Wednesday

TURMERIC DYEING

today with emily -- it's blindingly bright!

WOULD LIKE TO DYE SOMETHING THE COLOR OF THIS MACHINE

the color is much ruddier and deeper in real life

-sewing while the dogs nap-

{MYRTLE}

+
{HENRY}


SOMETIMES I WEAR NO JEWELRY AT ALL, BUT TODAY I AM


heavily ringed.

----
listening to:
gary higgins-red hash

IF YOU TRAVEL WITH A SPIDER IN YOUR DUFFLE BAG
WITH YOU GOOD WEATHER GOES

Monday




NICE.
my re-formatting skills are non-existent.

Wednesday

YOU CAN MAKE THIS REALLY FAST:

white beans,tons of garlic,kale,olive oil,toasted bread (+ to drink:leftover white wine saved in an empty sparkling water bottle). my dad made it once years ago and now i make it when it starts getting colder outside.

THIS YOU CAN MAKE EVEN FASTER:

lettuce,stuffed grape leaves and oil,feta,grated carrot,sesame seeds,lemon

I DECIDED TO LEAVE THIS AS IS:

and put it on top of our yellow crushed velvet chair for now.

DAY JOB, STANDING:

the coffee machine broke down that day, which turned out to be excellent because:

THE MAN WHO CAME TO FIX IT BROUGHT WITH HIM A BEAUTIFUL LEATHER TOOL BAG:

he let me take a picture and told me if he ever got a new one he'd find me.

----
listening to:
christina carter -- electrice
the stooges -- fun house
neil young -- live at massey hall 1971
nick drake -- pink moon
elizabeth cotten -- shake sugaree
& of course:
J-O-N-I

I'VE GOT A SECRET
I AIN'T GONNA TELL
I'M GOING TO HEAVEN IN A SPLIT PEA SHELL
gifts,gifts,gifts
for my birthday,
despite saying he was "off making mixes for awhile"
jarek made me the best one ever,



i've listened to it already soooo many times
and i love just looking at the cover,
and the way he wrote out all of the songs

he also gave me this:


which i had been lusting after ever since seeing it on the shelf in the bookstore where he works, and i think even said, "i would sell my soul for that booklet"

emily made me this, wrapped in the nicest crinkled paper


the most beautiful and delicate scarf in the world

more calder (my favorite) from my mom:


another great booklet

she also made me a knitting needles case that i needed desperately:


so i can finally gather the pointy things strewn all over the house (under the couch, in drawers, on shelves, everywhere)

and from jenn



the most amazing, amazing, amazing, found & cleaned bones, teeth, skulls. i have many projects in mind for these.
there were a few more things to show (pencils & pastels from my sister, a bowl full of cool collected rocks from jarek's mom & a photo from his dad, it looks as though it was painted) but my camera ran out of battery!
i feel very lucky,
and am working on completing many gifts of my own
which i cannot wait
to finish
and
to give.

THE ONLY ESSENTIAL IS THIS: THE GIFT MUST ALWAYS MOVE.
dinner

beet risotto with smoked trout,
i loooove making risotto even though by the end my arm always feels like it's about to fall off!

breakfast

whole wheat pancakes with homemade granola,maple yogurt & banana on top

i got these boots for a crazy steal

they remind me of the huge over-the-top winter boots i had as a kid, like snowshoe boots

one of many projects perpetually in progress

i was intending this to be a rug for a present, but when i hold it up it seems like it more wants to be clothing (the back of a dress)-- things become what they want to become!

our mantle is getting over run with things i find

waiting for permanent place.

recipes, loosely:
for risotto (an amalgamation of various recipes):
peel 2-3 big beets and cut into small cubes.
dice an onion.
cook the onion and beets in oil for about 10 minutes.
meanwhile, heat 4 to 5 cups of chicken stock and keep on low on another burner (i heat a carton of pacific brand free-range chicken stock to start, sometimes heating more or sometimes just adding a little hot water if the risotto still needs liquid).
stir about 1/4 cup of dry white wine into the beets and onions, as well as some salt and pepper. stir until absorbed.
when the onion and beets are softened, add a cup of arborio rice and stir for a minute, then add a cup of the hot stock. STIR STIR STIR! constantly, stir.
when the first cup is absorbed into the rice, add more stock in 1/4 cup amounts, stirring endlessly until the liquid is gone and you're left with not-overcooked rice in a pretty creamy broth. at various points in the process, taste to see how the rice and beets are coming along in terms of cooking and taste, and add more wine/salt/pepper accordingly.
stir in fresh chopped parsley and grated parmesan.
top with whatever else you feel like, or nothing (it's delicious as is).
we make this amount for 2 of us, and always always have leftovers for dinner the next night.

pancakes:
sift together--
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 TBL sugar
2 tsp baking powder
then add
1 cup whole milk
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
then
melt about 1/8 cup butter and mix it into the batter.
cook,
top pancakes with whole milk yogurt and granola, i make mine, basically like this:
preheat oven to 350F.
pour few huge glugs of maple syrup into a big bowl
whisk in 2 egg whites (after maaaany granola trials, this came about by accident, i had leftover egg white after needing yolks for tapioca pudding and threw it into my granola on a whim)
as well as a shake of cinnamon, a pinch of salt, about 1/8 cup water or apple juice and about a tsp of vanilla extract
pour oats into the mixture and stir, adding (regular rolled, not quick cooking) oats, oats and more oats until everything is coated and there is no liquid sitting at the bottom of the bowl. add a couple handfuls of slivered almonds to the mix and stir.
spread the uncooked granola (pretty evenly, not too thin or thick a layer, and make sure there aren't many lonely oat bits at the edges, they'll burn) onto greased (i use coconut oil to grease) cookie sheets and bake for 20 minutes, checking every now and then (but try not to open the door). turn of the oven, but leave the granola in with the door closed until both the oven and the granola have completely cooled (i often make granola at 11 or midnight, shutting of the oven before i go upstairs and letting the granola cool inside the oven overnight).
add any dried fruits once the granola has cooled and formed clusters.
------------
listening to:
love -- forever changes

OF COMMODITY AND OF DREAMS

Monday

adelaide boot (1830s)


rosa mosa A/W 08/09


NEW FROM OLD
though they're not at all my favorite from rosa mosa
it's fun to see a clear line from old to new
i like more these:


or these


or these


-how do i re-format my photos so they don't get cut off?
-----
listening to:
neil young -- capaigner

Saturday

on vaccination,

not just a question of getting the shot or not (notnotnot):
as flu talk abounds,
thinking about how and why things are
bought and sold.
(thanks for the link, mom)

Wednesday

dinner

black beans with ground almonds and spices,raw cheddar,sunny side up eggs, tortillas fried in peanut oil,brown rice,roasted delicata squash,cracked black pepper

asian pear from a farm nearby,

to me it tasted nothing like pear but like the child of a pineapple and a green pepper with apple and cucumber ancestry

jarek's favorite pen,

fast becoming mine after years of experience with lackluster writing utensils

this book is magnetic,

i have been drawn to opening this and reading from it every day
from the first page:
"the desire to leave many poems in a state of partial completeness;
to write nothing but fragments." (from a note, ca. 1945)
YES.
-----
listening to:
bill fay
sonny & linda sharrock
jandek on an old jarek-made mix tape
joni, joni, joni

just watched:
coal miner's daughter (dir. michael apted, 1980)
& film orgyyyyyyyy pix

Tuesday





ANDRE ZUCCA
his photos look like the precursor to the sartorialist.
some political/ occupational similarities abound.
if you really look, secrets of torture hang in the air around baubles and gold, the photographs speak the truth regardless of intent, they cannot hide (and are paid in depth by) the times. why we are drawn to them is layered, escape and absolute non-escape, truth and non-truth. we learn what is true in secret, it is consumed obsessively and easily because we think they are just nice pictures, they are and are not.
---

from huffpost: "It is difficult to forget," added Deputy Mayor Girard, "that many left-wing intellectuals lived well in Paris under the Nazis, and on good terms with the occupiers. The ultimate statement was that of Jean-Paul Sartre, who wrote (in The Republic of Silence) in 1944: 'Never have we been more free than under the German occupation.' This is perhaps the kind of 'memory' that we stir up at some risk."
Curious about Girard's characterization of Sartre, I queried my brother Randal Marlin, a philosophy professor at Carleton University in Ottawa and author of Propaganda and The Art of Persuasion. Randal says Girard takes Sartre's words out of context.
"What Sartre meant by those words was that those who were part of the resistance, knew that at any moment they could be arrested and tortured. They knew that with their freedom to choose as they did, came the price of possibly losing their lives. For that reason the meaning of freedom was more alive than before. They were never more free because the meaning of freedom had become clear. He's talking about ontological freedom, not political freedom. Sartre chose to resist through his writings, and his play The Flies, with its metaphorical reference to the Nazi occupiers as a plague of flies, would have imperiled his own safety."

more HERE

Wednesday








i wanted to get to nonart, nonconnotative, nonanthropomorphic, nongeometric, non, nothing, everything, but of another kind, vision, sort, from a total other reference point.
eva hesse, 1968

some sort of lineage: THIS

Thursday



1940s EUROPE
DURING THE WAR MOST WOMEN DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY FOR TIGHTS
& USED EYELINER TO PAINT A SEAM ON THE BACK OF THEIR LEGS.
ALSO, TEA BAGS WERE SOMETIMES USED ON THE LEGS TO GIVE COLOR.
1940s europe
during the war most women didn't have enough money for tights
& used eyeliner to paint a seam on the back of their legs.
also, teabags were sometimes used on the legs to give color.
(HEREhere)

Wednesday

DO NOT HURRY
DO NOT REST

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

Sunday



oooh oooh oooh
via
here

Tuesday


kale


alexander wang shirt


old shoes made of beads&leather


making vegetable sushi


avocado,carrot,red pepper,squash,cashews,sesame seeds


dinner:
homemade zucchini-currant-poppyseed bread topped w.ricotta,kale,sausage,tea


dinner again:
leftovers plus roasted beets,walnuts,goat cheese,olive oil,parsley,s&p


leftovers for breakfast

SITTING UP, AGAINST PILLOWS, LEGS OUT, IN THE WHITE ROOM

Sunday





HAPPENINGS
can take place anywhere
and
sometimes looked like this:

Maze of wall size mirrors (as at old-time carneys). Rows of blinking yellow blue and white lights. Quiet neons. Everyone wonders aimlessly. Rubbish on floors in passageways. Five janitors come in with vaccuum-sweepers sucking up debris. Crackling sounds. Janitors leave. From above, whistling of some sad pop-tune like "Don't Play it no More." More debris is dropped into passageways. Crackling sounds again. Janitors rush around handing out brooms and everybody sweeps. Lots of dust, coughs. Wheelbarrows and shovels rolled in. Frenzied loading of trash, much noise. Brooms are grabbed from people, are held up close to mirrors and examined. Fellow comes in with wide brush and pail of soapy water and wipes over reflections. Janitors sweep and shout at each other from different passageways. But all their words are backwards. They yell louder and faster. Then work and noise wears out and finally stops, dust settles, cans of beer are brought in for everybody. Workman take a swig, burp and pour beer on the floor. They go. Dead silence-------. Three pneumatic trip hammers are dragged in. Compressors start. Floor is drilled into, noise is deafening, mirrors shatter. (john gruen, the new bohemia, 1967)

----

(dry stream bed)

wetting a stone
carrying it downsream until dry
dropping it

choosing another stone there
wetting it
carrying it upstream until dry
dropping it.
--allan kaprow

Saturday







KERO SWEDEN (here)

Wednesday

dinnertime

red lettuce,fresh figs,ricotta,caraway seed,lemon juice,cracked black pepper
rooibos tea
the new yorker
miles of aisles


it's getting colder again, yesyesyes

I'LL TRY TO KEEP MYSELF OPEN UP TO YOU
IT GETS EASIER AND EASIER TO DO