WRITING CULTURE 2012: Film, Food & Beyond

My first thought when I heard Hurricane Sandy was coming was essentially: “Phew, thank god I managed to make it back to New York in time, because I was NOT spending another night in the Detroit airport.”

To clarify, I’d only recently gotten back from an emergency trip to China to see me ailing grandmother, so news of Sandy came really fast and leaving me with little idea of what to expect. My family took very limited precautions, moving a few bits of furniture that wasn’t tied down or heavy enough from the terrace, locking down all the windows, etc. My biggest concern wasn’t even for me or the members of my family with me at the time, it was for my father who was told by the hotel he was working for to come in for work the day before Sandy hit. They would provide him and other members of the staff rooms there, but it would essentially strand him in Upper Manhattan until the storm passed. Profit waits for no man, even during a Hurricane apparently.

As for myself, my apartment complex is several stories high, made out of solid brick and mortar, while resting on a hill in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Willamsburg, resting in land and away from the river. You couldn’t really ask for a more storm, flood, and tree proof facility, so it was all about hunkering down and waiting for Sandy to pass. Besides the howling wind and oncoming rain my family and I ran into almost no inconvenience,  both power, phone lines, water, gas, and the internet were still running for the most part. And in the event that they weren’t we had one of these nifty heavy duty flashlights on hand to help out.

There was one scary moment I do have to admit though, sometime towards the end of the night the box-crate locker on our terrace where we kept most of our heavy tools came open, and I in turn got stuck with the job of braving the storm and shutting closed. The winds had died down by then, so it wasn’t too bad, but I had no inclination to linger and bolted back inside with extra hop in my step when the job was done. Afterwards, it was just tracking the storm, and then going to bed with the howling winds for a lullaby. Not the most exciting time in life, but there was some anxiety for some of my relatives scattered across the city, in Long Island, and New Jersey  Everyone came out alright by the end though, for that I’m extremely grateful, and more then willing to take the boredom of waiting the storm out versus the consequences that could have happened otherwise.

These are the moments during an election when the lines are drawn, where you send a message to everyone, friend and foe, and establish your identity going forward. There’s a lot of symbolic value to showings like the Democratic National Convention. But none of that would probably mean much without the right coverage.

The nytimes coverage of the convention is probably one of the most immersive  experience a person can get without actually being there, possibly even more so. Every form of media outlet in every conceptualized version is used, pictures, video, graphs, and of course the printed word. On top of the professional coverage from their staff and analysts the nytimes adds another spin by including social media trackers, getting at the moment response from just about anyone across the political spectrum.

All of this can be overwhelming, I know. Knowing where to begin is probably the hardest part, especially during a live event where updates are constant and oncoming. But the nytimes layout makes it all quite manageable if you take it one step at a time. Each feature is broken down into different segments on the home page, article updates at the forefront, with the Caucus Blog right next to it, providing on site thoughts and analysis from the writers. Under that is the video and slide-show segment, allowing non-viewers to either watch or catch up on memorable moments during the convention, and from there a social media tracker, providing feedback from others through twitter by following the trend tags/topics.

It’s really the total package, getting expert insight, live-feeds to form your own opinion, and being able to follow the reactions of everyone else. This type of interface will be the future model for every large-scale event coverage going forward, so long as they keep it organized, the vast quantity of choices to receive your news will be less daunting and more of a great opportunity for every viewer.

I rarely ever eat much during breakfast most days. Something quick, something light, just something to give me a little bit of energy to shake off the grogginess of the morning and get me going. Usually that’s a sweet bun, a yogurt, or a piece of fruit like a banana.

But sometimes, there are just some mornings where I’ve got this deep, gnawing pit in my stomach, that demands to be filled. It’s mornings like those when I head over to the cafeteria and order myself one of these:

*Image from beerorkid.com

Hash Browns, the guilty pleasure of my morning life and probably my favorite breakfast food of them all. Yes,yes I know what you’re going to say “Aleck, it’s a bunch of cut up potato pieces fried together!” Yes it’s probably dipped into a ton of oil. Yes, it’s probably nothing but carobs  Yes, it will probably give me a heart-attack if eaten in sufficient quantities.

But boy is it good. The rich, crisp outer crust, combined with the savory, fluffy flakes inside just provide this beautiful contrast of textures and rich flavors. Nothing satisfies me more during a hungry morning then to have that warm, melting sensation wash right through my body.

Some people see fried grease shaped into a cube, I see my salvation for the day.

Just how high can a man reach before he exceeds his grasp?

Science fiction is one of those genre’s that is much admired, but very little understood. Some of the most iconic movies have been science fiction; Star Wars, Terminator, Blade Runner, etc., that spawned dedicated following still in existence today.  It captures the imagination and, unlike fantasy, has the added advantage of having that tantalizing possibility of being real at some point in time. And the subject is versatile, able to blend in with several other different genres like romance, comedy, action, horror, or mystery.

But for all those pluses, it’s still a very niche subject that rarely breaks into mainstream popularity. The one turn off for the subject among casual viewers that I’ve seen is also the one aspect that I absolutely love the most, that it takes a lot of effort to comprehend and understand. It challenges viewers by breaking down their original conceptions of what’s possible, but that’s the beauty of science fiction in my mind. I consider myself an open-minded person    for the most part, and in this case nothing impresses me more then when creators push the boundaries of ones imagination and exploring new ideas I hadn’t even dreamed about before. It’s the immersive experience of it all that gives me my money’s worth, and by the end of it I feel this deep sense of satisfaction that all the effort I put into it paid off. If I could compare it to anything it would be like doing well with a particular subject in a classroom, it takes a lot of work, but only then can you truly appreciate it by the end. Maybe that’s not worth it to some people, but for me they just don’t know what they’re missing out on.