Here’s the next Food and Folklore event for January:
Here’s the menu:
Passed Hors D’ouevres
Mojito Marinated Grilled Chicken Skewers
Tostones topped with Black Bean Puree and Habanera-Lime Sour Cream
Shrimp and Scallop Ceviche
Empanadas de Queso
First Course
Avocado-Mango Salad with Jalapeno Lime Vinaigrette
Entrée
Grilled Pork Tenderloin or Red Snapper with Guava Glaze and Mojo Sauce
over Black Beans and Rice
Dessert
Coconut Caramel and Rum Flan
WHEN: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 6:30 PM
WHO: NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten will share highlights from his biography of the Bacardi family (Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba), founders of the rum company that inspired the “Cuba Libre”; and Daphne Muse, writer and mixologist specializing in “rhum,” will introduce her recent creation, the “Zojito” a libation paying tribute to Zora Neale Hurston. Muse was a judge for the first US International Cane Spirits Festival Competition presented by the Ministry of Rum. (Proper ID required for rum tasting.)
Make that reservation:
foodandfolklore@gmail.com or call 202-332-ZORA (9672) Eatonville Restaurant
2121 14th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
This is the last week of the Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens exhibit at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. If you know DC, you know it’s tough for a native like me to shell out $12 to see an art exhibit with all the free Smithsonians in town. But even with the free-bees, I neglect to spend the time to actually get to see anything. My first regret of the new year is missing WPA exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art (1934: A New Deal for Artists) which closed yesterday. Fortunately, the museum has an on-line slide show; but it just isn’t the same.
That same $12 can also go towards the current display at National Geographic of Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor. I hear this exhibit’s fantastic! If you’re a “Crouching Tiger” film-type fan like me, you may not want to wait to long to get a ticket. The last day is March 31. But this is the first time I recall having to pay a fee to enter the National Geographic museum. This week I also found out that there were a number of lay offs at Nat Geo including the front desk of the museum.
Another exhibit on my list is at the National Museum of African Art – works by , a British born Nigerian artist who has a wonderful eye for satire as well as great artistic skill. I would say he’s eclectique. His mediums are film, scupture, mixed media, photogrphy. Last day for this one is March 7. And it’s FREE!
In the past week I heard two people talk with anticipation about the opening of a new play by Tarell Alvin at Studio Theatre – In the Red and Brown Water. I understand his last play at Studio, The Brothers Size, was a big hit. I didn’t see it or practically any theater in 2008. I had nothing to contribute to the “what did you see” conversation. And I was pretty thin with the movies as well. I’ll connect with my friend this week who suggested seeing Alvin’s new play as well as set up my annual eye check up. In the Red and Brown Water opens Wednesday, January 6.
Yesterday, the New York Times published an interesting article noting that in 2009 Americans were buying less and doing more. That’s got to be encouraging news for some major cultural and recreational institutions including national parks. Experiences where you see, smell, hear, touch, encounter, absorb, and share definitely bring lasting memories.
As an event planner, I have to see stuff, and be places. I guess that’s my on-going New Year’s reslution and challenge. This will mean leaving the lap top home or leaving home and the keyboard. Or in the New Years resolution of one of my Facebook friends, “More face time and less Facebook.”
As I said this week, I will do everything in my power to make sure our hard-working men and women in our intelligence, law enforcement and homeland security communities have the tools and resources they need to keep America safe. This includes making sure these communities-and the people in them-are coordinating effectively and are held accountable at every level. And as President, that is what I will do.
President Barack Obama, Weekly Address, January 2, 2009
When I graduated from college, I bought a “rules” book titled Rogers’ Rules for Success by Henry C. Rogers, a star from the old school of public relations, and chair/founder of the firm Rogers and Cowan. Rogers was one of the “fathers of P.R.” specifically in crafting the image of the Hollywood celebrity. One chapter I’ll always remember is “When Things Go Wrong.”
1) Always take the blame. Consider the blame as an extension of taking responsibility.
2) Take the blame even when you are not directly responsible. It puts you in a leadership position and enhances your image.
3) Use taking the blame as a way of defusing potentially explosive situations.
Who do we blame for the attempted bombing of the Northwest jet December 25th? The person carrying the explosive materials? The people who made it possible for him to board the planes with the explosive materials, knowingly or unknowingly? The bomb makers have followed points 1 -3 but did not seek to “defuse” anything.
But President Obama isn’t being the “fall guy” for the intelligence gaps that allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to pass through security checks, evade the “no fly” list and board a jet to Detroit from Amsterdam with an explosive device. There’s no time to play the blame game when it comes to national security. So the President, after reviewing the information has labeled what happened with security, a “systematic failure.”
Show me the person who claims he never made a mistake, and I’ll show you a liar.
Rogers Rules of Success
I may be wrong, but shortly after 9-11, I don’t recall admittance to any mistakes made regarding gaps in intelligence sharing, systems or analysis prior to 9-11. No admittance of mistakes by the key players and architects of the Iraq war about so called “evidence” of WMDs and connections to 9-11, except maybe this? There’s no time to debate that now. But I’m just sayin’. And in the weekly the President had to go over the record: …I refocused the fight-bringing to a responsible end the war in Iraq, which had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks….
The chapter on”Mistakes” comes before the chapter on “Failure” in Rogers’ Rules of Success. It helps to be able to tell the difference between the two and the proportions of a response or reaction to either or both. I find it interesting, as I quoted in a previous email, that Abdulmutallab’s failure to blow up the plane is chalked up as a success –per the statement attributed to al Qaeda– for eluding the technical security scans and intelligence. For TSA and intelligence collecting branches and systems in the U.S., it’s being chalked up as a failure. If I were attending the security meeting at the White House on Tuesday my question for the review would be “Was Abdulmutallab a test-run of airport security?” And if I were those security chiefs, I would avoid finger pointing.
Rogers’ advice was built on something called “psychorelations.” It’s not a template for everything, but I find his 1984 “Rules” book oddly current.
“Great men and women are not born great–they make themselves great. One of the attributes that makes them great is their refusal to accept failure and their refusal to allow those failures to color heir views, diminish their will, undermine their struggle for success, or impede their ability to force self-doubt, self-deprecation, and self-debasement out of their minds. They force themselves to forget the failures of the past and look forward to the successes of the future.”
Words that are both motivating and a tad ominous depending to what purpose they’re applied.
Or to make better, the President’s own words from 2006: Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. it’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.
The black eyed peas and rice are morphed into hoppin’ john, the greens are out of the pot. If you’re going to search “black eyed peas,” be sure to “+ food.” Decide which feeds body and soul.
New Years Day traditions. What do they mean? Black eyed peas and greens — these two combos bring in cash flow. Put a few uncooked dry peas in the purse. Hopefully the cashier won’t look at me strange the next time my peas fly out with the change. At least I can say, my purse is never empty.
Though I just wash and tear one pound or a pound and a 1/2 of collards before putting them in a pot (with about 2 cups of water or a can of chicken broth flavored with 1-2 cloves of fresh garlic, a dried chili pepper, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and course salt – bring to a boil, then put in torn greens, cover pot, turn down low and cook for 1 hour or until tender), I’ll eventually try this recipe for Citrus Collards with Raisins.
Hoppin’ Jean and Citrus Collards recipes Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry
The Buttermilk biscuit recipe I use is from The Joy of Cooking. And I’ve got more “the perfect chocolate chip cookie” (NY Times) dough in the freezer. The dough has to sit for about 2 days in the frig to get this right. You may want to consider starting your diet later in the month. Recommend under-cooking a bit if you like them chewy.