Sierrag's blog

I want!

Remembered this set of vases as I was doing some research for my thesis.  Beautiful and eco-friendly.

TranSglass vases

Vacation wrap-up

I'm *finally* going back to New York tomorrow--I've been home since Dec 7--to finish up my last requirements on campus before I turn to full-time thesis work.  Turns out that I've been to busy in California to write anything up here, so this is a quick roundup of my past, oh, five weeks.

What a family

Holidays
Christmas I like having Christmas at Tito Ike's house.  The space is bigger, the drive is shorter, and all the cooks fit in the kitchen!  There was too much food (as usual) but we managed to at least cut down on gifts by holding a white elephant gift exchange this year.  Now that we've got over a dozen adults and one (almost) four-year-old child, this makes sense--and it's more in the spirit of the season.  No more strange sweaters or tschotschkes, yay.

New Year's This is probably my least favorite holiday.  I don't really understand why people have to wait for a new calendar year to turn over a new leaf, and there are certainly other good, if not better, reasons to drink some bubbly.   I'm happy to report that ringing in 2007 was actually enjoyable, unlike the awkwardness of previous years.  The Branner reunion in San Francisco was such a blast, and the party--despite the lack of electricity--was a smashing success.  I even got all that candlewax off my jeans.  Woohoo.

Volver

Movies
Night at the Museum A cute story, but it almost would have been better by losing the plot and sticking to the gimmick.  Some good laughs, though.
Casino Royale I didn't like the opening credit sequence, but otherwise I liked this new interpretation of Bond.  Looking forward to the next movie already.
Volver I'm glad to see Almadovar return to the female-driven narratives.  The story was creative, engaging and colorful.

Eats
Suppenkuche (SF) I've been here before, but I somehow managed to go to this Hayes Valley restaurant twice in the span of a month.  Proof that German food can be tasty, and there's a good selection of beer.
Hukilau (PA) Generous portions and Tiki Thursdays must keep this place alive.  Decent appetizers and drinks, and some perfectly fine mahi-mahi.
Chloe's Cafe (SF) So much food in so little space.  Delicious croissants and hearty portions, but the paper-thin bacon was disappointing.
Philz Coffee (SF) Oh dear god, almost as so-good-yet-so-bad as my Thai iced coffees from this summer.  One cup of Turkish drip coffee kept me going for 12 hours.
St. Michael's Alley (PA) Site of the annual Mother-Daughter Bruncheon.  Too much food but a pleasant atmosphere and great service.
Bistro Luneta (San Mateo) Not quite authentic Filipino food, but quite good for what it was.  Crispy pork trotter was fantastic.
Mantra (PA) Hello, almond and pinenut cake.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect of nouveau Indian food, but I enjoyed the meal (though I liked Charles' cranberry lamb dish better).  A great deal in Palo Alto's Dine Downtown program.

Mom, pay attention

An anti-anticlutter movement is afoot, one that says yes to mess and urges you to embrace your disorder. Studies are piling up that show that messy desks are the vivid signatures of people with creative, limber minds (who reap higher salaries than those with neat “office landscapes”) and that messy closet owners are probably better parents and nicer and cooler than their tidier counterparts. It’s a movement that confirms what you have known, deep down, all along: really neat people are not avatars of the good life; they are humorless and inflexible prigs, and have way too much time on their hands.

If the New York Times says it's ok to be messy, then what's a few socks strewn here and there?  ;)

Vox Hunt: Can't Live Without...

Show us something you can't live without.
Submitted by tOiXc_HoNeY.

Through the window at Shakespeare & Co.

I've been rummaging through old computer files lately and I came across the archives of some writing I did while at Stanford.  It's funny--back when I was an engineer (shush) I wrote for myself more often, and though I eschewed capital letters I had a voice and lots of thoughts to share.  Now that I'm back in the liberal arts camp, where I average twenty pages of scholarly writing per month, I find that my personal writing just kind of sucks.  So I will refer you to the voice of three years ago on the impact books have on my life:

November 30, 2003

How to Be Alone: Essays

Jonathan Franzen

in class last week, we were asked to draw our two favorite toys. my mind immediately leapt to legos, and for my second “toy” i kept on coming back to the thought of drawing a book. (i eventually went with my mini piano keyboard that played all sorts of fantastic 80s beats that i could “jam” with. didn't want to appear that nerdy.) looking back at my childhood, i’m hard pressed to remember a time when reading was not a part of my life. when real homework started it was hard to keep up with my pleasure reading, but in lieu of making fun of siblings i didn’t have or watching cable tv to which my family never subscribed, as i child i always had a book on hand. when franzen writes about the disappearance of both the social novel and the reader, it makes me anxious--how can something that shaped my childhood vanish so early in my lifetime? even though “the reader in exile” was written in 1995 franzen himself is already anxious—he’s anxious about the overshadowing of the novel by the 'net (and the electronic age in general). he was so upset, actually, that he gave away his tv because, "as long as it was in the house, reachable by some combination of extension cords, i wasn't reading books." by the end of this particular essay, though, franzen comes to realize that reading can "survive, and even flourish" in the "exile" in which it's been placed by contemporary society.

the electronic apotheosis of mass culture has merely reconfirmed the elitism of literary reading, which was briefly obscured in the novel's heyday. i mourn the eclipse of the cultural authority that literature once possessed, and i rue the onset of an age so anxious that the pleasure of a text becomes difficult to sustain. i don't suppose that many other people will give away their tvs. i'm not sure i'll last long myself without buying a new one. but the first lesson reading teaches is how to be alone.

p. 178, "the reader in exile" from how to be alone by jonathan franzen, new york: picador, 2003.

Vox Hunt: Holiday Decorations

Show us some holiday decorations.

My first attempts at night photography using the D50.  I'd have walked around Rockefeller Center longer if it weren't 30 degrees out.

Rockefeller angel

Cymbals player

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Hey ya, Charlie Brown

Hey Ya, Charlie Brown!

Oh dear (or should I say "Good grief!"?).  There's nothing like Charlie Brown and friends singing and dancing to Outkast to lighten one's spirits.  Embarrassed to admit that I was led to this video from Ken Jennings' blog.

On my way

Turned in my papers, registered for my two spring classes ("Master's Thesis" and "Thesis Seminar"), slowly making my way towards home.  

Christmas at Tito Ike's

"Who knew that fashion had so much in common with athletics?"

Warning: heavy handbags are bad for your health, according to an article by the New York Times.  A chiropractor for bag-related back strain?  Really?  I mean, I like those pretty shoes that pinch your toes, and as for handbags, well, it's me.  But should fashion really take away the luxury of comfort? Also, is it really necessary to carry around unused gym shoes and a Care Bear in your purse?  At cover b, I remember my boss telling me why he didn't understand American consumers: "They either want really tiny purses and nothing fits inside, or they try to put too much in one bag and it's a mess."  I don't get it either.

(Don't worry, I'm done with one paper and another is about 90% complete.  And I did my laundry, cleaned my stove and cooked for myself for the first time in a while.  That means I'm on track for going home tomorrow--I can't wait.)

More about school and announcement

To this day, the public perception of design is frayed with ambiguity, mistaken by some as decoration, by others as engineering, and overall often underestimated in its preeminence as an intellectual model with the potential to reach far beyond the realm of commerce and art deep into the social fabric and material culture.

Paola Antonelli, curator, Department of Design, Museum of Modern Art

This quotation exactly sums up why I returned to school for a degree in the "history of decorative arts, design and culture"* and also nicely sets up one of the themes of my thesis.  So if you're wondering why this blog has been silent lately, it's because I've been writing term papers to combat the fact that, to this day, the public perception of design is frayed with ambiguity, mistaken by some as decoration, by others as engineering, and overall often underestimated in its preeminence as an intellectual model with the potential to reach far beyond the realm of commerce and art deep into the social fabric and material culture.  Got that?

I'll be back in CA for the holidays by next weekend.  Excited for vacation, holiday traditions and the extensive Christmas menu currently under review on the family e-mail list.

*Yeah, that's the full title--it's such a pain trying to fit that on a resume.

Crazy

Yesterday's high temperature in Manhattan was 21 degrees above average and one degree below tying the record high for that day.  This is all very disorienting for me.  Christmastime on the East Coast means snow, people!

Central Park on a snowy day