Update: Writing, Cooking, Party

The previous week has been mostly quiet for me: working on the previously mentioned Infocenter article, "working" on the article, lots of reading.  I've especially been devoting a lot of time to David Harvey's Limits to Capital, which is an absolutely amazing articulation of Marxist economic theory that anyone interested in such a thing, or at least in an alternative analysis of capitalist economics with the minimum possible ideological bluster, should read.  I say similar things about lots of books, but this one truly is worth checking out.

As always happens while I'm working on a writing assignment, I've been thinking at least as much (or even more) about the writing process than the project itself.  It's quite a tumultuous relationship I have with my ideas; I have such a love affair with the words and ideas I bat around in my head that it always feels somehow that it cheapens them placing them on a page.  I don't know exactly why it is that I hate visualizing words that have flow so easily and perfectly in my little internal dialogues.  My current theory is that it has to do with my discomfort at lending those words a permanent existence as I feel exactly the same thing when I try to record myself talking.  As abstract ideas, they can overlap, connect with so many others at once.  When they're made concrete, those simultaneous connections disappear, they become limited, embodying one thing at one time and nothing else.  This kind of thinking caused me to spend a few days thinking a lot about different means of visualizing information and connections (completely unrelated to the magazine article), mainly things like network maps and clouds, but they all seem subject to the same contradiction: either they are legible but intensely limited, or you try to imbue them with depth and they become absolutely unwieldy in very short order.  My next idea is to try experimenting with highly diffuse writing in a Wiki-type format using prodigious amounts of cross-linking, but I'm not sure how well this will work.  I really should read up more on visualization techniques, but I'm rather ignorant on the topic and would love if anyone had a recommendation for good readings to start.

One thing I've been doing to break up the writing/thinking-about-writing has been to cook more.  While this began as an attempt to add some variety to my 80%+ cachapa/arepa diet, it has mostly resulted in cooking lots of arepas in different ways trying to get my technique right - as well as to use up my ingredients quickly due to my lack of a working fridge :-).  I've finally been able to get a feel for the proper consistency of the dough, which has helped immeasurably.  Fried and baked, stuffed and sandwich-style, and different types of fillings have been the order.  Thusfar my favorite creation has been  a pair I cooked this morning that I stuffed with queso guayanes and fried egg before frying them in a pan with butter, which were indescribably delicious.  This very well may have to become a breakfast staple of mine when I get back stateside.

Also, this past Thursday night I had my first taste of Caracas nightlife, which after such an intense week of working and thinking was badly needed.  I was invited out by some people I had met at the Fundación Infocentro, and we started by heading to the Sabana Grande district to a Peruvian restaurant for ceviche and beers.  Like many other things about Caracas, this reminded me tremendously of certain parts of Istanbul: the restaurant consisted of a number of chairs with plastic tables situated in a nondescript alleyway with plenty of graffiti, whose name they told me translates to "stabbing with a knife" (although they assured me those days were long in the past).  The ceviche was delicious, but rather different from the Mexican type served in the US, with a smaller variety of seafood, but more vegetables, and served as a large communal platter.  Afterwards, we left for a night at a music/dance club whose name I woefully did not think to ask anyone.  The clientele was the obvious mix of younger types, not quite as fashionable as you'd see in other parts of the city, but slightly moreso than those who tend to populate rock clubs in the US.  Lots of drinking, lots of dancing... lots more drinking and lots more dancing :-).  It was a bit more intense of a party than I've taken part in in quite a while, but definitely the type of intense that sits well with you after a long time away from it.  So many people there seemed to love referring to me as the "Turco-gringo" - which was how I was often introduced, with my blessing - and quizzing me about my politics like some kind of test that I always passed with flying colors.  As far as breaking the ice goes, that's definitely a process that agrees with me more than typical small talk.

Anyhow, it's late and this post has gone on to its natural length.  I still have some ideas buzzing around, but they'll be better served in some more posts that I will hopefully remember to get around to tomorrow.