Nate Beaty's Brainfag

Thanks to Yogurt and Meat

posted in Home Jabber on March 07, 2006

Dogs are so gross.

We just got a puppy in the house. Seconds ago he gulped down a bunch of water and ran across the house a few times. Then he ran into a corner, made an awful upchuck sound which resulted in a puddle of water with a few chunks of breakfast on the floor. Which, of course, he proceeded to lick up.

(Sidenote: our roommate Cliff named his dog "Basin", which he pronounces "Bassun" because it sounds better..)

Yesterday I received a package from Faber & Faber with a few copies of The Motel Life in the real, live flesh! Well, freshly printed paper, I guess. It turned out frickin beautiful, with some nice touches by designer Jon Gray. This is the first perfectbound book I've worked on, and I love it. I want to do MORE books where you send off files and back comes the finished product.

The latest Harpers has an amazing article on a very disturbing "anti-HIV drug" test trial conducted in Uganda to compare AZT to nevirapine in reducing mother-to-infant transmission of HIV. They also mention Peter Duesberg and his assertions (dating back to 1987!) that HIV has never been scientifically proven to even remotely be the cause of AIDS.

Those of you who've known me for a while have likely been subject to my own blatherings on the subject for the last ten years since I myself was introduced to the slew of books and websites flat-out disproving (or exposing the moneygrubbing, murderous nature of) the now-20-year-old paradigm of HIV=AIDS. I'm continually amazed it's still held as fact in the worldwide consciousness, and people are still being administered the (AIDS-causing) unbelievably toxic drugs meant to "treat HIV" after being tested positive for natural antibodies that are handling a common and harmless retrovirus, HIV.

It's just great to see it in Harpers. I often rave about how the pharmaceutical-corporate-political grip on this nation continues to strangle and poison our well-being, as well as dictate a large portion of the widespread evils we smear across earth, the REAL pandemic: United States influence. Hooray for Harper's to print such controversial material.

Whew.

In lighter news, I now share an office downtown with Chloe, proprietress of Reading Frenzy. I'm hoping this means MORE productivity and LESS stress for this grumpy little man. I've been really easily distracted lately, and having a specific space for work with nothing but a desk and my laptop and my drawing pad should help a lot.

So, I had tried this diet before, the last time I was really sick, this wacky foofoo diet called The Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Well, it's not so wacky foofoo. It's actually quite simple. I'm fairly positive Dave Roche mentions it as the diet which "requires you eat meat" in his zine About My Disappearance (which describes his diagnosis of Crohns last year, a chronic intestinal disease much like what I myself have procured). And, although it doesn't "require" it, it does basically revolve around meat and dairy. And NO grains. None. No rice, wheat, barley, oats, spelt. No sugar, no soy, no popcorn, no chips, no maple syrup. But meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, honey, nuts, most cheeses, eggs, and homemade yogurt are OK. The yogurt is fermented for 24 hours to remove all lactose and is basically the foundation of the diet -- very nutricious and full of gut-friendly bacteria.

What's funny is that I had previously been totally avoiding dairy, thinking that was causing problems. Well, I have definitely proven to myself I'm not allergic to dairy. After following this diet for about 5 days, my symptoms which had been plaguing me since before Christmas went away and have been gone since. I've eaten more eggs, chicken, fish, cheese and yogurt in the last two weeks than I have in the last ten years. And I gained all my weight back (I was 10-15 lbs underweight..)

Anyway, feeling better. Thanks to yogurt and meat! Yee-haw.

Soon Bok and I went with Jonathan Hill and friends and saw Art School Confidential at the Portland Indie Filmfest. It was really hilarious for the first half, and like most critics have said, really lost it's focus with the introduction of this campus murderer subplot. Like Soon Bok says, it's very Daniel Clowes, but I don't think it translates well to screen. The subtle humor of the murderous subplot would work well in his stark, dry panels -- but onscreen with flesh-and-blood stranglings, it just feels really awkward and distracts from the humor of the movie. Plus the ending just sucked. Sad, but I think it would do so well with a re-edit, it has potential to be a great movie, but that will never happen.

For those of you who produce your comic or zine on an Apple, say with Indesign or Quark, and are plagued with the lack of an imposing program -- check out CocoaBooklet, a free (I sent him $10) program for OS X that takes a PDF and imposes it 2-up or 4-up (effing awesome!) in just a few seconds. I've been looking for something like this for YEARS, thanks Fabien! (Plus he's a big fan of French "new wave" (as he says) cartoonists like Lewis Trondheim, so ya gotta support him!)

OK, back to choking down the yogurt and meat.