Coasters

We've been clearing out our storage space today and one of the boxes we unpacked contained these "coasters" that Guy made. They are really just old plastic CD cases that he decorated. The first one is a portrait of me that he made by cutting and pasting colored construction paper.


The second one is a quick sketch of Osama Bin Laden and Bert--which should give you a fairly accurate sense of how long ago Guy drew it.

Duck

This is a duck that I fed on campus the other day. I brought in some stale cereal to give him.

Blestyashchiye

My favorite Russian all-girl pop group is Blestyashchiye! What's yours?



Blestyashchie (Russian: Блестящие) is one of the first and most enduring all-girl singing groups in Russia.

Originally Blestyashchie consisted of three girls: Olga Orlova, Polina Iodis, and Varvara Koroleva. In 1996 Janna Friske and Irina Lukjanova joined the group when Varvara Koroleva left the group right after the release of their first album Tam, Tol'ko Tam (There, Only There).

Featuring original arrangements, lovely lyrics, and artistic music videos, Blestyashchie became quite popular. They went on tour across the country, and they were highly praised. There, Janna became an instant success with her excellent vocal abilities and superb dancing skills.

In 1997 they released the album Tam, Tol'ko Tam (remixes). With the new lineup, Blestyashchie released their second album Prosto Mechti (Simply Dreams). This album included such musical best sellers, "Gde Zhe Ti Gde?", "Oblaka", and "Cha-Cha-Cha". In 1998, Polina Iodis left the group and the three remaining girls continued to work together.

In August 1999, Xenia Novikova joined Blestyashchie. They released a new album in 2000, titled O Lyubvi (About Love). The album featured ten new songs, one of which, "Ciao Bambina", was named the most "provocative" clip of year. The hit "Za Osen'yu Pridet Zima" was another single from O Lyubvi. The group won many awards that year, and went on tour in cities of Russia, the countries of the Near abroad, and abroad.

In 2000, Olga Orlova (the front member and the songwriter of the songs that made Blestyashchie famous) became pregnant and left the group.

Janna Friske is considered the leader of the group, publicity director, and oversees that girls communicate "daily".

In their 'free time' the four members wrote songs for their next album, Za Chetyre Morya (Beyond Four Seas) (2002). The first hit from the album was the memorable "A Ya Vse Letala", the video played continuously on all music channels.

In 2003 Irina Lukyanova became pregnant and left the group. Later on Blestyashchie was joined by the figure skating champion Anna Semenovich.

Apelcinoviy Rai (Orange Paradise) (2003) was an extraordinary success and left its mark on the year. The last hit song off the album, "Novogodnaya Pesnya", became a true anthem that goes to the heart of winter holidays at the year's end, and the earlier hit song "Apelcinovie Rai" the summer anthem.

On April 1, 2004 Friske was replaced by Nadia Ruchka. When asked the question how she joined group Blestyashchie, Nadia answered so: "It is very simple. My friend called and told that Blestyashchie wanted me to audition. My previous band just had just broken up. And 'Blest' was searching for new members. But was on first of April (April Fools' Day), and I mistook the offer as a joke. Therefore I said: 'Please, you will not joke. I do not wish to listen to such silly jokes. You will come home, and we shall talk.' At first I joined in group on a trial period. I have started to go a little with girls by tour. Stepped onstage in two-three numbers. Then I began to participate in recording songs."

In the group, Nadia was well accepted. "If there are any questions, we find it easy to communicate," the singer tells. "Everyone understands, the work is complex. Now the trial my period has ended, therefore I work on full power."

Happy Aloha Friday

Hotter, Mintier, Fruitier!

Americans are demanding extreme flavor sensations! Here is an interesting article about this new trend:

The Increased Craving for Intense Flavors Suggests That the American Palate is Changing

The buttery taste found in packaged foods isn't just butter flavor anymore. Increasingly, it is browned-butter flavor, formulated to taste deeper and more savory than plain butter, says International Flavors and Fragrances, one of the leading laboratories for developing flavors used by food companies.

Snack chips are spicier. Chewing gum is mintier. Energy drinks are fruitier. In short, American cuisine is adrenaline cuisine.

Some food companies are hitting their labs to try to torque up flavorings to appeal to the country's expanding palates, and, of course, boost sales of snacks, drinks and even main courses. Arugula and ancho-chile sauce now appear at restaurants like Chili's where there was once only iceberg lettuce and mayonnaise. PepsiCo Inc.'s Frito-Lay brand recently introduced Doritos chip flavors labeled First-, Second- and Third-Degree Burn. Gum-maker Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. is using new technologies like textured crystals it calls Micro-Bursts to deliver a more intense flavor as well as new sweeteners to make flavors last longer. At home, seasoning company McCormick & Co. Inc. says Americans now keep an average of 40 different spices, a figure that has grown roughly twice as fast in the past two decades as it did in the previous 30 years...

Food and flavor companies are secretive about the technology used to enhance flavors that they consider proprietary information. They now have the ability to create the full spectrum of any flavor in a lab. A simple strawberry flavor can range from tart, just-picked strawberry to almost candy-like sweetness. When Dr Pepper Snapple developed its new Dr Pepper Cherry soda, for example, it tested 30 different cherry profiles with consumers...

The current flavor boom is a big change for a nation known for its mashed potatoes, chicken sticks, macaroni and cheese and other unadventurous fare. It's a reversal that has been in the making since the advent of processed food first began to drown out regional cuisines during World War II, food historians say.

"Bold is replacing boring," says Kevan Vetter, McCormick's executive chef who is part of a team that has met for the past 10 years to develop McCormick's annual "flavor forecast" report. The report includes the top 10 flavor pairings that the spice-maker thinks will be popular in the coming year. Among the flavor couplets in its 2010 forecast are roasted cumin and chick peas, caraway and bitter greens, roasted rhubarb and ginger, and almond and ale...

New flavors used to originate in fine dining kitchens and work their way down, but now they come just as often from the Food Network or from ethnic or international sources. "The timeline that trends take to evolve down to the mass consumer has really shortened," Mr. Vetter says.
McCormick now counts sea-salt, smoked paprika, roasted garlic and dried lemongrass among the flavors in its typical grocery-store offerings. Asian and Caribbean spices, blends and marinades have been the focus of recent roll-outs, and the company is predicting strong Indian spices will be big within the next five years.

At Frito-Lay Inc.'s Plano, Texas, headquarters, executives describe their new flavors of Doritos chips to match what they see as the brand's image. Doritos, the company says, are targeted at a younger audience. The Doritos consumer likes action-packed video games and late-night partying and wants that extreme experience to translate to the chips as well.

So, its new First-, Second- and Third-Degree Burn chip varieties are made with jalapeno, buffalo and habanero flavors, respectively. They launched this year, as part of the company's efforts to frequently roll out new flavors to keep customers interested.

"Consumers expect more from a flavor. It's kind of like moving from regular TV to high-def TV," says Stephen Kalil, corporate executive research chef at Frito-Lay's Culinary Innovation Center. Mr. Kalil helps brainstorm new flavors and creates a natural version of a flavor in the kitchen that can be replicated in a lab.

"A lot of that flavor goes back to Asian and Szechuan cooking," says Kelly Sepcic, vice president of innovation at Frito-Lay. Sweet and spicy Doritos is another Asian-inspired product with soy, garlic and ginger flavors.

Cuisines like those from China and Thailand include extreme flavors, but, unlike the new burst of flavor in the U.S., they also assign great importance to achieving a balance between spicy and sweet, salty and refreshing, says Dr. Davis of the James Beard Foundation...

At Wrigley , the pace of gum flavor creation has accelerated dramatically in recent years. Wrigley introduced Juicy Fruit and Wrigley's Spearmint in 1893 and then waited for 20 years before introducing its next flavor, Doublemint. It wasn't until 1975 and 1976, respectively, that it introduced the next flavors Freedent and Big Red. Today, Wrigley releases about a dozen new flavors a year in the U.S. This fall it will offer Extra gum in fruity dessert flavors, including strawberry shortcake and Key lime pie.

"Are you going to the Nirvana show tonight?" he asked curtly.

Thanks to the early influence of Dynamite magazine, every now and then, a "Tom Swifty" pops into my head (like the one I used for the title of this post). Dynamite would regularly feature lists of these adverb-based puns. They seemed like the height of cleverness to my young impressionable mind. This list is from Wikipedia:


"Who left the toilet seat down?" Tom asked peevishly.

"Pass me the shellfish," said Tom crabbily.

"That's the last time I'll stick my arm in a lion's mouth," the lion-tamer said off-handedly.

"Can I go looking for the Grail again?" Tom requested.

"I unclogged the drain with a vacuum cleaner," Tom said succinctly.

"I might as well be dead," Tom croaked.

"We just struck oil!" Tom gushed.

"They had to amputate them both at the ankles," Tom said defeatedly.

"Who discovered radium?" asked Marie curiously.

"Hurry up and get to the back of the ship," Tom said sternly.

"Would you like to ride in my new ambulance?" asked Tom hospitably.

"Who put the moss in the bog again?" asked Tom repeatedly.

"A word that contains all five vowels? And I suppose you want those vowels to appear in alphabetical order?" asked Tom facetiously.

“Charlatan! Pretender! Mountebank! Quack! Rogue!” Tom said euphoniously.

"I'm not going to evangelize the rest of the neighborhood," concluded Tom distractedly.

"The robber is coming down the stairs", Tom said condescendingly.

"Nnnn", Tom murmured forensically.

"I think I'm a homosexual", Tom said, half in earnest.

"I am the bone lord," Tom proclaimed skulkingly.

"I know who turned out the lights," Tom hinted darkly

Kurt's Head

I took these photos at the Seattle Art Museum last Thursday. There are two exhibits at the SAM right now that are both pretty awesome--the first one, entitled "Kurt" is an exhibition of art "that asks viewers why and how Kurt Cobain came to mean so much to a generation."

What that basically amounted to was a lot of really crappy pencil drawings and other amateurish art that was either literally or very loosely "about" Kurt Cobain. It was pretty interesting to see it all. Even though most of it kind of sucked, it sort of worked anyway, since it seemed "grunge."

The stand-out piece was this one, the sculpture of Kurt's head. This sculpture was so far superior to the rest of the art that it almost made me wonder if the entire exhibit was just an excuse to display this head, with the rest of it pretty much being filler.

It looks like it's sculpted out of mud, but actually it is made of corrugated cardboard. The amazing thing is that the artist somehow totally captured Kurt's likeness, using only cardboard and nails. The hair is actually shredded pieces of cardboard, and the "stubble" is made of nails. So cool. I think Kurt would have loved it.

The other exhibit, called "love fear pleasure lust pain glamour death" is an assortment of Andy Warhol photographs and films. So, clearly, this is also awesome. From SAM's website:

"love fear pleasure lust pain glamour death includes works that compel us to consider the artist’s fascination with all things ephemeral, from beauty and youth to celebrity status. Including photographs and videos dating from the 1960s through the early 1980s—two decades in which the artist’s work had tremendous impact on contemporary art production and culture—the exhibition encourages readings of powerful themes such as fame, desire and identity construction, as well as anxiety and isolation, which often accompany stardom. In a series of self-portraits, with props or disguises such as wigs and women’s clothing, Warhol exposes his obsession with his own image and his desire to probe and push the boundaries of identity and self-invention.

"love fear pleasure lust pain glamour death — Andy Warhol Media Works is on view concurrently with the exhibition Kurt and resonates with many of the works on view, as well as the exploration of fleeting celebrity, the effects it has on the celebrated, and the ways in which even a brief career can deeply move a generation."