Detritus

I decided to post this here, because it made me smile. The slow food movement's website can be found here.

International Movement for the Defense of and the Right to Pleasure officially came into being on November 9, 1989 at the Opera Comique in Paris.

Its Manifesto was endorsed by delegates from Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States and Venezuela.

The Official Manifesto

Our century, which began and has developed under the insignia of industrial civilization, first invented the machine and then took it as its life model.

We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Foods.

To be worthy of the name, Homo Sapiens should rid himself of speed before it reduces him to a species in danger of extinction.

A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life.

May suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure and slow, long-lasting enjoyment preserve us from the contagion of the multitude who mistake frenzy for efficiency.

Our defense should begin at the table with Slow Food. Let us rediscover the flavors and savors of regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food.

In the name of productivity, Fast Life has changed our way of being and threatens our environment and our landscapes. So Slow Food is now the only truly progressive answer.

That is what real culture is all about: developing taste rather than demeaning it. And what better way to set about this than an international exchange of experiences, knowledge, projects?

Slow Food guarantees a better future.

Slow Food is an idea that needs plenty of qualified supporters who can help turn this (slow) motion into an international movement, with the little snail as its symbol.

// posted by Rubicund Y. Logorrhea @ Monday, June 12, 2006 1 comments

I saw V for Vendetta the other day – Tuesday? If you haven’t yet seen it, do so. It is a gourmet repast for cynicism and paranoia. It should make everyone a little curious and cautious, a little more invested in the political process. Many comic book – er, graphic novel – buffs find that the film isn’t a faithful reproduction of the original. Somehow I think that may not have been the point of the film. I felt surges of shameful guilty pleasure wash over me as I identified elements of the film with the current political climate, and thought to myself, “oh well, nothing I can do about it. Of course, there is and there isn’t. Of course, our current political climate is nothing like that depicted in the film. Is it? Believe me, I’m no Bush defender; just what kind of foreign policy IS this?

I find myself astounded at the death of al-Zarqawi. The temptation is always there to mistrust the government, the military – any embodiment of Big Brother. I once thought that the “powers that be” could rather easily fake the capture/death of bin Laden, or whomsoever they choose. Such a charade would be a tiresome back and forth, each side saying they had the real villain/corpse. In the New York Times we read of the elaborate build up to today’s early morning announcement that the most wanted villain in Iraq is no more. It really got me thinking.

Why were WMD’s never planted in Iraq?

// posted by Rubicund Y. Logorrhea @ Thursday, June 08, 2006 2 comments