People should take the train more. I never take the train at home, but I recently rode one from Boston to New York and, outside of the obvious expediency, I’m not sure how airplanes, or even cars, beat them out as the first choice in how to get places. So much that we should find worthwhile gets overlooked as our attention is focused more on where we aren’t than where we are. Moving at a conceivable speed, on the ground, but not having to think about staying on the road or gas prices or anything in particular really gets the brain working. It’s easy to think of traveling as the inconvenient time spent getting from one thing to the other. I feel this way sometimes, when I don’t slow down or stop to consider the landscape I’m rocketing over or past or through. I’ve been traveling a lot lately and not until my train from Boston did I realize I hadn’t thought or cared once about any of this. All I’d been thinking about was where I was going, what I had to do when I was there, and how behind I was on what I left at home. (like uh…this month’s edition…) Big up you, train.

This episode of Deep Thoughts With Josh Hooten is brought to you by the blur of fall colors we shot through between Boston and Pawtucket, and perhaps a bit by the steady rumble and vibration of the train. Though back home we’d been lamenting how short the summer was, this display finally got me excited about the changing season, more so because I was listening to a sorta ironic fantasy metal band called 3 Inches of Blood, particularly the song “Destroy the Orcs.” For some people, I’m sure classical or jazz would provide the perfect soundtrack to a reflective moment looking at the fall colors from a train window. I prefer to imagine myself having an axe battle to the death with evil underworld half demon/half men types. Is that so bad?

Right: Jason Das from supervegan and
Evelyn and Jim from veganfriendlynyc act the fool in Boston. Photo by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

I was in Boston for the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. Holy crap was it packed with people! The yearly event fills a huge gymnasium with all sorts of tablers, from people selling stuff like me to loads of food samples to various animal protection groups. This is how vegetarian/AR exhibitor halls tend to be—always more good food than you can actually eat, more info than you can actually absorb. The difference between Boston and all the others I’ve been too is that SO MANY FREAKIN’ PEOPLE COME OUT. Our table was at the end of an aisle and I’m ever so slightly taller than most people so when I’d look down the aisle I could see over most folks. There were times where nobody was moving because there was nowhere to go. So many people! Thousands! Checking out all vegan stuff! Another striking difference between Boston and the other events I’ve been to is that this one was much more diverse, which is a really promising sign. Maybe this is just the west coast, but AR/Veggie events out here are whiter than a Jay-Z concert.

Right: The Vegan Yum Yum freebies we had with us. Photo: Lauren Ulm.

Set up with us were Isa and Terry who had the hot item of the day— real live copies of Veganomicon for sale. It was a madhouse, books were flying off the table. Our section was swamped with folks, too, and I got to meet a lot of readers and supporters. I would have never been able to handle it alone, so I was lucky to have my friends Nell and Lolo helping me find shirts and answer questions. Lolo was with me passing out 12 page mini-cookbooks of her forthcoming VeganYumYum book we’re publishing. The people where curious and many folks knew who she was already. That was fun and we handed out about 400 mini-cookbooks and a couple hundred VeganYumYum buttons.

Right: Josh “reading” at MooShoes. Does this shirt make my butt look ironic? Photo: Lauren Ulm.

Our next stop on the VeganYumYum/Herbivore northeast tour was New York City and the new MooShoes store. I read from the new print issue (which will be shipping out in a week or so) which wasn’t as terrifying as I thought it would be. I’m somewhat terrified of public speaking, but that seems to be receding and it was a lot of fun to stand up there in front of a bunch of folks and tell stories. I then took some questions from the audience and one nice person taught me how to whistle really loud.

By the way, the new MooShoes store is awesome. If you’re in New York, you have to go there. At one point, as I browsed for shoes, I had 5 pairs I wanted to buy on a list in my head.

As fun as my travels were, getting home was wonderful. I spent all day yesterday doing puzzles with Ruby and listening to the radio. Thanks a million to all the wonderful folks who came by our table in Boston, and to the folks at Mooshoes and all of those who came out in New York to hear me read. I hope you all had as much fun as I did.