((nemo knows no boundaries))
The Austin Chronicles
November Twenty Fifth, 2oo4
Thanksgiving (for my international fans, of whom i have many) is a holiday we Americans invented to celebrate our national obesity and how the people who used to live here showed us how to grow food before we killed all of them with poisoned blankets and then stole their land.
It's usually spent with a bunch of arguing aunts in the kitchen and a half dozen uncles and cousins yelling at the tv while watching football. Then there's turkey and mashed potatoes and probably some pumpkin pie, and the adults drink a lot of alcohol while the kids play in the basement and everyone hints at what they want for christmas this year.
Every year we go through something like this. I'm not really a fan. Sure, there is usually some good food and people ask me what i want them to buy for me for no good reason and i'm always down with that. But the whole routine is a bit played out, really. I enjoy food, but one can only have so many turkey and mash potato meals before it loses it's impact. That, and i've never been a fan of football, or sitting around and drinking beer, so that kind of strikes me out for that section of the holiday as well.
Generally, Thanksgiving is not something i look forward to.
But this particular Thanksgiving was bound to be quite different. I would be in Austin. I would not be around my entire family, and instead, a bunch of riders, skaters, film makers and other people whose names i've seen in magazines. For the first time, i was the youngest person there (often by a good decade). When someone met me, their first question wasn't "Where do you go to school" or "How old are you" or any other generic adult-type question that can never lead into a conversation worth having. It was always, always, "Do your ride?". Almost everyone there rides, or is at least interested in riding. And they can actually talk to you about something other than what you want to do after high school. I think adults sometimes forget how many times we're asked that question, and for someone like me who doesn't have any concrete plans in that area, it gets real tedious.
The other way this Thanksgiving would undoubtedly be different from that of previous years: the majority of people i would be having it with were vegan. What that means is there wouldn't be a single piece of meat for the entire meal. No turkey (although, Billie did make a tofu replacement, complete with fake soy-turkey skin), and vegan gravy to go over those mashed potatoes.
When we were all sitting around eating, I remember someone saying how this wasn't a "traditional" Thanksgiving. Which i agreed with at first, until Sandy's girlfriend, Jen, brought up a really interesting point.
She said this was more traditional then what we were all used to. Instead of being surrounded by our extended family, most of us (coming from michigan, scotland, etc.) were far away from our families (not at all unlike the pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving) and experiencing something new was more akin to their forced acceptance of a new way of life when they came over here. We, the pilgrimage to the TerribleOne office in Austin, Texas, were a metaphor for the pilgrimage to America. And that's pretty cool, don't you think?
Anyway, here's some photos ron and i snapped of the occasion:
The shade from the tree makes it kind of hard to tell what this is, but it's all the vegan food laid out on the end of a mini ramp. I just had to post it, because it was our last supper (in Texas), and it's likeness to the painting is simply too cool not to point out.
Just to show you the variety of people that were there. From left to right: my mom, sandy carson, me (in the foreground), jen, michael sieben and joe's mom (already getting into the alcohol!). She was such a funny old lady, made only better by the fact that she was holding this giant bottle of wine the whole night.
A view from my spot at the table. I took this picture of Sandy looking at Taj, Amy and Billie in front of the ramp.
Pictures of people taking pictures; it never goes out of style. I took this picture as well of Joe taking a picture against the ramp.
November Twenty Fifth, 2oo4
Thanksgiving (for my international fans, of whom i have many) is a holiday we Americans invented to celebrate our national obesity and how the people who used to live here showed us how to grow food before we killed all of them with poisoned blankets and then stole their land.
It's usually spent with a bunch of arguing aunts in the kitchen and a half dozen uncles and cousins yelling at the tv while watching football. Then there's turkey and mashed potatoes and probably some pumpkin pie, and the adults drink a lot of alcohol while the kids play in the basement and everyone hints at what they want for christmas this year.
Every year we go through something like this. I'm not really a fan. Sure, there is usually some good food and people ask me what i want them to buy for me for no good reason and i'm always down with that. But the whole routine is a bit played out, really. I enjoy food, but one can only have so many turkey and mash potato meals before it loses it's impact. That, and i've never been a fan of football, or sitting around and drinking beer, so that kind of strikes me out for that section of the holiday as well.
Generally, Thanksgiving is not something i look forward to.
But this particular Thanksgiving was bound to be quite different. I would be in Austin. I would not be around my entire family, and instead, a bunch of riders, skaters, film makers and other people whose names i've seen in magazines. For the first time, i was the youngest person there (often by a good decade). When someone met me, their first question wasn't "Where do you go to school" or "How old are you" or any other generic adult-type question that can never lead into a conversation worth having. It was always, always, "Do your ride?". Almost everyone there rides, or is at least interested in riding. And they can actually talk to you about something other than what you want to do after high school. I think adults sometimes forget how many times we're asked that question, and for someone like me who doesn't have any concrete plans in that area, it gets real tedious.
The other way this Thanksgiving would undoubtedly be different from that of previous years: the majority of people i would be having it with were vegan. What that means is there wouldn't be a single piece of meat for the entire meal. No turkey (although, Billie did make a tofu replacement, complete with fake soy-turkey skin), and vegan gravy to go over those mashed potatoes.
When we were all sitting around eating, I remember someone saying how this wasn't a "traditional" Thanksgiving. Which i agreed with at first, until Sandy's girlfriend, Jen, brought up a really interesting point.
She said this was more traditional then what we were all used to. Instead of being surrounded by our extended family, most of us (coming from michigan, scotland, etc.) were far away from our families (not at all unlike the pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving) and experiencing something new was more akin to their forced acceptance of a new way of life when they came over here. We, the pilgrimage to the TerribleOne office in Austin, Texas, were a metaphor for the pilgrimage to America. And that's pretty cool, don't you think?
Anyway, here's some photos ron and i snapped of the occasion:
The shade from the tree makes it kind of hard to tell what this is, but it's all the vegan food laid out on the end of a mini ramp. I just had to post it, because it was our last supper (in Texas), and it's likeness to the painting is simply too cool not to point out.
Just to show you the variety of people that were there. From left to right: my mom, sandy carson, me (in the foreground), jen, michael sieben and joe's mom (already getting into the alcohol!). She was such a funny old lady, made only better by the fact that she was holding this giant bottle of wine the whole night.
A view from my spot at the table. I took this picture of Sandy looking at Taj, Amy and Billie in front of the ramp.
Pictures of people taking pictures; it never goes out of style. I took this picture as well of Joe taking a picture against the ramp.