THE MEATLESS BATTLE!

The meatless battle is a very controversial topic that at this time I am a little scared to talk about because I was out of it for a while; call it financial crisis or not having enough resources or friendships to stimulate this endless struggle. But at this point in my life I think I have enough resources to go back to this battle. Maybe this was strongly triggered by the fact that I went to see Dropdead @ the Subterranean right on the mystical intersection of North, Damen and Milwaukee Ave. in Wicker Park in Chicago this past Wednesday 08/15/07. Oh my God, Dropdead is known worldwide for their harsh criticism on animal exploitation. They played some of those classic songs and of course each one of them was a fast as hell grinding assault. Dropdead's frontman gave a few little interesting speeches on why we should not support or buy from the tobacco corporations, the whole anti-bush/antiwar movement, how animal experimentation and vivisection is practiced by assholes that don't get that animals are suffering greatly in the name of science. Enjoy some of the live pics shown...
































Meatless person ( for those of you who are not sure of what exactly that term means) is somebody that doesn't eat any type of animal tissue. But this is exactly where the controversy starts, people sometimes misunderstand the term "vegetarian" for example. Some people call themselves "vegetarians" when they claim that eating fish is "o.k." . Pardon my French but to me this is straight bullshit, fish or whatever type of seafood that exists is an animal tissue, or somebody can prove this wrong scientifically? I don't think so. There's also the controversy of being a very strict organic "vegetarian" or "vegan" because this leads to a great philosophical dilemma in which sometimes, as hard as we might try to exclude any animal byproduct from our lives , we are always going to be linked somehow to an animal byproduct. I work for a restaurant that's all about meat, even though they have a few items on the menu that are meatless. Even bicycle wheels have animal tissue on them. It is like the difference between real and ideal. Ideal is something that we do not have a knowledge of yet, so i think as far as we do not consume any kind of meat (remember that even Calamari is from the animalia kingdom), buy any exotic furs and try to find cosmetics that are not tested on animals we are putting a heavy burden on resisting the massive animal slaughter/exploitation that people demand everyday because of their selfishness.
I remember that the greatest impact of becoming a "meatless person" was the multiple inter-human discussions i had about the topic, and especially when you talk about it with your family and close relatives because it is almost like a son telling her Catholic mom that he is an atheist or gay. And the biggest attacks against my stand were the typical "squared-shaped" mentality that reigns in this world, arguments like: "animals were meant to be killed for humans" or "you are not going to get enough protein in your diet". To a certain extent this is true, a poorly planned "meatless" diet can be dangerous but if you always substitute the right things everything should work out fine. Like I personally couldn't stop eating cheese because it's one of the greatest things ever. But I am going to try to get it organic so at least you know I am not supporting hormone shots in cows. You can also look at it this way, would you let your pet be slaughtered to become a human commodity? Probably not, but there is also the fact that you can´t have a fascist attitude towards what people have done as part of their "Culture" for years and also represents a source of income for certain people, including myself. If is an animal that was ready to die because of its own conditions is also another point of view about the situation.

CELEBRATING TWO YEARS OF PROFESSIONALISM!

At the beginning of August in 2005 I started my career as a professional server when I graduated Olive Garden's severe training. Even though is a huge corporation that Olive Garden belongs to, their server training for their restaurants is pretty intense and it covers all the important aspects of being a professional server in one week. After the training you are supposed to be knowledgeable with setting the time pace with the guests to ensure they have a delightful experience at the restaruant (their so-called "HOSPITALIANO"), wine/beer and Italian food of course. As simple as being a server might seem, there is a lot of stress to be handled. I think the restaurant business is very vulnerable when it comes to customer service since dining is apparently a very delicate activity for human beings. Basically you have to understand what are you doing otherwise both the customer and yourself will suffer a bad experience.

In the month of July of 2006 I was hired at Billy Berk's in Skokie, Illinois. This is a restaurant that belongs to a small San Francisco, Ca. based chain. It is hard to classify their style but they call themselves "American comfort food with style" . They have a little bit of everything and their desserts are pretty massive. This restaurant is a little more family style in which there's at least one head chef in charge of each shift in order to make sure every single aspect of the kitchen is working right to ensure the customers are having a "fine" dining experience if you like to call it that way. Here's actually a picture I decided to take so you can understand what is it like when they get ready for a busy night shift:

It is important to recognize and give credit to ourselves every once in a while because it is hard work honestly. Nobody else is going to give us credit but ourselves, so I dedicate this article to give sincere congratulations to the team i work with and myself. Keep up the great work!
Even though being a professional server is something I will rather not do for a long time, especially because holding a meat plate for somebody is one of the most ironic things that I could be doing with the ideologies i try to keep in my life, I think I've learned lots from it and I hope it will help me in my future projects in life.

CHICAGO=BUMMERTOWN!

The other day I was riding my bike through Wicker Park in Chicago and I was heading north on Milwaukee Ave. when I bumped with:

My old friend "the bum" as we'll have to call him. Unfortunately, I don't know his real name, but he sure seems to be resting very well for his next day right underneath the CTA bus stop. It made me reflect and I was asking to myself? Why aren't the Coalitions or Organizations that can help people like this get out of their miserable and vulnerable situation helping all these people?. There's several Catholic charities, the CCH (Chicago Coalition for the Homeless) and a few other entities that give some sort of aid but the problem isn't resolved completely as you can see.
There's the alternative of "squatting" abandoned buildings, but that doesn't seem to be approachable in the state of Illinois. Amidst the large amount of abandoned buildings in the city, is really hard to find one that's well- hidden but easy for people to get to. And also the fact that certain adverse possession laws don't exist like in cities such as New York where "squatting" seems to happen in a more natural way.
Trying to be part of a Hardcore/Punk community, it seems to me that this type of topics are usually avoided. The theory behind the activism is undeveloped and not exposed to us when we have certain commodities that we never value until we lose them. It is important to know the theory underneath our beliefs if we are going to stand for something. I also think it is important to help people that need it. What if someday for an unexpected reason we have to confront our lives under this circumstances? We never know what might happen tomorrow...