nunu

7.30.09

what went wrong

by
Renata

I am convinced that the appeal of fava beans is the effort, not the result. When I saw them at the farmer’s market last August, my stepmom painted such a tempting vision of summer afternoons in Italy spent dabbing the fresh beans in salt, the perfect late harvest snack. Fava bean dip with mint, a recipe I see from time to time, seems similarly refreshing.

I had never dealt with fava beans before, but because they are one of those items that comes and goes quickly during the season, I felt pressed to buy them last week. After the purchase, I got really busy and forgot about them until yesterday, when I had just finished a project and I needed a mindless-yet-mindful task, and shelling and peeling fava beans is just that. “It makes me feel like we’re villagers whose work is never done,” said my friend as we removed the pale green filmy skins of a handful of beans. We kept our hands busy while we rearranged our minds. Food pairs well with philosophizing.

A hefty bag of beans-in-shell eventually amounted to a paltry pile that hardly covered the bottom of pan, so the cooking part seemed irrelevant, useless. What would it make, a spoonful of mash? A single fava patty? The boiling and blanching only proved that cooked fava beans are actually quite smelly, flavored like dirty socks or rank armpits. I doctored them up with garlic that was too sharp and lemon juice that made the mush too sour. Salt and an avocado had nothing to add to the mix, either. Disappointment and disaster.

Sometimes food, like thought, does not depend on realization to provide satisfaction.

Keywords: food and observations. Comment
7.29.09

rad by rad hourani

by
Renata

Yesterday Rad Hourani launched his secondary line, Rad by Rad Hourani, at the Soho Grand. It’s a collection of seasonless, unisex everyday clothes designed to fill a gap in the market for all those tall, svelt model-types who need a t-shirt that will drip off their slender frames like salad dressing.

Keywords: designers, events and fashion. Comment
7.27.09

add, multiply, repeat

by
Renata

Even when you’re observing a dancer alone onstage doing a solo, you’re frequently aware of a multiplicity that’s not simultaneous but sequential. Now she’s jumping looking up; now she’s lying flat on the floor; now she’s balancing on one foot, bending her torso one way and extending her other leg in another. Cunningham dancers constantly say, like Whitman, “Do I contradict myself?/Very well then I contradict myself/(I am large, I contain multitudes).”

–In the Cunningham Dimension, Multiplicities in Time and Space

Keywords: dance. Comment
7.27.09

merce cunningham, 1919 - 2009

by
Renata

Roamin’ 1 (1980), a film by Charles Atlas with choreography by Merce Cunningham. Cunningham died today at the age of 90.

Keywords: art, dance, film and news. Comment
7.24.09

profiles

by
Renata
Anyone read The New Yorker profile on Phoenix sheriff Joe Arpaio this week? He’s the guy that is conducting a pathological crackdown on illegal immigrants (and there is rampant racial profiling of people who are legal) and employs prison tactics designed to humiliate – you may have heard of his parades of prisoners in pink uniforms—and also dresses them in archaic black and white striped uniforms—or his chain gangs in the blazing furnaces of Phoenix and his “tent city” prisons in the desert (with interior temps nearing 130 degrees, reports William Finnegan in the piece). Per New Yorker style, the piece lets Arpaio dig his own hole by showing what a pathetic publicity hound he is while also illustrating his appalling orchestrations of this “theater of cruelty.” Reading it, I found it shocking that a bigger deal hasn’t been made of him in the conversation about torture.

Earlier this summer, I got a very small, but potent taste of Arpaio’s Phoenix, just as I was leaving, in the airport. I gave my I.D. to the homeland security agent before going through security, as usual. He looked at my driver’s license, then looked at me, then looked at it again—again, pretty standard—then he looked up at me again and said, “And you are?”

I looked at him, completely confused—because he’s holding my I.D., right, so, why is he asking for my name? (Isn’t that the usual response to a “And you are” question?) So I say, “Um, I am…Renata Espinosa?” I phrase it as a question because I’m not sure what kind of answer he is looking for. “I can see that on your I.D.,” he says, and then he repeats the question again.

I realize that he wants to know my ethnic background—though here I am with a valid form of U.S. identification—and I’m annoyed that he doesn’t just ask, or that he insists on asking such a vague question. It makes me wonder if this is designed to unsettle the person who is being asked, so that they automatically get nervous and look guilty…of something. This time I respond, “I am going to New York City,” which is still not the answer he is looking for.

Again he asks the same stupid, vague question.

“That’s a very open-ended question,” I tell him.

He’s not being particularly mean, just insistent, and I start wondering if he’s just messing with me for fun, because he’s bored. He’s actually smiling and I don’t know whether I’m supposed to smile, too, like this is some big joke, or whether I’ll get in trouble if I do. So finally I say, “You want to know my ethnic background?” He nods yes. “Mexican and Spanish,” to which he says, “That’s what I thought,” and then he lets me through.

Keywords: magazines, news and people. 3 Comments
7.22.09

premium on space

by
Renata

In low-moisture environments with an abundance of space, all varieties of small, crawling creatures can be tolerated. There’s room for all, and all are easily visible. No threat here.

In humid climes, where grime and clutter settle and cling to corners providing unlimited hiding places, these same crawling creatures become “creepy” and unwelcome. Not only is there no room, but they come at you like a gunslinger who fires shots at your back. They are not valiant and they don’t respect the rules of allowable population density. Scurrying out from unlikely places, such as sink mats, stovetops or paper bags full of recyclables, they assert their claims to territory unfit for their habitation.

Keywords: observations. Comment
7.8.09

petroglyph

by
Renata

or, dog dream catcher.

Keywords: thing. Comment
7.7.09

quality time

by
Renata

My dad seemed hopeful that I’d suggest an activity for us to do today—a hike on the mesa? Coffee in town, where we’d make fun of dippy Santa Fe types?— except that I was in the midst of some Michael Jackson-related work today. TV was on, Twitter was open to the LA Times and I periodically checked an AP reporter friend’s Facebook updates from the scene at Forest Lawn. He was skeptical of my interest in the media blitz, but, I argued, this was the first newsworthy event since his death nearly two weeks ago. He eventually chilled out and even turned up the volume when Stevie Wonder started to sing. Then, between Al Sharpton’s impassioned speech and Brooke Shield’s teary one, he made us something to eat. The funeral luncheon: Quesadillas filled with sauteed swiss chard with carmelized shallots; a salad of mixed lettuces, radishes, green beans and lemon vinaigrette and seared wild salmon. We ate in silence.

Keywords: events, food, news, people and place. Comment
7.6.09

no fireworks necessary

by
Renata

The radio plays almost continually at la casa, tuned to 101.1 most mornings well until the evening. Today, the repeated local news story was about a man killed by lightning, along with elementary tips (”Don’t take a bath during a thunderstorm, because water conducts electricity” and “Avoid using the phone” and “If you can hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning.”) “The national weather service said lightning kills more people in New Mexico than any other weather event,” reports KRQE/Albuquerque.

I want to visit Walter de Maria’s Lightning Field more than ever.

Keywords: events, observations and place. Comment
7.3.09

fact-based food

by
Renata

Spending time at my dad and stepmom’s house yields interesting information about food, as they are both passionate cooks. Subsequently, they have a lot of food-related magazines lying around. One of my favorites is Cook’s Illustrated, with its no-nonsense New England-y take on food preparation. It’s what happens when Protestants get their hands on what could otherwise be a very decadent Catholic supper.

The best parts of the magazine are, of course, the delicate illustrations of gadgets, produce, cookware and quick tip how-to (contrast the tiny color photographs on the last page of the issue’s featured recipes, which make the food look very Betty Crocker, in a bad way).

Today’s most fascinating facts and tips involve onions and apples:

#1 Did you know that the way you cut an onion affects its flavor? I did not. Apparently cutting with the grain (pole to pole) makes the onions less pungent than cutting across the equator. Wow! This has to do with odorous substances that are released when the cells of the onion are disrupted. Onions cut against the grain = more disrupted cells. But if you’re dicing them, I guess, all bets are off. (On a related note, I recommend slicing with the grain first when you’re dicing. The onion holds together better when you’re doing your second perpendicular cut).

#2 To keep a cake moist (when it’s underneath a cake dome), place a whole apple alongside the sliced part. The moisture from the apple is like a built-in humidifier.

And one more fact, courtesy my stepmom when I had my “oh wow” moment with the onion, if you chiffonade a basil leaf and want to keep it from going brown when you cut it, slice parallel to the vein instead of across it. This is useful if you’re topping pizza with it, and want maximum decorative effect.

Keywords: food and magazines. Comment