AI WEI WEI: WHEN THINGS GO RYE WITH SUNFLOWER SEEDS

I think an artist who is clear on their intent make a stronger artist. I know that sounds stupid and basic, but believe me, there are many artists out there simply throwing up and tagging it art without understanding (or caring) what just took place, which is cool, I guess... just doesn't draw me into their world.

LA TOUSSAINT Á L'ITALIENNE

Autumn this year in the Lorraine is amazingly sweet. People are all a bit giddy by the sunlight and crisp blue skies we are experiencing.

Me  Like  It

With such an abundance of clear skies lately, many took advantage of the beautiful weather to clean and prep their loved-ones' cemetery plots for the upcoming la Toussaint.

People take scrub brushes, buckets and rags and spend dedicated time spiffing up burial plots of those they love. A dirty cemetery plot on la Toussaint could leave people talking for weeks. 

SOLAL'S PAGE PRIVÉE #1

BONJOUR TOUT LE MONDE!

Cette page était crée pour Mr. Booger Breath lui-même...SOLAL!! Et lui, seulement peut voir cette page.

Mr. Pas Beau m'a dit que tu aimes les batteries - c'est les drums baby, les drums! Voila ce dessous c'est les drummers fabuleuses:

RECIPE/RECETTE: ANN'S CHEESE MADELEINES

Anne's Cheese Madeleines

100 grams flour
5 grams levure chimique
50 grams sugar
70 grams butter
2 eggs
120 grams comté rapé
1/2 citron
a pinch of salt ( 2 grams)

Faites together and let settle in the frigo for about 15 minutes. Put in prepared madeleine mold (Anne used silicone). Cook at about 180C for 20 - 25 minutes.


Recipes on Pedaler probably only make sense to me. They are here so I don't forget what I did. If you can comprehend my scratch-notes, yay for you! Ask if you have questions.

MUDAM FOOT'S CAUGHT IN SPACE

Living near four borders gets me to and from certain countries in about the same time it takes to get to Santa Monica from Pasadena -- going 65 mph. Being able to say things like "See yah later, off to Germany for tofu!" does keep my spirits up. It's just too wild.

On my way for tofu one day, I decided to go via Luxembourg, to a museum in a city within the city, which has lots of space and an installation by a woman from Korea who lives in New York. After the museum and getting lost on the highway, going towards Brussels, I returned to France via Germany, with my tofu.

What the heck just happened here?

It's called space, babee, space. I played with space which played with my mind and allowed me to experience things and places in such a way that will never take place in space again.

cool...

IN COGNITO - WISH YOU WERE HERE

RECIPE/RECETTE: WHOLE EGG MAYONNAISE

Whole Egg Mayonnaise
When I arrived in France, mayonnaise sans mustard was sometimes difficult to find. I add a bit of  dijon or grain mustard (moutard à l'ancienne), if I wanna feel oh, so french.

1 egg from Madame Lapin's farm
a good pinch to a 1/4 tsp. salt
a good pinch to 1/8 tsp paprika
a gooder pinch to a h. 1/4 tsp of white pepper
a scant 1/2 cup sunflower, colza or grapeseed oil
@ 1 T lemon juice (a squigh from half a lemon)

Everything at room temperature, please. Let the magic begin...

FAITES DE LA MUSIQUE

Fête de la Musique is a free music festival taking place on the longest day of the year, June 21st. Its purpose is to encourage both amateur and professional musicians to perform on the streets together, and basically everyone have a groovy time. These all night extended music block parties have been going on in France since 1982 and now can be found all over the world, even in Pasadena!

It's a wonderful thing really. Sometimes known to get out of hand, but for the most part, people are there to have a good time.

BLOOD DAY: ARE YOU MY TYPE?

Before I left for Francie-pants, I dropped by the Pasadena Red Cross Center to give blood. If you qualify, giving blood is pretty darn easy; you can call or go online to make an appointment, or like me, drop in when you are in the midst of doing a ga-billion errands before you leave the country for 7 months.

Besides, if you give blood while running about like a crazy person, you have an excuse to eat 3 packs of mini oreo cookies afterwards*.

When I asked my nice nurse "what's your type", he flashed me gangsta-style:

                                  

   A Negative.   

You rock doll.

Don't worry, my nice nurse does not have legs growing out of his elbow. That's someone in the back giving platelets. Takes so long, you get to watch a movie, giving platelets...

LOUISE BOURGEOIS

I arrived in France last week not remembering how to speak french at all. Blah. Or rather, le blah...



So, I threw myself straight back into frenchy-isms, by listening, reading and trying to understand what was being said around me. It was while struggling to comprehend TÉLÉMATIN one morning that I heard a familiar name being said. "Louise Bourgeois" then something, "mort".

ART: PHOTOMATON-1

Photobooth images have been ruminating in my brain, ohhhh, since last September, easily. These palm-sized portraits are so joyous, often without inhibition. Sit. Smile. FLASH!

Anatol Josepho (Anatol Josephewitz), a Jewish immigrant to the US from Siberia, invented and patented the first fully-functioning photobooth in New York City in 1925. A few years later, he was paid one million dollars for his invention, giving half of this large sum to charity. Josepho continued his philanthropic ways after his move to Los Angeles, along with his actress-wife, Ganna, and their growing family. He died in L.A. in 1980.

A QUICK COLLAGE STORY

The moment he walked into the café, he coup de foudre'ed for her something serious.

As she placed the coffee in front of him, it was all he could do from planting a big one, smack on her lips....


...ahhh, love.



*There are 3 references to coffee in this collage - can you figure out what and where they are?

(˙ɹǝʇןıɟ ǝǝɟɟoɔ ɐ :ʇɹıʞs ɹǝɥ ˙3 ʇǝʞɔɐd ɹɐƃns ɐzzɐʌɐן :ʇɹıɥs sıɥ ˙2 „ǝsןǝ ʇɐɥʍ„ 'pɐ ossǝɹdsǝu :sʇuɐd sıɥ ˙1)*

SPRING IN ALTADENA

It's raining in the Moselle again. Blustery rains. Gray skies have been there for quite some time now. When the sun does peek through, folks there in France try and grab up as many rays as humanly possible. Lack of sunshine can be brutal on a human being.

Frankly, I'm glad to be in California right now.

BUTTERFLIES FLUTTER BY

The butterflies are beginning to appear everywhere in my work room. la-la-la!

This project has been freeing, even with my self-imposed structure, if that makes any sense. The challenge with color, composition and collage components; phew boy, quite something, but oh, so fun!

Opening a magazine or finding scraps of paper on the ground gets me to thinking, hmm, what a great monarch wing that would make! Purple and orange with a bit of yellow, what a fun painted lady that could be!

OPEN SKETCH - LET'S BEGIN

Today was a let-go day.

Let-go days are good. You never know what can come of a let-go day. Something. Nothing. An idea. Or not. Who cares?

Will it be a sketch, a poem, a song, a cake?

...you give it a go...let-go, let's see wassup.





 

SLOW . SCRUB . MOMENTUM . SLOW .

Funny how your brain can be all, oh, I wanna do this, this and this, but the body just sorta goes...blah. The butterflies have been a bit like that for me. I see 'em in my brain, all fluttering about, but the doing has been a bit..er, rough. After scrubbing a few boards today, all that changed. And also what I initially envisioned for these images changed - again! Uh, can’t wait to see how they turn out!

Recently, I've come to accept the fact that I work slow - as in methodical slow. From beginning ruminations in my head, to their final outcome. la.la.slow. Rushing is not my game. voila-ka-boom.

This can be er, a bit disconcerting for that lovely force known as momentum. But momentum can take on various levels of acceleration. Mine tends to be a bit turtle-ish.

Whatever impetus one's momentum chooses to take, it's gotta be there for anything to take place. Even in slow art. You can gain it, lose it, you can find it, feel it. Momentum is grand, at whatever pace.

BLOOD DAY

March is Red Cross month. Since 2003, I've tried to give blood as often as I can. I'm type 0 negative, which means my blood gets along with just about anyone. Less than 7% of the US population has 0 negative blood, so I'm sorta fortunate to have such deep red gooey groovy glop.

Donating blood is a trip. You feel as if you are in some very special private club. The people who work the banks are always calm and kind and the blood chairs totally rock, I've nodded off a few times - ha!

I love giving blood. The thought of my goop flowing through someone's veins is a bit of a high for me. Sure, I'm a bit drowsy the rest of the day and my arm has this funky purple mark on it for awhile - but whatever. It's a little thing to do with a beaucoup rewarding payoff.

WHO TOOK THE TUMERIC?

I've prepared this recipe from the french Saveurs, no. 172 twice so far.  In France with sole,  which is such an amazing beautiful, delicate fish (too delicate I think, for this sauce) and last night at Beth's, with shrimp.

The recipe does not tell you what to do with the teaspoonful of tumeric asked for; la-doink. Tumeric is cool and groovy and a wonderful surprise to this sauce, but tumeric for me, can sometimes be overpowering and bitter if used to extreme.  I used half the amount indicated and shoved it in during the sauce-making process, though it's probably sprinkled on somewhere towards the end - who knows.. . 

The sauce was pretty yummerful with shrimp. Everything was yummerful at last night's meal. Tangerine Negronis, filo stuffed with mushrooms, pomelo salad with sunflower seeds, roasted carrots... wow, simply yummerful.