The Slow Food Nation '08 "Victory Garden" was planted in Civic Center Plaza on Saturday morning...
...by a small army of volunteers...
...most of them sustainable food environmentalists from the East Bay...
...who seemed to be enjoying their field trip to San Francisco immensely.
The garden is the centerpiece of a large event over Labor Day Weekend that includes food pavilions at Fort Mason along with a two-day music concert on the Great Meadow there...
...and a fancy "Marketplace" in Civic Center Plaza that's going to feature ethnic food stands, plus a series of speakers at Herbst Theater and Milton Marks Auditorium in the State building (click here for their website).
Though the volunteers all seemed to be smart and have their hearts and hands in the right place...
...there was a whiff of elitism about the entire affair, especially with local denizens looking in through the chain-link fence and not being allowed into the garden.
Thankfully, the public was invited in after the dignitaries had spoken and the volunteers had been fed a fancy lunch provided by Bon Apetit Catering, and above all, the garden itself is beautiful.
3 comments:
Mike - funny and astute; I've been walking about the center for a couple of days, trying to figure out how to write about this but you've covered all the angles. Bravo! We HAVE to meet and walk the Mission, sampling pupusas (and whatever else your heart desires) along the way. Just e-mail me because I don't have your phone number. I'd love to bounce my ideas about an essay on Kahlo that I'm writing for my blog off you - plus, it sure beats struggling with my latest painting and dealing with our rather over warm studio.
"...there was a whiff of elitism about the entire affair."
Gee do you think?
I want to like these people, really I do, but I can't seem to find a way. Despite their good intentions they all seem like Protestant neo puritans whose religion is consumption and whose God is the marketplace. Praise God it is possible to live a life without sin! With slow food and organic clothing and everyone looking really good and just like us and no people who don't understand the true religion and sin by buying things that we don't approve of.
Well, as I've often said, the only good thing about yuppies is the food. Little as I like the gay bashing, I think I could find more to talk about with the Salvadoran evangelicals.
Dear Jon: Amen.
Dear Nancy: I'll send you an email.
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