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- March 9, 2005
Alotsa Saltsa
March 9, 2005Read moreA couple years ago my sister introduced me to the books of Jeffrey Steingarten, food writer for Vogue magazine. A former lawyer with a insatiable taste for research, Steingarten pursues all forms of good food with the reckless determination of Indiana Jones. He embraces cuisines high and low, writing with incredible pomp and energy. He’s one of my heroes.
In addition to trying to chemically recreate the tastes of expensive imported spring waters in his kitchen, he’s also written about the variety of gourmet salts available. For one, do they really taste any different? Though my memory is dim, I believe his article was somewhat inconclusive on this regard (texture may play a part), but nevertheless it is nice to know where to buy those salts on the Internet. Here we find that black salts taste of sulfer, and are used in authentic Indian cooking, and that celtic salts are “naturally moist salts harvested from the pristine Atlantic seawater off the coast of Brittany, France.” Did you know you can buy smoked salts too? I didn’t.
The rest of the Saltworks site is filled with all kinds of applications of salt. It’s fun. Check it out! My gut tells me there’s at least three or four elementary school science projects here, parents!
- March 8, 2005
Wisdom from a Master Designer
March 8, 2005Read moreSaw this on BoingBoing today: the transcript of an address by Milton Glaser regarding 10 things he’s learned as a designer. The transcript itself is thoughtful and filled with insight, so you should read it, but here’s the list:
- YOU CAN ONLY WORK FOR PEOPLE THAT YOU LIKE.
- IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE NEVER HAVE A JOB.
- SOME PEOPLE ARE TOXIC AVOID THEM.
- PROFESSIONALISM IS NOT ENOUGH or THE GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF THE GREAT.
- LESS IS NOT NECESSARILY MORE.
- STYLE IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED.
- HOW YOU LIVE CHANGES YOUR BRAIN.
- DOUBT IS BETTER THAN CERTAINTY.
- SOLVING THE PROBLEM IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN BEING RIGHT.
- TELL THE TRUTH.
I’ve felt a lot of these thing, but have not seen them expressed so clearly before. I particularly liked his toxicity test for people:
[…] the important thing that I can tell you is that there is a test to determine whether someone is toxic or nourishing in your relationship with them. Here is the test: You have spent some time with this person, either you have a drink or go for dinner or you go to a ball game. It doesn’t matter very much but at the end of that time you observe whether you are more energised or less energised. Whether you are tired or whether you are exhilarated. If you are more tired then you have been poisoned. If you have more energy you have been nourished. The test is almost infallible.
Yes.
- March 8, 2005
Tim Brisko Toy Photography
March 8, 2005Read more
When I first started drawing, I drew things like planes and spaceships. When I stopped drawing, it was some kind of spaceship. The depiction of things seems to be my thing; a lot of the photos I take seem to be in this category. Thus, I find the photography of Tim Brisko highly appealing, despite my poor familiarity with the japanese toy robot scene. I was just browsing Tim’s site again for the first time in a couple years, and there’s lots of great stuff there to look at. If you love die-cast, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
- March 7, 2005
Baseman
March 7, 2005Read more
I’m enjoying the temporary website of illustrator Gary Baseman at the moment. Baseman is awesome, of course…I saw him lecture once at an AIGA meeting, and his process and trueness towards his own work was very inspiring.
On the interactivity side of things, I love the way that the rollover cursors work on this site. They’ve been transformed into informational resources (“still loading”) and invisible-but-clear navigation buttons (check out the Works section’s use of “forward” and ‘back” buttons). It makes so much sense, and is a lot of fun. Every rollover becomes a kind of fortune cookie. I like it! The site credits Loopmedia75 for design.
- March 4, 2005
Header Image Slideshow
March 4, 2005Read moreI hacked in some code that allows you to click the main header image to see the next one in the sequence. This is more convenient, I think. I set a “cookie” that holds the current image number, and your browser will remember it for 30 days. Sordid technical details follow!
