Mr. Levy (“The Maggots in Your Mushrooms” 2/13/2009) is dangerously naive to believe that it’s possible to produce food with zero contaminants. I challenge him to grow, store, and process a years worth of any food he eats and show that none of it contained “icky” insects. Then, if successful, to do so for the general population. Insect contamination is unavoidable if our foods are to have any connection with the natural world (something I hope he would not advocate against).
The problem in this most recent food scare is not the insect parts, but that they carried salmonella. The FDA does not overlook salmonella contamination, nor should it. But to link their tolerance for non-hazardous contaminants directly to hazardous contaminant appears to advocate for a food supply that does not, cannot, and should not exist if we want to continue to be able to eat real food.
–Eric Rector
The Times’ letter policy limits letters to 150 words (barely made it), but there is much more to say about this topic, especially about why I think it’s so dangerous. Continue reading “An Icky Idea”→
sun room monolithRemember that big black slab of rock in “2001: A Space Odyssey” that the monkeys flocked around, holding up the bones? Now we can dance with bones in our new sun room.
What seems like eons ago, we poured the slab as the foundation (and floor) to our sun room addition, and we fashioned a form for any extra concrete using plywood and a 2 foot by 8 foot corrugated plastic sheet that Alison found at Home Depot. The concrete for the slab was dyed black, and we wanted to capture any overflow from that batch because it might be impossible to match in a separate batch, and ultimately we wanted to add more solar mass to the sun room in the form of more concrete to soak up the winter sun. Thus, when the State Sand and Gravel concrete mixer still had concrete in the hopper after the slab form was full, we had them fill the additional form about five inches. Continue reading “Monroe Monkey Monolith”→
“Rocky Road” Rector (a bull calf) was born Monday night around 6pm. It was a mild winter evening (28 degrees F), and his coat dried pretty quickly, helped by his mother’s licking. He stood up and nursed within 15 minutes of being born — amazing. He is a day old in this picture, standing with his mother, Raindrop. Alison named him because he looks like chocolate ice cream with marshmallows. Raindrop is half Jersey(via our Jersey “steer” named ‘Chuck’) and half Dexter, so the mash-up must have resulted in the mottling, though his full sister “Red Sox” was pure black when born and grown. Continue reading “Rocky Rector Arrives”→
SONGS FOR ANDY WARHOL’S SCREEN TESTS
February 3, Palace of Fine Arts
Between 1964 and 1966, Andy Warhol — nurturing a career-long fascination with the transience of celebrity — created revealing cinematic portraits of the actors, socialites, poets, drag queens and fresh-faced Gotham arrivals that visited the Factory, his New York City studio. The 2-3/4-minute films — known as Screen Tests — were projected in slow motion so that each lasted four minutes.
13 Most Beautiful…Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests comprises a selection of these screen tests, which for many years were rarely seen. They will be screened during a live performance of music composed by Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, formerly of the legendary indie rock band Luna and currently making music as Dean & Britta. The duo will perform with a four-piece band in front of large-scale video projections of a selection of Warhol’s silent “living portraits” of his proto-superstars, including Nico, Lou Reed, Dennis Hopper and Edie Sedgwick.
Tickets are $20 for year-round Film Society members and $25 for non-members. $75 VIP tickets are also available and include reserved seating in the theater and a post-screening reception with Dean & Britta in attendance.
MY TAKE – Awesome. The films were mesmerizing, the live band thrilling… very Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground like. Imagine a camera on your face for 4 minutes in harsh light. The first, Richard Rheem, lighted from his right side, didn’t move a muscle, but he blinked and swallowed, that’s the only way we could tell it wasn’t a still. The second, Ann Buchanan, didn’t even blink, but her eyes teared up and a tear ran down and dripped off her chin. Others moved, or chewed gum or smoked. The last, Jane Holzer, brushed her teeth. Yuk. Most were lighted from the front or side, but Dennis Hopper was lighted from both sides, causing a shadow down his forehead, nose and mouth. DVD in March – see it – but it won’t be anything like a big screen and live band in front of a packed house of over 900 committed folks.
RectorSite 