blactivegan

swimlog: killing winter hardly

February 13, 2009 at 5:17 pm | Posted in training log, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

in efforts to cure these winter blues, i’ve started swimming to play in the pool. besides conditioning, the five year countdown to my first triathlon is well within a year and…uhm… i need to get my feet wet, doesn’t matter if i don’t know how to swim. my goal: 21 laps by march 2nd soo…

thursday 7:14 am (4 laps) – mostly “drink-pool-water-freestyle” and a likkle “flailing-arm-sidestrokes”. my heart was pumping hard enough for four people. nonetheless, felt good. i ended off with a new style of swim that is a cross between the doggy paddle and a bobbing apple. oh, figured out how to tread water.

monday 7 am (5 laps) – less frightening. smoother. had another lap in me. feeling good.

stay tuned.

hats off to joe ades

February 9, 2009 at 3:44 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

in a time when there’s hardly any time to prepare good food and the convenience of inexpensive fast-food products are pushing us further and further away from our

ades' best-seller sold only for $5 and made light work of any carrot. it even takes the skin off a bad tomato. wonder what its going for on e-bay. hmmmm

ades' best-seller sold for only $5 and made light work of any carrot. it even takes the skin off a bad tomato. wonder what its going for on e-bay. hmmmm

food sources, joe ades made it fun to play with your food. the gentleman grafter, who passed away @ 75, etched small spaces out of busy ny corners and transformed the chore of peeling tubers into a joy. his well-stocked inventory consisted of a singular product – a stainless steel vegetable peeler.

after the urge to purchase his peeler was met with linty pocket linings one hot bklyn afternoon, i was determined to find him again. i’m saying, at five duckets it’s a good deal but doesn’t quite justify an atm fee. while trekking through union square to paragon my favorite sports depot, i spotted him and copped two. the swiss export has been the sous-chef to many-a-meals in my kitchen ever since.

often exalted for his dapper suits and charming histrionics, mr. ades was also a beloved father and grandfather. msnbc’s segment on the mancunian-turned-ny’er, gave us a small peek into his life outside of sales (nevermind the 10 sec commercial in the pop-up).

his enduring messages/lessons: enjoy life, “like what you do rather than do what you like”, “tenacity, patience”, be resourceful and enthusiastic, keep your beard trimmed and eat your veggies!

for a more critical lens on the lore of joe ades check out david galbraith’s piece.

hubtonic progressions: remembering freddie

January 1, 2009 at 4:57 am | Posted in Black Folks | 5 Comments

pp. i was scrolling through the “all-too-many-feeds” i subscribed to in google reader (like i’m really gonna read them all in this life-time) and caught a glimpse of a black and white youtube clip of freddie hubbard put up by hip hop is read. seemingly random and pleasant, i thought. hmm (mental sigh), i’ll star this and check it out later. never considered what youtube might have had on my all-time favorite brass player. kept perusing, starring other stories i may want to read later, “whoa, freddie again? does he have a new album?” rest.

f. and then i read the title: “for they reminisce over you…freddie hubbard”. this soulful brother had passed. my mind signaled right and moved into memory lane…

dissonance. i started trumpet at 8 years old. my grade school was starting a music program and i was open, day-dreaming about wooing a sardine-can packed audience with my ill arpeggios. i just knew i would be a sax player or maybe even get busy on the snare. but when my moms “persuaded ” me to consider the trumpet, in her “we can’t afford the other instruments, love” tone i was slightly disappointed. well, at least being in band would get me out of a boring class period. oh yeah! and i remember how cool dizzy gilespie seemed puffing his elastic cheeks out behind that bent-up horn of his in stevie wonderful’s, “do i do”. while trumpet was the more affordable choice , it was also the most demanding. with only three keys, searching but never quite finding the right note was common. so you have to get the sound right in your mind before the air even leaves your lips. the sax players didn’t have any problems like that, and they had something called a reed. “how come i don’t get a reed?” mistakes, disappointment and discouragement came frequently. fleeting embrochure, excruciating posture, shortness of breath in mid-note, the designated back row for trumpet players, smelly valve oil, spit valves. and then i found out that the dizzy gillespie’s bloated cheek technique was a cardinal no-no. ergh. rest. i was all but ready to give it up, but with

Continue Reading hubtonic progressions: remembering freddie…

witty vegan: use the veggie force

March 10, 2008 at 3:48 pm | Posted in food watch, funnies, humor, witty vegan | 6 Comments

in the guest post on nite*vision’s blog, “does pepsi own your organic…” i made reference to how the food biz giants are buying out all your favorite “organic food” companies. because of the post’s popularity and witty vegan cartoons, i thought you all would love “grocery store wars” from the cats that brought you the meatrix series. enjoy and may the veggie force be with you…

food watch: does pepsi own your organic…?

March 9, 2008 at 10:07 pm | Posted in environment, food watch | 3 Comments

after nite*vision’s guest post, “cows dropping like flies” (2 posts below), i had to return the favor. check out does pepsi own your organic… and find out how the big food corporation have been sneaking into the “organic” game.

football vegan

March 7, 2008 at 4:58 pm | Posted in (multi)sports, nutrition, Vegan, Vegan Athletes | 10 Comments

“it’s the catch 22…am i going to be unhealthy and play football? or healthy and get out of the league?”

in a january wsj article, reed albergotti posed the following trick question, “…could an all-star national football league player…live on a vegan diet and still excel in one of the most punishing jobs in sports?” its a trick question because the article cites quotes from the living answer, who also happens to be the highest paid tight-end in the game right now. kansas city chief’s tony gonzalez went vegan in last year’s preseason and broke 2 all-time nfl records: most touchdowns and career receptions (previously held by shannon sharpe). carl lewis made a similar achievement, winning 4 olympic gold medals after becoming vegan. tony gonzalez, a 247-lbs former cheeseburger lover, was apprehensive at first thinking he would ‘look like a fool if [it] doesn’t work out’. but after teaming up with “jon hinds, vegan and former l.a. clippers strength coach”, gonzalez was well on his way to sacking the haters, knocking out all bums.

teammates nicknamed him china study and razzed mr. gonzalez if he missed a block. after a preseason practice, he accompanied mr. hinds to learn a skill he believed as important as blocking techniques: how to shop for groceries. mr. hinds showed him ‘nutritious fish oils and how to pick out breads dense with whole grains, nuts and seeds…mr. gonzalezs learned how to make the fruit and vegetables shakes… he stocked his pantry with tubs of soy protein powder and boxes of organic oatmeal; soy milk and brazilian acai juice crwoded the fridge. his favorite dessert became banana bread topped with soy whipped cream…

considered a suspicious “convert” even by his wife because of his addiction to cheeseburgers, gonzalez was inspired after meeting a vegan gentleman who put him on to the china study. but it wasn’t until gonzalez got sick with bell’s palsy that he actually read the book and decided to use vegan mathematics. his decision was a critical and record breaking one. if a vegan diet is good enough for an nfl cat…hmmm. for the full wall street journal article “247 lbs vegan” click here.

food watch: dropping like cows

March 2, 2008 at 3:39 pm | Posted in food watch, guest post, why vegan? | 4 Comments

we got baby, baby, baby spare ribs/roast beef/hot links/and more to give/cube steak/hot dogs/ribs tips, ooh/pork chops/turkey wings/and, chicken wings, too –moo & oink theme song, 1982

if you grew up on the south side of chicago, there was absolutely now way you didn’t know the lyrics to moo & oink’s ~~viral~~ classic jingle. when you see the commercial (below), you’ll know why the song would have the most vegan of us rapping along and breaking it down about all kinds of animal meat and waving for catfish.

if the past 12 months hasn’t seen the largest year in beef recalls in history, we should all be worried about just what the hell has been on Continue Reading food watch: dropping like cows…

battling obesity one city corner at a time

March 1, 2008 at 12:02 am | Posted in guest post, Health & Healing, nutrition | 2 Comments

the ny city council has heard and answered our cry for more fresh fruits and vegetables where we live! want to know their answer? wait for it…

wait for it…

fruit carts on our corners!

new york city will issue 1,000 new permits for mobile fruit and vegetable stands in its latest drive against obesity and unhealthiness among its residents.

there’s still no word on whether or not this is in conjunction with a broader plan with things like limiting the number of fast ~~death~~ food restaurants that can occupy a single block or more green spaces for outdoor activity where we live (see how i was nice enough not to even bring up the availability of organic and/or local produce!) Continue Reading battling obesity one city corner at a time…

food of the month: persimmons

February 21, 2008 at 5:52 pm | Posted in Black Folks, Culture, flavor of the month, nutrition | 3 Comments

“you are the huckleberry beyond my persimmon…”
early african american courtship ritual saying

i gave love to this “fruit of the people” a couple years back in a b’earth day post. and even though its season well on its way out, persimmons get a big up for feb 2008 in honor of black history month, the persistence of black love, and just straight up healthy living. overshadowed by the more commercialized cousins of the fruit group, persimmons have grown to have a special place in both the historical & culinary lore of black folks. during the time of chattel slavery in the u.s., marriage for love between african descendants was not only counter to the “breeding” objectives plantation owners, but it was also illegal. african folks developed creative ways to ritualize their love – like ‘jumping the broom’. however, lesser known is the saying in the above epigraph shared between two lovers back in the day. “the persimmon with its [sweetness] was symbolic of how a lover felt about the other”. persimmons found their way into american texts from tales of breer rabbit –the seminal trickster to richard wright- one of america’s most prolific writers. in black boy, richard wright remarked Continue Reading food of the month: persimmons…

get your weight up, batman!

February 20, 2008 at 3:47 am | Posted in Black Athletes, Black Folks, Health & Healing, Hip-Hop | 8 Comments
Tags: calisthentics, health, pull ups

g.i.a.n.t. thinking is healthy thinking and healthy thinking is balanced thinking, so how you thinking. where’s your knowledge and where’s your wisdom… bartendaz mantra

ok, so the bar has officially been raised–pun intended. the bartendaz go hard on the workouts, seriously. when they are not in the park doing calisthenic “gymnasty” gymnastics, they’re visiting public schools near you. in addition to inspiring a folks to get off the couch and empowering youth through the joys of physical fitness, they are also committed to building community and are in the process of starting a new york charter school. well, april 1st brings in a new multi-sport season, which leaves a little over a month to get it in. lastly, i once saw a clip of a fitness beast on video entitled “if batman were real he’d train like this“ which for the most part is quite impressive for strength, overall body mechanics and control; but, i think wolverine would do it like this: Continue Reading get your weight up, batman!…