062 tuesday march 29
purple rock / affirmations poem / tomato mozzarella empanadas / who's we again
how many days are at the end of march anyway, sheesh. it feels like march has been ending for three weeks. maybe by next week it will finally be over.
did you guys see the oscars this weekend? i mean wow. i have a couple paragraphs of jokes i would like to get into now if that’s okay. i have some prepared material. i have some really incredible comparisons i’ve thought of that run the gamut from pop culture to political history and even a few that are in more of an almost metaphysical space. most of it you have already heard by now but i didn’t want to miss my opportunity to wedge a few more in just in case.
did you guys see biden’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2023? i mean wow, also. seems like a great time to be cutting funding for vaccine research and covid treatment. this observation has been trite since before the bush era but whenever you really start to feel the pressure of living in this failed state, this couplet of parallel countries we call the USA, you just look at the budget and you’re like, oh, right. oh, right, that’s why everyone i know has been experiencing a declining quality of life for as long as i’ve been alive. that’s why my generation and the one after it have demonstrably worse lives than our parents. that’s why nobody goes to the doctor even if they have health insurance, that’s why rent is going up everywhere, that’s why you’re going to have to pay for your own covid treatment soon, that’s why everything’s falling apart. that’s why we will not be seeing a transformational shift to a green economy anywhere near in time. because the government is spending all the money it could be spending for housing and healthcare and our future on bombs instead.
it really helps to see it visually i think.
like i said. trite! boring! been hack to observe this since well before jon stewart ran it into the ground. but it’s the backdrop for every tragedy playing out in this country, and it’s the bedrock on which all of our futures are built. incidentally this is what you’re advocating when you’re advocating for increased arm sales & military support to places like for example ukraine. sucks to say that maybe! i get it. but the ratchet only ever goes one way. that’s how they get you and that’s how they have been getting you and that is ultimately how you will be got.
also this past week i have been riding my new bike a lot and it’s really great. i got a rear rack for it and i’m going to get some bags soon too so my back doesn’t get sweaty when i’m riding in to work. i’m enjoying using the exercise app Strava as a way to publicly log every single trip i take on the bike even if it’s a half mile to the bar. it’s funny to me.
let’s get into it.
1. painting
maybe you have seen the work of cosimo galluzzi somewhere in your travels. i can’t remember when i first became aware of them, and i don’t think they post that often on instagram, and i don’t actually know that much about them as a person or what niche they occupy in the art world beyond the vague title of “concept artist” but whenever i see their stuff i really like it.
it’s a combination of well-chosen and vibrant color palettes, extremely subtle shading, and great linework that adds, not detracts, from the pieces. linework is something i have been interested in artistically for a while now but usually i have a hard time getting the final result to match the ideas i have in my head. usually it ends up being too distracting, or not quite the right stylistic match, or feeling too simplistic. or something.
this week i had the idea hit me kind of out of nowhere for this one, a big block of purple stone in the middle of some kind of semi-wasteland. with someone camping out on top, not inside. i was excited to try out some lines and colors and subtle gradients.
initial sketch. you can see the horizon is way too high on this one. the perspective is either from someone who is way closer to the cube than i want them to be or who is maybe 20 feet tall. neither one is good.
fortunately it’s very easy to construct a one-point perspective, and even easier to do it when you’re working digitally.
one of my favorite aspects of doing more linework-forward pieces is being able to get into a groove and zone out and just have fun doing all the little details and fiddles and bits and pieces. it can be frustrating when you don’t feel very confident in your ability to just wing it and draw stuff, but this is why we do a ton of semi-boring drawing exercises. so our hands know the shapes of things and how to describe them with a pencil.
basic colors. i went into this with a pretty clear idea of what i wanted the palette to be. fortunately it worked out pretty well.
more colors. i added some details in the form of color / shading (i.e. without linework)(do not message me to tell me i used “i.e.” incorrectly) but kept it pretty minimal. it helps add depth to some of the grass. and of course some swirl to the big purple cube.
gradients! this is very nearly the finished piece. wow! look at how much depth it adds to the foreground. look at how much depth it adds to the sky! also i lightly painted a wash over some of the linework to change its colors. this helps a ton.
scroll up to see the final, which has a very light orange-to-blue gradient wash over the whole thing. and the person sitting up there has some color as well.
2. poem
“affirmations poem” - march 2022
all my clothes fit perfectly
they are loose and flowing in all the right places
i am learning the right lessons
from all the right fiction
i am reading and drinking and walking and pausing in perfect proportion
every house i pass is not full of tired people
waiting for something to happen
3. tomato mozzarella empanadas
yes the mozzarella is vegan. no i did not put it in quotes. i find them demeaning.
i went to the portland vegan restaurant & pisco bar epif last week for the first time ever, somehow. somehow it has survived for a very long time on that stretch of 28th that always seems to be shuffling and changing. and somehow i have never been there yet. but it was great. had a couple pisco sours in the sunshine and a wonderful vegan empanada which i both enjoyed immensely and took as a challenge.
the ingredients are pretty simple. i made my own vegan mozzarella a couple days before, which i am just now realizing i did not really document, but i followed this method which is very easy but you do need some kappa carrageenan. which you might not have readily to hand. as an experiment i stored some of it in brine and some of it just on its own. after only a day, i couldn't really taste a difference. that’s one thing about this mozzarella is it’s not super flavorful. it melts wonderfully but next time i make it i will have to do some tinkering to see about getting some more flavor in there.
also we have green onions basil and sun dried tomatoes. and chives. not pictured.
very basic dough, just flour water olive oil salt. knead it up and roll it out.
i cut a couple of the circles with a bowl (not sharp enough) and then used the scraps from that to make some uglier circles. then loaded them up with stuff.
turns out i really needn’t have bothered cutting circles out with a bowl because it’s not like i’m amazing at folding over empanada edges and sealing them anyway.
also i think i should have poked holes in them with a fork? for reasons that will become apparent.
also made some very basic green chili dipping sauce. cilantro silken tofu green chilies and green onion. also salt and olive oil. blend it all up.
halfway through baking these things puffed up like footballs. extremely round. which i guess means i did a great job sealing the edges actually! so halfway through i poked them with a fork and kind of whacked them with a wooden spoon so they sort of deflated but they were already kind of baked by that point so they didn’t really deflate in an aesthetically nice way, they just got dented. also i brushed some plant butter and paprika on them.
not the prettiest but very tasty! you can see the inside there. how it’s just kind of a big giant empty pocket. like a football stadium or something.
4. who’s we again
a while ago, a long time ago now it feels like but probably like a year and a half or two years ago i wrote a little essay channeling some frustrations i was experiencing related to the ““““discourse”””” around the ongoing (worsening? perpetual?) housing crisis in the united states. i didn’t really take a lot of time with it and i didn’t really revise edit or proofread it or anything like that, it was really just a way to organize some of my thoughts into a slightly more cohesive format.
part of that piece had to do with the use of the word “we.” which i have been seeing come up a lot again recently. in response to the Ongoing Situation in ukraine, i think that’s part of it: are We doing Enough? have We betrayed the brave people of ukraine? can We establish a no fly zone and shoot down some Russian jets please please please oh pretty please can We shoot down some jets?
also i think this is due in no small part to the increasing (correct) sensation among many Prominent Democrats that they have absolutely blown any chance of retaining power in 2022, and downstream from that the increasing (also correct) sensation among many Prominent Progressives that this probably means any hopes of using the power of the federal government to do anything at all about any of the real problems facing this country are out the window. whoops! yikes! shit!
also covid, of course. which will be back with a vengeance in the USA soon (not that it really left) just as the state is winding down all the capacity it reluctantly built to try and mitigate an ongoing public health crisis.
so it’s time to start pointing some fingers and feeling some guilt and spreading some blame around! it’s time to think about where We went wrong these past couple years. how could We have mishandled the pandemic this badly?? ahhh We’re so bad at this! can you believe that We wasted these past two pandemic years, which really were a golden opportunity to leverage the crisis into an opportunity to make so many things so much better for everyone, but gosh darn it, We were just asleep at the wheel!
gas prices are skyrocketing. could be a huge moment for environmental groups to really hammer messaging about mass transit and renewable energy! ah but wouldn’t you know it, We decided to give out rebates to drivers instead. how foolish We were to do that! what were We thinking!
and housing, of course, is something We absolutely love to screw up due to Our carelessness. quoting myself here. i’m allowed to do that.
this should make you stop and think. Wait a second. Who’s “we?” “We” need to create more housing. Hmm. Okay, well I personally am not going to get out there and swing a hammer. You probably aren’t either. I guess maybe it’s kind of a, we all chip in through taxes, and a builder builds it with that money? Nope! Guess again. That happens sometimes, but that’s not the main “we” we are talking about here. Well, "We" definitely could use more affordable housing. That's for sure. And I'm guessing they're the same We, right? Wrong.
“We need to build more housing” means “most of We will watch as some very rich We’s leverage the power of international finance capital to build apartments that some of We will get to live in but most of We will be frowned at if We get within fifteen feet of the door.”
“We are Adding Housing” really means “The city has made it easier for developers to construct, sell, and rent market-rate housing in the ostensible hope that somehow through the alchemy of Market Economics, working class people will eventually be able to afford some kind of shelter in this city.”
Again, sure - this is semantics! Come on! It's not important! But actually, the question of who is building housing and for whom is it being built is critically important. And language like this - intentionally imprecise or not - obscures the power dynamic at play in our cities. It groups us all together onto one big team, pulling together - but are you on the same team as your landlord? Really? Your bank?
anyway all i’m saying is when you see that stuff i would just like you to think about who the We is. that’s all. just think about who you’re getting lumped in with probably against your will.
well that’s it for this week. have a good week everyone. see ya next tuesday. bye.
"affirmations poem" feels like it could be lyrics from a song by The Weakerthans. I mean that as a genuine compliment.