Pipe lights

I'm developing some new ways to get vegan food at a restaurant without being totally annoying and pretentious. Here's how I go: 'Do you have anything vegetarian?' (start them off gently). Then maybe they rattle something off something vegan in which case I'm good to go. Otherwise I say, that sounds good, but can you leave off the (cheese, milk, whatever), and everyone's happy. This might sound simple but it took some time to polish it so the whole vegan thing doesn't become mount vesuvius every time it comes out while out. I've been having much success with the technique here in Stockholm. I think it helps that I go to nice looking places, under the assumption that they have good chefs who are also hopefully decent people. Last night at a restaurant called the blue door (blo dorren or something) I got rice and ratatouille with asparagus, capers (HUGE capers, had to ask what they were), mushrooms, and spinach. It was fantastic. Also started off with some snaps. Their English spelling. They meant schnapps. They had some crazy flavors, including sweet gale, which I felt like I'd heard of. Back on the internet, I looked it up and it's similar to bayberry. Then I looked up schnapps recipes on the web, and it turns out that you can throw vodka over just about anything and make schnapps. Some examples - I'm not making these up: oak branches, pussy willow puffs (technically, "catkins", linden flowers and leaves, dandelion buds, and mountain ash berries). Foraging meets getting hammered Swedish style.

My days here, similar to in Costa Rica, have fallen into a nice workable pattern. Up at 7 or so for hotel breakfast, which is a great shmorgasborg of options that honestly tests my vegan will power every morning (all that cold herring and salmon, mmm) but I've passed thus far since they have lots of bread, fruit and veggies and mustard and nuts. I'll tell you though, the food that people waste kills me. Here I am not eating a slice of cheese and people are tossing out slices left and right. Hrrmph.

Found two great yoga classes thus far (much more impressive than Rekjavik, where I couldn't find a single yoga studio). Will go back to the first place tonight for a vinyasa class. I'm sort of going about this without the best yogi attitude. I'm essentially totally proud of all the yoga I've been doing and I know that I'm kicking butt in there. Oh well, one thing at a time, the yoga mindset is harder to instill than vriksasana (tree pose).

Stockholm is a great city and people should bump it up on their lists of places to visit. I keep finding new parts, which is a nice side benefit of searching out yoga studios. Last night's yoga, www.shaktiyoga.se, was in such a beautiful part of town I stood for a few minutes at an overlook just gazing at the city below. Then I saw some person far below on a path and it appeared that he was lighting his newspaper on fire. Turns out he was just lighting his pipe, it took a while and the flame looked bigger than that. After yoga I strolled around some more, and walked by tons of art galleries. The quality of the art in most of the galleries was poor. Makes me feel good, of course. I wonder what fraction of art galleries across the world are similar to all those Brooklyn boutiques you see: something besides sales keeping them afloat. I bet it's high.

Dark chocolate is a vegan life raft. I'm always on the prowl for it now...even the 7-11's here have it! And more than one type! Actually, the CVS at Charles/MGH also has a strangely good selection of dark chocolate.

From paripurna navasana to enlightment in 8 steps

I'm back from the three week intensive yoga trip to Costa Rica, in body if not quite in action. In action, I've been going to bed early, like costa rica, waking up early, and hitting some yoga. I had to buy myself a new yoga pad (a lotuspad, made in cambridge!) because after 3 weeks of sweating mine up in the rainforest, that guy did not smell good at all. And doing yoga on a nasty yoga mat really detracts from the experience.

Some pics from the trip are up at snapfish. Supposedly everyone from the class (34 of us) are to post there, but everyone else must be stick in bird of paradise or something because no one it moving on it.

If I ever get bored, all I need to do is get a book of tropical edible and medicinal plants and head down to the tropics. It was like starting over down there, I didn't know what to forage. Luckily, I didn't need to, they fed us well, and we ate a ton. After hours of yoga, meal time, and when you know the next meal isn't for 3+ hours, you pack it in. Especially when it's vegan.

Lorena and Adam had Henry, who seems like a decent enough individual. Corina had much success keeping him settled. I didn't. I usually think I have a certain touch with kids, but I failed.

Here's a neat fact regarding yoga. Over the past 1000s of years, the yogis have laid out a path to enlightenment (which I'm just throwing out there as a word...not saying I know what it means). Anyhow, in the yogic view, the steps are basically as follows.

1) become a decent person to yourself and others.

2) practice your poses.

3) turn inward, removing your senses from the outside world and turning them on yourself.

4) but, lose yourself. meditate, detach from and eventually lose the thoughts that scamper across your brain.

5) after meditation practice, where you see firsthand that you are the same as the Oneness of the universe, the sense of self being an illusion (we didn't really talk about why this illusion persists or why on earth the whole shebang is set up this way, which dismayed me, but these types of why why why questions always pop up to me, and I got sick of hearing myself ask them while everyone else was just throwing around words like 'pure consciousness' and 'we are all one' with no problem).

So, anyhow, the interesting thing is, to real-deal yogis, the poses (yoga class here in the states) are only meant to train the body to be able to sit still and comfortably in meditation.

Thoreau called the original yogic texts some of the heaviest most worthwhile things to consume that the world has put forward...far more impressive and substantial than anything similar put out by the West. Of course then, this makes me want to read them. Add them to the every growing list. Also added to the 'to read' list this trip: The Road, some Nietszche, some book that brittany just finished that the teacher gave her, called orynx and crake or something.

YOOOOGGGGGAAAAAAA

Good God there's a lot of yoga going on out here in Costa Rica right now. It's all great, but we are certainly packing in the material. Every day is identical, so I'll just spell out one for you.

Alarm clock goes off at 6, Jordan hits snooze twice, I'm glad it finally went off because I've been tossing and turning since 4:30 or so anyhow because this whole ultra-structured situation has not really sunk in with me yet. But, I'm trying to let it go and just keep on plowing. 6:30 - tea or coffee in silence with the other 34 people. 6:45 - in circle, meditation for 30 minutes. Then 2 hour yoga practice. Then breakfast. Oatmeal and local fruits and coffee. Then 3 hour class. In class we review all the sanskrit we've learned thus far, talk about yogic philosophy, people volunteer to read the essays on whatever topic was assigned the previous night, discuss discuss. Then we learn more poses and how to teach them, we practice. Then lunch. 2 hour break - nap, beach, pool, study, something like that. Then 3 hour anatomy class. Then dinner, then I', so darn tired I cannot even think about emailing everyone and blogging although I want to, but I have homework to do and it's late, so this is my first blog post from here yet. I thought I'd have tons of them!

Twice a week we get the afternoon off. That was today. Went zip-lining through the jungle, saw a couple sloths, it was awesome. Exhilarating.

The food here is fantastic and mostly vegan. The instruction is great. Meditation is a huge challenge for me, my mind likes to race, well, I guess everyone's does, and that's why it's such a challenge for us westerners to meditate. We are in a beautiful place though, howler monkeys in the trees, lots of nice people. It feels like we've been here forever already though. Man are we going to be cooked in yoga by the time we are out of here.

Off to dinner. Tonight's homework: write essay on aparigraha - the fifth yama, and learn the sanskrit for all the new poses, and learn like a thousand muscles it seems.

The preservation of knotweed

One crucial omission on my "things wrong with my car" list. I don't know how I forgot this one, it's great.

14) You have to sit on the back trunk to close it. Slam as hard as you want, to no avail. Sitting on it is the only way to close the back trunk.

For some reason in my old age, I'm getting picky with Cambridge businesses and swearing them off one by one. At ZuZu the other night, after we had had a drink and got there early enough to avoid the line and the cover charge, which has gone up to $5, the bouncer comes around collecting money from us if we wanted to stay. We got that place going back in the day, now they charge us once already inside. No good. India Palace the other night didn't know what the word 'vegan' meant. Then Indian food in Inman Square suckered us into paying for a henna tattoo. The quote from the waitress was something like "we have someone doing henna now, and it's free". The way she said it implied to all of us that it would cost nothing. Turns out she meant, "there's no one getting a henna right now" OF COURSE NOT, who wants a henna while enjoying dinner? I was excited for Indian food as a vegan, but I have to make it myself because it's too painful trying to make sure whatever you get is vegan. More on that in a few...

There have been at least 3 more restaurants/bars I've sworn off but I can't remember them. Old age again :). But, one place that has a solid A+ right now, and so I'm recommending it to all, is Amelia's in Kendall Sq. Nice people, chef who actually makes you feel fine about ordering vegan, and great food and great bar. Plus, it's off the beaten path and so it's a cool find.

Regarding making my own Indina food, so far so good. Coconut curry veggie stew the other night rocked. All supplies easily obtained at Shalimar in Central (although very hard to get the store staff enthused about white man cooking Indian food. So far, zero success on getting a smile, let alone a 'how 'bout that!'). Coconut milk - a food of the Gods, a creamy delicious vegan sauce.

Play last night, The Corn is Green, at Huntington BU theatre, fantastic. The last decent play I saw was Seafarers in NY. There have been a lot of duds out there, so it was a pleasant surprise. I am still crossing my fingers for the new central square theatre, but really, they gotta get some better programming in there. Just do Chekhov for a while, everyone's happy. Or Tennessee Williams, or Eugene O'Neill. Are the rights on those plays significantly more money or something? I have no idea.

I have my cell phone back, and a word of advice to anyone who loses their cell phone: figure out the insurance policies rules before you go blabbing about what happened. In my case, I lost the phone on the slopes because I was wearing a ridiculous old man's suit outfit and it popped right out...no zipper pockets on that ski outfit. But, I felt like that was too dumb, so instead I told them (truthfully) that my phone had been shutting off all the time in the cold weather and so (untruthfully) I got so annoyed the final time I just upped and threw it out. They read it back to me to confirm, and hit enter. Then they told me they don't cover thrown out phones. But they do cover lost phones. So I stuck my tail between my legs, called back the next day, and told the truth, all with levity of course. Got nowhere. Instead, received two letters in the mail - not sure why two, they were duplicates - highlighting that my phone could not be replaced via insurance because the client (me) misrepresented the facts of the case. So, the lesson learned is either 1) tell the truth, but, that's too much of a Latter Day Saint's type of lesson, and it won't necessarily always work, so I prefer 2) Figure out what story will get you a new phone, tell that one.

The weather is very cold right now. So, let's turn our thoughts to Spring. One of the first plants out in abundance around here for foraging is Japanese Knotweed. Check it out online. It's only around for good eating for about the first 3 weeks of its growth, so it goes fast, but there's tons of it. I'll be sponsoring a contest this year, the best recipe for it and the best way to preserve it. Sort of...The Iron Chef of urban wild edibles. Start brainstorming. It tastes a bit like rhubarb.

Early virtues of the vegan diet

As of January first, myself and a couple friends have gone to the vegan side. This of course comes with some risks. I hope not to become intolerable to go out to dinner with, asking about each and every item. This was worse enough as a vegetarian. I also hope to continue to love food and eating. So far, so good.

The first two days were the hardest. Maybe it was psychological, but I really felt empty and hungry all the time. I was panicking a little. But things smoothed out. Now I am thinking that vegan has some extra benefits that I hadn't considered up front. 1) I get to eat more often -- I love eating and preparing food so this is a good thing. 2) I get more creative - I force myself to so I continue enjoying food. I used to tout this as a virtue of the vegetarian diet, how I always found myself cooking more creatively since I couldn't rely on things that automatically taste good, like, oh, i don't know, sausages. You gotta work a little harder to make those veggies and grains pop. And now without cheese, eggs, and butter you really gotta work. Luckily, have had some early success already. Ribolitta from Mario Batali's cook book was excellent. I prefer normal cookbooks to vegan ones, since vegan ones are full of recipes for things like "Ground bulgar and lentil loaf". Mmmm. On the other hand, normal cookbooks with some tweaks offer fine vegan cuisine.

Making yoga free at the gallery has brought people out of their caves, which I'm happy about. I gotta get cracking on reading the yoga books for costa rica. Last night and this morning, I was reading a play by Eugene O'Neill called The Emperor Jones. I bought a book of three of his plays, published by Dover (book called Three Great Plays - only after I got home with it did i realize, wow, that's a clever publisher's title that literally got me to buy the book), hoping that one might work as a movie script for Rob. Unfortunately, The Emperor Jones is set in the West Indies and involves mainly a large black man running terrified through the woods. Not exactly what we are looking for regarding 'filmability'. Maybe one of the others in the book, 'The Hairy Ape', is more suitable.

Panicking is a weird word, having to add the 'k' before adding the 'ing'.

The problems with my car

As promised, here is a near complete list of things wrong with my car, in the order they come to my mind.

1) Brake light is always on.
2) The button which makes the rear defroster go on is long gone. So, it's an L.E.D. by itself.
3) The car locks automatically when you close the door, usually. It's a matter of time before the keys get locked in there.
4) I had to remove all the interior light bulbs since they always stay on even after the doors have been closed. One remains, the green light ring around the keyhole. To shit that one off, I need to bump the right rear door after I shut the driver's door.
5) There is a leak in the exhaust manifold which brings the fumes right into the cabin if the car stays put.
6) The rear shocks are caput. In the winter I think they fill with water and freeze and thus become especially bad. I sometimes get car sick hitting frost heaves, which is new for me: I've never gotten car sick while driving myself.
7) The radio goes out once in a while. Acceleration in either direction often is enough to get it going again.
8) There is no display on the radio anymore, it has long since faded.
9) There is a crack in the engine block, making it virtually impossible to pass inspection without slipping someone some bills. Additionally, it makes my car terrible on gas mileage.
10) There is a huge dent on the right of the hood.
11) Sometimes when you try to unlock it manually, it resists and snaps back to a locked position. I don't know how to make it not do this.
12) The right back window does not go down.
13) The heat only sort of works.

And now, the good list:

1) It has new tires and windshield wipers.
2) It starts surprisingly easily in winter.

Quote from Thoreau

"I plod along, thinking what a miserable world this is and what miserable fellows we that inhabit it, wondering what it is tempts men to live in it; but anon I leave the towns behind and am lost in some boundless heath, and life becomes gradually more tolerable, if not even glorious." -- from a journal entry in 1857