Moving Past Mao...

A short video from the NYT about contemporary art in China, namely an underground art exhibit of intense, emotional pieces that have been forbidden to be shown within China's borders.

When I was in China in 2001, young people were just starting to talk about the Cultural Revolution. Not necessarily speak openly, and certainly not on record, but they were willing to have a dialogue. These artists' work show how far people have come towards accepting and working through the past, and towards public education and liberation, even in just the past few years. Although having said that, this art is still illegal in China.

Don't French Kiss or you might get SWINE FLU...

Bummer. This was one of my favorite things about the French culture. I seriously doubt that H1N1 is going to end this tradition, but you never know...

Bisous!

Martine Fougeron

A cool photography project that explores adolescence, intimacy and personal narrative.

Olympic National Park

So I went hiking in the Rainforest last weekend. Yes, hiking! in the RAINFOREST!! It was so beautiful and really great to get away from the city for a few days. I don't think I thought about work once. We were too worried about water and bees and trying not to poop for 3 days. We hiked over 30 miles and I have to admit, there were points when I didn't think I was going to make it, but I did...and it made me feel so great, physically and mentally. I don't think I have really challenged myself like that in a long time.

Anyway, it was a perfect weekend and I just wanted to post some pictures to show everyone how beautiful Olympic National Park is.

let's just call these...experimental

some photos taken with my lomography camera (sunflowers in my apartment, julie and aline in vancouver, CA, missy laughing, julie coming up the stairs). they are scanned, so the quality is not so great, but what are you gonna do?

ok...i went back and played with these pics in photoshop and re-uploaded. i might just continue to do that because it's fun and i come up with different stuff every time.

New Beginnings

I have been thinking recently about where I would like to live if I decide to go teach in China next fall and, although I love Shanghai, the city of Shenzhen is looking pretty likely right now.
It is a big city, with a booming economy and a population of somewhere around 10 million people. The crazy part is how the city has exploded from a small fishing village in only the past 30 years. It started out as one of China's "special economic zones," an experimental province with more liberal business/trade regulations, meant to increase foreign investment. Now it is the economic center for southern China, has several universities, and is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. The population is split between intellectuals (the most PhD's of any city in China) and migrant workers from rural China. Also, the average age is 28, which is pretty cool.
I found a relevant article that discusses how different Chinese people view the city: the migrant workers, the business people, the young students... The article brings up an interesting point about the "culture" of Shenzhen. Relative to the rest of China, this city is still an infant that is growing at an unbelievable rate. Thus it is much less rooted in Chinese tradition and history. While some take a critical stance on this divergence, calling it a lack of culture, many young Chinese people find it liberating.
I have a friend who is living there now and she highly recommends this program. Something to think about...

Spatulatta!

I was hanging out with my family that lives in Portland this weekend and we cooked this delicious dinner for my aunt's birthday. I wish I had pictures, it was absolutely beautiful. Grilled Ahi tuna steaks, jasmine rice with vindaloo sauce, and this delicious Gomae salad, a traditional Japanese spinach dish.

When I asked Don where he got the recipe for the Gomae salad, he said a friend of his had these two nieces that have their own cooking show on YouTube and when he googled the dish, their video was the first to pop up.

Since I have been thinking about nutrition a lot lately, both in my personal life as well as public education, it struck me as a really unique and fantastic idea for children to have their own cooking show. What better way to teach young people not only about what is healthy, but about the importance of preparing meals and celebrating food and family. They also like to focus on cooking international foods with other children from around the world. The girls, Belle and Liv, who are now 13 and 11 years old, started doing these one-minute cooking show vignettes back in 2005 and they now have their own website, cookbook for kids, and are starting to produce these vignettes for tv news programs.

It's funny how the same things come up again and again in a given time period. Not only am I now trying to finish Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemna after a 9 month reprieve, but my friend Julie was recently telling me about this article that Pollan wrote for The New York Times about cooking as a spectator sport. I definitely suggest reading this article, as it explores our fascination with the Food Network and the implications of taking cooking out of the kitchen (and onto the television). Finally, in discussing our bleak future with a "veteran food marketing researcher", Pollan is told that it's pretty much no use: "...the skills are already lost. Who is going to teach the next generation how to cook? I don't see it."

And on that note... I give you Gomae Salad by Spatulatta!

And also this...because it's funny.



Did I mention that I baked this weekend?? I am so domestic!