A TIMELY REPPRISE

I was noodling through the picture file Blogspot saves from my postings, and I came upon the one of that huge chandelier. I knew it was time to do a repost. Recently, I've been enjoying the daily emailed collection of artistry I get from Colossal.  Some of the art work are absolutely marvelous. So - here's the posting from May 31, 2012 - quite a while go. I've removed the links to the original articles because they're no longer valid.

        oooOooo

Two hanging creations, two different concepts: which one would you take time to study and admire?  Which one is art?

  

Yesterday on the lovely blog Plum Siena, Annie presented a photo essay: a piece called Creative Mind: Joana Vasconcelos. First up was a piece called ‘Marilyn, 2011’, a 9 ft. pair of high heels constructed of cooking pots and their lids. They are sort of fun – like a Claes Oldenburg sculpture with a culinary twist.  

The next one up, however, gave me a case of the “Whywouldyas.”  It’s a chandelier, ‘A Novia (the bride), 2001’, displayed in 2005 for the Venice Bienale.

I just had to wince at this. As a chandelier it looks like many others: the kicker lies in the material used. When I tell you what it is will you wince too? I wonder if the creator (for this piece I’d hardly call her an artist) lay in bed one night and thought “Eureka! I’ll make a huge chandelier. All out of tampons!”  That’s correct: tampons! Whywouldya?  It may be creative, but it surely isn’t art.

 Coincidently, today I was made aware of the work of the industrial designer Thomas Heatherwick. The piece above was commissioned by the Wellcome Trust for their London headquarters, and is made of 142,000 glass spheres (someone counted every one?) suspended on tensile steel wires. I find it beautiful and very creative. I might get a crick in my neck, but I'd love to stand and look up, up, up at it. I wonder if you can see it from the higher floors. This is art.

And that

(Said John)

Is

That.                         

ASPARAGUS AND SPAGHETTI FOR TWO

This recipe is fast and easy. I made this a week or two ago, but forgot to take pictures. That was reason enough to make it again so soon. I think you'll like this one. And as to garlic - use as much as you'd like. I keep it on the conservative side.

   

LJ - ASPARAGUS AND SPAGHETTI FOR TWO      😊

Ingredients:

·         Spaghetti for two

·         1 Tbsp. butter  and 1 Tbsp. olive oil

·         1 tsp. minced garlic

·         1 egg

·         ¼ cup Parmesan

·         Asparagus spears –

  (One serving pf Trader Joe’s Frozen Asparagus - 12 spears)

Method:

·        - Prepare the spaghetti

·        - In a large pan, warm the butter, oil, and garlic, leave on low

·         -Beat the egg very well, then add the cheese – set aside

·         -Cut the asparagus into 1” pieces, add them to the pan

·         -When spaghetti is done, reserve some of the liquid, drain, and mix

      the spaghetti into the ingredients in the pan

·         -Add the egg and cheese, mix well

·         -Add some of the reserved liquid if needed to thin the sauce a bit

·         -Serve

WHAT I LEARNED IN SCHOOL TODAY

Yes, I'm still learning. I learned this morning that I forgot to post on Friday. The last few days were first proof days for the magazine. That takes a big portion of my attention. This is the November issue, and it looks like another good one, if I do say so myself. So...

People often ask me where I come up with the wide, wild variety of subjects for my blog and community magazine articles. My answer: surfing the internet. I subscribe to the news briefings from the New York Times and the Washington Post. I’ve bookmarked and check in each day with the BBC and Politico, Houzz, and the Microsoft’s Newsfeed. I get daily emails from On This Day, Prime Women, Atlas Obscura, Trivia Today, and Colossal. Then there are the websites, like PBS, that email once a week. The topics they cover go beyond the everyday news and into the realm of the truly interesting. I won’t add links to these. If you’re really interested, you can google them. You won’t be getting too many emails if you are truly interested in their content.

Just this week, I read about an Off-Broadway actor who went into the audience and threw some boor’s cell phone under the seats. Good for him!

I read that the average allowance parents give their kids today is $30 a week. Not to say this is excessive, but my first allowance, at age 7, was 10 cents – and I had to save two of those cents. Ten cents is inflated to about $1.08 today. So, if the average is $30, some kids out there get too much money.

I checked our 50 delicious ways to serve eggs. The Tortilla Española looks absolutely delicious!

And I learned that much of the world thinks we westerners have peculiar bathroom habits. Americans are the greatest users of toilet paper. I do plan to write a magazine article about this topic.

I can sometimes spend an hour or so reading, and learning, and being truly amazed. You might think this is time wasted, but, as Bertrand Russell said, “The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”

A DIFFERENT WEDDING CAKE

Recently, Corey Amaro featured this unique wedding cake on her blog French la Vie . Wedding cakes here are almost universally tiered affairs in white. I have seen different versions, but this French cake takes the cake. The puff pastry male and female symbols are held together with pastry cream, then decorated with fresh fruit and edible flowers. Now, who wouldn't want a piece of that?