Food city area

Lunch with Alice at Oakview Elementary School

Lunch with Alice at Oakview Elementary School

Baca selengkapnya »

14.01

Old wine, new bottles?

Old wine, new bottles?

The L.A. Times blog "Daily Dish" today described a meal at a very trendy restaurant with a twist: it's based on recipes from...

Baca selengkapnya »

12.36

Alice's Cookies

Alice's Cookies

Alice used the recipe in her take-home reading book, and made these cookies.

Baca selengkapnya »

06.51

Fashion and Nourishment

The Thoughtful Dresser by Linda Grant explores both the dark side and the light side of clothing and fashion. In many ways she makes the point that the attraction of fashion and beautiful clothing is not rational, but is based on pleasure. She says: "... we do not choose to eat, say, a chocolate eclair, with the aim of fulfilling our daily calorie quota." Grant compares the pleasures of food and clothing, and various attacks on those who enjoy them: <blockquote>"We fall victim to a cake because it is delicious. Interestingly the angry rages against unnecessary clothes are seldom replicated in moral campaigns against flambeed cherries or steak au poivre. No one pickets restaurants or rails against the conspicuous waste of unnecessary calories in a three-course meal.... It is pointless fashion, not pointless cuisine, that gets the moralists's goat, and you would have to be pretty dim not to sniff the stench of misogyny that surrounds their outrage." (p. 99)</blockquote>Do you think you have no interest in clothing and fashion? Linda Grant will show you that there is much more involved than you might guess. All people wear clothes almost every moment of their lives, and make some type of choices of what those clothes are. Clothes, she demonstrates, are never without meaning. She describes how the victims of some of the twentieth century's most horrifying outrages managed their pain by enjoying the beauty of well-made clothing: we can't have depths, she points out, without surfaces. One subject of the book is a woman named Catherine Hill, who survived Auschwitz and became a leader in bringing European high-level fashion to Canada. The depths and surfaces of this woman provide insights into what Grant is saying about the meaning of clothing. I enjoyed the descriptions of the author's mother, who loved shopping and good clothing. It contrasted so much with my memories of my own mother, who hated shopping and would gladly wear hand-me-downs if she could avoid going to a department store to buy something new. Grant's interest in owning designer clothing and shoes contrasts enormously to my approach. I sit here wearing L.L.Bean jeans, sweater, and turtleneck; Birkenstocks, and cheap socks from Target. I never wear high heels and never have. She wouldn't approve of me at all. But I approve of her: she offers a view of what makes so many people what they are. <div class="productImage"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thoughtful-Dresser-Adornment-Pleasures-Shopping/dp/1439158819/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271859885&sr=8-1"> <img alt="Product Details" border="0" class="" height="115" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41saUEQhkXL._SL160_AA115_.jpg" width="115" /> </a></div> <div class="productTitle"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thoughtful-Dresser-Adornment-Pleasures-Shopping/dp/1439158819/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271859885&sr=8-1"> The Thoughtful Dresser: The Art of Adornment, the Pleasures of Shopping, and Why Clothes Matter</a> by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Linda-Grant/e/B001HOJHBQ/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1271859885&sr=8-1">Linda Grantds</a> Also see: <a href="http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=17960" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Is Our Fashion Also Our Identity?">Is Our Fashion Also Our Identity?</a></div>

Fashion and Nourishment

The Thoughtful Dresser by Linda Grant explores both the dark side and the light side of clothing and fashion. In many ways she makes the po...

Baca selengkapnya »

07.22

Food Photos taken more seriously

I read that the Getty Museum in L.A. has a show "<a href="http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/focus_tasteful_pictures/">Tasteful Pictures</a>" about food photography. From the Getty website: "Spanning the period from the mid-19th century until today, the images highlight important technological and aesthetic innovations as well as matters of taste. " I was fascinated by a picture of a man delivering bagels by the photographer Weegee. Below is a picture by one of my many favorite artists, Man Ray. <img alt="http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/images/l/05319401.jpg" src="http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/images/l/05319401.jpg" /> <blockquote>"In 1931 the Paris electric company CPDE commissioned Man Ray to produce a series of images promoting the personal uses of electricity. The resulting portfolio, Électricité , included pictures of the uses of electricity in each room of a house, as in Cuisine (Kitchen). The whimsical print lent a familiarity and friendliness to the mysterious power marketed by CPDE. "The Électricité portfolio included ten Rayographs reproduced as photogravures. The company released it in an edition of five hundred for distribution to top CPDE executives and special customers. "</blockquote> I'd love to see this show. The pictures of "Électricité" remind me of a huge mural "La Fée Électricité" by Raoul Dufy. The French Electricity Company commissioned this work in 1937. It's fascinating that they were so aware and supportive of modern art.

Food Photos taken more seriously

I read that the Getty Museum in L.A. has a show " Tasteful Pictures " about food photography. From the Getty website: "Spanni...

Baca selengkapnya »