craving your vitality
seeking a heat, a warmth, a fire
a culmination of that which makes us more than dirt
from dust were we born
but we never return
now infused with a radiance we carry into forever
because more than just present
we are alive, together
7/8 stick butter
1 heaping cup brown sugar
3/4 cup molasses
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
lots of ginger
cloves
nutmeg
pinch salt
mix wet ingredients, dry ingredients separately. add together. dough should be moist but not sticky. refrigerate, roll to 1/4 inch or a little bit thicker. bake at 350 until golden brown - do not over bake. very cakey.
I want to get back Lord I just want my life to be true I want to hold hands yeah And I want to stand up yeah and I want to stand tall And I just want my life to be true Now when your dreams start saying I can’t come true I don’t want to go broke, not from one bad deal Lord I just want my life to be true ~The Avett Brothers
I want to get square
I want to get back all the hopes and the dreams that I had
That the good lord above us can’t spare
Like that actor said I don’t want to lose heart
I don’t want to get beat beat down by the big big world
Of quit before I even start
And I just want my heart to be true
And I just want my words to be true
I want my soul to feel brand new
Yeah and I want make love
I want to keep running all day and and all night
Even when my mind tells my body that’s enough
If I ever have a son, if I ever have a daughter
I don’t want to tell them that I didn’t give my all
I just want my heart to be true
I just want my words to be true
I want my soul to feel brand brand new
Like a fresh coat of paint
We can make it anything but blue
Anything but blue
You’d be better off without me
Don’t let em go, don’t let em go
I don’t want to be up all night crying in my hands
For a girl that isn’t even real
And I just want my heart to be true
And I just want my words to be true
And I just want my song to be true
And I just want my heart to be true
And I just want my life to be true
And I just want my words to be true
And I just want my heart to be true
And I just want my life to be true
And I just want my song to be true
And I just want my life to be true
I want my soul to feel brand new
I want my soul to feel brand new
— TRANSCRIPT — They are saying we are all losers, but the true losers are down there on Wall Street. They were bailed out by billions of our money. We are called socialists, but here there is always socialism for the rich. They say we don’t respect private property, but in the 2008 financial crash-down more hard-earned private property was destroyed than if all of us here were to be destroying it night and day for weeks. They tell you we are dreamers. The true dreamers are those who think things can go on indefinitely the way they are. We are not dreamers. We are the awakening from a dream that is turning into a nightmare. We are not destroying anything. We are only witnessing how the system is destroying itself. We all know the classic scene from cartoons. The cat reaches a precipice but it goes on walking, ignoring the fact that there is nothing beneath this ground. Only when it looks down and notices it, it falls down. This is what we are doing here. We are telling the guys there on Wall Street, “Hey, look down!” In mid-April 2011, the Chinese government prohibited on TV, films, and novels all stories that contain alternate reality or time travel. This is a good sign for China. These people still dream about alternatives, so you have to prohibit this dreaming. Here, we don’t need a prohibition because the ruling system has even oppressed our capacity to dream. Look at the movies that we see all the time. It’s easy to imagine the end of the world. An asteroid destroying all life and so on. But you cannot imagine the end of capitalism. So what are we doing here? Let me tell you a wonderful, old joke from Communist times. A guy was sent from East Germany to work in Siberia. He knew his mail would be read by censors, so he told his friends: “Let’s establish a code. If a letter you get from me is written in blue ink, it is true what I say. If it is written in red ink, it is false.” After a month, his friends get the first letter. Everything is in blue. It says, this letter: “Everything is wonderful here. Stores are full of good food. Movie theatres show good films from the west. Apartments are large and luxurious. The only thing you cannot buy is red ink.” This is how we live. We have all the freedoms we want. But what we are missing is red ink: the language to articulate our non-freedom. The way we are taught to speak about freedom— war on terror and so on—falsifies freedom. And this is what you are doing here. You are giving all of us red ink. There is a danger. Don’t fall in love with yourselves. We have a nice time here. But remember, carnivals come cheap. What matters is the day after, when we will have to return to normal lives. Will there be any changes then? I don’t want you to remember these days, you know, like “Oh. we were young and it was beautiful.” Remember that our basic message is “We are allowed to think about alternatives.” If the rule is broken, we do not live in the best possible world. But there is a long road ahead. There are truly difficult questions that confront us. We know what we do not want. But what do we want? What social organization can replace capitalism? What type of new leaders do we want? Remember. The problem is not corruption or greed. The problem is the system. It forces you to be corrupt. Beware not only of the enemies, but also of false friends who are already working to dilute this process. In the same way you get coffee without caffeine, beer without alcohol, ice cream without fat, they will try to make this into a harmless, moral protest. A decaffienated process. But the reason we are here is that we have had enough of a world where, to recycle Coke cans, to give a couple of dollars for charity, or to buy a Starbucks cappuccino where 1% goes to third world starving children is enough to make us feel good. After outsourcing work and torture, after marriage agencies are now outsourcing our love life, we can see that for a long time, we allow our political engagement also to be outsourced. We want it back. We are not Communists if Communism means a system which collapsed in 1990. Remember that today those Communists are the most efficient, ruthless Capitalists. In China today, we have Capitalism which is even more dynamic than your American Capitalism, but doesn’t need democracy. Which means when you criticize Capitalism, don’t allow yourself to be blackmailed that you are against democracy. The marriage between democracy and Capitalism is over. The change is possible. What do we perceive today as possible? Just follow the media. On the one hand, in technology and sexuality, everything seems to be possible. You can travel to the moon, you can become immortal by biogenetics, you can have sex with animals or whatever, but look at the field of society and economy. There, almost everything is considered impossible. You want to raise taxes by little bit for the rich. They tell you it’s impossible. We lose competitivity. You want more money for health care, they tell you, “Impossible, this means totalitarian state.” There’s something wrong in the world, where you are promised to be immortal but cannot spend a little bit more for healthcare. Maybe we need to set our priorities straight here. We don’t want higher standard of living. We want a better standard of living. The only sense in which we are Communists is that we care for the commons. The commons of nature. The commons of privatized by intellectual property. The commons of biogenetics. For this, and only for this, we should fight. Communism failed absolutely, but the problems of the commons are here. They are telling you we are not American here. But the conservatives fundamentalists who claim they really are American have to be reminded of something: What is Christianity? It’s the holy spirit. What is the holy spirit? It’s an egalitarian community of believers who are linked by love for each other, and who only have their own freedom and responsibility to do it. In this sense, the holy spirit is here now. And down there on Wall Street, there are pagans who are worshipping blasphemous idols. So all we need is patience. The only thing I’m afraid of is that we will someday just go home and then we will meet once a year, drinking beer, and nostaligically remembering “What a nice time we had here.” Promise yourselves that this will not be the case. We know that people often desire something but do not really want it. Don’t be afraid to really want what you desire. Thank you very much. — END OF TRANSCRIPT —
these were probably the best cupcakes i’ve ever made. so simple, so perfect and moist and crumbly.
vanilla:
1 stick butter
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
4 tblsp corn starch
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
3/4 cup milk
cream butter. add sugar, eggs, vanilla. separate bowl: sift flour, corn starch, baking powder, salt. combine with butter mixture, alternating with milk.
chocolate:
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3 oz semi-sweet chocolate
1 3/4 cups flour
4 tblsp corn starch
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
plenty of ground cloves
1 cup milk
melt chocolate over low heat. cream butter. add sugar, eggs, chocolate. separate bowl: sift flour, corn starch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cloves. combine with butter mixture alternating with milk.
i’d recommend using paper cupcake liners because these babies are delicate. in each cup, add half chocolate and half vanilla. bake at 350 until toothpick comes out clean. i made some chai frosting but i ended up eating more than half of them plain because the cupcakes themselves are so delicious. enjoy!
1 stick butter, soft
3/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
salt
cinnamon
1/2 cup milk
fresh blackberries
butter, confectionary sugar, milk and chocolate for frosting
preheat oven to 350. cream butter, sugar and honey. add vanilla, eggs. in separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. add to wet ingredients, alternating with milk. add blackberries, crushing them with the spoon as you mix. butter/flour pans. bake for 15-20 mins, until toothpick comes out clean :)
1 1/4 sticks butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
2 cups flour
to taste: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cocoa powder
pinch of salt
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup strong coffee
soft butter. cream together with sugar till fluffy. beat in vanilla, eggs. separate bowl: combine flour, spices, baking powder. add to butter mixture, alternating with milk and coffee. bake at 350 until toothpick comes out clean (~10-12 mins)
coffeeeeee frosting. or caramel would be delicious.
this never gets old
and today i feel the sunlight
with such gratitude
today i feel the strength of my sinews
and the steel of my existence
today my newborn senses revel,
infused and unbelieving,
in the beauty of my skin
