Friday, September 3, 2010 Coach Was Right...

My elementary school gym teacher Coach Sagnelli always said "follow through." Of course he was demonstrating ball throwing at the time, but it really applies to everything.

Follow through.

So when I was told I was writing for a paper, and wrote an article, I really should have checked with someone that it was indeed going to be published before telling the world to be expecting an article from me to be published in the paper.

It was not.

I guess not hearing that something isn't going to be published is no substitute for confirming it is.

My bad.

I honestly don't know what happened. I suppose I'll find out. Or I won't. But, in the meantime, I have this article I wrote on food and music wasting away on my hard drive. Might as well use it and save myself the trouble of a new, original blog post. So, here goes...

Food, Music and Tribal Socialization
By The Headbanging Hostess


“If music be the food of love play on!” – Shakespeare

“And if food be the food of love keep cookin’!” – The Headbanging Hostess


Food and music – two things that have brought people together for the purposes of enjoyment throughout the ages. What was that first meal shared by a wandering tribe of yet-to-be-modernized men and women? Something the men killed with something the women gathered on the side, I’m guessing. Maybe someone whittled a pot out of a tree trunk while one of the ladies made a mirepoix and someone butchered the animal while everyone else ran around trying to make fire.

Once they figured that out I’m sure life was grand. Wandering around from continent to continent, eating locally, fresh, sustainable. If the food ran out you just walked somewhere else. And conveniently the local greens, berries and wild herbs always complimented whatever protein was walking around waiting to be bowed and arrowed.

And then there’s the music. Surely the butcher of the tribe doubled as a drummer. He’d stretch that animal skin over the whittled soup pot and bang on it with a couple femurs until the ladies willingly knocked themselves over the head – fully aware they’d be drug about by their hair and ravaged by the drum banging butcher rock star.

Gatherers became groupies, hunters became heroes and life as we know it was born.

I might have missed a step of two but I’m The Headbanging Hostess, not a historian. My focus is less on historical accuracy and more on the importance of food and music as they relate to our culture, the dinner table and my stomach.

We live in a time, and in an area, where good food is in abundance. If you have the money you can go to the finest restaurants, if you have less money you can dine at a chain and if all you have is time and a few bucks you can stay at home and make your own magic in the kitchen. Thanks to Food Network, food bloggers, food writers and food eaters more people are becoming more aware of just how important what we put in our mouth is. Where it comes from, how it’s produced, the quality of ingredients, the heritage behind the recipe, the love that a cook puts into the food that we eat – all of these things serve to nourish us, to bring us together at the table for an enjoyment and appreciation of the earth and its bounty.

Togetherness. Human interaction. Joining together like the tribes we once were to share stories and food and laughter and love. That’s what it’s all about.

And as far as music goes, well I think we can all agree that we will all never agree on that. I like metal and he likes country and she likes rap and he likes jazz. Musical taste is far more personalized and intricate than the seemingly simple likes and dislikes of food, but once in a while one may get a taste of something outside of their comfort zone, whether musical or gastronomical, and they might just find they like it.

Welcome to the tribe.

-HH