Mary Blair (FLAIR it up woman!)

I was in Books of Wonder the other day (18th st in Manhattan) when I came across a book about the illustrator Mary  Blair and I instantly fell in love! The book is entitled "The Fabulous Flair of Mary Blair". Actually I have been in love with her work since I was a kid without even knowing it was hers. Dare I say it, I think she has been the most influential artist in my life without me even knowing it, oh my! When I was younger my grandfather made sure we had all of the disney movies on vhs and I was always drawn to the early ones like Peter Pan, Cinderella and one of my all time favorites the 3 Caballeros. Mary  did  the inpirational paintings for all of these films and most Disney films in the 1930's, 40's and 50's. Her most famous works are Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella and Peter Pan. Yes, she was the one to create all of those fantastical landscapes that we all associate with these stories! She also did other work that was not for disney (I have posted some below). I think her sense of color is amazing and so bold and I love how she mixes cartoon and fine art sensibility together. The sense of grandeur in her castles in Cinderella and the way she uses proportion is the stuff of wonderful dreams!

Below I have posted pictures of her paintings as well as a scene

from the 3 Caballeros, and 2 shorts that she did artwork for that are from very early disney, all AMAZING!!!

Mary Blair, I confess my undying love for you! and you go girl--takin' on all those men at Disney back in the day...

 
Chocolate Milk Ad

From "Little Verses" (a golden book)

Peter Pan

Alice in Wonderland

Cinderella

The Little House (1952)

Once Upon a Wintertime (1948)



The 3 Caballeros (1944) scene

Timeless Jacques

0:23 - jacques!!!

Les Diners de Gala - Salvador Dali 1971

I can't remember how I first came across this gem of a book but I've been eyeing it for quite some time now. Art of food? Food of art? It's gotta be love!!! By some probable misguided intervention of the divine, I lucked out for once and found that Strand had a copy in good shape and at a very reasonable price, so I went for it! It really wasn't in my power to resist such a beautifully designed large hardcover art book, lavished with a striking gold-foiled embossed jacket – generously showcasing Dali's unadulterated obsession with his food and his woman.

It's the stunning combination of gaudy 1970s opulence, abundance of ornate silverware and cutlery, extravagantly tacky table settings, morbid usage of taxidermy, and over-the-top sculpturing and plating of some of the most bizarre/frightening/delicious collages of foods, that allows for this spectacular glorification of one man's gastronomical insanity.

It's over 300 pages of a literal smorgasbord! Full of paintings, drawings, photos, collages, sculptures, philosophies, recipes and food! The shamelessly bad photographs I threw together honestly can't even begin to depict the variety of wackiness you will recoil from or laugh at or drool over.

Stuffed Artichokes? Yes, we are gonna stuff the hell out of these artichokes and stack them atop each other like a phallic monument. Then we're gonna erect (ha!) it inside this grandiose silver trophy cup filled with a cement of mashed peas, peeled avocados and pate de foie!

Calf Kidney in a Shell? Ooh, brandy marinated kidney goes into a soft quiche dough, then baked in its own marinade juices. Simple and delicious – just don't forget to shape your quiche dough into a, what else, kidney! Crucial step in full enjoyment of this kidney-kidney pie!

Dali, Dali, Dali...
Oh, such fruits borne of overindulging a hungry madness!

 

I especially dig the section titles of the meats and the aphrodisiacs

 

Dali & Co.

 

The other good death to die

 

Anatomy of our brains here at Death by Drone

 

 

 

 

 

Fancy chicken dinner

 

"Oasis Leek Pie"

 

 

"Bush of crayfish in Viking herbs"

 

"Veal cutlets stuffed with snails" and "Frog Pasties"

 "The Breast of Venus"

 Eat on! Eat strong!

Where or When

I have always loved this song. My dad used to play it on the piano

and sing and my grandma would stand behind and sing too. good old days...

I love Peggy Lee singing it and all the little bells and twinkle

noises in the background. 

Take a listen below. It makes me want to stay inside and sit by a fire on a cold winters day!

**"Where or When" -the Benny Goodman Sextet and Peggy Lee vocals**dedicated to my dad and grandma

Also...for some reason I have been obsessed with vintage christmas kids fabric...not a far stretch for something I would like! Just really feelin' the reds and greens right now. And of course the CANDY! 

Merry Xmas! and Hhhapppy Hhhhannnuukah!!!

Avec Eric!

Been on a marathon of Avec Eric!

Beautifully shot with great food, wine, places and excursions! Love his easy humor and how he describes food, nature, life, spirituality with such grounded passion.

Anyway, there's something really really really special waiting at the Strand bookstore relating to...

Dali – artist, visionaire, food obsessed, awesome titler

Average French Bread with Two Eggs on the Plate without the Plate, on Horseback, Attempting to Sodomize a Crumb of Portugese Bread 1932

Image obtained from Salvador Dali Catalog

Retrospective Bust of a Woman 1933

Image obtained from Moma

Sounds on a lazy saturday morning

Checking both out in a week...
Elvis Perkins in Dearland


Chylde - Recently got their CD in the mail. Rough and dirty...


-----


Spacemen 3 - eat, drink, smoke, read, sleep, etc etc etc – music to do everything to


Dead fucking Meadow


Sleepy Sun - Such an amazing band!


Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound - this is off their new record. Their last one Ekranoplan is one of our most played records. It's funny cos we never fully know the song names – always just pop it on, lie back and let it play all the way through... over and over and over and over... it's so good for the soul


Acid King


Sleep


Warlocks - bobby and the old bassist!


Black Angels

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone's eating and drinking well!

Mos Def, Talib....................

P.S. I'm far from a hardcore roots fan but a while back, I randomly ran into questlove while getting my morning coffee at Levain Bakery. I'm honestly not one for being starstruck but all I could say was "hi......" and proceeded to stare at him blankly for 5 seconds. Of course questlove was nice and said hi back and then promptly turned away to look at the cookie selection.

Lady with him: So we'll get one of each??
Questlove: (shakes his head slowly at her in disbelief) what?? no...........
(slow head shake then morphs into a slow "damn straight we're gonna be needing more than one of each cookie" head nod)

questlove... rockin the comb off my socks!

Geeking out: Believe it!!!

Medical Journal Excerpts (credited below):

The Retention and Transfer of Spermatozoa in Clothing by Machine Washing





In lieu of the upcoming holidays, you should be glad to know you do have extra room for dessert in your stomach – pot de crème:


and then some...

In the country

I recently spent some time up in boston visiting my dear friend W. Besides bringing me around to her favorite new (and old) places to eat, satisfying my lobster fix, getting drunk together at a scrumptious dinner party by a wonderful host, hitting up the thrift stores with me, and entertaining me with fascinating tidbits of her life as a medical researcher (growing human ears on mice, slicing cadavers and hairy dead knee parts, sitting in on haitian voodoo healing rituals, medical journals that reveal the horrors of laundromat hygiene pertaining to the human sperm, etc),

we also spent some time in the Massachusetts countryside and visited a vegetable farm. It was one of those anomalies in the fall weather where it was warm enough for us to scurry about the farm grounds wearing just a single layer of clothing. It felt amazing to be out in the countryside under such clear blue skies with no buildings or traffic or anything, feeling both the warmth of the sun and the crisp cool fall air tingling against your skin. Running around, scampering about and digging amongst the different patches to see what surprises laid beneath. Pumpkin, squash, carrots, turnips, leeks, lettuces, collards and other various leafy greens, herbs - fresh cilantro!!!! yummmmmmm.......... Too bad I had to leave before we got around to cooking them up. Though W did use the produce as part of the cooking school tutorials she posts.

She made pumpkin sweetened by boiling with dashi, salt, mirin (Japanese sweet wine) and sugar. Delicious stuff!










W mid drunken prance on the T


I cannot stress enough how much I love cilantro! Perhaps this photo helps.




Lettuce Patch


Lettuce Galore - romaine, butter, mesclun!


My life forever

I shall leave you with Sleepy Sun - if they come to your town, you HAVE to see them. This is one of the slower mellower songs off the album.

Play "Lord" by Sleepy Sun
From the album Embrace - 2009 - 5:39

Death by Drone Trunk Show - Thursday Nov 19th

We're participating in a trunk show on the Upper East Side next Thursday!
Free refreshments and a $1 raffle to win $1000 worth of stuff!
Come by and say hi!

MIDOMA Salon/Gallery/Boutique
439 East 75th Street
New York, NY 10021
(between First Ave and York Ave)
917-432-2667

http://www.midoma.com
http://twitter.com/MIDOMANYC
midoma@mac.com

Hope to see ya there.......