Music recs
Aug. 12th, 2011 04:44 pmMore Arvo Pärt!
The entire Berliner Messe is lovely, but my favorite movement is undoubtedly the Credo. It's just...I don't even know. Joyful, but in a relatively quiet way.
Variations for the Healing of Arinushka. A simple, but terribly effective, solo piano composition. (I kind of want to make a Fringe vid to it. A really melancholy one.)
In the non-classical genre, another song by Karine Polwart: Follow the Heron.
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I got Stalking the Wild Asparagus out of the library yesterday, thinking, "Wild foods! New and interesting tastes! All for free!" Annnnnd then I realized exactly why ancient humans developed farming and modern ones came up with grocery stores, as well as why our staple foods are the ones they are. It takes hours of boiling and leeching, for example, just to get acorns to a state where you can grind them into meal, which you then bake. Apparently you have to cook everything to death to make it edible, and then you can actually prepare a dish out of it. So much easier to just bite into an apple.
The entire Berliner Messe is lovely, but my favorite movement is undoubtedly the Credo. It's just...I don't even know. Joyful, but in a relatively quiet way.
Variations for the Healing of Arinushka. A simple, but terribly effective, solo piano composition. (I kind of want to make a Fringe vid to it. A really melancholy one.)
In the non-classical genre, another song by Karine Polwart: Follow the Heron.
*
I got Stalking the Wild Asparagus out of the library yesterday, thinking, "Wild foods! New and interesting tastes! All for free!" Annnnnd then I realized exactly why ancient humans developed farming and modern ones came up with grocery stores, as well as why our staple foods are the ones they are. It takes hours of boiling and leeching, for example, just to get acorns to a state where you can grind them into meal, which you then bake. Apparently you have to cook everything to death to make it edible, and then you can actually prepare a dish out of it. So much easier to just bite into an apple.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-15 01:32 am (UTC)My reaction exactly!
I feel like if it has legs to run away from you with, it's no longer strictly "foraging."
I agree. To be fair, the book doesn't claim to be a howto for "foraging," specifically, but rather on how to get one's food from the wild. Presumably including fishing and hunting. (There are chapters on both.)
How hungry did their ancestors have to be, to think, "Hm, when I boil this the fifth time, it's not quite as disgusting as the first four times around!"
SERIOUSLY. Gibbons claims it's tasty after the second hour of boiling. I don't see me ever finding out. (Although come to think of it, somewhere like Whole Foods probably has acorn meal for sale for $63 per pound.)
It says they were thinking about putting up "Git off mah lawn, you little punks!" -type signs, but then decided that that would just tell the foragers where all the good spots were...
Bwahahaha! Perhaps they should just plant a bunch of poisonous plants instead...
no subject
Date: 2011-08-16 01:45 am (UTC)Would you call that "antagonistic foraging"?
(Although come to think of it, somewhere like Whole Foods probably has acorn meal for sale for $63 per pound.)
Uhhhhhhh I'm pretty sure I've seen mention of commercially available acorn flour on some vegan blogs somewhere...
Perhaps they should just plant a bunch of poisonous plants instead...
"Well, it's not our fault New Yorkers aren't good at differentiating among mushroom species, now is it??"
no subject
Date: 2011-08-16 05:25 am (UTC)Perhaps "adventure foraging"?
Uhhhhhhh I'm pretty sure I've seen mention of commercially available acorn flour on some vegan blogs somewhere...
Not surprised at all.
"Well, it's not our fault New Yorkers aren't good at differentiating among mushroom species, now is it??"
They could start a side business selling mushroom identification guides!