Masculine Food

I was listening to Q recently and they had a journalist on, a Canadian one, who wrote (either for The New York Times or Wall Street Journal) about the "Gender" of food. For example an item called Vanilla Cup Cake would be associated with "girlie" food. Men do not cook & eat Quiche; or what is more Macho than a pulled pork sandwich slathered with Hickory-flavoured BBQ sauce.

There was a long discussion on the nature of the present foodie culture exhibiting these gender stereo-types.

To be truthful, some of it has been so obvious for years: the adverts for salads on television predominately feature women or girl friends talking about a particular salads' merits. Men are always doing the barbequing.

Who can forget the Mr. Big candy bar adverts. Clearly targeted at young men. 18 inches of pleasure.
Therein lies the flaw in the argument - not the gender but age of the target audience.

I am convinced the adverts attribute age-maturity related factors to the food more than our gender. They play to the "Kid in us". That brings out the gender stereo-types I admit. Men 'play' at cooking, women have a more adult 'love-provider, carer' aspect to putting food on the table.
At the centre however, is how food relates to our own perception of being mature rather than a man or woman that is significant in my estimation.

Ashmolean Museum

Been watching Endeavour on Masterpiece Mystery again. The most recent episode was set in March 1967. It was strange seeing Morse & C.I. Thursday wandering around Oxford and sitting on a bench near the Radcliffe Camera. I was working in Oxford in the Summer and Winter of 1967. In September 67 I was sitting on that exact spot in which they were! It looked exactly like that back then. It all appears as if someone borrowed my body and did those things. It could not be the quiet Michael living in Halifax that experienced those surroundings. The Summer of Love;  The Summer of Sgt. Pepper.

Just down from my office, 2  blocks or so, was the Ashmolean Museum. Before arriving in Oxford I was unaware of its status as the first public Museum in western culture. It was neglected and almost ignored back then. I would sit on its steps and watch the world go by.

It is a very changed institution now.

The bottom picture is from the Sixties.

Mince Curry

I often dream about food: not that I am eating it, but that I am cooking something, or inventing a new dish. Occassionally, it is a dream where I am showing a family member how to make a special dish. Perhaps a story of my mother's cooking proess or unique technique!

Last night, I dreamed I was making mince curry. Or, what we Lavalettes called "Mince" curry. In north america, it is simply ground beef.
I got up, pottered around... then had to have some.
So I did it -- made a pot of it. It was great... just as I dreamed it...

Vera Brittain & Testament of Youth

"Violets from Plug Street wood,
Sweet, I send you from oversea.
(It is strange they should be blue,
Blue, when his soaked blood was red,
For they grew around his head:
It is strange they should be blue.)
Violets from Plug Street Wood,
Think what they have meant to me—
Life and hope and love and you.
(And you did not see them grow,
where his mangled body lay,
Hiding horror from the day;
Sweetest it was better so)
Violets from oversea,
To your dear, far, forgetting land,
These I send in memory,
Knowing you will understand".^[6]

above is a poem written by Roland Leighton for Vera.
He was her fiance who was killed during the war.

The poem is showcased in the film of her book Testament of Youth. There has been so much written and produced about "The Great War" since the 100th anniversary of its beginning, in August 1914.

I am forever stunned by how each item recounting the horrors, and the ordinariness of much of those times moves me and shakes me to my boots. I sobbed and sobbed while watching the film.

I recommend watching it on a bright sunny day with a close friend. It is sure to, move you and you will need help in setting your mind at ease.
Vera lost her fiance, her brother and their good friend Victor. She became a well known pacifist and campaigner for no more war.

The film is wonderfully acted and worthy of the praise it has received.

Daddy Cool and the Drifters

A classic song from 1961 is  Save the Last Dance For Me by The Drifters.  A No 1 hit in  the US & a No. 2 hit in Britain.  The lead vocal on this record is by Ben E King. He left The Drifters right after this hit tune for a lengthy solo career. The Drifters continued for decades with various lead singers. One of the longest lead singers was Johnny Moore. He had the legal right to The Drifters name and used  it a lot  on tours during the 1970s & early 80s.

I was sitting in a bar at the Holiday Inn in Scarborough Ontario in 1980 nursing a scotch quietly alone. A man came and joined me. Unusual for me, but I started talking to him. I asked if he was at the same event that brought me there. He said no, he is with a band but their first set was cancelled because of the event going on, that I attended. Oh, what is the name of the group, I asked, he said The Drifters. No kidding. It was Johnny Moore. I bought him a scotch and he shared a love of good music & good scotch.

Art Galleries

Art Galleries

Halifax is lucky to have a good art gallery downtown.  I have enjoyed art galleries everywhere I have lived or travelled and tried to inspire my children's art appreciation by taking them to visit many.

One of my favourites is the spectacular Tate Modern on the banks of the Thames in London.  It is housed in a seriously weird renovated power station.  It is one of four Tate galleries.  The first, now called Tate Britain, is also on the banks of the River Thames, in Millbank.  It stood right opposite the office I worked in for a year on the Albert Embankment on the south bank of the Thames.  I visited it often and loved its collection of J. M. Turner's beautiful watercolours.  If you are in London soon, do visit both; you will not be disappointed.

The Jefferson Airplane and I

Paul Katner's recent passing made me think of my experiences with the Jefferson Airplane.

The very first time I heard Somebody to love I was sitting in a friend's convertible in North West London, tuned to the BBC, probably, when the song came on. We both looked at each other and wondered what the fuss was all about. Compared to Cream, Pink Floyd or even the Beatles it was not what we expected of psychedelic rock from America. However, another friend soon received a copy of Surrealistic Pillow from his sister in Boston. That changed everything. We played it constantly. It has remained one of my all-time favourite albums. I still play it often.

Then, one day in 1969, (I must admit I had forgotten the precise date, I only remembered that it was -- very unusually -- on a Wednesday,) I saw them perform at a free concert on London's Parliament Hill Fields in Hampstead. I found a write up about it on the Internet that is shown below as a link. It was a cloudy afternoon but The Airplane were terrific and really brightened my day. It was so poorly attended you could see them easily and just move around and get close to the group.
Great times.

Also in 1969 was the Stones famous concert in the Park. (London's Hyde Park.) I attended that naturally, and afterwards went to  a friend's flat on Tottenham Court Road where I met his flat-mate a young man studying for his Master's in Architecture. He had friends with him and we got to  talking and discovered that they had just attended the same concert, and one of the friends was introduced to me; It was Skip Spence. The original drummer for the Airplane and later co-founder of Moby Grape. The flat-mate had met him while doing research in America and Skip had flown over for The Stones concert and hooked up with his old friend. He was impressed that I knew him and of the first Airplane album that he played on. (The Jefferson Airplane Take Off, because it still had not been released in Britain.)
Such were those great times growing up in London in the Sixties.



http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/camden-Festival.html