Digest 11/06/09

Honest to goodness, I’m loving the end of Daylight Savings.  Faced with the end of the year crunch in both school and work—and the need to be super efficient so as to negotiate the upswing in holiday season parties—I’m finding the early darkening to be delightfully work-inducing. At home and at work, I’ve got a nice workspace by a window, plenty of elbow room, and a bright, low-hanging table lamp.  Jethro Tull and Carla Bruni radio take turns on Pandora.  I’m bunkered in by ever-growing assemblage of coffee mugs, nearly-finished pints of tea, and a tumbler with the sweet-smelling residue of Cutty Sark. Yes, it’s quite cozy.

Moon rise at Gladysvale, SA

Get cozy and read these:

No need to reinvent the wheel. During the week, I collect my five favorite articles and then post them Friday. Look for a wide spectrum, and I welcome you to send suggestions.

1.  Now this is sad. What would Hemingway think? I hope it alarms you.

2. Another shocking event, from this week, almost 3 decades ago. So tragic, I can’t believe stuff like this happens.

3.  H1N1 is on everyone’s mind. My sister Chelsey weighs in.

4.  Chanel is all about jade this season. Gucci also goes green, in a different way.

5.  MAD MEN: Did you read this? Read this one, too. And do let me know what you think, if you get a chance.

Off to the symphony tonight…my first trip to the Kennedy Center…cheers! Courtney

Digest 10/30/09

No need to reinvent the wheel. During the week, I collect my five favorite articles and then post them Friday. Look for a wide spectrum, and I welcome you to send suggestions.

1.  Those whales I was talking about. Epic.

2. FM “Bunny” Allen was one of the last great white hunters and a notorious lothario in Africa. From the FM Allen newsletter Camp Smoke. The whole issue is worth reading. Highly entertaining and informative. Here’s a good one to start with: The Legend of the Little Bastard, aka the car the killed James Dean.

3. Shout out to CU economist Christopher Barrett. He is brilliant, Google Scholar him. I also like the way this article starts out, too, with the age-old fish adage. Incidentally, I was, this past Tuesday, at an Ashoka meeting, during which they expressed their own motto to “support the person that would change the entire fishing industry.” Good thinking.

4. Beautiful art photos from Ashes and Snow, supported by none other than Rolex.

5.  In the spirit of Halloween, an article that more-than-mentions death metal rockers Slayer. Dance with the Devil by Josh Max is archived on the Happy Days blog on NY Times that I am so constantly impressed with. I went to a couple of GWAR concerts in Seattle back in the day and rest assured I did not leave ‘happy.’ But that’s the whole point of the Happy Days blog–cataloging the search for contentment in its many forms in the face of the economic and other insecurities of the day.

Holiday season is officially here! Have a safe and fun Halloween to all my friends around the world, may you have more treats than tricks. Courtney

Digest 10/16/09

Love Story. It's snowing in Ithaca, you know. Not in DC unfortunately.

No need to reinvent the wheel. During the week, I collect my five favorite articles and then post them Friday. Look for a wide spectrum, and I welcome you to send suggestions.

1. Into oblivion. Wild.

2. This was from the Times magazine out last week, but I missed this gem the first time around. Maybe you did too.

3.  Safe + legal = rare. For additional reading, I highly recommend Michelle Goldberg‘s Means of Reproduction.

4. This is a great Silicon Valley comeback story. I found it on the Facebook page of a friend who knows the man.

5. Mimic the best looks from Paris with this rundown from Net-a-Porter.  My gorgeous best friend, the designer Ashley Ashoff, is featured top right.

Pumpkin carving this weekend…toodaloo! Court

Digest 10/9/09

Cataract Canyon, Utah

No need to reinvent the wheel. During the week, I collect my five favorite articles and then post them Friday. Look for a wide spectrum, and I welcome you to send suggestions.

1. Photoshopping mishaps never fail to entertain. From Time, this photoessay of deliberate photo doctoring packs in some cool history, too.

2.  This Happy Days column pulls at your heart and soul. Read it, then go here and here, and then get the book, “the most important and beautiful book to come out of the West in a decade.”

3. This is absolutely hilarious. Sent in by, as Dave Barry calls them, an alert reader. Also, Old Night Parrots of New Zealand would be a great name for a band.

4.  Shout out to my brilliant college roomie Freya and her star-studded adventures in ice cream. Courtesy of none other than that little Time magazine.

5. This article couldn’t be more perfect. About nature and being nice, and it hails from my hometown.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone. C

Digest 10/02/09 edition

 

Taung Child

Mrs Ples

Dinosaur

Photos from visits to the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria and the fossil vault at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

No need to reinvent the wheel. During the week, I collect my five favorite articles and then post them Friday. Look for a wide spectrum, and I welcome you to send suggestions.

1.  Are you in dire need of some free-spiritedness? Take Julia’s Gypset quiz.

2. Smart slacking = efficiency 

3. Predator Appreciation Month Olivia Judson’s The Wild Side

4. A readable collection of thoughts on investing.  From Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow’s blog.

5. A decade and a half in the making. The debut of Ardi. 

(Why not, a not-so-recent 6th: update on the Taung Child, the first picture I posted above, from 2006. This was major paleoanthropological news, and I remember being a bit enthralled at the time.  Oh, and once I drank Lee Berger under the table at a pub in Midrand.)

Prost! Courtney

HFNT Digest: 9/25/09

En route to Carter Notch, New Hampshire

 

No need to reinvent the wheel. During the week, I collect my five favorite articles and then post them Friday. Look for a wide spectrum, and I welcome you to send suggestions.

Week of 25 September 2009: *Delayed this week, was Maid of Honor at a gorgeous wedding in Marblehead Mass this past weekend. Made me miss the northeast very very much. I am wearing lots of Bean today.

1.  Nothing new for my fellow Cornellians. Thanks Jim Maas.

2.  Four decades ago, T’s mom told me when I sent her this article earlier this week, the order of happiness was: married men, unmarried men, unmarried women, married women. Some things change, some things stay the same.

3.  Kubla Khan is the lone, handwritten resident on my closet door. Not into Coleridge (or poetry in general)? Maybe this article will get you going. Or at least brighten your outlook. It’s from Happy Times, a NY Times set of articles that discuss the search for contentment in its various forms amidst the economic downturn.

4.  Cheerful WASPS. A little levity. A topic that will always intrigue.

5.  Like I said, I miss the northeast. But also, there’s a nice mention of DC fave Tabard Inn in this one. Now you’ll know where those oysters came from.

Happy Almost-October…Courtney

Buffalove

My computer ate my blog post. Really, I had typed up a fascinating account yesterday of how I shook Lady Obama’s hand last Thursday at the opening of the new White House farmers market. I remarked that red carpets and farmers markets are rather odd bedfellows. I described how Michelle touted this initiative as not only opening a new consumer base for regional farmers but as a way for the government to take care of its employees. Then I became militant and demanded that all employers take proper care of their employees, because it is nice and respectful and because it is a good management decision. I subsequently realized that I was beginning to sound like Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms in VA, probably due to the fact that I’m knee-deep in his book “Everything I Want To Do is Illegal.” Then I compared Joel, in his radical but weirdly relatable ways, to Ted Nugent. It was quite a post. I hit publish and all was lost. So that’s the recap, here are the pictures:

The line-up: Mayor Fenty, Michelle ma belle, Ag Sec Tom Vilsack, other local local foods luminaries

Eat your arugula!

Bino-envy

Why Buffalove?  Well I was just about to thoroughly enjoy the piece-by-piece decimation of my MacDinosaur via the In-Sink-Erator when I realized it was nearly 4 and so instead I raced to McFadden’s to eat hot wings, drink a bucket of Labatt’s, and, amongst a mass gathering of Upstaters, watch the Bills……………WIN! I forgot all about my shitty laptop and went home and roasted the duck I bought earlier that day at the Dupont F.M. along with some winter squash and blue potatoes. I chopped off the tip of my left ring finger in the process but not even that got me down. The Bills make me wanna shout!

Couch travel

Cultural-forage from the sofa with my favorite escapist reads:

1) The Drifters, James A. Michener

This magnificent drama follows six Vietnam-era youth through Spain, Marrakech, and Mozambique as they grapple with dreams, drugs, and disenchantment with the times.  Reading this book during my final spring semester of college made me realize the disservice I would do to myself by moving into a shoebox in Manhattan without first seeing even California.  It is a book I have given frequently to others, and though each person takes something different from the story, there is a universal message embraced.

2) Don’t Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller

An incredible autobiographical account of growing up as an ex-pat in southern Africa.  Fuller’s writing style is jarring and as athletic as Hemingway’s. Her cutting honesty and infinite compassion reflects the harsh and beautiful landscape in which she grew up. This is a book I have read over and over again.

3) I Dreamed of Africa, Kuki Gallmann

Gallmann’s is a truly moving story, and the strength she displayed as she put herself back together after unimaginable tragedies has inspired me through tougher times in my own life. Born a privileged Venetian, she expatriated to Kenya decades ago, where she lives on a massive ranch with her daughter Sveva. Both devote their lives to conservation and other causes that I continue to follow (for example, seewww.gallmannkenya.com)

4) Seven Gothic Tales, Isak Dinesen

Isak Dinesen, the nom de plume of Karen Blixen of Out of Africa, writes with the deliberation of word and thought that makes writing a craft. Like everything Dinesen pens, this collection of short stories is engaging from the outset, as it uncovers the nuances of life in the mystical hinterlands.  Reading Dinesen ignites in me deep cravings to write myself.

5) A River Runs Through It, Norman Maclean

Most of us became familiar with this title through the gorgeous Redford-directed film that stars Brad Pitt.  As is many times the case, I was spurred to locate the original written words that inspired a beloved film.  Set in Montana, this novella is a stunning portrait of frontier America, and is written as gracefully as a fly cast.  Soon after reading this Maclean, I happily found myself drinking in the glacial air of Big Sky country; I highly recommend it.

Gypset, the inspiration

See the Abouts first.

Gypset, more than anything, is a state of mind. No matter where our bare feet land, we craft colorful, carefree, culturally adventurous lives. This blog is devoted to living in “experimental luxury” in the District and beyond.

Julia Chaplin, fully embodying the Gypset lifestyle herself, defined a way of life. In her words, Gypset (Gypsy+jet set) is about an emerging group of artists, musicians, fashion designers, surfers, and bon vivants– who lead semi-nomadic, unconventional lives. She published her exploration in the rich, fully worth-buying tome Gypset Style, available atwww.Assouline.com.  Read Julia’s original musings online atwww.gypset.com and her personal website www.juliachaplin.com.