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I'm a writer and creative director. I make things, collect books, write fiction and don't understand Zen. I'm Vegan.

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America: Land of the Free, Home of the Chubby

This past holiday season signaled a major paradigm shift in my life.

For starters, I saw the amazing documentary Super Size Me which details the widening of America due to increased portions, increased fat intake and an increasingly lethargic population.

While I’ve always been relatively health conscious, what I saw shocked me. After the movie, I began to do a little digging around and came across some alarming trends regarding America’s health and well-being. My synopsis of what I found is this:

  1. We are completely clueless when it comes to nutrition.
  2. We eat more and move less, choosing the inactivity of our nation-wide TV obsession to exercise.
  3. There are healthy alternatives to what we eat and there is no excuse for our increasing reliance on fast food.

Duhhhh. These are obvious points. But my point is that if it’s so obvious and easy, why do we do nothing about? Why do we slip further into this greasy abyss?

Now for some good news. One of most refreshing discoveries in my internet wide search was Slow Food USA, a not-for-profit organization committed to promoting a return to the table in American food culture.

Their cause is the alter-ego of the eat on the go, eat in your car and do it as fat, I mean as fast as you can mentality that has led to our absolute dependence on fast food and other processed, modified and pre-packaged meals. Instead, what Slow Food envisions is as follows.

People have responded to the growing movement, because they have become tired of buying the same things, eating the same foods and living the same lives. With these interests in mind, our mission is to create a robust, active movement that protects taste, culture and the environment as universal social values. Slow Food programs are dedicated to the mingling of taste, culture and the environment.

Amen to this. In fact, it’s essential that we begin to think differently about eating. I’ve recently read research that suggests that the new trend is that parents will now be able to buy completely different prefab, preboxed dinners for each family member so that the son can have a hotdog, dad can have meatloaf, mom can get the baked chicken and sis can eat mac and cheese and French fries.

And we’ll be able to have our family dinner on the way home from the store in convenient to go containers. I say the hell with that. Give me slow food. Good food. Food grown where I live by farmers who actually tend to crops, nurturing them without hormones or chemicals. I’m a member of Slow Food. And while they may not be the only answer to some of our nation’s problems with diet and nutrition, they are a powerful and growing force dedicated to finding a solution.

From the Office of Strategic Battle Naming and Descriptions

Where does the government come up these great battle and covert ops names? I mean “Operation Mongoose” is so kick-ass. And don’t even get me started on “Shock and Awe.” There are a million of them, some we’ve heard, others that slip under the radar, only to be seen by the eyes of men with top secret clearance. But who names them?

Is it Bush, errrrr, Cheney? Did Colin Powell do it with the help of aides at the Pentagon? Or, do they have guys that sit around with pen and pad, engaging in spirited brain-dumps to get the name that captures the essence of the mission?

What I like to imagine is that there’s an office in some out of the way corridor at the Pentagon where a couple of analysts with English degrees work day and night naming the battles. They come up with entire campaigns and then present the work, each little name neatly mounted on black presentation board, to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, before finally pitching the winning work to the President himself.

Can’t you just see the memo coming down from Powell imploring the guys to put a little more smile into the names saying, “Just because it’s a battle doesn’t mean it has to be so mean sounding.”

Could it be that there is a little department where all these great names emerge? I always wonder about this.

Why Do I Keep Eating Pizza?

Pick any night and my default food choice is pizza. I want to know why? Sure, pizza is great. All that cheese, sausage and tangy tomato sauce, that chewy crust. Yeah, it’s divine. I find my pizza palette insatiable these days.

And, as much as I love Chinese food and Mexican food and well, just about all food, I wander back to pizza like that ex-girlfriend who is always around, always up for you coming over to visit no matter how much time has passed and no matter where either of you are emotionally or relationally. I want pizza now and I’m still drinking my morning coffee.

Making matters worse is that I’ll eat any old pizza. It doesn’t have to be from Alfredo’s or Davenport’s (my favorites here in Birmingham), when the craving hits, I’ll sneak into a low rent chain and emerge pissed off that I just spent 15 bucks on what tasted like grocery store private label pizza, complete with cardboard crust and plastic cheese.

Am I the only one who suffers from this?

Rock en Español

Lately I’ve been listening to an increasingly large amount of rock en Español. And, as my knowledge grows and as I discover each new band – some old and some new – I find myself more and more blown away by what I am hearing.

What I have discovered is some 30 years of great music waiting to be explored by my guero ears.

So here is a brief primer of what I have uncovered thus far. For starters, I would recommend Cafe Tacuba, a band from Mexico City, that is making what may be the most innovative rock in the entire world. Or as All Music Guide so aptly put it:

This isn’t some artsy, pretentious mishmash of intellectual crap full of inside jokes. This is dirty, raucous, greasy, innocently wild, soulful, and raggedly elegant rock & roll that happens to be art because of its originality, energy, and guts. This is a serious candidate for rock record of the year. Cuatro Caminos is as brave as Zapata’s revolution and as much fun as an electrified Latin son band playing the Clash and Chuck Berry at the same time.

Another artist worth listening to is Juanes, a Columbian rocker who may have one of the largest musical followings in the world. His music fuses rock, cumbia and pop with great melodies and dynamic guitar playing (Juanes is the only Latin rocker with a endorsement from Fender guitars).

Digging more deeply into the current trends in Latin rock and pop, one of the outrageous and captivating bands has to be Argentinian rockers Bersuit. Their new albums La Argentinidad Al Palo, Libertinaje and Hijos del Culo are filled with raw energy and incredible performances. One common thread among all theses bands is Argentinian producer Gustavo Santaolalla. Other Latin America bands worth finding and listening to include: Julieta Venegas, Zoe, Zurdok, Molotov, Maná (quite possibly the greatest Mexican rock band), Soda Stereo and Control Machete (Mexican Rap). So there you have it. One man’s take.

Even if you can’t understand a word of Spanish, the music will move you. Besides, being open to new ideas and new means of expression is always a good thing.