St. Louis Festival of Nations 2011

We found one tub of the African Black Soap that I was looking for to replenish our stock!  One of the African countries' booths (from Mali) had one tub left out of the stock that he brought to the festival.  That should last us a few weeks, but it won't hold me over until the next African Festival in July.

Mali:



This afternoon, Mark and I attended the 11th Annual St. Louis Festival of Nations.  (August 27 - 28, 2011)

I am pleased to announce that since the first St. Louis Festival of Nations in 2000, this venue has grown by leaps and bounds.  Actually, in just the past 3 years, this festival has quadrupled in size.

They have 3 entertainment stages that are each booked with a separate act every hour that they are in operation. That is 45 different groups of singing, dancing, bands and other ethnic entertainment running continuously.  Running hourly, there are also many demonstrations for arts and crafts from several countries, usually several per hour, and scattered throughout the park.

We walked through the park, from booth to booth.

When we explored booths from Peru and Bolivia, for example, I could feel the warm sun on my skin from an August day in St. Louis, but the sun also warmed the hand knit wool items from Alpaca.  I could also smell the lanolin in the wool.   Mentally, I went on a mini-vacation to the hills in Bolivia and to the Andes mountains.

The next booth was Moroccan.  All aboard the Marrakesh Express!  I paused for a moment.  The items that I saw instantly took me to a Moroccan Souq.

Next stop: India!

The fine clothing, fabrics and other textiles are simply beautiful.  I got a welcome whiff of the food that a couple that were sitting in the next booth was eating.  That booth was Pakistani.  Many St. Louis local restaurants combine Pakistani / Indian food on the same buffets.  The combination of an Indian bazaar (souq!) and a whiff of Pakistani food took me to the streets of Delhi.   

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This link is the full schedule, festival map and other information.
(after the link loads, scroll down:  This brochure has 11 pages.):

http://www.festivalofnationsstl.org/pdf/Festival-of-Nations-Program-2011.pdf

As an example, these countries were represented by booths in the food court:

Bengali
Congolese
Bolivian
Indian
Moroccan
Burmese
Russian
Canadian
Kenyan
Nepalese
Guatemalan
Chinese
Malian
Bhutanese
Ghanaian
Thai
Zimbabwean
Mexican
Iranian
Zambian
Ugandan
Senegalese
West African
Ecuadorian
American
Afghan
Hawaiian
Haitian
Vietnamese
Native American
Kurdish
Bulgarian
Argentine
Turkish
Jamaican
Ethiopian
Soul
Israeli
Bosnian
Cajun
Greek
Peruvian
Eritrean
Polish
Romanian
Filipino
Caribbean
Scottish
Malaysian
Nigerian
German

(...and there were 'multiples' of each cuisine!  For example, there were 3 Peruvian, 3 Russian, 4 Mexican, 3 Polish food booths, and many multiples of others.)

Considering these choices, and that I am of the adventuresome persuasion,  the task of selecting only one cuisine was daunting.  I didn't want to choose Indian as our lunch, because we have Indian food at least once a week at one of the many local Indian restaurants.  I also use Indian spices in my daily cooking.

We choose:

Eritean!

You ask, "HUH?"  What the Hell is that?

I am thrilled to have the opportunity to explain!  :)

"Eritean" is anything from the country of Eritrea.  Eritrea is officially the State of Eritrea, and is a country in the Horn of Africa. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The northeast and east of the country has an extensive coastline on the Red Sea, directly across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands are part of Eritrea. Eritrea's size is approximately 45,406 square miles with an estimated population of 6 million.

Eritrea is located here:




I never knew this country existed, so I have definitely never heard of this cuisine.

Now that I stop and think about it, I want you to do a little test.  I want you to count the number of people that you know that would readily approach a booth that served food from a country that they had never heard of, and blindly order a plate full of food from the menu, then eat every bite with great gusto. Do you have spare fingers left on that hand?

I have lived as "me" for so long that I don't often stop to realize that I am blessed to be in that minority.  "That minority" is a small group of people that have never lost the curiosity of a child, and have never developed the self-induced calluses of adulthood and old age.

I have also come to the conclusion that the fact that I am an advanced level knitter and that I have taught myself to read music (Scott Joplin, Bach, Beethoven, as well as a LOT of popular music) in a short 2 years time are not gifts.  Nobody "gave" them to me.  Both of those accomplishments are the result of hard work and determination - pure and simple.  The gifts that I have been given are not so apparent.

The curiosity that I have to constantly explore the world around me, and to do so with a strong sense of urgency:  Now, that is a gift!

I learned from a very young age that the world is exponentially larger than the acreage that I occupy during my daily existence.   That, too is a gift!

 I have been spared the "jackals fighting over a bone" interaction that occurs between members of a family that serves to do nothing more than to provide the ego boost that they cannot otherwise provide for their psyches, and to fulfill the need to occupy themselves because they are too lazy to learn and master a serious hobby or skill.  That is another gift.

These are not really 'gifts'. They are a part of a complicated bartering system that I have discussed in previous blogs.  Whatever initiated that chain reaction, I am thankful for it, and I am ready for that 'next great adventure'.

You know.... There is one more day left to explore this festival.  Which cuisine are you going to try?
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Overheard while walking through the park (one guy talking to another):

"If you want to be adventuresome, go to a booth where the line is the SHORTEST!" (the food is least known by the general population)

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Things that I will not allow you to eat in my presence at such a gathering:

Corned beef & cabbage, spring rolls, crab rangoon.  Well. Hell. As far as that goes - anything Americanized.  The purpose of this adventure is to eat ANYTHING purely non-American.  You can eat at McDonalds any other day!

Go forth, and live likewise.  Time is a non-renewable resource.  You aren't getting any younger, you know, and "I'll take time to do that (insert unknown date in the future)." is a form of lousy procrastination, and probably general laziness.  For many of us, there won't be a (insert unknown date in the future).

There is still one more day to get to that festival.

(And if you miss it, the Japanese Fest at the Missouri Botanical Gardens and the Greek Fest at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church are both next weekend!  You betcha - we will be in attendance.)

- Michael

Jimmy (Smith) & Me

Jimmy Smith was one of the best damned Jazz organists to grace the face of the planet, and he is widely known as the "King" of that genre.


HOWEVER.... he was also known among all of his rivals, peers, fans and followers as having a - putting it mildly - 'slightly' abrasive personality. You ask, "Why did we put up with his irritability? "

The answer: "Quite frankly - for the music!"

The quality of the music was worth the quantity of crap that we had to wade through to get to it!


I knew him - and his antics - all too well. I saw him live at a local Jazz club / listening room, "Jazz At The Bistro". sadly, he is no longer 'live'.


During the intermission between sets, going back to my table from using the upstairs bathrooms, and I was going down the wide staircase while Mr. Smith was coming up the steps. I knew exactly what he was all about, and I knew how to 'get his goat'.

I gently nudged the old man with my elbow and said:

"Hey - I saw you playing in Chicago a few weeks ago!"

In the style which is so characteristic of Jimmy, he started to snap at me, and scolded, "Where the f*ck is Chicago?"

I looked him dead in the eye and cheerfully said, "Ya know what? I know of a little place down the street that sells the best fried clams!" He had a twinkle in his eye, threw back his head and gave a hearty laugh, and said, "Alright, lil biddy! Just what the hell do you know about it?"  I broke the ice, and I was in his circle!


Here's the deal:

Jimmy wanted his fans to know more about him than the scraps that they could pick up off the ground as they were passing by. He wanted those fans to care enough to apply themselves, and to put forth a bit more energy than the average, generic person. He was well pleased with my antics!


Jimmy pulled the crap that he pulled partly because that was nothing more than "his style", he was old, bored - and cranky.

Once in a while, you have to reach through the thorns to pick a rose, but I would admonish all to make sure the rose is worth the trouble! :)

It was this same show that caused me to get a little Jazz religion - right then and there, in front of the master who was holding court (Jimmy Smith!), and all the folks enjoying their wine and fine food at this venue.

Two weeks before this show, I had my 14 upper teeth surgically removed, the bone trimmed from ear-to-ear, and had my stitches out just 5 days.  I was politely trying to gum a $50 meal, which had already taken me an hour to eat half of the food on the plate. My mouth was swollen, and I was in some serious pain, but I wasn't about to let that food win!  My main mission, however, was to enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: to see one of my 'Hammond organ Gods', Jimmy Smith play a great show.

It was this same show that caused me to get a little Jazz religion - right then and there, in front of the master who was holding court (Jimmy Smith!), and all the folks enjoying their wine and fine food at this venue.

Two weeks before this show, I had my 14 upper teeth surgically removed, the bone trimmed from ear-to-ear, and had my stitches out just 5 days.  I was politely trying to gum a $50 meal, which had already taken me an hour to eat half of the food on the plate. My mouth was swollen, and I was in some serious pain, but I wasn't about to let that food win!  My main mission, however, was to enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: to see one of my 'Hammond organ Gods', Jimmy Smith play a great show.

Jimmy was in the midde of "The Cat".  An aural and visual aid:

It was precisely at 1:18 in this video...

(You can find a lot more Jimmy Smith videos on YouTube. You might also want to look up Joey DeFrancesco and Tony Monaco, Jack McDuff....Jimmy McGriff....Shirley Scott... Rhoda Scott...  Barbara Dennerlein, and many more)

I was dressed in a formal shirt and tie, and trying to behave myself as best as I could.

At precisely 1:18 in the above video, I had my fill.  I couldn't take another second of it!  Every nerve in my body was on fire.

My face had to have been 8 shades of red, and my eyes were probably bugging out.  In good ex-church boy fashion, I jumped to my feet, "Hallelujah Style", and my chair went flying straight out the back. I was doing a good wide-open, Pentecostal-style slap / clap.  Seconds before, my soul left the building, and I was "ALL ABOARD" the Jimmy train!  I know my head was thrown back, my toothless mouth was wide open, and I was screaming like a banshee.  Nobody else was on their feet. Nobody else felt the vibe.  Those things couldn't be farther from the center of my conscious.  I didn't care.   I was taking Communion with Mr. Jimmy Smith, and nobody was going to come between me and my moment.

Somewhere in a lucid moment, I did notice that Jimmy threw his head back and laughed as he was playing.  He put the gas pedal to the floor, and pushed the "Higher Octane" button!

Like the Wave, I could see the people in the front left-hand corner of this venue hit their feet.  There was screaming, yelling, clapping, stomping going on throughout that building.  Chairs and tables were moving. Before the song ended, the establishment was in a 'bit' of a disarray.  I had tears running down my face, shirt sleeves were rolled up, and collar and tie were hanging loose.

Jimmy Smith, you old bastard!  I know that even though you were absolute Hell-on-Wheels, you are in Music Heaven.  When "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", fire flew from his bow.  When you sit down on the bench of that Heavenly Hammond, the angels are going to be taken a bit back:  The only time fire will be visible in Heaven is when you hit "4 up" on the perc rocker tabs, and do one of those famous runs down that keyboard!  Play on, and GOD SPEED to you!

- Michael 

Life Managers

Since I will never be wealthy enough - or stupid or trusting enough - to hire somebody else to completely run my life, the job falls on my shoulders.  When I say 'run my life', I am talking about each and every aspect of doing so:

(1) What time I get out of bed in the morning...
(2) What time I go to bed at night...
3) My selected occupation....
4) The home I live in....
5) The city I live in....
6) The friends (and family!) that I surround myself with....
7) My particular hobbies...
8) The food that I eat...and when I choose to eat it.
9) Whether I choose to exercise on a regular basis - or not.
10) The clothing and style(s) that I choose to wear....

and the list could go on for quite some length.

It is, indeed, my job to run my life.  I am, in essence, my own "Life Manager".

(It is an unfortunate fact, but those individuals that desperately need to read this blog, and take it to heart will be the same individuals to not do so.)

I will let you in on a secret, because you are my favorite reader!

YOU ARE YOUR OWN LIFE MANAGER, TOO!

That isn't an opinion, or a general rule.  It is a Life Law.

Opinions are just that - opinions.  They vary widely from person to person.  Rules can be broken.

Please consider the Law of Gravity.  If you think you can defeat the Law of Gravity without any type of assistive devise, then you need to be on medication, and if you are already on medication, your physician needs to increase your dose!  Absolutely no normal, rational person would go to the top of a 20 story building, and jump off the top thinking, "Maybe this is my lucky day, and for some unknown reason, the Law of Gravity will not be applied to my body that is plummeting towards the Earth!"  Somebody will be scraping your flattened body off the sidewalk with a squeegee!

A law is...a law!

Now that you are armed with the knowledge that YOU are the one in charge of YOU, how would you rate the job you are doing?  Would you fire yourself as the manager of your life, or would you tell yourself, "Hey!  You are doing a damned good job!  You need a raise!"  Please be honest with yourself, and try not to delude yourself into believing something that might be other than the truth.

Since you are the only one that can do this job, replacing yourself is not an option. You have no other option than to do a good job of managing your own life. From my own personal past, I can point out specific examples of individuals who have been piss-poor Life Managers, and the results of 'sleeping on the job'.  The alternative to being a good Life Manager is not an venture that you want to pursue:  It's not pretty, and it has grotesque effects on any individuals that are unfortunate to be in the vicinity of poor Life Managers.

Are you doing a good job of being your "Life Manager", or would you fire yourself? (If you're not, then what the hell are you waiting for?  Time is **not** on your side!)

- Michael

Some old habits - and new finds

Mark is on vacation this week.  We took some friends to one of our favorite Indian restaurants, India's Rasoi, located in the Central West End district of St. Louis.  The local Indian buffets vary their menus from day to day, rotating their daily selections in an unpredictable pattern.  The food was great, but none of my favorite dishes were available today.  In particular, I missed the Palak (Spinach) Paneer and my favorite Indian sweet: Gulab jamun.  The food that was available was good, as always, and the staff was happy to see us. 


When we left the restaurant, I still had a craving for sweets, and a doughnut or piece of cheesecake wasn't going to satisfy me. 


We headed for the Global International Food Market on Kirkwood Rd / Lindbergh Blvd. 


Near the entrance of the store is a cooler with Japanese refrigerated foods.
We picked up a pack of Rice Cakes with Fruit-flavored Bean Paste (Fruit Daifuku).





We love those things, but Mark has a small problem with them.  He is phobic of the cornstarch that is used to coat them. Their texture definitely isn't 'American', which single-handedly mkes them an 'adventure' !  As far as that goes, Mark can't take the cotton out of the tops of pill bottles, either - but that is another blog, altogether!  :)


We went through the produce dept., and picked up some fresh Mangosteen fruit: (old habit!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangosteen

and some fresh Rambutan fruit: (new adventure!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan





We also got some Fresh Dosegai, which is a yellow Indian cucumber (New adventure!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosakai#Varieties





Global Internal Food Market is the largest International grocer in the St. Louis area.  The isles are labeled with flags - one or two flags for each ethnic food group located in that isle:  Mexican, England, Greek, Russian, Japanese, Indian, and so on.


We passed the cooler section of the store, and I had to pick up a couple boxes of (Indian) Rajbhog Dry Mix Sweets.  Those damned things are addicting!


http://rajbhog.com/get_category.asp?catid=1&cat_name=Sweets





Back to the Indian isle (OF COURSE!):


Remember.  the Indian restaurant wasn't serving Gulab Jamun for desert today.  Those little things are one of my guilty pleasures!  Most people will describe them as "little pancake balls" or "doughnut holes" soaked in rose water syrup, when in fact, they contain no flour or leavening at all.  Their main ingredient is powdered milk!  Thankfully, I am good at improvising.  If your favorite Indian restaurant isn't serving Gulab Jamun for desert on a day that you are having a craving, you can go to your local International Market, and either get a dry mix,and make them yourself, or you can get them in a can!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulab_jamun





I have this can sitting on my desk:





While we were in the Indian isle, we picked up another Indian sweet -  another guilty pleasure! Sonpapdi:

This stuff is flaky, sweet and tastes strongly of cardamom.  And I love it!


We also bought Conrad (the African Grey parrot) some 'cookies' - they look like quarter-sized bagels (Salted Biscuits) with Pineapple jelly between them. They are human food, but Conrad loves them.


The next adventure?  The Greek Festival? .... No. That's more of a guilty pleasure and a habit than an adventure.  The Japanese Fest?  No.  that, too, is a habit, and not exploratory in nature.  But so is 90% of the items that I listed in this blog.  I love it!  I can't possibly imagine how boring life would be if I lived just to see another day. 


Wasn't John Barrymore's last words, "I'm dying?  THIS is dying?  How boring! I'm glad I only have to do it once!"  The same thing can be said for life. To live just to exist is more boring than I care to let my mind dwell on.  If I am going to be on the face of this planet, I need to do more than... simply exist.  How lazy.....   


A video for you.  Larry Gatlin, "I've Done Enough Dying Today"





Do you seek a different pace? This song says the same thing - just a different speed.  I love it!





Enjoy!


Care to join me?  Mr. Toad's Wild Ride = LIFE


- Michael

Of Dreams ... Teeth...and TINA!

Minimally, I have 3 - 5 dreams every night of my life.  Although the scenery in my dreams widely varies, the color of the rooms in my dreams is more often than not a deeper, matte tangerine orange, and the woodwork in those orange rooms is always shiny black lacquer.  I couldn't tell you why, but that is a small portion of what happens in my head every night.

 I know, those are very Halloween colors.  On the other hand, I have always wanted a set of dentures made that looked like Candy Corn, with the white tips of the corn pointing up into the gums, but the fangs should have the white tips pointing down.  I also want a set of teeth made that are clear acrylic, with tiny LED multi-colored Christmas lights -  one light in each tooth - flashing in them.  Another possible set of teeth would be a set that looks like sugared gum drops.

I have had full dentures since I was 30 yrs. old.  Dr. Thomas Farmer from Clayton, MO (6 miles from downtown St. Louis) is pleasantly surprised that I am willing to have fun with a subject that most people fight hard to hide. I told him, "Why not have fun with it?  You have given me a better smile than Mother Nature provided me, and I don't mind showing it!"  He said that he is willing to put in those 'special orders for me' - at $2,400 a set (only $200 more than normal dentures!).  He said "Since you are willing to have fun with it, I will definitely help you with your mission!", and he is willing to have them made for me.  I will work on a mock-up in Blender, and post it in a few days.

Why hide the results of good work?  Let's look at Tina Turner, for example. She says that she is 71 yrs. old.  I know MANY people local to St. Louis that knew her on a first-name basis (Anna Mae).  None of these people came into contact with the other, and they *all* say Tina is lying by 5 years - she's actually 76.  I love Tina. She is one my my "other mothers".  When she leaves this world, it is going to be a rough day for me - and anybody around me!  BUT...BUT... I have to ask, "Baby, why the Hell would you lie about something like that?"  I mean - C'mon!  If I looked better at the age of 76 than anyone has ever looked at the age of 30, I would have my age printed on the back of a T-shirt in big, bold numbers, and I would wear that shirt, wear it proudly - and wear it OUT (worn out!)

The only reason I can think of that she would want to lie about looking and moving so fantastic at any age, much less the age of 76 is the fact that she is afraid that she would lose her 'relevance' with the younger crowd.  I don't think I need to tell you, dear readers, that I 'have something' in an upcoming blog about that word - 'relevance'!  A spoiler: "It's not a good thing!"

- Michael