Monday


torso,legs,feet.
wish they were mine.
patterns upon patterns upon patterns.
found here
via here.

----
EYES+EARS:
listening to:
i'm set free - velvet underground
murdoch - trees
i can't sleep at night - gary higgins
purple fantasy - fursaxa
bird of passage - jan + lorraine
pleasant street - tim buckley

Wednesday

breakfast:

plain whole-milk yogurt,slivered almonds,dried currants,honey + coffee

dinner:

millet stew with onions,turmeric,cumin, topped with yogurt,cilantro,jalapeno

after dinner pulled out this book:

and made these:

beautiful saffron:

no raisins in the cupboard,used apricots instead:

out of the oven,

i ate one right away,so good!


I SAID IT LIKE IT WAS SOMETHING TO STRIVE FOR

Tuesday

last year, at the met, i saw these:



they were so beautiful, i took pictures,
they are peruvian feather bags.
then this morning i came across this:

from the collection of weaver + textile designer dorothy liebes (1897-1972);
INFLUENCE.

Saturday

backup plan:

nice to make dough and keep in the fridge or freezer,
this recipe works great:

i made the dough a few days before
then baked the quiche at late at night, it filled the house with good smells,

reheated it when we got home from work
tons of broccoli and garlic
eating + drinking + reading newspaper

i like the curly writing on this sign


breakfast for dinner alone, the house was so cold, hot cereal sounded the best

with currants,cream+pumpkin seeds, eating while reading recipes

i finished my rug for a present but it's way too thin
and suffers from a clear lack of texture

i thought i liked the color but think i'll experiment with turmeric since it didn't turn out how i wanted anyway

i love making meals with tons of little dishes that you can mix together

rice with local beef, carrots + cinnamon
potatoes with onions, garlic, olive oil + sumac
cabbage with lemon, olive oil, salt, cracked pepper (i always use a mortar+pestle)
green salad with pears, goat cheese, lemon + olive oil
whole milk plain yogurt

---
listening to:
smog - knock knock
joni - miles of aisles*

*i love blue but when it comes to the last time i saw richard on blue i always wish i was hearing it on miles of aisles. it is definitely my favorite of her albums and i was trying to figure out why, because it is a live album and it seems strange it should be so good. i think it's because she was no longer strictly folk and she was not yet strictly jazz, miles of aisles exists in some sort of suspended plane of neither here nor there but is everywhere, all at once and is to the ear so interesting because one never knows if the tone will be humorous or sad or the sound will be folky or jazzy and can therefore never really relax into assumption and so listens more deeply and excitedly and intently. jericho and the last time i saw richard are my current favorites. if you don't have it, you should pick up a copy, it's so good.

HE PUT A QUARTER IN THE WURLITZER AND HE PUSHED
THREE BUTTONS AND THE THING BEGAN TO WHIRL

Wednesday









FRENCH WOVEN CAKE STAND, 1880.

it is as simple as a musical phrase.
(simple, not simple at all).
the more you look at it
and think about it,
the more it is beautiful.

kathy, i am reminded of you.


-----
WHEN A CHILD, CERTAIN SKIES SHARPENED MY VISION:
ALL THEIR CHARACTERS WERE REFLECTED IN MY FACE.

{R.I.P.}
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 + leftover wine.

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.
----
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
birthday present from jarek



such a good mix

he also gave me this:


i had been eyeing it forever

emily made me this, wrapped in the nicest crinkled paper


the most beautiful and delicate scarf in the world

more calder from my mom:




she also made me this:


so i can finally gather the pointy things that are all over the house

and from jenn



the most amazing, amazing, amazing, found & cleaned bones, teeth, skulls.
working on finishing gifts of my own.

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

many projects perpetually in progress

i was intending this to be a rug for a present, but didn't come out right

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
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,

eeeew.

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
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