Validation is very important, but you have to remember to consider the sources. Not every one is going to do it, even if you are Jesus Christ. Even if you built the Taj Mahal today would everyone validate your choices and your accomplishment. It’s important to choose wisely the people from whom you can feel this sense of personal accomplishment. There is nothing better that a close acquaintance, a life long friend, colleagues whom your respect, a community of shared interests who can recognize and praise that which you do, whatever your art maybe. Its is important to feel validated from people, but its more important to recognize the source of those who really matter. This is a unique decision, to pick the people or audience you want to impress, to choose who matters to you and your ego. The world is never going to tell you whose opinion is the best. It’s all up to you.
Category: culture
More Money, More Monotone
Making the world a better place means making it more interesting. The problem with being obsessed with money mean that it keeps people boring. Those people with money on the mind do not care about you, your thoughts, your dreams, ideas, personality, art, nothing unless there are dollar signs behind it. This mentality is dry, drier than my apartment in the winter. Drier that a stale piece of bread. This mindset is uninspiring, lacking imagination, monotone in its perception. You want to make a difference? Change people’s lives? Do something fun. Add more art to society. Do things for love. Appreciated beauty for the something that goes beyond sex. Foster excitement. Smile more and stress less.
Growing Young
Nobody questions the importance of embracing the imagination of children, promoting their fictitious games, bringing out the silliness in their perception, playing make believe and dress up, reading stories filled with cartoon characters, coloring outside the lines with mismatched colors. Somewhere, though, when that innocence of childhood is shrugged off, when you learn that life is serious and not a fairytale daydream, when you realize that life hurts, that pain can last, that disappointment is a daily task, we lose the grip of the whimsical, we forgot about imagination, we don’t believe in magic anymore. Maturing and dealing with this circus named reality is very important in not collapsing under the stress, in not giving into defeat. We need this foundation to function, but this is the base layer.
After you grow up, you have to grow back down. You have to grow back into imagination, into not taking everything at face value, at challenging the world around in a creative way, to bring art into every corner. Not just because it is fun, but because it is inspiring. If you cannot imagine it, that something will never happen. Not all dreams come true, but they certainly will not materialize unless you have the mind power to form them. Playing, drawing, giggling, creating your own fairytale is important. Don’t let bills and heartbreak scare you away from the whimsical, don’t let the cold world freeze your playful thoughts, don’t let the negative weight of psychology dampen that free spirit. It’s in there, so let your imagination spring, let your daydreams wander, let your doodles fill up blank pages of computer paper.
Cool, Creamy, and Charred
Tres Leeches de Coco. A coconut lime cake soaked with 3 coconut milks, pistachio crunch, charred tequila pineapple, blood orange purée, toasted flake.
It’s about representing winter, and focusing on the wonders of natural ingredients. It’s about representing the elemental forces in a dish, it’s about highlighting the flavors and textures of the season. It’s about capturing the essence of fire and exploring everything that the coconut has to offer.
The cool and creamy coconut milk mimics the fresh snow both visually and texturally, the pistachio cookie mimics the crunching of the frozen snow underfoot, the charred pineapple is reminiscent of the flame produced by fire, reconnecting the consumer with the power of this primal tool.
The coconut is represented in all ways: the fresh grated flesh forms the base of the cake, the coconut milk is soaked throughout, the lightly toasted desiccated flake adds another texture and reminds the eater of warmth. This is paired with a blood orange purée, a slightly bitter flavor that rounds out the sweet, the char, the toast, and the nut.
Together this creates a harmony, a refreshing taste after the hot and obnoxious summer. This dish highlights the integrity of a few ingredients with minimal processing. Nature steals the show with this dessert.
January 1
Starting off the new year with that classic resolution stuff, the inclination to make myself a better person and a happier girl. I want to feel good about myself, I don’t want to get caught up in my own hang ups about wanting to be more, wanting to be different, making goals and not reaching them. I don’t want to keep thinking about self improvement, I want it to actually happen. I don’t want to hide from what scares me through a mask of food or alcohol abuse. I don’t want to do things out of boredom. I want to find inspiration in the ordinary, I want to find happiness on my own terms.
Like always, to ring in the new year, for the first month I am treating myself properly by following the right diet. You are what you eat, I preach it all the time, and it is time to follow my own advice. Eating properly is the first and most important step for self respect. This means eating nutritionally dense food that has minimal processing. Respecting the vegetable, avoiding the sugar.
It is not a diet, it is pressing the reset button, rebooting my appetite, focusing on putting my health before fun, reestablishing a system of rewards that is not based on cookies and bourbon, but based instead on inner happiness and finding peace with reality.
A Blazing New Year
The hustle before the storm, getting ready to party out all the bad decisions of the year before the great January purge. Dance it out, shake yourself clean, shuffle off regret. Take a deep breathe to relax your stressed out spirit, for tomorrow is more than a new day, it symbolizes a whole new start. Bubble your way in a new direction, sparkle your soul, glitter your spirit, confetti your smile. Most importantly, find the music in your fingers, the beat in your toes, the rhythm in your perception.
Changing Lanes
With the advent of Amazon Now and Google Express- hyper convenient delivery services that are not only speedy but also inexpensive, catering to the whimsical and short attention spam masses, is this new culture of instant reception going to lend to an increase in other sorts of delivery service options? Is this going to spill back over into the arena of the bike messengers, the cowboys of the city roads battling the automotive clogged lanes? Is this increase in the demand for instant delivery going to add more two-wheeled and petal powered machines to the mix? Personalized delivery is absurd because of how much behind the scene costs are required in getting that precious package to you. Cars, gas, insurance, and parking are all expensive. A dude on a bike, way less of a down payment. I hope to see more crusaders of cycle on the scene, filling in the gap of convenience driven culture.
Neutral Territory
We think that water is tasteless, but what are we really missing? To us humans, who are comprised on average 60% water by weight, who as infants we cry into this world at an astounding 73% water, we do not view this life giving substance as a flavor, a smell, a taste. Water is completely neutral, there is nothing to love or hate about this potable substance. It is ground zero basic. So neutral that we don’t have any adjectives to describes how this substance interacts with our tongues. Water is only described as a feeling- wet, damp, hot, cold, lukewarm. We also don’t perceive water a having a color, to us it is clear. But how limited are we because we are bias?
But consider the fact that water does have a taste and an odor. Maybe it is strong and we just don’t know it because of how ordinary and necessary it is to life. It makes you think about what we are missing and what you take for granted. It’s in front of us everyday but how much thought have you ever put into this seemingly tasteless form of life giving nectar? Maybe water is sweet, who knows.
When the Weather is So Frightful
The power of the winter storm never ceases to make me feel so powerless and tiny, so at the mercy of the precipitous air, heavy with hardened balls of fury, pelting down like the sally tears of angry gods, leaving behind ponds full of slush, so thick that it can only collect everywhere, into pools of liquid snow. There is no puddle jumping on this sort of day, there is no avoiding the giant rivers of slush that mimic the Arctic’s landscape. Your feet will be soaked, your socks will be ice cube trays for your numbed toes, your boots will need to be dried for days atop the heat vent. You would pause to look for signs of aquatic life in the river city that you now traverse, except that the blinding wind refuses you to even glance at the outside world. The jacket is shut up like a jail cell, the scarf has become a ninja mask, your eyes are brimming with tears while you walk backwards, having your broad shoulders fight the front lines. You could have stayed home, but this frightful storm wanted to fight.
Gifting and Expectation
I am scrooge and I do not like Christmas. It’s not like I don’t like giving and making presents, it is one of the last joys as an adult, to reconnect with childhood and really think about the person you are aiming at. But it gets hard when you want to show your love through a gift but you can’t, you don’t know how to personify through an object, or you don’t have the time, or your packages get stolen, you have the best intentions but life gets in the way. There is a lot of pressure to make someone feel as special as they are. This is why I don’t like Christmas, the personal feelings of not being good enough at this American holiday. I try so hard to remember what this is supposed to be about, about family and appreciating your friends and realizing how everyone enriches your life. It has gotten so backwards that you have giver’s guilt, that you manifest present regret. Why have I sucked everything good about this holiday and made it about myself? It’s hard when you want to express your love, but you don’t have the right material possessions to do that. I am trying to make this holiday about what it should be, not about a fat man’s generosity. Peace and love my friends, and may your heart be satisfied with what you can attribute to this world with your warm fingertips, tight hugs, and diamond eyes.
marigolds forever 