lacma

attended a reception at lacma last night for the tim burton retrospective and later played tourist in our own city, snapshotting our way in and around chris burden's urban light sculpture at the museum entrance.

the exhibit is vast and wondrous, showcasing burton's entire diverse career. we got in just before the long line started to snake around the building and though i am not the worlds biggest tim burton fan, i really enjoyed seeing inside the imaginative, ironic and humor colored world that encompasses his movie and animation magic.

burden's sculpture, the 200+ vintage street lamps at the entrance to the museum, light up after sunset and are as beautiful and iconic as any city art installation in recent memory. they are a visitor magnet on the museum grounds and guaranteed to bring out the joyful kid with a camera in you.

los angeles county museum of art

5905 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036(323) 857-6000

pretty paper

my felt and wire shop shopping cart is filled with lovely greeting cards, blank notebooks and simple and beautiful personalized letterpress stationary. 

proceed to check out!

tehran tuesday

today, two op-eds by the brilliant robert fisk, both written for the independent. first, a piece on the recent undoing of ahmadinejad and second, a report on this past weekends "anti-terrorism" conference in tehran. 
the ridiculousness of convening a conference in tehran and calling it "anti-terrorism" goes without saying. perhaps next month, a 'freedom forum' in beijing...

*photo courtesy of the independent newspaper.

it's gettin' real...

because the more i watch it the more hilarious it gets and because we can all use a bit of hilarity on a monday morning...

desert shades of pale

we skipped the light fandango
turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
i was feeling kinda seasick
but the crowd called out for more
the room was humming harder
as the ceiling flew away
when we called out for another drink
the waiter brought a tray

and so it was that later

as the miller told his tale
that her face, at first just ghostly,
turned a whiter shade of pale

she said, 'there is no reason
and the truth is plain to see.'
but i wandered through my playing cards
and would not let her be
one of sixteen vestal virgins
who were leaving for the coast
and although my eyes were open
they might have just as well've been closed

she said, 'i'm home on shore leave,'
though in truth we were at sea
so i took her by the looking glass
and forced her to agree
saying, 'you must be the mermaid
who took neptune for a ride.'
but she smiled at me so sadly
that my anger straightway died

if music be the food of love
then laughter is its queen
and likewise if behind is in front
then dirt in truth is clean
my mouth by then like cardboard
seemed to slip straight through my head
so we crash-dived straightway quickly
and attacked the ocean bed.

- procol harum

whiter shade of pale

desert weekend

woke up in the beautiful sunny hot dry desert this morning

accompanied by a delicious home made french toast breakfast

with a side of wimbledon tennis, endless array of magazines to read and a refreshing pool to slide into. blissful campers all around.

happy weekend!

alice walker sails to gaza

i want to share a beautiful article written by alice walker explaining her decision to take part in an upcoming international flotilla of boats sailing to gaza to challenge israel's blockade of the territory.
the last flotilla in may 2010 included seven vessels carrying nearly 700 passengers from 36 different countries. israeli commandos attacked the boats, killing nine passengers and injuring over 50. this year, despite warnings from the state department, walker is committed to taking the journey, determined to deliver the message of hope, love and solidarity. 

*artwork courtesy of google images

3 months old

it is this blog's three month anniversary today and though i am not sure if that is at all significant,  i'm a sucker for special occasions, and this, today, feels somehow minutely special. 
i have, surprisingly, quite enjoyed taking daily stock of what comes across my screen or plate or ears or heart or mind and am amazed and grateful that this corner of the world wide web has also found a life on your screens as well. 
thank you for checking in and cheers to another 90 days!

escuela taqueria

steven arroyo's (cobras & matadors, church & state, potato chips) escuela taqueria just opened last week, and being always on the lookout for the perfect local tasty taco, i headed over for dinner last night. it's a small, dozen two-top neighborhood place, with a taco only menu (they will soon be open for breakfast and lunch). everything was tasty and delicious. the fresh squeezed agua frescas, the homemade chips and salsa and the three different tacos we ordered were full layers of flavor, one just as delicious as the next. i love tasty, fresh soft tacos and am blissfully happy to have found a new local taqueria. 

cantaloupe and watermelon agua fresca

crispy skin branzino fish tacos

grilled pork with avocado and sea salt

sauteed shrimp with red mojo

308 N Stanley Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 939-8226

behind the wheels of change

watching videos of women driving should not be so news worthy or compelling in 2011 - but last week, many women in saudi arabia took to the streets to do just that in protest to the fact that they are prohibited by their government to do so. these acts of civil disobedience may be small in scale but i find the videos (posted on you tube and on several online news sites) moving and inspiring.  a quiet reminder of the simple rights i take for granted.

quote junky

photographer and designer julian bialowas designs and sells these and 362 other 'quote unquote' prints.  some of the messages are contrived and a bit too sentimental, but the images are all beautiful and several of the quotes hit the nail right on the head.
have a beauty filled monday!

fathers day

happy fathers day to my father. 
happy fathers day to my brothers and friends who are now themselves beautiful, ever present and patient fathers themselves.

morning music

june gloom has settled in on the southern california coast and i for one am eagerly awaiting hot and sunny july. but for now, in keeping with our recent overcast, chilly mornings, i wanted to share two beautiful songs from two great debut albums - both perfect for a cloudy saturday morning with cashmere socks, strong black coffee and warm toasted bread and jam. 
the first song is cost by folly & the hunter and the second is cave by mumford & sons. 
i've had these songs on repeat since the middle of last week - both lovely and deserving of a place in your itunes library. 

chocolate bikes

go ahead and eat as many cadbury brand chocolate bars as you wish (a flake for me thank you), then go to bicyclefactory.ca and enter your chocolate bars uspc code. for every 100 codes entered,  a bike is donated to a child in ghana. guilt free and social good chocolate consumption - brilliant! 
since 2009, cadbury has built and donated 9332 specially designed bikes to children all over ghana, allowing them the freedom and mobility to get to and from school.
have a deliciously chocolate filled weekend!

happy bloomsday

every june 16, the day the actions of james joyce's book ulysses took place in 1904, readers celebrate the nerdiest of all holidays: bloomsday, named in honor of the main character. around the world, joycians drink guiness, eat liver and read some of the almost 265,000 words of joyce’s masterpiece. i read the book and studied it for 4 months in a literature class and loved and hated the entire process. it's a brilliant, complex, mind boggling piece of literature - and one that no doubt deserves its own holiday. 

tonight, you can listen to the book read aloud on radio bloomsday which will have a cast of actors on from 7pm to 2 am (east coast time) reading the novel on air. 

"think you're escaping and run into yourself. longest way round is the shortest way home."

                                                                                              - james joyce - ulysses. 

type(writer)

i've been wanting an old typewriter.  a classic, beautiful model that has in it's past life typed, letter by letter, a handful of stories and essays and reports and letters. half a world away letters.  i want to sit and type a page, finger after finger - taking an hour or more if need be, but ending up with a one of a kind piece of paper with a one time only page of carefully strung together words. only one copy will exist, no saving, no command p, no spell check, no delete or undo or cut and paste. i want the ink on my fingers and the damp on the finished page. i want one page to be more meaningful than a dozen, quality not quantity. slow motion, not fast forward.

then they came for me

this week marks the two year anniversary of the protests that erupted in iran following the 2009 presidential elections. since then the government has cracked down and tried its best to silence the green movement through repression and violence. arrests, torture and interrogations of  activists and journalists have become common place. 
on friday, reza hoda saber, a dissident journalist and green movement activist, suffered a heart attack in tehran's evin prison. saber died early on saturday morning. he had been on a hunger strike to protest the circumstances leading to the death of haleh sahabi on june first. sahabi, another green movement activist and human rights campaigner, fell to the ground and died at her father's funeral, a prominent dissident politician. she had reportedly been beaten by plainclothes security men.
to mark this auspicious two year mark, i've just started reading the story of another journalist's arrest. maziar bahari's then they came for me is a beautifully written book detailing his three month incarceration in evin prison. it's an intimate account of contemporary iran and a moving story of one family’s extraordinary courage in the face of repression. 

the weinerlogues

from real time with bill maher this past friday night - a hilarious little clip to make you laugh out loud this blurry eyed monday morning. jane lynch is the best and bill is a kid in a candy store with all the recent weiner shenanigans! 

sunday with rumi

i fell asleep reading rumi last night - so on this beautiful sunday morning, some beauty via rumi for your reading and listening pleasure...

A page of a copy circa 1503
of the"Dīwān-e Šams-e Tabrīzi"

I would love to kiss you. 
The price of kissing is your life. 
Now my loving is running toward my life shouting, 
What a bargain, let's buy it.   

- rumi

rumi and iran

night light

i escaped the big bright city for the weekend and was so happy to see all the stars that were actually visible in the dark (but moonlit) sky last night. it reminded me of these images i came across online a while ago...and how i would love to someday see the night sky from the middle of africa. 

simple pleasures

i bought a bouquet of beautiful pink peonies on monday and when i woke up a few days later they had come into full bloom.  they instantly made my morning better, a testament to the importance of simple pleasures. 
have a lovely - take a few moments to stop and smell the peonies -  weekend!

crackdown

i wanted to share an important and eye opening article written by anna louie sussman for the atlantic monthly. she questions, explains and tries to answer the ongoing, seldom talked about history and facts behind the use of rape as a weapon in war.

along the same lines of current arab government's crackdowns against freedom and free speech, two other must read articles about two voices trying to be silenced. first an article by nick kristof about bahrain's arrest of hassan al-sahaf and and another article in the telegraph about the detention of syrian-american blogger and activist amina arraf.

3 movies

i rarely make it to two films in one month, but somehow, i've managed to go see three just in this past week. 
first was the documentary l'amour fou, which was less a full portrait documentary and more a literal and figurative dismantling of the life yves saint laurent shared with his partner, pierre bergé for 50 years. it lacks the passion and heat that the two shared and could have used a bit of the spark that saint laurent channeled into his beautiful and iconic fashion collections for over 30 years. nevertheless, it is a moving and thoughtful film, a genuine peek inside an iconic life.

the second movie we saw was the latest woody allen film, midnight in paris, a charming romantic comedy and nostalgic love letter to paris and its golden age. i actually quiet enjoyed this film, the most wistful of allen's films in the past several years. go see it, specially if, at some point in your life, you read a moveable feast or the great gatsby and wished you could travel back in time to the paris of the 1920s and sip absinthe with hemingway and fitzgerald at the dingo bar while they waxed poetic about their work, their women and their love for the city of lights. 

the third and last film was the tree of life, the latest terrence malick film and this years palme d'or winner at the cannes film festival. i'm not exactly sure how to sum up or rate or review this one - it has been less than 12 hours since i saw it and i think it is one of those movies that stays with you for days and only then does its full scope surface. it was transporting, but maddening. intimate yet vast. a visually stunning examination of both the brutality and grace of nature, family and life. whatever it may be, and some are calling it a masterpiece, you should go see it, think it and later over several cocktails, discuss it. 

spaghetti with fried eggs

adhering to my philosophy that everything tastes better with an egg, i made this for dinner last night - a comforting, delicious, easy, last minute supper. 

spaghetti with fried eggs*

salt

1/2 pound thin spaghetti

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil  

2 large cloves garlic, lightly smashed and peeled

4 eggs
1 cup peas

freshly ground black pepper

freshly grated Parmesan or pecorino cheese

1. boil the fresh peas for 1 minute and set aside.

2. bring a pot of salted water to the boil. start the sauce in the next step, and start cooking the pasta when the water boils.

3. combine garlic and 4 tablespoons of the oil in a small skillet over medium-low heat. cook the garlic, pressing it into the oil occasionally to release its flavor; it should barely color on both sides. remove the garlic, and add the remaining oil.

4. fry the eggs gently in the oil, until the whites are just about set and the yolks still quite runny. drain the pasta, and toss with the peas, eggs and oil, breaking up the whites as you do. (the eggs will finish cooking in the heat of the pasta.) season to taste, and serve immediately, with cheese.

yield: 2 or 3 servings.

* recipe adapted from the new york times the minimalist chooses 25 of his favorites.

monday morning music

wanted to share with you my favorite pearl jam song (i'm not a big pearl jam aficionado, though i've become a big  eddie vedder fan after the release of his beautiful into the wild soundtrack). 
perfect for a slow, cloudy, blurry eyed monday morning like today...


you can listen to eddie vedder's beautiful new album "ukulele songs" in its entirety on npr.

roland garros

a lovely early sunday morning with coffee, pain au chocolat, cherries, blueberries and a classic federer and nadal final live from paris. vamos rafa!! 
**update - rafael nadal wins in 4 amazingly played sets!

*photos courtesy of the nytimes

magic juice

i came across this yummy drink recipe online last week - love the bright graphic recipe, love the ingredients, love to make it one lazy evening in a sun setting back yard. 

directions (for 2 drinks):
dice, then muddle the fruits and mint
pour gin into fruit mixture and let sit for 10-15 minutes
strain over lemonade and ice
garnish with fruit slice or mint leaf
sit, sip, saude, salud, salamati, chin chin and cheers!

hotel chevalier

i love hotel rooms. maybe its all the traveling we did as kids or maybe its that i love the idea of traveling to new and far off places. whatever the reason,  i am fascinated by the possibilities and stories and comings and goings and life dramas and comedies that can take place in a singe room. sit in a hotel lobby and you will witness an entire world walk in and out - hundreds of lives linked for one night in one building. 
to that end, here is a short film to end your week with. check in, check out and have a room service filled weekend! 


the awesome song in the clip is performed by peter sarstedt.

kundera's identity

i just finished re-reading milan kundera's novel, identity. the main characters are a man and woman, jean-marc and chantal, and the story is about the ups and downs of their relationship. chantal feels that nobody is attracted to her because she is getting old, a fact she shares with jean-marc, the man she is in love with. then comes a series of anonymous love letters for chantal, who hides them from jean-marc as she tries to discover the identity of her unknown correspondent.  when she finds out that jean-marc has written the letters, she feels that he has violated her privacy. jean-marc, on the other hand, feels enraged by her response to another man, the writer of the letters, who is, ironically, his own creation. 
it's a brilliantly written novel about two people,who at their most intimate moments, feel that they do not recognize one anothers identity, that their voices come from far off, and that each moment of life bears the option of losing one's loved one.
i am a massive kundera fan, and this book, the second time around, was just as hard to put down as it was the first time i read it over ten years ago. 

"...no one can do a thing about feelings, they exist and there's no way to censor them. we can reproach ourselves for some action, for a remark, but not for a feeling, quite simply because we have no control at all over it." 
— milan kundera (identity)

cuddle class

i have no idea when i'll be traveling to new zealand, but when i do, this is how i want to travel - a long overnight flight from lax to auckland in air new zealand's new cozy cuddle class seats.
the future of long-haul economy class air travel finally looks comfy appealing!