Truth and Beauty

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Dude man

Ali in 3D. Watching the Krooked viddie. Back to WA after 10 days in KC. Guess who didn't sleep much?

Seattle street stuff. Capitol Hill.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Floors d'œuvre

Kitty hors d'œuvre....

Why sweep up a spill if they are going to eat it anyway?

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Monday, January 3, 2011

Who knew? update....

"the friend" mentioned in this story was my sister Anne who was living with me in London at the time and who has a much better memory than me. Thank you, Anne!

Anne at the Rosewood Cafe, Tacoma WA, late October 2010

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When I bought The Dollhouse Townhouse, located at the corner of Pearl and Ruby Street (really truly) I was smitten with all of it: new, never lived in, good level of finish, nice detailing, a homey feeling, and last but not least, a view of the Puget Sound (water!! why I moved here!) and the Cascade mountains beyond to the east (mountains! another reason why I moved here!!)

What I didn't realize until New Year's Eve was that I have fallen into a pretty sweet situation. Here's the thing. I love fireworks. Love them passionately beyond reason. I don't like setting them off; I like the huge sky displays. This love of fireworks led me to Hyde Park in London, Tuesday July 28th,1981, on the eve of Charles and Diana's wedding. I went in spite of a growing dislike of large crowds, and sat with a friend on a blanket and watched the display which was lavish and amazing. We sat at the edge of the park, as I thought it would be easier to exit and get home once the event was over. Before the last wisp of gunpowder disappeared, thousands of people began streaming toward the bus stops and Tube (Underground) stations to go home. It was late, and there weren't that many trains or buses running. Or perhaps the system was just overwhelmed by the hundreds of thousands of people trying to get home.

A long walk to the tube, thousands of people struggling to get onto the trains, a hot July night and then.... the train stopped in the Tube. It was packed with people and I think that if anyone had fainted from the heat, they would have remained standing due to crowds. This was not an unusual occurrence: sometimes an engine would break down, or there would be "something on the tracks" (read: a jumper) etc. In London in 1981, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) was coming off of a very active few years on the "mainland" (thanks BBC for the verbiage!) 1981 was a very turbulent year: there were the Brixton and Liverpool race riots (due to the "sus" law), Reagan had been shot, there were the hunger strikes by IRA prisoners in Ireland, (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/12/newsid_2550000/2550725.stm), the Queen was shot at, the Bangladeshi president was assassinated and in December 1980 John Lennon was shot and killed. And by the end of 1981, even the BBC was reporting that "a mystery disease kills homosexuals." http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/10/newsid_4020000/4020391.stm But I digress.

Working in Central London I had to travel on the Tube to work. I can remember at least 5 different times where stations I was either going into or coming out of heard an announcement over the loudspeakers "Please walk to the nearest exit and leave the station." The first time I heard it, I was amused and puzzled, got out and walked on to work. Later that day on the news it was disclosed that there was a bomb threat that had been called into that station. Going forward, if I heard an announcement, I hustled. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_London#cite_note-10

Given that mindset, on this hot July night, I was worried that there had been an "incident." After a very sweaty 30 minutes, the train jerked, and slowly started up. Nothing was amiss and that was that.

What's the punchline here? Lina and Ali - you always knew I wasn't a big fan of large crowds, phobic, even. This is the reason why.

ANYWAY. Happy New Year from your Mum, aka Debbie Downer, Historian.

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Monday, December 27, 2010

Mise-en-scène 1

Wikipedia has a (typical) complex long entry about what this means:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_scène

But for me only one sentence fragment delineates what I'm up to:

"....it refers to all elements of visual style..."

Just a little snack of visual sustenance from my life reconstruction. Red, hydrangeas, pewter, mirrors, white and blue pottery.

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Mission Accomplished.

Crab was consumed and enjoyed. Another Christmas miracle!

Not this one. But one very much like it.

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Saturday, December 18, 2010

Check out this amazing skate photo that Ali took last summer

... and "forgot" about until now.

Ravishing colors! Perhaps the artist will give me permission to post the actual photo on my blog.

That's you, Ali.

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Friday, December 17, 2010

Crab?

I asked Ali if he'd like some while he's here next week. It's the season for Dungeness crab, and the flaky sweetness of the meat is beyond belief. It's very rich (especially if you're dipping it in lemon butter) but so so so good.

"Actually, I'm not fiending for it." was the reply.

"WHAT?!?!?"

Do you realize how roundly your sister would KICK YOUR ASS???

These photos are from the day before Lina left. She's up to her elbows in crab and butter and heaven.

Ali, this is sacrilege. Poor Lina is going to "make do" with Coquilles St. Jacques and fois gras over Christmas at her friend's 18c. country house. The very least you could do is choke down some crabmeat on her behalf.

Or at very least you could just drink some butter. Both Lina and I have agreed that butter is pretty much the main event. All food items are just a transport mechanism for butter. An enabler, if you will. With the possible exception of crab.

Ali, I'm praying for a Christmas Miracle. Eat some crab for your sister.