stars and lights and powdered sugar

 

i'm feeling very festive and cozy these days. looking forward to sharing glögg, cookies and games with some friends this weekend.

recently i read the book stoner (name of main character, not about about an mj smoker) by john williams. stoner's responses to events/people in his life are frustrating, but the often sad story is beautifully succinctly written. somehow this excerpt, and thinking about willingness in particular, helped me in my seemingly never ending (or my gradual and recurring) letting go:

In his extreme youth Stoner had thought of love as an absolute state of being in which, if one were lucky, one might find access. In his maturity he had decided it was the heaven of a false religion, toward which one ought to gaze with an amused disbelief, a greatly familiar contempt, and an embarrassed nostalgia. Now in his middle age he began to know that it was neither a state of grace nor an illusion; he saw it as a human act of becoming, a condition that was invented and modified moment by moment and day by day, by the will and the intelligence and the heart.

december

 
wispy clouded, sweets-filled, a fika mamma

the glögg is made, the tree is trimmed, the candles burning and the rain falling (finally).

tell a thunder whisper to

i'm really not rose crazy. there are just so many all over alameda. 

blue, a poem by may swenson (pretty bold and sneaky)

lately

 

honey, it's back to long walks around alameda. 
back to photos of old cars, old trucks and houses probably.

been listening a lot lately to willie nelson's latest, band of brothers. willie is always a comfort. i thought i left you.

went to bodega bay where it was mostly grey interspersed with the birds memorabilia everywhere we turned. 

 

also lately, here's pinky lookin' good.

and a wildcraft studio school screen print finally framed

reading and enjoying zadie smith's NW. 

 

next up

i'm very excited to read these two books. 

the bottom three photos are of pages from swimming studies by leanne shapton.
 

fäviken

a beautiful book by chef magnus nilsson about his restaurant fäviken, which is in the middle of sweden, near the norwegian border.

here is a talk by magnus.
and a shorter video.

✿ / ✿ --- \ ✿✿ || o

 
poet martín espada on bill moyers

pulitzer prize winning poet tracy k smith on forum

beautiful photos of andorra, spain and norway (and more) by natalie mccomas


 

favorites

 
some of my favorites here: pinky leon, morning sun, flowers, and npr. 

just after this picture, PL sniffed a succulent and spied something very exciting outside. 

(also, after this, he tried to eat the flowers (in his usual flower-eating fashion), so they had to be removed to a cat safe location to avoid petal-y vomits.)

yesterday i finished a place in time, wendell berry's latest port william book, this one of short stories. i actually took my time reading it, because i worry this may be (and really hope it's not) the last port william stories he publishes, and i wanted to stay for a while in each story, with burley coulter, dick watson, elton penn, and the rest. something about his sentences too. they're not like other people's. not around here anyway.

 

 

assorted

haven't taken many photos lately. thus the feet and the cat. again. i like how round pinky leon's face is. 

guillermina baiguera

stich and hammer's instagram 

i really enjoyed the book doc by mary doria russell. such good characters—it was one of those books i couldn't wait to continue reading because i liked being around (so to speak) the characters. funny bits and moving bits and a well told tale about doc holliday and another time and place.

i go to the ferry building most days of the week, on my lunch break, usually for a blue bottle latte and a cookie and some people watching. the ferry building marketplace is a vibrant, bustling part of san francisco now—a destination for locals and tourists. read about the ferry building's slow re-start, almost 20 years ago now. 

more about the ferry building's history

❁ ❁ ❁

 

going from rosy alameda to the city of roses—portland (and seattle and the pickathon!). i'll be reading gone girl on the plane. i'm not a big mystery reader, but i heard this is a good one, and so far i'm really liking it. i need to be as distracted as possible on the plane.

some assorted links:

i would like to see jared flesher's documentaries: the farmer and the horse and sourlands.

this film, toxic profits—about how pesticides banned in the US are still exported to other countries—looks like a good one to me to fund via kickstarter.

beautiful photos on the blog dear leila

i like to look at mieke's photos of people's apartments.

❤ this photo

house of cards

see you in a little bit.

eskimo prints

the flight of the shaman and the owl and the woman who lives in the sun. aren't they nice? more here, from the book arts of the eskimo: prints

ibland kan det vara skönt att fly in i svenska. tänka på ett annat språk. hemligt o mjukt. undrar om det känns mjukt pga ljuden eller minnen eller båda. är nog båda. idag är det svenska som gäller. som en famn. o bra övning inför besök av mamma som kommer imorgon. 

lyssnar fortfarande på jonathan johansson: under sjukhusen. 
tyst nu
 

From OFG is back

mistubako, a From OFG contributor, keeps taking dreamy bee photos like the above: beehives in the riverside kitakami

 

finally putting From Orchards, Fields, and Gardens back up online (on sale!) i put the books in storage while i moved last year, and i recently retrieved a box of them.

in addition to mistubako's photos, below are some more links to recent work by From OFG contributors—such a talented bunch.

heather smith jones recently updated her letterpress shop, blue sparrow press.

katrina rodabaugh won a lotta jansdotter fabric contest with her sweet soft mobile.

mati rose mcdonough's Daring Adventures in Paint book is coming out very soon!

anna emilia laitinen's peaceful scenes grace an array publications.

jen hewett delves deeper into textile art.

i could go on about all of the contributors. but you can look them up yourselves in the links on the book's homepage.

william wondriska

from  a long piece of string

love this folk dance found on rosa pomar's blog  
a very different kind of freestyle dancing
and choreographed by this same (from above link) anthony lee: wildfire and somebody that i used to know

william steig

as a child i loved sylvester and the magic pebble and the amazing bone by mr. steig. today i checked out the book william steig drawings, which includes many of his new yorker drawings. his drawings are so scribbly and ugly and beautiful and hilarious. amazing how something so scribbly can capture so much about gestures, life. in the introduction, lillian rose writes of steig's drawn world:

it's a place without money or machinery or 'things.' it's a world populated by artists, farmers, knights, ladies, gentlemen, lovers (many, many lovers); by lions, dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, birds, fish (congenial creatures all of them, but with every human fault); by drunks, violinists, bums, actors, clowns...an intimate, pastoral, not too dangerous world, where poetry rules and time does not pass.

this book contains a bunch of drawings of people serenading animals and vice versa. too funny.

more, bigger

why we broke up

i don't know why i requested this book from the library, when i was obviously going to purchase it.

these two must have so much fun together. so much wacky creativity and oddball knowledge between the two of them. you can tell they enjoy each other from their interview on city arts and lectures. it's airing again on sunday. (looks like there's no podcast...) maira's take on cake is brilliant.

why we broke up

wim wenders +

from his book once, which contains photos from his travels and the stories behind them. go see pina if you have not.

victoria hannan

wilder quarterly

another, a lullaby, by jonathan johannson: du sa (you said)

lyrics translation approx: you said something about, about the other side/ you said something about, you said something about us/ you said something that never left me/ you said something that stayed

for the bookworms

history of sadness chapter: before language, the sea mirrors feelings of loneliness


history of love chapter: sexual, personal confusion
confusion or
confusion with thicker lines


scenes from 1955 chapter: oh shit
caption at the bottom: mcdonald's opens its first franchise restaurant, april 1955


history of love chapter: real problems in a relationship | imagined problems in a relationship

got this book of mike mills' drawings from the movie beginners (my favorite 2011 movie) for xmas. love it. so funny. bigger and more spreads here.

on my reading list for 2012

jeffrey eugenides' the marriage plot
ann patchett's state of wonder
salvage the bones by jesmyn ward
the art of fielding by chad harbach
something by oliver sachs
something by marcel proust
perfume by patrick suskind
doc by mary dory russell
under the banner of heaven by jon krakauer

delicious

i'm hoping a certain L isn't reading this. had to take some photos of the beautiful blue chair jam cookbook before wrapping it. the book is chock full of crazy delicious photos by sara remington. and the graphic design is gorgeous as well. mmm. (more photos of the spreads)

book recommendation

more fall in alameda. to the farmers' market this morning. perfect day for bicycling, again.

finished what is the what last night, a fantastic book. my foremost book recommendation for the year. it is the story of the incredible life/struggle of valentino achak deng, who was one of the "lost boys" from sudan, written brilliantly in valentino's voice by dave eggers. i got chills reading this short interview with valentino and dave about the process of writing the book—the faith and trust and patience and friendship required to create this book. (i also recommend purchasing the book since the proceeds go to the vad foundation.)



♥

lilli carré's shadows

the top photo made me remember to post photos of this mini art book of lilli carré's. it's part of little otsu's wonderful mini art book series, living things. lilli's is about shifting shadows. i love her work.

the way lilli interpreted her theme reminded me of this swedish kids picture book i read when i was little. in it, a kid is afraid of the dark because at night, he sees monsters everywhere. but the outlines he sees, which do look like monsters, turn out to be innocuous things when the lights are turned on—oh, that trickster perception.