From Sam’s Club:
toilet paper
Kleenex
juice
chocolates
vitamins
To Adams:
Sushi grade Tuna
Belgian endive
frisee
fresh shiitake
caviar, osetra
There is no cultural dichotomy here, is there?
Author: 459856pwpadmin
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Grocery Shopping
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Post-Katrina
I think the tragedy on the Gulf is in the back of all of our minds. I alternate between being concerned for all those directly affected and cannot imagine what it would be like to face the possibility of having lost everything, and being angry at the inefficiency. callousness, and general lack of concern that have caused the situation. Yes it is true that we cannot control hurricanes. But so much of what has happened in New Orleans was predicted and even expected and yet nothing has been done. This was not even esoteric information: It has been in papers, journals, even on TV, and in that sense we all have to take the blame on some level. Somehow that is even more discomforting. How much easier it is to blame the politicians or bureaucrats. How much easier still to blame Mother Nature.
How do we balance our desires and greed (houses on the beach, ports, business, money-making, etc) with the consequences of our actions? We seem much better at putting the consequences off for another day and then when the day of reckoning comes, blaming it on someone else.
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The reaction I see most however, locally at least, is anger at the price of gas. It is not that gas was cheap before, but the sudden rise has brought out the worst in many. Everyone is talking about it. Most people are angry. Many are downright rude. Frustration is understandable. Bad behavior is not. The situation is really out of our control.
Yes there is profiteering. Yes the gas station owners respond to demand, have to pay for the next load of gas at whatever price it will be, and yes deliveries have been interrupted. It is going to be hard. The disruption of oil and gas production and delivery will affect absolutely everything. Worldwide production was already barely keeping up with demand. There is no place to make up the difference. Gas prices will have to go up and demand will have to be reduced. Even the release of the reserves will not mean immediate relief at the pumps, the US stockpiles crude oil. Half of the refineries in the country are in the affected gulf states.
There are no easy solutions.
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Fall Coats
There has been some talk on SewingWorld about coats, specifically this one:
Photo courtesy of style.com . The coat is by Armani and I admit I am very tempted by it as well. I love the style and it may indeed morph into something in my fall wardrobe. Truth be told, if the nice young man from Bergdorf Goodman had sent me this coat to try instead of a bunch of black suits, all beautiful but none of which interested me, he might have even gotten a sale. Luckily for my pocketbook, it did not work out that way.Here is a detail shot of the collar, photo courtesy of www.elle.com :
If I make something inspired by this it will probably not be red and will not be exactly like this coat, even though I love red coats. Perhaps I just want my own take on the coat, perhaps it is too strong of a signature look from Armani this season, and although I have knocked off designer looks, and I spend too much time in fashionable parts of New York, to want to look like I have a copy of THE coat.
Anyway, this coat strongly reminds me of a coat from the Valentino Spring Couture Collection (photo is taken from the Hola Magazine Spring Haute Couture Edition):
Obviously this collar is less dramatic but still much the same idea. Here is a detail photo (from www.style.com ):
While I am on the subject of coats There are two others that are haunting my thoughts this year. One is vaguely similar, this one from Luisa Beccaria (photo courtesy of Colleziona Donna):
And in a totally different vein, this one from Alviero Martini (also courtesy of Collezioni Donna):
I actually don’t think I would copy this coat very closely, but I like the idea of the leather panels on the lower part of the coat and I envision a nice plush wool coat, perhaps more fitted with a fuller skirt, with leather panels. This idea still needs a good bit of time to percolate through my brain before we see what comes out of it, but this coat may eventually lead to something.
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20 years ago I would have not believed that I would ever be interested in hardware stores. I would grudgingly go off with my then soon-to-be husband and mope about while he looked around. I was interested in many other things, sewing, (I hadn’t started knitting yet), cooking, reading quite a bit and so forth, but I did not want to use hammers or build things or fix things. I left that all up to the man in the house.
Well things have changed. As the DH gets older he does less around the place. Truthfully he was never interested in building things the way I want them to be, "too much bother" he would tell me. And so I reluctantly came to accept that I would have to do some things myself. That list has grown, as DH finds things more and more confusing, and I never wanted to be the main handiperson around the house, but well life rarely considers wishes when doling out our obligations.
As I get better at using hammers and drills and saws, I am getting more and more intrigued by the hardware store. It is such a fascinating place. How could I have missed this before?
The local hardware store is going out of business. The owner wants to retire, no one wants the store, there is a local lumberyard and home center 10 miles away and the big box stores take a lot of business too, although truthfully the quality of the hardware at Home Depot and Loewe’s does not always compare. Such is the future though.
We joined the throngs at the GoingOutOfBusiness sale:
I got a new drill, a 1/2" hammer drill, which I think will prove very useful over time. Now it has been a godsend drilling screws through my landscape timbers, what would take 15 minutes of hard straining work with my old 3/8" drill, through stacks of cedar 4x4S now goes quickly and easily. It is still hard on the back, drilling and stabilizing down hear the ground, but I get so much more done in the same amount of time and back strain.
Happiness is having the right power tool for the job.
Who would have thought I would ever end up saying something like that?
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Frustration/Organization
The cool weather has me dreaming of fall and the changing of closets even though true fall is a ways away yet. The crisp has rekindled my energy and am back to tackling projects with gusto and already dreaming of more.
The first demon that has emerged is the organizing demon, an old friend of mine, sometimes even my alter-ego. I love to organize things and I can get quite manic about it – sometimes much to the despair of my family. Still, whenever things get out of hand, I know that if I can just get a little more organized I can have everything under control.
Actually, as sometimes happens, organize demon, was brought out by
frustration at finding a pattern. Now, I look organized about patterns
but this is really just a front: Every time I buy a pattern, the
critical information is put in a notebook. When I was young, I traced
these onto onionskin paper and kept them in a filofax.I still have that book. More recently, as more technology has become a part of my life, I scan the photos and make a page for the filofax on the computer.
I haven’t yet gotten a useful way to get these all on my palm, although they can reside on my portable computer. I still find it easier to flip through the book than search through the palm at least in this case, because I am not looking for a particular item usually, I want to look at pictures and see what catches my fancy.The problem is finding the actual pattern once I have decided which one I am looking for. Last year I started putting patterns I have actually used in file jackets and storing them in file cabinets. I always intended to use this method for all the patterns but, well I get busy with other projects and it hasn’t happened yet. The patterns I haven’t used, or that I haven’t used in the past 3 years or so, are stored willy nilly in pattern boxes and file drawers and shelves, and in stacks here and there, wherever they will fit. There is no system. They are just put into whatever the box or stack du jour might be. Therefore finding a pattern can be a challenge.
Yesterday I wanted a pattern. I wanted a pattern I bought recently. I washed fabric to use with this pattern. It was not on the most recent pattern stack. Hysteria mounted. My inner two-year-old was released and I dumped all my patterns out on the floor. Did this help me find the pattern? No. Did this help me feel better? Immensely.
I decided that, until I get the real system together, I needed a better way. So I sorted all the patterns into piles by type of pattern such as skirt, dress, jacket, ensemble etc. and I put them back in boxes according to these new categories. Now, when I want a skirt pattern I can look through skirts. The new blouse pattern turned up by the way, somehow it had squirreled itself away in a box of Vogue designer patterns from the early 90s. I have no idea how it got there.
Here is a picture of the floor as I was near the end of the sorting processes:
Notice that a couple of pieces of fabric and some yarn jumped in to join the fun; they didn’t want to be left out. -
This little piece of rock and clay
The first flower bed is progressing, better than I hoped, and yet sometimes more difficult. Challenges are there to be surmounted however and progress continues:
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True Confessions
Perhaps I should just confess that this is really a fabric acquisition blog masquerading as a sewing blog.
Here I am looking at all the fabric I haven’t sewed this spring and summer, and what do I do? I BUY MORE FABRIC. Perhaps it is just frustration because I am not sewing. I could be sewing, but I am doing other things such as digging in the garden. When I come I am too tired to stand at the cutting table and cut anything out. Well, that is probably just an excuse. I am just too tired and lazy period. However, have chair, computer, and mouse and the world of fabric shopping awaits; it is much easier to buy the fabric and dream of sewing it than actually make something.
Actually, the most recent fabric purchase was prompted by the dreaded (at least by my husband), drumroll here, swatch in the mail. Of course when I checked the mail and saw the thick package from Michael’s Fabrics, I could hardly contain myself. I checked the mail thoroughly but quickly, saw that there were no pink slips, normally cause for sadness as it means “shucks no packages”, and with glee slipped out the door, thankful that I did not have to stand in line but could escape promptly to the sanctity of my car. As soon as the door was closed and I could pretend that I was in my own little bubble world, I ripped that envelope open and started fondling fabric – gorgeous fabric. I am unrepentant.
Isn’t she lovely??I considered going right home to call Michael immediately. However, I let my responsible side take over and I ran my errands first. I needed to go the Home Depot to get more spikes and bolts for the garden bed I am building as all construction has halted until the right materials are procured. Once in Home Depot of course, I was temporarily distracted from fabric. Who ever knew bolts and screws and metal and all that STUFF could be so fascinating? Still I knew my brain was slightly addled when I started looking at a display of wires and cables wondering what kind of FABRICS they would make if I knitted them up. I was especially taken by some thin stainless steel cable….
I managed to wrench myself away from the cables, get through the checkout line, and rush home and call Michael. The fabric, or at least a piece of it, is mine, all mine. I have no idea what it will become. I think I can waste a lot of time dreaming of the possibilities.
On the other hand, I had better not dream about it too much tonight as I have hours of office accounting ahead of me. I spent the afternoon in the yard with the drill bolting landscape timbers together and now I must spend the evening working and earning my paycheck so that I can conintue dreaming of fabrics.
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Akris is selling some tailored jackets,simple in style, shoulder princess with inseam pockets on the front. The jackets are lined but the edges of the jacket are entirely finished by serging outer fabric and facing together.
I can’t decide if I would actually do this, I might, the finish is light and kind of modern. But I am undecided. I am convinced I would not pay $3800.00 for this jacket though.
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Bard Weekend 2 — Copeland
As usual, I am too overwhelmed by Bard Music to keep up with everything. I obviously have a long road before I get up to journal-keeping-par.
Saturday is already fading from my mind, of course it was fading before it began as I was very tired that day and was not impressed with the offerings. Whether that is a statement on the quality of the program or the depth of my exhaustion, I haven’t a clue.
Mike Seeger was interesting and enjoyable but by the end of the hour it was all sounding a little monotonous to me. Peggy Seeger was a little too cute and folksy and I would have appreciated an intermission between after the first hour. On the other hand the fact that there was none was probably good as I might have left.
The afternoon concert was more interesting. The high points were Walter Piston’s "Three Pieces, for flute, clarinet, and bassoon" and Stravinsky’s "Suite from L’Histoire du Soldat". The Irving Fine and Eliot Carter woodwind quintets were marred only by the performance, which I found to be rather pedestrian, surprising since Marc Goldberg and Randolph Bowman are both such excellent musicians who seemed to work well in other groups. Perhaps I was too tired, I cannot put my finger on the exact problem, but the Bard Woodwind Quintet did not seem to work well as a group.
The evening program did less for me. For the most part I could have skipped the entire first part of the concert. I enjoyed Samuel Barber’s “First Essay, Op 12" but otherwise thought the rest of the program was a waste of time. George liked the Chavez though.
The second half of the concert more than made up for the first however. In an all-Copeland program, the orchestra played, Statements, Quiet City, and Billy the Kid. All three were excellent.
This morning I was mentally more awake, and if I had not been, the absolutely wonderfully stimulating and charming panel discussion by contemporary composers would have woken me up completely.
The afternoon program was wonderful:
Lukas Foss Capriccio, for cello and piano (1948) beautiful
Arthur Berger Duo, for cello and piano (1951) a little boring but well played
Benjamin Britten Folk Song Arrangemenets, "The British Isles" neither George nor I liked the tenor, Philippe Castagner but the songs were nice.
Ned Rorem Echo’s Songs, Stopping by woods on a Snowy Evening same as above
David Del Tredici I Hear an Army (1964) Awesome, specatuclar, beautifully sung. Frightening.
John Cage and Lou Harrison Double Music (1941) What a great piece, really cool.
Pierre Boulez Flute Sonatine (1946) Outstanding performance of a difficult piece. Unfortunately Boulez leaves me cold every time.
Aaron Copland Piano Quartet lovely, well done.The evening concert was also a rousing success and great conclusion to the festival. Botstein played the original version of Copland’s Third Symphony and it seemed perfect to me. I am not familiar enough with the work to remember the fourth movement without the 10 bars that have been eliminated. I think it must be a shame. Too much is never enough, after all.
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Bard Program 6
No chance of recovering my thoughts on Bard Weekend one. I have notes but my thoughts are lost forever. Music, lectures and bed pretty much summed up my weekend.
Weekend 2 has begun and Friday night’s concert was wonderful. The concert opened with Copland’s El Salon Mexico, as scored for two pianos by Leonard Bernstein, played by Richard Wilson who is a good pianist, and Blanca Uribe who is an excellent pianist. Wonderful, wonderful work.
The remainder of the first half of the concert did not do as much for me, the performances were excellent for the most part, the works less than inspiring. The content is already sliding into oblivion.
The intermission served as a much needed stretching-break and wake-up-call for the second half, which was spectacular and well worth waiting for.
Mario Davidovsky’s Syunchronisms #9 was wonderful and fascinating even if the computer generated portion was a tape and therefore dictated the pace of the concert — George’s main objection. Something always dictates the pace;, in a purely human concert it might vary more, but the interaction of man and machine generated music is still fascinating and the work was melodic, complex and interesting. This was a tour de force and Curtis Macomber was spectacular.
He was followed by more spectacular playing by Blanca Uribe, who performed the Danzas Argentinas by Ginastera. The audience was on its feet.
Villa-Lobos string quartet #17 was incredibly beautiful and the closing Ginastera songs were wonderfully performed by Lauren Skuce, whom we heard last year at Shostakovich, and who still strikes me as excellent, although her facial expressions somehow seem to be not in concert with the music she is singing some of the time.
Odd thing to notice.
