Spring Break is finally here, and brings with it a much needed slow down.  I’ve never been one of those folks to go on trips to warm sandy beaches, resulting in lawsuits and twenty years of blackmail; my spring breaks are distinguished by working longer hours and sleeping more.  Not exciting, but at least I don’t have to go to class.

Billy got back last week from New York and bought me a cookbook from The Strand, an impeachable reason for why New York is super awesome.  I’ll never understand or reconcile my fascination with the Concrete Jungle and my love for the ‘Great Outdoors’.  My battle cry as of late has become ‘Anywhere but Suburbia’, which I think is perfectly acceptable at this point and can only lead to exciting adventures.

So the cookbook… Is an older one by Craig Clairborne, who was at one time quite famous and probably considered instrumental in ‘informing’ the American palette (which I think is ascribed to most popular American chefs or food writers since the end of WWII…).  Star pull aside, The New York Times International Cook Book is quite the collection for 1973, and eclectic by todays standards as well.  Admittedly, the largest portions of the book are dedicated to France and Italy, but significant portions are dedicated to Greek and Asian cooking as well.  Two of the most significant differences between an older and more modern cook book, which I think can be applied generally, are photos and a focus on health.  The book is very sparse with photos, and it’s hard to know what anything was supposed to look like.  Often times, a photo will not correlate with the recipes on the opposite page.  I was making aioli, which is a French garlic sauce, and literally had no idea what it was supposed to look like or its consistency.

This maybe due to the fact that I was experimenting with French cooking, for which it is rightfully famous for, but good God, is this food bad for you!  I used 9 tablespoons of butter to cook a steak and make the sauce for it.  Put that on top of the 2 cups of oil and 4 egg yolks that went into the aioli and I became just a little concerned with my health.  I’m not one to worry about such things, but I am used to my cookbooks having suggestions for making a lighter, healthier meal.  Sometimes I’ll even follow the suggestions, if I think they would be tasteful.  But this cookbook has no sympathy for the healthy eater; I can imagine Craig Clairborne screaming and throwing heads of lettuce at Ellie Krieger, telling her exactly what he thinks of margarine and Egg Beaters©.

In other news, it appears that a rather large and scary bank, is on the scary road to Chapter 11.  I had mentioned before that I was a little apprehensive about the whole economic collapse thing; now I’m a little more then apprehensive.  Without a doubt, my potentials for earning are not related to mortgages or gigantic investment banks, but I am affected by the overall willingness of banks to loan money.  Companies depend on credit to do their daily operations, and when that becomes harder to acquire it has a real effect on business decisions.  And the fact that gasoline is over $3 in a state like Oklahoma is not reassuring either.

I hope I get my tax rebate before the Fed changes its mind.

Alright, so now that it’s almost a week past the March 4th Primaries, it’s probably safe to write about politics

Of course I’ve been following this contest since it began about this time last year, but avoided making an opinion on candidates for quite awhile.  I’ve never been very enthused with the idea of Hilary Clinton as president.  Everyone has real fond memories of Bill, but I kinda remember the whole bomb-third-world-countries-and-starve-their-children part of his presidency as well.  That “Era of Good Feelings” can stay in the 90’s thank you very much.

But hey, Democrats a Democrat right?  At least there would be a reasonable assumption that the war(s) would be over sometime soon.  And who am I to judge her for her husband’s legacy.  Bad liberal, Bad!  I also didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to Obama, because I didn’t see him as having a chance against Clinton; besides, he ran about the same platform anyways so there was no need to work up a sweat and go to his campaign website.

However, a funny thing happened in Iowa.  Clinton didn’t win.  In fact, she didn’t win a couple of times.  Further, McCain started to pull ahead.&nsbp; Now that was a surprise.  I had said for years, that McCain had about the same chance as Ted Kennedy of getting a Republican nomination.  I’m not exactly in line with most of McCain’s politics, but you’ve got to admit there’s something likable about the guy.  He oozes straight-talk Eisenhower Republicanism.  Further, he’s someone that conservative Democrats and independents can jump for.

But then we have this Obama character, that I start taking an interest in.  Actually, I start liking some of his positions, particularly ones relating to intellectual property, education, and paid vacations.  Not that any of those would necessarily pass Congress, but it’s the thought that counts right?  Come “Tsunami Tuesday” and the race has become quite interesting.  It came out just about as I predicted, with Clinton snapping up California.  Further, I figured that Obama’s only hope was that because he was going to be winning for the rest of February, that it would might put him over the top enough to beat Clinton in Texas, which could be enough momentum to sink her campaign.

Well, that’s all ancient history now; so what about the future?

First, I don’t think Obama is going to pull this one off.  He may have more elected delegates sure, but that don’t mean squat to the Democratic party.  They are more then capable of screwing this up, and I don’t think they could really screw it up worse than it is right now anyways.  Barring the delegates of two gigantic swing states solved that.  Every Democrat is going to feel dirty and pissed off at the party, whether the Florida-Michigan delegation sits, the superdelagates decide, or anything sort of FDR’s rotting corpse rising from the grave to run for a fifth term (interesting Supreme Court case: does the 22nd Amendment apply to FDR’s rotting corpse.  New twist on debate about where ‘life begins’).

Anyways, Hilary has party support, and she’ll have an argument for winning big states (Because California is going Republican and Texas is going to vote Democratic,right? ), and something about Pop Tarts.  One thing seems sure is that we will not see a Clinton-Obama ticket, and I think that is a good move on Obama’s part.  And kudos to his campaign for making the Clintons look dumb for proposing it.

So Hilary-McCain head to head in November?  Looks alright for now, but don’t be surprised if the 2009 State of the Union is about a hundred years war.

Well, I just finished the exciting 2007 tax return.  Last year’s was a bit of a fiasco, involving illness (what with me doesn’t involve illness?) and poverty.  It was paid up by Thanksgiving though! (or somewhere around that time).  Anyways, I decided I would get a head start, what with all the free money going around.

I’m actually going to profit handsomely from it, and of course, I put the “Man’s” money to good use in the battle for rock n’ roll by buying a new bass, speaker cab, and amplifier.  Pictures will follow shortly now that Billy has one of those new fangled digital cameras

In my own personal opinion, I don’t think that the economic stimulus plan is going to pull us out of a recession (which I think we can concede that the economy is not quite the strapping young bull it has been…since the Democrats were last in power).  However, I’m not opposed to the free money aspect; most Americans–now including myself–are in some sort of nasty debt.  If Americans start acting reasonable and pay off some of their debt, then I’m all for it.  However, Americans acting reasonable is first strike against the multi-headed hydra of capitalism

Automatons Unite!

It had occured to me recently that I had not posted in awhile.  So I thought I’d fix that

I read an interesting book over the break, Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig.  As a musician and a programmer, the effects of copyright are immediate and impact my livelihood to a good extent.  However, I had not devoted myself to a very in depth examination of my feelings on copyright.  It’s very easy to say ‘As an owner of a piece of software, I should have access to the source code’ or that you can make a backup copy of a CD; it’s much harder to account for what it means to use a copyrighted image in a YouTube video or a song in a mashup

He begins the book with a Supreme Court case brought by two chicken farmers from South Carolina, Thomas Lee and Tinie Causby.  They alleged that low flying military aircraft were causing their chickens to die because the sound made them fly into the walls of their coops.  Common Law property conceptions prior to this time (1945) had entitled ownership from the ground up to the heavens. So, the Causby’s said that the pilots had trespassed upon their property and caused this damage.  Lessig concedes that by all rights, the pilots had trespassed.  Aircraft were still a relatively new technology at the time, and the law was ambiguous on what to do about this centuries old understanding of property. Lessig aptly notes that “In a single paragraph, hundreds of years of property law were erased.”

“[The] doctrine has no place in the modern world. The air is a public highway, as Congress has declared. Were that not true, every transcontinental flight would subject the operator to countless trespass suits. Common sense revolts at the idea.  To recognize such private claims to the airspace would clog these highways, seriously interfere with their control and development in the public interest, and transfer into private ownership that to which only the public has a just claim."[Emphasis added]

This excerpt from the Supreme Court’s decision highlights an idea that seems to reflect the reaction of government and law to the idea of property, intellectual or otherwise.  Law and norms must mold to the emergence of technology, in the interest of the public and progress in general.  In my mind, Common Sense seems to revolt against the idea of expanding copyright infinitely, preventing all works (most no longer in publication/circulation)from entering the public domain in nearly 100 years.  In short, if you have ever given thought to the unusual copyrighted world we live in, it would behoove you to check out this book.  Pretty quick and simple read (and even a few pictures).

In another note, while looking for an online copy of a comic that he features in the book, I ran across this by the same author:

I’ve been meaning to do a little food and drink section on this thing for awhile, mostly to keep track of what I like.  I’ve got a sore throat and it’s supposed to snow tonight; giving me the prefect opportunity to review the wine I bought today:

Maximin Grünhäuser is a fairly old winery; I know this, because I read about the estate here.  All in all, it seems pretty interesting and they are well respected.  What attracted me to the bottle was it’s long bottle shape (like a bottle of Michael Collin’s whisky, but without the beveled glass) and ornate label.  Apparently it’s a picture of the estate at the center of the winery; nice digs.

This is pretty much what my label looks like, except it just says “Qualitätswein” where this one says “Pradikat, blah blah".  Probably because mine is a Riesling(2004)

Riesling’s are known as really sweet wines, but I think what doesn’t get through is that they are also very rich and complex wines.  I’ve always been partial to Rieslings over Chardonnays or even Pinot Grigios.  Apparently, this all happens because they let the grapes hang out on the vine longer then usual (referred to as ‘Noble Rot’, which sounds like a gentleman’s word for STDs).  What I noticed about the Maximin was how full it was; no particular fruit flavor dominates, and the sweetness is quickly swept away by a slightly tart ‘moody’ flavor.  I’m assuming this is owed to it’s high acidity.  It’s as if for a moment you can feel Champagne bubbles on your tongue, but it quickly fades away. 

I really like this wine, unusually so since I prefer reds.  It’s a nice pleasant drink; not much in the way of ‘legs’, but the bouquet is nice and it doesn’t feel ‘weak’.  My serving suggestions would be perhaps a Carbonara or Alfredo.  I would even go so far as to suggest this as a companion to pheasant or even a gravied beef dish.  It’s not terribly expensive ($20), so check it out if you see it at your local liquor store.