Thursday, February 28, 2008

Freeganism

I was reading an entry on a LiveJournal community and it was about a voluntary and green-inspired lifestyle called Freeganism. Oprah Winfrey featured a show on this lifestyle with Lisa Ling. I didn't get to see it but I am curious about the show and will try to find it online if I can.

Freeganists are people who consider themselves to be anti-consumerists. They look for alternative ways to gather necessary resources such as clothing, food and even housing. However, the main focus is on find different ways to gather food without contributing to wastefulness and excessive consumption. They go to various food service businesses and markets to take leftovers (called dumpster driving) that are unspoiled and past their expiration date. They get these items free and the lifestyle is for making a socio-political statement.

I think this is a great message and idea; however there are some things that have to be considered. I'd like to see most of the food go to people who really need it...people who don't have options to live or experiment with other lifestyles in order to make political statements. Poor people, who are truly in need of food, only care only about survival, so looking for leftover food; begging or trying to eat free is not a romanticized experience.

I also think that, although this lifestyle has the right intention, this is not going to catch on to the public at large. Again, the best way to send out a message here and contribute to less waste is to, put in place, a large organization that caters to distributing and packaging leftover food from food service businesses to those in need. I've always wondered if something like this was in place because when I'd hear of how much food was left over by so many grocery stores and restaurants, I thought, "Why are they throwing all of that useful food away rather than giving it to people who are poor or homeless??"

I remember reading that there were some legalities in place to prevent restaurants from doing this because they are required to throw food away after reaching their expiration dates and so forth. If an organization can come into place and set up various local chapters around the U.S., it can be responsible for working with government health inspection and food regulation orgs. in order to insure that the food given out through food service companies is edible, healthy, nutritious and safe to eat. Food service companies would just sign up through the organization and agree to sign forms, follow regulation requirements and so forth in order to start participating and helping to lower food waste nationally.

I haven't seen anything like this in place on a large scale and I think it would be a wonderful idea (there is Food Not Bombs and a few other smaller orgs., but they aren't national I don't think). Individuals can participate in this type of organization as well. The organization can sponsor food drives which collect canned foods and other packaged food materials from households...as long as the food meets health regulations and requirements set up by the organization.

On The Culture of Thinness

I recently had some thoughts on obsession of skinny in this culture...and why our society values very thin as the physical ideal when it hasn't always been this way. I am thinking this really had a lot to do with our country moving more into a consumerist nation over several time periods. Excess is accessible to many people...even poor people in the U.S. aren't on the same level as the economically dispossessed in developing nations. We have so much...in many different ways...food/nutrition, multimedia stimulation and so forth. It's easy for someone to become overweight and excessively so. No longer is this a physical stature common to only the wealthy and well-to-do classes like it was back when zaftig and rubenesque bodies were admired and adored.

Having a full or plump form was associated with living well, having rich drinks and beverages, and having excess overall which wasn't accessible to the rest of peasant society who suffered from nutrition deficiencies and the like. A collective social mind developed and many subliminal connotations were born creating a culture of desires, ideals and standards that reflected the environment and the economy. As our society became more industrialized and technologically advanced, no longer was the average American a peasant or dispossessed from accessing excess in some way or another...even if they were poor. Poor families are still "over-nutritioned". They aren't starving the way children are starving in developing countries and we don't even get the types of diseases that starving children in developing countries get...quite often. The poor in the U.S. tend to eat more poorly more than anything else.

Anyway, a body that is fat is considered unfit and common. It is without a guidance of control and structure. Anyone can get fat and there are many relatively new illnesses at epidemic levels associated with obesity. In the past, these culture-specific epidemics weren't there (and they aren't in developing countries today), which further shows and validates a change in the infrastructure and culture of our nation. As a result, again the collective social mind has developed a culture of desires, ideals and standards which reflect these changes. A thin, lean and taut body is one of those pervasive ideals that have come out of this changing collective social mindset...

I would even argue, that although eating disorders aren't truly about being very thin/weight and they are manifested through the mask of body image dissatisfaction and never before (until now) have we seen eating disorders at such an epidemic level, the mask that eating disorders take on is a symptom of wanting to gain control through an ill method of survival in this excessive and over-stimulated nation. The metaphorical desire is to be as thin as possible. It's truly a dark theatrical entity which gives validation to what I am theorizing about here. We don't see these problems in developing countries.

We can advertise about diets all day every day, but the common body ideal won't change until our economy shifts and changes. I don't see this happening unless the U.S., Canada and other first nation countries go into a deep, abysmal, economic depression for a long period of time, thus making excess truly inaccessible to the vast majority in a profound way...the way it is in developing countries. The very thin, lean taut body ideal will remain for quite a long time. It's also very telling how weight loss surgery is becoming so common. I even remember the popularity of people getting their mouths wired shut, back in the 80s and early 90s, so they could only drink liquids in order to lose weight and control their eating. We have certainly gone to extremes and normalized them...and continue to do so.

Metaphorically, power now is about having control over one's body in a world of excess and this translates into being very thin. It's interesting because with so much excess all around, one would think we'd embrace what's inevitable by living in it, which is an overweight body...a complete symptom of our cultural realm...but that's what essentially makes the desire for control so much of a pathological focus and drive in this country

I also remember reading an article about men who suffered from anorexia or didn't eat much and how this influenced the kind of body they tend to be attracted to in their partners. If I am not mistaken, I think it was a Psychology Today article. It was mentioned that these men found full-figured women more attractive because they represented enrichment in lifestyle and physique that they lacked or aspired to have themselves. A fuller body wasn't just about looks to these men psychologically, when it came to arousal, but it was associated with comfort, pleasure, sensuality and satisfaction. Some also were said to equate fuller bodies with more sexual expression because the women ate more, which was reflected in their body builds, and were seen as able to enjoy life on a large scale by not restricting and withholding as most women do because they have an obsession with being thin.

That's quite intriguing. There's a lot to think about when looking at men (or women) who consider themselves FAs or Fat Admirers in a culture that highly resists and scoffs at such preferential or at least inclusive attraction. What's in this rebellion or difference of mind, amid the majority ideals, regardless of whether it is more nature or nurture?

The article was an interesting read; I wish I could find that article online somewhere. I read it a few years ago. It made me ponder more on this theory of the etiology of body ideals and standards in a given society or culture.

I'll be writing an article on ideas for establishing a healthy mind and lifestyle in the near future. I have a list of articles that I am working on.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Glorious Gestures

Very delicate, gorgeous, symbolic, ornate and fluidly creative expressions:

Official Website

I find these photographs rather inspirational.

Jacob's Ladder has been available on On Demand for awhile...and I decided to see this film again as it's one of my favorites. I love how allegorical the movie is. There's a quote that I find very striking in the film. It also happens to be used in the song "These Shattered Falling" by Oneiroid Psychosis:

"The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of life, your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you, he said. They're freeing your soul. So, if you're frightened of dying and... and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth."


I think you can apply this quote to so many different kinds of struggles and life themes. I am thinking of the struggle that most people have with gaining motivation and confidence in themselves. Everything in life can appear to be hell-like...teeming with taunting and destructive devils waiting around each corner and gracing each path, but if the perspective is changed somehow, suddenly the environment turns into an elaborate and vast heavenly playground...full of opportunities, possibilities, curiosities...and angels, rather than devils, that function as muses.

This brings me to the topic of...

Performance vs. Spectatorship (see Inspiration & Competition)

I want to write more about this but I am a bit quartered at the moment...in a good way. I also think it's important for me to get off the comp for awhile and relax in bed to television until I eventually fall asleep. I've been staying up way too late these days within the last week because there are so many things I've been working on and doing. It's important to get up early enough in the day so that more can get more done...and there's time later to relax more.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

The Whole Universe Inside a Glass of Water

"So what do you do for a living?"
"I bake snakes."


"What did you think? That two men couldn't have sex together and not mistake a knife for a fork?"


"How's that washer and dryer unit working?"


She began laughing insanely and writhing violently on that filthy mattress.


"I am inclined to think that any man can chew his way through his own fat if he wanted to."


"What's so funny about this? I don't know anyone else? Do you? Because I've got a lot of jitters in my heart and each time I expel, the world moves with me."


"Susan doesn't think with all of her sunsets. Eventually, they'll all expire and that will be the Ends of Days for her."


"I know plenty of Christmas men. They are proud, strong and think with a good hunter and gatherer instinct. That'll make any mother proud, that she'll sparkle like a tree and her love will burn like an eternal flame in the passions and throes of the holy fireplace of life."


"Harmony and precincts go together. When one is absent, there's no place for individuals to gather in championship and peace."


"Why those would make a fine pair of gloves! Just hollow out the flesh and bone and hang them up to dry."


"You sure had me fooled. I thought you were lost. But now I recognize you again and we look the same."


The room was very dark, however upon close inspection; she could make out a vague shadow standing in the corner near the heavily curtained windows. The shadow appeared to be rocking back and forth in short sluggish movements. The head looked to be misshapen and the body was somewhat amorphous; long exaggerated extremities and bodily edges that looked to be viscous in texture.
There was a peculiar smell of smoke about the room. She held in her breath and lowered herself further below the bed's mattress level. The shadow began to slowly but steadily drift toward the bed in intermittent but brief displays of disappearances. It looked like a constant play of flickers and with each flicker, the shadow became less amorphous and more revealing...


"Charlie! Charlie!! Please listen to me! Listen to me!!"

"Would you stop yelling?! What's the matter with you? Why were you screaming like that? "

"I can't help it! There's something down there and we have to get out of here!! I know what I saw and...Oh Charlie I am so scared!"

"You stay right here. I am going to go --"

"No!!! Please don't go!! You'll be in danger! Please!! Listen to me!"

"Alright, alright! Calm down and tell me what you saw."

"I...I....I heard this humming sound while I was reading on the couch and it was coming from the refrigerator. So I decided to check it out and...Oh Charlie..."

"Go on...go on."

"I decided to check it out and I opened the refrigerator. I saw this other world Charlie! This other world!"

"What the fuck do you mean this other world? Are you out of your goddamned fucking mind! You must have been dreaming."

"No no no!!! I wasn't dreaming!! I saw it Charlie, I saw acres and acres of moving fields, tall zigzagged blades of grass and big mountains staggering in a darkening horizon! It looked like I could fall right through. I thought I was seeing things but I wasn't Charlie! I continued to look and before I knew it, the heads of these gel-like creatures appeared around the corners of the refrigerator from inside the view! They had large foreheads and I could see everything inside their heads...there was something, like a central eye in the forehead and that made me see a face when I looked into it. Christ! It was my own fucking face and I could see myself opening my mouth really freakishly wide like I was going to attack myself!! Eat myself whole! My face got closer and I thought I was going to fall into my own mouth and get swallowed so that's when you heard me scream and I couldn't stop screaming Charlie! I closed the door and ran upstairs as fast I could!"


"Evening Sir"
"Evening"
"Say, do you know where Oakley Avenue is?"
"I do. It's one more street over. Just continue down this path and you'll see it. You can't miss it"
"Wondeful. Thank you sir!"
"My pleasure."
The stranger's eyes crinkled tightly around the corners, he smiled and continued watering his grass.
George turned around to survey the path down the neighborhood road. He could see the street, that the stranger referenced, just down the path.
"Say sir, I have one more quest--"
The stranger was gone, along with his house and the entire neighborhood. Right in front of George was a door in the hue of soft dull blue. On the door was a label that said Oakley Avenue in bold Baskerville type. George was stunned and bewildered. He turned around again and saw that the back wall of an empty sterile room, in the same color of the door, had replaced the view of the neighborhood road.
George faced the door again and saw that it was now slightly ajar and a glowing yellow light was coming through.
George gave the room another look in complete confusion and apprehensively decided to push the door further open and explore...


"I don't like mustard. I especially don't like runny mustard. It's sickening, it's vile and very horrifying...and when I hear her talk, I become devastatingly ill."


"I smoke cigarettes because I can. You drink because you can't. Our convictions are different."