Archive for January, 2010

  • January 31st, 2010

    oh! deer!

    yearling

    deer 1

    deer 2

    flag

    i snapped these pix from the passenger window as we crept down my parent’s ambling driveway en route to dinner early this evening.

    my parents live on a gorgeous piece of land tucked away against Deer Grove Forest Preserve in the Chicago suburbs. the forest preserve is aptly named – deer have quite a comfy home there.

    we moved to this neighborhood when i was in 5th grade, but i never get tired of seeing deer dotted against the snow. they are such graceful animals – even when doing the most mundane things, like staring at you or being scared or walking or doing other deer-y things.

    deer are the models of the Ruminant world. aside from eating every now & then, all they have to do is stand around and look pretty. i mean, just look at this adorable little yearling (top) stepping across a frozen pond! such poise!

  • January 28th, 2010

    and what a lovely shape!

    lovely

  • January 27th, 2010

    thorny

    thorny

  • January 27th, 2010

    mother, child and shadow

    mother_child

  • January 22nd, 2010

    adieu, national soup week

    natl_soup_week

    Happy Belated National Soup Week!*

    as you know, i love soup. it is the ultimate comfort food. it warms the belly, cures the common cold, stops world wars, pairs well with Gilmore Girls and a hangover, heals heartache, ends world hunger, grows unicorn horns, and is generally amazing in every way.

    did you know (and this part is cribbed from my site) that the word, restaurant, was first used to describe a soup? yep, in 16th century France, street vendors called restaurers sold a highly concentrated, inexpensive soup that was billed as an antidote to physical exhaustion. in 1765, a Parisian entrepreneur opened a shop specializing in restaurers, and thus the modern word restaurant was born. so, restaurants and restaurateurs and eaters everywhere – you owe everything to soup. respect!

    in honor of National Soup Week coming to a close, here is a list of my top five** most memorable soups (in no particular order):

    1. bouillabaisse
    devotay, 117 north linn street, iowa city, ia
    yeah… this was pretty much the best soup i’ve ever had. HUGE bowl of seafood bouillabaisse for only 5 bucks. i love devotay’s food, but their soup is cosmically good.

    2. hot & sour
    china star, 201 south clinton street, iowa city, ia
    hands down, my favorite hot & sour soup. i don’t care if you take me to the best chinatown in the world – iowa city’s china star does NOT dilly dally around when it comes to sticking crazy amounts of hot and crazy amounts of sour into the hot & sour. you’ve not have hot & sour until you’ve had china star’s hot & sour.

    3. tamarack
    grandma & grandpa’s house, 3002 s kinnickinnic ave, milwaukee, wi
    my grandma beckwith made this soup. she was so super sweet, and would try to make this every time i visited. it’s a simple, brothy soup with frozen veggies and ground beef – which doesn’t actually sound good on paper, but i always went back for 5th’s. because it tasted awesome. and because my grandma infused everything with love.

    4. Campbell’s vegetarian “ABC” vegetable
    childhood home, 6 russet way, palatine, il
    i used to walk home from elementary school for lunch, and my mom always had soup on the stove when i got home. i asked for a Campbell’s Classic: simple, salty, with fun alphabet shapes, what could be better than “ABC soup?” especially in winter?

    5. beet
    hot chocolate, 1747 north damen avenue, chicago, il
    sometimes i like Hot Chocolate’s atmosphere even more than the food, but they always make a great soup. a beautiful fuchsia, a hint of sweet and a vinegar-y sizzle, their beet soup was no exception – and a perfect anecdote to the winter blues.

    *i feel guilty for being completely oblivious that this week was National Soup Week until wednesday (thanks for the heads up, Ka). you should have been reading this post on monday…

    ** i might turn this into a top ten list, but for now, you’ve gotta deal with only five.

  • January 21st, 2010

    i will purposely

    purposely

  • January 20th, 2010

    amnesia and a zombie in a striped dress

    amnesia
    amnesia

    zombie
    zombie in a striped dress

    i’m not really sure why, but the urge to paint figuratives is creeping back into my eyeballs, and out through my hand. i am a HUGE tv addict, so i’m pretty proud of myself for resisting the temptation to finish the 1st season of, “It’s Always Sunny…,” in favor of exercising my atrophied creative muscles tonight.

    that said, i’m not one for suffering in the name of art; i gathered my paints, paper towels, water jar and brushes on a tray, plunked the tray on the bed, curled up next to it (fetal position is the best way to paint, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!) and made these two paintings.

    working on zombie in a striped dress reminded me why i love painting, and why i miss it sometimes – i get great satisfaction from letting mistakes happen, and letting the garishness and awkwardness roll out from them. i kind of love making horrible paintings, and i think zombie fits the bill.

  • January 18th, 2010

    handmade cards, gentle interruptions and a dogsled

    dads_bday_card

    i try to give handmade cards to friends & family for every occasion. sometimes – due to my penchant for procrastination – i resort to giving a store-bought card. other times, i’m too stubborn to buy a card, miss the occasion, and have to add it to my cards-to-make-for-peeps list (which is getting way too long, eek). but usually, i’m able to go the handmade route.

    i love giving handmade cards not only because i can personalize them, but also the process of making cards is so meditative. with family & friends across the country, and busy schedules all-around, there’s never enough phone and visiting time. drawing & painting a card for someone gently interrupts the day, and helps me to sit quietly and spend time thinking about that person, and what that person means to me.

    i painted this little dogsled card for my dad, who turned 60-something last week, and loves to dogsled his two malamutes; i gave it to him yesterday morning while we ate birthday dim sum at Phoenix in Chinatown.

  • January 16th, 2010

    winter dress! winter dress!

    winter_dress

    i am so super excited! i just bought this adorable 1950s era dress from 1 3 8 5, a shop by one of my favorite bloggers, the snail and the cyclops! oh, i can’t wait to zip this pretty thing up, throw on some tights & mustard heels and tap around!

    stay tuned for its arrival this week… this winter dress looks like it wants to be drawn.

  • January 16th, 2010

    avatar

    avatar

    writing teachers always encourage their students to imbue their readers with a sense of integrity: “show, don’t tell.” great film-making follows the same principle – don’t talk down to your viewers, don’t rely on gimmicks to tell the story, don’t spoon-feed us what we already know.

    it’s been nearly a week since i saw Avatar, and i still can’t get it out of my head. it is not only one of the most brilliant films i have seen in the last year; it’s easily on my shortlist for all-time film favorites. it’s not that the plot broke breathtaking new ground, or that the 3D effects were, like, totally whoooaaa, or that the dialogue was remarkably original; Avatar‘s success lies in James Cameron + team’s extraordinary ability to show the viewers a sincerely rich and honest story.

    in the shape of a legend – complete with heroes, heroines, villains and verisimilitude, Avatar gave us fleshed-out characters who riveted us into their shoes – and blue feet – while they fought, loved, lived and died on a visually unprecedented and stunning stage.

    Cameron + crew invited us into our imaginations, and gave us the tools to live inside them for two and a half hours. a good chunk of this toolbox was film making discipline, steering clear of pitfall conventions: they didn’t bother with the bloat of opening credits, which would have detracted from the believable entrance into a world apart from ours, they didn’t abuse the narrator by pulling him out of the story and dropping him onto some omnipresent perch, and they kept a light and mature hand on the 3D effects, ensuring that technology didn’t overwhelm and cheapen the story.

    this vivid and trustworthy storytelling helped Cameron + crew capture something that is so rare in film these days: the magic of the movies, the blissful suspension of reality. certainly it helped walking into the theater having read no reviews and knowing almost nothing about the film, aside from its astronomical budget; still, within minutes of the movie starting – the time it took to get accustomed to my 3D glasses, i was whisked onto planet Pandora, experiencing the awkwardness and joy of being in my new avatar body.

    and i was still on Pandora, in my blue striped skin, when the theater lights flickered on at 1am. and still, when i got up from my seat, walked out of the theater, and stood like a mesmerized zombie on the escalator as it took me down, down, down. and even still, as Dan and i slid onto the seat of a cab and headed home.

    and now, almost a week later, the afterglow of Avatar is still here. but, like all things ephemeral, it’s going to dissipate eventually. the good news is: Avatar‘s due to stick around the theaters for at least a couple more months.

    seconds, please!

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