25 August 2009   (0)

If you enjoyed Micheal Pollan’s NYT article “Out of the Kitchen, On to the couch” I linked to last week, here are two other follow-up articles worth a read: 1) Micheal Ruhlman takes a hit at Pollan’s essay, mostly agreeing with him, though despising and retorting to opinions and arguments from Pollan’s food-marketing researcher Harry Balzer, he basically thinks we’re somehow going back in the kitchen more than ever; 2) An 11,000+ word New Yorker article on Julia Child dated December 1974. I admit I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, it’ll have to wait for the weekend, with a coffee on a terrace. But that’s why I use Instapaper

18 August 2009   (0)

Micheal Pollan for the NYT: Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch. If you’re interested at all in contemporary food and television culture, this is well worth a read.

Pollan’s essay overviews the decline of everyday cooking in today’s kitchens. He tackles the question by asking why we, [north] americans, are spending more time watching others cook than cooking ourselves. Like everything around it, cooking has changed from the time Julia was on screen to today’s celebrity chefs kitchen stadiums and unfortunately, cooking shows—or food shows as he retitles them—are not teaching or even inciting us how to cook anymore. The average amount of time one spends in the kitchen making food has dropped to 27 minutes daily, less than half the length of a show on the Food network.

The paradox is explored further and the “decline and fall of everyday home cooking” isn’t evidently solely based on the metamorphosis of television cooking shows. But like many other cultural artifacts, television shows are a good indicator of what’s happening in front of the screens.

 

31 July 2009   (0)

Umair Haque’s Generation M manifesto is dead on. It starts out with:

Dear Old People Who Run the World,
My generation would like to break up with you.

The ideological differences are so blatant, its no wonder so many well-established institutions with their 20th century mentality are struggling to keep afloat. With great power comes great responsibilities, they should be the ones leading the way.

 

26 December 2008   (0)

The NYT lists the english buzzwords of 2008. From “Recessionista” (a person who stays fashionable during an economic downturn without spending a lot of money) to Jack Black’s Kungfu Panda‘s kiai “Skadoosh”. Good typographic/illustrations. 

19 December 2008   (0)

NYTimes’s Year in Ideas. A is for Automated Anesthesia, B is for Bubble Wrap That Never Ends, C is for Carbon Penance, etc… not people, not products, not events, not news—just ideas and concepts only. 

23 June 2008   (0)

Photographical remix, weirdest of them all: Man Babies. Ça ferait des belles cartes de fête des pères. 

4 February 2008   (0)

Ce n’est pas parce que tu n’es plus à l‘école que tu peux laisser ton hamster engraisser et si tu n’as jamais suivi de cours de design, ça fera un excellent début: The History of Visual Communications “will walk you through the long and diverse history of a particular aspect of human endeavour: The translation of ideas, stories and concepts that are largely textual and/or word based into a visual format, i.e. visual communication.” On parle de tout: des roches aux ordis, de l’alphabet égyptien à Helvetica. Et c’est illustré de superbes exemples. 

11 December 2007   (1)

#72 is a colorless Colors issue devoted to blindness. Best of all, they have released audio readings of the articles. With some imaginatively gorgeous descriptions: sour apples are silver, the sounds shadows in the wind… 

22 October 2007   (0)

What the F***? Great article on why we curse. The biological unconscious reactions is quite a revelation. Et une étude sociologique est netemment nécessaire afin d’expliquer la particularités des sacres québécois a être toujours beaucoup plus reliés à la religion que chez nos cousins français. 

11 October 2007   (0)

Youtube: The 2007 Hipster Olympics. So ironic. 

16 July 2007   (0)

If you ever need clear, emergency graphic instructions as to ditch the rigidness of the corporate office life and live like our indigenous ancestors of yesteryears, well, here they are

22 June 2007   (0)

Future Perfect: Contemporary culture blog. 

13 June 2007   (0)

Pingmag: New Rave Fashion Trend. Sexy, colorful fluokids, love it. 

5 February 2007   (5)

Sandra Hassan, Québécoise de Chicoutimi né d’une mère catholique et d’un père mulsulman, écrit à Patrick Lagacé. (Lagacé à interviewé M. Hussan, professeur à l’UQAC, la semaine dernière.) “Il est temps de trouver le juste milieu. Les québécois ont déserté les églises dans les années 60-70 et ont de la difficulté à se définir du point de vue de la religion. Il faut se poser des questions en tant que société. C’est pas parce qu’il y a des «étranges» qu’on doit exiger qu’ils renoncent à tout, à ce qu’ils sont, à ce qu’ils croient. Ce n’est pas non plus une raison pour que les québécois renient ce qu’ils sont fondamentalement. Les arbres de Noël doivent continuer à illuminer les nuits froides de décembre. À Pâques, il faut continuer à fêter la résurrection du Christ. Il faut cependant s’ouvrir suffisamment l’esprit pour ne pas exiger que tous adhèrent à ces croyances (l’attitude des années 60-70). L’accommodement raisonnable exige une part de «raisonnabilité», d’acceptation de l’autre.” À lire. 

31 January 2007   (0)
31 January 2007   (0)

Broken Link. “On blank walls and white posters awaiting advertisements, Niko and Andrea cleverly co-opt the space by placing stickers of the “broken link” icon that appears on a web page when when the image is missing.” Clever.  

26 January 2007   (0)

The Real Story of Super-Heroes. “SUPERMAN: Noe Reyes from the State of Puebla Works as fast-food delivery boy in Brooklyn. Sends home $500 per week.”  

22 January 2007   (0)

Japanese Love Hotels. Swanky stuff.