Friday, July 31, 2009

All in a Day's Work

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Last week I took a quick overnight trip to my parents' place in Northern Idaho. I wanted to see the progress on the farm house, and my mom offered to send me back with some homemade strawberry jam – their little patch produced a bumper crop this year and they have more berries than they know what to do with. I couldn't say no to that.

On the road. For the most part the drive from Seattle to Moscow is really scenic, although the stretch across Eastern Washington from Othello to Washtucna can get monotonous – it's pretty much flat and dry as far as the eye can see, with some green here and there thanks to intermittent irrigation. But this time of year the air is full of the smell of fresh spearmint and drying hay, which provides it own kind of sensory enjoyment.

Everything is much drier at the farm than the last time we visited,
but it's still beautiful.
The garden is coming along nicely.
It's also been a good year for asparagus; my parents have been
eating it for about two months now, much to my dad's dismay.


The bees are safely ensconced in their new home
at the corner of the orchard.


A family of ducks has taken up permanent residence at the pond.
I startled a little one when I walked up to the water's edge –
it made a beeline for the cattails at the other side
while one of its parents created an impressive distraction,
quacking and splashing around.


Grasshoppers are creepy but I have to admit
that they're kind of cute when they're small and green.


The additions to the house are starting to take shape.

The view onto the screen porch from what will be the dining room.

The old roof makes it look as if Gordon Matta-Clark
has been lurking about.


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The view from inside, upstairs.
The builders just cut a big slice out of the second story,
and they're going to drop the trusses right in there.
I had no idea what a roof truss was before this (they look like this):


Watching this whole thing come together has been an education.

We picked about 2 dozen pints of strawberries.

After that it was Miller Time.

The freezer-jam-making operation took place the next morning.
I left for Seattle with my booty that afternoon.


Some samples of the finished, frosty product.
Freezer jam uses fresh, rather than cooked, berries,
so the end result has much more flavor and color.
Not bad for a few hours' effort,
and I'm set for hostess gifts for the rest of the summer.

Blue Angel no.1

Roy "Butch" Voris' F6F Hellcat [via Aviation Art Store]

Need vs. Want

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Want.

Anuschka Hoevener Rope Necklace/Top, $359 at Not Just a Label.

Being 8 Years Old Again

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The Blue Angels are blazing over Seattle this weekend for Seafair.
I am just a tiny little bit excited.


Need:


Your Weekly Mr. Littlejeans

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Flora and fauna of our apt

I Know About the Clubs and Drugs

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On the occasion of today's release of the new Judd Apatow movie, Funny People, let's revisit this:



Also, don't miss this excellent Fresh Air interview with Apatow from last week, and this one with the great Eric Bana, who co-stars in Funny People. Trailer and other stuff here.
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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Time Passages

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Olivier Zahm says the next issue of Purple Fashion magazine will feature a fold out poster of a Dash Snow collage.

Also, in case you missed it, there was a really interesting full-page piece on Dash in last Sunday's New York Times.
Benjamin Godsill, a curatorial associate at the New Museum, said Mr. Snow’s work “captures this period bracketed by the fall of the World Trade Center and the fall of the financial system.”

I would agree with that, and I guess it might have something to do with my interest in Dash Snow, since those were roughly the years we were in New York. Who knows. Anyway, it's a good article – the rest is here.

For a Day or a Lifetime

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Mark Cohen Karate Stance, Wilkes-Barre, PA, 1977

Hasted Hunt Gallery in New York has a new show of Mark Cohen's documentary-style photos of 1970s Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – click here to see more.

More info and a review at T.

What beer should President Obama serve at the White House tonight?

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President Obama is hosting Police Seargent James Crowley and Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. at the White House this evening for some beers and discussion of just what the hell happened that night in Cambridge. From what I gather, the fuzz is drinking Blue Moon, Gates is drinking Red Stripe or Beck's, and President Obama is drinking Budweiser.

Really? I love Budweiser as much as the next guy (or, um, the leader of the free world) but didn't Cindy McCain just sell Bud to the Netherlands or something? Nothing against foreign beers (which all of the others are), and I get that this is more about healing race relations than beer, which is important and everything – but this could be a significant teachable moment for the nation on the merits of craft brewing, and Obama is really blowing it. He should be the one to decide on the beer they'll drink, it should be a researched decision, and they should all drink the same thing.

So what should they drink? Sam Adams would be a logical choice since it's from Boston, but it's totally boring; no disrespect to the greater Northeast brewing community, which is second only to the West, but there aren't any other stand-out beers specifically from Boston that come to mind. Yuengling would be another choice since its the country's oldest beer, but it's a little Sam Adams-ish.

I would vote for Brooklyn Lager, for the following reasons:

1. Brooklyn is a historic capital of beer production in the Northeast.
2. Brooklyn's brewery is wind-powered.
3. Brooklyn's founders are white, its brewmaster, Garrett Oliver, is black, and throughout its history the company has been a model of racial harmony.
4. Legendary American graphic artist Milton Glaser designed the logo, above.
5. Brooklyn Lager is delicious – it's actually more like an ale, but it's light enough for summer. If the lager doesn't suit Obama and his drinking buddies, Brooklyn offers a wide selection of other beers, and is constantly experimenting with small batches. Maybe a little sampler is in order.

So what do you think they should drink?

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Update: I didn't realize when I wrote this that a lot of people were talking about it already. There's some interesting analysis to be found at The Pour (Eric Asimov's New York Times blog on wine, beer, and spirits), and Dan Savage posted about it on SLOG. It is a little ridiculous, but as I commented there, it is an issue worthy of some discussion, because Obama choosing Bud Light is kind of the same move as inviting someone to the White House and choosing to eat McDonald's. I do both of those things from time to time (drink Bud Light, eat at McDonalds's – both are delicious) but I'm not proud of either and I don't think it's the message he should be sending.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Hot Blooded

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Check it and see:

Water No Get Enemy

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Photography by the great Jamel Shabazz

Hike up your skirt, Seattle – it's time to get those fire hydrants open.

A cut to cool you down:



Fela Kuti
"Water No Get Enemy"

Really Really Ridiculously Hot in the City

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Thanks to everyone who braved the heat and came down to Rob Roy last night for Quarterly Disorderly no.1 – it was good times. Look for details on the next one in approximately ninety days.

I now return you to...melting your ass off on what is shaping up to be the hottest day ever recorded in Seattle WA.

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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Hot in the City

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Tonight:
Rob Roy
2nd & Battery in Belltown, Seattle
6pm onward
No cover
Great tunes
Extremely rusty yet stylish DJing
Delicious beverages
Goldfish

[more info ]

My Mama Told Me Son

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[via LineOut]

House Painting

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Steve Keister and Jill Levine's place

Our good friend Bella Foster, an artist I've mentioned in previous posts, has a new blog project this summer: Here There and Them features her "paintings of other people's stuff," and offers a refreshing take on the endless images of apartments and living spaces to be found across the web.

Lady Diana Cooper's Night Stand

Click here for more.

"Instead of Saying 'That's Impossible,'
You Try It Out"

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Rest In Peace, Merce Cunningham.

"Mercier Philip Cunningham was born on April 16, 1919 in Centralia, Wash., the third of four children of Clifford Cunningham, a lawyer, and the former Mayme Joach." Above, Merce Cunningham in "Antic Meet," with design by Robert Rauschenberg, in 1958. Photo: Richard Rutledge/NYT.

Clive Barnes, reviewing the Cunningham company’s 1964 London season, wrote: “Mr. Cunningham is an iconoclast and is welcome in an art that has always suffered from a surfeit of icons and a deficiency of iconoclasts. In performances, night after night for a week, it becomes clear that, as with John Cage and even Robert Rauschenberg, Mr. Cunningham’s importance may primarily be as a propagandist and stimulant.” Above, Mr. Cage, left, Mr. Cunningham, center, and Mr. Rauschenberg in London in 1964. Photo: Douglas H. Jeffrey/The John Cage Trust/NYT.

Much more at The New York Times.

Monday, July 27, 2009

What Do You Want

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A few images from the very short but nicely curated large-format local zine I Want You.

Sätty (Wilfried Podriech) / Nina Chakrabarti

Pick it up gratis, while supplies last, at Wall of Sound and Pilot Books.


More info and images here.

Hey Nerd,

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Already burned through your summer reading list, nerd? Fear not:

100 Years of Design Manifestos eagerly await your attention.
Click here, nerd.

[via swissmiss]

Girls on Film

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Another Girls video in lieu of photos from Block Party. My camera is just too big – the people at the gate told me it was "professional."
I think we all know better.



Their show was great, I had been looking forward to it for a long time and was totally satisfied. I'm not gonna say it was the best show I saw – there were so many stand-outs Friday night, I can't choose an overall favorite – but it was the best show I saw on Saturday, and their style felt like it complimented my somewhat toasted state of mind by the middle of day two. Already looking forward to next year.