On Repeat

"Photojournalist" by Small Black

Happy Challah-Days

CMYKiller

"More filters than a T-Pain album."

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Spectacles

I've been a loyal La Font wearer since my second pair of eyeglasses (possibly my first -- I can't remember). I'm now on my third and sporting the Issy & La Philippine in Pink:

La Fonts are high quality frames. My favorite thing about them is that the interiors are patterned. Despite my career in photo research, I can't find a picture. Use your imagination. The point is, they're awesome. And while I adore my specs, having the same thing on your face every day for six years can grow tiresome. I mean, come on. People were still wearing flared jeans when I got those. So I'm in the market for a new pair.

To keep things affordable, I want to go vintage (or NOS). A trip to Fabulous Fanny's is on the agenda. In the meantime I've been eying (yes, pun intended) some potential style candidates on Etsy. Let's consider this an inspiration board. Opinions welcome!



1960s, French, Vintage, $75



1950s, France, Vintage, $129



1980s, NOS, $69



1970s, Hong Kong, NOS, $75



1970s, German, vintage, $45



Italy, NOS, 1970s, 24k plated, $94



JK



US, 1960s, vintage, $40




US, date unknown, vintage, $22



Vintage, French, date unknown, $28



France, NOS, late 60s/early 70s, $54

No Thanks, I'm Stuffed

Indulging my predilection for 19th-century pseudoscience, I dropped by the Secret Science Club's annual Taxidermy Contest last night. Mike Zohn spoke and mentioned this book:

A 19t-c independent lady taxidermist? Definitely next on my reading list!! Slash my new personal hero!

Here's a stereocard (another one of my favorite things!!) of Ms. Maxwell at her exhibition. She killed and mounted the pieces herself, and even slept among them in the cave!


She even has a screech owl named after her.
I kind of wish I could be retroactively reincarnated as her neighbor.
Sigh...

Strangers off a Train

High speed camera, moving at high speed. SO PRETTY.



via aphotoeditor



This reminds me a little of one of my favorite bodies of work:
RFK Funeral Train by Paul Fusco

...as well as the moment in teen comedies when the viewer is introduced to the hottest girl in school.

Cookin' with Coolio

Happy Thanksgiving from NPR, Coolio, and TIL!

http://www.npr.org/2010/11/16/131370744/coolio-samples-mama-stamberg-s-cranberry-relish

New Obsession: Water Marbled Nails

Now, I've never been much of a girly-girl. I'm the type of lady who is more likely to punch you in the face than to braid your hair. Maybe working at a fashion magazine has rubbed off on me, or maybe this is just transcendently cool.





I'm not sure how/why I stumbled upon this on Youtube while half asleep, but I am obsessed! This is totally my long weekend arts n crafts project.




This is my fav, because it looks like the solar system.

Lens Bracelets

$10 each or $15 for the set
at Photojojo

Technology is Driving Me Up a Wall!

As part of his residency at EYEBEAM, German artist Aram Bartholl "injects" USB flash drives into public spaces, creating an anonymous, offline, peer-to-peer file sharing network.



There are currently 5 locations throughout NYC, with more to come.

87 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn, NY (Makerbot)
Empire Fulton Ferry Park, Brooklyn, NY (Dumbo)
235 Bowery, NY (New Museum)
Union Square, NY (Subway Station 14th St)
540 West 21st Street, NY (Eyebeam)

Frédérique Daubal

via featureshoot

Freelensing -- The Poor Man's Tilt/Shift/Swing

Have you heard of freelensing? No, I'm not talking about that euphemism your mother used when you were unemployed for a spell.



"Freelensing means you take photos with the lens detached from the camera but held in place and moved around to focus. This also lets extra light in sometimes causing light leaks... You only need to move the lens a few millimetres (fractions of an inch), and doing it this way, there’s not much risk of dust getting in to the sensor. If you want lightleaks or the super-macro kind of effect, you will need to hold the lens a little bit further away (probably no more than a finger width, though)."

Well, it's certainly cheaper and easier on your biceps than a view camera!

Apparently this is a whole big trope on Flickr. Want some examples?

by "rogvon"



by "pistonsinc9"

Christian Tagliavini

by Christian Tagliavini
via Feature Shoot

I love paper cutouts!

Matthias Heiderich

by Matthias Heiderich

Short Ribs

So hot right now.

Justin Visnesky

by Justin Visnesky
via FeatureShoot

Switched at Birth III

Etch A Sketch Ipad Case

$39.99 from Headcase
Via New York Times

On Repeat

"Marathon" by Tennis

Phrenology Helmet

Where have I been?!

Anyway...

How cool is this bike helmet?

Eye-Fi

Oh. Em. Gee.
Camera memory cards with built-in wi-fi.
You can set up the pro cards to upload directly to your own FTP! Holy crap!

http://www.eye.fi/

Camera Tape Dispenser

$21.99 at Modcloth

Chest Hair Shirt

I soooooooooooo want this.

Salmon Gyoza, Two Ways

I had these two 8 oz salmon steaks in the fridge that needed to be cooked, but I was not in the mood for the reish* flavor of a full salmon steak. So I got crazy with the wonton wrappers.

Ingredients for the Gyoza, Variation 1:
- 8 oz salmon steak, chopped finely
- 3 large asparagus stalks, chopped finely, green parts only
- chives, chopped finely, to taste
- 1 egg white
- salt and pepper, to taste
- about 20 wonton wrappers
- 1 tsp vegetable oil, plus more for frying
- water

Ingredients for the Gyoza, Variation 2 (aka Crab Rangoon meets NY Jew):
- 8 oz salmon steak, chopped finely
- chives, chopped finely, to taste
- whipped cream cheese (I think I used about 1/4 cup?)
- about 20 wonton wrappers
- vegetable oil for frying
- water

Ingredients for the low-fat creamy lemon dill sauce:
- 1/4 cup low-fat mayo
- about 3/8 cup fat-free sour cream
- lemon juice, to taste
- chopped fresh dill, to taste
- 2 cloves of garlic, pressed
- pepper, to taste
- chives, to taste

To make the gyoza:

1) Combine all ingredients in a bowl except the wrappers. Let chill for 10 minutes

2) Now, I personally could give two shits about correct gyoza stuffing. If you're a traditionalist, you can google the pleating process etc. I just took as much as I could shove into each rectangle, wet the edges, folded into triangles, and pinched the edges until they stayed closed.

3) Pour vegetable oil into a frying pan to fully cover the surface. Turn the burner to high. When the oil is hot -- you know, it sputters, a drop of water bounces around, etc -- you're in business. Reduce heat to medium. Place a few gyoza in the pan, without over-crowding. My pan fit about 9 comfortably. Fry for 2-3 minutes, or until you get a nice browning on the bottom.

4) Pour about 1/2-cup of water into the pan and reduce heat to low-medium. Cover the pan and let the dumplings steam until the dough is fully cooked. This varies, but I'd guess about 10 min. You can tell when it's done because the dough gets all bubbly and clingy onto the filling.

5) Drain the dumplings on papertowels.



To Make the Dipping Sauce for Variation 1:
Combine and chill. That's it, seriously. Should last about 4 days in the fridge.


I like variation 1 served cold, but I think most people like 'em hot. Variation 2 is good with soy sauce.

Enjoy, kiddies.




*Reish, spelling estimated, is a Caribbean word (I think Crucian) that describes the fishy flavor of fish. There isn't a better word for it in English.

Tangy Summer Salad

The very persuasive pickle salesman at the farmers' market last weekend said the magic words -- "These would be great in a dirty martini!" -- and thus talked me into a significant purchase of pickled green tomatoes. Now I like a proper cocktail as much as the next urban twenty-something, but a working woman of 5'2" can only handle so many martinis per week. And so the Tangy Summer Salad above was born.

Ingredients, to taste:
- watermelon chopped to bite-sized cubes
- crumbled feta (on the mild side if possible)
- diced pickled green tomatoes
- blackberries
- balsamic vinegar
- sea salt
- fresh-ish thyme.

On Repeat

"Odessa" by Caribou

Marty Markowitz Taps That

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is gettin' techie wit it, nanananananana

Switched at Birth, Take II

Actually, Chris looks more like Vigo from Ghostbusters II, no?


While we're on the subject of actors and 1980s film characters...

Am I right?

Switched at Birth?

Is it just me, or are Annie Leibovitz and Christopher Walken looking a lot alike these days?

Windfaux Shopping

Our converted railroad apartment translates to a windowless living room. Soooooo...

...I made one! I bought a used window at the Park Slope Flea Market for $10. Then I found a poster of the city from the proper angle and mounted it to foam core with spray adhesive. Then I tacked the poster to the back of the window with hot glue, so that we can change the image seasonally. I screwed in some d-rings to the top, installed two picture hooks, and voila! Windfaux.

Holy Matzoh Balls

As Passover overlaps with March Madness this year, here is a game to celebrate!

Happy Passover! Let's see if you can beat my score of 20878 on the Ultimate Matzoh Ball Game.

Plastic-Eating Mud!

The latest on the Gowanus Canal.

via F***ed in Park Slope.

Hot News Coming @ya!

MoMA has acquired the "@" symbol into its collection. Read @ll @bout it here.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

I owe you an apology. My new job is crazytown -- no, not your favorite band, I just mean I'm very busy. I've been slacking on my blogposts. I'll do my best to increase activity.

Today I am featuring the blog A Collection a Day. The old Jewish woman who lives in my soul loves tchotchkes and knickknacks (and latkes, too, of course). I am particularly fond of the vintage signage letter collections, like E from day 65 and 3 from day 51:

Clearance!

Sales are definitely a thing I like. I found a 5'3" x 7'6" rug at ABC Carpet on clearance for $149 down from $499, plus 10% off for buying online, plus I can pick it up in Union Square instead of paying for shipping. BOOYA. Net savings: $395!

Here she is, you like?


Hopefully not too much, since I got the last one, SUCKERS.

Going Yellow, Going Green

Check out this bicycle I saw yesterday with used Metrocards in the spokes. Very clever. Those bike kids are so snarky!

Union Docs

My dear friend Josh (of birthday greeting fame) is a collaborative participant of Union Docs, a very cool Williamsburg-based non-profit organization presenting "a broad range of innovative and thought-provoking non-fiction projects to the general public, while also cultivating specialized opportunities for learning, critical discourse, and creative collaboration for emerging media-makers, theorists, and curators." They've sort of evolved into an alternative MFA program for experimental collaborative documentarists. It was my pleasure to see their sold-out (but not sellout) Inductive Thread presentation as part of MoMA's Documentary Fortnight last night.

The evening fell into two parts, divided by a subtle plea for funding. The first half was a performative documentary on their collective, littered with inventive shorts. The second half wove short films created in teams, brief conversation between the filmmakers and audio recordings on the theme of mythologies, in reference to the classic Roland Barthes text. There was also a Q&A I mostly missed.

And it was awesome. Props, Josh.

Licking Your Joy Again

UPDATE! There have been two video responses to Uncle Al's Valentine's Day special.

I don't know who this woman is, but I think she may understand my uncle better than any woman in the world. She describes her response as "A sensual interpretation of 'Oh, Pupi.' A tribute to the poetic brilliance of Youtuber 'chicagoalmose.'"



This video elicited the comment, "I don't know what the fuck this is but you're so fuckin' hot I wanna have your babies have my babies please." Were you as moved as sloanepeterson1?



Inspired by her (abstractly?) passionate response, Uncle Al gives it another go, rap-style! Alas, Pupi the cat wins again.

Vikkey Wilkes

Photo by Vikky Wilkes
via Feature Shoot

My Joy-Licking Uncle and His Cat Named Pupi

Here is a belated Valentine's Day treat for all of my readers. This is my uncle, "Professor Chicagoalmose," who is not by any stretch of the imagination a professor. However, his credentials do include a brief stint as a phone psychic.

In the following video, Uncle Al recites a love poem and is poignantly interrupted by his cat named Pupi.

Embedding is blocked, but here's a video link: CAT ATTACK DURING POETRY VIDEO (his title, not mine)

Be sure to check out the rest of the series here.

Have a Shitty Valentine's Day!

A farmer in Emmons, MN sculpted this half-mile wide valentine out of manure for his wife.
via the Alberta Lea Tribune

Happy V-Day from TIL!

Singing Your Face Off

Ignore the song, watch the video.

.

via Like Cool.

Efficient Literary Outerwear

Bookmark/jacket hybrids! More here.