starting with this: michael landy is a british artist who likes to make art out of trash. the picture above depicts "christmas tree", 1997, at the tate. with that said, his latest venture is the art bin, into which he has invited other artists to throw their art. damien hirst is one of these, along with tracey emin, julian opie, and gary hume. i love love love the irony. it's no secret that some (usually art-illiterate) folks don't care at all for a lot of contemporary art -- it's not art! my kindergartener could do that! -- you've heard it. you've maybe thought the same, or said. regardless, it's a great play on that concept. and the bin is enormous! over the span of the exhibit, starting january 29 and running through march 10, artists' works will be trashed in the bin, and as the exhibition's page states, "Art Bin will gradually fill up over the six week course of the exhibition to create ’a monument to creative failure’." fantastic!
worth noting, just for humor's sake, in 2001: damien in the bin.
flickr gallery of photos from the protest at trafalgar square where a bunch of photographers and more showed up yesterday to protest the attack on photographers as potential terrorists: here. kind of wish i could have been there for that.
i found a copy of cb2's (crate & barrel, you guys are geniuses!) catalog in my mailbox, courtesy of my thoughtful grandmother and mother, who realized that pretty much everything in there is practically must-have material. i suppose i could narrow it down, but seriously... after looking through nothing but urban outfitters catalogs and the ikea website (and a lot of target lately) while decorating my humble apartment -- not to count out of the thrift shops, which have proven MOST beneficial! -- this was a breath of fresh air! there are two chicago locations, and it seems now that the next time i'm in the city, i will be at a cb2 store at some point during my stay. it's necessary.
cb2 affordable in a good-design sense of the term. you can't really have quality AND good design for pennies... that's always kind of where ikea and target and such fall short. their brand is built on affordability with style, but the cheapness of the material and the whole diy assembly is kind of exhausting after a while. i sure don't need another particle-board shelf. nope. the very thought makes me feel as though my whole house will come crashing down if my books get too heavy.
therefore, though i have no purchased anything yet, i can maybe say preemptively that i indeed love cb2. :) i shall provide a further review once i actually find something to own. haha.
via contemporist
how freakin' cool is this! a much cooler way to overlook a brook.
who wouldn't kill to live in a place like this? the hills of malibu, california, to be sure. this house is gorgeous. the blair house, designed by bruce bolander (link to entire online residential portfolio). i love-love-love the mid-century throwback with the furniture and the long horizontals. it' very "california!" some of his other work is really awesome, too.
and i'm halfway through a re-reading of jane eyre by charlotte brontë. i last read it in high school, possibly my junior year? and i don't remember being too interested in it at all. i'm not sure i was interested in anything literary then. but on further re-evaluation, i realize that i love it. of course, in the vein of other famous english literature -- jane austin, emily brontë, william thackeray, etc. i'm having a great time. :)
also very, very good is richard ford's collection of three short stories published in the 90s entitled women with men. also worth taking a look at -- a quick read, but not forgettable in the slightest.
this was the (very delicious) outcome of my first attempt at greek zucchini balls (kolokythokeftedes) and cucumber garlic sauce (tzatziki). they turned out well! the recipe is from kopiaste and even though i had to do a little bit of guesswork with measurements (and didn't keep track, bleh me) they turned out really well! they were delicious! and a good test of this is that my notoriously picky younger sister actually liked them! the only thing i will do next time is hold way back on the amount of garlic used in the tzatziki. it's a little overwhelming, even though with all the garlic in there it brings back pretty strong memories of the restaurant in monastiraki, greece that i visited with my friend in may:
the above photo is our lunch table at the cafe in monastiraki earlier this spring, and this was my first taste of the kolokythokeftedes. these were astounding. astounding, i tell you. absolutely nothing has surpassed this meal to date, and even though my homemade ones weren't quite as fantastic as these ones, i'm still pretty happy that i got close. i can tweak a little bit and i think i might be able to work something out. :)
via archdaily
i'm not sure if i even need to explain my reason for including this. i got sucked into looking through postings on archdaily and ran across this house in new zealand by fearon hay architects. their houses are fantastic, utilizing huge walls of glass to take in the gorgeous views of australia and new zealand -- they even did a loft in tribeca, nyc. regardless, the house above is the quintessential high-elevation glass house. it's perfect. it's small, but that's what makes it livable. i can't imagine anyone living in this house and not feeling at peace with the world when they look out those windows. perfect.
