what are you reading?

i've been reading a lot the last couple months, visiting the library every couple of weeks, and also attempting to power through my massive backlog of books (i'm kind of overboard with the book-collecting, oy!). i had slowed down with my book consumption around the time that poppy was born in 2008, and for most of her first year because i was so excruciatingly tired and couldn't really seem to find the time, but this year i've been blessed with more and more blocks of free time and thus, my reading appetite has returned with a vengeance.
primarily, i like to read non-fiction: biographies, food, science, history, culture/sociology and any combination of the previously mentioned. i especially love books that focus on subjects relating to health/medicine.

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here's what i've been reading lately/have finished this year/hope to start and/or finish soon:
-isabella blow: a life in fashion by lauren goldstein crowe -- just finished it yesterday! also have blow by blow by detmar blow and tom sykes in my possession but haven't had a chance to crack it yet; the reviews on the latter are not so good but i'm going to read it anyway for compare-and-contrast purposes.
-the food book by james trager -- found this @ a thrift store in NYC before we moved from there last year; it's a book that concerns itself with food history and trivia. one of my favorite thrift book finds of recent years.
-kitchen confidential and medium raw by anthony bourdain -- i have a bit of a crush on anthony; i love his sense of humor, bravado, potty mouth, punk rock ethos and acerbic wit. the way he slices and dices and skewers the (in)famous and drops drug/counter-culture references with abandon in his shows has me in stitches. after reading both of these books and watching just about every no reservations ever made, i think he's incredibly intelligent, and kinder and more humble than many people may think. he may not be everyone's cup of tea but i devoured his books (with relish). the nasty bits is on my bedside table. i read the first two back-to-back, so i thought i'd take a little break from anthony and come back to him later, after i'd read some other books in the backlog.
-the mother tongue: english and how it got that way by bill bryson -- started this last year, finished it this year. all about the history of the english language...where it came from, how it's changed, who uses it, where it's going. lots of funny anecdotes about english told in a light, entertaining way. i think languages are an incredibly interesting subject; i don't know any other language besides english fluently (i wish i had a million lifetimes to learn them all!), but find the subject of linguistics (in general!) fascinating nonetheless.
-AIDS doctors: voices from the epidemic: an oral history by ronald bayer and gerald m. oppenheimer -- found this one at the local library while browsing around. as said above, i have always had an interest in books about medicine, infectious disease and the like. it's an incredibly poignant, personal historical narrative the story of AIDS via the words of doctors who have worked with people who have/had been stricken with the disease over the last 30 years. very compelling read; enlightening as well, as i grew up in the age of AIDS, the 80s and 90s, when the disease was front page news and the subject was omnipresent in the minds of many. it's interesting to read about it's discovery and treatment retrospectively.

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other books on the nightstand:
-plagues and peoples by william h. mcneal (about how infectious disease has affected the course of history/humanity)
-the omnivore's dilemma by michael pollan (just bought this yesterday; have heard a lot about it to date)
-bonk: the curious coupling of science and sex by mary roach (loved stiff.)

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because i am always on the hunt for good books (and always curious about you!):
what are you reading right now?
what kinds of books do you like to read?
please share!

denyse schmidt's 'any way you slice it' @ the university of bridgeport

on saturday our little family bopped over to the university of bridgeport's arnold bernhard center gallery to see quilter denyse schmidt's solo show, any way you slice it. i've been a fan of denyse's work for several years now...and was eager to get a chance to see her work up close (and personal).

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a little review of sorts!
the gallery is a part of the university of bridgeport; it being a saturday in late november, the place seemed pretty dead, literally and figuratively. there weren't many signs directing people anywhere (i only saw one small flyer for her exhibit by one of the entrances to the building). absolutely no one was milling around, on the campus, or in the building, or curiously, on the streets near the campus. kind of freaky.
according to a blurb about the show on her site, the solo exhibition "showcases recent quilts as well as earlier examples to provide a sense of continuity and context for the current work."
to set the scene for you: several beautiful quilts were hanging around on the walls of the room that held her show (see above, they are, allegedly, the recent work mentioned above); there was also a tv screen with a slideshow of projects made by various quilters and crafters using her fabrics or patterns (from her books and the like); examples of her mass produced finished quilts; samples of some of her quilt fabric designs; a binder filled with sketches and photographs that looked to be an illustration of her design and development process.
overall, the exhibit was nice... but also kind of strange, and weak and/or weirdly lacking in the way of context: explanation, relationship of the pieces to one another, things of that nature. what i was yearning for was more words...words about denyse herself, perhaps, words that told more about the specifics of the works on display, and so forth. perhaps at the opening she was there to provide that context i was craving? i don't know. maybe i was blind and missed something?
adding to the weirdness: two long tables along one of the walls were dressed with tablecloths and covered with stacks of empty, unused wine glasses, and the center of the room housed a collection of round cocktail tables. clearly there had been a party/talk/some event in the room in recent days but no one had bothered to clean up. seemed sloppy and strange and was kind of off-putting and distracted from the show.

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all that said...
i really liked many of the quilts on display...denyse clearly has a studied sense of design and color, a studied way of balancing blocks of intense, organically arranged color and pattern against proportionately vast areas of solid color. her art training (she was trained at RISD) is clearly apparent; her work transcends the categorization of "craft," veering definitively into the realm of (modern) art. forget putting these pieces on a bed; they rightfully deserve a big wall for display, contemplation...and adoration.
i especially loved the pair of orange and blue quilts (with the ladder placed between them); i'm having a big love affair with pairings blue and orange of late, so they really spoke to me. the off-white quilts with with the offset blocks with intense red, pink and green fabrics were also quite incredible. the camera on my iphone just couldn't do the colors and fabrics the justice they rightly deserved.

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ALERT: if you're in CT/the northeast/NYC metro area: you can still go see denyse's show! it's running until december 3rd, 2010.

11.7.2010

catching up again...there's a lot going on personally and with family and we've been pretty overwhelmed.
anyway...
seen here getting ready to go get brunch, and then groceries, etc, back on the 7th.
i just finished this sweater, it's the "swing pullover/bell sleeve turtleneck sweater" from knit simple's fall 2010 issue (ravelry link). i've been crazy obsessed with garter stitch for a while. and the color yellow. so i pretty much did this one exactly as shown on the cover/in the mag.
this was a ridiculously fun and easy knit, but their instructions for finishing the neck area (in my opinion) are incomplete in the pattern as written. wrote them. unsurprisingly, got no reply. finished it my own way. whatever.
i'm calling it my "ronald mc big bird sweater". :P that said i love it so. might make it in say, gray someday. it's crazy cozy and comfortable but does weigh half a squillion pounds.
other deets:
-yellow thermal long sleeve tee: old navy, thrifted -vintage levi's 501's: etsy -red resin ring: dinosaur designs -striped bag: from a vendor at the BAM africa festival summer 2010. -red patent ankle boots: nordstrom's rack in chicago -acid yellow hat: crocheted by moi -red acrylic earrings: UO -crocheted scrumble pin: made in a freeform crochet class linda p. and i took years ago. -star pin: thrifted in SF
on miss p.:
-hat: handknit by her great aunt patty (thought i lost it when she was around 6-7 months, found it in an old purse yesterday and almost cried!) -red plaid windbreaker: polarn o. pyret -pleated jeans: baby gap -moto boots: target