After making my way through Logan (is it me or has security gotten a lot more efficient) to the “secure area” I landed a prime people watching seat at Lucky’s and ordered up a dirty martini and fries. Next NewsLink for trashy reading. Come on, I’m flying. Though I also carried a copy of New York Magazine (I subscribe) and Dave EggersZeitoun should I have opted for something more elevated.
Having been on an uneventful, but loooooong flight I was very happy to get into my room at the Hotel Monaco. Once in, bags down, I found my aquatic buddy for the weekend Albert. He seems a lovely little goldfish, full of energy and with none of the pretentiousness of one of those James Bond-like aquariums I read about last week in the Times.
The first day of the International Food Blogger Conference (IFBC) was in “culinary high gear’ featuring the likes of Dianne Jacob and Kristine Kidd leading the informative workshop “The Art of Recipe Writing and Kathleen Flinn orchestrating the learning and hilarious seminar “Writing With All Five Senses.”
Every manner of recording device emerged from bags and pocketbooks onto the rows of tables lined up close together in a room of the Theo Chocolate factory. IPADS, IPhones (from what I could observe these were used primarily for Twittering, something I learned today some food bloggers are “aggressive” about), Blackberrys (presumably also for Twittering), laptops, digital cameras, applicable cables, and on occasion (such as with myself) a notebook and pen for taking copious notes.
As a young blogger (less than 18 months) I continue to find I have a lot to learn about how to improve Delicious Musings. My voice, style, how I utilize links, and overall experience one has reading this blog. I will be incorporating some of the practical advice I learned today in posts featuring recipes (look for more cultural or historical information in the headnotes and nutritional data when appropriate) and to dig deeper into the experience of a dish utilizing more verbs to describe its smell, texture, and sound.
Cult artist/illustrator/underground cartoonist Robert Crumb will be 67 next Monday. Since I will be traveling that day it did not seem all that wrong to post this tribute now. Crumb and his work have been described as no less than twisted, disgusting, heroic, transformative, monstrous, sexist, misogynistic, anti-establishment, misanthropic, socially autistic, genius, and visionary. There is no question he is offbeat and his work frank. I am not an art critic or a comic book collector, I was not alive to enjoy the reign of Creem, but ever since a friend introduced me to Crumb’s work I have been drawn to it in a “this is fascinatingly disturbing and brilliant” way. His outrageous characters (whether you love them or hate them they are that) are bold and uncensored. Some seem like they fell off of a drug induced trip that sputtered down a back alley far too long before a disturbing end. He is the visual partner to Bukowski and Kerouac’s mad road trips to hell and not all the way back.
Project Thirty-Three is a soulful display of vintage album covers from the personal collection of the owner of Jive Time Records, a Seattle based store specializing in used vinyl. David (Jive’s owner) scanned each jacket cover creating an online gallery archived by shape, typography, and instrument.
If you like what you see there, you might also enjoy Groove Is In The Art, his other album cover gallery featuring colorfully illustrated jackets with psychedelic graphics.
I cannot remember how I came across Kate Neckel’s work, but I can tell you I was super excited when I did. Let’s start with the fact that she was hired by the Ace Hotel in NYC (the home of the infamous sandwich boasting pockets of bourbon) to draw on the walls of Room 1208.
Once during an alcohol induced weekend of excessive behaviour with wild friends and members of the Ohio University men’s ice hockey team I spray painted on an outside wall. It was the beginning and end of me drawing on any walls, and certainly not an experience that aided my time researching a promotional piece for the Julian Schnabel film “Basquiat” during my days at Miramax Films. My college stunt may not have unearthed any interest in graffiti artists, but my time on “Basquiat” most certainly did. That, similar work on independent films, and living in the East Village (and later Los Angeles) reading Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Robbins, Jack Kerouac and Charles Bukowski greatly influenced my frame of mind. Gone were the impressionists with pretty water lilies and sunflowers, in were honest unchartered territories to be challenged and explored.
I don’t know if I would have appreciated artists such as Kate Neckel before that time, which would have been such a shame. Her doodles/illustrations and videos are incredibly fun, and as the smart folks at the Ace knew can transform the visual boundaries of a space.
Kate’s “stuff” is inspired by skateboards, dreams, lust/love, little yellow birds, rituals, patterns, surfing, a love of tulips, and so on…
Kate is available for commission work: kate at kateneckel.com or for more info and to see more of her work please visit her website.
***Photos are by Cara Bloch please do not use without permission of the artist. Please email her for permission: carablock at aol.com
Not the fanciest thing and you cannot see my face, but this was fun to do and I really do eat Galaxy Nutritional’s cheese alternatives (when not eating goat or sheep’s cheese, both of which thankfully I can digest).
