte Lindström heller. Det är bara det att de glasögon vi hittills har förvärvat för att se det onda i rasism och kvinnoförtryck är mer finkalibrerade än de grumliga linser genom vilka vi ännu betraktar djur-människa-relationen. (Därmed absolut inte sagt att rasism och sexism skulle vara överspelade samhällsproblem, tvärtom.)

Och vad innebär det att "ta konsekvenserna" av sitt djurförtryck? Finns det över huvud taget några sådana "konsekvenser" i ett samhälle genomsyrat av speciesism? Det tycks mig som att det värsta som kan hända en hycklande köttätare idag är att det kommer någon enstaka djurrättsförespråkare och sprider lite irriterande dåligt samvete. En kritik som oftast snabbt överskuggas av den bekräftelse av ens normalitet som den vardagliga sociala konsumtionen av djurprodukter erbjuder. För vad spelar kritik från en sådan "extremistisk" minoritet för roll när varje måltid tillsammans med andra människor visar att ens invanda beteende är både normalt och önskvärt? Den personliga kostnaden för fortsatt konsumtion av djurprodukter är med andra ord inte särskilt hög. Om detta är de "konsekvenser" man får ta för sin djurproduktskonsumtion, så lär de knappast vara särskilt belastande för någon.

Lindström gör med andra ord också en zonindelning mellan acceptabelt och oacceptabelt djurutnyttjande. Det acceptabla djurutnyttjandet är det som man "står för" och "tar konsekvenserna" av, medan det oacceptabla är det som man deltar i när man oreflekterat följer kulturella normer och gör sig till hycklare genom att få moralpanik över den peruanska seden att äta marsvin.

Men tröskeln för att byta zon är inte speciellt hög hos Lindström. Det tycks räcka att yttra de magiska orden "jag står för det jag gör", så har man köpt sig moralisk asyl i djurvänlighetens rike. På detta sätt påminner Lindströms argument om Hammarströms. Det gäller bara att minska "gapet" mellan producent och konsument, att sluta "blunda" för vad som händer, så är problemen ur världen.

Köttätarens tragik

Lindströms resonemang andas också lite av samma "offeretik" som jag tidigare kritiserat i Po Tidholms försvar av sin hemslakt av lamm. Där skrev jag att dödandet av djur ofta framställs i helt inverterad form – som en tragisk uppoffring av den som utför dödandet. Denna tragiska formel gör att den som dödar djur tycks ha god chans att bli moraliskt friskriven om dödandet bara kan kopplas ihop med en motsvarande kostnad för den som utför handlingen. Den moraliska skuld en person ådrar sig genom att döda ett djur kan enkelt betalas genom det offentliga bekännandet av att handlingen medför ett personligt trauma (att man "tar konsekvenserna" som Lindström skriver").

Eller lite annorlunda uttryckt: Om någon säger att de gärna dödar djur för nöjes skull uppfattar vi den personen som djupt oetisk. Men om någon utför exakt likadana handlingar – med exakt likadana konsekvenser – under betygande att de helst skulle vilja slippa utföra dem, så antar personens agerande en air av tragisk heroism. Hon vill inte, men gör det ändå. Han lider av det, men härdar ut. Resultatet är att förövaren blir det verkliga offret.

Offeretiken är på det sättet en mäktig symbolisk ekonomi med kraft att dramatiskt förändra våra handlingars betydelse. Det tänkandet måste övervinnas om vi ska kunna komma till de väsentliga frågorna. Som till exempel frågan om det verkligen gör någon skillnad för de drabbade djurindividerna om de hamnar i händerna på en pervers nöjesdödare eller en självutnämnd tragisk hjälte.

I know I haven't made anything for this blog in some time but my January was crazy busy. Things are a little calmer now. I have been making things for the group blog so I thought I would post a round-up of recent recipes.

Some dishes since the new year:

• Falafel Sandwiches and Classic Tabbouleh
• Spaghetti and T-Balls with Marinara Sauce
• Korean Noodle Stir-Fry with Soy-Glazed Tofu
• Tempeh Tantrum Burgers
• Macaroni Salad
• EBAP (Everything But Animal Products) Pizza
• Pecan Pie (... but with walnuts)

I swear I'll do something interesting for this blog soon. Maybe with my pasta machine which is still in the box! :p I don't have a lot of readers but my sister is my biggest fan and supporter, and I'm sure she'd appreciate some new posts here! *waves to big sis* :)

Packages from Petit Bateau & Etsy.com, oh my.

another marinière & a tank top (maternity? what!)


from petitbateau.us
2. petitbateau.us


I'm always appreciative when my etsy.com orders show up in fancy packaging. It's disappointing when they don't. This package wasn't a disappointment & the earrings were fabulous. I wore them the same day!


from etsy.com/destinyscreations

The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet by Alicia Silverstone My rating: 2 of 5 stars While I'm not a fan of books that tout veganism as a diet I make myself read books like this and (ugh) Skinny Bitch so I can critique the content instead of just making a judgment on the title alone. That said, I will say The Kind Diet is a beautiful book: full

As I debated what to order from Better World Books to qualify for their 14% off promotion I felt a bit guilty for ordering yet another book or four. Our spare room is packed with books - stacks of books my mom read to me as a child, books from my time in college and grad school, plus heaps of books I've acquired from library book sales. While some of these hold sentimental value and some are so

I'm still on a roll with testing for Isa's newest book, so here's a taste (har) to keep you excited!


Tamarind BBQ Tempeh & Sweet Potatoes


Potato Celeriac Soup with Brussels


Tortilla Soup


Chickpea Piccata over mashed potatoes and arugula


Brussels Sprouts Potato Hash


Tempeh & Black Eyed Pea Meatballs and Olivada Marinara over gluten-free pasta

Speaking of GF pasta, I am totally in love with Ancient Harvest Quinoa's gluten-free pasta. It holds up equally well in stove-top pasta dishes as well as baked casseroles. The elbows and the spaghetti are my favorite. And it doesn't give you crazy poops the next day! I just wish they made lasagna noodles. Anyone got a recommendation for other GF pasta to try?

I'm working on a post about vegan knitting. Any questions about vegan knitting, or yarn, or anything else you'd like to see in the blog, please leave a comment and let us know! I'm curious to see what sort of direction readers expect/want from this blog. We kind of started it as a chronicle of our first baby steps as vegans. It's still important to us to help out newbie vegans as much as possible (Mom, Dad, come on, you know you can do it!), but also that we explore other topics as well. So let us know!

Hello all. I am currently testing out the blogger application for iPhone. Let's see how it goes!

A little over a week ago my friend Rob let me host a fully vegan dinner party at his amazing high rise. I was completely stressed when I found out how many people were going to be there, which was around 50. Out of 50 people there were 3 vegans and 2 vegetarians.

I cooked about 6 different dishes and luckily my friend Deanna, who was hosting with me, brought a bunch of great food! I hoped and wished that would be enough, but luckily there were plenty of people bringing food as well! It was so great to see people participating even though they probably never shopped for anything vegan in their lives.

Now for the good news and the bad news.

THE GOOD NEWS: I have never received more compliments in my life. The way I was introduced to veganism was completely WRONG. I had a friend emailing me photos of slaughtered animals and trying to force information on me instead of taking a smoother, less hostile approach. And while my respect for all life is one of the reasons I chose veganism, it was just the wrong way to go about it. When I finally did go vegan (not because of that person) I told myself that I would never be THAT kind of vegan.

Most americans think all we eat is salad and I wanted to show people that that is false. I always want to introduce veganism to people in a positive way and thanks to Rob I was able to do that to many people at once. I met a lot of new people and heard more feedback than I ever have. I was even receiving feedback for Deanna's dishes which I passed on to her.

THE BAD NEWS: I have no pictures!!! I was so incredibly busy through the whole party that I forgot until half way through. By then there wasn't much left to get pictures of. I think Deanna may have some shots. I also wanted to get video footage and failed to do that as well. Buh!!!

In conclusion, it was a great time, people were happy and I only heard 1 person talking shit. I expected at least that, but coming to a vegan dinner party and talking shit on veganism seems a bit silly, don't you think? Thank you Rob for suggesting that we do this party. And for the invitation to do it again!



And now, some mobile uploads of food eaten while out and about. Beware, they are not high quality photos.

Dolmas from Paymon's:



Falafel from Paymon's:



Zucchini enciladas, dolmas and tofu stroganoff from Whole Foods:



And, 2 different trips for veggie sushi at Momo Sushi.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Not cooking on the move. More like cooking when you have to move.

• Pictures :: These are some pictures of my new apartment.
• Download :: Link to download the audio.

File Download (27:42 min / 13 MB)

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1. Knowing that I get to knit on my lunch break2. Chips and spicy hummus3. Pilot G-2 10 pt pens4. Ravelry.com5. Oregon t-shirts

A popular subject of debate within the vegan community is that of imposing veganism on carnivorous and omnivorous companion animals such as dogs and cats. Living with meat eating animals presents a unique moral dilemma for the vegan: is it acceptable to support the exploitation and killing of animals to support the life of another animal? This problem is so preeminent for the vegan community that a variety of vegan pet food products for dogs and cats have been produced - and do indeed successfully sell.

Yet feeding dogs & cats a vegan diet raises other moral questions for the conscientious vegan. For one, is it truly healthy to feed these animals a vegan diet despite claims of complete nutrition posed by the companies that produce such products? And do we have the right to impose our ethics on another species, to such an extent that we alter basic fundamentals like their natural dietary preferences?

There are good ethical arguments to be made on both sides of the coin. Animal nutritionists - and I would be inclined to agree - point out that an unnatural diet heavy in vegetable matter is largely the reason why dogs and cats have so much diet related illness to begin with. For an obligate carnivore like the cat, vegan diets present certain health obstacles, and while it would stand to reason that fortified nutrition should solve these issues, I am yet to see any lengthy peer-reviewed studies on the validity of vegan diets for felines OR canines.

AAFCO does not require extensive trials before approving foods. There is no requirement to study the life-long effects of a given diet. What's more, AAFCO standards deal with animal nutrition the way we've approached human nutrition. We cut everything down into percentages while ignoring the importance of nutrient context and nutrient interactions. Food science is so complex that it is constantly evolving, and the more we research, the more one thing becomes glaringly apparent: processed diets are poor nutrition - for humans and other animals.

The best nutrition for a dog or cat, point blank, is a diet based in varied whole animal proteins, and for dogs, some plant proteins as well. Ideally an obligate carnivore like the cat should be feeding on whole prey items, not pellets or canned foods. Ideally an omnivore like the dog should have varied nutrition from plant and animal sources, not a limited scope of one or two types of protein mixed with an abundance of soy, corn, and wheat. And neither animal should have a diet dominated by vegetable products alone.

Despite this, it is inarguable that feeding meat to dogs and cats conflicts with vegan moral philosophy. There is very little room for grey area on the matter of animal exploitation, and meat is the product of animal exploitation regardless of if it is fed to those on two legs or those on four. For the dedicated vegan, imposing veganism on one's dog or cat seems like the only viable option.

I, however, would challenge the assumption that the only options are to support the meat industry or feed a vegan diet to dogs and cats. My solution is a simple one: vegans should adopt animals that are naturally herbivorous by nature. The third most populated companion animal in the United States is the rabbit. Rabbits are strict herbivores by nature, and unlike dogs and cats, which generally receive proper care in typical homes due to their elevated status as "members of the family," most rabbits short of those kept by enthusiasts receive improper care - even in the homes of well meaning "animal lovers." Qualified adopters are sorely needed for rabbits, and vegans are the perfect candidates to fill these shoes.

Rabbits are hardly the only naturally herbivorous companion available to vegans. Parrots and Green Iguanas are two additional species with exponential surrender rates to exotic animal rescues and shelters, and both thrive on a vegan diet. Both also require highly dedicated, specialized care - perfect for someone with a high regard for animal well being like a vegan. Once reared in captivity these exotic animals are not candidates for return to the wild, so homes willing to provide for their extensive needs as non-domesticated animals are the only option - an option we can offer.

There are also several vegetarian-leaning omnivores that do well on a vegan diet. Omnivores exist in a spectrum; there are animals that consume predominantly plant matter and enrich their diets with animal products, and there are animals that consume predominantly animal matter and enrich their diets with plant matter. Canines fall into the latter category; animal products are a critical part of their nutrition and indeed most thrive even in the absence of plant matter. Their opposites can thrive on an absence of animal matter and require plant matter as critical nutrition. These animals are far better candidates for a vegan diet than a creature like a dog.

Rodents are primarily granivores, and while granivores by nature consume some animal matter (generally invertebrates) when available, they are very capable of adapting to a vegan diet with plant-based protein items. Mice, rats, hamsters, and gerbils have a very low standing in society and are frequently subjected to abuse and exploitation. They can easily be fed a balanced vegan diet to maintain health and make wonderful companions for vegans who live in cramped quarters. Guinea pigs, degu, and chincillas are primarily grazing rodents with no need for animal matter in their diet, and also are in need of adopters.

Finally, vegan homes may be a good option for some of the meekest creatures on earth: humble fish and invertebrates, some of the most ignored and mistreated creatures on the planet. There are many algae-grazing, herbivorous fish species that a vegan may open their home to, and a quick browsing of any pet placement classifieds will show that fish routinely are want for good homes. Though less commonly in need of rescue and adoption, exotic invertebrates such as tropical millipedes and cockroaches are also sometimes offered for adoption, and make for fascinating companions.

In short: it is our duty and obligation as vegans to avoid the exploitation of animals whenever possible, but it is also our duty to protect the health and well being of any companion animals we elect to share our homes with. A vegan diet for a dog or cat is of questionable integrity, particularly in the case of the latter, so a very appropriate compromise for a vegan who wishes to welcome a rescued animal into his or her home is to seek out a naturally herbivorous species. There is no shortage of vegan-friendly companion animals in rescues and shelters across the country. Please, adopt an herbivore.


Image (c) Cats & Rabbits & More

I'm so happy to share that between online and offline donations, Jodi has raised over $600 for these bulls in less than 3 days! :)

This is from one of the latest updates from Jodi: "I am forever grateful to all of you! These cows are just the sweetest - and I think they know something's going on. Yesterday Dan was walking by them, and Spotty Friend was just staring at him intently. Dan told him that we are doing everything we can to save them - and he look at him and let out the longest "MOOOOOOO" ever! :)"

There are many kind and generous people of the Vegan Etsy, EtsyVeg, CFE and EFA teams donating proceeds from their Etsy stores towards this cause. These stores are filled with some wonderful goodies so if there was a time to buy things from them, it is now!

I'll keep updating this list as new people join in to contribute a portion or all of their sales so please keep checking in.




thisisit.etsy.com - donating 100% of sales on both 3rd Feb and 10th Feb









oooohshiny.etsy.com - donating 50% of the sales through 13th Feb









veganosaurus.etsy.com - donating 50% (or more) of sales through 13th Feb









mvegan5.etsy.com - donating 10% of sales through 15th Feb









holisticallyheather.etsy.com - donating 100% of sales through 13th Feb









aktie9.etsy.com - donating 100% of sales through 13th Feb









lolalynn.etsy.com - donating 75% of bracelet sales through 13th Feb







leandogpottery.etsy.com - donating 20% of sales through 13th Feb







kimbascritters.etsy.com - donating 50% of sales through 11th Feb















AuntFlosPads.etsy.com - donating 100% of sales through 13th Feb






dragonhouseofyuen.etsy.com - donating 10% of the next baby hare sale from her store







Karramandi.etsy.com - donating 20% of the next sale from her store







jenoconnell.etsy.com - donating 20% of sales through the end of Feb









silentlotus.etsy.com - donating 25% of sales through 13th Feb









vegandogslife.etsy.com - donating 100% of sales through 12th Feb

I’ve been eating some variation of Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Puttanesca scramble for breakfast almost every day for the last 4 months or so. This morning I was ready to branch out into a world full of new scramble recipes. I thumbed my way through Vegan Brunch looking for a good scramble recipe and decided to give Isa’s Basic Scrambled Tofu a try. But, true to form. I only loosely stuck to the

photo borrowed from Seattle Magazine


I obtained some last-minute tickets to this week's sold-out debut of H3 by Grupo de Rua in Portland. This is the group's first US tour. The choreographer is Brazilian Bruno Beltrão, whose hip-hop and street dance fusion style of dance is not what I usually take myself out to see. I was feeling adventurous, and I trusted the group that brought them to Portland (White Bird's) judgement. The cheap, last minute tickets helped convince me too. This performance was part of the White Bird "Uncaged" series, where they brought in contemporary artists from around the world to non-traditional spaces around Portland.
The performance was in the Bison Building in NE Portland. The old, converted warehouse was a great space for this unusual piece. My friend and I chose front row seats, so we were only ten feet away from the floor-level stage. I could see the sweat dripping off of a dancer's nose at one point, and all of their breathing and movement sounds were that much louder, which really enhanced the experience. Keeping in mind that I spent ten years of my childhood dancing classical ballet, and am also a theatre nerd, here are a few things that really struck me about the performance:

Use of lighting: The simplicity of the space and focus on movement was enhanced by the minimalistic use of lighting. There were very few colored lights, which were used for a short period of the 50 minute performance. Most of the lighting came from white lights above and on light trees at the sides of the simple stage. There was also a light cord around the stage that was at one point the only light source. At another point in the show, one of the dancers brought one of the light trees on stage and was moving it around while others were dancing. Several times in the show, the illumination was partial, with only a few low-set lights on the light tree showing only parts of the dancers.

Use of music and sound: The first half of the show was done either with no additional sound or with a street-sound soundtrack running through it. This gave a very raw feel to the energy of the dancing, and also helped emphasize the sounds of the dancers. The second part of the show had some music which enhanced the particular sections of the performance very well. A particularly intense section had sounds that startled the entire audience, almost as if they were mimicking a gunshot.

Contrast between rage and awkwardness and sudden movements with control and grace and flow: As a dancer, I notice things that perhaps the normal concert-goer may not. I was not sure what to expect from this performance, I had never seen a professional hip-hop group, and I had no idea what kind of street dance came from Rio De Janeiro. What struck me was the fact that many of the movements that the dancers were doing were not what I was used to seeing on a stage. They seemed jerky, and awkward at times. Watching more closely, however, I could see how much control was put into the unusual movements. Each fall and each hesitation was very clearly controlled and planned. Even just listening to the landings of the dancers, I could tell that they were purposeful, despite how odd the angles were, and how fast some of the dancers landed. In the second half of the show, there were a lot of movements that I felt carried a lot of rage, but were simultaneously controlled and graceful. It was terrifying to watch the dancers dance through what seemed like a fight scene.

Amazing sense of body and space: There were moments when I was afraid the dancers would run into each other. The amount of energy that they had on a fairly small stage was amazing. At one point, two dancers were dancing in unison, with no music, and with their backs to each other. This shows, of course, the use of their feet and breath as indicators to the other dancer. But the fact that they could come so close and interact almost like a mirror was astounding. Fellow theatre kids may recall a partner game where neither leads, but you must act like each other's mirror. When they did this with dance on the stage it was breathtaking. The intricate movements that they mimicked, and the way they interacted also reminded me of another theatre game, machine. Where the movements of one person trigger the movements of another. Even with only two dancers, the coordination of movement was amazing. Another example would be the segments that included some or all of the dancers running backwards in circles together on stage, coming close but never running into one another. Simply the sound of feet moving so quickly and the suspense and worry that the dancers would collide made my heartbeat quicken. The third example, and probably the one that impressed me the most, was the cases where dancers would run at each other from across the stage, leap, and in mid-air interact, and then continue in their own direction. They grabbed each other by the waist, clapped hands, etc.

Body language: This falls under the bizarre but controlled movement category, but I found it especially striking. The rooster-like head movements, and some that made me think of angry horses, or gorillas ready to fight were very impressive. They contributed to the raw feeling that I felt throughout the show. It was so alive and so honest but simultaneously it was flawlessly choreographed and executed with so much control and strength.

Each dancer had their own forte that was very visibly used within the piece, which I find is unfortunately underused in many parts of the dance world. The fact that each dancer had his own niche in the machine of this show spoke wonders both about the choreography and the way the troupe works as a whole. Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised to find an amazing dance piece that absolutely blew my mind both for artistic and physical reasons. If you get the chance, I highly suggest seeing them, especially if you have history with dance or theatre, this piece is very captivating.

...that make me happy.1. Free orange slices from a coworker2. The beginnings of Dashing3. Decaf lemongrass green tea4. Pandora.com5. The smell of my Jungle conditioner

We haven't blogged in FOREVER. Eeps. Sorry. That's going to change soon. Mostly it's because I used to do all my blogging while at work (productive use of company resources mmmyes), and now I've changed positions and am super fucking busy during the day, and pooped when I get home. I promise though, we'll be better. XO!

Well with that out of the way, I wanted to point y'all in the direction of some awesome things going on this month.



First of all, on February 12th there's this awesome Vegan Valentine's Dance thingy being put on by a bunch of great people and featuring food from TONS OF PEOPLE including the fabulous ladies at both Sugar Beat Sweets and Fat Bottom Bakery! The price is a little steep but you get lots of free shit and since everyone vegan in the Bay Area knows each other, you're bound to see at least a couple peeps and guzzle beer at the same time! Also I've been to a different event in that same building, and I gotta say, the Brower Center is like California in that it knows how to party. It's pretty and big and super awesome.



Speaking of Valentine's Day and baked goods, the next San Francisco Vegan Bakesale is the following day, February 13th! Come stock up on sweets for your honey agavebunny, as Valentine's is the NEXT DAY FOOLS ack ack I totally have no idea what to get my BF, ideas plz!!!!! I'm probably going to bring persimmon walnut chocolate chip blondies again yo, so come eat that shit up before I do and gain more winter weight oops.

Speaking of bakesales, check out Fat Bottom Bakery's review of the first ever East Bay Vegan Bakesale, complete with photos of cute people and dogs, here! (I'm the hottie in the blue hoodie and braids.)