Food riots. What does it take...

...for the world to start caring about our food system? The NY Times has started a new series called The Food Chain, the High Cost of Food. Check out the first article: An Oil Quandary: Costly Fuel Means Costly Calories.

The part that took my breath away: "In some poor countries, desperation is taking hold. Just in the last week, protests have erupted in Pakistan over wheat shortages, and in Indonesia over soybean shortages. Egypt has banned rice exports to keep food at home, and China has put price controls on cooking oil, grain, meat, milk and eggs. According to the F.A.O., food riots have erupted in recent months in Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen"

The issues driving this unravelling of our food system are so huge--globalization, climate change, international trade laws, federal farm policy--that it doesn't seem as if we, as individuals can do anything. But we can...

Make informed food choices--ask questions about where your food is coming from. Go to your local farmers market--get to know the farmer behind the mountains of produce, you'll get to know your food better and learn so much. Grow your own food--even if that means just planting a basil plant in your windowsill. Ask your favorite restaurant where they get their vegetables, if your rib-eye steak is hormone free and if that grilled fish was harvested sustainably--they may not know the answer the first time you ask, but just keep asking. Learn more about these issues here:
Sustainable Table
World Hunger Year
Find out where local foods are in your hood: Food Routes

Retro beauties...

I made the mistake of typing vintage sesame street into YouTube...this could take up hours of my life if I let it. I guess it already has--in between Reading Rainbow & 3-2-1 Contact from ages 3-8. So, so good.

'How Crayons Are Made'


'Construction workers alphabet'


Philip Glass + Sesame Street

Soaking up the sunshine

First trek up Twin Peaks, a new favorite!

Today: muscles hurt that I didn't even know existed....

Tiny beautiful things.

Artists Walter Martin & Paloma Munoz turn snow-globes into beautiful things. Read more here.

One ridiculously nervewracking hour of my life. Live.

Little me on KQEDs morning radio show Forum, talking congestion pricing in SF. More info here. I still can't bring myself to listen to it yet...It was one of the longest hours of my life.

Get political.

Still haven't decided who I'm voting for--but I'm starting to get into it. Whatever happens, I'm definitely volunteering to get the voters out in November.

Check Gloria Steinem's latest on Hilary: Women Are Never Front-Runners.

Who knew voting machines would make really interesting portraits? Check out Alejandra Laviad's portraits and an interesting article in last week's NYT magazine here

The aftermath of the storm...

Photo from SFist... The streets are filled with abandoned umbrellas that didn't make it through our hurricane winds yesterday. Whew. I got stuck in a huge wind tunnel on the way to work, it was amazing. I saw the wave of wind coming about a block away, one by one people's umbrellas were unfolding and shredding. Then it hit me too, shredding my umbrella all while buckets of rain poured down. Totally unreal. Pretty fun to watch the storm unfold from the 28th floor of my work. The sun is trying to come out, I better go enjoy it while I can. Stay dry!

Truth is the light and the light is the truth

Inspiration to revisit a classic, Invisible Man, recreated by Jeff Wall.

Throw light into the shadows of my existence

A powerful, not to be missed film: Manufactured Landscapes. The ugliness of industrialization through the lens of a beautiful photographer. A hard look into our resource abuse and our waste, China at each step of the way--extraction, destruction, and construction. In that order.

My question: if we've manufactured these apocalyptic, superficial landscapes can we reject it? Can we say we've done it wrong until now and step back, create a newly manufactured landscape with sustainability, culture, (& at the risk of sounding too idealistic) with love in mind?

Bringing in the New Year

Big sis is in town--we brought in the new year with a trip to Muir Woods, walks in Golden Gate Park, Grandview, & the Garden for the Environment. A 5 course meal at Limon topped with drinks at Monk's Kettle (go there, drink beer and eat local food). Lots of home cooked epic gratins (the way to celebrate winter's root veggies) a Les Blank movie: Gap-Toothed Women.

D & I braved the winds at UCSF and toasted the new year with a bottle of wine & a fireworks show...here's to 08.

I always remember loved ones by their hands & their laughter.