Month: July 2015

artsy dot net

I got an email from the people running Artsy.net, a site that “strives to make all of the world’s art accessible to anyone.”

The artsy.net people had found me through my post about Vivian Maier, where I’m mildly critical of those who have tried to make money from the art made by the reclusive ms. Maier. In contrast, artsy.net makes Maier’s art available for free: “Our Vivian Maier page includes her bio, over 110 of her works, exclusive articles about Vivian Maier, as well as her exhibitions.”

Artsy.net sounds like an awesome project.

the mystery of the mexican soda

I am a big fan of Jarritos, a Mexican soft drink. The bottles are pretty, the soda has real sugar instead of corn syrup, and, best of all, there is a pineapple flavored Jarritos.

My local Safeway carries Jarritos, but they rarely have any pineapple flavored ones. Safeway keeps the Jarritos on one of the bottom shelves in the non-white people food aisle, the aisle that has “Hispanic” food next to “Asian” food and the Kosher items.

The Target closest to my house also carry Jarritos. They too keep them among the Hispanic food.

Yesterday Dan and I were across town in the southeastern part of San Jose. We were in Target, and I remembered to look for the Jarritos. In the Hispanic aisle they were not. Instead, I found them among the soda, in the drinks aisle.

So, in neighborhoods where mostly white people live, Mexican soda is categorized as “Hispanic food”. In a neighborhood where more Mexicans shop, Mexican soda is a soft drink.

I can’t help thinking about what would happen if the Jarritos where to live next to the Pepsi in my uppity small town Safeway.