Monday, November 29, 2010

Saturday, November 27, 2010

beet



Roasted beets. Heretofore, a method:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Slice the tops off the beets and scrub to remove any crusty bits. Tear off a square of foil for each beet. Pour a little olive oil in a bowl and roll a beet around to coat. Place it on a piece foil with a sprig of thyme and a pinch of flakey sea salt. Wrap up and bake for 90 minutes. Or set the oven to 200 degrees and roast the beets for several hours over a morning or afternoon. The flavor will be superlative.

When you remove the packets from the oven, place them in a bowl to catch any oil and beet juice that might leak. Allow to cool, then remove the skins with your hands, gently rubbing them away. Season with salt and freshly-ground black pepper and dress with a mixture of porto vinegar, dijon mustard and walnut or hazelnut oil. Chill.

Great laid out on endive leaves or under a bouquet of maché with a few roasted walnut halves and a little wedge of fromage bleu Auvergne.

Friday, November 26, 2010

diXXit MAHA !


Choeur Maha, a thirty member women’s choir under the artistic direction of Kathy Kennedy, presents “diXXit MAHA!”, a special concert to kick off their 20th anniversary celebrations.

December 4th 2010
19h30
Ukrainian Federation 5213, rue Hutchison, Montréal

Reserve tickets here.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Monday, November 22, 2010

Vimukthi Jayasundara


Pumidika Sapurni Peiris as Batti in The Forsaken Land, 2005



Thusitha Laknath's character wanders a rural Sri Lankan landscape empty of adult men in Vimukthi's newest film Between Two Worlds, which opens tonight in Manhattan. View a clip here.

Sunday, November 21, 2010



Leif Inge's 9 Beet Stretch, a recording of Ludwig van Beethoven's ninth symphony stretched to 24 hours, without pitch distortion. Luminous and uplifting. Listen here.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Begin Again



A biography of John Cage, reviewed here.

(Illustration by Joe Ciardiello)



Thanks for looking + reading, dear people.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

David & Peter




David McDermott and Peter McGough.
An exhibit, a film and a Radiolab piece.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010



Let's nod to the Shakers and have pie for breakfast. Suddenly New York and San Francisco are national centers of pie innovation:
Momofuku Milk Bar.
Hill Country Kitchen.
Mission Pie.
Butter Love Bakeshop.
Four and Twenty Blackbirds.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Early American Aviaries


Detail of David and Phila Franks with bird, 1733.
Gerardus Duyckinck (1695-1746). American Jewish Historical Society. Waltham, MA and NYC.


Detail of Elizabeth Gould with bird, 1755.
Joseph Badger (1708-1765).


Detail of Jemima Flucker with bird, 1760.
Joseph Badger (1708 - 1765). Chrysler Museum. Norfolk, Virginia.


Detail of Mary Tilghman & sons with bluejay, 1770's.
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827).


Detail of Elizabeth Ross (Mrs. William Tyng) with bird, 1766.
John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.


<< Airry Chorristers pour forth their melody...the mocking bird...inchanted me with his harmony. >>
- Eliza Lucas Pinckney, circa 1740, South Carolina


Monday, November 15, 2010

a place setting







Enoch and Meeks, Asa and Solace.

Collaboration with metalsmith Suzanne Pugh. She made a cup (silver and gold). I made a place mat and name cards (linen, cotton thread, paper, pencil).

We referenced Flannery O'Connor's writing, with a focus on her characters' names: I used a number of them for the place cards and Suzanne chased this quote from A Circle in the Fire:
<<>>

The piece is for the SNAG Conference in Seattle, May 26-29 2011.

threads and pencils





colour! from DMC and Prismacolour.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Miss your air



Mr. Hare: Paris had an air, and it was graceful.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Broder



Broder Café.
A Swede's dream, in Portland Oregon.

Friday, November 12, 2010

dog fur









Spun and knit by Ms. Mary Armstrong: Samoyed (white), Husky (grey), Chow (caramel), mutt (grey/chestnut). Spun with and without merino. Brush your dog. Save the fur. Send it to her. She'll wash, spin, wash, ply and knit it up for you. Second only to muskox and possum for warmth, dog fur fruffs out beautifully in the cold and is wonderfully soft.

C. and I visited Mary at her home near the Carcross turnoff (Klondike Hwy) last week. C. bought an adorable little baby toque and we ordered a few pairs of mittens, a scarf and -for Alice- a little orange sweater (of kool-aid-dyed Samoyed) with a team-blue "A" on the back.

dogfibres@hotmail.com

Monday, November 8, 2010

"Balls", said the Queen, "if I had 'em I'd be King".



The remarkable and lovely Jill Clayburgh. She passed away last Friday, November 5th.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Cookie




the sweetie pie what has a giant vocabulary.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

in-progress







collaboration between metalsmith magnifique Suzanne Pugh and me.
More soon.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Skagway, Alaska












Some photos I took last year at the Skagway Museum and Archives. Second from bottom is a detail of a gut parka.