May 2023
YOUR FIFTH BULLETIN FROM BART
Congrats on making your way through It’s Gonna be May meme week. We’ve arrived in a month that happens to be both National Salad Month in addition to National Vinegar Month which feels like one hell of a coincidence. Bless the rich variety of made up holidays one can celebrate when they need an excuse for a party.
On May 1st we celebrated National Great Lakes Awareness Day, something near and dear to me both as a way to troll my friend Charley who finds them more terrifying than the ocean (really?! the OCEAN Chaz!), and as someone whose accent and culture is among those from the Great Lakes Midwest region. Living in California has really emphasized the cultural divide between Great Lakes Midwest, Appalachia and The American Southwest. Once I felt devoid of culture as a mediocre white person from Ohio, but now it’s obvious I have a lot of unique cultural identity! I not only know what a dulcimer is, I know how to play Boil ‘em Cabbage Down on one. I can break out several line dances, drink pop and have ended up accidentally in Canada without my passport. All sentences at which my SoCal coworkers blink confusedly. I’m finding a way back to having some pride in my heritage but without any of the white power vibes.
Quite a lead in to ease you into the fact that in recent years I’ve stopped hiding the fact that I listen to quite a lot of country music, always secretly have and will be suggesting a country song to you this month. (footnote- it is WYLD to think that coming-out as a country fan feels more vulnerable than how frequently (multiple times a week!) I have to come out about what kind of sex I enjoy, but that’s the world we live in I guess!!)
Listening
While many people find country music to be pedestrian at best, I argue that it is a genre that has some of the most clever and amusing lyrics, while at the same time remaining simple and effective. Country music often winks at you, genuinely, as if to say “See what I did there? aren’t I cute?” but in an endearing manner, rather than self righteous navel gaze way. That country music certainly does exist and is often created by people for people who lack creativity and individuality. We’re not talking about that music in this case.
What Jenna Paulette accomplishes with Truck Boy is incredible wordplay, and entertaining, earnest country tune with unapologetic Texas perspective. (the line: I tell you hwhat, boy really nailed the assignment).
I hope you give it a listen- this debut album for Paulette has a surprising amount of good songs. I don’t think it’s Kacey Musgraves album of the year/crossover quality, but there is a big argument for comparison in the quality of their debut releases.
If you want another example of a song that has clever wordplay I recommend this one from the 70s.
Reading
I am almost done reading The Song of Achilles which I had put off for a few years now. I knew it would be good; it is. I’m also reading a butt load of wikipedia articles about mythical characters. It’s reignited my interest in the heroic age. I took Latin in high school and found the Aeneid interesting, but challenging since I mostly read it in Latin, piecemeal. It might be time for me to chip away at the Odyssey. This is nice, it’s relationship-y but still epic.
photo credit: good reads
Eating
Happy National Salad Month- Please give this one a try especially if you’ve never gotten into tempeh. The buffalo sauce makes it so tasty you will not feel any ick about a foreign plant protein you’re trying. I recommend using the dankest lettuce that ever did it from Gotham Greens (they grow in several states now in addition to where they started in NYC).
photo credit: the ppk
This delighted me
Happy Vinegar Month! Did you know you can just pickle your own red onions to have on hand at anytime? Fuck yeah you can! Put them on breakfast tacos, avocado toast, sandwiches, stir fries, a cracker, I don’t care just pump up the vinegar this month! Make sure you open a window if you’ve never done this before. Vinegar vapor is untenable.
Slice your Red Onion. Put slices into a jar.
Boil 1:1 White Vinegar and Water (I do 1 C each), 3T sugar, 1T salt
Once the liquid is boiling and the salt and sugar are dissolved pour it over the onions in the jar, seal it. Setitandfergetit. Well… don’t forget it. Use them on everything.
photo credit: me
a quote
“Lost in Hell,-Persephone,
Take her head upon your knee;
Say to her, "My dear, my dear,
It is not so dreadful here.”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay, Collected Poems