Saturday, October 20, 2001
SOUP LAB: THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT
Tonight's the soup off. Tonight will see the crowning of the Coconut Soup King (or queen, if someone other than me wins). Tomorrow, the winner will be announced here, along with extended soup-off coverage including the full text of threatening e-mails my brother sent me and full recipies from the contest. Wish me luck!
* * *
Thursday, October 18, 2001
SOUP LAB REDUX
Did I mention that my goddam brother is retired (early), so he has as much time as he wants to work on soups? Did I mention that he and D. are both brilliant cooks? Did I mention that things are getting a little hairy around my house as the soup-off approaches?
* * *
COLOR TEMPERATURE
Have you been bothered at all by the orange-tinted warm glow produced by your standard tungsten home light bulbs? Well, no, me either. But I see that General Electric is offering some kind of new light bulb that purports to color-correct, after all these years, the good ol’ light bulb.
Back in good ’ol photo school we learned that the sun has a color temperature of, say 5500° (kelvin, I think), which is distinctly bluish in spite of our general tendency to equate sunlight with yellow. Burning tungsten produces a very orange 3600°. Fluorescent lights tend to be green. Now, none of this is very important to most people, because your eyeballs and your brain instantly color-correct for you. But if you’re shooting pictures with a combination of lighting, you’ve got to watch out because your film and your camera are not as smart as your eyes and your brain are.
The one time all that is really noticeable to everybody is if you’re hanging around outside in the 5500° cold dusk and you can see the 3600° warm lights on in people’s windows. Particularly, I think, in northern countries with early nights and cold winters, the sight of that glow brings on a deeply appreciative hearth-and-home kind of vague and atavistic yearning. You know?
I’m gonna miss that if this new, blue light takes off.
* * *
* * *
Wednesday, October 17, 2001
EVERYTHING IS TRUE
From the new issue of Vanity Fair, a snippet of an interview with John Lennon:
Lisa Robinson: How true is the myth that Brian Epstein packaged The Beatles?
Lennon: Everything is true and not true. That’s one thing I’ve learned. Both things are both true.
* * *
THEMES
While on the topic of rock n roll, the National Post (which seems to be getting more than its share of air time in this blog) claims that rock n roll is not, in fact, dead, but merely coming to the regular end of its standard 13-year cycle. I’m dubious, but let’s postulate; if true, the state of rock music today should be somewhat similar to that of 1988, 1975, 1962 and, uh, 1949. Well, okay, forget 1949. So that would be just before The Beatles, just before punk and just before, um... well, what happened after ’88?
Well, think about it, anyway.
I think this blog is likely to return time and time again to the death of rock n roll as a theme. What are some other themes you can expect us to beat to death here? Here is a partial list!
The length, color and quality of our hair.
Famous debunkings
Living like one is a millionaire while one is, in fact, stone broke
Cheap but delicious wine I am drinking right now (a sub-category of the above)
The degree to which I detest the new design of this site
My fear of grownups
The utterly shameful decline of hollywood
The differences between Calgary and Ottawa
How complete a dilettante I am (and how I’ll never amount to anything)
How much I love New York City
Why the hell I am blogging, anyway
Hubris and its aftereffects
* * *
HUBRIS AND ITS AFTEREFFECTS (PT. 1)
Remember me braggin’ about the weather here this weekend? Today it’s gonna snow, and it’s all my fault.
* * *
* * *
Monday, October 15, 2001
THE WEATHER
Was it so warm here yesterday that MPB was sweatin’ whilst executing his ordinary Sunday chores? It was, dear readers, it was. And did MPB cackle a little when he spied Calgary’s forecast of 0° and flurries? He did, dear readers, he did.
* * *
SOUP LAB
The first rule about Soup Lab is you don’t talk about Soup Lab...
* * *
REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION
A response from C:
“I would think it impossible to drink grappa or verisinthe like a girl. Can you delicately sip resinous kerosene rot and pride yourself on your well-mannered moderation? Perhaps tonight I'll relax with a jar of dark rum, verisinthe and grappa mixed together with, uh, clamato. That should ‘correct’ whatever is ailing me.”
* * *
CHIP KIDD
...finished the Kidd book, and just heard from the Killer that one of the Franzen books she put on hold for me is in at the library. Not the new one, but the first novel, 27th City, that my brother recommended. Hold on, JF; I’m comin’ for you, kid!
Anyway, about Kidd’s book I’m not gonna say too much, except I liked one idea it proffered – that one might judge artworks by imagining one’s granny did them. Would you like, Chip asks, Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d'Avignon if your granny took up painting and presented you with it?
Similarly, one day I saw an otherwise well-put-together woman walking around with a handbag so ghastly that I was compelled to advance for a closer look. I was expecting Zellers or K-Mart, but it was Prada. So, my K-Mart algorithm; If in doubt about the coolness of a designer something or other, imagine it said K-Mart on it, instead of, say, Calvin Klein or Comme des Garcons. If it still looks cool to you, then it’s cool. Truly cool.
* * *
* * *
What is it?
