Frost Giant Postcard Studios

John Oates

2011-10-29T07:43:00.001-07:00

You remember John Oates, don't you, half the duo of Hall and Oates, the most successful duo in rock history with 13 gold or platinum soul-infused albums and 26 Top 30 singles. Oates co-wrote three of their No. 1 hits -- "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)," "Maneater" and "Out of Touch" - as well as top singles "Sara Smile," "You Make My Dreams," "She's Gone" and "Adult Education."

John and his band played at the Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion Festival in September. My daughter and I caught John in performance at last event on the State Street stage, the last day of the festival - the All-Star Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers Revival. It was definitely a tribute to the origins of Bristol's musical heritage. The Black Lillies' Cruz Contreras led the assembled band. A band that included the likes of John Oates, Carrie Rodriguez on fiddle, Michelle Malone, Darrell Scott, Dale Ann Bradley, Robinella, Langhorn Slim and others. On time and in tune they loaded up and played the heck out of a batch of Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers songs.

Trying to give the 24 year old daughter some additional music history and background, I was explaining John Oates career trajectory, including Hall and Oates.

The daughter gave my a semi-incredulous look and explained that she had indeed heard of that band but had always thought that it was named

Holland Oats

Wonder if she ever say this album cover?

Carina

Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair

2011-10-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

No, we did not attend the antique tractor show, that would have been down the street.

The daughter and I just happened to make a day trip over to Asheville, North Carolina the same weekend as the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair, an event I had heard of but never managed to coordinate my travels to accommodate. This would be the 18th annual such event held at the Western Carolina Ag Center.

While there was every shade and variety of yarn, thread and fiber at the fair, I most wanted to see the animals. Take me to a state or county fair, that's where you'll will find me, at the animal barns. All those years in 4-H made an impact.

First and foremost on my list were the angora rabbits. Having raised rabbits in 4-H, both French and English angora rabbits were known varieties. This fair featured German angoras, a breed I had never heard tell of, perhaps because it is not an ARBA (American Rabbit Breeders Association) recognized variety. The German angoras have their own separate association, the IAGARB.

German angora rabbits are not only known for the quantity of wool they produce, but for quality as well. Through 8 decades of selective breeding, the quantity of wool produced by many German angoras has surpassed their ancestors by hundreds of grams per shearing. Shearings occur at approximately 90 day intervals Yearly totals have increased from mere ounces to over four pounds. The wool is silky, crimpy, yet strong and can be commercially processed without damage to the wool. The soft wool is pure luxury to wear next to the skin, yet will not mat or felt with wear.

On the other end of the spectrum, as far as human breeding intervention goes, are the unusual looking Jacob sheep.

Jacob sheep are a rare breed of small, spotted, multi-horned sheep. They may have from two to six horns, with four being the most common configuration. Most of the Jacob sheep are black and white. They are an heirloom or unimproved breed that harken back through history and have survived with little selective breeding input from us humans. Their bodies are much more goat-like than most breeds of sheep. They are a variety of sheep that harkens back to biblical times and lands.

Maybe this will become an annual event. With additional planning I could participate in the myriad workshops that were offered.

Carina

Lily & Charlie's Union of Hearts Ceremony

2011-09-30T06:05:00.000-07:00

Customize your own slideshow

And this concludes my coverage of Lily & Charlie's very fascinating wedding!

Carina

Bicycle Parade

2011-09-11T07:27:00.001-07:00

Friends on bicycles and bicycles, lots of bicycles, gathered at B.B.Clark beach on the shore of Madison's Lake Monona to await the arrival of the bridal couple. The word is their arrival will be slightly unusual.

They have been spotted. Arrival is by canoe with bicycles aboard.

As the sandy beach is roped off for swimmers, they must make land along a steeper portion of park shoreline.

Bikes are off loaded.

Standard wedding photography often features the bride carrying her bike ashore. (Trust me on this one.)

They look ready to lead the 5 mile bicycle trek to our campgrounds in Lake Farm Park on the shores of a different lake, Lake Waubesa.

All the folks that were local brought their own bikes. Several bikes made trips to the shop for a little refurbishing and upgrades.

For those of us coming from out of town, bicycles were obtained.

This green beauty was mine for the weekend.

It was nice having a girls bike complete with....

....a Tyrannosaurus shift knob.

After getting everyone organized....

....we're off.

Up (or is it down) Jenifer Street...

..onto a variety of streets, sidewalks and bike paths.

A rest and water break takes place in the shade of a few trees in a park off John Nolan Drive.

As inviting as the shade is, after a short interval, the group is off again toward the destination.

John Nolan Drive, generally a very busy divided highway is under construction. While this allows us to ride without traffic,it also presents a few obstacles.

Part of the railroad bed has been pulled up, necessitating walking your bike.

The pedicab (where the bride's father got a ride from one of his other daughters) needed an extra boost.

Bikes safely over this obstacle we ride on.

When we reach Lake Farm Park everyone hydrates a little.

And hangs out in the shade watching others pull in.

H2O tastes pretty good after a long ride.

Of course some of us were fortunate enough to have someone else do the pedaling for our ride to the park.

But Heidi says she still wants a drink of water!

Hope you enjoyed this very pictorial installment of the Lily and Charlie wedding saga.

Carina

Lily, Lily give me your answer ...do

2011-08-31T02:07:00.001-07:00

It was the hippiest of weddings, the union of a nephew and his Aussie ladylove. A wedding so unconventional and noncookie-cutter that the invitation came with a multipage manual, an invitation that arrived in a homemade envelope, folded from a magazine page.

Lily & Charlie writ in bicycle chain

And a manual was a handy item to have. Otherwise, how would you know to gather the requisite vial of water and fire token for the last of three planned ceremonies, the Union of Hearts? How could you select appropriate clothing for a 3-Day wedding event, an event that included a 5 mile bicycle ride, overnight camping and a formal evening soiree?

Taking place Friday, Saturday and Sunday August 19, 20 & 21st, I took so many pictures and have so many little tidbits to relate, that I have decided to split the tale into several shorter blog posts.

So come on back and visit my blog if....

you're interested in the sweet story of Lily and Charlie's wedding.

Carina

Fishy Pedicure

2011-08-03T20:17:00.000-07:00

Being ever the paper magpie, I collect images as I travel. Of course the airport glossy promoting Lyon got snapped up and put in my bag. Reading it later on the train, one article in particular intrigued me.

Written in French and English, it proclaimed Rufa and Smoother. The article went on to explain that the small fish garra rufa, a Turkish native had found work in Asian markets, not as a menu item. but rather as an adjunct to footcare.The little beasties suck dead skin off your heels and tootsies, a concept that seems to engender strong responses. People I've told about this concept are either intrigued like me or entirely grossed out.

Never having heard of fish pedicures previously, I assumed there would be few other chances to encounter le petite poisson (the little fishies). So the daughter and I took the train to Lyon for a day trip. We seached out the spa Villeurbanne on avenue des Freres-Lumiere.

Not being much of a spa-goer myself, I found the disposable slippers fairly novel.

After a disinfecting wash, we lowered our feet into a square plexiglass aquarium that housed the enthusiastic little workers. It was incredibly ticklish at first, but then you got used to the sensation.

Note the complimentary coffee! Oh France, you get me.

Emerging with much smoother feet, we hopped the subway (metro?) and ran some errands on the Presqu'île and in old Lyon.

Would I do it again?
You Bet!

Carina

Bele Chere

2011-07-31T23:27:00.001-07:00

Annually held the last weekend in July since the 1970's, Bele Chere ranks as the largest free music and arts in the southeastern United States. The festival attracts something like 350,000 people to Asheville, North Carolina. This summer my daughter and I once again joined those masses.

Our primary draw is the 6 stages of diverse musical offerings, but we also peruse the arts and crafts vendors, often making a few purchases and play some games. Here the daughter tries her skills at the Wells Fargo Stage Coach adventure.

Before taking on the crowds, we fortified ourselves with brunch at a favorite eatery, Sunny Point Cafe in West Asheville on Haywood. Sunny Point serves consistently good food at reasonable prices and their wait staff is alt eye candy. They sport detailed and colorful tattoos, interesting hairstyles and hair colors and the dress code is decidedly not uniform.

Fresh flowers grace the tables.

The klezmer sound reeled me in and we soon decided our favorite band that Saturday was Sirius B. Billing themselves as absurdist gypsy folk funk punk. It’s the band’s gypsy-infused violins (they have two), European street sensibilities, world-traveled tunes and multiethnic lineup that warrant comparisons to New York City gypsy-punk icons Gogol Bordello.

Sirius B, however, isn’t planning to follow in Gogol Bordello’s footsteps. Instead, the group considers its sound a happy accident. “Fusion would imply intention, that’s my impression,”says the guitar player Xavier Ferdón. “Absurdist” is one description they’re comfortable with—which is fitting with lyrics like, “Your aunt was a microbe who lived in a bathrobe. She’d wear it night and day.”“This is more our own thing,” the guitarist states, “flavored with various elements.”

Since winning a third-place mention as one of a local paper's readers’ favorite as-yet unknown bands, it’s obvious people want to listen to them and so did we.

Carina

France - It was all about the Food

2011-07-23T06:06:00.000-07:00

And the company.

My daughter was finishing an 8-month work assignment. She had contracted to spend the academic year teaching English in the French public school system. Done. We were joining forces for a 24-day exploration of Europe. Her French is fluent. Swedish is my first language and somehow we would manage to communicate with the Germans in Berlin.

I flew in to Lyon and later we met up at the train station. My daughter accompanied me to St. Etienne, the town where she shared an apartment with two other language assistants. That corner of southwestern France was ours to explore for the next several days.

This was a trip for pleasure, not business, and as such the planning was loose. The overbooked, must see everything phenomenon was clearly to be avoided.

We primarily explored in and around St. Etienne, a town of approximately 180,000 people and an industrial heritage. Our food obsession became finding the best macarons in the region. Macarons are a predominantly French confection, made with egg whites, icing and granulated sugar, ground almonds and food coloring. Two disks or cookies are joined together with a filling of jam, ganache or buttercream.

We began our mission with a box from Au Jardin des Douceurs (the Garden of Sweets) trying out pistache, cerise griotte, cassis, framboise, chocolat and praline (pistachio, cherry, black currant, raspberry, chocolate and praline).

We broadened our search during a day trip to Lyon.The venerable bakery of Pignol, an institution of 50 years, is situated just around the corner from Place Bellecour on Rue Emile Zola. They had lovely macarons, but Sève, located on the presqu'île between the Rhône and Saone rivers, was easily the best.

Sève's pomme tatin macaron was all lovely and sparkly (yes, glittery-sparkly) and tasted absolutely delectable. This macaron is a riff on a classic upside down apple tart created in the Loire Valley in the late 1800's.

Sève is even older than Pignol, established in 1905. Richard Sève, a master chocolatier, was voted best pâtissier in the Rhône Alpes region in 1999. The attention to every detail of production is evident in the taste and appearance of each sweet little morsel. Accordingly, Sève's offerings were the priciest of the three as well. Have a peek for yourself.

While I think we sufficiently fulfilled our search for the best macaron, the prospect of further research intrigues me.

Carina

Grammy's Pot Pie and Wild Buffalo Grill

2011-06-25T06:04:00.000-07:00

I've promised reportage from Europe, complete with photographs and descriptions and what do you get? Musings on pet food.

At times, I can be such a tease.

The most recent excursion, which likely will get a follow-up post, is to Princeton, New Jersey to catch an exhibit of Kurt Schwitters' work. This 562-mile journey was estimated to take 9 & 1/4 hours, but owing to a tire blow-out on the Interstate, incredibly rusty lug nuts and a missed turn onto Highway 9 instead of 11 in Pennsylvania, the trip took stretched out to 13 hours. Some of those hours included driving rains at night, complete with gusty winds, thunder and lightning.

While waiting for the mounting of 2 new tires the next morning, we wandered the upscale strip mall. The shop that caught our attention was named Utopia for Pets. It featured trendy toys, garments and foods for Fluffy and Rover, or more likely Horace and Killer, Garfield and Bear, given the recent trends in pet-naming.

Marketing strategies that play right into our anthropomorphic tendencies were on full display. Check out the very masculine and feminine appeal of these dry dog foods by Solid Gold. See if you can figure out which is which:

Say, this is kinda hard.

The full line of Merrick's was particularly intriguing. They produce expensive canned cat and dog foods retailing in the neighborhood of $2.49 a can. While the Merrick pet foods are highly rated for their nutritional content, their marketing is decidedly tailored to a specific clientele. Besides the main lines of canned and dry food, there are seasonal varieties. Canned dog and cat food made especially for spring, summer, autumn and winter.

Check out the description written for Burger Pie and Sweetie Fries and the other summer seasonals:
"The summer beckons all of her children to shake off the shackles of spring and frolic in her warm ways. Sun screen, sand in your toes and deliciously healthy outdoor meals are in the sights, sounds and tastes of Summer. Merrick's Summer Seasonals are the very essence of fine Summer cuisine, captured in a can. Give your dog a treat - let him dine outside!"

When I asked the clerk whether guys purchased the more manly sounding varieties like Cowboy Cookout and Working Dog Stew, she pointed out that shopping for dog food is a task that most often falls to the lady of the house. That may help explain why the most popular variety is Grammy's Pot Pie.

Carina

More regulation, less filling

2011-06-12T06:31:00.000-07:00

Anyone that follows this column knows of my great disdain for the current governor of Wisconsin, the state where I grew up. Scott Walker's misguided attempts to reshape a state once known for its progressive politics into a bastion for corporations and wealthy individuals at the expense of everyone else takes some bizarre twists and turns.

You've gotta love this latest move.

Tucked into the latest state budget is a little-noticed provision to overhaul regulation of the beer industry.

In a state known for beer, the provision will make it more difficult for Wisconsin’s burgeoning craft breweries to operate and expand their business by barring them from selling directly to restaurants and liquor stores, and preventing them from selling their own product onsite.

The state currently has about 60 craft breweries and they sell about 5% of the beer consumed in Wisconsin. The new provision would treat craft breweries like their mega-corporate competitors. Small breweries would be required to use a wholesale distributor, a.k.a. a middleman, to market their product. Under the provision, it would be illegal, for say, a brewer located near a restaurant to walk next door to deliver a case of beer. They’ll have to hire and pay a third party to do it instead.

Not surprisingly, this provision was quietly slipped into the massive budget legislation without any consultation from independent craft brewers, who are justifiably outraged by the proposal. One group that did have input is one of the world’s largest beer makers, MillerCoors.

Chicago-based MillerCoors, which operates a brewery and eastern division headquarters in Milwaukee, supports the proposal because it shares concerns with wholesale distributors about the possibility of Anheuser-Busch buying wholesalers throughout the country, according to company spokesman James Wright.

Craft brewers contend that the real competition MillerCoors is trying to protect itself against the growing craft beer market.

It does not go unnoticed by this blogger that the reason that Governor Scott Walker, who calls himself a champion of small business, has sided with the big boys may have something to do with their largish campaign contributions. MillerCoors, which is a joint venture with foreign-owned SABMiller, contributed $22,675 to Walker's campaign.

As for me, you can rest assured no Miller or Coors products will grace my lips or be purchased by this household.

Carina

1,114 Photographs Later

2011-06-11T06:19:00.000-07:00

I'm back - in fact, I've been back for two weeks. An embarrassment of riches and some minor technical issues have kept me from my blog. Pesky things, those technical glitches.

Just to bring this tale up to speed, my one and only child just finished a gig teaching English in France. She was working in the public school system of a small town called St Etienne. She was an employee of the French government and had a 7-month contract.

As her contract concluded, I met her in France and we spent 24 days traveling in Europe together. The trials and tribulations we encountered were a result of various travel conditions and the two of us weathered those few storms rather well, and I hope to tell those stories here bit by bit.

Our travel itinerary included southern France, London, Berlin and 3 cities in Sweden.

Join me soon for the forthcoming travelogue.

Carina

The Vegan Doughtnut Eating Contest

2011-04-17T06:25:00.000-07:00

One of Portland, Oregon's quirkier claims to fame would have to be Voodoo Doughnuts (the Magic is in the hole). They have been referred to as the Salvidore Dali of doughnut shops.

http://voodoodoughnut.com/vddtv1.html

Above is a link to a short video by one of the founders, Kenneth "Cat Daddy" Pogson, promoting the stores. Known for unusual and creatively decorated wares, there are 3 shops, 2 in Portland and 0ne in Eugene. All locations also offer a variety of wedding packages,

including this one:

Deluxe Legal Voodoo Wedding

$300

Legal wedding ceremony, coffee & doughnuts for
60 people, 700 sq ft Chapel, free parking,
doughnut centerpiece with bride and grooms
names on doughnuts.

Treasured doughnut varieties include the voodoo doll doughnut pictured below, which is of course stuffed with a red raspberry filling. Note the pretzel stake through the heart.

Not only does Voodoo Doughnuts make a Bacon Maple Bar doughnut, but they also feature a vegan variety with tempeh bacon. Varieties of vegan doughnuts abound at the shop which brings me to the tofu and potatoes of this tale.

The first place I stayed on my trip through the Pacific Northwest was the Hawthorne Avenue Hostel in Portland, Oregon. Early in my 5-day stay, two young, vegan women engaged in a doughnut eating contest in the main dining room. Their exact motivation for the contest was never stated and thus remains unclear.

They had purchased a baker's dozen vegan doughnuts and split the contents onto 2 plates.

And the contest began in earnest, doughnuts chugged down with soymilk.

Not another bite! Defeat may have been preordained in the selection process. A review of the doughnut shop informs me that the chocolate doughnuts are denser than the yellow ones.

On the home stretch now.

One last bite!

Victory is sweet.

Remember the magic is in the hole.

Carina

Turning toward home

2011-04-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

Did a little shopping in the Victorian fishing village that is Port Townsend, then hopped the ferry for Whidbey Island, where I was able to score 2 hours of public access computer time in their newly remodeled library.

My plans today include a little bit of hiking in and around Deception Pass and taking in the Skagit Valley tulip fields.

Tomorrow I fly home.

Will be posting my own photos soon.

Carina

Kiss and a Promise

2011-04-05T13:52:00.001-07:00

I write this from the Fremont public library in Seattle Wasington, midway through a spring journey to the Pacfic Nortwest. It is being written on public access computers with a limited time frame, so please excuse spelling and typing errors.

Spent the early portion of this trip in Portland, Oregon.

Have two days in Seattle before ArtFest in Port Townsend Washington. I have been taking pictures and keeping notes so there will be tales to tell upon my return.

Got great pictures of the Vegan donut eating contest and lots of Portland greenery, especially moss, moss everywhere moss.

So hang tight, there will be tales and lots of pictures to share, I promise.

Kisses and Hugs

Carina

The Scent of Old Men

2011-03-20T16:33:00.000-07:00

As the weather outside warms, the sweaters at thrift stores go on sale. In order to get felt for craft purposes I buy the 100% wool sweaters and run them through the washing machine and dryer.

Recently one of the hospice thrifts had 5 plastic totes full of sweaters priced at a dollar a sweater. Digging through the bins 6 sweaters had adequate wool content to come home with me.

Three of the darker colored sweaters were men's sweaters and went in the washer with my blue jeans and dark socks. As the machine filled with hot water, the scent of their previous owners wafted out.

The vibe and the product at hospice thrifts is a little different than Goodwill and Salvation Army. Goodwill and Sally Ann's have the cast offs of yard sales, spring cleaning and moving. They have kid stuff, aged impulse buys and plastic galore. Hospice thrifts hold the leftovers of an older demographic, often the belongings of former hospice clients. You are often buying things that once belonged to people that are no longer with us, dead people.

With that thought running through my head, thinking I may be one of the last people to smell these guys was an oddly reverent moment. I waited for the washer to fill entirely before closing the lid and walking away.

Carina

Giving Whirled Peace

2011-03-12T17:21:00.000-08:00

Fallout from the political situation in Wisconsin is wide ranging. Civic discourse is markedly less civil. The greenhouse and garden center near Milwaukee, where my sister works is probably a typical example. She tells tales of heated verbal arguments and subsequent tears between coworkers that would have been unthinkable a month ago.

Out running errands the other day, the clerk at the gas station convenience store voiced a wish that people could just get along again. At her next stop, my sister noted that the pharmacy was running a special on Ben and Jerry's Whirled Peace, $1.19 for a pint. She bought 6 containers.

To give away the first two ice cream cartons, she returned to the convenience and gave a carton to the store clerk and one to her coworker. The third carton went to an acquaintance entering the convenience store, a friend whose mother is a teacher.

Cartons four, five and six ended up where her son was working that day. When she needed one more ice cream, she ponied up her last ice cream carton, a Haagen Dazs Swiss Almond, figuring this remained thematically correct because the Swiss were neutral in both world wars.

My sister Lisa came home without any ice cream, but felt good at spreading a little Whirled Peace for the inexpensive cost of $7.14.

While issues still stand and tensions remain high in Wisconsin, it is good to see some unconventional efforts at bringing healing and good vibes (and ice cream) to friends and neighbors. That sister of mine sure knows how to think outside the box.

Carina

There is a house in Abingdon

2011-02-27T14:12:00.001-08:00

There is a house in Abingdon where the wild crocus grow.

Right on Main Street, there is a large old house in which it appears not a single person lives, not now anyhow. All the entrances are overgrown with evergreen hedge and foundation plantings blocking the doors.

The crocus have naturalized over the course of many years.

And put on a lovely show.

These crumbling concrete steps certainly do not lead to a point of entry.

But the flowers do not care.

They are happy in this setting.

Driving down Main Street Abingdon one weekend, I spotted this house and these flowers and thought you might want to see them too.

Carina

Pro-choice and pro-Wisconsin

2011-02-26T17:49:00.000-08:00

First let me offer a disclaimer. I do have a vested interest in what happens in Wisconsin. I grew up in the state, attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked 3 1/2 years as a state employee. A few of my in-laws still work for the state.

Various progressive organizations were urging people to go to their own state capitols on Saturday to demonstrate solidarity with Wisconsin workers, but with Nashville, Tennessee 4 1/2 hours away and Richmond, Virginia over 5 hours distant, I felt I would have to live with my regrets.

The spousal unit and I made a day trip to Asheville, North Carolina, when what should appear but a multifunctional demonstration downtown at Pack Square. It was entirely off my radar. A quick check with Move-On.org had told me there were no planned demonstrations within 200 miles of my zip code and Asheville is only 85 miles away.

Relatively warm and sunny weather, an energized crowd and two, count them two, causes I could endorse wholeheartedly. Well, what's an old hippie to do but join in?

Various drummers kept the chants coordinated and the energy level high.

The group included young and old citizen participants.

Drivers honked their horns and gave thumbs up as they drove past.
Asheville, in its spirit and attitude, reminds me of Madison Wisconsin.

Wishing the Wisconsin workers the very best of luck in convincing their hot-head governor to come to his senses.

Carina

Felted Bird

2011-02-24T17:58:00.000-08:00

Over on the right side of my blog you can find links to blogs I visit often, blogs that may be of interest to you as well. By simply clicking on the link, you will be taken to that blog's most current post .

Currently Jennevieve at House InsideOut is hosting a give-away. The felted bird you see below is up for grabs. She has also posted a tutorial on how to wrap wire bird feet.

Get over to her blog, leave a comment and maybe, just maybe, you can win the bird.
Good luck!

Carina

Taking from teachers and nurses in order to enrich corporate coffers

2011-02-19T07:14:00.000-08:00

Since taking office on January 3, 2011 Wisconsin governor Scott Walker and the Republican legislature have passed a series of tax breaks and industry incentives that have dramatically increased the state budget deficit. Now they want to use that self-same budget deficit as an excuse to strip some, just some, of the State's union employees of their collective bargaining rights.

Exempt from the governor's union-busting legislation are the police, firefighters and the state trooper's unions. Could that be because gubernatorial candidate Walker collected endorsements from the Milwaukee Police Association, the West Allis Professional Police Association, the Milwaukee Professional Firefighters and the Wisconsin Troopers Association during his campaign? On Tuesday the governor announced he had hired Steven Fitzgerald, father of state Senate and Assembly majority leaders Scott and Jeff Fitzgerald - two figures Walker absolutely needs to advance his agenda through the Legislature - as State Patrol superintendent.

The way Walker has attempted to make these policy decisions palatable to the public is to sell the legislation as a way to close the state budget deficit by requiring teachers and other public employees to contribute a significantly higher percentage to to their health insurance premiums and retirement accounts, but that would appear to be window dressing. His real aim is to bust the unions.

Is Scott Walker just another corporate puppet?
A Koch Industries puppet?

Koch industries is the second largest privately-held company in the United States. They are a private energy conglomerate based out of Wichita, Kansas and have as their core industrial base the manufacturing, refining and distribution of petroleum, chemicals and energy, such dirty industries. Their ties to Wisconsin include activity in pulp and paper, a coal company subsidiary and numerous pipelines running through the state. Koch has a lengthy list of fines and government settlements not only for violating environmental laws, but also for being caught covering up and hiding those violations.

Koch industries is also famous for wielding political power.

Though the Koch PAC (Political Action Committee) only contributed $43,000 directly to Scott Walker's gubernatorial campaign, it gave 1 million to the Republican Governor's Association. The Republican Governor's Association gave Scott Walker $65,000 support for independent expenditures and the RGA spent $3.4 million on TV ads and mailers attacking Scott Walker's democratic opponent.

What did Koch industries get for their contributions?

As soon as he became governor, Walker started cutting environmental regulations and appointed a Republican known for her disregard for environmental regulations to lead the Department of Natural Resources. In addition, Walker has stated his opposition to clean energy jobs policies, policies that might draw workers away from Koch-owned interests.

The Koch brothers, Charles and David, have lost no love for public sector unions as evidenced by the stance of the groups their money backs, groups like the Cato Institute, Americans for Prosperity and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Several of these groups urge the eradication of public-sector unions.

The official slogan of Koch Industries : "Transforming daily life"

Apparently they transform it in a way that certain members of Wisconsin's citizenry object to. Today about 70,000 showed up at the state capitol to express their dissenting opinion.

Carina

The Meds...oh...the Meds

2011-01-26T16:55:00.001-08:00

For many people a diagnosis of shingles brings weeks of nasty, burning nerve pain along paths called dermatomes. Shingles is caused by the virus varicella-zoster, the same virus that gives you chickenpox on the first go around. The virus then goes dormant and lurks within your body. For reasons as yet unknown, the virus suddenly becomes active again, and viola, shingles is the result.

While I would rather have skipped the entire adventure, I breezed through one of the mildest cases of shingles. My response to the prescribed medications were more of a bother than the disease itself.

The Lyrica prescribed to deal with nerve pain was never opened. Valacyclovir, the antiviral taken three times daily was not a big deal either. The steroid taper was another story entirely.

Prednisone comes with a whole long list of possible side effects, but for me it was as if someone had turned up the internal volume and revved my motor Not known as a low energy person, steroids gave me motor mouth, unfocused energy and insomnia. Side effects were not unlike certain street drugs of the 70's with names like white cross and black beauties. They weren't my cup of tea back then and I was more then happy when this 12 day prescription had been completed.

February is shaping up to be a busy month with multiple collaborative project due dates. I'm hoping to photograph a few of those and give you a peek at a variety of projects, showcasing the work of a host of different artists.

Carina

No Disease for Young Ladies

2011-01-24T02:30:00.000-08:00

It started simply enough the Saturday before last. A pimple, a zit developing in my left eyebrow was clearly just everyday stuff. Come Sunday, the scalp on the left side of my head was curiously and exquisitely tender. The tracks of the hair comb caused moderate pain.

These are the times when medical training is both a blessing and a curse. I could rule out several possible diagnoses, but others that would never occur to the average person tugged at my awareness. Temporal arteritis and mastoiditis were among the not-so entertaining and frightening possibilities.

By Monday morning I was weighing the need to call my doctor. The symptoms had lessened and my scalp only exhibited numbness, so maybe this whatever had run its course and was resolving, as many things do. Midway through lunch with my friend the medical librarian, she looked across the table at me and asked " Carina, was your eye like that when lunch started?"

Say what?! A peek in the mirror showed that over the preceding half hour, unbeknownst to me, my left eyebrow had swollen and taken on an ominous shade. A phone call got me in too see the nurse practitioner and she summoned my doc to come have a look.

Shingles, they decided. While this had been one of the possible diagnoses floating through my brain, I still thought - Ac-ck! Old Lady Disease! This is something your mother's friends get, not me, no no no!

Fortunately, the disease was caught pretty early in its progression. I have a very mild case and am doing well.

Carina

Nope on Hope?

2011-01-09T07:25:00.000-08:00

Blog readers that know me, have seen a political opinion or two expressed on these posts. Being a political creature and loving images as I do, the attraction to political cartoons is strong. The ability to vividly and clearly express viewpoints with images has my greatest admiration.

This recent cartoon commemorating John Boehner's ascension to Speaker of the House is a fabulous riff on Shepard Fairey's iconic Obama Hope poster. Of course, knowing a little more background enhances your appreciation of the art form.

Left: AP Photo/Manny Garcia, Right: "HOPE" poster by Shepard Fairey

Emerging from the skateboard scene, Frank Shepard Fairey is an artist, graphic designer and illustrator that first garnered national attention with his "Andre the Giant has a Posse" (OBEY) sticker campaign. The Obey Giant website says: "The sticker has no meaning but exists only to cause people to react, to contemplate and search for meaning in the sticker."

Fairey created a series of posters supporting Barack Obama's 2008 presidential candidacy including the "Hope" portrait. Art critics have called the poster "the most efficacious American political illustration since "Uncle Sam Wants You". Because the Hope poster had been "perpetuated illegally" and independently by the street artist, the Obama campaign declined to have any direct affiliation with it. Although the campaign officially disavowed any involvement in the creation or popularization of the poster, Fairey has commented in interviews that he was in communication with campaign officials during the period immediately following the poster's release. Fairey has stated that the original version featured the word "PROGRESS" instead of the word "HOPE," and that within weeks of its release, the campaign requested that he issue (and legally disseminate) a new version, keeping the powerful image of Obama's face but captioning it with the word "HOPE". The campaign openly embraced the revised poster along with two additional Fairey posters that featured the words "CHANGE" and "VOTE".

Shepard Fairey

In 2009, it was revealed that the HOPE poster was based on a copyrighted photograph taken in April 2006 by Mannie Garcia while on assignment for the Associated Press (AP), which wants credit and compensation for the work.However, Garcia believes that he personally owns the copyright for the photo, and has said, "If you put all the legal stuff away, I’m so proud of the photograph and what Fairey did, what he did artistically with it, and the effect it's had.Fairey has said that his use of it falls within the legal definition of fair use.

Mike Peters

Three cartoonists ranking among my favorites, include Mike Luckovich, Ann Telnaes and the creator of "NOPE" Mike Peters.

Besides creating political cartoons Mike Peters draws the syndicated comic strip Mother Goose and Grimm." And that would provides the surprising background to his 2009 legal troubles. His comic strip, not his political cartoons became the basis for a defamation lawsuit.

The offending strip

Colombian coffee growers took offense.Fedecafe, the representative for the coffee growers, said the cartoon "associated organised crime and the atrocities committed by violent groups with the hard, delicate and honest work of more than 500,000 coffee growers and their families".

The cartoon also affected the reputation of Juan Valdez, the "icon and symbol" of Colombian coffee, by suggesting that there was a connection between coffee tins and the victims of violence, Fedecafe said.

The iconic coffee grower, accompanied by his faithful mule, was created in 1959, and has appeared in countless TV advertisements, in the US and elsewhere.

The federation said they would expect coffee growers to be adequately compensated for damage caused.Gabriel Silva Lujan, Fedecafe's general manager, told reporters in Bogota that the cartoon "was an attack on national dignity and the reputation of Colombian coffee."He said he expected the lawsuit to be filed by the end of the week and would be for at least $20m.

Mr Peters has said that he loves Colombia, drinks Colombian coffee and did not intend any offense.

"The cartoon is meant to be read along with the rest of the week as a series of which the theme is based on the fact that the inventor of the Pringles can had his ashes buried in one," Mr Peters said in a statement.

"I thought this was a humorous subject and all my Mother Goose and Grimm cartoons are meant to make people laugh. I truly intended no insult."

I am happy to report that the lawsuit was eventually dropped, but I would not blame Mr. Peters for drinking tea rather than coffee.

Carina

And the Winner is!

2011-01-02T13:21:00.001-08:00

To celebrate 100 posts last year, I concluded the year with a drawing for a postcard give-away. Names of the people posting comments were literally put in a hat (a vintage Stetson) and a name was drawn.

The winner is Karen Samuelson Ricks over in Utah.

Thanks to everyone that commented. I loved reading your postal tales.
Have a wonderful 2011.

Carina

Post # 100 - Celebrating with a Give-Away

2010-12-26T06:47:00.000-08:00

This is it!

The milestone 100th post for 2010 is up and as promised in an earlier post, there will be a give-away, albeit a modest one.

Leave a comment following this post and you will be entered into a drawing to win a set of postcards designed by me and suitable for mailing. In order to encourage snail-mail art, I will include postage with each card.

Most of the postcards will consist of color copies on heavy paper, but I will include one or two original postcards, more if we get some snow days off work. A winner will be selected by random drawing in one week on January 2, 2011 and will be one of my earliest posts in the new year.

So, in your comment tell me something having to do with snail mail. Tell me what you still send or about something cool that came recently or a pen pal you had as a kid. Tell me about the terrors of the post office (lost and damaged items) or about your mail carrier. Good tales, bad tales - all are acceptable.

I look forward to hearing from you.
Good Luck
or
as the French say
Bonne Chance
and
the Swedes
Lycka Till!

Carina

2010-12-23T13:40:00.000-08:00

Wallace, Grommet and I have been trolling the internet, searching for an appropriate Christmas eve post and after some discussion settled on this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHioIlbnS_A

Hope you like it.
Merry Christmas
or as they say in Swedish
God Jul!

Carina

P.S. Grommet apologizes that the video starts out with a 15 second commercial. Hang in there, we think the video is worth it.

Highway Ponderings

2010-12-20T19:18:00.000-08:00

The pilgrimage from Virginia to Wisconsin covers over 700 miles and allows plenty of time for stray observations. Gazing at billboards, it occurs to you that once again they have changed Colonel Saunder's image. With every re-imagining he becomes younger and slimmer. Perhaps if I live long enough, the Colonel will morph into a skateboarding 20 some-year-old lad that likes eating chicken.

A recent survey of Americans, ages 18-25 (the key chicken eating demographic apparently) reveals that 61% of these Americans couldn’t identify the man in the KFC logo. In fact, 31% of Americans aren’t familiar with the founder of the largest global chicken chain at all and 52% believe he is simply KFC's corporate creation, another version of Betty Crocker.

1986 Betty 1936

Betty Crocker is an image as well as a brand name and trademark of General Mills. Her name was developed in 1921 by one of the companies that would merge to become General Mills. It was thought that consumers would feel a more a personal connection to the company when they received answers to their mailed product questions signed by Betty Crocker. The name Betty was selected because it sounded cheery and All-American.

Betty's image has been updated 8 times since the first was created in 1936. These portraits were always painted, with no real person ever having posed as a model, and they have never shown the character from the shoulders down.

By comparison Harlan David Saunders was a real person. At the age of 40, Sanders cooked chicken dishes and other meals for people who stopped at his service station in Corbin, Kentucky. Since he did not have a restaurant, he served customers in his living quarters located at the service station. His local popularity grew, and Sanders moved to a motel and restaurant (seated 142 people) where he worked as the chef. Over the next nine years, he developed his "secret recipe" for frying chicken. He made use of a pressure fryer that allowed the chicken to be cooked much faster than the 30 minutes required by pan frying.

He was given the honorary title "Kentucky Colonel" in 1935 by Governor Ruby Laffoon. He was "re-commissioned" as such in 1950 by Governor Lawreence Wetherby.

It wasn't until 1950 that Sanders began developing his distinctive appearance, growing his trademark mustache and goatee and donning a white suit and string tie. He never wore anything else in public during the last 20 years of his life, using a heavy wool suit in the winter and a light cotton suit in the summer.

The route that I follow from my corner of southwestern Virginia to Wisconsin takes me through Corbin, Kentucky, not far from where the Colonel got his start before franchising the whole chicken frying concept. One of these days I do need to stop at his restaurant that is now a museum.

Fun to contemplate an image that has been changed enough times that consumers now believe he is the creation of marketers, while there were once people that thought Betty Crocker was a genuine and real person.

Carina

Facial Reconstructive Surgery and Millinery

2010-12-17T06:54:00.000-08:00

Ice, Slush and snow coupled with freezing and near freezing temperatures yielded an unexpected day off this past Thursday.

It was such a bonus and perhaps a deserved one, as the weekend had been evaporated by continuing education. The class was a wonderful and added to my skill set, but also left laundry undone and Christmas cards unwritten.

Back in September, while visiting Wisconsin I surely overpaid for this garland of 3 snowmen found at the thrift store, St. Vincent de Paul. I mean paying like $3.50.

That may not seem too awful until you look closely. Akin to the three little kittens that lost their mittens, these fellows had lost their noses; had shiny little glue craters right smack dab in the middle of their faces where their noses ought to be! What kind of foolhardy adventures result in a lost nose, not just for one , but for everybody, I do not even want to know. Then of course these gents only have snow for brains.

So on this bonus day off I engaged in facial reconstructive surgery, rhinoplasty to be specific. Three noses were constructed out Paperclay with drying enhanced via a slow oven. The appendages were painted a pleasing shade of carrot orange and affixed to their faces.

With noses in place, these guys begged for a wee bit of sartorial spiffying. Using a lone orphan sock as the knit material donor, each snowman got a hat and their scarves were refashioned to have more heft and body.

And should you wonder about the lack of gender neutrality in the term snowmen, may I remind you that these gents had some unspecified adventure that resulted in a need for reconstructive surgery.

I find my results esthetically pleasing and the gents appear to be smiling too.

Carina

December Mailboxes

2010-12-12T17:08:00.001-08:00

December seems to be the month in which mailboxes rise in prominence. Anticipations of Christmas cards and packages tied up in string, but wait, the post office will not allow string, only packing tape.

And if it seems like you're getting fewer holiday cards this year, don't worry. Chances are it has nothing to do with your popularity.

The practice of sending Christmas cards is fading, collateral damage of the digital age.

The practice of sending Christmas cards is a victim of our time crunched lifestyles and the instant communication to which we have become accustomed.

Each of us must decide whether this is an antiquated waste of time or a cherished holiday ritual. As I have a documented love affair with paper and postage, a few cards will issue forth from my mailbox this year, but not as many in the past.

Carina

This little piggy went to market

2010-12-08T15:17:00.000-08:00

Actually she looks better prepared for a ballet recital, but perhaps she will go to market if the shoppes are posh enough.

This lovely and somewhat anthropomorphic pig caught my eye while passing an art gallery in Asheville.

I must have been smitten as several pictures were taken.

To close this post I will quote a little Shel Silverstein

Said the pig to his pop,
“There’s the candy shop.
Oh, please let’s go inside.
And I promise I won’t
Make a kid of myself
If you give me a people-back ride.”

Carina

Intentions

2010-12-01T14:49:00.001-08:00

Intentions

a directed purpose or goal

synonyms:: aim, design, goal, intent, object, objective, point, purport, purpose, thought
similar words:: aspiration, end, function, purpose, raison d'être, rationale, target

I've been thinking about blogging and this blog in particular. With this post the blog will be six posts shy of 100 entries for the year. Having noted that, it has become my intention to reach that goalpost by the end of the month and upon attainment to celebrate with a drawing for a give away.

What shall be the prize? That would be simple and natural for a blog entitled Frost Giant Postcard studios, it will be a set of postcards, so you can send art snail-mail to your friends.One of the designs to be included would be the postcard above.

So tune in later this month, to post a comment and have a chance at winning some distinctively odd postcards.

Carina

Glitches still exist

2010-11-30T18:54:00.000-08:00

I am still having some difficulty using alternate programs and getting my photographs to upload properly.

The 2 photos in this post were supposed to go up with the poem yesterday, but refused to cooperate. Today the oak-leaf hydrangea above imported really tiny and gets all pixelated when attempts are made to enlarge the photo in place.

Loved the look of these pokeweed berries so wanted to include them. Too bad the berries are poisonous to humans. Birds however can eat the berries with impunity.

Pokeweed berries do have other uses, yielding a red ink or dye, which was once used by American Indians to decorate their horses. Many letters written home during the American Civil War were written in pokeberry ink; the writing in these surviving letters appears brown. A rich brown dye can be made by soaking fabrics in fermenting berries in a hollowed-out pumpkin.

Pokeweeds are used as food plants by the caterpillars of some species moths and butterflies including Giant Leopard Moth.

Carina

(And for some stupid reason my name does not want to change to normal font, so rest assured I am not shouting at you, just dealing with some unfamiliar computer programs)

Quick, some fall photos before the snow flies

2010-11-29T18:15:00.000-08:00

The Autumn
by
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Go, sit upon the lofty hill,
And turn your eyes around,
Where waving woods and waters wild
Do hymn an autumn sound.
The summer sun is faint on them --
The summer flowers depart --
Sit still -- as all transform'd to stone,
Except your musing heart.

How there you sat in summer-time,
May yet be in your mind;
And how you heard the green woods sing
Beneath the freshening wind.
Though the same wind now blows around,
You would its blast recall;
For every breath that stirs the trees,
Doth cause a leaf to fall.

Oh! like that wind, is all the mirth
That flesh and dust impart:
We cannot bear its visitings,
When change is on the heart.
Gay words and jests may make us smile,
When Sorrow is asleep;
But other things must make us smile,
When Sorrow bids us weep!

The dearest hands that clasp our hands, --
Their presence may be o'er;
The dearest voice that meets our ear,
That tone may come no more!
Youth fades; and then, the joys of youth,
Which once refresh'd our mind,
Shall come -- as, on those sighing woods,
The chilling autumn wind.

Hear not the wind -- view not the woods;
Look out o'er vale and hill-
In spring, the sky encircled them --
The sky is round them still.
Come autumn's scathe -- come winter's cold --
Come change -- and human fate!
Whatever prospect Heaven doth bound,
Can ne'er be desolate.

Just a few fall photos and a poem for you today (before the snow flies).

Carina

Seeing and Perception

2010-11-28T16:47:00.001-08:00

Our brain first directs where our eyes look and then interprets what it is we see.

An excellent example of this can be found in the two books recently published by Sarah Palin and Barack Obama. Now one is written for adults and the other is a children's book targeted at an age group of 6 to 8, but they do cover some similar ground. There is overlap as both comment on American icons such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and Helen Keller.

The points they highlight and the conclusions they reach, not surprisingly, differ a fair amount. Sarah Palin stresses how Lincoln "mentions God 14 times" in his second inaugural address.

While President Obama depicts Lincoln as a man who "promised freedom to enslaved sisters and brothers."

While both statements are true, they certainly represent two pretty distinctive take home messages and no doubt they way you feel about the different interpretations reflect on how you see things.

Carina

The French word for pumpkin is citrouille

2010-11-22T09:48:00.001-08:00

As you may or may not know, my favorite (and only) daughter currently resides in France. She snagged a position with the French Ministry of Education as a part time assistant teacher of English in the French public school system for this academic year.

As I became aware when I visited the daughter on her first French adventure as a college junior studying abroad, the French have a very different culinary relationship with the pumpkin. Canned pumpkin is simply not available for pie making. They are very confused about the whole Halloween thing. If you are in France on October 31, make your way to an English pub if you wish celebrate the holiday.

These pumpkins while supposedly French were found in Asheville, North Carolina.

French pumpkins are either called citroille or potirons. It seems to me the really large ones are the potirons. An entry on David Lebovitz's fabulous blog tells about cooking French potiron.

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/10/roasted-pumpkin-recipe-potimarron-kuri-hokkaido-squash/

Somehow I lost the first letter in the photograph above, it reads:

Jack was never the same after the operation

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Carina

It's not really writer's block

2010-10-27T04:37:00.000-07:00

I woke from dreams this morning with the thought "there is an increased risk of house fire if you let your monkey use a blowtorch to make grilled cheese sandwiches".

One of my coworkers asked if I was experiencing writer's block, an indication that the scarcity of blog posts has been noted. Truth is that I have been having computer issues. Down or uploading photos has been more challenging and pictorial images do seem a crucial component for a lot of my stories.

Hope to have some resolution soon.

Carina

Almost Banned at the Kingsport Public Library

2010-10-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

This afternoon Wendell Potter gave a keynote speech entitled
Myths and Misconceptions About the New Health Care Law

He spoke at the Bristol Public Library.

Tomorrow he speaks in Kingsport, Tennessee at the Dobyns-Bennett Little Theater from 2:30 to 5:00. Wendell Potter is a former corporate public relations director for insurance giant Cigna that experienced a life changing experience after visiting a Remote Area Medical clinic in Wise, Virginia.

Remote Area Medical clinics provide free medical services to the uninsured. Often thought of as services provided to the third world, such services are now badly needed here in Appalachia.

Born and raised in Mountain City and Kingsport, Tennessee, Wendell Potter saw hundreds of his former neighbors waiting overnight and in long lines to obtain desperately needed medical attention, often in the same areas where livestock are displayed at the Wise County Fairgrounds.

His observations led to a crisis of conscience that ultimately resulted in resigning his position as head of communications at one of the largest health insurers and to become an advocate for meaningful health care reform. He has testified before Congress and is the author of a book "Deadly Spin"due out in November.

If you live on the Tennessee/ Virginia border your Sunday afternoon would be well spent attending this event. Elsewhere you may be able to catch up with Wendell as he tours with his book in November.

Carina

BRRR - Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion

2010-09-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

It only took 10 years. The initial Rhythm & Roots Reunion began in September of 2001 with $50,000 in start-up funds from the twin cities of Bristol, Tennessee and Bristol, Virginia. In its first year, the festival had 40artists and attracted about 7,500 fans.

The poster this year (A Charles Vess design)

Over the past several years coworkers brought back glowing reports about the festival. Schedule conflicts prevented my attendance for at least the past three years. Setting my priorities this year, I delayed starting a trip to Wisconsin in order to attend the 10th annual Bristol event.

Jeff, Andrenne and I at BRRR

The event now features 187 different acts over the 3 day weekend and crowds likely topped last years attendance of 32,000.

Folk Soul Revival

At the festival, artists perform in little alcoves and big stages, 22 stages in all, along State Street. Originally capitalizing on Bristol's heritage as the Birthplace of Country Music, the festival now stretches the genre significantly, encompassing a variety of string instrument and vocal performers.

MSG Acoustic Blues Trio

The current budget approaches $750,000 and while there are big name acts like Ricky Skaggs, small, local talent is well represented. Scheduling demands kept me from attending on Saturday, the biggest day of the festival, but I was well pleased with the acts I took in on Friday and Sunday. Next year I hope to be present all three days.

Carina

Beginning to Celebrate

2010-09-11T09:17:00.001-07:00

Some of us are lucky enough to know people that bake for us, even if they will only see you Friday and your birthday is not until Monday.

This slice does not fully demonstrate that the cake is four layers of delicousness.

Coworkers were happy to share.

The baker was generous enough to share her recipe.

Ingredients

Dark Chocolate Cake Mix

Raspberry All Friut ( A preserve)

2 Tubs Chocolate Icing

Fresh Raspberries

White chocolate

Bake the cake following the instuctions on the box.

Cool the cake.

Slice the cakes in half to make 4 layers total.

Assembly

Put All Fruit on the fist layer.

Put Chocolate icing on second layer.

All Fruit on layer three.

Chocolate icing goes on the top and sides.

Top with fresh raspberries.

Drizzle melted white chocolate on top.

Additionally, my baker friend says you can use any flavor of All Fruit. She makes a delcious variation on this cake using orage marmalade instead of All Fruit and then decorates with canned mandarin oranges.

Carina

They beat me to the punch!

2010-09-08T16:45:00.000-07:00

Last year, after making the spray paint and collage picture I call Simian Manifesto an idea popped into my head.

Cross this image with the iconic Che Guevara image taken by Alberto Korda in March of 1960 and turned into a famous poster.

Give it the title Viva la Evolución

I never got around to cutting a beret component for my chimp stencil.
Good ideas occur to more than one individual.

So last weekend in Asheville I saw that someone else did pull the concept together.

Hope it motivates me to put it in gear and run with my idea.

Carina

A new month and a recipe - Beef Stroganoff

2010-09-01T16:08:00.000-07:00

One of my daughter's friends asked for the recipe, so I thought it may as well become a blog post.

My recipes tend to be procedural in nature which allows them to adapt to your particular circumstances more easily.

At the grocery store:
one package beef (read further to find which cut)
one or more cartons mushrooms
fresh rosemary
fresh garlic
onion or shallots
red wine (inexpensive table red)
Worcestershire sauce
olive oil
beef stock
carton of sour cream
noodles

Beef
Use an inexpensive cut meant to be cooked a while to get tender. Check what is on sale any particular week and use that. I have used round steak, chuck roasts and tip roasts.

Cut your beef into strips or cubes, discarding tendon and real fatty bits. A little fat is good and adds flavor.

Marinade
Marinade the meat a mixture of olive oil, rosemary,garlic, Worcestershire sauce and red wine. The proportions are roughly 2-3 tablespoons olive oil, 3-4 glugs or bottle shakes of Worcestershire sauce (maybe about 1-2 teaspoons if you must measure), 1/3 cup red wine and rosemary and garlic.
Prepare the herbs by finely slicing 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, strip the leaves off a stalk or two of rosemary and with both of these on the cutting board, use a chefs knife to mince it all up fine.
Marinade at least 30 minutes, a couple of hours in the fridge is better.

Cooking
Drain the marinade and put it in a pot. Add the beef stock and start it simmering.
Saute the chopped onion and/or shallots in olive oil .
When your onions or shallots are tender add them to the simmering stock.
Saute your sliced mushrooms in olive oil or butter.
Added cooked mushrooms to the simmering stock.
Cook the drained beef in small batches on fairly high heat in the frying pan. You want the meat to brown and get a slight crust. If you add too much meat at once it will bring the pan temperature down too far. Marinade will come out of the meat and it will boil rather than brown. This is not a tragedy, but is less than optimal.
Add the batches of cooked meat to your simmering broth.
When all the meat is in the pot, continue simmering until the beef is tender and the broth is reduced to almost nothing. If the beef is particularly tough you may need to add water during the cooking process to keep the meat from scorching.

Next
When the beef is almost done, bring a pot of water to boiling and boil your preferred variety of noodles.
Drain the cooked noodles and put them back in the original pan you boiled them in with heat turned off.
Pour your beef, mushroom and onion mixture over the noodles.
Stir in a carton of sour cream.
Stir it all together. To be fancier yet add a little fresh ground pepper and/or a little fresh ground nutmeg.
Serve.

Additional thoughts
White commercial mushrooms or portabella mushrooms can be used. You may mix mushroom varieties and in fact I have made a vegetarian mushroom stroganoff that was quite tasty. It was essentially the same procedure, just substituting mushroom for the beef broth and using 3 packages and varieties of mushrooms and of course deleting the beef.

When making this consider your own and the guest taste preferences and tailor your seasoning preferences to suit.

Enjoy

Carina

August 31, 2010 - Day Thirtyone

2010-08-31T16:20:00.001-07:00

Welcome September.

Carina

August 30, 2010 - Day Thirty

2010-08-30T17:47:00.001-07:00

Ribbit!

Carina

August 29, 2010 - Day Twentynine

2010-08-30T17:46:00.000-07:00

Surround yourself with positive people.

Carina

August 28, 2010 -Day Twentyeight

2010-08-30T17:45:00.000-07:00

Skipper on Wave Petunia

Carina

August 27, 2010 - Day Twentyseven

2010-08-27T18:22:00.000-07:00

Viceroy Caterpillar

Carina

August 26, 2010 - Day Twentysix

2010-08-26T17:15:00.000-07:00

May pop
aka Passion Flower

Carina

August 25, 2010 - Day Twentyfive

2010-08-25T18:33:00.001-07:00

So how do you really feel about that new short hairdo?

Carina

August 24, 2010 - Day Twentyfour

2010-08-24T17:23:00.001-07:00

Lady Slipper Orchid brought back into bloom.

Carina

August 23, 2010 - Day Twentythree

2010-08-23T11:17:00.001-07:00

Changes a'coming.

Carina

August 22, 2010 - Day Twentytwo

2010-08-22T15:28:00.000-07:00

Too cool.

Too cool for school!

Carina

August 21,2010 - Day Twentyone

2010-08-21T05:21:00.001-07:00

Industrious.

Carina

August 20, 2010 - Day Twenty

2010-08-20T16:02:00.001-07:00

Folded-winged Skipper and Zinnias.

Carina

August 19, 2010 - Day Nineteen

2010-08-19T17:42:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's race weekend.

Carina

August 18, 2010 - Day Eighteen

2010-08-18T17:16:00.001-07:00

Getting ready for race weekend.

Carina

August 17, 2010 - Day Seventeen

2010-08-17T16:50:00.000-07:00

Sweetly scented double hosta blossoms

Carina

August 16, 2010 - Day Sixteen

2010-08-16T16:32:00.002-07:00

Big Red

Carina

August 15, 2010 - Day Fifteen

2010-08-16T16:32:00.001-07:00

Baby Lord Ganesha
Indian God of Knowledge and Remover of Obstacles.

Carina

August 14, 2010 - Day Fourteen

2010-08-14T17:21:00.000-07:00

Sarracenia - Pitcher plant

Carina

August 13, 2010 - Day Thirteen

2010-08-13T04:43:00.001-07:00

Black cats and spilled salt
Triskaidekaphobia

Carina

August 12, 2010 - Day Twelve

2010-08-12T04:20:00.001-07:00

Mmmmm.......smells so good.

Carina

August 11, 2010 - Day Eleven

2010-08-11T16:07:00.001-07:00

Monochromatic still life with moth.

Carina

August 10, 2010 - Day Ten

2010-08-10T16:38:00.000-07:00

Playing with punches, layering and recycling scrap paper.
(Bonus - Find those that are alike)

Carina

August 9, 2010 - Day Nine

2010-08-09T05:00:00.000-07:00

Monday, Monday.

Carina

August 8, 2010 - Day Eight

2010-08-08T07:17:00.000-07:00

My personal sanctuary.

It beckons.

Carina

August 7, 2010 - Day Seven

2010-08-07T20:07:00.001-07:00

Casey Henry of the Dixie Bee-Liners at the Virginia Highlands Festival.

Carina

August 6, 2010 - Day Six

2010-08-06T04:36:00.001-07:00

Not Barbie and proud of it!

Carina

August 5, 2010 - Day Five

2010-08-05T04:30:00.000-07:00

Photos of old photographs

April 1955

Road trip Summer 1960

In memory of my father, Lars Ture Carlson, today would have been his 75th birthday.

Carina

August 4, 2010 - Day Four

2010-08-04T17:25:00.000-07:00

Quilled Black-eyed Susan
Rudbeckia subtomentosa 'Henry Eilers'

Io moth caterpillar on lemon leaf

Carina

August 3, 2010 - Day Three

2010-08-03T17:33:00.000-07:00

Are you using my misfortune for art?

Yep.

Carina

August 2, 2010 - Day Two

2010-08-02T18:08:00.001-07:00

Pink Double Petunias

Carina

August Break Begins - August 1, 2010

2010-08-01T16:40:00.001-07:00

Here's the concept
August Break

Courtesy of
Susannah Conway
@
http://www.susannahconway.com/

The plan would be to simply share one photo per day on your blog – Monday to Friday, or every day – with or without words – anything goes – for the whole of August. No pressure - just looking at August through your camera lens as a way to be more present this summer. And to have a little break from the pressures and expectations of regular blogging.

I'm planning quick little one word to a few sentence entries.

Carina

What We Made

2010-07-28T18:55:00.000-07:00

Tracy Moore Doing a Demo

In this post I will show you some of the books made by the participants in a Small Studio Productions Workshop July 16, 17 and 18.

Shaun Sheehan was a model of skill, productivity and experimentation, making highly accomplished pieces in our 3 days.

The wheel on this fabulous journal spins. She engineered the attachments that allow it to do so.

She brought this soft, sewn and embellished journal cover with her to class. It was inspired by a post/tutorial Tracy's wife Teesha put up on her blog.

http://teeshascircus.blogspot.com/2010/04/free-fabric-journal-workshop-video.html

Shaun's book ring.

Mike Meador is the proprietor of Coffee Break designs and an aficionado of Micro-Mark miniature power tools. To build his journal he utilized a mini drill press to create multiple holes. An antique camera lens is incorporated into the cover of this "I Spy" journal.

http://www.coffeebreakdesign.com/

http://www.micromark.com/

For us lucky workshop participants, Mike had daily Coffee Break Design giveaways, including the tiny 1 inch metal ruler Shaun made into a ring. He was our official go to guy, if we needed some arcane or specialist tool. Mike has a quirky and slightly naughty sense of humor that is evident in class and his line of stencils.

Books ranged from mid-size (generally 5 x 7 inches) to fairly tiny in class. My fingers are in this photograph of two of Nancy Fuimera's small books to give an idea of scale. Yes, in case you were wondering, the pointer arrow does spin.

PJ Dutton made this sweet small book complete with a small side closure.

Lisa Gendron played with the MAPP ( MethylAcetylene-Propadiene Propane) gas torch to achieve the lovely colors on the cover of this bird journal.

John Smallenburg also used the MAPP gas torch to get a finish that looked a lot like abalone on his copper cover. He made a lot of hole and did a lot of sewing to attach his leather. The holes, I learned from experience are time consuming as each hole needs to be deburred by hand so as to not cut into the waxed polyester cord you are using to hand sew.

I think the circular piece seen on this cover is a beautifully re-purposed antique brass doorbell.

Lastly we come to the two books I finished in class. This larger one uses the disassembled leaves of a vegetable steamer basket to hide.....

the license plate number one. John Smallenburg gifted me with the license plate number. This project evolved significantly from inception to completion. My guess is that Passages one will eventually be followed by a book two.... eventually.

The back side of book one incorporated a leather coat pocket to house the small book in which I took class notes.

Somehow, several of the class members got to talking about 4-H experiences growing up. Tracy Moore raised hogs as part of 4-H, going as far as to exhibit at State Fair. That discussion and having a small 4-H chicken pin in my stash of assorted oddments brought along for inspiration spurred me to produce my small 4-H Chick book.

From the pure skill level I became much more comfortable with making and using rivets as fasteners and learned a different bookbinding technique. I got to spend a long weekend in the company of some pretty amazingly creative people and witness some really fine problem solving.

Tracy noted how pleased he was with the class. He remarked on how different each and every finished product was and how much they reflected the distinct personality of the individual artist.

Small Studio Productions will be hosting a workshop a month through November, with a different artist each month. It makes me wish Avon Lake, Ohio wasn't so far away.

http://www.smallstudioproductions.com/Workshopseries/index.html

Carina

Bookbinding seems to have found me- at least this year

2010-07-25T06:09:00.000-07:00

There seem to be different themes and threads that run through my art involvement. Last year, I kept bumping into the concept of translucency, items and images obscured and not quite. Bookbinding has a longer history with me, and it seems to have found me, weaving its way in and out of my experiences. Perhaps my muse is doing a lot of work behind the scenes.

Art Journals by many different artists

Artfest, a 5-day mixed media workshop and extravaganza that takes place at Fort Worden State Park near the Victorian era fishing village of Port Townsend, Washington has been mentioned in previous posts. Above you see a display of art journals laid out on a table there.

Teehsa and Tracy Moore host Artfest each spring and this is where I first encountered Tracy's journals.

His journals have a very distinctive style and I recall thinking some day these will be in a museum. I was jazzed to be able to hold, touch and examine the journals at my leisure. Turning the pages and examining content was delightful.

Made of metal and leather, Tracy's journals have substantial heft and evoke an earlier era. When I found he was teaching a class on constructing journals in Cleveland, I jumped at the opportunity.

Tracy does not teach at Artfest, being too busy with the logistics of coordinating an event bustling with 550 high energy participants.

Tracy's blog, Sustained Confusion, has a story with photos of the Cleveland workshop. He beat me to the blogosphere with the story.

http://sustainedconfusion.blogspot.com/

Here is a photo of Tracy with Daughter Trista. His blog photo would not aid in locating him in a crowded room.

Tracy is an avid Lomo photographer and houses some of his intriguing photos in this album. You would love to be able to look inside like I did.

Tracy's journals range widely in size from quite large to itty bitty.

Book of Small Wonders pictured above is one of those small ones.

Now you know what enticed me to make a 466 mile trip to Cleveland. The next post should show what the class made although Tracy's blog does give you a sneak peek at that.

Carina

Stolen from my FaceBook page

2010-07-24T12:44:00.000-07:00

My daughter attended John S. Battle High School in Bristol, Virginia, graduating in 2005.

Mark Collins - Band Director

She was a member of the high school band all four years.

She played French horn. One of her friends, Kansas also played French horn. Kansas is a 2007 graduate of John S. Battle High School.

Prom 2007 - Kansas

Kansas came to visit at our house now and again and worked for a while in the transport department at the hospital where I also work.

The young people you know grow up and get married.

They have babies.

And that would bring us to the punch line found on my facebook page today.

To Quote Kansas:
"Only the greatest onesie my child will EVER wear! And the only time this line will be funny."

Carina

Ohio - Just Outside Cleveland

2010-07-20T16:33:00.000-07:00

I've been away, 465 miles away, in the western burbs of Cleveland, Thursday through Monday. Thursday and Monday were travel days spent on the interstate highway system, but Friday, Saturday and Sunday were classroom days, fabulous art classroom days spent making odd and wonderful stuff.

Once a month, May through November Ginny Carter Smallenburg and John Smallenburg are hosting weekend workshops with top teachers in the field of mixed media. If you've been following the mixed media scene for a while you may know Ginny as the proprietor of the store Creative Block in Westlake, Ohio and one of the forces behind Art Continuum, an annual workshop event from 1998 to 2004. She continues to provide supplies for altered art, ATCs, book binding, collage, assemblage, card making and other artful pursuits through an on-line store.

http://www.smallstudioproductions.com/

Teesha

Teaching this weekend were the husband and wife team Teesha and Tracy Moore. Teesha's class made an 8x8 hardbound journal. She taught bookbinding technique, collage and paint techniques, and instructed extensively in how to create art journal pages.

Tracy

Tracy taught a class in metal book and jewelry making. I have admired his books from afar for several years now and was very pleased to be in this class.

As my photographs get uploaded, pictures of the wonderful pieces made in class will be posted to this blog, so stay tuned......

Carina

B is for Bob

2010-07-11T15:26:00.000-07:00

After asking parental permission, I snapped this picture of a young Bob Marley fan at a travel rest stop.

Carina

Art Adventures with Yahoo Groups

2010-07-09T17:56:00.000-07:00

Yahoo Groups is one of the world's largest of online discussion boards. It is an Internet communication tool which is a hybrid between an electronic mailing list and a threaded Internet forum.

I am a member of several Yahoo Groups. Most of my chosen groups center around arts and crafts and several involve mail-based trades.

In this set of photos I will tour you, dear reader, through one of those groups and one of their trades.

The group featured here is Fiber_Inchies_Swap. It is a 90 member sewing group started the summer of 2007 and we swap 1 inch squares organized around a particular theme.

The latest runs like this:

THE THEME; Cabinet/ Chamber of Wonders, was inspired by an article in Make magazine
(issue #17) about "WunderKammer" These were cabinets, rooms, and occasionally whole
buildings that were devoted to the eclectic collections gathered by the wealthier and
"scientifically" inclined, starting in the 1600's.

Let your mind wander over natural items and curiosities. Rock crystals and gems, bones and
branches, feathers and fur… Drawings of the human form, and other flora and fauna, maybe even
architectural details, …
Since this group started as Fiber Inchies, fiber would of course be fabulous (isn’t it always?)
but not required. I was thinking whatever media tickled your fancy with this idea….well…, so
long as we can get it mailed and such.

So let'er rip on oddments and treasures! Use that idea that hasn’t fit into other swaps…
Thanks for being part of my first hosting of a swap, I am looking forward to seeing how this
evolves.

My inspiration was an inexpensive necklace of shells. Once, when travel was rare and more difficult and decorative consumer goods limited, a particularly lovely shell was a proud and prized possession. My daughter has such a shell handed down from my great grandmother through my mother to her.

While the necklace shells were threaded on plastic line similar to fishing line, an ordinary needle could not be used to attach them to the beaded 1 inch squares I had prepared.

This is reflective of how intuitive my work often is. A concept arises from the damp creative ooze and begins to take form. I do not make one item to completion to check for feasibility and to detect the design pitfalls. No, that would be much to organized and clever.

Instead, I find myself part way through a project, often with the completion deadline looming and asking "what now?" In this case the rather clever solution was to push a relatively stiff bit of wire past the curves a needle could not negotiate and to wind wire eyes in place that allowed for a sewn attachment. Whew! Glad there turned out to be a fairly simple remedy.

Twelve of us are taking part in this trade, so each of us makes 12 items. They are then mailed to the swap hostess, who sorts them. She them mails back to us one each of everyone's work, often displayed in some special way.

My completed inchies are now with the hostess. Seeing what the other participants have created is delicious anticipation.

Carina

Sublime Spaces, Forgotten Places

2010-07-09T04:43:00.000-07:00

It was only on the street in Charlottesville a short interval, June 11th through June 23rd, but my trusty camera captured a few images to share with you.

Located at the recently paved patio area on Second Street at the Landmark Hotel construction site I found Margo Ray's latest "water tank".

The interior of her construction included a variety of images.

Paint and collage with photographic images were incorporated.

A fascination with rocket launches and space capsules was evident.

I could not determine which Renaissance painters or philosophers the space capsule carried.

Margo Ray in front of another water tank interior
La Pastora - The Shepherdess's Dream

Her bio informs me:

Margo Ray is a printmaker, painter and book artist from the Big Island of Hawaii. She holds an MFA from Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec and a BA in Studio Arts from University of Hawaii at Hilo. She approaches her artistic practice through the process of collection: postcards, tourist memorabilia, old photographs and playing cards that she incorporates into her work through various print media processes.

Margo’s work investigates notions of authenticity and vulnerability as well as her relationship to the natural world by creating surreal compositions where she uses drawn and photographic images of animals, plants, architecture and explosions to communicate her imagined world. Margo currently lives and works in Honoka'a, Hawaii.

I love finding surprises like temporary, turquoise water tanks with strange collage work while visiting my daughter. It gives me yet another reason to carry a camera.

Carina

Semi-homemade Nation - A Minor Rant

2010-07-06T19:15:00.000-07:00

My last post featured the recipe for a dessert taken to a 4th of July gathering. Needing some flour, I was struck by how much the aisle space devoted to basic baking ingredients has shrunk. Cake mixes and ready frosting are well represented, but at least one brand of soft wheat, southern biscuit flour is no longer stocked.

The same phenomenon can be observed in the meat case. Basic raw ingredients lose space to heat and serve, prepared main dish items. My belief is that America is becoming increasingly kitchen and food illiterate. This no doubt contributes to our ever expanding waist-lines.

Personally, I consider Sandra Lee, with her pretty blue eyes and pearly white smile, the poster child for this phenomenon. Having dismissed her program after watching only part of one episode on the food channel, I had to do a little internet research. Various reviewers had commentary at the New York Times, perhaps drawn in by her romantic involvement with the New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. The folks over at the NYTimes were by and large unimpressed.

Sandra Lee has a Food Network show where she espouses buying commercially-made products, adding a few fresh or more often some different commercial ingredients, and passing off the finished dish as your own creation. As she says, this technique "allows anyone to take 100 percent of the credit for something that looks, feels or tastes homemade."

The folks over at the Times notice she says "or tastes" instead of "and tastes." These sleights-of-hand are supposed to be boons for the today's busy cooks. She also claims to help busy cooks to economize in these tough times. Unfortunately, Sandra appears large on claims and small on delivery of anything delicious.

A researcher at UCLA recently took a look at the impact of convenience foods on time spent in the kitchen. Granted the researcher studied middle class families, but that would seem to mesh fairly well with my family or those that would consider the purchase of one of Sandra Lee's 17 cookbooks.

Surprisingly, dinner didn't get on the table any faster in homes that favored convenience foods. Meals took an average of 52 minutes in total time to prepare. The difference in the total amount of time expended was not statistically significant between meals involving extensive use of convenience foods (with such foods making up 50 percent or more of a meal) and more limited use of such items (between 20 and 50 percent).

In fact, families saved only when it came to the amount of hands-on time spent preparing dishes — and the savings were relatively modest. Families with an extensive reliance on convenience foods saved an average of 10 to 12 minutes over families with more limited reliance on such products. Home-cooked meals required an average of 34 minutes of hands-on time.

Okay, Sandra's recipes may not actually save much time. So how do they taste? You can cook one up, I will not be sampling her concoctions after reading an actual recipe for lasagna that uses 2 cans of Campbell's condensed tomato soup and cottage cheese instead of ricotta! Really!

In a complementary, promotional interview with Sandra, she is quoted as saying "Instead of reaching for expensive jars of spices, look for inexpensive packets of spice mixes, particularly when they go on sale." Anyone having read the ingredient list on these inexpensive packets knows they are a false economy. Filled with MSG, processed and cheap ingredients like calcium disodium and xanthum gum as well as ordinary salt, manufacturers still make a nice profit when the packets are "on sale." Real spices deliver real flavor.

Does this rant mean I never use convenience foods? To the contrary, they are part of my repertoire, but used judiciously. However, I would never lay out cash money for a cookbook that shows me how to incorporate more Velveeta into my life.

Keeping it real....

Carina

P.S.One of the folks reviewing Sandra Lee's cookbooks and show had the following comment that I just had to share because it resonates with me.....

I'm Italian- American and I'll never forget the day I went to a friend's house in grade school and her mom served us spaghetti - Chef Boyardee from a can. I started crying! It was unrecognizable.

A Recipe Perfect the 4th of July or the Middle of Summer

2010-07-05T15:36:00.001-07:00

FOURth of JULY

At least here in Virginia, this dessert celebrates the fruits that are ripe and wonderful right now. This is something of a cross between a shortcake and a cobbler and bakes up nice, easy and delicious.

First, find six to eight fragrant, juicy, ripe peaches.

Then scout out about a quart of blackberries. The mosquito bites will be worth it, really they will.

Here the beauties are loaded into a proper berry carton. The local farmer's market is a great source if you haven't found your own personal picking patch.

This time I used the rind and juice of a lime, but lemon works too.

Without further ado here is the recipe:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Zest and juice the lime (or lemon).

Next peel and slice the peaches. I do this by giving the peaches a short (about 2 minute) dip in boiling water, after which the peaches are placed in cold water in the sink. This loosens the skins nicely and makes peeling easier.

Put the peeled peaches,lime juice and zest, 1 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, and 1/8 teaspoon of salt into a nonreactive metal pan. Cook it on the stove until the mixture starts to boil and get thick, stirring often as the mixture heats up.

Put this cooked mixture in a 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Spread the blackberries atop the peaches.

Put the dough atop this. The dough is made like this:
Combine 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons room temperature butter
1 cup plain yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Following this recipe, I always find the dough just a little too stiff and end up stirring in more milk. I am guessing that I stir in about 1/4 cup additional milk.

I drop the dough in dollops and lightly spread it with a spatula.

Bake it about 30 - 35 minutes until the topping is lightly browned.

Slice it, flip it over and serve with a dollop of whip cream and garnish with one of the biggest, prettiest blackberries.

This recipe is adapted from the Smith and Hawken Gardeners' Community Cookbook. It has many recipes that I have used time and again.

Yum!
Carina

Details in Corrugated Board

2010-07-04T07:03:00.001-07:00

This, the last of three posts regarding the Grashow exhibit at the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia takes a peek at some of the construction details of the corrugated fountain. The various figures are constructed entirely out of cardboard, paper mache, brown paper and glue with some wood in the bases for stability.

As an occupational therapist by training, I pay greater attention to hands than the average person, so I was impressed by the way corrugated board was put together to convey hands in use and in repose.

Aren't the fingernails nifty.

My guess is that the eye was shaped within or over some sort of dome.Go to this youtube video for more details.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbBD5DAapks

Is it my interpretation or does the area by this big toe indicate a bunion? On a god the spends most of his time barefoot? Probably not.

Which of course makes me wonder about the sculptor's feet. While we are supposedly crafted in the maker's image, one wonders if these gods are crafted in their maker's image, a blasphemous thought it would seem.

A hand surgeon of my acquaintance claims that feet are nothing more than dumb hands, but the hands in this exhibit are much more expressive than the feet, as hands ought to be.

Check out my previous two posts to learn more about this exhibit at the Taubman.

Carina

Cardboard!

2010-06-30T18:06:00.001-07:00

James Grashow is a printmaker and sculptor. His sculptures have involved multiple media and range in size from smallish "bouquets" to large installation pieces. He voices a fascination for the line between fantasy and reality; metaphor and truth. That fondness is on display in his Corrugated Fountain, currently exhibited at the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke.

After graduating from the Pratt Institute of Art in the 60's, Grashow was awarded a Fulbright travel scholarship to study a year in Florence, Italy. There he tried to see everything, with his primary focus on painting and graphics.

Obviously, he absorbed a few influences from the statues and fountains that abound in Italian cities.

James Grashow's cardboard fountain references the marble fountains of the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680). Bernini was the leading sculptor of his age as well as a prominent
architect. Additionally, he painted, wrote plays, and designed metalwork and stage sets.

While Bernini worked in enduring marble, Grashow chooses cardboard as his medium. Think about it: the whole concept of a fountain made of cardboard is absurd. Water and paper make for a mushy mix.

Quoting James Grashow:
"They say you know an artist more by the materials that he uses than the things he chooses to make. The artist that works in stone or steel is a different person than the one that works in cardboard and paper. Materials speak to your true identity, your core belief. Mortality, fragility,and the transient nature of man are what I believe in. I wish and try to be more positive, but my work always betrays me.

Corrugated board is a material that understands its mortality. It knows it is destined for the trash bin or recycle pile. It is bonded to the human experience. They say that 85% of everything on the planet has spent part of its life in a cardboard box. Corrugated board and all of us have a shared destiny, it is in our DNA. Rescued from trash, corrugated board is so grateful to be something; to have another chance, it becomes a perfect partner in play."

Poseidon

Grashow goes on to say:
"An artist always talks about his or her process, the creation of a work from start to finish. Stone or steel, the Afghan Buddhas or the World Trade Center, part of being human is dealing with the totality of process. If the question is of how we face the finite nature of our being, I chose paper."

For all of the deep thoughts and insights the artist offers, it is important not to lose sight of the sheer fun that comes in encountering this piece. Being able to walk through the piece, to view and experience it from different angles, evokes playfulness. It allows exploration.

James Grashow's Corrugated Fountain is on display at the Taubman Museum of Art until February 20, 2011. Next it goes on to the Allan Stone gallery in New York.
Lastly, true to the ephemeral nature of his material, this sculpture that took 4 years to create will be placed out-of-doors to allow the forces of nature to complete the totality of process.

See it while you can,
Carina

P.S. There is one more post coming about this exhibit. It examines more closely some details of construction.

Grashow at the Taubman

2010-06-29T16:31:00.000-07:00

Not quite two years ago, I spent the day in Roanoke, Virginia. The new art Museum would open the next week on November 8th. Finally, a road trip up Interstate 81 had enough wiggle room time-wise to allow to checking out the Taubman.

Designed by Tennessee born and raised architect Randall Stout, the museum cost $66 million and features American Art with an emphasis on on the artistic expressions of the Western Virginia and the Appalachian region.

The current show that captured my fancy is entitled Corrugated Fountain, "The Cardboard Bernini". It was created by James Grashow.

Here is a link to an intriguing 5 minute youtube video where the artist speaks about the genesis of his concept.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY-dUiI1W7E

The installation is fairly large and you can walk in between the various pieces and take photographs, which of course is what I did. My next post will share those photos.

Come back and see it soon.
Carina

Lagniappe - Or How the Dog Got it's Face

2010-06-16T17:40:00.000-07:00

See the dog. See her face. Let me tell you how it came to be.

Diverted from the paper recycling box, some of these Inter Library Loan Records are destined to become postcards. The paper has a nice weight.

Step one uses the paint from other projects to cover and color the background. Rather than leave any paint on a palette, paint left at the end of a session is applied to scrap paper to create postcard backgrounds.

A dog cut out serves as a mask when a spritz of black spray paint is applied.
Sequin waste is used as a mask as light brown spray paint is applied.

Here commercial scrapbook paper becomes the next mask.

The multiple color applications tell the tale. This piece of scrapbook paper has been subverted form it's intended use several times.

Seen from the right side though, it looks like the paper might pass for scrapbook use, if perhaps a slightly grunged-up layout.

Not a completed postcard yet, but this is the image I will play with to make one.

Here's the paper image with the mask on top, so the accidental method of creating the face is more evident.

My suspicion is that this dog, with her new found face, will engender a postcard of her own and will cease to be simply an art tool.

And by way of title explanation I offer this definition, summarized from Webster.

Lagniappe : a small gift given a customer by a merchant at the time of purchase;
or
more broadly and as used in this instance : something given or obtained gratuitously.

Happenstance can make you happy. It did me.
Carina

Round Robin #3 - Lost, Tossed &&& Found

2010-06-06T07:23:00.000-07:00

This necklace and accompanying book have just set out on a journey that will take them to both coasts and will last for several months. As a member of the yahoo group Charmsters, I am taking part in my third round robin exchange.

Having completed two round robins last year, the concept behind these exchanges is now familiar to me. Being a bit of a word nerd, a modicum of research was called for before setting out to clarify the terminology for blog readers. I found that 'Round Robin' is now used to refer to things that operate in a rotational manner, like tournaments where each player plays every other, circular letters etc. Long before those contemporary meanings were known of, the term Round Robin had been used to refer to a variety of things. The earliest use was as a disparaging nickname, along the lines of 'sly dog' or 'dark horse'. This dates back to the 16th century.

The currently used rotational' meaning is independent of all of the earlier uses. This began in the 18th century as the name of a form of petition, in which the complainants signed their names in a circle, so as to disguise who had signed first. This was especially favored by sailors - not surprisingly, as mutiny was then a hanging offense.

In the case of Charmsters, there was an initial call for project participants. Ten of us answered that call. When sign up was completed the hostess set up the order or sequence of trades, which did indeed occur in the aforementioned circular format.

Each participant then selects their own theme. Mine, as you can see is entitled "Lost, Tossed &&& Found". Participants then create their base necklace or bracelet and focal to reflect their theme. These projects are generally accompanied by a booklet of some variety.

At the first of each month projects are forwarded to the next participant in the rotation. Thus, each month your piece moves forward for the next artist to add a charm reflective of your theme. Each month you receive a necklace or bracelet in the mail to which you create and add a charm. Your charm relates to the theme of that particular necklace. The lovely necklace currently in my possession is themed beach and has a mermaid focal.

After 10 months, a completed necklace with additions from all participants arrives back home.

My necklace focal is assembled like a small book, with the front cover being a leaf from a vegetable steamer. Next are two mica pages, one with a photo of Greta, the latest addition to our pack that now numbers 4 dogs. Greta is a lost or tossed pooch, found along a busy road last July at about 6 or 7 months of age. She has fortunately found a happy home with us.

The last page of the focal is cut from a recycled wafer tin and shaped like the other components..

As noted earlier, most projects generally travel with a booklet of some form. Here artists can record thoughts about the charm they added and/or tell a little about themselves or their inspiration.

Over the past several years I have become a fan of bookbinding, much to my own surprise. This one is made with watercolor paper; stencils and spray paint were used get the background colors and pockets were sewn in for each participant to add whatever so suits them. The cover is recycled from the garbage bin at our hospital's Medical Library. It is bound in a spiral format using cooper wire.

The base for my necklace is composed of rickrack, thrift store ribbon, a torn old white sheet and an inexpensive thrift store rosary all partially encased in plastic coil binding also rescued from library trash. The coil binding was separated from the bound notebooks with interior pages going to paper recycling and the covers becoming the background base for my recycled postcards.

Round robins are probably my favorite form of Charmster exchange. Each necklace or bracelet has it's own theme and design demands, so there is a lot of novel and fun problem solving to engage in.

Carina

Taking the Time to Smell the Catalpas

2010-06-05T18:06:00.000-07:00

Every morning, while driving to work along King's Mill Pike I pass a stretch where numerous Catalpa trees grow. Realizing that their bloom cycle was drawing to a close, I finally took the time to pull over, smell the fragrant blossoms and snap a few photographs.

Catalpas typically grow to 40 to 60 feet tall and 20–40 feet wide. A 10-year-old sapling will stand about 20 ft tall. They can be recognized by their large heart-shaped leaves and showy white orchid-like flowers. In the autumn they sport 8 to 20 in long seed pods containing numerous small flat seeds, each seed having two thin wings to aid wind dispersal

Due to their large leaf size, Catalpas provide very dark shade and are a popular habitat for many birds, providing them good shelter from rain and wind. These trees have very little limb droppage, but drop large, dark brown bean pods during late summer. The wood of catalpas is quite soft.

Catalpa trees are the host plant for the Catalpa sphinx moth which has two or more generations each year. The caterpillars can completely strip catalpa trees and grow to three inches in length.

This photo shows late stage caterpillars. The back is velvet black upon molting. As they feed and expand, they lighten in color. Infestations rarely last more than two years in a row thanks to a parasitic wasp that attacks the caterpillars. This reduces damage to the trees as the caterpillars eat voraciously. Parasitized individuals will be covered with white cocoons. Just think of these insects as the tomato horn-worms of the catalpa trees and you will have the idea.

Catalpa worms are renown as great fish bait, especially for when going for catfish. Bait shops will pay a premium for them. The tree is at times dubbed the fish bait tree and anglers have been known to grow catalpas just for the bait potential, even going so far as to harvest and freeze caterpillars for future fishing expeditions.

Catalpa trees and picture-perfect lawns just don't mix particularly well, so it is not a frequent part of home landscapes these days. Part of the tree's lowly reputation is caused by the succession of lawn messes it creates. If it is not shedding leaves, it is dropping flower petals or long cigar-shaped seed pods. Those large green caterpillars create a lot of frass as they devour the tree leaves.

For now, I will just stop along that stretch of King's Mill Pike on occasion and enjoy the scent and beautiful blossoms of the roadside catalpas.

Carina

Killing my Lobster - Parking Gods Episode

2010-05-30T05:41:00.000-07:00

Killing My Lobster is a San Francisco-based sketch comedy group and film production company that just crossed my internet search path.

Founded in 1997, Killing My Lobster, known primarily for its sketch comedy shows, but they also produce comedic plays, and original films. KML Sketch Comedy shows incorporate live music, and are multimedia,with a consistent emphasis on high production values. The collaborations result in a range of comedic styles that melds raucous slapstick with sharp satire, wacky monologues with indulgent musical numbers. KML provides artists with the opportunity to generate and produce performance art across a range of disciplines that provokes, amuses, educates, entertains, and inspires. KML is committed to producing smart comedy that draws upon San Francisco for inspiration and is a reflection of its non-traditional audience.

If you watch the video clip in the link provided below you will become acquainted with the whims of San Francisco Parking Gods. If you share my sense of humor you will be amused. Highlights include the meaning of curbs painted pink, the Gods giving each other a high 5 and intoning "Hell yeah!" and vegan barbecue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXvmwy2cD_8&feature=player_embedded

And if you found it enjoyable, KML has another 16 videos on You Tube.

Carina

Clever Idea in the Battle against Domestic Violence

2010-05-21T16:59:00.001-07:00

While attending an educational luncheon on the topic of domestic violence, I was acquainted with a novel way for care providers to give out domestic hot-line phone numbers, a method likely to fly under the radar of the abuser.

The agency phone numbers are either printed on a clear sticker that can be adhered to a tube of lip gloss or printed directly on the chapstick/lip balm in what looks like a bar code number. That way the victim of violence has the phone number at the ready in her purse or his pocket when she/he decides the time has come to seek outside help.

This is genius on several levels.

Carina

Poppies

2010-05-18T17:54:00.000-07:00

"Something with poison in it, I think"

"but attractive to the eye"

"and soothing to the smell"

"Poppies.......poppies......poppies

"Poppies will make them sleep"

But then again Oz is a magical place

And results in other locations may vary.
Sometimes poppies only bring forth smiles.

Carina

Springing of the Year

2010-05-13T04:48:00.000-07:00

"Oh give us pleasure in the flowers today; And give us not to think so far away as the uncertain harvest; Keep us here all simply in the springing of the year."

Robert Frost

A Prayer of Spring - 1915

Comfrey or Knit Bone blossoms

Carolina Allspice, Sweet Bubby Bush or Calycanthus floridus
These blossoms smell fabulous.

A showy early blooming white Iris

A Georgia O'Keeffe style camera shot of a pale purple/blue Iris

Two tone Iris

Rescued from someone's pile at curbside this older Iris has smaller blooms than the more modern hybrids but it produces many more flowers per stem.

Columbine

Trillium sulcatum or Southern Red trillium

Trillium is one of many plants whose seeds are spread by ants. At maturity, the base and core of the trillium ovary turns soft and spongy. Trillium seeds have a fleshy organ called an elaiosome that attracts ants. The ants extract the seeds from the decaying ovary and take them to their nest, where they eat the elaiosomes and put the seeds in their garbage, where they germinate in the rich, trashy growing medium.

That explains how this plant showed up in one of my front yard flower beds.
Ants.

Lemon tree blossom

Lemon tree very pretty,
And the lemon flower is sweet,
But the fruit of the poor lemon,
Is impossible to eat.

This lemon tree is potted and lives in my garage during the worst of winter weather. It is a Meyer Lemon and produces several lemons for me each year.

One of my earlier Peonies

Go outside and spend some time enjoying the springing of this year.

Carina

Ants and Peonies, A Wasp and Scarab Beetles

2010-05-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

Research has some interesting answers to help us understand the relationship between ants and peonies.

It is commonly known that nectar is produced in association with plant flowers and that it encourages pollinators. The flower nectar provides food for insects, birds and even bats. Many plants also have extrafloral nectaries.

These special nectar-producing glands are located physically apart from the flower. Studies have shown that more than 2,000 plant species in more than 64 families contain extrafloral nectaries.

These plant species frequently are perennial and woody. Nectary locations vary by plant: passion flower on leaves, trumpet vine on petioles, partridge pea on petioles, hairy vetch on stipules, willow on leaves, smilax on leaves, elderberry on leaves and stems, viburnum on leaves, morning glory on leaves and petiole, sunflower on bracts, peach on leaves, cotton on lower leaf mid-vein.

Russell C. Mizell, an entomology professor at the University of Florida in Gainesville, reports that peonies contain these extrafloral nectaries. He has gained knowledge that is useful in understanding the benefits of ants on plants (and peonies).

Studies indicate that various insects use extrafloral nectaries. They receive nectar that is about 95 percent sugar and 5 percent nutrients, protein and amino acids - different from floral nectar and by plant species.

It is easy to observe beneficial insects, such as ladybird beetles, feeding from the nectaries. Many species of ants are found in association with these plants, and the ants are known to use the nectaries.

Research shows there are only a few plants containing extrafloral nectaries in areas that do not have ants. Ants especially seem to benefit from extrafloral nectaries.

Studies of the plant species with extrafloral nectaries indicate that the plant uses these to attract beneficials for plant defense.Possibly, the continuous presence alone of ants may be adequate protection. The ants' aggressive behavior detours pests of prey. Extrafloral nectaries may distract the ants from insects that produce honeydew after feeding on the plant.

Ants may also prune competing neighboring plants, distribute seed and fruit, provide pollination and feed the plant essential nutrients.

Scientists continue to gain understanding of plants' evolution of nectar rewards, and study the correlation between ants and plants. Peonies use ants to defend them from pests and provide food to attract them to the plants.

To assist the natural defense process taking place in your yard, simply let the army of ants continue to march on your peonies.

Another of the insects attracted by the peony nectaries is a type of wasp that looks like a winged carpenter ant. Commonly known as the ‘Spring Tiphia’, the highly beneficial females prey on the underground larval form of Japanese and other scarab beetles so effectively they can eliminate 80% of the grubs in your landscape—before they can become adult plant-eating beetles. And having sugar-producing plants in your landscape is the best way to attract these helpful creatures.

That's right, growing peonies and encouraging beneficial insects like the spring tiphia seen preying on the grubs above can help decrease the numbers of those pretty, but ever so destructive Japanese beetles pictured below.

As we have so much further to go in our understanding of the interactions between plants and insects, I prefer not to use pesticides in my yard. My plantings are constructed with an eye towards supporting biological insect diversity. Support the predators and they will reduce the prey population.

Carina

Forty Years Ago

2010-05-04T17:13:00.000-07:00

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.

John Filo's iconic Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of Mary Ann Vecchio, a fourteen-year-old runaway kneeling over the body of Jeffrey Miller after he was shot dead by the Ohio National Guard.

Remembering those four students shot dead and nine others wounded when Ohio National
Guardsmen fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds.Two of the four students killed, Allison Krause and Jeffrey Miller were participating in a protest against the American invasion of Cambodia. The other two, Sandra Scheuer and William Knox Schroeder had been walking from one class to the next at the time of their deaths. Schroeder in fact was a member of the campus ROTC chapter.

As teenager when this happened, I recall this tragedy vividly. It was, and remains difficult to comprehend.

Carina