July 14, 2010
Despite the ever-impending thunderstorms lurking in the troposphere of late, I decided that I needed to at least get out of the house with a short ride to Brooklyn Beer & Soda (as well as a stop at Greene Grape Provisions). I’d already settled on dinner based on leftover pork belly from the 4th: a hearty bacon mushroom orzo with a bit of smoky earthiness.
The beer pairing was a gametime decision: it was between a summer-y hefeweizen (Weihenstephaner or Ayinger’s Bräu-Weisse) and Captain Lawrence St. Vincent’s Dubbel, which called my name from BBS’s ample, well-stocked shelving.
Suffice it to say that I was very pleased with the darker brew: St. Vincent’s slight tartness, opened up with a brilliant, fruity (in a good way) maltiness that complemented the sweet richness of the meal perfectly.
At risk of sounding too proud, the photo probably doesn’t do the dish justice—I was going for overarching porkiness, so I caramelized the shallots and garlic (always!) in bacon and the last of my pork fat, not to mention drippings in the orzo. Mushrooms and reserved pork belly went in later as the pasta neared al dente completion. I seasoned the sautée and the orzo with a little S&P, plus a bit of basil, nutmeg, garlic powder and red pepper flakes in the latter.
Naturally, I topped it off with parmesan romano. Sans other courses—a simple Caesar to start would have sealed the deal—I ended up with a slightly oversized portion, though I was rather pleased with the meal on the whole. In fact, a cigarette (alongside the final delicious glass of St. Vincent’s) made for a curiously fitting dessert.
Most of this was consumed on the 4th, but I saved a good bit for myself...
July 7, 2010
About damn time: Very Small Array is back with another instant classic.
Don’t forget to check out the rest of the boroughs…
May 26, 2010
UPDATED, one last time before midnight.
Os Gemeos & Blu (Works in Progress) in Lisbon
Street art’s symbiotic relationship with the Web makes you wonder whether the genre’s broad popularity stems from the fact that its characteristic features—swift execution, quicksilver response to pop culture and politics, the dominance of quotation and commentary, snarky attitude, fragmented statements embedded in the world rather than meant to stand apart from it—actually reflect the way that plugged-in people process information, more so than “traditional” art. There is something particularly contemporary about street art’s whole M.O., in this sense.
–Ben Davis, Is Street Art Over?, Slate, May 26 2010 (Highly recommended)
Fresh Stuff from Ron English in Queens
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Two perspectives on Marina:
She and MoMA have brought some magic back into art—the sort of magic that all of our courses in art history and appreciation had encouraged us to hope for.
–Arthur C. Danto, Sitting with Marina, The Stone blog on NYT, May 23 2010
There are euphoric moments and then intensely sad feelings of heaviness. Whatever you’re feeling becomes intensified. Certain truths about things I need to fix in my life are revealed to me. Marina says that in her own life she’s not so disciplined—that the performance gives her structure.
–Deborah Wing-Sproul, The Performer Made Bare, NYMag, May 23 2010
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[As Prokhorov] explained to “60 Minutes,” “I don’t use a computer. We have too much information and it’s really impossible to filter it.”
You know what? He’s not necessarily wrong. Do we REALLY need all this information? Like, right now—you’re reading this column and hopefully enjoying it, but ultimately, could you have survived the weekend if you missed it? I say yes. Just about everything online fits that mold—you have to sift through loads of bad writing and irrelevant information to find the occasional entertaining/funny/interesting thing, and even then, it’s not something that’s making or breaking your week. Ever been on a vacation and had little-to-no Internet access that week? You survived, right? Maybe the big Russian is on to something.
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Candy reminds us of the postmodern notion of self-creation—the way we don social signifiers with the same ease as clothing, constructing our selves bit by bit from cultural cues and images. Rather than the solid frameworks we cast them as, our selves are more like sweaters we put on and take off. When it comes to social identity, we’re all a wee bit in drag.
–Caroline Hagood, New Documentary Tries to Solve the Riddle of Andy Warhol’s Candy Darling,
The Huffington Post, May 21 2010
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The problem of negative externalities [refers to] costs that accrue when the self-interested actions of one person leave bystanders worse off. The biggest example of a negative externality is global warming: When we burn carbon-based fuels, we benefit ourselves while imposing a great cost on billions of other present and future inhabitants of the planet.
–Felix Salmon, The Man Who Could Unsnarl Manhattan Traffic, Wired, May 24 2010
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GOOD Picture Show has a gallery of J. Bennett Fitts' incredible photos of Middle America
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May 20, 2010
Like Images… but, you know, ending with “-ry” instead of “-s”
When we think of still lifes, we think of paintings that have a certain atmosphere or ambience. My still life paintings have none of those qualities, they just have pictures of certain things that are in a still life, like lemons and grapefruits and so forth. It’s not meant to have the usual still life meaning.
–Roy Lichtenstein.
Roy Lichtenstein
Still Lifes
Gagosian
555 W 24th St (at 11th)
New York NY 10011 [map]
212 / 741-1111
May 8, 2010 – July 30, 2010
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May 15, 2010
“A low moan of agreement escaped Ellis’s mouth.” –Bret Easton Ellis
Once again, it’s too nice out to sit in front of a computer screen, so we’re going with assorted links today… A few interesting stories, including an article on the future of digital journalism. *UPDATED on 5/16 with even more recommended reading.
- I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I’ve never read any Roberto Bolaño, but I’d never seen a picture of him before—is it just me, or does he look a lot like Keith Haring? (GQ)
- Alastair Harper on “George Orwell, Patron Saint of Hacks” (Prospect)
- Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s “Theory, Literature, Hoax” after Borges. (NYT)
- Claudia Roth Pierpont on Duke Ellington (New Yorker)
- Nick Carr on the new New York license plate (below) (Huffpo)
Also worth reading, if you’re so inclined:
- The current state of NBA point guards (GQ)
- Kareem sounds off (ESPN)
- The China Model (Economist)
- How the Web Is Changing the Way We Eat (Salon)
- Interview with Rick Owens (above) (Artinfo via Slam×Hype; images here)
- Interview with Damien Hirst & Michael Joo (WWD via Slam×Hype; images here—the log piece reminds me of Ai Weiwei…)
- Interview with Bret Easton Ellis (Vice)
- Interview with Gorillaz (Wired)
- Gus Van Sant catches up with Madonna (Interview)
- Adam Kimmel raps with David Blaine (Interview)
- Greg Miller on Karim’s Nader’s theory of mutable memory (Smithsonian)
- Ryan Bradley on “Sex, Lies and Nature Documentaries” (GOOD)
- Malcolm Gladwell on WWII espionage (New Yorker)
- Gary Wolf on the Data-Driven Life (NYT)
- Richard Lewontin on Jerry Fodor & Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini’s What Darwin Got Wrong. (The New York Review of Books)—I’d heard a lot of the arguments before until I came to this bit:
Individual organisms are surrounded by a moving layer of warm moist air. Even trees are surrounded by such a layer. It is produced by the metabolism of the individual tree, creating heat and water, and this production is a feature of all living creatures. In humans the layer is constantly moving upward over the body and off the top of the head. Thus, organisms do not live directly in the general atmosphere but in a shell produced by their own life activity. It is, for example, the explanation of wind-chill factor. The wind is not colder than the still air, but it blows away the metabolically produced layer around our bodies, exposing us to the real world out there.
Plus, a short, sweet video for good measure:
May 5, 2010
This is possibly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever created:
Click image for larger, more mouth-watering version.
After procuring a nice chunk of pork belly from (you guessed it) the Meat Hook over the weekend, I was perusing the internet for a recipe when I came across David Chang’s no-frills pork belly recipe for Momofuku. (As always, a hefty body of related literature is appropriate here, but you can find plenty of documentation of Chang’s unlikely rise to gastrostardom with a [newly redesigned] Google search. For some quick background info, check out his profile in the TIME 100 this year.)
Obnoxious food nerd stuff after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »
April 20, 2010
I’m becoming one of them.
Monday’s lunch: Ridgewood garlic sausage (from Choice Greene) with caramelized shallots and garlic and sautéed kale rabe over tri-color orzo (a variation on a theme). The sweet/salty sausage + shallots played nicely with the slightly-overblanched-yet-still-delicious rabe (the stalks are pretty similar to the broccoli relative, while the leaves are more kale-esque), but I was disappointed in the pasta—it could’ve used more butter and maybe a bit of kick from a wacky spice such as cumin or even just some cayenne pepper. In any case, the dish would probably have been perfect with a liberal topping of shaved romano.
As per the title of the post, I finally managed to make it up to Williamsburg’s newest one-stop foodie outpost the Meat Hook last week, where my friend Lila happens to be produce manager. She hooked me up with said kale rabe, pea shoots and a mesclun mix from Lancaster, PA, while ‘rockstar butcher‘ Tom Mylan himself provided a nice chunk of fresh [pork] belly.
I consumed it in taco form, since I finally got my hands on a tortilla press (also from the Meat Hook… why don’t I just marry it, I know). Fucking delicious.
Bonus video:
