The other day we got this crazy looking contraption in our CSA box. A type of heirloom cauliflower and not an alien birthing pod, the romanesco is also the answer to the question of the secret of life apparently. Here is a nice article on the vector phenomenon of this delectable vegetable. I would suggest serving "level 1" formations to geeks with an interest in mimetic phenomenon or after the "brownies" at a seminar for architects.

200 Pounds Beauty (Kim Yong-hwa, 2006)

So, we finally bought a new vacuum cleaner to replace our beefy, retro upright from the 70's. The Hoover Windtunnel canister vac is mostly made of plastic, but has metal wands that extend easily as well as a reinforced hose. There's a 15" powered carpet head and a mini powered head that both do a pretty good job at edge grooming. The crevice wand stores expediently on top of the canister along with a tiny brush for filter scraping and a bare floor tool.

The Windtunnel has two filters, Hepa and exhaust, which cost about $15 a piece, but there isn't a bag to purchase. Unlike other vacuums, the see-through collector bin has a lid so there's no fear of spilling the diligently removed dust on the way to the garbage. Even when the collector is filled to "max" the power head still seems to grab away at the carpet quite happily when I am using the vac from a central location in the middle of the room. I can also carry the canister easily in one hand and brandish the a wand in the other for crannies. I really like watching the dirt accumulating inside the collector as I mosey around and seeing the carpet turn "bright" again. (Really needed a new vacuum...)

Caveats: The small attachments are really short, maybe only 4" in length. On high settings, the vacuum isn't really "ultra-quiet". The canister itself isn't perfectly sealed at the collector connection. For the most part though, at $169 (from Costco in Sunnyvale) the dust escapees and minor quibbles aren't deal breaking. We live in a small apartment, so the compact size canister set-up, and great suction more than make up for it. Better yet, the vacuum breaks down into separate pieces for storage and can fit under cramped sink or large shelf when space is an issue.

While The Complete Book of Sewing from DK has nice photo images, The Reader's Digest: New Complete Guide to Sewing has better step-by-step instructions for various tasks, like trimming a neckline with piping, and includes more decor sewing projects, such as a small quilt. I probably reference the Complete Guide to Sewing most often and would recommend buying the newest edition rather then the older because of the improved clarity of the illustrations. I also have the Coats and Clark's book, Garments for Beginners. This book has very, very detailed color photo instructions for a few specific projects like a basic T-shirt or elastic waist skirt. Not a whole lot of style but good for practicing knit fabric techniques. The more comprehensive Reader's Digest tome includes similar instructions for items like a dressy pant or blouse but the steps are less in-depth.

Finally, Donald McCunn's How to Make Sewing Patterns complements the fit and alteration sections of the "guide" books. The author thoroughly explains the concept of patternmaking in relationship to the body. He provides complete mini sample information on techniques for basic alterations or adding interesting details to existing patterns, such as a raglan sleeve or mandarin collar. While some of the steps and illustrations were mystifying at first, it helped to actually try a sample and see how it worked. After I make the design or fit changes on my paper pattern using McCunn's book, I look to Reader's Digest on how to finish the garment.

An informative web compendium of interviews, reviews, and author bios for weighty contemporary literature.

"The Modern Word is a large network of literary sites dedicated to exploring twentieth century writers who have pushed the envelope of traditional narrative and structure. This includes many writers associated with Modernism, surrealism, “magical realism,” and postmodernism. Our mandate includes both writers who have experimented with prose styles and narrative conventions, such as Joyce, Burroughs, or Pynchon, and those who use literary techniques to frame alternate ways of perceiving reality, such as Borges and Philip K. Dick." -- from the Modern Word FAQ

I find the Scriptorium a good place to look for my reading lists. Man-centric but genre inclusive.

A collection of interesting shorts for designer and architects curated by Eames Demetrios and including some work by Charles Eames.

Gackt's last screen project was a historical Jdorama where he plays 16th century warlord, Uesugi Kenshin, with perfectly manicured and knit brows to seethingly stoic effect.

Gackt's bishi bodhisattva warrior Vocaloid avatar.











Gackpoid - limited edition Dear's Version

From the Dust Returned: a Family Remembrance is a collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury written over the course of 50 plus years. Fleshed out and strung together in 2001, the resulting narrative is both Gothic and ghostly, the poetic style departing from Martian chronicle mode, but the spirit retaining a melancholy rumination on death and love that make the best Bradbury so touching. The Family in a story is an unnamed mix of creatures and immortals with supernatural abilities who, having haunted the world over, find themselves "dying" in a cynical modern world. For safe haven they retreat to the safety of an ancestral mansion, a House "beckoned... out of tumults of weather and excursions of Time" by a tree on a hill in an obscure town of Illinois. While the novel is really a lightheartedly macabre series of vignettes, I most enjoyed Bradbury's descriptions of place as character.

"...[the house] was of such magnificence, echoing facades last seen in London, that wagons, intending to the cross the river, hesitated with their families gazing up and decided if this empty place was good enough for a papal palace, a royal monument, or a queen's abode, there hardly seemed a reason to leave. So the wagons stopped, the horses were watered, and when the families looked, they found their shoes as well as their souls had sprouted roots. So stunned were they by the House up there by the lightning-shaped tree, that they feared if they left the House would follow in their dreams and spoil all the waiting places ahead." -- Ray Bradbury

A film maker who likes to pit the savage teeth of nature against the barbarisms of man, Herzog is also a curmudgeonly absurdist baffled as much by the inconsistencies of nature as the human animal. What makes a man so "deranged" as to undertake a journey to the Edge of the World? From the biologist, pensive on his last dive beneath the ice, to the man escaped from behind the Iron Curtain, backpack at the ready for any opportunity of freedom - there's an obviously spiritual answer. Herzog is a canny documentarian, asking the most insouciant questions to ellicit responses as unlikely counterpoints to his images, elevating both to breathtaking beauty and circus act. What, for instance, induces a fluffy penguin to commit certain suicide by conducting a similar jaunt towards some distant mountain range? While Herzog is often short with people who seem sure of their own ability to assess the unknowable, his lens is most generous with characters whose relationship to the dangerous frozen landscpae is much like his own - one of constant wonder and the "deranged" love of a moth for the flame.