Anonymous asked: Your smoothie looks a bit rank, but its a shame you dont do more writing. You obviously have a way with words. Your musings on America are a bit pretentious so perhaps write your own thing based on your own life. Your archives show that you live in London so you must have loads to talk about - all those days and nights out!
Reveal yourself, stranger! But thank you, that is very kind.
Regarding my musings on America, the only post I think you can be referring to is this one: http://nachoswithcocoa.tumblr.com/post/10417638373/on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-americas , which was just two quotations from the Financial Times (an English newspaper) and the New Yorker. I put them together as they offer a striking contrast of opinions of the US on 9/11, ten years on. So no real writing from me there.
It is true I haven’t written on here in a while. Your message inspired me to look back through all my posts and hopefully I will write something substantial soon, thanks to your encouragement.
Finally made this - inspired by Sierra at http://defeatinertia.com/ - turned out perfectly. And tasted great after a good couple of days exercise. Next squash game booked for Wednesday!
On the morning of September 11, 2001, America’s prospects appeared as bright as the clear blue sky over Lower Manhattan. The price of Brent crude oil was $28 a barrel, the Federal government was running a budget surplus, the US economy was turning (albeit imperceptibly) after the dotcom crash. The most powerful nation on earth was at peace. - Lionel Barber writing in the Financial Times this month. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f6acf1a6-d54d-11e0-bd7e-00144feab49a.html#axzz1YO3YiwoT
The prevailing conditions on that crystalline morning were unfavorable. Politically, the country was entrenched in two bitterly opposed camps. A few moderate Republicans, like Senator Lincoln Chafee, of Rhode Island, and Southern Democrats, like Senator Max Cleland, of Georgia, still survived in Congress, but their extinction was foreseeable. In a two-year period, the House’s impeachment of Bill Clinton and the Florida recount that was stopped by a similarly divided Supreme Court, handing the Presidency to Bush, had suddenly made America’s great democratic institutions seem flimsy and entirely partisan. During the 2000 election campaign, the news media came up with a new, color-coded way of dividing the country—into red and blue. On the economic front, America was in a recession, the dot-com bubble having already burst. A culture of speculation and debt on Wall Street was beginning to suffer from its own lopsidedness, with unprecedented fortunes in technology and finance accumulating at the top, and incomes in the middle flattening out, as blue-collar jobs moved offshore. The problem of income inequality was worsening, thanks to enormous tax cuts that had been passed into law that spring. The budget surplus of the Clinton years was vanishing. Around Surry County, the smaller textile mills were closing down. - George Packer writing in the New Yorker this month. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/09/12/110912fa_fact_packer?currentPage=all
My favourite Amy Winehouse performance, a hidden gem on YouTube from several years back. So shocked to hear of her death and even more so to hear that she lived and died two streets away from where I live in Camden, about 500m away. Another member of the ‘27 Club’.
no/without
Print available upon request in Europe: http://workisnotajob.com/en/shop
Or here if you are based somewhere else.
一回の青信号で１台しか前に進めないなんてザラだったけど、誰もが譲り合い穏やかに運転している姿に感動した。複雑な交差点で交通が５分以上完全マヒするシーンもあったけど、１０時間の間お礼以外のクラクションの音を耳にしなかった。恐怖と同時に心温まる時間で、日本がますます好きになった。
At a congested downtown intersection …
Cars were moving at the rate of maybe one every green light, but everyone was letting each other go first with a warm look and a smile. At a complicated intersection, the traffic was at a complete standstill for 5 minutes, but I listened for 10 minutes and didn’t hear a single beep or honk except for an occasional one thanking someone for giving way. It was a terrifying day, but scenes like this warmed me and made me love my country even more.
Sample from here.
