Very Quick Recipes

In an effort to make a New Year resolution to eat properly without eating out all of the time, I'm trying to alter my approach to cooking. I haven't quite figured it out, but ideally any dish that requires few ingredients, or ingredients with long shelf lives (so I can minimize grocery store trips), that requires little preparation, and that uses few dishes (so I can minimize cleaning time) would be great. That seems nearly impossible now that I write it out, but... maybe I can figure something out.

• Cream biscuits
• Congee! (Juk)

Baked Brie

Origami

Jak and Jil Blog

Jumping Colors

Markus Reugels - Jumping Colors

Jason Wu

Beautiful. Vogue.

Nina Dobrev in Donna Karan New York

Fitler Square

Food to try in my neighborhood!

• Tastebuds Market (24th and Lombard) << visited... it was ok... my chicken salad sandwich was quite dry, and although I was supposed to have grapes in it, there was a total of one grape in my sandwich (one half in each half of my sandwich).
• My Thai (South and 22nd)
• Grace Tavern (Grays Ferry and 23rd) << visited - great burger, great fries. would recommend again in a heartbeat.
• Ants Pants Cafe (South between 22nd and 23rd) << went! It was delicious! definitely would go again.
• Bacchus Market and Catering (23rd and Spruce) << went! It was pretty good - the hot apple cider and mashed potatoes were fine, but the lemon bar was WONDERFUL
• Betty's Speakeasy (23rd and Grays Ferry) << went! it was good, but I wasn't really in love... I'm not sure I would be eager to go back, sadly.
• JG Domestic
• Apple Cider dessert at Square 1682 
• Not in Fitler Square, but FEDERAL DONUTS! 

Housing Competition

http://www.d3space.org/competitions/

Images from suckerPUNCH

Serge Salat's installation.

Rhino/Grasshopper

For future reference: Alex Hogrefe

Thirteen Reasons Why

This was a very fast read. I'm pretty satisfied with the way the book dealt with the topic of suicide- I was afraid it would be kind of one sided, with blame falling on one side rather than another. In the end though, there's plenty of blame to share amongst all of the characters. It's an interesting book.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath. It's interesting because her madness doesn't seem too unusual. It seems like a very approachable madness, if that makes sense. And that's kind of creepy.

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

Mother Night

Kurt Vonnegut is so good. You can never really know a person, it seems.

Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut

Crank

I know it's a young adult book and I know you can't really terrify kids with realistic horror stories about meth addictions, but this book still didn't seem to be quite enough. It glossed up and fogged over meth addiction. And the poetic way of writing seemed a little bit full of itself after a while. It needed to be a little grittier and really give a more vivid, real look into the psychology of drug addicts because it's such a complicated, out of control situation. It did begin to, but in a way that seemed clouded over. It did make me think twice about having kids though.

Crank - Ellen Hopkins

Half Made World

Adventure/sci-fi/post-apocalyptic books are books I generally assume I'll enjoy and while I did enjoy this one, I can't say I loved it. The story and the ideas behind it are interesting, and while some characters were generally well-developed, they were not really likeable. I didn't know who to root for at any point in time. Maybe that was the idea - that people are so multi-faceted that you can never fully like a person in their entirety. And that when you're in a state of conflict, no one's really the good guy more than anyone else. There's supposed to be a sequel, and that's what this book is geared towards, so I plan on reading that when it comes out.

The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

This book was a complete eye-opener. I had never really considered the ethical issues behind such medical research, so this was a fascinating book for me.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot 

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

This definitely ended up better than I thought it would. It seemed a little whiny at the beginning, but morphed into something more pleasant later. The idea of collaborating on a novel is an interesting one.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green and David Levitthan

Who Fears Death

I liked this book. There were a couple of typos that bothered me, and some moments that seemed like they should carry more impact were written in a way that didn't hit me in that way. But overall, I appreciated the social commentary, the adventurous aspect of the book and the way it portrayed love.

Who Fears Death - Nnedi Okorafor

Places To Visit in the World

• Beijing
• Shanghai
• Athens
• The Egyptian Pyramids
• Rio de Janeiro/Curitiba
• Singapore
• Tokyo
• Seoul
• St Petersburg
• Copenhagen
• Ethiopia
• 
  

Places to Visit in NYC

• Bookmarc (Chelsea - 400 Bleeker @ 11th)
• St Mark's Bookshop (Astor Place - 31 3rd @ 9th)
• Bookstore Cafe (Soho - 126 Crosby btwn Prince and Jersey)
• Greenlight Bookstore (Brooklyn - 686 Fulton St @ S Portland Ave)
• Annie's Blue Ribbon General Store -
  
• Mxyplyzyk
• A&G Merch
• Oak
• The Market NYC
• Brooklyn Collective
• Brook Farm General Store
• APC Surplus - 33 Grand St, Williamsburg
• Paul Smith Sale Shop - 280 Grand St, Williamsburg
• Brooklyn Industries Outlet -184 Broadway, Williamsburg
• Gabays
  
• Steven Alan Outlet 465 Amsterdam
• The Shop at Cooper-Hewitt
  
• John Derian
• Kisan
• Matter
  

Brave New World

Fascinating. Somehow, this future world doesn't seem so impossible.

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

Ender's Game

Read this earlier as well... more later!

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

The Road

Read this earlier as well. I definitely was pulled into this book entirely. More soon...

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

I Am the Messenger

I read this earlier in the year. It was fine, but for some reason not entirely captivating as Book Thief was.

I Am the Messenger - Markus Zusak

Memory Keeper's Daughter

A little slow in parts and she really insisted on driving in the sadness that comes with secrets, but overall it was fine. It was interesting to follow the psychological ramifications that comes from one action, though.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards

Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

This was a very... leisurely book. While I liked it, I can't say I loved it, as it wasn't always easy to get through some parts of the book. The ideas in it were interesting, but I might have appreciated the subtle aspects of this book more if I had had someone to discuss them with. The ideas of those who inflict harm and those who absorb it was certainly the biggest idea and to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what the importance of that idea is.

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami

Flares

Balmain Resort

Food in NYC

I'd like to try some more places to eat in NYC! Ok... mostly dessert places...

• Brunch!
• Coolhaus - I've always loved this in LA and would like to visit it in NYC too.
• Wafels & Dinges - I do like waffles.
• Van Leeuwen Ice Cream
• People's Pops
  
• LA Burdick Dessert
• Desserts by Michael Allen
• Artichoke Pizza
• Fong Inn Too
• Lulu's Sweet Apothecary
• Two Little Red Hens
• Treats Truck
• Catania, Brooklyn
• Gray's Papaya
• Junior's
  
• Murray's Bagels
  
• Clinton St Baking Company (biscuit sandwich)
• Momofuku Noodle Bar/Milk Bar
  
• Chikalicious' Cheesecake
  
• Crif Dogs
• Je and Jo Ice Cream
• The City Bakery (3 w 18th Street btwn 5th and 6th)
• Chelsea Market

Special Topics in Calamity Physics

It's late, but I finally finished Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. This book was definitely a mixture of annoying and amusingly clever, but in the end, I like it. More later when I'm fully awake...

New notes: I liked this book a lot. I like the way it leaves you wondering what was real and what was imagined. I, for the most part, enjoyed the way the author wrote, but it does get tedious as you keep reading and I found myself skipping a few descriptive passages. The author seems very amused with her own ability to describe things colorfully for the reader, but it dragged on as pretentious as the plot thickened. Ultimately, though, I would recommend this book. It was simultaneously dark and amusing.

Alexander McQueen, Fall 2008.


Alexander McQueen. Fall 2006.

Panama Supercharge

From suckerPUNCH.

Dresser > Kitchen Island

So simple, but so awesome!

Outside? Inside?

Architecture must burn.

A set of candles from the New Museum store. $250 to watch NYC burn.

Edwards Moore temporary store.

Gabriel Dawe thread installation.

A Beautiful Tragedy

A Beautiful Tragedy - a ballet documentary I always wanted to view.

Aranda Lasch, Again

Dante Club

I finally was able to read again! In this case - Dante Club by Matthew Pearl. I haven't read Dante's Divine Comedy yet, and now feel entirely uneducated for having not. I've had a collection of books waiting for me that I've been accumulating over the months and am excited to finally get to them. Not sure if I should actually add Dante to the list though.

A Collection of Recipes

• Japanese Potato Salad
• Penne di Funghi con Pollo e Salsiccia
• Churros and chocolate
• Egg salad
• Shrimp and walnuts
• Chinese asparagus
  
• Mushroom Carbonara Pasta
• Chocolate Cake Roll
• Apple Cake
• Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Cake
  
• No-Bake Cheesecake
• Japanese Tuna Spaghetti
• Red Potatoes, Green Beans and Mushrooms
• Honey Ginger Salmon
• Japanese Chicken Rice

Bag.

If I get a (paid) summer internship, I'll treat myself to this bag...

Gorgeous