Looking back, looking forward, and everything in between
2009 sucked. I think that has been a universal constant no matter who you are and for once economic globalization worked as a great equalizer in that it spread crappiness on a global scale. Moaning about all that was wrong about this year for me personally is pretty pointless as it has already happened and I can't change a damned thing about it. All I can really say is that looking forward, there were a great many lessons learned.
For starters, how the hell did I manage to be out of the country for so long, have so little paid work, and yet manage to keep my apartment in San Francisco as well as have some (admittedly not tons) of money in the bank still? At the start of the year, I was coming back from Spain. Then, in the summer, I went to Spain again for an extremely ill-timed wedding. Then I went to Ghana. Then after coming back, I went to Spain (again), France, and the UK. I guess it had to do with lower air fares as well as some kind of mojo I don't even know how to replicate. That part was good and it made me have to travel on a strict budget again, which is something I had become rather lax about in years past. All told, I am guilty of contributing 10,025 kg of CO2 waste to the planet, which sucks to know, although it's a great deal less than other people, who should also be tracking such things, ahem, ahem.
While all things job are usually quite slow in January and February, I should have realized that when it wasn't picking up in March and April, hightailing it out of San Francisco needed to be on the table. Where I would have gone to, I have no idea (Washington DC was a possibility) but SF is a massively expensive town to just hang out in. I think you need a minimum of about $2,000 a month clear to simply exist there and quick frankly, that's quite a pile to fork out each month simply for the joy of San Francisco. I still love the town a great deal, but elements such a this are indeed wearing thin as I move in the middle of my third decade on the planet and need to think more towards the future. I mean, this is the third downturn I've been through in the 11 years I've been in San Francisco and it's getting old. In other places in the world, you earn a great deal less, but it's a reliable less.
Interviews sucked. I think that between my most most hated thing in the world: the phone interview, and actual in-person interviews, I had something like 50 this year. I had one that actually panned out in to a job, but turned out to not actually be a real full-time job, which just added to the pile of overall irk. My neighbor has had similar experiences and he just found a job two weeks ago, so I'm hoping that the tides are turning to some degree as he needed visa sponsorship as well.
Of course, we're not seeing any "Holiday sales were up!" or "The worst is behind us articles" in the media. There is a reason for this given that more bad news is actually coming down the pipes. This article is a great write up about how we're going to see a pile more foreclosures in the next year and the Obama administration is taking preemptive steps to deal with the political fallout of that prior to the 2010 elections. That being the case, I'm not really wanting to take any risks and am currently working on a plan to be out of the country for the first half of this new year, but more on that later once plane tickets, visas, and general shittery is all dealt with.
Looking at 2009 and looking ahead to 2010, all I can say to friends and family is, "Thanks for helping me out when I needed it. I am working to not have to do this again for a long time, although I can't make any promises." And for everyone out there who has a solid job, stick with it. Find yourself a safe port in the storm as the waters ahead are looking to be very choppy. We have a lot of half-assed fixes that went in to place this year and things like that half billion (yes, $500,000,000) deficit for San Francisco and multi-billion deficit for California next year aren't going to go away anytime soon.
Thank you for your continued readership and here's to a good second half of 2010 or maybe, even a good 2011?
31 12 2009 0 comments
Tags: economics, ramblings
Hitting up peace in the Montmartre Cemetery
It's a general given that for people in the US, death is a terribly, terribly scary thing and thus you see an entire economy based around the idea that you will never age and will never die. I mean, I saw and ad for life insurance recently and they actually said in the commercial, "if you die". I will never understand this attitude, but after having dealt with two World Wars, the Black Death, and any other number of tragedies, Paris appears to be quite comfortable with it.
Well, it's not that they can't wait to die, but at the same time, they accept it as part of existence, which you can see in the cemeteries around town. They're less a scary place of the dead and more parks of tribute. I find nothing frightening about them and actually think that they're incredibly peaceful with amazing structures. Obviously, Père Lachaise Cemetery gets the most visitors given that it has a lot of famous graves in it like Jim Morrison's. I checked it out two years ago and it is indeed quite cool (the cemetery, not Morrison's grave which is quite plain), especially as you get away from these popular graves.
But, I also visited the Montmartre Cemetery just a few days ago at the recommendation of my friend, Timotheé. It has nowhere near the fame for people outside of France, but is the final resting place for a great many artists and other luminaries from Paris. For instance, Traffaut is buried there as well as others. While it doesn't have the woodsy quality of Lachaise due to a street going over the top of it, it is still quite interesting with all these streets of the dead laid out and waiting.
Despite the frigid cold, it was a welcome change up from the unfortunate visit to Sacre Couer that I mentioned previously. It's not that I would recommend a tour of all the Parisian cemeteries if you visit there, but still, they provide a nice escape from the hustle and bustle with their eternal stillness.
23 12 2009 0 comments
Tags: death, france, paris, the europe
Globalization: Everyone's Eiffel Tower
I had no real interest in staying up in the Montemarte area. I got a "deal" on a hotel for 36€ a night which, in Paris is quite a good price despite the room being just a room with a single shared toilet and shower for the floor. Such are the costs of Parisian opulence. I travel high, live low.
It was cold, damned cold in Paris. The high was -1C and there was a windchill that dropped it to -6C. This was problematic as I had been in Spain, where just three days earlier before the cold really hit, it was 19C for the high, which, in San Francisco means that you go out to tan in Dolores Park. The temperature compounded the feeling of functionary traveling as I just didn't want to do anything. Taking my hands out of my pockets meant cold hands. No hands meant no photographs and the cold overall meant little walking around.
Even still, I was staying in Montemarte and a stroll up to Sacre Coeur for the sake of fundamental tourism was needed, just to go see it despite having already seen it on my first trip to Paris seven years ago. I wish I hadn't. Along any approach to to the hill, there were endless stores with every piece of crap souvenir you could think of and they were all the same. Eiffel this and J'adore that in any size you could want at the same price between all. Why do we need all this? Why can't there just be one single government Crap Store in each district of any town in the world where you go to buy all the sweatshop-produced, globalized garbage that you want?
To add insult to injury, I found that as I tried to walk up the stairs, a fleet of West African guys where there waiting to make a bracelet with my name in it, just the same as in Accra, Ghana. As if having touristic products being mass produced wasn't enough, now the tourism crap of one location is being exported to others. Although I have to admit that when I tried to pretend I couldn't speak English or French with one of the guys who then asked me where I was from in three different language, I said Croatia (yes, I lied, I'm naughty.) Unabashed, he then proceeded to name off just about every famous Croat in history in an attempt to try and lure me in. That was amusing if nothing else and I was quite shocked he didn't start speaking Croatian with me.
It all just came back to a question my grandmother put to me sometime back after I had returned from a lengthy trip when she asked, "Don't you ever get homesick?" She's a sweet lady and it was an honest question that is true for some people. But, I fail to see how it could ever be possible for an American to get homesick anywhere in the world. American corporations have seen to it that their brands are inherent to anywhere you go in the world. I suppose in some way this is the reason I've taking to going to Africa more these days as I enjoy the people in Africa tremendously and outside of Coca-Cola, you just don't get immersed in multi-national advertising.
But back to Paris and Montemarte as I walked through the Sacre Coeur and I took not a single picture. I don't have any particularly good pictures of this place from before and I respected the "no photos" sign inside as people actually do go there to worship. I'm sure it had a great deal to do with the cold, but this throng of tourists in the middle of December all taking crappy photos with their heads chopped off or running a video camera around the perimeter was just too much. Much like Julie Deply's character in Three Days in Paris, I just didn't want to take any photos. But, whereas she wanted to just immerse herself where she was and not put the camera between her and the experience, I just wanted to disconnect where I was. And at the risk of sounding like a forlorn digital asshole, I simply wanted to disconnect for a brief moment, separating from the crappy souvenir stands with their imported goods and the bracelet makers with their imported schtick. I just wanted to be alone, freezing my ass off in the cold and actually look at the situation thinking, "What a bunch of shit. Where is Paris in all of this?"
It turns out that Paris was waiting for me later in the day at the cemetery, la Cantine co-working space, and in the folded layers of butter in the crust a jet-black, blackberry tart that I savored after the last crêpe that I will have in Europe this year. But Sacre Coeur is an island in Paris, a dropoff point for tourists that is best left alone unless you have a reason to be at it. It is not alone in this and tourism has become as much a scourge as corporatism these days. And really, because of this, I leave this article with no links, picture, or anything else connecting it to anything else. There are better things out there and while we steadily work to link all of them together through imbalanced world trade, so many of them are just better left adrift, somewhere... over there, over charged, and over photographed.
21 12 2009 0 comments
Tags: france, globalization, paris, the europe
A finale in Celler Generi
There always seems to be some winery that I forget to write about when I'm going about my vinoventures. This time, it was Arché Pagès. It was also nearly Celler Generi. Thankfully, as you can see, I've managed not to miss the Generi as I round out my European wine travels for the year.
This cellar was one that I really had no intention of visiting as I had never actually heard about it. It's in a small town called Agullana which I believe is more known for their water than their wine. It's remote and it's not in an area with much wine production; in fact this is the only winery there. In talking to other wine makers though, it was often mentioned that there is this enolog named, Jaume Serra Pagès who seems to make the rounds to a number of wineries in the area. Basically, whatever wine he touches, is nearly guaranteed to be fantastic and it was #1 Fan who mentioned to me that Jaume was doing the enolog work at Generi and that I should go have a taste and see how it is.
As it turns out, the actual winemaker is a fellow named Francesc. He's an older fellow who was actually a civil engineer that started growing wine some 20 years ago as a hobby. Once retiring, he turned to making wine full time, but he just does all the grunt work and have Jaume come in for the finishing touches. Francesc's fields are around the general vicinity of Agullana. And while he has shown that you can indeed grow wines in the area, he has also shown that the staple of Catalonia, Garnatxa, is perhaps not the best choice for the area given that he only grows Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chardonnay. Given that you can see the French border from his cellar, it would make sense to a large extent that he only grows French varietals.
As to the wine, it did indeed end up being 100% true that the Jaume Touch made all the difference with the wines all being excellent. For some time, Francesc made a low-end, basic wine that he sold for 3€. It is not a work of art, but it is quite good. Even though it is a strong wine, it is a well-balanced and nicely-crafted wine. It's great with food and is a tremendous value as it outshines any other wine you can buy for even twice the cost. Sadly, I don't think it's going to be made anymore given the amount of work vs. the small return on price.
The white that he makes was out when I was there. I assume it must be quite good and at some point, hopefully I'll be able to taste it as Catalan white wines are very interesting wines. There are few of them and as most people prefer red, they are often quite distinct in character to stand out more and attract folks to them. But, I wasn't sobbing over the lack of the white due to the red being tremendous. I didn't happen to know this at the time of purchase since Francesc only make 3,000 bottles a year and he doesn't do tastings. I had to buy his 2004 Reserve untasted at 10€. It sounds silly to say, but that was a large gamble I've rarely ever taken. But, his character was just right. I knew that it was going to be at least a good wine. Turns out that it's an extraordinary wine.
This red is strong, full-bodied and robust, but at the same time wonderfully balanced and smooth. What he has reached with this wine is the boldness that a winery such as Peralada tries to achieve with the smoothness that *lavinyeta constantly achieves. I've never seen two such discordant elements in one wine before that actually work. The only issue is that I have trouble describing it. The body has hints of cinnamon, cloves, blackberry, and this bright crisp element to it as well that I can only really describe as being akin to the sensation of fresh mint, but not like the taste of mint. A lot this comes from the fact that it's a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. I have no idea as to the ratios, but I have a feeling it might be similar to what the English call Claret as the depth must come from 80-90% Cab and the smoothness being from the rest in Merlot. And naturally, it finishes beautifully clean. Of course there are oak overtones to it as well given that it spends (if memory serves) 24 months in French oak. Francesc uses a combination of transport and aging barrels, the later being several millimeters thinner to allow more permeation of the air to give more flavor.
The above is all about the 2004, which I bought two cases of. There is a 2005 vintage as well. It is also quite good, but it lacks just a touch of the depth of the 2004 and currently has a touch stronger vanilla from the oak. Given another year in the bottle, I'm not sure how it will age, but I have a number of bottles still in Spain to see how that works out.
I am a bit sad as I don't think that Francesc has any children who will carry on with the winemaking. He apparently has family in Barcelona, who are more concerned with drinking the wine and not so much with actually making the wine. Time will tell in how this winery goes, but I truly hope it continues as these are wonderfully crafted, small-production wines that if they were being produced in California would not only be impossible to find, but also cost upwards of $100 a bottle.
19 12 2009 0 comments
Tags: catalonia, wine, wine reviews
The Crap Log Crisis
Catalans love shit. Literally, as in it's something to be worshiped. It dates back to their particular pastoral history where shit was seen as a sign of fertility and growth. Farts are cool too, but really, it's the shit that's important above everything else. Obviously, the biggest manifestation of this is the Caganer, of which I might add, the 2009 models are now available for perusal. But another, oft-forgotten individual by outsiders is the Caga Tió.
In a nutshell, he takes the place of Santa Claus in Catalonia (and Valencia) in that he brings gifts. Well, "bring" isn't quite the right word as actually, the verb 'cagar' means 'to crap' and as it is, he actually craps the gifts. These gifts aren't part of some Immaculate Reception though and just as you leave out cookies and milk for Santa, you gotta feed the log before he craps out gifts. Naturally, for the kids to believe in the log that means that the food needs to be eaten, in which case it usually falls on the father to eat up what's left out for the Tió. As this starts on December 8th and goes until around the 25th, this usually results in the father telling the kids after a few days, "Hey, I think the Tió has really, really had his fill of oranges. Trust me. He's done with them for at least the rest of the year and he's really, really full. Maybe just a few bonbons to sweeten him up a little. I think he'd really like some of those." Then once the day comes (and because it's a fucking log) the kids hit him with a stick to get gifts crapped out to them. It's beautiful in a way I just can't describe, like morning dew in a mountain valley catching the first rays of the sun.
The log is in crisis though. Due to the rancid spread of corporate globalization, Santa Claus is taking over in Catalonia. It probably also has to do with all the Xarnegos that have moved in to the area as well and don't want their kids receiving gifts crapped from a log. Regardless, there is an effort to save the Tió called, Jo sóc de Tió which means, "I'm with the Tió". This local group "released" 5,000 Tiós in Barcelona with numbers so that people could tag them on a map and then release them again to spread them around. You can track all of it on that site. You can also follow their Twitter, which apparently if you understand Catalan better than I do, is quite funny. And naturally, to round out the social media onslaught, there is a Facebook Group.
The Tió is still with us, but for how long? We must fight together to save this tradition of a log that craps gifts! It is important to the future of logs crapping gifts everywhere! Because if the Tió falls, then what next, the Caganer, then crema catalana, and then... jamón? It's a dire future without the Tió my friends. Support him now!
11 12 2009 0 comments
Tags: caganer, caga tio, catalonia, crap, traditions
Man, that's a lot of NGO's. Vote for mine!
Well, as you can see below, San Francisco is not hurting when it comes to the number of registered NGO's (non-profits) in the city limits. I can't remember the specific figure, but it's somewhere in the multiple thousands. So to say that you're the director of an NGO in San Francisco is pretty much San Francisco-ese to say, "Hello."
Anyways, I've mentioned the one that I'm working for, Maneno, which naturally I think is a pretty cool organization to get more Africans actually being part of the discussion about Africa and to work on preserving African languages in the digital world. Both are not easy feats which is why the organization is always on the lookout for funding. If you are on Facebook and would be so kind as to help out, vote for Maneno in the Chase Community Giving competition. Thanks and and have a pleasant tomorrow.
09 12 2009 0 comments
Tags: aid, maneno, ngo, san francisco
A colorful prison is still a prison
I've found that it's often the case that the more depressing a place is, the more colorfully it is painted. For instance any ward for terminally ill children in a hospital is dizzying array of colors vomited everywhere as if it is some attempt to stave off the inevitable from the minds of these poor kids. It doesn't really work, but I suppose the effort is appreciated.
Figueres is getting a new provincial (same as a state in the US) prison. Nobody is really happy about this and seeing it going up about a kilometer north of my in-laws house isn't the most awesome thing to witness. Of course, people aren't happy because of the fact that a prison is going and all the riffraff that comes along with that, but because there won't be any new jobs at it due to the fact they're transferring all those working at the provincial prison in Girona currently up to this prison. Spaniards worship government jobs. I know, it's strange, but given the current economic situation in the US, I suppose I can understand to a large degree. My mother-in-law actually recommended for me to look in to getting a job at the prison, although I assume that this is before it was made apparent that job creation would be nill at the new institution.
But, in keeping true to the general theme of Catalonia and having everything being heavily design-oriented, the prison has a "look" to it. As you can see below, they've incorporated all this color in to the outside walls to look like some kind of a Legoland prison. It's weird to see it going in. It's also weird hearing the rumors from people around town that the amenities will include: a gym, full television programming, a library, a pool, physical therapy to go along with the internal hospital, and (I kid you not) massage. Undoubtedly a great deal of this is hearsay, as in reality, you can dress it up as much as you want, but a prison is still a prison what what we need the world over are more schools.
09 12 2009 0 comments
Tags: catalonia, figueres, government, law, the europe
The science of Spanish Weekendology
Today is a very important day. It's important not because it's the day of Immaculate Conception and an official holiday in Spain, but because it is one of two pillar days in an Aqueduct Weekend. But, let's take it slowly as the Aqueduct is definitely the more advanced element in Spanish Weekendology. How about starting with the basics before we move in to this.
The Bridge
A much-loved type of weekend throughout Spain or just about anywhere in the world for that matter. This is a weekend where you have a holiday that falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday and naturally this means that taking off the respective Monday or Friday by spanning it and giving yourself a four day weekend makes a lot of sense. Before I see the "lazy freakin' Spaniards" thought cross your mind, let me remind you that we love doing this in the US with the 4th of July. If it's on a Tuesday or Thursday then shabam-presto, a four day weekend is made.
These Bridge Weekends happen quite a bit and travel planners look far down to the road to anticipate them, offering packages for what they assume will be a four day weekend. Can't say that I blame them.
The Aqueduct
This is less a weekend and more a weekoff, but it is the Holy Grail of time off. In Spain, there are two holidays that fall one day apart from each other. The first is the aforementioned holiday for the Immaculate Conception. The second is the Constitution Day on December 6th. So, you get the 6th and the 8th which, if they fall on a Tuesday and a Thursday form the central pillars of the Aqueduct with the starting and ending weekends forming the other sides. Naturally, if you have off two days off in the middle of the week that are a day apart, then what is really the point of those other three days? The point is to take them off as well and have a nice, nine day holiday at the beginning of December if you can afford it.
The next one of these is going to happen in 2011 and you can bet that there are people who have already planned for it. The Spanish plan these things way, way down the road and I think that they're one of the few things in Spain that might be valued higher than jamón, although that's a pretty strong thing to say, so I put it forth with reservation.
Other Weekends. Other Places.
What I like about Spain is that they don't really try to hide the fact that they do these weekends. On the contrary, how it's done in the US is a bit more annoying as there's the Fatass Weekend wherein people just spread the Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving in to being a whole week but don't admit to it. Then of course there's the Silent Nights Weekend where people work it out to take off either the week between Christmas and New Year's or just take two full weeks off during that time altogether. No one ever wants to admit that they're doing this and because of email they can act like they're in the office all the time. We know that it happens and really, just fess up to it or better yet, just close down the place for a week. We all know that we like holidays.
08 12 2009 0 comments
Tags: holidays, spain, the europe
The joys and frustrations of Catalan wine drinking
Take a look at the sign below. It's a wine menu from a wine bar in Barcelona next to church, Santa Maria del Mar. It's an exceedingly popular place that I've never actually been able to visit at it's always full. The setting is quite fantastic, so it's understandable why there are always so many people. It happens that I had never really looked at the wine list though.
They offer tiny glasses, regular glasses, and full bottles. Yeah, you can buy a full bottle for what a glass can cost in San Francisco. Disgusting, isn't it? It also happens that there are only two wines from Catalonia on that list. I don't know about you, but I find that to be rather ridiculous in a region swimming in excellent local wines.
I take this in two ways. The first is that I'm ecstatic that the wines of Catalonia as so hidden and no one knows about them so I can continue to enjoy them by the caseload at what I find to be reasonable prices. But then on the other hand, this is crap. If you actually have something good that is local, why on earth would you serve something that isn't just from another region, but another country?!! It's wasteful to transport things like this and insulting to your fellow countrymen.
Admittedly, there is the cost issue in that Catalan people perceive Catalan wines to be much, much more expensive than a region like Rioja. What you may not know is that in the rest of Spain, Catalans have a reputation for being cheap. Unfortunately these Catalans don't realize that the cheap wines from Rioja are going to rot out your innards. While drinkable, they're poorly made. For a decent wine from Rioja, you actually have to pay more than for a wine of the same quality from Catalonia and really, it's the better wines from Rioja that people are buying because it's only based on perception, not taste. I've been in a constant propaganda campaign with my Catalan father-in-law to actually buy Catalan wines instead of cheap French ones. Because if you want to go really cheap, you can spend 1.50€ a liter for the bulk stuff which is really good and super cheap.
Again, it's a mixed blessing drinking wines that no one knows about or understands. It's just that growing up in a country that has shipped its entire production base off to China, I get a little incensed when someone buys an inferior product solely due to laziness, ignorance, and limited perception. Who knows, someday maybe I'll have have a glass of wine at this wine bar in Barcelona and be able to ask them why they stock more wines from outside Spain than from Catalonia. Undoubtedly they'll tell me because no one asks for them to which I will further mention that it's hard to ask for something that isn't on the list...
07 12 2009 0 comments
Tags: catalonia, wine, wine bars, wine reviews
That's luvin' yer Camembert
It was time for another trip to Auchan up in Perpignan. Naturally, I didn't really take any photos of the store, but this one shot of the Camembert section was incredibly telling. Yeah, that's right, a Camembert section, whereas in the US we're thrilled if there is a Camembert. I don't know what took that portly fellow so long to choose as really you can't go wrong.
06 12 2009 0 comments
Tags: cheese, food, france
