TASTING LIFE TWICE

At any rate, at least I can get Joe to go up to North Adams to MASS MoCA. For some bizarre reason the girls at front gave us the runaround and said there was no teacher discounts (despite the fact that every other time we've gone Joe gets in free+1 because he works at an art school). So that was rather annoying. Especially since the prices have gone up and half of the museum was video art (Guy Ben-Ner) and neither Joe or I get very excited about video art. 

Fortunately there were other exhibits. One of the artists I liked is Sean Landers:

Joe hates art that has words in it but being a writer I'm very drawn to visual representations of words. As a critical & creative thinker, Landers is interesting to me also because he used mind-mapping in the painting above and he did it in a really interesting way where the thoughts intersect and entwine. Joe just rolled his eyes but for me I really loved the visual workings of the mind (even if they were somewhat deliberate). The thing is, as evidenced by the title, Landers is fully aware of the ego that is present in this piece, which is Joe's primary beef with art that includes words; he finds them full of ego. At any rate I really liked his part of the exhibit. 

The other artist that I liked and that Joe actually did too was Robert Taplin, who I think we saw at the Decordova a few years ago. He had an interesting set of dioramas all based upon scenes from Dante's Inferno.

But the highlight of Mass MoCA these days is the new wing that only houses Sol LeWitt. It's pretty amazing, three floors of drawings. You really need to see it to appreciate it. The first floor was really the most mind-boggling. The time and precision that went into the drawings is incredible. These paintings were produced from plans that he left behind after his death. Most of his later art was the execution of these sorts of art plans. It's an interesting concept.

That photo is a very very small piece of a large wall, all done in pencil.

Again, just a tiny piece of the wall. This one was all done in chalk.

To get a sense of the scale:

Fortunately for you the Sol LeWitt exhibit will be up for the next 25 years, so you'll have lots of time to get thee to Mass MoCA. 

I swear my husband only decided to get the extended cable so he could watch the "F-Word" on BBC.

I'm really loving this album by O+S which features Azure Ray's Orenda Fink (and oh I love Azure Ray!). Beautiful, ethereal, haunting. 

Really loving this one which has a feeling somewhat reminiscent of the Postal Service. Mellow yet still poppy and melodic. Every time I listen I like it that much more. Plus I just love the name--Star Club West.

I am LOVING the new Metric album. Great to listen to loud, or down a bit in the background. Sing-able, dance-able, stick-in-your head stuff. No wonder this was #1 on eMusic for a few weeks. Seriously great indie music. Their fourth and best record, IMHO. And I really loved the other three!

Saw these Manchester blokes when they were on tour with Morrissey this last time round. And while I love Morrissey, it definitely wasn't his best tour. But FINALLY he managed to get a kickass opener. These guys were great, rocking, full of hipster charm, reminiscent of the Alarm, Oasis or the Kooks. This is an album that really grows on you the more you listen. My fave tracks are "No you didn't, No you don't" and "Not Ninteen Forever."

This is a side project of Nina Persson of the Cardigans, so if you love her voice, you'll love Colonia. It's a bit mellow, but again...it's all about her magnificent voice. 

It comes as a surprise to me that I haven't blogged here since January! I mean, I knew it had been awhile, but didn't realize it had been quite that long. So let's celebrate my blog return and the end of spring/start of summer with a fruit terrine!

We get an organic box of vegetables every week from Boston Organics and I had a whole bunch of strawberries that I wanted to do something yummy with. We also have a Le Crueset terrine pan that we have only used once and that gave me the idea to try out a tasty fruit terrine. 

I started with a recipe from Epicurious, a Prosecco and Summer Fruit Terrine. Except that I changed the fruit all around. Joe picked up some blueberries and some VERY tasty (and outrageously expensive) cherries from Whole Foods. I already had some excellent organic strawberries from our veggie box, so went with those fruits rather than the grapes and peaches described in the recipe. 

Cherries were the first layer:

Then the blueberries and then the strawberries:

I added another layer of cherries and another of strawberries then added my prosecco gelatin concoction to the terrine and then threw it in the fridge to let it set for a day. We sliced into it earlier today. 

The green spots in the center are actually halved blueberries. I'm sure this would have looked very pretty if we had unmolded the enitre terrine but since it's just Joe and I enjoying it we decided to cut out slices instead. Oh my, SO delish, especially with some real whip cream on the side. Very refreshing and lo cal (270 calories a serving). Will make this many more times over the summer and most likely I'll test other flavors out...different fruits, maybe adding in some St. Germain...will be fun to make it again. Soo easy too!. 

Here's the recipe: 

Enjoy!

Shorpy.com  ~ Incredible old photos.

Explain this image  ~ Addicting. You just keep flipping through the photos. Like watching a train-wreck. You can't help yourself even though you feel mildly ashamed.

Really fun T-Mobile video that I'm sure has gone viral and for good reason.

And this one which is viral despite the fact that its viral...

And my little roll of joy, Romeo:

Check out their gallery for some good chuckles. Here are some of my favorites:

I snagged a wii over the xmas break and besides doing a lot of bowling, which is par for the course for a new wii owner, but we also picked up Resident Evil 4, because Joe has a thing for zombies. It's a 1-player game but we've had a lot of fun with it, switching off who is controlling Leon, the main character, although mostly I just let Joe do it because he likes it so much and he's a better shot. But it's better than watching a movie even if you aren't playing, because I can help him figure out where all the loot is, figure out puzzles to open doors and how to defeat the bad guys. 

I always crack up when I see people on YouTube make music videos out of video games, and sure enough, Resident Evil 4 is no exception. 

It's not a game for kids, and I do have to admit that I dream about chasing things or running from things...normally I would think those to be anxiety-based dreams but I'm pretty sure that they are zombie-based at this point.

I'm going to get the wii fit pretty soon. I've heard such great things about it--even Neil Gaiman, one of my favorite authors, is touting its great fun in becoming fit.

My one regret is that the wii is a big time suck. I've realized that we're going to have to schedule wii time so that we actually get other things done, like finishing the first draft of my novel by April, so I can submit for agent review at a writer's conference I'm going to in May. Like putting together a class I'm teaching on social media at a local art school in February. Or perhaps even vacuuming...

I think Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess will be next!

"0% of the 37355 people who have taken this quiz are like you."

And here are my 43 Things, which aren't quite 43 Things...

I left off at #30 in August so this will be a long round up. 

#31 Turn of the Screw  - Henry James.   A classic ghost story. Except that James' flowery prose is so painful. I'm all for poetry but this was tough. I have The Bostonians on my reading list, but after the Turn of the Screw, really not looking forward to that. 

#32  Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman.   I got this as an audio book to listen to when I drive into work or when I'm cooking dinner. The best part about this one is that Gaiman himself narrated so I really felt that I was able to get deep into the thick of what he intended for the story and his characters. I really enjoyed this story, so much so that it made the recommended books in our holiday wine/book recommends. Now I need to get the original BBC series which was the precursor to the book!

#33  Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides. Not as great as all the hype had made it out to be, IMHO. A good book, but I never really got into it. 

#34  Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell.  Read this over the Christmas break. The structure of the novel was well done, like a bridge into and out of time. It took a little bit to get into but once I did I couldn't put it down. Absolutely amazing literary fiction. I look forward to reading his other books.

#35 A Walk in Ancient Rome - John T. Cullen.  I picked this up as a fast reference for the novel I'm writing but it's a good little read. It's a guidebook of sorts, for the 3rd century traveler to Rome.

#36 Working IX to V: Orgy Planners, Funeral Clowns, and Other Prized Professions of the Ancient World - Leon, Viki.  Another book for writing reference, but it's truly a fascinating read. Find out all about the crazy ancient professions of Rome. From the urine collector to architects to the aquarius, learn all about the jobs that made that civilization tick.

#37 Peony in Love - Lisa See.  A gorgeous novel about love and loss and the living and the dead. The story is rich and full of incredible detail of medieval Chinese culture.  Another book we recommended in our annual list. 

#38 and 39  The Orphan's Tale - In the Night Garden and The Orphan's Tale - In the Cities of Coin and Spice - Catherynne M. Valente. Wow, some of the best books I've read in a long while. I couldn't put these down. If you love fairytales (note, these are not for children), get thee to a bookstore and grab these ASAP. Rich, delightful, dark and delirious. The stories are full of poetry, intrigue and excitement. Valente is a master in entwining nearly every fairytale in the two books with another to create an incredible thread that leads the reader hungrily onward. I know I'll read these books again and again.

#40 Lord of the Isles - David Drake. A good, fast-paced fantasy read. Was a free offering on my Kindle awhile back and a smart move by the publisher as I will definitely pick up subsequent books.

#41 Ilium - Dan Simmons. An intriguing sci-fi tale about "gods" of a new earth who recreate the Illiad and Odyssey for their enjoyment. I picked up the subsequent book, Olympos but haven't been as entranced. 

#42 Shaman's Crossing - Robin Hobb. The first of a trilogy called "The Soldier's Son," and not as exciting as other Hobb books I've read. I found myself skimming and I'm not sure I'll read the following books. Just not into cavalry and war sort of tales, even if they are fantastical in some ways. 

#43 Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell. This man is definitely an outlier himself. His books are always downright fascinating--you should get them all if you haven't just yet. This book will have you completely rethinking what makes someone successful in life.

#44 and #45 Ghosts Among Us - James Van Praagh and When Ghosts Speak - Mary Ann Winkowski. I have always been fascinated with ghosts and these two books, written by two people who say they can interact with ghosts, fascinated me even further. Praagh is one of the directors of The Ghost Whisperer and Winkowski is a ghost consultant for the show and her abilities are used as a basis for Jennifer Love Hewitt's character. Note that I have never once seen that show... Easy reads. These are sort of the equivalent of beach reading for me. Light, interesting. 

#46 and 47 Eldest and Brisingr - Christopher Paolini. Enjoyable, if predictable fantasy reads. I look forward to more original thought in Paolini's future books...steering away from the typical dragon, orc (urgal), elf, dwarf settings. He's a wonderful writer and I can't wait to see what he does next. Oh, and I don't recommend the audio books of these...the sound quality is weird on all three novels and the narrator is distracting.

#48 The Alchemist - Paulo Cohelo. A charming tale about following your dreams. Easy fast, inspiring read. Figured I better read it before the movie comes out. :)  

#49 A Crystal Age - William Henry Hudson. First published in 1887, this book features a man who somehow falls into a utopian, fantastical world and how he struggles to ingrain himself in the culture of the inhabitants there. I picked this up as a free ebook on my Kindle. It has really stuck with me, in part because of the story but also because it was such an early book for the genre. 

#50 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger. I guess the movie comes out next year, which is no surprise...the book really lends itself to recreation on the big screen (I think that the TV show Journeyman swiped many an idea from this book as well). I greatly enjoyed this story...it really is worth all the hype that the book has received. 

I was surprised to discover that I have read pretty much 50 on the nose...but I did get through 3/4 of War and Peace and 3/4 of Don Quixote, both of which are MASSIVE books...that's at least 4-5 extra novels just with what I've read so far. :)

I have a lot of books on the reading list already for 2009. I need to finish the two just mentioned, and I'm in the midst of Isabel Allende's Daughter of Fortune. Also on the Kindle or in the bookstacks:

·         The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

·         The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

·         Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

·         Atonement - Ian McEwan (have not seen the movie)

·         The Zookeeper's Wife - Diane Ackerman

·         The Life of Pi - Yann Martel

·         The Pilot's Wife - Anita Shreve

·         The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen

·         A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

·         The October Horse - Colleen McCollough

·         Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Copeland

·         In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

·         Glamorama -  Bret Easton Ellis

·         Anil's Ghost - Michael Ondaatje

·         The Children of Hurin - J.R.R. Tolkien

Soooo no reason to buy any books anytime soon, is there? :)