Ten days without blogging is a long time. The reason? Don’t try to direct a national conference and have a stinking cold at the same time. The Grumpy Vegan’s good intentions were to blog daily from The Strength of Many but a hideous cold took its toll….mercilessly. Hence, no blogging.
Still the conference was a success–notwithstanding my ironic hope to the audience that they returned home with my cold. (I’m not a patient patient.) So, what’s left to say about the weekend in LA? Not much other than it was successful. All the speakers were great and, at times, provocative or deeply informative. Most importantly, the food was fabulous. Credit goes to my wonderful colleague, Jill Howard Church, and the Renaissance Montura Hotel staff who were equally fabulous and wonderful. What a shame that the folks at this summer’s Taking Action for Animals conference in Washington, D.C. weren’t in town to see what outstanding vegan hotel cooking can be like. Oh well.
So, what have I been up to since we last met? Well, resting, reading, sneezing, coughing and alcohol-soothed grumpiness. Finished reading the best short biography of Virginia Woolf (Harold Nicholson) and Frank Rich’s The Greatest Story Ever Sold. I love Frank Rich. His column is sufficient reason to buy Sunday’s New York Times. It’s a masterful writing cocktail that mixes political commentary and cultural analysis with a dash of bitters–literally! Such moments shine in the Greatest Story but it’s surprisingly more sober than I expected. Consequently, I’m focusing more on the Iraqi war and what Bush2 has done–and continues to do–in promulgating a fundamentally questionable war than Rich’s sarcastic writing style. What I mean to say here is that I wanted to read the book in order to spend time to learn more about how Rich writes. I am, of course, happy (well, happy is the wrong word but you know what I mean) to learn about our government gets up to with our tax dollars.
The other book this summer I promised myself is James Jasper’s Getting Your Way. His Art of Moral Protest is a must-read. Hopefully, more to follow on that one … but my promises aren’t always fulfilled.
