Tag Archives: food

Screening of "The Garden" to benefit DC's 7th Street Garden

Eva sent me the link to the website for, The Garden, which won best documentary at SilverDocs this year. If you missed the movie at SilverDocs this year, you can catch it November 19th when it will be screened in DC as part of a fundraiser for the 7th Street Garden Project.

About the film:

The fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country’s most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food. Feeding their families. Creating a community.

But now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis.

The Garden follows the plight of the farmers, from the tilled soil of this urban farm to the polished marble of City Hall. Mostly immigrants from Latin America, from countries where they feared for their lives if they were to speak out, we watch them organize, fight back, and demand answers:

Why was the land sold to a wealthy developer for millions less than fair-market value? Why was the transaction done in a closed-door session of the LA City Council? Why has it never been made public?

And the powers-that-be have the same response: “The garden is wonderful, but there is nothing more we can do.”

If everyone told you nothing more could be done, would you give up?

About the fundraiser (from the 7th Street Garden website):

Screening at the Goethe Theater (812 7th Street, NW).
Doors 6pm.
Film Starts 6:30pm.
Seasonal foods and drinks will be served.

Tickets $20 each (though more is appreciated). Available at the door OR online at America the Beautiful Fund’s web site. **If buying online you must write in the Comment box that you are purchasing tickets for The Garden movie.**

Sounds like great event, I hope to be there.

Frankenstein, redux (13+ Days of Halloween)

So far, Husband has missed every movie in the Halloween marathon. He was sad to miss the Frankenstein fest so I put on Son of Frankenstein so he could catch up – it’s his favorite of the post Bride-movies and all. (The things we do for love). While he watched, I looked up the annoying kid, Donnie Dunagan, to see if he ever worked again. Would you believe he was the voice of Bambi? After that – a lengthy career in the Marine Corps.

At one hour and 40 minutes, Son is, in Husband’s words, “a bit of a trial.” I wandered off for about 30 minutes and baked pumpkin cupcakes. I’m so tired I didn’t bother to make any frosting. They came out quite well, regardless. I didn’t pay attention to the cupcake liners I bought, I just grabbed the last package on the shelf. They seem to be comedy cupcake liners, they’re twice as tall as normal ones. When I first put them into the pan I thought I’d grabbed an extra-shallow pan from the cabinet. We have a lot of pans, and, like I said, I’m really tired.

After we ate cupcakes, we forged ahead to the mercifully shorter Ghost of Frankenstein. Bela returns as Ygor, who you only thought died at the end of Son. At the end of Son, the Monster had been thrown into the sulfur pits. At the beginning of Ghost, he’s accidentally freed. All that time encased in sulfur was good for the Monster’s wardrobe. In Son he shuffled around in some of sort of nasty fleece vest, but when he’s freed from the sulfur he’s wearing the ill-fitting jacket from the first two films.

Just don’t think too much about these things, they’ll make your brain hurt.

Our – if by “our” you mean “my” – goal tonight is to get through Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, but I suspect we’ll be throwing in the towel after the first two. Besides, Ben Affleck is supposed to be playing Keith Olbermann tonight on Saturday Night Live and I’d like to catch that before I lose consciousness. We’ll see….

My Reputation & the Hamiltonian Gallery Opening

I don’t have much to say about our jaunt over to the hipster-infested Hamiltonian Gallery opening . It was a worthy outing, though we didn’t stay long. It was nice to go to an opening where we know maybe 10% of the crowd, 15% tops. The show was packed, which was great, but it was hard to see the art so I don’t have much to say about it right now. I’d really like to install Nao Matsumoto’s “8” but Husband won’t let me buy it. (Go here and click on the thumbnails of the big yellow and black insect heads in the sculpture section, you can’t miss them). We chatted briefly with the artist, who seemed like a nice guy. It was also nice to chat with an artist who didn’t use the conversation as an opportunity to tell me everything that’s wrong with the DC art scene and then stand there staring at me as though I could snap my fingers and fix it with my magic powers. OK, I could snap my fingers and fix it, I just choose not to. I think I’ll say that next time the opportunity arises.

So, instead of discussing the art I didn’t really see, I’ll mention something amusing that happened recently. Husband was gone for a week and, not an hour after I put him on the plane, I got the first phone call from one of our friends making sure I had things to eat in the house. I probably got two to three calls a day from people making sure I was eating. We have very nice friends. Polite ones, as well, ’cause lets be real – I’m not exactly going to waste away to nothing in a week. I’m apparently the human equivalent of Paris Hilton’s chihuahua. I just sit around looking adorable and waiting for food to appear before me. Most of the time, it works. Now if you’ll pardon me, dinner just appeared before me…

only 1 shopping day left until Giant Shrimp Day!

I’m allergic to shrimp. Nevertheless, I’ve been obsessed with Giant Shrimp Day ever since Karen brought a Long John Silver’s press release to my attention:

Long John Silver’s President Steve Davis sent a personal letter to NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe, congratulating NASA on their discovery.

“We’ve been following the Mars Exploration project since the beginning,” Davis wrote, “and we’ve been anxiously awaiting word of evidence of an ocean on Mars. The rovers have been extremely busy since they arrived on Mars – they’ve had ‘plenty of things on their plate.’ Now, with the discovery of ocean water, America can add one more thing to its plate – free Giant Shrimp.”

Davis ended the letter by writing, “This is one small step for man, and one giant leap for Giant Shrimp.” He also again expressed interest in Long John Silver’s becoming the first seafood restaurant on Mars.

Are the actual restaurants as surreal and creepy as the website? I refer you to the Pirate Fun page as evidence.

My hands are killing me today, so that’s all you get. I’ve been working on some pretty amazing stuff though, so keep checking back for details. You won’t want to miss it!