by Christina Waters | Aug 23, 2010 | Home |
A plea to cable TV talk hosts! Just stop it!
I have had to assume for the past year that the incessant updates on CNN and FOX news about the lifestyle status of Lindsay Lohan is purely comic relief. After all what with a tanking economy, horrific Mexican mafia revelations, Afghani human rights abuses, our government’s interminable vacations, and the BP oil disaster, there is much we need to escape. But Lindsay Lohan? A non-talent nobody with a drug problem? Please! It’s no longer high irony to track this poor human being’s wasted efforts at getting her father’s attention via drugs, pornographic photo shoots, public weeping and rapid reversals of hair color.
Enough. Just stop it!
And while you’re at it, CNN, FOX, People Magazine, et al., please stop returning the phone calls, text messages and emails of Jennifer Aniston’s publicist. No one cares about the surgically-altered former Mrs. Pitt. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Aug 18, 2010 | Food, Home |
The place was Fort Mason.
The day was perfect — a blend of fog and brilliant sunlight playing tag with the Golden Gate bridge in the distance.
The excuse was the American Craft Council design show and a chance to learn some tricks of the trade from my designer buddy Kate.
After feasting on handmade jewelry and textiles from the top artisans in the country, we cooled our heels (along with throngs of visitors) at Greens, where I’m happy to say both food and service at the legendary restaurant have never been better.
We started with a shared plate of warm grilled Blossom Bluff Farm peaches, shown here with Bellwether fromage blanc, (more…)
by Christina Waters | Aug 18, 2010 | Food, Home |
UC Santa Cruz offers a Fall Gardening Workshop on Saturday, August 28, from 10am until 1pm.
Planting a late-summer garden is a great way to save money on your fall and winter grocery bills, so come get some tips on growing a great fall and winter vegetable garden. Join gardener Trish Hildinger for a lecture/demo on “Planting the Thanksgiving Feast†at the UC Santa Cruz Farm on Saturday, August 28 from 10 am to 1 pm.
Included in the workshop will be information on vegetables that perform well in the Monterey Bay region, direct seeding and transplanting techniques, and soil preparation for fall planting.
Cost of the workshop is $15 for members of the Friends of the UCSC Farm and Garden, and $20 for the general public, (more…)
by Christina Waters | Aug 18, 2010 | Home, Wine |
From Loma Prieta Winery comes a statuesque red wine made from rarely-encountered Pinotage grapes, grown in the Sierra foothills.
The locally-made Pinotage — a varietal usually associated with South Africa and produced in only a handful of North American vineyards—is an opulent tipple indeed, offering enough tannic structure to handle its profusion of cassis, ripe plum, black pepper and sassafras. We loved this wine with bolognese and Italian sausage, but on second thought this out-sized wine cries out for steak.
Wine consultant Laura Ness sums it up as, “Pinot Noir on steroids.” This is a good thing.
Exotic and accessible, the Loma Prieta Pinotage 2008 is available at the mountaintop winery, and at Vinocruz ($45).
by Christina Waters | Aug 18, 2010 | Art, Home |
A recent graduate of UCLA’s renowned MFA program, Ian Pines continues to explore the wickedly inventive color work and lavishly gestural oil paintings he began while still an art major at UCSC. Here’s a sample of Pines’ highly original abstract style, played out in large-scale (e.g. 6 x 8 foot) canvases, and a brief interview with the Los Angeles-based artist.
Q: Ian—your abstract paintings remind me of Philip Guston by way of Willem de Kooning. Are you aware of any particular influences in your style?
A: That’s quite the apt observation. Like de Kooning, there are bombastic color choices forcefully yet thoughtfully laid on top of each other to make homely, sad, and whimsical forms similar to Guston’s.
Francis Bacon’s witty horror, stylized violence, and macabre non-sequiturs have always been my favorite. The immediacy of his work is something I strive for. I compare my work with the COBRA movement’s (based in Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam which included such artists as Karel Appel and Asger Jorn) uses of abstract expressionism in the construction of figurative forms. I am also influenced by Carroll Dunham’s work, especially of the 1990s, which places teeth and genitalia on abstract forms in order to dramatically and instantaneously anthropomorphize them. Eyes and teeth added to my compositions significantly help unify my paintings and give them a more contemporary twist.
Q: How did your MFA work at UCLA help you develop your creative instincts?
A: UCLA nurtured my creativity by channeling it into a certain rhythm (more…)
