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Sunday, May 30, 2010

What Is A Blogger?

From the good folks over at Switched, this is precisely why I do not refer to myself as a "blogger". When necessary, I will mention that I have a blog, but I never refer to myself as a "blogger". Though after witnessing this man-on-the-street video, I might have to start mentioning my blog more often, if for no other reason than to simply let people know that not all blogs (albeit most) and not all bloggers (albeit most) are moronic. Or I might just keep going about things the way that I have been and continue to behave as if I am in the blogging world, but not of it, as it seems to be working out just fine this way. (As always, if the video doesn't load, you can try clicking here and hope for the best.)

Guess Their Age

I discovered a new website. (OK, fine. I read about it over yonder at Lemondrop.) And I'm not quite sure why it's so interesting, but it seems to be. The site is Guess My Age and it is exactly what it sounds like it is. You're shown a picture of an individual and your job is to type in how old you think said individual is. Now, unless you've made a living as one of those traveling carnivals guys who does this sort of thing for a very odd living, you might find that it's harder that it sounds like it would be. I have yet to guess someone's age absolutely correctly. I can usually keep it within about ten years either direction, but I'm sure that's not overly comforting to those whom I am guessing are 40 when they're really 30. Yeah. Awkward.

Unless you're preparing for a career as a 7-11 cashier where you'll need to card people for alcohol

and cigarette purchases, I really don't see anything useful coming out of this site, other than pure entertainment and efficient time wasting. (Combine the two and you've got yourself one heck of a day at work!) You can load your own photo on there and then check back to see how old people thought that you were. If you're the sort of person who is just fine with uploading photos of yourself to the all of the Internets and being perfectly comfortable with whatever age people guess for you (even if it's older than you really are by quite a few years!), then by all means, upload your photo. If you're the sort of person who is going to upload his or her (but most likely her in this scenario) and think that you're going to learn that everyone thinks that you look at least five to seven years younger than you really are, think again. That's not going to happen. All of the Internets are mean. If you go into something like this looking for an ego boost, you're going to make sure that you have an ample amount of rope with which to use to hang yourself after your little experiment is complete.

Let's take a look at some of the folks that I ran across whilst killing some time today, shall we?

I saw this chick and guessed 26. Her shirt (from what we can see of it) appears to be modest and that alone will rule out that she's still in her teens. She just doesn't appear to be over thirty (no reason for that assumption) and so I went a little higher up from the middle of the road.

This woman's age wasn't overly hard to determine for me. The haircut and the large print, somewhat frockish shirt put her in the over 40 category in my mind. I went with 41.

See, now it's people like this chick whose age is difficult to ascertain. I think part of that is because she's probably a lot younger than I would be comfortable with her being and still looking/acting like that. I guessed 17.

Here's one that seemingly gives us a little bit of help. The spiky-haired chap below is drinking a beer. That immediately sets our low cut-off at 21. It's the spiky hair that is going to be a tough one to noodle through, however. Guys don't roll with the times as easily as women do (or want to). The thumbs up sign isn't a good sign and it doesn't seem like it's his first beer ever (due to the dorky grin that he thinks makes him look cool, even though it doesn't) and there is a leather jacket (though possibly pleather), so I'm going with 26.

This chick was fairly easy. That emo hairstyle that she has going on narrows it down to under eighteen. I went with the turbulent adolescent year of 15.

I'm surprised that this guy actually put his photo on there. The leathery skin and the confused look led me to guess 53. I also guessed that he's a two-and-a-half pack a day smoker who drinks Jack Daniels at 10am on weekdays. Sadly, that information is not available at Guess My Age.

I'm also surprised that this guy posted his photo on there as well, as he's awfully goofy looking. And that striped tank top isn't helping matters. I went with 32.

I'm going to wrap this little experiment up with this woman. I guessed 41. There were a variety of factors that led me to that very, very, very wrong conclusion. The hair. The white board with probably some sort of "To Do" list scrawled on it. The frumpy turtleneck. The phone with the cord in the wall. (At least, I'm hoping that it's connected to the wall and that it's not connecting the handset to the phone. It's sort of hard to tell.) This woman would not be happy with my guess.

So, have you been keeping track of your guesses? Let's take it from the top.

Number One is 27. My guess was 26. A difference of -1. So far, so good. Nothing offensive there. Yet.
Number Two is 43. My guess was 41. A difference of -2. Not too shabby.
Number Three is 18. My guess was 17. A difference of -1. I'm not doing too badly at this point. Sadly, that will change.
Thumbs Up Dude is 18. I guessed 26 because he was deceiving me with that beer in his hand. That's a difference of +8. If you're old enough to drink beer, you're too old to be doing the thumbs up sign because you're drinking beer. Got it?
Number ~~Emo~~ Five is 16. I went with the Emo Rule and guessed 15 for a difference of -1. Hey, if you want to look older, drop the emo look. I'm just sayin'.

Jack Daniels is 56. I was being generous in guessing 53. -3 for me with Jack. Now can we guess how long he's been on parole?
Striped Shirt Nerd is, in fact, 32! Finally! Only took me seven tries before I guessed one correct!

But all of that doesn't matter. That's because on the last photo, I guessed 41 when in reality, that poor woman is 28. Ooohh! +13! Yeah, whoops. Oh, come on! Like you got that one right! I don't think so! While I can't ascertain whether or not the 18 year old would have been complimented that I thought that she was 26, I'm relatively certain that this 28 year old would eat me for lunch (possibly literally from the looks of it) if she knew I thought she was 41.

I don't know why this site draws one in so easily. Nor will I pretend to know why I spent about half an hour guessing people's ages. It's not like there's a prize or anything. But whatever it is, it does help pass the time.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

On the Road to Vegetarianism Pt. 2 + An Afternoon at Wrigley Field

A while back I posted about switching over to a mostly vegetarian diet, and now I'm nearing the 6-month mark (June 4, to be exact). I have, to my amazement, kept it up. For some of these months, I've gone weeks without eating any meat, though I still do have some from time to time (this past week I don't think I had any). I also have almost completely given up all processed, prepared foods, unless I'm getting them at a cafe or restaurant (where I have little choice, though I've been trying to patronize restaurants, when I can afford to, that prepare whole foods on the premises). Since January perhaps the only processed, prepared foods I've bought would be oatmeal (and I do also buy the organic rolled oats from a nearby food coop), orange juice, and a few other items like wine. I haven't bought any frozen dinners or anything else frozen and processed, though I do still sometimes pick up frozen fruits and vegetables, and fish. Other than chocolate, I've stopped buying any candy, and haven't bought any sorts of chips except tortilla chips from restaurants, or an occasional bag made locally. One of the most difficult things to maintain, particularly over the last month, during which I was involved in several very stressful committee assignments (similar versions of which over the past few years led to my having stopped cooking and ordering out food when I felt most under duress), has been the cooking, breadmaking, baking, and so on, but I'm glad to say that I've kept it up. I note this not for a pat on the back, but just to acknowledge that it amazes me that I've been able to keep this going.

My diet now consists mostly of those hated carbs, and yet, as I noted before, almost as soon as started eating this way I immediately began losing weight (20 lbs, now close to 24 lbs--I've gone from 220 lbs. to about 196 or so, give or take the day) , and I've kept it off. I had sworn off potatoes after C passed on an article about how bad they are for you (think heavily starchy root vegetable growing in toxic soils!), but I love potatoes, so I've started to reincorporate them into various dishes, where applicable. I have not, however, had French fries more than 1-2 times over the last 6 months. I eat a lot of bread, as any reader of this blog knows. Since the food coop I often shop at in Chicago has had a regular supply of organic sundried tomatoes, I've been regularly baking whole wheat sundried tomato bread, with a few detours, especially during the colder months, to rye bread (I will probably make a pumpernickel loaf again this summer, just because it was so good) or to French bread (which is one of the easiest breads you can make).

I can say that I eat a lot more squash (especially zucchini and yellow squash, which I loathed as a child), eggplant, and beets (which I also wasn't fond of, though I don't know why). I also regularly devour carrots, one of my favorite foods, as well as broccoli, brussel sprouts, and turnips. I eat grains, including couscous and quinoa, and legumes, like lentils and black beans, that I didn't used to eat so much. I don't, however, eat much salad, which I always associated in my mind with 1) healthier eating; 2) weight loss; and 3) vegetarianism. Occasionally I will have salads, and I'll probably eat more once the summer rolls around, but in general, they're not part of the mix. Another bonus of this approach has been that I spend far less money on a weekly basis on food. The coop's prices are decent, but I always end up paying less than I do at the supermarket, and the food usually comes from local (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, etc.) farms (or organic farms in California, Florida, etc.). Interestingly enough, the fruits often seem to last longer that supermarket fruits, which makes me wonder how long they've been sitting on trucks. When I add up how much I will spend at the coop and, say, at Trader Joe's, it's usually far less than I was spending when I primarily hit the supermarket. (Can anyone tell me how Trader Joe's keeps its food prices so low?) Even when I factor in an occasional visit to Whole Foods, which I was boycotting for a while, my food expenses are still lower than before; and because the food I cook lasts, I spend far less (often nothing) on a daily basis buying lunch, etc., as I once did. (I also avoid the bleached, excess-gluten bread that's overtaken the US market, making many people sick. I often wonder, if more of us baked our own bread, how widespread would the gluten-related problems be that plague us?)

I haven't had my HDL and LDL levels checked since last summer, but I'd be surprised if they haven't gone down. I know that my blood pressure, which often rises during very stressful periods and which I was keeping down with medication, appears--feels--as if it's gone down. I FEEL better on a daily basis, and not just because I can just fit clothes that I'd pushed to the back of the closet. (I do go to the gym regularly and have for years, but that wasn't pulling any weight off or lowering my blood pressure, it seems.) One thing that becomes clearer from eating this way is that the amount of salt in my diet has gone down dramatically; eating fewer processed, prepared foods, I'm getting fewer foods that are drenched or pickled in salt. I check labels assiduously, but I've come to realize that the manufacturers may be underestimating the amount of salt they put into food, and even they aren't, as the New York Times article I link to above makes clear, the salt content of processed foods is dangerous highly for a great many of us. I still eat sugar (I use it in the scones, for example, in sugar cookies, and so on), but I know I'm getting far less sugar, especially of the refined kind, that is wreaking havoc on the people's pancreases. I still eat eggs and butter (I love them!), but I have far more control over both--and dairy products in general in my food--than before. I still do eat fish, and some meat, but as I've noted, in far smaller quantities than ever. Sometimes I miss it, and crave it, but usually I don't. I certainly don't miss fast food at all, and I was never a big consumer of it, but I alongside pizza (which I also make myself), I still occasionally will eat things along those lines, as when I dropped by Hot Doug's, one of Chicago's premier joints, and indulged a few weeks back. (And they handmake all their sausage, fries, and so forth, so....).

One thing I've striven not to do is prescribe my approach for anyone else, including C. I know friends and relatives who are struggling with health issues (diabetes, weight gain struggles, etc.), and I also realize that given all the terrible information we get daily about our diets, all the hectoring and condescension, all the misfocus on pecuniae and far too little on how simple, delicious and easy home cooking whole foods are, how extreme so much of the discussion is (you must eat "raw foods," you must "avoid carbs," you must you must you must), I want to avoid that approach, especially with those close to me, most especially because I feel that it's up to everyone to make personal choices that they feel are best for them. I'm glad that I've finally given up deli meats, one of my favorite lunchtime foods, especially now that I know how awful most of the commercial forms are for people's health, especially when it comes down to blood pressure and overall heart health (how many of us really do go to a butcher's shop and get fresh, locally smoked and prepared meats? I don't think I've had such food in the US since I was very small).

One consideration that presses me, though, when I stop by one of the local supermarkets to grab something or other, is what would happen if a majority of people said No to the industrialized food system we have in this country; what would happen, I think, to all the jobs associated with these businesses, all the workers who I know need these jobs, benefit from them, are hanging on because of them? As I mentioned, I can go weeks now without buying hardly anything at the main supermarkets I used to shop at all the time in Chicago (and Jersey City)--supermarkets which, sadly, send me coupons for bottled water, of all environmentally deleterious products!--and when I am in one, I think, why so much of this pre-packaged foodstuff, this quasi-food, which is wreaking havoc on our bodies and our society, in here? Of course I know the answers, or at least some of them, and they have do with capitalism, consumerism, convenience, and so much more. But if more of us just said enough of this--and, if we so decided, patronized restaurants that weren't part of this industrial system but actually prepared whole foods on the premises, as many do for very little money--what would the effect be on the supermarket world, the industrial food world, the health care industry, as we know them?

I know this is what some people are advocating, and I'm sympathetic to the larger notion of a shifting in food industry paradigms, in farming, in selling food, in how we integrate food into our lives in this country. But at the same time, I'm also worried about the effects these shifts might have on the people at the bottom of this system, the most vulnerable people who rely on the millions of jobs it creates. Given how little concern the federal and state governments, policymakers, and many corporations and their leaders have for the prospects and fortunes of working-class and poor people, let alone middle-class people, all of whom are being devastated by the system as it currently stands, I cannot but worry what will happen if we change the way we operate. And yet it's clear to me, based on the many articles and books (by Michael Pollan and others) I've read, on the many discussions I've had over the last few years, and on my own health experiences, that change is necessary. How to effect it so that it benefits those who most could benefit from it rather than disadvantaging them, as always, in favor of those who already have money, power, and everything else, is one of the questions I keep asking myself every day.

Now, can I keep it up through the summer and on through the end of the year?

===

Today I did something I haven't in years, which is go to a baseball game. As J's Theater readers know, I'm a huge baseball fan, and it so happened that one of my teams, the St. Louis Cardinals, were in town to play the Chicago Cubs. I hadn't gone to Wrigley Field since 2001, when I lived just around the corner from it, for various reasons, including its post-game drunken fans, who went so far as to douse my dreadlocks with a cup or more of beer, but I said what the hell, classes are (nearly) over, it's been a brutal quarter, it's the holiday weekend, it's been years since the drenching, it ought to be fun. It was. I scored a ticket right next the stadium (police were everywhere, so it was legal), for a seat just behind the Cubs' dugout, right beside third base. The sightlines were excellent. I found myself wedged between Cubs fans who, when they inquired about my not cheering for their team, were polite enough, and otherwise quite genial. The people booing the Cardinals, and in particular Albert Pujols, were sitting elsewhere. The fight that broke out--I couldn't tell whether it was Cubs fans brawling among themselves, or some Cardinals supporters in the mix--was well down the nearby foul line. My neighbors were mostly concerned with cheering on every single Cubs accomplishment that occurred, and sipping (or quaffing) their beers. And chatting about coworkers and friends. The Cards had walloped the Cubs the night before behind ace pitcher Chris Carpenter, but today, it was all Chicago. Behind starter Carlos Silva, who'd come over from Seattle with a 5-13 record, the Cubs defeated the Cardinals 5-0. The Redbirds couldn't get a single rally started. And Silva, despite last year's problems, is now 7-0, the first Cubs pitcher to go undefeated that long since Ken Holtzman in 1967. Which is fine, since the Cardinals won the Series that year, over the New York Yankees. Cubs and Cubs fans, it was your day.

Photos:

Starlin Castro checking his pantsleg at left, Cards coach Oquendo at right

Cubs second baseman Starlin Castro (isn't that a great name!?) checking the flyness of his pants, as Cardinals coach José Oquendo looks on

Cub outfielder Alfonso Soriano leaving the field

Cubs starter, now temporary reliever, Carlos Zambrano, warming up
Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, on 3rd base, chatting up 3rd base coach José Oquendo

Cubs first baseman Derek Lee

Cards pitcher Mitchell Boggs and Albert Pujols

Cardinals relief pitcher Mitchell Boggs, and first baseman Albert Pujols

Cubs pitcher Carlos Silva unleashing a Gibsonesque fastball

Cubs outfielder Keisuke Fukudome, on 3rd base

Alfonso Soriano batting

Alfonso Soriano, on 2nd base

Albert Pujols in his fielding crouch

A Disappointed Idol Fan

You know, I realize that American Idol is one of the top shows on American television. I get that. But when I see videos like the one below, it concerns me about just who the people are who are watching the show. I can only hope (and pray a lot) that the majority are not like the woman below. This woman (seemingly) gets very into American Idol. She seems to have a lot of emotion invested in the show. And it became clear to me after the announcement of the winner, that this woman (with a lot of emotion invested) was not a Lee Dewyze fan. It's hard to say if it was all of the shrieking that she was doing (while her shirtless husband attempted to read on the couch behind her) or if it was her yelling something about how her life was now ruined (and let me tell you, judging from her almost massive girth and the trailer that she seems to live in, I don't know that her life was all that pristine to begin with), but she was upset. Darn near hysterical. You would have thought the Beatles were in town (and that it was 1964).

The entertaining, but slightly unnerving, video of this woman flipping out is below. Please turn your

sound down low and make sure that any dogs that have sensitive ears are out of earshot. They'll howl the way that they do when a fire engine drives by. Also, there's a little red box that says "Part 2" that is hovering in the screen the entire time. Don't click on it. It's not a Part 2. It's some sort of "Obama Deception" video. I mean, if you're into that sort of crap, by all means, click away. But if you're clicking because you're expecting to see more of this highly emotional woman, don't bother. You'll just be irritated that the dillweed put it on that video in anticipation that people would click it.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Classes (Nearly) Over + 2010 FIFA World Cup

Classes have (nearly) come to an end. Or rather, this is the final official week of classes in the College, though I still have one more class to teach next week, during reading week. (We'll be discussing the final three student novellas in workshop.) Now that it's over, I can shout from the blogtops Conceptual Art/Writing class exhilarated me; I feel incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to teach the class, and to have been able to do so with students who were willing to step out, as it became clear, on what sometimes initially appeared to be shifting ice. By which I mean, to be looking at, thinking about and creating work--and whose exemplars--that remain under tremendous contention. The class served as an intellectual transfusion for me, as it required me to think through a genealogy that was indistinct, but discernible, and put it together, in coherent fashion, for the class, while also making clear that this was only one reading of the history of this constellation of art forms. (It helped too that we have the graduate level Poetry and Poetics Working Group, because its conversations informed those in my class.) Now that I've done it, I feel I have a much clearer and deeper sense of conceptual art's history, its origins and antecedents, and its relation to and phantasmal presence in other canonical and non-canonical artforms. As I was saying to a friend, I feel capable now of reading backwards, before the coining of "conceptual art," to see conceptual practices in many different places and forms. (This was also the first time that I've taught the work of figures such as Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, Andy Warhol, Kenneth Goldsmith, Rob Fitterman, Mendi + Keith Obadike, and many others.) The students all created 6-8 projects, grounded in language and its possibilities, and it was a delight to read them, and imagine how the ones containing the possibility of performance might be realized. One student proposed realizing them--performing some of them--during the assigned exam period, so we'll see how that turns out. At any rate, the class, like the other one I'm teaching, represents one of the most enjoyable aspects of teaching, which is transmitting knowledge to students, watching them learn, grow intellectually and create knowledge, and learning from them in the process. And who knows, down the road another Yoko Ono or Marcel Duchamp might emerge from this experience.
+++

The 2010 FIFA World Cup begins in two weeks, on June 11, running till July 11, in South Africa. This is the most watched sporting event in the world, and this is the first time it'll be held in Africa, with the host country leading a group of 32 national teams, including prior winners England (1966), France (1998), Italy (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), Germany (1954, 1974, 1990), Brazil (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002), Uruguay (1930, 1950), and Argentina (1978, 1986), and stalwarts such as Netherlands, Japan, Portugal, Mexico, Denmark, Cameroon, South Korea, and, interestingly enough, North Korea. Though the opening matches, pairing South Africa and Mexico, and Uruguay and France, will be held in Johannesburg and Cape Town respectively, subsequent matches will be held all over the country, culminating in the third place match at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth, and the championship match at Soccer City in Johannesburg.

The 1994 host of the tournament, the United States, will also field a participating team this year, having made it through the qualifying rounds for the North/Central American region to finish first, with 20 points, just ahead of Mexico's 19. The US ended up in the Tournament's Group C, which also includes one of the tournament's best teams, England, but also Algeria, which barely edged into first place in its Africa Group 6 matches, over Gambia and Senegal, and Slovenia, which finished second to Slovakia in its European Group 3. Getting by England (ranked 8th in the FIFA World Rankings) will be the US's (ranked 14th) major challenge, and few online commentators I've read give the US team much--any--chance of achieving this. Yet the US team had one of its best summers in 2009; in the Confederations Cup, the US ended up in Group B, with Brazil, Egypt and Italy, yet after losing to Italy (3-1) and Brazil (3-0), the US came back to finish second in its group, and reached the semifinal on tie-breaking goals, surpassing Italy. In the semifinals the US beat Spain, then atop the FIFA World rankings, 2-0, losing to Brazil in the final 3-2, though they were up 2-0 at half-time, and had the game in hand. They must capitalize on any leads in South Africa, and do everything they can to keep the ball out of their defensive area, which is where they're far and away weakest.

The 23-person World Cup squad, recently finalized by coach Bob Bradley, comprises a number of veterans from the 2008 campaign, in Germany: star goalie and Everton (English Premier League) mainstay Tim Howard, forwards Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey (above left), midfielders DaMarcus Beasley and Michael Bradley, and defenders Oguchi Onyewu (at right) and Steve Cherundolo. Newcomers include Jozy Altidore (the 20-year-old sensation who scored a hat trick against Trinidad and Tobago in a qualifying game), Robbie Findley (top of article, right), José Francisco Torres, Ricardo Clark, Maurice Edu, and surprise picks Edson Buddle and Herculez Gomez. In a little remarked change, nearly 1/3rd of the US team are black, and 1/2 of the team are either black or latino, a first for the US. The forward and midfield core are especially strong, and can hang with some of the best teams (except perhaps Brazil, Spain, and Portugal), but the US's defense remains an issue. Unaggressive play and defensive mistakes have doom the US, as does the absence of players competing in the world's top leagues, but the latter has gradually changed, and the US's own major league, the MLS, has gotten stronger with each passing year. If the defensive corps can keep mistakes to a minimum, they do stand a chance with Donovan, Bradley, Altidore, Findley, and Dempsey going hard.

It'll be interesting to see if host country South Africa gets a boost, as has often happened; France (1998), Argentina (1978), Germany (1974, as West Germany), England (1966), and Uruguay (1938) have won the tournament when hosting it, and most recently, Germany finished 3rd in 2006 and South Korea finished 4th in 2002 when serving as hosts. Moreover, the multibillion-dollar new stadiums and infrastructure the South African government has built have been controversial in a country still suffering from severe gaps in income equality, and the threats of terrorism, violence and crime are also pressing. Just recently, on May 25, the Colombian team, which had not qualified for the tournament, were robbed in their 5-star Johannesburg hotel of about $2600 in money and other personal goods. South Africa has repeated assured visitors that it has security and safety issues under control. Let us sincerely hope they do.

I will be certainly be watching closely and rooting avidly for the US and other teams, including Brazil. My prediction for the finals: Brazil 3, Portugal 2.