imagined-community

Street Painting on Shinjuku Homeless Cardboard House

Last week I posted some links for homeless shelters in the Boston / Cambridge area. If you live in the area and would like to do something for the homeless, you may want to check out
Solutions at Work, located in the historic Old Cambridge Baptist Church, at 1151 Massachusetts Avenue. The mission of Solutions at Work is to help “people transition out of homelessness.” You can donate clothing, computers, wheels, or your time.

Has anyone visited the new website street-people.com? The site is trying to use humor to raise awareness about homelessness in Tennessee. But not everyone is thrilled with the site, including advocates for the homeless, according to WMC-TV. Some critics object to the site because they claim it promotes stereotypes as as well as fuels fear about the homeless.

Just a reminder — in China the latest estimate is that 15 million people have lost their homes after a devastating summer of typhoons and floods. You can read more about what the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, along with the Red Cross Society of China are doing to help here.

A shout out to 18 Nantucket High School students and their 8 adult chaperones who left their island off the coast of Massachusetts to build houses for the homeless in Guatemala. The July volunteerism trip was planned in conjunction with an Antiguan humanitarian organization, La Asociacion de Nuestros Ahijados, or the God’s Child Project.

Wondering what happened with those folks in Florida…the homeless and the groups that want to continue offering them food in Orlando parks? Well, the battle continues… You can read a commentary about the situation by Jim Philips or watch Jim on video at Orlando’s local television station, WESH.

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Kombucha Tea has been all the rage among organic foodies on the US West Coast for well over a year, and on Sunday I decided to try this tea made from a symbiosis of yeast and bacteria. Like many foods, Kombucha has led a truly transnational life. Kombucha’s first recorded use was in China, after which it migrated to Russia, and then later appeared in Eastern Europe (however, fermented Kombucha should not be confused with the unfermented Japanese Kombucha). After arriving in the United States, probable somewhere in Portland or the Bay area, Kombucha has begun trekking the US in a cute little bottle labeled Kombucha Wonder Drink. Perhaps Kombucha’s cross-cultural history is the reason why Portland’s Kombucha Wonder Drink Company deliberately chose a geographically ambiguous design for the beverage. The logo is slightly Arabic and the subtitle, “Himalayan tonic,” links it to — India, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet? Plus, the label tells us that Kombucha spread across Eurasia and is revered on every continent! Wow! Talk about your global drink!

If you’re interested in the “good health, great longevity, inner serenity and incisive mental clarity” that the Kombucha Wonder Drink Company claims their tea promotes, you may want to read a beverage review or two before buying. I found the tea a bit too bracing but not as awful as Dan Meyer at the Energy Drink Review. A more balanced review can be found at Knowledge for Thirst.

Looking for something a bit trendier? Well, you could pick up the beverage that all the Hollywood stars are drinking, Synergy Trilogy Kombucha. According to last week’s New York Magazine, in an article entitled, “Tea Party: A Stinky Drink for Hollywood Yogis,” Hollywood is going gonzo for the stuff:

What smells a bit like compost, promises to restore your digestion, liver function, and cell integrity, and is all the rage this summer among the city’s holistic elite? Kombucha. The organic, bottled Chinese tea (pronounced kom-BOO-cha) is cultured for 30 days to produce its “active enzymes” and “antioxidants.” It’s also got authentic—albeit grody-looking—green strands floating in it. In Hollywood, it’s already so popular—see Kirsten Dunst lounging with a bottle of it in Us Weekly!—that it’s become a sort of inside joke. On a recent episode of Entourage, a director was house-sitting for his girlfriend’s parents in a mansion they bought with a Kombucha fortune. G.T. Dave’s Kombucha brand is probably the trendiest: He started bottling it after watching his mother drink it during her battle with breast cancer. Dave says his company ships cases directly to Paramount studios and CAA. “Andy Dick drinks it every day,” he boasts, adding that he doesn’t have a mansion. In April, Dave, 26, finally got East Coast distribution. “It’s flying off the shelves,” says Paul Weiner, Fairway’s natural-foods coordinator.

– New York Magazine

As for me — I tried it. And now I think I’ll go back to my coffee. Maybe you just have to live on the West Coast to truly appreciate live culture in a bottle. Kevin in Seattle suggests that the bad taste is a little like Jagermeister ( you can see him downing some Kombucha tea at KEXP Blog ).

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I’ve decided that Sunday is the day that I treat myself, and anyone who happens upon this page, to a music video. For some reason this video of End Theme, by the UK’s Zero 7, seemed especially appropriate. If the paranoia is too much for you, there is always the final 10 minutes of Six Feet Under, featuring Sia’s Breathe Me (I sob with abandon no matter how many times I watch Claire traverse the highway of time in her Prius).

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