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We know it's the recession...but this is just pathetic. (Lower East Side)
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Free "Free-gan" Dinner at Rubulad
On the unassuming corner of Classon and Flushing Avenue near the abandoned Navy Yard and the Hasidic neighborhood of South Williamsburg, Brooklyn (“Your bike will definitely be stolen if you’ve only got a coil-lock,” I was told), there is a warehouse known as Rubulad, which has served dutifully as the setting for all manner of legendary underground parties since the early nineties, when a bunch of musicians took out a lease together. Every other Sunday, the thoroughly decorated Rubulad warehouse space is the site of an enormous donation-only dinner, open to “anyone who’s hungry.”
The Grub Dinners, as they’re called, occur bi-monthly, and are hosted by two separate groups. Tonight’s dinner was organized by a group called “In Our Hearts,” which believes that “food is a right” (as stipulated by the United Nations’ 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights).
I arrived early and was pleased to see that all the food was being prepared the hard way – i.e. from totally raw ingredients. That night, the Grub Dinner included: spinach salad with grated parmesan and a choice of three dressings, a separate cherry tomato salad with oil and vinegar, boiled Swiss chard, refried beans, mashed potatoes, sweet potato fries, vegan muffins, collard greens, and a huge pot of spiced vegetable tofu curry made with coconut milk. There were bottles of Trader Joe’s protein shakes to drink, along with a selection of those delicious, exorbitantly-priced pomegranate teas called simply, “Pom.” There was plenty of malt liquor, too, although it wasn’t being officially served. There was apple crisp for dessert.
To my great relief, there was no sermon before the meal – no hand-holding, no prayers, no political moralizing – just a man in glasses and an old-fashioned hat, who shouted, “Welcome to Grub! It’s a community thing – so please make an effort to talk to someone you don’t know. Oh – and stay to play Village afterwards!” (I heard girl next to me whisper, “It’s like Mafia, but with werewolves.”)
With the exception of the apple crisp (I think someone mistook salt for sugar), the food was delicious – definitely health food, but with enough Earth Balance© to make it thick and filling. But the real kicker – nearly all the food was “rescued,” which means it was salvaged from the dumpsters of supermarkets and restaurants.
Yeah. I know. I asked one of the guys in charge, Rob, if it was sanitary, and he replied, “We use our heads. If it’s not good, don’t cook it. If you wouldn’t eat it, don’t serve it. It’s the same food you get in the grocery store anyway.” This is known as “dumpster diving,” or “freeganing” (like a vegan who gets his food for free).
“Is there a set of rules you guys use,” I asked, “like it has to be vacuum-sealed or something?” Rob laughed. “It’s not always in bags.” He said. “But neither is a lot of the stuff in the supermarket.”
The Grub Dinners, as they’re called, occur bi-monthly, and are hosted by two separate groups. Tonight’s dinner was organized by a group called “In Our Hearts,” which believes that “food is a right” (as stipulated by the United Nations’ 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights).
I arrived early and was pleased to see that all the food was being prepared the hard way – i.e. from totally raw ingredients. That night, the Grub Dinner included: spinach salad with grated parmesan and a choice of three dressings, a separate cherry tomato salad with oil and vinegar, boiled Swiss chard, refried beans, mashed potatoes, sweet potato fries, vegan muffins, collard greens, and a huge pot of spiced vegetable tofu curry made with coconut milk. There were bottles of Trader Joe’s protein shakes to drink, along with a selection of those delicious, exorbitantly-priced pomegranate teas called simply, “Pom.” There was plenty of malt liquor, too, although it wasn’t being officially served. There was apple crisp for dessert.
To my great relief, there was no sermon before the meal – no hand-holding, no prayers, no political moralizing – just a man in glasses and an old-fashioned hat, who shouted, “Welcome to Grub! It’s a community thing – so please make an effort to talk to someone you don’t know. Oh – and stay to play Village afterwards!” (I heard girl next to me whisper, “It’s like Mafia, but with werewolves.”)
With the exception of the apple crisp (I think someone mistook salt for sugar), the food was delicious – definitely health food, but with enough Earth Balance© to make it thick and filling. But the real kicker – nearly all the food was “rescued,” which means it was salvaged from the dumpsters of supermarkets and restaurants.
Yeah. I know. I asked one of the guys in charge, Rob, if it was sanitary, and he replied, “We use our heads. If it’s not good, don’t cook it. If you wouldn’t eat it, don’t serve it. It’s the same food you get in the grocery store anyway.” This is known as “dumpster diving,” or “freeganing” (like a vegan who gets his food for free).
“Is there a set of rules you guys use,” I asked, “like it has to be vacuum-sealed or something?” Rob laughed. “It’s not always in bags.” He said. “But neither is a lot of the stuff in the supermarket.”
Sunday, February 15, 2009
The Boom is Over. Long Live the Art!
Great NY Times article on a Recession's effect on art in New York over the years and in general. I especially liked the points about graduate programs reshaping their curriculums for the times...
"...Why not make studio training an interdisciplinary experience, crossing over into sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, poetry and theology? Why not build into your graduate program a work-study semester that takes students out of the art world entirely and places them in hospitals, schools and prisons, sometimes in-extremis environments, i.e. real life? My guess is that if you did, American art would look very different than it does today."
"...Why not make studio training an interdisciplinary experience, crossing over into sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, poetry and theology? Why not build into your graduate program a work-study semester that takes students out of the art world entirely and places them in hospitals, schools and prisons, sometimes in-extremis environments, i.e. real life? My guess is that if you did, American art would look very different than it does today."
-Holland Cotter
Thursday, February 12, 2009
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