corruption within

main hall, originally uploaded by vivid tangerine.

an image i've always wondered about, and never seen . . . my friend writes about it beautifully here.

Prisons, Torture, and Mental Health

For those of you in Michigan, there will be a rally and teach-in on Wednesday, August, 6, in Lansing, in commemoration of the 2-year anniversary of the death of Timothy Joe Souders. For those of you who are not familiar with this story, Liz Spikol gave a clear and poignant picture of the story on her blog a couple years ago.

The emphasis of the upcoming march on Lansing is prison torture, and the deeply problematic continuing practices of prisoner segregation, restraint, and water withholding. These are very important issues, but Timothy's case also highlights the obvious need for improved attention to health care, especially mental health care, both in the United States at large and specifically in the justice system. I encourage you also to explore the information at Mental Health America, which promotes the advancement of mental health policy and education in our country, and will facilitate your active involvement as a concerned citizen.

Canadian Goslings on Huron River Drive

There's a family of Canadian geese who've made their home beside Huron River Drive in Ann Arbor, and I get all giddy every time I drive by the little goslings, in all their cuteness. This drive-by cell phone camera photo doesn't really do them justice, but you get the idea.

Umlud initiated me into the delights of Sunday brunch at the Aut bar today. An outdoor patio space so peaceful and lovely with the dappled sunlight under green trees and the sounds of Billie Holiday crooning, I was reminded of lazy Sundays in Budapest. Lots of really darling kids out with their families, in honor of Father's Day. I was grinning despite my intense dislike of the holiday.

Ms Scrumptious has gone home after a delightful almost-week-long visit to Michigan. I always like the quiet self-collected feeling I have after time with a dear old friend. And though it's been rather a rough couple weeks, I mostly have great memories of the time, with my guardian angels K & J keeping me company out at the cottage last weekend, and Alice woven in here and there amidst her prelim craziness.

A lingering legacy of L's visit is a minor obsession with Bones, even despite its terrible science, and a delight in seeing an anthropologist depicted on TV. I wish season 2 were on Hulu, because the low quality of Surf the Channel and the Chinese subtitles there interfere with my viewing pleasure, and they only have the first season on DVD at the video store here. No hope for the library on this one, and it's not worth it to me to start up Netflix again just for this.

I bought lovely herbs, veggies, and perennials this afternoon at the Alexander Farm Market on Whitmore Lake Road, which I'll plant tomorrow after I finish this round of grading for the Central European cinema course. I'll take more photos and identify everything when I do. Below, though, you can spy some salvia, beans, and German chamomile.


It's positively beautiful weather out here, 80 degrees and no humidity, and the intermittent thunderstorms have been keeping the dust down. Stunning. I hope it's like this all summer. It's just about time to start swimming in the lake again, finally.


As I was getting back home today, the son of the older couple next door was clearing some dead needles out of the pine tree in their yard and the ladder broke a foot underneath him. The whole family was out there around him, and several other neighbors were out. We saw him fall almost as if in slow motion. Luckily it wasn't so far, and it was onto a relatively soft patch of grass. Nonetheless I'm concerned . . . They've been visiting all afternoon, though, so I guess he must be all right.

I feel a sense of accomplishment from having finally taken care of a little personal business and, especially, for having tackled the puzzling task of setting up my computer to sync with my Palm Treo 650. Vista doesn't seem to like the device very much, but I managed to get it to work with Bluetooth. Hooray! Now, if only Virgin Mobile or Tracfone would allow the SIM cards for their prepaid service to be used with an unlocked GSM device, I could start using it as a smartphone again, instead of as a Palm pilot and camera.

The fresh hope of spring is finally yielding to the lushness of summer. Not a moment too soon, I think.

Summertime, and the living is easy . . .

Hmm, nothing like reading the small town papers for the hippest events to attend. Laura Moehrle of The Courant raves about the "touch of Germany" you can enjoy at end-of-the-month Saturday summer picnics at German Park in Ann Arbor. Mmm, spaetzle and lederhosen? I think I'm there.

Other local summer fun includes, of course, the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, with the frustratingly out-of-reach ticket prices (no student rates) for main events and the Top of the Park, with free concerts and movies in front of the Rackham Graduate School building on East Washington St.

Naturally, even though it's more than a month away, those of us living in the area can all undoubtedly feel Art Fair coming, like a runaway train.

Milk song

I had been wondering, ever since I moved to the countryside in Michigan, why I couldn't find anyplace around here that sold milk, although fresh eggs are readily available. You often see signs by the roadside out here on the country roads, and if you stop you will more than likely find that the egg sales work on the honor system, with just a little mini-fridge with boxes of eggs and a sign that says "Eggs $1.50 per dozen - leave money in the bottom-left drawer. Thank you". But milk is nowhere to be found, it seems.

I had suspected the regulations were just more stringent for milk, especially when I found out that part of the reason the Leopold Brothers were moving to Colorado from Michigan was for a more amenable system for distributing their house-made spirits. Well, today I confirmed my suspicion, when I followed some farming links from an enticing article on cheesemaking in Mother Earth News. I found, first of all, a handy directory of farms in Michigan that have pastured products. There's one farm here in Livingston County called Garden Patch Farm. So I finally found my way to Our Farm and Dairy in St. Johns, Michigan, which makes milk consumption possible for individuals through an innovative Cow Share Program!! (In the process of all this clicky-clickying, I discovered Lake Village Homestead, a farm cooperative in Kalamazoo that I definitely want to visit someday, since their unique educational programs sound rather similar to the ideas I have for if I ever voluntarily exile myself from academia.

In the process, I had a sad little chuckle as I happened upon Joel Salatin's book, entitled "Everything I want to do is illegal: War stories from the local food front". It does make me rather sad as an anthropologist, as I learn and teach about so many different adaptive strategies the world over, when I hear how constantly bogged down in government regulations local food producers seem to be. I want to live dangerously and eat raw-milk cheeses! (Like the Decemberists sing, "We are like vagabonds, we travel without seatbelts on, we live this close to death". . .) Given the nonchalance of the US government to allow citizens to be exposed to any number of frightening toxic chemicals in our air and water, I find it amazing how much they seek to control what we choose to put into our mouths . . .

So, when I can afford to do, I may purchase some cheese cultures and try my hand at the next variety of dairy products, having already happily created ricotta and yogurt that are incomparable. Oh, and I'll also replant my herb garden, since the cad my landlords hired to mow the lawn destroyed my giant tarragon and sage plants, along with the lavender and winter savory. Sigh.

And now, just for strange entertainment value, a video of Korean children advertising the benefits of drinking milk.

Update: Ask and ye shall receive! The lovely folks at Garden Patch Farms pointed me to a local goat herder at Heavenly Dairy in Pinckney, and an organic bovine dairy in Cohoctah Township called Dairy Delight, both also in Livingston County. :) In the words of Kris Unger of Dairy Delight: "We disasterized the food system," she said. "How dare the government tells us we can't drink raw milk."