Let's go!

Untitled by honeyuck

A flood of endorphins rain, rain down on me...

Someplace with a Mountain

I just watched a film on sea water rising, ironically only a few days after the tsunami. The film made me cry & cry & cry & cry.


Lauren McKeon, To the stars through difficulties, 2011
(Luggage Store Gallery: BULLET TRAIN LA/SF Round Tripp show, 3/12 to 4/16/2011)



This film was part of the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival. The atoll islands of Poluwat are not far South from my home islands of Guam & the Northern Marianas. Back home, I've already seen the waters rise, and beaches washed over. One of Guam's smaller surfing beaches is now underwater in less than 7 years. They've even installed a pier. This rapid change is very, very scary.

During director Steve Goodall's Q&A, he confessed he was distraught over the fate of the Poluwat islanders, as he has heard no word from them since the tsunami disasters. I wholeheartedly pray they survived it.

A quote from one of the island leaders, "We ask if you can include us in your plans for the future."

For more information on this movie, which will view on PBS btw, please check out the website: www.someplacewithamountain.org. They are in need of helping hands...

Louis Vuitton FW 2011

I am not a fan of the monogrammed LV bag, or any sort of all-over monogramming whatsoever. However, the fanatacism for the LV bag was the jump-off inspiration for the Fall Winter 2011 Louis Vuitton collection. I like Marc Jacobs's prim, almost cartoony, take on vice, fetish and the perfect ratio of sock-to-thigh.

Note all model exits with their hands behind their backs, or wrists together are actually wearing jeweled handcuffs. That, along with the shoes --especially the laced & latex boots-- are my favorite accessories here.













Photos: Gianni Pucci/GoRunway.com via Vogue.com

How do I get here?

Sigmar Polke, Untitled (Lens Painting), 2008
(via PERFECTION OF PERPLEXION)

Haider Ackermann FW 2011

A midnight proposal... Find me in the rainfall by the balm of my night-blooming call.





www.haiderackermann.be

3.1 Phillip Lim FW 2011

I haven't blogged about fashion in a while, but since watching the 2011 FW New York season --coupled with a long overdue creative streak-- my interest in sharing my style thoughts have resurfaced.

I've never paid much attention to designer Phillip Lim, but his recent collection really knocked my socks off. I'm in this performance sportswear meets vintage knits meets menswear phase, and Lim's FW 2011 collection kind of touched on many of these notes, but in a different way. The fact that I'm trying to acquire a bike again this year, and the designer stating this collection was inspired by such women-on-bikes, I'm all the more charmed.






This is a good example of my vintage knits/menswear/performance sportswear mixing. Not that it is exactly that, but the feeling is there. Hard and soft redefined.


I absolutely love how the baseball t-shirt is re-interpreted.




This color-mixing turns me on.




I'm obsessed with this look: the model's slicked back just-got-out-of-the-shower hair, roomy green shirt-dress simply accessorized with a fleshy leather shoe. I love these shoes! There's something about that 80's style high-cut vamp that is very sexy to me --revealing more with less.



The sleeve detailing on this dress is both gorgeous and dangerous-looking --kind of armor-like even. Note the very cool french-manicured nails with navy tipping over natural. I'll have to try this on my next trip to the nail salon.



All photos: Marcio Madeira/firstVIEW via Vogue.com

Feel it all around

Artist: Washed Out

Been having serious thoughts of mortality lately ---but without fear. Maybe with affection even.

Feel better soup

I keep hearing a rumor some nasty cold has been making its rounds. Sure enough, as soon as that rumor hit my ears, I woke up this morning in sneezy/cold mode. Ugh! I've decided to devote my day to copious amounts of green tea, and soup. I had a daikon radish in my fridge, which I usually use for miso soup, but honestly, I'm starting to tire of the taste of miso. I wanted something more "clear" tasting, if you know what I mean. Less salty with more of the essence of the daikon.

One of my favorite YT cooking channels is Maangchi. She's been my go-to for many Korean dishes, and I had a feeling she'd have something posted in the realm of daikon radish and soup. Sure enough, she did. I checked out her video (shown below), as a jump off point in making my own version (pictured above). I often include ground turmeric in my dishes, for their proposed health benefits, and decided to add it to my soup, in the hopes of boosting its healing power.

Note: With the exception of the black salt, all ingredients can be found at your local Asian grocer, or a market with an Asian section. The black salt can be found at grocers carrying Indian ingredients.

Feel Better Daikon Radish Soup
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup green tea
- 1 1/2 cups daikon radish, cut into equivalent of large dice or triangle wedge slices
- 2 thumb-size rectangles of dried kombu kelp, cut into thin strips
- 1/4 wedge of onion, chopped
- 3 Tbs. fish sauce, or to taste
- 5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
- 6 oz. turkey (I used leftover roast turkey, but you can use any kind of protein you like, or shiitake mushrooms.)
- 1 Tbs. ground turmeric
- salt to taste (I used black salt, or kala namak, since it's very "mineraly" in flavor, and not as harsh as regular table salt)
- 2 Tbs. dried wakame seaweed
- 1 1/2 stalks of scallion, chopped
- Squeeze of lemon (optional)

Add the chopped daikon radish and kombu strips to the water & green tea. Bring to a boil, then immediately lower heat to a simmer. When the radish starts to look clear around the edges, but still white in their centers, add the chopped onions. Simmer till radish just becomes translucent.

Add fish sauce, minced garlic, protein (in my case, the turkey), ground turmeric, and salt to taste. Note: you do not want this to be a salty soup, so please go easy on the salt flavor. You should be able to eat this straight, without rice.

When the soup heats up to a gentle simmer again, add the dried wakame seaweed & chopped scallion, and cook for about 2-4 minutes till the seaweed expands. Serve immediately, topped with a squeeze of lemon.

Here's Maangchi's episode on her beef & radish soup. Cucumber kimchee is a bonus!