#paul was smoking that italian art history

[aquarianshift]

there are seven levels?

"Images of ladders and stairways express the desire to reestablish the broken connection between man and divinity, between earth and Heaven. In Christian iconography, it may have seven or twelve steps. The seven correspond to the different levels of spiritual elevation: the planetary spheres that the soul must cross before reaching the sphere of fixed stars, or the seven liberal arts, symbols of the achievement of perfection through moral and intellectual education."

-Symbols and Allegories in Art (2005), Matilde Battistini, trans. Stephen Sartarelli

[partwildflower]

10 of London’s must-visit secret art galleries

Whether you’re looking for on-the-rise artists or the Western world’s most esteemed Old Masters, London’s art trail never disappoints. Its landmark museums and galleries are strangers to no-one – but swap a day at the Tate for a clutch of lesser-known galleries, to experience the city’s creative flair from a cutting-edge, and often far less crowded angle.

Pedro Reyes at the Lisson Gallery, 27 Bell Street, London. Image courtesy of Lisson Gallery/Pedro Reyes

Lisson Gallery

Since its opening in 1967, Lisson Gallery has brought celebrated artists to the forefront of London’s art scene, with Anish Kapoor, Lee Ufan, Ai Weiwei and Richard Deacon just some of the internationally-acclaimed names to have made their mark within its clean, all-white interiors. Perfectly placed between Edgware Road station and Regent’s Park, it’s a must-visit for anyone making their rounds of Marylebone’s upscale boutiques and landmark museums.

Address: 67 Lisson St, Marylebone, London NW1 5DA

Maureen Paley

Wander east of the capital’s hip-and-happening Shoreditch to find this small gem of a gallery, hidden away in a warehouse-style building so discreet and nondescript, that anyone searching for it would almost certainly walk right past its door. A moment’s walk from Bethnal Green station and garden, its red-brick façade conceals fascinating interiors, however, as it shows off the ground-breaking multimedia works of contemporary artists, including Turner prize winners Wolfgang Tillmans and Gillian Wearing.

Address: 21 Herald St, London E2 6JT

Dulwich Picture Gallery, London. Image courtesy of Dulwich Picture Gallery/Adam Scott

Dulwich Picture Gallery

Founded in 1811, this quaint Dulwich hub is the world’s first purpose-built art gallery that houses more than 600 paintings to date. From the works of Rembrandt, Canaletto, Rubens and Fragonard across its permanent collection, to its fascinating themed exhibitions, talks and community-led learning programmes, it’s an institution within its local community and a landmark destination for fine art-lovers – yet retains its under-the-radar status, particularly by way of its location, tucked away near Dulwich Park in leafy southeast London.

Address: Gallery Rd, London SE21 7AD

Victoria Miro

Spread across a former furniture factory in Hoxton and a classic red-brick building behind Sotheby’s in Mayfair, Victoria Miro is perhaps best known amongst modern art fanatics for housing the playfully dotted sculptures of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Since its conception in the 1980s, it has also been graced by the works of Grayson Perry, Isaac Julien, Idris Khan, and more international names boasting varied portfolios of paintings, sculptures, photography and cinematic installations.

Address: 16 Wharf Rd, Hoxton, London N1 7RW

‘Leaving the Theatre’ by Carlo Carra (1910) at the Estorick Collection, London. Image courtesy of Estorick Collection

Estorick Collection

A London go-to for acquainting yourself with modern Italian art at its finest, the Estorick Collection opened in 1998 within the walls of a Grade II listed Georgian townhouse, to exhibit Futurist artwork alongside figurative art and sculptures from the late 1800s to the 1950s. Its carefully curated exhibitions are thoughtful and exemplary, with famous names such as Modigliani, Emilio Greco and Marcello Geppetti displaying the influence and power of Italian art and culture.

Address: 39A Canonbury Square, London N1 2AN

Hauser & Wirth

Though it has no fewer than nine venues across the world, set in everything from an impressive Gstaad chalet to a converted Somerset farm, Hauser & Wirth remains an independent gallery offering a refreshing take on contemporary art. Located in a sought-after central London location – the prestigious Savile Row – it presents the works of both emerging and established talent, with an impressive roster that includes Paul McCarthy, Fausto Melotti and Fabio Mauri. Expect spectacular diversity across the board – from the themes explored, to the mediums showcased, to the many origins and stories of its international artists.

Address: 23 Savile Row, Mayfair, London W1S 2ET

‘Loie Hollowell: Dominant / Recessive’ at Pace Gallery, London. Image courtesy of Pace Gallery/Damian Griffiths

Pace Gallery

Situated between Piccadilly Circus and Green Park tube stations, Pace Gallery enjoys a central location in a wing of the Royal Academy of Arts. Founded in Boston in 1960, you’ll find its venues across New York, Hong Kong, Beijing, Seoul, Palo Alto and Geneva – making it rather well-known amongst seasoned art followers, yet unknown enough for you to enjoy a relatively crowd-free day of art-viewing in the Big Smoke.

Address: 6 Burlington Gardens, Mayfair, London W1S 3ET

The Crypt Gallery

A goose bump-inducing site of historic wonder, the Crypt of St Pancras Paris Church has been used throughout its 200-year-old history as a burial site and air raid shelter, before its most recent transformation into a gallery space – leading the way for imaginative art venues in central London. Wander its vaulted underground pathways to explore its thought-provoking programme of 21st-century art exhibitions and immersive dance performances.

Address: Euston Rd, Kings Cross, London NW1 2BA

‘A Coin in Nine Hands – Part 1’ (2017) at Large Glass, London. Image courtesy of Large Glass

Large Glass Gallery

Open Wednesday to Saturday, this Caledonian Road hotspot offers a unique and innovative approach to its curation of contemporary art, with photography, sculpture and abstract paintings all featuring highly across its all-grey walls. Named after and inspired by the mind of Marcel Duchamp, it has housed the works of American visionary Sol LeWitt, Italian artist Guido Guidi and more, across a series of thoughtful thematic exhibitions since its opening in 2011.

Address: 392 Caledonian Rd, London N1 1DN

Banner Repeater

Housed along platform one of Hackney Downs railway station (yes, you read that correctly), Banner Repeater is an artist-run library and exhibition space set in the most unique of locations – a project which, funded by the Art in Empty Spaces government initiative, has helped introduce a rich cultural offering to the local community, as well as bring disused premises back to life. Just be mindful of its opening times when planning your visit: 8-11am Tuesday to Thursday, 11am-6pm on Friday, and 12-6pm on weekends.

Address: Hackney Downs Network Rail, Platform 1 Dalston Ln, London E8 1LA

Written for Secret Escapes’ blog, The Great Escape, published 18 September 2018.

[krissidanielle]

An Art History Primer

by Kristian Krawford

      I spent many years studying art history in school and dearly loved it. So allow me a few moments to share the fruits of my education with you. Here is your art schooling without the cost of tuition. And you can really impress your friends with all your refinement!

    We begin in Egypt from 3,000 to 330 BC. The style was marked by stiff figures in profile, subject matter was gods and goddesses, kings and queens, jackal-headed deities and the occasional cat. Egyptians were strong believers in the afterlife and decorated tombs with things they felt one needed in eternity.

    Greece from 1200-200 BC. Not much art has survived from this period other than pots, all decorated in geometric patterns—zigzags, chevrons, checkerboards, diamonds. Also Homeric scenes and later some Kouroi statues.

    Rome from 700 BC- AD 500. Virtually everything we know of Greek art comes to us from the Romans. They were the ultimate copycats, conquering the Greek world and plundering their treasures. They did the same to Egypt. They were the first art patrons and art collectors. A tradition that continued for centuries.

    The Dark Ages AD 600-1350. This title is a misnomer as it was a very exciting time in the world. This was the era of beautiful churches, of Charlemagne (my own great-grandfather), the university and of some really beautiful art.

    Charlemagne was King of the Franks and the first Holy Roman Emperor. His empire was called Carolingian and he set out to change the world. He built monasteries and churches, basilicas, murals, sculptures and frescoes—almost none of which have survived. What have survived are beautiful illuminated manuscripts from this time period, which is also called Romanesque because it draws on Roman models.

    One way it was Roman-like was in its bigger and better churches. The architecture at the time, centered in Paris, was called Gothic by Giorgio Vasari, who intended it as an insult. It means “crude and barbaric.” Gothic style was simply the over decoration of a house of God. Elaborate stone tracery, crested finials, painted details—miscellaneous doodads. All crafted by anonymous artisans.

    A French historian (Jules Michelet) coined the term Renaissance, meaning “rebirth,” in the 1800’s. And because the subject is so broad and involves so many artists, I could go on for pages. So for the sake of brevity, some things will receive only a passing mention.

    The Renaissance can be divided into High and Low or Early and Late. The major artists of the Early Period were Giotto (first to paint three-dimensional people); Masaccio (mastered groups of figures); Lorenzo Ghiberti (spent 21 years working on the bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery aka. Gates of Paradise); Donatello (invented relief sculpture); and Filippo Brunelleschi (architect of the Duomo and first to apply the rules of perspective to art).

    The major artists of the Late Period were: Sandro Botticelli (known for sensuous human forms, i.e. Birth of Venus); Leonardo da Vinci (arguably the most famous artist ever of the most famous painting ever, i.e. Mona Lisa); Michelangelo (started out in Florence, moved to Rome to paint the Sistine ceiling); Raphael (another darling of the papacy and one of my personal faves. I love School of Athens); Tintoretto (he closes out the High Renaissance with a Mannerist style); and Titian (greatest Venetian painter, he painted a lot of mythological subjects).

    Some interest tidbits about Leonardo before closing out the Renaissance entirely. Leonardo wasn’t just an artist. He was a scientist, architect, engineer, draftsman, inventor and jack of all trades. He studied the human body by dissecting cadavers and imagined flight hundreds of years before the Wright brothers. He was interested in everything, yet finished almost nothing. He was a master of unfinished work. In fact, the Mona Lisa is one of only a handful of pieces he ever completed. And it was his personal favorite that he carried with him until his death. For centuries, Mona Lisa has remained an enigma. Not just her identity but her unusual expression. Is she or isn’t she smiling? According to Vasari, Leonardo painted a very melancholy sitter. He employed magicians, jesters and theatre performers to entertain her while he painted. It was while painting this portrait that he developed his sfumato technique (Italian for “like smoke”) in which colors and form subtly merge. It would become his trademark.

    The Northern Renaissance is also divided into Low and High. These are the best known Low artists: Jan van Eyck (founder of Flemish painting, he painted the Ghent Altarpiece); Rogier van der Weyden (known for attention to detail and portraits of nobles); and Hieronymous Bosch (known for fantastical landscapes of a dark, medieval world).

    The High Artists of the Northern Renaissance are: Albrecht Durer (not to my liking but this German artist is known for his engravings and woodcuts); and Pieter Breughel the Elder (Flemish painter known for allegories and parables of peasant life).

    Baroque came after the Renaissance. It was a time of courtly festivals and royal ceremony. The term meant to be an insult—“degenerate.”  Caravaggio was the most famous Baroque artist. A rogue character (even tried for murder), he was a naturalistic painter known for dramatic light. He placed ordinary people in his paintings of religious subjects. Scandalous! Peter Paul Rubens painted nobles while El Greco was known for his elongated figures. Rembrandt, considered the greatest Dutch painter ever, was known for his unusual lighting in which he made the most ordinary of people look mysterious. Jan Vermeer, also known for interesting light effects, enjoyed painting the Dutch bourgeoisie. Lastly, Velazquez was a great Spanish painter most interested in royalty.

   From the 1700’s to the 19th century, there were four major art movements: Rococo, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and Realism.

    Rococo (c. 1730-1800) was art of the boudoir. It was a flirty, fanciful way of decorating the canvas. The main artists (all French) were Francois Boucher, Jacques-Louis David (I can’t stand that guy), Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres, Eugène Delacroix and Gustave Courbet.

    Neoclassicism (c. 1750-1820) was a genre in which artists copies the simple designs and restrained ornament of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The main artists Jacques-Louis David (I still can’t stand him), Antonio Canova, Jean-Antoine Houdon (known for his amazing bust sculptures of Ben Franklin and George Washington) and Jean-Dominique Ingres.

    Romanticism (c. 1780-1850) was melodramatic portrayals of imaginary subjects. The best known artists were Eugène Delacroix, Francisco de Goya and William Blake—a wonderful writer who illustrated his poems.

    Realism (c. 1848-1875) was basically a reaction to the excesses of Romanticism and some Neoclassicism. In this movement, it was the Americans who led the way. Many were painting beautiful landscapes of their young nation on large canvases. The landscapists were Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church, Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran. Realist artists were Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins.

    Ah, Impressionism! Who doesn’t love it? It all began in 1874 when a group of Paris-based artists who’d been rejected by the Salon were mockingly called “Impressionists” by the April 25th issue of Le Charivari magazine. The name stuck. The style itself was marked by a close observation of nature whereby marks of pure color are placed side by side to create the effects of light on the canvas. They also differed in subject matter, tossing out literary subjects, mythology, and even history. They focused instead on scenes of everyday life. They also abandoned contour, modeling and precise details.

Though Èdouard Manet is the founding father of Impressionism, it is Claude Monet who is most often associated with it. Other stars are: Edgar Degas (he favored ballet dancers); Auguste Renoir (young women and rosy-cheeked girls); Alfred Sisley (the only Brit in the mix); and Mary Cassatt (the only American and most famous woman).

    From 1874 to 1886, the Impressionists exhibited together a total of 8 times, but long before they broke up, the members were moving on to other things.

    Post-Impressionism is a catch-all term to describe all the art that came after Impressionism. It also relied on the use of bright colors and splashy brushwork, but differed in what artists were feeling and saying. The stars of this movement were: Georges Seurat (inventor of Pointillism and a personal fave); Paul Gaugin (the native-loving man of bright colors); Vincent Van Gogh (most mad and magnetizing); and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (decorative posters of cabaret life).

    Expressionism was marked by sometimes violent colors, abstract forms and emotional subjects. The big Expressionists were: Edvard Munch; Henri Matisse (inventor of Fauvism); Wassily Kandinsky (inventor of Abstraction); and Amadeo Modigliani (lover of long, lean bodies and necks); and the Viennese love-chronicler, Gustav Klimt.

    Cubism is my least favorite genre so will receive scant mention here. It was the first totally abstract art movement—not at all representational—relying on geometric forms. Created by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, they were influenced by Cézanne, modern science and African masks.

    Dada was a brief European anti-art movement that sprang up after WW1. It spawned the likes of Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst and Man Ray. I take back what I said about Cubism being my least favorite. Dada is.

    Surrealism came after Dada and although it was primarily a literary movement, it translated well into art. Basically about the relationship between dreams and the unconscious, this movement gave us Marc Chagall, Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí.

    Constructivism was another brief art genre, this one centered in Russia. It spawned no internationally known starts, only regional artists on a mission.

    Abstract Expressionism was about bigness—big canvases, big brushes, big cans of house paint, big male egos. It was also almost totally American. The main men were: Jackson Pollock (big drips and splatters); Willem de Kooning (brushy abstractions); and Mark Rothko (large blocks of color).

    Pop Art is populist art. It’s representational and easily comprehensible. It’s spawned some very famous artists—Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, to name a few. These artists rejected nature and instead focused on the manmade.

    Minimalism came after Pop Art and spawned Frank Stella and a few minor artists.

    So what genre is the art of today and where is it headed? Well, all the art since is generally lumped into the category of post-modernism and involves artists deriving their work from both natural and manmade sources. Today artists even use a third source—the wonderfully human imagination. Artists also create their work from many different mediums. Today, we have oil painters, acrylic artists, watercolorists, charcoal and pencil artists, collage artists and even mixed-media artists who use a combination of all of the above to create their unique works. And let’s not forget digital artists who create their imaginary worlds entirely on computer. Though future historians will have a difficult time categorizing the art of today, one thing is for certain: they won’t lack for interesting and beautiful paradigms to study.

[spiceculturethings]

Spice Culture:

Situated in an old modern distribution center in the Arts District of downtown LA, the solitary hint warning Indian and Chinese lunch burger joints to Bestia's area is its splash painted name and valet remain in the rear entryway by the primary passageway.

Inside, Bestia has an upscale metropolitan engineering feel with uncovered block dividers, solid floors, and an open kitchen where culinary specialist Ori Menasche (who possesses the eatery with his better half, cake cook Genevieve Gergis) turns out close wonderful Italian-propelled manifestations that have made his café perhaps the hardest reservation since it opened three years prior.

Champion menu things incorporate a wide choice of house-made salumi, simmered marrow bone with spinach gnocchetti, pizza with house-made fiery 'nduja and dark cabbage, and spaghetti with lobster and ocean imp.

At the point when Andy Ricker opened Pok in 2008, he took Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, and a considerable lot of the country's most committed eaters by storm with his interestingly refined way to deal with Southeast Asian road food (procuring himself a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northwest in 2011).

His Vietnamese-motivated chicken wings, charcoal cooked chicken, and green papaya serving of mixed greens stay must-arrange dishes, yet the enormous assortment of local Thai dishes — arranged steadfastly to the plans Ricker has fastidiously found during his excursions to Thailand — make each dinner an experience.

The New York area unfortunately quit for the day the previous summer following six years, however the Portland unique remaining parts one of the country's incredible culinary objections.

Culinary expert Sarah Grueneberg sharpened her chops as leader cook at Chicago's incredible Italian eatery Spiaggia prior to opening Monteverde in Chicago's West Loop in 2015, and after two years she was granted with a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes.

A visit to the café (in the event that you can catch a booking) will effortlessly clarify why she's acquired such an honor: This eatery is outrageously acceptable, effectively among the top Italian spots in Illinois, and country on the loose.

It's playful and exuberant, and large numbers of the pastas are made in-house in full perspective on cafes. Apparently straightforward pasta dishes like pumpkin tortelli and spaghetti al pomodoro are raised higher than ever with the utilization of fixings like mostarda di Cremona and Abruzzese juniper smoked ricotta, and non-pasta dishes like skate schnitzel and frutti di horse with Sardinian couscous are deserving of recognition by their own doing.

A cut of New Orleans, Louisiana, feasting history — it opened in 1880 — this culinary milestone has for quite some time been gathering honors for everything from its support of its wine list and Indian order food online obviously its "haute Creole" food. Two of its graduated class, it very well may be noted, are Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse — however with cook Tory McPhail at the stoves for longer than 10 years, Commander's Palace is as yet pushing ahead.

Come eager and prepared for such dishes as the incredible turtle soup; walnut crusted Gulf fish with squashed corn cream, spiced walnuts, dainty spices, and prosecco-poached Louisiana blue crab; and the 14-ounce focus cut veal slash Tchoupitoulas over goat cheddar corn meal and neighborhood vegetables.

Found 40 stories up in a structure right external Chicago's famous raised Loop, Everest offers perhaps the best view in the city from a quieted and exquisite lounge area. As owner of this AAA Five Diamond Award beneficiary, gourmet specialist Jean Joho offers a seven-course tasting menu (with a vegan alternative); a starter, maybe, of cold-squeezed lobster and potato terrine may be trailed by a filet of wild sturgeon enveloped by prosciutto and a pear soufflé dessert. A monstrous wine list is accessible too.

[northamptoncouplestherapy]

There is a thin line between sacrificing a lamb and striking a deal with the Devil.

We give up whole parts of ourselves to belong in our families. In turn, for those of us who dare to come home to ourselves, we risk losing our family and severing the ties that bind us.

When I was twenty-one, I became the first member of my family to earn a college degree. In hindsight, this seemingly positive milestone, or the culmination thereof, both gave and spared me a lifetime of heartache. By achieving an advanced education and moving just an hour from home, I unknowingly left my family, and in doing so, embarked on the long, arduous task of breaking through the invisible (but formidable) barriers of class and intergenerational trauma.

Pittsfield is a city people never leave or never return to; I only knew I had to go —that hanging out with girls who were “dating” their father’s friends and losing five of my cohort in just ten months to alcohol, suicide, and drugs filled me with foreboding. My peers and I shared a unique darkness. One that went beyond the cynical, independent, and pragmatic nature that hallmarks Generation X. We shared history rooted in trauma bonds. Collective memories steeped in Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd, psychedelics and Jack Daniels, sex hallmarked by confusion versus consent, a blur between victim and perpetrator —think Lord of the Flies meets Heavy Metal.

Despite having just over forty-one thousand residents, my hometown lays claim to one of America’s highest crime rates (from the smallest towns to the very largest of cities). If you visit, you have a 1 in 27 chance of being a victim of a violent crime. Put differently; you’re more likely to be mugged or collide with a drunk driver than to get COVID19 while not wearing a mask. The irony is the city lies nestled in the center of the sleepy Berkshire hills. The surrounding landscape, a living Norman Rockwell painting, populated by wealthy New Yorkers and nineteenth-century “cottages.” Home to the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood, where tourists eat bacon-wrapped figs and sip Sauvignon Blanc on the lawn. The Berkshires —where you can visit Herman Melville’s house in Lenox and score crack in Pittsfield, all in the space of an hour.

My twenty-one-year-old self-fled to the Pioneer Valley, and misfit though I was, I claimed it as my home. Just fifty-one miles as the crow flies, it kept me within driving distance of my closely knit (but) turbulent clan while affording me the possibility of a new life. Northampton was both academic and bohemian, brimming with universities, bookstores, cafes, and the arts. It was an altogether different planet, and it terrified me.

I had no idea of the implications of this move —of what it meant to transition from a working-class family in a post-industrial ghost town ravaged by racial and class warfare to a white-collar world steeped in privilege and academia. I could not foresee the coils that spun out from my childhood to my future. How they’d wrap around my life like the tentacles of a giant squid, choking me, pulling at my dreams, dragging me under —how I’d thrash, how it would take decades before my lungs acclimated to the water that would birth me, and the casualties of connection to be incurred along the way.

*****

When we were teens, we traversed Pittsfield via an underground network of train tracks. We believed that if we put an ear to the railway metal, we would hear the train coming long before seeing it. That as long as we maintained a vigilance by pressing an occasional cheek against the hot-rolled steel, we’d anticipate the train’s arrival —hear the hissing of the rails, feel the engine’s vibration in our skull. In hindsight, this is how we lived our days. A trick we played to maintain the illusion of immortality –we believed that a car full of balloons would cushion a crash, that powder and smoke were less lethal than needles.

The reality was, we were often too stoned or just plain afraid, so we never actually listened for the train. Never anticipated the deaths of our friends.

We lost the first one to suicide. Pinned between two car bumpers on a Friday night bender, Paul never acclimated to his right legs’ amputation. Several months following the accident, he shot himself in the face in front of his fiancé. Then there was the motorcycle crash. Timmy was a bad boy from the town’s outskirts; he had warm cocoa curls and a smile sweeter than John Travolta. He flew his Harley around a corner, jacked on cocaine, and never landed. That same Autumn, up Barker Road, Ryan and Ellen wrapped their green Chevy Nova around a maple tree — he lived, she did not, their newborn baby home sleeping in her grandma’s arms.

Dearest to me was Bill, driven mad by an excess of Gooney Birds —that particularly potent blotter he partook of as a daily sacrament, so much so that the blur between his tripping and psychosis became indistinguishable. I can personally attest to the magic in those dime-size tabs, how it tingled your tongue and altered reality for days. Under its influence, I saw a bag of marshmallows breathe, watched my cousin’s hand melt into the ochre shag of a van rug. That November, Bill’s delusions drove him wild and deep into the woods of Hatfield; his body found unmarred amongst the ashen brush. The authorities said it was a lacerated liver, that he bled to death internally —that it was like going to sleep.

*****

At what moment do we begin the slow and steady handing over of our hearts? I remember being six and staring at dirty linoleum, my mother sobbing on the kitchen floor by the dishwasher. There were shards of glass underfoot; to walk toward her would require cutting myself. I believed that I had broken her —that my sister and I spawned a storm so vast that our home would not see sunlight for months. Our Italian grandmother and father concurred. So, I clapped my hand over my mouth each time my voice yearned to escape and swallowed it whole. Again, and again, I walked barefoot on glass to reach her. A little blood seemed a small price to pay. Slowly, I learned about relational transactions, equating love with pain, and silence with safety.

There is a thin line between sacrificing a lamb and striking a deal with the Devil. The first (we hope) affords us blessings and wishes. The latter steals our soul and damns us. When we offer up our voice in exchange for belonging, we silence our longing. It is a curious thing to consider; that to no longer Be our Longing, we must sever something, and it leaves me wondering what becomes of our hunger?

For me, my father’s blows and punches — an act of desperation intended (literally) to knock some sense into my inebriated fifteen-year-old head, no longer registered pain. My mother’s second wave of melancholy did not inspire compassion. The afternoon five girls ambushed me in a ballfield, and I felt the bubble gum on my tongue crumble like chalk when mixed with blood (a chemical reaction few have experienced) —I floated above the grass. Any part of me that longed for tenderness, validation, reassurance, and kindness burned down

—this is what trauma does; it begets and destroys, permeates, and empties.

*****

Fortunately, memory is malleable. To evoke a memory is to flick a switch —light up a constellation of neural pathways that are as intricate and ever-changing as the night skies. Our recollections are not so much facts as they are stories, and like all works in progress, they are subject to edits and revisions. Memory is as affected by our perceptions of the present as our perceptions of the past. This concept offers immense hope for those of us who have had bad things happen, which is to say —Everyone.

Implicit in this idea is that our perceptions can radically shift our stories —that when we mine our past for meaning, we will arrive at new understandings concerning our misfortunes, sorrows, and pain. Our divorce will no longer be a disaster, but rather a turning point that catalyzed a life otherwise not possible. A malignant tumor might serve as a wake-up call to a life otherwise spent underwater and holding our breath. I’m not implying we should wish adversity on ourselves but rather acknowledging that ultimately, we will all belong to some club. The “I lost my spouse to suicide” club. The “I had seven miscarriages and ten years of fertility treatment” club.” The “My mother was an alcoholic and my father left when I was two” club. To be alive is to be in a club.

I believe the road to wholeness begins with the slow and steady patching of our hearts’ fractured pieces. That by stitching together tiny moments of connection, risk, and vulnerability, we find our way Home. That it’s not a straight line, but a somewhat never-ending journey where hopelessness, fatigue, and lapsing into old habits is standard. As we age, there lies the potential to write our story versus having our story write us. And if we stay the course and remain open, we will slowly assemble a network culled through friendship, psychotherapy, surrogates, and self-made kin. We will come to a deeper understanding of the hows and the whys of our life and we will find our people.

It took me thirty-one years of individual therapy, earning my master’s degree in Psychology, becoming licensed as a psychotherapist, moving one hour and a lifetime away from home, one marriage, a divorce, and a child to find my way. The cost —immeasurable. To paraphrase Maya Angelou, I belong nowhere because I belong everywhere. I belong to myself. I belong to a tribe of tattooed scavengers who have mastered the art of melding dung to feathers —a band of gypsies, ravens, and heretics who hover between scrappy and soulful —who happily fly alongside Icarus, broken wings and all.

What we share beyond our common humanity is a visceral knowing that suffering is here to stay. That trauma is inseparable from life. That loss is both holy and abysmal, and that grief is, in turn, the most sacred and proper response to joy. We are all wretched and omnipotent, sitting in the sun and soaked to the bone.

This is what trauma does.

Like what you’ve read? Sign up to receive my musings filled with heart, concrete tools, and cutting edge resources via my blog: Loving Well.

[pantryplanet65-blog]

Presenting the Eater Awards Winners Across 24 Cities

Sure, there are certain restaurants and chefs that gain nationwide renown — places recognized among America’s 38 Essential Restaurants, for example. But the beauty of dining out is that, even in this day and age, it’s a local game: The best restaurants, bars, bakeries, and even food trucks are born of their communities, reflect local flavors, and are indispensable parts of their neighborhoods.

Which is why we’re pleased to announce the ninth annual Eater Awards across 24 Eater cities, recognizing the establishments that have taken their cities by storm. These are the restaurants that emerged as community hubs, the bars that became destinations, the pop-ups that made waves, and the chefs who made an impact on the local dining scene and perhaps beyond.

Below, take a peek at the establishments and individuals in 24 cities that emerged as truly award-worthy in 2018 — and head here for this year’s national Eater Awards winners.

Atlanta

Eater Atlanta’s Restaurant of the Year is Tiny Lou’s: “Hotel restaurants never caught on as a dining option for local Atlantans. That is, until Tiny Lou’s opened on the ground floor of the newly-renovated hipster paradise, Hotel Clermont on Ponce De Leon Avenue, above the infamous strip club, the Clermont Lounge. The French-American restaurant’s eponym danced at the hotel’s Gypsy Room in the 1950s. The timeless design of Tiny Lou’s includes elegant touches — white marble floors, brass accents, and bold wallpaper — harkening back to the golden age of fine dining at luxury hotels. With a dream team of culinary talent, including executive chef Jeb Aldrich, who worked alongside his father, Jay Swift, at 4th and Swift, veteran manager and director of restaurants Nick Hassiotis, and young pastry chef dynamo, Claudia Martinez, the restaurant is a breathtaking example of a nouveau French brasserie.”

See the rest of Atlanta’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Austin

Eater Austin’s Restaurant of the Year is Better Half: “In a year where many Austin restaurants and chefs turned to the oh-so-casual, all-day dining craze, it is West 5th Street cafe and bar Better Half that best exemplifies how the trend is done well. It makes sense, since co-owners Matt Wright, Matthew Bolick, and Grady Wright already run the very good East Austin cafe and beer bar Wright Bros Brew & Brew — they know what they’re doing when it comes to creating a warm, inviting, and, most importantly, accessible restaurant.

The result is a space that is, well, just perfectly Austin. There’s the easygoing yet still refined menufrom chef Rich Reimbolt (of course there are tater tots made out of cauliflowers and a solid cheeseburger), a killer coffee program, effortless cocktails, a perfectly curated wine and beer list, a very dog-friendly back patio, and — as a sigh of relief to Austinites — plentiful parking. Better Half is a place that fulfills every potential need.”

See the rest of Austin’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Boston

Eater Boston’s Restaurant of the Year is Celeste: “Created by a passionate team with roots in the arts — a filmmaker, an architect, a writer, an artist — Union Square’s new Peruvian spot Celeste is more of an experience than a restaurant. Sure, you’ll eat and drink, and it’s all wonderful, from the gorgeous ceviches to the fragrant lomo saltado, not to mention the pisco- and mezcal-based cocktails or the carefully chosen beer and wine selections. (Try Oyster River’s pét-nat, Morphos, a bubbly mainstay on the wine list that complements everything, including Celeste’s celebratory vibe.) But it’s not just about the food...”

See the rest of Boston’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Charleston

Eater Charleston’s Chef of the Year is Evan Gaudreau of Renzo: “Chef Evan Gaudreau helms the kitchen at modern, buzzing pizzeria Renzo. his Neo-Neapolitan pie is a riff on the classic — it’s similar in style but not quite traditional. The main difference is his addition of a savory natural levain, which leads to a fermentation of the dough — the entire process takes about 60 hours. He’s also the mind behind the wild toppings, savory starters, and Fernet ice cream. Gaudreau keeps it weird, yet approachable.”

See the rest of Charleston’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Chicago

Eater Chicago’s Restaurant of the Year is Pacific Standard Time: “Chicago’s food scene has been trending away from meaty gut bombs and towards lighter fare in recent years, and arguably no restaurant in recent memory has done it better than Pacific Standard Time. The California-inspired spot, helmed by former Nico Osteria and Avec chef de cuisine Erling Wu-Bower, in partnership with mentors and Chicago hospitality icons Paul Kahan and Donnie Madia, overcame obstacles to help Chicago diners fall in love with an outside-the-box menu that draws from an array of different cultures inside a breezy space in River North.”

See the rest of Chicago’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Dallas

Eater Dallas’ Restaurant of the Year is Macellaio: “After opening Lucia in 2010 and earning a reputation as one of Dallas’s most talented chefs, David Uygur returned in 2018 with Macellaio, a modern Italian restaurant with a major focus on salumi. ... Macellaio is also responsible for one of the year’s most-discussed dishes: tender confit duck tongues served with an addictive onion dip. Unlike Lucia, where a reservation is still pretty difficult to score, Macellaio makes for a more accessible entry point into Uygur’s cuisine that’s a little more affordable.”

See the rest of Dallas’ 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Denver

Eater Denver’s Bar of the Year is The Family Jones: “The Family Jones Spirit House is hard to pin down, and that’s precisely why we love it — a distillery, a bar, and a restaurant combined, each with talent at the top of their respective games steering the larger ship. Distiller Rob Masters sets the tone here with his imposing copper still, perched in plain sight above the half-moon bar downstairs. Barman Nick Touch is behind the drinks, made with all-house spirits and crèmes and shrubs. And chef Tim Dotson creates a food menu that pairs well but also stands up just fine on its own. Meet the Denver bar scene 2.0. In a city that has produced enough over-the-top cocktails and vodka sodas alike, this new combination at the Family Jones is a refreshing twist.”

See the rest of Denver’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Detroit

Eater Detroit’s Restaurant of the Year is Marrow: “Good things come to those who wait. That’s the case with many of Detroit’s restaurants but even more so with Marrow, whose West Village space was originally designated for a restaurant in 2015. By 2017, the Royce Detroit wine bar’s Ping Ho had stepped in to help usher in a new concept that combined a neighborhood butcher shop with a restaurant. Marrow, which arrived earlier this fall, manages to seamless blend the two halves and doesn’t take itself too seriously in the process. Customers enter through the bar and butcher shop passed a sign that unabashedly declares “We Got Hot Birds” in its advertisement for rotisserie chicken.”

See the rest of Detroit’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Houston

Eater Houston’s Chef of the Year is Jonny Rhodes of Indigo: “ Chef Jonny Rhodes, an alum of Oxheart and chef-owner at Indigo in Lindale Park, is at the forefront of the city’s most innovative, socially aware cuisine. At his 13-seat restaurant tucked into the neighborhood where he grew up, Rhodes experiments endlessly with preserved ingredients of all kinds, whether fermented, smoked, pickled, dried or cured. He also offers diners a lesson in the history of the cuisines of the African diaspora, and the influence they’ve had on dining in America and beyond. It’s a lesson worth hearing, and it’s paired with some of the most captivating dishes in town.”

See the rest of Houston’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Las Vegas

Eater Las Vegas’ Restaurant of the Year is the NoMad Bar: “The name NoMad Bar is a misnomer, since the restaurant from chef Daniel Humm and restaurateur Will Guidara is really an all-day restaurant with breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late-night dishes along with that award-winning bar program from bar director Leo Robitschek. The bar and restaurant sits off the lobby of NoMad and the new NoMad casino, a perfect spot for a cocktail before a show or a bite to eat late at night. The bar comes draped in oxblood red velvet chairs and sofas, some elevated as they approach the commanding bar, while an Austrian velvet and sheer curtain, custom made by Rosebrand, cloaks the bar. In the corner, a Steinway piano sits ready for live performances, often jazz in the evening. The restaurant’s menu offers a lesson in perfection. From the carrot tartare and black truffle tart to the hot and cold oysters and mixed fry, diners here will find a playful yet carefully executed menu that only exhibits why the sister bar in New York earned a Michelin star.”

See the rest of Vegas’ 2018 Eater Award winners >>

London

Eater London’s Chef of the Year is Clare Smyth: “For a chef to open their first restaurant in London is never easy. To do so having been in charge of one of the country’s only three-Michelin-starred restaurants — while working for Britain’s most famous chef — for eight years, means that expectations might hinder rather than help the effort. For Clare Smyth to open Core and earn two Michelin stars at the first available opportunity, with a fine dining restaurant in Notting Hill that is table-clothed without being claustrophobic, and to earn a controversial title by the World’s 50 Best awards body that overlooked Core itself, indicates that she remains firmly among this country’s and the world’s greatest chefs.”

See the rest of London’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Los Angeles

Eater LA’s Design of the Year is The Wolves: “One of the city’s most unexpected cocktail and restaurant projects, The Wolves comes from Al Almeida and Daniel Salin, with partner Isaac Mejia as a managing partner and bartender Kevin Lee helming the drink menu. And what a drink menu it is. ... But the ultimate star of The Wolves is the space, an homage to Parisian salons that uses actual European antiques and period-authentic pieces, creating something that’s unlike anything LA has ever seen. Tucked into the Alexandria Hotel, a century-old building in Downtown’s Historic Core, The Wolves is an antique designer’s delight from the entrance up to the stunning illuminated ceiling.”

See the rest of Los Angeles’ 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Miami

Eater Miami’s Restaurant of the Year is Amara at Paraiso: “After years of anticipation, Michael Schwartz’s Edgewater stunner Amara at Paraiso finally debuted in the beginning of 2018. And more importantly — it lived up to its hype. The two-story, waterfront eatery, which Schwartz called his “love letter to Miami,” was one of the most exciting new spots of the year, seemingly knocking every detail out of the ballpark. From its enviable waterfront location, to its flavorful Latin American inspired fare, to its well-executed wine list, every part of the dining experience was thought out in meticulous detail. Proving once again, good things come to those who wait.”

See the rest of Miami’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Montreal

Eater Montreal’s Restaurant of the Year is Pastel: “Kabir Kapoor and Jason Morris were already accomplished Montreal restaurateurs — they made that clear with their Griffintown restaurant Le Fantôme. Now, three years later, their talents have become even stronger as they brought Pastel to Old Montreal. With Kapoor dubbing Pastel as “the complete yin to the yang of Fantôme”, the new restaurant marked progression from the pair’s first opening. Where Fantôme was playful, Pastel skewed intellectual in its approach, boosted by a much larger space and kitchen that allowed for greater experimentation.”

See the rest of Montreal’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Nashville

Eater Nashville’s Restaurant Import of the Year is Emmy Squared: “Opening in March of this year, Hyland’s Nashville outpost of the Detroit-style pizza joint has already found its way onto most every best pizza and burger list in the city. While there have been a flurry of restaurateurs nationwide focusing on importing restaurants to Nashville, many of them relocating here to do so, the Gulch’s Emmy Squared shows that yes, the city did really need another place for pizza and burgers.”

See the rest of Nashville’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

New Orleans

Eater New Orleans’ Restaurant of the Year is Bywater American Bistro: “Bywater American Bistro, the feverishly anticipated restaurant from James Beard Award-winningchef Nina Compton, followed a tough act considering the meteoric success of Compton’s first restaurant, Compére Lapin. Opened by Compton, Larry Miller, and former Compére sous chef Levi Raines, Bywater delivered big-time.

Already named one of Eater’s Best New Restaurants in America, the precisely executed menufrom Compton and Raines acknowledges the various groups that make up New Orleans’ cuisine as it also reflects America’s current culinary landscape with tuna-brasaola-topped toast, rabbit curry, crab fat rice, and a spaghetti pomodoro that has critic Bill Addison ‘wondering if Compton has the lock on the next pasta trend.’”

See the rest of NOLA’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

New York City

Eater NY’s Chef of the Year is Kyo Pang: “For a couple years, plenty of people knew that Kyo Pang was a talent. Her tiny version of Malaysian cafe Kopitiam had a cult following for her deft take on sweets and classics from her native country. But it closed due to a rent hike — and as far as shutters go, turns out this one might have been a blessing. Her bigger and more ambitious version of Kopitiam, opened along with restaurateur Moonlynn Tsai, has been one of the most satisfying new restaurants of the year, and with it, Pang’s following has reached an expanded audience.”

See the rest of NYC’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Philadelphia

Eater Philly’s Restaurant of the Year is Suraya: “The one restaurant everyone was talking about in 2018 was Suraya, an all-day destination spot in Fishtown (1528 Frankford Avenue). The Lebanese menu of flatbreads and sandwiches during the day and kebabs and whole grilled fish in the evenings is inspired by dishes siblings Nathalie Richan and Roland Kassis grew up with in Beirut — the restaurant is named after their grandmother. They own Suraya with Greg Root and chef Nick Kennedy of cocktail bar R&D (formerly Root). With attractive design both indoors and in the courtyard garden, shelves stocked with olive oils and spices for sale, creative cocktails, and an expertly executed Middle Eastern menu, it’s no wonder Suraya was an immediate hit.”

See the rest of Philly’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Portland

Eater Portland’s Restaurant of the Year is Canard: “This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone: Gabriel Rucker’s exceptional restaurant, which was originally branded a wine bar, extends far beyond that classification. Think of it, instead, as a modern diner, a restaurant defined by its accessibility, playfulness, and eclectic style. Beyond its eye-catching dishes and drinks, like its foie-gras-washed bourbon cocktail and its borderline excessive stack of smothered duck fat pancakes, Canard’s beauty comes in its simple touches — a piece of cinnamon toast in the morning, a cabbage salad tossed in a house-made creamy dressing, a slider with American cheese. Rucker understands that a restaurant should be both understated and creative, but most of all, it should be fun.”

See the rest of Portland’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

San Diego

Eater San Diego’s Casual Restaurant of the Year is Lola 55: “In a town inundated by tacos, Lola 55 has dominated the conversation since its summer opening in the East Village. With a structure set up for success and the intention to become a serious contender in the fast-casual market, the eatery is banking on a crave-worthy menu from executive chef Drew Bent, made using admirable ingredients, to put them above the pack.”

See the rest of San Diego’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

San Francisco

Eater SF’s Bar of the Year is True Laurel: “From its inception as a spinoff to showcase Lazy Bear bar director Nicolas Torres’s cocktails, True Laurel was destined for greatness. The bar’s design — a quirky mid-century-inspired room filled with primary colors and an homage to the work of Isamu Noguchi — invites creativity, which extends from cocktails to the menu of bar bites like crispy hen of the woods mushrooms with a gourmet approximation of sour cream and onion dip. The “Pea-casso” cocktail combines aquavit, snap peas, Espodol, clarified lime, flat tonic, and Arak Sannine to create one of the city’s best cocktails of the year, complete with a Picasso-esque garnish of snap peas. Above all, it’s a fun, bustling addition to SF’s craft cocktail scene.”

See the rest of SF’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Seattle

Eater Seattle’s Restaurant of the Year is Little Neon Taco: “With popular eateries Neon Taco, Tortas Condesa, and Westman’s Bagel and Coffee, chef Monica Dimas has been showing off her range of cooking skills, leadership, and adaptability for years. But until 2018, Dimas’s projects have all been walk-up windows, rather than full-fledged restaurants. With Little Neon Taco on First Hill, Dimas finally spreads her wings in a charming space bedecked with Mexican ephemera. Here, she slings her tacos — some of the best in the city even when they were only available inside the Capitol Hill bar Nacho Borracho — alongside additional winning dishes like mole ribs, elote, tortas, posole menudo, and horchata. She’s truly realizing her immense potential with this opening, taking her rightful place among Seattle’s top chefs.”

See the rest of Seattle’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Twin Cities

Eater Twin Cities’ Chef of the Year is Jose Alarcon: “Alarcon went from working the line with the chef collective at Lyn65 and helming a few pop-ups to opening not one, but two Mexican restaurants that beguiled Twin Cities dinners. ... [At Popol Vuh and Centro] Alarcon and his team single-handedly elevated exceptions for what Mexican cuisine can be - moving far away from fried tortillas and cheese into a world of subtlety that celebrates the regions into the rightful world arena where people everywhere are realizing the astounding breadth and depth of the country’s food.

That this chef opened not one, but two restaurants to such success and still managed the tightrope walk of Minnesota’s expectations and busting through boundaries of fine dining is nothing short of extraordinary.”

See the rest of the Twin Cities’ 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Washington DC

Eater DC’s Chef of the Year is Marjorie Meek-Bradley: “Tasked with lending a local perspective to an established Brooklyn brand, Marjorie Meek-Bradley pulled off a major feat. At the St. Anselm tavern that opened in Northeast D.C. in September, Meek-Bradley has flipped the stuffy D.C. steakhouse stereotype on its head, deploying a fun, fresh menu full of salads and sides that draw attention away from a full complement of animal proteins. Her grilled winter squash salad with hazelnuts and beets sounds simple enough, but a precise injection of grapefruit purée whisks its to a higher place.”

See the rest of DC’s 2018 Eater Award winners >>

Head here to read about the national 2018 Eater Awards winners >>

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Source: https://www.eater.com/2018/12/5/18114597/eater-awards-winners-2018-cities-best-restaurants-chefs

[popolitiko]

10 Women Who Changed French History

Marie Van Zeyl  - September 2016 While a great many legendary women have walked upon this earth, these ten women are especially noteworthy for dominating their fields – effectively changing French history forever. Fearless in their pursuits, they defeated the odds stacked against them and became heroines to many. While their accomplishments continue to inspire us to this day, we clearly still have much to learn from these remarkable historical figures.

Marie Van Zeyl  - September 2016 While a great many legendary women have walked upon this earth, these ten women are especially noteworthy for dominating their fields – effectively changing French history forever. Fearless in their pursuits, they defeated the odds stacked against them and became heroines to many. While their accomplishments continue to inspire us to this day, we clearly still have much to learn from these remarkable historical figures.

Joan of Arc (1412-1431)

As a national heroine and the patron saint of France, Joan of Arc has been inspirational to many historical French figures. Fearless in her stance against the English, Joan led the French army into a victorious battle during the 100 Years War. However, the English captured the brave young Joan and she was burned at the stake, becoming a martyr for France in the process. Joan of Arc has since become a ubiquitous character in French performing arts and literature.

Marie de Medicis (1575-1642)

France owes some of its great cultural gems to this Queen of France, who was an important patron of art and architecture. Marie de Medicis had spectacular taste — she even commissioned a series (which is now in the Louvre) by Peter Paul Rubens to adorn her grand Luxembourg Palace. Marie de Medicis introduced contemporary Italian painters to Paris and influenced the trajectory of art history, particularly as it pertains to portraits.

Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793)

This highly political and admirable French playwright slash activist was an outspoken advocate for improving the conditions of slaves in colonies. Stubborn in her conviction that women should hold the same rights as men, she wrote the influential text Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen. Despite being executed, along with many of her contemporaries, during the Reign of Terror for attacking the government, De Gouges was an integral figure in the progress of human rights.

George Sand (1804-1876)

George Sand was a French novelist and essayist who scandalized the public when she began to wear male clothing and smoke in public. Rebellious in her male dress, Sand was able to circulate Paris freely, which gave her increased access to venues that banned women. The political entrepreneur founded her own socialist newspaper and wrote many novels which argued in favor of women’s equality. Sand is famous for declaring, ‘You can bind my body, tie my hands, govern my actions: you are the strongest, and society adds to your power; but with my will, sir, you can do nothing.’

Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923)

This beloved actress rose to fame during the Belle Epoque era in Paris and earned the nickname ‘The Divine Sarah.’ She starred in some of the earliest films ever produced, and as such introduced the world to the grandeur of theatrical arts. She became an international idol, formed her own travel company, and traveled extensively. Bernhardt paved the way for actresses to come, and her contribution to the performing arts will never be forgotten.

Marie Curie (1867-1934)

This extremely intelligent physicist and chemist broke a lot of glass ceilings in her lifetime. Madame Curie became first person to ever win the Nobel Prize twice, and she was also the first woman to win the prize, become a professor at the University of Paris, and be enshrined at the Panthéon, France’s national mausoleum. Her contributions to the male-dominated scientific world have been crucial to the progress of physics, chemistry and the development of x-ray machines.

Coco Chanel (1883-1971)

Chanel’s classic ‘from rags to riches’ story makes her admirable. Coco Chanel rose to glory in the fashion scene to become one of the most innovative fashion designers of the 20th century. Chanel was revolutionary for using a masculine aesthetic in women’s clothes — she popularized trousers and suits for women and made the LBD (little black dress) a wardrobe staple. Chanel dressed the new modern woman, and made Parisian women world famous for their sophistication and refinement.

Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979)

Co-founder of the Orphism art movement, Delaunay was revolutionary in her use of colors and repeating geometric shapes in vibrating harmony. Delaunay was the first living woman to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre in 1964 and received the Légion d’honneur in 1975. She was also influential to international fashion, experimenting with abstraction as a universal language in household items such as garments. In a male dominated world, Delaunay rose to the forefront with her textile works. She established her own company and produced textile designs, which culminated in the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in 1925.

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)

Where would the world be without Simone de Beauvoir? Widely famous for her groundbreaking feminist treatise The Second Sex, de Beauvoir uprooted the sexism that dominated society in the 20th century. This 1949 book was considered so scandalous that the Vatican went so far as to put the book in the Index of Prohibited Books. De Beauvoir’s writings and contributions laid the foundation for future feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

Edith Piaf (1915-1963)

Everyone adores the song La vie en rose, sung by this exquisite French music icon. Street singer turned star, Piaf was discovered singing on the streets of Paris. Regarded as France’s national chanteuse, Piaf had an endless stream of lovers, which gave her lots of inspiration for her passionate lyrics. Piaf redefined France’s status in the music industry.

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/articles/10-women-who-changed-french-history/

[the-wandering-curmudgeon]

Continued

Hey, just returned from dinner. We had an interesting time getting back to the hotel. We had to manage our own taxi hook up. Previously we have had the help of our guide and hotel staff securing transportation for us. Tonight we had to figure it out on our own. With a bit of sign language and talking very loud we made it back.

Today we had quite the adventure. We had a one hour drive to our first destination, the Peterhof Palace, once we secured Sandra’s warm clothing.

The drive was interesting and made more so by the on going narrative of our guide. She pointed out key things like Palaces, industrial buildings that were turned into housing after WWII the Co-ops where the majority of people live and much more.

We saw the summer Presidential Palace that Putin uses to entertain dignitaries in warmer weather. They even built a golf course nearby for this purpose, which no one else uses.

The opulence of the Peterhof Palace is unbelievable. The gold leaf covering most trim and other accents is incredible. The pictures I will attach will show just a bit of what we saw. The crowds, even for winter, were pretty big everywhere we went today.

After the Peterhof we went to the Peter and Paul Fortress. It was built to be a fort but was never used as one. Instead it was made into a prison for political objectors. The Cathedral in the fortress was built in a similar style of a Catholic Cathedral. It is where the entire Romanov family is buried. There is a lot of history and mystery surrounding the graves and remains.

After the fortress we went to the Hermitage, the largest museum in the world. It contains millions of artifacts and an art collection that has no peer. We had to kill an hour before we could enter so we dined in the coffee shop inside the museum. We all had a fish sandwich. Unlike the fried fish served in fast food restaurants in the USA, they served smoked salmon on a roll with green leaf lettuce and a secret sauce, it was delicious. We also had a small black current tart, (yum) and coffee. On ward with the tour.

We spent our initial time in the section called the Summer Palace, it was unbelievable. The room’s decor has been preserved and they are very touchy about not going past the ropes or touching anything. Following this section we began a circular tour of the second floor, which took two hours and she had us walking fast. In the Italian section we saw two DaVinci’s, that unless you visit the Hermitage you will never see them displayed elsewhere. Incredible. Next an entire hall dedicated to Rembrandt with another area for his disciples. If you have never seen an original Rembrandt, do yourself a favor and see one. The piece named “ The Prodigal Son” is simply amazing.

Next we went to the Flemish art area and saw an amazing collection of Ruebens and other Flemish Masters.

There was just so much to see and not enough time to take it all in so we focused on these few areas.

Back out into the cold and snow we hailed a taxi to return to the hotel. It was an extraordinary day.

Our bags were delivered while we were out so we spent a few minutes hugging them, thanking the Gods of lost baggage for their safe return and drank some sacrificial wine to celebrate.

[dawnajaynes32]

Graphic Design Trends To Dread, Delight In and Feverishly Await

What Will 2019 Bring in Terms of Graphic Design Trends?

The ball is soon to drop and then it will be all eyes on the horizon and what trends we are seeing, anticipating and, perhaps, won’t ever come to fruition. Enjoy this trend-watch piece from our panel of industry experts and leaders. They take on everything from what’s going to be out in the upcoming year, where branding is going, industry changes facing designers, tech innovations impacting how we experience design and more. 

Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash

Tell Your (Real) Story

Consumers have reached a saturation point. Fatigued by an increasingly noisy, chaotic, and complex world, they will continue to invest in fewer brands. Constructed brand narratives will become less effective and outdated, as more informed consumers seek out labels and brands that bring real value to their lives. To be successful, brands will need to embrace authenticity, and commit to creating quality products that genuinely provide tangible benefits for their audience. — Joe Flory, Design Director – FINE

The Empowering Itch of the Creative Niche

To a zealous degree, curiosity is advertised as a cardinal quality to behold across design disciplines. A staple ingredient (in the steadfast portfolio of desired designerly traits) to generate creative ideas, tap into creative angles, embark on creative paths—all toward executing a creative vision.

On the job, curiosity is a designer’s intellectual edge. Beyond the job, curiosity is the compass pointing to new directions in the creative form of side projects.

Adjacent to their daytime roles, UX Designer, Liz Wells, collaborates with brand communications manager, Katie Puccio, to publish the newsletter “Desk Lunch,” issued to the communities of creative women and non-binary folks. Graphic designer, Matthew Wyne, seized his obsession with cocktails by illustrating the collection “Letters and Liquor,” where he dives into the history of lettering associated with cocktails, from the 1690s thru 1990s. Carissa Hempton, with her husband, Paul, co-launched “Print Prologue,” a series of tangible and web-based tools focused on the details of small-format printing.

Curiosity, paired with conviction, flows through these examples of designers exploring diverse interests. Along with scratching one’s itch, harvesting a creative niche helps keep one vital mission alive: to never stop learning and growing. For designers, side projects are not merely pet projects, they’re passion projects. Creative freedom maximized. — Nate Burgos, UX Designer & Content Strategist – 50000feet.com

Less Is Still More, But…

I see minimalism sticking around in print, packaging, and digital. It’s a classic design choice, and it’s not going anywhere, but I would like to see a resurgence of vivid color mixed in with minimalism. Typography is going in bolder directions with unexpected font pairings, and even messy typography looks are becoming the norm since they make people stop and pay attention in a world of waning attention spans. I also see more doodles and hand-drawn personal touches popping up in design, for a more friendly style (that I actually really like). — Ashley Milligan, Art Director – FINE

‘Fluid’ Brands

Is it just me or were we able to break more brands in 2018? I’d like to see this trend continue in 2019 as brands finally realize that they need to loosen up their rigid self-indulgence and become team players.

Consumers don’t buy a single brand anymore: they subscribe to a lifestyle, and a lifestyle will always demand more complexity than any single brand could ever provide. This means big brands need to rethink their traditional tactics and outdated campaign models (saying goodbye to the overpriced, overhyped ‘big ad’ moments), instead looking to interesting partnerships and curated collaborations that are born from the consumers integrated lifestyle.

Courtesy Stefan Tauber – SET Creative

Perfect example: Fendi’s collaboration with Fila. In the past, nobody would have expected an Italian high fashion house to collaborate with a sportswear brand like Fila. Yet “Fendi Mania” showed just how powerful a collaboration like this can be: this well-calculated move transcended hype by being anchored in the consumer’s lifestyle choice that sees them blend high fashion with streetwear seamlessly.

2019 will be all about curated brand partnerships, with agencies helping to define the best and most powerful ways to bring these curated partnerships to life through experiences like activations, pop-ups and live events. — Stefan Tauber – SET Creative

Format Flurry

In the last couple of years, with more and more advertising opportunities across all digital platforms, we’ve naturally seen an increase in delivery formats for the content we create. As designers, we are going to need to be extremely aware of this since, when we create a spot, we are no longer locked into a 16:9 aspect ratio for TV broadcast.

People are consuming and creating vertical video content on their smartphones, and this format has become a new way to look at the world (a narrower, less cinematic one, in my opinion). Naturally, both the entertainment and advertising industries have started generating content that’s going to be viewed that way and, as designers, we need to be as flexible as ever in regard to aspect ratio or even framing and composition. TV spots need to be easily adaptable for viewing in the 1:1 square format of a social feed, or the longer vertical formats of stories on Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat. Also, as VR and AR (which give viewers control over the point of view) steadily become more mainstream, designing without ties to a specific container is becoming key.

I have found this to be a significant change that requires a new approach from a design standpoint. One that we need to consider and be aware of from the concepting stage…relying more on procedural graphic languages and guidelines rather than on individual frame compositions. — Duarte Elvas, Creative Lead – Sarofsky

The ‘New’ of Branding

Dynamic/animated typography systems will reach fever pitch and broader adoption in the more mainstream visual landscape.

The work pioneered by Dia in the last few years will expand to move past visual tests and into formalized branding systems. This is already happening within the traditional mediums of brand design and communication and leading brands are adopting the same visual language.

Courtesy David Schwarz – HUSH

The notion of branding as an active, dynamic system that can morph and mutate fluidly from medium to medium, technology to technology, will become more mainstream. Dia’s demos of typography within the augmented reality space forecast the way in which our urban, retail and workplace environments will become a modern-day version of Brown and Venturi’s “Las Vegas,” in which signs and symbols permeate our (augmented) visual landscape in trade for valuable information (e.g. wayfinding), entertainment content (e.g. narrative storytelling), and communication (e.g. your Instagram feed within your augmented world). — David Schwarz – HUSH

No More Shoehorning

We’ve seen (yet) another year of brands shoehorning digital and technology tactics into creative experiences (or worse, defining the creative solution as a technology tactic), often at the cost of the originality of the idea itself.

Courtesy Dan Carter – SET Creative

Younger audiences are drawn to immersive, tactile, high-quality experiences, often through a nostalgic lens; they don’t want the latest gimmick, especially when it creates a higher bar to entry (a headset, an app download, a tablet to hold). I’d like to see brands look inwards to either their own legacies or the younger interests of their audiences to define new places to open up meaningful experiences.

Authentic experiences trump digital tactics every time, simply because tactics shouldn’t lead creative thinking: they should serve it. — Dan Carter – SET Creative

Design and New Tech Innovations

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the monolithic design identity. New technologies are forcing both the process of design and the outputs to be completely rethought. Practices taught in schools and businesses, the rigorous pathways of “Design Thinking,” and the formalized outputs of these traditions seem to be on the chopping block. Why?

Because modern companies move at a rate of change never before seen and thus, the design frameworks are breaking. Specifically, the static brand system, unaware of the changing environment around it, is rendered useless as new technology (and new technology companies) morphs, mutates and advances.

Courtesy David Schwarz – HUSH

Identities and visual design systems need to be treated more like molecular physics (yes!). In molecular physics, scientists can only predict where an electron is at any given moment in time. Why? Because it’s changing its position so fast, all the time. If designers thought about modern organizations like electrons, we’d see flexible, iterative, real-time design systems that reflect an organization at a moment in time, and in every instance into the future.

How might that come to life? Well, looking at Dia’s work above, or Zack Lieberman’s augmented reality tests, or even some branding and signage systems recently developed for conferences, means that brand identity can be more fluid – more like a lens that reveals what’s actually happening inside an organization  than an idealized monument. — David Schwarz – HUSH

More Illusion Fun, Please

Now more than ever, we’re seeing people shoot their own little Instagram stories of “blowing smoke” out of their mouth (but it actually just involves a crumpled piece of paper), and people tracking AR graphics onto their face with the latest improved two-camera smartphones. Watching the explosion of illusion fun that people have with their phones has proven that anyone has it in them to be super-creative with a camera.

It’s not a threatening development, but one that’s actually kind of beautiful. The things that I love to make that people seemed to love to watch, also appear to be things that people love to make themselves, too – which is awesome. So when it comes to video and filmmaking in the year ahead, I find myself thinking about how to make those mass creative abilities even more accessible.

The film we made for Rag & Bone this year is a testament to that, being tricky with the camera, but also showing how the rigs work within the film. This isn’t about UGC. This is about feeding this creative urge that people have as much as possible. Did you know you can do a Hitchcock dolly zoom yourself with your smartphone? You can. And your friends and followers will love it. More of that in 2019, please. — Aaron Duffy – Special Guest

Courtesy Andrew Geller – 1st Ave Machine

Stories to Make Them Engage

We are in such an exciting time for storytelling, there are new platforms popping up all the time and new ways to leverage them for entertainment. One 2018 trend that I hope continues is the experimentation with storytelling that is happening across these new platforms.

This year has seen a surge in experimental storytelling projects, such as SKAM on Facebook Watch that actually distributes the content at times that are relevant to the story (AM vs PM, etc), or the narrative project we produced with James Patterson for his upcoming book called The Chef where viewers actually experience a novel on Messenger, and read/watch/interact with the narrative.

People are currently embracing these new stories and I don’t see this stopping. I’m also encouraged by the openness of viewers to engage with something totally new. 2019 will see a lot more of this, I’m sure. — Andrew Geller – 1stAveMachine

Brands, You Are Being Watched

As a result of social media, brands are more directly engaging with their audiences. In prior decades, consumer groups were polled. But brands now have unsolicited direct and immediate lines of communication and feedback loops via comments, shares, and likes.

This proximity is creating a heightened-level of accountability, as brands no longer have as much leeway for missteps. It also challenges the way brands interact with audiences. With targeted marketing now flooding feeds, the initial curiosity of online ads has been swiftly replaced with skepticism and scrutiny, so to be genuine now involves stepping beyond the saturated social marketing norm and moving instead toward immersive experiences. — Mehran Azma, Art Director – FINE

Bring It In-House?

Brands face more marketing decisions than ever before. One is the constant pressure to find cost efficiencies, which begs the question, should clients depend less on the capabilities of outside agency partners and more on the depth of knowledge that an in-house team can bring?

While the trend of expanding in-house capabilities is not new, 2019 will be a year where we see a true growth period for this trend. As a response to this titanic shift in the industry, agencies should consider new, sustainable models of the client-agency relationship. How can agencies play a supporting role to these in-house teams? What do brands’ in-house departments need in order to deliver the thinking that agencies have historically provided? These are all questions that will be addressed more directly in 2019, though what works and what doesn’t may not be determined for years to come.

What is clear is that agencies can still serve a valuable role for clients. They can bridge gaps that in-house agencies have and bring diversity of thinking, so that internal teams aren’t just grading their own papers. While many see it as a threatening time for agencies, it is also a time of huge opportunity to shift the focus back on clients’ needs and away from hidden agendas that can ultimately damage the client-agency relationship. — Jason Henderson, Founder and Chief Creative Officer – Secret Fort

Attention-Getters

In an increasingly busy world, graphic design of all types must work hard to catch the eye. Thus, many upcoming graphic trends are about ways in which you can quickly grab attention.  My top three for the coming year are:

Vivid colour Even in fashion the little black dress has become the little coloured dress because of the need to be spotted on Instagram.  Vibrant colour is a great way of being seen and standing out from the crowd.

Less is more With so much visual clutter, whether on shelf or on screen, minimalistic design simply draws the eye.

The human touch In spite the rise of the computer, there is an increasing desire for authenticity and originality. In a sea of digital icons and mass production hand-crafted words and illustrations instantly connect with people on a human level.However, grabbing attention is only one element of creating an amazing design. Be aware of the latest trends but don’t just mindlessly follow them for the sake of it. — Sue Bicknell, designer – Brown&co

Healthy Benefits of Creative Retreats

To borrow the concept from media theorist Steven Johnson’s 1997 self-entitled book, “interface culture” readily characterizes our era. It especially consumes the designer’s workflow. As screens morph in scale and scope, the need to fulfill a healthy break from clicks and gestures will sharpen in urgency.

To counter work fatigue, typeface designer, Dyana Weissman, co-leads hiking trips at a state park, the Middlesex Fells Reservation, outside of Boston. Between important tasks, graphic-turned-civic designer, Megan Trischler, shuts herself out of her email inbox to satisfy a seamless, concentrated-thinking zone. Designer and web developer, Kim Goulbourne, maintains her creative fitness by working out, which includes kickboxing, to cope with stress.

In the digital workspace (wherever this takes place), the intensive, even chaotic, effort to realize good design more than welcomes a good reprieve, it demands it. A creative retreat, from a planned escapade to a process adjustment, is a scalable gift to oneself. — Nate Burgos, UX Designer & Content Strategist – 50000feet.com

What’s Out: All Those Hands

Uncommon interfaces without purpose – or as I like to say: people waving their hands to make things move around a screen.

Gestural, human-scale interfaces and visualizations can have an amazing place in experience design. They often get audiences active across distance – which is a huge sensorial and experiential change from the minute micrometers of finger swiping that we do daily.

Courtesy David Schwarz – HUSH

This scale change, alone, has value in certain experiential contexts. That being said, there is a ubiquity of gestural interfaces implemented for no reason other than the technological gag itself (“mom, look what happens when I wave my hands…”). Those remaining will be relegated to the lowest fidelity design contexts.

As more nuanced technologies are invented, and we see broader audience adoption for these modes of interaction, we’ll see a set of refined design interfaces and tools at our command. — David Schwarz – HUSH

What’s Also Out

Chatbots for marketing campaigns There were a number of marketing campaigns that have used chatbots and AI to generate buzz and attention. But as AI continues to be more intelligent and efficient, we can expect to see less use of chatbots for buzz, and more for customer services and utilities. In addition, we should also expect to see chatbots to be designed in brighter, bolder colors, which greater represents a brand’s voice and tones and gives the bots personalities.

Large, full-screen images Leveraging immersive, relevant, and engaging images to tell stories has been one of the most used design styles. But on the flipside, it often slows down the performance of the page. Instead of bold images, we can expect to see bold fonts and typography continue to dominate to achieve similar results.

PNG, GIF and JPG These graphic formats have been used extensively but they are still in pixels, giving them some disadvantages against vector images like Scalable Vector Graphics (SVGs), which won’t affect speed and we can expect to see more of in 2019. — Ming Chan – The1stMovement

Be a Jack of All Trades

An aesthetic trend we saw a lot of in 2018 that shows no signs of slowing down is a look we’ve dubbed: “Internet-y.” Does the internet have an aesthetic? Sort of, in the sense that it encompasses ALL aesthetics, swapping from second to second. From the time you unlock your phone and swipe around to the time you put it down, think of how many different design styles you see. Your Instagram feed, your Google searches, your digital news service of choice. Bright saturated poppy illustrations are next to street fashion photography, and real time game engine renders, and a clip from that Netflix show you’ve really been meaning to start. On the internet, beautifully considered images taking hours of art direction to compose are shuffled next to intentionally crude meme-style aesthetics, and smartphone camera photography, #nofilter.

  Brands have taken notice. Designers need to stretch their creativity in 2019 beyond a single look or style, as many brands look to embrace a curated cacophony of styles in an explosion of colors and forms. It will pay to be a jack of all trades in 2019. Or better yet, split a project up among a few designers, each bringing their own flavor to one slice of the piece, as we did for our March Madness spot for Google Cloud, or our sponsor reel for the AICP. That way, each snippet can be dripping with the passion of an artist, one concentrated dose of style after another. Let the mind meld begin. –Sean Martin, Creative Director/Director – Gentleman Scholar

Altered Space

I feel the demand for new spatial experiences is on the rise. Increasingly, brands are coming to us, looking to create digital environments that alter perceptions and really get people talking … and I feel designers should take note of this shift.

The good news is that current software and hardware solutions are putting accessible tools in designers’ hands. For example, recent advances in computer vision hardware are now making it possible for almost anyone to scan a room and project graphics, instantaneously.

Leviathan’s 2018 “Metamorphosis” audiovisual odyssey exclusively for the Dolby® Gallery in San Francisco.

This is going to enable more artists and designers to push the boundaries of their work, delivering dimensionally-augmented spaces. Additionally, with the rise of advanced 3D animation and computing power, real-time, generative visuals can become an integral part of creating interactive spaces that resonate with people to create both individual and shared experiences. The beauty of generative design is that it can forever evolve–which adds digital life to each new space. Jump in, you won’t regret it. — Jason White, Chief Creative Officer – Leviathan

Want more on what’s to come in graphic design? Stay up to date with Design News from HOW. 

The post Graphic Design Trends To Dread, Delight In and Feverishly Await appeared first on HOW Design.

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Best Cookbooks (Fall 2018): José Andrés, Anissa Helou, Simone Klabin

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Best Cookbooks (Fall 2018): José Andrés, Anissa Helou, Simone Klabin

In this zinger of a year, food’s role in our lives felt like it shifted every day. Cooking at home became more of an oasis than ever, a meal with friends somehow more important. Some nights, though, punting and ordering takeout was not a copout but a necessity. This year’s best books reflect this whipsawing, whether it’s about saving the world (or just a part of it), understanding it a little better, encouraging us to take a load off and pour a nice drink, or just tell us what to do because one more decision was one too many. We’re still hungry, though—more than ever!—and these are the books that reflect our appetites.

We Fed An Island: The True Story of Rebuilding Puerto Rico, One Meal at A Time

By José Andrés with Richard Wolffe (Anthony Bourdain Books/Ecco)

The most important food book of 2018 doesn’t contain a single recipe or talk about technique. Instead, it talks about saving lives and keeping people fed in the wake of a disaster. Chef José Andrés is well known for his high-end restaurants in and around Washington, DC, but when Hurricane Maria barreled through Puerto Rico in September 2017, killing an estimated 2,975 people, Andrés made his way to the island just a few days later, fighting through the rubble to hand out sandwiches and bowls of sancocho.

Feeding a localized group of people is noble, but Andrés and his assembled team of local chefs had greater ambitions, eventually going on to serve three million meals, a monster feat on a flattened, demoralized island. We Fed an Island is a first-hand look at what it took to do it.

While Washington politicians struggled to help and shifted their focus to Hurricane Harvey, which devastated Houston, Andrés created a de facto emergency agency in Puerto Rico, forever changing what it means to be a chef. People are still into awards like the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, but for many reasons, those are starting to feel incredibly out of touch with reality. In Puerto Rico and several other disaster zones since, Andrés showed that there’s more important work to do, and in my book at least, he became the indisputable chef of the decade. $28, Buy now.

Prosecco Made Me Do It: 60 Seriously Sparkling Cocktails

By Amy Zavatto (Andrews McMeel Publishing)

It is holiday feast time, and all that reveling requires bubbly and cocktails. For those, food and drink writer extraordinaire Amy Zavatto has us covered. Zavatto’s new book focuses on Italy’s famous fizz, giving some history on the country’s many different proseccos and focusing on its most important grape: the glera. Zavatto gives 60 sparkling cocktail recipes and tells the backstory for each, like the classic Bellini (white peach purée and brut-style Prosecco), the Venetian Spritz she first had at NYC’s Fort Defiance (Aperol, brut-style Prosecco, club soda, and an olive), and the Dance Party (does it matter?), each with Ruby Taylor’s poster-worthy illustrations setting the vibe.

You’ll learn and make some fine cocktails as you go, but Zavatto’s true gift is her take-you-along-for-the-ride charm. Are we learning? Yes! Are we laughing! Hell yes! Do we have a lovely drink in our hand, to boot? Yep! That too. Cheers! $17, Buy now.

Feast: Food of The Islamic World

By Anissa Helou (Ecco)

Art dealer, chef, and author of several cookbooks, Anissa Helou employs most of the skill sets involved in these jobs, and adds a healthy glug of anthropology in this beautiful and important work. For dumpukht/dumpokht biryani, she describes watching a noblewoman in Hyderabad cover goat marinated in papaya, cardamom, cumin, cloves and saffron with long-grain rice and cook it in a tight-lidded pot. When it came off the heat, the noblewoman heated a lump of charcoal over a flame, and dropped it right on the rice for a few minutes, giving the whole dish a smoky flavor.

When Helou finds room for improvement in an established recipe, or finds a way to make something more easily, she trusts herself enough to suggest a change. For complex multilayer breads like Pakistani paratha or Turkish tahinli katmer, where the classic technique can be difficult to master, she suggests a different dough-folding pattern that saves time and still yields excellent results. $60, Buy now.

Food & Drink Infographics: A Visual Guide to Culinary Pleasures

By Simone Klabin and edited by Julius Wiedemann (Taschen)

I may be biased, but while this whopper of a book might be difficult to pick up, it’s surprisingly hard to put down. Infographics are a great way to take a new look at food, and your first impulse with this beautiful tome might be to get out a razor and turn each page into a poster. Resist! At least hold off for a little while and learn visually.

Flip through the pages and certain aspects of food will begin to crystallize in ways they hadn’t before. Meat cut charts reveal the differences between regional and national styles of butchery, maps of cheese production detail mastery, diversity and depth. Conversion charts illustrate volume conversions like the ten tablespoons and two teaspoons in two-thirds of a cup, and if you ponder that for a moment, you might discover the vast superiority of going metric in the kitchen like the rest of the world.

There’s also hidden humor in Heather Jones’ “Correct Plating: And How to Get Through That (Sometimes Awkward) Holiday Dinner,” where she positions three tabs of Xanax just to the right of the soup spoon and not far from the Cognac. There’s also a bit of cross-cultural learning with Pop Chart Labs’ cocktail diagrams labeled “The Poison” across the page from “The Remedy—Hangover Cures From Around The World,” where your interest may be piqued by the Germanic take: mustard berries, juniper berries, and pickled herring. $70, Buy now.

36 Bottles: Less Is More with 3 Recommended Wines Per Month

By Paul Zitarelli (Sasquatch Books)

A confession: I lived in Paris for a decade, where I wrote about food and drank a lot of wine. While I can speak knowledgeably about the latter, my knowledge of individual styles of wine probably isn’t what it should be. In France alone, never mind the rest of the world, there are hundreds of options.

Paul Zitarelli offers a simple, global solution. Focus on just three wines a month: a red, a white and a wildcard like rosé or a sparkler. In November, just drink French Chablis, or Italian Langhe Rosso, and say “oui” to a Thanksgiving-friendly Tavel rosé from the Rhône Valley. Next May, limit your purchases to Austrian grüner veltliners, Oregon pinot noirs, and try a sweet, divine Tokaji or two from Hungary. Each month’s suggestions are accompanied by a couple recipes that quietly affirm that Zitarelli’s good taste extends beyond the bottle.

As someone who’s been overwhelmed by choice, this monthly trifecta strikes me as a great idea. Where 36 Bottles really clinches it is in the writing—both funny and smart—with lines like this: “Ultimately [using sherry in cocktails] reminds me too much of mixing liquid Tylenol into applesauce to get my daughter to take her medicine. If it tastes good in the first place, why do we need to hide it?” $20, Buy now.

Cooking With Scraps: Turn Your Peels, Cores, Rinds, Stems, and Other Odds & Ends into Delicious Meals

By Lindsay-Jean Hard (Workman)

We all do it. After a big trip to the produce stand and a nice dinner or two, we end up with a few pounds of wilty bedfellows in the icebox, and a stale bread heel on the counter, all destined for the compost heap, or worse, the trash.

A whopping 40 percent of food in the United States suffers a similar fate, says the Natural Resources Defense Council, a staggering $165 billion worth, but Lindsay-Jean Hard’s new book is an effort to chip away at that number. Hard breaks it all down by key ingredient, giving recipes for each thing you might have too much of: pestos made from asparagus ends or carrot top greens, or an ingenionus mushroom-stem compound butter. I was immediately attracted to the catch-all dishes throughout the book like frittatas, stratas, and stocks. Got extra cauliflower or okra or half a shallot? You can (quick) pickle that! Have some leftover pickle brine? Use it to turbocharge your potato salad.

Hand’s book isn’t the kind of thing you buy just for the recipes, but if you put it on the kitchen reference shelf, you’ll be happy it’s there the next time you have something that needs to be put to use in a hurry. $20, Buy now.

Food writer Joe Ray (@joe_diner) is a Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of The Year, a restaurant critic, and author of “Sea and Smoke” with chef Blaine Wetzel.

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The Invention of the In-home Coffee Maker Emancipated Women in the ’30s—Here’s How

Nothing says good morning like the sound of bubbles rising as you lift your espresso maker from the stove. It wasn’t always so easy and affordable to make coffee at home, though. It was the invention of the humble Italian Moka Express—the first stovetop espresso machine created by aluminum industrialist Alfonso Bialetti in 1933—that made your morning caffeine routine possible. Before that, espresso in Italy was a substance mainly consumed by men in public coffee houses, where they’d spend long afternoons smoking cigarettes, playing cards, and sipping their drinks. When the Moka Express came on the scene, it wasn’t just an exciting new gadget; it was the dawn of a whole new era for women, granting them access to coffee for the very first time. Over the next few decades, the Moka Express’ marketing campaign would shake things up even more, challenging conventional gender roles in homes around the country. Drinking coffee was never so radical.

“Bellezza” ad, 1955. Photo via bialettigroup.it

Today, nine out of ten Italian households own the practical Moka Express, and from the 1950s to the present day, Bialetti has sold over 200 million of them. The celebrated appliance—with its recognizable eight sides and mustachioed mascot—has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and the London Design Museum. But the person behind the design wasn’t a designer by trade at all; when giving his invention a look and shape, Bialetti simply copied the functional designs that were most fashionable in the mid ’30s, when a lack of ornamentation and geometric symmetry reigned supreme.

Bialetti Moka Express

According to company legend, the idea came to Bialetti one evening while watching local housewives wash laundry in his hometown of Crusinallo. The women would fill a tub with soapy water, bring it to a boil over an open fire, and let the vaporized water rise up through a connected tube and wash over the dirtied linen. In a moment of inspiration, Bialetti dashed to his nearby metal and machine store and applied the housewives’ method to coffee making. It seems wholly appropriate that the design that introduced women to modern coffee culture was inspired by a process itself perfected by women, one that streamlined time-consuming domestic labor.

Bialetti finalized his prototype and gradually began producing units, but the inventor knew next to nothing about marketing; relatively few coffee makers were sold between 1934-1940. Bialetti was selling the product at small public markets and at his own modest storefront, which was cluttered with a range of other metal appliances. During the war, coffee was scarce, and metal even more so. Moka Express production dwindled. Eventually, Bialetti closed down his shop entirely.

Bialetti Moka Express ad, 1960. Photo via delcampe.net

It wasn’t until after the war, when Bialetti’s eldest son Renato took over the family business, that the Moka Express flourished. It was eventually produced, marketed, and sold on a mass scale. During the ’50s, Renato brought a playful yet strategic sensibility to its advertising and branding, and shrewdly fabricated the appliance in a full range of sizes to suit different families and needs. He strove to create a distinctive brand that pulled on the public’s heartstrings, combining nostalgia for pre-war traditions with imagery informed by America’s rampant consumerism and new recognition of the female consumer.

Bialetti Moka Express ad, 1960. Photo via delcampe.net

Renato commissioned a mascot by the Italian cartoonist Paul Campani as part of the company’s new strategy; the beloved l’omino coi baffi (“the little man with the mustache”) still graces the lower chamber of the appliance. This popular mustachioed man—rumored to be based on Alfonso, but also uncannily similar in appearance to Renato himself—not only differentiated the product from the increasing number of imitators, but also spoke to the grandfathers and older uncles who remembered their beloved lazy evenings in coffeehouses before the war. Just as in those days, the little cartoon figure raises his finger up high, as if gesturing to a barista for “one espresso.” The direction of his point when he’s placed on the appliance also enacts the path that the coffee takes as it’s made: water boils up and—alongside the familiar sound of bubbles rising—that “one espresso” is complete.

  Renato’s advertising, on the other hand, transported the coffee shop to the home in a way that was distinctly egalitarian and modern. Campaigns featured women drinking espresso around a table, conversing with men in suits. These images transferred espresso to a domestic space along with the intellectual debate and conversation that came with coffee culture. Many ads presented women preparing espresso themselves, or even more subversively, others depicted men in the kitchen using the appliance—a bold reversal of conventional gender roles. One billboard featured a young boy asking, “Where’s Daddy?” The mother responds, “He’s in the kitchen with the Moka Express.”

“La cucina italiana” Bialetti Moka Express ad, 1959. Photo via vita.it

Short comics and animated television ads also showed l’omino coi baffi making coffee in the kitchen. These step-by-step guides emphasized speed and simplicity. Another popular ad showed a group of women in stylish black turtlenecks and trousers sipping espresso while ballet clothes hang nearby; they study classical dance and sip classic espresso, says the writing on the poster, but do so in modern clothes,after preparing the drink in the modern way. Under Renato’s lead, marketing underscored the synthesis of old and new, and the Bialetti company would blitz the public with these messages, occasionally purchasing every available billboard in the entire city of Milan. The streets overflowed with pictures of the Moka Express, as if the product was part of the very heart of the city, representing and allowing for the mingling of its old traditions and new way of life as the disruptive fascist past began to fade.

Women’s ingenuity is a crucial part of the design story of the Moka Express. Its invention rendered coffee drinking no longer a predominately male practice for Italians, and the product’s marketing became intertwined with shifting gender politics. All that history bubbles to the surface every morning as we lift the classic coffee maker off the stove, and pour its deep, dark brown liquid into a ceramic cup to start the day.

[eddiejpoplar]

Bullion Run: Transporting $5 Million Worth of Gold in a Panamera Sport Turismo

I think if you asked most auto journalists about their worst nightmare, professionally speaking, you might find that being unwittingly embroiled in a car manufacturer’s PR stunt would be right near the top of the list. It usually goes like this: You get a mysterious invite to an ‘event’ of undisclosed nature. You arrive to hear of a cringeworthy plan that makes your toes curl. Then you’re plonked into a car covered in cameras to play your part, all the time wondering if you can climb out of the window and retreat to doing some real reporting. Then the manufacturer stylishly edits it into a marketing film with huge positivity all round and your professional integrity dissolves before your very eyes… It’s like a day in the life of a vlogger.

Anyway, it was with this awful narrative hanging over me that I arrived at a hotel beside the Thames on a drizzly Sunday morning in London. There were PR people looking nervous, camera operators looking nervous and even a few police officers…also looking nervous. Why? Well, as it turned out our mission was to transport over $13 million dollars of gold bullion across London in a convoy comprised of three 2018 Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo Turbo S. Suddenly I was looking nervous, too.

Why? What? How much? Are you sure? All questions I wanted to scream but being a polite Brit, I simply signed the disclaimer with the steadiest hand I could muster and said something pathetic like, “well, this sounds fun.”

By now Sergeant Mark Blake had briefed us on the four police motorcycle outriders we’d have managing the convoy and a nice man at Porsche had told us what to do in the event of an attack. We were told there would be a plain-clothes security team observing our progress.

Why the Sport Turismos? Well, they’re big enough to carry two crates each containing four 27.55lbs ‘market bars’ of gold, they have self-leveling air suspension, they’re pretty fast, and they’re a lot more discrete than an armored truck that might as well have a target emblazoned across its cargo area.

Around 30-minutes later we’re at the Baird and Co Ltd refinery and our discreet convoy isn’t looking so discrete. The three Panameras are Red, White and Blue, and although their Burmester stereos aren’t blasting ‘Self Preservation Society,’ the hat tip to “The Italian Job” is clear and present.

Leading us across London is a fourth Sport Turismo. This one wears a more subtle shade, but its rear window has been removed to allow a huge camera lens to stick out and capture every mile. The route skirts around some of the busiest roads but still winds around London City airport and Canary Wharf, passes through the Limehouse Link tunnel, nudges the Tower of London, crosses the Thames twice (south on Tower Bridge and north over Waterloo), and takes in St Paul’s Cathedral, The Strand, Fleet Street, Holborn…all iconic locations bustling with traffic and tourists.

In the car with me is MotorTrend’s International Bureau Chief, Angus MacKenzie, who has a vast knowledge of London’s history and provides a fantastic running commentary as we ease past famous Coaching Inns, monuments, and buildings. In the rear seat is a very quiet man from Brinks security. I assume he’s a deadly weapon, a pistol strapped to every limb and schooled in at least five forms of martial arts, but his slight build and meek handshake isn’t the reassurance I was looking for.

Anyway, my job is simply to stay glued to the Sport Turismo ahead. We’re the rear gunner and as such get to do all the fun stuff—run red lights, aggressively dive for gaps in traffic so our convoy isn’t split, and generally drive like we’ve got $5 million of precious cargo onboard and an empty vault deep underground waiting for us.

It’s funny. Everything looks different when you’ve got a trunk full of bullion. Pedestrians sheltering from rain and sleet behind thick coats and hoods are criminals ready to pounce. That beaten up old van belching diesel smoke is a vessel for a gang of armed men about to burst from its rear doors. That stroller hasn’t got a baby in it at all, but a huge automatic weapon. Paranoid? Yep, you bet.

Happily for us and maybe sadly for this tale, everything goes smoothly and soon we’re in the Hatton Garden jewelry district and burly blokes are unloading the crates and heading underground with their contents. We survived and drink a late morning champagne to celebrate. The Sport Turismo barely noticed the inconvenience of all that weight in the trunk, but to be honest, I was so busy focussing on the car ahead and trying to look relaxed and inconspicuous that my dynamic assessment of the car boils down to “I think it was pretty good.” Worst road test ever, folks.

Later, we take refuge in a pub as the rain and sleet still hammers down on London. While watching the football (soccer) match, we mention our bullion run to the barmaid and a few locals. Needless to say, they don’t believe us and get back to watching the match—a pretty turgid 1-1 draw.

As for that nightmare scenario I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, it is displaced by a feeling that it’s all been some sort of fantastical dream.

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[samanthasroberts]

Extraordinary life of Italian man found dead in London canal

Sebastiano Magnanini was an art thief in Venice, tour guide in Cambodia and roadie for Prince in London then he was found dead in the Regents Canal

Weeks before he died, Sebastiano Magnanini excitedly messaged his friends in London. He was coming back to Blighty, he announced, and planning to embark on a journalism career. Hey dude. Whassup. Gonna be back soon!!! Tell me, where is a good course for writing journalism? Let me know. Ciaooo, he texted a former flatmate.

After all, he had plenty of stories to tell: from being jailed in his 20s for stealing a £1m painting, to his nomadic lifestyle as a tour guide in Cambodia, carpenter in south London and roadie for Prince Magnanini had done it all. Seba, as he was known to his friends, lived several lifetimes in his 46 years.

It all came to an abrupt end on 24 September. A man and his seven-year-old child found the Italians body floating in a quiet stretch of Regents Canal in north London. His heavily tattooed corpse had been bound to a shopping trolley and dumped in the water, curled in the foetal position.

Islington tunnel on Regents Canal in London. Photograph: David Wilcock/PA

The grim discovery sparked an immediate investigation by Scotland Yard detectives. On Tuesday, three men pleaded guilty to being involved in his death, including two who admitted dumping his body in the canal. Yet no one has been arrested for murder and the investigation is ongoing. His death officially, at least remains a mystery.

However, Magnaninis friends in London and Cambodia have painted a picture of a troubled soul who was fighting drug addiction and had returned to the capital to try get his life back on track. Some believe he died of an overdose after falling back into the Camden drugs underworld, where he was first taken in over 10 years ago.

He was good at lots of things but he was haunted by the drugs, said Luke Allen, Magnaninis former flatmate who had known him since 2004. The Italian suffered a heroin overdose three years ago at Arlington House, the giant hostel for homeless men in Camden, and had received treatment at a nearby drugs clinic for heroin addiction, taking interferon medication to treat hepatitis C. He had gone back and forth between London and Cambodia in an attempt to break the drugs cycle.

Magnaninis body was found close to a notorious pick-up point for Camdens drug users. Thats the lowest rung. He shouldnt have been there. He had a job. But hed run out of people who were in contact with that world who wanted to be the go-between for him, said Allen, who has given police a statement about Magnaninis death.

Map of Regents Canal near Kings Cross

When detectives launched the murder investigation, interest quickly turned to the Italians past. In 1993, he and two friends stole an 18th-century painting, The Education of the Virgin by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, worth nearly 2bn lire (then about £1m) from a church in his hometown, Venice.

It was hardly the perfect heist: a Venetian police chief described the thieves as tragicomic after taking a break from their getaway to drink beer and smoke joints at a local bar. The case gained Italian media attention and 20 years later the attention of the British press because the judge, sentencing Magnanini to 18 months in prison, said he could not rule out the possibility of the thieves working for the mafia.

Magnaninis friends, however, laughed off any mafia connection to his death. They revealed he had been working as a high-end tour guide around the temples of Siem Reap and Phnom Penh in Cambodia, where he stood out for wearing a sharp suit, speaking fluent English, Italian, Spanish and even some Khmer, the official language of Cambodia.

He had the best reputation. I honestly think he was the best guide ever, said Benjamin Kremer, a German travel company owner who was Magnaninis neighbour in Siem Reap. He had a library of books about the temples and he studied them and he was so into it. You could ask him any question about the history of the temples and he could answer them. It was the only thing he was 100% dedicated to.

Sebastiano Magnanini with a friend in a bar. Photograph: Liam MacKenzie

While working as a guide in Siem Reap, Magnanini lived near the sculptor Sasha Constable, the daughter of the late painter Richard Constable, both descendants of the famed Suffolk artist John Constable. The pair immediately hit it off, she said, and had neighbourly gatherings at his house which was filled with books, musical instruments, a pool table and two enormous pythons.

Sebastiano had an amazing zest for life. He was a troubled soul but he had a huge spirit, Constable said. Although a lot of people come here for drugs, coming to Cambodia was for him to try and confront his issues and stay away from them because he had a good job here, he built up a good group of friends, he was playing music, so it was almost like he was turning his life around. So it was a massive shock when I heard about how his life ended, as it was something I thought hed moved away from. It was a very tragic ending.

In London, Magnanini worked as a carpenter, a trade he was equally passionate about. In February 2014, he landed a job assembling Princes stage when the rock star played three nights of concerts at Koko in Camden. It was to be one of the highlights of Magnaninis adventure-filled life.

He was about to embark on another adventure last summer when he returned to London, keen to start a journalism course before jetting off to India in November. On 3 August, seven weeks before he died, he sent a WhatsApp message to Allen: Would u give ur house up for a year at £1300 a month? Just a year, for my girl to be near her study…. Or find me something similar?… Love u.

It was the last time the two would be in contact. Magnanini checked his WhatsApp messages a final time at 3.15pm on 21 September 24 hours before he was last seen alive before disappearing from CCTV coverage near Kings Cross train station and Caledonian Road, near the stretch of canal where his body was later found.

Michael Walsh, 41, and Paul Williams, 61, have both pleaded guilty to preventing the lawful burial of a body. Daniel Hastie, 22, has admitted conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation. They will be sentenced at Blackfriars crown court in London on 5 February.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/extraordinary-life-of-italian-man-found-dead-in-london-canal/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2017/12/25/extraordinary-life-of-italian-man-found-dead-in-london-canal/

[bestpancetta-blog]

Easy to  Make Bacon and Pancetta at Home

Curing meat is the reason people could stay put when there was nothing to develop, execute or take. It is the means by which champions and pioneers endured while they ventured to the far corners of the planet.

In any case, the cooler and the advanced nourishment industry — with its jars, plastic sacks and chemicals — have made the normal home cook apprehensive of this most basic and valuable sustenance arrangement.

There is no justifiable reason purpose behind this: All you truly require is salt. Also, the outcome? Malcolm, my 17-year-old child, may have said all that needed to be said, "Whatever is on my bagel is better than average."

He was a test tester for home-cured lox I made while frantically flavoring and drying out tissue more than a while for this article. I had stressed that I cleared out the fish socked with salt in the icebox too long. The outside was dry, jerkylike, not the sleek sort from a bundle of even normal lox. I needed to cut further — into new wild salmon mixed with smoked salt, sugar, fennel fronds and fennel dust — to achieve the prize.

I was astonished by how great it was, and this is no unassuming boast. You can purchase brilliant lox from a store: This was an alternate taste planet.

It was likewise simple. I made it myself with precisely the fish and flavors I needed. What's more, the kid enjoyed it, a considerable measure.

Dissimilar to the choice to improve as a cook for the most part, which pays off each day, the take steps to do your own curing prompts a couple of fundamental inquiries previously you begin. Generally: Why trouble?

"It tastes so great is the main answer," said Brian Polcyn, the gourmet specialist and a writer of a standout amongst the most famous books on curing, "Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing." "A Ford Focus is a decent auto. It will get you Point A to Point B. No disgrace in driving it. A Mercedes E class? You can feel the distinction."

A moment question is one of aspiration. Curing traverses a range from bacon or essential corned meat to the intricate, grease lumped salamis of Italian or French charcuterie. The last take much work on; digging eBay and Amazon for humidifiers, processors, slicers, housings and pH perusers, notwithstanding building a drying space for exact temperatures and dampness.

I'm certain it's a wonderful leisure activity, but on the other hand it's a crazy measure of work — and requires lifted alert about security. Cured sustenance is, by definition, not cooked. Without appropriate safeguards, it can cultivate hazardous microorganisms. Spoil can be useful for wine, brew, cheddar or yogurt. It can likewise influence you to wiped out or bite the dust. Cured meat that includes maturation raises that hazard.

Paul Bertolli, a previous gourmet expert at Chez Panisse and an early supporter of bringing back home-curing, proposes leaving the more confounded stuff to the specialists. An extraordinary presentation, however it gets confused, is one of my most loved cookbooks, Mr. Bertolli's "Cooking by Hand." He went ahead to establish the site Fra' Mani, committed to everything cured; he gained from his Italian grandparents in Canada.

What I've been exploring different avenues regarding for the last eight or so years isn't crushing and maturing yet drying out strong bits of meat as they are changed with quite recently salt, flavors and air. Turns out our progenitors staggered onto something supernatural: Salt jam the meat by sucking the water out, impeding decay and thinking flavor.

The procedure likewise permits the additional flavors to implant into the meat, making it something other than what's expected through and through, and in addition making it more your own.

To what extent it keeps going relies upon whom you inquire. It's sheltered to state dried meat will last half a month in the fridge without issues and any longer if solidified, which is splendidly fine.

New items like bacon or nondried pancetta go malodorous significantly more rapidly and ought to be checked deliberately. Inconvenience is anything but difficult to recognize: I've seen dried meats don't such a great amount of ruin as become yellowish and don't smell new. At that point it's a great opportunity to hurl them. Don’t think of curing as an heirloom exercise in recreating life how it used to be. Like Mr. Bertolli, many proponents of curing learned it from relatives who did it partly out of love, partly out of necessity. So despite the last few generations of mass produced and preserved food, curing is an art that was never lost. Maybe out of fashion, but ever alive.

“For me, it’s the pleasure of making things you are going to consume yourself,” Mr. Bertolli said. “There is a pride in it.”

I’ve developed a basic and useful repertoire that requires no special equipment, space or even much time: bacon, both American and Italian (pancetta); lox, and duck prosciutto, an impressive and fun little trick that I learned from Mr. Polcyn and that you can brag over at your next dinner party as if you just brought it back from Parma. It cures for just one day under kosher salt alone.

I started curing out of love of a particular dish, pasta carbonara. My family and I lived in Rome for four years, and when we moved back to New York in 2008, it was not easy to find guanciale, or cured pig cheek, carbonara’s essential ingredient, even though we’re in Brooklyn, rightly mocked and loved as the navel of foodie obtuseness.

Romans say with snobby certainty you can make carbonara only with guanciale, not pancetta or bacon. I’m fine with any, but there is no question that guanciale makes the dish taste like Rome.

A local shop, Bklyn Larder in Park Slope, made its own and kept us supplied, that is until I came across a recipe from the Philadelphia pasta master Marc Vetri that he called shortcut guanciale.

It promised the exotic without much pain or cost: salt, sugar, pepper, garlic, coriander and rosemary rubbed over the cheek and plopped into a Ziploc bag in the refrigerator for just three days. To use right away, you roast it for about three hours. It is sublime.

We are fortunate enough to have a fireplace, so I thought: Why not dry it the way they do in Italy? I did, even if it drove the dogs mad, hanging temptingly just behind the screen in the unlit fireplace.

Three weeks later I was rewarded with something I felt I didn’t do enough to deserve: It looked Old World on the outside, all tough and dry, the inside a strip of meat encased in almost buttery, flavorful fat.

I realize most cooks aren’t going to find regular use for guanciale, though it adds wonders to other pastas, soups and even seafood dishes. For me, though, it lit a fuse: I moved from the pig’s cheek to its belly. Salts, sugar and maple syrup are all you need for tremendous American bacon.

Nutmeg, juniper, garlic, thyme and bay leaf make pancetta, which can be used dry or fresh and is singularly versatile in the kitchen. Fish, salmon especially, cures in a few days and makes a New York bagel brunch a special occasion. (I just tried a recipe from Mr. Polcyn curing salmon with beets and fresh horseradish. I recommend it.)

The list goes on, for every taste and ambition: jerky, pastrami, corned beef, full hams. I don’t own a smoker, but it notches the art up with little effort. There are websites devoted to prosciutto, which requires only salt, patience and the optimism of being alive in the year or so an entire pig leg takes to dry. Results, apparently, are spectacular.

A few basics for new curers: It’s nice to have a fireplace, for temperature and air flow, but you can hang meat to dry in many places. People use closets, garages, basements, old refrigerators, a kitchen’s out-of-the-way nook.

You won’t smell much of anything as it cures, since it generally is wrapped in plastic for many reasons, mostly because the meat gets quite wet as the salt pulls out the water. But the aroma is terrific: sweet and salty, with flavors like rosemary and cracked pepper at high decibel.

Then there are the inevitable controversies of curing, which I’ll cover here only in outline. This is what the Internet was invented for, and readers of age can decide for themselves.

Last year the curing community was set in an uproar over a World Health Organization report that linked cured and processed meat with an increase in colorectal cancer. As with many risks, experts say, moderation slims the chances considerably.

There is also a theological debate over whether to use the most common curing salt, often called pink salt or Prague powder. It is a nitrite, and thus poisonous in quantity. Some curers prefer alternatives as safer and more natural. Experts I consulted recommended using it (in the prescribed small amounts) for several reasons: It’s effective in killing dangerous bacteria and contributes to the taste and color of good cured meat. I do, without apology.

Finally, I’ll say that curing is handy (this was the whole point, before history was even invented) and can save a bundle. One recent rainy Sunday, our younger son, Nelson, came home from a day of hard New York skateboarding with a friend, starving, as 15-year-olds tend to be. We had not strategized dinner. We considered ordering out, but Indian food or sushi would run $60 at least.

I looked in the fridge, and dinner assembled itself. A hunk of my old standby, guanciale, sat in a Ziploc. I sautéed it, added some onion, olive oil, tomato, white wine, pepper flakes and pecorino. And there we had maybe the tastiest of Roman pastas, amatriciana.

Took 20 minutes. Cost less than $20 for four. The boys didn’t care where that crazy-great, salty bacon came from, but they ate and were happy. I was, too, and the pleasure was not just in my stomach.

[touristguidebuzz]

Nighttime Food Markets Draw Locals and Tourists in Cities Throughout the U.S.

The Queens Night Market in New York City's Corona, Queens, neighborhood, with people waiting on line at Burmese Bites and other food vendor tents. The market showcases about 50 food vendors, many of them immigrants selling examples of cuisine from their home countries, and is modeled on traditional night markets found in Asia. Similar night markets are popping up in other cities around the U.S. Beth J. Harpaz / Associated Press

Skift Take: Good food, day or night, is always a welcome draw whether you're a visitor or a local and we can definitely get behind this new wave of Asia-inspired night markets.

— Deanna Ting

Clouds of white smoke rise into the black sky from outdoor grills. The night air is scented with the fragrances of dozens of cuisines from around the world. Vendors in tiny stalls stir noodles, toss crepes and fill dumplings as lines of hungry customers stretch into the dark.

That was the scene at the Queens Night Market as it opened for the season in New York City. It’s one of a number of sprawling nighttime food markets — inspired by the massive night markets of Asia — that have started popping up around the U.S. There are also regular night markets in Philadelphia and Southern California, and occasional night markets held elsewhere.

The Atlanta area became the latest destination to host a new night market in late April, attracting 50,000 people and 130 vendors at its first three-day event, with another one scheduled for November. In St. Paul, Minnesota, the Little Mekong Night Market attracted 18,000 people one weekend last summer, and it’s coming back June 10-11. In Jersey City, New Jersey, a Mother’s Day-themed night market is scheduled for May 12, 6:30 p.m.-midnight.

Some of the markets are primarily Asian-themed, others promote food from around the world. The inexpensive, temporary market stalls also offer first-time entrepreneurs an opportunity to hone recipes and business skills without having to lay out the big bucks required for a brick-and-mortar shop or even a food truck. Some of the events even operate as non-profits with proceeds going to charity.

Lines can be long, as small quantities of food are being made to order on the spot. But part of the fun is watching the preparation as vendors stretch and fold crepes, pinch dumplings, sizzle and blend fillings and toss noodles. Other types of merchandise — arts, crafts, toys, along with games — are typically offered onsite as well as live music.

The events have a different vibe from laidback farmers markets or retail food halls. Instead, they have an after-dark energy and excitement that seems to pick up as the night goes on. Some charge a few dollars’ admission, but food items typically average $5. Go with a friend, and for $25, you can stuff yourself sharing four or five dishes — a perfect budget outing.

QUEENS, NEW YORK

John Wang spent his childhood summers in Taiwan, his parents’ native land. “Every single night, I wanted to go to the night market there,” he recalled.

Those memories inspired him to start the Queens Night Market. The market kicked off its third season April 22 with 50 food vendors. Some 8,000 people turned out to sample everything from tamales stuffed with fried crickets to Indonesian coconut cakes.

The market is held on the grounds of the New York Hall of Science, a museum whose history makes it a fitting site for the international market: It was part of the 1964 World’s Fair.

Wang is committed to keeping the market affordable for both visitors and vendors. The location is a working-class area with a diverse immigrant population, most menu items are $5 and food vendors can take part for $135.

“The last thing I want to have is a tourist trap but not get the locals,” he said. “I want this to be the most accessible thing in New York City.”

ATLANTA

The Atlanta International Night Market, held April 21-23 at Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth, featured vendors selling food from around the world along with a “vegan village” for non-meat-eaters. Founder David Lee, who was born in Vietnam and owns a chain of restaurants called Saigon Cafe, sees the market as a “platform” for Atlanta’s diversity.

“When you have the food, culture, music, you bring everyone together,” he said. He hopes to hold the market four times a year, with the next one scheduled for Nov. 3-5.

PHILADELPHIA

Night Market Philadelphia began in 2010, and typically attracts 60 to 80 food vendors and 20,000 attendees. The cuisine ranges from empanadas and Jamaican jerk chicken to Khmer satay. “We try to elevate folks’ food festival standards and offer more interesting fare than corn dogs and pizza,” said Diana Minkus, spokeswoman for The Food Trust, the local organization behind the markets.

The markets take place in different neighborhoods: May 11 in Northeast Philadelphia’s Burholme neighborhood; June 29 in West Philly; Aug. 10 in Roxborough in Northwest Philly and Oct. 5 at the Italian Market.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Two night markets take place in Southern California. The 626 Night Market in Arcadia, which started in 2012, has 200 vendors, and the OC Night Market in Costa Mesa has 160.

Spokeswoman Holly Nguyen says the markets were inspired by the night markets of Taiwan and the “core” of both markets are “Chinese and Taiwanese vendors.” But they’ve become more diverse over time, with “pan-Asian vendors” serving Filipino, Vietnamese and Laotian cuisines, and others selling dishes ranging from Mediterranean shawarma to Texas barbecue. About 20 percent of vendors are first-time entrepreneurs. Details at  .

Copyright (2017) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. This article was written by Beth J. Harpaz from The Associated Press and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.