Bayou City

March 31, 2011 By 2 Comments

It’s about time I posted a few more photos from our Houston fly-over since my last shot so I can finish them up some day.  Memorial Park is our urban oasis with a biking and jogging trails wrapped around a beautiful public golf course just feet away from the busy freeways.

It was neat flying above the Heights, with all its perfectly gridded streets and the scenic jogging trail running down Heights Boulevard and surrounded by trees.

Houston is known as the Bayou City with 4 major bayous converging around town, including these two (White Oak [close] and Buffalo [background])  running parallel just south of I-10 into downtown.

Bayous, freeways, jogging trails, parks and homes all collide downtown into a beautiful tangled mess.

Studee Park is just south of the Heights and a place close to my heart; I would often take Zoe for beautiful afternoon runs on the trail that winds along the banks of the bayou.

And then there’s the striking red sculpture that can be seen from the freeway and is one of the few things I remember always seeing on my trips downtown as a child.

From Memorial Park, Buffalo Bayou runs downtown with a large greenspaces along both banks and forms a scenic running path and a lovely entrance into downtown from the west side.

As the Bayou City, many residents live along these major waterways & there is always the eminent danger of flooding in extended, heavy rains.  However, there really aren’t many other natural landscape features in Houston, so we have to love and cherish the beauty of the bayous on our town.  White Oak Bayou (above) starts out near my house and winds around northwest Houston into downtown.

 

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Going to meet-up with some friends for dinner tonight & check out a little more around Maryland.

Filed Under: airplane, houston

Review: The Limits of Power

March 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

My March book was The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, which is an examination of America’s world view that influences our foreign policy decisions.  How we see ourselves dictates how we see others & our role in the global political arena.  A brief walk through the history of our country, beginning with Manifest Destiny until we were a global super-power that emerged from the carnage of World War II through our abundant natural resources and entrepreneurial spirit.  I do love America & recognize how unique and special our country  and especially our people are, but I by no means think we are superior or have all the best of everything to the detriment of all other countries.  But this exceptionalism has been pounded into our national psyche and we rarely stop to wonder how our country has done wrong or erred in the past.  This desire to be bigger & better was a source of decades of positive growth through the 20th century, but which lead us to a crises of Profligacy. Um, yea I had to look that word up too.  I ignored it the first few times, but it’s the central theme of the book.

profligacy

1. dissolute or immoral behavior.
2. reckless and extravagant spending or behavior.

Profligacy is the main topic of the first chapter which details the careless wastefulness of the United States- both individual citizens and our government in general.  In America, the ultimate sacred tome is freedom.  Freedom above all other things, but what does freedom really translate into?  The freedom to buy everything & do anything you want.  Freedom is buying the biggest house you can, driving the largest car you can, and running up the largest credit card bills you can manage.   The white picket fence in a tree-lined yuppie neighborhood with a 2-car garage and 2 kids is the American Dream that so many chase after.  Looking at the history of our national debt and trade deficits in the US, we are taking in goods & sending money overseas at astronomical rates.  All this consumption drives our need for cheap goods, cheap energy (namely foreign oil), and cheap credit.  In order to secure those things, our foreign policy has been severely misguided by lavish lifestyles and addiction to a capitalistic freedom.  This insatiable desire for the freedom & security has lead us to a political and military crisis.  You know there is something wrong when, instead of asking citizens to sacrifice and support our mission, our President tells the country to continue shopping as we entered the last war.

The chapter on our political crises details the enormous shift of power into the hands of imperial presidents, who have meddled in foreign affairs far & wide of the last few decades.  These forays sent trillions of dollars and our citizens in the military to conflicts principally only to secure the flow of goods, oil and credit into our borders.   I could write at length about how disturbed and disillusioned I have been with our government’s power grab since 9/11 through things like the PATRIOT act, secret renditions & torturing alleged suspects that will never be given their international right to a trail or even the absurdity of the TSA’s security rules for flying on a commercial plane.  The business of fear in the country has gone through the roof & terror sells.  Our government is buying & we are paying for an ever-increasing military-industrial complex as the State Department, the Armed Forces, the National Security Council, the intelligence agencies,  the Department of Homeland Security all grow at a break-neck pace.  Simply, it’s very lucrative to be in the terror business.  There is no accountability or transparency in any branch of government that deals with defense, policing or military activities.  No debate, much less valid criticism, is even allowed to be had about the necessity of this military-capitalistic arrangement- even as we slash benefits & education budgets, no politician or the vast majority of citizens are even willing to take a critical look at the enormous portion of our budgets that go towards defense.
The third main chapter was about the crisis in the military.  He examined the failures and lesson of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.  No matter how revolutionized or advanced we become, war is still a huge unknown that always carries risks and uncertainty.  Yes, we “won” in both of these wars within days, but the real enemy & threat was the underlying cultural and socioeconomic problems that we would end up battling for years into the future.  There were dozens of missteps, miscalculations and plain ineptitude in both of these wars, and the author talks at length about the failure of in our military to have excellent leadership that would have good strategy and a keen sense of global political affairs.  Nobody is talking about how energy-independence would dramatically bolster our national security and make us re-evaluate the need to go into foreign countries to secure cheap oil.  It’s not viewed as patriotic to be debt-free or (semi) self-sufficient, even with something as simple as having your own garden. There aren’t discussions being had about how all the oil and goods we import are funding corrupt and immoral regimes around the world with our dollars.  And yet, we have to spent tax dollars to fight and war with the same countries we are purchasing oil from.  As a country, we are willing to go to war to protect our freedoms & secure our cheap oil, goods and credit, but we are unwilling to make any material sacrifices (raise taxes to balance the budget and fund the war?) or even alter our behavior to decrease our need to go to war in the first place.
Finally, the author suggests a few realistic goals that our citizens individually and government at large should aim our efforts and re-focus our foreign policy goals around.  The first main goal is energy independence that would go a long way towards solving many of our other problems and help us bad rampant consumptionism.     The second goal that he offers is the global nuclear disarmament.  We’ve had a stable global society co-existing with an ever increasing nuclear stockpiles around the world.  Most countries will handle them reasonably (is there even such a thing???), but the real threat to everybody on earth is that rogue dictators or small terror groups will get their hands on this material and be infinitely more likely to actually use it than the countries that currently posses weapons.  Reducing the overall number of weapons around the globe and ensuring they don’t fall into the wrong hand should be a goal that all countries can work towards.  Finally, addressing the threat of climate change should be a priority of our foreign policy since many of the developed world is largely responsible for the pollution and consumption of goods.  Pollution and climate change will forever alter the weather and resource patterns (food and clean water) that would drive many regions into instability through wars and also exacerbate extreme weather conditions like flooding or droughts that cause widespread loss of life and disaster.
All in all, a very heavy book, but a quick read that touched on so many important topics and how they are all woven together.
GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Luckily I got out in downtown Baltimore to do a little exploring yesterday as the forecast for today is rain/snow with a high AND low of 39 degrees.
Filed Under: book, politics, review

Calming of the Heart

March 29, 2011 By 1 Comment

The next exhibit I wandered across at the Forbidden Gardens was a miniature town called Calming of the Heat.

It was an entire little village, set among the mountains and rivers, in tiny size.  People and architecture were modeled in a disarming mix of realism and tragedy.

Like most of the other exhibits, the quasi-disarray of the scene added a sense of drama and trauma to the peek into the daily lives.

But the water was still flowing & something about the soothing melody of bubbling falls brought a sense of peace and serenity to the scene.

Much like a gorgeous movie, standing outside these masterpieces made me want to be there- to actually take it all in myself and watch the scene unfold around me in real-time, full-size.

The broken doors & crumbling pieces added drama to the scene & reminded me that all of our world are slowly crumbling down around us day in and day out but at such a slow pace that it’s hardly discernible above the everyday noise of life.

In the past few weeks since I’ve been doing yoga, the phrase “calming of the heart” had taken on special meaning, especially calming of the mind. I need to slow down.  I need to simplify. I need to focus.  I need to be present in this moment.  I need to let go of worry. I need to relax.

This broken bridge looked like a scene unfolding from a movie where a distraught lover was about to throw herself down int the murky waters below.

On my favorite exhibit, the central pagoda was my favorite building.  A place for people to gather, a place for an exchange of news and ideas, a place to forge relationships and history together, a place to connect with each other.  There’s nothing really like it in our modern day culture & I’m sad that there is no calming of the heart in our communities as we become invested in each others’ lives.

 

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Headed out in Baltimore to the waterfront today after class to do some sightseeing.

Filed Under: houston

Berrylicious

March 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

After a weekend of camping, I headed straight to the airport Sunday night for a week-long training class in Baltimore.  It is NOT ~not~ winter here yet- it was 32 degrees this morning.  Not terribly cold by their standards, but not the warm sunny days I’ve already come to appreciate in Houston.  I’m ready for spring-  I’ve been eating fresh fruit for a few weeks & I’ve fallen madly in love with these blackberries and raspberries.  I take a small bag, sometimes with succulent strawberries and/or a banana, to work for my lunch.  I think I’ve just been to cheap to buy them before, but they are SO worth it.  Cool & sweet, bursting with flavor and it puts me right in the spring mood.  Among my other fruit loves are pineapples, cantaloupe and spaghetti squash- just need to get back home so I can have the good stuff.

 

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Computer was down on the plane yesterday, so I finished another great book!  Now to work on the blog reviews….

Filed Under: cooking

The Tasting Room

March 26, 2011 By 3 Comments

Two weekends ago, we headed into town on a Saturday afternoon & found ourselves exploring our next wine bar- The Tasting Room at  Uptown Park.  It’s one of the older (i.e. original) wine bars in Houston & I’m not sure why it took us so long to check out this place.  My first happy sign was that they both open early (since many wine bars don’t open until 3 or 4 pm) and they are open on Sunday.

The Tasting Room sits in the heart of the swankiest area of Houston- the Galleria.  Surrounded by luxury high-rise condos and ultra-lux shopping centers, I was expecting a very interesting crowd & the place didn’t disappoint.

I loved the simplicity and clean lines throughout the bar.  The wines were arranged in an easy to find & appealing setup.  You could sample most of the wine from the bar & we grabbed a bottle to sit outside. The exchanged it behind the bar and handed us one that was already chilled.

 

I adore outside seating, especially when it involves great people-watching.  Despite the outrageous heat & humidity of the summers in Houston, I really do like to sit outside and enjoy the fresh air whenever possible.

More bonus points for live music!  Apparently, they have quite a few people scheduled to play throughout the week.

This is by far the biggest wine bar in Houston- it was HUGE! From all the outside seating to the tons of inside seating and private rooms like this wine cellar you could rent out for private parties or rehearsal dinners.

In the back, there was another large lounge area with fancy couches and big screen TV’s for late night adventures.

The main inside area is comprised of a nice mix of small & large tables, along with couches for more casual lounging surrounded by big bright windows to let the sunlight flood the room.  They have many events & tastings, including weekly brunch specials that attract a large crowd.

The wine board lists all the available wines by the glass if you aren’t up for a whole bottle. There is a neat partition that drops down through the bar & they can split up the room if you were so inclined to rent out half of the bar.

We sat outside to enjoy our bottle and for the people-watching potential.  They  have a small menu of appetizers and pizzas, but we opted for the cheese and meat tray

 

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY:  Hubby is home from Philly & driving up to come camping with me today.

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Filed Under: houston, review, wine
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