In the year 2009

Yoga/pilates 3x a week.
Save money! My #1 failed resolution every year.
Take one good photograph every day.
Visit the library.
Finally eat at Momofuku so I can once and for all say "I tried it (AGAIN) and I still fucking hate David Chang's food!" Or at least "It was alright but I still think he is overrated and everyone should stop humping his leg."
Make a conscious effort to waste less: less time, less garbage, etc.
Focus more on local and seasonal products.
Paint the living room and bedroom.
Get a new Mac Book & start working on my photo book.
Read Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand), In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (Michael Pollan), What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami), A Place of My Own: The Archictecture of Daydreams (Michael Pollan), The Revolution: A Manifesto (Ron Paul), A Nation of Sheep (Andrew P. Napoletano) and the Diane Arbus biography (Patricia Bosworth).
Use my hands more - learn to knit things other than simple scarves and hats.
Lower my expectations so I'll be less disappointed in people.

Christmas 2008

Prepping for Christmas at Patty & Chris's - we had to make our own ornaments and one of the themes was birds. Alex and I were the only ones who made them. These are mine; I strung them with colored satin and grosgrain ribbon and wrote facts about each bird on the back including wingspan and diet.



On Christmas Eve we opened presents. I got Alex a 1TB external drive that he has been wanting for his music, and he got me a Le Creuset grill pan AND hand felted some river rocks for me. I was so touched.


Alex made truffles for Xmas dessert. We'd never done anything like this before so we had no idea what we were in for. They turned out good but the chocolate was a bit bitter. Now we know for next time. He also threw in a little Highland Park scotch into the mix (aged 12 yrs - yummy!).


William at Chris & Patty's. They live all the way out in Jackson Heights but getting there by train wasn't too bad. Considering we had 3 bottles of booze, a casserole and a giant tote bag stuffed with food and tupperware.


Aside from the chestnut-pancetta stuffing I made (turned out really good, made with day old ciabatta and was the perfect consistency...) I also found this crunchy broccoli salad recipe on 101 Cookbooks. You just blanch the broccoli and slice apples and red onions. The dressing calls for almond butter but since I had cashew butter in our fridge that's what I used and it was just as good. Just whisk cashew butter, lemon juice, a bit of olive oil, pepper, some honey and garlic paste (made from chopping and smashing garlic with salt) and add hot water til it's creamy. Toss with the salad and top with candied walnuts. So healthy and yummy you'd never know it was vegan.


Alex made a giant origami crane that became the tree topper. Note the Portland Trailblazers ornament!


After the 3rd basketball game everyone was pretty much sick of watching sports so Footloose was the next best thing we could find. Bucking religious B.S. on Christmas - yay!


The day after Xmas we headed to Park Slope to check out Premium Goods, this hipster sneaker store on 5th Ave. Lots of Brooklyn gear. Next door is Wndrlnd, the girls' side. Big sales at both, 40% off! Cute things but mostly a little too young for me though I did pick up a bottle of Essie Shorty Pants nail polish which isn't available anymore. Bright bright yellow! I've been looking for it for a while so I'm glad I lucked out...and it was on sale for $3. I'm tempted to go back and get the rest. They're limited edition (came out this summer) and I haven't found them anywhere else.

Wow. I just blogged about limited edition nail polish. Wtf?


After all that walking we were thirsty and hungry so we headed to one of our favorite spots, Beer Table on 7th Ave. Rare and international beers plus complementary (not complimentary) appetizers and small dishes. I really wish this spot was a bit closer but we do have Bar Olivino (a wine bar that serves cheese, olives, meats) about three blocks from us so I can't complain.


Not for the squeamish. I needed a little color in my life during these drab days so I happied up my toe and fingernails.

Happy holidays!

MS Paint Masterpieces

There was a point in time when Ryan and I were so bored at work we MS Painted a bunch of stuff. Luckily I saved them. Here are mine:

Chris, Alex and Brent. I have to say, you can totally tell it's them.

One day I made chicken with peaches and thyme with mashed potatoes on the side. I didn't have a camera so I drew it.



Ryan and I love dinosaurs. Happy beef cubes = Saikoro Steak from Typhoon Lounge in the East Village, source of many a midnight narf back in the day. Waaaay back.



This does not really need any explanation in my opinion.



Nor does this.



They are. Just ask Dom de Marco; that's his slice up there.



More dinosaurs! This time a retarded T-Rex.



This is my attempt at one of those jewel-eyed My Little Ponies. Remember?



Just a Fat Bastard reference.



I was running out of ideas that day. And hungry.



Why is it a single??



Another surf n turf rendition.



More dinosaurs! And Rainman.



This is a reference to zombies. We love zombies! I'm eating your brain! I'm gaining your knowledge!!

I want this really bad

DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS?!? It's a Blackbird, Fly from Japan. Modeled after the medium format Rolleiflex, this camera shoots square images on 35mm film (rather than 120mm) which makes film hunting and developing much less of a headache. Please to put in my stocking. 12,600-14,600 Yen (US$140-160).

Especially after viewing images taken with said camera here.

On eBay it comes in white.

Available online at Superheadz or here in NYC at ICP.

I own a Holga already, wonder if this is redundant...?

Who can't relate?

Epic

Fully Flared Intro from K05T0N on Vimeo.

Intro to Lakai's Fully Flared starting Eric Koston, Rick Howard, Marc Johnson, Rob Welsh, Anthony Pappalardo, Guy Mariano, Mike Carroll, Cairo Foster...

Song is "Lower Your Eyes to Die with the Sun" by M83.

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus

2006, directed by Steven Shainberg (Secretary)

Visually stunning but also a bit staged and contrived. Not the way I would've done a tribute to Arbus but it was beautiful to watch nonetheless. I'd suggest watching this once, and then keeping it to watch with the sound off. I think old G n R ballads would work well (Patience, November Rain, Sweet Child O Mine, etc.). I'm not sure why but that's what pops into my head when I see these images.

Shainberg uses classical Hollywood film technique in his shot composition, which is fitting for the 1950s timeframe of the movie. This I liked very much.

The score itself is beautiful as well, as are the costumes.

Robert Downey Jr steals the show - it's a far, remote cry from Weird Science.

Greetings & Salutations

These letterpress notecards are from Linda & Harriet, an NYC based company. I love the simplicity and cleanness of their designs.

This morning the damn cat woke me up about 40 minutes before the alarm was due so I hauled myself out of bed to prep some photos for printing with my Print Gocco - maybe I'll make use of that etsy account yet, for something other than buying. It really sucks that the Gocco company is no longer making products but I'm sure there are other inks I can use, with some improvisation. At one BK Flea I was speaking to Bicycle Painting's Taliah Lempert and she mentioned she used to use her Print Gocco a lot until she got a real screenprinting machine and now hardly uses the little one any more. There's just too much work that goes into it and the output is so small. I'm hoping this creative streak that started with the cold weather will carry on into 2009 and beyond. It feels good to make stuff again!

Na paka bagbagdamdamin

Do you know what that means? "Heartwarming" in tagalog.



I just watched CJ7, Stephen Chow's newest (?) film. The auteur behind Shaolin Soccer and God of Cookery, Chow always infuses a zany, comedic vein into his films. So his doing a children's film wasn't a far stretch. The basic storyline is about Dicky and his father, a construction worker. Dicky's father wants him to have the education he never could, so in order to send him to a posh private school, he works double time and starves himself. Most of Dicky's things are salvaged from the dump, including CJ7, a lost alien who helps Dicky achieve his heart's desires. Or does he?

The best part about this film is that a lot of the boy characters are actually played by girls. The part of Dicky is played by Jiao Xu, and it was her film debut. Very solid acting throughout the film - highly recommended!

Happy Holla-days!

My holiday craziness ended yesterday as we hosted our DIY gift exchange at home. Now I can focus on Christmas day dinner (making it a German one again).

I used Elfster to pick names for everyone and this proved to be disastrous as some people didn't respond to questions and others couldn't quite get into it. But, it was the only way. Despite many grumblings about the DIY aspect I'm really happy at the way it turned out - everyone made some really great presents and I think we were all happy with our presents. Seth, a lighting designer, found an old vintage lamp and rewired it with new hardware. Cinco was the lucky recipient, who in turn threw an old record into a warm oven and formed it into a bowl for Alex (they are/were both avid crate diggers) filled with Haribo gummy candies (Alex's favorite). For Angel, I made bacon-infused bourbon that was slightly smoky/sweet and a necklace of onyx and coral beads. And I did not rig the draw but from Angel I got a terrarium with "angel" plants and a mix CD, as well as bubble bath and bath salts scented with tropical fruit. My friends are a creative bunch and I knew the presents would be awesome.

For food I had some antipasto/tapas type appetizers to start and then mac and cheese, baked ham with peach rum sauce and greenbeans with dill. Comfort food is the way to go because it's easy to make a lot, you can throw it all in the oven and most of it can be prepped/made ahead.

Today we feasted on leftovers and watched Step Into Liquid, which is beautifully shot but does not stand up to The Endless Summer. Ten more days til Christmas!

Alexander Calder

Jewelry by Alexander Calder on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC) through March 2009. I studied him in high school and have been a fan since but never knew he made jewelry! The Met isn't my favorite museum - it is way too big and by the time you get to the exhibit you wanted to see in the first place it's 5 hours later. Tiring!

Alexander Calder: The Paris Years is also on view at the Whitney through February 2009. Would be cool do to both the same day - I have a break for the holidays coming up and Alex has to work. So..... Guess what I'll be doing. Any other NYers down? [edit: what's happening to my Engrish??]

Here's a 4-minute clip of the start of Calder's Circus, always entertaining to watch.

Akihiro Furuta

Pair trench coat
Originally uploaded by AKIHIRO FURUTA

I came across this photographer via Photojojo's newsletter about bucking traditional family portraits. Very whimsical and fun with great colors.

On a drizzly day like today, something to lift your spirits.

Jan 18, 1977 - Oct 5, 2005

RLR circa 2004

I miss you more and more each day.

I got tired of looking for Reservoir Dogs quotes

...which wouldn't be relevant anyway.

I'd been meaning to call Mr. Pink for a while, just to make sure he was still there. Mr. Pink is the owner of a store of the same name that sells vintage glass. That is, old cocktail sets from the 50s and 60s as well as those old McDonald's glasses - you know the Smurfs and Peanuts collections? Those. Before they started giving away these cheap plastic toys, Mickey D's used to give away cheap cartoon glasses. I had a few growing up but Mr. Pink had them all. It was a tiny little store on W. 16th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues on the north side. I have been coming to this store pretty much since I moved to NYC in 2003. The glasses are a bit expensive (about $8 a pop) but I don't know anywhere else in the city I'd find them.

I was walking to the train from 6th Ave when I spied the store and seeing the sale sign, rushed inside to see if he was closing for good.


Mr. Pink confirmed it - they were raising the rent on him and he said, "The landlord believes that a Capital One is gonna move in here and pay 3x the rent." I doubt they'd want a basement space but that's where NY's headed I guess.

I purchased four black and gold cocktail glasses from the 1950s and sadly watched as Mr. Pink wrapped them in paper then handed them to me one by one so I could put them in my bag. I'm so sad he's closing but I'm glad I caught him. "Keep us on the radar," he said, "we might pop up again. You never know."

Weekend in photos

On Saturday I met up with Angel & Laurea at Huckleberry Bar to check out Stevie Rose's jewelry trunk show. Some pieces I liked but not enough to shell the dough out for. Angel and I walked up Union to catch the G up to Greenpoint and saw this colorful door.

We headed to Bonbon Oiseau's studio sale. I bought a fabulous alpaca knit hat from Hortensia Handknits that Alex says looks like an old school football helmet. Met some wonderful women and gobbled up Ana Dane's pecan-caramel cookies. These are colorful juice boxes taken outside a Polish grocery. My second time in Greenpoint this week. Need to head back soon to check out Dalaga and Jan & Aya on Franklin. And to snag some of that apple mint juice - sounds delicious!

That night, the first snowfall. I took a walk outside and ate some snowflakes - it was so quiet and the streets were shiny with damp snow and traffic lights.

An empty stage at Gifted Holiday Market at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple. Hosted by BK Flea and Time Out NY.

The abominable snow woman does inventory. I could never pull this look off but somehow, she did.

This kid was having his picture taken on the stage - I think he was directing the photographer, bossy little thing.

After brunch and crafting we headed to Home Depot. When we left the sun was just starting to set and turned all the clouds half pink-half purple.

Nesting

Just in time for the winter season, Alex linked me to this awesome, amazing Flickr set by hansigurumi who is an ace knitter. Mostly sea creatures, she sells patterns on her etsy shop. I can only hope to finish even the simplest one. Here are some of my favorites:

Jellyfish

Fugu (pufferfish, puffed and unpuffed)

Seahorses!

Nautilus :)

Today at Huckleberry Bar, Stevie Rose is having a jewelry trunk show. After that I will head up to Greenpoint to see Deb and friends at the studio sale at Bonbon Oiseau. More details on her blog - she's having a raffle where the proceeds will benefit the Food Bank of NY. Please check it out!