Anne's Adventures (not just in New Hampshire)

Better Digs

2011-05-28T16:19:00.000-07:00

After much debate and false starts, I've moved on to better digs (i.e a better URL). If you'd like to check out my new place, just use the contact page, or comment on any old post. I'll be more than happy to send you the link (*).

(*) This is merely to protect myself.

What Came in the Mail

2011-05-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

This morning, I received a 135mm lens for my Minolta x-500. I bought it on eBay three days ago from a seller in Paris who advertised it as a Viabrillant/Minolta. I googled Viabrillant, but nothing came up, so I'm assuming it was either the name Minolta lenses were sold under in some countries, or a subcontractor. I emailed the seller to ask him if he knows anything about it. I also got the 5 rolls of film I'd ordered from Thailand. I'll be covered for a couple of months if I shoot mainly digital this summer, or a couple of weeks if I shoot more film than digital, so I'll have to re-stock up via eBay.

The lens is somewhat of a beast, and it's going to take some getting used to. I shot a few photos with it, and I had to back away a lot more than I'd expected. In the process, I ran into a sweet older couple, and had to avoid a group of Japanese tourists who were in my line of view. I almost got a shot of a nice store layout, but a kid was in the way, and he was not budging. These are all things I'm not used to, being a 50mm girl for financial reasons, so the learning process is going to be interesting. It's definitely going to make me stop and think about composition a lot more.

In a week, I should be getting two rolls of film back: one from Florida, and the other one from here. I have no idea what's on either, which gives you an idea of how much I've been shooting film lately (a shot here in there, with weeks at a time spent without touching my camera). There's still a roll in my LC-A with a few photos I took in Miami, and the rest needs to be taken here. I think I'll finish it when Brent gets here.

I've only used four types of film in my life: Kodak gold 200, Fujicolor 100, and two types of Lomography films, so I'm taking any and all film recommendations.

Belated Food Friday: Zucchini & Tomato Tart

2011-05-21T15:58:00.000-07:00

Errands I had to run yesterday made me miss my weekly appointment with a new recipe - aka Food Friday - so I decided to play catchup today by making a savory tart. The upside of making a savory dish is that I can have that with a small salad and have fruit for dessert. It's not a snack, but it's a good main dish. The pastry is very crumbly, but really delicious. It's filling, but still light.

Zucchini & cherry tomato tart

Ingredients for the pastry:

- 2 cups (250g) all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (125g) unsalted butter, cut up into 10 or so pieces
- pinch of salt
- one egg
- 1/4 cup of ice water*

Ingredients for the filling:

- 5 tbsp mascarpone cheese

- 1 tbsp crème fraîche or heavy cream

- a pinch of herbs (I used a combination of thyme, sage and marjoram)

- half a small onion, thinly sliced

- 1/2 a zucchini

- 10 or so cherry tomatoes (I used a mix of red and yellow)

- half a mozzarella ball

- 1-2 clove of garlic, chopped up

- oregano to sprinkle on top (about 1 tsp)

- pepper to taste

- 1-2 tsp pine nuts (optional)

- tsp olive oil

Instructions:

Mix all ingredients for the pastry but the water in a food processor until it resembles coarse meal. Add ice water little by little to bind the dough together until the clumps form.

Place dough on a floured surface, shape into a ball and cover with cling wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 380 degrees Fahrenheit.

Take pastry out of the fridge and roll out onto the floured surface. Unroll on top of tart pan, and press onto the bottom and the sides. If you're like me, have fun patching the dough back together with a little water.

In a frying pan, heat up some olive oil and fry onion until tender. Remove from the heat.

Slice half a zucchini into very thin slices (almost potato chip-like).

Cut up the cherry tomatoes in half. I picked two colors because I thought that would look prettier, but tastier, if less pretty cherry tomatoes, are fine too.

Mix together the mascarpone and heavy cream with a fork. Mix in the herbs until just combined.

Spread mascarpone mixture on the bottom of the pie crust.

Drop the onion rings on top of the mascarpone mix.

Place zucchini slices in rows (I made two rows), scatter mozzarella slices between the zucchini rows, and strew the cherry tomatoes on top.

Dump the garlic over the mozzarella.

Grind pepper, sprinkle oregano on top, and brush the cherry tomatoes with a little olive oil.

Bake for 20 minutes, and cool on rack.

Enjoy with a nice arugula salad!

*The recipe I used didn't call for water, and I might have overprocessed it, so the crust was very crumbly, and it fell apart when I tried to pick it up. I'll make sure to follow a different recipe next time.

LC-A Dreams

2011-05-17T10:48:00.000-07:00

Last summer, I shot two rolls of film with my LC-A and only posted a few that I liked. I was very disappointed with the rest so I promptly forgot about them. A few days ago, looking through my photo albums, I noticed that I had a few photos with something curious in common: they looked like they were all from a junkie's hallucinations. The colors, the light leaks, the blurriness, the retro clothes and architecture all made them look like they'd been taken in the 70s.

No, I wasn't in a trance when I took them, but I can't guarantee that my LC-A wasn't. Maybe it was going through three airport security systems; they might have messed up the rolls of film in my bag.

As a collage, they look much less odd, and you don't get the feeling that you're in a very disturbing dream. Maybe I'll post them individually on Flickr one day.

Sunday Morning Market

2011-05-15T23:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I woke up a little earlier than usual on Sunday mornings, and got ready faster than usual so I could go to the market after getting a few things from the grocery store. The weather was a little cooler than I expected, but the sun showed its pretty face a few times.

These past few days, I've been reading more about photography settings, and experimenting with different settings. I was going to use mostly spot metering, but I soon figured out that I wasn't going to have time to adjust my settings based on some very disparate lighting conditions, so I ended up going with center-weighted average metering. I'm proud of the fact that I made an effort to shoot even when vendors were looking at me, which is something I'm usually too shy to do.

I discovered that peonies are my favorite flowers. But don't buy me any during hay fever season or I just may punch you in the face.

The round flower looks very interesting. It's a shame I didn't notice it then.

I sometimes forget how good artichokes are, even without any dressing.

This is part of the Greek stand where I buy kalamata olives and whatever else strikes my fancy. That olive oil is pretty damn tasty, but the feta I bought yesterday morning had gone bad so I was very disappointed.

This week, I need to come up with more recipes because I've been skipping Food Friday for the last two weeks. It doesn't mean I haven't been cooking. I made some lemon and cilantro hummus (delicious) and another tiramisu (with Marsala wine this time). But last Friday, I came back too late to bother cooking, and the week before that, I was just not in the mood to cook. I think I should make something savory, but I need to find something light.

Amateur Portfolio

2011-05-11T09:09:00.000-07:00

Four weeks after opening a free Carbonmade account, I've finally put together a portfolio. I chose four sections out of the five allowed: people & faces, food, urban landscapes, and animals. I can still add ten photos that I think I'll add to all sections but the faces section for obvious reasons. I'm glad I finally did it, even if it's a small, non professional looking website. It's not like I'm starting a photography business right this second anyway.

Let me know what you think!

Ode & Promise to my Chinese and Russian Cameras

2011-05-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

Spring and summer mean I can now dig my Holga, Diana and LC-A out (okay, take them off my shelves) and get new rolls of film so I can use them when the sun is out and the light is beautiful. I admit that I shouldn't neglect them during the colder, blearier months, but I do.

The LC-A gets taken out on outings more often than my other film cameras, but I haven't been a good owner lately, and I still haven't processed the roll that Brent and I shot in Miami. This is a promise to start using those cameras again, and an ode to their awesomeness.

The wide angle lens of the LC-A is

one of the reasons I love it.

Fujicolor 100 iso film gives

some pretty damn great colors.

Sometimes, you get a lot more

detail than you'd expect.

It's a good portrait camera.

The Holga, however, is trickier to use and get good results from. I wanted to love it. I really did. But I don't love it as much. Maybe I picked film with too low an ISO. Maybe I didn't adjust the settings to the shooting conditions. I also think Holgas are great tools for some subjects, and awful for others. They tend to bring out the gloomy aspects of places and objects. Truth be told, I get depressed just looking at most photos taken with Holgas, unless they're of shiny or bright things.

I'm going to be using the Diana with its Instax back over the summer. In a couple of weeks, I'll be ordering 5 or 10 packs of Instax mini to take with me on vacation. I feel the same way about it used without the Instax back as I feel about the Holga, so it's not going to be needing any 120 film this summer. Despite the unreliability of the viewfinder when the back is on, it's a really great tool and so much fun to use.

Definitely not what was in my viewfinder back then.

Here I was aiming for his face, not his hands.

10 Things

2011-05-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

10 THINGS

1. After leaving it for three months in my shopping cart, I finally ordered Harlem is Nowhere. I'm reading it at the moment; it's one of those books that you savor because you know you'll feel lonely when you reach the last page.

2. I have no idea how to compose a beautiful flower shot. I see them all the time, and try to get that angle where the distance from the flowers to the bottom of the stems seems very long and the bokeh is magnificent, but I just can't get that angle right.

3. I need a tripod, I think, because I'm so short and unsteady on my feet that I can't achieve certain camera angles. Got any recommendations for a good tripod that could withstand the weight of a very heavy lens?

4. I'm about to invest in a very very heavy lens that my weak arms will have a lot of trouble carrying.

5. That's one of the reasons why I've been lifting weights lately. The #1 reason is that I just want to tone my body, and #2, look better in short sleeved dresses.

6. I've been completely fascinated with the South lately, especially with its history, literature and music. I've had to satisfy my cravings with episodes of Treme and I've made a small pile of books set in the South and written by Southern writers. Most of the books in the pile I started reading at some point, but never finished.

7. My face has been breaking out lately and I've been inexplicably tired. Inexplicably because I don't have a lot of work to do and the kids have (almost) been behaving lately.

8. I may have been cooking too much in the past two weeks. I've made an eggplant & zucchini tart (homemade crust too), a tiramisu, praline cupcakes, chives scones and a chocolate cake.

9. I've been slacking off in the writing department. I'm working on three writing projects that need my attention in the next few weeks, and I've decided to start writing more on this blog too. It used to be words & no photos, and then, just photos and no writing, but I've realized that I want and need both.

10. My new favorite blog is The Novelist's Hubris. Meggy Wang is such a talented and compelling writer, and you should also check out her blog if you love photography without pretense. You won't regret it.

Food Friday: Chives & Feta Scones

2011-04-29T15:26:00.000-07:00

The weather here has been really shitty and dreary these past couple of days -- in other words, perfect for comfort foods. I decided to make these to take to a crêpe party at a friend's, because, you know, they're so light and healthy, and the perfect side dish to a sweet crêpe. Um, who am I kidding? Since our evening plans fell through, we'll have these with something else. What, I have no idea, because I'm running out of fresh ingredients. Why, you ask? Because I can't seem to get the way my mom's car's clutch works, and I end up stalling at every stop so I've been relying on my friendly neighborhood épicerie for groceries.

I was looking to use up some of my feta and chives and came across this recipe. As usual, I made a few changes, such as using feta instead of goat's cheese because I hate goat's cheese, but love feta. I also couldn't use buttermilk because we don't have such a thing here, so I added some lemon juice to half a cup of milk and let it sit for 5 minutes to make a buttermilk substitute.

These scones are a little on the bland side, so either use them to dip into something, or add more pepper and maybe a little cumin or paprika or something of the sort. I'm not too great at food pairings, especially when I feel like my taste buds have gone on strike. The texture is interesting, though. Maybe the problem with the taste is that I used frozen chives, because that was all I had. I'll try to make it with fresh chives next time.

Chives and Feta Cheese Scones (makes 8 large triangular scones)

Ingredients:

- 1 cup all purpose flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp sugar

- 1/4 tsp baking soda

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 1/4 to 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg (optional)

- 1/4 tsp ground cumin (optional)

- 1/6 cup unsalted butter, cut up, and chilled

- 1/4 cup fresh or frozen chives

- 5 ounces (110g) feta, crumbled

- 1/2 cup buttermilk, plus one tbsp for brushing (or milk with 1/2 tbsp lemon juice)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400°F (205° Celsius). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk together the dry ingredients. Using your fingertips, mix the cut up butter until you obtain something that resembles a coarse meal. Stir in the chives, throw in the feta and the buttermilk. Stir with a fork until a sticky dough forms.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently for 30 seconds.

Flatten into a circle.

Cut 8 pieces with a large knife.

Brush with the remaining buttermilk, using a pastry brush.

Place wedges on the baking sheet, leaving at least half an inch between each wedge.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden on top.

Cool on a rack.

Recently (IV)

2011-04-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

Uncooked & unfrosted praline & Nutella cupcakes,
made with my friend and temporary roommate Camille.

They were a hit with my friends, and remained unfrosted

so I guess you can call them cupcake-wannabe muffins.

I've always hated vertical shots, but decided

to give it a try to see if I'd change my mind.

Mind almost changed.

My one eyed cat friend came back a couple of times,
and I noticed that she's as scared of Oscar
as Oscar is of her. I want them to be friends.

Non invisible cat.

Cats have the cutest paws. How can you resist that
paw? I want to touch it.

Oscar has mastered the sad puppy dog eyes look.
He knows it works too.

What I Wish I Were Wearing

2011-04-25T02:13:00.000-07:00

This would have been the perfect outfit to wear to my local épicerie yesterday. It's been so warm these past few days, and a straw hat would be very much welcome.

Short sleeve dress, Madewell, $128
T strap flat sandal, Modcloth, $95
Straw Hat, Comptoir des Cotonniers, €55
Bag, Comptoir des Cotonniers
Belt, Sandro

The bag above would have been better than the bulkier Urban Outfitters bag I've been taking everywhere.

or this small clutch that's perfect for going out, but not the right color for a spring day.

Recently (III)

2011-04-24T07:53:00.000-07:00

Monday morning: croissants are a wonderful(ly buttery) way to start the week, and they taste fantastic with a cup of Earl Grey tea.

Tuesday: pasta, arugula & green pea salad with mozzarella and an olive oil, lemon juice and basil dressing.

Also Tuesday: wilted flowers. I'm really bad with flowers, but I'm sure Rhiannon knows!

Friday: learning to use the back button focusing function, using dandelions.

Also Friday: made a facial scrub using ground rolled oats, yogurt and honey.

Not pictured: a Saturday afternoon spent in the kitchen making an eggplant and bell pepper tart, as well as a mini mascarpone & cherry tomato tart that was seriously delicious, and a great dinner with friends with chocolate mousse and tiramisu for dessert.

Food Friday: Giada's Chocolate Tiramisu

2011-04-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

I received a copy of Giada De Laurentiis' cookbook Everyday Italian for Christmas, and finally got the courage to try one of the recipes. I recently started liking tiramisu, despite countless trips to Italy where I avoided it like the plague, and her recipe appealed to me. One of my mother's friend is a former Italian teacher who always brings the yummiest tiramisu to get togethers, so I thought I'd give it a try and give her a run for her money. No, I only really wanted to give it a try. it wasn't as tasty as her recipe. Blame it on me, not Giada; the woman's nearly perfect.

I realized I didn't have all the ingredients needed to make it, so I adapted it accordingly. I didn't use Marsala in the chocolate zabaglione, but added only a single tablespoon of rum because I have no idea how to cook with liquor. It's a skill I've yet to acquire. I used crème fraiche instead of whipping cream, and didn't leave the zabaglione in the fridge for 8 hours because I was too impatient to wait that long.

My advice is to make the zabaglione first and refrigerate for two hours. During the last 15 minutes, you can prepare the rest of the tiramisu. Make sure to leave in the fridge for at least two hours before serving. Giada recommends to make it the day before, if possible.

Chocolate Tiramisu, a la Giada de Laurentiis (from Everyday Italian).

Ingredients for the zabaglione:

- 1/4 cup dark chocolate

- 1/8 cup crème fraiche or whipping cream

- 1/3 cup sugar

- 1 tablespoon dark rum

- 4 egg yolks

- a pinch of salt

Ingredients for the tiramisu:

- 30-36 finger cookies

- 7 espresso shots

- 1 cup + 1 tbs crème fraiche or whipping cream

- chocolate zabaglione

- 1/3 cup sugar

- 4 ounce mascarpone (half a tub here)

- unsweetened cocoa powder

Instructions for the zabaglione:

In a small saucepan, bring the crème fraiche to a boil. Remove from the heat and add dark chocolate and mix until fully combined and smooth. Set aside, but keep warm.

Fill a large saucepan with two inches of water and bring to a simmer. In a bowl that fits in the saucepan without touching the bottom, whisk together the sugar, rum, egg yolks and salt until combined.

Place the bowl over the saucepan, and whisk constantly until the mixture is thick and creamy (about 5-6 minutes in my case). Remove from the heat.

Fold the chocolate and cream into the sugar and egg mixture using a rubber spatula. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours.

Instructions for the tiramisu:

In a large bowl, stir the mascarpone for a few seconds but do not stir too much.

In a medium bowl, beat the crème fraiche and half of the sugar with an electric mixer for a couple of minutes. Giada says: "until peaks form" but I don't know what she means, so I mixed until it looked like waves were crashing unto each other.

Fold the crème fraiche mixture into the mascarpone and add the zabaglione. Cover and refrigerate.

Line a pan* with plastic wrap and make sure to cover the edges of the pan.

In a medium bowl, mix the espresso and the second half of the sugar.

Dip one cookie at a time in the espresso mix and arrange in the pan**. Place in a single layer, and pour half of the chocolate mixture on top of the cookies.

Dip and repeat for the second layer.

Add a final layer of cookies then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for anywhere from 2 hours to a day.

Unwrap the plastic, put a large platter over the pan and turn over. Remove the plastic, sift some cocoa to cover it and serve.

Notes:
*I used a casserole dish, but Giada recommends a 9 1/4 x 5 x 2 3/4 loaf pan.

**That's where, if I'd been smart, I would have changed pans and used a narrower pan to put just one cookie across the pan.

Wishlist

2011-04-18T05:18:00.000-07:00

I have a cold that's superimposed on allergies so I'm not having a whole lot of fun right now, but window shopping on the J. Crew and Fossil websites is helping me feel a little better. I've *heard* naps are good when you're sick, so I'm going to give them a try. I don't typically sleep a lot when I'm sick, but now's not the time to be stubborn.

Wishlist
l-r & clockwise

1. FOSSIL leather messenger bag, $128
2. J Crew vintage style dress, $98
3. J Crew hobo handbag, $298
4. J Crew v neck cardigan, $68
5. FOSSIL leather messenger bag, $208
6. Kimchi Blue flat shoes, $15

It's all super preppy, but also super lovely.

Food Friday: Spinach, Arugula & Mâche Pesto

2011-04-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I decided to use up as much of the salad we'd bought last Sunday for our 18 guests. We had plenty of leftovers, and two kinds of salad greens (spinach and mâche), plus some arugula, so I thought I could make some pesto. The leaves we had were a sad bunch, so today was absolutely the last day I could use them for anything. I had to throw out a lot of wilted leaves, and didn't find enough baby spinach to make my usual spinach pesto. The plan, originally, was to use 3/4 spinach, 1/4 mâche, but it turns out that I had way more edible mâche than spinach, so to counterbalance a somewhat bland taste, I had to use some arugula too.

Mâche is a very popular salad in France. For those of you who've never seen it at your farmer's market, NPR did a story on it a few years ago. If you can't find it, just use half arugula, half baby spinach.

Baby Spinach, Arugula & Mâche Pesto

Ingredients:

- 2 cups mâche
- 1 cup baby spinach
- 2 cups arugula
- 15-20 basil leaves
- 1/3 cup olive oil (more if mixture is too thick)
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 2 tbs pine nuts or walnuts
- 1/3 cup parmesan, cut up into pieces, or grated
- a pinch of sea salt (I used fleur de sel)
- pepper to taste

Instructions:

Throw the mâche, spinach, arugula and basil into food processor.

Add olive oil and nuts.

Chop up garlic and parmesan. Add to the mixture.

Add salt and pepper into food processor.

Mix until well combined.

If it's too bland, add more garlic and pepper. Or grate a small part of a lemon zest like I did. Mix again, chill and serve on pasta, or bread. It tastes pretty good on my thyme crackers too.

Why is pesto so hard to photograph?

Dressing (Up)

2011-04-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

I've always had a love-hate relationship with fashion and clothes. Part of the reason is that I have a lot of body hang ups (chest too big, hips too wide etc) and I also have trouble finding clothes that I like. There were even years when I barely shopped for clothes because I didn't like what I found, and my mother would beg me, to no avail, to spend money on clothes.

Still, even when I didn't wear anything fashionable, or, hell, let's admit it, anything even remotely nice looking, I read a lot of fashion magazines. I started reading Cosmo Girl the year it came out (I think I started with issue #2), and also regularly bought Elle Girl and Teen Vogue through high school and my freshman year of college. I even wrote an email to Atoosa Rubenstein, the editor of Cosmo Girl when the layout changed and I thought the quality decreased.

In college, I became a fan of Jane magazine (don't even get me started on how much I miss it), Marie Claire and Elle. Today, I'm an Elle and Marie Claire subscriber who occasionally buys issues of Vogue and (not so) secretly reads her sister's copies of French Glamour. During NY Fashion Week, I didn't read a single article that wasn't about fashion, and I kept refreshing Tumblr to see posts about fashion shows, and fashion bloggers get togethers.

One thing I've definitely become more attuned to are details and trends. Not trends in the "such and such is the new black" way, but larger-picture trends. Styles that are timeless. Sultry post-war and 1960s looks, such as the ones worn on Mad Men and in countless movies set shortly after WW2.

The details in the dress above are what drew me
to it. I loved the belt, and the golden clip.

All those years, reading those fashion glossies has made me more aware of what I don't like than what I do like. I know I don't like flashy clothes, I'm not a fan of color block, and I would never wear anything by Guess or Juicy Couture. And on the Rachel Zoe Project, I loved Taylor's style a lot more than Rachel's.

I used to be a Gap jeans girl. I would find tops from other stores, but would always pair them with Gap jeans, depending on the fit that was popular or wearable at the time. I wore skinny jeans when they became popular in 2006-2007. Then I wore boyfriend jeans the summer of 2007. Back then, I was a size 1, so clothes were easy to find and salespeople were friendly because I was slim and clueless as to what fit a much smaller frame. Last summer, I realized just how convenient dresses were, and bought a couple that I wore a lot in Portland.

For the past year or so, my style has evolved. Long gone are the jeans, and in are the dresses. I haven't worn a pair of jeans since October, and it's been liberating. I love jeans in theory. I keep seeing great pairs of jeans in magazines, paired with the perfect t-shirt or shirt, and I want that, but I also just love wearing dresses so much that I never think that I should maybe, just maybe, try on another pair of jeans.

Fast forward a few months, and the seven or so dresses I wore from October to late March are just no longer weather appropriate. I go shopping, check out the usual suspects: Maje, Sandro, Comptoir des Cotonniers for classier, more durable items, and a few other stores "just in case" and spot a couple of dresses I could settle for. Being desperate to not look like I just got off a train from the far away regions of Russia, I mentally prepare myself to settle for them.

Then, I end up on the website Place des Tendances. I make a list of the dresses I like (all in the €180-280 range, gasp), and suddenly remember my sister telling me, months ago, about a website with great items at more affordable prices. And I become addicted: 6 dresses purchased in the past 10 days on their website and there are still 3 or 4 that I really like.

I'm one of those people that likes a lot of items, but doesn't have the money to get them, or doesn't always find them when she needs them. My closet is lacking a few more cardigans to wear with those dresses. And a few more scarves that won't clash with the dress patterns.

Those are my next fashion related goals: find a couple of cardigans, a couple of scarves and a couple of pairs of shoes. And maybe a couple of bags. I've had my sights on this Nat & Nin bag since December. However, it's leather and I try to avoid leather as much as I can.

Food Friday: Vegetarian Paella

2011-04-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

Before I became a non fish-eating vegetarian 8 years ago, I loved seafood. Really really loved it. My dad used to cook salmon, mussels and other types of seafood for me. When we went to Spain, I always had paella. And since we often went to Spain because my mom is a Spanish teacher, I've had real paella a bunch of times. I didn't think there was a way I could make a vegetarian version of paella, until I stumbled upon this recipe a couple of months ago. Of course, it's not the real thing, but there are dishes that we vegetarians miss sometimes, and we just like to recreate them without the meat and seafood.

This was my second time making this paella, and it just wasn't as tasty as the first time, though it was still very good. Maybe I cooked the rice too long, or ground saffron wasn't the way to go, or my vegetables weren't up to par. Next time, I'll use regular tomatoes, not cherry tomatoes, as well as saffron threads, and maybe a green bell pepper.

Vegetarian paella (adapted from this recipe)
Serves 2.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped (I sliced it; not something I'd recommend)
1 small bell pepper (mine was an orange pepper, red or green is better)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup paella rice
3/4 cup vegetable broth
1/2-1 teaspoon ground saffron (or a few saffron threads)
1/2 teaspoon thyme leaves
1 cup tomatoes (I used cherry tomatoes)
3/4 cup frozen green peas
a dozen pimiento stuffed green olives (mine weren't stuffed)
2 1/2 tablespoon flat leaf parsley, chopped
ground pepper to taste
7 small artichoke hearts, chopped

Instructions:

Cook rice for half the time recommended on the package. Set aside.

Meanwhile, chop up the vegetables. Hopefully, your vegetables are tastier than mine.

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat in a large frying pan, or paella pan if you have one. I had one, but used the wrong pan. Typical.

Add the chopped onion, bell pepper and garlic and sauté for approximately 5 minutes.

Add the rice, broth, saffron and thyme.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add chopped tomato, green peas, olives, 1 1/2 tablespoons parsley, black pepper and artichoke hearts.

Cook until rice is tender, or approximately 2-3 minutes.

Garnish with the rest of the parsley before serving.

Recently (II)

2011-04-07T14:42:00.000-07:00

I haven't taken a lot of photos lately. I haven't seen many things that made me want to remember them, so this is a less diverse Recently post than the previous post.

Last Saturday: Tazo Zen tea in my favorite mug of all times.

Today: capturing my backyard's awakening.

PS: I recently reconnected with my green-hating self. Not my environment-hating self, but my green-in-photos hating. I'm never pleased with the shades I get, so I tend to go for the desaturation tool. It's an addiction. I can't resist it.

Learning to appreciate my life in Rouen

2011-04-04T01:53:00.000-07:00

Reading Mandi's post about settling for, and then in, Canton, I realized that I wasted my last two years here. After I left Manchester, all I could think about was how much I hated being back here. I didn't miss Manchester, but I missed London a whole lot, and felt completely stuck here. I still do to an extent, but I've also started to appreciate some of the things this town has to offer. There are a few nice coffee shops here, and some cute restaurants. You can get some good products at the Sunday market.

Yesterday, I met with my friend Julie at the market, and we looked at antiques and tasted Greek olive oil at a Greek stand. I bought some really good olive oil from Crete, some kalamata olives, and the vendor gave me some Greek oregano. I also bought spiced mixed olives for my mother, who is a really big fan of those. Then, Julie and I stopped at a Lebanese food stand and bought some really subpar falafel and spinach fatayer, but Julie also got these very tasty red peppers stuffed with feta that were a great accompaniment to a Greek salad I had later.

I'm going to make the Sunday market a staple of my weekends, because there's such a wide variety of produce and other foodstuff. My next trip will involve buying asparagus and cooking them for the first time. I'm salivating at the thought of asparagus with a lemon and olive oil drizzle, and a side dish of poached eggs.

Once Brent arrives in mid-June, I know we're going to be exploring the town, checking out restaurants, and buying ingredients for the more extensive cooking we do when we're together. I'm really looking forward to that. And I'll make sure to take out my camera in public a lot more often too. I need to overcome that fear of getting told to put it away.

Apartment inspiration

2011-04-03T16:33:00.000-07:00

I've been getting a little bit ahead of myself, but I have already started looking at pieces of furniture that Brent and I could get for the apartment. Luckily, he already has some great things, like a Danish coffee table and side tables, so we don't need to upgrade the entire place, but these few items would be wonderful to have, and would look great with the rest of Brent's furniture.

After reading two bad reviews for the green couch, I am not so sure I would buy that one, but then, there are a lot of vintage stores where we can find a similar couch. The blue chair, however, has good reviews.

Photo credits: Urban Outfitters

The side table with storage would be perfect for our magazines, or some books that we need on a regular basis (like my Giada and his Alice Waters cookbook).

Any of those would make some truly great wedding gifts.

**********

In the next few days, I'm going to make more small changes to the design of this blog. Blogger doesn't make it super easy. I think once I have more things to post, and find a new name for the blog, I'll move to Wordpress. If you have any tips or ideas, send them my way! I love getting feedback.

Food Friday: Tarte au chocolat et à la crème de marron

2011-04-01T16:24:00.000-07:00

I bought a rectangular tart pie on Wednesday and wanted to use it. All week, I tried to come up with a recipe to use it. I considered making a savory tart, but I realized I didn't have enough ingredients for a vegetable tart (no tomatoes, or zucchinis, or even arugula). I had bought chestnut spread (crème de marron) and had plenty of dark chocolate in the fridge, so I tried to find a recipe using both, and ended up finding inspiration but no recipe I had time to make. I decided to make a two layer tart, with chestnut spread on the bottom and a chocolate and crème fraîche mix on top. I used my mother's crust recipe, but added some ground pecans to the dough to give it a more flaky texture and a better flavor.

I braced for a complete disaster because baking is more of a science than an art and you can't just make it up as you go along, but I guess having read so many recipes in my life that I sort of knew what I was doing. Maybe the temperature was off, I probably could have cooked the chocolate and crème fraîche spread differently, but all in all, it turned out to be a pretty tasty tart.

Chocolate and chestnut spread tart.

Ingredients:

20 or so pecans
2 cups (250g) all purpose flour
1 stick (125g) unsalted butter, cut up and at room temperature
1 egg
1/3 cup lukewarm water
7 fl ounces heavy cream, crème fraîche or whipping cream
teaspoon cinnamon
7 ounces (200g) dark baking chocolate
one small can chestnut spread
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

Roast pecans in the oven for about 5 minutes. Let cool.

Grind the pecans in a food processor and put them in a small bowl.

In the processor, mix together the flour, butter, egg, water and ground pecans.

Flour some cling wrap and place the ball of dough on top of it. Set aside but do not chill in the fridge.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175° Celsius).

Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Grease and flour a pan and put the dough in the pan. I used a large rectangular one and had plenty of dough left over. You could make individual tarts too. I only had one small square pan, but if I had had a few more, I probably would have made a bunch of tartlets instead.

Spread a layer of crème de marron directly onto the crust.
In a medium sized pan, cook the cream on medium heat until it starts to boil. Add cinnamon. Set aside and add the chocolate and vanilla. Mix until fully combined. Set aside for a few minutes.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the pan on top of the chestnut spread.

Bake for 35-45 minutes.

Chill until settled, or approximately two hours.

Welcoming spring.

2011-03-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

Spring is finally here, and with that come: the ability to walk back from work without the cold biting at my hands, the beautiful late afternoon light, the allergies (but those flowers are so worth it), and most importantly, the realization that in less than three months, my love will be here for almost three months. After 81 days apart, being together again in 85 days seems almost close.

Spring is my favorite season, but it's also the most difficult to shop for. What do you wear when mornings are chilly and afternoons warm? The spring collections at my favorite stores are also on the disappointing side this year. And when I see cute dresses, they're on the wrong side of expensive (think €240-260, not my usual €120-140 range).

And when you work with kids, spring is when the kids are the most unbearable. Studying takes even more of a backseat to playing outside and sitting in the sun working on their tans. The boys play soccer while the girls watch and cheer, and play coy.

When you get migraines, the lengthening of days is very much welcome. More natural light means fewer migraines, and the warmth means I can take a book and sit outside and enjoy the fresh air.

I am looking forward to taking my MacBook outside, along with a cup of green tea, to work on a few projects in the mornings.

Shooting into the sun can give interesting

results when you choose to forget that

you're not supposed to.

My favorite neighborhood cat decided to

lay in the dead leaves over the wire that

separates my yard from my neighbors' and taunt Oscar.

"I am ze masked cat" she said, covering her
one atrophied eye. She loved being the center of
attention and let me take dozens of pictures of her.

Food Friday: Thyme & Peppercorn crackers

2011-03-18T16:19:00.000-07:00

At the grocery store on Wednesday, I spotted a box of thyme and pepper crackers, and thought "that's my next recipe!". I looked up a recipe and stumbled upon one adapted from a Barefoot Contessa recipe. I adapted it a little more: I added lemon & peppercorns, used less parmesan and more thyme. I found that I'd used too much pepper and not enough thyme. If I had to do it differently, I would make it earlier when I didn't have to use artificial light and I would put fewer peppercorns in.

Thyme, peppercorn & lemon crackers.

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter
2 tsp grated Parmesan
1 1/4 cups plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp mixed peppercorns
2 1/2 tablespoons water
zest of one lemon, chopped or grated

Instructions:

In a bowl, mix butter until creamy.

Add parmesan, flour, salt, water, thyme, peppercorns and lemon zest, and mix on lowest speed.

I used 2 teaspoons peppercorns and I'm not recommending it. Use less. I used almost 2 teaspoons thyme, but I would recommend using 3.

On floured surface, take the mixture from the bowl and shape into a log. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Remove the dough from the fridge and place onto floured surface. Cut into thin slices.

Place the crackers on parchment paper on cookie sheet and bake until lightly golden (20 minutes or so).

I had one with a little homemade spinach pesto and that was a tasty combination.

Paris in Windows #2

2011-03-14T02:21:00.000-07:00

Girl in the Beaubourg bookstore window.

Odd reflections and half a neon sign (it reads mezzanine).

Centre Pompidou (aka Beaubourg).

This radio, I want for my living room.

Cute candles and sign. Love the font.

I wish the colors had been prettier.

Why not yellow or light blue, store?

Warhol hanging out in the Pepe window.

Food Friday (or Food Fail Saturday): Earl Grey cake

2011-03-12T11:39:00.000-08:00

Belated in this case makes it more of a Food Saturday post. The reason is that I've been too consumed with books lately to post this on time*.

Today's recipe is one I adapted from Blisstree, using less sugar, more lemon juice and adding poppy seeds (because they look pretty). My other contribution to the recipe is forgetting the most important part: greasing and flouring the pan. If you know me in person, you're not surprised in the least.

Earl Grey tea, lemon & poppy seed cake.

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
1/2 cup Earl Grey tea
juice of 1 1/2 lemon
zest of one lemon
1/3 cup poppy seeds

Grate the zest of one lemon.

Brew a small-ish cup of tea, and add the juice of 1 1/2 lemons.

Instructions:

If your oven doesn't have a broken button, you can preheat it to 350 F (175° C). Mine was set to 170°C.

Head over to Blisstree to read the rest of the recipe. Add the poppy seeds after folding in the flour and tea mixtures into the creamed mixture.

I hope you weren't expecting some really pretty cake. You would be very disappointed. If you forget to grease & flour the pan, you will end up with an ugly, crumbly cake because it's next to impossible to take it out without it falling apart. I now present to you my failed experiment.

Bottom of the cake.

When you mess up a recipe and the bottom of the cake falls out, put the rest of the cake on a pretty cake stand and take photos of its halfway decent side.

And if its outside looks funky once you take it out

of the pan, you can mess with the colors.

************

* I read The Age of Dreaming by Nina Revoyr, and am currently reading Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. I absolutely loved the story of The Age of Dreaming even though the writing style sometimes got to me. Flashbacks seem incredibly difficult to do in novels, and Revoyr's way of introducing them was very unsubtle. All other aspects of the book were just so good that I had to forget how much her the way she introduced the flashback sequences made me cringe. I suggest you pick it up if you're looking for a great novel to get lost in.

Paris in windows: Food & Tea

2011-03-05T02:49:00.000-08:00

I would need to have an enormous appetite to be able to sample every dessert that looks appealing when I'm walking the streets of Paris. And since I'm usually not hungry by the time I set out with my camera, I forego going into each bakery and sitting down with a plate of their most delicious looking pastries. Instead, I take pictures of those pastries in the window. It's better for my waistline and my wallet, though not nearly as exciting.

Sernik is Polish cheesecake, made from curd usually.
It's more filling than New York cheesecake, doesn't
usually look as appetizing, but it's terribly
tasty and is a great comfort food. This one is from
my favorite Eastern European bakery in Le Marais.

Fauchon, the luxury deli on Place de la Madeleine,
always has the most interesting looking cakes.
They make you wonder how you can slice them and
stuff them in your mouth, though I guess Fauchon's
customers don't stuff anything into their mouths.
They're much too refined for that.

Ever since I took this photo, I've been wanting to
replicate the base of this cake. It looks like it's
made of some sort of chocolate praline mix. I don't
know if I would make it with strawberries, but it's
worth considering. Next Food Friday effort, maybe.

The displays at Hédiard always make me want to go
somewhere tea is part of a ceremony.
Next on my list of green teas to try is this one
from Hédiard's window. I wish I'd found out what tea it is,
though I suspect it's their Sencha Cerisier tea. I'm in
love with those red tins. They're such a lovely color.

It's highly impractical to have at home (hello, dust!),
but wouldn't you love a basket of tea?

Food Friday: Spinach Empanadas

2011-03-04T15:45:00.000-08:00

I've probably had empanadas a dozen times in my life, but it wasn't until last summer that I realized just how good they really are. There was a Cuban restaurant a few blocks from my apartment/Brent's apartment that had some pretty tasty spinach empanadas, which just might have been the first vegetarian empanadas I'd ever had. It only crossed my mind a month ago that I could actually make them, when my parents asked me to make them a batch with ham and cheddar cheese. Since I had a little dough left, and I wasn't about to go hungry, I decided to make some vegetarian ones, and had to come up with a recipe very quickly. I looked in the fridge and see that I had some spinach and feta, and decided to throw in some dill and pine nuts too. I made them twice with a store bought pie dough, but today was my first attempt at making the dough myself. Again, I decided to mix a couple of influences and make them Greek-style.

Spinach, feta & pine nut empanadas.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

- 3 cups all purpose flour

- 1/4 teaspoon salt

- 1 1/2 sticks (170g) unsalted butter, cold and cut up into a dozen pieces

- 1 egg

- 4 tablespoons water

For the filling:

- 1 clove garlic

- 1/2-1 tablespoon olive oil

- 1/8 -1/4 cup pine nuts

- 40-50 medium to large spinach leaves

- 1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled

- 1 tablespoon dill

- salt and pepper to taste

For the glaze:

- 1 egg yolk in a small bowl

Instructions:

I followed Laylita's recipe to make the dough, and used a small bowl to cut the disc shapes, so I ended up with smaller empanadas, but that's how I like them.

Preheat oven to 420 F/220°C.

While I let the dough chill in the fridge, I cut up a clove of garlic and heated up a the olive oil in a small frying pan. After a few seconds, I added the sliced clove of garlic and the pine nuts to the pan, and toasted them lightly on low-medium heat. When the pine nuts become a nice golden color, place the nuts and the garlic in a medium bowl.

Add the spinach to the pan and cook until just wilted.

Let the spinach cool for a few minutes. Add the feta cheese to the pine nuts and garlic. Dump the dill, salt and pepper into the bowl.

While the spinach is cooling, take out the dough out of the fridge and, on a lightly (or not lightly, in my case) floured surface, roll it into a a thin sheet.

Make disc shapes with a small bowl, and place on a lightly floured surface or parchment paper.

When the spinach has cooled, dump the spinach into the bowl and mix well.

Place a tablespoon of the spinach mix in the middle of the disc.

Fold back, sealing the dough with your fingers. If the dough is too dry, fill a measuring cup with 1/4 water, dip your fingers in the water and try sealing the empanada again. Press firmly.

Grease a sheet of parchment paper, brush empanada with the egg yolk glaze immediately and place on parchment paper.

Place 8-10 empanadas on the parchment paper, and bake for 12-15 minutes, until the glaze becomes a nice golden brown.

Shakespeare & Co

2011-02-25T17:06:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite bookstores in Paris is Shakespeare & Co. I tend to gravitate towards Saint Michel to check out their new and of interest display. You see it's a great bookstore the second you spot the building it occupies. There's something about their signs, and the green window frames.

And that table with the chipped paint.

On the left hand side of the store is the antique book store.

Where they sell books like these.

The main bookstore is the one I always go to. It's straight out of a dream. They have great windows too. They promote independent journals, like the one below.

They like birds in windows.

Upstairs are reading rooms, the children's book section, the literary magazine collection, and a piano that a customer was playing when I was there.

There's also this really cute alcove with a typewriter and lots of notes that I've never read. It's on my to-do list to sit down and read them next time. Maybe I'll find my friend's note too.

They have books for everyone.

If you get lucky, you can see really cool buildings reflected in their windows.

And sometimes, even men with trees coming out of their heads.

They have a very cool history.

Recently

2011-02-22T10:42:00.000-08:00

Today: dark chocolate chip cookies that weren't meant to be dark.

Last week.

Two weeks ago.

Miami Pt 2

2011-02-20T04:51:00.000-08:00

The plan was to have lunch at Versailles, in Little Havana, because it had the best reviews on Yelp. When we got there, there was a protest in front of Versailles, with bullhorns and the like, so we decided to go to La Carreta across the street, because it also had really good reviews. Unfortunately, there were very few vegetarian options (i.e there was only rice and beans), so my food was less than stellar.

On the upside, Brent and I pooled our resources and managed to order in Spanish. I even managed to say I was a vegetarian. Now, if you must know, my mother is a Spanish teacher, and I've heard Spanish all my life. I can also read Spanish and follow many conversations. I can't speak it to save my life, despite 7 years of middle school, high school and college Spanish. I could never roll my "r's" and never really tried to speak Spanish because my mother was always around to do it for me. Brent took Spanish in college over 15 years ago, and has a better accent than I do. That's sad.

The view from my seat. We went to that
supermercado across the street to find
newspapers, and came out empty handed.
There was nothing my mother could have read
without laughing her ass off and cursing
the world for being so shallow and dumb.

Fried plantains. Note to self:
get green fried plantains next time.

They were still tasty.

Brent had chicken. He didn't find it amazing.

When we left, we went to Versailles to get pastries. I should have taken photos inside, but I'm generally too embarrassed to do that. The spinach empanadas weren't bad, and the flan was okay too. The people were interesting to say the least. Heels and sweatpants on an overweight 65 year old woman? Sexy.

I have a roll of film to develop from that day. I hope the photos come out alright. Usually, the LC-A doesn't disappoint indoors in low light situations, but we'll see.

As usual, more photos can be found here.

Miami Pt 1

2011-02-18T02:06:00.000-08:00

I got some pretty terrible (not terrific) shots in Miami. The 50mm really didn't help with framing, so I got some lousy photos of some pretty awesome buildings. I just loved the Art Deco buildings. The Kent and Cavalier were two of my favorites. There were a lot of European tourists, and very few well dressed people. Tacky seemed to be the key word. We left around 9 and got to Miami around 10. We walked around Collins and Ocean avenues. I took lots of photos, tried to wait for cars to pass by so I could get decent shots, and ended up with the following halfway decent shots.

Record store, and possibly my favorite Miami shot.

This is not a parking meter.

Buick Special, aka one of the coolest cars ever.

Yes, you can have money and be trashy,

lots of people do it.

Afterwards, we went to Urban Outfitters where I finally found a cute everyday bag for all the stuff I carry every day (it will make an appearance in an upcoming post) and bought three rings that left green marks all over my fingers (yay, el cheapo UO rings!). I could not walk by Starbucks without getting my usual coffee frappuccino. No Starbucks where I live means I tend to compensate when I see them in other cities or countries. Then we made our way to Little Havana for lunch.

Why I'm not a Vegan

2011-02-16T02:50:00.000-08:00

Poached or scrambled, I love eggs. I only like them fried when Brent makes them. He adds Tabasco sauce and ketchup, and they taste just right. Lately, I've been trying to get my poached eggs to look perfect. They looked better last weekend than this morning, but I'm still almost happy with them. I added a few drops of vinegar to get the white to stick to the yolk, and lowered the cup with the egg an inch below the boiling water, but waited a little too long, hence their less than perfect-ness. I cooked them for 3 minutes, and they came out a little runny, the way I like 'em.

A little tabasco sauce.

An accident waiting to happen...

It happened.

I had no choice but to mop it up with some Swedish bread.

My other food obsessions lately have been arugula & beet salad with crumbled feta and dill, and spinach, pine nuts, feta and dill empanadas. Do you see a pattern here?

Photography stuff

2011-02-02T01:27:00.000-08:00

One of my biggest (and certainly most annoying) problems in photography is getting a straight shot. I don't have the best eyesight, even with glasses on. To remedy that, I wanted to order the bubble level from Photojojo. Unfortunately, from experience, I was pretty sure I'd have to pay an import fee, so I found the same one on Amazon. It's really too bad because I'm in love with the Photojojo store.

Buy the The Level Camera Cube at the Photojojo Store!

Another problem I have is with correct white balance (especially when there's nothing white or gray in the same lighting conditions), so I was going to add this little cap to my cart.

Buy the White Balance Lens Cap at the Photojojo Store!

I found a less cute one on Amazon, but Photojojo, I swear if I'd been in the U.S, I would have ordered it from you!

However, before Brent comes here, you can be sure I'm going to ask him to bring this back for me, in red and blue.

Buy the The Tokyo Dreamer Strap at the Photojojo Store!

And in a few months, I want to add this chalkboard to my arsenal.

Buy the Chalkboard Speech Bubble at the Photojojo Store!

The first (more) expensive thing I buy is going to be either this Kelly Moore bag:

or this other Kelly Moore bag. Check out her website, her bags look awesome. Don't skip the video either.

What I love about this one is that it has
a laptop compartment, and carrying a 15" MacBook Pro
horizontally would be such a relief for my poor legs.
The vertical bag I have right now is not bruise-proof
when you're short and you walk very fast.

Even though this has nothing to do with photography, winter would be a whole lot better if I were wearing this beanie.

Now I'm going to go beat myself up for not buying it when I tried it on in Miami and Brent told me it was cute. Freezing temperatures, you would be almost bearable with this on.

The anatomy of a wave

2011-01-25T01:56:00.000-08:00

I waited for a wave to form and crash on the pier pillars and shot the scene as fast as I could. Yes, I'm easily impressed by natural phenomena.

Windstorm on the Gulf of Mexico

2011-01-25T01:46:00.000-08:00

The day after Christmas, we went to the Naples pier with Brent's dad and his wife. It had been cold for Florida since the day before, and the wind was really strong. We were supposed to catch a sunset but the sky was so overcast that Victor, Brent's dad, said we should just walk on the pier and see some of old Naples. I hadn't brought a windbreaker to Florida so I borrowed one from Victor's wife. Luckily, I had brought a few pairs of tights and a pair of boots, and I also wore the super comfy and super warm Brookstone nap socks that Melissa had given me for Christmas. I certainly wasn't expecting to be that cold, but the pier that day was so gorgeous that it made it all worth it. I'd never seen the Gulf of Mexico, so I was really excited to finally see it. I've always dreamed of living by the sea and seeing the wild, wind agitated sea outside my window, so it was a treat. There's something really romantic and calming about windstorms, I think.

Brent and his dad are in the background, seeking shelter
from the very cold wind.

Look how gigantic those houses are.

I like that it looks like the waves are going

to swallow the whole city.

Those poor birds were too cold or too weak
to walk against such strong winds.

The Morikami Japanese Gardens

2011-01-19T07:51:00.000-08:00

Before Melissa gave us a ride back to Pompano Beach, we went to the Morikami Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach. I'd read about that place when I researched attractions in the Palm Beach area, and I was really excited to see it because I'd never been to a Japanese Garden (not even the one in Portland, I'm ashamed to admit). Unfortunately, my camera was running out of juice and space, so I didn't get to take as many photos as I'd wished, but I still had a great time, and thoroughly enjoyed seeing all those Floridian plants arranged in a Japanese style. And I love bamboo, and turtles, so I couldn't be disappointed. Below are a few I selected, you can see the rest in this album.

Names carved in bamboo in spite of a sign

urging visitors not to write on the bamboo.

The bonsai tree in the middle has got to be my favorite

because it reminds me of a man running with

the Olympic torch in his hand.

I liked that it looked like the branch

was trying to mimick the heron's pose.

Herons are such majestic creatures.

Koi fish!

The Wetlands Preserve

2011-01-13T08:23:00.000-08:00

When we visited Brent's sister Melissa in the Palm Beach area, she took us to the Wetlands Preserve. She knew I'd never been to Florida, so it would be the best way to see the fauna and flora of Florida in one place without risking my life (hi, gators!), and I'd be able to get some nice shots. I hadn't read about the preserve before my trip, so I'm very grateful to her for suggesting it.

We took the long walk around the preserve, and I kept stopping to observe birds and shoot flowers. I don't know much about wildlife anywhere, and much less about the species native to South Florida, so most of those animals were new to me.

I was, however, familiar with the common moorhen,
because there were dozens on my campus in Kent.

I always thought moorhens were ducks,

but it turns out they're just duck-like waterfowl.

The fall colors were very unexpected.

A cold spell a few days prior had apparently
just turned the leaves red.

If anyone knows the name of that tree,
I'd love to find out.

We spotted a young sleeping alligator.

I decided to stalk an anhinga.

Inside, we interrupted a turtle's yoga session.

so we moved on to the alligators.

We also improvised a photo shoot so Brent and his sister would have more recent photos of the two of them together for their mother to frame.

Many more photos from that day at my Flickr.

Pompano Beach

2011-01-12T05:35:00.000-08:00

I arrived at the Fort Lauderdale airport later than expected because my second flight was delayed. I'd already had a really bad trip by then. I'd slept for less than an hour when I boarded the plane in Paris, spent a really long time at Customs in Philly and had an awful stomachache in addition to the flu I still hadn't fully recovered from. When I landed in Ft Lauderdale, the last thing I expected was to see Brent before I got my suitcase. But there he was, waiting for me with a bouquet of red/purple flowers (I'm really bad with flower names, so I don't know what they're called). After three and a half months apart, and countless hours spent talking on Skype, seeing him in person was surreal.

The next morning, we woke up late, and he made me breakfast. I had tiropita for the first time. That afternoon, we walked to the beach, passing by houses with tacky Christmas decorations on dry, yellow lawns, or under palm trees.

At the beach, I saw the palest sand I'd ever seen in my life, and the brightest sun too. I had to negatively adjust the exposure by 1.33 because it was so bright.

On the beach, I saw the cutest birds.

These funny looking birds are crested terns.

Apparently, their tern recedes in winter.

I'd like to see how they look in the summer.

I don't know if that's one of them

or if it is a baby seagull.

A mean looking seagull. Or maybe he was just busy.

This was my first time seeing a pelican.

I wish I'd seen it catching a fish too.

Or, you know, carrying a baby.

After spending about an hour walking along the beach, we stopped to get a slice of pizza at a pizzeria owned by a South American man who spoke a mix of Spanish and English to Brent.

Spinach and tomato pizza.

Brent had warned me about the quality of pizza in Florida, explaining that the water used produced a very bad dough, but that crust was actually one of the tastier I had in Florida. I can't say the same of an otherwise really good Italian restaurant we went to in Weston that had a really thick crust that looked like it had been made at Pizza Hut. I'm very particular about my crust. It needs to be thin.

Brent looking like a rock star. He reminds me

of a hotter, younger Wayne Coyne here.

I entertained myself while Brent was paying the check.

As an amateur of fine cuisine, I can't tell you

how sad I was that we couldn't dine at that

fine establishment. Maybe another time.

Ooops... Ouch

2011-01-06T01:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I wanted to take a picture of the sky because it was gorgeous, so I went downstairs to the kitchen, opened the slide door and my dog followed me. My mother yelled "the gate's open and the landscaping crew is coming now", so I ordered my dog to get back inside, but he kept walking. I started running, barefoot, slipped and went flying. I landed a few feet further, on my left side, with my camera at my side. I only thought of the camera then, though it was painful. I picked it up, tried to get myself together and went back inside. The pain just kept getting worse.

I still can barely lift up my arm. Opening things is painful as all hell. My neck is sore, and now my back hurts too. All the muscles in the upper part of my body are sore, and I can't turn my head without feeling a sharp pain in my muscles. My right arm is fine, thankfully. I had a really bad headache yesterday, too, and couldn't tilt my head down. If I'm still in pain tomorrow, I'll go see a doctor, but I don't think it's anything major. It's painful, for sure, and there's not a second I'm not in pain, but it's muscular, it seems, and there's really nothing that can be done for that. Rest is the only medicine. I just wish I had some strong painkillers right now.

While I can't do things like exercise or even dress myself, I can still edit photos from my trip to Florida!

Two anhingas (aka snake birds) taking flight

at the Wetlands Preserve in Boynton Beach,

Palm Beach County.

Fall was a little late in Florida this year.

Taken at the Wetlands Preserve.

Year in Review

2011-01-02T15:10:00.000-08:00

This year, I:

got my first DSRL
took 9,500 photos with it
finally visited Portland, OR
made new friends who live far away (no surprise there)
drank too much in Portland
and Florida
started wearing only dresses
and cut my hair short again
lost and gained weight. Rinse, repeat
almost mastered the art of pita bread making
became serious about photography
and decided to build a portfolio to show potential clients
had my first (free) photo session with a friend and his daughter
spent my first Christmas away from my family
met the guy I want to marry (and will marry)
spent way too much time away from him and missed him like crazy for over 100 days
and met his wonderful family in the space of two weeks (phew, that was a lot of family members and friends!)

Florida tomorrow.

2010-12-15T01:32:00.000-08:00

I am leaving for Florida tomorrow afternoon. I'm going to be spending the night at my sister's apartment in Paris so I can take the metro to the airport in the morning. It's supposed to snow today and tomorrow, so getting there might take longer and my flight might be delayed, but here's hoping Mother Nature doesn't interfere.

Right now, my suitcase is almost full, and I really hope it's not over the weight limit. I have a lot of presents that I should have just waited until I got to Florida to buy and they're taking up half of the room.I'm dreading having to carry the suitcase up five flights of stairs tonight.

I'll be taking photos like crazy, and will have a lot of editing and uploading to do when I get back on January 1st. Oh, right, I'll be spending New Year's Eve on a plane. Has anyone ever done that? What is that like?

Basquiat & Ladurée

2010-12-11T07:34:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, I went to Paris to do some Christmas shopping and see the Basquiat exhibit. It was really cold, and I was really glad that we'd booked our tickets online three weeks prior because waiting in line in the cold for three hours wouldn't have been doable.

His anatomy drawings.

A portrait shot by Warhol.

Album cover for a jazz record.

Über expensive Basquiat sneakers.

The neon sign says "en finir avec ce monde irréel",
but I thought it read "avec ce monde réel", which I
found to be a lot more interesting.

The façade of the building as seen from the first floor.

Christmas decorations everywhere.
This was taken on or near Rue du Faubourg St Honoré.

My parents had never had Ladurée macarons, so after the exhibit, my mother and I waited in line for over 20 minutes for 6 mini macarons and brought them back to my sister's. Mine was supposed to be a chestnut macaron, but I couldn't taste the chestnut at all.

I bought some Marie-Antoinette tea for Brent's mother.

They let me take a dozen photos inside until I got
to the cash register and was told they have copyrights
on something or other and I wasn't allowed to take photos.

But really the best thing to came out of that weekend in Paris? It starts in "in" and ends in "fluenza". And it's been kicking my ass for the past week. I came back from Paris with a sore throat. The next day, I was a mess at work, and when I was grocery shopping, I started shivering. At home, I shivered even more and that night I spent sweating and getting up to drink water every hour or so. A fantastic night I spent. I thought I would be able to go to work on Tuesday, then realized it was very unwise. I haven't left the house since then except to go to the doctor's on Tuesday night. The coughing hasn't subsided either, and it might be more painful now. At the very least, it's tiring.

Oh, and that cough syrup? It hasn't soothed my throat in the least bit, and made me nonsensical and susceptible to freak outs of the highest order. Case in point, yesterday, Skype froze on my ass, and then there was a 2 minute lag between what Brent was saying and what I was seeing. In normal conditions, I would have been mildly annoyed. Instead, I flipped out. I laughed like I was off my rocker, and was generally very confused by what was happening. Also, sweeping the floor was a much more daunting task than it usually is because I'd stop sweeping and wonder how in the world I'd be able to make a neat pile because I just couldn't tell what direction I was supposed to sweep in. Who needs illegal drugs when you've got cough syrup, right? I checked the side effects last night and they read "confusion, agitation". No kidding.

So now I've wasted an entire week, and I have a few days to get presents for Brent, his mother, father, sister, grandmother and aunt. And I have no idea what to get.

Ben & Lou Ann: color shots

2010-12-03T06:11:00.000-08:00

She got up to sing and dance and

become the center of everyone's attention.

Big hands/tiny hands.

How do you use a spoon to drink hot cocoa, anyway?

(Not) enjoying a mug of hot cocoa.

She must have taken only two sips.

Tiny hands trying to open a sugar packet.

Being a dad also means learning

how to fix your daughter's hair with two

strategically placed hairpins.

Ben & Lou Ann: Black & White

2010-12-03T05:59:00.000-08:00

Ben is a high school friend of mine with whom I'd lost touch. We reconnected via Facebook sometime this summer, and I told him that if he was up for it, I could take photos of his adorable daughter, Lou Ann. Then, two weeks ago, Ben said he wanted me to take photos he could use for his online dating profile because he recently separated from Lou Ann's mother.

Unfortunately, the lighting conditions in the coffee shop were terrible, and the harsh shadows that the many artificial lights and the natural light cast on his face were so bad that I promised him another session. Also, note to self: set your own white balance next time. At least I learned my lesson. However, I managed to salvage some photos of Lou Ann.

Anxious face

Before or after she took off his glasses.

Play time: Lou Ann somehow ended up with her face on the table.

Impressions from my first shoot

2010-12-01T13:53:00.000-08:00

I am currently editing photos from my first (very informal) photo shoot at a coffee shop. My friend Ben and his daughter were great. Unfortunately, the light on Ben's side was god awful and the shadows are too harsh to touch up, so I've told him we could do another session. His daughter was PERFECT and incredibly sweet. She's an adorable blond, and she's super photogenic. She's only 2 1/2, but man, she can roll her eyes like nobody's business. I can't wait to share a few photos from the session here. In the meantime, let me share with you this hot cocoa mug from the coffee shop.

Next time, I need to remember to have something to set my custom white balance with because the setting I used, yeah, didn't work so well, but it was the lesser of 6 or so evils. Also, buying a tripod would help. I don't want to spend more than $80 on it, and a lot less would be even better, and it needs to be able to stand the weight of a 2 lbs lens. Any thoughts? I also need to do some location scouting next time and check the light situation. I'm going to buy that new lens I've been thinking of lately because my 50mm isn't always the best option in tight quarters where I can't zoom out with my feet.

I have to admit that when I first looked through my photos when I got back, I was very disappointed. Manually setting the white balance would have made a huge difference. However, it's nothing that can't be improved in Lightroom.

Hollywood

2010-11-29T04:23:00.000-08:00

There's something desolate, almost end-of-the-world like about Sandy Boulevard. After rush hour, it's deserted and you feel like only a handful of people survived some sort of apocalypse. It's an odd feeling. Sandy is an odd sight. There's a definite retro vibe, with washed out colors and early 60s architecture. It's ugly, yet photogenic. It gets prettier when you reach the Hollywood district.+

All photos were taken a week or so before I left Portland, before I headed out to the Oregon coast for a great weekend with my new friend Julie and her wonderful friends. When I took these, I already felt a pang of sadness because I knew I wouldn't be back for a long time, and now, it's bittersweet to look at them.

Teen Challenge thrift store at 32nd & Sandy,
where I took the bus to the campaign office most days.

Very cute vintage store whose windows kept
calling out to me, but I was good and
remembered that my suitcase was too full
as it was, and bringing back dinnerware just
wasn't an option. And that typewriter wouldn't
fit in my suitcase either.

A taste of fall in mid August.

Visual information overload: a gentlemen's club open
and cocktail signs, a Buick dealership,
a Budweiser sign in the distance on top of a
skate shop, two street signs and a parking sign.

Two businesses in one.

Overlooking Cesar Chavez Boulevard,
if I'm not mistaken.

The very picturesque Hollywood theater, on 41st
and Sandy. It was built in 1926. The architecture
is really cool.

A rodent, two cats and an Orthodox church (no, it's not the beginning of a joke)

2010-11-26T07:12:00.000-08:00

My nickname in high school, and to this day, is Souris, which means "mouse" in France. A lot of my high school and freshman year of college friends said I reminded them of a rodent. Something about the way I eat entire pieces of fruit or look nervously glance around me. I also have a lot of affection for rodents, especially squirrels.

Brent told me he wasn't a big fan of the stop sign in the middle; I think it gives the photo a more urban feel.

Brent's neighbors had very tasty looking raspberries and strawberries, but they were also always around, so I never tried any. I should have stealthily gone by at night to feast on them.

One of the things I do a lot is cry. I'm one of the most sensitive people you'll ever meet. If I see a dead animal on the side of the road, you can be sure that I'll think of it for days, or possibly months. My chest will tighten at its mere mention. I typically stop watching movies after an animal has been injured or killed. That's where I draw the line. Kill a person, and it pains me, kill an animal, and I get nauseous and leave the room. I don't watch wildlife documentaries for that reason. So when I saw this reward poster, and I read the last line "reward for kitty or corpse", the thought that someone could bring back that cute cat's corpse made my heart bleed. I stared at the poster, on the verge of tears, and thought about that line for days.

To leave you on a happier note, here is the single greatest sleeping arrangement you'll ever see.

Food, drinks and Laurelhurst Park

2010-11-25T01:33:00.000-08:00

One thing I did a lot of in Portland was go out. I sometimes ate out with the campaign staffers after call time ended, and we typically unwound with a drink and some finger food, or real food when that was available. After 9 or 10pm, there aren't a lot of dining option in Vancouver, let me tell you, but there are always decent tortilla chips and salsa to have with a margarita, or cajun tots with some vodka-based drink.

On one of those unbearably hot days in late July, I met up with Katie, from the Shaheen campaign at Random Order, a pie place on Mississippi. I had a piece of blackberry peach pie, and I have to say it was one of the best I'd ever had. They have a great pie selection, and it's a really nice place to hang out. Unfortunately, going from SE to Mississippi by bus takes forever, so even though I wanted to take my laptop and study there, I never went back.

This was a decent Cosmo at a NE bar where Nicole, her boyfriend David, Melissa and I went one night. The bar had an impressively large beer selection (this was Portland after all, people are serious about their beer in Portland)

To be honest, the peanut butter dessert above was a little disappointing, but then, I'm not the biggest peanut butter fan. The decoration was nicely done, though.

This was a margarita at Esparza at 28th and Ankeny the night before I moved all my stuff to Portland.

One of the things I discovered in Portland was lemon hummus. One of my favorite quick lunches was hummus on pita bread with tofu, sprouts and cucumber, with a spinach, cherry tomato and feta salad. It was heavenly. I love Brent's plate.

The time that wasn't spent in bars, in the volunteer room at campaign headquarters or at parades was spent walking around. I loved going to Laurelhurst Park.

This was my first heron, ya'll. I was really excited.

This house of very eclectic influences borders the park. I wonder what possessed them to throw in some Mediterranean influences into the mix.

All photos taken with a Canon T1i (5OOD) except for the last one, shot through a Lomo LC-A+.

Earl Grey madeleines

2010-11-11T07:11:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking of madeleines all week. I don't know why, because I've never been the biggest fan of madeleines. I think it has to do with how cute and dainty they look. They're also very French. I finally decided to try making them yesterday, and was surprised that they were so easy to make. I adapted Daniel Boulud's recipe from the blog From Donuts to Delirium. I was stupid enough to make them after the sun had gone down, and my kitchen has terrible lighting, so this is the only decent photo I have of those seriously delicious madeleines.

Makes 20 medium sized madeleines

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
A pinch of salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons loose leaf Earl Grey tea
1 tablespoon vodka
1 teaspoon almond extract
a dozen crushed pecans

1. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

2. In a medium bowl, mix the eggs, sugars, and lemon zest. Add the flour mixture and whisk until combined.

3. In a saucepan, melt the butter on low. When fully melted, add the tea leaves, and leave to infuse for 3 minutes on low.

4. Set the butter and tea mixture aside and add a teaspoon of vodka. Combine with a wooden spoon.

5. Strain butter mixture into the dry ingredients, making sure to get as much of the mixture out of the tea leaves. Add the almond extract, the crushed pecans, and squeeze a few drops of lemon juice into the mixture. Stir and cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

6. Preheat the oven to 400°F.

7. Fill the molds with a spoon.

8. Bake for approximately 13 minutes, until golden brown.

I had them plain, straight out of the oven, but I'm sure they would taste great in some homemade hot cocoa made with real dark chocolate.

A Weekend in Paris with Shosh

2010-11-06T16:09:00.000-07:00

The last week or so was a little hectic, and I'm too tired to write much about it, so I'll let these pictures speak for themselves. They were taken during the two days I spent with Shosh in Paris. In Paris, too much food was had and money spent, much walking was done, and my right foot was twisted in two places.

Ladurée Champs Élysées storefront.

Kusmi Champs Élysées

Renault Champs Élysées mini exhibition

Place de la Concorde

Adorable kiddie clothing store near place de la Madeleine.

Shosh's Madagascar and hazelnut praline macarons at Ladurée Royale.

Thé Earl Grey Fleurs and Thé Marie-Antoinette at Ladurée Royale.

Maille storefront, Madeleine

Fauchon display, Madeleine

Angelina restaurant & café, rue de Rivoli

Love is the new currency

Jardin des Tuileries

Feeling worn out

2010-11-06T06:51:00.000-07:00

These past three weeks have been a little difficult for me, emotionally. I'm starting to feel better, and to get more sleep. Until last summer, I had never had bags under my eyes, but they have since then established permanent residency under my eyes. I had a hard time sleeping when I was in Vancouver because there was a lot of light filtering through the blinds, and I would get fewer than 5 hours of sleep a night. I also went out a lot, and my last couple of weeks in Portland were spent waking up at godless hours of the night to email a guy who was 9 hours ahead of me.

Since I've been back, I've been waking up three or four times a week, and not falling back asleep right away. Add to that anxiety about whether I should start a business or not, and I'm a complete mess. I've decided to take better care of myself, exercise, get more sleep, forego late night or early morning conversations with Brent that made me miss out on an hour or two of sleep, and use some much needed decongesting eye cream from Nuxe.

This decongesting eye cream feels amazing under puffy eyes. I'm open to other suggestions that have worked for you.

Nuxe and Caudalie are my favorite skincare brands. I have combination skin, and my skin breaks out often, so for the past few years, I've been trying many different products. I can't say that I've found the miracle cure, but I'm hanging in there and staying faithful to those two brands. I know that they're not harsh on my skin, and they have very soothing products. When I was looking for face wash for sensitive skins yesterday, I decided to try this one :

It uses acacia honey and peach extract and smells and feels lovely.

I also purchased this hydrating oil, but mine is for combination skin. It felt incredible on my face.

You apply it on its own or combine it with your moisturizing lotion (Crème Fraîche by Nuxe in my case).

I'm also drinking more water and green tea, especially these teas.

Thé vert au Tibet

Thé à l'Opéra

Sweet Shangaï.

Mariage Frères has been my favorite brand of tea for a couple of years now. I always heard my friends rave about their Marco Polo green tea, which seems to be their most popular tea, but I only started drinking tea from that brand myself when I was looking for some decaf Earl Grey. I'm also a big fan of their Thé des Impressionistes, Thé vert Provence and one of their rooibos teas, Metis. If you live in the U.S, Dean & Deluca carries many of their loose leaf teas in the beautiful tin above.

Hopefully, these steps and you know, worrying less about what I want to do with my life, will help. At least, the skincare products will make my skin feel and look like less of a mess, and my body will start thanking me for hydrating it more and detoxifying it.

Mississippi, Portland

2010-11-05T07:43:00.001-07:00

My first week in Vancouver, I took a late afternoon trip to NE Portland with John, whom I was staying with. We decided to go to the Mississippi area because my friend Katie had told me good things about Mississippi.

Most of the houses on Mississippi were ordinary houses with original colors, but this one had an original architecture and really original colors. Don't you always want to see how very modern buildings look inside?

I'm not sure what this was, but those trees, banches and flowers were really impressive. The colors are lovely.

Those microphones dotting the "i"s are pretty damn cool.

I have a thing for fonts (if I were to do it all again, I would study graphic design), and this font was seriously amazing.

I don't know what Mexican iced coffee is, but it sure sounds good.

I told Brent that this is where I want our first Portland date to be, but he said he'd already planned our first date, so I suppose it'll have to be our second date. I want some badass dessert.

I don't care much for cars, but would kill for an old 50s car. The one above is just the right amount of cool and beat up. It's perfect.

Before walking back to the Max station, we stopped to get Hawaiian shaved ice. I'd never had shaved ice before, and chose a couple of exotic flavors I can't remember. What I can remember is how much I liked it.

One of the things I love about Portland is how relaxed people look. We didn't stop at any of those bars, and I regret that.

That brewery was impressive. We only looked at it through the huge windows, but I was amazed at the size of the tanks.

Public art at the Albina/Mississippi station representing arts in the community.

Goodbye, Seattle!

2010-11-05T05:57:00.000-07:00

My train to Vancouver, WA, left around 2pm, so my last day in Seattle was very short. After walking all the way to Capitol Hill, I walked all the way back to downtown, and got very lost. I walked down wide avenues, saw the skyscrapers up-close and found a touch of French influence in Westlake.

I couldn't not take a picture of this street sign because we

have this tv show in France called Plus Belle La Vie that revolves around a Marseilles neighborhood called Le Mistral, and the main characters live on Place du Mistral.

I went back to Pike Place to buy chocolate pasta at Pappardelle's for my parents, but I ended up giving them to my boyfriend who, I'm sure, hasn't tried them.

I ran into these poor little crabs that I couldn't resist taking snapshots of.

And these yummy looking cookies that I resisted trying, but had to photograph.

I loved this chili display; the colors were so vibrant!

And then it was time to bid Seattle adieu, but not before taking a last look at the mountains in the background.

Goodbye, Seattle! I've missed you since I left, despite my mixed feelings about you as a whole.

Capitol Hill, Seattle

2010-10-29T05:27:00.000-07:00

I walked for a while, trying to find the exact location of the Singles apartment building, and ended up finding some other cute houses and buildings. Capitol Hill is a lovely neighborhood. If I moved to Seattle, I would want to live in that area.

I loved the apartment buildings in the East Thomas area.

There were some really similar ones in SE Portland.

This is the apartment complex where Singles was shot. It looked different in the movie, but once I found out the cross-street it was on, it was pretty easy to recognize. It looked unlike any other. I blurred the street number for
obvious reasons.

That's the best shot I could get of the Space Needle. Sad, uh?

I love my 50mm lens, but it's useless to photograph certain things.

I loved this old drive-thru sign. I love neon signs, and this one was

particularly pleasing to the eyes. It was enormous, too.

I liked the window display at Urban Outfitters. Thankfully, it was closed when I walked by, otherwise, I would have left considerably poorer.

This coffee house had a really cute exterior.

2010-10-23T04:07:00.000-07:00

Once in a while, I like doing a music entry. Yesterday, I was intrigued by Heather Browne (of Fuel, Fire)'s post about a Pacific Northwest invasion. As a Pacific Northwest aficionado and lover of West Coast bands, I decided to check out the bands. I knew I could trust Heather because we both love Blind Pilot, Band of Annuals, Ryan Adams and Pete Yorn, and boy, was I right to click on those links.
I was blown away by the song "Bootstraps" by Drew Grow and the Pastors' Wives. But the revelation, if I may call it that, came when I listened to the song "Coeur d'Alene". At first, I thought if was part of "Cats and Dogs" because the two songs blend seamlessly. The final notes of "Cats and Dogs" blend into the first notes of "Coeur d'Alene". That's a genius move.

The Head and the Heart seems like it incorporates the best of Band of Annuals (from SLC) and Blind Pilot (from Portland), while remaining completely original. The lead singer's voice does to me what Jay Henderson of Band of Annuals does to me: it soothes and moves me at the same time. It's sexy, emotional, and yet detached, and from another time.
Some of my favorite lines in that song are,

"What will become of these gestures that we made
I've given up my Bible, you moved out of state" *

"Give you three bucks for your sympathy
and another for a cigarette
The interaction feels so cold"

"So kiss me in the back room where the music plays
I know that it's not over"

My favorite moment, because of the intensity of the singer's voice when he sings that last line, is,

"Break down the corridors
La-da-da, da-da-da da da
Break down the corridors
La-da-da, da-da-da da da
Messes that I haven't tried to clean up in a while"

If you don't fall in love with the piano part after that line, then you can't possibly love life.

Also, how can one put much resistance when someone sings,

"You're in my soul now
you've gotta waste away with me
my mind's made up, I'm stayin' here with you,

There's no use knowin'
which way the wind is blowin'
my mind's made up, I'm doin' this, I'm doin' this with you"

There's nothing I like more than a song whose rhythm picks up mid-song. That's the case in Down in the Valley. Add male-female harmonies ** and a piano, and I'm ready to declare my love for the band by jumping on a couch on national television.

"Bootstraps", the first song I truly loved, is by Drew Grow. It's noisy. It's buoyant. It's joyous noise the way I like it. The lyrics are short and punchy,

I drank alone for a fortnight
a yellow year by dim light.
"I'm Born again!"
Brand new jeans down to cut-offs,
and cigarettes on rooftops,
Chain it up. Chain it up.
I tell myself I want it,
I tell myself I need it.
Every time I get it this is how I'm wound up.
Play it loud. Play it loud, get it on.
(...pulling on the bootstraps)"

The band's website describes their sound as "soul, alt-gospel, garage rock". Sometimes, it's reminiscent of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals' best moments on This is Somewhere (I'm thinking most specifically of In The Meantime, Oh Mary and Mastermind), but more testosterone-filled -- though Grace Potter's music is pretty ballsy too-- mostly because of the gospel influence.

It All Comes Right" is another song that immediately struck me as special. The chorus is full of "oh whoa whoa oh whoa whoa" blending together male and female voices, in a heavenly sound.

My favorite lines are,

"Honey, make me a promise
the kind that holds true.
You carry the ark and I'll carry you"

The last line is sung in harmony by the lead singer and the background vocalist, a woman. It makes the line especially amazing because it sounds like they're promising each other what he wanted her to promise him. Throughout the song, the background vocals are to die for. They'll stay with you after the song is over.

FOOTNOTES:

* I don't know why but the line "you moved out of state" or its variation "you moved out of town" always makes me tear up. It moves me like no-one lyric. Every time a song has that line, you can bet I'm going to stop doing whatever it is I'm doing when I hear it.

** Male-female harmonies are the reason why I love Band of Annuals, Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Adams and Whiskeytown so much.

Seattle, Day 2 - Walk to Broadway, Part 1

2010-10-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

  My second day in Seattle, I woke up reasonably early (around 5am) and decided to walk from Chinatown to Capitol Hill in search of the apartment complex where part of the Cameron Crowe movie Singles was filmed.
  I walked down deserted streets at 8am, streets that showed signs of neglect and the passing of time. If this was a wealthy city in a first world country in the 21st century, then why, everywhere I went in the early hours of the morning, did I pass by so many homeless men?
  The houses along the way showed signs of decay (paint peeling, untended front yards); there were a few abandoned lots, rusty gates, boarded up houses.

There were also some fine looking dining establishments like the ones below.

Things got progressively better the closer I got to Capitol Hill.

If the cars and trucks looked beat up, it was in a hipsterish way.

The businesses started looking more attractive and profitable, too. More thought and effort was put into the architecture and decoration.

I was amused by the French Presse sign on the right, because it means newsagent, not café. I liked the way the owners used it, though.