Good Eats and Downtime

August has been a flashback. You could say it has been old-skool because I haven't had a summer like this since I was a teenager. August has been spent lounging, walking, reading, talking. Long hours by the swimming pool accompanied by a book or by friends. Countless pool jumping competitions and late night swimming expeditions. I have lost track of how many barbecues I have hosted.
I haven't had enough money to travel this summer, so I have been stuck here, mostly at my mom's house dogsitting. This has been both a blessing and a curse, as it has limited my mobility but also given me a large house all to myself. I think being out at my mother's house has contributed significantly to my sense of summertime nostalgia. Lounging around the place were I spent my youth has brought back that blissful feeling of irresponsibility which we all look for during vacationtimes but rarely find once we hit "the real world". I have also spent quite a bit of time with a couple of high school friends, Daniel Dixon and Sam Perez, which only added fuel to the fires of memory. The only person really missing was my high school buddy Charles.
But much of my summer was spent alone really. Almost everyone I know had left town, and most of those who were left were working. Of course, these sorts of things always provide opportunities to make new friendships, which are always welcome. The people who were around were stuck in a similar, money-less, boat as I was though. This only added to the old-school sense of things, as most of my summertime activities were, as mentioned before, cheap, local and revolving around hanging out.
This has provided quite a bit of time to cook though.
I love cooking. It is the perfect activity for me because it combines a sort of mindless instruction following and active creativity. I tend to like things that give me step by step instructions. There is nothing I hate more than being told to do something that I have never done without detailed instruction. Cooking in merciful in this way, as it outlines what I am supposed to do. It is like alchemy; tasty tasty alchemy. But there is also an artistic side to it, requiring the chef to use intuition and personal decision. But I mostly like cooking for others. I love the way a meal brings people together for common enjoyment. This Summer has given me time to make quite a few things: a lot of barbecues, several cakes, fruit pies, roasts, risotto, homade pasta, soups...
Some have been quite successful. Because of this, I am starting another blog where I will be posting recipes for you to both see what I have been making and, if you want, make them yourselves. The link is on the right hand side of this page, under "my other blogs". My friend Miriam inspired me to do this. Miriam is often dangerously inspiring.

twins.

This just blew my mind.

Aaron Eckhart, of Batman, Thank you for Smoking, and Paycheck fame:


and Sean Bean, of Lord of the Rings, Troy, and The Island fame:


In my mind, they were the same actor.

Summer in the city

The plaza mayor was packed with people last night. The city was putting on a free classical music concert directed by Daniel Barenboim. Dan, Fran, Eva and I arrived over an hour early, but even that was too late and the seats were all taken. So we sat uncomfortably on the ground, squashed amidst the throngs of music lovers and tourists who had come to the Plaza in hopes of catching a glimmer of genius. Once the music began, the hypnotic effect of musicians in the ecstasy of performance held us in its sway. I was automatically in love with every woman on stage and feeling bonds of kinship with every man. And somehow, the warm cobblestone under my sore backside was easily ignored as waves of music rolled into the audience.

It is amazing how long the ground remains warm after a day of the sun's hot abuse; long after the evening goes dark. As I sat there on the warm stone, I was reminded of last summer, one night at camp in which I lay on the basketball court. Using its retained heat to keep away Burgos' nighttime chill, I gazed up at the stars for quite some time. The same was not possible last night, as the nighttime sky, bullied by city lights, kept its stars well hidden. Instead, as the orchestra played through Haydn's concert in B flat, I let my eyes trail across the scene around me. The plaza was as dark as a city center can be when it is bathed in lamplight. I love Madrid's downtown lamps; washing its stone walls in orange, light and stone giving the scene the appearance of a timeless sepia photograph.

Momentarily trapped in the past, I gazed up at the balconies that go around the plaza. For a moment, I wished I lived in one of the apartments that look down into the city square. Envious, I watched as the their residents looked down on the concert below. Different lifestyles were evident, even from the ground. Lights from one house revealed one snazzy group of onlookers holding wine glasses, as if dressed for the symphonic occasion. Next door, a couple sat by the window in the dark. Up above the windows, a few bohemians had climbed out their attic windows and sat on the rooftops, smoking and passively reclining on the slate tiles.

The return of the rabbi

Tea is now being served at my spiritual blog. I began it years ago, when struggling with issues of faith and belief. I tried to restart it about a year ago to discuss the petty quibbles I have with modern christianity. But the quibbling was too petty, and I lost interest in it. Now, years after what I consider to be my "crisis of faith", I have come to realize that any real quest for the essence of truth is going to be an endless series of crises and questions. Every dogma, every assertion, every statement of faith, every aspect will bring up questions and frustrations. Since writing sometimes seems to exorcise my sleepless nights, the spiritual issues blog is reopened for business.