Archive for the "light" Category

milkweed, cider, and dancing at the Camden Farmers’ Market

As part of the faculty for the PopTech Social Innovation Fellows program (they are an incredible group) that is brought together before the PopTech conference, I am staying a little above Camden, Maine, near Lincolnville Beach.

Lincolnville Beach near Camden, Maine

In the morning, it is quiet around our wooded cabins and quiet on the beach.

Lincolnville Beach near Camden, Maine

Yesterday I drove to the Camden Farmers’ Market, noticing the paint wearing away on the road, and smiling as I approached the murmur that always accompanies local food vendors setting up;

America on the road

next week marks the penultimate market for the season, and wonderful local goods were on offer—I almost hugged this seller for obvious reasons (I am a calcium fiend), and the milk itself is the yellowish color and thickness of fresh cream.

Raw Milk sign at Camden Farmers' Market

My friend and colleague Keryn arrived and introduced me to the smell of Sweet Jenny,

sweet Jenny at the Camden Farmers' Market

and in her wonderfully energetic way, began to talk warmly about the dedicated sellers and local festivals—all reasons I’d like to be in Camden more often.

Keryn

At Peacemeal Farm, I bought tiny brussel sprouts and listened while locals

Peacemeal Farm at Camden Farmers' Market

debated which type of potato was the right choice for specific fish,

potatoes at Camden Farmers' Market

near jugs of cider,

apple cider at Camden Farmers' Market

papery bouquets,

jack o'lantern bouquet at Camden Farmers' Market

bouquet at Camden Farmers' Market

and tables selling vegetables and wool.

transaction at Camden Farmers' Market

wool at the Camden Farmers' Market

Impossible to pick one of the many colored scarves,

Keryn with the scarves

soon dancing began, the music competing with a wandering flutist.

Camden Farmers' Market

music of Camden, Maine at the market

waiting for the dancing to begin at the Camden Farmers' Market

I was more interested in the charcuterie, considering this soppressata and deciding to try the salami with orange peel,

soppressata at Camden Farmers' Market

as reaching into the cooler with the beautiful bacon, after making the seller laugh that I had eaten a pig ear sandwich once (he was selling them to feed to dogs).

beautiful, beautiful bacon at the Camden Farmers' Market

On the way out, there were baskets perfect for filling with market produce,

baskets at the Camden Farmers' Market

and dried arrangements with milkweed,

milkweed at the Camden Farmers' Market

hard squash and soft pumpkins,

little pumpkin

and lovely mushrooms still joined in the large mass they grow in on trees.

chicken of the woods mushrooms (I bought these)

Out of the pastries at Atlantic Baking Company,

pastries at Atlantic Baking Company at Camden Farmers' Market

I picked a swirl that held apples and spices in its crispy layers, and spreading it with local raw butter,

pastries at Atlantic Baking Company at Camden Farmers' Market

sipping that beautiful raw milk, I headed back to sit and listen to the waves…

mosaics and music, food and the cloud

In my last post, I included video, slides, and the rough transcript from my presentation last weekend in Linz, Austria for Ars Electronica as part of the Cloud Intelligence Symposium.

In curating the symposium, David Sasaki also created “An Outsider’s Guide to Linz.” This post is an extension of his excellent guide with video and a heavy emphasis on food. (You can also find places David marked in Dopplr’s Social Atlas for Linz with geocoordinates.)

My Linz trip began with a burger in Cafe Walker that David didn’t mention would arrive with hidden corn kernels,

and later that night, through the drizzle as I walked out of the Haufplatz (the main square), I spotted my friend Seth Hunter.

Joining him and his fellow MIT artist Noah, we were off to fetch their bags from their installations, then to Italian restaurant Bigoli in nearby OK Platz (order the gnocchi), where Seth taught us how to make origami butterflies and we talked about the food of the future:

Back in the Haufplatz, young dancers in white unitards tucked glow sticks into their hair,

and then the lights went off, darkening the entire square, the better to see the glowing dancers move glowing balls to the other side of the street.

Friday morning, the market bustled in the same square (so much speck!),

and I bought a superlative cream-filled pastry with a hidden meringue layer,

amazing pastry from the market (there's a hidden meringue layer in the front, this is a vanilla cream)

thinking about food photography as I prepped for my talk (video) at the Ars Electronica: Cloud Intelligence Symposium the following day.

me taking a picture of the magic pastry

While the rain continued, I went to see the Ars exhibits for inspiration. A few of my favorites (also see my friend Ethan’s favorites):

a typewriter of images:

open sailing, a project about a floating community that models sustainability,

an LED abacus,

a skeeball marimba installation,

Arthur Ganson’s piece with scraps of paper winging their way,

and my very favorite, the geotextile mesh “Hylozoic Grove” by Philip Beesley,

that sensitively moved as you entered its translucent, shimmering space, brushing against branches.

Later that night, artists shrinkwrapped themselves as part of the Ars Gala,

People shrinkwrapping themselves at #ars09

and David toasted to the following “arscloud” symposium in classic style,

I had a wonderful tagliatelle at Cafe Lentos (highly recommend) with local chanterelles soaked in butter with steak and crunchy bits of sea salt, while Ethan had a Sicilian pasta with a large sardine,

and outside, the Ars Center pulsed with light patterns into the night.

In the clear morning, I could see rooftops and the Danube sparkling,

rooftops in Linz

ars center (look how it's situated near the hills)

before I meandered around the organic grocery to find yogurt and granola to fly through last-minute revisions;

yoghurt with granola from denns grocery in Linz

as part of the day’s proceedings at Ars on cloud intelligence, we asked all the “arscloud” symposium participants to hack their lunch (using fancy fast food as a model), and the winner made a CloudWurst (he explains):

After a full day, I opened my window to watch people mingle next to the river,

linz during ars09 ars electronica

happy and tired from a long day of thinking about clouds and intelligence with this smart group,

I felt exhilarated after the symposium

and I stopped by a few sweets vendors on the way to group dinner,

purchasing a tangy yogurt cream pastry,

cream horn of yogurt filling

before traditional Austrian food (I had a black seafood risotto) at Alte Welt,

and then fireworks

and fire works (listen for Juliana’s take on this particular pile of flames).

The next morning, I wandered Linz, peering through open doorframes,

doorframe

and admiring the fineness of the pale architecture (that almost has an icy tone to it, heavy on the glass),

architecture in linz

watching those walking,

walking

under crosses,

linz

and past buildings with glittering, embedded religious mosaics,

building with a mosaic

on my way to the park,

dahlia in a linz park

in the garten

flowers in a linz park

and the buildings beyond,

architecture in linz (reid, took this for you)

and the girl on the bike glared at me

On my way back, I found door handles shaped like pretzels,

pretzel door handles in linz

more traditional Austrian for lunch,

austrian lunch here

austria menu linz

and traditional dress to complete the lesson.

traditional Austria dress, I think

Before a trip up the mountain for dinner, I had gelato with David (hear what he discovers his favorite flavor is),

then it was time to meet gnomes,

unironic gnome

follow them on signs,

sure, let's follow this sign, good idea

to this restaurant,

posllingberg

where we all liked the pumpkin seed cheese best,

fresh cheese for the bread (pumpkin seed oil, herbs, plain)

until the first course at the castle arrived,

consuming all our attention until (at least for me), this table sat down,

and there was birthday fire.

The next morning held pastries with Ethan and David,

brandl croissant

very complicated pastry (in taste and in look)

this last is David’s favorite, and he felt it would power a longer morning run in the Austrian hills with Teddy of Project Diaspora (a former Ugandan Olympic hopeful in the decathlon),

David's favorite that guarantees a strong run later in the day

and asking slightly less of other pastry, I purchased the Brandl Bakery version of the famous Linzer torte for the office, heading off to discover shaggy pastel marshmallows,

shaggy pastel marshmallows

glistening jellies,

jellies in Linz

and an exhibition of recovered mosaic pieces from places of worship,

that included twinkling ships.

From the mosaiced currents, I opted for a fish sandwich a few doors down,

salmon sandwich from Nordsee on very good seed bread

and wandering further, like a siren song, organ chords drew me into an old cathedral,

entrace to organ concert

where I watched sunlight fill more and more of the pews as an unseen organist played on into the afternoon, sounds I carried with me back to Brooklyn…

directional sounds

I’m starting with the men and women in the mirrors; at the Brooklyn Flea this afternoon, my good friend Laura (who is in town for a few days, we always have adventures) and I ventured toward new treasures and reflective objects.

wall of mirrors (and doors) at the Flea

Fresh from a walk through a rollicking street fair in Carroll Gardens where the entire band accompanied the drummer on air bongos (this is what you might call the “Rock Band Effect”),

the whole band tapped the air bongos with the drummer

we walked through the DUMBO Farmers’ Market toward the Flea,

walking to Brooklyn Flea

which is, as advertised, held under the Brooklyn Bridge.

truly, under the Brooklyn Bridge

and met up with my friend Eudie from high school, who I ran into the other day in Park Slope.

It’s so nice to meet up with people years later and discover they are even more fabulous now than they were then.

Eulia and Laura at the Brooklyn Flea

As the lobster roll line snaked around most of the vendor stalls (next time!), we opted to try raw chocolate ice cream on dry ice (you can choose between cashew and coconut bases) and wander the flea.

raw chocolate ice cream "cunningly absent of sugar and dairy"

Before leaving, we found sparkly slippers to keep easing on down the road (that Laura and I began Saturday night at a midnight showing of “The Wiz” at BAM punctuated with wild applause for MJ as the sweet Scarecrow)…

shiny slippers at Brooklyn Flea

And before that screening, I admired the emerald trees as I walked through Prospect Park to the Farmers’ Market at Grand Army Plaza on Saturday morning,

berry in the trees in Prospect Park

charmed by the flowering lemon thyme

lemon thyme

and sage.

sage

Heading out with my friend Matt (a fellow member of the Park Slope Food Coop), we admired the glass seltzer bottles in Ronny’s Seltzer truck (a Brooklyn delivery tradition),

Ronny's Seltzer truck

empty seltzer bottles in Ronny's Seltzer truck

before hopping the ferry to Governors Island to see the PLOT09 art exhibition,

ferry to Governors Island

where everyone seemed pulled toward giant chimes,

the chimes

westy B chime

that we could still hear faintly as we opened apple chips from the market and sipped strawberry cider (actually very good) along with “Womanchego” cheese.

apple chips in the grass

I looked up at the trees,

leaves, sun, etc.

and listened to the sounds of families playing games, this little girl toying with a bike.

she's fixing the bicycle

Old-fashioned music awaited near a reception for the PLOT09 opening,

musician at Governors Island

musician at Governors Island

and children were similarly smiling and happy on a beautiful wooden play structure (I like the exposed dowel ends below) and the nearby miniature golf course on another part of the island.

beautiful wood on this structure (like that we can see the ends of the dowels)

"figment donation" by the miniature golf course

miniature golf on Governors Island

My favorite piece in the show was Edgar Arceneaux’s installation (Edgar is one of the Knight Pulse/GOOD L.A. Community Leaders tapped a few months back) of a machine that transmitted eerie sounds at low frequencies from a closet in one of the old houses with flaking drywall that ring the island.

Edgar's piece at Plot09 on Governors Island made this house eerie with sounds at low frequencies

For many years, Edgar has been working on the Watts House Project (”a collaborative artwork in the shape of neighborhood redevelopment”), and so it was especially appropriate for him to suggest disquiet in such a way that could be reversed, or at least removed at the end of the exhibit.

Is it the sounds without and within that bring comfort in a house, that ease the mind? I listen to my new Brooklyn neighbors laughing, steel drums, and the thum-thum of the train as I fall asleep lately…

miami rain is a drama queen

insisting you notice her even as she sweeps grandly away, trailing drops across leaves,

rain drops in the sun

that bend in the sun, recovering from her fierce appearance,

raindrop bokeh

and like filmmakers that race to shoot while streets are wet,

I am learning to wait in readiness, part of the Nature Paparazzi corps,

sweating

to catch her exit and the dazzling scene she leaves in her wake—

rain drops and web strands

b is for bokeh

Why are there so very many spider webs on kthread?

This is how my day begins—with morning webs draped across cacti like necklaces tossed off by flappers, the many strands tangled after a night’s revelry (certainly explains the dew),

spider web

or hovering like white noise,

spider web

catching stray new light as though a cornet,

spider blur

and often working from underneath, the spiders tool coded strands,

spider web

attentive only to the attached lines, while I am easily distracted by the circular and hexagonal bokeh that imprint the air like softened measures from celestas…

spider web edge