Have you noticed that the days are getting longer? Its funny how that means the sun is getting closer, but it won't get warmer for another month. I love florida in the winter. A cold day is when I have to wear jeans and a thermal shirt. Still, its too cold, I have to move further south.
I am closing in on my boat. Slowly but surely. One table at a time. And believe me, I earn my money. I'm working on lincoln road now. Lincoln road is now what ocean drive was ten years ago. Its interesting to watch how things change. More about that another time.
I just want to make a brief statement about pasta. I have never had better pasta than at the place I work now. Most of it they make themselves, and they cook it perfectly; al dente. I can't tell you the derivation of al dente, but I can tell you it means a little hard. And the experience is different than I've ever had. I love New Yorkers, but I lose a little respect when they tell me the pasta is hard, so it is over-cooked. First of all, it is cooked perfectly, they are just used to eating over-cooked (soft) pasta.
Second, why do you go some place different and expect it to be the same as your home? How disappointing. When I was getting ready to leave New York, I traveled to a couple different places to see where I might like to live. It was so depressing, because outside of the city, every place was pretty much just like any other. They all had the same stores, similar faux archetecture, and not much that was real and unique.
Now New Yorkers are in my home, getting upset because things here aren't the same as in New York (and, by implication, the correct way). Might as well open a Target on Times Square. A Best-Buy overlooking Central Park. Maybe in Central Park. Don't you travel to experience things that are different? Do you really want things to be the same every where you go?
Ok, I'm getting a little too far out, but I am just trying to make the point that americans seem to want an homogeneous world, and I can't think of much that could be worse. I think of New York, and even South Beach as a couple of the last bastions of individuality. To have New Yorkers come here and tell me the pasta is over-cooked depresses the hell out of me.
Actually, no. It doesn't depress me. There are a lot of people who don't want to try anything new. Who think anything different or strange is bad and scary. They are like children. And they cheat themselves out of the wonder and beauty that is everywhere.
We live in a country that is dominated by this kind of thinking. I moved here, away from a place full of such people. I remember being with a friend after work there, having a glass of wine at a local franchise bar. I had my legs crossed, one knee over the other. I realized that most of the people around me probably thought I was gay because of my posture and my choice of drinks. Not that it matters...
But it did matter there. Here, homosexuals are everywhere, and Guess the Gender can actually be challenging. Sheep. That's what most of this country are. Maybe the world too... now that's a depressing thought. We define ourselves by how we compare with others, and we define others by how they conform to us. I know this sounds so high school, but look around you and tell me it isn't true.
And also...
Inside each ass-hole New Yorker, and every backward Newnanite, and me too, is a little kid who wants to learn new things. Even if they are scary. Its what we do with thumbs and a hypertrophied forebrain. We create, learn, and make our world better. So how did we get stuck on stupid and think there has to be a mcdonalds, a walgreens, and soft pasta wherever we go? Does it have anything to do with television? And will cell phones and the internet make it better or worse?
I need to write about my views on a free market economy and the dissolution of borders in the age of instant global communication. South Beach is definitely a microcosm of much of the globe. This is where the children of the world come to play.
Started my truck today, drove it to the library and back to refresh the battery. It felt good to be able to control a quarter ton of mobile machinery with one finger and a toe. She needs work, but she's a dodge. A soldier, like me. Made it through another day, and looking forward to more again tomorrow.
The days are getting longer, that means I have more time to write. More on communal evolution and the world as a single organism later.
Sorry no picture tonight.
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