Month: September 2011

Inside Out

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TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out in 1984 as a meeting of the minds of like-minded people interested in big ideas. Speakers have 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most engaging ways possible. Surprisingly, people were willing to pay what was then $4400 to attend and hob nob with others also willing to pay to play.

The TED Prize was introduced  in 2005.  It is awarded annually to an exceptional individual who receives $100,000 and much more important, One Wish to Change the World. The 2011 award went to JR, a self-styled artivist from France. 

I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project, and together we’ll turn the world…INSIDE OUT.

JR has turned number of places in the world inside-out with his black and white portrait projects such as Women are Heroes. It features the faces of resilient women who live in Kibera, Kenya’s largest slum; the portraits are super-sized and cut in two. The bottom half of their faces are glued to rooftops on a hillside; the top half of the portraits shows their eyes pasted onto train cars. Every time the train passes, for a few seconds, the faces are complete.

Israelis and Palestinians are together in his Face 2 Face project; JR wall-papered both sides of security fences/barriers with portraits in 8 different cities.

Want to be a part of the art? Join the Inside-Out Project. Take a black and white photo or series of photos. Send it in to be made into a poster, when it is returned decide where you want it to hang. Open to individuals and groups world-wide. As JR would say, It’s a way to stand up for what you care about. 

Brownbackistan

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Brownbackistan logoI am not in the great-state-of-Kansas anymore, I’m in the not-so-great-a-state-of-Brownbackistan.

Sam Brownback was elected governor in 2010 and it’s been a downhill ride ever since. Before he even unpacked his desk accessories, he started slashing government spending with a huge machete.

The Kansas Arts Commission (KAC) was a target. He dissolved the commission and left the staff seeking greener pastures.

The Kansas Senate said, “Just a minute, buster.” And they appropriated money for KAC to continue. But before the budget was approved, Brownback used his line-item veto to erase the $689,000 designated for KAC, effectively making Kansas ineligible for matching federal dollars and giving Kansas the distinction of being the only state without an arts commission.

Personally, I find it very interesting that Sam Brownback was the only governor to attend Governor Rick Perry’s prayer event this past August. I really doubt that all of the other invitations got lost in the mail.

(Buy a  t-shirt from Welcome to Brownbackistan on facebook; the artist, Emily Eakes, is donating $2.00 from each sale to the arts.)

Java Jolt

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Are you a little melancholy about summer’s end? Maybe all those projects you earmarked for summer didn’t quite get wrapped up? What you need is a coffee break. Here is a recipe to cheer you up and give you energy to make a brand new list.

Cold-Brewed Ice Coffeeiced coffee
Makes: Two drinks or enough for you to have more.

1/3 cup ground coffee (medium-coarse) Milk (if you want)

In a jar, stir together coffee and 1 1/2 cups water. Cover and let rest at room temperature overnight or 12 hours.

Strain twice through a coffee filter, a fine-mesh sieve or a sieve lined with cheesecloth. In a tall glass filled with ice, mix equal parts coffee concentrate and water, or to taste. If you want, add milk.

There is a big taste difference between left-over coffee and this cold-brewed concentrate. Make up some and  keep in the refrigerator for your next drop-in guests. They will think they died and ended up in Starbuck Heaven.

Seen on Smitten Kitchen from The New York Times

Cruising

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owls of the nileI am trying to work my way down Time’s Best Blogs for 2011. But I didn’t get very far once I hit Cool Hunting. It’s a mash-up of what’s up and coming in design, technology, arts, culture, food and style – in short something for everyone.

In just a manner of minutes, I learned about chocolate bars with potato chips in them, scoped out some work boots and found a place to get great wall-art. This is Owls of the Nile by Rachel Caldwell.

Not to mention that I felt like a hipster for the rest of the day.

A Cautionary Tale

Gallery · ·

I always thought the advice to wear rubber gloves when cooking with jalapeno peppers was for wimps. I mean, really — how bad could a pepper seed be? The truth of the matter is I have never made anything requiring a jalapeno in its natural state until tonight.

Lately I am challenging myself to try new things out of healthy cookbooks, rainbow swiss chard, and carmelized red onions with balsamic vinegar, well — you get the drift. Tonight I made smoky shrimp corn soup and spicy chick pea lettuce wraps.

The spice in the lettuce wraps comes from a jalapeno. I sliced it and using the edge of the knife scraped out the seeds. I minced half of the pepper and tasted it. I didn’t even bother to cut up the second half, there was quite enough heat as it was.

After dinner I turned on the dishwasher and noticed my hands were tingly as if they were asleep. I shook them, and waved my hands in the air. But it didn’t help. My hands felt as if they were simmering, hot and spiking pain. I stood there expecting to see my hands burst into flames.

AHA. This is it, I thought. This is the reason you wear gloves.

When I googled how to get rid of pain from jalapeno peppers, there are a lot of suggestions. Baking soda, rubbing alcohol and milk being the most frequently touted  cures.  I tried rubbing alcohol since it was handy. Mine was a mild case and it worked pretty quickly, others aren’t so lucky.

I read about a man who roasted, peeled and de-seeded a 5 pound bag of jalapeno peppers without gloves. He was in excruciating pain for 18 hours; he went to the emergency room and after trying different things, they gave him some really strong pain killers and sent him home to wait it out.

I bet he never did that again.

How they roll

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Change. It drives me nuts. It weighs me down. It’s way too high maintenance. And to top it off, it costs 10% of the total to convert it to paper if you use one of the Coins to Cash machines that have popped up in grocery stores.

I’ve tried pretending that coin sorting was a fun thing to do while watching mindless TV. But I wasn’t fooled. I tried bribing myself by promising to spend all of money in my Hippopotamus bank on a new Coach bag. But I wasn’t tempted. I’ve put it on a To Do list and starred it several times. No matter.92830FL-2

Then finally I got it. The perfect solution.

I ordered a $30 motorized coin sorter. It takes 2 C batteries for it to rev up so that it can go to work sizing up each coin and putting it in the proper chute. It comes with assorted paper coin wrappers and you can order more. I can hardly wait for the Big Brown delivery truck and the gift-wrapped package for Sig.

Half a Head

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I didn’t have one thing to do with this joke. It’s all over the place, but I can’t find the person who wrote it.  So, laugh anonymously. I did. Or maybe it was enormously?

A man walked into the produce section of his local supermarket and asked to buy a half head of lettuce. The boy working in that department told him that they only sold whole heads of lettuce.

The man was insistent that the boy ask his manager about the matter.

Walking into the back room, the boy said to the manager, “Some ass-hole wants to buy a half head of lettuce.” As he finished his sentence, he turned to find the man standing right behind him, so he added,  “And this gentleman kindly offered to buy the other half.”

The manager approved the deal and the man went on his way. Later the manager said to the boy, “I was impressed with the way you got yourself out of that situation earlier. We like people who think on their feet here. Where are you from, son?”

“Texas , sir.” the boy replied.

“Well, why did you leave Texas ?” the manager asked.

The boy said, “Sir, there’s nothing but whores and football players there.

“Really?” said the manager “My wife is from Texas ..”

“Get outta here!” the boy said. “Who’d she play for?”