grilled cupcakes

I wanted to try baking on the grill. It's something I've been talking about to Stephanie for months now.
I finally decided to do it Friday night and invited Kate over to join me.
We didn't bake a whole dozen on the grill in case the experiment was a disaster. The rest of the was batter baked in the conventional oven in the house.
This is what we came up with;


I think they came out pretty good.

Our recipes came from Veganomicon (those cupcakes are not pictured) and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

says a lot

It don't Gitmo better!

This photo appears courtesy of the New York Times.

actually makes me kind of like her

I never thought I'd say that I like Paris Hilton but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the snark in this response to McCain's attack ad on Obama.

books

If you're remotely into food (where it comes from and how it's grown) the way I am, then you need to check out this book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. I'm 70 pages into it and really looking forward to reading some more, if only my damned work day didn't have to get in the way.

In brief, Kingsolver and her family move from Tuscon, AZ back east to live on a small farm in Appalachia, VA and for one year they would only buy and eat food "raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it." Interspersed in the main story are sidebars written by Kingslover's husband Steven L. Hopp and their eldest daughter Camille. Their youngest daughter Lilly also contributes, but as Kingsolver notes, "is too young to sign a book contract."

In concert with "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" I would highly recommend reading "It's a Long Road to a Tomato: Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life" by Keith Stewart.
The title kind of says it all, however to be kind I'll summarize... Keith Stewart, who worked in corporate America for many years quit his job and bought a farm in Orange County, NY. The book is a bunch of essays detailing what it takes to be a small organic farmer, also selling his goods in an urban market, in this day and age. The book also has beautiful illustrations by his wife Flavia Bacarella.
An interesting side note: Keith Stewart has one of the longest running stands at the Union Square Green Market and grows some of the area's best garlic.

I know it's not quite your breezy summer book list, but given that in this particular part of the country it is the best time of year for local, fresh fruits and veggies, I thought I'd try to inspire you (all three of you that read my blog that is) to loftier aspirations. Plus, how wrong can you go in supporting your local, family farm? It can surely only win you good karma points.

UPDATE: I meant to say you can purchase these fine tomes from this independent book seller in Portland, OR called Powells Books.

the walls must come down

catchin' a feature or two

Sunday evening we went to the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park to see two surf films - Bustin' Down the Door and Surfwise, hosted by the Jersey Shore Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.

Even cooler was, Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholomew and Shaun Tomson, two of the stars of the first movie, Bustin' Down the Door, were there to introduce the film and then do a post-feature Q+A. (I even got Rabbit to sign our copy of his book - he seemed pretty chuffed that we owned and read it!)

Rabbit and Shaun had a HUGE impact and blazed THE trail to what is known today as professional surfing. It's really quite incredible when you think about what they did. Even if you're not a surfer or into surfing, it's still a compelling movie to watch from an historical and cultural stand point.

Surfwise is an interesting film about the Paskowitz family, headed by Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz and the family's VERY unconventional way of living. The entire family, all 11 of them (yes, you read that correctly 11) lived and traveled in a 24-foot camper. The film chronicles what it was like growing up in America in the 60s and 70s in such a unique way. To quote the movie's site, "The Paskowitz Family proved that America may be running out of frontiers, but it hasn’t run out of frontiersman."

Here are the trailers to both movies, so you can judge for yourself.

BUSTIN' DOWN THE DOOR


SURFWISE

i love these photos

I love these photos by Tara Gorman. They're really clever and quite hilarious. If you see something you like, you can purchase it here.
You can also check her out on the google for more info.
I just wanted to share her images with you. I hope you like them.

Please also check out these photos.
I found them while looking at Tara's photos.

ADIDAS

A- all
D- day
I- i
D- dream
A- about
S- surfing

The gist of my days for the last several weeks:

wake up around first light
bicycle down to the beach to check the surf
rush back to the house, wake up M. and get my gear together
surf
rush to get ready for work, usually in about 20 minutes
commute
work
commute
surf until dark
eat
sleep
Rinse. Repeat.

Weekends have seen visitors at the house, us visiting others, projects - but mostly surfing. I've left little time for anything else. Not food shopping, not cleaning the house, not doing laundry, not editing promised photos, not e-mailing, not tending to my general responsibilities. Who knows when the waves will be gone?
I can do all that other stuff when it's flat.

I'm not complaining - it just makes me tired in the best possible way, lazy and out of touch. Now if I could just dispense with the commuting/working part, life would be perfect and I'd have a whole lot more time to get my chores done between surf sessions.

10pm BBQ

Since it's still light out until well after 9pm, we don't usually get done surfing until it's dark. This means, we don't eat until it's rather late. On the weekend that doesn't matter so much. BBQ - Saturday night - well after 10pm.


Grill Master


Crushin' the beef


Good company/Good food


Grilled corn and pineapple

wild strawberries

growing in the backyard of our friends' new home.

hey man

home of the dirt lot

Porkchop's handy work... first they arrested him and then they painted over it. Stooges!

r.i.p.

I meant to post about this the other day. I'm a little slow on the up-take, what can I say?

The Asbury Park fortune teller, Madam Marie, who became a figure of rock ’n’ roll mythology thanks to Bruce Springsteen, died on Friday (27 June 2008).

Madame Marie is pictured here, in a 2004 Asbury Park Press File Photo, waiting for a client at her boardwalk Temple of Knowledge.

Her obit, courtesy of the Asbury Park Press:

July 2, 2008

Madam Marie, 93, passes away

Made famous by Springsteen

By MICHAEL RILEY
STAFF WRITER

It was one line from a Bruce Springsteen song that made the boardwalk fortuneteller world famous. And now, Madam Marie has passed away.

Marie Castello, who had told fortunes since the 1930s and became famous for her presence and predictions on the Asbury Park boardwalk, died Friday, her great-granddaughter, Sally Castello said Tuesday. Family members attended morning services Tuesday, Castello said.

She was such a part of the Asbury Park boardwalk; she was the longest-running tenant, according to Gary Mottola, president of investments for developer Madison Marquette, the lead partner in a joint venture with Asbury Partners to restore or rebuild the boardwalk's entertainment buildings.

"She's an Asbury Park tradition," Mottola said. "We felt that honoring her by lowering the Convention Hall flag to half-staff is the right thing to do."

The psychic reader and adviser was 93. She became known worldwide from Bruce Springsteen's homage to her in his 1973 song "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)":

"Did you hear the cops finally busted Madam Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do."

"That was just The Boss," said Asbury Park Deputy Mayor Jim Bruno. "She was never arrested. But Springsteen turned her into an icon."

Bruno remembers his own run-in with the psychic.

"I was a 12-year-old kid. And I don't remember what I was doing, but I remember her chasing me away from her shack," he said. "Her death is a real loss."

It also was somewhat unexpected.

"She really wasn't sick. She just wasn't feeling well," Castello said. "She was very, very strong until the day she died."

Madam Marie bragged that she had told the fortunes of everyone from Judy Garland to Springsteen himself. Legend has it that she told Springsteen he was going to be a success. Springsteen later joked that she told all the musicians that.

Springsteen, though, never forgot Madam Marie.

"He always comes by to say hello," she told Asbury Park Press columnist Bill Handleman in May. "He knows where he came from."

Marie Castello closed down her regular seer operations on the boardwalk in the mid-1990s after a drop-off in business. She continued telling fortunes in Ocean Township.

However, Sally Castello is one of the family members who still does readings at the Madam Marie booth not far from Convention Hall on the boardwalk.

"The booth will always be there," Marie Castello told Handleman. "The Temple of Knowledge, that's a landmark, that's nostalgia. They'll never tear it down."

In that interview, she also said she saw better times ahead for Asbury Park.

And she would know. As she told Handleman: "I've seen it all."

Maybe she did.

Gary Froonjian, a former Middletown resident who moved to Florida but is operating a mobile espresso bar on the boardwalk this summer, sought her services once.

"After a fun night at the Stone Pony, I staggered in there one time," Froonjian recalled.

"I can't remember what she told me. It had to be 28 years ago," he said. But he added that he found the experience "very, very eerie."

cheeps (think australian accent)

i hope you like the new look

With the help of blogger, I finally updated my look with a "new" template. I hope you like it. I'll take constructive suggestions if you've got 'em. Otherwise I think it looks quite nice.
Cheers!

UPDATE - from a post on Sunday the 22nd

Here's the info for the new show at the Pine Gallery. It's of new work by artist Julie Goldstein and it runs through 1 August 2008.

Pine Gallery resides at:
2712 Long Beach Blvd.
Ship Bottom, NJ 08008
(28th & Long Beach Blvd)

i was tagged

And here are my answers:

Where were you ten years ago?
10 years ago I was starting my first photo editing job in NYC at the same Rupert Murdoch owned company as Shorehouse Chic (which is how we met, actually!!). At the time I was very excited to be working in the city and venturing forth in a new career. I got the axe a little later (2000), after the NETWORK came in and took over all the dot com entities. Myself and about 90% of staff were let go. So ten years ago, I was super excited to be commuting to NYC (imagine that?!?!) for my new job. HA!

Five items on your “To Do” list?
Well, I don’t exactly have a to do list today but if I were make one up it would go like this…
Wake up early to check the surf
Surf
Rush to get ready for work, fly out the door and up the Parkway to the bus
Commute to work on the bus
Do some work
Go to the doctor with my mother
Work some more
Commute home on the bus
Grill up the portabella mushrooms I’ve had marinating since yesterday morning
Eat
Digest
Go to bed

Snacks I enjoy?
CUPCAKES – but not the kind with too much butter crème frosting.
Fresh summertime berries
Sliced green peppers and some tasty humus.
I do love me some guacamole
These new chips (well, new to me) that I’ve recently discovered. They come in flavors like Sweet Potato or Chocolate. I can’t remember the name or I’d put a link to them. Those are dangerous to keep in the house, I’ll tell you.
Christina's Cheesy Toast, particularly when I'm drunk.

What would you do if you were a billionaire?
I would worry a hell of a lot less about money.
Have more time... Which I would put to good use by - spending it with the people I love, surfing, exercising, doing yoga (so I can have a body like Madonna), cooking and baking.
Travel.
Buy property in Hawaii and build my dream home/compound.
Give money to charity and my friends (which could be considered one in the same depending on which of my friends we're talking about).
Have a massage and acupuncture weekly.
Have the money to buy all the cameras I ever wanted and take all the photos I could and have the time/money to edit and print them.
Pay someone else to scan all my negatives and organize them for me.
Get a puppy, actually two puppies (and I already have their names picked out).
Only work because I wanted to, not because I HAD to.

Places I would live:
New Jersey
Hawaii
Southern Mainland Mexico, Pacific Coast side
Merriwether (near New Castle), NSW, Australia
(Notice the need to live near the ocean so I can surf?)

And now, I tag: Kid Cupcake and Whitney, they're some of the only people who read my blog that haven't already been tagged.

i'm going backwards with my posts

Friday night, we went down to LBI for the opening of our friend Ann's new photo studio/office. We had a great time, saw some old friends and met some new people including Marley, who is pictured here, with his owner Neal standing behind him.
I also met the owners of a vegan/vegetarian restaurant on the Island called Living on the Veg. You can check out who they are & what they do here and here.

We heard at Ann's opening that there might be something going on at The Pine Surfshop & Gallery next weekend. It's possible that artist Julie Goldstein, who also happens to be one of the owners of Pine, is showing some new work.

Once I get more details, I'll post an update.

Both Ann and Julie are incredibly talented and amazing artists so please go check out the links to their work. Support local artists and their endeavors.

happy summer

In honor of the first day of summer (which was Saturday the 21st) I made some summer-like dishes for supper.


The first is Cold Sesame Noodles and I got the recipe from here.
I swapped out the egg noodles for some rice pasta and next time I might cut out some of the vinegar. I also added a little extra garlic powder b/c it just needed something and you can't ever have too much garlic. The noodles are resting on some sliced English cucumbers for a little extra crunch.

My other dish was Steamed Mussels, and I got the recipe from here.
I used this recipe more as a guide just to get a general idea for how to make this dish. In fact, I used a whole small onion, sliced very thinly, I crushed and chopped a ton of garlic (WAY more than four cloves) and I used the little bit of left over freshly grated ginger from the noodles. I ended up using more like a cup of dry, white wine.

Everything turned out really nice and yummy.
Happy Summer!!

why gasoline costs so much

i'm voting republican

they really lied and there's hard proof of it

and it makes me want to scream that these people in the highest offices of our country won't be held accountable. SCREAM!

om tare tuttare ture svaha

more photography

Please go check out Women In Photography. It's a new project that I hope will be around for a long, long time.