Ding It To Dang

The Bean through binoculars

2010-05-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

birdy

2010-03-27T12:15:00.000-07:00

so this is what he's up to...

2010-03-09T08:13:00.000-08:00

quittin' time

2010-03-01T15:10:00.000-08:00

don cheadle on a bed of rice

2010-02-12T19:34:00.001-08:00

inspiration

2010-02-12T10:35:00.000-08:00

new career, not quite

2010-02-12T07:27:00.000-08:00

tree of life with poodle serpent

2010-02-10T16:29:00.001-08:00

2010-02-09T14:10:00.000-08:00

2010-02-08T13:42:00.001-08:00

2010-02-07T10:03:00.001-08:00

winged victory, poodle, in famous french museum

2010-02-06T13:03:00.000-08:00

when you see this at the louvre, there is no head, but the newly-excavated head of the standard poodle will soon be reattached in a remarkable feat of conservation and restoration.

the standard poodle continues to appear throughout the ages

2010-02-05T13:06:00.001-08:00

and so it goes. the standard poodle is represented in 3000 b.c. Crete.

the standard poodle as representative of the history of art from then to now

2010-02-04T08:16:00.000-08:00

this appears in the famous cave at Altamira. the standard poodle, it turns out, has been around longer than tapas.

new year. woo hoo. 2010. not the beginning of a new decade!

2010-01-07T18:14:00.001-08:00

It is NOT the beginning of a new decade, it is the last year of the first decade of the 2000s. Well, that's out of the way. I have no great ideas or insights but I do have this to say—I am getting a meaningful type of time occupation and it will be soon. Just you watch.

xmas tree and the angel on top

2009-12-07T07:02:00.000-08:00

my first ever xmas tree! I couldn't put a star or an angel on top, too far in the christian direction, but why not Mr. C? I am grateful for the cooperation of my reluctant spouse for indulging this lifelong wish (the tree, not the dog on top).

huddled masses, part 1

2009-11-16T14:30:00.001-08:00

huddled masses, part 2

2009-11-16T14:25:00.000-08:00

huddled masses, part 3

2009-11-16T14:21:00.000-08:00

what kind of dog is that?

2009-11-05T13:01:00.001-08:00

we get this question a lot. now we won't

baby stuck in el train doors

2009-11-04T13:44:00.000-08:00

well, this is the picture that I had in my mind when I heard that news story. there is not enough humor anymore on the news.

no-knead must-have bread

2009-11-01T14:24:00.001-08:00

wow this was so easy and it is so beautiful and tasty!

newport, r.i.

2009-10-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

this says it all happiness-wise

2009-08-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

farmer's market!

2009-08-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

with these magic ingredients I will make a tomato salad and many, many servings of pesto to eat now and freeze for the winter. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

how we spent our summer vacation: alinea

2009-08-06T15:19:00.001-07:00

steelhead roe with dill foam and goat's milk something or other; pork belly with lettuce, cucumber, thai distillation; scallops, razor clams, honeydew and honeydew foam; crab, carrots, 5 spice powder, duck, lichee jam; wagyu beef with potato and A1 powder; aroma bowl followed by heirloom tomatoes, figs, niçoise olives, pine nuts, goat cheese with pumpernickel "crumbs" and olive oil ice; bacon, butterscotch, apple thyme; watermelon ball or something like that, really wacky, lime, nasturtium; pepper, hibiscus, creme fraiche, bubblegum (the only thing I did not eat); rhubarb with goat milk cheese, onion, lavender air in a big pillow (silly/fun); table mess of blueberries in several incarnations, maple, chocolate mousse frozen and not frozen, tobacco (!); sweet potato, bourbon, brown sugar, smoldering cinnamon (unnecessary at that point); espresso, tea. Also: about 7 different wines, champagne cocktail, aquavit form Norway, vintage port.

I do

2009-07-29T11:13:00.001-07:00

no end to what you can do with salads: grilled chicken and homemade rolls, risotto with asparagus and parmesan

2009-07-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

a feathery tail

2009-07-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

it is foolish to sit around feeling sorry for oneself, especially when there is no tv to watch to make you believe even more strongly than you already do that you have to get off your butt and do something useful/interesting/creative.

only in new york

2009-07-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

I was allowed to take this picture

2009-07-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

this is the one they didn't see me taking. when I started to frame another, the doorman said, "no pictures."

grilled chicken and baby zukes, fresh greens

2009-07-25T08:52:00.000-07:00

I love summer

what is it I want it

2009-07-24T13:59:00.001-07:00

smoked trout, dried cherries, arugula, greens

2009-07-23T18:06:00.000-07:00

and sheep's milk cheese croutons

food is good for you

2009-07-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

just two meals, but the greatest flavors: franny's anchovy parmesan and sausage pizzas then spotted pig burger and gnudi, light dumplings filled with ricotta and cooked in browned butter. worth the calories.

nothing new, ever

2009-07-07T14:16:00.000-07:00

did this ever happen to you: you look at something you did a million years ago, and think, I don't think I could have come up with that today? Does it make you think, there is no reason to do anything new? I suppose it shouldn't

do not fill above this line

2009-07-04T13:17:00.001-07:00

how could McSweeney's NOT have published this list?

2009-06-30T16:21:00.000-07:00

Why You Should Never Choose the Letter D in Multiple Choice Quizzes: Actual Multiple Choice Questions and Their D Answers From a High School History Book

The use of fire by early humans reminds us that

D. they were cold all the time.

By the time of Darius, the Persian kings had created

D.. hundreds of varieties of the game of checkers.

In Athens, by the mid-fifth century BC., every male citizen

D. broke pottery

The emperor kept the poverty-stricken masses pacified by

D. building the world’s largest Ferris wheel.

Between the Tang and Ming dynasties, Chinese literature flourished because

D. people were bored

Muslim rulers in India were tolerant of Hindus because

D. the Hindus made the best cooks.

Elections for city council in medieval cities were often

D. a way for felons to move up in society.

Part of Calvin’s reformation of the city of Geneva included

D. requiring all citizens to cut cabbage

In 1528, Baldassare Castiglione wrote The Book of the Courtier, which

D. taught a new type of recreational badminton.

Parents in Renaissance Italy carefully arranged marriages, often to

D. have attractive in-laws.

Who initiated construction of the Imperial City in Beijing?

D. Lo Mien

Mein Kampf was

D. a dadaist photomontage by Marilyn Monroe that commented on women’s roles.

Challenged by President Kennedy in 1961, massive government funding and leaps in research and technology enabled the United States by 1969 to

D. create a wide-screen TV for a price under $5,000.

I am borrowing these coneflowers

2009-06-30T14:28:00.000-07:00

your cellphone can be your friend.

then it stopped raining

2009-06-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

then it rained

2009-06-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

what america is eating for dinner on tuesday

2009-06-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

the recipe in cooking light can't be beat.

"Meta"

2009-06-16T14:41:00.000-07:00

jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj

why should this day be any different from any other day

2009-06-15T17:34:00.000-07:00

My favorite email of the day where all things in life have equal value:

"I am doing some baking today for Claytonfest which is Saturday. O took V in for her radiation. So far so good with that, she has one more treatment to go, then will begin chemo. Golfing later this aft."

finger painting

2009-06-13T19:00:00.000-07:00

ok, I'm just learning, so be patient. art? oh yes.

Mr. C is a good boy

2009-06-10T14:01:00.000-07:00

I never get tired of this guy.

new superhero

2009-06-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

jjjjj as they say in Spain. this was a few sidewalk squares away from Johnny Potsmoker outside the Oscar Mayer grade school.

Johnny Potsmoker

2009-06-05T11:24:00.000-07:00

this is in the concrete outside the Oscar Mayer School. The fact that there even is an Oscar Mayer School is amusing.

it was spring, briefly

2009-06-03T08:41:00.000-07:00

the new tree that took the place of the old trees that fell down last summer had pretty flowers, and now they're gone. waiting for summer, could start any time now.

these pigs can cook

2009-06-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

these pigs are my next project. what to do with them? perhaps paint a portrait that will show them as the dignified chefs that they are. or maybe they will just be cute pigs. can you believe they haven't been smashed to bits already? I've had them for 45 years. wow.

blender

2009-04-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

so, I had a moment of calm come over me yesterday, and it told me I don't need to worry anymore about work. this does not mean that I had some sort of esp where I foresaw my future and in the future I had a job, it just made me feel comfortable with not having a job, just for a moment. of course there are economic reasons to have a job, but more important sometimes are the psychological reasons, self-worth, identity, etc. I did not feel worthless in that moment and I did not feel without purpose for a change. hmmmm. cookies.

only in new york

2009-04-14T06:49:00.000-07:00

one of my favorite phrases. as if there aren't fun and unique and wacky and famous things everywhere. yes, there are crazy people in every city. but such a parade passed by last sunday. can you find all 5 dogs in this photo? no, because there are four in the stroller but it's hard to see that fourth one.

sausage picture

2009-04-10T07:51:00.000-07:00

this is a picture/painting/thing of art by Dieter Roth that I saw at MoMA. It is made with sausage. it has a companion piece made with cheese. they are both pretty gross, but there they are in a fancy museum. looking at other art, I overheard a grandmother say to her maybe 7-year-old grandson, "see that looks like something you could have done!" people really say that stuff and really believe it. but the piece she was saying that about there is no way that kid could have done. because it never would have occurred to him to do it. that's the point!

work in progress

2009-03-26T15:26:00.000-07:00

birthday mouse. am I getting too cute and less edgy? was I ever edgy? can anything be too cute? wait until this guy gets color, then we can attach labels.

put on a happy face

2009-03-26T11:58:00.000-07:00

Is this how I feel? I wish.

little wooden donkeys

2009-03-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

how come donkeys is not spelled donkies?

I bought a new dehumidifier today

2009-03-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

exciting life: choosing between the 45- and the 65-pint dehumidifiers. There was a 30-pint one but it looked cheesy. No one at Home Depot could explain how they differed from one another. They took turns reading the boxes, "well, this one has a 21-pint drawer, and a 2-speed fan..." Trouble is, they all say the same thing on the box. It took me figuring out that the difference is the amount of water it takes out of the air in a day. Duh.

happy anniversary

2009-03-10T12:47:00.000-07:00

shoe thing

2009-03-05T11:20:00.000-08:00

this is a shoe thing that my parents had and used to rest their shoes on when they polished them. It folds shut to be just a little table; you keep the shoe polish supplies inside.

time travel

2009-03-05T08:20:00.000-08:00

poodle-a-day

2009-03-04T11:41:00.000-08:00

pencil can remix

2009-03-03T14:54:00.000-08:00

trying again

this squirrel is not asleep

2009-03-02T15:32:00.000-08:00

thing-a-day lives on

2009-03-01T15:22:00.000-08:00

Thing-a-Day officially ended yesterday but I am going to try to continue on my own. This is titled "botched still life." It's not that good but what's important is that I keep drawing. I love watercolors again, and that, too, is important. Getting laid off sucks, BTW.

this began as a moose

2009-02-26T11:16:00.000-08:00

this began as a giraffe...

2009-02-26T11:14:00.000-08:00

highest bidder

2009-02-24T12:06:00.000-08:00

party duck! I opened my etsy store and if enough people shop and stimulate the economy there, I just might sell this duck to the highest bidder. Only four days left for the official thing-a-day—I vow to keep it going here.

winnecone meat market

2009-02-17T08:51:00.000-08:00

it's from the winneconne, wi., meat market, and we keep our toothbrushes in it. it is also my thing-a-day for today, the day we were supposed to go all digital but didn't, and a day the stock market hit a 10-year low. other notable events of february 17.....hmmmmm...the day everyone found this blog! walmart chrysler target zappos apple microsoft adobe google you all know who you are!

found barbies

2009-02-11T09:40:00.000-08:00

yesterday it was really warm so I took the poodle for a LONG walk. passing by an alley I espied a carton full of discarded barbies. nearby, a torn grocery store bag. what else could I do? I gathered up as many as I could and secured them in the bag. man they have a lot of hair.

right now they are in a sealed plastic bag because who knows what else I picked up (chinches? rat pee? ants?)

let the banks fail!

2009-02-10T14:26:00.000-08:00

let 'em fail. throwing money at them is not working. on a brighter note, all this unemployment is causing creativity, long gone from my days. thing-a-day is a challenge, the good kind.

chicago winter

2009-02-06T08:02:00.001-08:00

for several days this endless winter, the dog could not successfully walk around, due to sub-freezing salty days. he hopped around like a circus performer. the boots helped and he was able to frolic as usual. mostly I have a low opinion of people who clothe their animals, but in this case he requested help, and I could not refuse.

4 mushrooms

2009-02-02T08:54:00.001-08:00

this project is fun: thing-a-day

apples & oranges

2009-02-01T11:24:00.001-08:00

I know you can't but I am doing the comparison

fantastic tail of the day

2009-01-24T17:53:00.001-08:00

no special effects, just ordinary comet

armchair inauguration

2009-01-23T13:46:00.000-08:00

what more can I say?

don't forget about the wars

2009-01-18T12:59:00.000-08:00

I'm as happy as the next person, but do not forget about the wars, do not forget how we got into the first one and then the made up one, remember what bush did to this country and those countries and that he is responsible for thousands of deaths and the ruination of a country. on the way the whole damn economy fell apart and now we are thinking about that, but the wars go on and we cannot let them fade into the background, overtaken by legitimate celebrations

spanish reindeer

2009-01-16T08:12:00.000-08:00

it is -10° today, but the garden is doing well and the snow only adds to the beauty. in my mind I will be along the parade route next tuesday with a big thermos of hot chocolate and my little girl at my side. in my mind only, because this year, no thermoses allowed.

my friend says it's time for something new

2009-01-10T12:29:00.000-08:00

I believe it, too. I have never quite seen myself as the sunshiny type but I am not inclined to jump off a cliff, either. what to do? find a low cliff, stay out of the shadows, hire a poet, rewrite my resumé.

pinocchio in salzburg

2009-01-07T07:38:00.000-08:00

this is a really big pinocchio in the austrian alps, right where they filmed the sound of music. this defies logic but not imagination.

sleeping dogs lie

2008-12-29T12:58:00.001-08:00

my dog in his natural state, content and asleep, a state of carefree
dreams.

o christmas tree!

2008-12-23T18:59:00.000-08:00

this is my very first christmas tree and I have wanted one as long as I can remember. I understand my orthodox jewish father objecting—but we celebrated christmas with santa and gifts, what was the deal with that? anyway, I married a lutheran who had promised his grandmother he would never marry a jew. and he didn't want a tree? what was that all about? so when I spotted this beauty in the alley and asked myself why it was rejected, I settled on its original owner heading off for some pre-christmas vacation and not wanting to come home to a carpet full of dried out needles. this is my tree now and next year I will get one for inside.

these guys

2008-12-20T16:03:00.001-08:00

next year after I finally put up a christmas tree, I will hang cranberries and popcorn strings on it and if I'm lucky an army of snowmen such as these.

mmmmmmmmm cookies

2008-12-15T16:37:00.000-08:00

every year I make cookies for chanukah and christmas. these are ischler cookies and chocolate shortbread cookies and soon I will make spritz and sour cream cutout cookies, but the making of the latter has been more or less taken over by the rest of the family. I really love cookies.

wisconsin

2008-11-30T11:00:00.000-08:00

held's is the place to go for old-fashioned butcher shop ambience and the hypnotic aromas of smoked meats and aged cheeses. it is the stop to make if you are traveling to or from middle-of-nowhere wisconsin north of milwaukee. if you are a vegetarian forget it.

egyptian thing

2008-11-21T15:07:00.001-08:00

This is an Egyptian thing I saw at the Field Museum. I think this is what I would have done if I had lived back then, drawn royal cartoons.

tiles

2008-11-14T13:11:00.000-08:00

these are four of the more than 100,000 photos I took of tiles and repeating patterns in Spain. OK, maybe not 100,000, but that is how you might feel if you looked at all my pictures. They were irresistible.

hay cerdos en españa

2008-11-12T11:06:00.000-08:00

so it turns out that there ARE actual pigs in Spain, but I did not see a one of them, only their legs, deliciously air-cured and hanging in bars and cafés and restaurants and town squares (Trevélez) and grocery stores. I saw sheep and horses and goats and one eagle and many dogs. Where are the pigs? Then I saw this cabeza and I figured it belonged to one of the many deliciously air-cured legs. I have never prepared the head of a pig and I imagine it is incredibly gross, but seeing this in the Boqueria did not make me want to become a vegetarian as it did a few of my workmates. A pig head! You can also buy olives and cheeses and beautiful fruits and vegetables within yards of this cabeza, but the cabeza is much more fascinating.

jamón

2008-11-02T19:32:00.000-08:00

This is how the world should be: you walk into a bar, order a cortado, a glass of beer, a croissant, tomato bread with air-cured ham and aged cheese. This is how the world should be. This is Spain.

crazy guy's house

2008-10-13T07:08:00.000-07:00

If you just sit in the back yard and watch the squirrels climbing around the crazy guy's back porch, it can be very relaxing and amusing. The stock market and John McCain disappear. Those squirrels are living INSIDE his porch, but they don't go in through the open windows; they have found access through the rotting window frames. Their huge nest must be for show, because the back porch is surely a better house for them.

this pepper

2008-09-24T16:22:00.000-07:00

I am having trouble getting this to look right, so I am posting two (!) things the same day. First of all, I want to say that the pepper you see below this post is a real pepper grown by Michael in the back yard. It tasted as perfect as it looks.

So, just to tell you, I have worked more hours in the past three days than in the past three weeks and I must say it feels GOOD. Really good. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

And to comment on this disaster of a country I live in, I am not hopeful anymore about the economy or how the US looks to the rest of the world. I was hopeful last week, but now that the wizards in our government have decided to try to make up for all their mishandling of the economy by putting the country, that is, us, into debt for all eternity, I don't see any bright spots.

On a positive note, the weather has been really amazingly beautiful lately.

2008-09-24T16:12:00.000-07:00

merry christmas

2008-09-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

This is a wholly unoriginal observation, but they have ornaments and Christmas food on display at Cost Plus World Market!

By the time the real holiday rolls around, we will have elected a new president, please lord let it be Obama. On that note, Please lord guide Obama in the right direction, that he shall not stray toward the trivial back and forth that so tempts him, and instead guide him toward the things that are important, such as educating our citizens in the wrong that has been done and the right that can be done. Amen.

dream

2008-09-11T10:52:00.001-07:00

toe painting/navel gazing

2008-09-10T12:40:00.000-07:00

Trying to add structure to a day when you are used to having the constraints of a job do it for you is difficult. Oh sure, a weekend is nice with nothing to do but run a few errands, or maybe the weekend sucks because you have no time to yourself. Well, too much time to oneself is not always the best thing, especially when it is accompanied by the nagging feeling that you Should Be Doing Something, Should Be Earning Money. After you get the oil changed and paint the baseboards and finally get the knives sharpened and do the laundry and come up with all sort of creative menu concepts, it's time to confront the list of people you ought to call to Find Work.

Of course, I am speaking from the luxury of the position of not having to get more work Just Yet. But it's right there in front of me, and even if I had all the money in the world instead of just a teeny tiny percentage of it, I would still need to Do Something.

But all the money in the world would be helpful. The fantasy is having all that money and spending a lot of time figuring out who to give it to. That would be satisfying, take a lot of time, and get me involved in all sorts of things I'm not now. I could get involved with those things anyway, but oops I don't have all the money.

I should just go work for Obama for a month and then get a real job.

it's really just a picture of the grand canyon

2008-09-09T13:15:00.000-07:00

OK, so this is the Grand Canyon with me standing boldly on one of its infinite edges. You should know these facts so that you, America, can choose what I do next in this life. I can do all or some of the following:

design and lay out a page electronically
draw nice pictures
communicate in excellent english
be polite
bake excellent cookies
habla un poco español

correct your grammar, (directly or behind your back)

I have a blog now

2008-09-09T09:17:00.000-07:00

Now I can begin my quest to let America decide what I will do next to Change My Life.