We hope you’re all enjoying your holiday. Every week we ask some of our friends and family to send us a picture to share with you. Here are this week’s photos:
At this time of year, as we bring trees into our homes to gather round with friends and family, I am excited to (likely) be the first to wish you a Happy Roots Day! Yep, apparently today, December 23rd, is uncommonly known as Roots Day. A holiday whose origins are ironically unknown, Roots Day is a celebration of returning to family, learning more about your history and experiencing comfort through a sense of belonging.
Though we often think of our family genealogy in the form of a clean, simple and symmetrical “family tree”, this model clearly misses many significant connections and complexities that make each of us who we are today. It is the nature of roots to both be tangled and to serve as a means of underlying support; there exists the possibility to uproot and to establish new roots at any time. Roots are what ground and connect us to the earth, and thereby to one another. So though it is unclear from where this whole Roots Day came, I’m looking forward to embracing the day with celebration. I hope you do the same; Happy Roots Day to you and yours!
(Photo of Alison Saar‘s Treesouls taken at Madison Square Park)
We each selected a few of our favorite seasonal tunes and put together a playlist to help get you into the Christmas spirit. We hope the holidays are treating you well!
Love, Sister Disco!
1. Jingle Bell Rock — Bobby Helms
2. Put the Lights on the Tree — Sufjan Stevens
3. Merry Christmas Baby — Otis Redding
4. Happy Christmas (War is Over) — John Lennon
5. White Christmas — The Drifters
6. It’s Christmas — Coconut Records
7. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus — The Ronettes
9. Baby It’s Cold Outside — Zooey Deschanel & Leon Redbone
10. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) — Darlene Love
11. Last Christmas — Wham!
If you live in New York and haven’t yet been to “Sleep No More” do yourself a favor and purchase a ticket immediately. Without giving too much away, “Sleep No More” is an interactive theater experience inspired by Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and Hitchcock’s “Rebecca”. Audience members receive masks at the onset and are then given free range of a massive, multi-story building; you are able to riffle through drawers, lounge on the furniture and maybe even sample some treats. The only unmasked persons are the actors, who move from space to space leading a trail of onlookers throughout the narrative. “Sleep No More” felt a little like snorkeling to me; you know the friends you came with are all around you having a similar while totally personal and unique experience.
There are so many amazing aspects of “Sleep No More” but high among them is its music. While the track below is actually entirely different than the rest of the music in “Sleep No More”, it sets the tone for the most amazingly intense live performance piece I have ever seen. I’m not usually one for this kind of heavy electronic house music but I can’t deny how much I love to blast this track as loud as possible.
Urban Dictionary: LOUD
1. Sound characterized by high volume and intensity.
2. Producing sound of high volume and intensity.
3. Insistent.
4. Having extremely bright colors
5. Offensive in manner.
I am a sucker for a good pop song and let’s be honest, Rihanna has more than a couple tight beats. Not only is her music fun, but she is the coolest chick in the world. That is a whole other blog post. Her album LOUD is one of my favorite albums. Here are some of my favorite songs from her album:
A few years ago, I was bored. Really bored. It wasn’t momentary boredom but rather a fundamental, ongoing boredom. I started having conversations about the notion of boredom with friends and family. What did it mean to be bored? When is boredom experienced? Should it be met with acceptance or action? A lot of interesting things came out of these conversations but the one I found most useful was an intoduction to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s notion of flow.
“Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. A leading researcher in positive psychology, he has devoted his life to studying what makes people truly happy: ‘When we are involved in [creativity], we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.’ He is the architect of the notion of “flow” — the creative moment when a person is completely involved in an activity for its own sake.”
Suddenly the need for and importance of flow became so clear to me. And I started noticing the presence of the word “flow” in so many places; seemingly unrelated places, but then again connected in some way by the word itself.
It was there in my vinyasa flow yoga classes.
And again as a fundamental component of rap and hip hop’s rhythm and rhyme.
Most recently I came across it in Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. The utter beauty and cadence of Miller’s writing makes even his crassness appealing. And I have to agree with him: I love everything that flows.
“I love everything that flows,” said the great blind Milton of our times. I was thinking of him this morning when I awoke with a great bloody shout of joy: I was thinking of rivers and trees and all that world of night which he is exploring. Yes, I said to myself, I too love everything that flows: rivers, sewers, lava, semen, blood, bile, words, sentences. I love the amniotic fluid when it spills out of the bag. I love the kidney with its painful gallstones, its gravel and what-not; I love the urine that pours out scalding and the clap that runs endlessly; I love the words of hysterics and the sentences that flow on like dysentery and mirror all the sick images of the soul; I love the great rivers like the Amazon and the Orinoco, where crazy men like Moravagine float on through the dream and legend in an open boat and drown in the blind mouths of the river. I love everything that flows, even the menstrual flow that carries away the seed unfecund. I love scripts that flow, be they hieratic, esoteric, perverse, polymorph, or unilateral. I love everything that flows, everything that has time in it and becoming, that brings us back to the beginning where there is never end: the violence of the prophets, the obscenity that is ecstasy, the wisdom of the fanatic, the priest with his rubber litany, the foul words of the whore, the spittle that floats away in the gutter, the milk of the breast and the bitter honey that pours from the womb, all that is fluid, melting, dissolute and dissolvent, all the pus and dirt that in flowing is purified, that loses its sense of origin, that makes the great circuit toward death and dissolution. The great incestuous wish is to flow on, one with time, to merge the great image of the beyond with the here and now. A fatuous, suicidal wish that is constipated by words and paralyzed by thought.”
Today we are so excited to present a holiday guide to bubbly that our friend Catherine, of the fabulously named Grapes of Cath, graciously put together for us. Cheers!
“This wine is too good for toast-drinking, my dear. You don’t want to mix emotions up with a wine like that. You lose the taste.” -Count Mippipopolous, from “The Sun Also Rises”
In a scene from one of Hemingway’s greats, Count Mippipolous is referring to an unnamed though, presumably, very good bottle of Champagne which he is sharing with two fellow characters, expatriates living in Paris during the crazy party days of the 1920’s. Now, I don’t know if a Champagne is too good for toast-drinking (is a toast only as good as the wine that is used? Or the intention of its participants? A combination?), however, many may be too pricey for toast-drinking. Practicality and ease on the wallet are important during times of toasting a-plenty! Fortunately, when it comes to sparkling wines, it is very possible to satisfy Champagne tastes on a (higher end) beer budget.
Though bubbles are best at any time of year, I particularly enjoy them around the holidays. Satiating and cheerful, I feel they are well-suited for the endurance required during yuletide socialization. It can sometimes be tricky to know whether an unknown bottle is quality or crap. Use your head, shop at smart spots, ask for help, check the back label for a wine’s importer. Don’t be afraid to get creative with your choices…embrace the spirit of effervescence and try something totally new!
Sparkling wines are made in practically all of the world’s wine producing areas. Composed of different grapes and using varying methods, price, flavor profile, quality, and value certainly vary. Local tradition, style, and politics also play a role in the story of each sparkling. There is always a big picture, eh?
Here are just a few ideas to throw into the arena- some of my personal favorites- a few particular wines and some general styles- all tried and true:
An individual label through Schloss Muhlenhof, from the Rheinhessen, Germany, Perlwein is a frizzante, or slightly sparkling, style of wine made in Germany. This producer was a delightful find for me this summer. Lighthearted and palate-cleansing bubbles.
Schramsburg is a sparkling winery located in Calistoga, at the northern tip of California’s Napa Valley. Founded by Jacob Schram, a German man who understood real wine and the capabilities of Napa’s terroir. Schramsburg’s sparklings are made in the traditional method and aged in the estate’s hauntingly impressive caves, which were dug by Chinese laborers in the late 1800’s.
Cava is often a great value as part of its legal qualifications require that it be produced méthode champenoise (second fermentation occurs in bottle). Cava mainly comes from northeast Spain and is composed of a blend of three native Spanish grapes (macabeu, parellada, and xarel-lo), the Llopart in particular tastes of quality far beyond its price- dry, bright red berries, brilliant acidity.
Coming from the northern Italian region of Lombardy, sparkling wine produced in Franciacorta is made in the traditional method using chardonnay, pinot bianco, and pinot nero, harvested from the area’s extremely interesting mineral composition. The name of the DOCG implies venerable quality. An interesting, deliciously toasty, and inexpensive Franciacorta project is pulled off by the folks of Quattro Mani (label features a big ‘ole “Q”).
Italian bubbles
There are so many! Italy is home to hundreds and hundreds of indigenous grape varieties. The country is full of regions, and those regions are full of towns, and many of those towns has a style of sparkling wine all its own. Prosecco and lambrusco are some of the better known, sparkling erbaluce and sparkling verdicchio are some of the lesser. If you grab a good producer, it is worth the gamble.
I’ve lumped these goodies together, though each is quite distinct. In France, the word “crémant” placed before a geographic location is pretty much saying that a wine is produced in this place in the same way of Champagne in terms of yields, harvest, and vinification, and that it should result in a similar standard of quality. The name of its place is the indicator of its terroir and typical grapes.
Because, even though all the rest are really awesome in their own way, Champagne is still Champagne in all its chalky soil glory. Champagne Aubry is a small grower located around the city of Reims, owned by brothers, more than half of its blend is coming one of the three Champagne grapes, pinot meunier. So real – and completely fair in price.
Also, here is a lovely picture of a plethora of lights 🙂 Happy Saturday!
I enjoy the passion behind this writing on the misuse of the words ‘myriad’ and ‘plethora’. I was not aware of their distinction but won’t forget it now.
“Myriad has company in its misuse, for we also commonly abuse the force and poetry of the word ‘plethora.’ Both words suggest huge numbers, but they are opposites in that myriad has positive connotations and plethora has negative ones.
Plethora implies superfluity and waste. It is the grasshopper blight. It’s too much of something, resulting in crisis. So it should be used to describe only items you wish to be recognized as exceedingly negative.
There may be a plethora of insects, social diseases, threats to wellbeing; but you’d be unwise to refer to a plethora of new styles or a plethora of benefits for your clientele.
Unlike myriad, ‘plethora’ is followed by ‘of:’ a plethora of damaging storms, a plethora of enemy attacks. Listen to the contrasting sounds of the words ‘plethora of’ and ‘myriad.’ The former sounds like a pest, the latter like a miracle.
The poetics of language are myriad; let us not defeat their beauty with a plethora of careless writers.”
Farrell’s college friends have a pretty stellar music club, which they’ve been kind enough to include me in. I discovered this song on one of the recent albums of a DMC favorite, initially thinking it was Mazzy Star. Feels simultaneously new and familiar.
Todo El Mundo (Everybody Everybody) by Proyecto Uno
This is a go to, pick-me-up for me. It was introduced to me awhile back by another great friend. It brings it every time.
Brandon Marlow by Misteur Valaire
Misteur Valaire is a French band that I recently found and fell in love with. This song is what I put on when I need an extra kick. It makes me feel happy and excited. It helps that it is also a tight beat. I hope you enjoy it!
Listen to more of Misteur Valaire here (I like Mojo Ego)
Two Cousins by Slow Club
This song by Slow Club is really fun and the video is awesome. This is one of my favorite songs lately. I especially like the lyrics in the chorus:
Hold on,
To where you’re from.
It’s where your heart goes,
When you’re done.
photo credit Jeanne Taylor Photography
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