"Denn das Schöne ist nichts als des Schrecklichen Anfang, den wir noch grade ertragen, und wir bewundern es so, weil es gelassen verschmäht, uns zu zerstören. "
(For beauty is nothing but the beginning of
terror, which we are still just able to bear, and we are so awed
by it because it serenely disdains to destroy us. )
(First Duino Elegy, by Rainer
Maria Rilke, trans. Dolce)
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Hi beautiful hungry people!
This week, I'm endorsing some encouraging articles
that continue to show encouraging evidence of a strong kind of
neo-cuisine, return-to-real ingredients movement against
the lies, preservatives, fact twisting, flavour enhancers, dishonesty
and bleached white flour biscuits that we've had to put up with
from the Burning Bush Barbeque Brothers administration (and by
association, the Barnsley Chop Blair and Shrimp-up-the-Barbie
Howard governments.) This vital food movement, which has been
dismissed and marginalized by main stream cooking media, for the
most part, during the past year (there were some exceptions
and some writer/line chefs who refused to do this) is slowly but
surely working its way into mass garden market news publications
lately, due in large part to the intense focus, effort and culinary
research that the American Democratic Cooking Party have been
putting in. Now some may argue that these are just partisan and
opposition efforts to oust the ham-fisted Republican brulee burners.
Well, even if it is, GOOD! Isn't that the point of having other
political parties and dining choices? Who wants restauranteurs
in the kitchen that deceive their customers with flowery and misleading
menu items, in order to implement a lazy and defective culinary
vision, serving up offal where eye filet was indicated? I might
still be naive but I still believe that there can be greatness
in politics and cooking, and true stewardship that moves us closer
to what Chef Martin Luther King Jr called 'The Beloved Community
Pot Luck Dinner'. And I'm not talking about a pic-nic somewhere
in Heaven. Here and now - in realtime dinnertime! (And if there
is a little snack in heaven later, then wouldn't that make it
all the more spectacular and unimaginable, if we could take care
of some of the essential mis-en-place while we still had
our aprons on?)
If the dull knives and saturated oils of the Bush cartel can be
removed from the world kitchen, perhaps better food awareness
will emerge in both Australia and the UK as a result. Everyone
is watching the US tasting trials and the upcoming 2004 election
cook-off and clambake, and will take their recipes and meal planning
from what goes down there.
This week, I've also found another good effort from that old toasted cheese grizzler, Normal Mailer, listed some of my favourite new DVDs and books - and some links that can help you find them - and finally, two battle-tested recipes - one for chicken eaters and one for my chicken liberation friends.
Enjoy the food and wine, and be nice to your liver - you might want to donate it to an out-of-work Republican hamburger flipper one day.
Hugs and a cold-press,
Joe
Sous-Chef to Maestro Guiseppi Fanculo
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Is the following argument another conspiracy theory, food for thought, or just entertaining fiction? Whatever the case, it's worth reading. Special thanks to Joe Simonetta, Democratic US Congressional candidate, for Florida, who sent many of the fine articles this week.
Proof Of Controlled Demolition At The WTC
by Jerry Russell, Ph.D.
(The author has a master's degree in Engineering from Stanford
University,
and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Oregon.)
" Steel frame towers are built very strongly. They need to withstand the pressure of gale-force winds, the violent rocking motion of earthquakes, and the ravages of time. For this reason, they are almost impossible to destroy.
Airplane strikes do not destroy skyscrapers. A bomber strike to the Empire State Building during World War II did not harm that building. The World Trade Center towers were designed to survive a strike by a Boeing 707. The 767 is more massive, so the building was stressed near its design limits. But if a failure had occurred at that moment, it would have been at the point of highest levered stress, near the base of the tower, and the tower would have fallen over like a giant tree in a forest windstorm. That, of course, did not happen.
Fires do not destroy skyscrapers. Never in the history of steel frame structures has a single one been destroyed by fire.
How to destroy a skyscraper. So, how do you destroy a skyscraper? Suppose you need the vacant land to build another one, for example.
A nuclear bomb is very effective, but it can be difficult to get permits from the city.
An early invention was the wrecking ball. A huge lump of steel and lead is swung from a massive chain at high speed. With the benefit of momentum, it is able to bend or break a few girders at a time. But it would be a hopeless task to destroy a tower the size of the World Trade Center, using a wrecking ball.
The most effective, cleanest, safest way to destroy a skyscraper is known as controlled demolition. The trick is to distribute explosives at key points throughout the structure. The explosives are detonated simultaneously, destroying the integrity of the steel frame at key points, such that no part of the building is supported against the force of gravity. The entire mass is pulled swiftly to earth, where gravity does the work of pounding the structure into tiny fragments of steel and concrete. The gravitational potential energy of the structure is converted smoothly and uniformly into kinetic energy, and then is available very efficiently to pulverise the fragments of the building as they impact against the unyielding earth. Controlled demolitions have a striking and characteristic appearance of smooth, flowing collapse.
As your eyes will tell you, the World Trade
Center collapses looked like controlled demolitions. Here's
the Proof " (more):
---------------------------------------------------------
UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix retired on
Monday: "It is sort of fascinating
that you can have 100 percent certainty about weapons of mass
destruction and zero certainty of about where they are."(article)
---------------------------------------------------------
The White Man Unburdened
By Norman Mailer
" Exeunt: lightning and thunder, shock and awe. Dust, ash, fog, fire, smoke, sand, blood, and a good deal of waste now move to the wings. The stage, however, remains occupied. The question posed at curtain-rise has not been answered. Why did we go to war? If no real weapons of mass destruction are found, the question will keen in pitch.
Or, if some weapons are uncovered in Iraq, it is likely that even more have been moved to new hiding places beyond the Iraqi border. Should horrific events take place, we can count on a predictable response: "Good, honest, innocent Americans died today because of evil al-Qaeda terrorists." Yes, we will hear the President's voice before he even utters such words. (For those of us who are not happy with George W. Bush, we may as well recognise that living with him in the Oval Office is like being married to a mate who always says exactly what you know in advance he or she is going to say, which helps to account for why more than half of America now appears to love him.)
The key question remains-why did we go to war?
It is not yet answered. The host of responses has already produced
a cognitive stew. But the most painful single ingredient at the
moment is, of course, the discovery of the graves. We have relieved
the world of a monster who killed untold numbers, mega-numbers,
of victims. Nowhere is any emphasis put upon the fact that many
of the bodies were of the Shiites of southern Iraq who have been
decimated repeatedly in the last twelve years for daring to rebel
against Saddam in the immediate aftermath of the Gulf War. Of
course, we were the ones who encouraged them to revolt in the
first place, and then failed to help them. Why? There may have
been an ongoing argument in the first Bush administration which
was finally won by those who believed that a Shiite victory over
Saddam could result in a host of Iraqi imams who might make common
cause with the Iranian ayatollahs, Shiites joining with Shiites!
Today, from the point of view of the remaining Iraqi Shiites,
it would be hard for us to prove to them that they were not the
victims of a double cross. So they may look upon the graves that
we congratulate ourselves for having liberated as sepulchral voices
calling out from their tombs-asking us to take a share of the
blame. Which, of course, we will not. "(more)
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ABEBOOKS - For book lovers who have a hard time finding unusual books, bookmark this site where you can hunt down the rarest and also the best prices for books all over the world:abebooks.com
Weekly Book Recommendation
JARHEAD - A Marine's
Chronicle of the Gulf War
by Anthony Swofford
'Jarhead is not only a work of reportage from a 'privileged' observer; it is also a display of genuine talent.' Martin Amis
Excerpt - "
There is talk than many Vietnam films are antiwar, that the message
is: war is inhumane and look what happens when you train young
American men to fight and kill, they turn their fighting and killing
everywhere, they ignore their targets and desecrate the entire
country, shooting fully automatic, forgetting they were trained
to aim. But actually, Vietnam war films are all pro-war, no matter
what the supposed message, what Kubrick or Coppola or Stone intended.
Mr. and Mrs. Johnson in Omaha, or San Francisco, or Manhattan
will watch the films and weep and decide once and for all that
war is inhumane and terrible and then will tell their friends
at church and their family this, but Corporal Johnson at Camp
Pendleton and Sergeant Johnson at Travis Air Force Base and Seaman
Johnson at Coronado Naval Station and Spec 4 Johnson at Fort Bragg
and Lance Corporal Swofford at Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base
watch the same films and are excited by them, because the magic
brutality of the films celebrates the terrible and despicable
beauty of their fighting skills. Fight, rape, war, pillage, burn.
Filmic images of death and carnage are pornography for the military
man; with film you are stroking his cock, tickling his balls with
the pink feather of history, getting him ready for his real First
Fuck. It doesn't matter how many Mr. and Mrs. Johnsons are antiwar
- the actual killers who know how to use the weapons are not."
--------------------------------------
Twelve DVD Movie Recommendations
Most of the DVDs I am recommending here (except Chopper and Shakira - Unplugged) are not available in Australia and that's the main purpose for mentioning them in this newsletter. If you want to see these films, currently you'll have to order them.
HAPPYHUNTER is the fastest site I have found for finding films world-wide: happyhunter.com
1. THESIS - the first film of Alejandro Amenabar, the writer of OPEN YOUR EYES and writer/director of THE OTHERS. Story of a woman student writing and researching a thesis on violence in the audio-visual media who stumbles upon a group within the university making snuff films. She becomes the target of their next film. Very scary with still-taboo themes.
2. THE GREY ZONE - directed by Tim Blake Wilson - the little known story of one unit of Auschwitz's Sonderkommandos, (the Jewish prisoners responsible for the ovens), who led the only armed revolt.
3. GATHERING STORM - with Vanessa Redgrave, and Albert Finney, as Winston Churchill - Churchill's gripping biography, from the mid-30s, until he became Prime Minister.
4. TEARS OF THE SUN - with Bruce Willis and Monica Bellucci. A film project Willis personally believed in and developed for many years before finally getting it made. The story of a Navy Seal rescue of Red Cross aid workers in Africa. A great action-thriller and very timely. (Currently on at the cinemas.)
5. LIVE FROM BAGHDAD - with Michael Keaton. The true story of CNN's unique coming of age, in Iraq, during the Gulf War, 1991.
6. DISTORTED MORALITY - A one-hour enlightening talk, and question and answer period, given by Noam Chomsky, at Harvard University.
7. UNCLE SADDAM - A satirical, yet sobering look inside the world of Saddam Hussein, filmed practically mockumentary style by Joel Soler, in Iraq, before the first Gulf War. Surreal and fascinating. With unique archival footage, it has the feel of 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,' and includes an extensive interview with Saddam's interior decorator, who was poisoned shortly after the film was completed.
8. & 9. THE LAST DON - Parts 1 and 2, produced for US Home Box Office. Part 1 is a masterpiece, from the novel written by Mario Puzo, Part 2 was written after Puzo's death, by the same screenwriter who adapted Part 1. The story of the Clericuzio family and its war with the Santadio Family. It doesn't have the big budget and production values of the GODFATHER films, De Niro, Brando and the rest, and Coppola directing, of course, but the new characters are equally brilliant and unforgettable, and the depth of mythical drama is all there. I've watched this a dozen times, still love it, and am looking forward to seeing it again! The novel is also riveting. I read the entire book aloud to my partner, Lin, in the bush, by candlelight, a couple of years ago, while kangaroos were thumping down to the river for their evening nightcap.
10. BLACK HAWK DOWN - the THREE CD US Special Edition with all the documentaries including the History Channel doco, and the PBS (US) doco, 3 audio commentaries- one with director Ridley Scott, and another with Mark Bowden, the author of the book on which the film was based, and a third with the actual Task Force Ranger Veterans who were involved the real thing. There are two other docos, as well, on the making of the film, and a beautiful video clip of the Hans Zimmer-Lisa Gerrard song, 'J'Attends' sung by Gerrard and tenor, Denez Prigent. This film didn't move me the first time I saw it, but it grows on you after the 2nd viewing. A very gripping thorough look at this true and not too distant tragic event. Particularly relevant with all this recent talk about the US going into Liberia.
11. CHOPPER - Eric Bana's breakthrough film. He's more buffed up in Black Hawk Down and now The Hulk but he's playing a real big ol' hulk in this Special Edition which comes with a audio commentary by Mark 'Chopper' Read himself. (Say no more.)
12. SHAKIRA - UNPLUGGED - Before
she dyed her black hair blonde, got into dance music, really started
exploiting her belly dancing skills, began wearing naval-revealing
low-cut skin-tight pants and performing in Las Vegas, Shakira
was practically an alternative folk singer. In this early film
of her live in performance, she sings passionately and completely
in Spanish, accompanied by a great Mexican mariachi band featuring
one of the most dynamic woman accordion players I've ever seen.
-----------------------------
Fun: Watch El Presidente Bushzappata do the Moon Walk: DancesWithBush
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IMPEACHMENT
John Dean, President Nixon's White House counsel,
says the case for impeachment would be easy legally, but impossible
politically:
"To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the nation
into war based on bogus information, he is cooked. Manipulation
or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if
proven, could be 'a high crime' under the Constitution's impeachment
clause. It would also be a violation of federal criminal law,
including the broad federal anti-conspiracy statute, which renders
it a felony 'to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof
in any manner or for any purpose.'" (more)
A superb interview with Dean:
"Impeachment is a political proceeding, of quasi-legal nature.
Republicans are not going to impeach their president. To the contrary,
it is very clear they would defend him." (more)
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Recipes
ROAST ROSEMARY-GARLIC CHICKEN (with Yoghurt and Garlic Sauce)
ingredients:
Free range chicken
fresh rosemary sprigs
half of an onion, in one piece
10-15 garlic cloves
butter
1 cup yoghurt
olive oil
salt and pepper
1 tbles lemon juice
chopped parsley
Preheat oven to 220 C. Prepare yoghurt-garlic sauce.
Yoghurt-Garlic Sauce
Dice and mash 2 cloves of garlic with salt until smooth. Add 2
tble olive oil, salt and pepper, chopped parsley, lemon juice.
Mix. Add in the yoghurt. Stir thoroughly. Correct seasoning to
taste. Chill.
method:
Rub inside of chicken with one crushed clove of garlic. Salt the
inside. Place some of the rosemary sprigs and the onion half in
the cavity. With a sharp knife, puncture the chicken at 15 or
so places and insert a piece of rosemary and a half clove of garlic.
(Use your finger first to enlarge the hole.) Rub butter over the
outside of the chicken. Roast in oven for 25 minutes. Turn the
chicken over and cook another 20 minutes. Turn back over, cover
with aluminium foil and continue roasting another 25 minutes,
or until cooked throughout, yet still moist. Take out of oven.
To serve:
Cut or break chicken into rough pieces. Place on serving dish.
Serve yoghurt-garlic sauce in a separate bowl. Each person spoons
as much sauce over chicken as desired. Serve with just a green
salad.
ingredients:
4 potatoes
1 beetroot
stalk of celery (inner part) - chopped finely
some sweet-sour pickles, or baby dills - chopped
cup cooked corn kernels
good mayonnaise
cayenne pepper
chopped parsley
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
1 apple, chopped into small cubes
sour cream (optional)
method:
Boil potatoes whole or halved until cooked but STILL FIRM. Cool.
Boil beetroot until cooked. Cool. Peel and chop into small cubes.
Cut potatoes into quarters or eighths, depending on size. Mix
in a bowl with beetroot, pickles, corn, celery, apple and garlic.
Add mayonnaise to taste. Salt and pepper to taste. Cover with
plastic wrap and chill. When ready to serve, mix a little more
mayonnaise or sour cream throughout to refresh it, sprinkle with
cayenne pepper and a layer of finely chopped parsley. The beetroot
will give the potato salad a purple glow that contrasts brilliantly
with the bright red cayenne pepper and the green of the parsley.
This is an excellent side dish that also goes well with any of
the other soul food recipes indexed.
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