Monday, September 24, 2007

Getting In Touch With My Vegetarian German Patriotic Side

I haven’t decided to give up meat altogether - nor even come to any firm conclusion as to what it means to “give up meat.” Does that mean just red meat? Meat from animals that walk on the ground (as opposed, say, to seafood)? Or does it mean anything you eat that once had a face?

And how far do you go? Just the flesh? Or does beef stock count, too? How about pork rinds (although the very thought of that makes me want to give up eating altogether)?

These are just random thoughts, as I sit back and consider that I haven’t eaten any meat in the last three days (unless the salad shrimp in my antipasto salad from Bazbeaux count as meat), which was a conscious decision rather than an accident. Oh, and the Mexican gumbo I had from Zteca on Friday had chicken stock as a base, I’m pretty sure.

I’m sure that temptation will prove the stronger before too long, in some form or another (the most likely being chicken or sausage in whatever I eat the next time I to go Yats), and that this will wind up being more of a hobby than a real lifestyle choice.

I was noshing on the aforementioned salad this evening during a moment of rare (but quite nice) solitude in my piece of shit house, while watching the Rush R30 DVD, which I purchased today because Josh was kind enough (I think) to mention that the version of “Between The Wheels” on the R30 album was really good. Turns out the deluxe version of the R30 DVD has a 2-CD set of the concert - unlike the Rush In Rio DVD, the CD version was not sold under separate cover.

Any other band and I would not have cared. But this is Rush. If I had to pick one band from which to cull the soundtrack of my dumb little life, it would be Rush - no other band would even be close. Pearl Jam would be a distant second. (No, I’m not going to make a John-O: The Soundtrack list or anything.)

So I was at Borders downtown this afternoon (and almost picked up the new short stories edition of the Best American series, with Stephen King as guest editor) and broke down and got the deluxe edition of the R30 DVD. So there I was, volume jacked up, Bazbeaux salad spread out on the coffee table, meat picked out and set off to one side, except for those shrimp, air-drumming like an idiot and singing along to what turned out to be a really good DVD.

I could have been watching the Cowboys-Bears game on Football Night In America, but I just wasn’t that interested. I’m not super-enthused about this NFL season, even though the Colts are off to a 3-0 start, with two of those wins coming on the road against division teams they lost to on the road last year. I was even less interested because the game was between two NFC teams. The NFC isn’t just bad - it’s awful. The Cowboys are the best team going away, and they’re going to get beat the crap out of in the Super Bowl by the Patriots. (The Bears won’t go back to the Super Bowl because they’re about to have a quarterback controversy, and that’s not good news; and the Colts won’t go back to the Super Bowl because they can’t beat New England.)

I am satisfied that this post is reasonably random, but on the off chance that it is not, please click here to read a story about a guy who was arrested for allegedly beheading a duck at a hotel.

Now playing on iTunes:
“Rollaround” by Rebuilt

4 comments:

Hillary said...

Yeah, stocks do count. However, I haven't been able to stay on the straight and narrow when it comes to stocks. It's on the to-do list. I do salmon, because I love it and will never give it up, most other fish is blah, and fried shrimp can be glorious.

That said, I had korean pizza today. It is like a giant hashbrown, only not crispy, and with veggies. It was extremely tasty. Count on seeing it in an upcoming blogthing. Also, have you heard of a döner? I hate the meat-version, but the vegetarian is amazing (it's essentially salad in a pita). You will learn more. As for drink, I would do a review on Hefeweizen Dunkel, but...I didn't remember to take a photo, and I don't much remember what it tasted like...yeah.

Today, I saw a swiss guy casually drink straight vinegar. A korean lass in my class (ha! rhyme!) had brought it to make a sauce, and he examined the bottle, and took a swig after I told him what 'essig' meant. I am told this is highly unusual for the swiss people, and he is just crazy.

Germany says hello, and is wondering why the weather is always so damn crazy! I always get to warm, have to change, and then it cools right back down.

p.s. Where are photos of your child? Has he doubled in size?

Prime Mover said...

Well, you're really going to love me now, have you heard about the DVD set Rush Replay X3? It has A Show Of Hands (sound is still crummy), Exit...Stage Left (with little tibits from the band between songs, man were they young) and best of all the Grace Under Pressure concert live in Montreal, or was it Toronto? Anyways it comes with a seperate CD soundtrack of the Grace Under Pressure concert. I remember when I first moved to Indiana seeing the Grace Under Pressure concert on VHS, before it was discontinued in 1990, I was pretty bummed. Now it's here, the best thing about Grace Under Pressure? The Weapon, what a great version, and the song is introduced by Count Floyd!!!! Made me bust out my SCTV DVDs. But R30 is damn good, I really liked the R30 overture.


As for being a vegan, I tried it for 3 days and never had so much gas in my life. Then I realized that Andy Kaufman was a strict vegan and never drinked or smoked and died at 39 of lung cancer. Do what makes you happy 'cause either way you're going to check out. Though eating more veggies isn't a bad idea.

John Peddie said...

I had heard about both the R30 set and the Replay set, but had somehow missed the fact that they came with CD versions that would not be sold under separate cover. Having just laid out forty bucks for R30, though, Replay shall have to wait.

Show of Hands does have crummy sound, but it has tremendous sentimental value for me, and actually has my favorite versions of some songs (Mystic Rhythms, Marathon, and, especially Closer To The Heart, with that extended jam thingy at the end).

I don't know how serious I am about the vegetarian thing. I certainly can't go vegan, as that would mean giving up cheese, and that ain't happening. It's an amusing diversion from time to time, though.

John Peddie said...

Hillary - I've heard of doner kabobs, though I don't recall what they are made of. There's a newish place on the north side called Istanbul Café that has various kabobs and other Turkish/Mediterranean/Near Eastern fare.

Jackson has not doubled in size, but he does smile a bit now and has started to (sort of) giggle. I got a couple of pictures of him smiling today, and those will be going up on the blog, by and by.