Put a cork in it!

On Tuesday afternoon, while visiting the most insane New York style art moment (Donald Judd at Christie's preview auction showing on the 20th floor of the Simon Schuster building, 1230 Avenue of the America's, until May 7) I peered out the squeaky cleanest windows this side of Holland and what to my wandering eyes did appear? Looming over Times Square, a ginormous image of Sean Combs, any art lover would never want to see: standing with sunspectacled head bowed, fist raised in the air, closed in a Black Power salute.  To culture cuties born after The Brady Bunch had been removed from prime time TV this may not mean much.  But in 1968 at a Mexico City Olympic Games award ceremony, Tommie Smith and John Carlos bowed their heads during the American national anthem and raised gloved fists in the air in a Black Power salute for a very different reason. Risking their lives and careers, Smith and Carlos were stripped of their medals, ejected from the Olympic Village and further meets, to protest the treatment of African Americans in 1960's America, and to highlight the lack of equality that most Americans were keenly unaware of, and desiring to stay that way. "Puffy" is carpetbagging off of the bravery of these athletes' protest in order to make a buck using political street cred. Another African American athlete was stripped of his championship title in 1968 for resisting the draft: Muhammad Ali.  I'd like to see "Puffy" try to manipulate that into a sale. Go back to registering voters, P.

When was the last time you got down on your hands and knees and thanked a cork?  If you were a pirate you sure as hell would be raising a glass of rum to the cork gods, providing you with a unbeatable, portable stopper for your long ocean voyages, pillaging the high seas.  But as a cosmopolitan drinker of the fine vine, do we realize how good we have it?  Well, no, and soon if the anti-cork vigilantes have their way, corks will be a thing of the past...

Pirate jokes aside (Greasy Kid Stuff does it better than I can), one of Portugal's top wine makers has recently announced that they are switching to screw tops. Once the stuff of teenage hangovers, screw tops are no longer just for less than fine wines. Portugal is the top grower of cork trees, so of course one of the top vintners deciding to turn its back on its own is being sorely felt right between a 200 year old cork tree's roots. Cork trees grow untouched for 40 years before their first harvest, and then are harvested again every 7-9 years after that. The cork is sliced off the outside of the tree in spring, as it is growing and loosening its' old hide, so to speak; so no trees are felled. Thriving in arid and nutrient poor soil that can support little else, cork forests thrive without herbicides, fungicides, or irrigation. One of the world's most important non-timber forest products is being put out to pasture by the screw top. How pathetic is that?

Speaking of wine..put down that Sangria toast to Cinco de Mayo.  Cinco de Mayo is the anniversary of the defeat of the French at the Battle of Puebla, May 5, 1862. Mexico had thrown off the chains of Mama Spain by 1821, and beleaguered by internal conflicts over the next fourty years, spun out of control into near financial ruin.  Mexico temporarily ceased payments on all external debts by 1862, prompting France, lead by Napoleon III to zoom in and pull a colonial style Repo Man. Outnumbered Mestizo and Zapotec locals vs. Napoleon III?  Surprise surprise, Mexico pulled off a grand defeat of the world's most powerful military and gained a great morale boost in the process. They would lose later battles to France, and eventually Maximilian was installed as emperor, only to be re-defeated in 1867. Nevertheless, the battle of Puebla has lived on as the Latin David and Goliath, made famous by American beer ads everywhere.

So if you want to raise a glass to Mexico, lift your tequila anejo high and bake this delicious Mexican Chocolate cake that I found in a most unlikely source, Real Simple magazine. The red pepper adds a bite at the end, but in a great flavored way, not a hot-tongue kind of way.

*1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
*1 cup sugar
*1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
*2 tsp cinnamon
*1 tsp baking soda
*1/4 tsp cayenne pepper or ground
***Mexican chili powder
*1/4 tsp salt
*1 cup cold water
*1/4 cup canola oil
*1 Tbl balsamic vinegar
*1 Tbl vanilla extract

CHOCOLATE GLAZE

*1 cup confectioner's sugar
*1/2 cup cocoa
*6 Tbl water
*10 small fresh strawberries

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Lightly coat an 8" round cake pan with vegetable oil.  ( note: square and cupcakes also work fine)

Combine all the cake ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir until smooth.  Pour into the pan and bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  When the cake has cooled, whisk together the first three glaze ingredients.  Dip each strawberry into the glaze and set aside.  Pour the remaining glaze over the top and arrange the strawberries on top.  Set aside to dry, about 30 minutes.

Comments

[jim]

hey, don't knock screw tops...better those than the fake plastic corks. it's the worst of both worlds- hard to open and ecologically shitty.

[Holland Oats]

First - As a hugely successful black entrepreneur, Puffy's exploitation of Panther Party imagery (for any Times Square tourists who care enough to notice) also acknowledges a debt to those that struggled before him.

Second - That poster's been up for like two years, yo.

[octavia]

Holland

How is Puffy-Face acknowledging a debt to those who struggled before him for equal rights? By collecting cash dollar on their pain and suffering? And how exactly is he suffering? By blaming the possession of a gun on his driver? That’s pretty stand-up.

The empty images he affects (gangster, activist, capitalist pig) is not diverting attention away from the image of African Americans that the USA knows and loves. No matter how many “bling bling” reality TV shows Cotton-Puff stars in, the cops will still be called when a black man walks through a white neighborhood.

If he’s so concerned about equal rights maybe he could do something to help young African-Americans. There are plenty of issues to choose from...perhaps education would interest him. I guess he is too busy doing Diet Pepsi commercials.

Sorry, that some of us don’t go into Times Square enough for your liking. I guess we buy our designer Malcolm X T-shirts on Canal Street.

Yo-yo.

[bartelby]

Hi,
I just wanted to add that in addition to those athletes fists being raised with their people in the united states it was also meant as a gesture of solidarity with the Mexican students who were at that moment staging an urban rebellion in Mexico City.
bartelby

[Laurie]

That same goddamn image looms over Downtown Miami. Across from the motherfucking Freedom Tower. It's a disgrace.

[Holland Oats]

> How is Puffy-Face acknowledging a debt to those who struggled before him for equal rights?

By being rich. And remember, that poster is an ad for his Sean John clothing line, not a socio-political statement, k? Think of it as 'sampling' and relax.

[octavia]

Holland

By being rich? That’s the best you can do? 40% percent of Newark’s population doesn’t have a high school degree and we are supposed to be glad because Puffy-Face is rich?

Yes, Holland, it is just a clothing ad. That is why this posing is so offensive. Cotton Puff puts the chase for the almighty dollar in front of everything and anything. That’s some tribute to the sweat and blood of those African Americans that made his fortunes possible.

Sampling? Sampling what? The bravery of two men, who tried to show how deep racism ran (runs) in American society, risking everything they had worked for in their lives. Or maybe he’s sampling the death of 300+ Mexican students - killed by their own country’s army - which Smith and Carlos identified as part of the global struggle they were involved in (thanks Bartelby). What has Puffy sacrificed?

Speaking of our southern neighbors, I wonder where Sean Jean is made and how much those workers are paid? Thanks for keeping it real Pufster!

Relax?

You relax.

[Holland Oats]

He's sampling/appropriating/exploiting an icon of black struggle. Like it or not, Diddy's achievements represent at least part of 60s liberation aims... getting a piece o' the pie.

[octavia]

Holland

Try harder.

[Richard]

For the record:

The silver medalist on the podium was Australian Peter Norman, who was wearing a badge of the Olympic Project for Human Rights (as were Smith and Carlos), an organization founded in 1967 (Carlos was a founding member) to organize a boycott of the Olympics in protest of the treatment of African Americans.

Both Smith and Carlos were wearing black socks and no shoes on the podium, to represent black poverty in America.

They have both since been elected into the National Track & Field Hall of Fame, as much for their athletic accomplishments as for anything else.

[docmarvy]

I made the Mexican Chocolate Cake last night for my big Cinco de Mayo get together tonight. If you want to modify it I recommend doubling the recipe, making a two layer version and spreading a thin layer of strawberry preserves between the layers then drizzling with the glaze. It smells great and I can't wait to serve it up tonight with some chocolate/chipotle gelato from Whole Foods.

[bartleby]

It's funny how Xenakis doesn't catch nearly as much crap for taking money from the Shah for composing his music as any given hip hop artist in any given ad on any given day.

[octavia]

Does Xenakis drape himself in Greek resistance imagery? And make money off of it?

[bartelby]

"Does Xenakis drape himself in Greek resistance imagery? And make money off of it?"

No, but then he didn't have to, did he?

[andy]

i'm curious...i've never seen anything on this. what was Xenakis' take on the Greek dictatorship? and what was their take on him?

[Bartleby]

Hi,
I suspect he was not too happy about it Greek Junta despite the fact they were kind enough to supply shrapnel for the left side of his face. I've asked around about this to try and ascertain a few things about Xenakis. Firstly did any left organizations in Iran, France, Greece or anywhere else have anything to say about his working for the Shah? Then secondly what was his relationship with the lefty intelligentsia in post-war france, e.g. what political positions did he take publicly. Nobody seemed to know much about him besides what I told them.
Since most books about him are kind of pricey and books by him are utterly incomprehensible I haven't found out much more.

While I was kind of crestfallen about the Pahlavi thing I still appreciate the guy's sense of aesthetics. He's got way better politics then Penderecki nonetheless.

[WmMBerger]

Everything P. Diddy says/does/sells is complete rubbish. That I am even forced to consider him as anything more than dogshit is an insult to my intelligence. He has no talent whatsoever, but is apparently a very astute businessman who latched onto someone with real talent (Notorious B.I.G.) who drew him into the limelight, and then died, paving the way for the Puffy empire.

And another thing, fuck all you blog troll/contrarians; you're the worst kind of scum. At least suicide bombers believe in something. All you believe in is being a pain in somebody's ass; getting decent people like Octavia (and me) all riled up over your purposefully recalcitrant comments.

See what happens when I drink coffee...

[bartelby]

I think I see now why FMU didn't stay in East Orange

[WmMBerger]

Not exactly sure what you're trying to imply there, Bartelby, but if you're suggesting that my (or anyone else's) comments here are at all racist in nature, or represent the overall opinion of WFMU as being racist, I'm horrified, and that could not any be further from the truth. I see P. Diddy as a soulless entrepreneur; his race was irrelevant to my comment. It's unfortunate that a greedy clown (lest we forget "All About The Benjamins") like Diddy is seen as representing Black people at all, when great thinkers like Stanley Crouch are available.

[Holland Oats]

are you mad at me?

[bartleby]

A Black man raises his fist in a Black Power salute in public, suffers no repercussions and a white man gets angry about it after the fact. Leadership in the Black community is not yours to select.

[WmMBerger]

"Suffers no repercussions"??? Gimme a break - He's filthy stinking rich, and appropriating the imagery of the salute to make a sale, which is the point that started this whole "debate," I believe. P. Diddly-Squat doesn't need you to defend him, yet you persist, like some kind of rabid Berkeley student.

I'm obviously not going to convince you that my criticism of Mr. Diddy is not racially-motivated, but I will say this: leadership in the White community is not mine to select, either. Globally, George W. Bush represents the white man rather than Noam Chomsky, and I'm even more unhappy about that.

[andy]

hey

how did the mexican cake turn out?

[andy]

hey

how did the mexican cake turn out?