#harbor lights

[laurkamkitchen]

This was a recent find that immediately went on my shortlist, as it just sounded right up my family's alley. I am not a huge pecan pie fan, nor do I generally like nuts in my brownies, but I do love caramelized pecans, so this just seemed too good not to make immediately.

I made this in full and admittedly caused issues for myself by trying to outsmart the instructions. I thought I could get away with starting on the caramelized pecan mixture first while I worked on the brownie batter. That was a silly mistake for a number of reasons.

Namely, you really do need to watch the nut mixture to make sure it's not sticking or burning. The brownie making part I also underestimated in terms of timing, so I had to leave the finished nut mixture to sit while I attempted to smooth the brownie batter evenly into my pan (Spoiler alert: not my best work. I blame the parchment paper.). I did try to keep the pecan mixture warmed, but even just a few minutes was too much cooling time in the end.

This baked beautifully, but even after an hour of cooling, the nut mixture was extremely crumbly, which I again blame on the fact that it should have still been hot and buttery when I poured it over the brownie batter, allowing them to bind to the surface of the brownies rather than just barely rest on top.

The ingredients don't call for any salt, which I might have taken more notice of had I not been rushing to get the brownie batter done, but which I thought was definitely noticeable in the final product. The pecan mixture especially could have used a hearty pinch.

Difficult to gauge the overall value of this recipe given that there is plenty here I'd go back and do differently. But if you love nuts and brownies as much as my family does, these are likely worth your while.

[adriancosio]

[michael-massa-micon]

New Orleans Harbor - December 2009 New Orleans can be a very raucous place to spend New Year’s Eve… unless you take a late night cruise of the harbor. There it was very quiet and almost peaceful as we passed the lights of the city. MWM

[sinceileftyoublog]

Bruce Hornsby Continues on the Trail

Bruce Hornsby performs at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, 10/17/23

BY JORDAN MAINZER

At one point last Tuesday in Milwaukee, in response to one of many moments in the night fans shouted their requests at him, Bruce Hornsby joked, "I love the battle between disparate elements of my audience." Funny enough, I can't think of a statement that better defines the virtuosic pianist and singer-songwriter. That is, what's amazing about Hornsby is not just that he's traversed the worlds of rock, jazz, bluegrass, but that he has diehard fans of each of his endeavors. Go to a Hornsby show--even a solo one like at the Pabst Theater, sans defunct backers The Range or current band The Noisemakers--and you're bound to find both classical music appreciators and Deadheads alike.

In that sense, 1998's Spirit Trail, a storied and purposeful left-turn into modern rock after the jazz-focused Harbor Lights and Hot House, exemplifies Hornsby's multi-pronged approach. On Friday, Hornsby will release a 25th anniversary reissue of the record via Zappo Productions and Thirty Tigers. It contains a remastered version of the record, four "lost" songs from an unfinished record that was meant to be Spirit Trail's follow-up (shelved in favor of the almost piano-less Big Swing Face), and previously unreleased live performances of many of the album's songs. In Milwaukee, venue employees were handing out early CD copies of the reissue, the night a celebration of both Spirit Trail and Hornsby's discography as a whole.

Per usual, audience members requested songs both by shouting them out and via written submission, dropped off on stage prior to the show. As expected, they were all over the place, from Spirit Trail and even Lost Trail tunes to songs he simply refused to play because they were too boring or didn't age well, like "Dreamland" and "The Old Playground". Ever cheeky, at one point, Hornsby asked for requests and responded to the various audible shouts, "I haven't heard what I'm looking for yet." It was clear he wanted to give preference to Spirit Trail. He led off the night with "Preacher in the Ring Pt. I", his jaunty piano playing covering the song's ground in totality. You didn't even miss Sonny Emory's clacking drums from Live Trail, nor the dulcimer from both the studio and live versions of "Shadow Hand". Hornsby's finger exercises were simply a masterclass. He wrote standout track "Sneaking Up on Boo Radley" by learning to play over a left-hand ostinato, appropriating György Ligeti's "Etude 13: The Devil's Staircase", and nailed it live. It was a perfect Spirit Trail song to play without a band. His voice, too, was on point, wailing on the Black Crowes-inspired Lost Trail tune "Living in the Sunshine", doing justice to the studio version that indeed sounds like it could be sandwiched between the Southern rockers' "Remedy" and "Thorn in My Pride".

Yes, Hornsby's reach and influence goes beyond Spirit Trail. "The Show Goes On" has been featured in everything from Ron Howard's Backdraft to The Bear. During the set last Tuesday, he segued "Sidelines"--a duet from 2022's terrific 'Flicted with Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig--into his most famous song of all, "The Way It Is", during which he invited set opener/Bon Iver drummer S. Carey out to harmonize. That over the past decade Hornsby has fostered fruitful collaborations with the likes of Justin Vernon and Blake Mills is more evidence that he's as shaped by his contemporaries as his organic musical interests. So put yourself in his shoes in the mid-1990s, and you can hear his response to the sociopolitical and musical landscape of the past decade in many of the songs on Spirit Trail. He's asking himself tough questions about his own Southern heritage, challenging institutional racism on songs like "See the Same Way". The strummed mandolin of "Preacher in the Ring Pt. II" recalls Steve Earle's "Copperhead Road", "Resting Place" and "Pete & Manny" the radio-friendly heartland rock of Mellencamp and Petty. Yet, Hornsby's also dipping his toes in the worlds of electronica and hip hop, songs like the shuffling "Line in the Dust" written on a synth bed and with a drum machine beat like much of the second disc of Spirit Trail. And of course, the goofily titled "Sunflower Cat (Some Dour Cat) (Down With That)" is built around a sample of Jerry Garcia's riff on "China Cat Sunflower", as Hornsby was trying to explain the appeal of the Grateful Dead to producer Mike Mangini, a hip hop head. Mangini was so taken aback by the former band member's performance that he wrote a groove around the riff.

On fan favorite piano ballad and Spirit Trail highlight "Fortunate Son", Hornsby sings, "I've stared down the devil and had to look away." The song is ostensibly written from the point of view of a wheelchair-bound military veteran, lucky to be alive but maligning society's penchant to ascribe sacrificial glory to a life of physical limitations. I've always heard it, though, as the general antithesis to tough guy nihilism, whether action heroes or strong and silent singer-songwriters. Hornsby is the ultimate reflector, yet not quite ready to face mortality like many of the characters in his songs. After last Tuesday and 25 years of Spirit Trail, it certainly does seem like he's only just getting started.

[elderwisp]

STILL GOIN ꩜ tessellate returns october eighth

[lotus-pear]

rewatched madoka magica again today bc i fucking hate myself and to absolutely no one’s surprise i went through all five stages of grief in a single evening

[thinwhitedoc]

SHERLOCK | Martin Freeman as John Watson

[jadafitch]

LIGHTHOUSES OF MAINE Together at last. This poster features an illustration of all 66 Maine lighthouses. From Whaleback Light in Kittery, East to Quoddy Head, and all the lights in between, every lighthouse has stories. Families that kept the lamps lit through blizzards, life-saving dogs, puffins brought back from the brink of extinction, even cows in row boats. All under the watch of Maine's iconic and historic towers. Each illustration depicts a bit of that lighthouse's history, past and present. Individually numbered, with the corresponding name at the bottom of the poster. -18 X 24 in (46.5 X 61 cm) -Signed -Matte finish BUY THE POSTER

[irenespring]

Fellow progressives: do not spread images with the red triangle

Possibly stepping on a minefield but what the fuck. Someone I follow just reblogged someone celebrating the Hamas red triangle and the post is full of notes saying people calling the red triangle antisemitic are just against Palestine and are colonialists.

This has also happened before with a mutual so it seems like something non-Jewish people just might not know: the red triangle---unlike symbols such as the Palestinian flag and the watermelon---is explicitly pro-Hamas. Not pro-Palestine, pro-Hamas. Hamas is the organization that singled out civilians rather than actual military targets in order to kill the largest number of innocent Jews possible. They committed mass atrocities ending in the largest slaughter of Jewish civilians in one day since the Holocaust.

You cannot be pro-Hamas without being antisemitic. You cannot spread Hamas symbols without having done an antisemitic action. So, don't spread the red triangle. It isn't pro-Palestine. It just makes your Jewish mutuals upset and uncomfortable around you.

[nickdewolfarchive]

hong kong, 1972

sha tin floating restaurant

photograph by nick dewolf https://www.flickr.com/photos/dboo/52407350516

[laurkamkitchen]

I sourced a cookie cutter shaped like a heart with an arrow through it a few months ago, and I've been looking forward to making Valentine's sugar cookies with it ever since. This recipe was a little bit lighter on the processed ingredients than others and allowed me to use some of my beetroot powder. And the Banana Diaries truly has some of the best dessert recipes out there, vegan, gluten free, or otherwise, so this seemed quite promising.

I halved this using regular Greek yogurt. It's been a while since I've really done anything complex with gluten-free flours, and I'm not sure how much I thought through the effect they would have here, though I've certainly seen far worse.

The main issue was just how sticky my dough was. I followed the metric measurements for the flours and only noticed afterward that my bag of cassava had a recommended metric ratio that did not align with what the recipe said. We are talking a difference of less than 10 grams, but this is gluten-free baking at some of its most sensitive, so I wonder if that's where I went wrong.

An hour plus in the fridge helped, but the dough was still pretty sticky and difficult to roll out. And naturally, the shape of my cookie cutter was not exactly working in my favor; most of my 6 shapes had issues before they even went into the oven.

I cooled for about 30 minutes before returning to frost. I had left the frosting in the fridge for roughly this same period, which even before I did so knew might be a mistake. Most of the cookies were still quite soft, so handling them in order to actually frost them was a highly delicate process, not helped by how thick and unspreadable the frosting had become.

So this could have gone better (especially had I used a round cookie cutter), but I really just made these for myself, so their aesthetic flaws are really not issues at all. I can't say that they came close to my beloved crack cookies, but for a vegan, gluten-free treat, they are pretty damn good.

[autumncottageattic]

ryanzipp

Stage Harbor Light is a lighthouse in Chatham, Massachusetts built in 1880.

[gbiechele]

Late Summer Morning Maine Asahi Auto-Takumar 55mm f/1.8 Sony A7

[boymagicalgirl]

Harbor Light Monogatari: Fashion Lala Yori (1988)

[1lifeinspired]

New Harbor, Maine ~ Ryan Zipp

[maxphotoarchive]