I thought I would gently, tastefully push the cookbook I designed for my hula group Kaleinani o ke Kukui, since it's 7:30pm, I have not eaten dinner, I am thinking of food, and it's for a good cause.
The dancers, families, and friends of Kaleinani have provided fabulous ono (yummy) dishes from their homes and put together this wonderful cookbook. From Hawaiian to Indonesian, recipes for shoyu chicken, kelaguin, adobo, and beer in da okole chicken can be found inside. Cookbooks are only $10 each and you can purchase them online here. Recipes range from pupus (small plate/snacks), to main dishes, side dishes, desserts and drinks. With over 250 recipe, it is really a bargain! Knowing that you are supporting hula dancers so that they can continue to hula - priceless!
Grilled Pineapple with Rum Glaze
Ingredients
1 pineapple ripe
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup rum
1/2 cup blueberries
vanilla icecream
In a small saucepan, combine vanilla, sugar and rum. Slowly heat on low until sugar is dissolved. Brush the glaze onto each slice of pineapple, coating completely.
Preheat barbecue grill. Either oil or spray the grill rack with non-stick cooking spray. Place pineapple wedges on the grill and cook approximately 4 minutes on each side (turning so that grill marks are on all sides) until the pineapple becomes fragrant and starts to dry out on the surface. NOTE: Don't overcook, or they'll turn mushy.
Remove from the grill and brush with additional rum glaze. Serve with ice cream and blueberries. and enjoy!
Makes 6 servings.
Download this poster by Ian Lynham
Sunday, June 28, 12-5 PM
Meeting location: TBA
RSVP to: yes@dillpickleclub.com
During the height of the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided economic relief to millions of idle workers by employing them in the creation of public works projects and arts education programs. Although highly controversial in its time for its leftist political leanings, the WPA is cited as a major factor for the re-stabilization of the American economy leading up to WWII. Join the Dill Pickle Society for our grand opening event, Art for the Millions: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA, as we take a leisurely bicycle field trip/ tour of WPA-sponsored projects in Portland and hear from leading authorities on the subject.
What is the WPA’s relevance to contemporary society, especially to a city known for its young professionals and “creative class”? What would Portland look like if it spent its public funding on employing idle creatives for public works projects, over other budgetary expenditures such as Major League Soccer? How can we learn from the past in creating a more cooperative and less individualistic arts community?
Above (left to right):
Adrian Voisin’s bronze sculpture commemorating Lewis & Clark (Jefferson High), abandoned WPA restroom in Forest Park, Joseph Stella’s Factories at Night (Portland Art Museum).
Visit and learn about WPA public works such as the Paul Grellert’s mural at the Morrison Street post office, works at the Portland Art Museum and a spooky abandoned shack in Forest Park. Along the way the ride will stop at for lunch at Westmoreland Park (itself a WPA project), where attendees will participate in a discussion on the feasibility of implementing a federally-funded WPA arts program today. Other stops include Skidmore Fountain (where David Milholland will talk about C.E.S. Wood and the history of public art in Portland), Abernathy School (where Friends of Arts in the Schools will show us their WPA conservation efforts) and Woody Guthrie Circle.
Space is limited to the first 40 attendees. A $10 donation gets you lunch, a “merit badge” and accompanying materials. Discussion and findings will be documented and published in a print publication and online.
RSVP to: yes@dillpickleclub.com.
Early this morning was spent traipsing about the garden like a goofball in my pajamas photographing the garden. I don't know why growing things make me so happy, but balancing a cup of coffee in one hand, and a camera in the other ensconced in warm early light couldn't start off a day any better.
The vegetable garden is growing quite well, I think. The beans are insanely creeping up the rope lattice the Mister made. I swear you could watch them grow inches if you could bear staying still an hour.
We also recently found this awesome yet gruesome sign along a fence buried behind some bushes! Hmm....
The rest of the day followed with rain.
Intermitently but constant. Rain showers, rain sprinkles, rain downpours, rain mists. Repeat. All of it warm enough to leave the windows open and smell the refreshing Oregon air.
I peeked outside one last time as the sun set, and this happened...lovely.
My friend Christina called to say she had moved in with her beau and to give me her current address. Immediately, I went online and did a "drive by" which is, I went to googlemaps and typed in her address. Thanks to an application called Streetview, I was able to not only see what her new digs looked like, but that her neighbor had a dented fender, and how the walk might be to the park as I cruised about. While it's not in actual time, it was pretty amazing technology to see what she might see.
There's been all kinds of accidental voyuerism with Google's Streetview, including seeing some poor woman's thong as she gets into her truck and a deer which was supposedly run over by the Streetview cameraman's car. A group of citizens in Pittsburgh collaborated with Google to show something a bit more interesting along Sampsonia Street including a man dressed in a giant blue bird costume, a woman escaping out of a window with bed sheets, and a full marching band.
Fast on Google's big brother behavior is Microsoft's version of Google called Bing. It's offers a similar to Googlemaps in that you are able to access images via their "Bird's Eye View". It's different in that the bird's eye view is very 3-dimensional looking. You're able to swing around and actually see from four different views as if you were magically circling overhead.
I'll illustrate the comparison with one of Portlanders favorite "sculptures" in town, the giant Paul Buyan in the quaint Kenton neighborhood so you can see what I'm saying. First is Google's StreetvIew:
vs. Bing.com's Bird's Eye View:
Again, Bing's version is not in real time - as in, they took the picture once and that's it. I appreciate this technology and it's pretty cool to see how big my friend's back yard is across the country since I can't be there in person. Though I can't help but be slightly paranoid about it all.
Out in front of my grandparent's cottage in Michigan stands a row of birch trees which border the dirt front road. They've almost become part of the window for me, framing the lake in the background. At one time, the trees grew in such a way to read I V V Y Y but over the years, they've slowly succombed to winter storms, drunken idiots and disease. At the moment, only the V and Y are left.
All the trees on the property are close to my heart, the white pines I'd climb to the top with no concern for getting pitch on my Lee's, the old and gigantic oak just outside the back door which survives still - the windiest of summer storms, the lovely sweeping willow my grandpa cut down without consulting the family, and of course, those slight, white-barked, sassy birches.
My dear uncle mailed me some of the brightest leaves from the trees one Autumn. I have them still in my curio cabinet along with a small coil of beloved birch bark.
Nostalgia is a great way to gain inspiration. My newest set of cards is born.
Available soon on Etsy.
The Mister, in a moment of brilliance and opportunity, snipped off a twig that had fallen from a beech tree in our back yard and came up with this ingenious device. I've been wanting a twig thumb drive forever and bless his heart he made one from scratch in the time from when I left and came home from the grocery store.
Elusive graffiti artist Banksy, who made his name tagging walls and bridges, took his work indoors as he unveiled his biggest-ever exhibition in his hometown's museum of Bristol, England.
His work is hidden among the museum's usual exhibits and is split into different rooms, including installations, paintings and sculptures. 100 pieces, including over 70 new works were installed only after swearing museum staff to secrecy over the project. Outlandish pieces fill the museum's three floors, including a burned out ice-cream van with a giant dripping cone and portable toilets stacked to look like Stonehenge.
Banksy, who refuses to reveal his real name, began his career in Bristol spray-painting local buildings. "This is the first show I've done where taxpayers' money is being used to hang my pictures up rather than scrape them off," he said in a statement.
His art started with spray paint and cardboard stencils to tag walls, bridges and street signs as a way of social commentary. Often mislabled as just a punk kid nuisance, Banksy uses the graffiti as way to convey a message about society. He takes his work to the streets where those who live it, can see it.
Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans
West Bank Barrier, Bethlehem
Other notable works include an image of a spear-toting ancient human pushing a shopping cart, displayed in the British Museum in 2005. The next year he smuggled a life-sized figure of a Guantanamo Bay detainee into Disneyland.
His works are found throughout his native Bristol — on exterior walls and bridges. However, he has not held an exhibition indoors there since 2000. Banksy told the Bristol Evening Post newspaper he put the show together because he wanted to give something back to his town. "I could have taken the show to a lot of places, but they do have a very nice cup of tea in the museum," he said in a statement given to the newspaper.
"Equally there's so many people in Bristol who just love Banksy, and internationally. He's a megastar.
Exactly WHO Banksy is remains shrouded in mystery - we do know he grew up in Bristol, and this free exhibition is said to be his way of thanking and rewarding the city.
Congratulations to the Waldport graduating class of 2009!
The Mister's little sister Alena graduated a few days ago. I first met Alena when she was 14 and it was really lovely to see her all grown up and successfully get through this tough last year. My senior class had around 600 graduates, so what a treat it was to experience a small one where practically the entire town could fit into the gymnasium for the 51 students.
You really can't help but reminisce about your own high school days and what it felt like to be free - along with how sad it'll be knowing it could be twenty years before you'll see your peers again. Alena is quite happy to go - to start "really living" and we are so proud of her!
Ashley and Alexis bring homemade celebratory cookies
Official!
My family rented a comfortable though crazy looking gun turret/taco hut to stay in for the weekend. Sadly, no beach bonfires though, too cold and windy.
Graduation Foodfest 2009 fattened the family with chicken wings, pasta shells, teriyaki chicken skewers, rice, cheesecake, smores, ham rolls, veggies, and gallons of coffee and ginger ale. All of which was continually consumed for the next 48 hours.
For most of the day, the only exercise besides eating was a cut-throat game of Scrabble (sorry guys - it's tough to take on an Engish major). Thank goodness Rudy, Alena and her boyfriend Mike's dachsund, was there to help work off the gluttony.
The Mister and I were fortunate to find a moment of alone time with the doggy. In a 50 degree windstorm, all three of us went running on the beach to work out his energy and our chicken wings consumption. At less than a year old, he has yet to learn to sit or what "no" means. But he'll get there. He was a real trooper for being out on a blustery Oregon coast in June day.
Oh, lovely summer.
There are so many things to be done when the weather changes. The mister and I seem to be picking the filthiest jobs first. Ones where we are covered in manure and chemicals. So far, I've gone through three pairs of contact lenses from all the spray paint I've been dispensing (protective eyewear - oh, right!) First on the list was rescuing the poor decrepit birthbath hiding deep in the garden. It was in so-so shape, needed some major cement patching, water sealing and a paint job. The paint is called Fossil. My new favorite spray paint color. Time until completion: 5 days.
Next on the list was to get my Tulip chairs and table ready to be sold. Lots of sanding and spraying and wiping and respraying and coating with gloss. They've come out with a paint called Antique White - which luckily happens to be a perfect match to the fiberglass tops. I mostly worked on the bases and backs of the fiberglass. The front/tops of the chairs, I simply wiped down and left them as records to the their 50 year old age. Pretty good shape. Time until completion: 3 days
The garden is an ongoing fight to keep the plants alive and weed free. We seem to be one up on the weeds, but our swiss chard has gone to the garden in the sky. We need to google "chard death" and see what comes up. We also failed with the carrots. What excitement built up to see tall 18" green leaves blossoming from the ground. What dissapointment to see a sad, sad mutant carrot come out. Luckily the bunny will eat anything.
The pole beans are going crazy and happily climbing the trellis the mister set up.
Meanwhile, the tropical garden is going in as well as the shade garden in the back under the camellia, rhody, and two other bushes I have no idea what they are. For the tropicals, we are planting two hibiscus, a ginger, and a ti plant. The ginger rhizomes we got from Cistus Nursery. They have a section called "Zonal Denial" which has all sorts of plants which might not, but we'll force anyway, to live out a temperate winter. The canna came back after being kept in the garage all winter so there is hope!
While all this is going on, the dear sweet mister has been scraping decades of flaking paint off the cement front steps for two weekends now. He's using a "green" cleaner (actually orange smelling and looking) which while is better for us and the environment, may not be the fastest thing to use. It's coming along though - with much elbow grease and some swearing. Eventually he will patch the holes and repaint. Time until completion: 3 weeks and counting.
There are some beautiful payoffs - the annual flowers are just gorgeous and allow me to take some pretty shots.
Hi everyone! I think about once a month I"ll try and post a review of my favorite art, photography, graphic design or illustration books. There are some really good ones coming out and this one in particular got me super goofy happy. Naive: Modernism and Folklore in Contemporary Graphic Design hits me dead spot on in my heart. I'm not sure where the umlaut is on my keyboard so just pretend it's there.
Naive documents the extraordinary renaissance of Classic Modernism, from the 1940s to 1960s (my favorte eras!) in contemporary graphic design. This compilation introduces a new wave of sixty one young designers who are rediscovering the stylistic elements reminiscent of classic graphic design such as silkscreen printing, classical typography, hand lettering, woodcutting and folk art and integrating them into their work. Inspired by 20th Century American legends such as Saul Bass, Charley Harper and Alexander Girard, the burgeoning designers and their work showcased this in this book are inspiring, ranging from illustrations, poster art, editorials, book covers and record sleeves to stationary and textiles. Inspiring indeed!
