First: an update on last week’s feminism. In the comments, Arlette explained a thing a friend and I discovered that we didn’t understand why she thought it was a blurred-out hotdog and I had picture proof of the contrary. So thank you for pointing that out! It cleared up a lot. And I hope the stencil was any good :) and that christians were only mildly offended. I was on a roll with regards to angry feminism! I ended the week by ranting about the availability of women’s bodies as objects in our popular culture and how this stops us from developing into shameless, free-spirited cranky drug-dependent old bats who ban together to make horrible theatre about even worse subjects just because they are outrageous and a national treasure. There should be hordes of people doing that, and not just has-been middle-aged white dudes with a good pianist. Also, I biked past a different 538 advert and was surprised to see that it featured a gentleman firmly grasping a water-bottle clasped between his legs. You can’t tell me that doesn’t send a very different message from the one with the two women fellating meat. It made me think how I interpret that and the semiotics of each image, especially if I place them next to eachother. There’s some discrepancy there. But like I said, if people truly want to express their sexuality by suggestively licking meat, they should. There’s just a huge difference between expression, and using either images of denigration (women licking) or power (men taking their, uhhh, pleasure into their own hands) to sell stuff. Because it perpetuates a certain set of outdated yet ingrained and widely held beliefs, so it’s not just harmless “fun” we should (or can) ignore.
Secondly: time to discuss vegan magazines! I subscribe to three different ones. I used to subscribe to the Vegetarian Times as well, but they were like a worse, cheese-laden version of VegNews, so no more! And speaking of the latter, there has been some internal struggle there (recently, I don’t mean the dead animal scandal a few years back), and I am not sure what to think of it. I misunderstood the situation at first, because one of the founders, Mr. Connelly, is not being very dignified about personal grievances, or that’s what I gather. It’s a shame and I hope it can be resolved in a way that neither people nor magazine suffer even more. And I love that publication! I got some of my favorite, most-used recipes from them. I may have gotten an iPad just so I could draw in Paper and read VegNews, and I still do both quite a lot. Then there is LAIKA. I love the fact that they are independent, I love the fact that they had J-Wro, and they do have some really nice tips and a few good cookbook recommendations. I hope they catch up with the issues they said they’d publish by the end of this year. If I am correct, after two year-subscriptions, there should be eight, but that seems ambitious if they are just now releasing issue 4. It is very much a lifestyle magazine, and I am more vegan food than lifestyle, so even though they are really cool, I prefer Chickpea Magazine. Chickpea is so lovely it’s almost magical, also independent, and if you want, you can actually contribute articles! How amazing is that? It is, compared to the other ones, super affordable and they have recipes, gardening tips, and the best photography. Sometimes they have recipes for personal care stuff, or reviews. The magazine is seasonal. The way they discuss the lifestyle-part of veganism is completely different to LAIKA, and it is more my style. They do make me buy cookbooks (and I can’t blame them for it, because they pointed me to two of my absolute favorites: Afro Vegan and Vegan Secret Supper). It has never once made me feel inadequate or not living up to certain standards of beauty, nutrition or ethics, which is something I can’t say for the other two, no matter how great they are. It’s just my kind of magazine! The last issue has sundaes, but the one before that had marshmallows (still working on those) and things made with whipped flaxseed-meringue. Yes, really! And for roughly 10 euro’s for 4 digital issues, it’s so very much worth it. As Edwyn Collins would put it: it’s a steal.
We should probably also do some vegan e-book reviews soon, because I have a huge collection of those. Well, not as huge as the physical collection that is still slowly expanding, but still substantial with a few amazing gems in there. I am currently really excited about two upcoming gluten-free books, because one of them promises to have puff pastry, and I am just a huge Fork & Beans fan! I also did quite a bit of gardening, and some redecorating inside and outside, and I have lost most of my black thumb of death. I promise to discuss the ins and outs of this in the future, as well as the decoration of my lovely balcony. It is the only one in the neighborhood that’s this green and vibrant (and full of cats). I will leave you with the following short philosophical lecture on the subject of gardening (it’s in English even though the article is Dutch). It is deep and thoughtful and exactly the kind of thing I would some day like to lecture about with regards to theatre and modern culture. I will also leave you with a link to a site I am both very excited about and really creeped out by. It is a lovely way to illustrate some of the issues regarding privacy and meta-data, but it is also something that genuinely thrilled me. Before you ask: no, mine aren’t on there. So instead I’ll inform you of the following: I know this cat, he is surprisingly agile considering his size and I once looked for about 15 minutes at him chasing another cat, petting them in turn from behing a bicycle they were fighting over, and this reduced college-gradution-related anxiety substantially. I’ve decided it’s a he because of his size.
