Author Archives: mourningdove

Napa

I’ve never been a fan of Napa. It always struck me as over-manicured and staged—kinda like Disneyland for middle-aged (upper) middle-class white women: the wine train, the flower boxes, the sprawling flagging-stone tasting patios overlooking the valley, the bakeries with their reclaimed barnwood siding and wine-barrel planters, the boutiques full of fedoras and handkerchief skirts….Continue reading “Napa”

Ceramics Saturdays: Santa Clara Ware

Santa Clara and San Ildefenso pots are perhaps the most iconic of Pueblo ceramics with their striking black-on-black designs, achieved by smoking the pots in a heavily reduced atmosphere, burnishing the resulting blackware, and then overglazing designs in matte black. These sophisticated pieces were produced starting in the 1800s and predominantly by women: Maria Martinez’sContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Santa Clara Ware”

Ceramics Saturdays: Taos Ware

There are a few Puebloan pottery styles that eschew glazing in favor of simply burnishing the dried clay with a curved potsherd to a gloss. In the case of Taos ware, this technique allows the glittering mica flecks embedded in the local red clay to shine–as they do in this gorgeous bean pot by PamContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Taos Ware”

Friday Favorites: Cocktails

I like cocktails because they’re the cooking of drinking. Instead of opening a bottle or can, you make something. I generally like to improvise cocktails with whatever I have in the frig/on the tree at the moment, using the following formula: But I also have go-to cocktails–most of which come from three sources: the SouthwestContinue reading “Friday Favorites: Cocktails”

For Fall: Marrakesh Express Cocktail

This is one of my all-time favorite cocktails for any season, but it’s particularly nice in fall when you start being able to get pomegranates at the grocery store. The recipe is by Maggie Hoffman, one of my favorite food writers. I replace the simple syrup with maple syrup a lot of times because, asContinue reading “For Fall: Marrakesh Express Cocktail”

Eric Jacobus’s Video Essay on Donnie Yen’s Action Style

I loved every minute of this savvy and engaging deep-dive for fans of Donnie Yen and/or martial-arts films. Jacobus (a stuntman, action designer, and indie action filmmaker) breaks down Yen’s filmography with aplomb–including several films that even *I* haven’t seen, and I consider myself a pretty major Yen fangirl.

Ceramics Saturdays: Ácoma pottery

I’m starting a series on Pueblo pottery: while I won’t be able to do all 19 pueblos here, I’ll highlight my favorite styles, starting with Ácoma. I love the monochromatic color scheme and the geometric decorations. The rounded shapes also feel either very old (cf. Mimbres) or very modern to me as well. Ácoma isContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Ácoma pottery”