"You know, it's my art - When I disguise my body in the shape of a plane!" - Shellac, Wingwalker, Uranus 7"
This is an interesting project to me. We have "make-a-thon" as our first projects these days, so I decided to make something I have been working on getting better at making. That something is bread. To be completely honest, as I've gotten more and more into making bread myself, the more I find I have to say about something which is undoubtedly one of the most boring topics in the world for most people to talk about. Breadmaking. My reasoning for making bread for this project was that making bread is something that we, as humans, have been doing for thousands of years. But in this past couple decades, there has been a horrible rumor going around that you need some sort of machine to make it for you. This is one of our most inherent human characteristics, my friends. We have been making bread for ages, and I'm not about to let that facet of my humanity be so easily destroyed.
For this project, I baked 2 loaves of bread using yeast from a sourdough culture I obtained from the Friends of Carl. Google them, send them a self addressed stamped envelope, and maybe a small donation if you're feeling generous (or don't, either way they'll still help you out) and they will send you a small amount of dried starter that you can use to start growing your own - their culture dates all the way back to the 1870s.
I made the bread by hand, using only a bowl and a spoon. And the bread ingredients, obviously. Once the loaves had properly risen, they were baked in my apartment's oven, on a cheaply acquired pizza stone. The oven's humidity was stimulated by placing ice cubes into a small pan, and placing the pan in the oven as well.
The bread allowed me to talk about how I feel about technological advancement destroying useful human skills, and gave me an opportunity to show off a different kind of art that I normally am selfishly consuming all myself: my food.
My favorite webcomic is Achewood, I have been a regular reader for many years. This strip in particular is one that inspired me to begin making bread. For those of you not wishing to follow a link, I will point out that one of the characters, Ray, says that, "Nothing is more old-school than baking your own damn staff of life! A dude who can walk into any kitchen in the world and make bread is COMPLETELY RAW!" This stuck with me, and it fermented in my brain the way the yeast will given a long, slow rise. I realized that I could cook a multitude of dishes, but that I could not make bread. Obviously, this had to change. As for the rest of the Badass Games, I have not been similarly inspired to convince a career prisoner that I have done hard time, or an angry dog that I am its natural master, but I would have probably passed the psychological test - the ZZ Top '33 Ford Eliminator is obviously more badass than driving the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile.