About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 2011)
Row Open! JAPANESE STEAK HOUSE SUSHI • HI BACH I • BAR open FOR LURCH & DIHI1CR 7 Day* a Week Join u< for your Birthday and uie’ll celebrate uiith cake! 10% Discount for (eniorf fir \ Students (withloj Cvonj Day (No Coupon Needed) 3557 Atlanta HiVy. in Academy Shopping Center MM| ^ Lunch & Dinner Daily Wm 706-227-0001 tPu/u/.sakuraathens.t r Please don't make me go to the dog park like this. holiday cards and ornaments are here! 10r ne. accessories ^H6 e. doyton st. - 706-354-8631 • www.helixathens.com 2011 .ATHENS FARMERS MARKET S U S X 3 Saturday, November 5 In conjunction with the 2011 Tree Fair, we will have tree related activities for the kids and planting tips for the adults. Search: Zuccotti direct democracy The Occupy Wall Street movement is shaping up to be a potentially epochal moment, a watershed in American politi cal economy. While it is reminiscent of both the rights-based movements of the 1960s and the economic populist one of the 1930s, the new movement is ultimately unlike either in a pretty fundamental way. The Occupy move ment is leaderless and horizontal: rhizomatic. It is intensely democratic, with decisions arrived at by consensus rather than majority rule. Unlike the populist movement of the 1930s, which relied on father-figure leaders like Huey Long or Father Coughlin, the Occupy movement eschews single leaders and vertical hierarchies. It's the process that is prioritized, not any single charismatic or otherwise powerful individual. Power is something to be distributed, not concentrated in an individual to wield as !ie or she wishes. The '60s Civil Rights Movement, too, relied on charismatic leaders. The soaring rhetoric of Dr. King and the articulate anger of Malcolm X were necessary to the freedom struggle, but the elimination of each leader effectively decapitated the organization each man led. Wisely, then, the single greatest opponent of the movement, the United States government, tar geted King, X and others for "neutralization" (their word, not mine), the success of which would effectively end the move ment. Google "COINTELPRO" to find the story of Washington's war on the Civil Rights Movement and the strategic thinking of the FBI, which led to heavy surveillance, harassment and assassinations of key civil rights leaders. By the end of the 1960s, most of the civil rights leaders were assassinated, jailed or in exile. The leaderlessness of the Occupy movement's general assemblies not only presents a tactically advantageous asym metry vis-a-vis the powerful who wish it destroyed; the intensive democracy and equality in decision making serves as a model for how to proceed. It is a demonstration in the truest sense of the word, a working model for how to expand democracy. Occupy Wall Street may have started as something defined only by its opponent—i.e., runaway financial capital and its bought politicians—but it has become something valu able in and of itself. A thoroughness of democracy never seen in Washington can be found at the twice-daily general assemblies in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park. Philosopher Judith Butler, speaking on the eve of Occupy Wall Street, described how similar protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square last spring were "incorporating into the very social form of resistance the principles for which they were struggling on the street." Perhaps the most concrete statement made at Tahrir or Zuccotti is the form of organiza tion itself: the medium is the message. And without the need for leaders, the movement, which is essentially only an organizational method, spreads with prairie- fire speed. While consensus-based democracy—wherein full agreement is sought rather than 50-percent-plus-one majority rule—is incredibly and necessarily slow, the speed with which general assemblies spread to new places is incredibly fast. It merely takes a decision by two or more people to form one. Growth can happen even more quickly. Chicago's occupation started with a small handful of locals inspired by Occupy Wall Street to march in protest. By the time the initial demonstration reached the Chicago Board of Trade, it had grown to dozens, and now Chicago's general assemblies draw hundreds. Occupy the Hood, an effort to involve inner city residents in the occupation movement, similarly began with only two men in Queens. It now has chapters across the United States. Occupy Athens, GA emerged out of a few conver sations and grew to have general assemblies 60 people strong. The Occupy Wall Street movement is reminding Americans, so weary and suspicious of the state of our corrupted electoral politics, that power originates with the people. That people should gather in equality and free exchange—i.e., true democ racy—is still the most radical idea around. Matthew Pulver COME WHAT MAY Fatalism?: I doubt that's the attitude that Trae Stewart and Renee Hartley entered into business with when they opened Kumquat Mae (18 S. Barnett Shoals Rd., in Watkinsville) ear lier this year. Still, the name of their restaurant puns on the phrase "come what may," implying an inability to change the course of events. Maybe it means they've gained in wisdom (this is Stewart's third time opening a restaurant/bakery under that title; the previous two were derailed by life events rather than a lack of business) and are taking the vagaries of the uni verse in stride. Maybe it means they can overcome whatever's thrown at them, or most likely, they think the name is cute. Kumquat Mae does have some nice attributes for Watkinsville. You can get a beer or a glass of wine with your dinner or lunch. It serves a veggie burger made with nuts, croutons and cheese. It's open long hours: from 6 a.m. Tuesday through Friday, with a full breakfast, fresh-baked breads and a case of pastries, cookies, fudge, etc., and until 10:30 p.m Thursday through Saturday, when it does tapas for dinner. Tuesday and Wednesday, it closes at 3 p.m., after lunch, and it's closed Sunday and Monday. As a bakery, it's not as good as The Granary, around the corner, but it is open some evening hours, which may recom mend it. I find the sweets a little too sweet and the breads not as substantial as they could be, but they make their own cute doughnuts and mini pies, and the case is always impressively full of an array of stuff. The lunch menu, is mostly sandwiches and salads. A turkey Reuben on special, made on the restaurant's own bread, as are all the sandwiches, is good, but the chips and salsa provided ...three pretty little as a side seem straight out of r 1 a bag and a jar. Likewise, a Crab Cakes... pimento cheese burger is well seasoned and well cooked, if not exactly mind-blowing, but the accompanying mix of french fries and sweet potato fries is anemic and clearly previously frozen. At around $8 each, both are decently but not superlatively priced. The tapas at dinner, on the other hand, at $3 each, enable one to construct an affordable and fairly nice meal. Some aren't great. The meat balls in a tomato sauce with slices of baguette alongside are unimpressive. A tart with onions and mushrooms is flavorful but on the flat side, and the puff pastry doesn't taste home made. On the other hand, three pretty little crab cakes are a bargain at a dollar each, with plenty of crab and a delicate texture. A Spanish tortilla with plenty of vegetables is likewise a good option. The entrees, coming after the tapas, which are sizable for their price, are a step back, not much larger and not as well executed. The asparagus on the side of a pork loin are cooked just right, but the pork itself comes sliced thin enough for a sandwich, and is therefore rather dry. Dessert is ittv-bitty, which is far preferable to the mounds of sugar you receive most places. The restaurant takes credit cards. Homerism: How does YoDawgs (723 Baxter St.) differ from any of the other million-and-a-half frozen yogurt places? Well, since UGA managed to beat Florida, the store is offering free yogurt in some fashion, so there's that. YoDawgs is of the self-serve variety, with about 10 flavor options, paired so they can be swirled. Like Menchie's, it has some vegan offerings, which are among the better ones. Tart fruit flavors tend to work pretty well with frozen yogurt or sorbet, and while pome granate couldn't be mistaken for the real thing, it was tasty combined with a mango flavor and topped with fresh fruit. The helpers behind the counter are not exactly Hooters-ed out, despite what the establishment may have implied with its ads featuring "YoDawgs girls." The patio is large; the yogurt well priced at 44 cents an ounce, and the place clean and neat. It's open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until midnight Friday and Saturday. WHAT UP?: Sr. Sol #2 is open on Broad Street in the former El Patron, with fresh paint and a lot more space. Keba #3 is open in Watkinsville, in the Colony Square Shopping Center. It will have grand opening celebrations Nov. 6 from noon to 2 p.m. A new bar called The Georgian Tap Room opened next to The Capital Room and is serving lunch Monday-Friday. Hillary Brown food@flagpole.com 8 FLAGPOLE.COM • NOVEMBER 2, 2011
