Ceramics Saturdays: Ippodo Gallery NYC

I was in New York last weekend for a concert, but it was also Asia Week while we were in town–an annual Asian art fair that always features a couple big auctions, great shows at galleries and museums, etc. I’ve always wanted to go, so even though we were busy with the concert and eatingContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Ippodo Gallery NYC”

Friday Favorites: SFO Sights and Eats

I’m going to skip the big tourist attractions—even though I do enjoy a lot of them—and try to point you toward a few more out-of-the-way spots. Japantown: Really, all of it. I could do a whole post just on this neighborhood (Hey, I might next month after I get back from a spa weekend withContinue reading “Friday Favorites: SFO Sights and Eats”

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”

Baking in a Basque Oven

The area where I live is rich in Basque tradition, owing to a wave of immigration in the late 1800s by shepherds hired by the big sheep-ranching outfits here. (Little known fact: the Australian Shepherd dog is actually a Basque breed; the dogs immigrated from Australia alongside their Basque owners to work the sheep hereContinue reading “Baking in a Basque Oven”

Wright’s Beach 2022

I’ve given up taking pictures at the coast: a two-dimensional image captures so little of the depth and sparkle and whoosh and roar and glow that it feels almost insulting. I like doing watercolors because it’s agreed from the get-go that you’re cropping out most of the experience and presenting an approximation of it–or, you’reContinue reading “Wright’s Beach 2022”

Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit H: Recyclinghof

I know I said yesterday’s post was the final Berlin one, but then I ran to the Recyclinghof today to get rid of a broken fan. It’s so easy and clean and well-organized, and you can get rid of all kinds of things from clothes to cars that you don’t need. I stopped at DoshaContinue reading “Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit H: Recyclinghof”

Rear Window, Berlin Edition: Update

Breaking news, everybody. The stubbornly vacant-seeming 4th-floor apartment behind my building has cropped up with a pot of purple flowers on the patio, and the door that was previously cracked open from the top, Euro-style–to permit the circulation of that all-important (yea, even magical) German substance, Frische Luft–is now open open, as in someone couldContinue reading “Rear Window, Berlin Edition: Update”