SIASOM

An Octopus's Garden

Some divers and snorklers enjoyed some underwater music this weekend.  Here's the link to the story w/some pictures.

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2007/07/14/837077-fla-divers-tune-in-to-music-fest

The Swell Equalizer

The NY Times ran a good article this weekend about the interaction between year-round local surfers and  wealthy summer-only residents (who many of the locals call "city-ots") in Southampton, Long Island.   It describes how these two separate social classes come together in the water, as the kids of the summering residents take surf lessons from the local surf school, and hang out at the Flying Point surf shop, often even after the store has officially closed.

Not only do the socio-economic classes mix on the water, but on land, as the part-timers are attracted to the lifestyle and attitude of the local surf crews and this relationship has provided the surf crowd entre into the worlds of the part-timers.

It's one of the beautiful things about surfing and often the beach in general - classes are blurred and people of all backgrounds can come together to enjoy everything that the sand and water have to offer. 

A Moveable Feast

Outstanding in the Field is a moveable feast.  The crew put on dinners in parks, on farms, and on beaches around the coutnry.  Their mission is "to re-connect diners to the land and the origins of their food, and to honor the local farmers and food artisans who cultivate it".  The dinners are always made with locally grown, raised, or produced foods.  You pay in advance and there are no set menus; the chefs decide what to prepare from what is fresh and available.  The point of these events is to put the farmers that grow the ingredients front and center with the chefs that prepare them.  Instead of food being trucked to diners, diners are brought to the places where the food originates. 

This is an event that I hope to attend when and if I find a time and place that I can make.  These dinners have several things going for them.  First, we all know that food tastes better outside.  I've never quite figured out why.  Personally I of course enjoy being outside so it would naturally follow that any activity that can be done inside or outside would usually be better outside.  Eating, reading, and having sex, for example.  Second, environment and atmosphere significantly add to the enjoyment of meal.  Think about your favorite high-end restaurant.  Third, there's no substitute for freshness in food.  It's one of my favorite "nesses".  When you're used to eating food that's been pre-processed, preserved, trucked in,  or frozen, a meal prepared with fresh ingredients is like pedaling your bike down the street in 1885 thinking how much faster it is than walking, only to be blown away by some guy who had an engine on his two wheels. 

When you put that together with eating the food so close to where it was produced and you've got all the makings of a great experience.  They've been at it now for six seasons and appear to be going strong. 
Jim Deneven, the person that started this, is also very interesting - a former model and a part-time sand sculptor, he worked as a chef for several years at a restaurant in California.  While at that restaurant, Gabriella Cafe, he started inviting local farmers to preside over dinners and talk about the food they had a hand in.  It grew from there into a traveling bus tour of the country. 

You can see Jim's sand art at his website here.  There are great examples of finding art on the beach.  The idea that it washes away at high tide is very Buddhist.   

Check out Jim's appearances, and if you get to one of his dinners, let me know how it went!

Here are few other shots of dinners and Jim's art:

Sea Cave dinner, California

Santa Cruz Mountains, California

Jim's Art:

This Has Nothing To Do With You

Is it wrong for someone of the male persuasion such as myself to sing out loud in his car to the line "it's time to be a big girl now" (or, actually, noooowwwwww)?  I can't get this song out of my head.  Damn you, you white girls with rhythm.

Download 10-fergie-big_girls_dont_cry.mp3

Summer Spaces and Places

The NY Times ran an short article this week titled 'Spaces of Summer'.  We all have them.  They could be at home, in the neighborhood, or at our favorite beach spot.  Like most spaces that evoke emotions and memories, it's the people that we spend time with there and experiences we have there that are what really make them "summer spaces".  Architecture and construction materials add to the experiences and enhance the moments, but we don't expect the same build quality or design of our summer places as we do those places that need to be habitable 12 months a year.  We probably don't want them to be so like the places that we left to come to our summer spots of choice.  Summer places should be unique to "the season". 

Unlike the sturdier structures where we endure the rest of the year, summer places are meant to be temporary, as fleeting in their pleasures as the season they serve. Rickety and often unheated, they sit patiently through the cold, dark months, drained of water and life, embodying a central truth about summer: that it is a place you can only visit, not inhabit.

But summer is so seductive that we have long been trying to establish lasting settlements there. The nation’s population has been migrating south and west for decades, chasing the illusion that constant sun is enough to keep summer alive beyond September. The northern latitudes have taught us a different lesson: that summer is more than just weather, and that it must be earned, through Januarys that will never be mistaken for Julys, no matter how mild some, like this last one, might be. Even here, though, the urge to make the season permanent has altered its landscape.

Those who live in the Northeast are very familiar with the dramatic difference in those summer spaces from season to season.  Anyone who's visited those spots in the middle of the piercing chill of February knows that some of these places may be unrecognizable.  They may be shuttered, dormant facsimiles of the full-of-life-and-character spaces they are during summer. 

That's one thing that makes summer places so appealing - they leave us wanting more.  We know we can't pick up and go anytime we want like our favorite pub.  The experiences can only happen during a fleeting three months every year.  Then we have nine months to think back on them, and dream about making more when we get our chance. 
Kevin Coyne, the writer of the article, also points out another reason those summer spaces mean so much - because "summer is more than just weather, and...it must be earned".  After you've suffered through 6 months of cold, grey weather, and battled colds, flu, slush, heating bills, and little sunshine, you feel you've done your time.  When the weather turns right, you deserve everything that summer has to offer.
Anyone who knows the meaning of the name of this blog will understand that I have a disagreement with Coyne when he writes that summer "is a place you can only visit, not inhabit".  There is no doubt that the season itself is fleeting, but it does not need to be completely left behind when we board up our summer houses and head home.  Even for those of us who live in year-round warm climates, is "constant sun...enough to keep summer alive beyond September"?  I think so.  In fact, I don't think you need constant sun and warmth.  It helps, but it's not necessary.
Summer will always be alive in this blog.  Let's celebrate that it's also now alive and well in our favorite summer spaces for all of us.

Break Like The Wind

One of great things about the internet is the great amount of information that it provides literally at your fingertips.  I started using Yahoo! Answers to find information that might be slightly, or greatly, outside the mainstream, or that are very mainstream in the way of helpful household hints.  I appreciate that people can anonymously pose those odd questions of the type that at one time or another pop into all of our heads.  Like this for example.

Mexican Liquors

Here at SIASOM headquarter, tequila is the preferred liquor.  I appreciate the land it's made in and the plant it's made from.  And it's the only liquor I will shoot.  But it's at its best when it's served in a margarita or straight.  A good anejo sipped like brandy is a great drink.  The LA Times has a list of some of the lesser-known Mexican liquors. 

Waiter, There's a Culture in My Cup

There's a controversy going on in LA.  The LA Times has an article about it here.  It seems there's some questions over the frozen yogurt that the 20-store Pinkberry chain serves.  Remind you of something?  It's like the Rudy Guilianni frozen yogurt 'Seinfeld' episode brought to life.  Kramer taints the sample, and Guiliani does the cameo at the end.  The law really takes this delicious low-fat desert stuff seriously.  Why aren't they going after McDonald's or Taco Bell for calling their products "food"?

Labs, lawsuits, attorneys, yogurt - stay tuned for the next episode of this drama.

(ed. note:  "Labs & Lawsuits" would make a good name for a band.  Or a CD.)

A Midsummer's Night Dream

No blog dedicated to the sun, the sand, the sea and all things summertime would be worth its salt if it didn't comment on a day that all sun worshipers, watermen, waterwomen, surfers, sailors, single women, kids, astronomers, playwrights, citizens of Santa Barbara and Reykjavik, mystics, senior citizen drivers, and just about anyone who loves these lazy, hazy days of summer (presumably everyone who reads this blog) does not appreciate.

The longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere is this Thursday.  This is the day that summer officially begins (and winter officially begins in the Southern Hemisphere - so screw them).  Why is it considered "official"?  Good question.  Because at  2:06 PM EST, the sun will reach its farthest point from north of the celestial equator.  What does this mean for you?  It means there is more sunlight on this day than any other.  Seems like a good time to celebrate.

It's a common misconception - I think mostly by college students - that the sun is closest to the earth during summer.  That's definately not the case.  Actually, on July 6 the earch will be at its farthest point from the sun.   It's all about tilt, baby.

There are parades, celebrations, and events around the world that mark this day each year.  Here at Siasom we support these celebrations, and we're seriously considering petitioning Congress to make this day a national holiday.  It's an ideal day to play hooky anyway (ed. note - does anyone still use the word "hooky" anymore?  Is there a new word for skipping work/school?).

So happy solstice.  Barbeque, eat, drink, play, dance around the maypole, and just have fun.  Summer's officially here and the livin' is easy.

A Legend's Last Season

We have William G. Morgan to thanks for one of the greatest sports ever invented.  I took up the sport in high school, and those days of tournaments and road trips started an amazing 10 years of playing the game that I fell in love with many reasons.    Need more hints?  It was invented at a YMCA in Massachusetts, it borrows things from a few other sports, and was basically invented to give uncoordinated, out-of-shape businessmen something to participate in without hurting themselves.
That's right, as you probably already guessed from the picture, the sport is volleyball.  It's a beautiful game.  And one, like golf, that can be played by people of all skill levels.  Also like golf, it can range from brutally slapstick to marvelously exciting to watch, depending on the talent and skill level of the participants and the setting of the event.
When you take a great sport, strip the players down from 6 to 2 per side, then strip those 4 players down to nothing but bathing suits, caps, and sunglasses, and set this all in the sand...well, you've got the makings of a great event.  This is the AVP beach tour, and this summer it may be coming to a location near you. 
The season is half over but you still may have a chance to catch a few matches.  Check out the schedule here.  The next event is in Seaside Heights, NJ on July 5 - 8.  This is the tour stop that had been held in Belmar for several years.   Take a long July 4th weekend and head down-the-shore to check out the guys and gals pound the ball around the beach.  And say 'hi' to Skeeter Mcgee, the tour announcer.   He does a great job of getting the crowd pumped up.  Also say 'hey' and thanks to Mr. Karch Kiraly.  The volleyball legend is playing his last season on the beach at age 46 - truly amazing.  This guy has played at the highest levels of the sport for more than 20 years.  Seeing him play this season is like seeing the Rolling Stones, when they finally do a farewell tour, that is.
You also have the chance at seeing the gold medalists Misty May and Kari Walsh.  They've won eight tournaments in a row and have already reached legend status.  You may even see them play the team with my personal favorite, the beautiful Rachel Wacholder.  I mean beautiful, athletic, strong, she's perfect.  Please pass her my #.
See you on the beach!