2013

I took Will and his friend Jamie to see Frank Turner and his band in Baltimore on 6 June. I have to say, it is wonderful to have a child with great taste in music. I can't imagine my dad taking me to a concert when I was 15 and both of us having a blast. (Actually my dad was great, but he never took me to any rock concert.) Jamie's dad is also a Frank Turner fan, and saw several of his SXSW shows, but unfortunately had a conflict and could not make this date.

I love seeing bands in bars or clubs. I have pretty much given up on arena shows unless I can get tickets in the first 10 rows. I would rather be in a place that is general admission and I can get close enough to see every detail of the performance, the emotion of the band and feel the energy of the performance. The best time to see a band in a club is when they are just breaking, and maybe won't be playing clubs much longer. Frank Turner is certainly in this category. He is already playing arenas in his native England. Here he is with his band earlier this year at Wembley.

Rams Head is of course far smaller than Wembley, but Frank Turner was on fire, and the audience was totally into the show. Will and Jamie knew every lyric, and there was plenty of audience participation.

Frank Turner is a very high energy performer, but I find it a little difficult to categorize his music. A simple description would be English Folk Rock, but then Fairport Convention is in that category, and Turner is far edgier and very contemporary. He comes to more traditional music via a punk band and brings a punk attitude. However he is very well educated (Eton) and his music and lyrics are deeply anchored in English history and culture. I described him to someone as an English Springsteen, and while imperfect I do think there is some truth in that comparison. He calls his music English Country which I guess works too.

All of The Sleeping Souls were tight. The photo above is drummer Nigel Powel, and I also especially like their guitarist Ben Lloyd, who barely ever stood still and is partially blurred in every photo including the one below.

Frank Turner is big fan of tattoos, and even has a song 'Tattoos' on his latest album which sounds pretty biographical. I think I saw a mention in his Twitter or IG feed on getting some new ink recently on his current US tour. Anyway, the art on his arms when he is playing is pretty cool.

Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls are back in the Washington area on 1 August at the Fillmore in Silver Spring, MD. Details here. He and his band are great live performers, with interesting original songs.

June Aquaponic Update

It has been over ten weeks since ANY blog update, and more than that since an update on my aquaponic system. I have made a lot of progress.

After several frustrating months trying to get the system to cycle (establish nitrifying bacteria to convert fish waste into nitrites and nitrates) I sought help from the internet (specifically The Aquaponic Gardening Community). I was to the point where fish waste was building up, raising ammonia levels in the water causing the fish to start dying. And my plants were not growing at all.

Fortunately the main fix was easy. My water pH was too low, the nitrifying bacteria could not live, and hence no cycling. When I fixed the pH, it was pretty amazing how fast the cycling progressed, really over a period of only 3 - 4 weeks. Once the system began to produce nitrates, the plant growth exploded.

The above photo shows a small kaffir lime plant. The leaves in the background were on the plant when I put it in the grow bed. Before the system chemistry was corrected, they were turning white and falling off. I thought the plant was going to die. The healthy left foreground leaves have all appeared in the last six weeks.

Lettuce was one of the first things I planted in the system, probably in February. The plants did nothing, barely staying alive, until the system cycled. Now they are thriving. It is really too warm for lettuce and it is a little bitter, but it is great to see it growing so fast and know that in the fall and winter I will be able to produce great salad greens.

I have planted Thai and Italian basil, and both are growing quickly. These are the first plants I am really harvesting and using. The basil is delicious, and it is so great to be able to cut it, chop it, and have caprese salad with fresh basil and none of the waste that comes from buying bunches of basil at the farm market or grocery store.

My tomato foliage is thiving, and the plants are starting to set fruit, though I have had far more flowers so far than I have baby tomatoes. I understand that it takes a while to create enough nutrients in an aquaponic system to support fruit growth (as opposed to just foliage like basil or lettuce). I also think I was overly ambitious with the number of tomato plants I planted. I need to thin them out in the hopes that those remaining will have enough nutrients to set and produce fruit, but it is a hard decision to pull out plants (even though I would try to move them to outdoor containers).

This post has focused on the plants, but my tilapia are also much healthier since I sorted out the system chemistry. They are growing, and I think have doubled in size (at least) since I introduced them to the system a couple of months ago. I did have about a dozen die before I got the system working correctly, but I still have 25-30.

I have a few further corrections to make, and I continue to experiment with plants. I ordered chelated iron which I am hoping will help a few plants that are turning yellow or still not thriving (parsley, cilantro, curry leaf). I added two lemon grass plants today, and I think they will do well. Actually hoping they don't do too well - I have a suspicion I will be dividing them frequently. I have other herbs that are well established, including some tarragon and Mexican oregano. Overall while the system has a ways to go, I am at least seeing its potential, and the fantastic pace at which plants grow in an aquaponic system.

Eating & Learning in Boston's North End

With a recent work trip to India followed immediately by Spring Break, I am behind on updating this blog. After my return from India Will and I visited my sister Edie in Massachusetts, and now I am in SoCal for four days.

In Boston, Will and I enjoyed a guided food tour of the North End, then returned the next day with Edie to explore further, and do some shopping. I am really becoming a fan of guided city tours. Our tour in Boston was provided by Michele Topor's Boston Food Tours, and our tour guide was Jim Becker. The tour was packed with information about Italian food and the history of Boston's North End. Jim was a great teacher and entertaining guide.

I especially appreciated the fact that Jim worked hard to steer clear of the more touristy aspects of the North End. Authentic is an overused word that is hard to define. Authentic Italian American cuisine is certainly not authentic Italian cuisine, but it is also a step up from from 'tourist' Italian American cuisine. Jim was great at explaining the differences and how they developed over time.

My son Will asks "why do you have to take pictures of everything". After looking at the photos I took in the North End, my personal reaction was "damn, I was paying so much attention to Jim that I missed a lot of photos I should have taken". With that said, I did get a few good shots, and of course recollections of the places we visited. These are actually a composite of the tour and returning the next day to shop, eat and reprise the tour with my sister.

Polcari's Coffee

Polcari's Coffee is one of my favorite spots in the North End. I had been there previously, but learned a lot more on this tour. Polcari's has been in operation since 1932, selling coffee (of course), spices, grains and other dry goods. Walk in, and you are engulfed in sweet smells of coffee, cinnamon and other spices and the sense of being transported back in time by the wood floor, glass canisters and variety of bulk spices and dry goods.

**Part of Polcari's Huge Selection of Spices and Dry Goods**

At each place we visited, Jim provided some interesting food lore. His background as a chef was certainly evident and helped make the tour far more than a series of visits to interesting shops. One of the key lessons at Polcari's was on the difference between Cassia Cinnamon and Ceylon (real) Cinnamon. They are both tree bark, and have similar flavors and aromas, but cassia is less expensive and is commonly sold as cinnamon. I knew they were different, but had never compared them head to head. Smelling cassia side by side with real cinnamon was a revelation. The aroma of cassia made me think of fireballs and other cinnamon candy. The aroma of real cinnamon brought to mind the best pastries or cinnamon flavored rice pudding. It was a little milder, but also more complex with scents of a range of spices and flowers. In the future for baking and desserts I will be using Ceylon Cinnamon.

One of the wonderful aspects of the North End tour was how friendly everyone was in the shops we visited. I wanted to take a picture of the old scale at Polcari's. The nice guy behind the counter (whose name I embarrassingly failed to get) staged the scale with espresso beans, and then posed in the photo.

Monica's

Monica's Mercato and two associated restaurants are the collective project of the Mendoza Brothers, whose mother and family are Italian immigrants to the North End via Argentina. Part of our take home dinner on Friday came from Monica's Mercato, and we visited Tratorria di Monica for lunch on Saturday. All of their food was drool-worthy.

I can vouch for the sign that says "Best Italian Sub in Boston". Will and I shared one on Friday, and it was delicious. The Mendozas have their own bakery, and the sub roll and contents were both excellent. I am not eating much wheat these days, but the North End was a justifiable excuse to cheat.

One of Jim's lessons at Monica's Mercato was on the difference between salami and sopressata. While both are cured sausage, salami is typically made with ground meat and has a fine grain texture while sopressata is made with chopped meat and hence has a course texture.

Monica's Mercato (like most of the places we visited) had a small interior, but it was densely packed with delicious and colorful food.

Trattoria di Monica

We had lunch Saturday at Trattoria di Monica. Our wonderful waitress (another name fail on my part) said the broccoli rabe with sausage over sweet potato gnocchi was her favorite. I would have been sold anyway, and it was delicious. Will had a sausage sub, which as normal with him disappeared before I had even noticed its arrival. That seems to happen with 14 year old boys and food.

Jim took us to a lot of other places in the North End. We ate wicked pastries at Maria's, met Albie at Alba's Produce, learned the difference between the two types of real balsamic vinegar at DePasquale's and tasted delicious limoncello at Cirace & Son. When people retire to Florida it baffles me. If I ever have the luxury of retirement, I will move to somewhere like the North End where I can be in the midst of a continuous lesson in delicious food and wine.

The photos below show more of the mouthwatering North End neighborhood.

Exploring Bangalore: Visiting Ulsoor Burial Ground

I was in Bangalore recently and had the great good fortune to take a guided cultural tour of the city arranged by Kaveri Sinhji at Bluefoot Cultural Consulting. My guide Laila has lived in Bangalore for 10 years, and provided an excellent and thought provoking experience. This is the first of several blogs posts capturing my experiences from the tour.

The first stop on our tour was an old cemetery, where there is a temple to the Hindu goddess Kali, and where many followers of Kali are buried. The graveyard is quite large, spanning the distance between CMH Road and Old Madras Road in central Bangalore. In spite of its size, I have found getting an accurate name for the cemetery to be challenging. Laila said I should just just search for the CMH Road Cemetery. In looking at the maps, it appeared (see below) that the proper name is the Lakshmipuram Graveyard. When I asked Kaveri she immediately said it was the Ulsoor Burial Ground. There are very few references on Google under any of these names. The only article I found which links the two names is actually about using a portion of the burial ground as a cricket pitch!

I have to say that what I learned during my cemetery tour and my research since has left me with a lot of questions. For example, most Hindus are cremated when they die, and I understand their ashes are often spread on a river. If so, why the grave markers? Do some people have their ashes buried?

All of the grave markers have triangular openings. Why? Are these vents of some kind? I thought I was being observant and asking good questions, but I obviously have a lot more reading to do.

I visited the Ulsoor Burial Ground soon after a festival celebrating Kali. As shown below, and visible above, many family members of the dead had recently visited the ceremony to perform pujas (religious rituals) and make offerings of food and flowers to their departed relatives. I think this is a wonderful way to maintain spiritual connections to departed family. I remember having picnics in the cemetery where my paternal grandparents are buried, and have only come to learn as an adult that this is unusual for Christians.

While I found some references on Google to the Ulsoor Burial Ground, I found no references to the Kali Temple located in the center of the cemetery. As seen from the photo below, the site, called Smashana Kali Temple according to Kaveri, is large and distinctive and I was surprised not to find more information about it and its history.

The statute of Kali is pretty classic (based on my research), painted blue with a red tongue and eight arms. She is usually shown standing with her foot on Lord Shiva.

Laila took me to the cemetery explaining that is was a place where black magic is practiced. While that appears to be one manifestation of Kali worship, she is a very complex goddess and very important in Hinduism. I read the Wikipedia entry on Kali a couple of times, and it is interesting. It starts out describing Kali as the "Hindu goddess associated with empowerment" but as you read further, a more violent persona emerges.

“In her most famous pose as Daksinakali, popular legends say that Kali, becoming drunk on the blood of her victims on the battlefield, dances with destructive frenzy. In her fury she fails to see the body of Shiva, who lies among the corpses on the battlefield and steps on his chest. Realizing Shiva to lie beneath her feet, her anger is pacified and she calms her fury.”

— http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali

Further reading amplifies the complexity of Kali and her importance. Interestingly though, I did not see much discussion of the link to black magic. I did not learn why her followers still practice blood sacrifice, nor why their rituals are considered 'black' magic. While I am not sure the definition of black magic, there certainly appear to be powerful rituals associated with the worship of Kali.

In the photo below, this group had just sacrificed a chicken and placed it beside the figure of the goddess. There seems to be a set sequence in praying to the goddess. Making an offering, purifying yourself in the fire, kneeling and saying a prayer and then taking the red powder to mark your forehead. I did my best to follow the same routine, minus the chicken.

**Locks Signifying Requests of the Goddess**

This reclining figure is also the goddess Kali. Each lock was placed by a worshipper and represents a request for assistance from the goddess. It was explained to me that if the request is granted, Kali unlocks the lock. I saw a few unlocked locks and wish I could follow up with whoever placed them to find out if their request was in fact granted.

At the end of my visit to the cemetery and temple I had a ceremony performed to rid my body of negative energy. A holy woman (I am not sure the correct term) took an egg and waved it over me, then tapped my forehead, shoulders and side with the egg. After this, she threw the egg away in a field of trash. The egg had captured the negative energy from my body and (I think) it was carried away and destroyed when the egg was broken.

I can't say whether or not the ceremony worked, but I had a wonderful day with Laila, and my trip to India was very successful. This is one of those situations where I am willing to try the magic, I will take any help I can get.