Summerized

Other stuff I should have blogged about sooner...

My sister and Michael got married this summer. The wedding took place on my parents property -- a beautiful wooded hillside with views for miles. It was a gorgeous day, and everyone had fun, enjoying the wonderful quirkiness of their wedding. Boston terrier Rufus was one of the groomsmen. Brittany and Michael played paper rock scissors to decide who said vows first.

Everyone danced at the barn reception.

Dad got to show off progress on his Germanic chalet.

And Dan wore a praying mantis.

Jason and I went to Ireland briefly this summer too. We visited Newgrange, a Stone Age burial and religious site with Adam.

The swirling carvings on parts of the structure were very interesting. They may symbolize multiple things, including being an abstract map of the local geography.

Toward the end of the summer, we camped near Santa Cruz with Lisa and Wai, and several of their friends.

With that many foodies, there were lots of tasty things to eat, like Tom Yum chicken skewers, salmon grilled on a flavorful board, and sour plum filled rice balls.

Wai showed us where he surfs every weekend too.

Hawaii Big Island

This summer, we went to the Big Island of Hawaii for a week and a half. Can't believe I'm blogging about it this late, but here goes.

We stayed on the west coast, in Kailua Kona, in a mildewy apartment, with a courtyard suitable for a Filipino inmate new Michael Jackson routine. Fortunately there was a lot to keep us out of the apartment.

 

Tattooing services were offered below our apartment.

And the Islands' oldest church was next door.

Walking around town, we occasionally saw a small weasels running around. They are one of many invasive species on the islands. Regardless, they are cute.

Our favorite meals were at a hole in the wall restaurant called Rappa Nui (which is the Polynesian name for Easter Island). Run by a New Zealand ex-pat and his American wife, they served delicious Asian fusion food with strong Indonesian and Malaysian influence. Really good nasi goreng! And the limited dessert menu was inventive; we liked white chocolate truffles with wasabi and coconut.

It was fascinating how the island's climate varied from one area to the next. North of Kailua, there were lots of lava fields, like this one, with varying levels of vegetation, depending on when the lava had covered the land.

There were also several world class beaches north of Kailua. Sigh.

South of Kailua, the climate was jungle-like, with some of the world's best coffee plantations. This is where Kona coffee comes from. We drove through the verdant landscape to Kilauea Caldera, to see the famous volcano. Unfortunately, there was no lava that day. But the steaming crater was impressive nonetheless; you could feel its power.

Hiking through the jungle near the crater, one trail went through areas that had recently been covered by lava. It was stunning to see the contrast between lush jungle and moonscape lava field -- you could literally stand with a foot in both.

The Big Island has a lot of historical Hawaiian sites as well. As we toured the Place of Refuge, the ranger showed us how to play the traditional Hawaiian nose flute. We loved his tour.

Diving off the Big Island was lovely. The waters are the calmest in the Hawaiian Islands, and it was nice not to deal with any chop. We saw some great underwater fauna, including a few nudibranches. The fried egg nudibranch looks like its namesake. Orange gumdrop nudibranch was my favorite.

A live conch about the size of my fist, had its pink mantle wrapped around the shell. Having only seen conch shells, I didn't recognize the live animal.

On a manta ray night dive, we hoped to see a herd of Volkswagen beetle sized manta rays gliding right above our heads. Unfortunately the mantas were elsewhere; at least we got to see one in the distance.

The daytime dolphin swim was more successful. We swam with a pod of about 50 wild dolphins for an hour and a half. Snorkeling in the clear deep water, they surrounded us. At times there were 10 in a row, swimming many feet below us, or three off to the side, or a mother and baby at the surface. Their staticky calls and R2D2 yips filled the water. I swam hard to be next to 3 of them, and was beside them for most of the minute, before I had to catch my breath. They were close enough that I could see little nicks and scratches in their skin. We didn't bother with pictures that day.

At one crowded public beach, we were immediately greeted by large green turtles, the minute we put our heads under water. Snorkeling in general was pretty great on the big Island. At another site we saw so many adult and baby puffer fish, several varieties of triggerfish, and many other fish.

I spent the last day at a calm little beach in town. Perfect.

Felt Cocoons and the High Line in New York

I went to New York for a couple of days last week. It was great to catch up with a few friends, see some exhibits, eat great food, and do a little shopping. We're really sorry we didn't get to see everyone; we're trying to see different people on each trip, as it's just impossible to see everyone we want to in a few days.

The Fashioning Felt show at the Cooper-Hewitt had some lovely pieces, including this cocoon-like installation. It's a great place to sit and decompress.

Walking around the lower East side, I was surprised to see lots of small galleries. And the southern part of the neighborhood is a lot more gentrified than I remember. Tea and pastry at Teany was tasty.

Isabel, Catherine and I watched Isa's a friend Brassy sing at Duane Park. She was quite good.

We were lucky enough to have a couple of delicious homemade meals at friends homes.

And we indulged in a few new culinary adventures, the most exciting of which was deep fat fried Oreos at Cafeteria. Recommended. Artisanal bacon gravy at Char Number 4 in Carroll Gardens wasn't too shabby either. And it was nice to check out the old neighborhood.

Dan and I went to the Model as Muse exhibit at the Met. He thought I should see all the fabulous mod fashions on display. He was right. I especially loved the planar mini-dresses constructed from sheet metal.

And the Roxy Paine installation on the roof was stunning. It's made out of regular old hardware store pipe, yet is so graceful. A combination of natural and artificial that reminded me of Terminator trees, it creates a great interplay of sky, people, park and New York skyline.

And we arrived just in time to see the newly opened High Line park. The High Line started out as a very short elevated railway that transported food and manufactured goods from factory to warehouse, within Manhattan. It was abandoned in the 80s. When my friends and I would gallery-hop in Chelsea, the High Line cut an eerie silhouette against the night sky -- an overpass carpeted in tall wild grasses swaying in the breeze. I was always slightly tempted to climb up.

After much finagling by Friends of the High Line and others, the abandoned High Line was saved from destruction, and converted into a one-of-a-kind park, featuring wild flowers and plants growing amongst railroad tracks. The design team included Diller Scofidio + Renfro. The High Line stretches for blocks, giving you unique, gritty views of the city and the Hudson River. We really enjoyed walking along the park, and it made the Hudson feel ever so slightly like a Riviera. What an amazing achievement.

Thanksgiving

We had another Oregon Thanksgiving this year. Unsurprisingly, it was rainy and gray, but it was nice to see the fam. We finally saw Brittany and Michael's new house, which is charming and comfortable. Brittany needlepointed, Jason Blackberried, and Michael strummed. Lacking a conversation partner, I attempted to learn to crochet.

Michael's mom hosted dinner this year, and it was tasty.

Dad's been making lots of progress on his house. The first floor is now taking form.

Mom and I went to a local craft fair, and saw a woman spinning soft rabbit fur (not directly from the rabbit though). She also makes cat and dog yarn.

Oregon Weekend

I've truly neglected my blog in the last weeks... there's been a lot to do on an online prototype Kat and I are building.

Several weekends ago, Jason and I visited my parents in Oregon, which was a fun, relaxing time. They plied us with delicious Swiss potato soup and pot roast.

My dad recently broke ground on the house he’s building, so we got to see the future foundation and basement. The house, which he calls Deerpath Lodge, will be fashioned after a Germanic chalet, and will use some European building components that are kind of like Lego bricks that slide over rebar. You pour cement into the cavities of the blocks, and it makes the wall truly solid.

The house will be located atop the hill, several hundred feet up from the existing house. Dad's digger looked like a teaspoon, in relation to the size of the hole; it took him quite a while to dig it all out. The rock and clay that’s at the site is beautiful and kind of pliable, in shades of red, orange and yellow. It was interesting to see all the strata that was exposed.

Jason and I walked around the grounds some, and saw a cute spotted deer sproinging up the hill, and a yellow and black snake.

My high school friend Tonya and her family came to dinner on Saturday. It was fun to see how much her kids have grown.

And Mom and Dad took us to an indulgent brunch at a winery Sunday.

Pool Parties, Pugs, Sheep Footstools

It's been a little while. The weekend before last, we went to two pool parties. The first was a barbecue at Elisa’s family’s beautiful Sonoma spread. Her father is an avid gardener, and we enjoyed some of his strawberries. We took a dip in the pool, enjoying the pretty mountain backdrop. And that evening was a poolside birthday party for Carolyn in Danville. It was great to see Carolyn and Simon.

Last week, I spent a couple days in LA for a project kickoff meeting. Mira booked me into the chic Standard Hotel, which had some of those sheep stools Moss sells. I need one of those.

Wednesday, Mira and I scored some good finds shopping in Venice Beach, then met Kat for a nice dinner. Thursday's meeting was fruitful, and we're off to a good start on the project.

Last weekend, Jason and I went to Calistoga again, to relax in the big pool. We ate dinner at the Greystone cooking school (amazing spicy watermelon gazpacho, quail and couscous with lemony flavors, and fruity souffle).

 

Gluttonous, social and slightly cultural week in the Big Apple

We had a great time in New York. We saw lots of friends, though you never get to see everyone in one trip. Simon and Carolyn's hospitality at their lovely flat saved us a stay at Days Inn. I lost my camera midway through the trip, so these are mostly random phone photos.

Saturday, I met Claudia and Marge for brunch at Deborah in the West Village. My favorite duck hash was just as I remembered it; I'd been dreaming of it for months. We walked around Nolita after, and explored a designer's market, among other things.

That evening I went to Williamsburg and paid a visit to the Future Perfect. Then I met up with Jason, Gary, Daniel and Jay at Monkey Town. Gary, Daniel and I bored everyone else with Cranbrook talk. Monkey Town has some really lovely large-scale fiber works in the dark interior. They look like cocoon-like structures made by elephant sized butterflies. Everyone had ginger dark and stormies to drink; the entrees were nothing special, but the delicious bread pudding with dried cherries and caramel made up for it.

Sunday's theme was babies. We brunched with Catherine and her friend Irene (sp?). Catherine looked amazing at nine months pregnant, and gave birth to Max two days later. Unfortunately, I was sick by then, so we couldn't go see him. We enjoyed seeing her new spacious new midtown digs with its great view. Next stop was Dave and Michelle's loft by NYU to catch up, and meet their new baby. Madeleine is a dark haired cutie. We liked the way they'd set up a sitting area in front of the window, to look down on the Broadway action. That evening, we went to Marci and Neal's Park Slope condo for a lovely lasagna and more cute tots. Hugo, their little boy, is now riding a miniature push-bike that resembles those hand-welded high tech ones that grown up bike geeks love.

Tricia and Miyuke were also there, with their little "Mini," who's just learning how to walk.

On Monday, I checked out the Design and the Elastic Mind show at the MoMA. It explores the marriage of technology and design, and how designers are currently responding to technological advances. It's one of the MoMA's seminal design shows for sure.

Peter Worthington's Shadow Monsters is an interactive installation that's lots of fun. You step in front of a projector, and see your silhouette in front of you. And the program immediately adds lots of ornaments and silly prosthetics (and sounds!) to your body that change as you move. If you scissor your arms open and closed, it will draw teeth between them, making a monster mouth, and you'll hear roaring sounds. Though somehow this image reminds me of a Balinese dancer.

This origami by Robert J. Lang uses computer aided designs to achieve levels of complexity previously impossible. And yet they still only use a square of paper.

It was great to see Front Design's work in person. Their Sketch Furniture is based on an in-air doodle. Basically, they do a drawing in the air, the drawing is captured with video-capture technology, then digitized into a 3d model, which is printed by a rapid manufacturing machine. This particular piece is a "chandelier."

Later in the day I went to Moss to see what I've been missing. Their space just keeps expanding. And I found a great shop/brand in Nolita later that day – Calvin Tran. There's actually a store in San Francisco too. The designer creates a lot of clothes that can be worn multiple ways. There were so many European tourists out shopping and sightseeing because of the weak dollar. That evening, we had a nice dinner with Dan and Jason at Falai on the Lower East Side.

Tuesday, we checked into the Hudson. It has a high density of architect glasses.

Cai Guo-Qiang at the Guggenheim, please go see it, originally uploaded by pocketmonsterd.

I went to see the Cai Guo-Qiang "I Want to Believe" at the Guggenheim. Dan loved it and had said I had to go. It was pretty interesting. The first thing you see on entering the giant rotunda is about ten white cars suspended in a chaotic column through the center of the giant space. Thin rods animated with LEDs explode from within the cars, and each car lights up in sequence. It gives an impression of seeing an animation of a car blowing up and flying high into the air. The rest of the work has an explosive nature; some is literally pyrotechnic. He does some amazing sculptural fireworks where the black or white smoke of the explosion becomes a mass to be sculpted, and the thrumming rhythmic sound of the fireworks going off in sequence and in unison is also incorporated. They'd be great to see in person. In all the work, there is a blurring between entertainment (like fireworks) and the repulsive aspect of violent explosions.

CAI GUO-QIANG, originally uploaded by t_a_i_s.

That evening, we joined Jennifer, Steven, Simon and Carolyn for dinner at Pamplona. Food publicist extraordinaire Jen knows the chef; we were treated very well. The food was wonderful; my faves from the tasting menu were cauliflower soup with pork belly, a little fried cube of chickpea puree, a bacon-y duck breast, a thickish chocolate confection (with sea salt?), and a hot white chocolate infused with truffle, topped with espresso foam. We'll be back.

Wednesday, I checked out the just-opened Whitney biennial, and it was, well, like usual. Highlights were a hot-tub sized cat litter box, performance artists doing some kind of tin woodsman inspired contact modern dance, and a deconstructed goat farm with projections of women with hair longer than their bodies, milking goats and harvesting the runoff from washing their hair. Actually, I really liked that one.

And there was a new little shop in Soho selling cardboard housewares. There have been so many cardboard objects on the green design blogs, it's interesting to see an actual storefront.

Later that day I was at Anna, a favorite little clothing shop. It's a hidden gem in the East Village, and can be hit or miss, with clothing that looks best on the body, rather than the rack. That night, we met up with a bunch of Jason's old Vindigo crew for drinks in the garment district, which was a lot of fun.

It was a great trip, and as one of Jason's friends pointed out, we'll always know where we were when the Eliot Spitzer story broke. Oy vey.

 

Post Holiday Update

I've been remiss in my post-holiday blogging.

We went to Oregon to visit my family, and spent a couple days on Mount Hood, inner-tubing and skiing.

We stayed at Timberline Lodge. It's an amazing piece of history, built in the depression by workers hired by the Federal Works Progress Administration. And its exterior was used in "The Shining." Despite that connotation, I've wanted to have a cozy Christmas at Timberline for a long time. It was lots of fun, and great to practically ski out the door. I also loved exploring the lodge, which is filled with deco and arts and crafts detail, from the massive local stone fireplace at the center, down to the handmade wrought iron door handles.

Local artisans were hired to create and decorate absolutely every part of the lodge. In a downstairs game room, there are amazing linoleum carvings illustrating alpine scenes with fabulous '30s fashions.

Stained glass murals of Paul Bunyan and Babe decorate the Blue Ox bar.

We got to sleep in one of these fabulous beds. The design would look contemporary if it were reissued.

Really lovely chairs with woven leather seats sat fireside.

Some elements, like this cougar bas-relief over a doorway, are more deco, while others have a heavier, more arts and crafts feel.

Since it was the depression, the builders and craftspeople used unusual materials in innovative ways -- finials were made from telephone poles, and carved with creatures, like this owl.

After Timberline, we spent a relaxing couple of days at my parents' home, looking out on beautiful snow showers against the pine forest.

Thanksgiving '07

Walks were taken,

J. Crew moments were had,

stuff was moved,

and burned,

guts were busted,

naps were taken.

 

 

The O.C.

Last week I was in Orange County for a meeting. The client had some adorable little pugs that kept snorting and licking each other's jowls and ears.

And I kept wanting to sing that "Californyaaaa" song from The O.C.

Then I stayed in L.A. with Kat for a couple days. She cooked a wonderful halibut meal with lima beans and broccoli rabe, we had a Rihanna sighting at Fred Segal, we checked out the L.A. Moss, we ate a great French dinner of filet mignon, and our attempt to go clubbing was thwarted by a "VIP line" 200 people long. And that about sums up the weekend.