Daily

I've been sucked into facebookland conversations about the Rethinking Poetics Conference. If I lived closer to New York or actually had some kind of academic job that required me to go to such conferences or if I'd been invited or if tickets to New York were really cheap and I'd had a place to stay, I might have gone. Conferences are all slightly doomed. If I ever get to/have to throw a poetry conference, it would be 1) interdisciplinary 2) mix readings/performance/art with critical discussion 3) have time for dancing and parties 4) have good food available--either on site or easily accessible off-site 5) there should be at least one good bar nearby, and preferably several 6) there should be some time for sleeping in and some time for napping.

Now that I think of it, both Post Moot I and II as well as Positions were pretty close to fulfilling all of my criteria. And Press was fun, too. I think it's also notable that Post Moot and Positions didn't call themselves conferences. Post Moot was a "convocation" and Positions was a "colloquium." What about festivals? I know the word "festival" brings up, perhaps, images of people dancing around in the California wilderness, wearing motley, and juggling--but hey, a lot of those motley-wearing jugglers are my friends, and they often throw good parties. I mean, if I had the funds to spare, I'd definitely be going to at least Wanderlust and Burning Man this year.


Enough of that. Mark and I ate the last of the apricot-blackberry tart I made for my birthday, and it was delicious. Otherwise, I've been eating a lot of strawberries. I also made a killer roasted-potato salad with corn (also roasted), zucchini, red onion, green beans and tomatoes. Dressing was made of of tarragon, apple-cider vinegar, mustard, olive oil, hot sauce, etc. Yum.

On Sunday, I managed to get into a full version of Eka Pada Rajakapotasana, with both hands and my head on my foot. Here's a picture of what the full pose looks like for those of you who aren't yogis. Of course, my hips weren't perfectly square or perfectly on the ground, but still, moments of physical opening like that make me hopeful

What else? I did decide to get a pair of Toms. Gold ones.

In fact, it's colder here than NY, DC, and most of Ohio

I grilled a pizza (with leeks, sage, wild mushrooms and fontina). It worked reasonably well, but the dough was too puffy. And sticky. I'm used to focaccia dough being difficult to handle, but not pizza dough.

I am a zombie after the last three weeks.

Mark and I are going to Paris this summer. Terminal Humming will be out soon--I'm sending final files to Rod tomorrow. It's been a good spring.

It's cold enough for chili

So I am having chili.

List

• Back to teaching ESL in the AM, which I prefer.
• Back to getting out of bed early, which I don't prefer.
• Terminal Humming is this close to going to print!
• I cleaned my study.
  
• I am nearly back to normal and not sick any more. What was that, anyway?
• I ordered heirloom Lima beans from Rancho Gordo.
• Michelle is making me a 33" travel hoop with 1/2 inch 125 psi tubing (ooh, hoop gear talk). It will be packable, light, fast and bouncy!
• Colin Smith is coming to visit soon!
• Mark and I did laundry today. I have not folded or put away my clothes.
• I have hundreds of papers to grade by tomorrow.
• It's overcast and kind of cold, for here, but a santa anna is supposed to come in tomorrow.
• I have a timely interest in spring onions. They are good grilled, roasted, etc, etc.
  

The Jeff Koons piece of Michael Jackson with Bubbles was more special than I could have imagined.

I am sick, but I don't think it's because of last weekend, when Mark and I went up to LA to visit with Joseph and Rita, see a lot of art, hear a lot of poetry, and eat a lot of good food.

What we saw:

• The Museum of Jurassic Technology
• The Franz West, Art of Two Germanys/Cold War Cultures , and the Broad Contemporary Art Museum--all at LACMA.
• The Dan Graham retrospective at MOCA.

What we ate:

• Purple pickled eggs, chili, potato salad, pickles, and sandwiches at Philippe's. Mark had a classic beef dip with swiss cheese, and Joseph and I had lamb dips with blue cheese. We went at the height of the lunch rush; but we persevered, and the meal carried us all the way to dinner.
  
• Burgers and onion rings at Umami Burger. Both were amazing, but the waiters were grumpy and inefficient. I'd go back for lunch in a heartbeat, though.
• Brunch at Larkin's: I had "Maggie's Mess": Potatoes, scrambled eggs, onions,peppers, bacon hot links & chicken--pieces of fried chicken--with a bit of gravy and a biscuit.
  
• Sausages and beer at Wurstküche.

What we heard at the Poetic Research Bureau:

• Will Alexander
• Guy Bennett
• Paul Vangelisti
• Diane Ward
• Ben Ehrenreich
• Ara Shirinyan
• Andrew Maxwell
• Sesshu Foster
• Douglas Kearny
• Roberto Leni
• David Lloyd
• Estrella del Valle
• Seth Michelson
• Dennis Philips
• Saba Razvi
• Martha Ronk
• Matthew Shenoda
• Daniel Tiffany
• Molly Bendall

This week has been horrible

I love roasted cauliflower. It began with a cauliflower gratin several months ago. Then the roasted cauliflower soup on Thanksgiving. Now I want to make cauliflower everything--it's a winter vegetable, after all. I'm remembering, too, how much Indian food uses cauliflower, so tonight I'm making something vaguely Indian. It's a good excuse to use some of the mustard seeds I've been hoarding.

Risotto

I made my first risotto of the fall yesterday. Strangely, I made it with spring vegetables. Asparagus, for example, which is still really good at the farmer's market. No fava or lima beans, alas.

Stall

I have not made the hair appointment yet.

I want to make aged Gouda biscotti with walnuts. I have no aged Gouda, though. Next week.

If I only had to eat aperitivi for the rest of my life, that would be ok.

Writing continues. Attempts at writing something on Tina Darragh's Opposable Dumbs.

Having people over makes me happy

and makes me love our apartment in spite of the wall to wall carpet. Here's what I've made for our 3rd annual Labor Day party:

• Baba Ghanouj
• Skordalia (Greek potato and almond dip/sauce, one of my favorite things ever)
• Hummus with Paprika and Whole Chickpeas (the most fancy hummus I've ever made)
• Egyptian Spiced Carrot Puree (I also love this, mostly for the spice topping part, which is made of toasted ground hazelnuts, coconuts, coriander seeds, and cumin seeds, and other stuff)
• Roasted Red Pepper Involtini (little rolls made out of roasted red peppers filled with a ricotta mixture. These taste good but fall apart)
• Roasted tomatoes with honey and thyme (they are so good! Good on bread, especially with some ricotta)
• Rice Salad with Merguez and Preserved Lemon Dressing (I couldn't actually find any Merguez, so I used some spicy chicken sausage, but it tastes good)
• Three Pea Salad (hurray for peas!)
• Beet Salad with Candied Marcona Almonds (Marconas are addictive even when they're not candied. And I love roasted beets)
• Cheese, fruit, etc

This is a fairly long list, but it really only took me a few hours on Saturday morning (which left plenty of time for hooping and the beach), with some final preparations today before I head off to yoga. I roasted anything that needed to be roasted outside on the grill, so I didn't even have to heat up the house.

3 More Days Until I am 30

Not counting today. I am making a medium-sized deal out of this.

I did a medium-length asana practice on the beach yesterday. I like practicing handstand on the beach, because the sand is soft and nice to fall on.

My left hamstring/femoris is sore, but I learned a few ways to make it less sore.

I want the Celtics to win, but I don't think they will.

No one can drink alcohol legally on Mission Beach anymore. There were 400,000 less people there this past Memorial Day weekend than the one before.

I made fish stew. Yes. In San Diego in June it is still cold enough to eat stew. It is 98 in DC.

I went to a women's teachers club meeting. Yes, I did.

I'm going to attend a 2 hour training seminar on critical thinking on the evening of my birthday.

There is new construction in Carlsbad. It will be a mixed-use building. There aren't any high rises here, although there are a few in Oceanside.

Still reading Anna Karinina. She did not die in childbirth. The wedding scene between Levin and Kitty is crazy and long and ritualized and both characters are very beautiful and very dazed; neither of them has eaten very much because they are so elated and overwhelmed and in love and clueless.

T-1 day until the end of my half/medium vacation.

I've never, ever had a successful diet that didn't include alcohol, bread, and cheese.

I did three rounds of hanumanasana in my yoga practice today, and also worked on jumping up into handstand from two legs. Hanumanasana remains a challenge, but I think my hamstrings are opening up a bit. They'd better be after all those hanumanasanas! Handstand, though, was more satisfying. I managed to jump up (with two bent legs--instead of kicking up) and balance before I hit the wall. That must mean that my core muscles are getting stronger, since I have the strength to not only jump up, but also break and balance. I'm still working on jumping into it with straight legs, though.

Yesterday we went to the beach and today we also went to the beach. I have one more week left before I start teaching ESL in the mornings again. I intend to go to the beach a lot this week.

I've been looking at Mario Batali's new book on Italian Grilling. I like his recipes--they work, even if you don't have a fancy kitchen, etc. Yum. I'll still be cooking/grilling my favorite Middle Eastern and South Asian recipes this summer, but I've decided that it also won't hurt me to begin studying updated European traditions, either.

I said that today's birthday wish would be something about health and vanity. I've been reading Anna Karenina. Levin's just started his obsession with death, and now Anna has picked up on it as well. I'm not obsessed with death. I am at times obsessed with the nexus between health, beauty, and physical comforts. I spend quite a bit of time maintaining my health (through exercise, yoga, and food) and my beauty, but I'm not interested in maintaining either of those things at the expense of enjoyment.

So, today's birthday wish is that I'll practice yoga well into my 70s and beyond, that I'll never develop some weird sensitivity or allergy to cheese, wine, or scotch, and that I'll maintain my ability to stay up well past midnight.

Also, there were people selling fresh fish at the farmer's market in Carlsbad yesterday. I need to learn more about their sources, but still, that's an exciting development.

No more meyer lemons, and the fava beans are too big to be good now, but the asparagus is still great.

I have a new recipe for hummus that I'm going to try--the hope is that the result will be smooth, creamy, nutty, and tangy (not mealy and overly lemony).

I was behind on posting, but not on writing.

I posted more poems at See it Everywhere.

I think I am going to make this Eggplant and Lentil Stew with Pomegranate Molasses soon. I love stew, but stews aren't so great when the weather gets warmer. This is a summer stew!

I think I sprained my thumb.

Or not sprained, but torqued it. Is there a specific word for almost sprained. Like, a bit swollen but not black and blue? I'm not sure how I injured it. I think in yoga class, just now. Maybe in pincha mayurasana somehow, though that makes no sense to me...

I bought artichokes today. And also asparagus. At last the asparagus is in season. Nice enough to eat raw.

I bought a Peter Rabbit bowl to match my Peter Rabbit mug.

Maybe it's time for me to get over my somewhat totally irrational but definite dislike of Gustaf Sobin. But I can't even think about The Fly-Truffler without wanting to rant. Young orphan woman becomes lover, language, earth, and food, all at the same time, and is then consumed by old husband, both literally while she's alive and then figuratively when she's dead (honestly, there's nothing sexier than a hot dead young woman). Barf. I'm interested in obsessive desire, but this book feels so cliched in a sexy, international way that I find it maddening. I know: my reading and rant aren't especially nuanced. Are any of you readers Gustaf Sobin fans? What should I read?

I'm going to attempt to participate in NaPoRiMo. I've already posted some poems, even. Wow.

I just finished reading Elisabeth Workman's Opolis. I liked it. I will review it.

I just finished eating some butternut squash soup to which I added arugula and a tablespoon of peanut butter. It was actually good. It's all part of my non-diet diet. Soups are good for that.

I made a sound poem thing, complete with weird ambient flute stuff in the background. For now I am going to call it "I still have a problem with agriculture."

I've been thinking about things that would make me cool(er). What are they?

Breathing Again

My nephew is nearly 2, and is already talking up a storm. He's energetic, inquisitive, and sweet. And he's proof that toddlers aren't always picky eaters: he has his favorites, of course (blueberries) but he'll try almost anything. And he doesn't like potatoes, which means that he doesn't demand to eat fries all the time. I also discovered Quorn, which is really one of the best meat substitutes or meat-free foods I've ever had. I think that I had the "chicken style tenders," which were toothy and had a nice texture.


I stocked up on sumac and dried pears at the Berkeley Bowl, and also bought a copy of The Transformation from Pegasus Books. And I'm going to read it. And I'm also going to take a nap.

Off to Berkeley

But not for poetry, dear readers, for family--four generations of it, in fact.

(Not so) secretly, of course, I want us all to go to Tartine on Saturday. I've already over planed food options. I have to go to Cheeseboard, at least, even if I don't make it all the way across the bay.

Missing Cupcakes

I can't find the cupcakes we brought home from Auntie Em's Kitchen. I think I remember taking them off the train. Maybe they are in the car? I am sad.

I have no voice

Well, maybe I have like 15% voice. Teaching tomorrow is going to be "interesting."

Mark and I ate at Terri Cafe in Oceanside for lunch, and the shoyu ramen was quite good. All their noodles are made nearby. Yum.

Recipe Radar

Some kind of a Spanish-style fish soup with white beans and saffron. I've seen lots of recipes that use clams, but I can't eat shellfish, so maybe I'll make it with halibut or monkfish.

I have two more whole trouts in the freezer courtesy of our neighbor. Anyone have a favorite way to prepare trout? I'm getting bored with my various fish preparations.

A lentil and sausage soup. I make a version of this a few times every winter. I saw one recipe that calls for fennel, which could be interesting.

A very basic but tasty brunch recipe: baked eggs with potatoes and chorizo. Mmm.

Winter greens: I tend to make some version of braised greens (maybe with beans and prosciutto, or a more middle-eastern version with chickpeas, or a spicy version with sausage). Does any one have any favorite winter green dishes/recipes?

Something with eggplants. Eggplants are good in the winter.

I'm a bit sick of winter squash for the moment, so I'm taking a break.