Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Things That I'm Into: RIP Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010)

I love her, and even though she was old old old, it's still sad to see such an art world legend pass away.


I got to see an awesome retrospective of her work at the Tate Modern in Fall 2008, and it sealed the deal for me that she was my favorite living female artist. Now she has a lot more people to compete with since she has moved into the deceased female artist category.  She's definitely my favorite deceased female French-American artist who is known for large-scale spider sculptures.


If you aren't familiar with her work, GOOGLE. Seriously, it's all pretty amazing. RIP Louise!

first image via the centre pompidou.
second image is mine.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Things That I'm Into: Late June Meal

Summer Gazpacho + Kale & Garlic Scape Pesto (it might sound gross, but surprise! it isn't) + Quinoa + Tomato & Fresh Mozzarella Salad + Spiced Rum Mojitos.

The Cooking:




The Eating:

Monday, June 28, 2010

Things That I'm Into: Late Night Dining



Golden Nugget, 3:20 AM, napping before grilled cheese and blueberry pancakes arrive. Partied out.

(photo credit goes to Matt, who was amused)

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Things That I'm Into: Balcony Garden, Week Five

I feel like we've got to the jungle stage with our garden. It's growing fast, and all these storms we've been having are sweet because it means we don't even have to water the plants!

Check out that Thai Basil. HUGE!
A small green tomato, along with our makeshift stake (a hanger.) (Again, only classiness around here).

Ate our first pepper- delicious. Now hopefully the garden with survive weeks six and seven without us, since we'll be WEST COAST BABY.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Things That I'm Into: Nettlehorst School Decorates for PRIDE

The elementary school (public!) next to my house always has amazing art installations. They recently decorated their playground for the pride festival/parade that is happening in Chicago this weekend.



From a sign near the installation: "In 2009 -- as a visible sign of our continued support for the neighborhood we are part of and the families that we serve -- Nettlehorst became the first elementary school to walk in Chicago's Gay Pride Parade.  This new tradition underscores the commitment of respect for all Nettlehorst families and symbolizes our collective intention -- that each of us becomes kinder, gentler, and more accepting." Tugs at the heart, right? I love that elementary students are learning early. They asked members of the community to tie a piece of fabric to symbolize their commitment to education and equality.



I tied one of the green pieces.


I love walking by the playground everyday, especially if it is windy out.


The Pride parade is weekend, so our neighborhood will be a little crazy. I've actually only been to the parade once (for some reason I always go out of town in June), so I'm excited to see it all go down.

Things That I'm Into: FIREFLIES


Saw my first firefly of the season on Tuesday night. I missed them when I lived in LA, they are one of my favorite things about summer in Chicago.  I always look like a crazy person standing there staring, but they are SO COOL.  Matt thinks it is crazy that they have survived evolution. I tried to catch this little guy below when he was lit up, but I'm not fast enough. He's cute even not lit up though. 


(first image via here)

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Things That I'm Into: Stanley's

When we went to dinner and my aunt's and uncle's house on Sunday night,* I commented on how delish the corn was. My uncle replied that it was from Stanley's.  I was confused, because the Stanley's I know is a bar that has Sunday night Karaoke and I sometimes accidentally end up there (which, incidentally, is about three blocks from their house so it isn't much of a stretch that it came to mind).



Turns out he was talking about Stanley's Fruit Market, which I went to on Monday and is now officially one of my favorite places in Chicago. SRSLY, this place is amazing.



The prices and the quality of the fruit and veggies is pretty unreal. I got green beans, a ton of apples, two quarts of strawberries, a pint of blueberries, cilantro, mint, yellow squash, and four ears of corn for $9.



I can't believe I just heard about this place now, but believe me, I will make up for lost time.

*Aunt and Uncle's? Aunt's and Uncle's? According to Matt it is the latter, but it sounds SO WRONG.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Things That I'm Into: Spring Storm

We had an insane storm here in Chicago last Friday. I tried to capture some pictures....





As you can see, not that successful. I guess living the storm chasing photography/videography life portrayed in Twister is not for me. I still love storms though, even though they kind of scare the crap out of me.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Things That I'm Into: David Bowie Posters

This poster is in the stairwell of my local Chicago Public Library branch. I can't really explain how much I love it.





He's reading Dostoevsky's "The Idiot." Amazing.

Things That I'm Into: Table in a Bag

For our wedding we were gifted a table in a bag. Why would you ever need a table in a bag, you may ask?

Well, the answer to that was obvious when we attended a Backstreet Boys concert @ Ravinia.

Yes, Backstreet Boys. A friend from highschool used to be sort of ironically obsessed with the backstreet boys back in the 90s, but somewhere that ironic obsession turned towards true adulation. So we had to get him tickets to see the reunited band for his birthday.

Ravinia was great, as usual. Backstreet boys- who knew you had so many deep cuts? I would have been perfectly fine with a picnic and three or four hits. Two hours is too long to continue to find the humor.

But the yuppie table in a bag was sweet.  Definitely need to break it out more often.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Friday, June 18, 2010

Things That I'm Into: Most Awesome Phase of Funemployment Yet


Good/Bad News: I start a new job July 15th.

Good News: Fun job, maybe I'll start knowing what I want to do when I grow up?

Bad News: Being unemployed is pretty sweet, so it will be sad to give that up.

Good News: Income!

Bad News: Business Casual. Barf.

Good News:  I can now enjoy the next month without even pretending to do anything productive.  Which is awesome since the World Cup is on.

*picture: In front of my old apt in LA.

Things That I'm Into: Soccer Muffins

Cinnamon Blueberry Muffins for a potluck USA/Slovenia game watch.



Recipe here.  GO USA!!!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Things That I'm Into: USA - England Draw

Ha, "We Was Robbed."



Those British people never get less funny. Even though I was in the UK last weekend, I missed the game (for a very good reason- a lovely wedding). Luckily these newspapers summed it up for me at the airport on the way back.

Things That I'm Into: Balcony Garden, Week Three & Four


I took pictures last week but failed to post them, so here's week 3 & 4 in our balcony garden. As you can see, we added a new plant: Padron Peppers, which my Uncle Bill dropped off two weeks ago (he had seeded a lot of starters after falling in love with them on a trip to Spain). We didn't have anything to plant them in so they made it into this classy home depo orange paint bucket with some holes drilled the bottom that we found in an alley. Nothing but class around here. 

SO. Week Three:

And Week Four:




Everything seems to be growing well, still a bit skeptical about our hanging tomato. We have basil (normal and thai) and chives galore, and some baby tomatoes on our early girl plant.  Lettuce is coming in slowly but surely.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Things That I'm Into: Strawberry Barbara Crumble

Smitten Kitchen's Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble. (OR as my friend Alan would call it, a Strawberry BARBARA Crumble).  I may have taken a bite out of the bottom before taking this picture. Ooops!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Things That I'm Into: Free Music

If you are into music and are like, "oh, I wonder what new albums I should buy this summer?" and then you are like "maybe sub pop has some good new albums" and then you are like "omg there are so many how do I choose?" then maybe you should download this from amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Bang-2010-Sampler-Amazon/dp/B003JFTAPO.


It's free and has 15 songs from 15 different sub pop artists that have/had albums coming out in 2010. 

Samples from some of my personal fav 2010 albums are on there- from beach house "teen dream," avi buffalo "avi buffalo" and caribou "swim." I highly recommend any of those albums, esp beach house, but you can obviously check them out yourself on this free sampler. And I'm definitely buying the Blizten Trapper when it comes out TUESDAY. 

** PS In general Amazon is way sweeter than itunes when it comes to digital music. Usually albums are $5.99 or $7.99, plus they always have 100 $5 albums a month. But maybe that's another post. 

Monday, June 7, 2010

Things That I'm Into: June Dinner Parties

No knead Bread.  (Jim Lahey)
Roasted red pepper pesto and olives.
North African Chick Pea Salad. (Bittmann)
Sweet Potato Black Bean Salad. (Bittmann)
 Penne, Basil & Ricotta Frittatta. (Martha Stewart) (basil from plant in garden that is growing like a weed!)
+ 8 good friends + Zach's Turkey Meatballs + weird 80s clothes (heading to a Risky Business party afterwards) + backyard dining + blueberry vodka, ginger ale & lemonade

= hungover saturday w/ a very messy kitchen.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Things That I'm Into: Balcony Garden, Week Two

Things are growing!





The tomatoes grew a ton this week! We even got a couple flowers on them. The lettuce sprouted (though you probably can't tell in the picture). I used some of our "thai basil" in cooking this week, and it was pretty awesome. I've always just used normal basil in asian food, but the thai basil is much more lemon-y and tart.

The upside-down soda bottle tomato seems to be growing, but I am still skeptical that it will able to produce fruit with such a small amount of soil. We'll see!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Things That I'm Into: Robert Smithson

A girl (woman? girl.) in my college senior art history seminar wrote her thesis on Robert Smithson's spiral jetty and its relation to science fiction. She was pretty much the coolest.  Since then I've always associated Robert Smithson with super cool people, and just thought that maybe if I knew just a little bit more about spiral jetty then I could be one of those cool people. Clearly that isn't true, but, um, it doesn't hurt to try.
Spiral Jetty is a large, land-based installation piece in UTAH* that was constructed in 1970. It was submerged for decades after the lake rose, but it's visible again because of a drought that has been occurring the last couple years.

I've wanted to see the 32 minute "making of spiral jetty" movie for a while, and it's part of the "Earthworks" exhibit at the MCA right now.** And since Tuesday is FREE DAY I went to check it out.

Here are some excerpts:

The movie is slow moving, but still really interesting. My favorite part is when Smithson runs to the center of the Jetty and you get the sense of the movement of the installation. I'd love to see the piece in person someday. Anyone want to go on a Utah land art roadtrip?


Images from here, here.
* Also known as the best state in the union after Oregon.
** Museum of Contemporary Art, for you non-chicagoers.