Filed under: art, life, myself | Tags: eggplant parmesan, louise bourgeouise, rummage sales
My mom sent me a recipe for eggplant parmesan derived from the one at the William Sonoma website. I had been extolling the virtues of the vegetables at the farmer’s market and about how good the eggplant looked. Her reaction: “Well, you’ll love this.” It’s eggplant, cheese, tomatoes, a bit of garlic, and lots of olive oil. It’s quite good. It does take some time… and you’re using the oven and boiling down tomatoes while it’s hot out side. I think it’s worth it.
eggplant by Pat Jordan on Zooomr
In other news, this month’s ARTNews magazine reviewed a Louise Bourgeois exhibition in New York (I need to live there to have easy access to these things). This reminded me that about two weeks ago I went to a garage sale that was housed inside a basketball court. Over the top of the metal cages there was a giant blue tarp. The man running the show with the long beard and ragged old wallet full of bills called it “The Danger Zone.” This man also said he was a national-caliber Scrabble competitor. Inside the Danger Zone there were tables covered with old dusty junk with price tags, mirrors, and books. Wooden chairs hung from the cage’s walls and from poles in the center. It bore striking resemblance to Louise Bourgeois’s Passage Dangereux (see below) which simply translates to “Dangerous Passage.” A weird coincidence with the name (somewhat), but I guess there’s the possibility that it’s intentional.
Louis Bourgeois is a wonderful artist. She’s in her late nineties and still as sharp and as productive as ever. She was a surrealist associated with Léger and now she has become personally renowned for her sculpture and installation works.
Louise Bourgeois, Passage Dangereux, 1997. Taken from the book Themes in Contemporary Art by Gill Perry and Paul Wood
I would have considered myself a nerd in high school. I knew how to program. I owned (and still have) the Star Trek encyclopedia, and I loved science fiction. Although I pursued other interests in college (Poli Sci, Spanish Language, Art History, and Creative Writing) I believe myself to be quite technologically literate. I currently work for a software company (although in a less directly technical role, but still).
It never ceases to amaze me how the hit/smack is often effective with fixing computers and/or their peripherals. Often times this just doesn’t make sense, hitting a computer can be the death sentence for a hard drive, especially if it’s running.
My printer was not working. Ink levels were full, the connection with my computer was fine, yet it wouldn’t respond to print requests and wouldn’t finish preliminary check ups. I wasn’t even able to perform the software controlled maintenance. I even received an extremely helpful error message that said something to the extent of: “there has been an error, eliminate the source of the error and then proceed.” Really?
It was dusty so I blew inside the enclosure. Nothing.
I smacked it from both sides. My document printed. Now I don’t have to transcribe my mom’s recipe for eggplant parmesan from my screen.
In other news, the liquor store about two miles from my townhouse had a beer that I drank in Argentina and was difficult to find there. You could only find Otro Mundo at about three bars in Buenos Aires, yet here it is in tiny liquor store outside Madison, WI.
Otro Mundo by Pat Jordan on Zooomr
Taste of Madison was not too bad. I had some jerk chicken and a falafel sandwich. It was really sunny and hot out. It doesn’t make sense to me to include places like Little Caesar’s and Chili’s in something like that. I feel that’s more appropriate for “Taste of Stripmall America.”
