Has the party started yet? Here’s Los Straightjackets…
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Bird is the Word
My bird friends were waiting when I went out to refill the feeders in the snow this morning. It took Mr. Cardinal and his buddies all of 15 seconds to get on the feeders after I filled them.
OK, a Christmas song….just one, that’s all you get.
Here’s the most wonderful Nick Lowe with Los Straitjackets performing Christmas at the Airport…
Improvisational cookies
I’m a pretty good cook, and I can bake a decent loaf of bread, but when it comes to fancy-assed cookies and cakes and pastries, I’m pretty much lost. I’m sure this is in part because I prefer to make it up as I go rather than follow a recipe and do things the same way each time.
I can handle basic cookie dough, though, so I decided to whip up a batch of chocolate chip cookies. As I was mixing up the dough (by hand – I couldn’t be bothered with a mixer), I thought they ought to have some nuts in them. Rifling through the pantry, I unearthed some pistachios, chopped up a bunch of them and mixed them in with chips.
They aren’t fancy-shmancy Christmas cookies, but they’re super-tasty.
All Night Long
This time of year, lots of blogs are featuring all kinds of Christmas music. That’s good and well, and I think lovers of Christmas music ought to enjoy it while you can. For those who would like to take a wee breath between carols, here’s a taste of the Ozark Highballers, performing All Night Long.
Mr. Eddy
Eddy Mumma was born in Milton Ohio in 1908 and passed in Gainesville Florida in 1986. He took a painting class at age 60 at the suggestion of his daughter, but abandoned the class, unimpressed by the instructor’s criticism. Mumma, or Mr. Eddy, as he dubbed himself, kept right on painting. He became very prolific and often painted both sides of painting boards.
One article suggests Mumma became increasingly reclusive. “Art professor, bohemian musician, and big-hearted force of nature, Lennie Kesl, becomes Eddy’s close friend and ardent admirer at a time when Eddy is increasingly reclusive, self-conscious about losing his legs, and uninterested in interrupting his private inner world filled with art production.”
Mr. Eddy mostly painted faces. The painting we have is an unusually somber one. Many of them feature much brighter colours and most feature his characteristic powerful use of black contrasting with the coloured forms in the paintings.
Guilded Splinters
A dose from the Dr…
Pierogi Day
I don’t make pierogi very often, because I’m slow and clumsy at making them, but I love eating them, and today I made up a batch for dinner on Christmas Day.
The handy thing about pierogi is they freeze tremendously well. I place them on a plate as I construct them and when I have a dozen I put plate and all in the freezer. Once they are partially frozen I transfer them into bags, each containing a dozen. This trick avoids having all the pierogi stick together, forming a giant pierogi blob.
The filling for these is potato and cheddar cheese. Sometimes I make them with potato and that really firm Polish cottage cheese. I don’t make the ones with kapusta (although they’re yummy) nor the dessert pierogi.
This is one of my two big Christmas jobs out of the way. My other job is to make a big pan of cabbage rolls, the way Mom used to make them (and a smaller pan of veggie cabbage rolls for those who prefer to avoid meat). This is another work intensive operation. I confess I can never make them look as good as Mom’s because I’m not great at rolling them, but I know the secret to getting the flavour just right.
The Source
Here’s a blast from the past. I made this large diptych back in 1998 and exhibited it in an exhibition we put together called Canadian Shield, in a large 2-floor warehouse space. It’s about 8 feet wide and 6 feet tall. I painted it with acrylic and spray enamel on canvas. I still own this painting and have it in storage.
Over the years I’ve made a number of paintings call The Source. The title obviously refers to Gustave Courbet and his 1868 painting of the same name, although beyond the title, these paintings bear no resemblance to Courbet’s work.
Looking at this picture today, it seems like some kind of battleground for forms and shapes and lines. The whole painting seems to be in agitated motion as if the forms are coming together to become something else altogether. There is nothing pretty about this painting. It’s rough and ready, somewhat awkward and confrontational. You might call it ugly. I think that’s one of the reasons I still enjoy it.
Time Machine
Five-pin bowling is a Canadian phenomenon. It began around 1909 at the Toronto Bowling Club. For those who have never seen it, five-pin uses a much smaller ball than ten-pin, small enough to fit in the hand – without finger holes.
We volunteer for the Tri-Hard Bowling League. The Tri-Hards are a group of great people who love their bowling. They are adults with various challenges who need assistance score-keeping, and that’s how we help out. These folks have been bowling at the Bowlerama on Dundas Street West in Etobicoke for several years. Unfortunately the Bowlerama will be torn down early in the new year to make room for condos and the Tri-Hards will be moving to another facility.
On Saturday, we were talking with one of the folks who makes this bowling league happen. He told us when they started there were 120 five-pin alleys in the Toronto area, but now there are just five. I don’t know if this reflects a decline in bowling as an activity in general, or just a decline in the five-pin variant.
Tuffy P says the bowlerama is a time machine. I get the same feeling. When you walk into the place, it’s like going back in time to our youth in the late 60s and early 70s. Five-pin was a popular birthday activity back then. There was a five-pin alley at our local plaza – down in the basement – which doubled as a pool hall.
Last Saturday was the Tri-Hards Christmas party. The Bowlerama snack bar served up burgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese and of course French fries and soft drinks. Add to that plenty of chocolate and cookies. Everyone had a great time, including us. There will be one more Tri-Hards bowling day at Bowlerama before that building becomes Canadian history. We’re hoping the new facility will work out well and the league continues to thrive for years to come.
27th Street 