mourningdove

Makgeolli Round 2

This time around I’m using a recipe from kimchimari and adding chestnuts! Day 1 already looks really different–a lot dryer. I can hear it bubbling, though, and it smells nice and yeasty! Update: It turned out really well–better than the first recipe. Sweet, full-bodied, and fizzy at 10.5 days. Strong, too: I had to waterContinue reading “Makgeolli Round 2”

The Three Perfections

The redwing blackbirds are back in the wetland at the park near my house, and coincidentally, I found this tea painting I made while sorting through some old sketchbooks, so I thought I’d do a post on the Three Perfections. Song Dynasty scholars called the arts of painting, calligraphy, and poetry the “Three Perfections,” whichContinue reading “The Three Perfections”

Aikido and Rhetoric: Where to from here?

One does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the Art of Peace (aikido). Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train. Morihei Ueshiba, The Art of Peace Most are at odds with that with which they most constantly associate — the account which governs the universeContinue reading “Aikido and Rhetoric: Where to from here?”

Getting Onion Smells Out of a Wooden Cutting Board

Or garlic smells…. My sister just refinished this beautiful red maple cutting board for me out of a chunk of the countertop of my old house. The story behind those counter tops is interesting: they’re the old beds from the county jail. They had to get rid of them because folks who were drunk wereContinue reading “Getting Onion Smells Out of a Wooden Cutting Board”

Saturday Ceramics: Betsy Williams (Enbi Studio)

I met Betsy Williams on the High Road to Taos during the annual fall festival where artists put on two open-gallery weekends. She trained in Japan and is current researching wild clays. I love her work and have owned several pieces over the years (none currently; I tend to get pieces I can use inContinue reading “Saturday Ceramics: Betsy Williams (Enbi Studio)”

Friday Favorites: Feedly Clean-up

Here are some things I was saving about corvids that turned out to be pretty fun: Josh Klein’s crow vending machine and citizen-science Crowbox project (I really want to build one). And, The Ravenmaster, a rollicking and heartwarming memoir by the guy who’s currently in charge of the Tower of London ravens. If you’re notContinue reading “Friday Favorites: Feedly Clean-up”

Winter Soups: Sundubu Jjigae

I’m using the excuse of cold weather to broaden my repertoire of soups: in addition to being warming, they’re filling, comforting, economical and healthy, which is probably why everyone starts making them in the New Year. My favorite discovery this winter has been sundubu jjigae, the Korean soft-tofu stew that features a delicious contrast betweenContinue reading “Winter Soups: Sundubu Jjigae”

Pattern Matching

A good bit of what goes on in my brain is connecting something I’m currently seeing or otherwise sensing to a memory of a past experience, according to similarities or resonances between the two. So, tonight when I saw the sunset, the luminescent pink color reminded me of the pink shell in the Korean lacquerContinue reading “Pattern Matching”

Aikido and Rhetoric: Centering

I’m starting a series on aikido and rhetoric because I’m a rhetorician by training, and for the last two years, I’ve been training in the Japanese martial art of aikido as well. I started noticing a lot of similarities between the two disciplines: similar ethics, similar practices, even similar concepts and terms. And after diggingContinue reading “Aikido and Rhetoric: Centering”

Ceramics Saturdays: Modern Korean Ceramics

There is so much really interesting work going on in Korean ceramics today–young potters taking the clean, organic forms of tradition into experimental lines and colors. The incense burner pictured above is by my friend Jeewon (Mellanie) Jeong, an incredibly talented young ceramicist with a Master’s degree from Seoul National University and now her ownContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Modern Korean Ceramics”