so-so caca sophisti-caca funky house grime hip hop techno all raved out on New Years Eve 2010-11 with UK lineup - Ramadanman, Bok Bok and friends. Midnight Request Line at midnight no less! Nice party on the small Elbo Room dancefloor with happy drunken people and my Dubious Dear-u. ...

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Realist writer Moravia, lays down the truth bomb on a tortured relationship in, Contempt, and fascism in, The Conformist, both translated into film by Godard and Bertolucci respectively. The writer is intensely interested in misrepresentation, the point at which projection becomes invisible or decadence begets a need for order, and thus, the cinematic interpretations accurately depict tenuous idylls ruptured with a kind of paradox....

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It occurs to me that American TV doesn't have the rich history of historical drama that the British boast of. Boardwalk Empire remedies the fault, with an over reliance perhaps on "shocking" sex scenes and sometimes clunky characterization, but making up for it with a cannily cast Steve Buscemi as Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, kingmaker and gangster extraordinaire, as well as Kelly Macdonald as...

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A baffling trip to Trader Joe's for Burgundy a la Beef Bourguignon, prompted me to check out Drink This at the library - by Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl, with informative review here. In an unpretentious and practical voice, the author guides the novice through basic knowledge of history and wine making, provides a rubric to identify characteristics of specific species of wine, how to compare them...

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Imminent Releases at the Top of my Personal Playlist: Dragon Age II Alice: Madness Returns Diablo III Rock of Ages From Dust Cargo In the Works, or Games to Also Consider: In tandem with eagerly awaited Game of Thrones HBO series, an RTS game by Cyanide. Carbine Studios unannounced offering that looks eerily similar to Avatar. Saturated DreamersNeverwinter Online. Sweetening the bitter aftertaste of Final...

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Deathly Hallows I shows our intrepid children grown up and using all the skills they have worked hard to acquire and trading in on all of the moments, magics, and friendships of the first 5 books in order to overcome obstacles instinctively. Watching them do this is intensely satisfying - Harry easily banishing the eaters with a well practiced Expecto Patronus spell - and...

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Two of my most favorite artists ever, Eiko Ishioka (Dracula, The Cell, Beijing Olympics and oh! so much more) and Julie Taymor (Lion King, Titus) have ganged up to produce the ubernerdy Turn off the Dark, a singing, dancing Broadway show based on Spider-Man. To all my geeky girls who played Street Fighter and loved Les Miserables, this is the one for us. Oh yeah, Bono...

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Lanvin expertise with H&M for the fall capsule collection... "In the end, you really only have what you give away." --Alber Elbaz, December Vogue 2010 ...

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Hong Sang-soo is at it again with Ha, Ha, Ha, a totally hilarious and bitterly pathetic portrait of masculine inadequacy. ...

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In honor of At the Movies, reviews by A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips of the new Disney film Tangled. I began this movie with trepidation - Why such liberties with the Rapunzel story? Why so much cheeky modern flourishing and implied sarcasm. Is this Shrek in disguise? Princess and the Frog scatterlogic narrative? Why is the film not called Rapunzel? Oh! No! However... The humor...

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 This place in Burlingame is alright. I prefer the cupcake bakery in San Carlos or Kara's.  Some kind of whoopie pie. Cupcakes of forgotten type. ...

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Insight, uncovered through solid research and exposed by accessible prose, is what this collection has to offer. Familiar institutions suddenly shed their formidable monumentalness, instead they are revealed as a series of individual tics and half rationalized compromises. Gladwell tends to construct these narratives laterally, first stepping in one room and then a different one and yet another, before finally linking them together as incontrovertible evidence....

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Deadly apropos reality TV Sci-Fi satire with a fun, absurdist twist at the end. Directed by Elio Petri, whose work is really worth unearthing, the film is  based on Robert Sheckley's short story, The Seventh Victim, but was later novelized as The 10th Victim. Echoes of the assassin game can be found in Alistair Reynolds novel, Revelation Space, but with much less wit...

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Recently, The Textile Arts Council of the De Young museum hosted a lecture on Madame Vionnet by Sandra Ericcson, The Center for Pattern Design. The free event was an opportunity to learn some cutting and fitting techniques, but also to view construction details up close and personal. Well worth the trip. I'm not going into a lot of detail here about history and context, but...

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Perfect instructions from Simply Recipes with helpful tips from David Lebovitz. Perfect instructions from Simply Recipes with helpful tips from David Lebovitz. ...

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This recipe needs a little work. So far... 2 cups flour 2 1/4 cups rolled oats 1 1/2 cups brown sugar 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 3/4 cups softened butter 6 oz chocolate chips or chunks1/2 cup chopped nuts1 cup caramel sauce Mix together dry ingredients than add butter till moistened and comes together slightly. Lightly press half of the...

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Season Two = industry realistic format of teamed contestants, longer workroom times, Mizrahi firing out sharp short critiques, very specific design challenges, and Iman = My favorite new/original Project Runway Season Two = industry realistic format of teamed contestants, longer workroom times, Mizrahi firing out sharp short critiques, very specific design challenges, and Iman = My favorite new/original Project Runway ...

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"I cannot conceive of a god who rewards and punishes his creatures or has a will of the kind we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egotism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and...

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Chorizo and Chickpeas Mark Bittman's chorizo and kale recipe is one of my favorites. This is a take on a recipe in the New Tapas book which uses blood sausage and pine nuts. Here we have chorizo, bell peppers, raisins, chickpeas and almonds.  Mushroom Custard Deconstructed frittata. I based the custard and oven cooking method from the recipe in Shimbo book, but added...

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Not technically an aji, as there are no aji chilies. This recipe is pretty malleable. Add scallions, more or less garlic, a tiny fiery hot red chili depending on your tastes. For creamier texture, add a 1/4 cup mayo, yogurt or milk and a little less cheese. Sometimes I see this sauce made with a bit of crackers or bread used as a thickener. If...

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Success! A Two raw eggs gives this dish just the right consistency, bringing the salty, spicy, sour and creamy all together. We like our noodles a little spicier at this house, so the flavor of the mentaiko gets a little lost, but you can rinse the kimchi and lightly dry it. Perhaps I may try the saltier masago or tobiko to see if the...

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The love child of this momofuku4two recipe originally taken from the Momofuku book/restaurant, and the Kimchi Udon from Ginji. I found this first iteration not as creamy as I would like, aka Momofuku version. However, the flavor was close to what I was after. I actually think there might be an egg in the Ginji dish like a carbonara, and not actually any mentaiko,...

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After finishing first, Terminal World, by Alistair Reynolds and then, All the Windwracked Stars, by Elizabeth Bear, I realized that both novels are much of the same. Meaning... In the aftermath of apocalypse (or several, as in the case of Bear), on a foregone, poisoned planet (a pseudo Earth), humankind, or a mutated semblance of such, clings wretchedly to life in concentric rings...

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The premise of ABC's tv show Castle - intelligent yet winsome novelist turned NYPD homicide consultant to poker faced procedural hotty Kate Beckett - is laughable, but realism aside, this mystery crime series has just gotten better and better with age. While charges are partially true that the character of Beckett is an old routine, that Stanic plays her a little too stoic,...

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This Yale Press coffee table book features deliciously large photos that show design detail with great clarity. Considering the intent of the author to prove American designers have innovated as much as their international peers, Mears unfortunately describes garment construction textually when a simple pattern image would have illuminated the same point in a more concise way. Perhaps the publisher believed a lay audience...

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Taken from a Fashion-Incubator posting regarding pattern frustrations. "It is quite natural that we should adopt a defensive and negative attitude towards every new opinion concerning something on which we have already an opinion of our own. For it forces its way as an enemy into the previously closed system of our own convictions, shatters the calm of mind we have attained through...

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Despite the moderator's attempt to steer the discussion towards a mundane dissection of undergraduate level humanities theory, New York Times writer, Cathy Horyn, managed to land a few gems on the topic of critical thinking and fashion during yesterdays installment of Stanford Humanities Department Arts Critics in Residence Series. Horyn, breaking from dated women's wear reporting of fashion, ascribes her critical style to...

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I made the magical cheesy puff bread constructed from choux dough from the Tartine baking book, which resulted in accolades among all testers. Remember to poke the puffs immediately after leaving the oven or they will go flat. Plenty copy pasta on the interwebs, so I won't repeat it here. Unfortunately, my camera is still having troubles and my picture of beautiful puff...

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A little short on sauce for our taste, I added a bit extra garlic and salt and another can of crushed tomato puree. I also reduced the amount of parmesan in the meatballs as they were plenty rich enough for my yin yang twin. That said, I enjoyed this dish from Ina Garten a lot. Meatballs 1/2 lb ground veal 1/2 lb ground...

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A belated picture of candied pecans. A belated picture of candied pecans. ...

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"Be your best self". --Darryl Philbin "Be your best self". --Darryl Philbin ...

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"Imagine concentrating on a challenging modern painting that becomes just a little bit different every time you shift your attention from one detail to another, or try to impose a frame on a running river, making it a finite, enclosed work of art yet leaving its kinetic quality unsullied, leaving it flowing freely on all sides... It has been done. Steve Reich has...

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"The important thing is not what they think of me, but what I think of them." --Queen Victoria "The important thing is not what they think of me, but what I think of them." --Queen Victoria ...

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