I thought I would go through a few more ceramics and potters in my personal collection after I did John Almeda. Charles Voltz was a French potter who set up shop in the 1950s in the renowned region of Vallauris, famous first for its range of native clays and later for the ceramicists who cameContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Charles Voltz”
Category Archives: magpie
Drama Queen: Five life lessons from K-dramas
Here’s a non-comprehensive list of valuable things I have learned so far:
German Word of the Week: Vokuhila
This one is hilarious, and it’s really more of an abbreviation than a word. It stands for “vorne, kurz; hinten, lang,” which describes a mullet. The funny part is I’ve been wondering for weeks what the German word for mullet was (why, you ask? Who knows? Some combination of discussing hockey with people and beingContinue reading “German Word of the Week: Vokuhila”
Living In…Spirited Away
My aesthetic has a definite bimodal distribution. On the one hand, I like really spare, open (but not necessarily minimalist) monochromatic spaces–which you can see in my Seoul Villa post. On the other hand, I’m irresistibly drawn to spaces and objects with a pronounced “more is more” aesthetic–dark, rich, ornate, with a lot of redsContinue reading “Living In…Spirited Away”
Letter of Recommendation: Rebecca Roanhorse
Rebecca Roanhorse is a fantasy writer who draws on her indigenous heritage and her experience living in the Navajo (Diné) Nation to create really unique speculative worlds. So far I’ve read two of her books: Trail of Lightning and Black Sun, and I recommend them both. Trail of Lightning takes place in a speculative post-apocalypticContinue reading “Letter of Recommendation: Rebecca Roanhorse”
Friday Favorites: Feedly Clean-up
A random assortment of fun diversions for the weekend here: Visiting Rajasthan has always been high on my list; now this rose garden near Lahore is making it even more of a priority. I never get tired of watching this wildlife-cam footage: coyote and badger playing together. “Viewfinder” is a sweet, short animated film aboutContinue reading “Friday Favorites: Feedly Clean-up”
German Word of the Week: Baumschule
Before I get into discussing baumschule, I have to point readers to Ben Schott’s adorable little book Schottenfreude, in which he makes up German words to describe special situations he thinks there should be a word for, like “Zwillingsmoral – Reading horoscopes you don’t believe in.” Since German lets you build nouns of incredible length, it’sContinue reading “German Word of the Week: Baumschule”
Ceramics Saturdays: Vershenkte Teekanne!
One of the neat things about Berlin is that you’ll just find random boxes of stuff on people’s stoops with a little sign that says “Verschenken!” (“give away”). On my way to drop off some knives for sharpening, I picked up this teapot (coffee pot, really) with a dashing little peacock on it. No ideaContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Vershenkte Teekanne!”
Letter of Recommendation: Weleda
Weleda was founded in Switzerland in 1921 on the philosophy of putting as few and as natural ingredients as possible in beauty products. I’ve been using Weleda since I discovered their salt toothpaste at our local co-op a decade ago: I have sensitive teeth and weak gums, and the salt helps with that as muchContinue reading “Letter of Recommendation: Weleda”
Friday Favorites: Feedly Clean-up (words, books, and images)
Some really stunning stuff here: A much-more-fun version of the OED’s “first use” annotations for words: Time Traveler by Merriam-Webster. Look up your favorite word and see when it was first used in print; or, scroll back through some recent neologisms to see, for instance, when “spear phishing” became a thing (2004). I feel likeContinue reading “Friday Favorites: Feedly Clean-up (words, books, and images)”
The Rookery 