what's for dinner?

in this age of sharing everything via instagram and facebook and twitter, what's for dinner has become a much more public question. i'll admit to feeling the pressure of it and i only share the good and inspired days in my dinner list group on facebook. but there are a lot of ordinary days in between. and we still have to eat dinner. it's the one meal of the day where we really do try to sit down together. this long, glorious summer, that may have been at 9 or 9:30 in the evening, decidedly southern european times. now that school has started again, we've tried to move it back to 6:30 or 7, but it's not easy.

another thing that makes it hard is all of the competing fads according to which we are supposed to eat. paleo is very big in denmark right now, thanks to very hot and fit chef, thomas rode putting out a paleo cookbook (which i'll admit i plopped down 249kr. ($44) for the day it came out - look at that cover, could you have resisted?). i'm really surprised by all of the cabbage they apparently had at their disposal in the stone age, but hey, i'm game if i get to spend the dinner hour with thomas. but paleo may just be the new name for low carb, as it demonizes wheat and prioritizes meat. it also has a big element of eating local and in season in it, at least in thomas' version. that, i can get on board with, especially in the summer, when we've got an array of produce to work with.

i've long been attracted to the idea of a raw diet, but feel it would simply be too difficult to feed a family on it.  plus, those hard core raw people often look rather thin and sickly. but i do keep threatening to go raw around here for a week, during the height of the summer produce season (right now would be the perfect time). i say threatening because my family is dead set against it. i guess they just don't think bacon would be that good raw.

we have a couple of meals a week without meat. i don't think any of us would ever really like to embrace full on vegetarianism or veganism, but we do think it's environmentally defensible of us to eat less meat and to consider meat to be a smaller part of our meal, rather than the centerpiece. i made a nicoise-inspired salad for dinner on sunday evening and could use one large grilled tuna steak for the three of us, instead of buying three and giving us each a big tuna steak as the centerpiece of our meal. easier on the wallet and on the tuna supply. plus it was actually enough that there were leftovers for another meal the next day. that was thanks to plenty of freshly-dug potatoes, beans from the market, boiled eggs, salad, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes and mozzarella that made up the rest of the salad. the grilled tuna was just the crown on top. and we all felt like we had our fill.

other food fads at the moment in denmark are ny nordisk mad (new nordic food), inspired by michelin star restaurant noma (which was the nr. 1 restaurant in the world in recent years, but fell to nr. 2 on the latest list). it is big on local ingredients, including things like hay and foraged beach detritus, and that has trickled down to the everyday kitchen in the form of a general sense of pride in nordic ingredients (pork, fish, cabbage, grains like rye and barley), tho' it has yet to make a liquid nitrogen unit an everyday kitchen utensil.  fasting a couple of days a week is also big. i have a friend who lost 10 kilos (20-ish pounds) doing that.

i think that underneath the food fads is actually a basic desire to be more conscious about what we eat. if you're following some strict no-carb diet, you have to think about the food you prepare and eat. the industrialization of food has taken us far from thinking about that. we just open up a package, warm it up in the microwave and scarf it down, all without putting much thought into it. but if you're eating raw or vegetarian or new nordic or paleo, you have to put some thought into what fills your basket at the grocery store and what you're making. and maybe at the base of it, we'd all like to do that.

hmm, i wonder what's for dinner tonight?

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great piece in scientific american on women LEGO minifigures.

in which she wonders if now is all it's cracked up to be

it's very now to live in the now. to be present in your life. to be mindful - of surroundings, feelings, thoughts. in some sense, there's nowhere else we can live but in the now. but at the same time the now is elusive. because now is so fleeting. it's here right NOW and then it's gone, almost before you can enjoy it or savor it.

as much as i do things like my 365 photo project (for the second year running), which help me be more aware of my surroundings on a daily basis, i have my doubts about this trendy living in the now. i get a lot of pleasure both out of imagining the future and remembering the past. and sometimes, what's best, is to let your mind drift to one or the other, when where you are is not that engaging (think a boring, long meeting with a 54-slide powerpoint). it's really a question of imagination, isn't it?

where would stories and novels be if everyone only lived in the now? what would happen to imagination? for that matter, what IS happening to literature and imagination with all of us constantly being told we have to live in the now?

just from a standpoint of personal happiness, when i think of some of my happiest moments, they're often when i'm imagining the future...visualizing how the house will be, planning the next project, sketching out next year's garden...looking ahead gives me loads of energy. being grounded in my surroundings brings me satisfaction, but it doesn't necessarily motivate me or energize me.

i suppose it's rather against the current to be questioning this whole mindfulness/now movement. but there you have it. maybe part of why the world is where it's at is because everyone's living for today and not looking towards tomorrow. or working on imagining a better one. perhaps living in the now isn't really all it's cracked up to be...

following and connecting

it seems that there are more and more ways of connecting with other people via one's beloved apple product and the miracle that is the internet. twitter, facebook, flickr, blogs, tumblr, but now also pinterest and instagram.  and now even etsy has this circles thing where you can see what those in your circle fave (it was about time on that one). but i have to say it all gets a bit muddy and confused. who am i following where? if people call themselves something different on one social media than on another, can i find them?

there are some sites that attempt to consolidate (hootsuite), but i find it clunky and it doesn't make me want to forget about going to the real site (like flickr stackr does on the iPad - i could never go to flickr again and be perfectly happy - at least for browsing - or tweetdeck, which is way better than the real interface for twitter). plus, hootsuite doesn't let me add everything i'd like to - like pinterest, tumblr, instagram, flickr. it really only consolidates twitter and facebook and linked-in and i'm not that interested in consolidating those. tho' there is a tiny overlap of audiences on those three, largely, i consider them different audiences and i don't want to broadcast the same status updates or photos on all three.

i've never really been that comfortable with the term followers - it has a messianic tone that i'm not that keen on. it also can (in the case of blogger after one is named blog of note) place an undue (and perhaps artificial and only in one's own head) pressure to lead. and to be honest, i'm blogging mostly for the sake of my sanity (tho' i do love that there are people reading and commenting on it, don't get me wrong), so i don't always want to have to post cheery, motivational, leaderly things. i'm mostly thinking out loud here.

i think we are moving towards the one set of followers world because more and more sites let you log in using your gmail or twitter or facebook account. i like that, because then i don't have to remember oodles of different log-ins and passwords. that said, it also feels a little bit like the borg are taking over and it's only a matter of time before we're assimilated into the giant hive mind that is the internet. that whole notion of assimilation grows increasingly touchy here in denmark what with our new "integration" minister wanting us all to assimilate (but that's the stuff of another post).

and what affect does all of this opportunity to social network have on the blogging world? i read recently a pessimistic piece on the future of the blog. it had actually appeared in the new york times, so it must be true, right? and i would say that i think the blogosphere has changed since i began blogging in earnest in 2008. a lot of the blogs that i followed back then are now dormant. a lot of the circle i interacted with has drifted away (thankfully not all of it) and i have drifted as well. i read less blogs and comment less, possibly because i'm busy browsing tumblr, which doesn't prompt comments in the same way, or pinning pretty things on pinterest. maybe my bloggy social circle has moved to flickr. and i'm getting the interaction i once got through blogging over there.

or maybe because blogs feels a bit more commercial and like they're trying to capture the attention of those who might award fabric lines or book contracts and less real, nitty gritty and personal these days. and on some instinctive level, i'm turned off by that. i think there is a place for commercial interests in blogging - i guess i love blogs where people share their handmade work and encourage you to visit their etsy shop - because i think there's still something honest and good about that kind of individual creative interest. but there's an awful lot of showing off going on out there.

however, i'm beginning to ramble and this is just the beginning of some thoughts on this whole thing that i've had tumbling in my head for awhile.

and if you want to find me any of the aforementioned places, just look for julochka. i'll probably be drooling over beautiful things on pinterest.

personal trend tracking via flickr faves

i detected the other day while going through my flickr faves, a little obsession with garlands and things garland-y. clicking on the pic above will take you to my photostream where you can find the links to the good folks behind these beauties.

and here's the one i made with a bit of bamboo yarn and some leftover squares from my tanya whelan dolce quilt (which reminds me, i should be working on the binding for that).

oh, and i also discovered that i have a thing about thread:

the last four pics in the mosaic above are my own, so i won't post them separately. have you looked at your flickr faves lately? i'll betcha anything there's a theme (or themes). one more from me, plain spoken quilts:

from whence trends?

i've been observing my creative patterns this week. i don't know if it's the energy coming from relief of resolution regarding my job or if i'm just getting more in tune, but increasingly, i notice fully-formed pictures of things i'd like to make appearing in my head. i rush to scribble them down in a notebook that i've devoted to just that. and then, strangely enough, i actually go ahead and make them. very interesting how that works. it actually seems like the more i make, the more ideas i have to make more things. why didn't someone tell me this sooner? (we'll leave aside that my computer time has been limited by troubles with our antique (2004) router this week.)

and in my eternal quest for inspiration, i stumbled across an interesting list on a south african website by trend forecaster li edelkoort. i learned about it on the wonderful beatnik bazaar blog, which i've been stalking because i think that thaya has created a shop that has a lot of the elements (antiques, works by local artists, handmade things) i'd like in my eventual little gård butik.

some of the trends which li edelkoort picks (she's of course, talking summer, as we enter the darkest part of winter, which in and of itself is refreshing) are interesting and from what i see around the blogosphere, spot-on. and of course, it has me pondering where trends come from. is there simply something in the air? do we pick up on it and find ourselves drawn to museums (like my weekly wednesdays at the henie onstad art center) because there's something painterly in the air? or watching miami ink because scribbles abound? and why am i suddenly mad for embroidery? and obsessed with topographies? (i have had a thing about maps for awhile - as the blog campers who have seen the ceiling in my hallway can attest - and that's been covered in maps for 8 years, so it's not exactly new.) and doesn't it seem like collage is everywhere? in ads, in magazines, in museums.

here are my favorites of li edelkoort's trends...all collages from the link above.

embroidery

collage

handcrafted

paintings

maps

scribblings

another trend that i didn't see there, but which i've noticed of late is that of high end designers in low-end stores. the recent rush on jimmy choo's at H&M is a case in point. also a case in point that the H&M in oslo was full of them last week, no lines, no wristbands, no appointed shopping times. so apparently there is a difference in cultural response to these things. is it just financial crisis driving cheaper versions of designer brands into the hands of the masses? where do trends come from? and who is driving them?

what trends have you seen of late?

trendspotting

seen over the past week:

crisis? what crisis?

(window of a shoe shop)

you have to love a shop called 1000 chairs (molly, i mean  you)

and i'm especially intrigued by the little murakami-esque horns on the shelf in the back

lamps are colorful at the moment

i think people want to bring something cheery into their homes

in the face of all the gloom & doom

this was the le klint shop

this colorful chandelier was in jackpot clothing.

love the mix of old and new.

there's a definite retro thing going on

check out those hairdryers.

this from the window of illum, the posh dept. store

also from the window of illum

what strikes me is that it's all new

but it looks really vintage

esprit is keeping it traditional

and more horns and furry skins at pilgrim

in the copenhagen airport

LOVE the empty black frames against the black wall.

what trends have you spotted of late?

lifestyle editors need a lifestyle adjustment

"to be hip or not to be hip," that is the question. actually, the question is more, "should one be hip in a time of worldwide economic crisis and if so, how?" but that doesn't roll off the tongue in the same way.

it seems to me as i page through my sunday newspapers that the people writing the lifestyle magazines that come with those every sunday are lagging a bit behind. perhaps this is because they plan those magazines months ahead and although they are meant to be the trend-spotters, they were apparently WAY off and didn't see the crisis coming. or maybe they're kept in some isolated room, far from the rest of the editorial staff and they have no access to the actual news of the day.

case in point:

a photo and description of a louis vuitton caviar case. yes, you read that correctly, a little square designer, hand-sewn bag in which to carry your caviar and all its accoutrements (this could easily have been a WTF wednesday posting) (oddly, i cannot find the case in question on the LV website, so no link, just this shot of my newspaper). that seems a little lavish in these tough economic times, doesn't it? and it reminds me of when i once saw a chanel water bottle holder to take the gym in neiman marcus in phoenix. but that was in the mid-90s, when times were good. and yes, i restrained from buying it, mostly because i thought the gold signature chanel chain would get too hot around my neck to carry it out rollerblading in the arizona heat. but, i digress...

there is also a big feature on high end designer lamps. we're talking a 6-page feature article on lamps that start at $1,200. i really do wonder if these lifestyle people have access to the rest of the newspaper at all? do they realize that people's home values are plummeting and they can scarcely afford to buy food for their families, let alone spend their entire grocery budget and then some on a lamp that doesn't even really light up the room, but just looks pretty.  i wonder who they think their audience is?

in the influence section, right next to the LV caviar case, they redeem themselves a bit with a little blurb about some hip young danish students who have a fashion blog, where they talk about dressing like you just stepped off the runway even tho' you're on a student budget. that seems pretty hip to the times.

to be fair, there is also a very cool article on street art, which seems a bit more like it. what better activity for the economically-challenged than to wander around with a camera, looking for interesting bits of art here and there on the streets and then being enterprising enough to make it into a calendar? (i wish they had links up on berlingske's website, but it seems the people who post that stuff aren't working on a sunday. grr. so again, we must make do with a shot of my newspaper.)

i don't know about you, but i'd like to see a lifestyle section in the newspaper that reflected the reality of people's lives today. perhaps they're attempting to offer an escapism to make us all forget about falling currency values (in europe anyway, the dollar is mysteriously rising), the loss of our friværdi in our homes (that's the difference between what you owe and what it's worth--when it's positive--equity, that's the word i was looking for) and the fact that countries and companies the size of countries are going bankrupt if they don't get bailed out. frankly, that's not what i want. i'd like to read more articles about how recycling is chic and how to repurpose last year's little black dress so that it's cool this year too. i'd like to know posh ways to use obscure and cheaper cuts of meat. handicrafts are hot, why aren't there more articles about that kind of thing? i think these lifestyle editors need to stop eating posh, designer hotdogs with porcini relish (that was mentioned today too) and get out into the real world and see what's happening.

* * *

p.s. i understand new york magazine has tips for people like me who are suffering from election withdrawal.

p.p.s. there's a very fun list of 37 things president bush should regret, since he recently said that he only had two regrets from his presidency. i think i could come up with about 100 more...

iPhone is the new black

gadgets and technology are the new snobbery.  according to a hilarious column by David Brooks from 08.08.08, what matters today is the buzz for the latest gadget or social networking site, where you download your music and what fancy new wireless headphones you have (he mentioned some finnish ones, but i don't know those). by the time things are in with the masses, you, to retain elite status, should have already moved on to the next obscure new wonder. 

MySpace is out, Facebook is in. Gmail is where you should get your mail, definitely not AOL and hotmail is soooo over. Plaxo is beginning to surpass LinkedIn, but although i joined, i'm unwilling to really move over there yet. Apparently there's a new site for music--Pitchfork, tho' i'm still using Limewire. the coolness that is Nintendo DS is kicking the Sony PSP's patootie, as is the Wii vs. PS3. i can see that Wordpress is gaining on Typepad, tho' i'll admit i'm quite content here on blogger.

one simply must have an iPhone (preferably the new 3G, since the first gen is so over) and at least one iPod. Apple has definitely been on the forefront of this new rule of design as a mark of snobbery and Brooks says that June 29, 2007, the date of the release of the first iPhone was the shift--that's the day that "the means of transmission replaced the content of culture as the center of historical excitement and as the marker of social status."

in myself, i can see that it even goes down to the level of what little bag to put your gadget in...it must be a crumpler, but a golla (that's finnish) is also hottie, anything else (including the belkin that i have for my Touch) is distinctly nottie.

i have bose earbuds and never use those white ones that came with my iPod, tho' i can see that those white earbuds are themselves a mark of hipness because i've seen people using them who don't actually HAVE an iPod. but, of course, i fancy myself as far too cool for that. because part of this whole phenomenon as Brooks describes it is that you have to not only be "an early adopter, but an early discarder." i will definitely not be discarding my iPhone or my many iPods anytime soon and for now, i'm staying on LinkedIn.

p.s.  don't you love that fabric under my iPhone & crumpler? it's called "jarrinha" and it's by globaltex.i'm using it for curtains.