Abstractions of François al-Hajj

There are bombings of some capacity everyday - somewhere in the world, someone is disgruntled enough (or the pawn of those that are) to manifest it through extreme violence.. and apparently it is pretty easy to create and deploy an exploding device that can do a fair bit of damage.

However, the psychology of such folks, the societal conditions surrounding such events, and other such heavy subjects are things that I will not get into right now. Still, a front-page article in the NYTimes today about a bombing in Lebanon has me mentioning this topic to you:

General Killed in Bomb Attack in Lebanon
By Nada Bakri and Graham Bowley
Published: December 13, 2007

Again, I will leave the real analysis and discussion for later (and, perhaps, to folks more learned than I), and so will stick to the superficial. The target of the bombing - and main victim (there were several) - was a senior Lebanese Army officer; his name was François al-Hajj. I know nothing about the man, his politics, or his military record (besides what I gleaned from the article above); but I know he had a badass name.

Please excuse the flippancensical attitude that would allow me to focus my attention on the poetic appeal of the victim's name, while disregarding the whole terrible circumstances surrounding his death. To that, I will just say that it is an odd world that we live in, and the human mind - similarly strange - makes such abstractions so possible, and, further, so accessible.

This leaves us to meditate on the syllableistic pleasure intrinsic in the words - again, nevermind the man for now: François al-Hajj

Right off the bat, the exotic sounds roll of my tongue like a fancy magical spell (eye of newt!); in full, it is an invocation to conjure up (romantic visions of) faraway lands and times that may-or-may-not have actually existed in reality. No matter, no matter, of course; we are more interested in fodder for the imagination; and I am surely inspired to dream, to dream and write. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, close your eyes and chant "François al-Hajj" (pause) "François al-Hajj"; there is no other. And, in doing so, indulge in the fantastical episodes that unfold before you.

The subtleties of bread-baking technique

Aww man.. I pulled one of the most beautiful loaves of bread I've ever made out of the oven earlier tonight, a golden round of walnuts and wheat. It had been awhile, but I broke out the "No-Knead Bread" recipe I've mentioned before; you know, the one from the NYTimes that helped to get me on this baking kick earlier this year.

Per usual, I modified the original recipe a bit - partially on purpose and partially by accident (no harm, no foul). I just cut off a slice and it's pretty good; not my best ever, but pretty good.. and, as I mentioned before, it's oh-so-pretty. Here you go:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1/2t rapid rise yeast
1/8c warm water
1T honey

1 1/2c white bread flour
1 1/2c whole wheat bread flour
1 1/2c warm water
1 1/4t salt

1/2c walnut halves (shelled)
more flour for dusting

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Place the yeast into a large mixing bowl and stir in the 1/8c of warm water and honey; let this mixture sit for a few minutes while the yeast froths back to life.

2. To this, add in both the flours, the salt and the final 1 1/2c of warm water. Note that I usually add the salt after I've added the flours because I don't want to take the chance of deactivating my yeast by dumping them with a hyper-sodium environment up front.

3. Take a wooden spoon and mix everything in the bowl into a wet dough; it will be still be very sticky once everything is combined! This is actually desired; the extra liquid in the dough will allow the chemical reactions needed for tasty bread to happen much easier compared to a consistency you might be used to.

4. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for at least 18 hours, at a warm room temperature; the inside of your oven would probably be a good choice (make sure it is OFF!). For this particular instance, I let my dough rest for about 40 hours because I didn't have the time/desire to bake it yesterday. ;)

5. The dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles (and if you waited 40 hours it most certainly will be ready), which have been generated by the metabolic action of the yeast. At this point, lightly flour a clean and level work area, and place the dough on it. I find that keeping a bowl of water nearby and dipping my fingers in it throughout this process helps from me sticking to the dough (as much).

6. Fold the dough over on itself a few times; and in each instance, throw some of the walnut halves into it until you've used up the full 1/2c. At the end, the walnuts should be evenly distributed throughout the dough (but don't worry about it being perfect).

7. Cover the now-walnuted dough loosely with the plastic wrap - right there on your work surface - and let rest for about 15 minutes while it "sets itself up"; it will be easier to work with for the next step.

8. Dip your fingers into the water bowl (again, to keep them from sticking) and shape the dough into a ball as quickly as possible by curling the circular edge of the dough under itself; the visible portion of the ball should be smooth, while the underside will have a "seam".

9. Generously coat a cotton towel with flour and drop the dough onto it, seam-side down; dust the top with more flour. Cover with another cotton towel (loosely) and let rise for another 2-3 hours. Again, due to the timing of other things going on today, I let this particular batch go for more like 5 hours.

10. At least half an hour before dough is ready, preheat your oven to 400 degrees, and place your 6-to-8 quart baking vessel in it while it comes up to temperature; the baking vessel should be a heavy covered pot, made of cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic - it is important that it can retain heat well.

11. When the dough is ready (finally!), remove the baking vessel from the oven - be careful.. it's going to be HOT! - and flip the dough from the towel into the pot, seam-side up. Don't worry too much if it looks like a mess; shake the pot once or twice to straighten it out a little, but any residual "imperfections" will, soon enough, become "character".

12. Cover the baking vessel with its lid and bake for 30 minutes. Once done, turn the oven up to 450 degrees and let the pot sit for 10 minutes more, lid still covering the pot.

13. Then, remove the lid and let the loaf bake - and the outer crust develop - for 30 minutes more at 450 degrees. At this point, the bread should be beautifully browned, with some highlights of off-white flour stuck to its exterior. Cool on a rack and rock this thing with some good cheese.. or simply by itself.

** Note that you might have to play around with the baking times and temperatures, depending on your oven and other environmental variables. For example, I've heard that some folks raise the temperature to 475 or 500 degrees in the last step to get their preferred level of crust. Baking bread is, for sure, a learned skill; the subtleties of technique will develop over some trial-and-error (and, therefore, oh-so-satisfying when you get it right).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Warm bread from the oven has no match!

A return of the infamous No. 9

If you caught me soon after I returned from my trip to Russia this past summer, there was a good chance that I told you about my desire to host a taste test featuring the full line-up of beers from Балтика (Baltika) brewing. It was a request slightly out of (my beer) character; you see, Baltika brews lagers - almost exclusively - and I'm not a fan of lagers in general. But! With my adventures in Russia still on the forefront of my mind, the novelty of tracking down the ten different Baltika beers, numbered from 0 to 9, seemed fun and worthwhile.

Baltika No. 0 is a non-alcoholic lager
Baltika No. 1 is a light lager, at 4.4% abv
Baltika No. 2 is a pale lager, at 4.7% abv
Baltika No. 3 is a pale lager, at 5.1% abv
Baltika No. 4 is a Vienna lager, at 5.6% abv
Baltika No. 5 is a golden lager, at 5.0% abv
Baltika No. 6 is a Baltic porter, at 7.0% abv
Baltika No. 7 is an export lager, 5.4% abv
Baltika No. 8 is an unfiltered wheat ale, at 5.0% abv
Baltika No. 9 is a strong export lager, at 8.0% abv

*There are a couple more "special" beers that really don't get much distribution, so the list above is really what I was looking for; Baltika also brews some other product lines (like Арсенальное), but, again, the list above suffices for my (ahem, imagined) purposes.*

Soon, though, my taste buds reigned in such fanciful (and alcoholic) fascinations - back to my usual kickass West Coast ales! - and the tasting never came to fruition. So it was only yesterday that I came across another Baltika beer. And, in fact, it was the infamous No. 9! haha.

No. 9 is, for sure, the go-to beer for bang-for-your-gettin'-drunk-buck (if you're not drinking cheap vodka, that is). At 8.0% abv, a few half-liters will put you on your ass.. and along the way, you know exactly what you're getting into, given it doesn't try to hide its alcohol at all. Yikes! Fortunately, I was sharing a couple of bottles with a few people over a homestyle Russian dinner at Sadko, a Russian restaurant in the Outer Richmond. It was, I can assure you, the first time that I poured Baltika No. 9 into a wine glass (once I emptied it of its original contents: квас); in fact, it was the first time I wouldn't have thought to drink it straight from the bottle.

In any case, if you want to know what Russian food "is", I'd recommend checking out Sadko; you'll even get that stereotypical Russian service (i.e. brusk) included in the price! haha. From a culinary perspective, it helped that I was there with my Ukrainian buddy and a crew from his work (but only my buddy speaks Russian; the rest were even more clueless than me at what they were getting into). As such, he ordered a huge amount of "classic" Russian food and drink for the lot of us; and so, we got to try a lot of different dishes at once. Good stuff!

And while I'll be no substitute translator, if you're interested in going, let me know; I certainly plan on a return trip. While I'm (still) not going to be craving Russian food on any sort of regular basis, the overall ambiance certainly has a place in my heart; at the least, Sadko's version of квас was the best I've had (and it comes in pitchers).

Of course, if you're just interested in a Baltika No. 9 experience, I think we can skip the restaurant altogether and track one down - one for each of us, that is - from a local grocery and just hang out in the park. Classic, for sure (even if we have to paper-bag it; the SF police look down upon the open container)!

Less and less Prohibition

Ahh.. I heard about it last week, but forgot in the hubbub of the past couple of days (i.e. guest in town, final for Russian class, etc.). The Drink Blog at 7x7 reminded me today that December 5th was the 74th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition here in the US. And given that the weekend is just about upon us, remember that a brief toast in appreciation of our ability to imbibe (at all) is in order. (And then put it out of your mind and just do your, um, weekend thang.)

Out of coincidence, 2007 - and just recently, at that - was the year that saw the repeal of another archaic liquor law; this one was surrounding La Fée Verte. You see, absinthe, that anise flavored liqueur of ill-repute, is back for sale in the US (legally); and, if you want to actually distill it here, you can do that too (after A LOT of paperwork, I imagine). In fact, St. George Spirits distillery in Alameda is making their own version (after years of under-the-radar experimentation). Check the full details at the NYTimes:

A Liquor of Legend Makes a Comeback
By Pete Wells
Published: December 5, 2007

While I did have some Eastern European-based absinthe drinking fantasy when I was in college - it seemed like the epitome of subversive sophistication! - it doesn't exactly have the same appeal for me now that I've done a little traveling and drinking and all that. How jaded of me, I know. haha. That said, if a bottle of good-quality stuff came my way, I will not say no; and a cafe in Budapest will not be required for me to enjoy it. A nice place in NYC with friends would do. Or, Alameda.

One the bike, more variables = less control

Most bicycles are made for a single rider. And given the fragility of personal balance - on the bike, I mean - I fully appreciate this fact. More parts on a bike means more that can break; and if one of those "parts" is another person, well, then your variables of control just went up exponentially.

more variables = less control

But, on occasion - on the right occasion - I'll submit myself to the whims of the night and ride in just this way: 2 people, 1 bike. While I'm still not a huge fan of the tandem bicycle, riding a regular bike with another person is kinda charming for me, (if, admittedly, a little uncomfortable). haha.

You see, there is a prerequisite for silliness to even try this feat, given the aforementioned stability problems inherent in the operation. And you can do it in a couple of ways, depending on how your bike is set up (ex. if you have a rack) as well as how the bodies of the two people line up. My usual mode is to have someone sit on my bike seat while I stand and pedal (and, if I'm lucky - or forceful, maybe get a little of my tailbone on the nose of the seat).

Yeah, it's hard work.. and I don't want to be riding for miles and miles like that, but, still, there is something about the arrangement that seems so simple and pure in attitude (and, therefore, appealing); again, it must be the silliness thing. All that said, it's still not gonna happen *too* often, given that when I'm hanging with someone else and I'm on a bike, the other person usually has a bike too.

Well, that is, unless I get some sweet pegs for my citybike. Who doesn't want to ride on some pegs?

Choosing the future at one hundred mph

I only have the barest knowledge of political systems in general, and even less for the particulars of any one country.. but, that said, I am (superficially) drawn to all news stories out of Russia, especially when they deal with the consolidation of power in the Kremlin (by the manliest world leader, Владимир Владимирович Путин).

Yeah, this week's parliamentary elections only solidified their position; Mr. Putin's party, United Russia, has enough seats now to amend the Constitution if they so desire. Interesting times, indeed.

But a report from the NYTimes over the weekend really caught my eye. Beyond tightening their grip on general media outlets, like newspapers and television stations (standard stuff, of course), it seems that they're now going as far as censoring contemporary art in various forms. For example, the Russian culture minister censored a state-sponsored show of Russian contemporary art in Paris a few weeks ago (as part of France's A Year of Russia); 17 of the works were deemed to be a "shame on Russia" and removed from the collection. Read the details, and find more examples, at the NYTimes:

Putin’s Last Realm to Conquer: Russian Culture
by Michael Kimmelman
Published: December 1, 2007

Still, there seems to be *some* backlash by the art community. In fact, the Tretyakov Gallery - the ones who put the show together, including the ultimately-censored works - filed a lawsuit against Culture and Press Minister Alexander Sokolov on November 20th, 2007. The court system in Russia - again, something I really don't know that much about - has a reputation for bending to the will of the executive administration, so we'll see where that goes.

If any of you come across any follow-up news for this story, let me know. And I'll do the same. By the way, I'd recommend checking out the "Multimedia" part of the article above; it's a little tangential to the main story, but it gives some context for the high life in Moscow. Russia is "choosing the future, it seems, at a hundred miles per hour." And we'd be best to pay attention. ;)

33.2 million is a lot of people

Last week, The Economist reported that, according to WHO and UNAIDS, the number of people infected with HIV worldwide fell from 39.5m to 33.2m over the course of this past year. And while that sounds like an awesome statistic (and it is, in many respects), the "drop" is actually due to a change in the statistical methods used by the aforementioned organizations. If you use the revised models with last year's data, last year's HIV total would have been 32.7m; in other words, there are 500,000 more cases this year versus last year.

But that is not necessarily a bad thing. Most people attribute the larger number to two things. First, more people are living longer with HIV and AIDS due to the availability of new treatments, and second, the number of new infections seems to be going down. In any case, there are a number of other statistics in the article that give cause for hope towards the ability for humankind to manage the disease (much like it manages other chronic afflictions like diabetes). Read the full article for more details:

WHO's counting?
by The Economist
November 22nd 2007

Still, the current treatments aren't perfect (nevermind a cure), and they don't work for everyone. So, research (for treatments) and education (for prevention) must continue. In fact, I was reminded of this earlier today by my mom, who mentioned that yesterday was World AIDS Day; it seems my sister (who works for the Peace Corps in western Kenya) had helped put on an educational event in her community for the occasion.

World AIDS Day has been observed every year since 1988 on December 1st. In some respects, this post is a day late.. but, as I mentioned, it is important that we're reminded of the issue once in a while, regardless of an "official", um, holiday. But beyond World AIDS Day, the US Department of Health and Human Services sponsors several "Awareness Days" throughout the year, each aimed at a different population; if you're interested, check out their full schedule of events.

Hopefully, the repercussions of HIV and AIDS aren't too close to home for you personally, but chances are, someone you know *is* affected on some level; 33.2 million is a lot of people. And in the global scheme of things, a scourge on such a large scale has secondary and tertiary effects that certainly affect our economy, our scientific research priorities, and, perhaps most sadly of all, our sense of personal "freedom".

With all of this in mind earlier today, I did what any American consumer would do: I bought a tshirt (with part of the proceeds going to AIDS research). Who's "doing their part" now? Oh man.. haha.

GY!BE is a tonic

You know, there are some bands that can change your life.. or, at least, will it in ways subconscious; their music is something - somehow - that stirs emotion; your reality changes for a given time and place (and space: we live in three dimensions, you know!). Wake up to the reality of an insightful riot of alternate brain activity! For this, their ability, I love them all the more; drugs don't have any affect on me. ha!

C'est la vie!

In any case, the aforementioned sonic phenomenon is most real for me now, as the expansive and cinematic sounds of Godspeed You! Black Emperor [sic, punctuation] warmly wrap around me as I be, sitting here in the prosaic, and slightly messy, scene of my San Francisco bedroom; a quiet Saturday is my fate. And I flash back to the first time I picked up - and I mean pick up in a most physical sense; I picked up the cardboard containing "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven" (GY!BE's forth studio album) and I remember not knowing what to make of it. That is, their *reputation* preceded them, but only slightly - as I was only just beginning to blossom into the world of (good) music at the time - and a record of seemingly-random sound bites (from a somewhat-familiar, if ghostly, singularity) overlaid with 30-plus minute instrumentals is not for the faint of heart. The year was 2002 and I was at Waterloo Records in Austin on a work trip; it was nighttime for god's sake, but, yet, I wasn't ready to let GY!BE into my life.

But now, I actually own a few GY!BE CDs (and have for a few years), and I play them on occasion. In fact, it seems that they have made a comeback-into-fashion for me, at least in between Kitsune-this and neo-soul-electro-that, of course; yes, GY!BE and my biological rhythms happen to be aligned in this late 2007. In this way, again tonight, I find myself more-than-on-the-edge-of-tears; I am crying. Hmm.. yeah, so this is fine (sorta); I'm not fully comfortable with this sort of thing, but I *am* trying to be, given that I acknowledge the need for emotional release (as a general theory of human existence); I also acknowledge a personal backlog of emotion that may or may not have other outlets. Here, the music is the trigger; yes - the tears also made an appearance a few weeks ago in similar circumstances, GY!BE and all, so something more than coincidence is at work.

In such a situation it's hard to keep typing with a flow unbroken. And further, it's hard to *not* want to fall towards the floor - to *not* be reaching for the teasingly-horizontal floor (gravity, you are a seductress always).. the subconscious goal is that you just want to be (in a way, mathematically-speaking, chaotic). It sounds nice - right? - to just be listening to, to be surrounded by, the mystery language intrinsic in such deep-seeded music, and to let this set of temporally-extended melodies encompass the whole fabrinific realm of your most-immediate and hypotonic existence? Right? Well, ultimately, it's ok (it's ok for me, for me, for me now); the lights are low (they will only get lower); and my eyelids are vaguely transparent.

Tonight, while GY!BE delicately thumps from a set of lovely speakers (so far, so good), the butt of my right hand rubs a short and shallow - so shallow, it's imperceivable! - track, slowly, center-to-right, across my forehead, just above the space between my eyes; the action inadvertently adjusts the angle of my head upon my shoulders; my head is no longer upright (but, thankfully, still connected). And, as I mentioned before, a few tears roll down a man's cheek (mine!) while he sits as a twisted frame of flesh. It seems that this sort of music exposes me to the true workings of the world, and for that, I am grateful.

Godspeed, Godspeed.