Author Archives: mourningdove

Birthday Festschrift: Second Decade

We have a lot more to choose from in the 10-20 age range. Since it’s Thanksgiving, I’ll start with…. Art Another favorite of my mom’s. I believe it was drawn on an inner-office envelope from my dad’s work. Music I wrote a lot of music during this time period because my parents got me aContinue reading “Birthday Festschrift: Second Decade”

Whole Wheat Japanese Milk Bread: Attempt #1

I’m a cook, not a baker. The difference is kind of the difference between an engineering mindset (start with a basic design, hack until success is achieved) versus a scientific mindset (test a hypothesis through experiments in which you control for variables; also, actually read the directions). I’m definitely an engineer. I encountered whole-wheat JapaneseContinue reading “Whole Wheat Japanese Milk Bread: Attempt #1”

Ceramics Saturdays: Yaozhou Ware

With the Yaozhou kiln, we complete our series on Song Dynasty ceramics. The kiln at Yaozhou, in Shaanxi province, was active since the Tang Dynasty and transitioned to making celadon wares sometime in the early Northern Song period (960-1127 AD). While never as luminescent as their southern Longquan cousins, Yaozhou celadons were collected by theContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Yaozhou Ware”

Birthday Festschrift: First Decade

I’ve had this idea since I turned 40 and never got around to it–collecting my favorite story, poem, song, and piece of art that I created in each decade of my life. I think why I never got around to it is I took the project a bit too seriously. So, I’m going to doContinue reading “Birthday Festschrift: First Decade”

Letter of Recommendation? Jonathan Livingston Seagull

I may have been Neil Diamond’s youngest fan. “Song Sung Blue” was my favorite commuting song when we drove to Pre-K at Sunset Mesa when I was 5. And I’m pretty sure it was a combination of Neil Diamond’s soundtrack, seagulls, and the name Jonathan that got me into Jonathan Livingston Seagull. From there itContinue reading “Letter of Recommendation? Jonathan Livingston Seagull”

Letter of Recommendation: Eighth Generation

Tomorrow’s my 50th birthday, and my family got me a really beautiful gift: a blanket designed by Louie Gong (Coast Salish, Nooksack) from Eighth Generation, an American Indian artist collective that’s looking to counter the wave of “native-inspired” designs that appropriate tribal cultural heritage and capitalize it such that the profits never find their wayContinue reading “Letter of Recommendation: Eighth Generation”

Letter of Recommendation: Pandemic (the board game)

Before you jump to the wrong conclusion: I did not start playing this board game during the COVID-19 pandemic. I actually started playing the game series in 2017. There are 4 games so far in the series: Pandemic, Pandemic: Legacy (Season One), Pandemic: Legacy (Season Two), and Pandemic: Legacy (Season Zero), in order of release.Continue reading “Letter of Recommendation: Pandemic (the board game)”

Ceramics Saturdays: Cizhou Ware

Cizhou ware is both easy and hard to identify. Easy because the distinctive black-on-white designs are difficult to mistake; hard because the style was so popular that it can’t be pinned down to a single kiln or time period–which greatly affects its value. Cizhou-style wares were produced from the Tang to Ming dynasties, first inContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Cizhou Ware”

Friday Favorites: Non-kung-fu martial arts movies

Well, I’m not promising that *no* kung fu happens here: Seven Samurai. This is actually my favorite movie of any kind and all time. I would say you learn a lot more about bushido (the code of samurai behavior) in the Warring States period and how it impacted the surrounding community than you do aboutContinue reading “Friday Favorites: Non-kung-fu martial arts movies”