Northern Nights

Tallinn, Estonia

Riga, Latvia

“It was one in the morning and the night’s black was flat. We were close to the Arctic Circle but we couldn’t see a thing. Were we close to the Arctic circle? I thought so. The air was mixed with night, the air sucking the breath from you. The landscape was soaked in a grey-black wash from which streetlights stared with a dull intensity. I pretended briefly we were on the moon, and the homes were labs for surveyors. Estonia could be the moon, I decided…”

“There is a corner of the sea that is deep but not so deep that it’s black. It’s the blue of a blueberry, violet in its heart, though this blue allows light through a million unseeable pores. The hue is evenly painted but electric, a klieg light pushing though a gel of cyan. But invading this blue are clouds of inky purple, billowing clouds in small waves, and they grow from below, splitting the sea between light above and dark growing from below.

Turn it upside down and this was the sky above Riga.”

-Dave Eggers, You Shall Know Our Velocity!, 2002

Yesterday, leaving work in the blue-gray evening of 4:30 pm, I was reminded of these beautiful passages from one of my favorite books. Maybe it wasn’t intended, but to me they read like travel advertisements for eastern Europe. I’ve always felt a kinship with other northern cultures because of our sheer audacity to live in such inhospitable climates. Although my hometown of Madison is on a similar latitude as say, Spain, our harsh winters definitely have more in common with places like Estonia. At present, Madison is covered in nearly two feet of fresh snow, and the downtown last night was gorgeous in its stillness, with all the coffee shops, bars and restaurants illuminated and beckoning. Cold temperatures bring out the clarity in everything- buildings, the sky, the ground, and I wished I had my camera with me to capture it all.

Except, lately I’ve been trying this thing- to really look at everything through a photographer’s eye without actually taking a photo. When you concentrate on your camera, you get distracted by getting the perfect shot and often miss the sounds, the smells, the panoramas or the details- and get so caught up in whatever is the subject of your lens. When I was in Europe a few months ago, I actually feel like I missed a lot because I was pretty obsessed with taking photos. I should have been viewing with both eyes. But on my very last day in Venice, on the boat ride through the canals to the airport, I took this one photo, and then put my camera away for good. I sat in the back of the little motorboat and just took it all in, noticing everything. It was Sunday morning, quite early, and the city that had been so jam-packed and so hot the day before was now serene in the early-morning light. And I relaxed, not worrying about taking photos, just making memories, little snapshots in my mind. The trouble is, you can’t share those, but sometimes you just have to be selfish and create those personal “photos”.

Luckily, these people decided NOT to be selfish and shared great photos of the aftermath of the Madison blizzard.

Photos credits, top to bottom:

aurora0borealis\’ photostream

europics\’ photostream

mjlmadison\’s photostream

Philgarlic\’s photostream

Music for Egon Schiele

This 1996 album by Rachel’s forms a nexus into the worlds of music, art, and drama.  I don’t normally listen to a lot of all-instrumental albums, but this one is so lovely and relaxing and…perfect. It’s the kind of music that conjures up an eerie form of nostalgia for that which is only half-remembered. As Don Draper once astutely put it, in one of his most stunning pitches ever, “It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone.” I am starting to think there might be a Mad Men quote for all occasions.

Recommended listening for a snowy day (or sunny, or whatever.)

Interesting Tidbits from the NGA and Extreme Art Nerdiness – Or not.

Walkway at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. – Leo Villareal Multiverse.

Nope, not going to win any awards for my camera work.

I can’t help myself, the two times I’ve experienced this at the NGA I’ve been dumbstruck. It’s mesmerizing, beautiful, sparkly, and just plain COOL. And it reminds me of the effect in Star Wars whenever the Millenium Falcon (finally) makes the jump to lightspeed. I know next to nothing about light sculptures or installations so I don’t really have the vocabulary to discuss it, and I wish my little clip was better, because it’s really only a sliver of the actual experience.

Something I CAN expound at length about, and I know Alison can too, is Mr. Rothko. Maybe someday we should have a blog-off and see who writes a better blog about a specific work of art? Or not.

I have a weird habit of taking detail shots of my favorite paintings – inspired, I think, by all the detail slides my art history professors would take themselves (when on vacation?). They would then usually apologize about the poor quality of the image. Or they would apologize for not having a detail of something and try to describe, at length, what the detail proved about the point they were trying to make and how we would just have to “imagine” or “trust them.” Did your professors do that, too? No? Someday I’ll put together a gallery of all my random detail shots of everything from the Ishtar Gate to shadows of Calder mobiles. Or not.

Photo Friday: The Professionals, part one

In the photo posts so far, I’ve mostly shown the work of talented amateur photographers. But if I’m really going to demonstrate why I love photography, I obviously can’t leave out the professional photographers who have grabbed my attention over the years. This won’t be a history lesson- there’s lots of better places to get that- and I won’t pretend I know all about the history of photography, because I definitely don’t. Instead, this goes under the “admiration” category- a mini-series-within-a-series of the work of some of my favorite photographers.

Many of these happen to be featured in a great photo book, The Nature of Photographs, by Stephen Shore. I bought the book in Ireland a few years ago, which is kind of crazy considering the exchange rate and the fact that you can most certainly purchase it in the U.S. (And the only other thing I bought on that trip, excluding beer, was a penny-whistle for a friend who said he was definitely going to learn to play it. Still waiting for the concert. Bottom line: I am not a good shopper overseas.) Anyway, it’s one of the more unique photo books I’ve come across. It’s organized by the formal elements comprising a good/interesting/eye-catching/memorable etc. photograph, with few (but carefully chosen) words and many lovely, luminous photos.

Consciously or unconsciously, the work of these artists surely influences the current photographs that are splattered all over the internet, particularly flickr. I am constantly amazed at the level of talent displayed on flickr and similar websites, and it makes me wonder- were people always this artistically skilled, but just didn’t have the same kinds of outlets we have available today? In modern America, just about everyone has access to a camera, and an eye, and a story to tell. It’s such a democratic medium, and I think that’s what I love about photography… which brings me to the work of those who have been inspirational for me.

Robert Frank

One day, when I was working at the University of Washington School of Art, I was processing an image-order for a professor from the book The Americans by Robert Frank. Now, I am easily distracted by pretty things (something I have in common with my cat, Libby), but I was especially compelled to page through this entire book. It’s so very American, so 1950s, a decade I have always been fascinated by. It seems like it was a time for creating facades and suppressing urges for many Americans (or at least that’s the postmodern view we’re being sold these days.) But I can’t help feeling like all of these images are capturing the relative calm before the storm of the 1960s. (All of this is why I love Mad Men so very much.)

Garry Winogrand

Hollywood Boulevard, 1969 (Getty Museum)

Winogrand’s photographs are like the 1960s and ’70s counterpart to Robert Frank’s 1950s series. I love the combination of documentary style + artistic eye for light and angles.

Edward Steichen

I bought The Flatiron, 1904 in small-poster form when I visited the Met a few years ago. It’s one of those images that I couldn’t get out of my head. Living in the northern U.S. my whole life, it just summarizes the isolation of cities in early evening winter.

Helen Levitt

Helen Levitt- Untitled, New York (spider girl, green car), 1980

Levitt, who recently passed away, had an amazing eye for the beauty and movement in everyday street life. The colors in this shot are typical in the “vintage-inspired” look that is so prevalent these days.

Cranberries

I have a confession to make. The past week or so I have been avoiding Etsy (because I gave my favorites list to the Boy for Christmas shopping and don’t want to be tempted to peek), so I didn’t have my usual list of new favorites for inspiration. But happy, delicious, festive cranberries have been on my mind, and these are some of my favorite results gleaned from that search.

Other festive red things on my mind include red lipstick, red patent-leather Mary Janes, and contemplating the idea of using red ninja packing tape for mailing Christmas packages (from Archie McPhee, some day I’ll have to devote an entire post to that wonderful WONDERFUL store).

But back to that tart fruit, this recipe for cranberry relish reminded me of one of my favorite holiday hors d’oeuvre: cranberry salsa with lemon brie. It’s delicious, so pretty, and my favorite holiday party snack.

Cranberry Salsa with Lemon Brie Spread

Cranberry Salsa:
2 cups fresh cranberries, chopped
3 medium green onions, chopped
1 small red jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
3 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Combine all ingredients and refrigerate for 4 hours. This isn’t really a “make the day before” recipe, but it comes together quickly, especially if you have a food processor.

Lemon Brie Spread:
3/4 lb brie
8 oz cream cheese
1/3 teaspoons black pepper
1 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
Bring cheeses to room temperature. Remove rind from brie. Mix all ingredients thoroughly and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature for serving.

Serve together with crackers. See, I told you, easy! The brie acts as a nice cement to anchor the salsa on top of the cracker. I like the Pepperidge Farm butterfly crackers, or of course, Carr’s Table Water Crackers.

Items available from Etsy.

Heart bowls from Red Hot Pottery.

Cranberry Fig Soap from Cocoa Beans.

French Pet Lobster Shirt from Xenotees.

Necklace from Mia Sophia.

Vintage-inspired Monday: In Stitches

When I was a child, I read a lot. As far as I was concerned, there wasn’t any better way to spend my time. I’d check out stacks of books so high they towered over my head and I became good friends with the school librarian, Mrs. Kinney. At one point, Mrs. Kinney asked me if I had any other hobbies and suggested I take up cross stitch. My mother and I remember this very differently. I remember Mrs. Kinney being concerned that I had no other hobbies besides reading and suggesting that maybe I shouldn’t spend all my time with books. My mother remembers Mrs. Kinney simply suggesting I might enjoy cross stitch because it would suit me, not as a replacement for reading. Either way, cross stitch, with its orderly rows of little X’s, never really sparked my interest.

Nearly twenty years after Mrs. Kinney (and at least one well-meaning aunt) suggested I take up cross stitch, I saw a snarky message perched in my friend L’s apartment. She explained a friend of hers was inspired by a book of off-color cross stitch patterns.

There’s something appealing about subversive cross stitch. Taking that centuries-old craft and corrupting it, twisting it, there’s something delicious about that. Samplers of alphabets, proverbs and family trees are replaced by snarky sayings and rude phrases. Though, I have to admit, I’m not too keen on the rude sayings or curse words. I’ll take wit and subtlety over outright crass phrasing any day. But again, that’s part of what makes this idea so wonderful – anyone can do whatever they want with the medium, appropriating an art that in the past represented the education and molding of young girls into proper woman and allowing it to expand and evolve to reflect the diversity of interests and express the creativity of modern women and men. Many of these cross stitchers use resources such as the Antique Pattern Library and period samplers as inspiration.

There’s a flickr pool inspired by Jackson’s book where people showcase their creations. Some are truly beautiful and creative examples of needlework with a subtle twist. Some are really just hilarious or rude, and my favorites are delectably nerdy. I mean – the Royal Tenenbaums characters decorating part of a pop-culture sampler? Yes, please!

Flickr user Cross-stitch ninja

I have provided links to work that I want to share but is limited due to copyright, but I highly recommend exploring the flickr pool and Julie Jackson’s website. There are also many artists who take the concept of needlework to a new level, transcending thread and fabric to create artwork that deals with the topics of gender, culture and fashion. But that’s a topic for another day.

Just some eye candy for the day after Thanksgiving.

For one reason or another, these all remind me of winter.

Credits, in order:

Lucie Camp

Water splash

Life Magazine: Eames

abless

Tettamanti- Greenland

Heart: from The Photographic Dictionary (which is a mesmerizing, time-sucking, beautiful, thought-provoking, adjective-inspiring website.)

What I like (this week).

Grey and white.

Though anyone who knows me will recognize my love for bright! happy! saturated! color, lately I’ve been drawn to shades of gray and white. Must be because I’m gearing up for winter – even while gazing out my window at the wall of vibrant green two story holly trees. I’ve also been spending a lot of time on Etsy, spearing my lips with my favorite Smith’s Minted Rose Balm, and choosing a green bean recipe to make for Thanksgiving.

Bud vases from Grass Roots Design.

Milk glass eye wash from DK General Store.

Caramel marshmallows from Whimsey and Spice.

Chickadee print from Rocky Top Studio.

Woven shrug from larimeloom.

Things i like, as of late.

Book:  Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan

French teenage decadence at its finest.

Music: Grizzly Bear.

Ever since Veckatimest came out 6 months, I can’t stop listening. And Yellow House (2006) is just as good.

Clothing: Guess what? I like sweatpants. I don’t wear them out of the house (anymore), but if I’m home, I am probably wearing these, the most amazingly comfortable and durable sweatpants ever.

Rock: Wait, what? Favorite rock? Yeah, bear with me. Quartzite projectile points.  So, lately at work I have been inventorying lots and lots of archaeological objects. I think it might be making me even crazier. After countless ceramic shards, the quartzite really stands out. And I think one of these would make a pretty badass necklace (as a reproduction, naturally…)

Pretty!

Madison Bar: I’m picking two.

Vintage for happy hour.  Genna’s for late-night.

There are sweet happy hour specials here on Wisconsin tap beers.

TV Show: First off, Mad Men will be gone for NINE MONTHS. Don Draper, why have you forsaken me? But all that drama means it’s time for more fun shows. A new one I’ve enjoyed lately is Parks and Recreation.

This is a new show that got off to kind of a rocky start, but lately it’s been consistently hilarious. While it’s nowhere near 30 Rock in terms of brilliance (an admittedly high bar), it’s been surpassing The Office lately, which is starting to grow a little stale. (And yes, the documentary-style camera work is directly based on that of The Office. I don’t care if they ripped it off, it’s the same network with a lot of the same people involved on it anyway.) The best part of the show is Amy Poehler. I kind of think she could be a comedy genius. Or savant, based on the characters she plays.

Random Category: (What, “rock” wasn’t random enough for me?) I have a favorite scent. I wish it was a perfume, shower gel, shampoo and essential oil. I wish State Street smelled like this, instead of patchouli, garbage, and last night’s beer. It’s a candle from Anthropologie and I need a new one.

Musty Monday – Unexpected Christmas Movies

It’s Thanksgiving week and everyone (and by everyone, I mean retailers) is rolling out the Christmas decorations. There are certain movies that are considered Christmas classics – Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (with Hermey the elf and the scary abominable snow man!), A Christmas Story (You’ll shoot your eye out!), It’s A Wonderful Life (I’ll give you the moon, Mary.), and White Christmas (Snow, snow, snow, snow, SNOOOOWWWW). However, the classics play over and over and sometimes it’s good to throw some others into the mix. Many of my favorite movies that remind me of Christmas don’t have Christmas-centric plots, and a few have absolutely nothing to do with Christmas but still put me in a Christmas mood.

The Thin Man

I’ve already mentioned my love of The Thin Man. Loy and Powell’s banter is spot on (and enviable, doesn’t it look like they’re having fun?). It’s about a reluctant retired detective and his eager wife trying to find the missing “Thin Man,” but it contains my favorite Christmas scene ever. There’s also a pretty rocking Christmas party. Plus, the only person who gets the “round up all the suspects in one room to reveal the murderer” scene better is Agatha Christie. Watch it in your fur coat with a pitcher of martinis.*

The Best Years of Our Lives

If you get sick of It’s A Wonderful Life but still want a taste of bittersweet sentimentality, try this. Also starring Myrna Loy, this explores the lives of three returning soldiers and their families after the close of World War II. Of note is the performance by Harold Russell, a paratrooper who had lost both of his arms. He won an Academy Award for his first and only role. It’s a bit sentimental but still relevant – war still affects everyone differently. Caveat – I don’t think there is a Christmas scene. Watch it with a milkshake and a handkerchief.

The Apartment

Jack Lemmon is wonderful as the clueless and naive yes-man and Shirley MacLaine is by turns charming, spunky and tragic. No, it’s not about Christmas, but the main action happens during Christmas. Plus, let’s face it, sometimes all that cheery happy peace and love goodness can get overwhelming, and this is the perfect anecdote – just the right mix of humor, drama, and heartbreak. Watch it in front of the Christmas tree with some spaghetti and meatballs and a Tom & Jerry, skip the sleeping pills.

Some other favorites include: Christmas in Connecticut (baby-switching and hijinks galore!), The Shop Around the Corner (Jimmy Stewart! It’s the inspiration for both You’ve Got Mail and In the Good Old Summertime), Meet me in St. Louis (Two words: Judy Garland), Little Women (pick your version – but I like the one with June Allyson as Jo), and Holiday (Hepburn and Grant are hilarious together).

What are your favorite Christmas movies?

*I’ve included links to full versions on YouTube for reference, but if you haven’t seen any of these yet, do yourself a favor and rent a copy.

**All movie poster images from Wikipedia.