conversational snippet

"Sometimes, it's like shopping in an empty store."

-My mother, on contemporary art

unknown age

For all the features it hoards and displays
age seems to be without substance at any time

whether morning or evening it is a moment of air
held between the hands like a stunned bird

while I stand remembering light in the trees
of another century on a continent long submerged

with no way of telling whether the leaves at that time
felt memory as they were touching the day

and no knowledge of what happened to the reflections
on the pond's surface that never were seen again

the bird lies still while the light goes on flying



- W.S. Merwin

song of the summer

"Cherry Bomb" by Spoon.

It's catchy and hooky and I love it.

That is all.

a perfect combination

One tiny square of the 91% cacao Guittard Nocturne bar, paired with black coffee. The coffee somehow tempers the strength of the extra, extra dark chocolate, allowing smooth fruity notes to materialize on the tastebuds.

best breakfast ever

Steel cut oats with buttermilk and farmer's market blueberries. A touch of Trader Joe's new Vanilla Paste drizzled on top - you can see the vanilla bean bits.

This is seriously delicious - and it's so easy to make!

(Am I nesting or what? I'm sure it's not just the oats - this place is starting to feel more like home.)

I'm about to go lounge in a soon-to-be-painted room with the latest issue of Domino Magazine. August 2007 just looked too full of useful information to not grab off the shelf. Maybe for September I'll actually commit to a subscription.

There are so many wonderful design blogs around now, too....I'm so happy with the information overload! I have a lot to learn.

Yes, there is some sifting involved, but I've been lucky to come across some gems.

This post from The Peak of Chic is one of my favorites. Wonderful article on Elsie de Wolfe that I would have likely completely missed otherwise.



Big week of science coming up. For now, though, I'll just be dreaming about being surrounded by beautiful design.

mysterious knitting

What is this? It's something woven right onto the chain link fence by the St. Stan's demo in Fells Point.



I've seen this twice before, on other chain link fences. For a long time, there was one by Peter's Inn, and I spied one soon to be swallowed by urban underbrush in an alley by Jack's Bistro.

Is it some sort of art project by a disaffected MICA student? Or maybe a bored grandma with no one to knit doilies for....

...with Baltimore, you never really know.

July 2007 - the books.

The Nasty Bits, A. Bourdain
The Art of Scandal, D. Shand-Tucci
Don't Get Too Comfortable, D. Rakoff *
Matter of Mind, K. Heilman
An Equal Music, V. Seth *
So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading, S. Nelson
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, A. Fadiman *


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

August 2nd edit -

A bit about the books...

Nasty Bits: having it all be recycled material took a bit (but only a bit) of the fun out of it.

Art of Scandal: great subject matter, terribly written.

Don't Get Too Comfortable: reading Sedaris sometimes makes me cringe too much. Loved Rakoff, since it's the same kind of humor, but without quite so much dysfunction.

Matter of Mind: actually well written - but Oliver Sacks has more interesting cases for the layman. This is 'dryer' - aka less unusual - stuff.

An Equal Music: Lovely read. Classical music fans will especially enjoy. If you liked Possession, you'd like this.

So Many Books, So Little Time: A little disjointed. Was this originally a blog? It reads that way.

A Common Reader: Astounding. I loved this little book, with every turn of phrase just right. It's unfortunate that I read two similarly themed books back to back, because it really illustrated how much better this book was. If you are a lover of books, you should read this.


This was the first month in two years without my beloved New Yorker or Atlantic subscriptions - they ended in July, at the old place. It might end up being a blessing, especially for the reading project - without the weekly onslaught of NYer verbosity, I might be able to get through more books!