All You Had You Wasted

New life goal:

become as mindnumbingly badass as mid-nineties Shirley Manson.

Julia

I went to a silent auction last weekend, and I won something fantastic.

douchetalks

Julia Child's cookbooks!!! How exciting and extravagant. I'll have to have you over for dinner one day very soon.

I love watching her videos on Youtube, and I wish I had been alive when her show was on TV. I could watch this woman for hours. She's hilarious and I've actually learned quite a bit from her.







But my favourite Julia video has got to be this one. Enjoy!

Kombucha

I first encountered kombucha in a great book by the creator of MAKE magazine, Mark Frauenfelder, called Made by Hand. It's an exploration into DIY-culture, and he does everything from raising chickens and bees in his LA backyard to learning how to whittle and build his own cigar box guitars. It's a great read, and not just because of the wealth of neat projects he and his family take on. Mark's honesty about the triumphs and difficulties of living DIY creates a compelling picture of a modern life  integrating old-fashioned methods.

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In Made by Hand, Mark tries making kombucha, a fermented, naturally carbonated tea that develops in tandem with something called a SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast), a thick mushroom-like film created from the active cultures and sugar. Its use dates back to 19th century Russia, and perhaps far earlier by Chinese and Korean texts. The purported health benefits are unproven, but include liver detoxification, treatment of cancer, improved energy, aiding in digestion and a few other benefits.

I can't remember how it tasted going down for Mark and while the concept of growing a kombucha is pretty cool, the idea of drinking a tea that's been sitting with a giant mushroom in it is a big turnoff for me. But I just saw something that helps change my perception of the bacteria-brewed beverage.

 

Suzanne Lee's TED talk on growing her own own fabric using kombucha is a really interesting look at the future of textile production. She creates giant sheets of SCOBY to use as the textiles of her clothing designs. She can create paper thin sheets of cellulose or thick pieces of vegetable leather from the dried culture. It has its drawbacks, but she hopes that we can engineer workarounds for some of the material's flaws.

While it's not ready for commercial use anytime soon, it's an inspiring vision of how scientific advancements and design can work hand in hand, literally brewing up a product with unique characteristics ideal for production. Sure, I may not want to drink it, but it's easy to see the benefits of such a unique and easy form of textile production, especially in a world where cotton prices keep rising and textile production is usually not an eco-friendly endeavor.

So I'm taking this as a reminder: To look at raw materials in different ways, to continue collecting random information and filing it away in my memory, and to always be trying new things. Who knows where the next Big Thoughts will come from, but it could be as humble as a home-brewed jar of tea.

Alice Springs

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Alice Springs, or June Newton, is one of my favourite photographers. She is the wife of another famous photographer, the late Helmut Newton. Helmut's photographs are internationally recognized; his interest in the female body, specifically large and powerful women, comes across in an incredibly stimulating way. June's photographs often share a similar outlook: her subjects are mostly female based and often nude, but are shot from a very different point of view. I am so inspired by their lifetime together as lovers and contemporaries, and how their works feeds off each other's. I don't think you can have a full understanding of the work of one without looking at the other's as well.

In my favourite picture of her, taken by her husband, you can see the beauty both in stylistic elements, but also in capturing an intimate and suggestive moment.

She seems like a really cool lady. Here are some of her photos.

peace

artinfo

pas un autre

Compared to her husbands' stark and even kinky images, June's exude a softness—but have, I think, a very keen and sharp sense of humour to them. The portrayal of women by women differs greatly, and complicated issues of the male gaze no longer apply.

June is a great talent, who's work alone shows the passion that existed in her marriage. Here is a documentary she shot of their life. (This is part 1, the rest you can find on Youtube.)

richard porter

It seems, on the surface, that her life is dictated by his work, but you can see that he respects her not as an assistant but as a colleague. It takes a great woman to not feel overpowered by a successful partner, but to use it to her advantage—to take on the images that they both find inspiring and give a female point of view to the starkness of her husband's work. In one of Helmut's most famous photos you can see, just like in many others, that June is present, always on the side-lines, and just as much of a creator. 

Nailed It

Just over two weeks ago, I embarked on a terrifying mission. It was nerve-wracking, a battle of wills, and most of all, required patience (not always my best suit). I knew in the end, it would make me stronger, but at what cost?

Well, as it turns out, about $25 and about 5 minutes every other night.

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This winter has been brutally harsh on my nails. Maybe it's just because I'm older, or maybe it's because I've started vowing not to let the dirty dishes pile up for more than two days at a time, so my hands are in hot, soapy water more often than they're used to. All I know is that this year, the tips of my nails started cracking and peeling constantly, taking along with it any vestige of perfect painted polish and, of course, my sanity.

Because you see, I am a reformed nail biter. Yes, until the age of about 20, I would gnash my poor nails down to little nubs. It was a gross dirty habit that I had tried to kick many times before, and it wasn't until I found my triggers (ugly nails, ragged ends and stress) that I found the solution. Even that special polish that tastes bad didn't work on me. The solution is to keep my nails pretty and polished, try to have a nail file on hand at all times, and to chill the fuck out (I'm still working on the last one). As long as I can do these things, I am stone-cold sober.

So yeah, having polished nails that only lasted a day before they started chipping was wearing on my last nerve. But then I saw one of Jane Feltes' How to Be a Girl columns that asked about this exact question. So I took her advice, trucked on out to a Beauty Supply Outlet, and started applying OPI's Nail Envy.

It's kind of terrifying, not only because it costs $25 for one bottle of nail polish, but also because it's the only polish I've ever bought that comes with a paper insert of instructions.  Those instruction tell you to paint it on in three strokes, staring from 1/32 of an inch from your cuticle. Paint on two coats, then a coat every other day for a week, then take it off and start again for another week. And please, dear god, don't let this shit touch your skin at all. That's because, on every piece of packaging with it, comes this screamer of a warning:

CONTAINS FORMALDEHYDE

which to be perfectly honest, scared the living daylights out of me. Like, could I still eat with my hands, which is my heathen way of choice? Could I pet the cat? Would I die if this got in a hangnail?*

check out my all natural white tips!

Two weeks later, and I'm still breathing. And best of all, my nails are the best they've ever been. Seriously. They are longer than ever before, they are super strong, and the Nail Envy works like a super glossy top coat. I only chipped at the tip of a nail ONCE by a tiny bit when I was trying to pick off a lid. Who would have thought coating your nails in a rock-hard formaldehyde solution would make them superhuman? Plus, because I'm terrified of my stiff-as-a-board coating, I never ever try to mow down on my nails (and I heard a rumor that this makes them really difficult to bite after the fact too! Wheeee!)

So OPI Nail Envy. Worth every penny. Sure, there are other formulas that don't contain the formaldehyde, but where's the fun in that?


* FYI: a baker friend of mine said that a small amount of formaldehyde is often used in commercial gingerbread houses to make the cookies really stiff. That made me a lot less afraid, and also wow, food for thought come Christmastime.

Country Style

I was really struck by the latest post by miss moss, featuring picture of women living on a farm. In an ideal world I would like to live off the land, on a farm in the middle of nowhere (of course I would still need the Internet). I would happily grow vegetables and keep bees and saw wood (and snuggle bunnies, etc.).
Aside from all that, I was bowled over by the style of these women. While I am sure that no one who lives on a farm actually does their chores in a matching corduroy suit, the ladies look great, and their outfits reflect the rugged kind of masculine nature of the jobs they are doing. The outfits are at once frivolous and practical. They are not wearing overalls, but they do not look out of place in the wilderness. I particularly like the Rosie the Riveter-style outfit in the second-last photo, and the backwards cardigan in the picture with the chickens.

So what do you say, Amanda, should we move out rural Ontario and farm the land? We'd just have to learn to drive a tractor.


All pictures are from miss moss' blog, but taken from the LIFE photo archive, which I highly suggest you check out. Instant inspiration can be found in all decades.