Category: March Issue
The Senses of Scent
We here at Cazuela have been exploring our senses through food as an underlying theme to our publication. For this issue let’s think about our sense of smell and what type of response we have as we experience a scent. Our sense of smell can be one of the most powerful senses we have. Not only does it conjure up incredible memories that are related to that scent, but they can also have just as strong of a negative effect because of a unpleasant experience.
One of the main reasons why we wanted our publication to be in print is because all of the textural experiences that go with it. How many times have you said yourself, “the reason why I read a book instead of reading it on my device is because of the feeling and texture, but more importantly also because the smell of a book.” The sense of smell is so powerful in furnishing our sense of judgment and the thought-processes it guides. Something so minute as the smell of musty pages can provide a comforting nostalgia to mediate the presence of something unfamiliar. It can allow us to proceed comfortably as we entertain new thoughts or ideas (or words and sentences by an unfamiliar author). But this kind of nostalgia isn’t limited to the smell of a page — nostalgia can revolve around a variety of scents.
Take the cover of this issue of Cazuela: It has a Silvio Silvestri painting of fish being hauled up on to a pier. We collectively, as a community, know exactly what images are brought to mind when we see the fish that is being hauled onto the pier, and we also know how it smells! Our island is blessed with a bevy of scents that we all relate to and hold dear. Whether it be the Green Pier, or the ocean, eucalyptus, night-blooming Jasmine, sun-tan lotion or the crispness of the air after the first rain. We all relate and we all understand that those scents belong to our Island home.
In addition to these potent smells, there are another set which emerge as these raw island ingredients are combined and transformed to create something new. Nothing matches the lovely smell of a freshly prepared dish: a sensory memory so powerful it can make your mouth water and nose sniffle from hundreds of miles away. That same fish hauled from the pier is now being cleaned. Every part of it will be used for our feast! The oceanic taste of the fillets will compliment the earthen taste of the vegetables, spices, and starches it is put alongside. The bones, head, and extra bits will help form a strong, lending flavor and substance to our soups and stews. These most beloved scents are drawn from many of the same elemental smells, cooked together and transformed into something more flavorful and memorable.
We will continue with the pages of this publication to create a feast for your senses. In doing so, we wish to stimulate your mind, acquainting it with things new and familiar through a different sensibility. We hope that as you read the contributions with in these pages that you will have moments of nostalgia. We wish to spark interest within you to use and realize your senses in such a way that you are moved to share and create stories of your own.
We ask that you take a deep breath. As the air fills your lungs, notice the scents that are around you. Take a moment to just be right there and as you exhale, allow your mind to take in all the senses that are being created. Why not share in the joy of those creations?
We have an amazing obligation to connect with one another, and are proud to be connecting with so many people through our publication of Cazuela. At its very core and it’s foundation we believe we’re creating a sense of community and today we are connecting our community to the sense of scent.
Creatively Yours,
Colin Eubank & Mr. Sean
All submissions can be sent to catalina.cazuela@gmail.com
Recipe for the Issue
Start with a helping of
Articles and Observations:
• WHAT’S UP WITH THOSE GIANT MOSQUITOES?!
by Carlos de la Rosa
• DO YOU SMELL THAT?
by Rich Zanelli
• THE WOMAN WHO LOVES HERSELF
by Sky O’Connor
• MARCH SUPER WORM MOON WELCOMES SPRING
by Alison Neville
• FREQUENTLY MISUSED WORDS, PART 2
by Rich Zanelli
• FINDING MY WAY HOME
by Chuck Jones
Mix in a handful of Creative Writing:
• ENCHANTED ISLE
a poem by Rosie “Pinky” Taylor
• THE DONKEY & THE WOLF
an Aesop Fable
• ONCE
a poem by Tom Cushing
• JULIA’S WAR
fiction by Tom Quinn
Season with a dash of Essay:
• THE HISTORY OF CATALINA COOKBOOKS
by Paul Birchall
• WOMEN OF HERSTORY: MOTHERS OF PUNK, THE THIRD PART
by Constance Rux
• DRAMA ON THE FLOWERS
by Carlos de la Rosa
Add a pinch of Community Shares:
• A DISPATCH FROM THE GARDEN
by The Avalon Community Garden
• LOCAL ARTIST OF THE MONTH: BUCK LOPEZ
by Catalina Art Association
• SUPPORTING THE ARTS
by Sean Brannock
Steep all the above in
Visual Art:
• PORTUGUESE FISHERMEN (MARCH COVER)
oil painting by Silvio Silvestri
• THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT….
a portrait sketch by Ron Pyke
• CATALINA ARTWORK COLLAGE
artworks by Buck Lopez
• FONEFAUNA: a series of stylus sketches
by Caprice Rothe
• FEBRUARY’S WINNER (Sean Brannock)
from the CAPTION THIS challenge
And before you know it, you’ve got a cazuela to share! Enough to satisfy our palates until next month…
From the Avalon Library Archives: The History of Catalina Cookbooks!
by Paul Birchall,
Avalon Library Manager
* * *
As Library Manager at Avalon Library, I was quite complimented when the editors of Cazuela approached me to ask if I’d like to write a little about some of the Catalina-related items in our (and your, really) local collection. At this time, many of our more fascinating holdings are in storage while we renovate the library. However, we’ve brought some wonderful, historical items with us to the Express Library at 210 A Metropole, across the street from Catalina Museum.
An element in our historical collection that I find particularly interesting (and entertaining) is our quite large collection of locally created cookbooks. You should come on in and see them! Avalon Library has a particularly engaging series of non-professional (meaning self-published), community-created cookbooks. These are generally spiral bound volumes, created as fundraisers to support various local institutions.
The way to Avalon’s heart is, of course, through its stomach – and home grown cookbooks of the past provide an incredibly fascinating snapshot of Avalon’s history: What people found delicious in the past often changes with time. And, in Avalon, thanks to the new gourmet-strength offerings at the grandly reopened Vons, foods are now available on the island that (in years past) folks would have had to cart over on the boat. But there’s also something to be said about the simplicity and delight of casseroles and icebox cakes.
Not only do the contents of the library’s local cookbook collection showcase lots of food that folks found delicious in the past, they also provide a haunting portrait of Avalon’s even more oceanic past.
For instance, the wonderful Catalina Island Fresh Fish Cook Book, published 1976 by the Catalina Island Yacht Club Women’s Auxiliary, offers a number of extraordinary dishes. One particularly intriguing, and very simple, recipe is for “Quick Sautéed Sand Dabs,” a regional specialty:
“Dress the sand dabs. Into a paper or plastic bag, put corn meal, salt, pepper and paprika, and shake to mix.” After sautéing until slightly brown, “drain on paper towels.” Fish accompaniment: “Mix equal parts of mayonnaise and regular mustard, beat for 1 minute.” The recipe concludes, “All ingredients can be kept in ship’s stores – you need only catch the fish!”
Catalina Kitchen, a Collection of Recipes, a 1952 book published by Avalon School’s Parents and Teacher Association, crackles with enchanting cuisine to delight the Eisenhower Era Palate. I’m not sure I’d go for the “Frankfurter Noodle Casserole,” with its recommendation to “drain boiling water from franks, add to noodle mixture, add can of mushroom soup.” However, I’d gobble up the “Apple Nut Pudding” right now. Catalina Kitchen, a Collection of Recipes, also offers an amazing recipe for Catalina Wild Boar, which certainly was a possible delicacy for carnivorous hunters back in the day:
“Marinate boar in Milani 1890 French Dressing and fresh garlic. Soak overnight in refrigerator. Roast as you would any other roast, basting often!” I’d also quite enjoy some of the astonishing dishes made with abalone, which pop up throughout Catalina Kitchen. “Abalone Pot Roast,” is one truly intriguing-sounding meal. “To prepare abalone for pot-roasting, first clean and trim in the usual way. Pound piece gently on both sides until edges are pliable but not soft and limp,” the recipe describes. “In a Dutch oven, lightly brown the abalone on both sides. Add tomato sauce and wine. Bake for 1 hour or until abalone is tender.” Delish!
Abalone also features prominently in the truly luscious Catalina Island Fresh Fish Cookbook, a 1991 locally published text that features a number of mouthwatering fish dishes. The recipe for “Saute’ed Abalone Southwest” describes how to make delicious, lightly breaded, pounded abalone steaks. “Be careful pounding,” author Charles Walters notes, “This takes time and a lot of care not to pound holes through the steaks!”
Catalina Island Fresh Fish Cookbook also offers a recipe for Abalone Burgers, which suggests cubing an abalone steak and then putting it through a meat grinder. “Do not try to use a blender or a food processor to grind the abs. It won’t work!” Walters describes how a friend of his tried to make abalone burgers using a food processor. “Looking at that abalone milkshake a-swirling, and a-foaming around in there with little black specks shooting by, I knew I didn’t want to eat one of those things.”
From the 1973 Campus by the Sea’s Tried and True Cookbook, we find a wonderful recipe for preparing Peace Burgers from local abalone. But this cookbook provides much in the way of folksy comfort fare, with mouth watering recipes for Cowboy Coffee Cake, Pumpkin Bread, Sourdough French Bread, and Daddy’s Favorite Date Bread. While I was working on this article at the library, several young patrons were so amazed by the bread dishes, they all Xeroxed the pages from the cookbook, including the recipe for Refrigerator Cake, an idyllic concoction filled with whipped cream, semi-sweet chocolate, and lady fingers. I warned the young patrons that the librarian expects to sample any treats made from these books!
Occasionally, an offbeat humorous sensibility shows through this collection of local texts. Recipes: Ship ‘n’ Shore, 1976, written to support the Catalina Island Yacht Club Women’s Auxiliary, boasts a fascinating recipe for Elephant Stew. “Catch 1 elephant and stew 4-5 weeks, seasoning well with salt and pepper. If more servings are needed, put a rabbit in the stew, but don’t let the guests know, since they may not like a hare in their food.”
Come visit us at the library and we’ll take you on a delicious walk down memory lane as we show you our cookbook collection!
What’s Up With Those Giant Mosquitoes?!
by Carlos de la Rosa
* * *
They are all over Avalon. Actually, they are all over the Island! Giant mosquito-like creatures, flying clumsily into our houses, bouncing against the ceiling, gathering around the lights, landing on our carts. They look like the great-white-sharks of mosquitoes, gigantic, scary-looking. People call them “mosquito-eaters” so they can’t be all bad, can they?
As a matter of fact, pretty much everything you hear about these harmless creatures is wrong. They are NOT mosquitoes. They don’t eat mosquitoes either. They don’t bite. As a matter of fact, they don’t eat a lot, if anything. Maybe A bit of nectar from a flower.
These scary-looking Hulk-like insects are called crane flies (because of their crane-like, long legs). They are a relative of mosquitoes (belonging to the Order diptera, or two-winged flies), but belong to a different family, the Tipulidae.
Crane flies are completely harmless. They live only for a few days as adults. As larvae, they live in wet areas, streams, ponds, and even in the moist soil, feeding of decaying organic matter. As adults, their sole responsibility is to find a mate and procreate. Some species visit flowers (see the pollen on the head of the crane-fly in one of the photos), sipping a bit of nectar and helping pollinate them.
The nature of Catalina Island is fascinating and full of mysteries and stories. We will be sharing more of these stories in upcoming essays and a book.
Do You Smell That?
by Rich Zanelli
* * *
We have all seen it and heard its effects, but how many of us have smelled lightning? If you have ever been close to a lightning strike, you have probably noticed a smell, sometimes fairly faint and sometimes overpowering, immediately after, probably even before the hairs on your arm have stopped standing on end. Some describe the odor as similar to chlorine. To me, it smells like melting plastic or burning inorganic matter. It is on the unpleasant side, but the reason behind the smell is really pretty cool.
The two most abundant elements in our atmosphere are oxygen and nitrogen. However, atoms of these elements rarely occur without a partner. Thus, instead of a bunch of Os and Ns in our atmosphere, what we more accurately have is a bunch of O2s and N2s. When lightning strikes, it superheats the air around it to ridiculous temperatures (over 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit), causing the sonic boom we hear as thunder and forcing molecules of air to be violently split apart. All of this activity results, for a short period of time, in stray Os and Ns. Most of these pair back up fairly quickly, but every so often a stray O will join up with an O2 to make a molecule of ozone (O3). The human olfactory system is sensitive enough to smell ozone in small concentrations (about 10 parts per billion – that is roughly equivalent to traveling five feet of your journey all the way to the sun), so even a small amount of ozone in the air is noticeable to us.
Another interesting factoid is that you can sometimes smell ozone before a thunderstorm hits. This results from previous lightning-created ozone molecules being pushed forward at the leading edge of a storm. It does not necessarily indicate that the upcoming storm will be severe, only that it had been severe.
Fun Facts About Lightning
1. A single bolt of lightning is around 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun.
2. The irrational fear of lightning is known as keraunophobia.
3. The odds of being struck by lightning in your lifetime is 1 in 3,000.
4. Each second there are 50 to 100 Cloud-to-ground lightning strikes to the earth worldwide.
5. On average, the Empire State Building in New York is struck 24 times a year and was once struck eight times in 24 minutes.
6. The energy contained from a single lightning strike can power a 100-watt light bulb for 90 days.
7. “Lightning never strikes twice” is just a myth, lightning can strike the same location many times.
8. Lightning follows the path of least resistance as it streaks through the sky. It would prefer to travel in a straight line, but will shift its path to avoid obstacles, even as small as a speck of dust. This is why it has such an erratic-looking visual signature.
9. “Lightning” and “lightening” do not mean the same thing.
Borrowed from: https://churchillsc.co.uk/news/10-interesting-facts- lightning/ and then modified.
A Dispatch From the Community Garden
by Colin Eubank
* * *
Through rain and shine, the Avalon Community Garden has continued to meet on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10:00AM. Many of the seedlings planted in February now peek about an inch above the soil. The spinach, dwarf bok choy, kale, sugar snap peas, and lettuce varieties (romaine, butter crunch, black seeded simpson, and mixed) have grown with particular enthusiasm. The radish leaves have sprouted with a yellowish-tint, which may suggest a nutrient deficiency. Other plants, such as the carrots and chioggia beets, have yet to surface.
Gardeners have begun working on ways to assist the plants growing in light-poor parts of the plot. Some of these efforts have taken the form of basic environmental maintenance, such as removing unwanted growth around the sproutlings and pruning the foliage of a tree which casts shade on the plot. But other solutions have taken a more experimental stance. One such effort has been to install mirrors to redirect sunlight to the light-poor areas. As the sun moves through the sky, the mirror redirects the light to different parts of the shaded bed.
In addition to providing regular updates on the Avalon Community Garden, our dispatches include a brief interview with members involved in the Garden. This month, we sit down with Kelly McCain to discuss gardening and what this initiative means to her. Hope you enjoy!
When did you first begin gardening, and what is one of your favorite memories that you associate with this practice?
“I started gardening when I bought my first home in 1983, and I think one of my favorite memories comes from some of my early experiences with gardening. I took a cutting of my favorite plant, which is calla lily, from my friend’s house and brought it back to my house. Within a few years, calla lilies lined the entire side of my house. Planting [that single calla lily] and watching it grow and multiply, was a wonderful experience for me.”
What is the feeling you get while gardening that makes it a special activity for you?
“Gardening is really meditative for me. I really like the feeling of earth, and while gardening I get to see the life-force of plants up close.”
Can you talk about one thing you’ve learned so far with the Avalon Community Garden?
“So, in my opinion, the Avalon Community Garden is very much like a lab. We’re starting here and learning and adapting to our space — which has a lot of challenges. I don’t know how some of the things we’re trying will turn out. It’s trial and error, which is why I think of it as a lab (laughter). But it’s a process, and that’s what makes it exciting, you know?…One thing I’m curious about is the straw bales [which are used as a raised base upon which about half the garden has been planted] because I’ve never really tried that before. I’m really excited to see the results of this method.”
(You can read more about straw bale gardens at: www.gardeners.com/how-to/straw-bale-gardens/8882.html )
What is a dream or vision you have for the Avalon Community Garden?
“Well, I would love to introduce hydroponics to the garden. I’m still learning about it and researching it myself, but hydroponics is a space-saving, water-saving system where you grow using no soil (all the nutrients are in the water). But it’s fascinating because this is a system you can build vertically…I would love to see the whole community garden space overflowing with life and an abundance of greens, hanging flowers, veggies…all while saving water.”
What can this initiative bring to the Avalon Community as a whole?
“Expansion. If this is the lab, then we can use it to attract people who are interested, find out what works, see what systems work best for our climate. But I can see us expanding our efforts to the rest of town. There’s plenty of space throughout town that could be beautified and, in the future, used to grow food.”
For more information about how to join or donate to the Avalon Community Garden, contact:
Micah at 310.245.2829
Dan at 310.510.0220
“Enchanted Isle”
a poem by
Rosie “Pinky” Taylor
* * *
Like a veil, a thin
Gauze of clouds hides her.
A vague silhouette,
Dances behind a screen.
Seductive and inviting – calling
Me to push past the curtain.
I do, and catch that first glimpse
Majestic and beautiful,
She lays among the waves
Bright with morning sun,
Shining softly on her peaks,
Eucalyptus scarf thrown
Casually across her shoulder.
And in her palm,
Lay like a jewel in a shell
Avalon
Women of HERstory: Mothers of Punk, The Third Part
by Constance Rux
* * *
When I started this three-part series, I didn’t know where it was going to end. To be honest, as I started this article – The Mothers of Punk, The Third Part – I rewrote it several times before I decided on how I wanted it to go. A lot has happened over the course of the past few days in the media regarding performers. I decided I needed to address this. The Gayle King interview of R. Kelly hit prime time, the “Leaving Neverland” documentary hit Netflix. The internet has exploded with images, interviews, news articles, and the one thing I can’t get out of my mind: that these two male artists got away with what they were doing for years. YEARS. They were allowed, yes allowed, to continue what they did because of their celebrity. Because of their sellability, their stage presence, their ability to speak to a mass audience. A mainstream audience. The people who came forward to speak against them were shut down because…because… I am at a loss. Because they were female? Or children? Because they were unknown? Because they are a minority? Or more to the point – because the men they accused made a lot of people, a lot of money? (I vote that one)
But this is 2019 and the #timesup #metoo #muterkelly #yesallwomen #fem2 #allmencan #rapeculture #speakout #standup #weareallrealsickofthisandarereallysureitneedstobeovernow
But isn’t this a his(HER)story piece? Yes. So why am I bringing up the present? Well, we are living in a moment. Making his(HER)story now. The future is watching us. As it watched the generations before us. Waiting to pick us apart minutely piece by piece. We are under the microscope. The microscope of the generation of my daughter, who is crawling around my feet right now, and her children too. The generation that doesn’t understand yet what is happening around them, but will soon. They won’t listen to Elmo forever. So do we want the people they look up to once they stop looking up to talking puppets be just another version of a talking puppet? That presents one thing to the public, but behind the curtain can do anything they want because they are willing to be a puppet? In today’s internet culture this is increasingly harder to do. Everything everyone does is everywhere. The curtain is opening.
That point brings me back to the beginning of this three piece series. My original question – Why were the Mothers of Punk brushed aside? I finally had an answer. Because they were not controllable. They had their own ideas, there own voice, their own thing to say. They just were who they were. Think of the 90s and 00s girl groups (I say groups because none of them played anything). The Spice Girls, TLC, Destiny’s Child, The Pussycat Dolls – the female versions of their boy band counterparts. I listened to them as much as any other 90s girl. But what did they have to say? Nothing. They had nothing to say. Yes, they showed a female in a male profession. But they were not taken seriously. They were “harmless.” Dad’s took their daughters to the concerts, or let them buy the posters because the Dad’s thought they were sexy. Not because they were great female role models. They didn’t necessarily cause waves or controversy. They were marketable, they were predictable. They didn’t cause waves. A 90s girl could say, “I wanna be Posh Spice!” Her parents could laugh, “He, He, okay kitten, let’s get you a pop star costume for Halloween and singing lessons. Oh, isn’t that cute. She wants to sing.” It was accepted. Who doesn’t still sing all I really-want-is-a-zing-a-zing-ahhh?
Now, tell your Dad you want to wear spikes, torn up jeans, combat boots, and yell about the patriarchy in a ski mask like Pussy Riot… crickets. (Now that is a generalization, if you are reading this and you think, not me! Then no, not you.) They were as much sex symbols as singers. Being sexy is marketable, reliable, a desirable trait in our society (now please don’t confuse the markatable sexy with the hard faught for freedom for women to wear whatever they want – like pants – and not get burned at the stake for it – sorry Joan) – see my first piece in this series for more on this concerning Rolling Stones and the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame.
But recently there is a shift. A shift in the mainstream. Female artists speaking out, saying something again, and being listened to. Lady Gaga, Pink, Queen Latifah, Beyonce, Cardi B, Pussy Riot – they are using their platform on the stage to say something, using their music to change something. Do I need to agree with everything they say to appreciate that? No. It makes me look back to the women who spoke, screamed, and sang ideas into their microphones in the 70s. This new generation of female artists are using their talents as a way to reach out and spread awareness again. To speak ideas again. They are coming up against the same old industry issues, sure. But now they have a whole twitterverse behind them.
The Mothers of Punk should be proud. Their fight was not in vain. Maybe they never reached the level of success these “daughters” have. But it wasn’t in vain. They opened doors, they opened stages. They paved a path. I feel this piece may never really come to a close. But it has to end somewhere. So it will end here for now. With open ears I await the next generations of women to pick up an instrument and express themselves, express a movement, and lead us on into a time when the music industry isn’t only the industry of Drugs, Sex, and Rock n’ Roll, but of Ideas, Equality, and Innovation.
The Donkey & The Wolf
A DONKEY feeding in a meadow saw a Wolf approaching to seize him, and immediately pretended to be lame. The Wolf, coming up, inquired the cause of his lameness. The Donkey replied that passing through a hedge he had trod with his foot upon a sharp thorn. He requested that the Wolf pull it out, lest when he ate him it should injure his throat. The Wolf consented and lifted up the foot, and was giving his whole mind to the discovery of the thorn, when the Donkey, with his heels, kicked his teeth into his mouth and galloped away. The Wolf, being thus fearfully mauled, said, “I am rightly served, for why did I attempt the art of healing, when my father only taught me the trade of a butcher?”
Cazuela 