Saturday, January 14, 2006

Sir, You Bastard


Sir, You Bastard, originally uploaded by Trevira.

cover of the year so far at the flickr old-timey paperback cover pool...


good article on Henry Green


"Elope," she cried delighted all of a sudden.
"Elope," he agreed grave.
She gave him a big kiss. "Why Charley", she said, seemingly more and more delighted, "that's romantic."
"It's what we're going to do whatever the name you give it," he replied.
"But don't you see that's a wonderful thing to do," she went on.
"Maybe so," he said soft into her ear, "but it's what we're doing."


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This looks proper.


NYT's "Crusty Macaroni and Cheese" - omits the roux!!


""Crusty" is no exaggeration; the two cups of cheese used to top the casserole shrink-wrapped itself around the uppermost elbows. Eaten piping hot it was a little chewy and a little crispy; after the dish had cooled just a hair, the top layer had firmed to a leathery shield. The noodles below sweated fat, which collected unappealingly at the bottom of my earthenware dish. On my first attempt, I took the high road and used the all-cheddar option presented in the recipe. Bits of cheese clung clumpily to the elbows. Cheese that's not processed-and especially cheddar-needs help to achieve an ideal state of ooziness. And without the moderation of something creamy-ricotta, cr�me fraiche, or I think, ideally, white sauce-that much cooked cheddar loses some nuance and tastes a bit caustic. "


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Friday, January 13, 2006


valedictory deep house mix from Fleep. Thanks and here is my ancient ode to house in PDF format--

http://www.sfu.ca/west-coast-line/covers/culley.pdf

It all feels like history now, grind, grind, sift.

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Tuesday, January 10, 2006


Vancouver artist Antonia Hirsch's cleanly designed website is up--a text seen in the very early days of this blog is reprinted, amongst much else...

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M. Tissot, who apparently had a sideline in Bible illustration (including a nice set of Minor Prophets, suitable for trading), here introduces a note of realism by having Daniel confront a bedraggled den of half-starved and toothless zoo lions...

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fruit of "mudlark" research this interesting picture by James Tissot, 1878, the scavenging kids just inches away from the crisp linen--


"The artist has his back to the river and an undisturbed table setting of cutlery, three glasses and cruet before him on the white cloth, with part of another setting visible on the other side of the table. Through the framing open window, he looks towards a group of four top-hatted gentlemen sitting outside in the small balcony of the western bay, and children on the foreshore..."

"The view is through the table in the eastern ground-floor bay window, with a place setting in the foreground. Men sit on the balcony in positions of power in this place of leisure. However Tissot makes social distinctions by contrasting them with the young boys, showing the children, known as mudlarks, on the shore below below. They are scavenging for coal and iron and reflect Henry Mayhew's investigative report in which he starkly illustrated the pestilence and depravity of Thames culture through such mudlarks, sewer-hunters and rat-catchers."

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Another one from Ben--would make a good smokehouse.


, originally uploaded by Mongibeddu.

We have a "Veasey Banks" locally...

Wintry house in Bangor, ME


, originally uploaded by Mongibeddu.

thanks Ben!

Monday, January 09, 2006


sagacious Memo to Layton--

"Currently, the New Democrats hold five B.C. seats, and it seems unlikely at this point that the party will see any of its incumbents defeated. The NDP also has a reasonable chance to pick up six ridings currently or previously won by the Conservatives - Vancouver Island North, Nanaimo-Alberni, Surrey North, Newton-North Delta, New Westminster-Coquitlam, and British Columbia Southern Interior - as well as three from the Liberals - Victoria, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca and Vancouver-Kingsway.

Electoral history and current polls do not support the notion that the Liberals, who now have eight B.C. seats, are poised to make gains on January 23. Indeed, in addition to the three Liberal ridings which are vulnerable to the NDP, two more - North Vancouver and Richmond - might be within the grasp of the resurgent Tories.

The New Democrats, therefore, have a chance to 'turn the tables' on the Liberals by claiming that their party is best able to stop Stephen Harper from becoming prime minister."

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Dave Simpson tracks down everyone who has ever been a member of The Fall


"Smith confessed to me that he used to fine drummers £5 each time they hit the tom-tom, and that on tour in Europe he would employ the "European phrasebook", sending guitarists to say things like "I am a flower" in German. Hanley's brother Paul, a drummer, remembers how one of Smith's favourite jokes was to "take new members abroad just so he could send them home". Another was to dismantle the band's equipment in the middle of a gig. "When you're playing five or six nights a week the group get slick," Smith said in his defence. For him, routine is "the enemy of music"."