tumblin'

I tumbled on over to tumbler...

Click here to visit the new thunderland...

Where pretty shoes and happiness cost only pennies.
Where Lady Gaga and Oscar Wilde come for tea.
Where we dine on champagne and cheese, but never get fat.
Where Gloria Steinem is my gyno and Shakespeare is my shrink.

Where my little elephant and me call home.

[source]

ignore a moose

"And now we need to speculate over whether she has a male member or not and whether it's been cut off or not."

...and Gaga's the one pushing twisted sexual fantasies? Whatever.

"And now we have Beyonce and Gaga gay lesbian lovers - I mean, it's disgusting Megyn."

...you do realise you just called lesbianism disgusting on national television, right?
(PS - I'm pretty sure you completely read that into the situation all by yourself...calling Dr. Freud?)

I think people should have more of a problem with this woman than Gaga. I'd say get the "President of the Culture Campaign" off the air, but it gives me something to blog about.

spring couture favourites

I finally managed to take a peak at the Spring 2010 Couture looks. Here are some of my favourites from the collections:

Photos from style.com.

<3

this is the way the world ends.

Reading Heart of Darkness. Have civilization on my mind.



Marlon Brando as Kurtz reads T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men" in Apocalypse Now.

***

"The Hollow Men"

by T.S. Eliot

Mistah Kurtz—he dead.

      A penny for the Old Guy

      I

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

      II

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.

Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer—

Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom

      III

This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.

      IV

The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.

      V

Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
                                For Thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
                                Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
                                For Thine is the Kingdom

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

food fight.

This year, I considered making my New Year's Resolution to become a vegetarian. Recently, I've been really struggling over the issue of meat- and animal product-eating. Could I be a vegetarian? Could I be a vegan? Should I care whether I "can"; should I just take the plunge?

Ultimately, I decided no. I can (and do, without even thinking about it) eat largely vegetarian, even largely vegan if I put a bit of effort in. But I know there'd be moments when I'd fail - A's family's seafood Christmas Eve feast, sushi, enjoying another bistecca alla fiorentina, my family's juicy homemade hamburgers...stuffing.  And I'd have a really terrible time living without canned tuna, as silly as that sounds.

However, I would like to be more informed about where my food is coming from. I'm fortunate enough to live near a farmer's market, though even there you have to be careful. There are a few family farms I am confident in, and a few others that have been recommended to me by people I trust. I hope to learn a lot about food this year. Maybe at the end I'll decide vegetarianism or even veganism is the path for me. But for now, I'm a meat-eating foodie who enjoys and respects her food.

The thing is, if I were to be a vegetarian, I'd have to be confident I would be doing it 100%. It doesn't seem too difficult on the surface - no meat, to leather, no gelatin. Got it. But then I found this...

PIG 05049. Christien Meindertsma's book follows the afterlife of a single pig. Each product you see there used something from this pig. 185 different products.

This frightens me. I am certain there are many vegetarians who have no idea how much pig they are using in their daily lives, even if they read the ingredients of everything they purchase (plus, I'm not sure ballet flats come with ingredients!)

Yikes. Let the research begin...happy 2010! :S

juan francisco casas

I have little to say about Juan Francisco Casas except: these are not manipulated photos. They are sketched with ballpoint pens.

I doodle very often in class. It helps me relax and concentrate. I always thought pens were a neat medium for art. Because, I thought, they gave the work a very different effect. For example, this (by me) or this (also by me). Something a bit Edward Gorey-esque.

But Casas' art demonstrates possibilities of the ball point pen I never imagined. Of course, I suspect these results can only be brought about by a BIC in the hand of a great talent. Check out that girl's hands! They look so real!

Check out his website for more of his illustrations.

excuse my french.

Seriously, it's probably really bad. So I apologize ahead of time.

Last year A and I spent a month in Italy. As a souvenir for my parents, I brought them back some dried porcini, some hand made pasta and some black truffle. This evolved into a full-course Italian meal, which then became designated as their birthday present. They enjoyed having me cook for them for once, and thus the birthday dinner is now a tradition.

It having been a busy summer followed by a busy term, the Christmas break seemed a logical time to do their dinner this year. It turned out to also be a busy break, but we fit it in and I am glad we did because we re-inspired the food side of my life. I really want to focus on cooking more this term, and inspired by the theme of this menu, I plan to explore more French food (while still trying to slim my waistline, which might prove difficult).

As you may have already guessed, this year's theme was French. Simple French. Honestly, these dishes were so easy and though I steered away from souffles and macarons, I really was surprised at the simplicity of such decadent food.

And so I present...la menu du soir!

L'Aperitif

In case you can't read French, or in case you can and my French doesn't make any sense:

*salmon tartare on a baguette toast

*Pate de Perigord with a truffled balsamic glaze served on a pear caramelized with honey, butter and cognac

*champagne, of course!

L'Entree

*French Onion Soup

Le Plat Principal

*sirloin with blue cheese cream sauce

*sauteed asparagus topped with slivered almonds

*boiled parslied fingerling potatoes

*red wine, of course!

La Salade

There is no picture of the salad, but it was just a green salad with an almond oil and raspberry wine syrup vinaigrette sprinkled with almonds and walnuts.

Le Fromage

*camembert

*blue cheese

*goat cheese

Le Dessert

*a parfait of lemon mousse and white chocolate mousse layered with strawberries and a raspberry and Grand Marnier sauce

C'est le fin.