Episode 2: Music in the Park
Posted by Red | Filed under Challenge, Everyday, Music
Attend a free concert at Peavey Plaza. Play in the fountains, people-watch, enjoy the music. Take photographs of yourself at this location. Describe the music being played – including which group/musician you saw. Would you consider purchasing music by the artist? What about other music in the same genre?
The Minnesota Orchestra hosts an annual event known as Sommerfest. These concerts span every genre of music (or close to it) and focus on an easy-breezy, light, intro to certain types of music. Three solid weeks of music smashed into Peavey Plaza and Orchestra Hall.
This episode in life focuses on trying out music… something new to do. After scanning the artists available to view I settled on Halloween Alaska as the artist for me to see. (Yes I will probably go see Ticket to Brasil too because who can resist bossa nova, whatever, posting about this one first)
Halloween, Alaska is not a new band to me. I’ve heard their stuff, enjoy the beats, all that. Yet I’d not heard them live nor had I gone to concert completely alone in a very long time. Yes alone – me, my camera, and a library book hanging out in the plaza at sunset.
As the band warmed up, the plaza filled with couples and groups – grabbing snacks from the vendors around the area, settling into plastic chairs and the concrete risers. Patrons from the concert inside Orchestra Hall streamed out to be greeted by these guys from around town and their indie rock goodness. The smooth melodies and eccentric beat filled the air – it’s a sound I really don’t tire of.
Sitting alone at a concert allows you to envelope yourself in the sound, no worries to what your companion is doing or thinking. I found myself focused on the drummer most of the night and how his joy of his art radiated under the white canopy. I could feel his energy from my concrete seat. I found myself smiling along through the entire set. For this reason alone I think I will pick up their newest album the next time I’m at the Electric Fetus. I could use more chill music in my collection.
I did spend the time playing with the new camera reminding myself how little I know about aperature and focus and megapixels and shooting at night. As such, the photos of me at the venue were horrific (if not just shots of blurry darkness). The four photos in this post are truly the only that turned out of the 89 photos I shot that night. Less than 5% success rate. Eh, I’m learning right?
So I leave you with my final shot of downtown – 12th St & Nicollet Ave around 10:30p on a gorgeous Friday night.
Cooking Experiment – Weeks 5 & 6
Posted by Red | Filed under Everyday, Food
The summer keeps going; so does the food. We just finished up week 6 (can you believe we’re 6 weeks into the proper summer? because I cannot) with the CSA.
Week 5 was bountiful as always. The photo includes the produce in the box as well as a few items we picked up at the Wedge to round out the meal.
Notice the little brown bag in the back? Birchwood Cafe granola. Yum. Week 5 left us with a changing of the team. Due to a toddler who decided it was better to go to bed at 6:30p, one of the households had to drop from the experiment. No problems whatsoever because this summer is just that – an experiment. Didn’t work for them. Next summer should be better when Mr. Abi is 3.
So week 6. Ah, challenging week 6. The replacement household had a canoe trip that came up last minute. The other half of my household was sick. Household #3 was only half there since Mr. Nick ran off to the deep south for a bit of vacation. So two people tackling the box of food… This box of food:
CSA Week 3
Posted by Red | Filed under Everyday, Food
Scheduling a group of people for an entire summer is a tricky thing. Especially the group that we’re in the CSA/Meal Share with. So this week, being a holiday week (Happy Canada Day & 4th of July everyone!), the crowd was small. Just three adults and a toddler around the dinner table.
Still tons of food though!
This week the box brought:
- lettuce
- sugar snap peas
- escarole
- bok choy
- turnips
- arugula
- kohlrabi
We had some radishes left over from last week and the daycare co-op sent over a pile of fresh bread. Once again, the counters were full to the brim. Menu a bit different too:
Italian Sausage Soup, Tofu & Bok Choy stir fry, kohlrabi with herbs, green salad, and espresso bread pudding for dessert.
Sounds good, right? Well it was for the most part. We were given a small kohlrabi this time, so it went into the stir fry instead of a dish on its own. The soup was bitter – our first attempt with escarole didn’t turn out as well as planned. So we looked it up (after cooking of course) in our handy dandy cooking chemistry book (On Food and Cooking – read it – great reference for the experimental chef) and turns out you need to cut the flavor of bitter cabbages, like escarole, with something in the onion family and salt. Next time the soup will have more sea salt and some scallions.
The soup is excellent to dip bread in, though. So that’s what I did.
The stir fry turned out fabulously. Big hit all around. That and the bread pudding. Mmmm fresh bread pudding.
Next week I won’t be able to be around for the meal as I’m teaching an Intermediate Outdoor Cooking class at an outdoor facility that evening. Hopefully someone will take the camera and snap a few of what was going on. It’s the Big Guy’s turn at the menu planning – should be fun!
Call for Help from my Talented Friends
Posted by Red | Filed under Everyday, Technology
Alright folks – this is me admitting I’ve fallen behind.
Last night, I attempted to ‘tweak’ my WordPress theme for my little website here and failed. I have kept up with trends in webdesign since 1995 – until now.
It is clearly time to re-shine the space here. Heck, I even took two artistic friends out to dinner a while back to get their input on design changes. But I can’t do it.
So here’s the call – I am looking for help. If any of you are talented designers who are willing to work with a perfectionist with little extra time on her hands and like to take amateur photos (that’s me), please drop me a line in the comments.
Thanks everyone!
Embarking on a Summer Cooking Adventure
Posted by Red | Filed under Everyday, Food
Community Supported Agrigulture (CSA). While this isn’t a term not everyone is familiar with, my little circle is diving deep into it. Food. Loads of food.
