untitled (chain links) 2008
Despite its lively diversity, Bushwick isn’t always as colorful as this “palette” sighted next to a building which houses a number of artist studios near the Morgan stop.
Oh, and in spite of its appearance to the contrary, the painted board is actually in perfect focus.
Category: Happy
good dinners at home
do it yourself
Those who know us are already aware that Barry and I like to eat well. Okay, I know this may sound absurd these days, but we actually dine, at least on most evenings. We often go out to performances and such, so those evening meal times would not seem strange to most Madrileños.
But, for any number of reasons, those hours being one of them, we don’t dine often enough with friends. Fortunately I like to cook, I like thinking about and planning meals, and shopping for the food. Most surprising (even to me), I even like cleaning up afterward. All of that can take up a larger part of the day than most people can spare: We know we’re lucky we can enjoy the time I have for both of us since I was able to “retire” almost a decade ago. Since I’m also distracted by so many other interests I can’t blame my insufficiently-frequent blogging on our eating habits alone, but maybe I can use that connection to help justify this particular post.
We eat very well, meaning we sit down for a leisurely meal and use real napkins. There’s great music, amazing conversation and sometimes exceptional (but usually inexpensive) wine. Of course everything in the room has to look really good. Sometimes there are birds singing out in the garden, even very late at night. Wow. That does sound good, and it’s only about 6 o’clock right now.
There’s no fast or junk food (unless occasionally ordering good pizza or Mexican dishes from trusted neighborhood sources counts), the ingredients vary hugely, and all their sources as natural, organic, seasonal and local as I can find. We don’t include meat of any kind very often, and then it’s in pretty small amounts. Cooking fairly regularly these days, I find I’m able to incorporate any extra any amounts of fresh ingredients and condiments, and any leftovers, in succeeding meals, so very little is wasted. I’m also getting better at letting what I find in our local Greenmarkets, and even in daily visits to the several decent food stores near our apartment, determine what the evening meal is going to be. I look for sales from meat and fish vendors. I’m improvising more.
I know I’m talking about habits and opportunities which are unimaginable luxuries for most New Yorkers today – and perhaps for most Americans anywhere, even the wealthy. We try to invite friends over as often as we can, but it’s never often enough as far as we’re concerned. Part of the problem, at least for me, has always been my difficulty in visiting with anyone while I’m busy in a small kitchen not set up so guests could hang out. We tend to concentrate on any number of baked pastas prepared ahead of time when friends sit down with us in our home the first time, but I have to feel that’s pretty restrictive in spite of how good those recipes are.
I thought sharing in this space what some of the more successful (and particularly simple and easily-prepared) one-course meals we’ve enjoyed alone recently might not do any harm, and it could conceivably encourage me to expand my range as host. Of course not every meal’s a winner; I jotted these notes down after meals we liked especially over the past month or so:
Saturday, April 12
Sicilian-sautéed swordfish steaks
Boiled parslied red new potatoes with olive oil
Grilled ramps
Sicilian Munir Bianco 2006
Thursday, April 17
Grilled marjoram-stuffed baby squid with a sauce of lemon, hot chilies and olive oil
Boiled new potatoes with olive oil and thyme
Boiled and sautéed spring green beans from Georgia
Galician Albarino, Rias Baixas Salneval 2006
Friday, May 1
Ligurian baked Cod with potatoes
Grilled spring scallions
Vermentino di Sardegna
Monday, May 6
Lemon-and white-wine-braised pork chops,
finished with fingerling potatoes and Marjoram
Grilled spring scallions
Spanish Rueda (Naia)
Sunday, May 18
Small marinated eye-of-round steaks
Oven-roasted potato chips (wedges) with rosemary, finished with parsley
Roasted whole carrots, finished with thyme
Cotes du Rhone (Estezargues Grandes Vignes 2006)
Wednesday, May 21
Grilled duck sausages
Rosemary-roasted fingerling potatoes finished with spring garlic
Grilled ramps
Austrian (Burgenland) Blauer Zweigelt Nittnaus 2006
[images, starting at the top, from esterlange; room 9; deep sea news; wildeducation; encore editions; oceansbridge; tunisia info
six years of the jimlog
(I have no idea why the 99� store across the street has a second sign reading 69�)
Today marks the anniversary of this blog, begun six years ago. I had conceived it as a modest but public means of expressing my dismay with the incredible folly of this country’s response to the events of September 11. It was to be a more structured form for the series of emails with which I had been plaguing my friends since that date. It would also be broadcast more widely – but also less intrusively, probably a good thing for my friendships.
As I sit here today I confess that six years ago, even in the extreme distress produced by the mindless, seemingly universal jingoism of the moment, I could not have imagined the horrors we have brought upon ourselves and the world in the years which were to follow.
Due at least to lack of interest, except among those entrenched in power, I don’t expect much will change after this November (I believe our republic is beyond restoration). So, for my own mental health and for the day-to-day survival of this blog, I’m grateful that I’m still crazy about a few other things that can be written about in public: The concerns of “the jimlog” will always include the arts, queerdom, history, New York and the world.
I observe another anniversary on April 27, one infinitely more important than the launch of this modest little outlet: I met Barry, my perfect partner and Wunderkind webmaster, seventeen years ago today.
a beautiful woman
Stanley Ann Dunhams 1960 high school graduation picture
Don’t miss this beautiful article about a very beautiful woman. I cried from beginning to end.
She had high expectations for her children. In Indonesia, she would wake her son at 4 a.m. for correspondence courses in English before school; she brought home recordings of Mahalia Jackson, speeches by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And when Mr. Obama asked to stay in Hawaii for high school rather than return to Asia, she accepted living apart a decision her daughter says was one of the hardest in Ms. Soetoros life.
The NYTimes writer is Janny Scott.
[image from KansasPrairie]
spring-ish, and surrounded by a promise of summer
These crocus guys have been livening up our garden for a week or so already. Yes, the little trifoliate leaflets around them belong to our local frais de bois.
but we do celebrate Valentine’s Day . . .
. . . and would like everyone else to be able to do the same
Justin Marshall Baby, I wanna make-out 2006 C-print
This was one of the works in the artist’s show in Chicago’s excellent Thomas Robertello Gallery last fall. Barry came across a different image by the artist from the same series, and had shown it to me. I looked at some of its mates and found this one, which managed to charm both of us on this special day.
An artist friend who is also an academic recently referred to our own collection as being at least partly “whimsical” in character. Whatever did she mean?
the last of the old year’s (glorious, expiring) lillies
Flowers, like other objects of our affection – or lust – are usually sought out for their freshness and youth, and not for their spots and wrinkles. Anyone familiar with this site knows I love flowers, but I confess that more and more in recent years I myself seem to have so shared this attitude. It must be one of the reasons I have generally avoided purchasing cut flowers either for myself or for others.
Of course, since I have watched so many bouquets purchased from New York corner deli’s die within hours of their arrival, my preference for potted plants might be explained by something other than any special aversion to witnessing the natural sequence of maturation and death. There’s also that messy, complicating thought that a flower actually dies the moment it is cut.
Like their animal cousins flowers do not seem to lose beauty as they age as long as they are left in their natural environment. I’ve always loved looking at a landscape or garden, including those I’ve nurtured myself, late in the season when its flashier beauties start to fade and begin to shrivel and bend. Indoors I’ve thought I could only approach this phenomenon with a living, flowering plant in a pot.
Until this past week.
Thirteen days before I took the images at the top and bottom of this post I received as a birthday gift the magnificent vase of florist-arranged mixed white blossoms into which were tucked the buds of these now-fading lillies.
It lasted over a week as a bouquet (although, surprisingly, the roses left shortly before that, having never quite opened). These remaining stems, together with the Eucalyptus leaves which accompany them, have now been sitting by the window on our ancient table in this heavy old green glass “can” for many more days. They have Barry and I both great, silent pleasure while we read, write, talk, and listen to music, eat and drink.
Some time today, before midnight, I will respectfully dispose of them, but I’m going to remember the beautiful, graceful dignity of their aging.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO US ALL, WITH LILLIES FOR EVERYONE – OF EVERY AGE!
traffic horse on West 27th
It was totally dark on far West 27th Street at 6:15 last night, except for the amber incandescent lights overhead, so this beast looks even more weird than it might normally.
Smart on 23rd Street
The first Smart of winter. The Mercedes Smart (yes, Mercedes) will finally be available in the U.S. by the end of January.
We spotted this little beauty (a cabriolet with manufacturer’s plates) parked across from our building as we headed out to Williamsburg and Bed-Stuy via several subway lines this afternoon. Sigh. I think I’m still hooked.
ArtHaus Miami at the Miami art fairs
Bruce High Quality Foundation arthur kills again 2007 [detail of installation]
Eugenio Ampudia Impression Soleil Levant 2007 video [installation view]
I’m not going to be able to do regular posts while Barry and I are still in Miami for the two dozen art fairs and related events, but I wanted to get the word out on one particular smaller-scale attraction we visited last night which definitely hasn’t yet gotten the publicity it deserves. If you’re here in the topics this week, don’t miss ArtHaus Miami.
The first image is of an installation which is something of a combination coin toss and miniature golf operation in the mansion’s very formal backyard pool. It’s all a very funny and imaginative take on the history of a wilder body of water located somewhat further north, Arthur Kill.
The second is of a video installed in an upstairs chamber of the house. It was at the moment I was taking this picture that I realized we had to had to leave for our next stop and come back when we have more time. Unfortunately, except to show this great installation, I can’t say anything about the work itself right now.
These two pieces are among a great many more spread throughout the rooms and gardens created by dozens of artists. They are part of what is also known as ArtHaus UnFair 07. The haus is located behind an arched gate in a large old deco mansion at 1616 Drexel Avenue, just north of 16th Street, close to all the other Miami Beach art venues, and it’s open from 1 until 10 pm through Monday.
Have fun!
_____
As for reports of my other favorite experiences of the fairs’ bounty, I may be able to do some very brief posts including nothing but an image and an attribution. Because of time demands and only irregular access to the computer however, any real summary will have to wait for our return in the middle of next week.