Live from Tucson Eat Yourself

*technical issues! Pictures will follow*

2:47:
We arrived at Tucson Meet Yourself ready to score an exotic lunch in the Saturday afternoon sunshine. After scoring excellent street parking across from the public library, we sauntered over to the first food carts we saw including Thai, and the Tucson Tamale Company.

3:02
Overwhelmed by the options, free samples pulled me in to try a fabulous Mesquite tortilla! Made with the mesquite beans that fall to the ground several times each year in Tucson, a little whole wheat and amaranth flour, and olive oil they were tender and awesomely flavorful.

3:17
Next to the mesquite tortilla makers, I spotted a booth for Sobores Sin Fronteras or Flavors without Borders. Knowing they're associated with Native Seed/SEARCH - an organization I volunteer for - I stopped by to say hi.

Who was I to finally meet but one of my favorite authors, most admired conservationists, and founder of Native Seeds - Gary Paul Nabhan. An extraordinary surprise turned this street fair lunch date into an hour long conversation about native Sonoran grains with one of my biggest inspirations. Yes!

Gary invited and encouraged me to participate in Grain School - hosted by Native Seeds/SEARCH and Sobores Sin Fronteras - a week long series of workshops in January about growing, harvesting, processing, and popularizing native grains. I said absolutely.

4:33
Elated, I wandered off in a daze to find my friends lounging in the grass eating tacos behind the courthouse. My hero-high didn't keep me from indulging in some Oaxacan tacos and people watching.

4:56
Still wandering, and not done eating, we took in some Laotian lemondade and curry, the sight of at least 30 chuncks of meat roasting on a open pit grill, and all the happy eaters mulling about downtown Tucson.

5:23
Down at the "Soul Stage" I got to thinking about how many wonderful culinary traditions exist in Tucson and how important they are to their people to preserve them. What are my food traditions? How have they changed as I live in different places? How can we create compact, sustainable, urban food systems but still enjoy the varied traditions of a globalized community?

6:32
The evening ends at La Cocina to hear a friend's band - the 4th Street String Band - play bluegrass music inspired by my home state of Kentucky. I was struck by how beautifully they interpreted the traditional sounds I grew up with and made them their own.

Much like the food we ate and saw today, it had changed from it's original form. But that change was a naturally progression, and was still wonderful. It should be thoroghly celebrated, not disregarded in the face of modern society.

Papparazzo's are People, Too

Jezebel puts out (pun intended) a little story about a day in the life of a paparazzo... those hidden men and women behind the cameras, that capture the shots, of all the pretty celebrities we can't seem to get enough of.
When I was 13, I went to Hollywood and found myself at the premiere of Josie and The Pussycats. Remember that movie? Rachel Leigh Cook's follow up to She's All That?



Yeah, I know, why would you? Why would I? Well, I mixed in myself with the 'razos while I was there, met Rachel Leigh Cook, and adopted a celebrity-by-association complex for the next couple months. I think I saw this film like, a million times. But I don't have any paraphanilia of hers.
I, after all, knew her personally.
But there are lots of people, who make decent livings trailing around after the stars and starlets, snapping their photgraphs and selling them to magazines.
The photographer in focus in this article is "Wagner" a Brazilian papparazo in New York, and his day chasing Sarah Jessica Parker, Snooki, Michael Douglas, and then some
The author attempts to humanize these picture hounds, and I think he does a pretty good job. The reading added depth to an awesomely shallow field of pop culture, I think a person is always a little bit better knowing any kind of backstory.
Learning how the target celebs cooperate with these guys also lends some interesting insight to who celebreties - overglorified, ego maniacs (it has to be true) - really are. I say that from a purely analytical standpoint, of course.
It's not something I would have read more than a quarter of on my own. But, it is fairly well written. I think it's greatest asset is the fluid way it takes on the first-person perspective.

PJ Harvey: A Review Review

I recently started doing a little rock-criticism for Tucson's listener supported radio station: 91.3 KXCI. An awesome station like this gets loads of CD's from hard working musicians, and needs those sounds reviewed before dumping them on the DJ's.
So, not only am I listenening carefully for FCC banned words, I'm trying to translate the music into a blurb that will get it into the hands of the appropriate DJ. That being said, most of it is terrible.
However, it all deserves a listen and I've discovered writing about music is in fact... really difficult!
So, I've chosen to review an album review for this little excercise in critical writing analysis.
From Spin Magazine, a review of PJ Harvey's latest: Let England Shake.
To begin with, it familiarizes the reader with PJ Harvey's very developed artistic style and puts this album in context with the previous one.... "Let England Shake is a gloriuos uncoiling".
The review goes on to explain it's background: where it was recorded, it's political stance (or lake thereof). The reviewer highlights the affects of these with specific track examples.
The most striking notes of the review are how effectively they make the reader feel in a way similar to the music itself. Going so far as to compare a song to "a plastic Easter egg nestled in real grass". It's bizarre, but this really works.
The review is point-on in describing the sounds on the album, quoting lyrics and naming the most notable instruments.
It wraps up by summarzing PJ a bit more - the essence of her sound and her evolution as a musician.

Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 - From Africa, With Fury - Rise

A beautiful new album from the Kuti clan. Here, Seun plays with Fela's (his father) former band. Excellent sounds eminating from African artists as they blend those magnificent rhythms again. Something about this music is so invigorating... enjoy!

Tip Top Blogs

Writing better blogs means reading better blogs, first. Here are my 5 favorite blog sites!


Scott Schuman built the bridge from street fashion to the web with his conversational blog The Sartorialist. This blog opened the door to dialogue about fashion. Were are lucky to have Schuman, with his honest eye for grace and beauty in clothing, because he sees past trends, labels, and celebrity status. He posts multiple times weekly, with anonymous photographs of brilliantly dressed men and woman off streets all over the world.




 One of my dear friends spends half of her year at McMurdo Reasearch Station in Antartica. She and her partner write Weird Birds together, a blog about their adventures, emotions and experience at the end of the earth. They're both photographers, so they take tons of gorgeous photographs. She also writes beautifully about her life, and I watch her evolve as a writer and artist. It's also very personal and because I know her, it is always interesting.





Street Etiquette is my latest obsession. The layout on this blog is unusual, but it is clean and works really well. I get tired of how straightforward most blogsites are: this is one I can really explore and get happily lost in. There are loads of links, photographs, and inspiration on this site. It's not only fashion but digs deep into artwork ( and music, trends, politics) of the past and present that relates to their highly personal, highly attentive style. Most importantly, I think these dudes are just killing it! They're only 20 years old! I love the work that they're doing.


There are SO MANY food blogs. Woah. I haven't really realized how HUGE the food movement is until now. Civil Eats is one of the more concise, accesible, and relevant blogs of it's kind. With over 100 contributors, it's also diverse: covering topics such as policy, philosophy, and academics. It's been a great starting point for delving into the wide world of food blogs.

Finally, The Tartelette was once described as the "online patron saint of bakers." As an aspiring pastry chef, the adventures, recipes, and pictures on this site are so lovely and inspiring. We're always looking for new ideas in the bakery I work for, and this site is so enjoyable to look through with it's challenging ideas that are still simple and centered around high quality, fresh food. Delightful!