Weekend Fun

Another busy weekend, although it certainly had fewer subplots than the last one.

Friday, instead of our usual trip to the grocery store to taste wine, a group of us went downtown to Fountain Square for the kick-off of Midpoint Music Festival's indie concert series. The main act? Camera Obscura! The rain held off, and the weather was beautiful - perfect for

this lively and quiet band from Scotland.

The concert ended with an encore of one of my favorites of theirs, "Let's Get Out of This Country." Below is the video I took with my phone - you can find some great footage of their music with far better sound quality, but it wouldn't be nearly as authentic, eh?

Last night, a good friend of mine visited the city. I always enjoy showing off the best parts of Cincinnati (which, ironically, often include trips across the river to Northern Kentucky).

I hate posing for pictures, but my awesome red peep-toe wedges don't mind at all.

This one is called "Cincy's Arches"

Here, my foot is posing alongside one of Shepard Fairey's murals (he of the Obama "Hope" poster fame).

The Rise of Nutritionism

Weekends go by far too fast. And given that I work just about every single Saturday, they often feel non-existent.

Now, as I push myself to finish grading all 36 essays, I'm torn between going to bed (I need sleep), finishing grading (I work until 8pm tomorrow, and class meets Tuesday morning), and reading more descriptions of the BENGALS' WIN OVER THE STEELERS!!!

(Clearly, I've shoved all three options aside and chosen instead to update my blog: Priorities.)

This afternoon I went to see Michael Pollan speak at Xavier University. Author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, Pollan lectured on nutrition--nutritionism was his term--and agriculture in American society. He rightly asked why America, so obsessed with health and nutrition, is so unhealthy. We think of food, he said, as nutrition delivery instruments. They carry vitamin C, protein, and cholesterol. But food is much more mysterious. He described a group in Australia, Aborigines, who had moved to the city and ate "Western-style" meals -- a meat and two vegetables; processed food; fast food--and developed heart disease and type-II diabetes. They went back to the land, getting their food by hunting and gathering, and the symptoms went away. While food packagers seek ways to tinker around the edges -- get rid of trans fast, replace sugar with Splenda -- Pollan notes that the whole way Americans approach food is broken; tinkering won't do.

The most important thing he said applied to the amount of money we spend on preventable chronic illnesses (heart disease, type II diabetes). By changing the way we consume food, we could significantly alter how much is spent treating these. He said: "'Health care crisis' is just a synonym for the catastrophe that is the American diet."