Oda a la cebolla

As the great Chilean poet has dedicated a full poem to the bulb, I will give it a full blog dedication. Pablo Neruda is famous for his love poems and to a lesser extent his Marxist ideology. We see in his "Ode to the Onion" a gustatory love for a plant species so commonly used in most any kitchen.



The onion has almost become humanized, with its ability to make make us cry, an ability lost, along with its opaqueness, upon its sweating in the pan. So harmonious is its relation with the pan and oil that the very aroma causes a salivatory response. I won't even try to describe the onion with my own words, because Neruda has so eloquently done so already.

I will however, comment on the onion's diversity and adaptability. It can be made to stick out or blend in. Be repugnant in its smell or caramelize to generate mouth watering flavour. It can be masked as a base, or underscored as the kicker. It can be sharp or mild. The onion can compliment sweet or sour, or even both.





Without further ado, I present "Oda a la cebolla" taken from this website. This poem was certainly not written to be analyzed and desconstructed but rather, enjoyed in the hopes of furthering the appreciation for the onion.



"Oda a la cebolla / Ode to the Onion”

Cebolla,
luminosa redoma,
pétalo a pétalo
se formó tu hermosura,
escamas de crystal te acrecentaron
y en el secreto de la tierra oscura
se redondeó tu vientre de rocío.
Bajo la tierra
fue el milagro
y cuando apareció
tu torpe tallo verde,
y nacieron
tus hojas como espadas en el huerto,
la tierra acumuló su poderío
mostrando tu desnuda transparencia,
y como en Afrodita el mar remoto
duplicó la magnolia
levantando sus senos,
la tierra
así te hizo,
cebolla,
clara como un planeta,
y destinada ,
a relucir ,
constelación constante,
redonda rosa de agua,
sobre
la mesa
de las pobres gentes.

Nos hiciste llorar sin afligirnos.
Yo cuanto existe celebré, cebolla,
pero para mi eres
más hermosa que un ave
de plumas cegadoras
eres para mis ojos
globo celeste, copa de platino,
baile inmóvil
de anémona nevada

y vive la fragancia de la tierra
en tu naturaleza cristalina.


Onion,
luminous flask,
your beauty formed
petal by petal,
crystal scales expanded you
and in the secrecy of the dark earth
your belly grew round with dew.
Under the earth
the miracle
happened
and when your clumsy
green stem appeared,
and your leaves were born
like swords
in the garden,
the earth heaped up her power
showing your naked transparency,
and as the remote sea
in lifting the breasts of Aphrodite
duplicating the magnolia,
so did the earth
make you,
onion
clear as a planet
and destined
to shine,
constant constellation,
round rose of water,
upon
the table
of the poor.

You make us cry without hurting us.
I have praised everything that exists,
but to me, onion, you are
more beautiful than a bird
of dazzling feathers,
heavenly globe, platinum goblet,
unmoving dance
of the snowy anemone

and the fragrance of the earth lives
in your crystalline nature.



--Stephen Mitchell

Fastest Man Alive

With Tyson Gay's recent victories in the 100m dash at the London and Stolkholm Diamond League meets, including a decisive win over world record holder Usain Bolt in the former, I am compelled to make comparisons across foot speed categories.


Tyson Gay vs Usain Bolt - Stockholm Diamond League 2010
Uploaded by rasjomanny. - More professional, college and classic sports videos.


London Diamond League Meet - Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt were absent

10s is a good showing of man's top speed, however, a longer time period would show man's work capacity, his ability to sustain a high speed. The Adidas Super7 commercial makes a comparison of Tyson Gay and Haile Gebrselassie in the 200m. Flashback to Sydney 2000, in the Olympic 10km final. Haile was able to out-kick Paul Tergat, clocking in at a blistering 25.4 seconds after having run 9800m. To put this in perspective, Bolt's world record is 19.19. Now 6 seconds is a fairly large differential, however, Haile had already run hard for 9800m. Another consideration is the fact that Haile's time was based off a running start as opposed to a dead start. Nevertheless, it is time that the general public be more aware of the speed of distance runners and understand that they are not all slow twitch fibers.




Behind the scenes footage of two greats.


The Sydney 10km

Shortly after Beijing, where the world witnessed the dominance of Usain Bolt and Kenenisa Bekele (5km, 10km champion), people were looking to set up a showdown at 600m between the two. Obviously, most were siding with Bolt and his marketable, flashy style. In comparison, few pay attention to the 12.5 and 25 lap competitions like they do to the quarter lap showcase. Yet Bekele had been untouchable for a stretch, which I find just as amazing as Bolt's speed. This is because the distance races are a little more tactical and often team's will team up to try to throw off your pace. In Sydney, it was the Eritrean who tried to tire out Bekele early.


We've all seen many videos of Usain, here's a world record which will be just as hard to eclipse.

Now the 600m unification race will most likely never be run, because it would stray too far from either runner's event. However, anything is possible and this would be a true showcase of running talent, and a chance for Bekele to get out of Bolt's and Gebrselassie's shadow.





The only comparison that can be made between the two athletes is their respective 400 and 1500m personal bests.


BRUSSELS (AP)- Bekele set a personal best of 3 minutes, 32.35 over 1,500 two years ago, a time that would make him the 13th best performer of 2009. Bolt's top mark over 400 is 45.28 in 2007, which would be the 28th fastest time of this year.

Free-diving

The sport of free-diving encompasses a whole range of competitions and styles, but all have one thing in common: holding your breath underwater. It is ironic when practitioners describe their sport as one of liberation; they experience a freedom and a true sense of living even though the body is deprived of its vital element. Nevertheless, free-divers are arguably some of the most self-aware individuals in that they must be in tune with their bodies' systems and be able to relax the mind.



I was intrigued by the simplicity of the sport, just as humans are all drawn to water. There are even people who believe that we spent a set period of time in our evolution in a partially-aquatic environment. See the aquatic ape hypothesis for more details.



I was drawn to the sport after having seen the following video, but realized after more research that training would more or less require lots of apnea, or breath-holding, an activity which I don't find very pleasant. Also, I was turned off by the hypocapnia that ensues upon hyperventilation, or in deeper dives, a drop in the partial pressure of oxygen in the lungs. Either way, the sport involves convincing your brain that you don't need to breath. This may lead to blackouts, as the body struggles to reset its breathing mechanisms. Nevertheless, professional competitors are amazing specimens who create equally impressive videos.


Guillaume Nery diving into the deepest hole in the world

To understand the wide range of competition out there, I have included Wikipedia's list of free-diving disciplines.

Pool disciplines

* Static Apnea is timed breath holding and is usually attempted in a pool (AIDA).
* Dynamic Apnea With Fins. This is underwater swimming in a pool for distance. For this discipline the athlete can choose whether to use bi-fins or the monofin (AIDA, CMAS).
* Dynamic Apnea Without Fins. This is underwater swimming in a pool for distance without any swimming aids like fins (AIDA).

Depth disciplines

* Constant Weight Apnea. The athlete has to dive to the depth following a guide line that he or she is not allowed to actively use during the dive. The ‘Constant Weight’ (French: "poids constant") refers to the fact that the athlete is not allowed to drop any diving weights during the dive. Both bi-fins and monofin can be used during this discipline (AIDA).
* Constant Weight Apnea Without Fins follows the identical rules as Constant Weight, except no swimming aids such as fins are allowed. This discipline is the youngest discipline within competitive freediving and is recognised by AIDA International since 2003 (AIDA).
* Free Immersion Apnea is a discipline in which the athlete uses the vertical guiderope to pull him or herself down to depth and back to the surface. It is known for its ease compared with the Constant Weight disciplines, while the athlete is still not allowed to release weights (AIDA).
* Variable Weight Apnea is a record discipline that uses a weighted sled for descent. Athletes return to the surface by pulling themselves up along a line or swimming while using their fins (AIDA).
* No-Limits Apnea is a record discipline that allows the athlete to use any means of breath-hold diving to depth and return to the surface as long as a guideline is used to measure the distance. Most divers use a weighted sled to dive down and use an inflatable bag to return to the surface (AIDA).
* The Jump Blue also called "The Cube" is a discipline in which an athlete has to descend and swim as far as possible in a cubic form of 15 x 15 meters (CMAS).

Dynamic apnea without fins. World record 151m.


Constant weight apnea without fins. 88m.


Divers say that the most important preparation is done before the dive. Slowing the heart rate, relaxing to the point of vasoconstriction, allows these land dwellers to reach greater depths. This is just more evidence of how important our own respiration is in nourishing the body.

Seu Jorge

In Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou", we are introduced to Pelé dos Santos, the mysterious troubadour who touts his classical guitar, performing strangely familiar musical interludes.



Bill Murray's performance was oddly appealing as usual, but I will draw attention to Pelé, better known as Seu Jorge, the samba artist whose rich voice reaches profound depths.



His performances in the film are familiar because they are acoustic, translated versions of David Bowie hits in Portuguese. This must have been an interesting project- transforming the distinctive nasal tone of David Bowie, whose use of different effects found him reinventing himself over the years. Bowie was a shining example of a pop/rock artist - flashy, trend-setting, and distinctive. He was a true innovator of his time.



Now take Seu Jorge, and artist thriving off his patriotic roots by means of samba rhythms. He is representative of all that is acoustic. An earthy voice, strong character, and skilled fingers on the nylon strings make him a Bowie's foil.



So without any delay, here is a selection of his Bowie renderings. Be sure to check out the original songs, as well as Seu Jorge's authentic sound.







This artist may be familiar to you as Knockout Ned from City of God, or Mané Galinha in Cidade de Deus.