Slightly Risque Pie Porn

Be warned, my fresh fig pie may be a bit too sexy for your eyes.



There's this beautiful fig tree in our backyard that to some is the quintessence of mother nature's giving, fruitful womb. It shades our stone porch and gently spreads its branches to share itself with our grateful neighbors. Some days I just sit there and think, "Those leaves are kind of small... poor Adam, he may have been God's first crack at it but fig leaves? Really?"

I'm just kidding, I love that goddamn tree. So much so that for the past two years I've been making these pies when I can.

Fresh Fig Pie Recipe:

Dough: 2 to 2 1/2 cups flour, 1tsp sugar, 1tsp salt, 1 stick cold butter cut into teeny cubes, 5-6 tbs water. mix ingredients, add water as needed (but not too much), when dough starts to stick if you pinch it knead and roll it in a bowl, plop it onto a floured surface and separate into two balls - one for crust and one for lattice topping. (you may need more dough, in my family we dont approve of wimpy thin crusts).

Filling: fill a large size bowl about as big in diameter as your pie tin, with 4-5 cups peeled figs cut in half, the juice of half a lime or lemon, 7 tbsp sugar or splenda, 1 tbsp cornstarch, some cinnamon as you like, little bit of nutmeg to taste, toss gently with your hands (esp. if your figs are reaalllly ripe) and fill dough covered pie tin. use about a 1/5 or 1/4 stick butter to dot the top of the filling then cover with lattice and seal.
bake 30 to 40 minutes 'til lovely and bubbling.

Hello Inspirator

Leslie Holt, Leslie Holt.... I swear that I know that name from somewhere. In any case she's a really wonderful artist that I've just come across. As an artist myself I always choose a brightly colored narrative perspective and something in her work feels just as narrative but without being as literal. Art is nothing without a story to tell and Leslie's tiny paintings (often 6" x 6") really push something out of her as well as out of these standard (and sometimes stuffy) masterpieces. Thats really something. I am never troubled by whether or not something in art is new or innovative, only whether the idea itself is worth the expression.

It feels like an easy game of Where's Waldo, yes, but theres something to be said about the (oh God I can't believe I'm going to use this word) juxtaposition of the classic and definitely art pieces and the questionable artistic merit of the Sanrio product. But then you just shove those feelings aside and enjoy the way Hello Kitty brightens up everything... even La Guernica.

Her website.
"Leslie Holt’s recent work includes several series of paintings that weave inter-related experiences-- including her experiences growing up with a mentally ill family member, pop culture and famous works of art. Leslie’s work often displays an unsettling intersection of childhood and the adult world. Leslie’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States and has been featured at the Aqua Miami Art Fair and Scope Hamptons."

I wouldnt mind seeing this series with landry or keroppi too.

The Balance of Cool and Uncool: Staying Hip When You're Really Not

I was admiring Chanel Iman as many girls my age (which is also her age) do, and I shared her name with my older -and thusly less hip- brother Paul. He hadn't heard of her. But he had "seen of her"? One short amorous stop on Google Images later and he came upon this:

*image cropped to suit argument

-On the left, is the picture of elegance: Alien-like supermodel proportions, flawless skin, 100% H.A.U.T.
-On the right is what Paul declared to be one of his biggest pet peeves - beautiful people, who know they're beautiful "tryna to do that geek chic shit".

Paul and I relate to Ms. Chanel Iman on the level that the three of us happen to be half Black and half Asian, Blasian, if you will. But we're *not* supermodels. We have distinct and ever-so-slightly fond memories of growing up geeky and nerdy and fairly uncool. So it should come as no surprise that we marvel at how this:

has become this....

And it got me thinking about the ways in which "cool" is ever so elusive. As soon as something is trendy it withers in the opinion of coolmongerers everywhere. But as soon as a trend dies it then has the potential to come back again with 10 times more ferocity. Did Bill Gates up there know he and a whole league of geeks just like him would be lionized and plagiarized for their (lack of?) vision? How did being unfashionable become the waterbear of couture. When their dowdy plaids and button down shirts, unseemly tight jeans, ironic hair, and complete lack of style and polish became the epitome of poshness... what is the nerd to do?

Because no matter how trendy or on point he or she is, no matter how "in" the look becomes, the geek is still on the fringe. Not uncool enough to be cool - just the nerds they were meant to be. In my opinion its like white people adopting black culture and dress, it doesn't change anything for the other side. White people stay white, black people stay black. And the beauties and geeks, at the day's end are immutable.

Dalliance in New York

I did have a bit of fun in NYC this past weekend.
We toured the MoMA and argued the artistic merit of "Modern" (yet not Contemporary) artists:

of course, I had a mongoose mackerel of a time looking at my favorite works in the flesh... or canvas as it were.
For instance .. there was Miro...

...odilon redon.... rousseau...

...picasso.....klimt...

And as we came to the Rothkos I forced my brothers to split themselves Freud-style --- id, ego, superego and all that jazz...

goofed around, like a naked Matisse.

"oofed" around a bit too.

and one outfit pic to round it off:
theres no lioncoveringcamera so its not proper, but you know I had to:

August Sawdust

Sometimes I like to take an extremely basic concept and overcomplicate it. It's fun. But that's not for today. But lets suppose I added these, which I did:


Suddenly you've got that 1930's steel driver Americana thing going on. Plus, I'm still struggling with how that ultra-short romper is just so hard to integrate into an outfit but Zow! Those D&G jeans were just un-blue enough to pull it together. What I mean to say is, that it was hot and humid today but I still found a way to layer. Mother nature be damned, I will get to wear scarves this week.

childhoodflames was right - summer clothes definitely lack the impact and multi-dimensionality that fall clothing has in excess. Still, it didn't stop Mr. Creepy from brushing past me at the metro with his uber-lecherous "How you doin'..." Wish I had my steel-drivin' hammer to crush his toes, alas I was dressed for the occasion but ill-equipped.

He's lucky I didn't have my carpenter's* pants on.




*just kidding, I'd never own one of those godawful excuses for legcoverings.

Yoga at Dawn/Morning Benders/And Where My Asians At?

What makes my ears bend more? I dunno - maybe its finding out that the lead singer of a very very good band happens to be Asian? Maybe its just knowing how effing awesome The Morning Benders are. Maybe its a combo of the two.

I'm not trying to make a big deal out of the race thing, after all I am only half descendant of the Orient. However, I can not tell you how rare it is that talented Asian people make it to the front of anything. And no I'm not talking about the former guitarist for the Smashing Pumpkins - James Iha, or that guy Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park (ick), or that Filipino fella who now fronts Journey, (I'd talk about Rain or Yo-Yo Ma but y'all just ain't classy enough for that). Anyway, these are not good examples.

All I'm trying to say is that Chris Chu and all of his bandmates in the Morning Benders are 31 flavors of awesome. Yes, like ice cream. And yes, I dug them before I knew this righteous racial brownie point... Ice cream, brownies. What a delicious band.

Granted, I know linesthroughlines reported about The Morning Benders already. But I must stress the point. We can draw all the comparisons we want, whether to The Shins or Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin or Aaron Neville* but the fact remains that they currently dominate the first spot on my muxtape and their Daytrotter recordings still haven't been removed from their heavy iTunes rotation in my library. The fact also remains that - Chris Chu** is the Asian indie ambassadorial counterpart to my dear, dear Thao Nguyen.

Anyone else think that Chu looks a little bit like Mitsumura Tatsuya (光村龍哉) of NICO Touches the Walls?

*Aaron Neville and the Benders probably have a 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon type connection.
**Mad props to the other asian dude in Benders too, Tim Or, of course who plays a sweet Rickenbacker bass.

Hopefully when my band gets our proverbial sh*t together, we'll have some nice happy tunes likes these fellas to offer.

Tatoo-Redux

Well I've had some more time to mull it over... mull ... that's one of those words we use a lot that I don't really understand the origin of:

mull- v.- To heat and add spices to wine or ale.

Right, so I mulled over this whole tattoo business and came up with the same idea but different approach: here goes: and one more colon just for fun:

It's supposed to look like openwork lace and I think its rather pretty and beautiful, I havent seen any lace-like tattoos apart from henna and though this would be a pricey bet for sure - i'm getting kind of attached to it. And in case you're curious about the shape, its suppose to look like a conch shell:


and heres the original idea with a few slight color/design modifications especially in the center of the sampaguita blossom:




well, we'll see then - more ideas to come.

One, Two, Tat-usucaption

Tattoos, tattoos. Oh, what you do to me...

I want one so badly, and since I've designed both my brother's tattoos - I s'pose they owe me one (or two). But tattoos are a tricky, tricky business. Especially for a female. It's surprisingly acceptable for a man to get chest, arm, and certain back tattoos. Even calf tats pass muster. But for the ladies... we have "ass-antlers", "tramp stamps" and all sorts of other locations on the body that equate with butch/les or *ahem* ladies-of-the-night.

But - tattoos can be ridiculously beautiful and I'm dying to be inked. So heres my initial idea plus slightly more palatable placement:


The images here being the sampaguita (national flower of my mother's country, the Philippines), the fish scales which mimic the tattoo I designed for my oldest brother, and the third being a stylized Haitian conch (after the other half of my family and a nod to my other brother's tattoo).

But its not enough is it? I do want it to be in that sort of yakuza-esque (more Hokusai and Hiroshige, actually) heavy block lines and gradient format, but I don't think I've yet succeeded.

Back to the drawing board? Yes, I think so. But with time I should have it through tat-usucaption soon.