So Matt and I went to see “The Beaver” last night (I had free tickets).

Wut.

The promotion makes you think it’s a really light movie about a guy who’s depressed but eventually learns to deal with it. And it looks like the kind of movie where my mother would be all “Oh, Mel and Jodie! This will be lovely.”

WRONG.

Usually, trailers for movies show pretty much the whole movie, which I suppose is alright because you know what you’re in for (and they’re usually super predictable anyway). “The Beaver” on the other hand, only shows you about 1/3rd of the movie, during which it’s still just a lighthearted drama-esque thing.

And then the clouds come out the sun says it’ll never come out again.

It’s an extremely dark movie, and in parts very disturbing. Perhaps its art is in that you can’t really pinpoint a time, but suddenly you realise it’s stopped being happy with bits of pathos and has become downright depressing.

The performances are generally good, though Foster gets off to a bit of a rough start (perhaps acting and directing is something she’s still getting used to). And is it a little too close for comfort for Gibson to be playing a depressed alcoholic?

Maybe.

The “messages” of the movie seem to come from every direction, and leave you wondering what the intention was. When you have a problem, the thing to help you get through it can become so permantent that you can’t move on; Family is important and success means nothing without it; The beaver represents the “face” we put up to pretend that every’s ok; or maybe it represents the dependancy of a more physical nature.

There are some genuinely disturbing things, which, at the time, I considering could be awkwardly hilarious out of context. And maybe those will be the scenes that will turn some people off: “It’s gone too far” “Now that’s just ridiculous”.

In the end, you’re left wondering what you’ve just seen. In some ways, it’s a bit of an indie film, with a mainstream subplot (with their son and that girl) tacked on for comfort. But it’s also mainstream, and not just with the actors. Cliché sits somewhat uncomfortably beside an original and often though-provoking story, though I’m not sure I needed such thoughts to be provoked.

It feels like it’s an important film, but it also feels like it’s trying to be so many things that it won’t find an audience. And the “important film” part is undermined in some respects because of its attempts to please a mainstream audience.

Am I glad I saw this movie? Yes and no. Would I see it again? Probably not.

It’s certainly interesting viewing. But consider yourself warned.

(Maybe after reading this, you’ll see it and be all “It was nowhere NEAR as disturbing as I expected and it’s actually a little uplifting / ridiculous / stupid / fun.” So go in when you’re feeling super happy about life and see how you feel THEN.)

I’m pretty sure half the reason people look at us strangely when we say “Oh, I’m vegan” is because they think our food is shit. So when people give me that look, I generally just say “Yeah, all the food’s great and I’ve never felt better” so I DON’T CRASH TACKLE THEM FOR THEIR IGNORANCE.

Why? Let’s explore some of the reasons.

1. “Dinner is meat and potatoes. You don’t eat meat, so you must just eat potatoes. BORING.” Not only is this how most omnivores think of vegan/vegetarianism, it’s how some VEGANS/VEGETARIANS think of it. This isn’t just dangerous for your tastebuds, but could have serious repercussions for your health. And, worst of all, it makes everyone think that a vegan/vegetarian diet makes you sick, pale, and dead. Not good for the cause.
2. “I used to be vegan, but I kept on getting sick, so now I eat eggs/dairy/meat again”. This is tied to the one above. EVERY omnivore has a story of about someone they knew / someone that someone they know knew / etc who went vegan but got all pale and sick and then ditched the diet and got better.
   
   If a vegan diet is making you feel ill, look at what you’re eating and think if some changes (like, I don’t know, eating more than potatoes). If you’re unsure, see a doctor, or research online (especially on vegan / vegetarian forums and ask people what they do), or invest in a good cookbook. Just FYI.
3. “I went vegan not just so I wouldn’t eat animals but so I could be healthier!” NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Vegan food is lumped with “health food” all too often as it is; we don’t need our soldiers on the ground doing the same! We want people to imagine sumptuous vegans FEASTS, just dripping with (non-animal) fat, smothered in any kind of sauce you can imagine, and followed by the most insanely delicious dessert in the world.
   
   Instead, they imagine us munching carrots and celery. Probably in a cage.
   
   
4. “Oh, I’m vegetarian, but I eat fish/chicken”. This is something I will post about properly at a later date, but it essentially say 1) I’m a hypocrite; and 2) Humans can’t survive without some sort of meat in their diet. Suckers.
   
   *sigh* 

Sound familiar?

But what’s worse? Our own lack of standards when it comes to vegan food.

My partner, Matt, and I recently went to a popular dessert restaurant (cafe?) because they’ve started offering a vegan special every week. This is the first week they’ve done it, and the dessert was a tofu cheesecake.

Matt actually talked to the owner about having at least one vegan option (that isn’t soy ice cream) on the menu and gave him recipes and everything. But apparently the guy decided to go out on his own.

And that’s all very well and good because chefs are chefs and they like to do things off their own back. But they’re forgetting one important thing: vegan and omnivorous ingredients are rather different, and they’re going to act in different ways when you’re making something from them. If you’re a vegan chef, you can probably go into something blind using vegan ingredients because you’re familiar with them and know how they work. If you’re an omnivorous chef, you can do the same thing with omnivorous ingredients. But vice versa? Probably not.

What was it like? It was essentially a hunk of tofu that he’d mixed coffee (to disguise the taste of the tofu) and chocolate into. Yum yum yum.

And, because it was a hunk of tofu, it was probably the most filling thing I’ve ever eaten.

The ridiculous thing is that if he’d been trying to invent a new omnivorous dessert and had come up with that, there’s no way it would’ve been served in the restauraunt. But because it’s vegan, he makes excuses for the less-than-satisfactory result.

I was discussing this (obviously, because we were eating it at the same time) with Matt and he said most vegans would consider it excellent.

WHAT?!

My parents said if they could change anything about my and my sister’s upbringing, it would be to raise us on bread and water, because we have rather high culinary standards. And I’ve gone from having high culinary standards as an omnivore to having high culinary standards (possibly even higher standards, in fact) as a vegan, mainly owing to Matt being an amazing cook / baker.

But apparently most vegans don’t eat as well as we do. And they do the same as omnivores do: they make excuses.

“Oh, of course it won’t taste as good, but for what it is, it’s great!” “Yeah, but I’m not eating animal products, so I don’t mind so much that it doesn’t taste good.”

You know what? VEGAN FOOD CAN BE JUST AS GOOD, AND OFTEN EVEN BETTER, THAN OMNIVORE FOOD.

If you’re familiar with Panera Bread (in the USA), they have a cream of chicken and wild rice soup which, as an omnivore, was my favourite soup. Matt made a perfect vegan version of it, and even better because it didn’t have any of the chemical crap that’s in the original. The best brownies and cookies I’ve ever had have been vegan. The best mac-and-cheese I’ve ever had has been vegan.

There is no reason to make excuses for vegan food, because we know how amazing it can be.

Well, maybe there’s one.

So, you go to a place where you know you can buy vegan cake. Not only do you know that it’s vegan, but you know that it’s absolutely the worst cake you’ve ever eaten. But, despite this, you buy it anyway, and eat it (or at least attempt to).

Really, you know you shouldn’t, because you shouldn’t continue to buy something and essentially tell the owners “I love your cake it’s delicious you shouldn’t change it at all :D”, and you’d like to hope that if people stopped buying their cake, they’d improve it and potentially make it edible.

But, especially in a place like Brisbane (where we live), and I’m sure in many other smaller cities, or perhaps even some big cities, if you don’t support vegan businesses, they won’t improve their products or prices, they’ll just go out of business.

The big bad world tells us “You’re going against the grain, so you’ll take what you’re given and you’ll deal with it.”

So this is the knife edge on which we walk: we can either take what we’re given and accept that it’s crap and probably isn’t going to change, or we can have standards and end up with few, or no, options.

And when it comes to omnivorous restaurants, sometimes we have to take the hit in quality, because otherwise we’d have no options there.

Really, all we can do is harness the spirit of the vegan community: gently make suggestions to improve the quality of food at vegan restaurants, but support them through the change, and let the know how good things are when they change.

With omnivore restaurants, we can be more heavy-handed because they’re going to get business anyway. Rally friends, make them go there and eat the vegan option, make sure the restaurant knows there’s a demand for it, but then tell them that it wasn’t very nice and offer suggestions for improving it.

Or just eat at home.

So I did a “guest post” for vegansaurus because I’m superfun like that and here it is! Yay! So excite!

Anyway, that’s fun. Now I really want some CocoLuscious…

vegansaurus:

GOOD MORNING AUSTRALIA!

I should jump in here and say it: I’m a CocoLuscious addict. I first tried it as an omni and it may or may not be a large part of the reason I became vegan.

A few of the flavours in The Green Edge, my local vegan shop thing.

CocoLuscious is a coconut milk-based ice cream that’s made with totally natural ingredients. And it’s absolutely delicious.

Originally there were three flavours: chocolate, coconut, and vanilla. Since then three new flavours have been released each season, so you can now get vanilla, coconut, chocolate, raspberry, mango, blueberry, chai, vanilla chocolate chip, peppermint chocolate chip, and the three new winter* flavours: coffee, Mexican chocolate, and chocolate chip cookie dough. The chocolate chips contain soy lecithin, so if you’re not down with that, be careful to avoid it.

The three new flavours are my favourites. The coffee is actually the best coffee ice cream I’ve ever eaten. The Mexican chocolate starts off like, “Yeah, so what? it’s jaffa ice cream” and then goes “BAM CHILI!” If you don’t like hotness, perhaps this is not the one for you. The cookie dough is obscenely moreish—my partner and I ate a whole container in one sitting. Two nights in a row. Not recommended, but also seriously recommended.

Best of all, I can actually pronounce all of the ingredients on the label. They’re nice normal ingredients like coconut milk, and raw cacao powder, and it’s sweetened with agave nectar. Really, nearly every single flavour is gluten- and sugar-free.

Initially, you could buy chocolate, vanilla, and coconut in organic or non-organic, which was slightly cheaper, but I don’t know whether that’s still the case now. All the new flavours are organic!

Cocoluscious used to be available in only a few health food stores in Southeast Queensland, but you can now find it in various places in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, ACT, and Western Australia. If you have a local health food store, you can probably just ask them to get it in stock.

There’s not much more information, but their website is cocoluscious.com.au, and you can also find them on Facebook.

James Hultgren lives in Australia. He doesn’t work for Cocoluscious, he just really loves the ice cream. This is his first guest post for Vegansaurus. Also, now we all want to move to Australia even more.

*Rememeber, the antipodean July is a winter month!

Sometimes, I feel a little abolitionist.

And then another part of me says “Hey, a little different is better than none at all, because people are still going to eat animals and animal product anyway, so let’s just make it as ethical as possible.”

But what is “ethical”? Would people force their cats or dogs to get pregnant then take away their young as soon as they’re born and hook them up to milking machines until they’re too old to be of any use, then kill them and eat them?

SOMEHOW I THINK NOT.

Well, you never know.

What’s weird is the way that people go vegetarian; in some ways it makes sense (people don’t want to eat animals), but as far as suffering goes, shouldn’t people give up dairy and eggs first, and then give up meat when they become vegan, rather than starting with meat and then giving up dairy and eggs? Because at least in the meat industry, the suffering of the animal ends, even if it is horrible.

Then, really, shouldn’t people just be told to go vegan straight off the bat?

Which brings us back to “a little difference is better than none at all”. We should encourage people to give up any animal products they are willing to, or at least to ensure that any animal products they use are produced ethically.

Which brings us to the “ethicavores”; omnivores who only eat meat when it’s been killed “ethically”. Kind of the next level from buying free range eggs.

Should we settle for ethical slaughter because people are going to eat meat anyway, so, in the very least, we should reduce the animals’ suffering? That’s Temple Grandin’s standpoint.

But if the fight is just for ethical slaughterhouses, aren’t we encouraging complacency? “Oh, I only eat ETHICALLY slaughtered beef” hangs around and never turns into “You know what? I’ve decided killing a living creature just so I can eat is a little bit gross” and then “I don’t know if I’d like someone taking my hair / milk / eggs / children without my permission, so I don’t think we should do that to animals either.”

Isn’t fighting for high standards just leading to a point where, when there are high ethical standards for the egg, dairy, and meat industries, all of us crying out for the end of animal consumption are redundant, or seen as extremists without a real cause because, hey, everything I eat is ethically raised and slaughtered so you can’t guilt me with you “oh but they feel pain” bullshit.

Is there an answer?

Really, we need both sides: we need people saying “VEGAN IS THE ONLY ETHICAL CHOICE” (well, maybe just a few…), just as we need people saying “LOL Natalie Portman is cool because she’s a vegan vegetarian veganish :D :D”.

Kind of.

Let me be more clear.

The fact is, we live in a world where most people have spent their entire lives eating animals, and people are always (at least in the foreseeable, and quite a large portion of the unforeseeable, future) going to eat animals. So we have to fight the pragmatic fight and say “Look, we don’t like it, but you’re going to do it anyway, so we’re going to make sure as few people get hurt as possible.”

Kind of like safe injecting rooms, and legalised drugs and abortion.

CONTROVERSIAL.

moving on…

But, at the same time, we need people who just take the first part of that and say “Look, we don’t like it”. We need people who say “The only “ethical” way of eating animals is to not eat them” and say that ethical slaughterhouses / egg/dairy farms are not enough.

I suppose I’ve not really answered anything or made any particularly interesting or original points, but hey, this is a blog. SO THERE.

I’m just a winner at those smooth endings.