A Healthy Dose of Frivolity

As many of you have surely heard, my parents came out for a visit last weekend and we had a blast. By day, the four of us traversed the city, even exploring a few corners that Danie and I had yet to visit; and by night, we toured Manhattan's superlative cocktail destinations. Throw in a couple of exquisite late-afternoon cheese plates and you get a pretty good idea of how we spent the long weekend.

The morning after their arrival, we took the train up to Columbia University (on the Upper West Side), where one of my internships this summer is based, and then continued northward to The Cloisters, an appendage of the Metropolitan Museum of Art that's located near the northern tip of Manhattan. That evening we went down to the West Village for drinks and dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, Mercadito, that's widely renowned for its chupes (margharitas with a kick) and guacamole samplers. After dinner, we went to a small jazz club just south of Washington Square park.

We started the next day with a walk through Central Park. After running out of parkland and bumping into midtown, we took the train to Williamsburg, a neighborhood in Brooklyn that's home to a 'hip' young crowd as well as innumerable enticing sidewalk cafes and used book vendors. After having some lunch, we took the train back into Manhattan and meandered through Chelsea Market and the Highline. Then, with dusk approaching, we made our way down through the West Village where we had no choice but to dutifully observe the one-drink-max rule as we toured the neighborhood's exceptional bar-lounge scene. Well, at least until we got to Temple Bar.

The next day, we visited The Frick Collection, a mansion-turned-museum on the Upper East Side. Then we walked across Central Park to the Upper West Side, where we caught a show at the American Museum of Natural History's (awesome) Hayden Planetarium. After the planetarium, we grabbed some fresh fruit from the farmers market and a few cheeses from Dean & Deluca, and went back to the apartment for a mellow evening.

On the last day of the visit, we took a leisurely pace. Danie and my Mom went out for manicures/pedicures in the morning, while my Dad and I hung out at the apartment. Then that afternoon we visited a couple of local thrift stores before heading to the East Village for the evening to celebrate their last night in New York. The combination of renovated speakeasies and authentic Indian food made for another fantastic night.

The next morning, our collective vacation came to an abrupt end. Danie had to go to work, and an hour later my parents took off for the airport. All of a sudden the apartment felt rather empty and quite a bit bigger than it had in a few days. Though New Yorkers frequently lament their small living spaces, my appreciation for good company remains much deeper than my appreciation of square footage :)

For visual augmentation, check out these pictures.

Thanks again for everything Mom and Dad, it was so great to have you out.

love,
Cam

Revisiting the Political-Economy of Food

Some of you may remember a post I wrote last summer that reviewed a handful of books written about the political, social, economic, ethical, and health issues surrounding the contemporary industrial food production system. I received a number of thoughtful responses to the post, which led me to believe that it is a topic many of you have an interest in. This, of course, makes sense, since many of you eat.

As such, I thought I'd share this Michael Pollan article from The New York Review of Books. It provides both a concise overview of the salient questions I discussed in my earlier post, and a useful review of some recently published books for those of you looking for summer reading.

Another book not mentioned but likely worth a read is The End of Overeating. (Disclaimer: I have not yet read this. It is, however, fast approaching the top of my reading list)

When reading these books, it is important to actively resist the fatalism that can come from studying entrenched structural problems. If you find yourself feeling discouraged, remember: "The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall." -EG

School's Out

Greetings from late spring time in Manhattan. Today it's 94 degrees but it will be back down to 70 by Friday. You might say we have fairly erratic temperature swings here. Anyway, June and July are supposed to be beautiful months, so Danie and I are excited to experience our first summer in the city. Having arrived in August last year, we just missed the myriad festivals, concerts, and events that New York plays host to each summer before the humidity of August arrives and the bourgeois accordingly depart.

I finished the Spring semester last week and it feels great to have the first year under my belt. I'm glad to have the break, but both my classes and my professors were so interesting that the semester's end also brings with it some mild sorrow. This, of course, does not detract from my exuberance at having finished all of my term papers. It's been really nice not waking up at 5:30 everyday during the last week!

I won't be taking any classes this summer but I have a full-time internship at the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment. Also, I am going to be working with an NGO named Third World Network on a research project focusing on the new G20 agenda and its impact on developing countries. The details still have to be worked out but I was tentatively asked to author or co-author a formal report for the organization. I'm really excited about both opportunities, and I think they'll make for a very engaging summer.

Otherwise, I apologize for having neglected the blog during the Spring. I'm planning on being quite a bit more active on here during the summer; hopefully it will make up for the paucity of entries during the past few months. The summertime is supposed to be pretty exciting here, so I'll use the blog to keep everyone updated on all of the mischief we manage to get into. I'm also planning a series of retrospective blogs on important things that happened this Spring.

Check back soon for a post (complete with photos) on my parents visit this last weekend.

until then,
cam