I am officially twenty-seven years old now, recovering from an evening's festivities, and preparing to have a nice, quiet dinner with friends

In Iain Pears' book The Dream of Scipio, a main character at just such a dinner notes (I quote liberally):

"I will merely point out to you that all of this- food, wine, and even cognac- are nothing in comparison to what they permit, which is the easy and unrestrained exercise of friendship manifested through conversation. We have been sitting here now for near three hours in perfect amity, as we have known each other for many years- many decades in a few cases. We have managed, I am glad to say, not to talk of the war, as this last supper- my imagery again, I apologize- is to celebrate civilization, not to mourn its passing. We have talked here of literature, I believe. Some of you I heard discussing the performance of Tosca cancelled last week, taking consolation at having seen Furtwangler conduct it in Milan three years ago. One person I heard complaining about the way Cezanne is now considered a good painter. My friend Julien, who owns a Cezanne, was polite and restrained...'

"'Such refinement, gentlemen! Such delicacy of address, such sophistication of tastes. But not, for me, the essence of civilization. No; instead I heard the goddess brush her soft lips over my ear when I heard my friend over there lean across the table and ask whether it was true that a mutual acquaintance had separated from his wife.'

'Gossip? You say. Idle chitchat? Yes gentlemen, Men in trenches, men starving, men in chains, do not have the leisure to gossip. Gossip is the product of spare time, of surplus and of comfort. Gossip is the creation of civilization, and the product of friendship. For when my friend here made his inquiry he passed on the information necessary to keep the delicate fabric of friendship together....'

'I fear, my friends, we will not have much time to gossip in the future, and we will be too far apart to have anyone to gossip about. So, with this meal, I must declare civilization closed...and turn ourselves into beasts to survive what awaits us..'" (140-141)

I would extend this idea to encompass such minor celebrations as birthdays. Birthdays, focused as they are upon one person, are in essence a wasteful occupation of time and energy, time and energy produced by the work of civilization, and which describe the apogee of the idleness that civilization makes possible. We therefore take birthdays for granted, partially because we do not see the great machinery that allows us to celebrate the birth of one person, and partially because we take for granted our ability to live another year.

However, this is my argument for the intentional celebration of birthdays. The ripple of good wishes, of festivity, and of friendship that flows to one person during their birthday is, as Pears points out, the very stuff of civilization. Birthdays maintain our acquaintances, re-connect us with old friends, and allow us to indulge in frivolity of all sorts. I would say that far from taking them for granted, we should allow them to be precisely what they are: the marking of days for a mortal person, the reestablishment of community in the face of the inevitable, and an idle occasion. Instead of disregarding them, we should hold them as important rites that we are privileged to enjoy, in the full knowledge of the stuff that allows us to celebrate them in the first place.

Thank you all for your good wishes and blessings on this, my birthday. I am a very lucky man to be able to celebrate it with you, and I hope I shall be able to for many more.

I bid you peace, dear friends.

MATC: Revenge of the Conference

I have a draft of a presentation for MATC that does not, in fact, totally suck. Just in case anyone out there cares, I am in a far better mood about this particular facet of my life right now. Here is my presentation so far...

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

However, let it be known that I am still tired of Boston's lack of snow. Not only is it not snowing, but it will likely rain tonight. I would like to rephrase this for emphasis: Boston will have rain in mid-February. What the deuce is that about?

On another, more upbeat note, I made a killer vegetable lasagna last night. San Marzano tomatoes, whole milk ricotta (is there any other sort?), and lots of garlic. Comforting, but not heavy, nutritious, but still very tasty. I also threw in fresh spinach, roasted peppers, and fennel. Delicious.

Now, I'm off to read, read, read....

Rock Band + Beer - MATC Presentation = Fun

I think this is it. I have lost command of the syntactical and stylistic forms that make up the writing of the English language. My presentation for this conference is, really unnecessarily, stressing me out. I have seven minutes. Just seven. Surely I can cover that, right? Well, if today proves anything, it has proved the futility of writing. Because, you see, the paper I'm writing is shite.

Anyway, in that same vein, I would like to herald in the Valentine's Day season with this uplifting cartoon.

Now, I'm going to go and play Rock Band. Thanks for your attention.

Back on the Chain Gang...

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I've been busy with the whole graduate school phenomenon. I've also been busy eating and drinking, obviously, so let's hear the good news first, shall we?

Just had the chef's tasting at Ten Tables, a fine little restaurant in Cambridge. This intimate and elegant setup has a few more than ten tables, and the quarters are rather tight for the ones they do have, but the place wins points for out-of-the-way charm. I must admit that I was slightly disappointed that many of my 'tastings' came straight off the menu, but I can't fault the kitchen on execution. I started with a French lentil soup with house-made chorizo, proceeded to a frisee salad (I can't figure out how to add the appropriate accent, but I want you to know that I know that it needs one) with sauteed (again with the accent) baby mushrooms and pigs-ear jelly, pork-cheeks with roasted baby vegetables, and finally a sticky toffee pudding.

The lentil soup was such that I would like to eat it on any frigid evening, and the smoky flavors of the chorizo complemented it perfectly. The earthy mushrooms, paired with the crunchy salad and the richness of the jelly (which was, not surprisingly, extraordinarily delicious) made for a balanced plate. My only concern here was that the dish lacked some needed acidity. Pork cheeks were fall-apart tender, though the vegetables seemed like a bit of a throwaway. By the time I reached the pudding, I was quite full, though I did eat enough to find that it was everything sticky toffee pudding should be. So the tasting was well worth it, even if it did not surprise as much as I had hoped. Take your next date here, and you won't be disappointed.

I've mentioned Gargoyles before as the best place I've found for a martini, but now I can thoroughly recommend the food. I ate a roasted shrimp carbonara with liquid nitrogen peas, a hamburger with horseradish cheddar, and a bite of my friend's Salmon Wellington. All of these are delicious, but there is practically no purpose to the nitrogen peas besides the exoticism. I didn't notice them adding anything but a bit of texture to the dish.

In any case, the food on the bar menu is excellent, as is the bartender, but I must admit that a pass through the dining room (we were seated in the bar area) made the place seem a bit oppressive for a formal dinner. Too much fabric, too little light. I like to able to see my food, and I prefer no-nonsense, convivial environments. You can eat from the dinner menu by the bar, and you can face some windows. I'd stick to that.

For my birthday (yes, my birthday is coming!) I'll be headed to a diamond in the rough in West Medford recommended to me by Laurence Senelick, one of my professors at Tufts. The place is called Bistro 5, and it looks promising. I'll let you know about this one later.

Now, how is the graduate school part going? Well, the class I am teaching (Introduction to Acting) seems to be going well. My students are motivated and smart, with the added plus that they are willing to work with the concepts without getting easily frustrated (the ultimate trap for young actors). The class in Non-Western Performance I am taking is very interesting. At the moment, I'm still warming up to it, but I anticipate it getting more fun once we get into Indian and Balinese performance. My thesis has paralyzed me completely, and I haven't even been able to start writing.

Additionally, I'm trying hard to keep my spirits up through this, the worst part of the winter, and the most difficult part of thesis writing: the beginning. My thought is that, if I keep eating good things, perhaps I will be able to conjure the inspiration and motivation to continue? Who knows...Anyway, that's all for this post. Now...about that thesis....