Food and Life in NYC

I woke up the next morning from being in the hostel to a day of traveling through the West side and Soho for a world of chocolatiers. I was shocked because the West Coast has better chocolatiers but California does not have better wines. After my chocolate tour I did a flight of NY Wines. I highly recommend going to Vintage New York and trying any Cabernet from the Finger Lakes or Long Island. The bartender at the Soho location was a very friendly young woman who seemed to know a lot about wine. She explained to me how the climate is better for wine grapes in NYC and that it makes the tannin levels generally lower. Another gentleman at the counter explained that there is a problem when your lowest alcohol content is 14% like California Wines. When I'm in San Francisco at a wine bar I generally drink wine from France or Italy.

The chocolatiers I visited were Jacques Torres, Kees Chocolate, Vosges Chocolate and Marie Belle. These are all chocolatiers who are well known in the East Coast and aren't readily available in California. Jacques Torres is probably high end commercial chocolate. Torres did a white chocolate key lime truffle which is traditionally dark chocolate. I liked the pairing between the key lime and the white chocolate. Kee's Chocolate is almost too fresh but still delicious and not a particularly nice store front. Kee's had a dark chocolate Lemon Basil truffle that was amazing. Vosges and Marie Belle have the most beautiful shops I've ever seen. Yet Vosges does not live up to the appearance and has the crappiest truffles I've ever tasted. Whole Foods in CA carries their bars but not their truffles. When I ate the truffle I felt like I was eating a chocolate bar with the couverture being so crunchy. Vosges is also responsible for the bacon chocolate bar. Marie Belle has very fresh creams with mostly dark chocolate with my favorite being the passion fruit truffle. I would say Marie Belle is the best of the bunch and a close second for Kee's.

MarieBelle Fine Treats and Chocolates
484 Broome St., nr. W. Broadway; 212-925-6999

Chocolate Haven (Jacques Torres)
350 Hudson (at King St.) 212-414-2462

Kee's Chocolate
80 Thompson St(Spring St) 212-334-3284

Vosges Chocolate
132 Spring Street (Greene & Wooster) 212-625-2929

Kee's Chocolate

I hope to check out two more chocolate places before I leave on Tuesday. Not to mention some bookstores. While I was on my chocolate tour I met a woman who runs a NYC Chocolate Tour business and we talked about the industry for a bit. She gave me some recommendations on books and places to check out.

Due to economic circumstances I've found myself a new part-time career in erotic services. I had two clients the last two days in Manhattan. It's something I didn't think I had in me but performing desire is not a difficult task for me. It does scare me that I will get so numb I won't feel anything anymore because I won't know the difference between my desires and their desires. At the same time I realize the ideological culture in which I inhabit and what it has to say about the erotic service industry to make one ashamed. I'm not sure how long this career dabbling will last but certainly it'll be helpful for some part-time income this summer.

I was really tired today and pretty much spent the day people watching in Union Square. Later I ate at Red Bamboo, a vegan soul food restaurant, in Brooklyn with my friend and host tonight. It's good to be among people I know again.

Traveling Woes

Wow today has been a long and difficult day starting with finding out my flight itinerary to the JFK Airport in New York was for yesterday and not today. I was already having problems with Jetblue when the tickets were purchased in January when they switched my direct flight to a flight with a stop in Long Beach. So I paid a shit ton of money to get out to NYC and then the person I was planning on staying with for two days flaked. So I'm in a hostel bunk bed situation for the first time with exchange students from South Korea in the Chelsea District and close to broke with my mother being a bit upset telling me I should never have taken this time off. But finally getting here and eating at Atlas Cafe on 72 2nd Avenue was worth it. I'm looking forward to being in Montreal for the Anarchist Bookfair later this week.

With financial stuff aside it's been a pretty amazing last couple of days since I posted. My trip to Orange County, after not having been there for three years, was pretty eye opening to a world I almost forgot all about. Six Flags had some amazing rides, particularly the one where you are dangling with your back to the ground. I had a good time kickin' it (as my 14 year old sister would say) with various artist and musician types that were friends of my traveling buddy who were making the best of their situation in OC. The point of the trip was picking up my sister who is living in the realms of a myth of family bonds never realized and a capitalist utopian vision. The angst and destructive behavior around that atmosphere is deadily but it is everywhere.

Are we already dead and if so, what do we have to lose?

More Wandering

I'm starting to get tired. This not having a house thing isn't what it is all cracked up to be. Not to say I'm having a difficult time or anything. I'm just on the go constantly and I think I'll look forward to having a stable place to live again. I'm looking into getting a sublet in Portland.

I spent Wednesday and Thursday morning around San Francisco. Some friends of mine from the burbs got a car and for us that meant a beautiful Wednesday afternoon; a pit stop in almost every area of San Francisco.

We went to Ocean Beach and Golden Gate Park. Who knew there was an area where Bison roam in the park? We walked around for a really long time. Afterwards we went over to the Marina and got free milk shakes at this old chocolate store I used to work at. Some of my old co-workers were still there. We also crossed Golden Gate Bridge to the Marin Headlands where you can see a great view of the city.

My friend's boyfriend told me he forgot I was a woman sometimes and I can quite remember how it came up. There was no malicious intent from his end. He said it very matter of fact and changed the subject. My interpretation is he sees me as his feminine dude friend who hangs out with his girlfriend. It is always interesting to me how people interpret me because of the fact I'm not really legible in most definitions of what it means to be a woman which is what I am told I am.

We continued onward to Japantown, Outer Mission for Mitchell's Ice Cream, and back to Excelsior toward Daly City for the last showing of Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr is really freaking hot. That's all I'm going to say and oh they blow up cool shit in the movie.

Today I'm leaving for Los Angeles to pick up my little sister tomorrow for Six Flags Magic Mountain with my other friend from the burbs.


Soundtrack: Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon"

Berkeley Wanderings

After spending this last weekend in Oakland, I decided to cruise over to my area of the East Bay- Berkeley. I stayed at the Cat Haus Co-op last night and will be tonight. I'm very impressed with their collective dinner efforts. Tonight I had spicy tofu and wanton soup that was delicious. I was also shown places in Berkeley I never spent much time at like Cafe Milano, Cafe Intermezzo, and Cafe Durant. These are eateries/cafes near the UC Berkeley campus. I realized how divided our Berkeley neighborhoods have become. They live above Shattuck Ave and I live below. Our psychogeography maps look very different only being 1 mile away.

I wandered through the UC Berkeley campus, through the hoards of youth, realizing I could be blend in easily with my messenger bag. These people scare me and I wanted to observe. The lack of passion on all of their faces cruising to class. The man yelling about cell phones and the salmon trying to get the word out to these youth fresh out of their parent's home. A friend works in the apparel department and I wandered around with her on her break and we visited her roomie at another shop on Telegraph. I realized I was in Sun Ra's Space is the Place. Upward I went for food at People's Park thanks to Food Not Bombs that serves everyday at 3pm.

A shout out to Moe's for the best used books for $5. I am almost finished reading Kathryn Harrison's The Kiss. It is a psychological memoir about a young woman (the author) who has an incestuous relationship with her father from 20 years of age to 24. It is pretty disturbing and upsetting. My interest comes from her talking about how she is not a victim in an interview and that she wants to rework the language of victim hood.

May Day with a Bang!

The beginning of my time off has started this month. My last day of work was on May Day and as soon as I got off work it started with a bang. I had some eclectic selection of friends get together for wine at Hotel Biron, my favorite place, hidden between Gough & Market on Rose Street. It made me appreciate my eclectic selection of friends, all with their faults & critiques of life, coming various places in their lives at 20 years of age to 50 years of age. We had 2 bottles of Brunello, forgetting which year, and a few of us moved on to Zuni Cafe next store.

I got a phone call from my old roomie and her boyfriend who accompanied my friend who was still there from the wine bar. I had never been to Zuni Cafe but the owner of Hotel Biron worked in the kitchen their for 8 years and I hear about it because the staff from Zuni go over to Hotel Biron for a glass of wine after work. The food wasn't that impressive but they were certainly the best mojitos I ever with lots of fresh mint.

We split up but I decided to stay with my friend & her boyfriend. We drove around San Francisco to Twin Peaks, Noe Valley, and Diamond Heights until 4am the morning.

We watched Pink Floyd's The Wall which had too many war scenes for my preference. I came back to the East Bay the next day after being awake for too many hours.

I took my friend to 900 Grayson after all my partying shenanigans. I was recommended this place by my San Francisco Chocolate/Foodie buddy LikeThatLikeThat. It's located in West Berkeley and the food is delicious. Not to mention it's one of the few places where you can get a glass of White Bordeaux which is rare. They have an outside patio and everyone who works there is really friendly. Right now they are only open 8am - 3PM with a breakfast and brunch menu but they are working on being open for dinner.

I went to the best vegan BBQ ever yesterday. I highly recommend the Masala Veggie burgers from Trader Joe's. There was also potato salad, carrot cake cupcakes, bean salad, and it just didn't stop with the good food. I saw some people I hadn't seen in a long time who are busy working and such.

I look forward to discovering more of what my life is going to look like the next two months.

Multiple Worlds of the Bay

Since I have so many varying interests I always feel I'm entering different portals of space and time. Not quite the Twilight Zone but pretty damn near close. Each world has its own code of conduct. It's fascinating to watch.

Alienation is everywhere and trying to develop actual friendships come from the places where you'd least expect in my experience. It's been the places where I identify least with the person where I have had the most conversation and bonding sometimes. I'm not sure what that means for me. But a world of queers, foodies, and anarchists seems to be what's in store for my summer of two months off.


My world in the last week has consisted of. . .


1. Bang 4 the Buck (Women's Sex & Play Party benefit the AIDS Lifecycle Ride where I attended for free due to chocolate donations) at the Citadel in San Francisco


2. Rivers of Chocolate (Giving Away free Chocolate for my friend's chocolate company, The Xocolate Bar which I mentioned in my last chocolate post, at a charity benefit where free booze & food was my reward) in Santa Clara. The picture below is from last year. My shop where I work decided not to participate this year and I wanted to go again.


3.) Various people I know through a critique of capital and statism like from an anarchist reading group or from going to book fairs. I will be tabling for Little Black Cart in Montreal in a few weeks.

Clash of 68'

At the Pacific Film Archive (PFA) on the UC Berkeley Campus there was a Clash of 68' Film Series. I attended two out of the twelve films. The PFA is a very large theatre with bright purple cushions. If you are not a student of CAL the films cost around $10 bucks but if you are a student- it's half the price. I have to give props to large aisles but the seats are bit close together and you will inevitably bump your friend.

The first film, I attended with 2 friend, was La Chinoise which is a Jean-Luc Godard film made in 1967. The story portrays a group of young Maoists trying to figure out there part in the revolution. The conversations that are had are all on Marxist-Leninist terms and they eventually start questioning the hierarchy of the communist party. It was certainly not one of my favorite Godard films but the colors were pretty and I'm always a fan of conversations on film.

Last night, with two different friends, I went to see the new English dubbed version of Society of the Spectacle. Ken Knabb, who has done multiple translations of Guy Debord's writing, was there to introduce the film. I had actually already seen it before at the premiere at ATA (Artist Television Access) in San Francisco but since I was asked to attend, thought it'd be fun to see it again. I am a huge fan of this version of the film. We were all talking about how we thought it was better to see Society of the Spectacle with other people, rather than by ourselves. The female narrator is amazing and reminds me a lot of Lili Taylor's narration of The Weather Underground.

As long as the economy’s role as material basis of social life was neither noticed nor understood (remaining unknown precisely because it was so familiar), the commodity’s dominion over the economy was exerted in a covert manner. In societies where actual commodities were few and far between, money was the apparent master, serving as plenipotentiary representative of the greater power that remained unknown. With the Industrial Revolution’s manufactural division of labor and mass production for a global market, the commodity finally became fully visible as a power that was colonizing all social life. It was at that point that political economy established itself as the dominant science, and as the science of domination. [. . .]

In a world that is really upside down, the true is a moment of the false.

Considered in its own terms, the spectacle is an affirmation of appearances and an identification of all human social life with appearances. But a critique that grasps the spectacle’s essential character reveals it to be a visible negation of life — a negation that has taken on a visible form.

The spectacle presents itself as a vast inaccessible reality that can never be questioned. Its sole message is: “What appears is good; what is good appears.” The passive acceptance it demands is already effectively imposed by its monopoly of appearances, its manner of appearing without allowing any reply.

The images are sharp with a lot of references to a genealogy of a history unspoken. A lot of it is the female body as commodity. There are also some cinematic references to Orson Welles and Joan Crawford.

After the film I just felt. . . Ok the spectacle has been documented, the events of May 68 were a time in history, and there is still a deep desire for breathing life into an intense relationship of commodity fetishism and alienation for its destruction.