PicoBlog

Lavash is a flatbread that sits at the very heart of the cuisines of the South Caucasas and Western Asia. It’s considered a treasure of Armenian cuisine, though it’s also widely popular in Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey – and is part of the cuisine elsewhere too. The making of lavash probably goes as far back as the human history of baking. It’s a bread that’s so much more than a simple combination of ingredients.

-and I’m back. It’s been a few months, hasn’t it? Let’s skip the excuse and just get into it, shall we? Welcome to W.A.S.T.E. Mailing List, a show where I attempt to make sense of books that try to prevent you from doing so. Today, I’m going to deviate from my conventional approach a little bit here. Rather than my typical single-novel deep dive format, I’d instead like to offer a brief “primer” on an author whose catalogue of translated texts I’ve recently begun to read my way through.

When I did my virtual book tour here on Substack for The Artist’s Mind: The Creative Lives and Mental Health of Famous Artists, I shared a lot of behind the scenes stuff and extra content. Today, I wanted to share with you what an early version of the chapter on Michelangelo looked like. If you get the book, you’ll see that for a variety of reasons the chapters were cut down significantly in the editing process so this raw version has a lot more to it … but also perhaps some unnecessary repetition … as compared with the final edited and published version.

Preface: I’ve known a few Judges (four including my good friend Ann O’Shea) but I have never written a judge poem. Until now. Arthur Engoron deserves his own poem. Maybe even a song. (He played in a bar band for years. Said they were good enough.) This week he ordered DT to pay $450 million dollars in a civil fraud suit. That in itself is a poem. Familiar 74 year old Queens born Jew

Dear Readers, Today we honour Phyllida Barlow, one of the most profound artists and sculptors of her generation. Born in Newcastle, and raised in London, Barlow studied at Chelsea School of Art and completed her MA at The Slade – where she taught for over 40 years (until 2009). My favourite of Barlow’s exhibitions include her takeover at Tate Britain (2014), and her British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2017).

There is a saying I find very amusing: “As American as apple pie.” But, you see, apple pie isn’t American at all. Sure, it may be one of the country’s most beloved pies, yet a native creation it is certainly not. In fact, apples did not exist in America until they were introduced to the new land by Dutch and English colonists. Along with their apple and other fruit trees, they also brought recipes for richly filled pies that were passed on from generation to generation and soon became part of American food culture.

It wasn’t until the end that I understood why Knives Out 2 is titled Glass Onion. The movie is as fragile and hollow as its name suggests. Sure, it might be perfectly pleasant, but crack open its superficial layer and nothing of substance remains. First, a few preliminary notes. This post contains spoilers for Glass Onion, which is now streaming on Netflix. Rian Johnson, who wrote and directed Knives Out and Glass Onion, is one of my favorite directors.

Gentle reader, If you’ve visited Olvera Street lately, you likely noticed that the oldest, largest restaurant on the historic plaza is locked up tight. Casa la Golondrina Café is on the ropes. It needs our help. The city has failed to be a good steward to this iconic legacy business, and if concerned citizens, journalists and civic leaders don’t start paying attention to what’s going on and demanding action, we fear that this core establishment at the heart of the commercial walking street will become a dead zone like Pico House, a lifeless historic building only occasionally opened up to visitors, but with no invested tenants, a place that is forgotten.

I am an engineer by training with the questionable instinct to run towards problems, especially problems that should not be problems. When I heard that the United States could not produce sufficient 155 mm artillery shells to supply Ukraine, I thought it sounded odd. I knew essentially nothing about artillery save I would want to be on the other end of one. I was generally aware the industrial base for the defense industry had either atrophied or specialized or both, depending on your perspective.