Snowy Crossroads on a Tuesday

I was in the Crossroads on Tuesday for a haircut at Skyline. While I should have had a great photo of the skyline of downtown KC from this spot just outside the old Firestone building, instead I had a view of blowing snow, as we got another inch of fluffy snow overnight on Tuesday.

Zhang Hongtu

Thinking about this Zhang Hongtu image for my seminar that addresses hybridity in contemporary art. Zhang Hongtu was born in China, but moved to the U.S. in the 1980s. His work typically combines styles from China and Europe, as in his 1999 painting Zhao Mengfu-Monet (pictured below) which appropriates the composition of the famous Yuan dynasty Zhao Mengfu painting Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains in the style of French Impressionist Claude Monet. I really love his work, and I'd be curious to know what others think about this type of hybridity in art. Opinions?

Biscuits and Gravy

Homemade Organic Buttermilk Biscuits and Veggie Mushroom Gravy to start out a busy Sunday of museum-going, work, writing, errands, reading, and Super Bowl watching. Go Packers!

Diapers

It occurred to me on Saturday that we haven't bought diapers in 2011. Thanks to my friend Abby and her business Itsy Bitsy Bums we have been using cloth diapers for the last few weeks. We wanted to use cloth before the baby was born, but due to the crazy moving around the world that we did in the first few months of little man's life, we didn't feel that it was possible for us. Since December though, we've been using cloth, and it is so fantastic that I can't imagine returning to disposables. Cloth feels cleaner for our household (no nasty trash), for the environment, and for the baby's health. Even though we used chlorine free Seventh Generation disposables, studies show that disposable diapers can harm the fertility of baby boys in the long term, and while I trust Seventh Generation for household cleaners and laundry detergents, there is no way to create a disposable diaper without using some chemicals. Laundering the diapers is far easier than I imagined, and with the designs of cloth diapers now they are just as convenient as disposables- no pins or folding, just a snap and some velcro. Plus the diapers adjust to grow with baby, so the set of three daytime shells, nine daytime inserts and two sets of overnights can be used until we start toilet training, which saves us tons of money and saves piles of diapers from sitting in a landfill. We are complete converts to cloth, and I hope that more people will try it out, it is one of the greatest switches that we've made!

February First Friday

February fourth was a cold and snowy First Friday, but a good one, particularly at H & R Block Artspace and Cocoon, where this photo was taken. The gallery was showing Jodi Lightner (reflected in the photo), and also had students from the KCAI Printmaking Department selling their work to raise money for a trip to the Southern Graphics Council annual meeting. We purchased a four prints for only $22, and were able to help out some aspiring art students. A win-win situation.

(Mis)representation

Lately I've been thinking about how people use social networking and online media to represent or misrepresent themselves. A friend of mine posted an article to Facebook that discussed how the site (and other social networking sites) make people less happy. We see what friends post, which is usually a cheery or upbeat view of their lives, and assume that they have it better than we do. By contrast I am also fascinated with those who are constantly using social networking sites to complain about their lives or to whine about their perceived circumstances. Do we really need someone to tell us that the online world isn't an accurate representation of reality? Do people really believe that what doesn't get posted to Facebook doesn't happen? A week ago Thursday I had an interesting work day, interacted with many people, had lunch with friends, had drinks with other friends, hung out with family, made dinner, read about the news in the paper (though online) among other things, yet all of this was personally experienced. The photo of my cat that I'm posting is certainly not a realistic representation of that Thursday, but it represents a part of my day. How quickly we forget about the complexities of life...

Lunar New Year Feast

On Wednesday evening we shared a fantastic Lunar New Year dinner at Bo Ling's with my family, who have been so amazing in helping us to take care of a sick kiddo for the last week. Our feast of Veggie Spring Rolls, Sichuan Green Beans, Veggie Fried Rice, Cantonese Noodles, and Orange Shrimp, as well as an outstanding Plum Wine and some tasty deserts was a nice celebration at the end of a long week and a half of illness and blizzards. Thanks for all the help, guys!

Snowpocalypse

Tuesday brought blizzard conditions and about a foot of snow to Kansas City. Because KU closed campus, I was able to stay close to home and get some work done at a local coffee shop, but because of the crazy blowing snow, even the cafes and restaurants closed early. I took this photo leaving One More Cup at noon, when about 5-6 inches had fallen. It wasn't too bad to walk through, but driving seemed rather difficult as the plow crews had a hard time keeping up with the windy conditions. The state went so far as to close Interstate 70 across Missouri for the afternoon and overnight, and Joe was sent home from work early. A dramatic start to February!

Icccceeeeee

Monday was filled with rumor of the impending snow storm and lots of sliding on the layer of ice that coated the area throughout Sunday night and all day Monday. Despite having to drive in the ice, seeing lots of car accidents, and slipping as I walked around, it was quite beautiful to spot this pine tree with a coating of ice.

Read me!

I should have posted this a week ago, but below is a screen shot of my latest publication, a review of the Alicia Kelly and Andrew Huffman show at Invisible Hand Gallery (which you can read online here) in Review Magazine. Yay!

The local brew

Not too far from our house is the fantastic 75th Street Brewery, where we shared dinner with family on Saturday evening, as well as a relaxing late evening beverage. How fortunate we are to live in a place that is walkable and that values local food and beverage to corporate establishments.

Lunar New Year

The Year of the Rabbit doesn't actually begin until February 3, but on Friday we went to the evening celebration at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art to see the various performances and exhibits, such as the fantastic Lion Dance pictured below. We also hit up the opening of Pattern ID at the Kemper, so it was a busy arty evening in Midtown KC.

Fraser Hall

Walking through campus on a chilly Thursday, the view of Fraser Hall.

Commute by bus

Wednesday's schedule allowed me the better option- commuting by bus. The K-10 bus is definitely not as convenient as public transportation in other cities or countries, but it saves me a lot of gas money and a lot of drive time. Also, the bus has free wifi, allowing passengers time to work rather than just sit and stare at the road.

Commute by car

Tuesday's schedule left me commuting by car across the snowy sunny landscape of eastern Kansas.

Tea

Loose leaf rose-scented green tea to soothe my sore throat on a Monday.

Brew Tour

On Sunday we took the Boulevard Brewery Tour with a group of ten friends. An amazing time was had by all.

Grocery Shopping

I know that many people think that grocery shopping is a mundane chore, but it is one of my favorite routine tasks. I had a fantastic history professor in undergrad, the late Dr. Marvin Rosen, who referred to the modern grocery store as the Museum of Food. Dr. Rosen, in his engaging and entertaining lectures on European history and Marxism, would crack jokes and jump around the room, creating a memorable narrative of 16th century England, among other topics. In one of his lectures on the development of early capitalist systems, he commented on how amazing it is that we can cruise the aisles of the grocery store and pick up everything from tumeric to quinoa, coconut to couscous, all relatively affordable to the middle classes- the Museum of Food. For me, a trip to Whole Foods and our local Indian market on a Saturday is definitely a reminder of the amazing system of global capitalism (for better or worse), and how crazy it is that I can create a menu for the week that includes Indian Spiced Seitan, made with such exotic spices as tumeric, mustard seeds, and cumin, while not so long ago people kept sugar in locked cabinets and trading spices was a driving force in many regional economies.

Waitin' for the bus...

...on a cold and gray Friday, but the view of the KU Natural History Museum is nice.

Snow day

As over seven inches of snow fell from late Wednesday into early Thursday the road conditions weren't very good by Thursday's commute, so I took a snow day. Despite the fact that it snows here every year, the Kansas City-Lawrence area isn't very prepared for snow removal and it can take a day or two for driving conditions to be decent. It was nice to work from home and gaze out at the snow covered world, including the shadows from the trees on the white front yard.

Winter

On a cold and snowy day like last Wednesday, our cats fight for the prime spot on the kitchen floor in front of the heat vent, taking turns at warming themselves up.

Sick day

Not much to say for Tuesday.

Representation

As I'm getting into the swing of the daily photo posts, I realize that the true essence of each day can not always be captured in a photo. Monday is a great example of this. If I were to select a single mental image of the day it would be going to Waldo Pizza with our dear friend Beth and her daughter, yet I don't have a digital photo of this because first, I was in the moment, not thinking about the daily photo challenge and second, because I don't like to post photos of other people's kiddos to the internet. So, I'll go with my first mental image of Monday, the curtains that I made late on Sunday. I love the crisp design of this fabric, and was so happy when I got the last of the bolt at the fabric store.

Plaza Lights

Sunday left us feeling the need for some fresh air, and as not everyone in the neighborhood has shoveled their sidewalks with enough clearance for a stroller, we headed down to the Plaza to cruise the streets and gaze at the window displays. For those not familiar with Kansas City, the Plaza was built in the 1920s as the nation's first planned shopping district, an outdoor mall of sorts, that takes up an area about four by five blocks and has all varieties of chain and local shops, restaurants, and theaters built in a Spanish architectural style. We had thought that the shops would be open until 6 or 7 so we could pop in from time to time to warm up, but found that most of the stores close at 5 on Sunday. This meant that our walk was a bit shorter than we had originally intended, but it was still nice to be outside in the city. Sunday was also the last day for the Plaza holiday lights, which are quite lovely.

Plastic

Two things on Saturday had me thinking about plastic.

First off, we bought new bowls for the baby. The selection was gendered- blue and green dinosaurs and cars or pink and purple butterflies and flowers. Joe joked about the connection between the dinosaur and the car, that the dino is what makes the fossil-fuel consuming car possible. Ugh. Sadly, the bowls are also part of this unsustainable chain, but hopefully they will be used and re-used enough to make their non-breakable nature worth the environmental impact.

The other incident was at the grocery store where a young girl was helping her dad select some carrots. She went to put the veggies in their cart and he loudly told her she needed to use a plastic bag, making eye contact with me, rolling his eyes and laughing. I told her, no you don't need a bag and smiled at the girls good environmental instincts. The dad then laughed again saying he would use one anyway, which disgusted me enough that I looked him in the eye and sharply stated, no need to waste is there?

Come ON people. It's bad enough that I see more than half the shoppers at the store without reuseable shopping bags. Why do you need a plastic bag for your carrots?!? First off, any germs that the carrot will encounter in your cart, at checkout, or in your grocery bag are miniscule compared to those that they encountered in the dirt, during the harvesting process, in shipping, and sitting in the produce section. Second, you will (or should) wash your vegetables upon use and with the carrot you will likely peel it. Do you really need to use up some non-renewable fossil fuels for this process? No, you don't. Please put a second of thought into your choices. I understand the use of veggie bags for greens as they are wet and easily tear in the cart, but there is no reason to waste a bag on other fruits or veggies. I was pleased to see though that his other daughter placed their cucumber in the cart sans bag. Perhaps there is some hope for the future.

City Hall

Official business took us to downtown KC on Friday. This image of Kansas City's City Hall is so Gotham-esque to me, particularly on an overcast and dark winter day. I love the 1930s style of the building and the Jackson County Courthouse, which sits just to the south. The area conjures up images of streetcars, martinis and men in hats, and generally a false nostalgia for a time when people didn't wear sweatpants in public.

Seven Days in the Art World

I finished reading Seven Days in the Art World on Thursday. While not groundbreaking, it provided a succinct introduction to the world of contemporary art and would make a nice read for someone with a casual curiosity in the subject, or for an introductory course. The book was divided into seven sections- The Auction, The Crit, The Fair, The Prize, The Magazine, The Studio Visit, and The Biennale. Thornton spins the book as an ethnography of the art world, and in this respect she introduces an interesting cast of characters and breaks down art systems in an organized, approachable fashion. A recommended reading for those with an interest or fascination with contemporary art.

Brrrr....

The cold continued on Wednesday so that by the time I took the dog for her evening walk it was about 5F (-15C). Even she didn't want to be out for very long. These are the nights meant for hot chocolate, a blanket and a good book.

Winter's Eve

The snow stopped late on Monday night and Tuesday was a clear and cold day, with temperatures hovering around 10F (-12C). While I love the crisp contrast of a sunny blue sky against the snow covered landscape, my favorite time of day in winter is sunset and sunrise, when the snow seems to reflect the deep blues and pinks of the atmosphere, and when the entire environment feels icy and everything has a pastel hue to it.

Sledding

Monday brought about six inches of snow to the Kansas City area, yay! Little man is too small to go sledding on the larger hills in the area, so we took him to a local park and dragged him around on the baby sled that my cousin gave us for the season. Pulling him up and down the small hills of the silent and snow covered Loose Park was not only fun for him, but a great workout for us (we took turns). He seemed to enjoy getting snow on his tongue and dragging his hands through the fluffy, powdery snow, and we enjoyed the time outside as well. Such a beautiful way to spend a Monday evening!

A little something to brighten the gray days of winter

It's been pretty drab here as of late, so I decided to brighten up the house on Sunday with some cut flowers from the supermarket, one of those little treats that makes life so much nicer.

Seitan

After an inspiring visit to Penzey's Spices on Saturday afternoon, we decided to make a batch of seitan on Saturday evening for use in meals throughout the week. Seitan is a vegetarian meat-substitute made of wheat gluten. Generally available at well-stocked supermarkets and health food stores it's far less expensive to make at home and works well as a dense and textured substitute for chicken or beef. After mixing the ingredients and kneading the dough, we boiled the seitan in cheesecloth for about an hour, during which it expands and solidifies (what you see below). We'll use it in a Cabbage Stir Fry and Thai Curry, probably with a bit left over for next week's menu.

Mark Farina

Friday night brought Mark Farina, one of our favorite djs, to the Czar Bar in Kansas City. For whatever reason, the promoters selected this space, which has a capacity of 125 people. Generally, MF plays at much larger venues, so it was a treat to see him in such an intimate space. The set was fantastic and the crowd was friendly, dancing until all hours of the night.

Art Library

Yesterday's photo could be the photo for a lot of my days- the art library.

Invisible Hand Gallery

Yesterday afternoon after running some errands, I dropped by the Invisible Hand Gallery in downtown Lawrence to see the Alicia Kelly/Andrew Huffman show "What the Hell was I thinking?" My favorite work was the Alicia Kelly installation pictured below. The show runs through January 22.

Yum.

A dragging Tuesday is saved by an Irish Cream Latte.

For the love of homemade

Today was one of those in and out busy days- appointments, errands, meetings and we didn't get home until about 8 p.m. I did have about an hour of free time this afternoon though, so I decided to make some homemade Parmesan-Rosemary Crackers to go with our quick weeknight meal of Squash and Sage Cream Sauce Pasta with a light salad. The pasta consisted of frozen squash (that we prepped back in September, but store bought would work too) that we heated in olive oil and simmered with garlic, dried sage and cream as we waited for the pasta to boil. Simple, organic, whole foods, but admittedly not our most healthful meal. The crackers, which are my new favorite homemade bread product, took all of half an hour to make, thanks to the Kitchen Aid and my Martha Stewart Baking book (shout out to my family for gifting me these things through the years!). This ties in to the NY Times recipes and article that I was perusing in the doctors office this morning about sustainable food and cooking at home. Most people claim that they don't have time to cook, but I was pleased that the article called people out and mentioned t.v. habits. I was astonished to read that the *average* American watches 35 hours of t.v. a week and that cooking at home is *decreasing*. First off, if I watch zero hours of t.v. a week, who is watching 70 to balance that out?!? Second, I hear so many people say that they don't have time to cook- um, how about you quit that full time job of t.v. watching? I know that many say that it's on in the background, or that they don't really watch that much, but the statistic just sits there. Thirty-five hours. Five hours a day. You could do a lot of cooking in 5 hours a day. I don't want to be preachy or judgmental (even though I kind of am), but just turning off that t.v. for an hour would do a world of good, and you could have cooked the meal that we had tonight. Plus, cooking at home is better for your health, for the environment,and for your pocketbook, not to mention your taste buds. Cracker, anyone?

Veggie Hoppin' John

It's a day late, but we made Vegetarian Hoppin' John for dinner tonight in the hopes that this traditional New Year's dish will bring us prosperity in 2011. Our version was quite spicy and filled with auspicious Black Eyed Peas, Tomatoes, Onion, Celery, Hot Peppers, Thyme, (non-traditional) Vegetarian Sausage, and Brown Rice. We served it with a side salad and a local Boulevard Wheat beer, but now that I've read that Collard Greens and Cornbread add more luck, I'll be sure to serve those next year. Happy New Year!

A year in photos

Many years ago I had the idea (as have many others) to take a photograph every day in order to commemorate 365 days in the life of me. I purchased a photo album and for the first few days of the year I took photographs that I thought represented that days activities, yet I found the act of uploading them to my computer and printing them out to be rather time consuming, and like so many resolutions I gave it up. Well, now that the world has gone digital, I'm trying again. I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions, so I'm just trying it as an experiment. If I miss posting for a few days, maybe I'll catch up, maybe I won't. I can't promise that this will always be interesting, or that there will be any kind of accompanying text, but perhaps that's what will make it a true record of me.

January 1st wasn't a very exciting day around here, but we did get a new coat of paint up in our bedroom, covering up the drab and dirty grey/beige that was there before. It's now dark grey with light grey trim and a deep plum accent wall.

Liberty Memorial

About a month ago my seminar went to the Liberty Memorial and WWI Museum in Kansas City. This was my third trip to the museum and memorial, but I'm always struck by the lovely view of Union Station from the memorial, as seen above. I apologize for the tiny photos, they are from my cell phone, but you get the idea.









We toured the exhibits of the Museum, housed underground beneath the Memorial, which is seen above. The interior of the original Memorial exhibit hall is below. The Liberty Memorial was built in the 1920s and the WWI Museum was opened within the past decade.












After Happy Hour at Pierpont's at Union Station we were able to catch the sunset from the top of the hill.

Green Juice

-
Generally we have a side salad with our dinner each night, but this week we had extra cucumbers from the CSA and needed to figure out what to do with our bounty of produce. Enter the juicer. We juiced half a cucumber, half a head of romaine lettuce, a handful of spinach, and two pears, and in about five minutes we had a beautiful, inexpensive, and tasty way to get a few servings of veggies in on a Saturday afternoon. The salad juice was smooth and had a nice balance of sweet from the pear and zip from the cucumber. Apparently our countrymen could use to learn a few lessons in eating veggies, as yesterday's paper reported that only one in four Americans eats three or more servings of vegetables a day. Eesh. My advice- buy a juicer, it's fast and so yummmmmmyyyyyy!

September Prairie

-
-
For the first time in my life I have a U.S. style commute. By this I mean by car and about 45 minutes each way. While I decidedly prefer public transportation (and really, given the option who wouldn't?) or my former ten minute commute by moped, I have been making due and trying to find the upsides of my situation. Perhaps the best part is that I don't have to drive through a crowded metro area, but rather I drive between a metro area and a small town, crossing an idyllic Midwestern landscape. At this time of year that means hundreds of thousands of sunflowers, farm fields turning from green to gold, and rolls of hay dotting fields of cattle. The above photo is from the Ernie Miller Nature Center, which I pass each day and which is fairly representative of the scenery through which I drive. Below is one of my favorite paintings from the Spencer Museum of Art, Near Sundown by Grant Wood, which I am reminded of each day that I cruise along K-10, listening to the news on NPR in the morning and music on my iPod in the afternoon, soaking up the prairie scenery.
-

Late summer veggies

-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
We got a wealth of pumpkins and squashes from our CSA a few weeks back. I didn't get a photo of the pile of beautiful veggies, but I did remember to get a photo as we were working to freeze them. We cut up the squash, blanched it in a few batches, and put it into huge freezer bags, so now we have a few pounds of squash ready to go for the fall season, some like the acorn pictured here, but most of it being Delicata. I'm thinking about Ricotta, Red Onion and Squash Pizza, Squash Ravioli, and Squash Rissotto....

Transitioning

After a near three month silence, I think I am ready to get back to the blogging.

The last time I posted we were in the midst of packing up our Yokohama apartment at the end of two wonderful years in Japan, and now I sit in Kansas, close to the point from which we departed for our journey. The readjustment period took longer than I expected and was surprisingly disorienting and emotional at times. In the two years that we were gone we had many adventures, traveled all over Asia, learned Japanese, made wonderful friends, had a baby, and generally enjoyed a fantastic time of life when we felt very free. After returning to Chicago and visiting with family for about a week we came down to the Kansas City-Lawrence area and in many ways it felt like nothing changed at all, our two year life-changing adventure was a dream.

In some ways it has been very comfortable and easy to be back. Daily interactions are in English. I understand how things work (like how to rent an apartment or purchase a car). It’s been wonderful to see family and friends and to be reunited with our dog and cats.

In other ways it has been an uncomfortable and difficult experience. We have to drive everywhere. The carts at the grocery store are disgustingly large, as are the products and the cars into which people load their commercial bounty. American politics makes my blood pressure rise. People are rude.

The past few months have had their ups and downs, and we have done a few really fun things. We saw fireworks on the Fourth of July. We went to a baseball game and watched the Kansas City Royals play the Oakland A’s. We went camping in the Flint Hills with the dog and the baby. We joined a CSA. The list goes on. After this long period of adjustment, I finally feel like I am wholly back. I miss Japan dearly, and I look forward to going back, but for now it feels good to be fully in one place.

I hope that in the next few months I can find some time to post now and again, either about daily life, the experience of working on a PhD in Art History, cooking, travels in the U.S., or just general thoughts.

May the next chapter of the adventure begin.