Presence Of Color

Pink Lady Stops for a Chat

2007-03-20T19:59:00.001-04:00

Pink Lady Stops for a Chat, originally uploaded by miyarotstein.

I couln't resist taking this picture from across the street. Welcome to Williamsburg.

In Search of an Urban Paradise

2007-03-20T19:11:00.000-04:00

Brick, Steel and Glass

Two weeks ago, as we were on the endless search for event spaces, we landed in the too-cool-for-school haven they call B-Burg. And it is, by the way still way too cool.
We took the L all the way out to Montrose. I'm sure that is 5 stops too far on the L for most of you. We landed in an industrial lagoon. Marooned between treeless streets. We saw some amazing old warehouses, beautiful, urban, scrawled with years of graffiti. We checked out an amazing space that serves artists and performers, it houses dozens of old vending machines and arcade games. The fixtures were reminiscent of a well worn high school albeit not one I attended. The rooftop had a fantastic view of the city, smoggy and grey.

Presence of Urban Color

We hopped back on the L and headed back to Bedford St. in search of Oslo, a coffee house known for their artisanal brew and trained baristas. Wandering the streets, we happened upon some magnificant warehouses whose exteriors were wrapped with beautiful murals and vibrant color.

After my visit to San Francisco, urban art has been on my mind. I carry my camera in my bag, preparing myself for my next encounter with unforseen hidden treasures hiding in alleys and lonely city streets.

This building on Roebling St. was covered with amazing art. I couldn't help myself...

A fine day for baking

2007-03-19T22:05:00.000-04:00

As you all know - or those of you living in the neighbouring village of Manhattan and environs, we here in Brooklyn were blessed with a little late winter, early spring festival of ice, snow and general unpleasantness. In order to get myself out of this winter doldrums, and in spite of this weird arbitrary Daylight Savings nonsense, this past Sunday evening I decided to try my hand at baking something warm and carb-o-licious. Indeed, it was adventure with yeast. Why bread? because I am a shitty baker. Then why even try? Well, because my attempt at baking rugalleh has failed pretty miserably and I was feeling a little low.
I know I can McGuyver-up a meal in minutes from a can of artichoke hearts, some garbanzo beans and a handful of dried mushrooms thanks to my amazing mother. No sweat. Baking, well, lets say that baking at our house was one of 3 things. Passover sponge cake, the famous 1 bowl apple cake and the cheesecake (later turn tofu-cake). My grandmother, of blessed memory, won no blue ribbons back in Poland. So there. A challenge.
A packet of yeast, some warm water, sugar - set for 10 minutes. 3 cups of flour and some salt. That's it! knead, place in a greased bowl, covered with a damp towel, in a warm place for an hour. To make this breaded concoction even more delicious, I decided to add to it some curry vegetables I cooked up as the dough was rising. Diced onions, carrots, red pepper, potatoes and a zucchini flavored with cumin, cury, garam masala, fresh garlic, salt and pepper. See what happened!!

A Neighborhood Awash in Color

2007-03-01T13:30:00.000-05:00

One of the highlights of our wonderfully colorful trip to San Fran was the early Saturday morning tour of the Mission neighborhood's many amazing murals we took with our resident guide and BFF, MagikaDisFUNKchanel.

The photo on the left is of the inside of the Precita Eyes's storefront where one can buy art supplies, postcards, drawings and sketches of murals around the city and where the tour begins with a very long slide show. These are times that it's helpful to get there late...)

We joined the Precita Eyes tour (non-profit community arts organization founded in 1977 that plays an integral role in the city's cultural heritage and arts education community). Patricia, our head-to-toe corduroy bedazzled guide took us through the streets of Balmy Alley where the largest collection of murals live and breathe.

It was like walking into a magical alternate universe where color and beauty was part of the landscape. Where people in the community actually took an active role in painting their neighborhood, keeping the art on the walls free of vandalism and taking pride in their diverse cultures, histories and ethnicities. It was amazing to see these murals, many painted by well known muralists and many others painted by the youth of the Mission through the Precita Eyes program.

Towards the end of the 2.5 hour tour, we were joined by Eduardo, a 'man of the streets', so to speak. He was following us through the last few murals, alternating swigs from the bottle in the brown paper bag with nods of agreement at the tragic history of civil wars in Latin America.
Patricia was telling us that the community came together to renovate and rehabilitate a small green space on 24th St. at the heart of the neighborhood. People came to lay tiles, paint walls, install the hi-tech bouncy ground covering made of old tires. Eduardo took a few jumps on the padded, bouncy surface and exclaimed "this is very nice! Old tires, you say?"

We rewarded our patience and satiated our sugar craving by visiting La Victoria Mexican panaderias where we had a very tough time choosing our Pan dulce (sweet pastries). Imagine a whole store of freshly baked goodies - floor to ceiling.

Armed with tongs and a tray, I went straight to work. An almond pastry, a sweet custard flaky sugary delight and a baked ricotta cake. A food loving girl's dream come true. A perfectly delicious ending to a brilliantly colorful afternoon...

A fabulous restaurant sign... I couldn't help but include it in this post all about color!

mission mural

2007-03-01T12:07:00.001-05:00

mission mural, originally uploaded by miyarotstein.

One of my favorite musals on the tour... there were 3 owls hidden in this brilliantly colored forest scene.

mission mural

2007-03-01T12:05:00.001-05:00

mission mural, originally uploaded by miyarotstein.

mission mural

2007-03-01T12:04:00.001-05:00

mission mural, originally uploaded by miyarotstein.

No trip is complete...

2007-02-05T13:52:00.000-05:00

We just returned from a fabulous weekend in Montreal- celebrating Netta's 30th Bday. We drove up for a quick trip which culminated in a snow bound weekend up in the laurentian mountains. There was a group of 13 driving up north, car trunks packed with food, drinks warm sweaters and woolen socks. We all met up at the Orange Julep on Decarie Blv to regroup before the 2 hour drive. I just couldn't help myself! I had to buy some Montreal frites...

Since we have not yet gotten our fill of winter here in New York (well not the snowy part at least) it was so beautiful and picturesquely Canadian to be completely surrounded by whiteness. Driving up to the cottage we drove by trees and fields covered in a thick quilt of deep fresh snow.

On Sunday, on our way back to Montreal, a van load of us drove to the snow tubing adventure mountain right outside of St. Sauver... barreling down a steep snowy mountain, 7 of us holding on to each other's inner tubes for dear life... what an amazing feeling to be flying over the snow...

Warm Tummy Part 2: Rice Balls and Rabe

2007-02-05T13:42:00.000-05:00

As promised here is dinner idea #2.
On another famed trip to Fairway, we took a gamble on these delicious looking Italian rice balls with cheese. They are cooked rice, stuffed with Mozza and rolled in breadcrumbs, pan fried and dee-licious!
This simple winter meal should be made and eaten right away. The broccoli rabe will be the most time consuming step. Boil salted water in a pot. Drop in rabe (which has been trimmed of its rough stems) and boil for 5 minutes. As it is cooking, prepare a bowl of ice water in the sink. After the 5 minutes are up, drain rabe and plunge into cold water, shocking it and stopping its cooking. It should be bright green and beautiful. After warming the rice balls in a lightly oiled pan, heat up left over red sauce (from the previous post). Rabe should be drained out of the cold water, and thrown back into a hot olive-oiled pan with some garlic. heat and coat with olive oil garlic, toss and sprinkle with salt, pepper and some finely grated Parmesan or assiago. Arrange all parts on a plate and serve!

Cold Night, Warm Tummy Part 1: Pizza

2007-02-02T15:48:00.000-05:00

Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of experimental dishes concocted in our Brooklyn kitchen. Most of the meals involved seasonal produce and a little inspiration from our local food coop (which as you know I am totally in love with). As I worked my usual shift today, I was dreaming of the next exciting meal...

Enjoy!

We found an organic, multi-grain pizza bread - vacuum packed and ready eat at the coop a few weeks ago. Inspired by amazing array of root vegetables, we decided to make a roasted vegie pizza.
First step: Cut up some beets (golden and classic red), turnips, parsnip, onions and garlic. Toss with olive oil, fresh or dry herbs (thyme, rosemary) and salt + pepper. roast in the oven at 375 degrees until fragrant and browned (about 40 minutes).
Second step: Prepare a simple red sauce (canned tomatoes, onions, garlic, basil, oregano, salt and pepper). If you have a simple pasta/pizza sauce from a can - well, i guess that's acceptable.

Once the sauce is ready and the vegies are finished roasting, it's time to assemble the pizza! You can make your own crust, buy one pre-packed like we did or use pita or roti bread.
We topped our pie with fresh mozzarella cheese (from the amazing Red Hook Fairway - see Red Hooker post archive...) and fresh basil leaves.
De-damned-licious.

Next yummy post will feature a rice balls, and broccoli rabe dish using leftover red sauce from the recipe above. Stay tuned!

hell-way subway

2007-01-22T09:44:00.000-05:00

I think the reason why we New Yorkers feel completely drained, angry, frustrated, hostile and very aggressive on Monday mornings is probably because most of us have spent the past 45 minutes or longer pressed up against strange people, smelling foul morning breath and sweaty bodies wrapped in too tight winter coats and scarves. Watching passengers attempting to open their morning newspapers without whacking someone in the face, clamoring for a seat the moment another body peels itself off of the orange plastic bench as the train squeals into the station.
The subway commute, with its irritatingly cheerful "this is an important message from the New York City Police Department" messages, the lack of oxygen and the loud hacking phlegmy winter coughs and sneezes definitely make me question my ability to sustain this lifestyle for very much longer.
How do you deal with it? Maybe I should carry around a little flask in my bag and take an early morning shot to keep from being so damned irritated or maybe I should come in late to work and catch the later train...

Red Hookers, livin it up at the end of the world.

2007-01-08T00:00:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, New York City experienced yet another out of body, bizzaro, non-winter weekend. In celebration of this Global Planetary Charring, we decided to venture out into the wild outlands of the borough, Red Hook.

Our afternoon began with a ride on the infamous B71, making our way down Union St. all the way to the BQE where the driver let us off at the last stop. We began the adventure on Columbia St. following our eyes and noses, we ventured in and out of some very interesting establishments. A memorable visit to DUB (Down Under Bakery) for a most delicious and inspiring veggie curry pie – a meat free version of the iconic meat pie (savory filling tucked away in crispy flakey pastry dough). The visit later inspired us to cook up a 3 tiered vegan Shepherds pie for dinner. Apparently, one small pie is just not enough.

We continued our walking up Columbia St., walking past a number of interesting bars and restaurants.
From Columbia, we found our way to the main strip, Van Brunt St. We were like those cartoon characters, caught in the drifting, wafting smell of bakery. There was a huge asterix drawn right beside the name, Baked. It didn’t take much to get us through the doors. Café, bakery, neighborhood chocolate center. We drooled over peanut butter brownies, mini cupcakes, scones and cookies. After having consumed way too many pastries before noon in one day, we thought we needed to cut ourselves off.

Some interesting things we noted on our walking tour:
1) Nativity Scenes are not only prevalent all over Brooklyn, but are amazingly intricate and way out there.

As we were walking towards the waterfront, we walked on Van Brunt on a pretty industrial stretch of road. We had to stop and take this picture of a spirited scene of the Holy Family and friends with giant cranes and towers gracing the background. Later in the afternoon, we walked by a house that had illuminated Jesus, Mary and Josephs complete with a “tv monitor” scrolling the Twin Towers and messages of world peace. Very inspiring.

2) We found the hidden lot where all the Mr. Softie Trucks hibernate over the long winter months. (Though this weekend, we could have used a melty Strawberry Shortcake ice cream bar to help us through the day…).

3) In spite of all the hype, Fairway Red Hook rocks. We sampled our way through lunch, I met Will, one of the owners of the joint who I recognized from the uptown Fairway. He gave me a very generous helping of imported French artisanal ginger chocolate. We came home with olives, snacks and very happy tummies.

Tune in next week as our borough travels continue....

Je Me Souviens du Dep - Long ago and far away....

2007-01-01T20:01:00.000-05:00

This picture reminded me of highschool, circa 1987. Back then I was not yet aware of how lacking in super cool style I really was, my feather hair not quite a look I should ever replicate again and my love of candy was an intense affair. I went to school on the picturesque Staint Kevin Street, parallel to Rue Victoria, home of the famous Montreal pizza bagel, the shady Greek diner, the Vietnamese Restaurant we were too scared to enter and most importantly in my memory birthplace of the competing 7Up and Pepsi Deps or Depanneurs (or for you New Yorker types, The Deli).

The dep was the place to blow that hard earned allowance or to spend those 34 cents collected from inside the couch or the floor of your dad's rusted Plymouth Reliant that he insisted was a 'terrific car'. At the dep, one little penny could buy you a Swedish Berry or a lone Sour Patch Kid. If you had a nickle, you could splurge on a real life sized Hot Lips or big Swedish Fish. They later came out with the Tropical Fish; sour gummi with 2 flavors in one! My candy accomplice Amy and I would splurge on the Tattoo Gum which for whatever reason was enticing and exotic (probably duing to the sacrilege of the real deal...)

I remember the mini brown paper bag by the cashier, excitedly filled with 1 cent candy by a 4 foot 7th grader at lunchtime... Those little mini bags would be clutched tightly under your desk, throughout the long, boring school day, with each passing minute, you would check to see what gummi treats were left at the bottom. Just one more period left, and it's Talmud with Ben, so really it's like school is over....

Decadent Dinner at Applewood

2006-12-09T11:58:00.000-05:00

If you were ever thinking to yourself, how can I have a most amazing dining experience right here in the heart of Park Slope? Where can I find a restaurant that uses the most fragrant, fresh and thoughtful ingredients, supports local farmers and buys only wild fish and meat that has enjoyed a life of leisure and pampering? Well, the answer my friends is blowing down 11th Street between 7th and 8th Ave. Applewood. What an amazing night.
We started off at the bar, and ordered a delicious and warming spiced pear hot toddy.

Sweet and fragrant, definitely the drink of choice on a cold winter night.

New Line available now at Fabrica!

2006-12-08T18:46:00.000-05:00

Fellow readers,
I am so pleased to announce that Fabrica - a home furnishings store in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn (619 Vanderbilt Ave at the corner of St. Mark's Ave.)is now carrying the new winter line of TemperamentalGlass designs AND (drum roll, please...), the first ever store collection of Urban Ceramix! (That, by the way, is my pottery line)

The window display includes two beautiful green pieces, Coreolis and Celery Stalk.
Demi, the charming owner of Fabrica was so helpful and encouraging and took more than 15 glass pieces and Nesting Spaghetti bowls for the store. She arranged the glass in color schemes throughout the shop, placing them alongside textiles, teapots, masks... and it looks quite elegant and beautiful. Please stop in to check out the store, Vanderbilt Ave. has some really lovely little shops, restaurants and bars. Tell Demi I say hi!
xoxo
miya

Deep Fried Goodness

2006-11-26T18:54:00.000-05:00

One of the most exciting culinary adventures we had over the Thanksgiving weekend was witnessing firsthand the amazing invention that is - the Fried Turkey. It all began at around 2pm on Thursday November 23rd. It was a miserably cold, wet and windy day. The sky was grey and ominous. Clyde, the turkey, was taken out of the fridge. His pale pink skin flecked with an assortment of herbs and spices.

Clyde was then rigged to a hook and taken outside.

Out in the garage, sat a very large pot which was propped up on a propane burner. About 3 gallons of canola oil had been slowly heating to temperature, awaiting Clyde's appearance.
Rawle, the turkey fryer, put on his yellow glove, held Clyde tightly, crossed his fingers and hoped he measured correctly.
With sizzles and crackles, Clyde was lowered into the oil. We all stepped back. The huge pot of golden canola steamed and hissed.

We were told that a turkey that size would need a good 2 hours in the oil. Oh boy!

When time was up, all 24 guests held hands around the dinner table, we prayed together, blessed the table and the hands that cooked the food we were about to eat. We blessed the hot apple pie, the sweet orange yams, the quinoa-tofu-apple-curry vegetarian side dish and most of all, we thanked Clyde for his courage, his selflessness and most importantly, for his deep fried goodness.

Giving Thanks. This one is for the tourists. One New Yorker's Rant

2006-11-26T12:43:00.000-05:00

And a happy Thanksgiving weekend to those of you lounging around for the past 4 days in your stretchy pants and slippers! We have been really taking advantage of the beautiful fall-ish weather and crisp air to get re-acquainted with the city. Of course being as this marks the beginning of the tourist-take-over-Manhattan time of year, we are limiting our trips over the bridge to charted destinations, versus meanderings in the streets.

Those of you who know me well know I have been blessed with amazing patience and calmness. I never get annoyed, I never loose my cool with frustrating situations. I love being irritated. So, for me, staying in peaceful, tourist-minimal Brooklyn, seems to be the perfect antidote to an instant breakdown.

Certain neighborhoods must be avoided at all costs. It goes without saying that obviously Times Square is #1 on that list, followed closely by Herald Square, Canal street, Broadway between Houston and Canal streets and anywhere along 5th Ave. Around this time of year, if you look to your left or to your right you will see them. They will be visible in your blind spots, in your day dreams, in your night sweats. Hoards of them. Tourists. Visitors. Consumers. Whatever you want to call them. They come out of the charter buses taking over the curbside, they wait in line for the $35 red double deckers; cameras a-snapping. They stand in the middle of the street with absolutely no regard for the busy pace of NY walkers, maps unfurled, gazing up to read the street name, looking back down at their guides, looking back up again to make sure they got that street name, turn 180 degrees around to survey the landscape. 'Excuse me... Uh, do you know if there is a Starbucks around here?' Thanks.

Lefse Morning

2006-11-17T21:25:00.000-05:00

Ok- So this post is a little dated. It's been sitting in the draft box for about a month. Goes to show, there just isn't enough time for the leisure hobbies of updating one's blog, let alone cook breakfast. That is what the weekends are for.
Thanks god.

So the following is a sort of visual diary of a breakfast. Maybe that's what I'll do, document some of the weekend meals that we cook down at 188 Berkeley Place. So here goes the first: Have you ever tasted Lefse?

A special Norwegian delicacy we brought home with us from Minnesota. Airport security didn't think it was liquid enough to confiscate.

So the key to this special breakfast treat is butter. On a side bar , R and I are reading Julie and Julia, a very entertaining out-loud read about a year in the life of a 30 yr old cooking her way through Julia Child's 524 recipes. Most of the cooking adventures kinda me sick to my stomach, her butter consumption is just off the charts and the artery clogging properties of the French kitchen are not so mouthwatering. The book is very entertaining and we are sad to be almost nearing the end. (ps: If you have any recommendations for our next read, feel free to comment below...)
Ok. Sorry. Back to butter. So the Lefse (if you read the Wiki link above) is a special potato flatbread that can be served in many ways. R had a craving for the childhood treat she remembered fondly - Lefse with butter, cinnamon and sugar. So the instructions are pretty easy.
Our Lefse came pre-cut in pretty little triangles. Heat the pan, melt up some butter and gently heat the lefse triangles on both sides.
sprinkle liberally with sugar, cinnamon &/or nutmeg for a seasonal noggy treat.
We made a very simple and delicious version but I imagine that you can add any yummy filling to the warmed and sugar coated pieces. Some ideas: (insert here anything spreadable, sweet and caloric) cooked apples & aged guyere, fig paste & pecorino, fruit preserves, slivered almonds, nutella...
Roll up the triangles with or without your filling choices and take a big ass bite!! Yumm... We ate these with Morning Star Farms Bkfast links and cheesy scrabulation (scrabbled eggs)

This weekend, I'll post another yummy treat. We are planning to bake up some pies for T-day. Ciao for now!

Spooooky Pumpkins...

2006-10-31T10:01:00.000-05:00

Yesterday R and I had a belated fall activity evening. As the weekend was so windy and cold and the thought of sitting in the studio with the windows wide open arranging the flower boxes was not going to be an option, we decided that we'd do our autumn display last night, when it was mild and pleasant.

While I was cooking up some dinner (winter turnips boiled with butter and salt, home made mac and cheese and garlic sauteed kale) R got to work with the pumpkin. For those readers out there who may want to know, "where on earth did you get such a gorgeous pumpkin?"well, this orange beauty was hand picked in the great pumpkin patch outside of Rochester, NY on October 8th.
First step in ghouling the pumpkin, the removal of the brain. pretty gruesome. pulp, seeds, innards, all over the kitchen floor.

Next, we searched all over the house for a variety of tools we could alter to help in the very difficult art of pumpkin carving. Big and small knives, grapefruit spoons and an xacto-blade. R thought it would be more interesting to carve out a spooky scene. Plus, my pumpkin faces were just not scary enough for our giant gourd.
After a dinner break, we got back to work, scrapping the idea of adding in a howling coyote. mainly due to the fact that my coyote looked more like a mutant rat. scary, but not in a good way.

The final test, once all the carving and scraping was done, was to put it in the window, put a votive candle inside, and turn out all the lights..... Are you scared??

Back for More Coffee.

2006-10-27T14:11:00.000-04:00

Skip back to last weekend. If you can go back that far. It's cold, it's windy, the leaves are all over the ground, brown, dried up and very crunchy under your sneakers. We are back in Minneapolis. We are attending yet another wedding. (very delicious butter cream cake- each table got their own- nifty!). The wedding was held at The Minnesota Science Museum, all guests got free admission to exhibits- also nifty!

Spending yet another weeekend neglecting the cat and the piles of dirty clothes. The house is cold; the socks are just not long and thick enough. Winter is really close by. All I can hope for is more coffee. Thankfully, we are in the land of 10 000 coffee shops. I am trying to hit them all. R is really on top of her hometown geography. This trip, we travel on familiar coffee paths as well as down some shaky unpaved roads. The necessity to infuse our bloodstream with lots of caffeine makes the morning hunt for coffee an adventure as well as a requirement.

We hit about 4 cafes this time around. Betsy's Back Porch. Decent coffee with fity cent refills, lots and lots of space to spread out and interesting autumnal decorations. the plastic leaves, the wreaths, the scarecrows. (well you can kind get a sense of what kind of happening place this is from their website...) It is 4 short blocks from the house, ok?! Just to highlight the unique coffee culture of Minne - there is a Starbucks right across the street and it's monstrous parasitical nature didn't drive Betsy out of town.

scroll down a few days and we go back to some old favorites. Bob's Java Hut. Cool servers; not too cool to actually give good service and look good doing it. great match-books, strong Americanos, like we like it. Coffee shop is also a local gathering spot for bikers and their fans.

Next up, Anodyne. Great name. No idea what it means. Something about relieving pain.
They understand coffee. The place is packed. It's Sunday morning, the brunch crowd has taken over. strollers, couples, old folks. We go up to get some coffee and a scone- the best we've had in a while- dates and nuts, real buttermilk. (correction: we thought the scone was at Betsy's, but Ruby corrected me). I have never seen a woman (the barista) so miserable, so utterly bothered and in pain (from her late night jaunts?). and the tip jar looked quite empty from where I was standing. Here's a little tip for you sour lady: If you are not a people person, if you are bothered when asked to hand people empty cups with which to fill their self-serve coffee, pissed off when a customer asks you to reach into the jar to pull out a biscotti with a little piece of wax paper or just generally put off by the whole service part of the service industry, maybe, honey, you need to get yourself to a career counselor. But to be fair, they have a fabulous mural painted on the outside wall and some great interior design. I'll show you....

So maybe the coffee anodyne is really an attempt to heal the customers of their painful service experience. Now I get it.

Fall Travels

2006-10-27T09:50:00.000-04:00

Ok. So these posts are going to be a little outdated. What can I say? I've been negligent. I'm sorry. I've had no time to post and nothing remotely revolutionary or enlightening to report. Instead of boring you with the personal drama - hating my work life, feeling trapped, done with city living, stressed out, bla bla bla, I'll share with you, my friends and random strangers, some highlights of our fall adventures.

First stop, Rochester, NY. Car rental. Car rental upgrade! A very very long drive up almost up to lake Ontario! Hold on. I have to take myself back 3 weeks... Well, with my horrible short term memory, I'm not sure how accurately I'll be able to recount any of this. Thank god for cameras. Really. I think that if it wasn't for pictures, I'd still be fighting with my sisters about what really happened the week of the Ice Storm in Montreal back in '96 or was it '97. Come on, who cares? (for the record, it was '98)

Anyways, back to the road trip. The leaves were beautiful. Yellow/green. Still early in the season.

The wedding was lovely and it was so nice to see so many friends. Rochester was fun. We took a tour of downtown. Some of the more upscale joints. As a certain Goldstein pointed out, "like St. Catherine Street with less strip clubs". And don't think he didn't do a very thorough search of the yellow pages. Enjoy some of the sights:

so that is the arm of the way-to-cool-to-actually-serve-you-or-even-give-you-water waitress we walked out on in a sort of cute outdoor cafe where the sunlight was so directly blinding I had to cover my seatmate's head with a menu, turned visor.

I think this one needs no explanation. We missed the Saturday afternoon BBQ but from what I hear, Rochester is a major dog town. The kind in casing, not on leashes.

And finally... this one is for Goldstein.

Wish you were here...

2006-09-01T16:55:00.000-04:00

It takes a really long week to make you think about vacation again. Sad that this is the last official holiday of the summer and sadder still to look outside and see the clouds still hovering menacingly over the city. I thought I'd give you a beautiful sunset with which to end your work week and with which to usher in the long weekend.

The first picure was taken on the rocky beach in Yaffo. The sunset was in Tel Aviv. The sun litterally fell into the blue water and disapeared only seconds later.

Chuckie? Chess? is that you!??

2006-08-30T22:00:00.000-04:00

I found this collection of cat food cans to be really funny. even funnier if you have ever been over and met Chuckie, Chess. or is it Felix?

I thought I'd take this oportunity to share with you all a little story about Chuckie/Chess. not long ago, my dear friend Gretchen a very very smart chick, once said to me: "So that one is Chuckie, but where is Chess?" Good question! Though his given name is actually Chess, I don't care much for that name. I think he is more of a Chuckie. That clearly confuses some people. He is a cat dealing with imposed schizophrenia. very complicated. Call him what you will. My father calls him Arthur.

Israel: food

2006-08-30T21:46:00.000-04:00

So I know that I've been posting pictures and accompanying them with virtually no text or narrative. I think that's ok. The pictures are stories in and of themselves.

So it has taken a very long time to get my mind out from under the parasol of vacation. We sorted through about 400 pictures (thank god for the 1gb memory card!) and are slowly building the story of our 2 weeks in Israel.

For those of you who have been, you know how important the food is to the experience. For those of you who are lactosely challenged, I really feel for you. The pictures below (with one exception) should help to awaken your taste-buds and your olfactory sense...

Israel : walls

2006-08-24T07:45:00.000-04:00

Spent the morning soaking in the beauty of the Neveh Tzedek neighborhood in Tel Aviv.

and yes, that is a horse.

Israel: Laundry

2006-08-24T07:43:00.000-04:00

On our walk in Jerusalem on the Ramparts of the Old City

I love that drying laundry is part of the Israeli landscape.

Montreal road trip part deux

2006-08-01T07:49:00.000-04:00

Montreal is a very colorful city. street art, murals, bright storefronts, beautiful landscaping and of course way too many of crazies adorn the sidewalks and alleyways.

We saw a man sitting in a public fountain on Saint Denis Street, sewing his own underware.

We rolled into town just time for the Opening Ceremonies of the 1st ever Out Games. Though we didn't make it to the stadium for k. d. lang's performance, we briefly wandered in the super packed and festive Gay Village and saw a myriad of athletes donning their team shirts.

The Spirit Lounge is a tres bizarre, fascist vegan restaurant dans le village gaie. An establishment I have frequented on numerous visits to Montreal but which, after an especially unpleasant experience with our newbie guests, I will most likely not be returning to. The main concept behind the tyranny is to not waste food. this is enforced by a frighteningly waif-like wait staff (who in my opinion could use a little twinkie or something with lots of corn syrup and saturated fats). the menu is prix fix. you choose your plate size and agree to finnish every last bite on your plate and if you don't you must pay a fine (which is of course given to some bunny foundation in northern Quebec). then you spend the rest of the meal trying to figure out how you can get rid of that last bite. TIP: look for open windows, napkins or best yet, a hole under your bench that will fit a nice morsel of not so delicious vegan crepe.

montreal road trip

2006-08-01T07:46:00.000-04:00

Nothing like a roadtrip to break up the monotony of the work week. or for me, the temporary illusion of a work week. Our dear friends Neal and Andy drove up with us in their super-cool-not-sold-in-Canada Toyota Scion. We planned a trip to the motherland; a visit with the family, some touring around, a taste of some local delicacies, and a flavor of Francais.

And no this is not a joke. it's as real as global warming.
check out Betty's cleavage - i mean, cheekbones.

Chihuly at the Gardens

2006-07-28T00:13:00.000-04:00

Thursday night at the New York Botanical Garden

Check out some of these beautiful colors. He wears a patch, sues his employees for copying his "style" and doesn't really blow glass. Still, Dale Chihuly is one of the biggest big name in glassblowing this side of the Hudson River. Temperamental Glass went on a little field trip all the way up to the Bronx to visit with some beautiful sculptures. Thursday nights in July the Gardens were open for a special night walk... Take a peek!!

Minnesota: The Drive-in

2006-07-27T00:06:00.000-04:00

In true summer fashion, we escaped to the drive-in on a hot summer night. It didn't really matter that what we were dying to see was Superman or that we drove an hour to get there, this was the summer activity we were longing for all summer long!

We drive up to the outdoor screen. Hundreds of cars are all neatly queued up around the screen getting out their coolers, their folding chairs and blankets. Like a big picnic with a little less talking. R brought a frisbee and as we waited for the sun to set, we played in the grass with the other hyperactive kids, high on sugar and the summer air.

There is a huge concession hut in the middle of the field, the smell of vats of freshly popped and obscenely buttered tubs of popcorn blowing in the breeze. We packed a few slices of key lime pie from Ruby's birthday dinner along with some cold water... We turned up the radio to 90.1 FM and waited for the previews to start.

Minneapolis - Herbal supplements / Living in the Moment

2006-07-26T09:43:00.000-04:00

For those of you who can't get enough of your ear-candles, and colonic cleansing, there is a fabulous store in Minne called "Present Moment".

R has been threatening to take me on a PM adventure since the day we landed. When you walk in, you hear the music of a hundred door chimes, you smell the odors of curiously unidentifiable salves and ceremonial herb smudges. There are shelves upon shelves of self published guides to all kinds of healing and beautifying methods. It is a store like no other, complete with stoned and sedated 60 year old employees.

Weekending in Minneapolis: Part I - Houses

2006-07-26T09:08:00.000-04:00

We just got back from 5 days of Minnesota fun. and when I say fun, I am serious. Though we were in Minneapolis to visit family, we made an effort to get our asses out of the house and into the car, off to visit as many interesting sights and sounds as we could fit in.

Minneapolis, for those who have never visited, is a very dynamic and colorful city. That is unless it is totally hidden away under 10 ft of snow. Like Montreal, the people, sounds and colors all emerge in the spring and summer months. We had lovely summer weather which gave us plenty of reasons to be outside in the lakes, pools and parks.

Here is a house, the art house on 50th St. and Penn St. We have driven by it many times in the car and this time I had my little camera ready to document the details!! Apparently, the lady who lives in it constantly gets hassled to repaint the house as it is an 'eyesore' and 'doesn't match' the rest of the houses on the street. I say, "bring on that pink paint, sister!"

The houses in and around the lakes are just beautiful. We drove around Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun (just 2 of the 10,000), admiring the grand and sprawling estates with amazing landscaping and ancient trees. then thought longingly of our 1 bedroom apartment in Brooklyn and our sprawling herb garden, on the fire escape.

The city houses are also sight worthy: painted in brilliant colors and very funky personal style...

Glass Pics cont.

2006-07-07T12:53:00.000-04:00

More Party Pics!

2006-07-07T12:48:00.000-04:00

More form last night. Look carefully at some of the reflective pictures taken throught the windows... can you find yourself??

Hey there!!

Temperamental Party at KIVA - hot off the press!

2006-07-07T11:51:00.001-04:00

Friends:
Thanks so much for being a part of yesterday's big event. We had a great night thanks to you!!
enjoy some pics from the evening...

an endless day of commuting

2006-07-03T10:30:00.000-04:00

If you live in nyc, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's saturday, there are always going to be train issues, right? You know that the trains are running on some kind of demented weekend schedule and that it'll take you twice as long to go where you need to go because the train will inevitably not come and when it does it will take some circuitous route to nowhere. So this weekend, we find ourselves committed to traveling from one end of the world to the other. That is, from bklyn to the bronx back to bklyn. Lucky I had my camera with me. We spent some quality time getting to know the local 4 train, the F and the N. it's good to be home. enjoy!

escaped glasslings!

2006-06-30T20:21:00.000-04:00

Some of our little glass friends have escaped the confines of the basement, broken their 9pm curfew and have snuck on the G train into the city. or so they think. The G train actually never goes into Manhattan. If you see these two runaways, please email one of us at girls@temperamentalglass.com
Thanks.

Get out the sparkley party shoes

2006-06-28T14:06:00.000-04:00

We are hoping to see you all on Thursday evening!!

KIVA cafe Thursday, July 6th from 6-7 pm at 229 Hudson Street between Broome and Canal, and from 7:30-9 pm at 139 Reade Street, between Hudson and Greenwich

The vision of the party will be that all our friends and guests will come to KIVA Hudson after work for some beer and snacks in the beautiful garden in the back (with views of the giant billboards at the Holland Tunnel) then form a processional and march down Hudson Street towards the Reade Street location about 12 blocks south.

The Red/Orange/Yellow collection will be on display at Hudson

and the Green/Blue/Brown collection at Reade

TemperamentalGlass will be living at the KIVA cafe cubicles until the end of August. If we had mini typewriters for them, they could actually get some work done while they're there. They have been pretty useless laying low in the storage basement at Talia's house. Also, if you or any of your very wealthy friends are going to be in NYC over the summer let us know we'd love to introduce you to the little colorful gang up close! They would be more than happy to go home with you(for the right price, of course)...

We hope to be back in the studio asap to make some new pieces. Please let me know if there is something in particular you would like to purchase but have not seen on the site or perhaps a sold piece that you wish you would have gotten to first. We can start making some color specific pieces for you!

Enjoy the lovely sunshine before the clouds rear their grey little heads.

kisses! miya

Shit. Too Much Coffee.

2006-06-22T01:29:00.000-04:00

I know that I should never drink coffee after 6pm.
it is way too late to be up and sitting in front of the glowing box. Even the cat is in bed. since I am sitting here anyways waiting for this stupid, slow computer to upload a file, I thought I'd post some pictures. Only for those with time on their hands, of course.

Made of Clay

2006-06-20T12:44:00.000-04:00

I thought I should throw in some photos of last month's 5th Ave. craft fair in Brooklyn. Ruby was so helpful setting up the display and getting the sun to shine just right, I though you might like to see some of the highlights!

I started a new collection of these delicate but very urban looking spaghetti bowls. The glass melted inside and left a beautiful pool of color.

And of course the village of houses. You've seen them on the windowsill of our apartment. They looked so nice in the sun!

Beauty on Canal Street

2006-06-20T11:05:00.000-04:00

I imagine that when Canal St. was actually a canal, it was beautiful, pastoral and didn't smell like urine and fish. Or maybe it did. Anyways, I never fail to find something interesting on that street. Canal Plastics offers a very strange collection of - well, plastics. Here are some photos I took this weekend