Artist Lorenzo Ross, Psychic Janet Wright, Their Pet Cats, Dogs and Friends.
Lorenzo and I both love food. Some posts in this category feature local Chicago food related businesses we enjoy. Some are just general discussions about food, psychological issues relating to food, or food related art.
Lately I have been focusing more on the comics than the prints with Awesome 5! #1 now in stores as well as online and Alternative City #0 now at the printer. That said, now is a great time to add some new prints!
The Obama print and The Happy Cat are from larger paintings i did for a couple of fund raisers. You can find out more if you visit our shop. Also don’t forget to like our Facebook page!
When I saw the commercial touting Taco Bell’s new “Gourmet” “Cantina Bell” menu I had my doubts but I figured what the hell I’ll give it a try. I knew it wouldn’t taste better than Chipotle but I thought it might taste better than the regular Taco Bell burrito that looks kinda like a tortilla that a bird pooped on. Boy was I wrong.
The chicken was tasteless, the rice and beans were bland and what they call guacamole was almost non existent. I choked some of mine down but Janet only took a bite of hers. Of course Chipotle costs more but it’s so worth it because of the marinated meat and more flavorful toppings. Not to mention the hormone free and ethical way their meat is raised. I could eat Chipotle every day!
Alright, alright I know The Dark Knight Rises comes out today but I still want to talk about the new Spider-man movie, The Amazing Spider-Man. They got it right this time. The previous Spidey franchise of movies was more visually appealing than it was true to the original material. This version is to those movies what The Dark Knight series is to Tim Burton’s Batman movies.
Andrew Garfield did a great job of bringing modern teen angst to Peter Parker. He’s a lot closer to the age Peter was when he became the webslinger. Not once during his performance did I think about Tobey Maguire’s stint in the red suit.
Garfield’s real life girlfriend Emma Stone gives an equally compelling portrayal of Pete’s REAL first girlfriend Gwen Stacy. Their onscreen chemistry is natural and unforced. This is the treatment Gwen deserves unlike the one she received in Spiderman 3 (yikes!).
I don’t want to give away too much to those who have not seen it yet or those that aren’t comic readers. Have to say this… you know you’re getting old when Sally Field is playing Aunt May and you can remember watching her play Gidget on TV as a kid! Anyway go see it if you haven’t already…it’s …Amazing!
There are two new additions to our etsy shop. One is an ACEO of Nefertiti, a character from Awesome 5! who is the girlfriend of Ramses, the bad guy in issue #1. Even though the real Nefertiti and Ramses never hooked up, these two decided to adopt those personas for their life of crime. The other is a little odd fellow I’m calling Soup Strainer, because of his prominent moustache he sports.
What makes these cards different from the other ACEOs is these are one of a kind originals. Nefertiti is ink and watercolor on 2 ply bristol board and Soupy is watercolor & ink on Strathmore 500 series illustration board, one of the finest materials made for drawing or illustrating IMHO. Both come titled, signed and dated on the back.
I have been meaning to put these up sooner but I’ve been so busy finishing Awesome 5! #1 (more on that later) that I haven’t had the time. Like the ACEO prints, the originals come with protective sleeves and top loaders with free shipping in the U.S.
We have learned a lot since I last blogged on Wednesday afternoon. I had to bring the trap over to our porch late Wed eve so it didn’t get rained on and I noticed a skunk-like smell on it, not super strong but noticeable. I took that to mean that at least one unneutered male cat had been around the trap and “marked” the covering sheet with a little urine. Unneutered male cats have urine that smells like skunk scent.
Then Thursday eve when I was bringing out the trap there was a black cat actually in the area where the trap usually is. He ran and leapt over the fence when he saw me. I baited the trap as usual, taking my time. I figured he’d stay out of view until I was gone, but after about a minute he moved into full view on the other side of the gate, and sat there watching me, about ten feet away from me. That could indicate that he is not feral, since he let me see him when he didn’t have to. I only glanced his way so as not to alarm him, then slowly left when I was done with the trap. Once back in the apartment, Lorenzo and I got to watch him going in and out of the trap eating all of the tuna from our window. It was a real treat to see so much of a cat we will probably be trapping. He’s all black, much like this photo here, though the photo is NOT him. In the dim light he was hard to see sometimes, but we did see his eyes and also his tongue as he licked his lips after the tuna. Mmmmm-good!
Another piece of news is our clinic appointment for the spay/neuter is next Tuesday 11/8/11 so that means the actual trapping night is this Monday evening. I can’t wait!!! Last night when we saw him eat he was done by 6:20pm, though tonight he hasn’t shown up yet. Maybe he’s on his way right now……..
Summer 2011 is ending this week, and I think it can be helpful to get closure on the last season and try to embrace the upcoming season. Summer 2010 we had just moved to our new apartment, so there was a lot of settling in, slowly making the home look and feel like we wanted. This past summer we were able to enjoy our home more. We do have central air in this apartment, a first for both Lorenzo and myself, so that felt like a new luxury. We wanted to save money on electricity but still use our AC on those humid 90 degree days, so we kept the thermostat at a higher temperature. That worked very well, particularly with liberal use of our secret stay-cool weapon, natural fruit popsicles. Lorenzo’s favorite is coconut and mine is strawberry. They’re only 100 calories each, and I’m sure we saved a lot of money on AC because we were keeping cooler by eating popsicles. Well come to think of it, we did have a lot of popsicles! On my last shopping trip I bought more, but it will probably be the last time this year. Now I have to have hot tea afterwards to stay warm.
Another thing that stands out about summer is that I finally planted pansies in a window box. We inherited a large window box planter at the end of last summer, and I had a very specific image in my mind of dark pink pansies for it. This spring I procrastinated, but this summer I went and got the pansies and and also a hanging basket of pansies. I went with my “Little Sister” Jazzy from Big Brothers Big Sisters, so that made the purchasing and planting a million times more special. Watching a 10 year old city kid make her first mud pies with a bucket, dirt, and a hose was pretty much priceless. I’m looking forward to having even more fun this fall, and I hope you will too.
Today I saw a photo of a very interesting sculpture on someone’s Facebook page, and I thought I’d share it here. It is done by Paige Bradley, and you can see her sculpture on her website here. It’s worth a look even if you only like this one piece, because you can see the illuminated base of the sculpture, plus other backdrops with it. Also she has a section of her site where she shows drawings, under the tab “works on paper.”
Before I mention my own thoughts about the sculpture, I wanted to ask, what does this sculpture mean/show/evoke for you? Do you like it? Why? There are four different photos of this sculpture on her website. This one here on my blog is the only one I could easily download, but it’s not my favorite of the photos. Which is your favorite?
I am not always moved by sculptures, but I particularly like the light coming from within her. Personally, it reminds me of the light generated by one’s energy centers, or chakras, emanating out into that person’s aura. Energy blocks, denial, facades or deceptive self- images we hide behind can surpress our energy a little like the opaque parts of the sculpture. For me the woman shown in the sculpture knows that her true freedom and wisdom comes from within, and from clearing the burdens and energy blocks she has within her own space. My favorite two photos are on her website, where it shows the illuminated base of the sculpture as well.
We just finished watching “King Corn” which is a documentary movie we saw “On Demand” with our Netflix.com subscription. Part of the movie covers how cheap corn is used as feed for cattle, which really isn’t the best for their health. They are fed on feed lots where they can’t get much exercise due to crowding, and fattened up as soon as possible, in months in stead of years. One guy in the movie said the cows are basically obese, plus it showed just a bit of how it gives them excess stomach acid and other health issues so they have to be given antibiotics all the time.
Well I think this movie has finally pushed us into changing our food buying and eating habits, at least with beef. I will document in this blog how it goes for us so you can see if our resolve lasts. Just check the lower right side of the page where you see categories listed and go to the Food category in the future to see other posts on this. Up until now we have tried to economize and have bought our ground beef and frozen chicken at Trader Joes, and cold cuts and frozen tilapia at Aldi. I had already decided to stop buying cold cuts period because for some reason they make me break out. Because of this movie we will try to only buy beef from Whole Foods and we’ll make sure it’s grass fed not corn/grain fed. As far as our chicken, we are still debating what to do. I think we are nervous about the cost, but we’ll have to investigate the cost difference between frozen chicken at Trader Joes and chicken pieces at the Whole Foods meat counter. Most likely Trader Joe’s frozen chicken comes from a factory farm where antibiotics are given liberally. Now do we change all that now, or just our beef buying habits? How about you guys, dear readers? So we’re definitely changing our beef buying, but for chicken we will research further. Stay tuned!
The movie also discusses how much calories people consume with sodas which have tons of high fructose corn syrup. We already don’t drink soda, so we’re OK there. Years ago I heard how soda syrup can be used to clean corrosion off of truck engines, and that was pretty much it for me and soda.
So most of us have seen huge dessert cases, either in bakeries or at stores like Whole Foods. How do you feel when standing in front of a huge dessert case? Tonight I went to the Whole Foods on the NW side of Chicago on Cicero Ave. As an energy reader I work with many people and often help people who want to alter their eating habits. I enjoy reading the unique issues that impact each person’s eating choices and experiences.
Repressed emotion definitely comes into play when standing in front of a huge dessert case. It must be repressed emotion that blurs my thinking as I look at all of these mini fruit tarts at Whole Foods. My mind goes in a loop between:
1. How delicious.
2. I want many. They’re so tiny.
3. They are $1.49 each.
4. It’d be way too expensive with all the ones I want. Better have none.
5. (Loops back to #1)
I swear this loop goes round and round about three times in my mind, then I pull myself away either to go towards another part of the store, or to debate another dessert selection. I never get the tiny fruit tarts, yet each time I see them so beautifully arranged, the mental loop begins.
I ended up buying a “chocolate bomb” shown in the center row of this photo. On the way home I realized some of the repressed emotions involved in my own dessert thought process and was able to let go of some of the blocked energy. When Lorenzo and I split the small “chocolate bomb” at home it was fantastic. Chocolate mousse with a dark chocolate shell- very light and “surprisingly good,” as Lorenzo says. The “bomb” in the name is a real misnomer, as it’s a pretty delicate flavor. I ate it so slowly, with hot tea. I haven’t savored a dessert so slowly in years. I know for sure it was because I had released some of my emotional baggage and was able to be more present with the experience. How cool. Same calories, greater experience. Woo-hoo!
My next task is I’ll have to clear even more blocked, repressed emotion so I can actually think clearly about those mini fruit tarts!!!!
When I saw this cookie box and that it was only 99 cents I had to buy it, well, buy two. I ate one box as I drove home from the store. They really don’t taste that great, but the fact that I was eating tiny cookies shaped like ocean animals from a box with a string was really great for my inner child. I’d show you the ocean animal shapes in a photo here, but I’m saving the other box for when I spend time with my “Little Sister” from Big Brothers Big Sisters this Saturday. She’s 10 years old, and in some ways she’s 10 and in some ways she has been exposed to so many adult things in music videos and lyrics, etc. she’s partially all grown. Also she may not have ever seen the animal crackers cookies boxes that come in a little red box with a string handle, so she won’t get the reference. Will she love these cookies? We’ll see.
As a kid, a cookie just had to be a cookie for me to love it, except for those weird rum balls from the holidays. Now as an adult my husband and I both watch our carb intake and calories and sugar to some extent, so for me a cookie has to be worth it. Here is the cookie I’ve been nibbling as I type this. It’s a Trader Joe’s Chocolate Chunk cookie which comes in a simple white bag, found near the bread rather than the cookies in the store. Also their double chocolate chunk cookie is even better. Often now we try to go weeks without bringing any cookies at all into the house, which certainly makes it easier to behave. When we have cookies at home, like now, we pick a number of them in advance to put on our plate, and generally stick to it. I am hypoglycemic so my carb, sugar, and protein intake have to be appropriate. I had a big sandwich with lots of meat and only one piece of bread before writing this cookie post, to make sure my blood sugar would remain stable enough for me to enjoy my experiential writing exercise. So, it’s a little more complicated then when you are a kid and you think you could eat cookies all day. But with great power, comes great responsibility, right? Here’s to cookies.