Photo: J. R. Eyerman, LIFE.
If my joy is depleted –
from wondering if I ought to be wondering,
and getting ready to wait again –
there is still a backup,
like in A&E.Eyes, ears, dusty solar panels to collect:
The music released from a cabbage,
when split with a large kitchen knife;
Sunset light shone low through a cock’s comb,
radiating at x lumens per wattle;
And glassy, blue light,
exploded by the chaff of suspended dust particles in my room,
where the telephone won’t ring.
Above: wegottaeat.com
I thought it would be nice to make a list — almost like a restaurant menu — of the items in my culinary repertoire, so as to make it easy to plan meals and keep track of new recipes I find/create.
Then it occurred to me that somebody must have already devised a system expressly for this purpose. It turns out they did, and one more advanced than the one I had in mind. The most promising, free recipe organizer that I’ve found so far online is we gotta eat.
There are three things that make it highly attractive for my purposes:
Above: categorization of ‘pasta e fagioli’ soup.
There are other fun (what?) gadgets too, like a shopping list manager. Check it out: wegottaeat.
I decided to make my own life mask (above) after recently becoming intrigued by the concept of death masks. Wikipedia:
In Western cultures a death mask is a wax or plaster cast made of a person’s face following death. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits. It is sometimes possible to identify portraits that have been painted from death masks, because of the characteristic slight distortions of the features caused by the weight of the plaster during the making of the mold. In other cultures a death mask may be a clay or other artifact placed on the face of the deceased before burial rites. The best known of these are the masks used by ancient Egyptians as part of the mummification process, such as Tutankhamon’s burial mask.
In the seventeenth century in some European countries, it was common for death masks to be used as part of the effigy of the deceased, displayed at state funerals. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries they were also used to permanently record the features of unknown corpses for purposes of identification. This function was later replaced by photography.
Shorpy has this grisly image of a death mask being made in New York circa 1908.
Wikipedia has photos of some interesting masks including a life mask of Abraham Lincoln and a death mask of Blaise Pascal.
When looking for instructions on how to proceed with making my mask, I found these two articles handy (I followed the second one in the event):
Check out the extended post below for more photographs of my attempt to make a life mask.
I took everything from my mother, her liquor, her ghosts,
her sweetness, her heavy lips, her breath of sorrow.
I took her waist and her spools, her ears and her thimble,
I took her green thumb, and the purple cosmos blossoms
that trembled under her kitchen window.
I took her feet and her loneliness, the cities
she lived in, the small towns, their friendless dusks,
her quilts and perfumes and fingers.
I took the sound of her dresses at midnight,
and the goat she kept as a child,
I took the crickets beneath the boards of her first houses
and her lovers; I got lost in their shadows.
I took her hatred of her father,
I ate from her dishes in rooms that smelled of the sea.
I took the war and the horses that pulled the cart
that carried her mother away.
I took the odor of crushed thyme and sweat,
I took a handkerchief embroidered by my great aunt
and the iron in her shoulders and the road signs
of old villages.
I took my mother’s maiden name and her fear of oceans,
I took her bravery and her strangeness,
I took a blessing from her and
the lullabies she whispered, drunk,
and my terror of that dark music.
I took my love for a woman
who walked through a broken doorway
with her eyes closed
following no one.by Rita Gabis
It’s my mother’s birthday today.
My paperback copy of George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia was in need of some love; its spine was broken, the pages were falling out, and the cover was pretty ugly to begin with (I can’t even track down the cover online, which suggests it’s a design that didn’t last long).
So I knocked out a new jacket, complete with buttons. I rebound the book with woodglue along the spine.
The colourful felt used is actually cut from a metre-length of kitchen cloth that I got at the supermarket.
The text is printed directly on to the felt. I fed an A4 piece of the felt through my (standard) printer. The text resolution was surprisingly crisp and attractive.
I spent two of the summer months in the States, mostly in Texas, where they experienced the hottest heat they’ve had in years. My trip coincided with the end of an era for me personally and I’m left contemplating what of myself I am left with.
The first winter whisper,
harsh and real,
finds my wounds,
undresses me; knows me.
No shame here.
Off with that
American attire –
loose t-shirt,
baggy shorts —
take this old cardigan.
It looks right;
it suits you.
Richard Burton won’t mind;
he’s dead now.
No shame there.
Speaking of tea ceremonies, here’s a video demo of “blooming tea” in action. Obviously not for everyday consumption, but certainly an attractive and fun bit of ceremony.
From the wonders of tea blog.
Now I think of it, it’s like a more tasteful teapot version of those razzle-dazzle Chinese birthday candles that open up and sing when you light them. I naively lit one of these at my housemate’s birthday party and it roared into action like a garden firework, taking us all aback.
I’ve accidentally discovered quite an exciting ingredient at the supermarket here in Spain, labelled “Altramuces”. Admittedly, I only picked them up because I thought they looked like butterbeans. But it turns out they’re Lupin Beans.
Above: Lupin beans served with Portuguese beer, wikipedia.
They’ve long been a poor-man’s food on the Iberian peninsula. They’re apparently served with beer in bars, in similar fashion to olives or peanuts. And they have some things in common with both olives and peanuts: They are salty like preserved olives and rather similar in texture to a firm olive, while being high in unsaturated vegetable fat like peanuts.
They contain a large amount of protein — 39 grams in 100 is accounted for by protein, instead of the usual 25ish in other beans. And perhaps it’s something to do with the protein that gives them an uncanny cheesy flavour.
At first I was repulsed by the unique flavour of this slightly bitter bean, but the flavour grows on one very quickly, like that of olives — I don’t know anyone who took immediately to olives. I can certainly see why they are so popular as a beer snack.
We’ve identified the chillies my dad grows as being of the Padrón variety, which, according to this article are being marketed in the UK now as “Russian Roulette Chillies”, as the degree of hotness is so variable from one chilli to the next.
“In Spain they are very trendy right now where they are used for a bit of fun in a daredevil game of culinary Russian roulette.
“But they all have a superb, sweet, fresh taste not too dissimilar to bell peppers or even freshly picked asparagus.”
They are traditionally cooked in a pan with a small amount of olive oil until they blister, with guests then encouraged to take their chances.
According to wikipedia’s page on tapas, Padrón is a municipality in the province of A Coruña in the region of Galicia.
I made a very satisfying and flavoursome lentil stew last night. Some of the ingredients came from my dad’s vegetable patch (as seen in the photographs posted previously).
In case I want to make it again, I’m writing the recipe down here. If you want to make it according to this recipe, be ready to improvise and use whatever and however many vegetables, spices, herbs, etc.
Feeds approx six people.
2 medium onions, chopped coarsely
2 small/medium courgettes, cubed
approx 3 cups french beans, chopped into 1-2″ pieces
2 carrots, diced
5 small-med potatoes, cubed
4 cloves of garlic, diced
8 cups water (add more if necessary later)
1 stock cube
3 medium fresh vine tomatoes, chopped coarsely into chunks
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried mint
1 bay leaf
2 cups green lentils
1 small red chilli, diced
Olive oil.Get a large pot on a medium heat. Drizzle in olive oil and add the allspice and turmeric, wait a few seconds, add the onions, cook, stirring, for 8 minutes or until they turn translucent.
Add diced garlic and red chilli. Stir for no more than a minute. Add chopped fresh tomatoes. Stir for a minute.
Add the water, stock cube, and the lentils. Bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring once or twice.
Add the other ingredients except for the herbs. Bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes.
Add herbs (oregano, mint), simmer 5 minutes, serve with crusty or toasted bread.
I like how the handles of these vessels, designed by Kristy Whyte, has a double function: firstly handles, secondly supports to make the novel shape of the bottoms a possible design option.
Check out Kristy’s other designs on her site. I like her wine carafe (above).
I also read Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice recently. The following passages rang with truth…
From Act I scene 1:
GRATIANO
You look not well, Signior Antonio;
You have too much respect upon the world:
They lose it that do buy it with much care:
Believe me, you are marvellously changed.
ANTONIOI hold the world but as the world, Gratiano;
A stage where every man must play a part,
And mine a sad one.GRATIANO
Let me play the fool:
With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come,
And let my liver rather heat with wine
Than my heart cool with mortifying groans.
Why should a man, whose blood is warm within,
Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster?
Sleep when he wakes and creep into the jaundice
By being peevish? I tell thee what, Antonio–
I love thee, and it is my love that speaks–
There are a sort of men whose visages
Do cream and mantle like a standing pond,
And do a wilful stillness entertain,
With purpose to be dress’d in an opinion
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit,
As who should say ‘I am Sir Oracle,
And when I ope my lips let no dog bark!’
O my Antonio, I do know of these
That therefore only are reputed wise
For saying nothing; when, I am very sure,
If they should speak, would almost damn those ears,
Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools.
From Act I scene 2:
PORTIA
By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of
this great world.NERISSA
You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in
the same abundance as your good fortunes are: and
yet, for aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit
with too much as they that starve with nothing. It
is no mean happiness therefore, to be seated in the
mean: superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but
competency lives longer.PORTIA
Good sentences and well pronounced.
NERISSA
They would be better, if well followed.
PORTIA
If to do were as easy as to know what were good to
do, chapels had been churches and poor men’s
cottages princes’ palaces. It is a good divine that
follows his own instructions: I can easier teach
twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the
twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may
devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps
o’er a cold decree: such a hare is madness the
youth, to skip o’er the meshes of good counsel the
cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion to
choose me a husband. O me, the word ‘choose!’ I may
neither choose whom I would nor refuse whom I
dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed
by the will of a dead father. Is it not hard,
Nerissa, that I cannot choose one nor refuse none?
I’ve only been here in the USA for a week and all America’s stars are dying left right and centre (or: center). David Carradine, Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays. I apologize for my deathly influence and will try my best to be more vital in the coming weeks.
I just read Steve Martin’s autobiography, Born Standing Up. A friend (Kasina) and I are watching Steve Martin movies. Trains Planes and Automobiles, we found, survived the years, whereas Father of The Bride seems to have quickly lost any semblance of credibility in a sludge of sentimentality and dated nineties humour. (However, the scenes in which Martin is alone and in his element remain strongest, e.g., when he loses it in the supermarket, after stressing out about the cost of his daughter’s planned wedding, demanding to have a number of hotdog buns that correlates with the number of hot dogs as they are packeted at the supermarket). Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, with Michael Caine, remains a classic.
Today we’re going to watch The Jerk, which, according to Martin’s autobiography, apparently marks the stage of Martin’s career where he was turning his back on stand-up, in preference of the more social and collaborative art of filmmaking.
Little Shop of Horrors, in which Steve Martin has a supporting role as a maniacal dentist, was one of my favourite films when I was a kid. I watched it many many times. I hope it will still stand up.
Bowfinger, I have a sneaking suspicion, will not have aged well…Even though I enjoyed it when I saw it in my early teens… And, well, don’t talk to me about Cheaper by The Dozen and its sequel, Cheaper by the Baker’s Dozen, or whatever it’s called. My shock-proof shit detector (Hemingway) screened these movies out of my viewing agenda after seeing the trailers. Same goes for The Pink Panther remake and its sequel.
Who’d a thunk it? Balsamic vinegar, sugar & strawberries, left for an hour, sprinkled with freshly ground black pepper. Actually fantastic!
Another inspired food combination I had today was Orange & Carrot Soup.
Here’s the second of my five poems on leaving Dublin, where I’ve lived for the past 11 years. Sort of.
Two days ago now,
I left the tap on.
After half an hour
I discovered this.Yesterday, bad too:
I burnt a pan black –
I’d forgot that too.Last night, drunk and blue,
“forgot” to say “bye”
or “I’m leaving now”.
Feeling selfish, I,
not digging the tunes,
stole to a taxi –
asocial baboon.Now that time is here:
Groceries have dates,
usually on top,
that are redundant
(I’ll be gone by then).
For example: beer.But a pint on tap
is for drinking now,
or for drinking then.
“Goodbye Dublin town!”,
I might burp and say,
if I’d know that pint
were the last I may.But, instead, I’m dumb;
It’s become my way.
HAMLET
I have of late–but wherefore I know not–lost all my mirth, forgone all
custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily
with my disposition that this goodly frame, the
earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most
excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave
o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted
with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to
me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
what is this quintessence of dust?
From Act II, scene II of Kenneth Branagh’s fantastic film version of Hamlet.
New year’s day. One look outside on this grey day makes me want to crawl back into 2008′s bed and snuggle. But positivity is key, as “Mind” stresses in this BBC article.
Mind has urged people not to feel they must start 2009 armed with resolutions for self-improvement.The charity said resolutions which focus on issues such as the need to lose weight or job worries create a negative self-image. And if the plans fail to materialise, that could trigger feelings of failure and inadequacy, the charity said. Mind chief executive Paul Farmer said focussing on problems or insecurities can lead to feelings of hopelessness, low self-esteem and even mild depression.
“We chastise ourselves for our perceived shortcomings and set unrealistic goals to change our behaviour, so it’s not surprising that when we fail to keep resolutions, we end up feeling worse than when we started,” he said.
“In 2009, instead of making a New Year’s resolution, think positively about the year to come and what you can achieve.”
Instead of easily broken resolutions, the charity has suggested a few steps to improve all-round mental health in 2009:
Being active – exercise releases endorphins and even a gentle stroll is beneficial for mental well-being Going green – evidence has shown that connecting with nature can boost moods Learn something new – it will keep minds stimulated and give confidence Give back to the community – it can be just as rewarding for you as those you choose to help
Don’t these resolutions fall under the same category as any other? Oh well, they are good suggestions I concede.
