In an otherwise mundane week, two great things happened: a new Glee episode aired and a new VegNews magazine arrived in the mail!
First things first: A Night of Neglect
I admit I was disappointed with this episode. After the squeal-inducing awesomeness that was Regionals and the steamy Klaine kiss in Original Song, I expected more. Maybe the month wait for something new just got my hopes up. I understand that A Night of Neglect refers not only to the Glee club’s fundraiser, but Glee’s impetus to showcase several underused cast members this season (Mercedes, Mike Chang, Tina…but what about Artie? When was the last time we heard him sing?), but this episode felt like the second Lord of the Rings movie: it’s treading water until the next installment. Wemma has a moment. Karofsky challenges Kurt; Blaine shoves him. Sue reintroduces the wacky henchmen. Quinn mentions prom. Rachel casts a(nother) longing look at Finn during a song. The only real plot point was that Holly spilled the beans about Emma still being in love with Shue, and then leaving. Am I the only one who was not enthralled by Gwyneth Paltrow’s Holly Holliday? She was mildly funny but her singing left me wishing I were scratching my nails over a chalkboard. And why, Ryan Murphy, why did you give her the Adele song?! Rachel (or Mercedes, or Kurt, or even Santana) could have killed the schiznit out of that!
Here’s hoping next week’s Born this Way episode isn’t a repeat of the Ricky Horror letdown….
…and on to VegNews.
The arrival of my favorite veg magazine always leaves me hopping up and down when I find it in my mailbox. I seem to conveniently forget that I have a subscription until it shows up like a late Christmas present from my forgotten uncle Mort (that would be quite a surprise, seeing as I don’t have a forgotten uncle Mort). I devour this thing, mostly while on the elliptical at the gym. It’s full of great recipes, shopping, and travel tips, but what I like the most about VegNews is that it’s a reminder that there is a culture of people out there just like me, even if I don’t see that on a day-to-day basis. I think I acclimated pretty well to being veg in a non-veg world. I know now to put my request in for a cheeseless pie when they order pizza at work, I have enough willpower to ignore the donuts left in the kitchen, and can pack my own snacks to a wedding that will be serving meat as the appetizer, entrée, and dessert. But the feeling of joining a welcoming community when I read VegNews is often an unexpected and surprising one I never realized I lacked or needed. It’s akin to the slightly bizarre and overwhelming joy I felt the first time I ate at a veg restaurant, when I realized I could eat everything on the menu—that my choices were not limited to one or two entrees or (more commonly) sides.
VegNews does such a great job promoting all things veg that I was totally dumbstruck today when a coworker told me they were under fire this week for not using completely vegan stock photography in their mag. At first I was curious as to why there was this oversight when they do such a great job otherwise, and then I was stuck by the anger some vegans were professing at being “deceived”. It took me a few to understand where the intense anger was coming from, until I realized that they felt by paying for the mag, they were indirectly paying for the stock photography VegNews was buying, which was not cruelty-free. Oh, I get it.
But I look at this like the time was I was newly veg, having no idea about nutrition or that I should be reading the fine print on labels. I was avoiding the obvious things like steaks and chicken legs, but living entirely off of canned minestrone soup…until a coworker politely informed me that many minestrones are made with beef broth. And sure enough, there it was right on the can. I cursed the world for feeling the need to taint perfectly good veggie soup with dead animal, felt really stupid and angry at myself for a good handful of weeks, but then I started over. I learned; I was smarter about my newly chosen lifestyle, and I moved forward. A stumbling block, that’s all it was. By no means a roadblock.
VegNews is not new (being around for almost 11 years) and they should have known better, but they have issued an apology and are now working on creating a vegan stock photography database—something that didn’t exist before and that will help to prevent their oversight from happening in the future to them or other publications. So, in my opinion, something good is coming out of this oversight. There will be more awareness about what kinds of food are being photographed and maybe even give some veg photographers a boost in their careers (having just signed a second edition of a microstock photography book, I know how lucrative the stock photography biz can be!). As long as our lifestyle is progressing and there exists a community in which we can discuss and sometimes rail against (and one in which I see VegNews not only participating, but actively creating), I’m content. Maybe that’s a naïve viewpoint, but I choose to see it as optimistic and forgiving. I still won’t be able to contain my hops when I find a new VegNews in my mailbox.
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