The Velvet Painting

I found myself telling this story on Facebook earlier, and not only is it delightful to me, but it also may be true -- so I thought that I should write it down here for the internet. 

After my mother graduated from high school and did some secretarial school, she decided that she loved to travel.  For a few years, in her early 20s, she was living in Los Angeles -- it was the early 1960s.  At some point, my grandparents, aunt, and uncle came out to visit her, and as part of their travels, they went down to Tijuana.  

The Tijuana trip is something of a family legend. Part of the story that I heard involved my uncle (who was maybe 10 or 11 years old) trying to practice haggling with street vendors. Another part of the story involved the whole family going to the restaurant where the Caesar salad was invented. But the story always ended with the part where my mother saw a beautiful velvet painting of a handsome long-haired man. She decided she had to have it -- and went back to buy it on their way out of town. 

It was, after all, the 1960s.

My mother hung the painting up in her apartment in California, and then when she moved back to New York, she hung the picture up in her apartment there too. She might have even moved apartments a few times after that -- I always think of her as something of a nomad when she was young.

Eventually, she was living somewhere on the Upper East Side, with the picture hanging on the wall, when one of her childhood friends came to visit.  Her friend was Catholic, and asked my mother why a nice Jewish girl would have a picture of Jesus hanging up in her apartment.

My mother had absolutely NO IDEA. 

And then, the story ended with my mother giving her friend the painting of Jesus and it hanging in her friend's house for many years.  My mother often told the story after we left that friend's house, and I never remembered to look for the painting or ask her friend if it was true. One of these days, maybe I will remember. Or maybe it's just better as a legend.

Cakes, cookies, bacon, and tattoos: 24 hours with my brother

Right now, my brother's neighbors are outside lighting off fireworks and talking really loudly in Spanish. The fireworks -- not the Spanish -- is driving most of the neighborhood dogs crazy, but my brother's roommate's dog is as cool as a cucumber.



So far, it's been a pretty busy 24 hours. Last night, after my flight landed, we went straight from the train station to grab food and then out to a bar where a bunch of my brother's friends seem to hang out. He knew about half the people in the bar, one of whom was painting glow-in-the-dark fake tattoos on people.

Here's mine:



I sort-of wanted to keep it, but eventually, my brother managed to convince me to shower.

This morning, we went for brunch at this awesome bakery that had the coolest cakes ever in the display window out front.





Then we went shopping, and on the way, saw this sign, which I thought was funny, and which my brother thought was perfectly normal:



I think I'm dedicating the picture to Jordan Baker, who seems to be obsessed with bacon.

Oh, and the shopping -- we went to Chinatown so my brother could pick up some kind of herbal medicine -- which loosely translates to the "Four Horsemen" and is meant to cure his spleen. No kidding. I got a bunch of fortune cookies -- normal and chocolate -- and fresh baked almond cookies -- all for under $3.00. And a picture of Confucius.



You know what would go perfectly with fresh-baked almond cookies? Green tea gelato. I'm gonna work on that as soon as I get an ice cream maker.

New Project Runway!

I was so tired when I got home from Chicago last night that I forgot that I was DVR-ing Project Runway. But I remembered this morning, and all day, I kept wishing I could get home to watch before I stumbled across any spoilers.

In the meantime, I read an article about the show -- and one about last season's winner -- both from New York Magazine.

So, when I finally got home -- and finally got to watch the show -- I spent the entire time thinking that at least the writer's strike won't be able to take this little pleasure away from me.

After watching this show for the past three seasons, I think I'm starting to be able to see the differences between (1) a pretty dress; (2) a well-crafted dress; and (3) an interesting design. Academically, I think that, at least for this week's challenge, the winning dress needed to be all three -- and that's why Rami won. But as for my personal taste, I tend to gravitate to things that are wearable, not too avant-garde, and are, for lack of a better word, pretty. For the record, my three favorite designs this week were by Rami, Kevin, and Jack, not necessarily in that order.

Artist's rendition

So, on Pop Candy, they posted a link to this nifty little program that alters your photo in various ways.

I've been playing with it for a while. This version of me as a Botticelli is my favorite:



I also like this Modigliani:

My latest foray into the art world

Forget painting: Earlier this month, I took a beginning glassblowing class at Glen Echo with DSL and I.

It was harder than it looked at the Renaissance Festival. You have to keep moving the glass, and you have to do all sorts of things to make the shape -- without managing to burn yourself on the metal tools or thousand-degree molten glass.

Ultimately, we made vases. Or drinking glasses. Or something that can hold pencils.




It was supposed to be purple, but now I can see that I picked up some streaks of blue from the guy that went before me.




I think it's better looking from the inside. See?

Watching time fly, literally

I recently stumbled across this short film where the artist took a picture of her face every day for over three years.



It's gotten mixed reviews on the comment thread. People seem to either think it's beautiful or self-indulgent, with almost no middle ground.

I think it's great. I love the idea of watching people evolve and change.

Yesterday, I realized that I have something kind of like that -- 2 pictures of me taken in front of the same background, by the same camera, for the same purpose -- the first on August 7, 2000, and the second on January 22, 2007 -- almost like photographic mile markers. It's not exactly the same as the video because it doesn't have all of the photos in all of the intervening years -- so you miss that feeling of seeing the evolution as it happens.

Still, it's interesting to see the evolution.

School of Pepperidge Farm goldfish

I hadn't taken a food picture in a really long time, but at lunch today, I couldn't help myself:

Look what I made!

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce -- for the first time anywhere -- my sock monkey!



Cute, no? The kit said it would take an hour, but it actually took WAY longer than that.

Anyway, he needs a name. Any suggestions?

Six weird things about me

This morning, Ryane tagged me to disclose six ways in which I am weird.

This is a hard challenge -- not because I'm not weird, but mostly because it's hard to narrow it down to six peccadilloes. And also because I don't want to repeat anything I disclosed earlier.

1. Even though I am cold all the time, I absolutely hate to put on the heat. I would rather pile on layers of clothing and walk around wrapped in a blanket. So, most days, that's what I do.




2. I am so bad at math that, more often than not, I count on my fingers.
   
   Yes, I am a tax attorney.




3. I love Christmas -- and not just the lights, the trees, and the presents. Remember though: I am, for all intents and purposes, Jewish. Yet, for some reason, I love Christmas so much so that, in high school, I used to tag along with friends to midnight mass.
   
   I still bake Christmas cookies (generally gingersnaps and snickerdoodles, occasionally shaped and decorated sugar cookies), and I always send Christmas cards. One year, I even made a mix CD to send out to all of my friends in lieu of a card. (My friends still, on occasion, remind me how awesome it was.)
   
   I really want a Christmas tree. For years, I've been trying to justify it to myself with the whole line about it really being a pagan symbol to celebrate the winter solstice, but for some reason, I can't pull the trigger. This year, I almost bought the Charlie Brown tree.




4. I have this compulsive need to keep busy all the time. As a result, I can't just sit in front of the TV -- my hands need to be doing something.
   
   I think it's sort-of like how a shark will die if it stops swimming.
   
   So, I pick up little hobbies to keep me occupied -- like knitting, or blogging, or -- several years ago -- scrapbooking. And then, out of the blue, I'll drop it -- with no warning. So, be warned. I might eventually get bored of blogging and stop.




5. As noted in previous posts, I tend to be obsessive about things. Not just because I catalogued my shoes, or because I arrange my clothes in the closet in color order, but how my movies and -- most importantly -- my CD's are in alphabetical order.
   
   At one point, I organized them by genre, but at some point, the collection got too large -- and some artists are hard to pigeonhole. Take a look at what they look like now:
   
   
   
   I also know that exactly five discs are not in the picture -- because they are in the CD player. They are Pet Sounds (Beach Boys), Taking the Long Way (Dixie Chicks), The Ultimate Collection (The Jackson 5), and Anthology (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) -- both discs.

   And for the record, on the bottom left are my collection of concert recordings (mostly U2, courtesy of Furthur) and on the bottom right are box sets and mix CDs. More on those at a later date.

   
   
   But the weirdest thing:

   
   

6. I don't organize my books. At all. I just put them on the shelf.

So, I should tag other people to do this now, right?

Mad's already done it, though -- in haiku form. And I'd tag Inbal, but she never blogs anymore anyway. So, I guess I designate Justin, Scarlet, Needtsza, and Evil Spock. Oh, and anyone else who wants to do it.

Finished product

Here's the end result of my knitting project:



No, I did not knit the kitchen chair.

Learning something new

This weekend, I decided to learn something new -- how to knit.

My mom taught me how to crochet when I was younger -- and I learned how to sew and do cross-stich in home-ec -- but I never managed to learn how to knit.

On Sunday, while shopping with some friends, I saw this kit -- which seemed to be aimed at children -- and figured that it couldn't be too difficult.

Last night, while watching TV, I started making the first couple of stitches. Today, I think I'm starting to get the hang of it:



Admittedly, this is very simple. It's a scarf, so there are no complications like sleeves, or round edges, or anything. Plus, it's only one color yarn, and a simple pattern where I'm knitting one row and then purling the next.

Still, I'm kinda proud of myself.

Things that are cool

What looks like your average vintage copy of The Cat in the Hat . . .



. . . is actually my new handbag.



Isn't it cool? I found it at Eastern Market on Saturday, courtesy of Caitlin at Rebound Designs.

Look at what I did!

Look up at your browser's address bar? See anything different?

You should be seeing my brand new icon! (Well, the source image is not so new to those who read my blog on a regular basis. And if you don't see it, it's because of the crapiness of Internet Explorer.)

Thanks to the Liberal Banana for posting the directions.

Fun with art

Today's Celebritology led me to this site, Gallery of the Absurd, which is very amusing celebrity-inspired art. And quite good, too -- unlike that from one of my longtime favorite sites, The Museum of Bad Art.

My favorite MOBA work, Sunday On The Pot With George, is seen to the right.

It makes my foray into art seem almost professional, right?

Ceci n'est pas un Matisse

For those who didn't check out the link mentioned below, law firms hold some interesting social events for their summer associates.

I skipped the scavenger hunt today, but yesterday, I got to participate in something called Art at Work. This activity takes place in the office, and calls for the untalented lawyers and future lawyers to attempt to create -- or replicate -- a great masterpiece, supposedly in the name of relaxation and bonding.




I attempted to copy the lovely work to the left, "Narcissis" by Henri Matisse:

The result, as pictured to the right, is sort of Matisse-meets-Gauguin-meets-Van Gogh-meets-Crayola.

My mom might be proud, but this guy is probably laughing his ass off. But at least I've finally and conclusively established that my true calling was not art, and in retrospect, it's probably a good thing that I'm a tax lawyer.



(If you don't understand the title of this post, click here.)


Update: If you want to paint in your office but can't, try the Jackson Pollock-a-sketch.