Hardcase Survival Pinto Bean Sludge

Victoria McCabe19 May 1973Dear Victoria,Herewith my bit for your cookbook. This recipe is not original but a variation on an old (perhaps ancient) Southwestern dish. It has also been a favorite of mine and was for many years the staple, the sole staple, of my personal nutritional program. (I am six feet three and weigh 190 pounds, sober.)I call it Hardcase Survival Pinto Bean Sludge.1. Take one fifty-pound sack Colorado pinto beans. Remove stones, cockleburs, horseshit, ants, lizards, etc. Wash in clear cold crick water. Soak for twenty-four hours in iron kettle or earthenware cooking pot. (DO NOT USE TEFLON, ALUMINUM OR PYREX CONTAINER. THIS WARNING CANNOT BE OVERSTRESSED.)2. Place kettle or pot with entire fifty lbs. of pinto beans on low fire and simmer for twenty-four hours. (DO NOT POUR OFF WATER IN WHICH BEANS HAVE BEEN IMMERSED. THIS IS IMPORTANT.) Fire must be of juniper, pinyon pine, mesquite or ironwood; other fuels tend to modify the subtle flavor and delicate aroma of Pinto Bean Sludge.3. DO NOT BOIL.4. STIR VIGOROUSLY FROM TIME TO TIME WITH WOODEN SPOON OR IRON LADLE. (Do not disregard these instructions.)5. After simmering on low fire for twenty-four hours, add one gallon green chile peppers. Stir vigorously. Add one quart natural (non-iodized) pure sea salt. Add black pepper. Stir some more and throw in additional flavoring materials, as desired, such as old bacon rinds, corncobs, salt pork, hog jowls, kidney stones, ham hocks, sowbelly, saddle blankets, jungle boots, worn-out tennis shoes, cinch straps, whatnot, use your own judgment. Simmer an additional twenty-four hours.6. Now ladle as many servings as desired from pot but do not remove pot from fire. Allow to simmer continuously for hours, days or weeks if necessary, until all contents have been thoroughly consumed. Continue to stir vigorously, whenever in vicinity or whenever you think of it.7. Serve Pinto Bean Sludge on large flat stones or on any convenient fairly level surface. Garnish liberally with parsley flakes. Slather generously with raw ketchup. Sprinkle with endive, anchovy crumbs and boiled cruets and eat hearty.8. One potful Pinto Bean Sludge, as above specified, will feed one poet for two full weeks at a cost of about $11.45 at current prices. Annual costs less than $300.9. The philosopher Pythagoras found flatulence incompatible with meditation and therefore urged his followers not to eat beans. I have found, however, that custom and thorough cooking will alleviate this problem.Yrs, Edward Abbey—Tucson ***

Freedom and Wilderness

I suppose doing a post about Edward Abbey is becoming a weekly thing now, but this one is the toppermost of the poppermost. Moab, Utah's Back of Beyond Books sells a 4 CD collection of Abbey reading his own work that you can (and should) buy here. Each disc contains around 45 minutes of talking, which usually amounts to a chapter or two from one of his books. If you're an Abbey fan, which it seems as though some of you are, you need this. Immediately. And if you're not, listen below to an excerpt of "Freedom and Wilderness, Wilderness and Freedom" from The Journey Home. Who wouldn't want to hear the guy who wrote this repeat it into a microphone?

We need wilderness because we are wild animals. Every man needs a place where he can go to go crazy in peace. Every Boy Scout troop deserves a forest to get lost, miserable, and starving in. Even the maddest murderer of the sweetest wife should get a chance for a run to the sanctuary of the hills. If only for the sport of it. For the terror, freedom, and delirium. Because we need brutality and raw adventure, because men and women first learned to love in, under, and all around trees, because we need for every pair of feet and legs about ten leagues of naked nature, crags to leap from, mountains to measure by, deserts to finally die in when the heart fails.

MP3: Ed Abbey - Excerpt from "Freedom and Wilderness, Wilderness and Freedom"

Edward Abbey Self-Portrait

Over the last thirty or so years, Burt Britton has worked at The Village Vanguard, The Strand, and The Sheridan Square Book Store. He was then a co-owner of the Upper East Side's Books and Company, which closed in the early 90s. While he worked, he would ask people to draw self-portraits, including Miles Davis, a teenage Kareem Abdul Jabar, Tennesse Williams, and of course, Edward Abbey, whose self-portrait is above. Over 200 were selected for auction this past September, and Abbey's, in the company of people like Normal Mailer, Frank Gehry and Saul Bellow, still fetched $1900.MP3: Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Swimming Song

Cold Splinters + The FADER

A few weeks ago, The FADER asked if I would write up a blog for them, doing the things I do here, but with more of an emphasis on fashion. To be perfectly honest, I don't know much of anything about fashion and/or style, but, as I mentioned at The FADER earlier today, I'll damn well do my best. You can read my entire first post here:

My first hike was a catastrophe. I was on a vacation with my family in Arizona, and after a morning of eggs, bacon and swimming, my father, my brother and I all went on what would be the first of many family hikes up Phoenix’s Camelback Mountain. Camelback is a prominent landmark in the area, impossible to miss unless you’re above 60 and have started to lose your sight and/or mind. The hike up the mountain is difficult and steep, enough so that rails have been put in several places along the trail to keep the college visor wearing hikers hydrated by Mountain Dew from falling to their premature deaths.

Thanks again to everyone who reads this rag. I can't tell you how much it means when someone writes and says they enjoy coming around these parts. And an obvious thanks to the staff at FADER (especially Chioma) for a) knowing what Cold Splinters is and b) writing the best music magazine around. Can't wait to see what JTK has in store for you.MP3: Electric Light Orchestra - Shine A Little Love