exciting news everyone!

I designed and illustrated an album cover!

It’s been printed and pressed, and the band - a little outfit cleverly named Provincial Parks - is having a party to celebrate - so you should be there. I will be there, anyways. I would like a copy of my work - and the music inside it’s pretty awesome too (sort of a sparkly-shiny indie rock with some poppy undertones) so I’m excited about getting a copy of that as well.

The launch party is at the Mod Club next Saturday. Click through to the Facebook page if you’d like to come along!

me as a teen

There’s this meme that’s been going around, and for once I actually decided to participate because it sounded kinda cool.

Things Of Note in this little portrait:

1. This is an amalgam of my looks from between 15 and 17
2. My sorta dykey haircut. I was going for Audrey Hepburn/Wynona Ryder. I’m not sure I quite got there. I did get asked if I was a lesbian a few times. No.
3. The little sparkley butterfly clip that is holding up my rather awkwardly growing out bangs.
4. My black messenger bag. Which I got from Le Chateau. The only place I shopped. Possible contents include: sparkly nail-polish, sparkly lip-gloss, iridescent eye-shadow, green-tea scented hand lotion, American Vogue, GO bus tickets, a script (from the school musical of course), pens, a small notebook, and some kind of pretentious, hardcover novel from the library (or, let’s be honest here, possibly some Anne Rice if I felt like slumming).
5. My thrift-store, mens, stretchy polyester shirt. I probably underestimated the size of the collar here.
6. The size of my shoes. Large. I liked to balance the width of my pants (wide) with the size of my shoes (clunky).
7. My glasses. They were bright-blue, metal cats-eyes. Totally hot.
8. Lavender. Mauve. Whatever you want to call pale, vomity purple. I loved it then. I can’t stand it now. Go figure.
9. I ate, pretty much like a pig - but I was hella’ skinny. I can not believe how skinny I was. Ten pounds away from Nicole Ritchie skinny. It shocks me to look back in pictures. That twenty (or thirty, or forty) pound college rule is totally for real guys. *Sigh.* I want my old metabolism back.

yummy week

I’ve been having a good food week. Right now I am sitting here with a (natural) peanut-butter and (concord) grape jelly sandwich and a big, tall glass of chocolate milk. I don’t think it gets more nostalgic than that (*sigh*…grade two… bag lunch… twenty five cents for a carton of the good stuff *sigh*). I bet it’s a meal that people across North America remember and cherish in the same way I remember and cherish it, and that’s sort of neat.

I’ve also been exploring exotic, not so familiar, tastes.

We finally ventured out to little India last week (also known as one block down the street) and bought some spices, paneer (fresh cheese), jellabi (basically funnel cake soaked in syrup), daal (spiced lentils) and the most yummy, fresh, delicious naan (spicy flat bread) and had ourselves an authentic Indian feast!

One of the stores down the street sells samosas at three for a dollar, so I think I’m pretty much sunk. I could eat a bucket of them, and actually I have.

Last night I made a cottage pie, which is something I had in England. It’s basically what we know as Shepard’s pie, but in England a pie with lamb is a Shepard’s pie, and a pie with ground beef is a cottage pie (and it comes smothered in cheddar!). I don’t know what it was about the “Shepard’s” pie I had growing up, but it was not as flavorful as the one I had in England. So I attempted to re-create it.

I cheated and used a lot of “Montreal style” steak spice to season the meat (which is basically just sea salt and cracked black pepper with some cayenne, corriander, dill, garlic, and onion), and it seemed to do the trick in the flavor department. I ran out of corn starch to thicken up the gravy for my stew, so I had to improvise. I thought about what a peasant living in a small cottage might do in my situation. I decided to toss in a few cubed up slices of stale, oatmeal-honey bread into the pot to soak up the stock and it worked like a charm! It thickened my sauce, gave it a richer flavour than starch or flour would have, and bulked it up enough that it could stand up to being covered with mashed potatoes.

For the stew:

• 1 pound ground beef (whatever cut you prefer - nothing too lean though)
• 1 tbsp “Montreal style” steak seasoning (or an equal amt. of a mix of salt, pepper, and your favourite herbs and spices for beef - thyme, rosemary, dill, and coriander being quite good here).
• 2 carrots (diced)
• 2 sticks of celery (diced)
• 1 onion (diced)
• 1 clove garlic (diced)
• 1 cup beef stock
• 3 slices whole wheat bread (chopped into 1 cm cubes)
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

For the mash:

• 2 pounds of potatoes (chopped into 1 inch cubes, un-peeled - potato skin is flavourful and nutrient rich, and you don’t even notice it when it’s mashed)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• salt and pepper

Topping:

• 1/4 cup old/aged cheddar cheese (grated)

1. Steam or boil the potatoes.
2. Saute the meat with the spices and garlic until it is browned. Add in the vegetables and continue to sauté until they soften.
3. Add the sauces, stock and bread to the meat mixture, stirring to make sure the bread absorbs all the liquid and begins to break down and thicken the stock.
4. When the potatoes are fork-soft, drain them, and mash them with the butter and milk, seasoning well with salt and pepper.
5. Layer the meat stew into the bottom of a casserole dish, and then cover evenly with the mashed potatoes. Give the top of the potatoes some texture by using a fork to draw a pattern into the mash (I like a big spiral). Sprinkle the top evenly with the grated cheese.
6. Broil at 400 for 5-10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted.

In the end, my pie came out of the oven golden and crispy on top, and rich and comforting in the middle. It was quite perfect. You should try it! It makes a lot - at least enough to stuff 6 people - or two people 3 times, as the case may be.

There was one blight this week though. The less said about my fish-ball pad-Thai the better alright?

former pop-tartlet makes good

I don’t usually post videos, but I keep running across this same artist’s stuff, and I am totally in love with her:

Her name is Robyn, she’s Swedish, and she used be a teeny-bopper pop-star in the mid nineties (remember “Show Me Love”? It was pretty ubiquitous at one point. Still hear it from time to time on adult-contempo radio). During the nineties her producer/song writer/Svengali was fellow swede Max Martin - Yes, that Max Martin, of later Britney infamy.

Eventually Robyn, not surprisingly, grew a little tired of being marketed as a pop-tartlet by her record company. But rather than put out a whiny new single about being misunderstood, or how hard being rich and famous is, she dumped her label and started her own.

Then she gave herself a asymmetrical bleach blond haircut; started wearing crazy outfits usually seen on more avant-garde artists (like a dress made to look like a Wurlitzer juke box); and started writing all her own material, collaborating with all the hip, young, up-and-coming producers and DJs Europe has to offer. Pretty awesome right? Now as a result, she’s the hottest thing in the British press, which means her total world dominance should be forthcoming shortly.

She’s pretty much Bjork and Gwen’s long lost Swedish love-child as raised by Missy. In other words: what’s not to love? She’s totally adorable in a wacky, Scandinavian sort of way and she’s got the chops to back it up.

Best of all, her music is danceable and her videos are fresh and arty, even Michel Gondry-esque. I made a playlist of the best on YouTube, so go check em’ out.

vivian’s website

While I’ve been out of commission, I’ve been working on a little website for my friend Vivian (she’s a talented girl, who is a fledgling DJ - among other things). I’m doing it just for fun and I’m totally digging it so far.

Granted, Vivian hasn’t seen this yet, so it might look entirely different by the time it ends up online, but at the moment, I’m pretty happy with it.

Vivian was using a little snail with a record for a shell as her little logo, so I decided to take the motif a step further and go for a whole story-book, woodland DJ motif. She also has a love of Alice in Wonderland, so I integrated a bit of that too. Vivian’s own personal aesthetic tends to lean towards rocker-mod, with lot’s of black and white and red so there’s a bit of a subtle retro, rockin’ influence (most notably in the use of cooper black for the header - and who doesn’t *heart* cooper black!). I, of course, added in a good dose of my own Mary Blair obsession into the mix as well.

sizzling shrimp

My little brother and sister came over to visit last night - one last time in the old ‘hood before we move. I was going to make them dinner, but I was at a loss as to what I would make.

Then we started discussing how the other night we had been watching one of our new favourite shows of the fall: Chuck, and this weeks episode centred around a Chinese restaurant entree called “sizzling shrimp.”

We were intrigued. But alas, we had never eaten such a dish.

So I decided I would do my best and improvise, based on nothing more than a name.

What follows is that improvisation. It is probably nothing like what real sizzling shrimp is like, but it is delicious, it is spicy, it sizzles and it’s tastes vaguely like something you might get at a really good little restaurant in Chinatown.

Sizzling Shrimp

• 1 pound shrimp (raw but peeled or zipper-back)
• 1 tbsp butter (melted)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 teaspoon chilli-garlic sauce
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 lime (zest and juice)
• 2 green onions (chopped)
• salt to taste

1. Toss the shrimp with the butter, oil, chilli-garlic sauce, soy and lime zest. Let the shrimp hang out and and marinate for 10-30 minutes while you pre-heat oven to 400.
2. Place the saucy shrimp in a single layer on a baking sheet (you can skewer them - 3-4 per skewer if that makes them easier to handle). Broil for 10-20 minutes, or until the shells of the shrimp are lightly browned, flipping once at the halfway mark.
3. As soon as the shrimp are browned evenly on both sides remove them from the oven and sprinkle a little bit of salt on top, then the green onions on top so they absorb the heat and wilt slightly and then squeeze the juice from the lime onto them.
4. Serve while hot, preferably with retro, classic, Chinese-restaurant-style accompaniments - like fried rice and egg-rolls.

finding inspiration

I have been feeling unmotivated (as I occasionally do). Without the spark of life that leads to ideas and work. Granted, things are pretty understandably out of sorts right now - all the things I normally run to in situations like this are getting packed into boxes, and I’m trying to avoid buying or finding any new things, because it’s just more to lug to the other side of town (as it is, I’m trying to eat my way through my pantry just so that I don’t have to bring that with me).

But it made me think about the things that get me going, get me working, get me coming up with new ideas and exploring them.

And so I started writing a list of those things, in lieu of actually being able to have them… And then expanding and expounding on that list… And then the list took on a life of it’s own and became:

creative sparks

Go, check it out. It will probably grow as time goes on (I left out some things - plays and fiction and tv and music - they will find their way on there eventually, but the thing is massive as it is).

I tried to include things that were instrumental in how I approach life, art, the universe and everything - as well as some things I am constantly hearing have helped fellow artists and friends get those friendly lightning bolts of imagination.

I hope it’s helpful to more than just me.

the darjeeling limited

Go see it.

Seriously.

It’s beautiful.

If you like Wes Anderson you will love it. If you consider yourself to be a student of cinema and literature you will love it’s depth and elegance (although if Hollywood movies and best-selling books are more your thing you might not). If you’re looking for a bit of a visual boost, some eye candy to jangle your creativity, it’s perfect too. If you’re looking for inspiration for decorating your home, then this is the movie to see this season.

The India depicted is (like in most Anderson movies) not so much of the present, or even of the past, but one of dreams captured cinematically. The set pieces and locales are astonishing - everything is drenched in a vibrant, fairy-tale exoticism. However, it’s not quite as much of a fashion flick as other Wes Anderson movies have been - despite the help of Mark Jacobs and a large set of absolutely divine Louis Vuiton luggage.

I found this poster for it, and it’s a bit of a odd find as it depicts only Natalie Portman and a tiger. While both are certainly in the movie, they do not appear as more than spoken-of-mirages, and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameos. But I do absolutely love it’s retro illustrative style, reminiscent of mid-sixties movie posters. It certainly hints to the mystery and style of the movie.

Script-wise, Anderson is back to form - recalling his first (and most critically acclaimed) film: Bottle Rocket.

Anderson’s trio of brothers are, though a return to a familiar subject of disaffected families, one of his most emotionally interesting depictions. Although he does receive a lot of help from his always impeccable casting.

Brody? Schwartzman? Wilson? You can’t go wrong

I’m really hoping that he never collaborates with that Noah Baumbach ever again. I actually quite like Roman Coppola (his CQ was entirely underrated) so I think he was a much better choice as a collaborator than that other guy. They certainly share a certain retro, new-wave, colour-drenched sensibility. I could tell he added a lot of sparkle and elegance to the cinematography and script - but then again, it’s well established that I have a thing for the Coppola family.

Speaking of which, Jason Schwartzman is also quite effective here - I think it’s his sense of humour which most comes out in both his performance and the script (which he also co-wrote), bringing levity to Wes Andersons darker inclinations. .

Here’s also hoping Owen Wilson never succeeds in his recently publicized attempts, because he is a woefully wonderful actor who adds so much undertones and depth to a performance - but damned if doesn’t ever get to show it except for in Wes Anderson movies.

more gardening dreams

I found this image when surfing around, I believe it is an entry at last years Canada Blooms. I am totally taking it as my inspiration for my garden to be (and am I the only one who is very much reminded of Fred Penner’s Place and his awesome forest garden shed? Am I the only one who remembers Fred Penner?).

I love the juxtaposition of very vibrant saturated colours (the purple birdhouses, the yellow wellies, the electric blue stakes) popped against a rough, rustic, natural background with splashes of verdant and chartreuse gardens.

Although I’m gonna probably rock saturated oranges and pinks, rather than purples and blues because I have a couple big orange berried rowan trees (also known as Mountain ash) to work with. Totally using the “bright lights” swiss chard I want to grow as a colour inspiration.

I have also bought You Grow Girl, and am reading my way through - it’s pretty awesome. It’s got neat crafts, simple instructions, beautiful photography and a youthful/urban/girly attitude that is super easy for a youthful/urban/girl to relate to. The author actually lives down the street somewhere here in Parkdale, so I know all her advice is workable for me here in Toronto’s micro-climate. Perfect!

the papasan question

I am still planning on ultimately getting an Eames rocker, but that leaves a need for something a little more appropriate for curling up with a couple kittys and a good book.

So I was wondering…

What do we think of papasan chairs?

1. they are kitschy- in a good way
2. EWWWWW! they are kitschy in a bad, bad way
3. they are so comfortable nothing else matters.
4. crocs are to shoes as (blank) are to chairs (answer=papasans)
5. they are cheap and tacky and belong only in college dorms, basements and incense addled dens of inequity/hippies
6. Usually, they’re not so pretty but they could be cute if *I* worked my magic on one (painted the frame a nice colour - silver? white? turquoise? - and re-covered the cushion in cute fabric and added some adorable throw pillows)
7. whatever makes the kitties and the boyfriend happy, makes me happy

I’m maybe, kinda, sorta leaning towards: sorta kitschy (but I like kitschy) and they also could be cute - with some boyfriend and kitty happiness thrown in for good measure. Keep in mind that I would not be purchasing a new one, but probably procuring a used one for super cheap (from craigslist, likely). Which is happy for the environment!

Before answering, check out this super pretty room I found at Apartment Therapy that utilizes the chair in question in an appropriate and, dare I say it, stylish manner and totally makes it work. I am kinda basing my bedroom around it. I stumbled across the blog of the guy who owns it and it’s worth a look too if you’re into whimsical design and hand drawn type (Yes! Yes. Yes I am).