Former Slave, Sally Fickland Views the Emancipation Proclamation, 1947 (NARA) Why does the slave ever love? Why allow the tendrils of the heart to twine around objects which may at any moment be wretched away by the hand of violence? Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Ann Jacobs writing as Linda Brent
People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.
“Stranger in the Village” from Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
I win the fight, I never die and I always get the girl at the end of the picture.
Fred Williamson, actor
There’s a lot of truth in a joke.
Grandma Carrie
These quotes and their sources reflect my thoughts about Quentin Tarantino’s new film “Django Unchained.” And that’s pretty much all I have to say about the film. Read into it what you want.
Tonight is Watch Night, New Year’s Eve – – “in anticipation of the day of Freedom on January 1 when the Emancipation Proclamation became the law of the land.” Tomorrow’s the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Speaking of films, here’s a video about the Emancipation Proclamation I produced years ago for the Humanities Council of Washington, DC’s public access series featuring the late historian Walter Hill (1949-2008), an archivist at the National Archives and Records Admiministration. The original copy of the Emancipation Proclamation is on display now at the National Archives until tomorrow, January 1.
Eating is the great preoccupation of both primitive and civilized man. But the savage eats from need, the civilized man from desire.
Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870)
Alexandre DumasWhen I did my close up for “The Angle Show” on food, creator/producer Gemal Woods asked me the all important question — “If you could heave a meal with anyone living or dead, who would that be?” That person, though he be dead, is Alexandre Dumas, author of The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, numerous plays, travel journals, histories, historical novels, crime stories, with a passion for many things especially food. In fact, Alexandre’s last work was a 1,000 + page Dictionary of Cuisine (Dictionnaire de Cuisine) published posthumously in 1873. I have several abridged versions and the complete french version provided by Google on my iPad. Ever since I’ve started diving into Alexandre’s culinary biography it’s been serendipity, even though this segment didn’t make the final cut on “The Angle Show.”
Alexandre Dumas and I go way back. I fell in love with his novels through the 1970s film adaptations with Michael York as D’Artagnon, Oliver Reid as Athos, Frank Finlay as Porthos; and Richard Chamberlain as Aramis who also played Edmund Dantes in “The Count of Monte Cristo,” and Phillipe/Louis in “The Man in the Iron Mask” movies.
Eventually I got around to reading Dumas’ books, and his stories and old Erol Flynn flicks on TV inspired me to take a fencing class in college. I sucked at it. When I found out there would be no swinging from chandeliers, it kind of ruined the fun for me. I still enjoy watching the sport.
But Alexandre’s biography and the times he lived never cease to fascinate. Alexandre let his passions rule his life and managed to make a good life of those passions at least until the money ran out. He was also the son of a heroic French general named Alex Dumas. General Alex Dumas’s father was Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, a French aristocrat seeking his fortune in Saint Dominque (now known as Haiti). Antoine fathered several children that included Alex with one of his slaves, Marie Cessette Dumas. Only Alex would join his father in France. Alex Dumas died when Alexandre was very young, but would always be bigger than life and the inspiration for his son’s famous characters.
When I learned Alexandre Dumas was a gourmet cook and had published this grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine, I found a deeper connection and the inspiration for “Dinner with Alexandre Dumas.” Will this be my “Julie and Julia”? My name does appear in Alexandre’s The Three Musketeers.” Serendipity?
I rallied my “Favorite Chefs” potluck group for a lunchtime dress rehearsal. Mind you, recipes in Alexandre’s day didn’t include measurements, and were usually written in prose. But our cooking group is seasoned enough to figure it out as we go. However, my first email on the theme sent everyone into a state of confusion. This was not a Julia Child experiment. It would take imagination, research, and a sense of adventure — just like Alexandre.
I insisted on making Alexandre’s famous salad. He says in a letter to French writer Jules Janin (published in the dictionary and translated by Louis Colman for his abridged version):
…I made a salad that satisfied my guests so well that when Ronconi one of my most regular guests, could not come he sent for his share of the salad, which was taken to him under a great umbrella when it rained so that no foreign matter might spoil it.
The Dumas SaladThough I did the shopping and prep for the salad, it would take 3 of us from the Favorite Chefs group to interpret the narrative recipe by Dumas against modern interpretations which begins with a paste made from the yolks of hardboiled eggs, oil, tuna, anchovies, Maille mustard (still around today) and the finest vinegar. The Three Musketeers were Marsha Weiner food media producer and educator (FoodMuse Media), myself and Janet Cam a restauarnt and wine consultant who was co-owner of Le Pavillon, the first nouevelle cuisine restaurant in the U.S. But this was 19th century cooking. We pulled it off. Alexandre would leave the tossing to his servant.
Our merry group (host Lisa, Mas, Taquiena, Paddy, Patricia, Phillippa, Joanne, Paul) did rally their culinary arms around the theme and filled the menu with food from Alexandre’s life and travels including hooch. Apparently France was also producing and drinking their own version of moonshine.
Here’s the Favorite Chef’s final menu for Dejeuner avec Alexandre Dumas, stories sources for recipes, wine etc.:
MENU
Le Dejeuner avec Alexandre Dumas
23 Septembre, 2012
Une
Rillettes au lapin (Lydie Marshall) – A Dumas meal was never complete without rabbit
Confit des oignons (Alice Waters)
Cornichons (Wagshalls)
FRESH French Bread (Whole Foods)
Deux
Georgian Lamb Shashlyk (shish-kebab) – Dumas learned the grilling technique on his Georgian journey Even if you don’t have a skewer or happen to be travelling in a place where skewers are unknown, you can always substitute something else. Throughout my travels the cleaning-rode of my carbine served as a skewer, and I didn’t notice any harm to the worthiness of my weapon from using it in this humble role. — from Le Caucase by Alexandre Dumas (1859)
Salade Dumas (the famous Alexandre Dumas salad from the Dictionnaire de Cuisine) – close to a Salade Nicoise but the tuna, anchoives, egg yolks are pounded into a paste and tossed in the salad…by a servant
Tomato/eggplant/ricotta gratin (like tomatoes provencal – from a Dumas menu while on a fishing expedition when he took over the kitchen from the host’s cook)
Tois – Dessert
Fruits en saison (grapes and figs)
Bombe à la cardinal – ref Three Musketeers
Venetian Carrot Cake (Nigella Lawson) – ref The Count of Monte Cristo
Vins etc.
“Wine…the intellectual part of the meal.” – Alexandre Dumas
Ice Tea
Ole Smoky Moonshine/Goutte (blackberry/Tennessee)
Wilson Creek Almond Champagne (USA)
La Corte Negroamaro Vigne Salento (Italy)
2006 Vouvray, Champalou (France)
1999 St. Aubin “Les Frionnes” 1er cru, Huber Lamy (France)
2009 Bourgogne Rouge, Joseph Faiveley (France)
Shortly after our Alexandre Dumas feast I saw that Tom Reiss was coming to DC to read from his book The Black Count, a biography of Alexandre’s father, General Alex Dumas. I contacted Tom before the reading and told him about my culinary exploration of the Dictionnaire de Cuisine. Mutual fanatacism about Dumas led to a sharing of information and an invitation to attend a family book party the same week. The Black Count is now one of Time magazine’s top ten books of 2012, one of the New York Times 100 notable books of 2012, and has been serialized for BBC Radio. Tom is now a member of The Favorite Chefs potluck group. Serendipity? [Stay tuned for an eclectique interview with Tom in the new year.]
The NRA’s Friday press conference will go down in history as a text book case of what not to do in a press conference. After days of silence following the Newtown, CT tragic mass shooting, it could only be assumed the NRA was crafting their most brilliant spin ever, making mental health treatment the center of a debate and not gun purchases, or ownership. But the “bad guy, good guy” soundbyte by vice president and chief lobbyist Wayne LaPierre, could only be, as someone brilliantly described, a case of the NRA “shooting themselves in the foot.” And the “magic bullet” solution to set up an armed police in schools only opened LaPierre and the NRA to further ridicule and outrage with examples of how well that set up worked at Columbine in 1999, a heavily armed Fort Hood, and Virginia Tech in 2007 which had/has armed campus police.
The time has come, where this side of the argument no longer has a place at the table. Perhaps there will be a serious conversation about U.S. gun culture and the mental health of the nation. Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” was part of that conversation and is still relevant. NPR’s Diane Rehm did a great show (Jan. 20) on the struggles of parents with seriously mentally ill children, and this article by Adam Winkler, “The Secret Hstory of Guns,” published in the Atlantic is very interesting and merits more discussion.
It will take more than awareness to move this forward. The President is asking the public to stay engaged. Nearly 200,000 signed an online gun violence petition posted by a citizen on the “We the People” page of the White House’s website.
Sooner or later there’s that final straw that breaks the camel’s back as the old schoolers uesd to say.
As for the final grade on Friday’s press conference, Code Pink earns the “A.”
We the People: Your Voice In Our Government Petition on WhiteHouse.gov
The goal of this petition is to force the Obama Administration to produce legislation that limits access to guns. While a national dialogue is critical, laws are the only means in which we can reduce the number of people murdered in gun related deaths.
Powerful lobbying groups allow the ownership of guns to reach beyond the Constitution’s intended purpose of the right to bear arms. Therefore, Congress must act on what is stated law, and face the reality that access to firearms reaches beyond what the Second Amendment intends to achieve.
The signatures on this petition represent a collective demand for a bipartisan discussion resulting in a set of laws that regulates how a citizen obtains a gun.
Open Secrets: Center for Responsive Politics www.opensecrets.org (National Rifle Assn: Summary and campaign contributions)
This year, Thelma Schoonmaker, Martin Scorsese’s editor for the past 40 years and a three-time Oscar winner, called Grover Crisp, the executive VP of asset management at Sony, for a 35mm print of Scorsese’s 1993 film The Age of Innocence for the director’s private collection.*
“He told me that they can’t print it anymore because Technicolor in Los Angeles no longer prints film,” Schoonmaker recalled. “Which means a film we made 20 years ago can no longer be printed, unless we move it to another lab—one of the few labs still making prints.” (Age of Innocence has since been printed in another lab).
Welcome to the digital world, movie version. With major studios like 20th Century Fox switching to digital prints by year’s end, businesses that used to make and support celluloid—labs, shippers, and suppliers—are shutting down or shifting gears. Fuji is ending its production of film stock, while Kodak, in the throes of bankruptcy, is cutting back on its film products.
Martin Scorsese recorded this message for the Toute la Mémoire du Monde: Festival International du Film Restauré in France a few weeks ago. Are we back to saying “movies” or “features” and not “films”? I’m not sure if anything I shoot on a digital card should be called “video.”
