Random stuff from Folklife

Best picture:

Best name for a business (could double as an indie band): Mutual Fish. My friend A tells me it's a great fish market.

Pictures and video from NW Folklife

Got back yesterday from NW Folklife. Fabulous as always. Am too tired to write much about it, but here are pics:

The Bobs, whom I first discovered as a college student, lo, these many (many) years ago in Santa Cruz. Musically interesting and lyrically silly a capella vocal group.

A closeup of Amy "Bob" Engelhardt's skirt. Thought it was cool.

Two points if you can identify this instrument.

Seattle Chinese Orchestra, the only traditional Chinese orchestra in the Pacific Northwest.





Classical Indian dance. This was one of my favorite things at Folklife this year; it just transported me. The video doesn't really convey the experience, of course. If you've seen this kind of dance before, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, get yourself to a classical (not Bollywood) Indian dance performance ASAP. It's amazing.

We saw Tango Argentino (caught their show last year) and once again I got to lust after the fabulous shoes the women wear. I have flat feet and use custom-made orthotics, so I'll never be able to wear this kind of shoe, which is possibly why I think they're so sexy. If you're interested, do a google search for tango shoes and you'll see what I mean, but you can't appreciate their full effect unless you see the women actually dancing in them. Yowza. Here's a video (this isn't the group I saw, but you'll get the idea):



There are about a gazillion tango videos on YouTube, if you wanna see more. It's pretty hypnotic stuff.

We got to see friends we (regretfully) only see once a year, and managed not to melt (it rained most of the weekend). I satisfied my yearly urge to contradance, and my sweetie got to play drums with Yeshivas Goldensteyn, otherwise known as the University of Washington Klezmer Ensemble. Here's a link to sweetie's blog entry if you wanna know more, complete with pics.

Gotta go collapse. Am SOOO tired, but also basking in the post-Folklife euphoric glow...

Michael's done it again

Michael Pollan's assessment of the current state of the food movement, through five book reviews, in the June 10 New York Review of Books. As always, he manages to gather all the strands of this complex and often conflicted socio-political movement and present them with eloquence. Really worth reading.

Interfaith Hillel Sandwich

Check this out. Chag sameach!

Shameless self-promotion for a good cause

So if you want to know about the Hazon Food Conference I attended last week in more detail, there are a number of posts on The Jew and the Carrot, which you can check out here. I wanted to mention specifically one article in the JTA online service, which quotes yours truly about food justice at the conference.

I plan to blog about my personal experiences at the food conference later this week, so stay tuned.

Still here

I'm violating blog netiquette by noting how long it's been since I've posted, but there it is. It's been a long time since I last posted and if you are reading this without my prompting you to look at my blog, thanks for sticking with me during my dry spell. I'll get back to more semi-regular posts in the new year.

Too much to update in detail but here's a thumbnail sketch of my life since my last post:

Got a mostly full-time temp job for six weeks in October that ran through early December (hence the lack of posting-no time). Thanks to my friend E. for hiring me and giving me the opportunity to earn money rather than filing for unemployment. Wish the job could have lasted longer; it was lovely to not worry about money for awhile.

Just got back from California where I spent just over a week attending the Hazon Food Conference and afterwards visited friends and family. More on the conference in a subsequent post.

Started doing yoga again after a 20+ year hiatus. Feels good, on many levels. Sweetie is doing it with me. She finds it challenging, but is intrigued by it too.

Here's hoping you all have a better year, and a better decade, in every sense of the word.

Sukkot thoughts

Here's a link to my latest post on The Jew and the Carrot.