Farewell to the fever, fare thee well to Nablopomia

For me, the best part of this virus will come in 6 months or so when something strikes me as worth writing about and I come back and re-read them as a whole.

Walking home from work

Just outside the door to the museum.

Almost to Metro.

Art by Greg Johnson

My friend Greg is a trained artist and has spent his adult life drawing directly from inspiration. Most of his work is done using found paper and any marker available. When he's not drawing from inspiration he's a very funny and insightful cartoonist. 

I met him when I worked in a warehouse in my early 20s and his friendship and insights were and still are very valuable to me.

The True Size of Africa

This is an amazing graphic. It reorders the land masses from around the world and shows that the continent of Africa is equal in size to all the habitable land areas on Earth.

Handsome kid

Me, circa 1975 with my friend Mike Hudson's sister Leanna. My hair used to grow like a birds nest, wait! it still does.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Nice being with someone ...

... who not only takes the preparation of a perfect Manhattan seriously ...

... but pours a perfect one as well. Cheers, baby.

The holidays come early to the Smithsonian Castle

Sometimes lack of sleep has its benefits

Tonight was one of those nights. I went outside to have a smoke and watch the the Moon slide to full and back as I have the last few nights only this is what I saw when I looked up. It's was strange yet eerily calming to see a perfectly formed circle, one that clearly wasn't or couldn't have been man made, or ring around the moon. It actually jiggled a story that's been bouncing around in my head for a few days.

I've seen rings before but that was on a cold Cleveland Winter night, what made tonight sp weird was that the sky seemed clear so I wasn't expecting it at all. But it was most welcome.

Bath time is near .....

Kelly sent me her recipe for brining since my refrigerator has enough room for the turkey. Simple recipe till I read at 11 tonight that it's best made the Sunday night before Thanksgiving ... um ... like now!

It actually was fun to see that I had everything I needed except carrots and celery and Bay leaves. for which I apologize for not having on hand. Who doesn't have more than three bottles or more of it in their spice cabinets right now?

The saga continues .....

Polyface Farms

Thanksgiving! Wait, what? We JUST placed our order in time for a pre-thanksgiving pickup and stopped today in the backwoods of upper Montgomery county to pick up our prize(s).

It's a beautiful 12 pound bird but it needs it's bath .....

Sleep and morality?

Sleep, hmmmm, I LOVE IT but don't seem to get or need as much as I did when I was young. I've always been a night owl but when I was a kid I'd sleep in past noon all the time, now, I usually go to bed around 2 and get up at 7:30 which is fine though I do pay for it occasionally.

Since that is the case I wonder how different I'd be if I actually slept 8 hours a night. Would I be less irritable? remember more? hallucinate less? get sick less often? Who knew that sleep impairs moral judgements? I may start sleeping even less. 

Happy birthday Liam

Today is number 5 for the little guy so I thought I'd just let him do the talking...

Happy birthday little man.

Henry "Red" Allen

This is more about how much I love this image than it is about Red Allen. I got turned onto Red though the seminal "The Sound of Jazz" which I have since found on DVD. Required for all Jazz lovers....

Here's Red with the all-stars assembled that day in 1957 by Jazz critics Nat Hentoff and Whitney Balliet for a program of live Jazz on CBS television.

WAMP! WAMP!

I was wrong, and I was right

Just got back from seeing Grinderman and they have no one deciding voice in how they create their music. It is collaboration but what I love, I think, about them, is their ability to live what Grinderman is to them. I apologize in advance but it is a form of performance art in a way. In the sense that they can create a character, as a unit, and put forth authentic music from that place that is only from that place.

Dig?

Sonic composition

Tomorrow we're off once again to the 930 but this time it's to see the band Grinderman and I can't remember the last time I've looked more forward to a show.

The same members of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds form this band but unlike the Bad Seeds this band seems, musically at least, under the direction of Warren Ellis, the bands guitarist/violinist, etc. Whereas all contribute to the Seeds and Grinderman and Cave has dominion over the lyrics for both my sense is that Ellis makes Grinderman's final decisions.

The thing that grabs me about this band are the sounds and what they evoke. For example, the piano being slammed on the lower register on "Get it On" from the first record just chills me.

Grinderman is predictable sounding music without being predictable in the least.

Mystery train

We took the kids to Wheaton Regional Park which is one of the most diverse in Montgomery county as far as things to do. Unfortunately, we discovered that the entire playground has been taken away and will be replaced with what looks like a pretty cool park.

One of the other things there is a train that takes people on a slow ramble through the woods. Since the train is down for the Winter I suggested we walk the rails "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" style (though I didn't tell anyone that) and we had a slow and great time on a beautiful day with no one around. Everyone had a blast.

One thing the kids discovered were these randomly placed gnomes and other guardian figures along the way. Here are the ones we found.

With thanks to Liam for the steady hands.

MMW at 930

MMW anywhere makes me happy but to be at the 930 with my baby seeing them (her first time) makes it even more special. The free drink from our fist pumping bartender for whatever reason was nice as well.

For those who know about this the "groin remote" has resurfaced and thankfully the technology has been updated for personal comfort. What is the groin remote? You will have to come back to hear that story.

In the meantime, please enjoy the fruits of the remote, this a 2 min snippet of MMW recorded last night by "Blind" Lemon Pye (hmm, another blog post, damn...)

I have no idea why this bothers me so much

OK, first off, I use YouTube on a personal level for one thing only, their technology. I love that I can shoot whatever I feel like shooting. No narrative, no thought, just what was intended, post it, grab the embed code, and know it's gonna work no matter what most people are using to watch it. All for free. Revolutionary and democratizing ... and more ... Everyone from the kids to the Grandparents can use it, right?!

So tonight, going through email I received the following "email" from "YouTube":

What this reminded me of, for some reason, is the pile of junk mail I will forever receive on behalf of my Mom. As her memory was beginning to fade back in Cleveland she started sending lots of "donations" straight into the bank accounts of these people who prey on the naivety, ignorance or hopes of some well-intentioned people and they are adept in any medium.

Fuckers.

Spike in the head

Anyone who knows me knows of my proclivity towards a good, shiny spike after a particularly hard day and today was a giant among those. So, after much sweating about what to blog about I decided to unveil my personal spike in the head.

BEHOLD!

God's butter

If you've never had bone marrow, then you haven't had God's butter. 

There are parts I haven't tried yet but as I've gotten back into food I now gravitate towards chefs who use the entire animal. If you're going to be a carnivore then I think there's some responsibility that goes with it. What we as Americans call food is only a regional reference based on our upbringings and economics just as Dog, for example, is a Chinese reference for the most part. Here, most of what we consider distasteful either gets ground up for hot dogs or sausage but if you've never had Beef Tongue, Pork cheeks, Pigs feet or marrow (among others) you are missing out on some really good eatin'

Also, it's a crime to slaughter a cow and only use the muscles we've been taught to like and throw the rest away. Whereas all we have to do is salt and pepper a ribeye and throw it on the grill these other parts are slow cooked and the flavor is coaxed out of them. If you go to a restaurant where brains, or sweetbreads or even testicles are prepared you know you are in good hands with the cook.

"Peasant food" is nothing more than food that actually benefits from someone who knows how to cook, unlike the steak on the grill (and we still overcook them -- medium rare people!)

Roasted Bone Marrow

8 to 12 center-cut beef or veal marrow bones, 3 inches long, 3 to 4 pounds total1 cup roughly chopped fresh parsley

2 shallots, thinly sliced

2 teaspoons capers

1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Coarse sea salt to taste

At least 4 1/2-inch-thick slices of crusty bread, toasted.

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put bones, cut side up, on foil-lined baking sheet or in ovenproof skillet. Cook until marrow is soft and has begun to separate from the bone, about 15 minutes. (Stop before marrow begins to drizzle out.)

2. Meanwhile, combine parsley, shallots and capers in small bowl. Just before bones are ready, whisk together olive oil and lemon juice and drizzle dressing over parsley mixture until leaves are just coated. Put roasted bones, parsley salad, salt and toast on a large plate. To serve, scoop out marrow, spread on toast, sprinkle with salt and top with parsley salad.

The Act of Seeing

Two very similar photographs in terms of positioning and focus. Under the image lies it's origin. Underneath that is meaning.

The first depicts drivers at the starting line for the Indianapolis 500 race.

The second is of Muslim's at prayer time.

What do you see?

Sunday soup

When the cylinders are in sync I will turn Fall Sunday's into soup days. There's something relaxing about prepping and simmering a bunch of ingredients together for an hour or two and then having a huge bowl just off the fire.

Today I made two different soups. One for dinner tonight and one for Kelly to have as a lunch choice during the work week.

So, the family soup was Roasted Potato Leek. Basically you roast the leeks and potatoes in olive oil for 45 mins or until brown then put the pan on two burners, add some white wine and chicken stock and reduce.

Take that mixture and either puree it in a food processor or use an immersion blender (if you don't own one, you will). Put it into a soup pot, add more stock and cream and simmer. Serve with fresh chives or green onions.

The soup for Kel was Six Onion. For that chop five cups of Leeks, two yellow, two white, two red onions and four shallots and saute adding salt, pepper, bay leaf and thyme. Dust later with flour and continue sauteing on medium for 45 mins so the onions are all carmelized and sweet. Add them to a soup pot with four quarts Chicken stock and some sherry and simmer for 30 mins.

Right before serving add a little Worcestershire sauce and fresh Chives.

Hmmmm, what for next week???

Los Angeles

When I was young I had the same fascination with California as much as anyone from grey and cold Cleveland. My first time there was when I was 15 and I met my brother out to watch a college basketball game between his alma mater of Ohio University and arguably the best college team of all-time, the UCLA Bruins coached by John Wooden.

It was magical to be in 72 degree temperatures in December. On the trip home the plane I was in developed engine problems (my second flight ever) and headed back to LA. By the time I reached Chicago for my connecting flight it had left so the airlines put me up in a hotel.

So, here I was, in the Windy City alone in my swanky hotel as stewardesses brought me dinner.

-- INSERT FANTASY HERE--

My second trip was in 1979 with four of my best friends and I believe the pictures are from when we were in Santa Monica. I remember at one point being on the freeway and listening to the LA premiere of Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" and thinking how cool I was. Heh.

The third was when I was attending a conference and had the best fish taco I've ever had at some joint in the hills. The one good story was I dressed up one night and went to the Derby (the bar for the final scene in Swingers) and met two people from Dallas and then two days later saw the band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy there. Weird.

The last time I was there was in 2000 for another conference and I remember whizzing through Bel-Air in my rental car with a fairly good drink on.

Weegee

The Fashionable People, [title first used for "The Critic" in LIFE Magazine],

published December 6, 1943

One thing I really like about being infected with Nablopomia is that you end up writing about things you like but might not share usually. Today I'm writing about Weegee, one of my favorite New York photographers.

Beginning in the 30s Weegee traversed Manhattan armed with a cigar, a camera and a police scanner and spent the next few decades cataloging the side of New York only those who lived it knew.

Murders, prostitution, cross-dressers, dive bar freaks, fires and love, Weegee has you covered.

Listen to a rare radio interview with Weegee in the 40s.

If you want to see more (it's OK, no one's gonna tell) check out this online site devoted to his work.

Jeremy Wafer

Today at work has so far been one of those days I get to say how lucky I am. First, a little backstory. In 1992 Peter Gabriel released his record "Us" and for it he commissioned artists to interpret the songs, Jeremy is one of the artists featured.

Today he was visiting the museum from his home in South Africa and whenever an artist is in the museum we videotape them in conversation for future use. 

Before the interview, Karen, the curator who would be asking him questions brought him into my office to meet me. I immediately jumped into a conversation about the work he did for PG and found out that he was staying with Gabriel because there is a master printmaker just minutes down the road from Real World studios.

In 2005 the museum had an exhibit for contemporary African artists called Insights and Wafer was in the show. To see his work and more of the show check out the web site I did for the it. 

African Form III

Drinking for Sanity

We TRIED to go to the Rally for Sanity and/or Fear but Metro had it's own view on how to rally them. It's called the Saturday schedule and somehow they decided that the 200,000 people who trusted their service didn't constitute a reason to change it and accomodate them.

Once we got downtown though it became quickly clear was that the only sanity that could only be found was with the Tequila flights at Oyamel near the Mall.  Two hours later, sanity was found. 

And then we got back on Metro......

Jack is Jack

In 1969 my brother (on right) somehow got roped into acting in a short film for his humanities class called "Jack is Jack." It was a fictional tale of one kid trying to get though high school in the 60s. Both my Mom and me were roped into the project as well and that's me above on the left fishing with Jack. Something we both HATED and never did but when "art" calls you can't say no, right?

Here's Mom looking like an astronauts wife from the martini/cardigan days of the 60s.

The one cool thing was I was excused from school so I could be at the opening and laugh directly at my brother.