Preface

As I pause, preparing to write my first entry in JoeViturbo’s Gastronomicon, I find myself filled with an overpowering feeling that I should provide some sort of explanation.  I’ve already filmed a short video which you’ve no doubt seen.  It should answer the more superficial questions. But the underlying emotions and intentions remain.  What are the Excerpt’s to be? What content will be found here? Will each subsequent entry be as insanity-inducing as the last?
hit the jump for an explanation...of sorts

For now, even I cannot hope to answer all of these questions.  It’s as open-ended as the blank screen onto which I now type these words.  The possibilities remain endless.  You can be certain of one thing: I, and only I will be responsible for the content found here.  I kind of like it that way.  It has a nice feel to it.  For, you see, this is not my first attempt at online contribution.  I’ve had...middling success with The Veterans of a Thousand Midnights and Clash of the Queues.  I like the work that I’ve done there and I intend to continue to provide the same quality as ever to those sites (make of that what you will).  However, the focus of these sites strikes me as limited in scope when you get down to it.  V1kM is for games only and CotQ is for movies only.  I don’t feel right posting to either when I get the inclination to write/post about something else.

Believe me, that inclination comes often.  I have many interests and few talents.  But, the talents which I do possess cannot be fully contained by those two sites.  I have nowhere to share my accumulated experiences or off-the-wall thoughts/insights.  V1kM and CotQ are fully capable of containing them but I feel as if it would be irresponsible to turn those sites into my personal blogs.  I’m going to keep those sites dedicated and devoted to the purposes for which they were created.  In so doing, I hope to honor and respect those that participate in and contribute to those blogs with me.

With that out of the way, it is time to usher in a new era, the era of the Gastronomicon.  There have been other sites bearing the name Gastronomicon in the past.  I’ve seen one or two.  I was unimpressed.  They seemed to put forth a sense of style, betrayed by a lack of substance.  It would be a shame if I went through all of this only to become such a cautionary tale.  Regardless of those concerns, even failed attempts are attempts.  While failure can be soul-crushing, it also carries within it a seed of knowledge, experience, and progress.

I needed a forum where I could voice my concerns about a growing trend which I find appalling in its insensitivity.  I’m calling it adventurous eating but it consists mostly of people, going out to some ethnic market or store, buying the weirdest foods they can find there and then filming themselves eating it.  It would be repetitive of me to go on with how I feel.  Suffice it to say that at least on Bizarre Foods Zimmern usually addresses the cultural and nutritional aspect of the food he eats.  Additionally, he almost always approaches his task with a great deal of excitement and respect.  I have a fair amount of respect for what he does and decry his online imitators for recreating the event while stripping it of its soul and purpose.  Have we become a collective culture of voyeurs, content to experience life through the pain and discomfort of someone else?

I’m presently setting up rules for myself and for this blog so that I may present the content and my views in a fair-minded manner.  I’m here to provide enjoyment to others but not in a side-show, bite-the-heads-off-chickens kind of way.  There is a time and place for low-brow and disgusting.  Neither will be found here.  Those shows are the ones I skip over, clicking passed as fast as the remote can take me.  I’m not against physical comedy or even a laugh at someone else’s expense.  What I strive for though, what I must provide, is worthwhile, contributory content.  I’m not aiming for educational but perhaps, just enough substance that the average viewer will take it upon themselves to go find-out more.  I think that inspiring others to begin their own personal searches would be enough for me.  With that, I shall save and post this.  I hope that you will have gotten a little something useful out of it.  Just the act of typing it out has greatly aided my mental organization of the task at hand.

Till the next Excerpt, JoeViturbo