Material Archive

The Burning House

My friend JF recommended this site (what would you take if your house was on fire) last week and I finally combed through it today – love the Le Creuset priorities!

If my home was about to go up in flames, I would take my laptop and external drives (with all of my photos), wallet & passport, iphone, two paintings and my jewels... c'est tout! What about you?

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage

As someone that shops daily at Kensington Market and only buys fresh, never frozen, local organic meat from Sanigan's Meat Locker, my neighborhood butcher – I'm was excited to be introduced to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage by my darling MB - who is one of the most sincere and conscientious foodies I know. We've started watching from the beginning of the series, which aired back 1999 and are working our way to the present. So far, I am addicted! Hugh started living in the original River Cottage in rural Dorset in 1998, determined to start growing and rearing some of his own food. Today his efforts have expanded and are as strong as ever. If you're a fan of what Jamie Oliver is trying to accomplish with Food Revolution, this is right up your alley.

When I die:

When I'm ready to kick the bucket at 80 there will be no blogs – just communal thoughts no? Eeeep!

Yup

By Mick Stevens for The New Yorker

Where has this great insight gone?

I can't stop looking at these Lego ads from 1981 over and over again – I love them so much. Why? Because I feel like I don't see this type of dialogue anymore. It feels like toys today are so rarely this gender neutral. It feels like feminism and girl power have been been distorted and morphed in to something disingenuous and opportunistic that resembles Paris Hilton and the Pussy Cat Dolls.
Walking in to a Toys R Us recently, I was overwhelmed by the oppressive and dominating themes of girls' toys centered around grooming, shopping, cooking, caring for baby and being a provocative Princess. It made me wonder if the deeply sexist world portrayed in Mad Men that I marvel at weekly on HBO is really that distant.
Yes, I too played with Barbies when I was wee and pink certainly played a large role at that impressionable age too, but there were other choices as well. I played with Lego, Star Wars figures, video games, science kits, board games, art supplies, books and had a bicycle and a skate board.  And although I did like the idea of having an invisible jet like Wonder Woman, being a "sexy princess" never factored in to my plans.
This dominating "pinkafication" of all things female feels alarmingly regressive and unapologetically sexual. In addition to little girls like Suri Cruise wearing high-heels, (you can now buy them for your baby too), everything for moms, teens and young girls alike seems geared towards a more mature, sexed-up, celebrity and material obsessed culture. Even Dora, who should be dressed as her name suggests, as an explorer, has recently veered into Bratz territory. Tween Dora is now a sexy version of her former self, with longer hair, slender legs, short dress, jewels and ballet slippers – not exactly all-terrain wear.

This Halloween:

Yup.