When I moved to Inman Square with my wife and three children a little over a year ago, we found ourselves in a compact, vibrant cultural center, a pleasant change from the lazy doldrums of West Cambridge, and what would be a breath of fresh air if not for the smoking stream of traffic flowing through Prospect Street to the highway. My wife being born a 3rd generation Cantabrigian, and myself being here since I was 6, we have collectively inhabited seven homes in this city, but in many ways this is the coolest neighborhood we've lived in.
With Harvard and Central losing a lot of what had made them so culturally relevant, and interesting, in the name of commerce and decency, being streamlined, gentrified and marginalized until unrecognizable as living communities of free-thinking individuals, what hope remains for this greatest of cities in which the most powerful army on Earth was first gathered to deflect the advances of Empire and Tyranny from the British Crown? This modern Alexandria, home of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology?
Although a hot-spot for yuppies, surely, Inman has not yet been crowded out by students and hipsters, and still retains that stamp of individuality that only an organic community displays, while also showing signs of a new embryonic intellectualism and art. It would bring great joy to see a new birth of creativity on American soil, in this stale age of rigid and nervous boredom.
Inman has all the makings for an artistic/literary Mecca. First, there are the bars. Beer has long fueled American thought and creativity, and there are several interesting places to drink--- what we need are more interesting people to drink there. Bukowski's serves good beer and tasty, Cantabrigian bar-food. The staff there are very friendly, particularly the waitress who put up with the obnoxious comments of my friend, who was mooching beers off us; I made him at least leave her a tip. Being named after an iconic poet, I think it would make sense to start hosting poetry readings there. It would bring a higher sense of culture. There's also a cute little bookstore next door, Lorem Ipsum---why not get drunk and go read literature late in the evening? As you stumble tipsily down the sidewalk, bubbles float through the air. You could also drink at The Druid, or cram into the Lilly Pad to hear music. What Cambridge really needs is a revival of the local music scene.
We could play in the open air of Alfred Vellucci Park, right across the street from Rosie's Bakery. Children playing with sidewalk chalk, hippies singing folk-songs, the old-timers and semi-bums of the neighborhood sitting, smoking, watching and talking. Host some real Happenings, make this the new Harvard Square, Vellucci the new Pit, sans the less genuine elements, the excessive filth and drugs and all that. Maybe just some teenagers with a can of beer in their pocket, smoking a joint. It's a short walk up Cambridge Street to the High School and the Library, which has become far more popular than when I was at the High School. Inman is perhaps not as superficially attractive to young people as Harvard Square --- when we were teenagers we were pulled in by the scene of quirky people in Harvard --- but there is the potential here for a depth of culture absent elsewhere.
Further up Prospect Street, toward Central Square, you've got The Field, a nice, cozy Irish bar. You can even get a good meal there. Before that even, on Prospect is Out of the Blue Gallery. Lots of cool, funky local art in there; we got a housewarming gift from there. They also do lots of cool stuff, poetry readings, I've played music there a couple times, sidewalk chalk and yard sales; an eclectic place for reviving the local art scene, if only heads would get involved; we need more patrons of the arts, of real art, in Cambridge. Anyway, I've met some pretty interesting people there. And of course XO, beloved dog that you're bound to see lying down outside. Whole Foods right across the street, they should link up do something art/healthy food oriented.
In the other direction you've got the highway and Union Square. Somerville and East Cambridge are right there; Area 4. I love the neighborhood feeling of Area 4 and the smell in the Summer (except on trash day.)
Not long after we moved in we answered the door one day and met Jefferson R. Smith, candidate at the time for City Council. He was a very nice guy, and Inmanian himself, and affordable housing was at the top of his agenda. Unfortunately, he lost. More and more families and businesses are being forced out of Cambridge. Inman and Area 4 still have more working-class families than a lot of Cambridge, though.
So, in short we should initiate a cultural exchange, at Vellucci Park and local businesses. Then we can establish an independent philosophical development and entertain other possibilities for the city's atmosphere than pure liberal prudence and homogeny.
@dGabeEvau
Note: Since I wrote this last Spring, already the area has changed; at least temporarily, for the worse. We have lost our close neighbor Out of the Blue to Central Square, although I was happy to help spread the word to save the gallery and raise awareness for their fundraising efforts to relocate. Also, in a trend consistent with the literary atrophy of America, Lorem Ipsum bookstore has closed. Bukowski's has been closed for months due to renovations; according to the Boston Globe they will be open again soon...just in time to come in from the cold to warm up and celebrate New England's heritage of booze, poetry and greasy food....on an apparent up-note, Christina's Spices has moved a few doors down from its previous location, which was connected to Christina's Ice Cream; the new spot looks really nice; I haven't been in yet, but just looking at the sheer assortment of hot sauces on the wall makes my mouth water (and my nose run.) Haveli, Inman's perennial Indian restaurant, closed about a year ago...that was a shame; it was a great place to grab buffet, my wife and I had eaten their for our anniversary years ago, and, most fondly to me, last winter I shoveled out a path in their parking lot and in front of the store in exchange for a free lunch! It is now January 5th, 2015; hopefully we can look forward to great things to come for Inman Square this year.
Monday, June 16, 2014
Friday, June 6, 2014
Keith Matthew Thornton, Poet Laureate of the English Language
The most significant poets in American history have been, with several exceptions, Black. Sure, there were the Beats, there was Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson. But the most financially successful poets, of any race or nationality, in fact, have been the white musicians and songwriters who appropriated African American song forms, notably the blues, jazz, and rock and roll. Although some of these composers were creating work of artistic and cultural relevance, in their own right, nonetheless they profited from the creation of Black America, just as our nation was founded on the blood and sweat of Black slaves.
It was, in fact, a slave who was one of the earliest known Black American poets. Dave the Potter was both a skilled worker and literate; he etched in his clay pottery simple yet profound verses which told the tale of his life and times, and echo universal human truths and feelings. There have been successfully published and known Black creators of written verse as well, such as Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Amira Baraka…but the most influential contribution, in fact the single cultural product of any true value which America has put forth, is Black music.
Much of this is simple, plaintive lyric verse such as the call and response of the blues. There were certainly many who incorporated more 'sophisticated' word-play and mainstream Americanisms, such as Chuck Berry, who ingeniously hit a wider (whiter) audience as the Father of Rock and Roll; but for the most part this music confined itself to the Dionysian pathos of lyric poetry. We could replace Archilochus with Leadbelly as the hero of Dionysian poetry in The Birth of Tragedy. Mainstream white music tended to be more Apollonian, focusing on appearance and technical display rather than true depth of feeling and universality.
The parameters of rap music allow it to convey a greater depth of intellectual consideration than the passionate call-and-response of the blues. Sometimes this leads to shallow superficiality, and in fact materialism. But it also paved the way for the true synthesis of the 3rd element, which Nietzsche erroneously (and critically) identified as the 'Socratic' force of reason and reflection, corrupting the artistic perfection of Greek Tragedy, which perfectly blended the Apollonian and Dionysian art impulses into that 'mysterious union.' I would substitute the term 'Hermetic', to be more alchemical, and true to the Greek Deities. The ancients knew there to be three forces in the universe; in Ayurveda this light, mental energy is called Vatta.
It would take a poet with a truly scientific insight into both the deeper pathos and the more superficial impressions of everyday life to fully merge these three forces in poetry and music, crowning the great artistic medium of the 20th Century with the most brilliant stanzas ever written.
Keith Matthew Thornton is the greatest poet in the history of the English language. His achievement goes beyond his technical mastery of the medium. Few rappers, or spoken-word artists, have such a variety of cadence and vocal inflection in their art. That dynamic delivery of phonetics is something the printed page is simply unable to capture. Keith's brilliance transcends his intellectual genius; of any artist I have ever heard Keith has the most completely independent voice…not just in terms of the subjects he chooses to rhyme about; it is truly that here one comes into contact with an individual human mind, free of, and yet at the same time making use of every artifice of expression in order to convey his mood, his thought-process, his sensation of relative humidity and every other variable of the human experience, beyond simple (yet powerful and evocative) emotional symbols which poetry has relied upon for centuries, at least.
When Kool Keith is discussed or even mentioned, it is usually to talk about how 'strange,' 'weird' and 'crazy' he is. Certainly this is a great part of his appeal. Keith is creative and unique, an anomaly for sure, and he has done a great job of building (and living up to) this reputation himself. At the same time, it is only too easy for the press to marginalize his artistic output and cultural significance, particularly as his abilities and intelligence could be threatening to the controllers of mainstream white media. Just as Jimi Hendrix being cast as the 'Wild Man from Borneo' helped to reduce the anxiety he provoked among white (British) musicians who had grown comfortable in their appropriation of a Black American medium (the blues,) so the removal of Keith from the spotlight and focus on his eccentricity allowed for the expedient and rapid demise of mainstream rap music during the time of Bad Boy's over-budgeted MTV videos and the subsequent appropriation of superficial markers of hip-hop culture by mainstream white America.
Even without the issue of race, madness is characteristically used as a way to scapegoat tremendous, visionary artists with the potential to alter the mass consciousness, for better or worse. Another amazing poet of American popular culture, Jim Morrison was crippled and destroyed by his own role of insanity, in which he was inspired by the French poet Arthur Rimbaud's 'derangement of the senses in order to achieve the unknown.' In fact, Rimbaud is the only poet of the previous millennium comparable to Keith in lyrical acuity; and when it comes to this new age, just forget it. I don't think anyone writing today could even fill-in-the-blank on a Dr. Seuss book. Certainly 'Rockets on the Battlefield' or "No Awareness' are poems comparable to Rimbaud's absinthe-induced 'Season in Hell.' When we confine ourselves to the English language, there is simply no parallel…"Shakespeare's gone, don't even think about him."
Perhaps this very linguistic framework is the key to Keith's ability to convey perfectly all the psycho-sensory nuances of the human existence. In many ways, English is decidedly un-poetic. The lack of sonance and the prevalence of stiff, unwieldy suffixes characterize the Germanic languages in general, making them far less melodically viable than, say, the Latin-derived family. Yet somehow the frankness and candor of our language allow for a simplicity in verse comparable to ancient Greek lyric poetry.
A posterity with any cultural integrity whatsoever will include the name Thornton with those of writers such as Homer and Aeschylus. It is high time for a credible, authentic press media to acknowledge Keith's role as master poet, as musical innovator, even philosopher. It is his ability to capture the tiniest detail that others might not notice, or take for granted, in any case not write about as the subject of 'grand poetry,' that sets him leagues above the rest. It is this cinematic quality, like LSD revealing the individual blades of grass where the average person would simply see a lawn that needs mowing, that propels his metres into mental activity, 'traveling at the speed of thought' and manifesting inside the rapt mind of the listener.
Keith is this Hermes, this Thoth, who Morrison himself predicted (in an interview with PBS) would emerge in the post-rock era, after European and African music had been thoroughly fused in the creation of the true Apollonian/Dionysian synthesis of rock-and-roll, to speak and to sing over recorded media, taking what had emerged in Jamaica as 'toasting' over the instrumental recordings of reggae hits in the streets by popular sound-systems, and was then imported to the Bronx by Kook Herc as Hip-Hop, and making it a grand and epic art-form comparable in technical consideration as well as cultural import to the classics of the Ancient World. It is no accident that Keith himself grew up in the Bronx, amidst the birth of Hip-Hop, channelling the urban experience into the ultimate reflection of America's transient and manifold soul.
suggested reading:
Friedrich Nietzsche, "The Birth of Tragedy"
Amiri Baraka, "Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music"
It was, in fact, a slave who was one of the earliest known Black American poets. Dave the Potter was both a skilled worker and literate; he etched in his clay pottery simple yet profound verses which told the tale of his life and times, and echo universal human truths and feelings. There have been successfully published and known Black creators of written verse as well, such as Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Amira Baraka…but the most influential contribution, in fact the single cultural product of any true value which America has put forth, is Black music.
Much of this is simple, plaintive lyric verse such as the call and response of the blues. There were certainly many who incorporated more 'sophisticated' word-play and mainstream Americanisms, such as Chuck Berry, who ingeniously hit a wider (whiter) audience as the Father of Rock and Roll; but for the most part this music confined itself to the Dionysian pathos of lyric poetry. We could replace Archilochus with Leadbelly as the hero of Dionysian poetry in The Birth of Tragedy. Mainstream white music tended to be more Apollonian, focusing on appearance and technical display rather than true depth of feeling and universality.
The parameters of rap music allow it to convey a greater depth of intellectual consideration than the passionate call-and-response of the blues. Sometimes this leads to shallow superficiality, and in fact materialism. But it also paved the way for the true synthesis of the 3rd element, which Nietzsche erroneously (and critically) identified as the 'Socratic' force of reason and reflection, corrupting the artistic perfection of Greek Tragedy, which perfectly blended the Apollonian and Dionysian art impulses into that 'mysterious union.' I would substitute the term 'Hermetic', to be more alchemical, and true to the Greek Deities. The ancients knew there to be three forces in the universe; in Ayurveda this light, mental energy is called Vatta.
It would take a poet with a truly scientific insight into both the deeper pathos and the more superficial impressions of everyday life to fully merge these three forces in poetry and music, crowning the great artistic medium of the 20th Century with the most brilliant stanzas ever written.
Keith Matthew Thornton is the greatest poet in the history of the English language. His achievement goes beyond his technical mastery of the medium. Few rappers, or spoken-word artists, have such a variety of cadence and vocal inflection in their art. That dynamic delivery of phonetics is something the printed page is simply unable to capture. Keith's brilliance transcends his intellectual genius; of any artist I have ever heard Keith has the most completely independent voice…not just in terms of the subjects he chooses to rhyme about; it is truly that here one comes into contact with an individual human mind, free of, and yet at the same time making use of every artifice of expression in order to convey his mood, his thought-process, his sensation of relative humidity and every other variable of the human experience, beyond simple (yet powerful and evocative) emotional symbols which poetry has relied upon for centuries, at least.
When Kool Keith is discussed or even mentioned, it is usually to talk about how 'strange,' 'weird' and 'crazy' he is. Certainly this is a great part of his appeal. Keith is creative and unique, an anomaly for sure, and he has done a great job of building (and living up to) this reputation himself. At the same time, it is only too easy for the press to marginalize his artistic output and cultural significance, particularly as his abilities and intelligence could be threatening to the controllers of mainstream white media. Just as Jimi Hendrix being cast as the 'Wild Man from Borneo' helped to reduce the anxiety he provoked among white (British) musicians who had grown comfortable in their appropriation of a Black American medium (the blues,) so the removal of Keith from the spotlight and focus on his eccentricity allowed for the expedient and rapid demise of mainstream rap music during the time of Bad Boy's over-budgeted MTV videos and the subsequent appropriation of superficial markers of hip-hop culture by mainstream white America.
Even without the issue of race, madness is characteristically used as a way to scapegoat tremendous, visionary artists with the potential to alter the mass consciousness, for better or worse. Another amazing poet of American popular culture, Jim Morrison was crippled and destroyed by his own role of insanity, in which he was inspired by the French poet Arthur Rimbaud's 'derangement of the senses in order to achieve the unknown.' In fact, Rimbaud is the only poet of the previous millennium comparable to Keith in lyrical acuity; and when it comes to this new age, just forget it. I don't think anyone writing today could even fill-in-the-blank on a Dr. Seuss book. Certainly 'Rockets on the Battlefield' or "No Awareness' are poems comparable to Rimbaud's absinthe-induced 'Season in Hell.' When we confine ourselves to the English language, there is simply no parallel…"Shakespeare's gone, don't even think about him."
Perhaps this very linguistic framework is the key to Keith's ability to convey perfectly all the psycho-sensory nuances of the human existence. In many ways, English is decidedly un-poetic. The lack of sonance and the prevalence of stiff, unwieldy suffixes characterize the Germanic languages in general, making them far less melodically viable than, say, the Latin-derived family. Yet somehow the frankness and candor of our language allow for a simplicity in verse comparable to ancient Greek lyric poetry.
A posterity with any cultural integrity whatsoever will include the name Thornton with those of writers such as Homer and Aeschylus. It is high time for a credible, authentic press media to acknowledge Keith's role as master poet, as musical innovator, even philosopher. It is his ability to capture the tiniest detail that others might not notice, or take for granted, in any case not write about as the subject of 'grand poetry,' that sets him leagues above the rest. It is this cinematic quality, like LSD revealing the individual blades of grass where the average person would simply see a lawn that needs mowing, that propels his metres into mental activity, 'traveling at the speed of thought' and manifesting inside the rapt mind of the listener.
Keith is this Hermes, this Thoth, who Morrison himself predicted (in an interview with PBS) would emerge in the post-rock era, after European and African music had been thoroughly fused in the creation of the true Apollonian/Dionysian synthesis of rock-and-roll, to speak and to sing over recorded media, taking what had emerged in Jamaica as 'toasting' over the instrumental recordings of reggae hits in the streets by popular sound-systems, and was then imported to the Bronx by Kook Herc as Hip-Hop, and making it a grand and epic art-form comparable in technical consideration as well as cultural import to the classics of the Ancient World. It is no accident that Keith himself grew up in the Bronx, amidst the birth of Hip-Hop, channelling the urban experience into the ultimate reflection of America's transient and manifold soul.
suggested reading:
Friedrich Nietzsche, "The Birth of Tragedy"
Amiri Baraka, "Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music"
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Café Society: America Runs on Adreno-Cortico-Stimulants
Ah...as I sip my hot-water extraction of roasted coffea arabica beans from Guatemala blended with the cream of cow's milk, typing on my laptop, feet not planted firmly on the floor, I can only say...God bless America! Now....
"Wake up!"
and smell the coffee burning at the bottom of the pot, taste the acids churning inside your intestines, disrupting the bacterial flora that regulates your immune system;
feel the tension in your jaw,
write home to Mother all your racing thoughts as you babble vapidly to friends
on sidewalks and traincars, endlessly listing off the categories of Infinity....
...O, to be young and write poems in cafés and chainsmoke as if life had no consequence...
now: reality:
you need coffee to function, to work, to write, to get up and make the kids breakfast, to raise up the nerve to even talk to anyone.
now: back from the initial stimulus and bliss, that 1st sip of poetry, down to the prose of this post:
America is addicted to coffee. We need it every day just to function. Coffee is originally from Africa, although some people think it is from the Americas. In fact, it was the Dutch who expanded the coffee industry beyond Africa and Arabia, and it was they who brought it to Central and South America, where indeed so much of the world's coffee is now produced. Brewed coffee in the form we drink today was developed in Yemen. The first coffee-houses among the Arabs were indeed a political innovation as they became a powerful yet affordable and accessible social forum, and for this reason were quickly recognized as dangerous. Coffee became popular in the North American Colonies in the late 17th Century, and it was at a coffeehouse that the Boston Tea Party was concocted.
"In the year 2000 in the US, coffee consumption was 22.1 gallons (100.468 litres) per capita.[6] More than 150 million Americans (18 and older) drink coffee on a daily basis, with 65 percent of coffee drinkers consuming their hot beverage in the morning. In 2008, it was the number-one hot beverage of choice among convenience store customers, generating about 78 percent of sales within the hot dispensed beverages category.[7] " - Wikipedia
So coffee is at once an industry of oppression, colonialism and exploitation, but also a tool for political dissidence. My primary focus of enquiry is not political, moral or ethical, however, but sociological, nutritional, and endocrinological. Caffeine, and other compounds present in the coffee bean, stimulate the cycle of adrenaline and cortisol. Adrenaline is very useful for an animal that needs to fight, run, or otherwise respond rapidly, decisively and forcefully to a situation or stimulus. It is not healthy to have adrenaline always blazing, as this leads to adrenal fatigue and exhaustion. However, proper diet and exercise can mitigate some of the effects of excessive adrenaline. Of more concern, to me at least, is the cortisol spike. Fasting and lowered blood-sugar levels already tends to elevate production of cortisol, the primary 'stress hormone.' Many people drink coffee on an empty stomach, and many women and men, generally out of commercially misguided vanity, use caffeine- and other stimulant-containing products to lose weight...the problem is that cortisol ends up breaking down muscle tissue, yet in the long run will prevent fat loss...I myself no longer take sugar in my coffee, but perhaps the sugar does help to mitigate the gluco-consumptive properties of caffeine and reduce the stress that coffee often causes.
Adrenaline should not be discounted for its danger, either. We are an aggressive nation of car-crashers, bar-brawlers and murderers. My wife has suggested that caffeine-induced aggression is likely a primary contributor to violent crime and accidents in America (and in other caffeine-addicted industrialized nations.)
Caffeine is a phenethylamine. These psychoactive compounds are all derived from the amino acid phenylalanine, and include its metabolite tyrosine, the hormones adrenaline, noradrenaline, and dopamine, as well as drugs such as cocaine, amphetamines, the prescription-anti-depressant Welbutrin (or bupropion) and mescaline. Of these, mescaline (and related alkaloids in various cactii species, somewhat legal with the exception of peyote) is the only phenethylamine that has the full potential to activate man's Higher Mind, whereas the rest have a tendency to be addictive, despite or rather due to their tremendous benefit to active, organized and socialized human populations. For this reason peyote is illegal, because we are racist Christian vigilantes who have condemned the beautiful traditions of the Native populations of the Americas and supplanted them with an abstraction forged of Christianity, war and colonialism. Peyote would allow one to access the 5+1/2th Chakra, the secret Sephira Daath, denied by Hebrew Kabbalists as heresy due to the loss of trans-Atlantic trade in ancient times.
Of greater import for modern America is the question of the legalization of marijuana. It is incredible that human beings are branded as criminals for utilizing a plant that has for ages been a sacred food, medicine and ally. Perhaps the dis-attenuation of peripheral awareness could cause more car accidents from stoned drivers; this is probably the most legitimate argument against legalization, IMO. However, as we have mentioned, it is highly probable that caffeine already does contribute to traffic accidents, as well as aggressive crime. Marijuana, overall, would reduce violence and aggression. Most of the association between marijuana and crime is, in fact, due to its being criminalized (duh!) It would be a wonderful world where high school students could buy marijuana from someone who didn't also deal in addictive pharmaceutical narcotics; if legal, marijuana would never be a 'gateway drug.'
Coffee, however, doesn't even need to be a gateway. Middle-class teenage girls learn that they should wear tight black riding pants and bring their laptops to Starbucks. Just in Harvard Square there are three Starbucks, plus one a seven-minute walk and another a twelve-minute walk away. This is saturation. Monopoly. At least independent cafés have some character and distinction. And then there's the slogan, "America Runs on Dunkin'." How proudly perverse, our culture's celebration of its own addictions, even as we make (successful) strides to curb smoking...even then, an addict can pat themself on the back for two weeks without drugs or alcohol, as they congregate together outside the church smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee.
(ok, case-in-point, I'm just typing on the computer drinking coffee and now I'm yelling at the kids 'cause they're making too much noise...I think caffeine also lowers the tolerance for loud noises, by turning everything into a stimulus for adrenaline and cortisol, as mentioned, and making every noise or word a cause for panic and reaction.)
Before the coffee beans are roasted they are actually green, and contain much higher amounts of chlorogenic acid, with relatively less caffeine. Cholorogenic acid has been shown to have many health benefits, including blood-sugar regulation and, by extension, purportedly weight-loss. It will be interesting to see if the interest in green coffee bean products grows in the future, and somewhat replaces our addiction to roasted coffee beverages.
Of course, coffee is not the only caffeinated beverage we drink. Tea, however, contains theanine, an amino acid which relaxes the mind and mitigates the effects of caffeine (one must watch out for the tannins present in tea, however, as they are highly acidic.) The biggest problem is probably the artificial energy drinks, which use other stimulants as well such as l-tyrosine, further contributing to adrenal fatigue, and generally without the addition of antioxidants, which are naturally present in coffee, tea, cocoa and yerba maté, and lend these plants much of their health-promoting benefits. Obviously these drugs should be regulated, far more than ganja.
"Wake up!"
and smell the coffee burning at the bottom of the pot, taste the acids churning inside your intestines, disrupting the bacterial flora that regulates your immune system;
feel the tension in your jaw,
write home to Mother all your racing thoughts as you babble vapidly to friends
on sidewalks and traincars, endlessly listing off the categories of Infinity....
...O, to be young and write poems in cafés and chainsmoke as if life had no consequence...
now: reality:
you need coffee to function, to work, to write, to get up and make the kids breakfast, to raise up the nerve to even talk to anyone.
now: back from the initial stimulus and bliss, that 1st sip of poetry, down to the prose of this post:
America is addicted to coffee. We need it every day just to function. Coffee is originally from Africa, although some people think it is from the Americas. In fact, it was the Dutch who expanded the coffee industry beyond Africa and Arabia, and it was they who brought it to Central and South America, where indeed so much of the world's coffee is now produced. Brewed coffee in the form we drink today was developed in Yemen. The first coffee-houses among the Arabs were indeed a political innovation as they became a powerful yet affordable and accessible social forum, and for this reason were quickly recognized as dangerous. Coffee became popular in the North American Colonies in the late 17th Century, and it was at a coffeehouse that the Boston Tea Party was concocted.
"In the year 2000 in the US, coffee consumption was 22.1 gallons (100.468 litres) per capita.[6] More than 150 million Americans (18 and older) drink coffee on a daily basis, with 65 percent of coffee drinkers consuming their hot beverage in the morning. In 2008, it was the number-one hot beverage of choice among convenience store customers, generating about 78 percent of sales within the hot dispensed beverages category.[7] " - Wikipedia
So coffee is at once an industry of oppression, colonialism and exploitation, but also a tool for political dissidence. My primary focus of enquiry is not political, moral or ethical, however, but sociological, nutritional, and endocrinological. Caffeine, and other compounds present in the coffee bean, stimulate the cycle of adrenaline and cortisol. Adrenaline is very useful for an animal that needs to fight, run, or otherwise respond rapidly, decisively and forcefully to a situation or stimulus. It is not healthy to have adrenaline always blazing, as this leads to adrenal fatigue and exhaustion. However, proper diet and exercise can mitigate some of the effects of excessive adrenaline. Of more concern, to me at least, is the cortisol spike. Fasting and lowered blood-sugar levels already tends to elevate production of cortisol, the primary 'stress hormone.' Many people drink coffee on an empty stomach, and many women and men, generally out of commercially misguided vanity, use caffeine- and other stimulant-containing products to lose weight...the problem is that cortisol ends up breaking down muscle tissue, yet in the long run will prevent fat loss...I myself no longer take sugar in my coffee, but perhaps the sugar does help to mitigate the gluco-consumptive properties of caffeine and reduce the stress that coffee often causes.
Adrenaline should not be discounted for its danger, either. We are an aggressive nation of car-crashers, bar-brawlers and murderers. My wife has suggested that caffeine-induced aggression is likely a primary contributor to violent crime and accidents in America (and in other caffeine-addicted industrialized nations.)
Caffeine is a phenethylamine. These psychoactive compounds are all derived from the amino acid phenylalanine, and include its metabolite tyrosine, the hormones adrenaline, noradrenaline, and dopamine, as well as drugs such as cocaine, amphetamines, the prescription-anti-depressant Welbutrin (or bupropion) and mescaline. Of these, mescaline (and related alkaloids in various cactii species, somewhat legal with the exception of peyote) is the only phenethylamine that has the full potential to activate man's Higher Mind, whereas the rest have a tendency to be addictive, despite or rather due to their tremendous benefit to active, organized and socialized human populations. For this reason peyote is illegal, because we are racist Christian vigilantes who have condemned the beautiful traditions of the Native populations of the Americas and supplanted them with an abstraction forged of Christianity, war and colonialism. Peyote would allow one to access the 5+1/2th Chakra, the secret Sephira Daath, denied by Hebrew Kabbalists as heresy due to the loss of trans-Atlantic trade in ancient times.
Of greater import for modern America is the question of the legalization of marijuana. It is incredible that human beings are branded as criminals for utilizing a plant that has for ages been a sacred food, medicine and ally. Perhaps the dis-attenuation of peripheral awareness could cause more car accidents from stoned drivers; this is probably the most legitimate argument against legalization, IMO. However, as we have mentioned, it is highly probable that caffeine already does contribute to traffic accidents, as well as aggressive crime. Marijuana, overall, would reduce violence and aggression. Most of the association between marijuana and crime is, in fact, due to its being criminalized (duh!) It would be a wonderful world where high school students could buy marijuana from someone who didn't also deal in addictive pharmaceutical narcotics; if legal, marijuana would never be a 'gateway drug.'
Coffee, however, doesn't even need to be a gateway. Middle-class teenage girls learn that they should wear tight black riding pants and bring their laptops to Starbucks. Just in Harvard Square there are three Starbucks, plus one a seven-minute walk and another a twelve-minute walk away. This is saturation. Monopoly. At least independent cafés have some character and distinction. And then there's the slogan, "America Runs on Dunkin'." How proudly perverse, our culture's celebration of its own addictions, even as we make (successful) strides to curb smoking...even then, an addict can pat themself on the back for two weeks without drugs or alcohol, as they congregate together outside the church smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee.
(ok, case-in-point, I'm just typing on the computer drinking coffee and now I'm yelling at the kids 'cause they're making too much noise...I think caffeine also lowers the tolerance for loud noises, by turning everything into a stimulus for adrenaline and cortisol, as mentioned, and making every noise or word a cause for panic and reaction.)
Before the coffee beans are roasted they are actually green, and contain much higher amounts of chlorogenic acid, with relatively less caffeine. Cholorogenic acid has been shown to have many health benefits, including blood-sugar regulation and, by extension, purportedly weight-loss. It will be interesting to see if the interest in green coffee bean products grows in the future, and somewhat replaces our addiction to roasted coffee beverages.
Of course, coffee is not the only caffeinated beverage we drink. Tea, however, contains theanine, an amino acid which relaxes the mind and mitigates the effects of caffeine (one must watch out for the tannins present in tea, however, as they are highly acidic.) The biggest problem is probably the artificial energy drinks, which use other stimulants as well such as l-tyrosine, further contributing to adrenal fatigue, and generally without the addition of antioxidants, which are naturally present in coffee, tea, cocoa and yerba maté, and lend these plants much of their health-promoting benefits. Obviously these drugs should be regulated, far more than ganja.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Bicyclists on the Sidewalk
Bicycling seems to be more popular today than it ever was. This has many positive implications. Reducing carbon emissions will help to at least slow the damage done to our environment by combustion of fossil fuels. The (perhaps not right at the moment, but ultimately) rising cost of gasoline and oil and unavailability of parking certainly make the bicycle an economic alternative. Bicycling is great exercise and (in moderation) may help to improve our nation's health and wellness. And, after all, bikes are not as dangerous as automobiles....However, a large metal object on wheels accelerating with a human being on top is still a liability to anything in its path.
Bicycles are expected to share the road with other vehicles. Admittedly, it can be difficult and, for the cyclist, dangerous to maneuver through streets of traffic, with cars turning, merging, changing lanes, passing; trucks and emergency vehicles speeding by. There are many times when it makes more sense for a cyclist to get off the road and onto the sidewalk. We all do it; how else would you lock up your bike, get home or go into a store? Sometimes in order to get across a street it is more appropriate to travel the paths laid out for pedestrians than those intended for drivers.
Riding down an empty sidewalk, in fact, might be safer for everyone than darting between cars across a busy road. When there are pedestrians on the sidewalk, however, it does not makes sense to pass them at full-speed. This is dangerous in any situation, especially if those pedestrians are children, the elderly, handicapped, or otherwise not fully attentive and ready to apply their reflexes to avoid harm's way.
Slowing down is a start. At the very least, running one foot on the ground gives the biker physical control to stop the bike if necessary, preventing injury to themselves and others that could be caused by applying brakes suddenly. Getting off and walking the bike is an even better idea when on a crowded sidewalk; once you get around the pedestrians and onto the other side of the street you can start biking in the street again, where you belong!
This seems so simple but it all comes down to courtesy and care for others. A symptom of our modern culture of detachment is a profound display of indifference to others. I learned to ride a bike late, in high school. Of course I myself road on the sidewalk over the course of a few days as I got the hang of it. One day, and I wasn't even going that fast, someone came out of a store and I nearly ran into them. They yelled at me as I kept going and I arrogantly yelled back, not thinking I was really in the wrong and also infected by that same social apathy I just mentioned is prevalent in our society, especially among youth; and everyone seems to be affecting the characteristics of irreverent youth today.
After that incident I sucked it up and put myself in the street, riding stoned on good grass listening to Metallica on my headphones with no helmet, because it seemed noble to put the safety of others above my own at that time. Maybe it's just my Virgo Moon.
In any case, if I see you biking towards me when I am walking down the sidewalk with my children, I will make the sidewalk impassable until you either get off the sidewalk or walk your bike. And if you are coming behind me, please don't ring your corny little bell or shout out "left!".....but that is the topic for another blog.
Bicycles are expected to share the road with other vehicles. Admittedly, it can be difficult and, for the cyclist, dangerous to maneuver through streets of traffic, with cars turning, merging, changing lanes, passing; trucks and emergency vehicles speeding by. There are many times when it makes more sense for a cyclist to get off the road and onto the sidewalk. We all do it; how else would you lock up your bike, get home or go into a store? Sometimes in order to get across a street it is more appropriate to travel the paths laid out for pedestrians than those intended for drivers.
Riding down an empty sidewalk, in fact, might be safer for everyone than darting between cars across a busy road. When there are pedestrians on the sidewalk, however, it does not makes sense to pass them at full-speed. This is dangerous in any situation, especially if those pedestrians are children, the elderly, handicapped, or otherwise not fully attentive and ready to apply their reflexes to avoid harm's way.
Slowing down is a start. At the very least, running one foot on the ground gives the biker physical control to stop the bike if necessary, preventing injury to themselves and others that could be caused by applying brakes suddenly. Getting off and walking the bike is an even better idea when on a crowded sidewalk; once you get around the pedestrians and onto the other side of the street you can start biking in the street again, where you belong!
This seems so simple but it all comes down to courtesy and care for others. A symptom of our modern culture of detachment is a profound display of indifference to others. I learned to ride a bike late, in high school. Of course I myself road on the sidewalk over the course of a few days as I got the hang of it. One day, and I wasn't even going that fast, someone came out of a store and I nearly ran into them. They yelled at me as I kept going and I arrogantly yelled back, not thinking I was really in the wrong and also infected by that same social apathy I just mentioned is prevalent in our society, especially among youth; and everyone seems to be affecting the characteristics of irreverent youth today.
After that incident I sucked it up and put myself in the street, riding stoned on good grass listening to Metallica on my headphones with no helmet, because it seemed noble to put the safety of others above my own at that time. Maybe it's just my Virgo Moon.
In any case, if I see you biking towards me when I am walking down the sidewalk with my children, I will make the sidewalk impassable until you either get off the sidewalk or walk your bike. And if you are coming behind me, please don't ring your corny little bell or shout out "left!".....but that is the topic for another blog.
Friday, July 10, 2009
The Obsession with Skinny
It is quite disturbing that so many women are befuddled so as to equate their own self-worth with maintaining a dangerously low body-weight and the application of harsh abrasive chemical make-up etc...
Women who are already quite attractive, or even a bit too thin who might do well to put on a few pounds (speaking as a man who finds woman's beauty to be a thing of unparalleled splendour) will spend large amounts of money on diet pills, books, magazines; obsessively workout and deny themselves a well-rounded diet providing essential nutrients.
They do this because the media informs them that they have to, to be beautiful, and the media also fools enough men into believing this false ideal of beauty that they in turn amplify the social pressure upon women. There is no arguing that a woman's physical attractiveness is one of her most important traits; for with it she finds a mate, hopefully, and reproduces herself, thus becoming a successful creature. However, today success is equated with symbolical wealth, not actual prosperity so much as the social status attached to a middle-class life.
Which all leads into commerce, who is behind this all. The diet-pill companies, the magazines with skinny women on the front, the movies the pornographers are all making a killing, more and more literally, as women physically discount their health and try to look like skinny little girls.
to be continued...(comments?)
Women who are already quite attractive, or even a bit too thin who might do well to put on a few pounds (speaking as a man who finds woman's beauty to be a thing of unparalleled splendour) will spend large amounts of money on diet pills, books, magazines; obsessively workout and deny themselves a well-rounded diet providing essential nutrients.
They do this because the media informs them that they have to, to be beautiful, and the media also fools enough men into believing this false ideal of beauty that they in turn amplify the social pressure upon women. There is no arguing that a woman's physical attractiveness is one of her most important traits; for with it she finds a mate, hopefully, and reproduces herself, thus becoming a successful creature. However, today success is equated with symbolical wealth, not actual prosperity so much as the social status attached to a middle-class life.
Which all leads into commerce, who is behind this all. The diet-pill companies, the magazines with skinny women on the front, the movies the pornographers are all making a killing, more and more literally, as women physically discount their health and try to look like skinny little girls.
to be continued...(comments?)
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