Tahiti Food Night by Kate Krimson

Saturday, my best friend, Freddy, and I started a new tradition: every weekend we are going to cook food from a different region of the world.



For our first weekend, we cooked food from Tahiti. The main dish that we prepared was Poisson Cru, a dish of raw tuna fish, coconut milk, lime juice, and vegetables. Many refer to Poisson Cru as the national dish of Tahiti. We used this recipe (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Poisson-Cru-Tahitian-Salad-242084). It came out pretty good, but it was a little too salty.

Our Poisson Cru

Me Dishing Out the Poisson Cru

For dessert, we made Po’e, a banana-based pudding. We used this recipe (http://www.lighthousetravel.net/Tahitian_Food.html).This definitely didn’t come out like pudding. It was some were between pudding and bread. I’m not sure where we went wrong. It still tasted good, even though we were texturally expecting something else.

Po'e in Coconut Dish

Me doing the Monty Python and the Holy Grail Coconut Horse Galloping Noise

Freddy doing the Monty Python and the Holy Grail Coconut Horse Galloping Noise

 

Freddy questioning why anyone would want to wear a coconut bra.

Next weekend, we are going to travel to Japan via our taste buds.

What Are You Going to Leave Behind? by Kate Krimson

I have lately been feeling insignificant. I look at all my life goals and see boxes left unchecked on my long to-do list. I have also been feeling lonely and invisible, like a gas, a blur of buzzing atoms that occupy space, and yet no one sees.

Then, when I started doing the dishes tonight, one of my favorite songs snuck into my head: “Infinity” by Ill Chemistry. The song’s chorus goes “Infinity, Infinite-I/When I die, they're going to call me the light/from the way that I do to the things that I write/The legacy I leave is bright, right.” The songs ends by asking the listener “What you gonna leave behind?”

 I have been thinking too much about what my actions are going to add up to in the end, instead actually acting. My lack of participation has been causing all of these negative feelings and today or I really should say tonight, I want to start acting. I say “want” because I know I’m not perfect and I won’t immediately start acting after posting this. This post however is only the beginning. I hope that when I die my legacy is also bright. And I leave you with this thought: What are you going to leave behind?



Here are a couple of inspiring songs to lift your spirits, including “Infinity”:





For those with sensitive ears, be warned that this song contains a bad word

Questions That Are Hard To Answer #1

I thought it might be good to start a reader participation blog,  which aimed to answer difficult questions. Here is the first round of questions:

Question #1 is inspired by reading Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks

1. How much of society’s sexism causes women to be sexist towards themselves politically, socially, etc?

2. What makes a parent passive toward his/her child’s domestic abuse?

 
You can post your comments here or on our Facebook page.

Warrior Woman Wednesdays #20 by Kate Krimson

Power Girl #20 (“Beasts of Burden”)-DC Comics-$2.99

4 stars out of 5


Summary:


Lawyers are meeting with Simon Peters. He is representing Karen Starr (aka Power Girl) of Starrware, since she is unable to make it to the meeting. The lawyers are angry that Karen is missing another meeting, but Simon tells them that she couldn’t make it because “something of great importance needed attending to and it couldn’t be rescheduled.” The company is in trouble because it’s missing a lot of money, which Starr is claiming was embezzled by an employee, named Donna Anderson, who was found dead. The lawyers need Starr on record saying this or all of Starrware’s assets are going to be seized by the bank for their defaulted loans.


Karen’s more important engagement is fighting a giant white four-armed monkey-like monster named Caspian. After fighting Caspian, more monsters arrive to fight Karen. These monsters, including Caspian, are the G.E.L.F.s (Genetically Engineered Life Forms) of Professor Anthony Ivo of New Cadmus, a genetic research facility. Karen fights off the monsters and then flies into and through the wall of New Cadmus. New Cadmus is a thorn in Power Girl’s side. They have created her villain, C.R.A.S.H, and made a clone of her called Divine.


Inside New Cadmus, Karen gets her friend, Nicco, access to the company’s computer files. She also finds a kennel filled with New Cadmus’ monster creations. She comes upon a clone of Krypto, Superman’s dog, after he attacks her with heat vision. However, Clone-Krypto seems to recognize Power Girl and starts licking her face. Nicco has Batman store all the stolen intel in his files, while Clone-Krypto and Power Girl fight off more monsters. Max Lord shoots Clone-Krypto and paralyzes Power Girl using his mind. He “convinces” her to go after the Justice League International, who he says is harboring the man who killed one of her teammates.


Writer (Judd Winick): The key to a great storyline, especially in a comic book, is suspense. Winick has this key in the ignition and is driving on the highway of “What Happens Next.” The reader wants to know what is going to happen to Starrware. Is the company going to lose everything or somehow prevail? The reader also wants to know if Power Girl really is going to fight the JLI or if she will snap out of the spell that Max Lord put on her.


Illustrator (Sami Basri): Combat is typically where a comic book artist’s talent comes to light the most. Action is what people want to see in comics. Pow! Wham! Bam! Thank you Ma’am! Basri does deliver this with Power Girl’s battles with Ivo’s bizarre monsters. However, the battle scenes are not where Basri’s best work can be seen. Caspian is Basri’s best creation. His emotions appear the most real, mainly anger and pain. He is also a great depiction of what the human mind can imagine. As Nicco puts it, he is “an albino King Kong with four arms.” Now that’s an image that will stick your mind.

Warrior Woman Wednesdays #19 by Kate Krimson

Spider-Girl #1 (“Family Values”)-Marvel-$3.99

3.5 out 5 stars

Summary:

In New York City, Anya Corazon/Spider-Girl is chasing the thief known as Screwball, who likes to record her burglaries and post them online. Spider-Girl makes Twitter updates about her whereabouts. Spider-Girl punches Screwball out and gives her over to the cops.

Anya goes to school and texts Gil, her dad, during her time in the halls of learning. When she gets home, her dad is still arranging things in their new home. Susan Richards/Invisible Woman comes over to keep Anya company, while Gil goes out to find some information for an article he is writing. Anya tries to get some advice from Susan on how to make friends, while taking a stroll in the city. During their walk, they knock out two purse snatchers. Susan gets a call that the Fantastic Four are needed and the Thing picks her up.

Anya stops two men who are trying to carjack a woman out of her automobile. She also stops another car thief, a jewel thief, a cell phone thief, and a cat thief. She tries calling her dad a couple of times, but he doesn’t answer. Turns out the Red Hulk was the cause of the Fantastic Four and Gil’s problem. The Red Hulk knocked over a piece of the building, which landed on Gil. While Anya tries to save her father, the Fantastic Four try to control the Red Hulk.


Writer (Paul Tobin): The cover of this comic declares “Warning! The only things standing between you and the most synapse-shattering super hero debut of the decade are your hands and this cover!” It didn’t deliver. The storyline is interesting, but definitely not “synapse-shattering” especially since it left the most action packed conflict to a mere glimpse at the end.

Illustrator (Clayton Henry): Henry does a wonderful job of capturing Spider-Girl in flight and in combat. He also depicts the fury within the Red Hulk quite well.

Spider-Girl #1 - comiXology

Warrior Woman Wednesdays #18 by Kate Krimson

Nancy in Hell #4-Image Comics-$2.99

5 out of 5 stars

At the beginning of the final installment of this mini comic series, Charon denies Lucifer’s request to take him and Nancy across the river Acheron to the gates of Hell. (Clarifier: Lucifer and Nancy are the protagonists of this tale). Lucifer convinces Charon to take them across the river by telling him that he can free himself from his “eternal burden” and that “what is written can be rewritten.” Mr. Macabre, the villain, walks on top of the rivers treacherous waters, like an evil, creepy Jesus, in order to follow them. The river begins attacking the boat. Nancy falls into the waters, where the souls try to capture her, but Lucifer rescues her.

They arrive at the Gates of Hell. Charon decides to keep doing his job as the Ferryman because it is “his destiny” and “his choice.” As they try to open the Gates, the lost souls of Hell attack them. Nancy as usual uses a chainsaw to defend herself. Lucifer tries to talk the souls out of attacking them and when that doesn’t work, he turns them into dust with a single blast of his power. The ground beneath them begins to shake and break. A monster rises from the ground. The monster is “everything that men believe” of Lucifer. Lucifer tells Nancy to go open the Gates. Mr. Macabre shows up and helps Nancy start to open the Gates. He tries to convince Nancy to leave Lucifer behind, but she calls him over and they both walk out of the Gates of Hell to other side, which destroys the monster.

After Nancy and Lucifer go to the other side, it becomes apparent that Mr. Macabre is the one who murdered Nancy. He killed Nancy because she was the only soul who could change Hell. Lucifer and Nancy arrive on Earth, near San Diego. They encounter one tiny problem: they forgot to close the Gates behind them. Now Hell is on Earth.

Writer (El Torres): El Torres has written probably one of, if not, the best comic book series of this year. His series creates a Hell that is a living thing that feeds off of Lucifer’s sorrow and off of the human imagination. It forces the readers to think (Oh No!) about their beliefs. Is Hell a real place or just a human concept? If it’s just a creation of the human mind, then what kind of monster is humanity?

Art (Juan Jose Ryp, Malaka Studio, and Antonio Vasquez): Throughout the series, these artists have managed to capture one of the most graphic depictions of Hell. The often horrific images remind us why there is the phrase “It will scare the Hell out of you.” That is exactly what their artistry does.

P.S. If you missed this series, you can pick up the graphic novel on January 19th.

Nancy In Hell TP - comiXology

Can All Feminists Get Along? By Kate Krimson

I think that often in America we forget that a feminist is a person who believes that women and men should have equal rights. Many liberals and conservatives are feminists. Many men and women are feminists. Yet the media tries to make it look like that to be a feminist you must be a liberal woman. Why does the media create such a big divide between what they consider true feminists and what an actual feminist is? There is only one reason for the big divide and that’s the abortion issue. It is the main issue on which feminists disagree. As if one issue could possibly define a whole group of people who are fed up with inequality. While there is one issue that feminists disagree on, there are so many on which they agree: the end to child prostitution both in the U.S. and abroad, the end to the sexual assault that continues to go unpunished in the U.S. military, and more.

Many feminists can agree that when women run for office the media makes them bigger targets for harsh and often sexist criticism than their male counterparts.



In the last few minutes of this clip, Geraldine Ferraro and Sarah Palin show how they agree on this issue, even though they belong to different parties. Also, Palin shows admiration and gratitude for what Ferraro has done in her political career which has paved the road for the women that have followed her into the political sphere.

Both liberal and conservative media agree that the so-called “honor killings” that have been taking place in the Middle East and elsewhere are backward and monstrous. Both Ms. Magazine’s Blog and the National Review discussed the attempted “honor killing” of Harry Potter movie star, Afshan Azad, by her father and brother for her dating a Hindu man. Anushay Hossain in her Ms. Blog called the event is part “an unfortunate but very real and rising trend amongst the British-Muslim community.” (http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/07/03/harry-potter-star-may-have-been-in-attempted-honor-killing/)Phyllis Chesler in her National Review article called “honor killings” a problem that is “vast and growing.” (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/232735/honor-killings-rise-phyllis-chesler).

When it comes to feminism, politics, and life in general I think it is time that we stop dividing ourselves and start unifying ourselves. An issue has more power when more people are behind it, but with dividing lines between us we will never be strong enough to overturn vicious ways of past and present for the future.