Mo' Bitter

Okay, I'm bitter. I'll admit it. I'm in a post-festival-within-a-festival funk. Participatory Dissent is almost over. The artists and curators are out whooping it up at a cocktail party as I write. I'm jealous and bitter. Not only did they fill my mind to the brim with powerful images to sift through and process, my body is wracked with physicalized memories and arthritic pain from walking and watching in the rain. Not enough space between events. Not enough time to foment dissent over bitter melon in black bean sauce and beef at the Congee Noodle House on Broadway near Main (highly recommended, btw). An ugly appetite for MORE inter(art)action has been awakened.

LIVE5 Photos: Roundtable Discussion Photo Set

Today a round table discussion was held at the Western Front, moderated by brilliant curator Natalie Loveless. Many eloquent things were said (not by me), and they will be recorded and edited into a written document that I hope can be put up on the LIVE website at some point. So many points were discussed and in such precise words that I will not attempt to cover that ground, lest I fall into an (un)glamorous pit of despair.


In the meantime, here's a lovely idea from The Bitter Melon Council from The Bitter Melon Week Recipe book. The book contains a recipe from The Red Fez in Boston for a Summertime "G&B" which suggests you make a bitter melon syrup from two bitter melons, a cup of sugar, and the juice of one lemon. You can improvise from there, or mix 2 oz. gin. 1 tsp. Bitter melon syrup, soda water, and ice. Garnish with a slice of lemon and a slice of Bitter Melon. Here's to the better bitter cure (and an end to that fakking rain): "Cheers!"

Lori Weidenhammer