Sunday, March 29, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Red Meat is Murder
I have been in Abu Dhabi for a week, negotiating a big helicopter contract. A couple of nights there has been time to head out of the hotel to a nearby mall, with a Yankee-looking food court (though I am sure it is folly to assume we invented the food court). Anyway, while I can't get pork in the UAE, I can certainly get red meat burgers. It has been almost a year of no red meat in India and while the allure of a burger (in this case a Hardee's Burger, though I had my choice of McD's, BK, DQ, and CHili's) is powerful, I don't have much of a stomach for it. The burger still sits heavily in my gut, and I am queasy.
I had a steak the other night at the hotel, some extravagant Waygu beef, whatever that means. I finished half, barely. The taste isn't fulfilling and my stomach is disagreeable almost immediately. I am confused, because I eat my fair share of lamb (isn't it a red meat) in India, and while it is often simmered to a pleasurable tenderness, I also have grilled meats that test my digestion.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
A Proposal To Be Modest
In the December 15 New Yorker, critic Alex Ross sweetly describes his fondness for Leonard Bernstein. Of Lenny's influence, he says: "For a long time, I wasn't sure whether Bernstein had really accomplished something epochal or whether he had simply opened an epoch in my mind." Now that's something I can aspire to. Far too late to change the world--who's got the time--but perhaps my best acts and affections can open an epoch in someone's mind
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Saturday, January 3, 2009
Goodbye London
We are at Heathrow awaiting our plane back to Delhi. Spent Christmas in London with Isaac and Jennifer and Charlotte and Jane--And others added to make a great holiday. Plenty of walking around London and lots of theater. Saw Pinter's No Man's Land days after his passing. Saw a Hamlet that was moving and funny. Saw Rowan Atkinson as Fagan in an old fashioned Oliver. Am I wrong or is every song in Oliver an archetype--stored away at the base of your brain? "Food Glorious Food", "Who Will Buy This Beautiful Morning", "Consider Yourself At Home", "Pick a Pocket Or Two", "As Long As He Needs Me." There were others too.
I must admit that as much as I loved the vacation, my senses were overloaded and frayed most of the time. I could have done for more days wrapped in a blanket. I keep thinking of Theroux and his wisdom that luxury blocks wisdom. And rambunctious luxury all the more.
I didn't feel much of the Christmas spirit this year, it wanes more each year. I am a stranger to it--and believe me I am one who was at one time an adoring adherent to the whole thing--the whole over the top, tinsled, music filled, Christ-centered but also Santa circling thing.
I must admit that as much as I loved the vacation, my senses were overloaded and frayed most of the time. I could have done for more days wrapped in a blanket. I keep thinking of Theroux and his wisdom that luxury blocks wisdom. And rambunctious luxury all the more.
I didn't feel much of the Christmas spirit this year, it wanes more each year. I am a stranger to it--and believe me I am one who was at one time an adoring adherent to the whole thing--the whole over the top, tinsled, music filled, Christ-centered but also Santa circling thing.
What a line in Hamlet: There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
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